i8 A VOYAGE TO Book I. ! 



Kueitra Señora de la Popa bore E. N. E. two degrees 

 i]oríb, diftance two leagues ; the caílle of St. Lewis de 

 Boca Chica, E. S, E. diííance three leagues and a half, 

 and the north part of Ifla Vofaria, fouth one quarter i 

 welter] y. It muft, however^ be remembered that thefe 

 obiervations were made on the apparent rhombs of the 

 needle. 



The bay abounds with great variety of fifh both 

 Tvholefomc and agreeable to the palate ; the moil com- 

 mon are the fhad, the tafíe of which is not indeed the 

 moit delicate. The turtles are large and well tafted. 

 But it is greatly infeftcd with iharks, which are ex- 

 tremely dangerous tofeamen, as they immediately feize 

 every perfon they diicover in the water, and fometimes' 

 even venture to attack them in their boats. It is a 

 common diverñon for tiie crews of thofe ihips who itay 

 any time in the bay, to iifh for thefe rapacious mon- 

 Hers, with large hooks íañcned to a chain; though, 

 when they have caught one, there is no eating it, the 

 fleih being as it were a kind of liquid fat. Some of them 

 have been leen with four rows of teeth ; the younger 

 have generally but two. I'he voracity of this ññi is Co 

 prodigious, that it fwallows all the fiilh either thrown 

 out of iliips, or cail up by the fea. I myfelf favir in the 

 llomach of one, the entire body of a dog, the fofter 

 parts only having been digefíed. The natives affirm 

 that they have alio fcen alligators ; but this being a 

 Irefh-vvater animal, if any were ever leen in the fea, it 

 muft be fomething very extraordinary. 



In the bay the galleons from Spain wait the arrival 

 of the Peru fleet at Panama ; and on the firft advice of 

 this, fail away for Porto BcUo ; at the end of the fair 

 held at that town, they return into this bay, and, after 

 taking on board every necelfary for their voyage, put to 

 fea again as loon as poliible. During their abfcnce the 

 bay is little frequented ; the country veflels, which are 

 only a few bilandcrs and feluccas^ nay no longer than 

 is necefiary to careen and fit out for profecuting their 

 voyage. CHAP. 



