re abundance of good
fruits up the country. Departing from this bay on the 27th, they came to
an island, a league north from Mazatlan,[53] where they heeled their
ships, and rebuilt their pinnace. On this isle, they found fresh water,
by digging two or three feet into the sand, otherwise they must have
gone back twenty or thirty leagues for water, being advised by one
Flores, a Spanish prisoner, to dig in the sands, where no water or sign
of any could be perceived. Having amply supplied the ships with water,
they remained at this island till the 9th October, and then sailed from
Cape San Lucar, the S.W. point of California, in lat. 22 deg. 50' N. which
they fell in with on the 14th, observing that it much resembled the
Needles at the Isle of Wight, which had been before noticed by Sir
Francis Drake. Within this cape, there is a large bay, called by the
Spaniards _Aguada Segura_,[54] into which falls a fine fresh-water
river, the banks of which are usually inhabited by many Indians in the
summer. They went into this bay, where they again watered, and remained
waiting for the Accapulco ship till the 4th November, the wind
continuing all that time to hang westerly.

[Footnote 53: In our best modern maps no such island is to be found; but
about the same distance to the S. is a cluster of small isles.--E.]

[Footnote 54: Probably that now called the bay of St Barnaby, about
twenty miles E.N.E. from Cape San Lucar.--E.]

The 4th November, putting to sea, the Desire and Content beat to and fro
to windward off the head land of California; and that very morning one
of the men in the admiral, going aloft to the topmast, espied a ship
bearing in from seaward for the cape. Putting every thing in readiness
for action, Candish gave chase, and coming up with her in the afternoon,
gave her a broadside and a volley of small arms. This ship was the Santa
Anna of 700 tons burden, belonging to the king of Spain, and commanded
by the admiral of the South Sea. Candish instantly boarded, finding the
Spaniards in a good posture of defence, and was repulsed with the loss
of two men slain and four or five wounded. He then renewed the action
with his cannon and musquetry, raking the St Ann, and killing or
wounding great numbers, as she was full of men. The Spaniards long
defended themselves manfully; but the ship being sore wounded, so that
the water poured in a-main, they at last hung out a flag of truce,
praying for quarter, and offering to s