A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 10: 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
History
A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 10: 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
According to the report of some prisoners taken afterwards, the Spanish
fleet consisted of fourteen sail, besides _periagoes_, or large boats of
twelve or fourteen oars each, and among these there were eight ships of
good force, mounting from eight to forty-eight guns, with two
fire-ships, and computed to contain 3000 men. In the morning of the 30th
we saw the Spanish fleet at anchor, three leagues from us to leeward,
and by ten a.m. they were under sail with an easy gale from the S.
making the best of their way to Panama. In this affair we had but one
man slain, but never knew the loss sustained by the Spaniards. Captain
Gronet and his Frenchmen never joined us in this fight, laying the fault
upon his men, wherefore he was ordered in a consultation to leave us;
after which we resolved to sail for the islands of Quibo, or Cobaya, in
quest of Captain Harris.
We sailed on the 1st June, 1685, with the wind at S.S.W. passing between
Cape Carachina and _Islas del Rey_. The 10th we came in sight of _Moro
de Puercos_, a high round hill on the coast of Lavelia, in lat. 7° 12'
N. round which the coast makes a turn northwards to the isles of Quibo.
On this part of the coast there are many rivers and creeks, but not near
so large as those on the east side of the bay of Panama. Near the sea
this western coast of the bay is partly hilly and partly low land, with
many thick woods, but in the interior there are extensive savannahs or
fruitful plains, well stored with cattle. Some of the rivers on this
side produce gold, but not in such abundance as on the other side; and
there are hardly any Spanish settlements on this side, except along the
rivers leading to Lavelia and Nata, which are the only places I know of
between Panama and _Pueblo nova_. From Panama there is good travelling
all over Mexico, through savannahs or plains; but towards Peru there is
no passage by land beyond the river Chepo, by reason of thick woods and
many rivers and mountains.
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