Watling, who succeeded Captain Sharp, was there in 1680, and named it Queen Catharine’s island.  At his departure, he accidentally left a Moskito Indian, who still remained, having a gun, a knife, a small flask of powder, and some shot.  In this desolate condition, he found it equally hard to provide for his subsistence, and to conceal himself from the Spaniards, who had notice of his being left there, and came several times to take him.  He had chosen a pleasant valley for his residence, about half a mile from the coast, where he had erected a very convenient hut, well lined with seal-skins, and had a bed of the same, raised about two feet above the ground.  By the help of a flint, he had converted his knife into a saw, with which he had cut the barrel of his gun to pieces, which he fashioned into harpoons, lances, fishing-hooks, and a long knife, by heating them in a fire.  All this cost him much labour, but enabled him to live in sufficient comfort.  On seeing the ships at sea, he guessed them to be English, and immediately dressed two goats, and a large quantity of cabbage, to entertain them on landing.  He was also much pleased, when they landed on the island, to see two of his old acquaintances, Captains Cooke and Dampier, who had belonged to the ship by which he was left on the island.

The island of Juan Fernandez is in lat. 34 deg. 15’ S. [33 deg. 42’] about 420 English miles from the coast of Chili.  The whole island is a pleasant mixture of hills and vallies, the sides of the hills partly covered with wood, and partly savannas, or places naturally clear of wood, bearing fine grass.  Among the woods are what are called cabbage-trees, but not so large as in other parts of the world.  The goats which feed on the west end of the island are much fatter and better than those at the east end, though the latter has better and greater plenty of grass, with abundance of excellent water in the vallies, while the west end is a dry plain, the grass scanty and parched, and has hardly any wood or fresh water.  Though fertile, this island has no inhabitants, who might live here in plenty, as the plain is able to maintain a great number of cattle, and the sea affords vast quantities of seals, sea-lions, snappers, and rock-fish.  The sea-lions are not much unlike seals, but much larger, being twelve or fourteen feet long, and as thick as a large ox.  They have no hair, and are of a dun colour, with large eyes, their teeth being three inches long.  One of these animals will yield a considerable quantity of oil, which is sweet and answers well for frying.  They feed on fish, yet their flesh is tolerably good.  The snapper is a fish having a large head, mouth, and gills, the back red, the belly ash-coloured, and its general appearance resembling a roach, but much larger, its scales being as broad as a shilling.  The rock-fish, called baccalao by the Spaniards, because resembling the cod, is rounder than the former, and of a dark-brown