[Footnote 186: The mouth of the river of Cullacan is in 24° 45' N. and the town of that name is about eighty-five or ninety statute miles up the river, supposed to have been an ancient seat of the Mexican nation, before their removal to the vale and lake of Mexico.--E.]
[Footnote 187: The Rio Rastla de Panuco, in 23° 45' N. is certainly here meant.--E.]
On the 2d February 80 men were landed in the river Rosario.[188] We came to a pretty little town of the same name, a considerable way up that river, where we were assured by some prisoners that the gold-mines were not above two leagues from thence; but as we had present occasion for provisions, we carried about ninety bushels of maize on board from this place, without searching for the mines. As this small supply was insufficient for our necessities, we resolved to return to the S.E. to the Rio San Jago,[189] where we anchored on the 11th. This is one of the most considerable rivers on the west coast of New Spain. The country having a good appearance, Captain Swan sent seventy men to look for a town. After rowing up and down for two days, they landed in a corn field, and, while busy in gathering maize, they seized an Indian, who told them of a town called Santa Pecaque, four leagues farther.
[Footnote 188: The mouth of this river is in lat. 28° N. about fifty miles S.E. from Cape Mazatlan, where Dampier seems to have been then at anchor among the Mazatlan isles.--E.]
[Footnote 189: So called by Dampier from the town of St Jago on its banks. Its proper name is the Rio Grande, or river of Tololotlan. The mouth of this river forms a large bay, in lat 21° 30' N. in which is the considerable island of St Blas.--E.]
Returning to the ship with this intelligence, Captain Swan went with 140 men in eight canoes, and landed five leagues up the river, which was there about a pistol shot across with high banks. He marched from thence through fertile plains and woods for three or four hours, and on approaching St Pecaque the Spaniards evacuated the place, so that we entered unopposed. This town is situated in a spacious plain on the side of a wood, being neatly built, with a market-place in the middle, but not large, and has two churches. There are silver-mines five or six leagues from this town, the ore from which is carried on mules to Compostella to be refined. Compostella, the capital of this part of Mexico, is twenty-one leagues from Pecaque, being inhabited by seventy families of Spaniards, and by five or six hundred mulattoes and Indians. Finding great plenty of maize, sugar, salt, and salt fish at this place, Captain Swan divided his men into two parts, one of which kept possession of the place, while the other half were employed to carry these articles to the canoes, which was done turn and turn about, with the assistance of some horses. We continued this work for two days; but on the 19th Captain Swan learnt from a prisoner that 1000 men had marched from St Jago, a rich town three leagues from Pecaque on the river, for the purpose of attacking us. On this Captain Swan wanted our people to march altogether with what provisions we could carry; but they refused to obey him till all the provisions should be carried on board, and he was forced to allow half of them to go on with fifty-four loaded horses. They had not gone a mile from Pecaque when they were attacked by the Spaniards from an ambush, and were all slain on the spot. Captain Swan marched to their relief, but came too late, finding the whole party slain and stripped naked; yet the Spaniards never once attempted to engage him, having certainly paid dear for their victory.
Returning on board with the rest of his men, and what provisions had been carried off, Captain Swan resolved to sail for Cape Lucas in California, in hopes of trafficking with the Indians there and in the lake or gulf of California. We accordingly sailed on the 21st with the wind at N.W. and W.N.W. and anchored at the islands of Santa Maria, in eight fathoms on clean sand. There are three islands, usually called the Three Marias,[190] stretching fourteen leagues from S.E. to N.W. of moderate height, stony, barren, and uninhabited, in lat 21° 30' N. [long. 106° 15' W.] from which Cape St Lucas in California is forty leagues W.N.W. and Cape Corientes twenty leagues E.S.E. We anchored off the east end of the middle island, which we called Prince George's island. These islands produce some cedars, and we found near the sea a green prickly plant, with leaves like those of the penguin plant, and roots like those of the sempervivum, but much longer, the Indians of California subsisting mostly on these roots. We baked and eat some of these roots, which tasted like boiled burdock roots. I had been long afflicted with dropsy, and was here buried in the sand for half an hour, covered up to the neck, which brought on a profuse sweat, and I believe with good effect, for I began to recover soon after. We careened here; but as there is no fresh water to be had at this place in the dry season, we had to return to the valley of Valderas, but finding the river brackish we sailed three leagues nearer Cape Corientes, and anchored beside a small round isle four leagues north of that cape, and half a mile from the shore, opposite to a rivulet on the continent, where we filled our water casks.
[Footnote 190: In reality four, the fourth or most northwesterly, being named St Juanica.--E.]
Being now sufficiently convinced of our mistaken notion of the riches of this coast, founded on an erroneous idea that the commerce of this country was carried on by sea, whereas it is entirely conducted by land on mules, we now resolved to try our fortune in the East Indies. With this view we sailed from Cape Corientes on the 31st March, and next noon, being thirty leagues from the cape, clear of the land-winds, we had the wind at E.N.E. in which direction it continued till we were within forty leagues of Guam. In all this long passage across the Pacific, nearly in the lat. of 13° N. we saw neither fish nor fowl except once, when by my reckoning we were 5975 miles west from Cape Corientes in Mexico, and then we saw a vast number of boobies, supposed to come from some rocks not far off, which are laid down in some hydrographical charts, but we saw them not.
May 20th, at four p.m. being in lat. 12° 55' N. and steering W. we discovered, to our great joy, the island of Guam, eight leagues off, having now only three-days provisions left. Guam is one of the Ladrones, in lat. 13° 15' N. and long. 216° 50' W. consequently its meridional distance from Cape Corientes on the coast of Mexico is 111° 14', or about 7730 English miles. It is twelve leagues long by four broad, extending north and south, and is defended by a small fort mounted by six guns, and a garrison of thirty men with a Spanish governor, for the convenience of the Manilla ships, which touch here for refreshments on their voyage from Acapulco to Manilla. The soil is tolerably fertile, producing rice, pine-apples, water and musk melons, oranges, limes, cocoa-nuts, and bread-fruit. This last grows on a tree as big as our apple-trees, with dark green leaves. The fruit is round and as large as a good penny-loaf,[191] growing on the boughs like apples. When ripe it turns yellow, with a soft and sweet pulp; but the natives pull it green, and bake it in an oven till the rind grows black. They scrape off the rind, and the inside is soft and white, like the crumb of new-baked bread, having neither seed nor stone; but it grows harsh if kept twenty-four hours. As this fruit is in season for eight months in the year, the natives use no other bread in all that time, and they told us there was plenty of it in all the other Ladrone islands.