Near the boundary of the provinces of Vera Cruz and Merida or Yucatan, in the lake or gulf of Terminos, are the islands of _Triste_ and _Port Royal_; the former is on the south-west side of the gulf and west of Port Royal, from which it is separated by a narrow channel only. Triste, or as it is sometimes written Trieste, is in north latitude, 18° 20ʹ, and is eighteen miles in circumference, containing valuable mahogany and logwood, cut annually by the British. Port Royal is smaller, and is also called _Puerto Escondido_, having a small harbour, in north latitude 18° 22ʹ, west longitude 92° 86ʹ. In the Intendancy of Merida, the western side has several small islands off its shores; of these the dangerous rocks called the Alacranes, are the chief, the others, such as Arenas, Sisal, &c. are chiefly sand banks above water, most of which are well laid down in the charts of the Mexican gulf. To the north of Merida, and between Cape Catoche and False Cape, are a group of islands, of which _Las Mugeres_, or Womenʼs isle, is the most easterly; this isle is called Mohair Key in some maps, owing to the pronunciation of the Spanish word for women having a similar sound. These islands were explored by the fleet under Cortez, in a storm which drove one of his vessels into their harbours. On the east of Yucatan is the Island of _Cozumel_, or _Cosumel_ forty miles long, and from three to ten in breadth, in 19° 40ʹ north-latitude, 85° 51ʹ west longitude; which is very fertile, and abounds in cattle and fowls. It is inhabited by an Indian tribe, and was first explored by Juan de Grijalva, on the thirteenth of April 1518, when he gave it the name of Santa Cruz, because it was discovered on the day of the invention of the Holy Cross. On landing here the natives fled to the woods, but they took two old men in a field of maize, here they found an Indian woman of Jamaica, who had been driven on the coast with her husband and nine men in a storm; the natives had sacrificed all her party to their gods, and she gladly placed herself under the protection of the Spaniards.