5 g DAMPIER’s ACCOUNT OF THE PHILIPPINES *

but got a pound or two of it; efpecially fuch as were troubled with old ulcers, whofound great benefit by it. This man that difcovered thefe leaves here, had his firftknowledge of them in the Ifthmus of Darien; he having had his receipt from one ofthe Indians there : and he had been afhore in divers places fince, purpofely to feekthefe leaves, but did never find any but here. Among the many vaft trees hereaboutsthere was one exceeded all the reft. This Captain Read caufed to. be cut down, inorder to make a canoe, having loft our boats, all but one fmall one, in the late florins :fo fix lufty men, who had been logwood-cutters in the bays of Campeachy and Hon-duras (as Captain Read himfelf and many more of us had), and fo were very expertat this work, undertook to fell it, taking their turn, three always cutting together;and they were one whole day, and half the next before they got it down. This treethough it grew in a wood, was yet eighteen feet in circumference, and forty-four feetof clean body, without knot or branch : and even there it had no more than one ortwo branches, and then ran clear again ten feet higher ; there it fpread itfelf into manygreat limbs and branches, like an oak, very green and flourifhing : yet it was perifhedat the heart, which marred it for the fervice intended.

So leaving it, and having no more bufinefs here, we weighed and went from .hencethe next day, it being the 29th day of November. While we lay here we had fometornadoes, one or two every day, and pretty frefh land winds which were at weft. Thefea breezes are fmall and uncertain, fometimes out of the north-eaft, and fo veeringabout to the eaft and fouth-eaft. We had the wind at north-eaft when we weighed,and we fleered off fouth-fouth-weft. In the afternoon we faw a fhoal a-head of us,,and altered our courfe to the fouth-fouth-eaft. In the evening at four o’clock we wereclofe by another great fhoal; therefore we tacked, and flood in for the ifland Celebes again, for fear of running on fome of the fhoals in the night. By day a man mightavoid them well enough, for they had all beacons on them, like huts built on tall polls,above high-water mark, probably fet up by the natives of the ifland Celebes , or thofeof fome other neighbouring iflands; and I never faw any fuch elfewhere. In the nightWe had a violent tornado out of the fouth-weft, which lafted about an hour.

The thirtieth day we had a frefh land wind, and fleered away fouth, pafling betweenthe two fhoals, which we faw the day before. Thefe fhoals lie in latitude three degrees;fouth, and about ten leagues from the ifland Celebes . Being paft them, the wind diedaway, and we lay becalmed till the afternoon: then we had a hard tornado out of thefouth-weft, and towards the evening we faw two or three fpouts, the firft I had feenfince I came into the Eaft Indies; in the Weft Indies I had often met with them. Afpout is a fmall ragged piece or part of a cloud hanging down about a yard, feeminglyfrom the blackeft part thereof. Commonly it hangs down Hoping from thence, orfometimes appearing with a fmall bending or elbow in the middle. I never faw anyhang perpendicularly down. It is fmall at the lower end, feeming no bigger than one’s:arm, but ftill fuller towards the cloud, from whence it proceeds.

When the furface of the fea begins to work, you fhall fee the water, for about onehundred paces in circumference, foam and move gently round till the whirling motionincreafes; and then it flies upward in a pillar about one hundred paces in compafs atthe bottom, but Ieffening gradually upwards to the fmallnefs of the fpout itfelf therewhere it reacheth the lower end of the fpout, through which the rifing fea-water feemsto be conveyed into the clouds. This vifibly appears by the clouds increafing in bulkand blacknefs. Then you fhall prefently fee the cloud drive along, although beforeit feemed to be without any motion 5 the fpout alfo keeping the fame courfe with the

5 cloud,