Besides A
Large Loading Of Flour, The Three Captured Ships Had A Good Quantity Of
Fruits And Sweetmeats, Which Made
Them agreeable prizes to the English,
who were now very short of provisions; but they had landed no less than
800,000 dollars, on hearing that there were enemies in these seas.
It was now resolved to carry their prizes to some secure place, where
the best part of the provisions they had now procured might be laid up
in safety, for which purpose they steered for the Gallapagos or
Enchanted Islands,[151] which they got sight of on the 31st May, and
anchored at night on the east side of one of the easternmost of these
islands, a mile from shore, in sixteen fathoms, on clear white hard
sand. To this Cowley gave the name of King Charles's Island. He
likewise named more of them, as the Duke of Norfolk's Island immediately
under the line, Dessington's, Eares, Bindley's, Earl of Abington's, King
James's, Duke of Albemarles, and others. They afterwards anchored in a
very good bay being named York Bay. Here they found abundance of
excellent provisions, particularly guanoes and sea and land tortoises,
some of the latter weighing two hundred pounds, which is much beyond
their usual weight. There were also great numbers of birds, especially
turtle-doves, with plenty of wood and excellent water; but none of
either of these was in any of the other islands.[152]
[Footnote 151: These islands, so named by the Spaniards from being the
resort of tortoises, are on both sides of the line, from about the Lat.
of 2 deg. N. to 1 deg. 50' S,. and from about 88 deg. 40' to 95 deg. 20' both W. from
Greenwich. - E.]
[Footnote 152: Cowley mentions having found here a [illegible] thing of
its nature of quantity. - E.]
These Gallapagos are a considerable number of large islands, situated
under and on both sides of the line, and destitute of inhabitants. The
Spaniards, who first discovered them, describe them as extending from
the equator N.W. as high as 5 deg. N. The adventurers in this voyage saw
fourteen or fifteen, some of which were seven or eight leagues in
length, and three or four leagues broad, pretty high yet flat. Four or
five of the most easterly were barren and rocky, without either trees,
herbs, or grass, except very near the shore. They produced also a sort
of shrub, called dildo-tree, about the bigness of a man's leg, and ten
or twelve feet high, without either fruit or leaves, but covered with
prickles from top to bottom. The only water in these barren isles, was
in ponds and holes in the rocks. Some of the isles are low and more
fertile, producing some of the trees that are known in Europe. A few of
the westermost isles are larger than the rest, being nine or ten leagues
long, and six or seven broad, producing many trees, especially Mammee
figs, and they have also some pretty large fresh-water streams, and many
rivulets.
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