[23] The Seal (phoca vitulina, Linn.) and Otary (Otaria jubata, Desm.) have become very rare. The morse or walrus is found only in the Northern hemisphere.
[24] These south-westerly winds are known as Pamperos. They are more frequent in winter. In summer they blow with greater force, but generally cease sooner.
[25] Isla Verde can be no other than Flores, a small island further west than the Isla de Lobos.
[26] The Ilha de São Sebastião, in lat. 23° 50´ S.
[27] Espirito Santo, a town on the coast of Brazil, in lat. 20° 20´ S.
[28] This capture must have happened at the end of 1589, or, at latest, early in 1590, yet Thomas Knivet, who only left England with Cavendish in August 1591, gives an account of the capture of five Englishmen (Purchas iv, 1625, p. 1220) which at the first glance seems to be a different version of this very incident. Knivet professes to have been at Rio de Janeiro at the time, two months after his return from Angola in 1598. He says: “There came a small man-of-war to Great Island [Ilha Grande, 70 miles west of Rio]; the captain’s name was Abram Cocke; he lay in wait for the ships on the River of Plate, and had taken them if it had not been for five of his men that ran away with his boat that discovered his being there; for within a sevennight after he was gone three caravels came within the same road where he was. These five men were taken by a Friar who came from S. Vincent, and were brought to the river of Janeiro. I being at this time in some account with the Governor favoured them as well as I could.” In the further course of his narrative Knivet names two of these five men, namely, Richard Heixt and Thomas Cooper. Thomas Turner is referred to elsewhere, but not under circumstances which would lead one to assume that he was one of the five. Battell is not mentioned at all.
Are we to suppose, then, that Captain Cocke was heard of once more, and that in 1599 he lost five men on the Ilha Grande, just as nine years before he had lost five on the island of San Sebastian? Such a coincidence is possible, but most improbable.
[29] This Thomas Turner, or Torner, subsequently returned to England, and Purchas had speech with him.
[30] São Paulo de Loanda, the capital of Angola, 8° 48´ S.
[31] The Kwanza, the most important river of Angola, navigable from the sea as far as the rapids of Cambambe. The “town of garrison” was Masanganu, founded in 1582.