[Footnote 177:  Only 350 men are here accounted for, though 470 are said to have marched on this enterprise, leaving a difference of 120 men:  perhaps these made a separate corps under Knight, as he seems to have fallen considerably in the rear of Davis.—­E.]

In the afternoon of the 16th we came to the harbour of Realejo in our canoes, our ships having come there to anchor.  The creek leading to Realejo extends north from the N.W. part of the harbour, being nearly two leagues from the island at the mouth of the harbour to the town.  The first two-thirds of this distance the creek is broad, after which it closes into a deep narrow channel, lined on both sides by many cocoa-trees.  A mile from the entrance the creek winds towards the west, and here the Spaniards had thrown up an entrenchment, fronting the entrance of the creek, and defended by 100 soldiers and twenty guns, having a boom of trees thrown across the creek, so that they might easily have beaten off 1000 men, but they wanted courage to defend their excellent post; for on our firing two guns they all ran away, leaving us at liberty to cut the boom.  We then landed and marched to the town of Realejo, a fine borough about a mile from thence, seated in a plain on a small river.  It had three churches and an hospital, but is seated among fens and marshes, which send forth a noisome scent, and render it very unhealthy.  The country round has many sugar works and cattle pens, and great quantities of pitch, tar, and cordage are made by the people.  It also abounds in melons, pine-apples, guavas, and prickly pears.

The shrub which produces the guava has long small boughs, with a white smooth bark, and leaves like our hazel.  The fruit resembles a pear, with a thin rind, and has many hard seeds.  It may be safely eaten while green, which is not the case with most other fruits in the East or West Indies.  Before being ripe it is astringent, but is afterwards loosening.  When ripe it is soft, yellow, and well tasted, and may either be baked like pears, or coddled like apples.  There are several sorts, distinguished by their shape, taste, and colour, some being red and others yellow in the pulp.  The prickly-pear grows on a shrub about five feet high, and is common in many parts of the West Indies, thriving best on sandy grounds near the sea.  Each branch has two or three round fleshy leaves, about the breadth of the hand, somewhat like those of the house-leek, edged all round with spines or sharp prickles an inch long.  At the outer extremity of each leaf the fruit is produced, about the size of a large plum, small towards the leaf and thicker at the other end, where it opens like a medlar.  The fruit, which is also covered by small prickles, is green at first, but becomes red as it ripens, having a red pulp of the consistence of a thick syrup, with small black seeds, pleasant and cooling to the taste.  I have often observed, on eating twenty or more of these at a time, that the urine becomes as red as blood, but without producing any evil consequence.