February 17.We lay here till the ſeventeenth of February, and got on board forty-three tons of water, with ſome fire wood. But of other refreſhments we obtained little, though we had parties conſtantly employed in trying both the water and the land for freſh proviſions. After all, two or three monkies and a few doves, were all we got from the iſland; and its ſurrounding water afforded us only alligators, crabs, cockles, clams, periwinkles, oyſters and a few other ſhell fiſh unknown to us[1]. Several deer were ſeen among the thickets on the ſhore, as well as wolves, and the feet of ſome animals, which were ſuppoſed to be tygers, had left their impreſſion on the ſands. But the animals, were all of them ſo ſhy, that they kept beyond the reach of our fire-arms, and it was equally difficult to take the turtle which were ſeen in great abundance. That the birds and monkies were quickly alarmed, may be readily accounted for, from the numbers of hawks and large vultures who feed upon them; as in the maws of ſome of the latter which we killed, young monkies were found. The wolves and tygers may be ſuppoſed to keep the leſs offenſive quadrupeds in a ſimilar ſtate of agitation; and the fiſh, as well as the turtle, may be haraſſed into an equal alarm by the alligators, ſharks, ſea-ſnakes, &c. all of which, particularly the firſt of them, ſeem to ſwarm on and about the ſurrounding ſhores.
- ↑ Viz. The green Trochus, the black Buccinum, Buccinum Morus Patula, and Subula, together with the Strombo, Tuberen, Latus and Patalla, not before well known to collectors in conchology.
