A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 03: Arranged in Systematic Order: Forming a Complete History of the Origin and Progress of Navigation, Discovery, and Commerce, by Sea and Land, from the Earliest Ages to the Present TimeKerr, Robert
History
A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 03: Arranged in Systematic Order: Forming a Complete History of the Origin and Progress of Navigation, Discovery, and Commerce, by Sea and Land, from the Earliest Ages to the Present Time
Kerr, Robert
Voyages and travels
Continuing his voyage eastwards, he sent the boats on shore for water, to
a place where a great town appeared, when the Indians came out with bows
and poisoned arrows, and with ropes in their hands, making signs to the
Spaniards that they would bind them if they came on shore. But as soon as
the boats came close to the beach they laid down their weapons, and
offered to bring bread and water, and every thing they had, asking in
their language for the admiral. Going from hence, they saw a strange fish
in the sea as big as a whale, having a great shell on its neck like a
tortoise, and bearing its head, as big as a hogshead, above the water, the
tail was very long like a tunny fish, and it had two large fins on the
sides. From the appearance of this fish and other signs, the admiral
foresaw an approaching change of weather, and sought for some harbour to
secure himself; and it pleased GOD that on the 15th of September, he
discovered an island near the east part of Hispaniola named _Adamanoi_ by
the Indians, and the weather being very stormy, dropt anchor in the
channel between it and Hispaniola, close to a small island which lies
between both. That night he saw an eclipse of the moon, which he said
varied five hours and twenty-three minutes from its time at Cadiz[20], to
the place where he then was. The bad weather, probably owing to the
eclipse, lasted so long, that he was forced to remain at that anchorage
till the 20th of the month, all the time under great anxiety for the other
ships which were not able to get into the same place of security, but it
pleased GOD to save them. Having rejoined the other caravels, they all
sailed over to the eastern part of Hispaniola, and thence to a little
island called _Mona_ by the Indians, which lies between Hispaniola and St
John de Boriquen.
The journal of the admiral breaks off at this island, and he does not
inform us of his course from thence to Isabella; but only, that while
going from Mona to St John, the great fatigues he had undergone, together
with his own weakness and the want of proper food, brought on a violent
malady, between a pestilential fever and a lethargy, which presently
deprived him of his senses and memory; whereupon, all the people in the
three caravels resolved to desist from the design he had then in hand of
discovering all the islands in the Caribbean sea, and returned to Isabella,
where they arrived on the 29th of September, five days afterwards[21].
This heavy sickness lasted during five months, but it pleased GOD to
restore him afterwards to health. His illness was occasioned by the great
sufferings he had gone through in this voyage, during which he had often
not been able to sleep three hours in eight days, owing to the perilous
nature of the navigation among innumerable islands and shoals; a degree
of privation that seems almost impossible, were it not authenticated by
himself and those who accompanied him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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