The oysters most productive of pearls are those found in considerable depths; for though what are taken up by wading near shore are of the same species, yet the pearls they contain are few in number, and very small. It is said, too, that the pearl partakes, in some degree, of the quality of the bottom on which the oyster is lodged; so that if the bottom be muddy, the pearl is dark and ill coloured.
The taking up oysters from great depths for the sake of their pearls is a work performed by negro slaves, of which the inhabitants of Panama and the neighbouring coast formerly kept vast numbers, which were carefully trained to this business. These are said not to be esteemed compleat divers till they have by degrees been able to protract their stay under water so long that the blood gushes out from their nose, mouth, and ears. And it is the tradition of the country, that when this accident has once befallen them, they dive for the future with much greater facility than before; and they have no apprehension either that any inconvenience can attend it, the bleeding generally stopping of itself, or that there is any probability of their being ever subject to it a second time. But to return from this digression.
Though the pearl oyster, as hath been said, was incapable of being eaten, yet that defect was more than repaid by the turtle, a dainty which the sea at this place furnished us with in the greatest plenty and perfection. There are generally reckoned four species of turtle; that is, the trunk turtle, the loggerhead, the hawksbill, and the green turtle. The two first are rank and unwholesome; the hawksbill (which affords the tortoise-shell) is but indifferent food, though better than the other two; but the green turtle is generally esteemed, by the greatest part of those who are acquainted with its taste, to be the most delicious of all eatables; and that it is a most wholesome food we are amply convinced by our own experience, for we fed on this last species, or the green turtle, near four months, and consequently, had it been in any degree noxious, its ill effects could not possibly have escaped us. At this island we caught what quantity we pleased with great facility; for as they are an amphibious animal, and get on shore to lay their eggs, which they generally deposit in a large hole in the sand just above the high-water mark, covering them up, and leaving them to be hatched by the heat of the sun, we usually dispersed several of our men along the beach, whose business it was to turn them on their backs when they came to land, and the turtle being thereby prevented from getting away, we brought them off at our leisure. By this means we not only secured a sufficient stock for the time we stayed on the island, but we carried a number of them with us to sea, which proved of great service both in lengthening out our store of provision, and in heartening the whole crew with an almost constant supply of fresh and palatable food. For the turtle being large, they generally weighing about 200 lb. weight each, those we took with us lasted near a month: so that before our store was spent, we met with a fresh recruit on the coast of Mexico, where in the heat of the day we often saw great numbers of them fast asleep, floating on the surface of the water. Upon discovering them, we usually sent out our boat with a man in the bow who was a dextrous diver; and as the boat came within a few yards of the turtle, the diver plunged into the water, taking care to rise close upon it, when seizing the shell near the tail, and pressing down the hinder parts, the turtle was thereby awakened, and began to strike with its claws, which motion supported both it and the diver till the boat came up and took them in. By this management we never wanted turtle for the succeeding four months in which we continued at sea; and though, when at the island of Quibo, we had already been three months on board, without otherwise putting our feet on shore than in the few days we stayed there (except those employed in the attack at Paita), yet in the whole seven months from our leaving Juan Fernandes to our anchoring in the harbour of Chequetan, we buried no more in the whole squadron than two men; a most incontestable proof that the turtle, on which we fed for the last four months of this term, was at least innocent, if not something more.
Considering the scarcity of other provisions on some part of the coast of the South Seas, it appears wonderful that a species of food so very palatable and salubrious as turtle, and there so much abounding, should be proscribed by the Spaniards as unwholesome, and little less than poisonous. Perhaps the strange appearance of this animal may have been the foundation of this ridiculous and superstitious aversion, which is strongly rooted in the inhabitants of those countries, and of which we had many instances during the course of this navigation. I have already observed that we put our Spanish prisoners on shore at Paita, and that the Gloucester sent theirs to Manta; but as we had taken in our prizes some Indian and negro slaves, we did not dismiss them with their masters, but continued them on board, as our crews were thin, to assist in navigating our ships. These poor people being possessed with the prejudices of the country they came from, were astonished at our feeding on turtle, and seemed fully persuaded that it would soon destroy us; but finding that none of us died, nor even suffered in our health by a continuation of this diet, they at last got so far the better of their aversion as to be persuaded to taste it, to which the absence of all other kinds of fresh provisions might not a little contribute. However, it was with great reluctance, and very sparingly, that they first began to eat of it: but the relish improving upon them by degrees, they at last grew extremely fond of it, and preferred it to every other kind of food, and often felicitated each other on the happy experience they had acquired, and the luxurious and plentiful repasts it would always be in their power to procure when they should again return back to their country. Those who are acquainted with the manner of life of these unhappy wretches need not be told that, next to large draughts of spirituous liquors, plenty of tolerable food is the greatest joy they know, and consequently the discovering the means of being always supplied with what quantity they pleased of a food more delicious to the palate than any their haughty lords and masters could indulge in, was doubtless a circumstance which they considered as the most fortunate that could befall them. After this digression, which the prodigious quantity of turtle on this island of Quibo, and the store of it we thence took to sea, in some measure led me into, I shall now return to our own proceedings.
In three days' time we had compleated our business at this place, and were extremely impatient to depart, that we might arrive time enough on the coast of Mexico to intercept the Manila galeon. But the wind being contrary, detained us a night; and the next day, when we got into the offing, which we did through the same channel by which we entered, we were obliged to keep hovering about the island, in hopes of getting sight of the Gloucester, who, as I have in the last chapter mentioned, was separated from us on our first arrival. It was the 9th of December, in the morning, when we put to sea; and continuing to the southward of the island, looking out for the Gloucester, we, on the 10th, at five in the afternoon, discerned a small sail to the northward of us, to which we gave chace, and coming up with her took her. She proved to be a bark from Panama called the Jesu Nazareno. She had nothing on board but some oakum, about a ton of rock salt, and between £30 and £40 in specie, most of it consisting of small silver money intended for purchasing a cargoe of provisions at Cheripe, an inconsiderable village on the continent.
And on occasion of this prize I cannot but observe for the use of future cruisers that, had we been in want of provisions, we had by this capture an obvious method of supplying ourselves. For at Cheripe there is a constant store of provisions prepared for the vessels who go thither every week from Panama, the market of Panama being chiefly supplied from thence: so that by putting a few of our hands on board our prize, we might easily have seized a large quantity without any hazard, since Cheripe is a place of no strength. As provisions are the staple commodity of that place and of its neighbourhood, the knowledge of this circumstance may be of great use to such cruisers as find their provisions grow scant and yet are desirous of continuing on that coast as long as possible. But to return.
On the 12th of December we were at last relieved from the perplexity we had suffered occasioned by the separation of the Gloucester; for on that day she joined us, and informed us that in tacking to the southward on our first arrival she had sprung her fore top-mast, which had disabled her from working to windward, and prevented her from joining us sooner. And now we scuttled and sunk the Jesu Nazareno, the prize we took last; and having the greatest impatience to get into a proper station for intercepting the Manila galeon, we stood all together to the westward, leaving the island of Quibo, notwithstanding all the impediments we met with, about nine days after our first coming in sight of it.