, at Guayaquil, where a
contagious disease had reigned a month or five weeks before we took it;
which swept away ten or twelve persons every day, so that all the
churches were filled, being their usual burying places, and they had to
dig a great deep hole close by the great church, where I kept guard, and
this hole was almost filled with putrefying bodies: and our lying so
long in that church, surrounded by such noisome scents, was enough to
infect us all. In twenty-four hours more we had fifty men down and the
Duchess upwards of seventy, and in the next twenty-four hours, ten more
fell sick in each ship. We discovered land on the 17th, and on the 18th,
at day-break, we were within four leagues of two large islands almost
joining each other, having passed that we first saw during the night. We
sent repeatedly ashore here in search of water, but could find none,
though the people went three or four miles up into the country, and
they reported that the island was nothing but loose rocks like cinders,
very rotten and heavy, and the earth so parched that it broke into holes
under their feet. This made me suppose there had been a volcano here;
and though there is much shrubby ground, with some green herbs, there
was not the smallest signs of water, neither was it possible for any to
be contained on such a surface. In short, we found these islands
completely to disappoint our expectations, and by no means to agree with
the descriptions of former voyagers. We had also the misfortune to lose
company of one of our barks, in which was Mr Hately, with five of our
men, two Spanish prisoners, and three negroes.[224]

[Footnote 224: Mr Hately, being unable to rejoin his companions, was
forced to land at Cape Passado in lat. 0 deg. 25' S. on the coast of
Guayaquil, where he and his people were barbarously used by a mixed race
between the Indians and negroes; but were rescued by a priest, and sent
to Lima, where he was kindly treated.--E.]

In a consultation on the 26th May, we resolved to proceed for the island
of Plata in quest of water, and then to come immediately off the coast
again, having information of two French ships, one of sixty and the
other of forty-six guns, together with a Spanish man of war, that would
soon be sent in search of us. It was also our intention to refit our
ships there, and not to go near the main, our ships being out of order,
and our men very weak and sickly, several of them having already died.
We acco