s so clean; that ships, in the fair season, may anchor in
great safety at the distance of a mile or two from the shore. The land
adjacent to this beach is generally low, full of villages, and planted
with a great number of trees; and on the tops of some small eminencies
there are several look-out towers, so that the face of the country
affords a very agreeable prospect: For the cultivated part, which is
the part here described, extends some leagues back from the shore, and
there appears to be bounded by the chain of mountains, which stretch
to a considerable distance on either side of Acapulco. It is a most
remarkable particularity, that in this whole extent, being, as hath
been mentioned, eighteen leagues, and containing, in appearance, the
most populous and best planted district of the whole coast, there
should be neither canoes, boats, nor any other embarkations either for
fishing, coasting, or for pleasure.

The beach here described is the surest guide for finding the harbour
of Chequetan; for five miles to the westward of the extremity of this
beach there appears a hummock, which at first makes like an island,
and is in shape not very unlike the hill of Petaplan, hereafter
mentioned, though much smaller. Three miles to the westward of this
hummock is a white rock lying near the shore, which cannot easily be
passed by unobserved; it is about two cables length from the land,
and lies in a large bay about nine leagues over. The westward point
of this bay is the hill of Petaplan. This hill, like the forementioned
hummock, may be at first mistaken for an island, though it be, in
reality, a peninsula, which is joined to the continent by a low and
narrow isthmus, covered over with shrubs and small trees. The bay of
Seguataneo extends from this hill a great way to the westward; and at
a small distance from the hill, and opposite to the entrance of
the bay, there is an assemblage of rocks, which are white, from the
excrements of boobies and tropical birds. Four of these rocks are high
and large, and, together with several other smaller ones, are, by
the help of a little imagination, pretended to resemble the form of a
cross, and are called the White Friars. These rocks bear W. by N.
from Petaplan, and about seven miles to the westward of them lies the
harbour of Chequetan, which is still more minutely distinguished by a
large and single rock, that rises out of the water a mile and a half
distant from its entrance, and bears