Next Evening We Saw The Island, Which Seemed Merely A High White
Rock, At The Foot Of The High Land Of Carapucho.
Our boat set off for
the island about sun-set, and had like to have been lost among the
breakers.
At length they heard the barking of dogs, and saw the light of
some candles; but, aware of the danger of landing in the dark, they made
fast their boat to a float of weeds for want of a grapnel, and waited
till day-light. They then rowed in between the rocks, and were
ignorantly welcomed on shore by some Indians. Going to the house of the
lieutenant, they broke open the door, and rummaged it and the village,
finding a booty more valuable to us in our present situation than gold
or silver. This consisted of 60 bushels of wheat flour, 120 of
calavanses and corn, some jerked beef, mutton, and pork, a thousand
weight of well-cured fish, four or five days eating of soft bread, and
five or six jars of Peruvian wine and brandy, besides a good number of
fowls and some rusk. They had also the good fortune to find a boat to
bring off their plunder, which otherwise had been of little use to us,
as our own boat was fully laden with men.
In the mean time, we in the bark were carried away by the current to the
northward, out of sight of the island; and as they had not loaded their
boats till the height of the day, they had a laborious task to row off,
being very heavily laden.
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