This Was In Sight Of Gallo, Under Which Island We
Anchored Next Day With Our Prize, Which We Kept To Use In The Intended
Enterprise.
The island of Gallo is in lat.
2 deg. 45' N. long. 76 deg. 38' W.
from London,[209] and about five leagues from the main; being two
leagues long and one league broad. When approached from the south, it
shews three hummocks which seem at a distance as three separate islands,
the land between being very low; but when to the N.W. of the S. end you
will see a small island, or rock rather, resembling a ship under sail.
From this island the main land is in sight, being very low near the sea,
but prodigiously high up the country. We anchored off the N.W. part of
this island, two cables length from the shore, in thirty-five fathoms on
hard sand, the N. point bearing N. 1/2 W. and the S. point S.W. The
watering place goes in with a full gap, over which, on the hill, is a
plain spot of red earth, bearing N.W. 1/2 N. but there are several other
good watering places in the island. The best anchorage is on the N.E.
part at Legnetta, where a ship may wood and water quite secure from
any enemy. The island is very woody, affording large timber, which is
often shipped hence for Peru. There are here a few wild monkeys, with
abundance of lizards; among which is one called the lion-lizard, about
the size of a man's arm, one that I measured being three feet eleven
inches from the head to the end of the tail. It has a kind of large comb
on its head, standing up like a helmet, as if to defend its head, and
when attacked it erects this comb, which otherwise lies in a deep groove
on the head, just fitted for its reception, so that it can hardly be
seen when down. This animal has very large eyes, and a large mouth, in
which are a great many small sharp teeth. The skin is rough and of a
dark colour, full of black, yellow, and bluish spots. It runs very
swift, yet our dog caught many of them.
[Footnote 209: Lat. 1 deg. 56' N. long. 78 deg. 50' W. from Greenwich. - E.]
After remaining here five days, we began to hoist our anchors to set
sail, when we discovered a ship standing in for the island, which we
took. She was a small vessel of fifty tons, commanded by a Mestizo, on
board of which we found a Guernsey man, who had been taken by the
Spaniards, while cutting logwood in the Bay of Campeachy above two years
before, and must have continued a prisoner during life if we had not
released him. On sailing from Gallo, our purpose was to attack the town
of Santa Maria, not far from this on the continent to the E. expecting
there to have found a great quantity of gold, brought thither from the
adjacent mines of the same name.
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