i 
Part IL Travels into the L, e v a t. 195 
or Herbs floatirg upon the water, which the Portuguefe call Sargafo ■■> and that is Herb S^rgaf^ 
cne fign of being near the Land of the Indies \ many fuch are alfo to be feen to- 
wards Brafil. The ftalk of that Herb is fmall, blackifh and as fupple as a hair, 
the Leaves of it are long and narrow, and a little jagged, befides the Leaves, it 
hath a great many fmall, clear, and tranfparent Berries, as foft as little Goosber- 
fies, that ftick to the ftalk. This Herb grows upon the Rocks in the Sea, and 
being torn off by ftorm, it floats upon the water, till it be caft a (hoar. About 
two in the afternoon the Wind flackened much, and therefore we fpread our Main- / 
Top, and Fore-Top-Sails, the Sea (which had been very high before,) growing ' 
calm and fmooth within a few hours. 
Tuefday morning the nine and twentieth of Vecember, about feven a Clock, the 
Wind was at North, North-Ea(i, and we Steered our Courfe Eaft. At noon the 
Gunner found that we were in one and twenty degrees, forty four minutes Lati- 
tude, and that in the fpace of twenty four hours we had made thirteen Leagues 
and a half: at midnight we Steered Eafi znd by South, that we might keep off of 
the Banks that are towards Pi», our Company thinking themfelves nearer to it, 
than indeed they were. 
Next morning we faw two Snakes upon the water, which occaConed great Snakes upon 
joy in the Ship i for when they begin to fee Snakes, it is an infallible mark that the water are 
they are not above forty Leagues off the Land of the Indies- wherefore one may * ^'8" f 
boldly come to founding i and indeed, when at nine a Clock we heaved out the Land °^ 
Lead, we found fifty three Fathom water. At noon by the Gunners Obfervation we 
were in one and twenty degrees, thirty three minutes Latitude, having in the laft 
twenty four hours run live and twenty Leagues and a half :> we founded a fécond 
time, and had forty Fathom water i whereupon we flood away Seutk-Eafi and by 
Ea(i^ that wc might not run upon the Land of Viu, where wc had nothing to 
do, and which is the Rendez-vous of the Malabar Corfairs, and the Zinganer, 
Half an hour after five in the evening, we had but thirty five Fathom water, and 
then we faw upon the water a great mâny little yellow Snakes, a Foot long, and 
as big as ones little Finger, which made us know that we were near the Coaft 
of Viu, along which the Snakes are fmall -, for from thence forwards along the 
Coafl of the Indies they are big. That we might not then run within Land, 
we flood away South-Eaji. About fix a Clock we began to fee fome Excrements 
of the Sea, which the Proi'ew/i/j call C^zr«<jj(/e, the Italians, Potta- Marina, tnd Carnaffij or 
the Portuguefe call Alfareca i I fancy that I have feen the figure and defcription ^""'^ 
of them, by the name of Potta-Marina, in a Treatife of Fabius Columnar de Con- ^^f*^"'^' 
chis, which is at the end of the Treatife de Pla»tis of the fame Author. Our 
Ships Company told tne it was like a frothy Flefh, which the FiQi eat, and when 
it touches a Mans Flefli, it flicks to it like Glew, and puts him to hot flinging 
pains. This puts me in mind, that heretofore being at Calais, a Gentleman oi 
Honour told me, that in the Sea of Calais, there were fome certain Sea- Excre- 
ments, which flung and occafioned fuch burning pains when they touched a Mans 
Flefh i that he had feen fome Soldiers of the Garifon run about the flreets roaring 
and crying out like Mad-men , through the violence of the pain they fuffered 
by thcfe Excrements, which had touched their Flefh, when they wafhed them- 
felves in the Harbour -, and that this pain laftcd two or three days. In all pro- 
bability thofe Excrements he fpoke to me of, were Camajfes. (U the Tranflatour 
be not miftaken, the Englijh call that Excrement a Carvel.) We faw fo great 
a quantity of them all the evening, that fometimes they made the Sea look all 
white, and they lay as it were in veins -, fo that to judge by the fight, one would 
have taken them for great Banks of Sand, butof a very white Sand', or elfe for 
Rivers of Milk i and certainly a Man that had never feen them, nor been told 
what they were, would think himfelf to be upon a Bank of Sand. No fooner 
was one of thefe veins paft, but we faw another a coming, and each of them was 
above five hundred paces in length, and proportionably broad. Thofe that floated 
along the Ships fide, lookt like fo many very clear Stars, and at tirrt I took them 
for fparks that ate many times feen to flafh out of the Sea, when the water is very 
rough, bat having obfervcd that they lofl not their fplendour, as commonly that 
C c fort . 
