When The Vessel Noticed Us, She Put About And Sailed From Us; And Soon After There Came On So Heavy A Fog That We Could Not See Her, And As The Fog Continued The Whole Night We Had To Quit The Chase.

In the afternoon the wind came about fair, so that we were able to shape a course S.W. by W. to keep clear of the coast, and ran that night 16 leagues.

The 14th in the morning was very foggy, but the fog cleared away about noon, when we espied a caravel of 60 tons fishing, and sent our skiff on board with five men unarmed. For haste the caravel slipped her anchors and set sail, yet our unarmed boat overtook her and made her strike sail, and brought her away, though she had fourteen or fifteen men on board, all armed, but they had not the heart to resist. On coming to us they anchored, as we were likewise, because the wind had become foul; on which I made our skiff come for me, and I went on board the caravel, to take care that no harm was offered, and to see if they would spare us any thing for our money. Accordingly we got from them three _tapnets_ of figs, two small jars of oil, two pipes of water, and four hogsheads of salt fish, which they had taken on the coast, besides some fresh fish, which they held of no value, as they are so plentiful on that coast that one man may often take as many in an hour or less as will serve twenty men a whole day. For these things, some wine we drank while on board their ship, and three or four great cans which they sent on board our ships, I paid them 27 pistoles, being twice as much as they would willingly have taken. We then let them go to their anchor and cable which they had slipped, and assisted them to recover. After this we made sail, but the wind obliged us to come to anchor again about 12 leagues from the Rio del Oro, as we were informed by the Portuguese. There were five other caravels in this place, but immediately on our appearance they all made away for fear of us.

The 15th we continued at anchor, as the wind was still foul. The 16th we set sail and run our course 40 leagues, being this day, according to our pilots, right under the Tropic of Cancer, in lat. 23 deg. 30' N. The 17th we ran 25 leagues, mostly in sight of the coast of Barbary. The 18th we ran 30 leagues, and at noon, by the reckoning of our pilots, were abreast of Cape Blanco. The 22d they reckoned we were abreast of Cape Verd. The 12th of December we got sight of the coast of Guinea, towards which we immediately hauled, standing to the N.E. and about 12 at night, being less than two leagues from the shore, we lay to and sounded, finding 18 fathoms water. We soon afterwards saw a light between us and the shore, which we thought might have been a ship, from which circumstance we judged ourselves off the river Sestro, and we immediately came to anchor, armed our tops, and made all clear for action, suspecting it might be some Portuguese or French ship. In the morning we saw no ship whatever, but espied four rocks about two English miles from us, one being a large rock and the other three small; whence we concluded that the light seen during the night had been on shore. We then weighed and stood E.S.E. along shore, because the master did not rightly know the place, but thought we were still to the westward of Sestro river. All along this coast the land is low, and full of high trees close to the shore, so that no one can know what place he falls in with, except by means of the latitude. I think we ran 16 leagues that day, as we had all night a stiff gale, with much thunder and lightning.

For most port of the 13th we ran E.S.E. along the coast, within two leagues of the land, finding the shore all covered with tall trees to the water's edge, and great rocks hard by the beach, on which the billows continually broke in white foam, so high that the surf might easily be seen at four leagues distance, and in such a manner that no boat could possibly go to land. At noon our masters and pilots took the altitude of the sun, by which they judged that we were 24 leagues beyond the river Sestro to the eastwards, wherefore we hauled in towards the shore and came to anchor within two English miles of the land in 15 fathoms, the water being so smooth that we might have rode with a hawser. We employed the afternoon to rig out our boat with a sail, for the purpose of sending her along shore in search of a place to take in water, as we could not go back to the river Sestro, because the wind is always contrary and the current sets continually to the eastwards. The 14th we weighed anchor and plied up along the coast to the W.N.W. sending our boats close in shore to seek a watering-place, which they found about noon. At this time, being far out to sea, we fell in with several small long and narrow boats or canoes of the natives, in each of which was one man only. We gave them bread, which they accepted and eat readily. About 4 P.M. our boats came off to us with fresh water; and at night we anchored off the mouth of a river. The 15th we weighed and stood near the shore, sounding all the way, finding sometimes a rocky bottom, at other times good ground, and never less than seven fathoms. Finally, we cast anchor within an English mile of the shore, in seven and a half fathoms, directly over against the mouth of the river, and then sent our boats for water, which they got very good after rowing a mile up the river.

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