ainted, an Indian came
in, who lived at many leagues distance from this town, and who had made
this journey in order to purchase some little trifles he wanted; amongst
other things, he had bought some prints of saints. Very proud of these, he
produced them, and put them into the hands of the women, who very devoutly
first crossed themselves with them, and afterwards kissed them; then gave
them to me, saying at the same time, they supposed such a heretic as I was
would refuse to kiss them. They were right in their conjectures; I returned
them to the Indian without going through that ceremony. At that very
instant there happened a violent shock of an earthquake, which they imputed
entirely to the anger of the saints; and all quitted the house as fast as
they could, lest it should fall upon their heads. For my part, I made the
best of my way home for fear of being knocked on the head when out of the
house by the rabble, who looked on me as the cause of all this mischief,
and did not return to that house again till I thought this affair was
forgotten.

Here is a very good harbour; but the entrance is very dangerous for those
who are unacquainted with it, as the tides are so extremely rapid, and
there are sunken rocks in the midchannel. The island is above seventy
leagues round, and the body of it lies in about 40 deg. 20 min. south, and
is the most southern settlement the Spaniards have in these seas. Their
summer is of no long duration, and most of the year round they have hard
gales of wind and much rain. Opposite the island, upon the Cordilleras,
there is a volcano, which at times burns with great fury, and is subject to
violent eruptions. One of these alarmed the whole island whilst we were
there; it sounded in the night like great guns. In the morning, the
governor mounted his horse, and rode backwards and forwards from his house
to the earthen fort, saying it was the English coming in, but that he would
give them a warm reception; meaning, I suppose, that he would have left
them a good fire in his house, for I am certain he would soon have been in
the woods if he had seen any thing like an English ship coming in.

Women of the first fashion here seldom wear shoes or stockings in the
house, but only keep them to wear upon particular occasions. I have often
seen them coming to the church, which stood opposite to the governor's
house, bare-legged, walking through mud and water, and at the church-door
put on their shoes a