136 PROGRESS TO THE MINES. 



Then we entered upon the subject of hemp, which the colonel told me he 

 never could raise here from foreign seed, but at last sowed the seed of wild 

 hemp, (which is very common in the upper parts of the country) and that 

 came up very thick. That he sent about five hundred pounds of it to Eng- 

 land, and that the commissioners of the navy, after a full trial of it, reported 

 to the lords of the admiralty, that it was equal in goodness to the best that 

 comes from Riga. I told him if our hemp were never so gooi> it would not 

 be worth the making here, even though they should continue the bounty. 

 And my reason was, because labour is not more than two pence a day in 

 the east country where they produce hemp, and here we cannot compute it 

 at less than ten pence, which being five times as much as their labour, and 

 considering besides, that our freight is three times as dear as theirs, the price 

 that will make them rich will ruin us, as I have found by woful experience. 

 Besides, if the king, who must have the refusal, buys our hemp, the navy is 

 so long in paying both the price and the bounty, that we who live from hand 

 to mouth cannot afford to vv^ait so long for it. And then our good friends, 

 the merchants, load it with so many charges, that they run away with great 

 part of the profit themselves. Just like the bald eagle, which afler the fish- 

 ing hawk has been at great pains to catch a fish, pounces upon and takes it 

 from him. Our conversation was interrupted by a summons to supper, for 

 the ladles, to show their pov/er, had by this time brought us tamely to go to 

 bed with our bellies full, thougli v/e both at first declared positively against 

 it. So very pliable a thing is frail man, when women have the bending of 

 him. 



October 1st. Our ladies overslept themselves this morning, so that we did 

 not break our fast till ten. We drank tea made of the leaves of ginseng, 

 which has the virtues of the root in a 'veaker degree, and is not disagreeable. 

 So soon as we could force our inclinations to quit the ladies, we took a turn 

 on the terrace walk, and discoursed upon quite a new subject. The colonel 

 explained to me the difference betwixt the galleons and the flota, which very 

 few people know. The galleons, it seems, are the ships which bring the trea- 

 sure and other rich merchandise to Carthagena from Portobel, to which 

 place it is brought over land, from Panama and Peru. And the flota is the 

 squadr6n that brings the treasure, &c., from Mexico and New Spain, which 

 make up at La Vera Cruz. Both these squadrons rendezvous at the Ha- 

 vanna, from hence they shoot the gulf of Florida, in their return to Old 

 Spain. That this important port of the Havanna is very poorly fortified, 

 and worse garrisoned and provided, for which reason it may be easily taken. 

 Besides, both the galleons and flota, being confined to sail through the gulf, 

 might be mtercepted by our stationing a squadron of men of war at the most 

 convenient of the Bahama islands. And that those islands are of vast con- 

 sequence for that purpose. He told me also that the azogue ships are they 

 that carry quicksilver to Portobello and La Vera Cruz, to refine the silver, 

 and that, in Spanish, azogue signifies quicksilver. Then my friend unrid- 

 dled to me the great mystery, why we have endured all the late insolences 

 of the Spaniards so tamely. The asiento contract, and the liberty of send- 

 ing a ship every year to the Spanish West Indies, make it very necessary 

 for the South Sea Company to have effects of great value in that part of the 

 world. Now these being always in the power of the Spaniards, make the 

 directors of that company very fearful of a breach, and consequently very 

 generous in their offers to the ministry to prevent it. For fear these worthy 

 gentlemen should suffer, the English squadron, under Admiral Hosier, lay 

 idle at the Bastimentos, till the ships' bottoms were eaten out by the worm, and 

 the officers and men, to the number of five thousand, died like rotten sheep, 

 without being suffered, by the strictest orders, to strike one stroke, though 



