We had then the wind at S. directly off Juan Fernandez, so that it was difficult to go there; and while beating up we saw two sail, to which the Cinque-ports was very near, and they fired several shots at her, but she rowed away to us, and reported them to be two French ships of about 36 guns each; on which the two captains thought it convenient to bear away for the coast of Peru, leaving Captain Stradling's five men, with his other stores, which he could ill spare, and now we had neither of us any boats. We accordingly stood for the coast of Peru on the 6th March, and fell in with it on the 11th, in lat. 24° 53' S.[208] The land here was very high, having three distinct ranges of hills behind each other, that nearest the water the lowest, and the farthest off the highest. We coasted along shore to the northward, and passed the port of Capaipo on the 14th, said to be a very good harbour, fenced from almost all winds. The land is here inhabited by Indians, who make good wines; and it is said to abound in good meat, corn, and other provisions, and from this port they export wine, money, and other goods for Coquimbo. We would willingly have gone ashore for refreshments, but could not for want of boats.
[Footnote 208: There must be a material error here, as they afterwards, in sailing along the coast to the northwards, passed Copaipo, which is in lat. 27° 13' S. and they consequently must have fallen in with the coast of Chili, improperly named Peru in the text, considerably farther south.--E.]
Continuing along the coast, which is the highest and most mountainous I ever saw, we were surprised, on the 19th of March, to see the waves changed to a red colour for seven or eight leagues, though on sounding we had no ground at 170 fathoms; but on drawing up some of the water, we found the colour owing to a vast quantity of fish-spawn, swimming on the surface. We were now in lat. 16° 11' S. having passed the three famous ports of Arica, Ylo, and Arequipa. The 22d March we were off the harbour of Callao de Lima, when we saw two ships steering for that port, to which we gave chase, and soon came up with the sternmost, which proved to be the ship we had fought with off the island of Juan Fernandez. We were very eager to stop her from going in, to prevent the Spaniards from having intelligence of us, and hindering their merchant ships from putting to sea, and did not question our taking her, being all now in health; whereas on the former occasion, between twenty and thirty of our men were very sick and weak. But Captain Dampier was averse to attack her; and while the matter was disputing, both ships got into the port of Lima, from whence twenty ships such as ours could not have forced them out. This proceeding gave great offence to most of the crew, and might have proved of bad consequence, had we not taken two very considerable prizes a few days afterwards, one of 150 and the other of 200 tons. We took out of these every thing that we thought useful, and then dismissed them.
The 5th of April, we began to prepare for the great exploit our captain meditated, of landing on the coast and plundering some rich city; for which purpose our carpenters were ordered to fit up the launches or long boats we had taken from our prizes, so as to land our men in safety, and to fit two swivels in each launch. On the 11th we took a bark of fifty tons, laden with plank and cordage, as if sent on purpose for our present service. This was in sight of Gallo, under which island we anchored next day with our prize, which we kept to use in the intended enterprise. The island of Gallo is in lat. 2° 45' N. long. 76° 38' W. from London,[209] and about five leagues from the main; being two leagues long and one league broad. When approached from the south, it shews three hummocks which seem at a distance as three separate islands, the land between being very low; but when to the N.W. of the S. end you will see a small island, or rock rather, resembling a ship under sail. From this island the main land is in sight, being very low near the sea, but prodigiously high up the country. We anchored off the N.W. part of this island, two cables length from the shore, in thirty-five fathoms on hard sand, the N. point bearing N. 1/2 W. and the S. point S.W. The watering place goes in with a full gap, over which, on the hill, is a plain spot of red earth, bearing N.W. 1/2 N. but there are several other good watering places in the island. The best anchorage is on the N.E. part at Legnetta, where a ship may wood and water quite secure from any enemy. The island is very woody, affording large timber, which is often shipped hence for Peru. There are here a few wild monkeys, with abundance of lizards; among which is one called the lion-lizard, about the size of a man's arm, one that I measured being three feet eleven inches from the head to the end of the tail. It has a kind of large comb on its head, standing up like a helmet, as if to defend its head, and when attacked it erects this comb, which otherwise lies in a deep groove on the head, just fitted for its reception, so that it can hardly be seen when down. This animal has very large eyes, and a large mouth, in which are a great many small sharp teeth. The skin is rough and of a dark colour, full of black, yellow, and bluish spots. It runs very swift, yet our dog caught many of them.
[Footnote 209: Lat. 1° 56' N. long. 78° 50' W. from Greenwich.--E.]
After remaining here five days, we began to hoist our anchors to set sail, when we discovered a ship standing in for the island, which we took. She was a small vessel of fifty tons, commanded by a Mestizo, on board of which we found a Guernsey man, who had been taken by the Spaniards, while cutting logwood in the Bay of Campeachy above two years before, and must have continued a prisoner during life if we had not released him. On sailing from Gallo, our purpose was to attack the town of Santa Maria, not far from this on the continent to the E. expecting there to have found a great quantity of gold, brought thither from the adjacent mines of the same name. But this design miscarried, whether from fear, confusion, or the enemy having early intelligence of our motions, which enabled them to cut off many of our men. This, however, is certain, that we were quite sick of our fruitless attempts on shore by the 1st May, and immediately re-embarked. We were now so short of provisions, that five boiled green plantains were allotted for six men; but, when almost out both of hope and patience, a vessel came and anchored close beside us at midnight, which we took without resistance. This proved a most valuable prize, being a ship of 150 tons, laden with flour, sugar, brandy, wine, about thirty tons marmalade of quinces, a considerable quantity of salt, and several tons of linen and woollen cloth; so that we had now a sufficient supply of provisions even for four or five years. I was put aboard of this prize on behalf of Captain Dampier and his company, and the master of the Cinque-ports, in behalf of Captain Stradling and his crew.
We carried our prize into the Bay of Panama, and anchored under the island of Tobago on the 14th of May. Here Captains Dampier and Stradling disagreed, and the quarrel proceeded to such length, that they could not be reconciled, so that at last it was determined to part company, all the men being at liberty to go with which captain they pleased, in consequence of which five of our men went over to Captain Stradling, and five of his men came to us. We were now informed by the prisoners, that there were 80,000 dollars on board our prize, which had been taken on board at Lima clandestinely, and were concealed at the bottom of the hold in the run of the ship. But Captain Dampier would not credit this, neither would he wait till we should rummage her to the bottom, lest delay might mar his great designs. Having, therefore, taken on board a quantity of provisions from the prize, she was dismissed; and we set sail in the St George on the 19th May, leaving the Cinque-ports behind, intending again to proceed for the coast of Peru.
We took a vessel of 120 tons on the 7th June, bound from Truxillo for Panama, and laden with flour, sugar, brandy, and other articles, with some bales of flowered silk. In her we found a packet of letters, and the first of these we happened to read was from the captain of the ship we had fought off Juan Fernandez, and fell in with again going into Callao. It was directed to the president of Panama, and stated, "That he had fought with two English privateers off Juan Fernandez, the smaller having only fired eight or ten guns at him, and then fell astern and did not come up again during the fight, as he believed for want of wind; while the large ship fought him yard-arm and yard-arm for more than six hours, killed a great many of his men, and wounded such numbers, that he had landed thirty-two at Lima, each of whom had lost a leg, an arm, or an eye, and he had been nearly taken, as at parting they had given themselves over for lost, not having a sufficient number of men left to defend themselves." By other letters, we learnt that the two French ships we afterwards saw near Juan Fernandez had picked up a boat at sea, in which were an Englishman and a dog; had been in at the island of Juan Fernandez, and had taken up our anchors, cables, and long-boats, with all Captain Stradling's stores, as also his five men and our negro who were left there. We learnt also, that the Spaniards had fitted out two men of war against us, one of thirty-two, and the other thirty-six brass guns, all twenty-four pounders, each having 350 sailors and 150 soldiers, all picked men, and had been cruizing for us in the Bay of Guayaquil, between point St Helena and Cape Blanco, from the 7th to the 12th.
We were forced to go under an easy sail, as our prize sailed very heavily, wherefore we went into Sardinas Bay, in lat. 1° 20' N. where we anchored with our prize in ten fathoms, about four miles from the shore, for the purpose of rummaging her. We durst not go farther in, because of many shoals and sand-banks, which were very imperfectly laid down in all our charts. The sea-coast is inhabited by Indians, but not in any great numbers, and has several small fresh-water rivers. From hence, all the way south, till we came to the Bay of Atacarnes, in lat. 0° 54' N. the sea-side is composed of white cliffs; and there are many shoals as far as Punta de la Galera, in lat. 0° 48' N. Six leagues S.W. of Sardinas Bay is the great river of St Jago, the mouth of which is about three quarters of a mile wide, but has no good anchorage till well within. This river is seldom used by ships, being out of the way, yet the country here produces abundant provisions of all sorts. We careened our ship and rummaged our prize in the Bay of Sardinas, and watered at one of the fresh-water rivers, which was as white as milk, and both smelt and tasted very strong of musk, occasioned by many alligators swimming in it. We shot several of these creatures, one of which measured thirty feet in length, and was bigger about than a bullock.
The alligator is covered over with great scales from head to tail, having very large sharp teeth, and very long claws. It is amphibious, living both on land and in the water, and when lying on shore is often mistaken at a distance for a great tree fallen down. It runs very fast on the land, and is of such strength that one of them will take a horse or a cow into the water, and there devour it. They will seize on any thing, either on land or in the water, and often make great havock among cattle near their haunts, which are usually in fresh-water rivers. The Indians are not greatly afraid of them, either on land or in the water. In the former case, they run in circles, and this unwieldy animal is unable to turn his body quickly, so that they easily get away from them. The Indians also go into the water to seek them, taking in one hand a piece of iron pointed and baited at both ends, with two cross pieces a little below the points. Holding this iron by the middle, when the alligator rises to bite, which he always does with, the head above water, the Indian holds out the iron to him which he snaps at, and it fastens in his mouth, keeping his jaws open like a gag. The female lays about 100 eggs at a time, as large as goose eggs; but quite spherical, and having shells as thick almost as those of an ostrich. The flesh of the alligator is not fit to be eaten, being very strong and musky; and the very water of the rivers they frequent was so strong of musk that a draught of it was like to suffocate us, yet there are no instances of its being injurious to health.