362 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



ed, and for the present directed him to run her up 

 close ; when, standing upon the bow, and leaping 

 with our setting poles, we landed upon the desolate 

 island of Cozumel. 



Above the hue of the shore was a fine table of 

 land, on which were several huts, built of poles, and 

 thatched with palm leaves. One was large and 

 commodious, divided into apartments, and contained 

 rude benches and tables, as if prepared for our im- 

 mediate occupation. Back of the house was an en- 

 closure for a garden, overgrown, but with any quantity 

 of tomatoes, ripe, wasting, and begging to be put into 

 a turtle soup then in preparation on board the canoa. 



This rancho was established by the pirate Molas, 

 who, escaping from death in Merida, made his way 

 hither. He succeeded in getting to him his wife 

 and children and a few Indians, and for several 

 years nothing was heard of him. In the mean 

 time he laid the keel of a sloop, finished it with his 

 own hands, carried it to BeUze, and sold it ; new 

 subjects of excitement grew up, and, being in a meas- 

 ure forgotten, he again ventured to the mainland, 

 and left the island to its solitude. 



After him Don Vicente Albino undertook to es- 

 tablish upon it a rancho for the cultivation of cotton, 

 which was broken up by the mutiny of his Indians 

 and an attempt to murder him. When we met him 

 at Yalahao he had just returned from his last visit, 

 carrying away his property, and leaving five dogs 

 tenants of the island. After him came a stranger 



