136 
PROGRESS TO THE MINES, 
Then we entered upon the subject of hemp, which the colonel told me he 
never could raise here from foreign seed, but at last sowed the seed of wild 
hemp, (which is very common in the upper parts of the country) and that 
came up very thick. That he sent about five hundred pounds of it to Eng- 
land, and that the commissioners of the navy, after a full trial of it, reported 
to the lords of the admiralty, that it was equal in goodness to the best that 
comes from Riga. I told him if our hemp were never so good, it would not 
be worth the making here, even though they should continue the bounty. 
And my reason was, because labour is not more than two pence a day in 
the east country where they produce hemp, and here we cannot compute it 
at less than ten pence, which being five times as much as their labour, and 
considering besides, that our. freight is three times as dear as theirs, the price 
that will make them rich will ruin us, as I have found by woful experience. 
Besides, if the king, who must have the refusal, buys our hemp, the navy is 
so long in paying both the price and the bounty, that we who live from hand 
to mouth cannot afford to wait so long for it. And then our good friends, 
the merchants, load it with so many charges, that they run away with great 
part of the profit themselves. Just like the bald eagle, which after the fish- 
ing hawk has been at great pains to catch a fish, pounces upon and takes it 
from him. Our conversation was interrupted by a summons to supper, for 
the ladies, to show their power, had by this time brought us tamely to go to 
bed with our bellies full, though we both at first declared positively against 
it. So very pliable a thing is frail man, when women have the bending of 
him. 
October 1st. Our ladies overslept themselves this morning, so that we did 
not break our fast till ten. We drank tea made of the leaves of ginseng, 
which has the virtues of the root in a weaker degree, and is not disagreeable. 
So soon as we could force our inclinations to quit the ladies, we took a turn 
on the terrace walk, and discoursed upon quite a new subject. The colonel 
explained to me the difference betwixt the galleons and the ffota, which very 
few people know. The galleons, it seems, are the ships which bring the trea- 
sure and other rich merchandise to Carthagena from Portobel, to which 
place it is brought over land, from Panama and Peru. And the ffota is the 
squadron that brings the treasure, &c., from Mexico and New Spain, which 
make up at La Vera Cruz. Both these squadrons rendezvous at the Ha- 
vanna, from hence they shoot the gulf of Florida, in their return to Old 
Spain. That this important port of the Havanna is very poorly fortified, 
and worse garrisoned and provided, for which reason it may be easily taken. 
Besides, both the galleons and ffota, being confined to sail through the gulf, 
might be intercepted by our stationing a squadron of men of war at the most 
convenient of the Bahama islands. And that those islands are of viast con- 
sequence for that purpose. Pie told me also that the azogue ships are they 
that carry quicksilver to Portobello and La Vera Cruz, to refine the silver, 
and that, in Spanish, azogue signifies quicksilver. Then my friend unrid- 
dled to me the great mystery, why we have endured all the late insolences 
of the Spaniards so tamely. The asiento contract, and the liberty of send- 
ing a ship every year to the Spanish West Indies, make it very necessary 
for the South Sea Company to have effects of great value in that part of the 
world. Now these being always in the power of the Spaniards, make the 
directors of that company very fearful of a breach, and consequently very 
generous in their offers to the ministry to prevent it. For fear these worthy 
gentlemen should suffer, the English squadron, under Admiral Hosier, lay 
idle at the Bastimentos, till the ships’ bottoms were eaten out by the worm, and 
the officers and men, to the number of five thousand, died like rotten sheep, 
without being suffered, by the strictest orders, to strike one stroke, though 
