One Of
These Gardens Or Orchards Was Planted With The Bombast Cotton Tree,
Which Grows In Pods, In Each Of Which There Are Seven Or Eight Seeds.
The 29th of May, Candish went to an island near Puna, into which the
cacique had conveyed all the valuable furniture of his palace, with
other things of value.
These stores were all discovered, and plundered
of every thing thought worth carrying on board the ships, and the rest
destroyed. The church also of Puna, which stood near the palace, was
burnt down, and its five bells carried to the ships. On the 2d June, the
English were attacked by 100 Spaniards, who killed or took prisoners
twelve of their men, losing forty-six of their own in the encounter.
Candish landed again that same day with seventy English, and had another
battle with the Spaniards, who were joined by 200 Indians armed with
bows and arrows. The English were victorious, after which they made
great havock of the fields and orchards, burnt four ships on the stocks,
and left the town of 300 houses a heap of rubbish. Besides this
principal town, there were two others on the island of 200 houses each,
so that Puna was the best settled island on all this coast.
Setting sail from Puna on the 5th June, they sailed to Rio Dolce, where
they watered. They passed the equinoctial on the 12th, continuing their
course northwards all the rest of that month. The 1st July, they had
sight of New Spain, being four leagues from the land in 10 deg. N. The 9th
they took a new ship of 120 tons, in which was one Michael Sancius, a
native of Provence, a very skilful coasting pilot for these seas, whom
Candish retained as his pilot, and from whom he got the first hint of
the great ship Anna Maria, which he afterwards took on her voyage from
the Philippine islands. Taking all the men, and every thing of any value
from the ship of Sancius, they set her on fire. The 26th they came to
anchor in the mouth of the river Capalico, and the same night went in
the pinnace with thirty men to Guatalco, two leagues from that river, in
15 deg. 70' N. and burnt both the town and custom-house, which was a large
handsome building, in which there were laid up 600 bags of indigo, and
400 bags of cacao, every bag of the former being worth forty crowns, and
each of the latter worth ten. These cacaos serve among the people of
these parts both as food and money, being somewhat like almonds, yet not
quite so pleasant, and pass in trade by way of small change, 150 of them
being equal in value to a rial of plate.
They set sail from Capalico on the 28th, the sea running so high that
they could not fill their water casks, and came to Guatalco that same
night. Next day Candish went ashore with thirty men, marching two miles
into the woods, where he took a mestizo belonging to the custom-house
of that town, having with him a considerable quantity of goods, both
which and their master were carried to the ships.
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