rORTER S JOURNAL. 



223 



lost the first lieutenant, surgeon, sailing-master, two mid- 

 shipmen, gunner, carpenter, and thirty-six seamen and 

 marines. 



She captured in this sea the following British ships, to 

 wit : Montezuma, Pohcy, Atlantic, Catharine, Rose, Hector 

 Charlton, Georgiana, Greenwich, Seringapatam, and New 

 Zealander ; but for want of officers and men to man them, 

 the four last were burned ; the Rose and Charlton w^ere 

 given up to the prisoners. 



The Essex leaves this in a leaky state, her foremast very 

 rotten in the partners, and her mainmast sprung. Her crew 

 have, however, received great benefit from the tortoises 

 and other refreshments which the island affords. Should 

 any American vessel, or indeed a vessel of any nation, put 

 in^here, and meet with this note, they would be doing an 

 act of great humanity to transmit a copy of it to America, 

 in order that our friends may know of our distressed and 

 hopeless situation, and be prepared for worse tidings, if they 

 should ever again hear from us. 



The British prisoners have been landed at Tumbez, and 

 sent to St. Helena and Rio de Janeiro. 



The following is a list of the names of those who died as 

 above mentioned, to wit. 



(Then followed a list of forty-three names.) 



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

 ed Cowan's Bay,) we put our goats on shore to graze, keep- 

 ing a person to attend them through the day and give them 

 water. As they were all very tame, and kept about the 

 ianding-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 w ith 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 



