Early in the morning of the 3d November, our men landed about four miles south of Payta, where they took some prisoners who were set there to watch. Though informed that the governor of Piura had come to the defence of Payta with a reinforcement of an hundred men, they immediately pushed to the fort on the hill, which they took with little resistance, on which the governor and all the inhabitants evacuated Payta, but which we found empty of money, goods, and provisions. That same evening we brought our ships to anchor near the town, in ten fathoms a mile from shore, and remained six days in hopes of getting a ransom for the town; but seeing we were not likely to have any, we set it on fire, and set sail at night with the land-breeze for the island of Lobos. The 14th we came in sight of _Lobos de Tierra_, the inner or northern island of Lobos, which is of moderate height, and appears at a distance like _Lobos del Mare_, the southern island of the same name, at which other island we arrived on the 19th. The evening of the 29th we set sail for the bay of Guayaquil, which lies between Cape _Blanco_ in lat. 4° 18', and the point of _Chanday_, or _Carnera_, in 2° 18' both S. In the bottom of this bay is a small isle, called _Santa Clara_, extending E. and W. and having many shoals, which make ships that intend for Guayaquil to pass on the south side of this island. From the isles of Santa Clara to _Punta arena_, the N.W. point of the island of Puna, is seven leagues [thirty statute miles] N.N.E. Here ships bound for Guayaquil take in pilots, who live in a town in Puna of the same name, at its N.E. extremity, seven leagues [twenty-five miles] from Punta arena. The island of Puna is low, stretching fourteen leagues E. and W. and five leagues from N. to S.[164] It has a strong tide running along its shores, which are full of little creeks and harbours. The interior of this island consists of good pasture land, intermixed with some woodlands, producing various kinds of trees to us unknown. Among these are abundance of _Palmitoes_, a tree about the thickness of an ordinary ash, and thirty feet high, having a straight trunk without branches or leaf, except at the very top, which spreads out into many small branches three or four feet long. At the extremity of each of these is a single leaf, which at first resembles a fan plaited together, and then opens out like a large unfolded fan. The houses in the town of Puna are built on posts ten or twelve feet high, and are thatched with palmito leaves, the inhabitants having to go up to them by means of ladders. The best place for anchorage is directly opposite the town, in five fathoms, a cable's length from shore. [Footnote 164: Puna is nearly forty English miles from N.E. to S.W. and about sixteen miles from N.W. to S.E.]