Captain Swan learnt from a prisoner that 1000 men had marched from St Jago, a rich town three leagues from Pecaque on the river, for the purpose of attacking us.  On this Captain Swan wanted our people to march altogether with what provisions we could carry; but they refused to obey him till all the provisions should be carried on board, and he was forced to allow half of them to go on with fifty-four loaded horses.  They had not gone a mile from Pecaque when they were attacked by the Spaniards from an ambush, and were all slain on the spot.  Captain Swan marched to their relief, but came too late, finding the whole party slain and stripped naked; yet the Spaniards never once attempted to engage him, having certainly paid dear for their victory.

Returning on board with the rest of his men, and what provisions had been carried off, Captain Swan resolved to sail for Cape Lucas in California, in hopes of trafficking with the Indians there and in the lake or gulf of California.  We accordingly sailed on the 21st with the wind at N.W. and W.N.W. and anchored at the islands of Santa Maria, in eight fathoms on clean sand.  There are three islands, usually called the Three Marias,[190] stretching fourteen leagues from S.E. to N.W. of moderate height, stony, barren, and uninhabited, in lat 21 deg. 30’ N. [long. 106 deg. 15’ W.] from which Cape St Lucas in California is forty leagues W.N.W. and Cape Corientes twenty leagues E.S.E.  We anchored off the east end of the middle island, which we called Prince George’s island.  These islands produce some cedars, and we found near the sea a green prickly plant, with leaves like those of the penguin plant, and roots like those of the sempervivum, but much longer, the Indians of California subsisting mostly on these roots.  We baked and eat some of these roots, which tasted like boiled burdock roots.  I had been long afflicted with dropsy, and was here buried in the sand for half an hour, covered up to the neck, which brought on a profuse sweat, and I believe with good effect, for I began to recover soon after.  We careened here; but as there is no fresh water to be had at this place in the dry season, we had to return to the valley of Valderas, but finding the river brackish we sailed three leagues nearer Cape Corientes, and anchored beside a small round isle four leagues north of that cape, and half a mile from the shore, opposite to a rivulet on the continent, where we filled our water casks.

[Footnote 190:  In reality four, the fourth or most northwesterly, being named St Juanica.—­E.]