In This Hollow, At The Height Of Four Feet From The
Floor Of The Raft, They Lay A Deck Or Floor Of Small Poles Close
Together, Serving As The Floor Or Deck Of Another Room; And Above This,
At The Same Height, They Lay Just Such Another Sparred Deck.
The lower
room serves for the hold, in which they stow ballast, and water casks or
jars.
The second room serves for the seamen and what belongs to them.
Above all the goods are stowed, as high as they deem fit, but seldom
exceeding the height of ten feet. Some space is left vacant behind for
the steersman, and before for the kitchen, especially in long voyages,
for in these strange vessels they will venture to make voyages of five
or six hundred leagues.
[Footnote 162: I suspect this to be a mistaken translation of
barco-longo, long barks, or rafts rather, as the subsequent
description indicates. - E]
In navigating these vessels, they use a very large rudder, with one mast
in the middle of the machine, on which they have a large sail, like our
west country barges on the river Thames. As these machines can only sail
before the wind, they are only fit for these seas, where the wind blows
constantly one way, seldom varying above a point or two in the whole
voyage from Lima to Panama. If, when near Panama, they happen to meet a
north-west wind, as sometimes happens, they must drive before it till it
changes, merely using their best endeavours to avoid the shore, for they
will never sink at sea.
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