66 



Porter's Voyage 



northwest by north ; Cape Marshall, on Albemarle, northwest ; 

 ^nd the west point of the bay southwest by south. 



We here, after painting our ships, repairing our sails and 

 boats, setting up our rigging, and doing various other jobs 

 which could not be done conveniently at sea, began to lay in our 

 stock of tortoises, the grand object for which every vessel anchors 

 at the Gallipagos Islands. Four boats were dispatched every 

 morning for this purpose, and returned at night, bringing with 

 them from twenty to thirty each, averaging about sixty pounds. 

 In four days we had as many on board as would weigh about 

 fourteen tons, which was as much as we could conveniently stow. 

 They were piled up on the quarter-deck for a few days, with an 

 awning spread over to shield them from the sun, which renders 

 them very restless, in order that they might have time to dis- 

 charge the contents o* their stomachs; after which they were 

 stowed away below, as you would stow any other provisions, and 

 used as occasion required. No description of stock is so conve- 

 nient for ships to take to sea as the tortoises of those islands. 

 They require no provisions or water for a year, nor is any farther 

 attention to them necessary, than that their shells should be pre- 

 served unbroken. 



The shells of those of James's Island are sometimes remarka- 

 bly thin and easily broken, but more particularly so as they be- 

 come advanced in age ; when, whether owing to the injuries they 

 receive from their repeated falls in ascending and descending the 

 mountains, or from injuries received otherwise, or from the course 

 of nature, their shells become very rough, and peal off in large 

 scales, which renders them very thin and easily broken. Those 

 of James' Island appear to be a species entirely distinct from 

 those of Hood's and Charles^ Islands. The form of the shell of 

 the latter is elongated, turning up forward, in the manner of a 

 Spanish saddle, of a brown colour, and of considerable thickness. 

 They are very disagreeable to the sight, but far superior to those 

 of James' Island in point of fatness, and their livers are consi- 

 dered the greatest delicacy. Those of James"* Island are round, 

 plump, and black as ebony, some of them handsome to the eye ; 

 but their liver is black, hard when cooked, and the flesh altoge- 

 ther not so highly esteemed as the others. 



The most of those we took on board were found near a bay 

 on the northeast part of the island, about eighteen miles from 

 the ship. Among the whole only three were male, which may be 

 easily known by their great size, and from the length of their 

 tails, which are much longer than those of the females. As the 

 females were found in low sandy bottoms, and all without excep- 

 tion were full of eggs, of which generally from ten to fourteen 

 were hard, it is presumable that they came down from the moun- 



