- E.
* * * * *
Captain Eaton In The Nicholas Having Separated From The Revenge, Left
The Gulf Of Amapalla On The 2d September, 1684, As Formerly Mentioned,
Which Place We Also Left Next Day, Directing Our Course For The Coast Of
Peru.
Tornadoes, with thunder, lightning, and rain, are very frequent on
these coasts from June to November, mostly from the S.E. of which we had
our share.
The wind afterwards veered to W. and so continued till we
came in sight of Cape St Francisco, where we met with fair weather and
the wind at S.
Cape St Francisco, in lat. 0 deg. 50' N. is a high full point of land,
covered with lofty trees. In passing from the N. a low point may be
easily mistaken for the cape, but soon after passing this point the cape
is seen with three distinct points. The land in its neighbourhood is
high, and the mountains appear black. The 20th September we came to
anchor in sixteen fathoms near the island of Plata, in lat. 1 deg. 15' S.
This island is about four miles long and a mile and half broad, being of
some considerable height, and environed with rocky cliffs, except in one
place at the east end, where the only fresh-water torrent of the isle
falls down from the rocks into the sea. The top of the island is nearly
flat, with a sandy soil, which produces three or four kinds of low small
trees, not known in Europe, and these trees are much overgrown with
moss. Among these trees the surface is covered with pretty good grass,
especially in the beginning of the year, but there are no land animals
to feed upon it, the great number of goats that used to be found here
formerly being all destroyed. Is has, however, a great number of the
birds named Boobies and Man-of-war birds. Some say that this island got
the name Isola de Plata from the Spaniards, from the circumstance of
Sir Francis Drake having carried to this place their ship the Cacafoga,
richly laden with silver, which they name Plata.
The anchorage is on the east side, about the middle of the island, close
to the shore, within two cables length of the sandy bay, in eighteen or
twenty fathoms, fast ooze, and smooth water, the S.E. point of the
island keeping off the force of the south wind which usually blows here.
In this sandy bay there is good landing, and indeed it is the only place
which leads into the island. A small shoal runs out about a quarter of a
mile from the east point of the island, on which shoal there is a great
rippling of the sea when the tide flows. The tide here has a strong
current, setting to the south with the flood, and to the north when it
ebbs. At this east point also there are three small high rocks, about a
cable's length from the shore; and three much larger rocks at the N.E.
point.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 194 of 431
Words from 100892 to 101403
of 224764
