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ground, we could find nothing but brackifh wa- 

 ter, which we found impoffibie to drink. I be- 

 thought myfelf of making a hole of a fmall depth 

 on the very brink of the fea, and in the fand; it 

 was prefently filled with water, as fweet and clear 

 as if it had been drawn from the moft limpid 

 ftream ; but after I had drawn up one quart of it, 

 the fpring dried up entirely, from whence I con- 

 cluded it was rain water that had been collected in 

 this fpot, having found the bottom very hard* and 

 I imagine that to be very often the cafe. 



After we had got a-head of the ifland, we ad- 

 vanced under fail till ten o'clock. Then the wind 

 fell, but the tide, which began to ebb, fupplied its 

 place, fo that we continued to make way all the 

 night. This is the firft time I obferved any regular 

 tides in the Gulf of Mexico, and our two Spani- 

 ards told us that from this place to Penfacola, the 

 fiiix is twelve hours, and the reflux the fame. On 

 the morrow the twenty fixth, a contrary wind kept 

 us till evening in an ifland indifferently well wood- 

 ed, ten or twelve leagues long, and where we kil- 

 led as many larks and wood-cocks as we could de- 

 fire : we alfo faw a great number of rattle-fnakes. 

 Our guides called it the Ifland of Dogs ; and from 

 the firft part of it we came to, they reckoned ten 

 leagues to St. Mark and fifteen to St. Jofeph ; but 

 they were certainly deceived with refpe£t to this 

 laft article, there being at leaft twenty, and thefe 

 very long. 



On the twenty feventh at eleven at night, we (truck 

 upon a bank of oifters, which were about the fize 

 of the crown of my hat, and we were about an 

 hour in getting clear of it. We went to pafs the 

 reft of the night in a country houfe belonging to a 



cap- 



