——­ita servus homo est? 
  Hoc volo, sic jubeo, sit pro ratione voluntas.—­P.]

The sea at this place furnished us with a dainty, in the greatest plenty and perfection, viz. the turtle.  There are reckoned four species of turtle:  the trunk-turtle, the loggerhead, the hawksbill, and the green turtle.  The two first are rank and unwholesome; the hawksbill (which furnishes the tortoise-shell) is but indifferent food, though better than the other two; but the green turtle is esteemed, by the greatest part of those who are acquainted with its taste, as the most delicious of eatables; and that it is a most wholesome food, we were amply convinced by our own experience:  For we fed on this for near four months, and consequently had it been in any degree noxious, its ill effects could not possibly have escaped us.  At this island we took what quantity we pleased with great facility; for, as they are an amphibious animal, and get on shore to lay their eggs, which they generally deposit in a large hole in the sand, just above the high-water mark, covering them up, and leaving them to be hatched by the heat of the sun, we usually dispersed several of our men along the beach, whose business it was to turn them on their backs when they came to land; and the turtle being thereby prevented from getting away, we carried them off at our leisure.  These proved of great service both in lengthening out our store of provision, and in heartening the whole crew with an almost constant supply of fresh and palatable food; for the turtle being large, generally weighing about 200 lb. weight each, what we took with us lasted us near a month, and by that time we met with a fresh recruit on the coast of Mexico, where we often saw them in the heat of the day floating in great numbers on the surface of the water fast asleep.  Our mode of taking them was this; we sent out our boat with a man in the bow, who was a dexterous diver; when the boat came within a few yards of the turtle, the diver plunged into the water, and took care to rise close upon it; on seizing the shell near the tail, and pressing down the hinder parts, the turtle awakened, and began to strike with its claws, which motion supported both it and the diver, till the boat came up and took them in.  By this management we never wanted turtle for the succeeding four months in which we continued at sea; and though we had been three months on board, without putting our foot on shore, except for the few days we stayed at the island of Quibo, and those employed in the attack of Payta, yet, in the whole seven months, from our leaving Juan Fernandez to our anchoring in the harbour of Chequetan, we buried no more in the whole squadron than two men; a most incontestable proof that the turtle on which we fed for the last four months of this term, was at least innocent, if not something more.  It appears wonderful, therefore, that a species of food so very palatable and salubrious, and so much abounding in those parts, should be proscribed