4 TRAVELS through 



at the Havannah? he ought to have paid a 

 very ferious attention to give fuch advices. 



We failed from Bdife the tenth of Auguft 

 1762; and as we intended to avoid Cuba^ wc 

 went towards the ifles of Tortugas or of Tur- 

 tles*^ we had a fair wind which blew very hard ; 

 but our pilot being little acquained with thefe 

 fhores, mifled the entrance of the channel of 

 Bahama^ in the duflc, and failed into the bay 

 which the cape of Florida forms, having taken 

 the heio;ht, and found the latitude the fame 

 on this fide the cape as it ought to be on the 

 other, he believed he had doubled it ; and 

 we fhould have been loft, if M. de Belle-IJle^ who 

 in forty-five years had acquired a perfed know- 

 ledge of the coafts of North America^ and had 

 fome doubts about the pilot's abilities, had not 

 w^atched to avoid the danger. In reality, this 

 experienced major feeing in the morning that 

 the colour of the water was changed, went to 

 wake the captain, w^ho thought he was in the 

 open fea and (lept with fecurity. Having taken 

 the foundings he found his miftake, and was 

 much furprXed to find only about five fathoms 



of 



'■» They have got this name, becaufe the turtles hatch 

 their eggs in the la'iids thereon ; they arc all very low, and 

 not viilble till you come very near them. 



