ISLE OF OTOQUE

While we lay here, Captain Davis’s bark went to the Otoque island.

This is another inhabited island in the Bay of Panama. It is not so big as Tabago, yet there are good plantain-walks on it, and some Negroes to look after them. These Negroes rear fowls and hogs for their masters, who live at Panama; as at the King’s Islands.

THE PACKET FROM LIMA TAKEN, OTHER ENGLISH AND FRENCH PRIVATEERS ARRIVE.

It was for some fowls or hogs that our men went thither; but by accident they met also with an express that was sent to Panama with an account that the Lima fleet was at sea. Most of the letters were thrown overboard and lost; yet we found some that said positively that the fleet was coming with all the strength that they could make in the kingdom of Peru; yet were ordered not to fight us except they were forced to it: (though afterwards they chose to fight us, having first landed their treasure at Lavelia) and that the pilots of Lima had been in consultation what course to steer to miss us.

For the satisfaction of those who may be curious to know I have here inserted the resolutions taken by the Committee of Pilots, as one of our company translated them out of the Spanish of two of the letters we took. The first letter as follows:

The letter is obscure: but the reader must make what he can of it. The directions in the other letter were to this effect:

The surest course to be observed going forth from Malabrigo is thus: you must sail west by south that you may avoid the sight of the islands of Lobos; and if you should chance to see them, by reason of the breezes, and should fall to leeward of the latitude of Malabrigo, keep on a wind as near as you can and, if necessary, go about and stand in for the shore; then tack and stand off, and be sure keep your latitude; and when you are 40 leagues to the westward of the island Lobos keep that distance till you come under the Line; and then, if the general wind follow you farther, you must sail north-north-east till you come into 3 degrees north. And if in this latitude you should find the breezes, make it your business to keep the coast, and so sail for Panama. If in your course you should come in sight of the land before you are abreast of Cape San Francisco, be sure to stretch off again out of sight of land, that you may not be discovered by the enemy.

The last letter supposes the fleet’s setting out from Malabrigo in about 8 degrees South latitude (as the other does its going immediately from Lima, 4 degrees further south) and from hence is that caution given of avoiding Lobos, as near Malabrigo, in their usual way to Panama, and hardly to be kept out of sight, as the winds are thereabouts; yet to be avoided by the Spanish fleet at this time, because, as they had twice before heard of the privateers lying at Lobos de la Mar, they knew not but at that time we might be there in expectation of them.

The 10th day we sailed from Tabago towards the King’s Islands again because our pilots told us that the king’s ships did always come this way. The 11th day we anchored at the place where we careened. Here we found Captain Harris, who had gone a second time into the river of Santa Maria, and fetched the body of men that last came overland, as the Indians had informed us: but they fell short of the number they told us of. The 29th day we sent 250 men in 15 canoes to the river Cheapo to take the town of Cheapo. The 21st day all our ships but Captain Harris, who stayed to clean his ships, followed after.

CHEPELIO, ONE OF THE SWEETEST ISLANDS IN THE WORLD.

The 22nd day we arrived at the island Chepelio.

Chepelio is the pleasantest island in the Bay of Panama: it is but seven leagues from the city of Panama and a league from the Main. This island is about a mile long and almost so broad; it is low on the north side, and rises by a small ascent towards the south side. The soil is yellow, a kind of clay. The high side is stony; the low land is planted with all sorts of delicate fruits, namely, sapadillos, avocado-pears, mammees, mammee-sapotas, star-apples, etc. The midst of the island is planted with plantain-trees, which are not very large, but the fruit extraordinary sweet.

THE SAPADILLO, AVOCADO-PEAR, MAMMEE-SAPOTA.

The sapadillo-tree is as big as a large pear-tree, the fruit much like a bergamot-pear both in colour, shape and size; but on some trees the fruit is a little longer. When it is green or first gathered, the juice is white and clammy, and it will stick like glue; then the fruit is hard, but after it has been gathered two or three days, it grows soft and juicy, and then the juice is clear as spring-water and very sweet; in the midst of the fruit are two or three black stones or seeds, about the bigness of a pumpkin-seed: this is an excellent fruit.

The avocado-pear-tree is as big as most pear-trees, and is commonly pretty high; the skin or bark black, and pretty smooth; the leaves large, of an oval shape, and the fruit as big as a large lemon. It is of a green colour till it is ripe, and then it is a little yellowish. They are seldom fit to eat till they have been gathered two or three days; then they become soft and the skin or rind will peel off. The substance in the inside is green, or a little yellowish, and as soft as butter. Within the substance there is a stone as big as a horse-plum. This fruit has no taste of itself, and therefore it is usually mixed with sugar and lime-juice and beaten together in a plate; and this is an excellent dish. The ordinary way is to eat it with a little salt and a roasted plantain; and thus a man that’s hungry may make a good meal of it. It is very wholesome eaten any way. It is reported that this fruit provokes to lust, and therefore is said to be much esteemed by the Spaniards: and I do believe they are much esteemed by them, for I have met with plenty of them in many places in the North Seas where the Spaniards are settled, as in the Bay of Campeachy, on the coast of Cartagena, and the coast of Caracas; and there are some in Jamaica, which were planted by the Spaniards when they possessed that island.

WILD MAMMEE AND STAR-APPLE.

The mammee-sapota-tree is different from the mammee described at the island Tabago in this chapter. It is not so big or so tall, neither is the fruit so big or so round. The rind of the fruit is thin and brittle; the inside is a deep red, and it has a rough flat long stone. This is accounted the principal fruit of the West Indies. It is very pleasant and wholesome. I have not seen any of these on Jamaica but in many places in the West Indies among the Spaniards. There is another sort of mammee-tree which is called the wild mammee: this bears a fruit which is of no value, but the tree is straight, tall, and very tough, and therefore principally used for making masts.

The star-apple-tree grows much like the quince-tree, but much bigger. It is full of leaves, and the leaf is broad of an oval shape, and of a very dark green colour. The fruit is as big as a large apple, which is commonly so covered with leaves that a man can hardly see it. They say this is a good fruit; I did never taste any but have seen both of the trees and fruit in many places on the Main, on the north side of the continent, and in Jamaica. When the Spaniards possessed that island they planted this and other sorts of fruit, as the sapadillo, avocado-pear, and the like; and of these fruits there are still in Jamaica in those plantations that were first settled by the Spaniards, as at the Angels, at 7-mile Walk, and 16-mile Walk. There I have seen these trees which were planted by the Spaniards, but I did never see any improvement made by the English, who seem in that little curious. The road for ships is on the north side, where there is good anchoring half a mile from the shore. There is a well close by the sea on the north side, and formerly there were three or four houses close by it, but now they are destroyed. This island stands right against the mouth of the river Cheapo.

CHEAPO RIVER AND TOWN.

The river Cheapo springs out of the mountains near the north side of the country and, it being penned up on the south side by other mountains, bends its course to the westward between both till, finding a passage on the south-west, it makes a kind of a half circle; and, being swelled to a considerable bigness, it runs with a slow motion into the sea seven leagues from Panama. This river is very deep, and about a quarter of a mile broad: but the mouth of it is choked up with sands, so that no ships can enter, but barks may. There is a small Spanish town of the same name within six leagues of the sea: it stands on the left hand going from the sea. This is it which I said Captain La Sound attempted. The land about it is champion, with many small hills clothed with woods; but the biggest part of the country is savannah. On the south side of the river it is all woodland for many leagues together.

It was to this town that our 250 men were sent. The 24th day they returned out of the river, having taken the town without any opposition: but they found nothing in it. By the way going thither they took a canoe, but most of the men escaped ashore upon one of the King’s Islands: she was sent out well appointed with armed men to watch our motion.

The 25th day Captain Harris came to us, having cleaned his ship. The 26th day we went again toward Tabago; our fleet now, upon Captain Harris joining us again, consisted of ten sail. We arrived at Tabago the 28th day: there our prisoners were examined concerning the strength of Panama; for now we thought ourselves strong enough for such an enterprise, being near 1000 men. Out of these, on occasion, we could have landed 900: but our prisoners gave us small encouragement to it, for they assured us that all the strength of the country was there, and that many men were come from Portobello, besides its own inhabitants, who of themselves were more in number than we. These reasons, together with the strength of the place (which has a high wall) deterred us from attempting it. While we lay there at Tabago some of our men burnt the town on the island.

THE STRENGTH OF THE SPANISH FLEET, AND OF THE PRIVATEERS, AND THE ENGAGEMENT BETWEEN THEM.

On May 4, we sailed hence again bound for the King’s Islands.

There we continued cruising from one end of these islands to the other: till on the 22nd day, Captain Davis and Captain Gronet went to Pacheca, leaving the rest of the fleet at anchor at St. Paul’s Island. From Pacheca we sent two canoes to the island Chepelio, in hopes to get a prisoner there.

The 25th day our canoes returned from Chepelio with three prisoners which they took there: they were seamen belonging to Panama, who said that provision was so scarce and dear there that the poor were almost starved, being hindered by us from those common and daily supplies of plantains, which they did formerly enjoy from the islands; especially from those two of Chepelio and Tabago that the president of Panama had strictly ordered, that none should adventure to any of the islands for plantains: but necessity had obliged them to trespass against the president’s order. They farther reported that the fleet from Lima was expected every day; for it was generally talked that they were come from Lima: and that the report at Panama was that King Charles II of England was dead, and that the Duke of York was crowned King. The 27th day Captain Swan and Captain Townley also came to Pacheca, where we lay, but Captain Swan’s bark was gone in among the King’s Islands for plantains. The island Pacheca, as I have before related, is the northermost of the King’s Islands. It is a small low island about a league round. On the south side of it there are two or three small islands, neither of them half a mile round. Between Pacheca and these islands is a small channel not above six or seven paces wide. and about a mile long. Through this Captain Townley made a bold run, being pressed hard by the Spaniards in the fight I am going to speak of, though he was ignorant whether there was a sufficient depth of water or not. On the east side of this channel all our fleet lay waiting for the Lima fleet, which we were in hopes would come this way.

The 28th day we had a very wet morning, for the rains were come in, as they do usually in May, or June, sooner or later; so that May is here a very uncertain month. Hitherto, till within a few days, we had good fair weather and the wind at north-north-east, but now the weather was altered and the wind at south-south-west.

However about 11am it cleared up, and we saw the Spanish fleet about 3 leagues west-north-west from the island Pacheca, standing close on a wind to the eastward; but they could not fetch the island by a league.

We were riding a league south-east from the island between it and the Main; only Captain Gronet was about a mile to the northward of us near the island: he weighed so soon as they came in sight and stood over for the Main; and we lay still, expecting when he would tack and come to us: but he took care to keep himself out of harm’s way.

Captain Swan and Townley came aboard of Captain Davis to order how to engage the enemy, who we saw came purposely to fight us, they were 14 vessels, besides periagos rowing with 12 and 14 oars apiece.

• 6 of them were ships of good force:
  • The admiral had 48 guns, 450 men
  • The vice-admiral had 40 guns, 400 men
  • The rear-admiral had 36 guns, 360 men
  • 1 ship of 24 guns, 300 men
  • 1 ship of 18 guns, 250 men
  • 1 ship of 8 guns, 200 men
• 2 large fire-ships
• 6 ships only with small arms having 800 men on board them all; besides 2 or 3 hundred men in periagos.

This account of their strength we had afterwards from Captain Knight who, being to the windward on the coast of Peru, took prisoners, of whom he had this information, being what they brought from Lima.

Besides these men, they had also some hundreds of Old Spain men that came from Portobello, and met them at Lavelia, from whence they now came: and their strength of men from Lima was 3000 men, being all the strength they could make in that kingdom; and for greater security they had first landed their treasure at Lavelia.

Our fleet consisted of 10 vessels:

• Captain Davis had 36 guns, 156 men, mostly English
• Captain Swan had 16 guns, 140 men, all English
• The rest of our ships only had small arms.
  • Captain Townley had 110 men, all English.
  • Captain Gronet 308 men, all French.
  • Captain Harris had 100 men, mostly English.
  • Captain Branly 36 men, some English, some French
  • Davis’s tender had 8 men
  • Swan’s tender had 8 men
  • Townley’s bark had 80 men
  • A small bark of 30 tons acted as a fire-ship, with a canoe’s crew in her.

We had in all 960 men.

But Captain Gronet came not to us till all was over, yet we were not discouraged at it, but resolved to fight them, for, being to windward of the enemy, we had it at our choice whether we would fight or not.

We started the attack at 3pm using the wind against our enemies, who kept close on a wind to come to us. But night came on without anything beside the exchanging of a few shot on each side.

When it grew dark the Spanish admiral put out a light as a signal for his fleet to come to an anchor.

We saw the light in the admiral’s top, which continued about half an hour, and then it was taken down. In a short time after we saw the light again and, being to windward, we kept under sail, supposing the light had been in the admiral’s top.

but as it proved this was only a stratagem of theirs; for this light was put out the second time at one of their bark’s topmast-head, and then she was sent to leeward; which deceived us: for we thought still the light was in the admiral’s top, and by that means thought ourselves to windward of them.

In the morning therefore, contrary to our expectation, we found they had got the weather-gage of us, and were coming upon us with full sail; so we ran for it and, after a running fight all day, and having taken a turn almost round the Bay of Panama, we came to an anchor again at the isle of Pacheca, in the very same place from whence we set out in the morning.

Thus ended this day’s work, and with it all that we had been projecting for five or six months; when, instead of making ourselves masters of the Spanish fleet and treasure, we were glad to escape them; and owed that too, in a great measure, to their want of courage to pursue their advantage.

The 30th day in the morning when we looked out we saw the Spanish fleet all together 3 leagues to leeward of us at an anchor. It was but little wind till 10 o’clock, and then sprung up a small breeze at south, and the Spanish fleet went away to Panama.

What loss they had I know not; we lost but one man: and, having held a consult, we resolved to go to the keys of Quibo or Cobaya, to seek Captain Harris, who was forced away from us in the fight; that being the place appointed for our rendezvous upon any such accident.

As for Gronet, he said his men would not suffer him to join us in the fight: but we were not satisfied with that excuse; so we suffered him to go with us to the isles of Quibo, and there cashiered our cowardly companion. Some were for taking from him the ship which we had given him: but at length he was suffered to keep it with his men, and we sent them away in it to some other place.