If, When Near Panama, They Happen To Meet A
North-West Wind, As Sometimes Happens, They Must Drive Before It Till It
Changes, Merely Using Their Best Endeavours To Avoid The Shore, For They
Will Never Sink At Sea.
Such vessels carry sixty or seventy tons of
merchandise, as wine, oil, flour, sugar, Quito cloth, soap, dressed
goats
Skins, &c. They are navigated by three or four men only; who, on
their arrival at Panama, sell both the goods and vessel at that place,
as they cannot go back again with them against the trade-wind. The
smaller fishing barks of this construction are much easier managed.
These go out to sea at night with the land-wind, and return to the shore
in the day with the sea-breeze; and such small barco longos are used
in many parts of America, and in some places in the East Indies. On the
coast of Coromandel they use only one log, or sometimes two, made of
light wood, managed by one man, without sail or rudder, who steers the
log with a paddle, sitting with his legs in the water.[163]
[Footnote 163: On the coast of Coromandel these small rafts are named
Catamarans, and are employed for carrying letters or messages between
the shore and the ships, through the tremendous surf which continually
breaks on that coast. - E.]
The next town to Payta of any consequence is Piura, thirty miles from
Payta, seated in a valley on a river of the same name, which discharges
its waters into the bay of Chirapee [or Sechura.] in lat. 5 deg. 32' S.
This bay is seldom visited by ships of burden, being full of shoals; but
the harbour of Payta is one of the best on the coast of Peru, being
sheltered on the S.W. by a point of land, which renders the bay smooth
and the anchorage safe, in from six to twenty fathoms on clear sand.
Most ships navigating this coast, whether bound north or south, touch at
this port for fresh water, which is brought to them from Colon at a
reasonable rate.
Early in the morning of the 3d November, our men landed about four
miles south of Payta, where they took some prisoners who were set there
to watch. Though informed that the governor of Piura had come to the
defence of Payta with a reinforcement of an hundred men, they
immediately pushed to the fort on the hill, which they took with little
resistance, on which the governor and all the inhabitants evacuated
Payta, but which we found empty of money, goods, and provisions. That
same evening we brought our ships to anchor near the town, in ten
fathoms a mile from shore, and remained six days in hopes of getting a
ransom for the town; but seeing we were not likely to have any, we set
it on fire, and set sail at night with the land-breeze for the island of
Lobos. The 14th we came in sight of Lobos de Tierra, the inner or
northern island of Lobos, which is of moderate height, and appears at a
distance like Lobos del Mare, the southern island of the same name, at
which other island we arrived on the 19th. The evening of the 29th we
set sail for the bay of Guayaquil, which lies between Cape Blanco in
lat. 4 deg. 18', and the point of Chanday, or Carnera, in 2 deg. 18' both S.
In the bottom of this bay is a small isle, called Santa Clara,
extending E. and W. and having many shoals, which make ships that intend
for Guayaquil to pass on the south side of this island.
From the isles of Santa Clara to Punta arena, the N.W. point of the
island of Puna, is seven leagues [thirty statute miles] N.N.E. Here
ships bound for Guayaquil take in pilots, who live in a town in Puna of
the same name, at its N.E. extremity, seven leagues [twenty-five miles]
from Punta arena. The island of Puna is low, stretching fourteen leagues
E. and W. and five leagues from N. to S.[164] It has a strong tide
running along its shores, which are full of little creeks and harbours.
The interior of this island consists of good pasture land, intermixed
with some woodlands, producing various kinds of trees to us unknown.
Among these are abundance of Palmitoes, a tree about the thickness of
an ordinary ash, and thirty feet high, having a straight trunk without
branches or leaf, except at the very top, which spreads out into many
small branches three or four feet long. At the extremity of each of
these is a single leaf, which at first resembles a fan plaited together,
and then opens out like a large unfolded fan. The houses in the town of
Puna are built on posts ten or twelve feet high, and are thatched with
palmito leaves, the inhabitants having to go up to them by means of
ladders. The best place for anchorage is directly opposite the town, in
five fathoms, a cable's length from shore.
[Footnote 164: Puna is nearly forty English miles from N.E. to S.W. and
about sixteen miles from N.W. to S.E.]
From Puna to Guayaquil is seven leagues, the entrance into the river of
that name being two miles across, and it afterwards runs up into the
country with a pretty straight course, the ground on both sides being
marshy and full of red mangrove trees. About four miles below the town
of Guayaquil, the river is divided into two channels by a small low
island, that on the west being broadest, though the other is as deep.
From the upper end of this island to the town is about a league, and the
river about the same in breadth, in which a ship of large burden may
ride safely, especially on the side nearest the town.
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