The province of Guayaquil abounds in excellent timber of several kinds, so that it is the chief place in all Peru for building and repairing ships, of which there are seldom less than seven or eight on the stocks here at one time. Its chief commodity is cacao, with which it supplies most parts on the South Sea, and we were told it never exported less than 30,000 carguas yearly, and sometimes double that quantity, a cargua being eighty-one pounds weight, which only costs here two dollars and a half. They have also a considerable trade in salt and salt-fish, from Cape St Helena, which is mostly sent to Quito and other places of the inland country. It exports also a vast quantity of timber to Truxilo, Chana, Lima, and other places, where it is scarce. They export also from hence rice and cotton, with some dried or jerked beef. This province has no mines of gold or silver, but abounds in all sorts of cattle, which are very cheap, especially on the island of Puna, where we amply supplied ourselves. Their only grain is maiz, so that all their wheat flour is brought from Truxilo, Cherisse, and other places to windward, or to the south, as the wind blows here always from the south. They procure several kinds of woollen cloth, among which, are very strong and good bags, from Quito. Their wines, brandy, olives, oil, and sugar, come from Piscola, Nasca, and other places to windward. All kinds of European goods are brought from Panama, being brought there overland from Portobello on the Gulf of Mexico; and the trade of this port is so considerable as to employ forty sail every year, besides coasters. A market is also held daily on bark logs, or boats, every day, on the river before the town, containing every thing afforded by the interior country in great plenty.
The other towns in the province are governed by lieutenants, or deputies, appointed by the corregidore. Above half of these towns border on the same river or its branches, so that their inhabitants can all come to the capital in two tides, though some are many leagues distant. Porto Vaco was formerly the capital. In the whole province, the Spaniards reckon 10,000 inhabitants, but I believe there are many more, including all the mixed races between Spaniards, Indians, and negroes, which they divide and subdivide into eleven denominations. Few of the prisoners who fell into our hands were healthy or sound, and nearly half of the native Spaniards applied to our doctors for remedies against the French disease, which is so common here that it is reckoned no scandal.
On the 11th May, with a strong gale at S.S.W. we bore away for the Gallepagos islands, being in a very sad condition; for we had upwards of twenty men ill in the Duke, and near fifty in the Duchess, seized with a malignant fever, contracted, as I suppose, at Guayaquil, where a contagious disease had reigned a month or five weeks before we took it; which swept away ten or twelve persons every day, so that all the churches were filled, being their usual burying places, and they had to dig a great deep hole close by the great church, where I kept guard, and this hole was almost filled with putrefying bodies: and our lying so long in that church, surrounded by such noisome scents, was enough to infect us all. In twenty-four hours more we had fifty men down and the Duchess upwards of seventy, and in the next twenty-four hours, ten more fell sick in each ship. We discovered land on the 17th, and on the 18th, at day-break, we were within four leagues of two large islands almost joining each other, having passed that we first saw during the night. We sent repeatedly ashore here in search of water, but could find none, though the people went three or four miles up into the country, and they reported that the island was nothing but loose rocks like cinders, very rotten and heavy, and the earth so parched that it broke into holes under their feet. This made me suppose there had been a volcano here; and though there is much shrubby ground, with some green herbs, there was not the smallest signs of water, neither was it possible for any to be contained on such a surface. In short, we found these islands completely to disappoint our expectations, and by no means to agree with the descriptions of former voyagers. We had also the misfortune to lose company of one of our barks, in which was Mr Hately, with five of our men, two Spanish prisoners, and three negroes.[224]
[Footnote 224: Mr Hately, being unable to rejoin his companions, was forced to land at Cape Passado in lat. 0° 25' S. on the coast of Guayaquil, where he and his people were barbarously used by a mixed race between the Indians and negroes; but were rescued by a priest, and sent to Lima, where he was kindly treated.--E.]
In a consultation on the 26th May, we resolved to proceed for the island of Plata in quest of water, and then to come immediately off the coast again, having information of two French ships, one of sixty and the other of forty-six guns, together with a Spanish man of war, that would soon be sent in search of us. It was also our intention to refit our ships there, and not to go near the main, our ships being out of order, and our men very weak and sickly, several of them having already died. We accordingly sailed on the 27th, and in another conversation on the 30th, it was agreed to go first to Gorgono, to see if there were any English ships there; and afterwards to sail for Maugla, Malaga, or Madulinar,[225] where there are some Indians at enmity with the Spaniards, who, as the pilots informed us, come seldom there, and were not likely to procure any intelligence of us from thence. They told us also, if we could induce the Indians to trade with us, we might have hogs, fowls, plantains, bananas, and other refreshments.
[Footnote 225: The island of Gorgona is on the coast of New Granada, in lat. 2° 54' N. and long. 78° 35' W.]
While on our course towards Gorgona, the Duchess took the San Thoma de Villa nova of ninety tons, having about forty people on board, including eleven negro slaves, and but little European goods, except some cloth and iron. Next day we made the island of Gorgona,[226] and on the 8th of June our boats brought in another prize, a small bark of fifteen tons belonging to a creek on the main. She was bound to Guayaquil, having ten Spaniards and Indians on board, and some negroes, but had very little cargo, except a small quantity of gold dust and a large gold chain, together of about 500l. value, which were secured aboard the Duchess. In a consultation, held on the 19th June, proceeding upon information procured from our prisoners, it was resolved to proceed to Malaga, at which there was an anchorage, where we proposed to leave our ships, and to row up the river for the rich gold mines of Barbacore, [Barbaceas][227] called also the mines of St Pean, from a village of that name about two tides up the river. At that place we proposed to seize canoes, as fitter than our boats for going up against the stream, in which, at this season of the year, according to the information of an old Spanish pilot, there are such strong freshes, that he did not expect we should reach the mines in less than twelve days. But having discoursed with several of the prisoners, we found the island of Malaga an unsafe place for our ships, and besides, they represented the river as so narrow, that the Indians would be able to assail us with poisoned arrows, and the Spaniards might easily cut off our retreat, by felling trees across from bank to bank. On this information, we held another consultation, in which it was agreed to desist from this enterprize, and we came accordingly back to Gorgona, in so very weak a condition that we could hardly have defended ourselves, if attacked.
[Footnote 226: It is somewhat difficult to ascertain what island is here meant. There are some islands at the mouth of the Rio de Mira, in lat. 1° 38' N. on one of which is Punta de Mangles, or Cape Mangles, resembling one of the names in the text; but from the context, the island for which they were next bound appears to have been that now called Del Gallo, in lat. 1° 55' N. not above ten miles south from the river they proposed to enter.--E.]
[Footnote 227: Barbacoas is one of the provinces of New Granada, having a town of the same name in the Rio Telemli, which joins the Rio Patia.--E.]
We arrived at Gorgona on the 13th June, where we anchored in forty fathoms, and resolved to careen our two ships in succession, beginning with the Duchess. Our sick men were removed into the galleon, and the sick officers to the French-built ship. We landed tents for the cooper's and armourer's crews, and cleared a place for tents to accommodate the sick on shore. All this was performed with so much diligence, that by the 28th both ships were careened, caulked, rigged, and restored fit for sea. On the 29th, we set up tents ashore for the sick, who were already much recovered, though the Spaniards had represented this island as unhealthy; yet by walking about on shore they soon gathered strength enough to return to their duty. We here fitted out the French-built ship, with twenty guns, putting Captain Cooke into her, with a crew taken from the other two ships, resolving to carry her home with us, and to employ her as a third cruizer while in these seas; and this great work employed us from the 29th June to the 9th July, calling her the Marquis. She had thirty-five men from the Duke and twenty-six from the Duchess, making a crew of sixty-one British, to which were added twenty negroes.