Being now sufficiently convinced of our mistaken notion of the riches of this coast, founded on an erroneous idea that the commerce of this country was carried on by sea, whereas it is entirely conducted by land on mules, we now resolved to try our fortune in the East Indies.  With this view we sailed from Cape Corientes on the 31st March, and next noon, being thirty leagues from the cape, clear of the land-winds, we had the wind at E.N.E. in which direction it continued till we were within forty leagues of Guam.  In all this long passage across the Pacific, nearly in the lat. of 13 deg.  N. we saw neither fish nor fowl except once, when by my reckoning we were 5975 miles west from Cape Corientes in Mexico, and then we saw a vast number of boobies, supposed to come from some rocks not far off, which are laid down in some hydrographical charts, but we saw them not.

May 20th, at four p.m. being in lat. 12 deg. 55’ N. and steering W. we discovered, to our great joy, the island of Guam, eight leagues off, having now only three-days provisions left. Guam is one of the Ladrones, in lat. 13 deg. 15’ N. and long. 216 deg. 50’ W. consequently its meridional distance from Cape Corientes on the coast of Mexico is 111 deg. 14’, or about 7730 English miles.  It is twelve leagues long by four broad, extending north and south, and is defended by a small fort mounted by six guns, and a garrison of thirty men with a Spanish governor, for the convenience of the Manilla ships, which touch here for refreshments on their voyage from Acapulco to Manilla.  The soil is tolerably fertile, producing rice, pine-apples, water and musk melons, oranges, limes, cocoa-nuts, and bread-fruit.  This last grows on a tree as big as our apple-trees, with dark green leaves.  The fruit is round and as large as a good penny-loaf,[191] growing on the boughs like apples.  When ripe it turns yellow, with a soft and sweet pulp; but the natives pull it green, and bake it in an oven till the rind grows black.  They scrape off the rind, and the inside is soft and white, like the crumb of new-baked bread, having neither seed nor stone; but it grows harsh if kept twenty-four hours.  As this fruit is in season for eight months in the year, the natives use no other bread in all that time, and they told us there was plenty of it in all the other Ladrone islands.

[Footnote 191:  This vague description may now safely be changed to the size of a three-penny, or even four-penny loaf—­E.]

On the 31st May we came to anchor near the middle of the west side of this isle, a mile from shore, as there is no anchoring on its east side on account of the trade-winds, which force the waves with great violence against that side.  The natives are of a copper-colour, strong-limbed, with long black hair, small eyes, high noses, thick lips, white teeth, and stern countenances, yet were very affable to us.  They are very ingenious in building a certain kind of boats, called proas, used all over the East