M. La Jonquiere, with several of his officers and passengers, came on board the Speedwell to dine with me, on the 6th July.  While they were on board, Hudson my boatswain raised a mutiny, which was easily quelled by the assistance of the French gentlemen:  But the boatswain was sent home in the French ship.  On the 15th July, we saw a large ship bearing in for the harbour; but on discovering us, she turned out again.  This circumstance alarmed M. La Jonquiere, suspecting she might be our consort, so that he put to sea next morning.  The large ship appeared again on the 25th under French colours, being the Solomon of St Malo of forty guns and 160 men, commanded by M. Dumain Girard, bound for Peru and Chili.

At this time great heart-burnings arose in my crew:  for, having heard that the people on board the Duke and Duchess had been indifferently treated in regard to their prize-money when they got home, they resolved to secure themselves in time.  With this view, and by the advice of Matthew Stewart, chief-mate, they drew up a paper of articles respecting plunder, and sent me a letter insisting on these articles being made the rule of our voyage; to which at last I was obliged to agree, rather than suffer them to proceed in a piratical manner.

On the 3d August the St Francisco Zavier came into the harbour, a Portuguese man of war of forty guns and 300 men, bound from Lisbon for Macao in China, commanded by Mons. Riviere, a Frenchman.  We departed from the island of St Catharine on the 9th August.  Its northern point being in lat. 27 deg. 20’ S. and long. 50 deg.  W. from the Lizard.[255] I kept the lead constantly sounding all along the coast of Patagonia, and had regular soundings.  From the lat. of 40 deg. to 30 deg. 38’ both S. we frequently saw great shoals of seals and penguins, which were always attended by flocks of pintadoes, birds about the size of pigeons.  The French call these birds damiers, as their black and white feathers on their back and wings are disposed like the squares of a draught-board.  These were also attended by albatrosses, the largest of all sea-fowl, some of them extending their wings twelve or thirteen feet from tip to tip.  While passing the mouth of the Rio.  Plata, the sea was covered with prodigious quantities of large seaweed, which often greatly incommoded us and deadened our way.  On getting farther south we were freed from this inconvenience; after which we saw abundance of things floating on the surface of the sea, like white snakes.  We took some of these up, but could not perceive them to have any appearance of life, neither had they the shape of any kind of animal, being only a long cylinder of a white jelly-like substance, perhaps the spawn of some large fish.

[Footnote 255:  Only 27 deg.  S. and 48 deg. 30’ W. from Greenwich.—­E.]