where we were, having several sandy bays, on which he had seen the
tracks of turtle. On this intelligence I sent the boat back in the
evening; and it came back next morning with a full load of turtle,
leaving another load ready turned; and, what was of much more
consequence, they found good water; whereas that we had gotten hitherto
purged the men excessively. As we wooded, watered, and furnished
ourselves with fresh provisions here, and as these islands are little
known, some account of them may be acceptable.

The _Tres Marias_, or Three Marias, off the western coast of
Guadalaxara, in the kingdom of Mexico, are in a range stretching from
S.E. to N.W. of about forty-five English miles in length. The largest
island is the N.W. which appeared a high double land, and above five
leagues in length: the middle island about three leagues; and the
south-eastermost hardly two leagues. There also are high lands, full of
trees; and near the least island there are two or three small broken
white islets, one of which was so like a ship under sail, that we gave
the signal for a chase. The S.E. end of the island is in lat. 21 deg. 10' N.
long. 105 deg. 56' W. and the N.W. point of the N. island is in lat. 21 deg. 40'
N. long. 106 deg. 26' W. the distance from each being about two marine
leagues. These islands have abundance of parrots of different sorts,
with pigeons and other land-birds, of which we killed great numbers.
There were also many excellent hares, but much smaller than ours. We saw
likewise abundance of guanas, and some racoons, which barked and snarled
at us like dogs, but were easily beaten off with sticks. The water is
more worthy of remark than any other thing we saw here, as we only found
two good springs, which ran in large streams; the others being bitter
and disagreeable, proceeding, as I suppose, from being impregnated by
shrubs or roots growing in the water, or from some mineral.

The turtle we found here are of a different sort from any I had ever
seen, though very good. Though it is ordinarily believed that there are
only three sorts of sea-turtles, yet we have seen six or seven sorts at
different times, and our people have eaten of them all, except the very
large _whooping_ or _loggerhead_ kind, which are found in great plenty
in Brazil, some of them above 500 pounds weight. We did not eat of
these, because at that time our provisions were plentiful. At the
Gallapagos, both males and females were observed to