 Section 20 of Travels to Oaxaca by Nicholas Joseph Thierry de Menonville An anonymous translation from the French. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. 13th July The north wind very strong. We were obliged to anchor till midnight. 14th July At 10 in the morning the land breeze fell. The wind again blew from the north, and in the afternoon we steered east, south, east, at the rate of four knots an hour. The temperature of the atmosphere on this sea is moderate, for notwithstanding the sky was clear and the sun exhibited itself in all its splendor, my thermometer at noon did not rise higher than 20 degrees centigrade, 77 degrees of Fahrenheit. We were now about 50 leagues from Campeche. At five in the evening we came to our inn for the night, for somewhat similar must our constant practice of casting anchor every evening at the same hour be esteemed. We had an hour before seen a ship which was nearer inshore than ourselves. We likewise saw another brigantine, which we imagined to be the Havana packet. It sailed with the wind abaffed and all its canvas out, but still made less way than as though we had an adverse wind. The whole day and night passed without rain, but the quantity of dew that fell was considerable. At eleven at night the wind, changing, we weighed anchor, but made very little way. The breeze from the southeast being very light and sinking to a dead calm by seven in the morning. A calm that continued till the next day at ten when the north again sprang up. Fifteenth July. This day the northeast at first feeble increased in strength so as to advance us a league. A new anchorage at five o'clock. We had no rain at sea though we distinguished it falling on shore. We avoided a projecting bank which makes the water appear of a yellowish green color, three leagues from the shore. We likewise discerned the Havana packet. It was the same which had sailed five days before us from Vera Cruz and was now on its return to the Havana. The captain informed us that the governor, the Marquis de la Tour, had been recalled a new motive for self-congratulation at having affected my object without delay. Could I flatter myself with ever meeting within any other governor who might succeed him so much kindness as I had met with from him? As this packet was destined to come Peche, our captain forwarded letters by it. At midnight we weighed anchor, the wind southwest blew very feebly and by eight o'clock sunk into a calm. 16 July. At noon the northeast admitted of our tacking and made a little way, but by three the wind increasing we were threatened with a storm. After a violent fall of rain we cast anchor and sent a boat on shore opposite to a grita or sentry box to take in twelve barrels of water and twenty-four funegas of salt. I was solicitous of visiting the salt pans here and of making a slight harvest of the plants of the country and of seashells, but the dread I had left any injury should befall my insects and plants during my absence prevented my indulging myself with this gratification. This was another sacrifice I had to add to the number I had already made on their account. I had, however, on the other hand, the satisfaction of already being in some degree compensated my vanilla throughout some branches, my halap and my nopals were budding. I had indeed lost a great many, but the residue were in good condition and I had well-founded hopes of the most complete success. 17 July. We were detained all day by our pilot who with four sailors had gone on shore and never returned. As he was an habitual drunkard we conjectured that intoxication had been the cause of his delay. The breeze of morning had been feeble, calm succeeded as usual, and at three o'clock rain, but with little wind. The brigantine, which kept us company, advanced only a league the whole day long. After passing the day in greatest anxiety of mind, I advised the captain in the evening to fire a gun. I was mad with vexation. A charming breeze blew from shore, and this night we might have advanced at least ten leagues. Unfortunately the captain was by no means a good sailor, and we had not sufficient hands remaining on board to work the ship. 18 July. At length in the morning the boat returned with the sailors. They had heard the report of the Patereros, though a league and a half distant, to winward of us. The pilot dispatched them with the salt, but himself did not reckon upon getting on board before noon, as he was waiting for fowls, eggs, and swine, which the Indians were to bring him. The captain in a rage sent the boat again on shore, with orders for his coming instantly on board. He came by four o'clock, and we weighed anchor, but we had constant calms the whole day. My pretty cardinal, having got out of its cage and fallen into the sea, the captain, without my knowledge, promised a good swimmer on board a bottle of brandy if he recovered my bird. The sailor jumped at the proposal, and the prospect of gain blinding him to the danger, he precipitated himself into the sea from the cabin window, and after swimming about ten or twelve fathoms, recovered the little bird, held it in his mouth, and making for the rudder of the boat, seized on the ring of it, by means of which he held till a rope was thrown out to him, by means of which he got on board. I was uneasy in extreme the whole time he was in the water, lest some of the sharks, which are so common in this sea, alarmed by the noise he made on plunging in, should make for the spot, and devour my bold adventurer. And I felt mortified that the captain, for a matter of such little value, should thus have exposed the life of one of his crew. Fortunately he escaped, and besides the bottle of brandy, he earned a handsome pull-a-cat handkerchief, of which I made him a present. We were at anchor opposite to a garita, or watch-house, in three fathoms' water. These watch-houses are huts of wood, in form of square towers, forty feet high, and raised at the distance of every four leagues along the coasts of New Spain. In these sentinels are stationed, whose duty it is to give advice to all vessels they perceive, and these sentinels, who are Indians, are relieved every four days. It so fell out that one of those appointed on guard at one of these watch-houses, being tired of his occupation, asked our people to take him and his luggage on board with them, and they very imprudently consented. I say imprudently, for it is expressly forbidden, under the most severe penalties, that any captain should receive an Indian on board. I had the curiosity to examine the packet of this poor fellow. It contained provision for four days, and consisted of a dozen tortillas of eight ounces each, and about two pounds of the paste of maize, coarsely ground, which, steeped in water, forms a beverage singularly pleasing to the Indians. The man who came on board was stout and well-made, twenty-one years of age, but had not a single hair on his chin. He had been married two years, but expressed not the least regret at leaving his wife. On my inquiring whether he had any children, he at first answered, but, correcting himself, as if he just recollected the matter, he said he had one pecanito, or very little baby, and, as he said this, he nodded his brows as if he wished to express that it was too small to be worth mentioning. The fancy diverted us much. 19 July We weighed anchor in the morning and steered the whole day before the wind, a very light breeze from the southwest. At seven we anchored and raised anchor again at eight, the wind changing to the southeast. It was but a puff, which soon abated into a calm, and we anchored, but a breeze springing up, we again heaved anchor and kept under sail the whole night through. 20 July This day the north and south winds enabled us to proceed at the rate of a league an hour. The sky all the morning was overcast, at three the wind fell, and changed four times in less than half an hour. At length came on a dreadful storm of rain. After much entreaty I succeeded in inducing the collection of half a dozen barrels of rainwater. Thirty, at least, if care had been taken, might in the time have been filled. After the rain we steered east-southeast, for our pilot pretending his object was to avoid the currents, would not keep off the shore. We therefore made frequent tax and remained a long time at anchor. In the evening we found ourselves opposite to the Rio de Largatos, or the river of crocodiles, which announced to us are having made eighteen leagues since the day before. This was indeed a good day's work, but we had yet forty leagues of shore to coast along. At length we quitted these melancholy and tiresome shores for the open sea, and deposited all our anchors in the hold, but being immediately after, overtaken by a calm, we let down a small anchor. At eleven at night the wind blowing again from the southeast we made sail anew. It freshened soon to such a degree that from midnight to two o'clock we had advanced nearly twenty leagues, and the sea had again resumed an indigo blue color. Had the weather thus continued we should have required but four days to reach the Havana. This was the first influence of fair weather we had had since our departure from Vera Cruz. The circumstance delighted me so much as to serve as a counterbalance to the grief I experienced at the loss of fifteen or sixteen leaves of nopales in the space of three days. To leeward we described a wretched little boat. Soon we should have to see a number of considerable ships. Seas of our fortunate colonies, how different your appearance from that of this melancholy gulf. Numerous and rich vessels furrow your bosom in every direction, like our gay carriages on the magnificent roads of Paris, while the Gulf of Mexico is as bare of vessels as the crossroads which lead to its insulate and wretchedly poor habitations. Twenty-second July. At three in the morning the wind had much slackened, though from the twentieth we, notwithstanding, reckoned our progress to be fifty leagues, and consequently that we were beyond a shallow which extends the space of two leagues at the extremity of soundings in the direction north and south, and in latitude twenty-three degrees north longitude two hundred eighty-six degrees ten minutes from the meridian of Tenerife. In our reckoning we had erred, for by two in the afternoon a scream of horror from the deck called us to the fearful sight of this bank, which concealed under water extends itself right and left in branches through space of a league in breadth by three in length. Instantly we changed our tack, and on sounding had a bottom of reddish rock in forty-five fathoms, the rock apparently fragments of coral was blended with herbs. The shelf seemed of a reddish color in every part and gave a ruddy appearance to the water, fortunate was it for us that we encountered this shelf in the daytime. Had it been night we should have passed over it, and probably have perished, for though the sea does not break on this bank, and though it appears to be covered by a depth of water, the actual soundings upon it as well as the nature of the shelf are altogether unknown. In remembrance of our having escaped this danger we drank two bottles of excellent cider, of which the captain made me a present, and which was equal to champagne, and found our spirits heightened by the libation. Twenty-third July we passed the night without any danger. The south wind had blown, but the ship made no way. We caught a prodigious porpoise eight feet long by five and a half in diameter, its tail was two feet broad, the fish caught was a female, and cutting up no doubt some of the lactile ducts were separated, as the animal yielded more than a quart of very pure and remarkably white milk, one of the vessels from which this milk flowed was in diameter of equal breadth with my little finger. The womb in which I very distinctly saw the fallopian tubes, measured at the entrance of the vagina four inches and a half. The exterior orifice was very straight, callous wrinkled in folds, and of a substance and tissue so close that with difficulty could one introduce the little finger, nor did it appear susceptible of further expansion. The diameter of the vagina, easy of dilation, was an inch and a half, at the extremity of the vagina from the interior was a species of valve, resembling that of a sucker of a pump, very much wrinkled and highly capable of expansion, and the internal capacity of the canal it formed of inferior length to the vagina appeared to be of similar diameter and equally fit for distention. At the end was another sucker-like valve, which served as a door to a second similar receptacle of rather greater capacity than the former. Finally there was a third receptacle, closed by a similar valve, with the extremity of which the two fallopian tubes communicated. These were of a spongy substance and internally displayed an infinite number of vessels, some of which seemed lactile or lymphatic, others conductors of blood, but folded one within the other and crossing each other, so that at the first glance they might be mistaken for a mass of little worms rolled up together. In the stomach of the animal were several small fish, which had already attained that state of digestion, which made them look as if somewhat too much boiled. The ship was surrounded by a numerous troop of these animals, which, notwithstanding their enormous size, seemed in the water no larger than carp of eight or ten pounds weight. 24th July. In the night we had a light wind, but the day a dead comb. At the rising of the moon in the evening the wind again rose. 25th. At ten this morning we caught a shark. It happened to be the Squamas Tiburo of Linae. It was five feet long, had a fin at the anus, five lineary ports in the neck for the bronchier of the pulse, a large head and a broad neck, its teeth in the lower jaw triangular of similar breadth, but even sharper than lancets and about an inch in length. Of these teeth the animal has three rows. The most row turns back on the gums. Those of the jaw are subulated like the teeth of a pike, and as the others are an inch long. This animal is of hideous appearance in the water and shines by day as well as by night. It was harpooned with a javelin a foot long, attached to a pole of six feet. However hard its skin, which resists the point of a knife, it was not proof against this weapon. But the monster made less resistance in the water and fought less on deck than did the purpose we had caught before. It was surrounded as usual by the pilot fish, so-called on account of its constantly advancing in front of the shark. This fish is a kind of perch, transversely striped with alterations of black and yellow. Part of the shark was cooked and placed on table. But I could not prevail on myself to touch it. Notwithstanding it is a favorite dish with the people of Campeche, a predilection which speaks little for the delicacy of their taste, as there is abundance of fish in their roadstead of exquisite flavor. We afterwards caught another of such monstrous size that we needed tackle for lifting it on board. It was a female, but of a different species. This animal was ten feet four inches, French, in length, and from the back to the belly, measured two feet and a half. The skin of the back was perfectly blue. Of the belly, white, it had the same proportions as and resembled the one before described, with the following exceptions. The teeth of the upper jaw were curved towards the throat from the base. More over, sharp, pointed, but rounded like barley and jagged like the teeth of a saw. In the upper jaw it had but one row of teeth, but in the lower three. The head was not proportionately large, though somewhat of the same shape, being only more oblong, and somewhat less flattened than that of the male. The vagina was six inches in diameter and was not callous and enfolds as I had observed in the dolphin. The rectum terminated with the vagina in one common orifice, which may be regarded as the anus. By the side of the matrix were two prominences, which might be taken for teats, and of which the interior orifices terminated in the womb, but had no communicant ducts, whether glandular or lactile. The vagina was six inches long. With its extremity it divided into two cavities, two feet and a half in length, by a breadth of a foot, but susceptible of considerable distention. The orifice of either of these trunks was filled with a spermatic matter. The interior occupied by an extremely fine and spongy membrane attached throughout its whole length to the inward and upper part of the cavity and full of an infinite number of cells, each containing an egg with its yolk and an embryo or fetus an inch and a half long. The yolk of the egg was like but somewhat paler than that of a hen, but the musilaginous part, instead of being white, was of a greenish-yellow resembling bile. In order to extract an egg from one of the cells, it was necessary to break the cell. This cavity was assuredly an ovary. The substance of it was of a whitish color, transparent, lymphatic, greasy, and the membrane easy to break. Disgust prevented my counting the number of eggs, but in every ovary I certainly saw at least a hundred. I took some of the feti and preserved them in rum. I am not certain whether or no amphibious animals have two vagina, but it appears very evident from dissections that they have two ovaries. The shark was vivaporous, as I believe are all. Some of the feti, which I noticed my having preserved, I sent to Mr. Dalbetten. At noon we had a heavy fall of rain, and for two hours successive showers. This, by occasioning wind, enabled us to make a slight progress, but by five we were becalmed and continued so until the moon rose when it began to blow pretty fresh. 26 July. The wind of the night was succeeded by slight squalls, by which we advanced about half a league an hour. Some showers fell, but unattended by wind. The crew were uninterruptedly employed in maneuvering, so as to catch the least puff, but without success. Did we stand on either tack, the sails scarcely filled, and the ship barely obeyed the rudder? We fell in with two amazingly large pieces of floating timber loaded with birds. The pilot stated us by reckoning to be five and twenty leagues from the Florida soundings. Our latitude was twenty-five degrees. 27 July. The morning a dead calm, provoking quietude, discouraging inertia. Why must I thus be stayed, exclaimed I repeatedly, when it would be so grateful to my heart to reach our destination? My coach and Niels bought forth now a second time, and I had no more plants on which I could multiply them. One young leaf of a nopal, and one old one had just died. One half of another had been consumed by a Bellata Lucifera cockroach, and I saw that I ran great hazard of losing the new generation. However, I had the consolation to see two plants of vanilla throw out other branches. A number of bonitos swam about our ship. The name applied to this species of curafena is derived from the Spanish bonito, the augmentative of bueno, good, and signifies very good or excellent. We likewise saw some dorados and other species of curafena, the equivalent of lanay. One of these was caught by our men. From head to tail it measured four feet three inches, and at the stomach was a foot and a half in diameter. The sea contains no fish more beautiful, nor indeed another that equals this in beauty. The body is of a golden yellow, resplendent above a changeable green, marked with round spots an inch in diameter of an ultra marine blue. The fins and tail are a brilliant green. In calm weather, its shining colors render it distinguishable at the depth even of fifty feet. End of Section 20 Section 21 of Travels to Oaxaca by Nicholas Joseph Thierry de Menonville an anonymous translation from the French. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. 28 July We had some wind again at night, and the horizon was so much overcrowded that we apprehended a terrible storm. The wind we had, however, was adverse, and all night long we had our head to the south. In the morning we made a tack north, northeast, and were stopped by a calm. Ever since eight o'clock I had observed in the north, northeast division of the sky a cloud shaped like a horse's tail, spreading in the direction from north, northeast to south, southwest, and which appeared to be the precursor of calms in the same manner as the Procellaria, in my opinion, truly indicates wind. 29 July By midnight the calm ceased, and we made about five leagues in nine hours. From nine to eleven again calm, then wind till one when my horse's tail cloud appeared anew. We sounded but found no bottom. The pilot who fancied himself upon the Florida soundings was thus in error, and I the more vexed on reflecting that, although but sixty leagues from the Havana we had scarcely affected half our voyage. What tiresome navigation. 30 July At four in the evening of the 29th a wind sprang up, which, from its direction, we recognized for a brisk and regular gale. This continued till the morning of the 30th when the wind from the land succeeded. By observation we had now passed the Florida soundings, and all the night long were on the lookout to avoid Los Tortugas an assemblage of four or five small islands on the border of the soundings of the peninsula of Florida. All this day the sky was overcast, and we had several showers of rain. On visiting my no-pals I found three leaves dead. I cleaned all the others, and dusted them to remove the white powder with which they had become covered. I likewise exterminated all the Sylvester cochineals, which had intermingled with the fine, and which had smothered a considerable number. Finding myself overstocked with those cacti-avera crews, frightfully armed with thorns, I threw thirteen of them into the sea, after which I dried the Sylvester cochineals I had collected, in order to send them to my father and to M. Rostigan and Jesu. While thus cleansing my chests, or rather my gardens, I discovered three cha-cher-less, and a scallop-pendre-morsetans centipede. Fortunately these insects are no devourers of cochineal, or otherwise a-dew to my treasures. The employ I took was for some time and amusement to me, though fatiguing. 31st July After luffing up the whole night long to avoid the shore, at Daybreak we discovered the coast of Cuba and had advanced twenty leagues into the channel. The next day we should distinguish the Havana and two days after be out of the Bahama Channel, a prospect which assured us of a prompt return. In the meantime our crew insisted on entering the Havana, but the captain and myself could not consent to this without running the greatest risk, not only of our liberty, but even of our lives. We therefore determined on forcing obedience and, in case of any obstinate persistence on the part of the ship's company, to put the most muteness to death at a preconcerted signal. However violent such measures may appear, we must be considered, that it could be of no consequence to our crew what port they made, whereas it was important for us to avoid the Havana. Carried forward by the wind and current, by noon we were opposite by a onda, deep bay. For two days we had had the most charming weather possible for our voyage, but we had still four hundred leagues to sail and had not yet attained the end of our toils. In fact the wind increased and we had a terrible night. From the heavy shocks our small vessel received, I was fearful she would found her. We lowered the sweeps of the foresail and reefed the mainsail, spite of which the vessel rolled so dreadfully that we were constrained to sleep on the floor and inconvenience thanks to my apprenticeship to travels which was to me no great hardship. First August. This morning, spite of contrary winds, the currents having impelled us all night long, we distinguished the table land of Mariana and at four in the evening a fresh tack had carried us under the guns of the moral castle. From a distance I distinguished the country house of Senor Uet, the neighborhood and the Fort del Príncipe, the works of which he had shown me. The day was fine but a violent wind from the north northeast occasioned us at six in the evening to reef again our sails which we had spread to the gale and unlucky maneuver was near being fatal to us. All was noise and the men running about with precipitancy increased the evident alarm. And as for myself, I experienced the greater dread from the consideration of my being so rich, so truly rich possessing what I had so much coveted. I had no such fears on my voyage to Mexico. Second August. The wind keeping at northeast all the night through we had made but little way by nine in the morning. This morning, the first time I had ever seen a storm in the morning in America, I was witness to one most violent. The whole of the day and all the succeeding night was a period of toil and fatigue owing to our perpetual tax. At three o'clock we distinguished the pine tree of Matanza. The sea ran dreadfully high and we were the more loaf to enter the mouth of the Bahama Channel from our sails and rigging being in the worst possible condition. Here was a fresh evidence of Spanish idleness during the frequent calms we had experienced nothing would have been more easy than to have tightened the shrouds and for one of this precaution which I so strongly but ineffectually recommended we were obliged to lay to and lose much time. Third August. After numerous tax this day the sea constantly rough we were feigned at night to take shelter in the bay of Matanza. This bay is nearly a league over at its mouth by a depth of two. Three rivers or rather rivulets empty themselves into it. Towards evening we anchored about half cable length from the shore. The fort a square building flanked by four bastions is about 60 yards long. The curtain which fronts the sea is defended by a crownwork which seemed in excellent condition. I entered it as a conqueror and found no sentinels either at the barrier of the covered way or at the gates so that without interruption I marched to the parade where I found six soldiers playing at cards these without leaving their game or asking me any questions suffered me as quietly to depart as I had entered. However well fortified this castle it seems to me of no other utility than to prevent a landing and hinder merchant ships or privateers from taking in water for it could not certainly withstand the fire of a 64 gun ship. Matanza the place of slaughter which lies at the bottom of the bay is an ill built spot in a low marshy moist and unhealthy position. It has no trade nor any cultivation about it. The people who inhabit it present the most disgusting spectacle and render it the scene of the most abominable filth and frightful misery. They are covered with crabs of a monstrous size which prey on them and which in turn serve them for food. The village stands at the union of two small streams which serve to float down timber for the Havana from the interior of the country. A wretched redoubt of stone denominated a castle stands in front of the village and defends the bottom of the bay. We put into this miserable place merely for the purpose of tightening our shrouds and taking in water but the desertion of a sailor and the drunkenness of the pilot delayed us two days. Fifth August This day I bought at Matanza six cardinals, two siris, two larks and eight other very pretty birds of the names of which I am ignorant. I brought thence likewise a number of leaves of a cactus called in our colonies La Raqueta Espanyol and the value of which I intended to prove by my cochineals. Again had I the misfortune to see three leaves of my nopales wrought what losses, what regret at not having reached Santa Domingo. Sixth and seventh August at length we weighed anchor and left the bay. On the seventh we were twenty leagues from Matanza. Our wretched of a pilot again steered a wrong course owing to which we did not reach los marteres before night which we ought to have made in the morning in order to reach the mouth of the Bahama Channel. Eighth August In consequence of the error of the pilot we were obliged to luff up all night in a dreadful sea and it was not till the morning of the eighth at five o'clock we took a direct course northeast with a wind from the southeast. The currents had carried us on so far that by noon we were in latitude twenty-six degrees six minutes. Thus notwithstanding the wind in course of the night we had advanced forty-two leagues. The sea ran high the whole day but it became calmer in the evening. We had three separate showers. This day we caught a booby, the plumage of which was brown without any spots. Its beak blew, its eyes fiery and capable of direction with ease towards the beak which renders it a frightful aspect. Its legs and feet of a chamois color. After examination I gave it liberty. Ninth August Had the wind been favorable we might this day have got out of the channel but blowing from the northeast we were obliged to luff up through the night steering on a northwest and southeast course for fear of running on the shoals right and left. The sun rose with a horizon covered with clouds a prognostic in these seas of bad weather which failed not in this instance. We had a dreadful sea, the winds suffocating, the waves of monstrous size dashing against the ship and the natural clash occasioned by the opposition of the wind and current made a terrible noise. We constantly luffed up in the same direction but still advanced thirty-five leagues. Such indeed is the force of the current that however high the sea may run it never breaks with that surge noticed in other seas but each wave impelled variously and in adverse direction by the wind and current and with equal power by each rises in a pyramidal form and sinks with a crash on its base it may hence readily be conjectured how great the labor and fatigue to which the ship and its crew in these parts are exposed. In order to form an opinion of the origin and effect of the famous current which carried us along we must reflect that this channel is the vast outlet of the waters of Honduras and Mexico and the more southern seas as well as of the accumulations these gulfs receive from the rivers Amazon Orinoco, Magdalena, Mississippi and an infinity of others of inferior volume. The waters of these seas and rivers confined by the barrier formed by the archipelago of the Caribbean islands east and west rush forward to the channel of Bahama the deepest of all no doubt formed by the different islands and thus find an exit into the North Sea. In a dead calm this current runs four knots an hour with a contrary wind four and a half. The Trident, a Spanish ship of war of sixty guns was on one occasion adversely carried from before the Havana notwithstanding she had the wind abaffed and all sails were set as far as off the coast of Carolina without being able to stem the flood. The sea was so frightful during the night that we merely hoisted the mainsail the wind was east our direction north and according to my computation the current ran westerly this caused me to imagine that by drifting we should run towards the coast thrice did I feel an inclination to make an observation to the captain and as often was I prevented from the fear of passing for an importunate and ridiculous interferer it was not long however before I had to repent of my silly modesty for by two in the morning the captain or rather terror personified came to awaken me he was in tears and imperfect despair what is the matter captain we are lost we are lost how so? what is the matter? I find we have soundings in fact the plummet had been thrown and forty fathoms was the result the wind as well as the current bearing on shore patience patience said I I went on deck and now assuming more boldness and confidence I advised steering south west the captain the pilot and mate agreed with me in opinion we tacked and in less than two hours were out of the soundings 10th August the sun rose lowering with a sadly portentous sombrezo of thick black clouds a number of gulls and other sea birds flew towards shore at the site my birds picked at their food hastily and the song of my larks infallible basandras foreboded a perilous day and in fact squalls and hurricanes succeeded one the other with the greatest rapidity I was fearful we should not be able to take an observation but fortunately a gleam of sunshine allowed us to ascertain our latitude which was 29 degrees thus as I told the captain would be found the case the vessel, spite of opposite winds had by the mere force of the current drifted more than twenty leagues and carried us through the channel now was the time to steer for Europe had we that course to take but we were bound for Santa Domingo where not only on my own account but also on account of my insects which had light only once in four and twenty hours I was so anxious to arrive 11th August the violence of the wind gradually abated the sea was pretty calm the heavens serene but the currents had born us forty four leagues to the north north east the wind veered towards the south in such a manner as to premise we might be able to shape an eastward course after which we should only have to lessen our latitude in order to reach Santa Domingo where with the wind abaffed we might arrive in a week we found ourselves this day in thirty one degrees thirty minutes on parallel with Charleston, Carolina at four in the afternoon caught a bird called by the Spaniards Tinofa, the Laris of Lanay 12th August calms prevailed till evening the little wind occasionally breathed was from the south west we steered south east by east at three the wind freshened in the same quarter and we directed our course south east 13th and 14th August the wind gradually increased on the 13th so as to allow our making four knots an hour on the 14th at noon we were be calmed but a gentle gale sprang up at four our latitude this last day was thirty one degrees six minutes the whole of the 14th we spread all our canvas to catch the little wind that blew our sailors again caught a tiburo their avidity for this wretched fish characterizes at once their laziness and want of taste being easy to catch they prefer it to the dorado a fish exquisitely delicate but which would have required more pains to take they devoured the whole of it in one day notwithstanding it weighed upwards of thirty pounds 15th August a light wind from the south west advanced us two or three leagues in course of the night but was succeeded the whole of the following day by a dead calm a cruel calm which threatened the frustration of all my toilsome tedious labors for more of my no-pawls I found this day had perished one of them with three young leaves and an ample progeny of young cochineal what on this as on similar occasions surprised me greatly my misfortunes proceeded constantly from the plants too weak to resist the injuries of the sea air and their confinement and not from the insects as I the most expected but which proved to be extremely patient and an astonishingly hardy not one of them died I had therefore considerable reason for self-congratulation on having collected three other species of cacti at Campeche all of which afforded nourishment to the cochineal though more sparingly and with less advantage than the no-pawl at sunset the wind constantly feeble after veering from the south west to the southeast sank into a calm 16th August the wind still southeast after luffing some time we steered nearly south west advancing about half a league an hour at 11 at night the wind freshened 17th August sought to leeward a frigate and another armed vessel in company with four ships under colors with red and white stripes and a number of light us we hoisted a red flag with a burgundy cross and fired a gun they made sail for us and the frigate, mounting 30 guns and commanded by Captain Cherry from New York placed us between him and his galley in which were eight men with four canonades ready, leveled and with matches lighted she hailed us in English sailed round our stern to our starboard side the frigate put out her boat with an officer and six men on board but the officer, understanding no other than the English language could but give us the longitude which was 75 degrees 17 minutes west of Paris we showed him our passports from Vera Cruz and our register and after signifying that we came from that port we had some decisions such as potatoes, bananas and Kallalon with which he left us perfectly satisfied what however is singular enough we omitted to inquire the name of the commander of this small squadron and which party it espoused that of the English or the rebels we were however led to conclude that it was the former from his telling us his vessel was now called the Daphne the four vessels under escort all of them mounted royals the first I had ever seen we continued our course northeast the full moon on rising brought us wind with showers and I constantly found that every change of the moon was accompanied by similar variations 18th August the last observation was more clearly verified this day at three in the morning we had a brisk wind and rain and successive showers coming from every point of the compass the whole of the morning we were crossed by contrary winds and obliged to tack every instant at noon the wind increased blowing first from the south and afterwards from the southwest a gloomy sky now threatened a storm the wind still increased the rain fell we dimmed it right to lower our stay sail and reef the mainsail but we lost much precious time by our vain alarm for the storm blew over and the night was fine from noon we had advanced about a league and a half an hour and caught a fish the Gasteros Terros of Lene 19th August a cursed calm from three in the morning at this hour and till the next day we had wind from the south and steered northeast by east advancing but three knots an hour a colony of small migratory fish followed us on the right and left of our rudder consisting of perch Gasteros Terros and pilot fish these shoals of inhabitants from a different hemisphere which are occasionally seen in different seas resemble so many wandering colonies seeking an asylum do they encounter a ship to them it seems a rock a bank an island a shore they constantly find food in its percentage an exertion in swimming unnecessarily born as they are in its wake at length the vessel arrives and the colonies shift to their quarters 20th August the wind blowing northeast by east we steered southwest by west it afterwards veered to the south wavering we made scarcely three knots an hour this slow sailing is little less vexatious than a calm but more advantageous we had today no rain the pilot reckoned us in the latitude 33 degrees 21 minutes so that we were yet 250 leagues at least from our destination the land we sought for thus seeming to fly before us indeed it appeared to me that the captain and pilot had acted very wrong in suffering us to be carried by the current from the Bahama channel to so high a latitude as 33 degrees I make no doubt that the elevation of our latitude above what we need to have made it was the cause of our being subject to all the calms and contrary winds we had experienced as if we had avoided the current in latitude 28 degrees we should have been secure of the trade winds much earlier and at any rate if we had coasted by the lukaios should have been certain of land breezes the captain in answer to my observation pretended that on the day we were in latitude 28 degrees the wind was unfavorable to our making eastward but this lame excuse was contradicted by my journal the wind on that day was east and by steering south the composite action of the east wind and the current which ran to the north would assuredly have borne us in a southeast direction I had to regret the loss of other no-pals and I felt it the morbidity from the circumstance of the impossibility of fixing the insects attached to the dead plants on any other as will appear in the appendix wherein I treat of the cochineal insect I was perfectly in despair and almost gave up the hope of being able to transport my little colony in health and safety to Santa Domingo the cause of which I could only attribute to the length of our voyage and the want of friends which had prevented my making more favorable arrangements End of section 21 section 22 of Travels to Oaxaca by Nicholas Joseph Thierry de Menonville an anonymous translation from the French this Libre Vox recording is in the public domain 21st August this day the wind which during the night had blown but gently northeast by east at six in the morning veering to the northeast blue with greater force and we advanced five or at least four knots an hour and found ourselves in the longitude of Cape Nicholas mole latitude 29 degrees 49 minutes north the sky was beautiful a line of clouds branching in slips fine as the flax which is spun from the disc staff in the direction north and south indicated at length the speedy presence of the winds for which we sighed should they continue favorable but only six days they will carry us to Cape Francois I observed Mercury an hour before sunrise in the constellation Cancer 22nd August while running south southwest at the rate of five or six knots an hour the wind increased to such a degree that by five in the evening we were obliged to lower our tops and reef our mainsail at noon by observation we were in latitude 28 degrees 44 minutes and in the longitude of Tortuga the sun rose through a red and lowering atmosphere at setting it was entirely obscured by vapor which covered the horizon in every direction at 10 notwithstanding we had lowered our tops and top glants we sailed at the rate of five knots the waves beat with a deep and hollow sound against the sides of the vessel and shook it by the violence of their percussion 20 times did they break over the deck in a violent rain falling at the same time we were feigned to close ways and put up all our deadlights I endeavored to sleep but in vain one could rest nowhere every billow through the ship on her beam ends and not anything could be kept steady on the deck the sea ran dreadfully high our fragile vessel was now raised a hundred feet from the level and now engulfed in a hollow abyss all the noise of the winds and the rigging was equal to the roaring of thunder I wished much to contemplate this horrible scene but there was no keeping the deck and what in fact could be seen in a night as dark as a rebus we distributed brandy to our men who seemed in spirits and sang in the midst of the storm while we were prey to the most alarming apprehensions at first I was inclined from this circumstance to conclude that the danger was not imminent but the solace of this fancy endured but for a moment I reflected on the nature of these beings so differently modified to us and blamed my first conclusion 23rd August day beamed yet brought us no alleviation for the tempest raged with undiminished violence the impetuous winds howled in the shrouds dark clouds overhanging obscured the whole horizon and the sea ran mountain high our crew were harassed to death the captain dejected our rigging slack and our sails in shivers everything in short made us dread exceedingly a night like that we passed while spite of some reddened clouds in the west toward six in the evening which we were willing to hail as a presage of a calm abatement of the tempest the winds seemed to redouble their force and a heavy storm of rain continued till midnight 24th August this morning the sea still ran very high the violence of the wind had somewhat abated it blew now from the southeast on rising I distinguished a gleam of sunshine shooting through some light clouds and as the day advanced the sun showed itself at intervals and enabled us to take the latitude at noon which we found to be 26 degrees 28 minutes our longitude was that of the western Cape of Maguana so that notwithstanding the storm as I had premised we had lost nothing of our longitude and on the other hand had diminished our latitude by nearly 50 leagues we steered east southeast certainly a bad course for had we directed the vessel to the south we should in two days had Maguana under our lee and in three days after might have made the Cape from which we were only 120 leagues distant though I have made seven voyages at sea I never was witness to such dreadful weather unaccompanied with lightning and thunder the storm had driven from us to the south of colonists which surrounded our rudder for of all their number remained only two small white pilot fish and two large black perch my parrot and indeed all my birds foreboded the bad weather by their agitation fluttering and louder and horser notes than usual I lost none of them my halap suffered so much as to make me apprehensive of its perishing insects and no pauls received less injury than I expected my first object was the preservation of the former for I conjectured that I might meet with no pauls in the king's garden 25th August the wind blowing east northeast we steered south till noon when it appeared by observation we were in 26 degrees 25 minutes and on the meridian of the kaikos the winds variable and light throughout the day 26th August calms and contrary winds again fettered us to these seas it seemed as if we were never to be released from our captivity and as though the captain and pilot were in league to prolong it the last fault they were guilty of was in not making way to leeward by a west southwest course we should it is true by this means have gotten lower down than Maguana but by help of the southwest winds which afterwards prevailed we should have recovered our longitude and have advanced 80 leagues on our way it certainly was most vexatious to have been upwards of 3 months at sea and have run nearly 2,000 leagues to fetch a place but 500 leagues in a direct line from our point of departure at night however we had westwardly winds but so feeble as also on the two following days that we scarcely proceeded at the rate of a league and hour this however was a better fate than befellas on the 29th when we had a dead calm 27th August at 9 in the morning this day we fancied we discovered a shelf a white band 30 troughs 190 feet English long was seen nearly in the direction we were sailing was this the trunk of some enormous tree such as is sometimes seen in the Gulf of Mexico was it some vessel which had capsized rounded was seen a number of sharks and skimming about flocked a variety of seafowl whence I conjectured it to be the carcass of some vast monster of the sea the captain against my will as I regretted the loss of so much precious time steered towards it and approached it within the distance of 30 fathoms but at a hundred we already distinguished what it was by the putrid smell it exhaled one single piece of this leviathan appeared to be 15 fathoms long besides which were 7 or 8 continuous but disjunct pieces from 2 to 3 fathoms in length the breadth of it was 7 fathoms and its thickness besides about 3 feet which floated out of the water from 6 to 7 fathoms it had been rotting no doubt a considerable length of time for it resembled nothing but a hide blown out misshapen and without trace of any form the entrails floating on the water like the filaments of moluske extended in network the space of 80 feet many separate parts were seen about it at the distance of about 20 fathoms from the main piece we clearly distinguished the hole to be rotten flesh not withstanding a greasy froth of dazzling whiteness floated all around some parts of the carcass were of a blackish hue and gore like the hole undulated irregularly with the water whence I concluded that the bony frame was dissolved and that of course the monster must have been long dead but again through what enormous animal could these vast relics have belonged this is the province of our illustrious Pliny to decide of him to whom is known the whole surprising volume of nature's grand productions this day the observation we gave for our latitude 26 degrees 21 minutes our longitude was the meridian of fort daffin 30th august our latitude this day was 25 degrees 12 minutes north our longitude that of the kaikos at six in the evening a gale sprang up during the calm a flock of birds frigates gulls larry and boobies availed themselves of the pursuit on the part of dorados and bonitos of the flying fish to make them in turn their prey the sea was beaten and covered for the space of a league by the flying fish alternately in the air and the sea by the bonitos who pursued them and the winged tribes which caught these latter from the surface who has ever seen the king hunting in the plains of koise mohoosh or syngtani here game enclosed is driven from all quarters as into an enclosure the hunt is a hunt no longer but the field of sport a slaughter house such was the hunt of the dorados and birds the aspect of heaven was through the whole night frightful here dingy clouds their gray were furrowed by incessant flashes of vivid lightning the wind southeast our course southwest by west first august this day we were unable to take an observation the sky still overcast the wind less strong after passing to the south again veered to the east an unfortunate swell from the north had prevented our enjoying rest or comfort whether by day or night for four proceeding days first september this day at noon we found ourselves 25 degrees 24 minutes the wind constantly east southeast seemed regular and continuous we hoped to see maria juana as otherwise maguana but not succeeding in our expectations laid too for fear of running on the shallows some few drops of rain fell this day second september this morning we proceeded on our course at five o'clock and at six hoisted our square sail or sail of fortune steering west southwest to make the land at length at eight o'clock we perceived to windward some extremely low lands bounded by reefs on which the surges breaking rose to upwards of twenty feet these at least we computed as at four leagues off the breakers resembled the latin sails of fishermen we thought these islands the kaikos and flattered ourselves with reaching the cape next day the land however turned out to be maguana as was verified notwithstanding the different opinion of the pilot and captain our joint observation showing the latitude 22 degrees 20 minutes the exact latitude of maguana so many errors on the part of our conductors encouraged me to offer advice I recommended the captain to run on opposite tacks in order to reach the enogwas to windward seeing we were steering direct upon them he heeded me not but laid to what was the consequence at eight in the morning we saw little enogwa it was mistaken for the kaikos and we did not change our course at noon land land was called out some said it was tortuga and neither were in the right it was greater enogwa along which we were obliged to coast from east to west the whole afternoon in order to double it to leeward with the disadvantage of a wind in opposition to the currents in coasting along greater enogwa entirely surrounded by shoals far from three to four leagues from shore we saw bottom ahead terror now was general and the clamour usual on similar occasions with spaniards served only to increase the alarm scarcely had we time to tack about this would indeed have been a wreck in port and thanks to the drunkenness and inexperience of our pilot who not was standing reckoned himself a very clever fellow we were in this instance placed in greater danger than we had experienced before throughout the whole three months of our voyage fourth september the wind blowing strong from the north east we kept under sail all night and in the morning by ten got sight of the headlands of santa domingo at noon i recognized point general ball and cape foo to the southward i was exceedingly affected for i had reckoned on reaching which it now was impossible we should do while the wind blew from the quarter it did the vexation prevented my eating any dinner the captain noticing this inquired the cause with much solicitude and kindness i seized the opportunity presented to me by this question to entreat him to land me at saint nicolas mole offering to pay all the charges of anchorage and port dues his compliance might occasion received even to tears at the thought he said that the moment was at hand when we must separate what observed i did you then imagine we were never to part have we not through the whole course of life constantly before us examples of separations in all men from every object of their fondest attachment separations which every one of them but precursors of others do we not see that nothing is durable nothing stable alas my friend this is an established law to which of necessity we must submit either with good will or per force you have been kind to me in extreme the task your generous heart prescribed has been most amply accomplished would to heaven i were able to render you still more essential services yes my future talk shall be to show my gratitude by every possible means the captain listened to reason and readily agreed to steer for the mole though still in melancholy mood soon however the pleasure of being on land earlier than he expected and of not having to buff it with the waves for two or three days longer which possibly it would take him to reach the cape in case the wind should not become more favorable unruffled his brow and we entered the bay of the mole each like gay and cheerful as for me i was so pleasing ly surprised to see myself on senator mingle that i rubbed my eyes and dreaded to wake from a dream my first care was to wait upon this year de la valetierre the king's lieutenant at saint nicholas mole i informed him who i was and what the object of the voyage i had was the captain he loaded me with kindness sought how to render me service by every means and punished according to their merits some sailors who had given me cause of complaint i had here also the good fortune of forming an acquaintance with misuse dunterville and do one war of the engineer service who showed me the greatest civility i now wrote to the intendant of the colony but to reach port-a-prince without waiting his answer i availed myself of the offer of monsieur de vassal to repair thither in a king's galley which he commanded we sailed on the seventeenth september and on the twenty fifth arrived at port-a-prince the intendant gave me a most kind and gracious reception he ordered payment of the two thousand levers due to me according to the direction of the minister and more over gave me an appointment under himself with a thousand crowns a year the pleasure i felt at scene my friends again the fatigue i endured on my voyage the change of air and diet all combined occasioned me a sickness of more than six weeks duration as soon as i recovered i wrote to my parents and friends i forwarded a relation of my voyage to the minister and dispatched the first specimens of the plants i had brought from mexico for the king's garden but all these were lost with captain jillay on his return from the cape whether he had come in the postillion of rochelle with the first intelligence of an embargo my spanish captain from whom i thoughtlessly separated myself at the mole while he was careening his boat without taking leave revenge himself of my responsibility in a manner highly honorable to himself by sending me back a bill for fifty four dollars which i sent him before my departure that is to say fourteen to repay advances he had made me and forty which i held at my duty to pay him for my passage i much regretted and still remember with the live list affection this excellent and obliging young man whom i never can think of without my attitude as since our parting i have not once heard from him not withstanding his promise of corresponding with me may i never hear but good news of this youth to whom i was indebted for my return however accompanied as it happened to be with tedious toil and danger i did not enjoy the sweet arising from the success of my expedition without some bitter mingled in the cup i had waited a matter of public utility and could but become a but for the arrows of envy still the shaft which struck the deepest and caused the greatest pain was an insinuation attributed to have been circulated by the Spanish captain by a man so truly my friend that i had stolen my cochineal it was however impossible that any such like charge could have been made by the captain for separate from his being most affectionately attached to me i never had told him so but on the contrary as was the truth that i had bought them at four different places in Mexico and i have such opinion of his honor as to be secure he could as little be guilty of falsehood as of calumny if it be said however that the captain might have committed such a double outrage for his own defense and in order to disculpate himself in the eyes of the Spanish nation for being an accomplice in carrying off the prize i must answer that while at the cape he could not have been in a predicament requiring such procedure nor even if he were in his own country do i believe that any charge in such account could be alleged against him since however severe the laws which prohibit the exportation of dry cochineal there are none which forbid the transport of it alive there is not therefore the slightest likelihood that this dart was lanced by the captain no it was the poisoned javelin of a secret enemy some foe to my tranquility or rather of some misgrants who look on all that is meritorious only with invidious eyes and after all can it be imagined if it had been impossible for me to have purchased this precious insect an insect i was so anxious to naturalize in our country that i should endure the abortion of my project on account of a false and ridiculous delicacy most assuredly i should not any more than a savage coming to france in search of grain with which to enrich the land of his birth after such an avowal doubtless my testimony will admit of credit but more maybe said have i at any time passed with anyone for a fool or an idiot and should i deserve to be esteemed other in stealing a matter precious certainly in my eyes but which might be obtained for a mere trifle and thus exposing myself to the attacks the mortification the obliquy which must naturally follow in fact what at the first custom house could i have answered on being interrogated how i had got this production a lie in such case would not have been less dangerous than a confession hurtful i should have been exposed to the loss of the whole fruit of my travels and in the eyes of spaniards have incurred in a program more painful to me than death i think i do not deceive myself with respect to right and wrong to have stolen the cochineal would in my opinion have been an act of social injustice as far as regards the cultivator whose garden i might have despoiled an injustice which i sought and i think successfully for by buying it i only committed a wrong against the nation from whom i bore it away now in my position i regarded myself as the prototype of a different nation on whom nature has bestowed the same prerogatives the same right to her favors and if after offering payment for the cochineal at whatever price might have been imposed all the Indians to whom i might have applied had combined to refuse my request i should then have considered myself as in case of war absolved from the restrictions of social laws but in infringing them in carrying away by stratagem what had been denied to in treaty i would have compensated the individual towards whom i might be guilty of a real injury and have covered with piasters the ground from which i bore off my prize from the sentiments which thus with the utmost sincerity i have exposed let it be judged if i have ought wherewith to reproach myself where i to decide from my heart should i gain acquittal but on a subject so delicate and involving myself i must leave with others to decide end of section 2 and of travels to wahaka by nicholas joseph teary de menonville an anonymous translation from the french read for liber vox by sue anderson