the port of Guanehagno, though the landing-place was of difficult access, as at that place there was a strong probability of making a considerable booty.  They sailed therefore with this design on the 18th May, their whole number of men fit for duty being one hundred and eight.  Soon after weighing anchor, three ships were descried under sail, which they chased and captured, being laden with flour from Guanehagno to Panama.  In one of them was found a letter from the viceroy of Peru to the president of Panama, intimating that there were enemies on the coast, and that he had sent these three ships to supply their wants.  It was also learnt from the prisoners, that the Spaniards were erecting a fort near their harbour of Guanehagno, in consequence of which the design on Traxillo was abandoned.  Besides a large loading of flour, the three captured ships had a good quantity of fruits and sweetmeats, which made them agreeable prizes to the English, who were now very short of provisions; but they had landed no less than 800,000 dollars, on hearing that there were enemies in these seas.

It was now resolved to carry their prizes to some secure place, where the best part of the provisions they had now procured might be laid up in safety, for which purpose they steered for the Gallapagos or Enchanted Islands,[151] which they got sight of on the 31st May, and anchored at night on the east side of one of the easternmost of these islands, a mile from shore, in sixteen fathoms, on clear white hard sand.  To this Cowley gave the name of King Charles’s Island.  He likewise named more of them, as the Duke of Norfolk’s Island immediately under the line, Dessington’s, Eares, Bindley’s, Earl of Abington’s, King James’s, Duke of Albemarles, and others.  They afterwards anchored in a very good bay being named York Bay.  Here they found abundance of excellent provisions, particularly guanoes and sea and land tortoises, some of the latter weighing two hundred pounds, which is much beyond their usual weight.  There were also great numbers of birds, especially turtle-doves, with plenty of wood and excellent water; but none of either of these was in any of the other islands.[152]

[Footnote 151:  These islands, so named by the Spaniards from being the resort of tortoises, are on both sides of the line, from about the Lat. of 2 deg.  N. to 1 deg. 50’ S,. and from about 88 deg. 40’ to 95 deg. 20’ both W. from Greenwich.—­E.]

[Footnote 152:  Cowley mentions having found here a [illegible] thing of its nature of quantity.—­E.]

These Gallapagos are a considerable number of large islands, situated under and on both sides of the line, and destitute of inhabitants.  The Spaniards, who first discovered them, describe them as extending from the equator N.W. as high as 5 deg.  N. The adventurers in this voyage saw fourteen or fifteen, some of which were seven or eight leagues in length, and three or four leagues broad, pretty high yet flat.