Narrative of a Voyage to the West Indies and Mexico Part 6

[39] Honey of canes--mola.s.ses?

The said English placed two hundred men at the pa.s.sage of a little river, which is between the town and the castle, to prevent (as they did) the soldiers of the guard of the castle, who were lodged in the town, as well as the inhabitants who might endeavour to escape, from entering the fortress; and the other four hundred men attacked the town, where they found no resistance, so that in less than two hours they were masters of it; and having learned that there were no soldiers in the castle, nor any supply of provisions, on account of the governor having, by order of the king of Spain, sent all that had been there to Cartagena, where they thought that the enemy would make a descent, hoping to receive other supplies from Spain, being the nearest port to which their vessels came.

The English summoned the governor, and offered him good terms if he would surrender; if not, that they would make him suffer all the rigor of war; fearing which, the said governor surrendered, on condition that his life should be safe, and embarked with the English, not daring to return to Spain. It was only fifteen days since the English had departed from the town, where they had remained a month.

After their departure, the aforesaid Indians had returned, and endeavoured to repair the fortress, expecting the army of our general, who caused a report to be made of the recital of those Indians, which he sent to the king of Spain, and commanded the Indian who had first spoken, to go and seek those who had fled into the mountains, who, on his word, returned to their houses, receiving such contentment at seeing the general and being delivered from the English, that they forgot their past losses.

The said Island of Porto-rico is pretty agreeable, although it is a little mountainous, as the following figure shows.[40]--It is filled with quant.i.ties of fine trees, such as cedars, palms, firs, palmettoes, and another kind of tree which is called sombrade,[41] from which, as it grows, the tops of its branches, falling to the earth, take root immediately, and produce other branches which fall and take root in the same way. And I have seen these trees of such extent that they covered more than a league and a quarter. It bears no fruit, but is very agreeable, having a leaf like that of a laurel and a little more tender.

[40] The town of Porto-rico was founded in 1510. It was attacked by Drake and Hawkins in 1595, but the Spaniards, being apprised of their coming, had made such preparations, that Drake was forced to retire, after burning the Spanish ships that were in the harbour. In 1598 an expedition was fitted out by George Clifford, Earl of c.u.mberland, to conquer the island. He disembarked his men secretly and attacked the town, when, according to the Spanish accounts, he met with vigorous resistance from the inhabitants (Champlain's account from eyewitnesses and sufferers is very different); but in a few days the garrison of four hundred men surrendered, and the whole island submitted to the English. The possession of the island being deemed of great importance, the Earl adopted the harsh measure of exiling the inhabitants to Cartagena, and in spite of the protests and remonstrances of the unfortunate Spaniards, the plan was put in execution; a few only escaped. However the English soon found it impossible to keep the island; a grievous malady carried off three-fourths of the troops. c.u.mberland, deceived in his hopes, returned to England, leaving the command to Sir John Berkeley. The mortality spreading daily more and more, forced the English to evacuate the island, and the Spaniards soon after resumed possession of their dwellings.

Champlain's account of the state of the island after the departure of the English, and of the cowardice of the governor, is curious; there is, however, some confusion in his dates, and as to the time that the English occupation lasted.

[41] Sombrade--from "sombra," Span.--leafy shade. "Ficus americana maxima," the "Clusea rosea" of St. Domingo, or "Figuier maudit marron."

[Ill.u.s.tration: ISLAND OF PORTO RICO.]

There are also, in the said island, quant.i.ties of good fruits, such as plantes,[42] oranges, lemons of strange size,[43] ground gourds, which are very good, algarobes,[44] pappittes,[45] and a fruit named coracon,[46] because it is in the form of a heart, of the size of the fist, and of a yellow and red colour; the skin very delicate, and when it is pressed, it gives out an odoriferous humour; and that which is good in this fruit is like thick milk, and has a taste like sugared cream.

[42] Plantes--"Plantano" of the Spaniards, a species of banana, called in the Canaries "plantano."

[43] Lemons of strange size--Shaddock?

[44] Algarobe. See forward, page 25.

[45] Pappette--"Curica papaia" (Linn.)--papaw-tree.

[46] Coracon. Anona Muricata, or Cora.s.sol, from the Spanish "Corazon,"--heart, so called from the shape of the fruit. Some writers derived the name from Curacoa, supposing the seed to have been brought by the Dutch from that island. The native name was "memin."

There are many other fruits which are not much esteemed, although they are good; there is also a root called "ca.s.save"[47] which the Indians eat instead of bread.

[47] Ca.s.sava--Jatropha Manihot.

There grows neither corn nor wine in all this island. In it there are a great quant.i.ty of cameleons which, it is said, live on air; this I cannot a.s.sure although I have seen them many times. It has the head rather pointed, the body somewhat long for its size, that is to say, of one foot and a half, and has only two legs, which are in front; the tail very pointed, the colours mingled grey and yellowish. The said cameleon is here represented.[48]

[48] See frontispiece.

The best merchandise in the island is sugar, ginger, canifiste, honey of canes, tobacco, quant.i.ty of hides of oxen, cows, and sheep. The air is very hot, and there are little birds which resemble parrots, called perriquitos, of the size of a sparrow, with a round tail, and which are taught to speak: there are a great number in that isle.

The said island is about seventy leagues in length and forty in breadth, surrounded by good ports and havens, and lies east and west.

We remained at Porto-rico about a month; the general left about three hundred soldiers, as garrison in the fortress, and caused forty-six pieces of bra.s.s cannon, which had been at Blavet, to be placed there.

On leaving Porto-rico our general divided our galleons into three squadrons. He retained four with him, and sent three to Porto-bello, and three to New Spain, of which number was the vessel in which I was; and each galleon had its patache. The said general went to Terra-Firma, and we coasted all the Island of St. Domingo on the north side, and went to a port of the said island, named Porto Platte, to inquire if there were any strange vessels on the coast, because no foreigners are permitted to traffic there, and those who do go there, run the risk of being hung or sent to the galleys, and their ships confiscated; and to keep them in greater fear of approaching the land, the king of Spain gives freedom to any negroes who may discover a foreign vessel and give notice to the general of the army, or to the governor; and there are negroes who would go a hundred and fifty leagues on foot, night and day, to give such notice and acquire their liberty.

We landed at Porto Platte, and went about a league inland without meeting any one, excepting a negro who was preparing to go and give notice, but meeting with us, he went no farther, and informed our "admiral" that there were two French ships at the port of Mancenilla; where the said admiral resolved to go, and for that purpose we left the said Porto Platte, which is a good port sheltered from all winds, and where there are three, four, and five fathoms water.

From the above Porto Platte we proceeded to the port of Mancenilla, at which port we learned that the aforesaid two vessels were at the port of Mosquittes, near La Tortue, which is a little island thus named, opposite the entrance of the said port, where, arriving the next day about three o'clock in the afternoon, we perceived the above two ships, which were putting to sea to avoid us, but too late; seeing which, and that there were no means of escape, the crew of one of the vessels, which was fully a league at sea, abandoned their ship, and having thrown themselves into their boat, escaped to land. The other ship ran aground and broke to pieces, at the same time the crew escaped to land like the other, and there only remained one mariner in it, who, being lame and somewhat ill, could not fly. He told us that the vessels which were lost were from Dieppe.

There is a very good entrance to the port of Mosquittes, of more than two thousand paces in width, and there is a hidden sand-bank, so that it is necessary to keep near to the land on the east side in entering the said port, in which there is good anchorage; there is an island inside where there is shelter from the north wind, which strikes directly into the harbour. This place is tolerably pleasant from the number of trees which grow there; the land is rather high; but there are such quant.i.ties of small flies, like chesans, or gnats, which sting in so strange a fashion, that if a man were to go to sleep and should be stung in the face, puffy swellings of a red colour, enough to disfigure him, would rise from the sting.

Having learned from the lame mariner who was taken in the French vessel, that there were thirteen great ships, French, English, and Flemish, half armed for war, half with merchandise, our admiral resolved to go and take them at the port of St. Nicolas where they were, and for that purpose prepared three galleons of the burthen of five hundred tons each, and four pataches. We proceeded in the evening to cast anchor in a bay called Monte Christo, which is very good and sheltered from the south-east and from the west, and is remarkable for a mountain which is straight above the harbour, so high that it can be discerned from fifteen leagues at sea. The said mountain is very white and shining in the sun.

For two leagues round the said harbour the land is rather low, covered with a quant.i.ty of wood, and there is a very good fishery, and a good port under the mountain.

The following morning we proceeded to Cape St. Nicolas to seek the aforesaid ships, and about three o'clock arrived in the bay of the said Cape, and cast anchor as near as it was possible, the wind being adverse to our entering.

Having anch.o.r.ed, we perceived the vessels of the above mentioned merchants, at which our admiral rejoiced greatly, being a.s.sured of taking them. All the night we did all that was possible to endeavour to enter the harbour, and when morning came, the admiral took counsel of the captains and pilots as to what was to be done. They told him that the worst they had to think of was what the enemies might do to escape; that it was impossible for them to fly, saving under favour of the night, having the wind fair; that, in fact they would not hazard it in the day-time, seeing their seven armed ships; also that if they wished to make resistance, they would place their vessels at the entrance of the harbour, anch.o.r.ed stem and stern, with all their guns on one side, and their tops well fenced with cables and hides, and that if they saw that they were getting the worst, they would abandon their ships, and throw themselves on land. To prevent this, the admiral should advance his ships as near to the harbour as possible, batter the enemies with his cannon, and land one hundred of his best soldiers to prevent their so escaping. This plan was resolved on, but the enemies did not do as it had been expected; for they made their preparations during the night, and when the morning came they set sail and came straight towards our ships, by which they must of necessity pa.s.s, in order to get the wind of us. This resolution changed the courage of the Spaniards, and softened their rhodomontades. It was then for us to lift anchor, and with such prompt.i.tude, that in the admiral's ship they cut the cable at the hawse-hole, not having time to raise the anchor. So we also set sail, giving and receiving cannonades. At last they gained the wind on us, and we pursued them all day and the following night until the morning, when we saw them four leagues from us, which our admiral perceiving, he abandoned the pursuit to continue our route; but it is very certain that if he had wished he could have taken them, having better ships, more men and munitions of war. The foreign vessels were only preserved by default of courage of the Spaniards.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A HARBOUR IN ST DOMINGO.]

During this chase, there happened a laughable thing which deserves to be related. A patache of four or five tons was seen mingled with our ships. It was hailed frequently, as to whence it came, with orders to lower the sails, but there was no reply: and although some guns were fired at it, it continued to go before the wind, which moved our admiral to have it chased by two of our pataches, which, in less than two hours, overtook and approached it, calling out always for the sails to be lowered, without any answer; nor would the soldiers board it; although no one was seen at the helm, so that the commander of the pataches said that it was steered by a devil, and forced the soldiers, as many as twenty, by menaces, to go on board, who found nothing; they only brought away the sails, and left the hull to the mercy of the sea.

A report being made of this to the admiral, and of the fright that the soldiers had shewn, it gave matter for laughter to all.

Leaving the island of St. Domingo, we continued our route to New Spain.

The aforesaid island of St. Domingo is large, being one hundred and fifty leagues long, and sixty broad, very fertile in fruits, cattle, and good merchandise, such as sugar, canifiste, ginger, honey of canes, cotton, hides of oxen, and some furs. There are numerous good ports, and good anchorage, and only one town, named L'Espaignolle,[49]

inhabited by Spaniards; the rest of the population is Indian, good-natured people, and who much like the French nation, with whom they traffic as often as they can, but this is without the knowledge of the Spaniards. It is also the place where the French trade the most in those quarters, and where they have most access, although with little freedom.

[49] Now San Domingo.

This country is rather hot, and particularly mountainous; there are no mines of gold or silver, but only of copper.

Leaving, then, this island, we coasted along the island of Cuba, on the south side, the land rather high, and proceeded to reconnoitre some small islands, which are called the Caymans, to the number of six or seven. In three of them there are three good harbours, but it is a dangerous pa.s.sage, on account of the shallows and banks which are there, and it is not good to adventure in it unless the route is well known.

We anch.o.r.ed between the islands, and remained one day; I landed on two of them, and found a very fine and agreeable harbour. I walked about a league inland, through very thick woods, and caught some rabbits, which are in great quant.i.ties, some birds, and a lizard as large as my thigh, of a grey and dead-leaf[50] colour. The island is very flat and level, and all the others the same; we also landed on another, which was not so agreeable; but we brought away some very good fruits, and there were such quant.i.ties of birds, that at our landing there rose so great a number, that for more than two hours after the air was filled with them: and there were others, which could not fly, so that we took them pretty easily; these are of the size of a goose, the head very large, the beak very wide, low on their legs, the feet like those of a water hen. When these birds are plucked, there is not more flesh on them than on a dove, and it has a very bad taste. We raised the anchor the same day, towards evening, with a very fair wind, and the next day, about three o'clock in the afternoon, we arrived at a place called "La Sonde,"[51] a very dangerous place, as for more than five leagues there are only shallows, with the exception of ...[52] leagues in length, and three in width; when we were in the middle of the said channel, we lay to, and the sailors cast out their lines to catch fish, of which they took so large a quant.i.ty, that they could not find room enough for them on board the ships. This fish is of the size of a dorade,[53] of a red colour, and very good if eaten fresh, for it will not keep, or salt, but becomes putrid shortly. The lead must be always in hand in pa.s.sing through this channel; on leaving which, one of our pataches was lost at sea, without our knowing the cause; the soldiers and mariners saved themselves by swimming, some on planks, others on oars, others as they best could, and returned from more than two ...[54] to our ship, which they met with very _a propos_, and we picked them up in our boats which were sent out for them.

[50] Feuille-morte, whence "phillemoti," brownish.

[51] A difficult channel, called by the Spaniards the "Sound of Mexico," abounding in fish, especially Dorades.

"We pursued our route till we arrived at a place which the Spaniards call the Sound of Mexico, for in that place we often cast the sound.... During this time we took great diversion in fishing, particularly dorades, on which we made great cheer."--Gage's _Voyage to Mexico in 1625_, from French translation by the Sieur de Beaulieu, Hues O'Neil: 2 vols., Paris, 1676.

[52] Hiatus in MS.

[53] Sparus aurata (Linn.), Brame de Mer--the Bahama dorade is called "porgy."

[54] Hiatus in MS.

Eight days afterwards, we arrived at St. Jean de Luz,[55] which is the first port of New Spain, where the galleons of the king of Spain go every year to be laden with gold, silver, precious stones, and cochineal, to take to Spain.

[55] The fort or castle of San Juan d'Ulloa is evidently meant, but whether it bore that name when Champlain was there, or whether he confounded the St. Jean de Luz of Spain with San Juan d'Ulloa, is a moot point. In Mercator and Hondius's maps, Amsterdam, 10th edition, 1628, St. Juan d'_Uloa_ (Ulloa) is placed on the twenty-sixth degree of north lat.i.tude, at the mouth of the river "Lama" (Rio del Norte). The town of Villa Rica, is laid down in the actual position of Vera Cruz, but no mention of either St. Juan de Luz, or d'Ulloa; and in Gage's _Voyage with the Spanish Fleet to the West Indies and Mexico_, 1625, it is styled Sn Juan d'Ulhua, otherwise Vera Cruz.

"The proper name of the town is Sn Juan d'Ulhua, otherwise Vera Cruz, from the old harbour of Vera Cruz, which is six leagues from it. But the harbour of the old Vera Cruz being found too dangerous for ships, on account of the violence of the north wind, it was entirely abandoned by the Spaniards, who went to St.

Juan d'Ulhua, where their vessels found a safe anchorage by means of a rock which serves as a strong defence against the winds; and in order to perpetuate the memory of this happy adventure, chancing on a Good Friday, to the name of St. Juan d'Ulhua they added that of the True Cross, taken from the first harbour, which was discovered on the Holy Friday of the year 1519."--Gage's _Voyage to Mexico_, etc., 1625.

The said port of St. Jean de Luz is fully four hundred leagues from Porto-rico. On the island, there is a very good fortress, as well by its situation, as by its good ramparts, well furnished with all that is necessary; and there are two hundred soldiers in the garrison, which are enough for the place. This fortress comprises all the island, which is six hundred paces long, and two hundred and fifty paces wide; besides which fortress there are houses built on piles in the water; and for more than six leagues at sea, there are only shallows, which cause that ships cannot enter this port, if they do not well know the entrance of the channel, for which entrance you must steer to the south-west; but it is certainly the most dangerous port that can be found, and there is no shelter, excepting on the north side of the fortress; in the walls of the fort are numerous rings of bronze, where the vessels are moored, which are sometimes so crowded together, that when it blows from the north, which is very dangerous, the said vessels are much crushed, although they are moored fore and aft.[56]