Sir John Narborough.
Hitherto we had found no kind of vegetables except a species of wild
peas; but though we had seen no inhabitants, we saw places where they
had made their fires, which however did not appear to be recent. While
we were on shore we shot some wild ducks and a hare; the hare ran two
miles after he was wounded, though it appeared when he was taken up that
a ball had passed quite through his body. I went this day many miles up
the country, and had a long chace after one of the guanicoes, which was
the largest we had seen: He frequently stopped to look at us, when he
had left us at a good distance behind, and made a noise that resembled
the neighing of a horse; but when we came pretty near him he set out
again, and at last, my dog being so tired that he could not run him any
longer, he got quite away from us, and we saw him no more. We shot a
hare however, and a little ugly animal which stunk so intolerably that
none of us could go near him. The flesh of the hares here is as white as
snow, and nothing can be better tasted. A serjeant of marines, and some
others who were on shore at another part of the bay, had better success
than fell to our share, for they killed two old guanicoes and a fawn;
they were however obliged to leave them where they fell, not being able
to bring them down to the water side, near six miles, without farther
assistance, though they were but half the weight of those that are
mentioned by Sir John Narborough; some however I saw, which could not
weigh less than seven or eight and thirty stone, which is about three
hundred pounds. When we returned in the evening it blew very hard, and
the deck being so full of lumber that we could not hoist the boats in,
we moored them astern. About midnight, the storm continuing, our
six-oared cutter filled with water and broke adrift; the boat-keeper, by
whose neglect this accident happened, being on board her, very narrowly
escaped drowning by catching hold of the stern ladder. As it was tide
of flood when she went from the ship, we knew that she must drive up the
harbour; yet as the loss of her would be an irremediable misfortune, I
suffered much anxiety till I could send after her in the morning, and it
was then some hours before she was brought back, having driven many
miles with the stream. In the mean time, I sent another party to fetch
the guanicoes which our people had shot the night before; but they found
nothing left except the bones, the ty