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t to defend themselves." By other letters, we learnt that the two French ships we afterwards saw near Juan Fernandez had picked up a boat at sea, in which were an Englishman and a dog; had been in at the island of Juan Fernandez, and had taken up our anchors, cables, and long-boats, with all Captain Stradling's stores, as also his five men and our negro who were left there. We learnt also, that the Spaniards had fitted out two men of war against us, one of thirty-two, and the other thirty-six brass guns, all twenty-four pounders, each having 350 sailors and 150 soldiers, all picked men, and had been cruizing for us in the Bay of Guayaquil, between point St Helena and Cape Blanco, from the 7th to the 12th. We were forced to go under an easy sail, as our prize sailed very heavily, wherefore we went into _Sardinas_ Bay, in lat. 1 deg. 20' N. where we anchored with our prize in ten fathoms, about four miles from the shore, for the purpose of rummaging her. We durst not go farther in, because of many shoals and sand-banks, which were very imperfectly laid down in all our charts. The sea-coast is inhabited by Indians, but not in any great numbers, and has several small fresh-water rivers. From hence, all the way south, till we came to the Bay of _Atacarnes_, in lat. 0 deg. 54' N. the sea-side is composed of white cliffs; and there are many shoals as far as _Punta de la Galera_, in lat. 0 deg. 48' N. Six leagues S.W. of Sardinas Bay is the great river of St Jago, the mouth of which is about three quarters of a mile wide, but has no good anchorage till well within. This river is seldom used by ships, being out of the way, yet the country here produces abundant provisions of all sorts. We careened our ship and rummaged our prize in the Bay of Sardinas, and watered at one of the fresh-water rivers, which was as white as milk, and both smelt and tasted very strong of musk, occasioned by many alligators swimming in it. We shot several of these creatures, one of which measured thirty feet in length, and was bigger about than a bullock. The alligator is covered over with great scales from head to tail, having very large sharp teeth, and very long claws. It is amphibious, living both on land and in the water, and when lying on shore is often mistaken at a distance for a great tree fallen down. It runs very fast on the land, and is of such strength that one of them will take a horse or a cow into the water, and there devour it. The
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