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. The air is continually refreshed, by the sea-breeze by day and
the land-winds at night, so that they are not troubled with such
excessive heats, neither are they so unwholesome as most places so near
the equator.
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