conjecture, as I did not myſelf examine it; nor does it appear that the Buccaneers ever landed upon it.
The Rodondo is an high barren rock, about a quarter of a mile in circumference, and is viſible as far as eight or nine leagues, has ſoundings round it at the diſtance of a quarter of a mile thirty fathom. Here our boats caught rock-cod in great abundance. I frequently obſerved the whales leave theſe iſles and go to the Weſtward, and in a few days, return with augmented numbers. I have alſo ſeen the whales coming, as it were, from the main, and paſſing along from the dawn of day to night, in one extended line, as if they were in haſte to reach the Galipagoes. It is very much to be regretted that theſe iſles have to this period been ſo little known but only to the Spaniards.
Though we met with ſo ſtrong a current, it did not diſcourage us, as we found, by keeping between the North point of Narborough Iſle, and North point of Albemarle Iſle, and not going to the Northward of the latter, that we were able to maintain our ground; and the hope which now poſſeſſed us of making a very ſucceſſful voyage, diſperſed every complaint of bad bread and ſhort allowance, which were no longer conſidered either with regret or impatience.
