LOSS OF A JAMAICA SLOOP. 275 
and thereupon sent an order to the master to leave the navi- 
gating the ship to me. 
Matters being thus concerted, the provisions, water, and 
wood were put into the canoe, and I went on board with them. 
The master made some scruples to obey the order, (so loth 
people are to part with power, though they are never so inca- 
pable of governing.) I told him he need not to be under any 
concern, for I had no intention of depriving him of his com- 
mand ; but what I did was for my own preservation as wsll 
as theirs, since by experience they had so lately been in 
such danger for vv^ant of knowledge ; at which the master 
seemed content, and I took the direction of the vessel upon 
me. We weighed anchor and set sail for Jamaica. But before 
we left Plantain river we had provided some ozenbrigs and 
a sufficient quantity of silk grass which grows in that coun- 
try, which we made twine of: and Vv^hen it proved little winds 
or calms, we lowered the sails and mended them, being old 
and torn in several places, which was our constant custom as 
often as we had opportunity, being so fortunate as to have fair 
weather. 
In about ten or twelve days we made the Grand Caymanos, 
so called from the number of crocodiles found there when 
first discovered by the Spaniards, cayman being a Spanish 
word for crocodile. When we saw the island, the master and 
a pretended pilot said it was not that island, but the South 
Keys. He said that he had lived upon the CTrand Caymanos, 
and had seen it often, and knew the make of the island very 
well : and that which we saw Avas not it but the South Keys, 
and vvould have shaped their course accordingly for Jamaica. 
I now found the precaution I had taken at my going on board 
the sloop to be of great service, finding the people so very 
ignorant, and if I had not been with them they never wouTd 
have reached Jamaica. I knew the island by my latitude and 
distance, though I had never before seen it, and shaped my 
course accordingly. The wind being then northerly, in two 
days after we saw that island, which none of the sloop's crew 
loiew, nor would any of them believe it to be Jamaica till we 
came close into the land, and then they were convinced, and 
acknowledged their ignorance. I took no more upon me as 
to the direction of the vessel, but left it to the master, and in 
three or four days more we arrived in Port Royal harbor ; and 
so ended a most troublesome, fatiguing, and painful voyage. 
On my arrival at Jamaica, my friends and acquaintance re- 
joiced to see me, having heard that I was drowned. Th« 
