Next Day Sixty Of Our Men Were Sent Under Captain Townley
To Surprise An Indian Village, Seven Or Eight Leagues To The N.W.
[Footnote 184:
Villa de la Purificacion is considerably to the S.E. of
Cape Corientes, but the isles of Chametly are omitted in modern maps.
Puerto de Navidad, in lat. 19 deg. 20' N. seems the haven belonging to
Purificacion. - E.]
On the 24th the four canoes left by Captain Townley's bark returned to
the ships. They had got beyond the cape by means of rowing to the valley
of Valderas, or Val d' Iris, the valley of flags, at the bottom of a
deep bay, inclosed between Cape Corientes on the S.E. and point
Pontique on the N.W. In this delightful valley they landed
thirty-seven men, who advanced three miles into the country, and were
attacked by 150 Spaniards, horse and foot. Our men retreated into an
adjoining wood, whence they kept up a heavy fire on the Spaniards,
killing their leader and fourteen troopers, besides wounding a great
many, while four of our men were slain and two wounded. Owing to this
loss the Spaniards took to flight, and our people were enabled to
re-embark. This valley is about three leagues broad, and is bounded
towards the inland country by an easy ascent, affording a delightful
prospect of extensive pastures well stored with cattle, interspersed
with pleasant groves of guavas, orange-trees, and lime-trees. The sandy
bay affords a safe landing, and has a fresh-water river, navigable by
boats, but becomes brackish in the end of the dry season, which is in
February, March, and April.
We continued cruizing off Cape Corientes till the 1st January, 1686,
when we sailed for the valley of Valderas, proposing to provide
ourselves with some beef, of which we were in great need. At night we
anchored in sixty fathoms, a mile from shore. On the 7th we landed 240
men, fifty of whom were kept together in a body to watch the motions of
the Spaniards, while the rest were employed in providing cattle. We
killed and salted as much beef as would serve us for two months, and
might have procured a great deal more if we had not run out of salt. By
this time our hopes of meeting the Manilla ship were entirely vanished,
as we concluded she had got past us to the S.E. while we were employed
in procuring provisions, which we afterwards learnt had been the case,
by the information of several prisoners. The loss of this rich prize was
chiefly owing to Captain Townley, who insisted on taking the Lima ship
in the harbour of Acapulco, when we ought to have provided ourselves
with beef and maize, as we might then have done, instead of being now
forced to procure provisions at the critical time of her coming on the
coast. We were likewise deceived by the hope of falling in with rich
towns and mines on this coast, not then knowing that all the wealth of
this country is in the interior. Seeing that we were now entirely
disappointed in our hopes, we parted company, Captain Townley going back
to the S.E. while we in Captain Swan's ship went to the west.
The 7th January we passed point Pontique in lat. 20 deg. 38' N. ten leagues
from Cape Corientes, being the N.W. point of this bay of the valley of
Valderas. A league beyond this point to the W. there are two little
isles called the Pontiques, and beyond these to the north the shore is
rugged for eighteen leagues. The 14th we came to anchor in a channel
between the continent and a small white rocky isle, in lat. 21 deg. 15'. The
20th we anchored a league short of the isles of Chametly, different
from those formerly mentioned under the same name, being six small isles
in lat 28 deg. 11' N. three leagues from the continent.[185] One or two of
these isles have some sandy creeks, and they produce a certain fruit
called penguins. These are of two sorts, one red and the other yellow.
The plant producing the latter is as thick in the stem as a man's arm,
with leaves six inches long and an inch broad, edged with prickles. The
fruit grows in clusters at the top of the stem, being round and as large
as an egg, having a thick rind, inclosing a pulp full of black seeds, of
a delightful taste. The red penguin grows directly out of the ground,
without any stalk, sometimes sixty or seventy in a cluster, no bigger
than onions, but the shape of nine-pins, the cluster being surrounded
with prickly leaves eighteen inches or two feet long.
[Footnote 185: In modern maps these are called the isles of Mazatlan,
and are placed in lat. 28 deg. 15' N. The name given in the text appears
taken from a town on this coast called Charmela, in lat 22 deg. 50' N. but
improperly. - E.]
Captain Swan went with 100 men in canoes to the north, to find out the
river Culiacan, supposed to be in lat. 24 deg. N.[186] and said to have a
fair and rich town of the same name on its banks; but after rowing
thirty leagues he could not find the river, neither was there any safe
landing place on the coast. Seven leagues N.N.W. from the Chametla or
Mazatlan isles, our men landed in a small lake or river, having a narrow
entrance, called Rio de Sal by the Spaniards, in lat. 23 deg. 30' N.[187]
They here procured some maize at an adjacent farm; and learnt at another
landing place of an Indian town five leagues distant, to which they
marched. Coming near the place we were encountered by a good number of
Spaniards and Indians, who were soon beat off. On entering the place we
only found two or three wounded Indians, who told us the town was named
Mazatlan, and that there were two rich gold-mines at the distance of
five leagues.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 114 of 221
Words from 115396 to 116425
of 224764
