ſituations, when at a ſmall diſtance, like ſhips under ſail. That part of the gulf, which lies between the Tres Marias and the main, forms a deep bay of fifteen or twenty leagues, and affords a good and ſafe anchorage, having regular ſoundings from the ſhore, and at the diſtance of four or five miles, five fathom; but whether the ſoundings extend to the Tres Marias, I have had no opportunity to inform myſelf: but when the Iſabellas bore North, half Eaſt, diſtant five miles, I had good anchorage in twenty fathom water, muddy bottom.
The native Indians have a large eſtabliſhment in this bay, known, in moſt of the charts, by the name of Mazatlan, but pronounced by the Creole Spaniards, Mauſkelta town. It is remarkable for the great quantity of large fiſh, not unlike ſalmon in ſize and ſhape, which, during the ſummer ſeaſon, are taken in the mouth of a ſmall river near it: but previous to the capture of the veſſels under my command, the inhabitants were unacquainted with a proper method of ſalting them. In this uſeful ſcience they were inſtructed by ſome of my crew, who had been employed in the Newfoundland fiſheries[1].
- ↑ The ſalting of this fiſh proved, however, a very unpleaſant circumſtance to us, as it occaſioned our being employed to ſalt beef and pork for
