ISLAND OF CONTOY. 



357 



we might do so ; but our captain told us that even 

 with our draught of water we could not approach 

 nearer than a league ; that a long muddy flat inter- 

 vened ; and that we could not reach the shore by 

 wading. He said, too, what we had heard from oth- 

 ers, and believed to be the case, that the church was 

 certainly Spanish, and stood among the ruins of a 

 Spanish town destroyed by the bucaniers, or, in his 

 own words, by the English pirates. The wind was 

 ahead, but we could make a good stretch from the 

 coast, and, anxious to lose no advantage, we made 

 sail for the island of Contoy. It was dark when we 

 came to anchor, and we were ah-eady distressed for 

 water. Our casks were impregnated with the fla- 

 vour of agua ardiente, and the water was sickening. 

 Through the darkness we saw the outline of a des- 

 olate rancho. Our men went ashore, and, moving 

 round it with torches, made a fine piratical appear- 

 ance ; but they found no water. 



Before daylight we were roused by the screaming 

 of sea-birds ; in the gray of the morning, the island 

 seemed covered with a moving canopy, and the air 

 was noisy with their clamour ; but, unfortunately for 

 Doctor Cabot, we had a fine breeze, and he had no 

 opportunity of getting at their nests. The coast 

 was wild and rugged, indented occasionally by small 

 picturesque bays. Below the point of the island 

 Doctor Cabot shot two pelicans, and getting the 

 canoa about to take them on board was like ma- 

 noeuvring a seventy-four gun-ship. 



