The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of the English Nation — Volume 14: America, Part IIIHakluyt, Richard
History
The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of the English Nation — Volume 14: America, Part III
Hakluyt, Richard
Discoveries in geography -- English; Voyages and travels
of whom wee receiued great courtesie and much good cheere. After the
which 20. dayes being past, in the which we had seene the countrey, the
people, and the disposition thereof, wee departed from thence, and
passed to the next Ile of the Canaries 18. leagues off; called
Teneriffe, and being come on land, went vp to the citie called La
Laguna, where we remained 7. moneths, attending the comming of the whole
fleete, which in the ende came, and there hauing taken that which they
had neede of, wee shipped our selues in a ship of Cadiz, being one of
the saide fleete, which was belonging to an Englishman maried in the
citie of Cadiz in Spaine, whose name was Iohn Sweeting, and there came
in the sayd ship for captain also an Englishman maried in Cadiz, and
sonne in law to the sayde Iohn Sweeting, whose name was Leonard Chilton:
there came also in the said ship another Englishman which had beene a
marchant of the citie of Exeter, one of 50. yeeres or thereabout, whose
name was Ralph Sarre. So that we departed from the sayd Ilands in the
moneth of October the foresayd yeere, 8. ships in our companie, and so
directed our course towards the bay of Mexico, and by the way towardes
the Iland of S. Domingo, otherwise called Hispaniola. So that within 32.
dayes after we departed from the Iles of Canaries wee arriued with our
ship at the port of S. Domingo, and went in ouer the barre where our
ship knocked her keele at her entrie: and there our ship rid before the
towne, where wee went on land, and refreshed our selues 16. dayes, where
we found no bread made of wheat, but biscuit brought out of Spaine, and
out of the bay of Mexico: for the countrey it selfe doeth yeelde no
kinde of bread to make graine withall. But the bread they make there, is
certaine cakes made of rootes called Cassaui, which is something
substantiall, but it hath but an vnsauorie taste in the eating thereof.
Flesh of beefe and mutton they haue great store: for there are men that
haue 10000. head of cattell, of oxen, bulles and kine, which they doe
keepe onely for the hides; for the quantitie of flesh is so great, that
they are not able to spend the hundreth part. Hogs flesh is there good
store, very sweete and sauorie, and so holesome, that they giue it to
sick folkes to eat in stead of hennes and capons, although they haue
good store of poultrie of that sort, as also of Guinycocks and
Guinyhens. At the time of our being there, the citie of S. Domingo was
not of aboue 500. housholds of Spaniards, but of the Indians dwelling in
the suburbs there were more. The countrey is most part of the yere very
hot, and very ful of a kind of flies or gnats with long bils, which do
pricke and molest the people very much in the night when they are
asleepe, in pricking their faces and hands, and other parts of their
bodies that lie vncouered, and make them to swel wonderfully. [Sidenote:
Many of our men died of these wormes at the taking of Puertorico.] Also
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