constituted the stock for our voyage. The point from which we embarked, and which is put down in the maps as Bodegas, to the first strait, is seventeen miles; and, about seven o'clock the next morning, we reached Fort San Felipe, on the left side of the mouth of the strait, in passing down. There were on board the schooner five men besides the captain, who now went on shore to show his papers to the commandant of the fort: the battery consisted of four guns, of about fourteen and twenty-four pounds calibre, commanding the river both ways. The fort itself is on a rising ground, and behind it are five or six indifferent cottages: the commandant's house is little better than a hut; and the whole population, garrison included, did not amount to thirty souls.
The commandant, a man of forty, and of the caste between a creolian and a negro, was very polite and ordered breakfast to be provided: I offered him a handsome recompense, but he would not accept of any; I, therefore, paid the compliment to his
