268 APPENDIX. 



This is a tolerable harbour, with good anchorage any where in 

 from three and a half to ten fathoms, over a fine sandy bottom. 



Fire-wood is the principal commodity, for which it is the best and 

 cheapest place on the whole coast. Vessels of considerable burthen 

 touch here for that article, which they carry up to CaUao, and derive 

 great profit from its sale. There are also some saltpetre works, 

 established by a Frenchman, but httle business is done in that line. 

 The town Hes in a north-easterly direction, about two miles from the 

 anchorage, but is hid by the surrounding trees, which grow to the 

 height of thirty feet. It has only one street, and cannot contain more 

 than five or six hundred inhabitants. At the anchorage there is a 

 small house, used to transact business, but no other building, which 

 is unusual, as at most of these places there is a small village near 

 the sea. Large stacks of wood are piled up on the beach, ready for 

 embarking. 



Fresh provisions, vegetables, and fruit, are plentiful and moderate ; 

 but water is not to be depended on. It is true, there is a river, and 

 for several months after March there is a plentiful supply ; but in 

 the summer season there is sometimes great drought. At the time 

 we were there, a whale-ship put in to supply her wants, and had to 

 remain several days, waiting for the water to come down from the 

 mountains. 



Legarto Head is a steep cliff, with the land faUing immediately 

 inside it and rising again to about the same height. In saUing in, 

 after having passed the head, a small, white islet will be seen in the 

 middle of the bay ; steer for it, that you may not border on the 

 southern shore, for there are many straggling rocks running off the 

 points ; and when sufficiently far to the northward to shape a mid- 

 channel course between the white islet and the point opposite it, to 

 the southward, do so, and it will lead to the anchorage. In standing 

 in, in this direction, the water shoals gradually to the beach ; but 

 the southern shore must on no account be approached nearer than a 

 quarter of a mUe. 



The best anchorage is in four fathoms, with Harbour Islet bearing 

 N. 26° W., and the ruins of a fort on a hUl in-shore E. 5° N. about 

 a quarter of a mile from the landing-place on the beach. This land- 

 ing-place does not seem to be so good a one as a steep rock on the 

 outer side of the bluff, where the sand beach commences ; but pro- 

 bably it is the most convenient for loading boats. 



The rise and faU of tide is irregular, and the time of high water 



