68 Porter's Voyage 



Sit a short distance ; having made all the repairs which our sails, 

 rigging, boats, &c., required, made a new main top-sail, a con- 

 siderable quantity of cordage from old rope, and supplied our- 

 -selves with such articles as we required from the prizes, as well as 

 broken up our hold, cleansed and re-stowed it, scrubbed our 

 bottom, on which considerable quantities of grass and barnacles 

 had collected, and supplied ourselves abundantly with such re- 

 freshments as the island aiforded^ we, on the morning of the 20th 

 August, got under weigh. 



While we lay at the bay in James' Island, (which I called 

 Cowan's Bay,) we put our goats on shore to graze, keeping a 

 person to attend them through the day and give them water. As 

 they were all very tame, and kept about the landing-place^ we 

 every night left them on shore. There was one young male, and 

 three females, one of which was of the Welch breed, and was 

 with young by a Peruvian ram with five horns, which we had 

 taken in one of our prizes ; the rest were of the Spanish breed. 

 The sheep were also left on shore with them ; but one morning, 

 after they had been there several days and nights, the person who 

 attended them went on shore as usual, to give them their water ; 

 but no goats were to be found ; they had all, as with one accord, 

 disappeared. Several persons were sent in different directions, 

 for two or three days, to search for them, but without success. 

 They undoubtedly took to the mountains in the interior, where 

 unerring instinct led them to the springs or reservoirs from whence 

 the tortoises obtain iheir supply. Owing to this circumstance, 

 future navigators may perhaps obtain here an abundant supply of 

 goat's meat ; for unmolested as they will be in the interior of this 

 island, to which they will no doubt confine themselves on account 

 of the water, it is probable their increase will be very rapid. Per- 

 haps nature, whose ways are mysterious, has embraced this first 

 opportunity of stocking this island with a race of animals, who 

 are, from their nature, almost as well enabled to withstand the 

 want of water as the tortoises with which it now abounds ; and 

 possibly she has so ordained it, that the breed which shall be pro- 

 duced between the Welch goat and the Peruvian ram shall be 

 better adapted to the climate than any other. 



I shall leave others to account for the manner in which all 

 those islands obtained their supply of tortoises and guanas, and 

 other animals of the reptile kind ; it is not my business even to 

 conjecture as to the cause. I shall merely state, that those islands 

 have every appearance of being newly created, and that those 

 perhaps are the only part of the animal creation that could sub- 

 sist on them, Charles' and James' being the only ones where I 

 have yet been enabled to find, or been led to believe could be 

 found, sufficient moisture even for goats. Time, no doubt, will 



