The 25th was employed in filling water and over-hauling the rigging, and at low water the carpenters finished the repairs under the larboard bow, and every other place which the tide would permit them to come at; some casks were then lashed under her bows to facilitate her floating, and at night, when it was high water, we endeavoured to heave her off, but without success, for some of the casks that were lashed to her gave way.

The morning of the 26th was employed in getting more casks ready for the same purpose, and in the afternoon we lashed no less than eight and thirty under the ship’s bottom, but to our great mortification these also proved ineffectual, and we found ourselves reduced to the necessity of waiting till the next spring-tide.

This day, some of our gentlemen who had made an excursion into the woods, brought home the leaves of a plant, which was thought to be the same that in the West Indies is called coccos, but upon trial, the roots proved too acrid to be eaten; the leaves however were little inferior to spinnage. In the place where these plants were gathered, grew plenty of the cabbage trees which have occasionally been mentioned before, a kind of wild plantain, the fruit of which was so full of stones as scarcely to be eatable; another fruit was also found about the size of a small golden pippin, but flatter, and of a deep purple colour: when first gathered from the tree it was very hard and disagreeable, but after being kept a few days became soft, and tasted very much like an indifferent damascene.

The next morning we began to move some of the weight from the after-part of the ship forward, to ease her; in the mean time the armourer continued to work at the forge, the carpenter was busy in caulking the ship, and the men employed in filling water and over-hauling the rigging: in the forenoon, I went myself in the pinnace up the harbour, and made several hauls with the seine, but caught only between twenty and thirty fish, which were given to the sick and convalescent.

Voyaging Accounts