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let myself fall out of the tree. Fortunately I was not hurt, but got up and ran as fast as I could, but one more stung me before I got clear of them.
After selling a great deal of different goods we went again to the Mosquito Coast. Here we bought some turtle shells. We wanted more, so we went out to some small islands called Mosquito Keys about ten miles from the coast.
The Indians catch the turtles in this way; they lie in wait for them at night when they come on the sand to lay their eggs. They turn them on their backs so they cannot get away. They take only the outer shell, then let them go, as they cannot be eaten. In about three years the shell will grow again.
There is not a tree on the islands. They are so flat one cannot see them until one is right on them. We went ashore on one, and never have I seen so many sea birds. It was about impossible to set a foot down without stepping on a nest. It was impossible to throw a stone without hitting a bird. We broke some eggs, but they had young in them. We cleared off a place about six yards square, and went away. In a couple of hours we went back and gathered over two hundred newly laid eggs.
We sailed up and down the coast for about a month. We went into North Bluefields to have some copper plates put on the ship before we went home. From Corn Island we bought thirty hogs that the captain wanted to give to the Spaniards that traded for him, so he himself could get his hogs from there. They were put in a pen near the water, and every night an alligator came and took one of them. Fix the pen as we would, he would still gnaw through and take his pig. I think there were two alligators - one big and one little one. The little one came up too high on shore one day, and the Indians killed it. It was an ugly brute about eight feet long. Its teeth were an inch long and so far apart it could bite a rope in two.
The big alligator was often a target for us, but even if we hit him, it did not hurt his tough hide. We could get pretty near to him by imitating a pig's squeal. Still, a hog disappeared every night. Finally Capt. Knapp asked me to watch the next night and shoot it when it came up.
I loaded an old musket with two balls, and sat in the door of the Spaniard's house which was close to the pig pen. I sat there a couple of hours and finally went to sleep. I was awakened by the squealing of the pigs, and saw the alligator about to dig itself in to get one. In my first scare I sprang into the house and slammed the door. When I ventured out it was gone, frightened by the noise of the door. I shot my gun off into the water, and brazenly told the next morning that I had killed it. I was almost ready to believe it myself, as we did not see it for four days, but on the fifth day it came back to my great humiliation.
After the ship was repaired and we had taken on our ballast we left the rest of the load with the Spaniard so he could trade with it while Knapp was in America. Then we went to St. Bias for coconuts, and from there to Baltimore.
On the way we caught the largest shark I have ever seen, in a net which we let fall over it. It was so large we could not hoist him on board, so we cut off his tail and let him go.
John Bull, at St. Bias, had coconuts enough to load us. He had kept a very correct account by notching a stick for every 10 X 10. None of them can count further than ten. The Indians brought the nuts on board, so we had nothing to
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