On the 11th May, with a strong gale at S.S.W. we bore away for the Gallepagos islands, being in a very sad condition; for we had upwards of twenty men ill in the Duke, and near fifty in the Duchess, seized with a malignant fever, contracted, as I suppose, at Guayaquil, where a contagious disease had reigned a month or five weeks before we took it; which swept away ten or twelve persons every day, so that all the churches were filled, being their usual burying places, and they had to dig a great deep hole close by the great church, where I kept guard, and this hole was almost filled with putrefying bodies:  and our lying so long in that church, surrounded by such noisome scents, was enough to infect us all.  In twenty-four hours more we had fifty men down and the Duchess upwards of seventy, and in the next twenty-four hours, ten more fell sick in each ship.  We discovered land on the 17th, and on the 18th, at day-break, we were within four leagues of two large islands almost joining each other, having passed that we first saw during the night.  We sent repeatedly ashore here in search of water, but could find none, though the people went three or four miles up into the country, and they reported that the island was nothing but loose rocks like cinders, very rotten and heavy, and the earth so parched that it broke into holes under their feet.  This made me suppose there had been a volcano here; and though there is much shrubby ground, with some green herbs, there was not the smallest signs of water, neither was it possible for any to be contained on such a surface.  In short, we found these islands completely to disappoint our expectations, and by no means to agree with the descriptions of former voyagers.  We had also the misfortune to lose company of one of our barks, in which was Mr Hately, with five of our men, two Spanish prisoners, and three negroes.[224]

[Footnote 224:  Mr Hately, being unable to rejoin his companions, was forced to land at Cape Passado in lat. 0 deg. 25’ S. on the coast of Guayaquil, where he and his people were barbarously used by a mixed race between the Indians and negroes; but were rescued by a priest, and sent to Lima, where he was kindly treated.—­E.]

In a consultation on the 26th May, we resolved to proceed for the island of Plata in quest of water, and then to come immediately off the coast again, having information of two French ships, one of sixty and the other of forty-six guns, together with a Spanish man of war, that would soon be sent in search of us.  It was also our intention to refit our ships there, and not to go near the main, our ships being out of order, and our men very weak and sickly, several of them having already died.  We accordingly sailed on the 27th, and in another conversation on the 30th, it was agreed to go first to Gorgono, to see if there were any English ships there; and afterwards to sail for Maugla, Malaga, or Madulinar,[225] where there are some Indians at enmity with the Spaniards, who, as the pilots informed us, come seldom there, and were not likely to procure any intelligence of us from thence.  They told us also, if we could induce the Indians to trade with us, we might have hogs, fowls, plantains, bananas, and other refreshments.