Edward Davis; his Third visit to the Galapagos. One of those Islands, named Santa Maria de l'Aguada by the Spaniards, a Careening Place of the Buccaneers. Sailing thence Southward they discover Land. Question, whether Edward Davis's Discovery is the Land which was afterwards named Easter Island? Davis and his Crew arrive in the West Indies.
1687. Davis sails to the Galapagos Islands. Davis again sailed to the Galapagos Islands, to victual and refit his ship. Lionel Wafer was still with him, and appears to have been one of those to whom fortune had been most unpropitious. Wafer does not mention either the joining company with the French Buccaneers, or the plunder of Guayaquil; and particularises few of his adventures. He says, 'I shall not pursue all my coasting along the shore of Peru with Captain Davis. We continued rambling about to little purpose, sometimes at sea, sometimes ashore, till having spent much time and visited many places, we were got again to the Galapagos; from whence we were determined to make the best of our way out of these seas.'
At the Galapagos they again careened; and there they victualled the ship, taking on board a large supply of flour, curing fish, salting flesh of the land turtle for sea store; and they saved as much of the oil of the land turtle as filled sixty jars (of eight gallons each) which proved excellent, and was thought not inferior to fresh butter.
King James's Island. Captain Colnet was at the Galapagos Isles in the years 1793 and 1794, and found traces, still fresh, which marked the haunts of the Buccaneers. He says, 'At every place where we landed
on the Western side of King James's Isle, we might have walked for miles through long grass and beneath groves of trees. It only wanted a stream to compose a very charming landscape. This Isle appears to have been a favourite resort of the Buccaneers, as we found seats made by them of earth and stone, and a considerable number of broken jars scattered about, and some whole, in which the Peruvian wine and liquors of the country are preserved. We also found daggers, nails, and other implements. The watering-place of the Buccaneers was at this time (the latter part of April or beginning of May) entirely dried up, and there was only found a small rivulet between two hills running into the sea; the Northernmost of which hills forms the South point of Fresh Water Bay. There is plenty of wood, but that near the shore is not large enough for other use than fire-wood. In the mountains the trees may be larger, as they grow to the summits. I do not think the watering-place we saw is the only one on the Island, and I have no doubt, if wells were dug any where beneath the hills, and not near the lagoon behind the sandy beach, that fresh water would be found in great plenty[59].'
Since Captain Colnet's Voyage, Captain David Porter of the American United States' frigate Essex, has seen and given descriptions of the Galapagos Islands. He relates an anecdote which accords with Captain Colnet's opinion of there being fresh water at King James's Island. He landed, on its West side, four goats (one male and three female) and some sheep, to graze. As they were tame and of their own accord kept near the landing-place, they were left every night without a keeper, and water was carried to them in the morning. 'But one morning, after they had been on the Island several days and nights,
the person who attended them went on shore as usual to give them water, but no goats were to be found: they had all as with one accord disappeared. Several persons were sent to search after them for two or three days, but without success.' Captain Porter concluded that they had found fresh water in the interior of the Island, and chose to remain near it. 'One fact,' he says, 'was noticed by myself and many others, the day preceding their departure, which must lead us to believe that something more than chance directed their movements, which is, that they all drank an unusual quantity of water on that day, as though they had determined to provide themselves with a supply to enable them to reach the mountains[60].'
Davis and his men had leisure for search and to make every kind of experiment; but no one of his party has given any description or account of what was transacted at the Galapagos in this his third visit. Light, however, has been derived from late voyages.
The Island Sta Maria de l'Aguada, a Careening Place of the Buccaneers. It has been generally believed, but not till lately ascertained, that Davis passed most of the time he was amongst the Galapagos, at an Island which the Spaniards have designated by the name of Sta Maria de l'Aguada, concerning the situation of which the Spaniards as well as geographers of other countries have disagreed. A Spanish pilot reported to Captain Woodes Rogers that Sta Maria de l'Aguada lay by itself, (i. e. was not one of a groupe of Islands) in latitude 1° 20′ or 1° 30′ S, was a pleasant Island, well stocked with wood, and with plenty of fresh water[61]. Moll, DeVaugondy, and others, combining the accounts
given by Dampier and Woodes Rogers, have placed a Sta Maria de l'Aguada several degrees to the Westward of the whole of Cowley's groupe. Don Antonio de Ulloa, on the contrary, has laid it down as one of the Galapagos Isles, but among the most South-eastern of the whole groupe. More consonant with recent information, Pascoe Thomas, who sailed round the world with Commodore Anson, has given from a Spanish manuscript the situations of different Islands of the Galapagos, and among them that of Sta Maria de l'Aguada. The most Western in the Spanish list published by Thomas is named Sta Margarita, and is the same with the Albemarle Island in Cowley's [chart]. The Sta Maria de l'Aguada is set down in the same Spanish list in latitude 1° 10′ S, and 19 minutes in longitude more East than the longitude given of Sta Margarita, which situation is due South of Cowley's King James's Island.