PORTER. S J 0U KNAL • 



189 



of iine, and on the strictest examination could find no fresh 

 water, although I went on shore at every place where it 

 was possible for a boat to land. I can say with safety, that 

 the island of La Plata affords no fresh water, except during 

 heavy rains, which are very uncommon on this coast ; nor 

 does it afford wood in sufficient quantities to supply ships. 



This island has been much frequented by the pearl-fish- 

 ers, and those employed in salting fish. Of this we had 

 sufficient testimony in the large piles of shells of the pearl 

 oyster, as well as considerable heaps of salt, and ground 

 cleared away, levelled, and otherwise prepared for drying 

 fish, which are more abundant at this island than any other 

 place I have visited in these seas, and are of the same kind 

 as those found among the Gallipagos. The only birds we 

 found here were boobies, and man-of-war hawks. We 

 saw no seals on or about the island, and only two turtles at 

 some distance from the shore. No animals or their traces 

 were discovered on the shore ; and the aspect of the whole 

 island was the most desolate imagmable. It is about eight 

 miles in circumference, and offers no advantages whatever^ 

 that I could discover, to induce navigators to touch there. 

 Although it is represented to have' been a favourite resort 

 for the buccaniers, who stopped there for the purpose of 

 watching the Spanish fleets, I am induced to believe that 

 the want of anchorage would have prevented their using it 

 for that purpose. But I acknowledge that its want of every 

 other advantage prevented my giving it so strict an exami- 

 nation, in that respect, as I should otherwise have done. 



As I thought it not unlikely that Mr. Downes would 

 touch at this place, with the expectation of finding letters 

 from me, I left one suspended in a bottle on the branch of 

 a bush, at the western part of the sand beach. To attract 

 his attention to this place, I painted on the side of a rock 

 the two letters S. X., of so large a size as to be seen at a 

 considerable distance. The sound of these two letters ap- 

 proaching so near to that of the name of the frigate, would 

 be a sufficient proof to lieutenant Downes of our having 

 been there, and would naturally lead to a strict search for 

 further information respecting us ; while, at the same time, 

 they would be incomprehensible to any other person, as my 

 letter was couched in such terms as to be understood only 

 by those belonging to the expedition* 



