Farther Separation of the Buccaneers. After the Leon expedition, no object of enterprise occurred to them of sufficient magnitude to induce or to enable them to keep together in such large force. Dispersed in small bodies, they expected a better chance of procuring both subsistence and plunder. By general consent therefore, the confederacy which had been preserved of the English Buccaneers was relinquished, and they formed into new parties according to their several inclinations. Swan proposed to cruise along the coast of New Spain, and NW-ward, as far as to the entrance of the Gulf of California, and thence to take his departure for the East Indies. Townley and his followers agreed to try their fortunes with Swan as long as he remained on the coast of New Spain; after which they proposed to return to the Isthmus. In the course of settling these arrangements, William Dampier, being desirous of going to the East Indies, took leave of his commander, Edward Davis, and embarked with Swan. Of these, an account will be given hereafter.
CHAP. XVI.
Buccaneers under Edward Davis. At Amapalla Bay; Cocos Island; The Galapagos Islands; Coast of Peru. Peruvian Wine. Knight quits the South Sea. Bezoar Stones. Marine productions on Mountains. Vermejo. Davis joins the French Buccaneers at Guayaquil. Long Sea Engagement.
1685. August. With Davis there remained the vessels of Knight and Harris, with a tender, making in all four sail. August the 27th, they sailed from the harbour of Ria Lexa, and as they departed Swan saluted them with fifteen guns, to which Davis returned eleven.
Proceedings of the Buccaneers under Edw. Davis. Amapalla Bay. A sickness had broken out among Davis's people, which was attributed to the unwholesomeness of the air, or the bad water, at Ria Lexa. After leaving the place, the disorder increased, on which account Davis sailed to the Bay of Amapalla, where on his arrival he built huts on one of the Islands in the Bay for the accommodation of his sick men, and landed them. Above 130 of the Buccaneers were ill with a spotted fever, and several died.
Lionel Wafer was surgeon with Davis, and has given a brief account of his proceedings. Wafer, with some others, went on shore to the main land on the South side of Amapalla Bay, to seek for provisions. They walked to a beef farm which was about three miles from their landing. A hot River. In the way they crossed a hot river in an open savannah, or plain, which they forded with some difficulty on account of its heat. This river issued from under a hill which was not a volcano, though along the coast there were several. 'I had the curiosity,' says Wafer, 'to
wade up the stream as far as I had daylight to guide me. The water was clear and shallow, but the steams were like those of a boiling pot, and my hair was wet with them. The river reeked without the hill a great way. Some of our men who had the itch, bathed themselves here, and growing well soon after, their cure was imputed to the sulphureousness or other virtue of this water.' Here were many wolves, who approached so near and so boldly to some who had straggled from the rest of their party, as to give them great alarm, and they did not dare to fire, lest the noise of their guns should bring more wolves about them.
Cocos Island. Davis remained some weeks at Amapalla Bay, and departed thence for the Peruvian coast, with the crews of his ships recovered. In their way Southward they made Cocos Island, and anchored in the harbour at the NE part, where they supplied themselves with excellent fresh water and cocoa-nuts. Wafer has given the description following: 'The middle of Cocos Island is a steep hill, surrounded with a plain declining to the sea. This plain is thick set with cocoa-nut trees: but what contributes greatly to the pleasure of the place is, that a great many springs of clear and sweet water rising to the top of the hill, are there gathered as in a deep large bason or pond, and the water having no channel, it overflows the verge of its bason in several places, and runs trickling down in pleasant streams. In some places of its overflowing, the rocky side of the hill being more than perpendicular, and hanging over the plain beneath, the water pours down in a cataract, so as to leave a dry space under the spout, and form a kind of arch of water. The freshness which the falling water gives the air in this hot climate makes this a delightful place. Effect of Excess in drinking the Milk of the Cocoa-nut. We did not spare the cocoa-nuts. One day, some of our men being minded to make themselves