Note (return) — Chapter XII · VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD, BY CAPTAIN GEORGE SHELVOCKE, IN 1719-1722.

We discovered an island on the 21st, 110 leagues W.S.W. from Cape St Lucas,1 but as the wind blew fresh, I could not get nearer than two leagues, and did not think proper to lose time in laying-to in the night. It seemed seven or eight leagues in circumference, having a large bay on its S.W. side, in the middle of which was a high rock. My people named this Shelvocke's island. From hence we shelved, down to the latitude of 13° N. but were stopped two or three days by westerly winds, which we did not expect in this sea, especially as being now five or six hundred leagues from the land. The trade-wind again returning, we kept in the parallel of 13° N. except when we judged that we were near the shoals of St Bartholomew, and then haled a degree more to the north, and so continued for sixty or seventy leagues. A fortnight after leaving California, my people, who had hitherto enjoyed uninterrupted health, began to be afflicted with sickness, particularly affecting their stomachs, owing doubtless to the great quantities of sweetmeats they were continually devouring, and also to oar common food, chiefly composed of puddings made of coarse flour and sweetmeats, mixed up with sea-water, together with jerked beef, most of which was destroyed by ants, cockroaches, and other vermin. We could not afford to boil the kettle once in the whole passage with fresh water, so that the crew became reduced to a very melancholy state by scurvy and other distempers. The sickness increased upon us every day, so that we once buried two in one day, the armourer and carpenter's, mate, besides whom the carpenter, gunner, and several others died, together with some of our best negroes.