Chapter XLV: Section XVIII: Our Proceedings at Quibo, with an Account of the Place

The morning after our coming to an anchor, an officer was dispatched to discover the watering-place; and, having found it, returned before noon; then we sent the long-boat for a load of water, and at the same time weighed and stood farther in with our ships. At two we came again to an anchor in twenty-two fathom, with a bottom of rough gravel intermixed with broken shells, the watering-place now bearing from us N.W. 1/2 N. only three quarters of a mile distant.

The island of Quibo is extremely convenient for wooding and watering, for the trees grow close to the high-water mark, and a large rapid stream of fresh water runs over the sandy beach into the sea; so that we were little more than two days in laying in all the wood and water we wanted. The whole island is of a very moderate height, excepting one part. It consists of a continued wood spread over the whole surface of the country, which preserves its verdure all the year round. We found there abundance of cassia, and a few lime-trees. It appeared singular to us, that, considering the climate and the shelter, we should see no other birds there than parrots, parroquets, and mackaws; of the last there were prodigious flights. Next to these birds, the animals we found in most plenty were monkeys and guanos, and these we frequently killed for food; for though there were many herds of deer upon the place, yet the difficulty of penetrating the woods prevented our coming near them, so that though we saw them often, we killed only two during our stay. Our prisoners assured us that this island abounded with tygers; we did once discover the print of a tyger's paw upon the beach, but the tygers themselves we never saw. The Spaniards, too, informed us that there was often found in the woods a most mischievous serpent, called the Flying Snake, which they said darted itself from the boughs of trees on either man or beast that came within its reach, and whose sting they believed to be inevitable death. Besides these mischievous land-animals, the sea hereabouts is infested with great numbers of alligators of an extraordinary size; and we often observed a large kind of flat fish jumping a considerable height out of the water, which we supposed to be the fish that is said frequently to destroy the pearl-divers, by clasping them in its fins as they rise from the bottom; and we were told that the divers, for their security, are now always armed with a sharp knife, which, when they are entangled, they stick into the belly of the fish, and thereby disengage themselves from its embraces.

Whilst the ship continued here at anchor, the commodore, attended by some of his officers, went in a boat to examine a bay which lay to the northward; and afterwards ranged all along the eastern side of the island. In the places where they put on shore in the course of his expedition, they generally found the soil to be extremely rich, and met with great plenty of excellent water. In particular, near the N.E. point of the island, they discovered a natural cascade, which surpassed, as they conceived, every thing of this kind, which human art or industry hath hitherto produced. It was a river of transparent water, about forty yards wide, which ran down a declivity of near a hundred and fifty yards in length. The channel it ran in was very irregular; for it was entirely formed of rock, both its sides and bottom being made up of large detached blocks; and by these the course of the water was frequently interrupted: For in some places it ran sloping with a rapid but uniform motion, while in other parts it tumbled over the ledges of rocks with a perpendicular descent. All the neighbourhood of this stream was a fine wood; and even the huge masses of rock which overhung the water, and which, by their various projections, formed the inequalities of the channel, were covered with lofty forest trees. Whilst the commodore, and those with him, were attentively viewing this place, and remarking the different blendings of the water, the rocks, and the wood, there came in sight (as it were with an intent still to heighten and animate the prospect) a prodigious flight of mackaws, which hovering over this spot, and often wheeling and playing on the wing about it, afforded a most brilliant appearance, by the glittering of the sun on their variegated plumage; so that some of the spectators cannot refrain from a kind of transport, when they recount the complicated beauties which occurred in this extraordinary scene.

In this expedition, along the eastern side of the island, though they met with no inhabitants, yet they saw many huts upon the shore, and great heaps of shells of fine mother-of-pearl scattered up and down in different places: These were the remains left by the pearl-fishers from Panama, who often frequent this place in the summer season; for the pearl oysters, which are to be met with every where in the bay of Panama, are so plenty at Quibo, that by advancing a very little way into the sea, you might stoop down and reach them from the bottom. They are usually very large, but extremely tough and unpalatable.

The oysters most productive of pearls, are those found in considerable depths; for, though what are taken up by wading are of the same species, yet the pearls found in them are rare and very small. It is said, too, that the pearl partakes in some degree of the quality of the bottom on which the oyster is found; so that if the bottom be muddy, the pearl is dark and ill-coloured.

The diving for oysters is a work performed by negro slaves, of whom the inhabitants of Panama and the neighbouring coast formerly kept great numbers, carefully trained to this business. These are not esteemed complete divers, till they are able to protract their stay under water so long, that the blood gushes out from their nose, mouth, and ears. It is the tradition of the country, that when this accident has once befallen them, they dive for the future with much greater facility than before; that no inconvenience attends it, the bleeding generally stopping of itself, and that there is no probability of their being subject to it a second time.[1]

[Footnote 1: The intelligent reader will demand more than the _tradition of the country_ to induce his belief, that this diving business is not most certainly destructive of the miserable wretches who are compelled to pursue it. The divers in the Persian gulph, where it is well known the pearl fishery is carried on by individuals on their own account, "seldom live to a great age," (says Mr Morier in the account of his Journey through Persia.) "Their bodies break out in sores, and their eyes become very weak and blood-shot. They are restricted to a certain regimen; and to food composed of dates and other light ingredients." It cannot be imagined that the negroes of Panama fare better in this hazardous occupation. But to the expression of any solicitude as to _their_ blood, it is very probable the answer might be something in the style of one of Juvenal's worthy ladies:

----ita servus homo est?
Hoc volo, sic jubeo, sit pro ratione voluntas.--P.]

The sea at this place furnished us with a dainty, in the greatest plenty and perfection, viz. the turtle. There are reckoned four species of turtle: the trunk-turtle, the loggerhead, the hawksbill, and the green turtle. The two first are rank and unwholesome; the hawksbill (which furnishes the tortoise-shell) is but indifferent food, though better than the other two; but the green turtle is esteemed, by the greatest part of those who are acquainted with its taste, as the most delicious of eatables; and that it is a most wholesome food, we were amply convinced by our own experience: For we fed on this for near four months, and consequently had it been in any degree noxious, its ill effects could not possibly have escaped us. At this island we took what quantity we pleased with great facility; for, as they are an amphibious animal, and get on shore to lay their eggs, which they generally deposit in a large hole in the sand, just above the high-water mark, covering them up, and leaving them to be hatched by the heat of the sun, we usually dispersed several of our men along the beach, whose business it was to turn them on their backs when they came to land; and the turtle being thereby prevented from getting away, we carried them off at our leisure. These proved of great service both in lengthening out our store of provision, and in heartening the whole crew with an almost constant supply of fresh and palatable food; for the turtle being large, generally weighing about 200 lb. weight each, what we took with us lasted us near a month, and by that time we met with a fresh recruit on the coast of Mexico, where we often saw them in the heat of the day floating in great numbers on the surface of the water fast asleep. Our mode of taking them was this; we sent out our boat with a man in the bow, who was a dexterous diver; when the boat came within a few yards of the turtle, the diver plunged into the water, and took care to rise close upon it; on seizing the shell near the tail, and pressing down the hinder parts, the turtle awakened, and began to strike with its claws, which motion supported both it and the diver, till the boat came up and took them in. By this management we never wanted turtle for the succeeding four months in which we continued at sea; and though we had been three months on board, without putting our foot on shore, except for the few days we stayed at the island of Quibo, and those employed in the attack of Payta, yet, in the whole seven months, from our leaving Juan Fernandez to our anchoring in the harbour of Chequetan, we buried no more in the whole squadron than two men; a most incontestable proof that the turtle on which we fed for the last four months of this term, was at least innocent, if not something more. It appears wonderful, therefore, that a species of food so very palatable and salubrious, and so much abounding in those parts, should be proscribed by the Spaniards as unwholesome, and little less than poisonous. Perhaps the strange appearance of this animal may have been the foundation of this ridiculous aversion, which is strongly rooted in all the inhabitants of that coast, and of which we had many instances in the course of this navigation. Some Indian and negro slaves we had taken in our prizes, and continued on board to assist in navigating our ships, were astonished at our feeding on turtle, and seemed fully persuaded that it would soon destroy us; but finding that none of us died, nor even suffered in our health by a continuation of this diet, they at last got so far the better of their aversion, as to be persuaded to taste it, to which the absence of all other kinds of fresh provisions might not a little contribute. However, it was with great reluctance, and very sparingly, that they began to eat it: But the relish improving upon them by degrees, they at last grew extremely fond of it, preferred it to every other kind of food, and often felicitated each other on the happy experience they had acquired, and the delicious and plentiful repasts it would be always in their power to procure, when they should return to their country. Those who are acquainted with the manner of life of these unhappy wretches, need not be told, that next to large draughts of spirituous liquors, plenty of tolerable food is the greatest joy they know; and that the discovering a method which would supply them with what quantity they pleased of a kind more luxurious to the palate than any their haughty lords and masters could indulge in, was a circumstance which they considered as the most fortunate that could befal them.

In three days time we had completed our business at this place, and were extremely impatient to put to sea, that we might arrive time enough on the coast of Mexico to intercept the Manilla galleon. The wind being contrary detained us a night, and the next day when we got into the offing, (which we did through the same channel by which we entered) we were obliged to keep hovering about the island, in hopes of getting sight of the Gloucester. It was the 9th of December, in the morning, when we put to sea, and continuing to the southward of the island, looking out for the Gloucester, we, on the 10th, at five in the afternoon, discerned a small sail to the northward of us, to which we gave chase, and coming up took her. She proved to be a bark from Panama, bound to Cheripe, an inconsiderable village on the continent, and was called the _Jesu Nazareno_. She had nothing on board but some oakum, about a ton of rock-salt, and between 30l. and 40l. in specie, most of it consisting of small silver money, intended for purchasing a cargo of provisions at Cheripe.

I cannot but observe, for the use of future cruisers, that had we been in want of provisions, we had by this capture an obvious method of supplying ourselves. For at Cheripe, whither she was bound, there is a constant store of provisions prepared for the vessels which go thither every week from Panama, the market of Panama being chiefly supplied from thence: So that by putting a few of our hands on board our prize, we might easily have seized a large store without any hazard, since Cheripe is a place of no strength.

On the 12th of December we were relieved from the perplexity we had suffered, by the separation of the Gloucester; for on that day she joined us, and informed us, that in tacking to the southward on our first arrival, she had sprung her fore-top-mast, which had disabled her from working to windward, and prevented her from joining us sooner. We now scuttled and sunk the Jesu Nazareno, the prize we took last, and having the greatest impatience to get into a proper station for the galleon, stood altogether to the westward, and notwithstanding the impediments we met with, left the island of Quibo in about nine days after our first coming in sight of it.