Page 163
An.1684
Spanish Pilots.
cover'd with Trees of divers sorts: So that failing by this Coast you see nothing but a vast Grove or Wood; which is so much the more pleasant, be- cause the Trees are of several forms, both in respect to their growth and colour.
Our design was, as I said in my last Chapter, to search for Canoas in some River where the Spaniards have neither Settlement nor Trade with the native Indians. We had Spanish Pilots, and Indians bred un- der the Spaniards, who were able to carry us into any Harbour or River belonging to the Spaniards, but were wholly unacquainted with those Rivers which are not frequented by the Spaniards. There are many such unfrequented Rivers between Plata and Panama; indeed all the way from the Line to the Gulf of St. Michaels, or even to Panama it- self, the Coast is not inhabited by any Spaniards, nor are the Indians that inhabit there any way un- der their subjection : except only near the Isle Gal- lo, where on the banks of a Gold River or two there are some Spaniards who work there to find Gold.
Now our Pilots being at a loss on these less fre- quented Coasts, we supply'd that defect out of the Spanish Pilot books, which we took in their Ships: These we found by experience to be very good Guides. Yet nevertheless the Country in many places by the Sea being low, and full of openings, Creeks and Rivers, it is somewhat difficult to find any particular River that a man designs to go to, where he is not well acquainted.
This however could be no discouragement to us ; for one River might probably be as well furnished with Indian Canoas as another; and if we found them, it was to us indifferent where; yet we pitcht on the River Saint Jago, not because there were not other Rivers as large and as likely to be inhabited with Indians as it; but because that River was not far from Gallo, an Island where our Ships could an- chor