ects could not possibly have escaped us. At
this island we took what quantity we pleased with great facility; for,
as they are an amphibious animal, and get on shore to lay their eggs,
which they generally deposit in a large hole in the sand, just above
the high-water mark, covering them up, and leaving them to be hatched
by the heat of the sun, we usually dispersed several of our men along
the beach, whose business it was to turn them on their backs when
they came to land; and the turtle being thereby prevented from getting
away, we carried them off at our leisure. These proved of great
service both in lengthening out our store of provision, and in
heartening the whole crew with an almost constant supply of fresh and
palatable food; for the turtle being large, generally weighing about
200 lb. weight each, what we took with us lasted us near a month, and
by that time we met with a fresh recruit on the coast of Mexico, where
we often saw them in the heat of the day floating in great numbers
on the surface of the water fast asleep. Our mode of taking them was
this; we sent out our boat with a man in the bow, who was a dexterous
diver; when the boat came within a few yards of the turtle, the
diver plunged into the water, and took care to rise close upon it; on
seizing the shell near the tail, and pressing down the hinder parts,
the turtle awakened, and began to strike with its claws, which motion
supported both it and the diver, till the boat came up and took them
in. By this management we never wanted turtle for the succeeding four
months in which we continued at sea; and though we had been three
months on board, without putting our foot on shore, except for the
few days we stayed at the island of Quibo, and those employed in the
attack of Payta, yet, in the whole seven months, from our leaving Juan
Fernandez to our anchoring in the harbour of Chequetan, we buried no
more in the whole squadron than two men; a most incontestable proof
that the turtle on which we fed for the last four months of this term,
was at least innocent, if not something more. It appears wonderful,
therefore, that a species of food so very palatable and salubrious,
and so much abounding in those parts, should be proscribed by the
Spaniards as unwholesome, and little less than poisonous. Perhaps the
strange appearance of this animal may have been the foundation of this
ridiculous aversion, which is strongly rooted in all the inhabitants
of that coast,