LOSS OF A JAMAICA SLOOP. 269 
tain river was a more likely place for vessels to come to than 
the cape, I chose to proceed, and traveled briskly on. The 
weather was extremely hot, which made me very thirsty ; but 
not being able to find any fresh Avater, I made what haste I 
could in order to reach Plantain river before night; ; and about 
four o'clock I saw the huts there. By the time I got thither 
I was very faint, and almost ready to die with thirst, being 
extremely fatigued, as any one will readily believe, having 
traveled twenty miles upon the sand in the scorching sun with- 
out a drop of water. The inhabitants gave me such refresh- 
ments as their huts aflfbrded, though not sufficient to allay my 
appetite. When I had rested, and was a little refreshed, I 
prevailed with one of the people to put me over the river, 
where most of the white people had their habitations. I told 
them my reasons for coming thither ; they said I should be 
welcome to such as they had, till I could get an opportunity 
of embarking for Jamaica. These people informed me that 
several of the white men and Indians were gone to Sandy 
Bay, which is beyond Cape Gracia de Dios, where the chiefs 
and greatest body of the Mosketoe Indians have their habi' 
tations, in order to concert measures to' enter upon an expe- 
dition against the wild Indians ; for so they call those who 
do not live under the Spanish government, but have fled from 
their cruelty and taken up their abode in some secure place 
in the woods. The manner of these expeditions is thus : 
when they have concluded what number of men is proper 
for their design, they furnish themselves with a sufficient num- 
ber of canoes, dories, and pit-pans, which last is like a wort 
cooler ; they are made long and narrow, will carry two men, 
and draw not more than four inches of water, which they 
make use of to go over the shoal places in the rivers ; and be- 
ring provided with arms, ammunition, provisions, and necessa- 
ries for such an expedition, they set forward; but first inquire 
of their sookeys, which are commonly interpreted priests, 
what success they are like to meet with, and Avill not stir un- 
till their sookeys assure them of a prosperous voyage. They 
seldom undertake an expedition of this kind without some in- 
formation from one of their Indian slaves, in whose fidelity 
they are satisfied, and know where the wild Indian settlements 
are ; he undertakes to be their guide, and conducts them to the 
place, to which they go sometimes fifty or sixty leagues by 
sea, before they arrive at the river's mouth which, leads up 
near the settlement they intend to attack. They go into the 
river with the smallest canoes, leaving the rest at the m'outh of 
23* 
