generally kept by a sergeant’s, but sometimes a corporal’s guard, which is weekly relieved from the garrison at Baccalar, from which, thro’ the woods, it is distant only about five Spanish leagues, and from hence notice is given of whatever comes into the river to the commandant; this is called the lower look out. I must not here omit observing, how much it is the interest of the baymen (and which indeed they never fail to avail themselves of) to be on good terms with the guards of these outposts; this my friend the merchant did, by making the sergeant and his guard very drunk, that he not only told him where they had discovered a good spot of logwood, but am persuaded, had he discovered a mine as rich as Potosi, he would have made no scruple of informing him of it; the officer of these commands, which is generally a sergeant, is besides this scene of jollitry, often complimented with a piece of strip’d cotton, or some such light stuff, to make him a shirt, waistcoat or trowsers, or perhaps a pair of European shoes for his wife. These little presents the commandant of Baccalar is not totally insensible of, and is often mean enough to be very jealous of, as it in a manner affects him, who is both commander and clothier; this Mr. Maud told me was one of the principal reasons of the late disturbances in the bay; the commandant of Baccalar being offended at this generosity of the English, hurting his priviledge so much, as to make him persuade the late governor of the province, that it had never been customary for the English to cut wood in the Rio Hondo, and in doing which they had gone beyond the limits of the treaty of Paris. Tho’ the baymen consider their right by that treaty, from Cape Catouch to Cape Honduras; this was redressed by virtue of an order from the court of Spain, in favour of the cutters, in consequence of a remonstrance of our ministry in 1764, the duplicate of which order, together with Sir William’s letter, I was encharged with. In sailing from this to the next look out, you open a fine Lagoon on the south side of the river, about a league and a half from the lower look out; its called by the baymen the four mile Lagoon, but by the Spaniards the Zaho Mal; its of an oval form, about half a league in its shortest breadth, and pretty deep; in this Lagoon our companion, the master of the merchantman, lost his long boat, oversetting in a squall, in turning out of the Lagoon, to get into the river, where we had, to avoid the insects, musquetoes, &c. anchored for the night; the river here abouts is so narrow, as scarce to afford room for the boom of the mainsail to gibe; they have a custom when they stop in the river on any occasion, to bush the Flatt, as they term it, which is no more than to luff round and drive her bowsprit and entangle it in the bush, which sides the Flatt, the stream being very weak.