It was now resolved to carry their prizes to some secure place, where the best part of the provisions they had now procured might be laid up in safety, for which purpose they steered for the _Gallapagos_ or _Enchanted Islands_,[151] which they got sight of on the 31st May, and anchored at night on the east side of one of the easternmost of these islands, a mile from shore, in sixteen fathoms, on clear white hard sand. To this Cowley gave the name of _King Charles's Island_. He likewise named more of them, as the Duke of Norfolk's Island immediately under the line, Dessington's, Eares, Bindley's, Earl of Abington's, King James's, Duke of Albemarles, and others. They afterwards anchored in a very good bay being named York Bay. Here they found abundance of excellent provisions, particularly guanoes and sea and land tortoises, some of the latter weighing two hundred pounds, which is much beyond their usual weight. There were also great numbers of birds, especially turtle-doves, with plenty of wood and excellent water; but none of either of these was in any of the other islands.[152] [Footnote 151: These islands, so named by the Spaniards from being the resort of tortoises, are on both sides of the line, from about the Lat. of 2° N. to 1° 50' S,. and from about 88° 40' to 95° 20' both W. from Greenwich.--E.] [Footnote 152: Cowley mentions having found here a [illegible] thing of its nature of quantity.--E.] These Gallapagos are a considerable number of large islands, situated under and on both sides of the line, and destitute of inhabitants. The Spaniards, who first discovered them, describe them as extending from the equator N.W. as high as 5° N. The adventurers in this voyage saw fourteen or fifteen, some of which were seven or eight leagues in length, and three or four leagues broad, pretty high yet flat. Four or five of the most easterly were barren and rocky, without either trees, herbs, or grass, except very near the shore. They produced also a sort of shrub, called dildo-tree, about the bigness of a man's leg, and ten or twelve feet high, without either fruit or leaves, but covered with prickles from top to bottom. The only water in these barren isles, was in ponds and holes in the rocks. Some of the isles are low and more fertile, producing some of the trees that are known in Europe. A few of the westermost isles are larger than the rest, being nine or ten leagues long, and six or seven broad, producing many trees, especially Mammee figs, and they have also some pretty large fresh-water streams, and many rivulets. The air is continually refreshed, by the sea-breeze by day and the land-winds at night, so that they are not troubled with such excessive heats, neither are they so unwholesome as most places so near the equator. During the rainy season, in November, December, and January, they are infested with violent tempests of thunder and lightning; but before and after these months have only refreshing