N. Latitude, And About Two Leagues From Each Other.
The bay
of St Vincent, in which they anchored, is in lat.
16 deg. 56' N. and has a
good firm sandy bottom, with eighteen, twenty, and twenty-five fathoms
water. The island of St Vincent is rocky, barren, and uncultivated,
having very little fresh water, though they found a small spring which
might have served two or three ships. By digging wells they procured
plenty of water, but somewhat brackish, to which they attributed the
bloody flux, which soon after began to prevail in the fleet. The goats
there, of which they caught fifteen or sixteen every day, were very fat
and excellent eating. The sea-tortoises which they took there were from
two to three feet long. They come on shore to lay their eggs, which they
cover with sand, leaving them to be hatched by the heat of the sun.
Their season of laying eggs is from August to February, remaining all
the rest of the year in the sea. They caught every night great numbers
of these animals while ashore to lay their eggs, and the sailors found
them wholesome and pleasant food, eating more like flesh than fish.
This island is altogether uninhabited, but the people of St Lucia come
here once a year to catch tortoises, for the sake of an oil they prepare
from them; and to hunt goats, the skins of which are sent to Portugal,
and their flesh, after being salted and dried at St Jago, is exported to
Brazil. There are no fruit-trees in this island, except a few wild figs
in the interior; besides which, it produces colocinth, or bitter apple
which is a very strong purge.[134] This island has a very dry climate,
except during the rainy season, which begins in August and ends in
February, but is not very regular.
[Footnote 134: Cucumis Colocynthis, a plant of the cucumber family,
producing a fruit about the size of an orange, the medullary part of
which, when ripe, dried, and freed from the seeds, is a very light,
white, spongy substance, composed of membranous leaves, excessively
bitter, nauseous, and acrid.]
The island of St Antonio is inhabited by about 500 negroes, including
men, women, and children, who subsist chiefly on goats, and also
cultivate a small quantity of cotton. On the sea-side they have
extensive plantations of lemons and oranges, whence they gather great
quantities every year. These were very readily supplied to the Dutch by
the negroes in exchange for mercery goods, but they saw neither hogs,
sheep, nor poultry in the island.
Sailing from St Vincent's on the 25th July, they anchored in the road of
Sierra Leona on the 11th August. Here on the 15th some of the crew being
on shore, eat freely of certain nuts resembling nutmegs, which had a
fine taste, but had scarcely got on board when one of them dropt down
dead, and before he was thoroughly cold he was all over purple spots.
The rest recovered by taking proper medicines.
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