SIR JOHN HAWKINS a.d. 



'565. 

 finders thereof Hispaniola, is so great quantitie of 



cattell, and such increase therof, that notwithstanding 



the daily killing of them for their hides, it is not possible 



to asswage the number of them, but they are devoured 



by wilde dogs, whose number is such by suffering them ^^^^^ 



first to range the woods and mountaines, that they eate ^^^^^^^ "/ 



and destroy 60000. a yeere, and yet small lacke found ^ ^^* 



of them. And no marveile, for the said yland is almost 



as bigge as all England, and being the first place that 



was founde of all the Indies, and of long time inhabited 



before the rest, it ought therefore of reason to be most 



populous : and to this houre the Viceroy and counsel! 



royall abideth there as in the chiefest place of all the 



Indies, to prescribe orders to the rest for the kings 



behalfe, yet have they but one Citie and 13. villages in 



all the same yland, whereby the spoile of them in respect 



of the increase is nothing. 



The 15. of the foresaid moneth wee departed from 

 Curasao, being not a little to the rejoycing of our 

 Captaine and us, that wee had there ended our trafique : 

 but notwithstanding our sweete meate, wee had sower 

 sauce, for by reason of our riding so open at sea, what 

 with blastes whereby our anckers being a ground, three 

 at once came home, and also with contrary windes 

 blowing, whereby for feare of the shore we were faine 

 to hale off to have anker- hold, sometimes a whole day 

 and a night we turned up and downe ; and this happened 

 not once, but halfe a dozen times in the space of our 

 being there. 



The 16. wee passed by an yland called Aruba, and Aruha. 

 the 17. at night anckered sixe houres at the West ende 

 of Cabo de la vela, and in the morning being the 18. 

 weighed againe, keeping our course, in the which time 

 the Captaine sailing by the shore in the pinnesse, 

 came to the Rancheria, a place where the Spaniards use to La Rancheria. 

 fish for pearles, and there spoke with a Spaniard, who 

 tolde him how far off he was from Rio de la Hacha, which Rio de la 

 because he would not overshoot, he ankered that night ^^^^'^• 



37 



