place I was ever in.

[Footnote 270: These must have been some species of palm, having
palmatad leaves resembling ferns.--E.]

Seals and sea-lions also abound; called _lobos de la mar_ by the
Spaniards, from their resemblance to wolves. They have a fine iron-grey
fur, and when full grown are as big as a large mastiff. They are
naturally surly, and snarl at the approach of any one. Instead of tails,
they have two fins behind, with which they make shift to get on much
faster than the sea-lions, which are large unwieldy creatures, and
prodigiously full of oil.

SECTION IV.

_Farther Proceedings in the South Sea, after leaving Juan Fernandez._

We departed from Juan Fernandez on the evening of the 6th October,
having nothing to subsist upon except the smoked congers, one of which
was allowed to each man for twenty-four hours; together with one cask of
beef, four live hogs, which had fed all the time we were ashore on the
putrid carcases of seals, and three or four bushels of cassada meal. We
were upwards of forty men, crowded together, and lying on the bundles of
eels, with no means of keeping ourselves clean, so that all our senses
were offended as greatly as possible. The only way we had of procuring
water, was by sucking it from the cask with a gun-barrel, used
promiscuously by every one. The little unsavoury morsels we daily eat,
created incessant quarrels, every one contending for the frying-pan; and
our only convenience for a fire, was a tub half filled with earth, which
made cooking so tedious, that we had the continual noise of frying from
morning to night. I proposed that we should stand for the Bay of
Conception, as being the nearest to us; and we were hard put to it every
day, while the sea-breeze continued; for, not having above sixteen
inches free board, and our bark tumbling prodigiously, the water ran
over us perpetually; and having only a grating deck, and no tarpaulin to
cover it but the top-sail of our bark, our pomps were barely sufficient
to keep us free.

At four in the morning of the 10th, we fell in with a large ship, and I
could see by moon-light that she was Europe-built. Our case being
desperate, we stood towards her, and being rigged after the fashion of
the South Seas, they did not regard us till day-light. Not being then
quite up with her, they suspected us by the brownness of our canvas,
wore ship, hauled close upon the wind, fired a gun, and crowded sail
away from us, leaving us