erchandises, or provisions, should
be severely punished; and, in case of being reduced upon short
allowance, any such offence was to be punished with death. The two
supercargoes were appointed to keep distinct journals of all
proceedings, for the information of the company of adventurers, that it
might appear how far every man had done his duty, and in what manner the
purposes of the voyage had been answered.

On the 11th July they had sight of Madeira, and on the 13th they passed
through between Teneriff and Grand Canary, with a stiff breeze at N.N.E.
and a swift current. The 15th they passed the tropic of Cancer; and the
20th in the morning fell in with the north side of Cape de Verd.
Procuring here a supply of water, by leave of the Moorish alcaide or
governor, for which they had to pay _eight states_ of iron, they left
the cape on the 1st August, and came in sight of the high land of Sierra
Leona on the 21st of that month, as also of the island of _Madre bomba_,
which lies off the south point of Sierra Leona, and north from the
shallows of the island of St Ann. This land of Sierra Leona is the
highest of all that lie between Cape Verd and the coast of Guinea, and
is therefore easily known.

On the 30th of August, they cast anchor in eight fathoms water on a fine
sandy bottom, near the shore, and opposite a village or town of the
negroes, in the road of Sierra Leona. This village consisted only of
eight or nine poor thatched huts. The Moorish inhabitants were willing
to come on board to trade, only demanding a pledge to be left on shore
for their security, because a French ship had recently carried off two
of the natives perfidiously. Aris Clawson, the junior merchant or
supercargo, went accordingly on shore, where he drove a small trade for
lemons and bananas, in exchange for glass beads. In the mean time some
of the natives came off to the ships, bringing with them an interpreter
who spoke many languages. They here very conveniently furnished
themselves with fresh water, which poured down in great abundance from a
very high hill, so that they had only to place their casks under the
waterfall. There were here whole woods of lemon-trees, and lemons were
so cheap that they might have had a thousand for a few beads, and ten
thousand for a few common knives; so that they easily procured as many
as they wished, and each man had 150 for sea store. The 3d September
they found a vast shoal of fish, resembling a shoemaker's