sixty-five fathom water, and were now within a mile of the {133} land, and expected to be forced on shore every moment, in a place where the coast was so very high and steep, too, that there was not the least prospect of saving the ship or cargo. As their boats were very leaky, and there was no appearance of a landing-place, the whole crew, consisting of sixteen men and boys, gave themselves over for lost, apprehending that if any of them by some extraordinary chance should get on shore, they would, in all probability, be massacred by the savages on the coast: for these, knowing no other Europeans but Spaniards, it might be expected they would treat all strangers with the same cruelty which they had so often and so signally exerted against their Spanish neighbours. Under these terrifying circumstances, the pink drove nearer and nearer to the rocks which formed the shore; but at last, when the crew expected each instant to strike, they perceived a small opening in the land, which raised their hopes; and immediately cutting away their two anchors, they steered for it, and found it to be a small channel betwixt an island and the main, that led them into a most excellent harbour, which, for its security against all winds and swells, and the smoothness of its water, may perhaps compare with any in the known world. And this place being scarcely two miles distant from the spot where they deemed their destruction inevitable, the horrors of shipwreck and of immediate death, which had so long and so strongly possessed them, vanished almost instantaneously, and gave place to the more joyous ideas of security, refreshment, and repose. In this harbour, discovered in this almost miraculous manner, the pink came to an anchor in twenty-five fathom water, with only a hawser and a small anchor of about three hundredweight. Here she continued for near two months, and here her people, who were many of them ill of the scurvy, were soon restored to perfect health by the fresh provisions, of which they procured good store, and the excellent water with which the adjacent shore abounded. As this place may prove of the greatest importance to future navigators, who may be forced upon this coast by the westerly winds, which are almost perpetual in that part of the world, I shall, before I enter into any farther particulars of the adventures of the pink, give the best account I could collect of this port, its situation, conveniencies, and productions. {134}