gers having eaten the flesh, and
even cracked the bones of the limbs to come at the marrow. Several of
our people had been fifteen miles up the country in search of fresh
water, but could not find the least rill: We had sunk several wells to a
considerable depth where the ground appeared moist, but upon visiting
them, I had the mortification to find that, altogether, they would not
yield more than thirty gallons in twenty-four hours: This was a
discouraging circumstance, especially as our people, among other
expedients, had watched the guanicoes, and seen them drink at the salt
ponds. I therefore determined to leave the place as soon as the ship
could be got into a little order, and the six-oared cutter repaired,
which had been hauled up upon the beach for that purpose.

On the 27th, some of our people, who had been ashore on the north side
of the bay to try for more guanicoes, found the skull and bones of a
man, which they brought off with them, and one young guanicoe alive,
which we all agreed was one of the most beautiful creatures we had ever
seen: It soon grew very tame, and would suck our fingers like a calf;
but, notwithstanding all our care and contrivances to feed it, it died
in a few days. In the afternoon of this day it blew so hard that I was
obliged to keep a considerable number of hands continually by the
sheet-anchor, as there was too much reason to fear that our cables would
part, which however did not happen. In the mean time, some of our people
that were on shore with the carpenters, who were repairing the cutter on
the south side of the bay, found two more springs of tolerable water
about two miles from the beach, in a direct line from the ship's
station. To these springs I sent twenty hands early in the morning with
some small casks, called barecas, and in a few turns they brought on
board a tun of water, of which we began to be in great want. In the mean
time, I went myself about twelve miles up the river in my boat, and the
weather then growing bad, I went on shore: The river, as far as I could
see, was very broad; there were in it a number of islands, some of which
were very large, and I make no doubt but that it penetrates the country
for some hundreds of miles. It was upon one of the islands that I went
on shore, and I found there such a number of birds, that when they rose
they literally darkened the sky, and we could not walk a step without
treading upon their eggs. As they kept hovering over o