168 NATURAL HISTOEY OF 



it an cast Peece, which Peeces were buryed in the ground ; the 

 Carriages were standing in their places vnbnried ; wee digged for 

 them, and had them all. They had contrived their Citie very well, 

 and seated it in the best place of the Straits for Wood and Water. 

 They had builded np their Churches by themselves. They had 

 Lawes very severe among themselves, for they had erected a Gibbet, 

 whereon they had done execution vpon some of their companie. It 

 seemed vnto us that their whole living for a great space was altogether 

 upon Huskies and Lympits ; for there was not anything else to be 

 had, except some Deere which came out of the Mountaines downe to 

 the fresh Kivers to drinke. These Spaniards which were there, were 

 only come to fortifie the Straits, to the end that no other Nation 

 should have passed through into the South Sea, saving only their 

 owne ; but as it appeared it was not Gods will so to have it. For 

 during the time that they were there, which was two yeares at the 

 least, they could never have anything to growe, or in anywise prosper. 

 And on the other side, the Indians oftentimes preyed upon them, 

 vntill their Victuals grew so short (their store being spent which they 

 had brought with them out of Spaine, and having no meanes to renew 

 the same), that they died like Dogges in their Houses, and in their 

 Clothes, wherein we found them still at our comming, vntill that in 

 the end the Towne being wonderfully taynted with the smell and the 

 savour of the dead people, the rest which remayned alive were driven 

 to burie such things as they had there in their Towne either for 

 provision or for furniture, and so to forsake the Towne, and to goe 

 along the Sea-side, and seek their Victuals, to preserve them from 

 starving, taking nothing with them, but every man his Harquebuze 

 and his furniture that was able to carry it (for some were not able to 

 carry them for weaknesse), and so lived for the space of a yeere or 

 more, with Eootes, Leaves, and sometimes a Fowle which they might 

 kill with their Peece. To conclude, they were determined to have 

 travelled towards the Kiver of Plate, only three and twentie persons 

 being left alive, whereof two were Women, which were the remainder 

 of foure hundred." 



The tragical celebrity of Port Famine was further increased 

 at a mucli later period by the death of Captain Stokes, who, 

 associated with Captain King in the survey of the Strait at 

 the close of the first quarter of the present century, here put 



