Volume X Part 18 (1/2)
This voyage is peculiarly valuable, by its minute and apparently accurate account of the harbours and anchorages on the western coast of South America, and has, therefore, been given here at considerable length, as it may become of singular utility to our trade, in case the navigation to the South Sea may be thrown open, which is at present within the exclusive privileges of the East India Company, yet entirely unused by that chartered body.--E.
Captain Eaton in the Nicholas having separated from the Revenge, left the Gulf of Amapalla on the 2d September, 1684, as formerly mentioned, which place we also left next day, directing our course for the coast of Peru. Tornadoes, with thunder, lightning, and rain, are very frequent on these coasts from June to November, mostly from the S.E. of which we had our share. The wind afterwards veered to W. and so continued till we came in sight of Cape St Francisco, where we met with fair weather and the wind at S.
Cape St Francisco, in lat. 0 50' N. is a high full point of land, covered with lofty trees. In pa.s.sing from the N. a low point may be easily mistaken for the cape, but soon after pa.s.sing this point the cape is seen with three distinct points. The land in its neighbourhood is high, and the mountains appear black. The 20th September we came to anchor in sixteen fathoms near the island of _Plata_, in lat. 1 15' S.
This island is about four miles long and a mile and half broad, being of some considerable height, and environed with rocky cliffs, except in one place at the east end, where the only fresh-water torrent of the isle falls down from the rocks into the sea. The top of the island is nearly flat, with a sandy soil, which produces three or four kinds of low small trees, not known in Europe, and these trees are much overgrown with moss. Among these trees the surface is covered with pretty good gra.s.s, especially in the beginning of the year, but there are no land animals to feed upon it, the great number of goats that used to be found here formerly being all destroyed. Is has, however, a great number of the birds named b.o.o.bies and Man-of-war birds. Some say that this island got the name _Isola de Plata_ from the Spaniards, from the circ.u.mstance of Sir Francis Drake having carried to this place their s.h.i.+p the Cacafoga, richly laden with silver, which they name _Plata_.
The anchorage is on the east side, about the middle of the island, close to the sh.o.r.e, within two cables length of the sandy bay, in eighteen or twenty fathoms, fast ooze, and smooth water, the S.E. point of the island keeping off the force of the south wind which usually blows here.
In this sandy bay there is good landing, and indeed it is the only place which leads into the island. A small shoal runs out about a quarter of a mile from the east point of the island, on which shoal there is a great rippling of the sea when the tide flows. The tide here has a strong current, setting to the south with the flood, and to the north when it ebbs. At this east point also there are three small high rocks, about a cable's length from the sh.o.r.e; and three much larger rocks at the N.E.
point. All round the isle the water is very deep, except at the before-mentioned anchorage. Near the shoal there are great numbers of small sea-tortoises, or turtle, formerly mentioned as found at the Gallapagos. This island of _Plata_ is four or five leagues W.S.W. from Cape _San Lorenzo_.
After remaining one day at this isle, we continued our voyage to Cape _Santa Helena_, in lat. 2 8' S. This cape appears high and flat, resembling an island, covered on the top with thistles, and surrounded by low grounds, but without any trees. As it jets far out to sea, it forms a good bay on its north side, a mile within which is a wretched Indian village on the sh.o.r.e, called also Santa Helena; but the ground in its neighbourhood, though low, is sandy and barren, producing neither trees, gra.s.s, corn, nor fruit, except excellent water-melons; and the inhabitants are forced to fetch their fresh water from the river _Calanche_, four leagues distant, at the bottom of the bay. They live chiefly on fish, and are supplied with maize from other parts, in exchange for _Algatrane_, which is a bituminous substance issuing from the earth near this village, about five paces above high-water mark.
This substance, by means of long boiling, becomes hard like pitch, and is employed as such by the Spaniards. To leeward of the point, directly opposite the village, there is good anchorage, but on the west side the water is very deep. Some of our men were sent under night in canoes to take the village, in which they succeeded, and made some prisoners; but the natives set fire to a small bark in the road, alleging the positive orders of the viceroy.
We returned from thence to the island of Plata, where we anch.o.r.ed on the 26th September, and sent some of our men that evening to _Manta_, a small Indian village on the continent, seven or eight leagues from Plata, and two or three leagues east from Cape Lorenzo. Its buildings are mean and scattered, but standing on an easy ascent, it has a fine prospect towards the sea-side. Having formerly been inhabited by the Spaniards, it has a fine church, adorned with carved work; but as the ground in the neighbourhood is very dry and sandy, it produces neither corn nor roots, and only a few shrubs are to be found. The inhabitants are supplied with provisions by sea, this being the first place at which s.h.i.+ps refresh, when bound from Panama to Lima and other parts of Peru.
They have an excellent spring of fresh water between the village and the sea. Opposite to this village, and a mile and a half from the sh.o.r.e, there is a very dangerous rock, being always covered by the sea; but about a mile within this rock there is safe anchorage, in six, eight, and ten fathoms, on hard clear sand; and a mile west from this, a shoal runs a mile out to sea. Behind the town, and directly to the south, a good way inland, there is a very high mountain rising up into the clouds, like a sugar-loaf; which serves as an excellent sea-mark, there being no other like it on all this coast. [161]
[Footnote 161: The great Chimborazo is probably here meant, about 135 English miles inland from Manta, and almost due east, instead of south, as in the test.--E]
Our men landed about day-break, a mile and a half from the village, but the inhabitants took the alarm, and got all away, except two old women, from whom we learnt that the viceroy, on receiving intelligence of enemies having come across the isthmus of Darien into the South Sea, had ordered all their s.h.i.+ps to be set on fire, all the goats in the isle of Plata to be destroyed, and that the inhabitants on the coast should keep no more provisions than were necessary for their present use.
We returned to our s.h.i.+p at Plata, where we remained for some time unresolved what course to pursue. On the 2d of October, the Cygnet of London, Captain Swan, came to anchor in the same road. This was a richly-loaded s.h.i.+p, designed for trading on this coast, but being disappointed in his hopes of trade, his men had forced Captain Swan to take on board a company of buccaneers he fell in with at Nicoya, being those we heard of at Manta, who had come by land to the South Sea under the command of Captain Peter Harris, nephew to the Captain Harris who was slain before Panama. As the Cygnet was unfit for service, by reason of her cargo, Captain Swan sold most of his goods on credit, and threw the rest overboard, reserving only the fine commodities, and some iron for ballast. Captains Davis and Swan now joined company; and Harris was placed in command of a small bark. Our bark, which had been sent to cruise three days before the arrival of the Cygnet, now returned with a prize laden with timber, which they had taken in the Gulf of Guayaquil.
The commander of this prize informed us, that it was reported at Guayaquil, that the viceroy was fitting out ten frigates to chase us from these seas. This intelligence made us wish for Captain Eaton, and we resolved to send out a small bark towards Lima, to invite him to rejoin us. We also fitted up another small bark for a fire-s.h.i.+p, and set sail for the island of _Lobos_ on the 20th October.
Being about six leagues off Payta on the 2d of November, we sent 110 men in several canoes to attack that place. _Payta_ is a small sea-port town belonging to the Spaniards, in lat. 5 15' S. built on a sandy rock near the sea-side, under a high hill. Although not containing more than seventy-five or eighty low mean houses, like most of the other buildings along the coast of Peru, it has two churches. The walls of these houses are chiefly built of a kind of bricks, made of earth and straw, only dried in the sun. These bricks are three feet long, two broad, and a foot and a half thick. In some places, instead of roofs, they only lay a few poles across the tops of the walls, covered with mats, though in other places they have regularly-constructed roofs. The cause of this mean kind of building is partly from the want of stones and timber, and partly because it never rains on this coast, so that they are only solicitious to keep out the sun; and these walls, notwithstanding the slight nature of their materials, continue good a long time, as they are never injured by rain. The timber used by the better sort of people has to be brought by sea from other places. The walls of the churches and of the best houses are neatly whitened, both within and without, and the beams, posts, and doors are all adorned with carved work. Within they are ornamented with good pictures, and rich hangings of tapestry or painted calico, brought from Spain. The houses of Payta, however, were not of this description, though their two churches were large and handsome. Close by the sea there was a small fort, armed only with muskets, to command the harbour, as also another fort on the top of a hill, which commanded both the harbour and lower fort. The inhabitants of Payta are obliged to bring their fresh-water from Colon, a town two leagues to the N.N.E. where a fresh-water river falls into the sea; and have also to procure fowls, hogs, plantains, maize, and other provisions from that and other places, owing to the barrenness of the soil in its own neighbourhood. The dry and barren tract of this western coast of America begins at Cape Blanco in the north, and reaches to Coquimbo in 30 S. in all of which vast extent of coast I never saw or heard of any rain falling, nor of any thing growing whatever either in the mountains or vallies, except in such places as are constantly watered, in consequence of being on the banks of rivers and streams.
The inhabitants of Colon are much given to fis.h.i.+ng, for which purpose they venture out to sea in _bark-logs_.[162] These are constructed of several round logs of wood, forming a raft, but different according to the uses they are intended for, or the customs of those that make them.
Those meant for fis.h.i.+ng consist only of three or five logs of wood about eight feet long, the middle one longer than the rest, especially forewards, and the others gradually shorter, forming a kind of stem or prow to cut the waves. The logs are joined to each other's sides by wooden pegs and _withes_, or twisted branches of trees. Such as are intended for carrying merchandise are made in the same manner and shape, but the raft consists of twenty or thirty great trunks of trees, thirty or forty feet long, joined together as before. On these another row of shorter trees are laid across, and fastened down by wooden pegs. From, this double raft or bottom they raise a raft of ten feet high, by means of upright posts, which support two layers of thick trees laid across each other, like our piles of wood, but not so close as in the bottom of the float; these being formed only at the ends and sides, the inner part being left hollow. 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 s.p.a.ce 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 sh.o.r.e, for they will never sink at sea. Such vessels carry sixty or seventy tons of merchandise, as wine, oil, flour, sugar, Quito cloth, soap, dressed goats skins, &c. They are navigated by three or four men only; who, on their arrival at Panama, sell both the goods and vessel at that place, as they cannot go back again with them against the trade-wind. The smaller fis.h.i.+ng barks of this construction are much easier managed.
These go out to sea at night with the land-wind, and return to the sh.o.r.e in the day with the sea-breeze; and such small _barco longos_ are used in many parts of America, and in some places in the East Indies. On the coast of Coromandel they use only one log, or sometimes two, made of light wood, managed by one man, without sail or rudder, who steers the log with a paddle, sitting with his legs in the water.[163]
[Footnote 163: On the coast of Coromandel these small rafts are named _Catamarans_, and are employed for carrying letters or messages between the sh.o.r.e and the s.h.i.+ps, through the tremendous surf which continually breaks on that coast.--E.]
The next town to Payta of any consequence is _Piura_, thirty miles from Payta, seated in a valley on a river of the same name, which discharges its waters into the bay of _Chirapee_ [or Sechura.] in lat. 5 32' S.
This bay is seldom visited by s.h.i.+ps of burden, being full of shoals; but the harbour of Payta is one of the best on the coast of Peru, being sheltered on the S.W. by a point of land, which renders the bay smooth and the anchorage safe, in from six to twenty fathoms on clear sand.
Most s.h.i.+ps navigating this coast, whether bound north or south, touch at this port for fresh water, which is brought to them from _Colon_ at a reasonable rate.
Early in the morning of the 3d November, our men landed about four miles south of Payta, where they took some prisoners who were set there to watch. Though informed that the governor of Piura had come to the defence of Payta with a reinforcement of an hundred men, they immediately pushed to the fort on the hill, which they took with little resistance, on which the governor and all the inhabitants evacuated Payta, but which we found empty of money, goods, and provisions. That same evening we brought our s.h.i.+ps to anchor near the town, in ten fathoms a mile from sh.o.r.e, and remained six days in hopes of getting a ransom for the town; but seeing we were not likely to have any, we set it on fire, and set sail at night with the land-breeze for the island of Lobos. The 14th we came in sight of _Lobos de Tierra_, the inner or northern island of Lobos, which is of moderate height, and appears at a distance like _Lobos del Mare_, the southern island of the same name, at which other island we arrived on the 19th. The evening of the 29th we set sail for the bay of Guayaquil, which lies between Cape _Blanco_ in lat. 4 18', and the point of _Chanday_, or _Carnera_, in 2 18' both S.
In the bottom of this bay is a small isle, called _Santa Clara_, extending E. and W. and having many shoals, which make s.h.i.+ps that intend for Guayaquil to pa.s.s on the south side of this island.
From the isles of Santa Clara to _Punta arena_, the N.W. point of the island of Puna, is seven leagues [thirty statute miles] N.N.E. Here s.h.i.+ps bound for Guayaquil take in pilots, who live in a town in Puna of the same name, at its N.E. extremity, seven leagues [twenty-five miles]
from Punta arena. The island of Puna is low, stretching fourteen leagues E. and W. and five leagues from N. to S.[164] It has a strong tide running along its sh.o.r.es, which are full of little creeks and harbours.
The interior of this island consists of good pasture land, intermixed with some woodlands, producing various kinds of trees to us unknown.