o opportunity of getting at
their nests. The coast was wild and rugged, indented occasionally by
small picturesque bays. Below the point of the island Doctor Cabot shot
two pelicans, and getting the canoa about to take them on board was
like man[oe]uvring a seventy-four gun-ship.

At eleven o'clock we reached the island of Mugeres, notorious in that
region as the resort of Lafitte the pirate. Monsieur Lafitta, as our
skipper called him, bore a good character in these parts; he was always
good to the fishermen, and paid them well for all he took from them. At
a short distance beyond the point we passed a small bay, in which he
moored his little navy. The month was narrow, and protected by ledges
of broken rocks, on which, as the patron told us, he had batteries
constantly manned. On the farther point of the island we had a distant
view of one of those stone buildings which were our inducement to this
voyage along the coast. While looking at it from the prow of the canoa,
with the patron by my side, he broke from me, seized a harpoon, and
pointing with it to indicate the direction to the helmsman, we came
silently upon a large turtle, apparently asleep, which must have been
somewhat surprised on waking up with three or four inches of cold steel
in his back. The patron and sailors looked upon him as upon a bag of
dollars snatched from the deep. There are three kinds of turtles which
inhabit these seas; the Cahuamo, the eggs of which serve for food, and
which is useful besides only for its oil; the Tortuga, of which the
meat as well as the eggs is eaten, which also produces oil, and of
which the shell is worth two reales the pound; and the Kare, of which
the shell is worth ten dollars a pound. It was one of this kind, being
the rarest, that had crossed our path. I would not make any man
unhappy, but the fishermen say that the turtle which forms the delight
of the gourmand is of the commonest kind, not worth killing for the
sake of the shell, and therefore sent away alive. The kare he has never
tasted. It is killed for the sake of the shell, and eaten by the
luxurious fishermen on the spot. I immediately negotiated with the
patron for the purchase of the shell. The outer scales of the back,
eight in number, are all that is valuable. Their weight he estimated at
four pounds, and the price in Campeachy he said was ten dollars a
pound, but he was an honest fellow, and let me have it at two pounds
and a half, for eight dollars a