A.D. THE ENGLISH VOYAGES 



1565- 



the hawse, and loose both ancker and cable to save 



her selfe. 



The Cape of ^ Thus the 17. of June, we departed and on the 20. wee 



5. Anthony in fg^ ^\^ ^\^^ West end of Cuba, called Cape S. Antony, 



^^^^^' where for the space of three dayes wee doubled along, till 



wee came beyond the shoales, which are 20. leagues 



beyond S. Anthony. And the ordinary Brise taking us, 



which is the Northeast winde, put us the 24. from the 



shoare, and therefore we went to the Northwest to fetch 



Florida. wind, and also to the coast of Florida to have the helpe 



of the current, which was judged to have set to the 



Eastward: so the 29. wee found our selves in 27. 



degrees, and in the soundings of Florida, where we kept 



our selves the space of foure dayes, sailing along the 



coast as neere as we could, in tenne or twelve fadome 



^ water, having all the while no sight of land. 



[III. 515.] The iift of July we had sight of certeine Islands of 



The Isles of gand, called the Tortugas (which is lowe land) where 



GrelTstore of ^^ captaine went in with his pinnesse, and found such 



birds. a number of birds, that in halfe an houre he laded her 



with them ; and if they had beene ten boats more, they 



might have done the like. These Islands beare the name 



of Tortoises, because of the number of them, which 



there do breed, whose nature is to live both in the water 



and upon land also, but breed onely upon the shore, 



in making a great pit wherein they lay egges, to the 



number of three or foure hundred, and covering them 



with sand, they are hatched by the heat of the Sunne; 



and by this meanes commeth the great increase. Of 



these we tooke very great ones, which have both backe 



and belly all of bone, of the thicknes of an inch : the fish 



whereof we proved, eating much like veale ; and finding 



a number of egges in them, tasted also of them, but they 



did eat very sweetly. Heere wee ankered sixe houres, 



and then a faire gale of winde springing, we weyed anker, 



and made saile toward Cuba, whither we came the sixt 



A hill called day, and weathered as farre as the Table, being a hill 



the Table. gQ called, because of the forme thereof: here we lay 



46 



