By This Time; They Had Made Two
Valuable Prizes, Laden With Sugar, Melasses, Maiz, Cordovan Leather,
Montego De Porco, Packs Of Painted Calicoes, Indian Coats, Marmalade,
Hens, And Other Articles, Which Would Have Yielded L20,000, If There Had
Been Any Opportunity For Selling Their Cargoes.
That not being the case,
they took out as much as could be conveniently stowed in their own
ships, burning their two prizes with the rest of their contents.
[Footnote 51: Pisco, the principal of these towns, is in lat. 16 deg. 43'
S.]
The 26th May, they came into the road Payta, in lat. 5 deg. 4' S. the town
being very neat and clean, and containing about 200 houses. Landing here
with sixty or seventy men, Candish had a skirmish with the inhabitants,
whom he beat out of the town, forcing them to take refuge in the hills,
whence they continued to fire at the English, but would not venture a
fair battle on the plain ground. Having possessed themselves of the
town, the English marched after the enemy on the hill, and put them
completely to the rout, seizing all their baggage, which they brought
back with them to the town. They here found all sort of household stuff,
together with warehouses well filled with various kinds of goods, and
twenty-five pound weight of silver in pieces of eight. After taking away
what plunder they found convenient, they set fire to the town, which was
burnt to the ground, and destroyed likewise a bark at anchor in the
roads; after which they set sail for Puna.
They arrived at Puna, in lat. 3 deg. 10' S. on the 25th of May, when they
found a ship of 250 tons at anchor in the harbour. After sinking her,
they went ashore. The lord of this island, styled the Cacique of Puna,
was an Indian by birth, but having married a Spanish woman, he became a
Christian, and made all his subjects follow his example. He had a
sumptuous and well-contrived palace near the shore, with curious gardens
adjoining, and fair prospects, both to the water and up the country. All
the inhabitants of this island were kept continually employed in
fabricating cables, such abundance of which are made here by the Indian
subjects of this cacique; that most of the ships navigating the South
Sea are supplied from hence. This island is nearly as large as the isle
of Wight in England, being about forty English miles from S.W. to N.E.
and sixteen in the opposite direction. It enjoys a great share in the
blessings of nature; for, although it has no mines of gold or silver, it
affords every thing in abundance that is necessary to the comforts of
life. The pastures are excellent, and are well stored with horses, oxen,
sheep, and goats, yielding abundance of milk; it has also plenty of
poultry, turkeys, ducks of a large size, and pigeons. The cacique has
several orchards, yielding a great variety of fine fruits, as oranges,
lemons, figs, pomegranates, pumpkins, melons, and many others; with a
variety of odoriferous plants, as rosemary, thyme, and the like.
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