299 
Chap. XVIII.—B. P.J A FLEET OF TURTLERS. 
Iii a few min utes more they would have been in the 
lagoon, when the King suddenly rising from his seat, 
with a graceful wave of his arm, and with a sentence 
in Mosquitian (which I was quite guiltless of under¬ 
standing), as if by magic brought down all their huge 
sails, and disclosed to view in each canoe the brawny 
forms of two naked Indians, paddling with might and 
main towards the gig. 
The King turned round and explained to me that so 
soon as he had observed that the canoes were laden 
with turtle, he had at once commanded the sails to be 
lowered, and the canoes to come to him; and he begged 
that I would do him the favour of taking what turtle 
I wished, as well for myself as for a supply to the 
ship’s company. 
It was some little time before I could turn my at¬ 
tention to the material part of the affair, for I was 
struck with astonishment at seeing one, and in some 
instances positively two, huge turtle stowed away in 
the hollow trunk of a tree which is here called a canoe, 
so narrow in beam as barely to afford easy sitting room 
for the Indians who managed it. However, it was prac¬ 
tically so inconvenient to keep these canoes clustering 
round the gig, that I soon trans-shipped a few turtle, 
and would have taken more, but found that even in my 
commodious boat, there was room for very few. 
One canoe especially, with a pair of very large 
turtle I did not unload, because I found the owners 
only too anxious, for the stipulated price of one dollar 
apiece, to come alongside the ship and deliver them in 
person. 
