88
VOYAGE TO THE SOUTH SEAS.
We ſaw Iſle Santo Berto from the Weſt end of this iſle, bearing North 20° Eaſt. Having made Socoro and Santo Berto, by the Spaniſh manuſcript chart, which I procured, while a priſoner at St. Blas, and got a ſufficient ſtore of beans and prickly pears; I ſtretched away to ſearch for Rocka Partida and St. Thomas's, by the ſame chart. Two of the crew were affected with a violent purging and vomiting, from eating too much of the fruits juſt mentioned. It laſted twenty-four hours, and, in the end, proved beneficial to them. Indeed, we were all in perfect health, except the ſecond mate, who had a lameneſs and contraction in one of his knees, and had been in an ailing ſtate, ever ſince we left Rio Janeiro.
Sept. 24.On the twenty-fourth, at nine, A. M. we ſaw Rocka Partida, on our weather bow, which had the appearance of a ſail. By four o'clock, we worked up with it, and found it a dangerous barren rock, laying North, North Weſt, and South, South Eaſt, by compaſs. Its greateſt length, is fifty or ſixty fathoms: and its breadth, about twenty-five or thirty: both ends are fifteen or twenty fathoms in height. The North Weſt end is forked; the South and Eaſt end, is like a ragged hay-cock. The two heights are ſeparated by a ragged ſaddle, that riſes about three or