ry old and had loitered behind, refusing to accept
quarter, and took another named Smith. The governor sent word next day,
offering to ransom the town; on which our officers demanded 30,000
pieces of eight, or Spanish dollars, together with provisions for 1000
men for four months, which terms being refused, our people set the city
on fire on the 14th of August, and rejoined the canoes next morning.
Smith was exchanged for a gentlewoman, and a gentleman who had been made
prisoner was released, on promise to deliver 150 oxen for his ransom at
Realejo, the place we intended next to attack.

[Footnote 177: Only 350 men are here accounted for, though 470 are said
to have marched on this enterprise, leaving a difference of 120 men:
perhaps these made a separate corps under Knight, as he seems to have
fallen considerably in the rear of Davis.--E.]

In the afternoon of the 16th we came to the harbour of Realejo in our
canoes, our ships having come there to anchor. The creek leading to
Realejo extends north from the N.W. part of the harbour, being nearly
two leagues from the island at the mouth of the harbour to the town. The
first two-thirds of this distance the creek is broad, after which it
closes into a deep narrow channel, lined on both sides by many
cocoa-trees. A mile from the entrance the creek winds towards the west,
and here the Spaniards had thrown up an entrenchment, fronting the
entrance of the creek, and defended by 100 soldiers and twenty guns,
having a boom of trees thrown across the creek, so that they might
easily have beaten off 1000 men, but they wanted courage to defend their
excellent post; for on our firing two guns they all ran away, leaving us
at liberty to cut the boom. We then landed and marched to the town of
Realejo, a fine borough about a mile from thence, seated in a plain on a
small river. It had three churches and an hospital, but is seated among
fens and marshes, which send forth a noisome scent, and render it very
unhealthy. The country round has many sugar works and cattle pens, and
great quantities of pitch, tar, and cordage are made by the people. It
also abounds in melons, pine-apples, guavas, and prickly pears.

The shrub which produces the _guava_ has long small boughs, with a white
smooth bark, and leaves like our hazel. The fruit resembles a pear, with
a thin rind, and has many hard seeds. It may be safely eaten while
green, which is not the case with most other fruits in the East or W