Page:A general history of the pyrates, from their first rise and settlement in the Island of Providence, to the present time (1724).djvu/349

 upply’d by Rice, of which they had a great Quantity aboard: This was boyl’d and queez’d dry, and o eat with the Turtle.

There are three or four Sorts of thee Creatures in the Wet-Indies, the larget of which will weight 150 or 200 Pound Weight or more, but thoe that were found upon this Iland were of the mallet Kind, weighing 10 or 12 Pounds each, with a fine natural wrought Shell, and beautifully clouded; the Meat weet and tender, ome Part of it eating like Chicken, ome like Veal, &c. o that it was no extraordinary Hardhip for them to live upon this Proviion alone, ince it affords variety of Meats to the Tate, of it elf. The manner of catching this Fih is very particular; you mut undertand, that in the Months of May, June and July, they lay their Eggs in order to hatch their Young, and this three times in a Seaon, which is always in the Sand of the Sea-hore, each laying 80 or 90 Eggs at a time. The Male accompanies the Female, and come ahore in the Night only, when they mut be watch’d, without making any Noie, or having a Light; as oon as they land, the Men that watch for them, turn them on their Backs, then haul them above high Water Mark, and leave them till next Morning, where they are ure to find them, for they can’t turn again, nor move from the Place. It is to be oberv’d, that beides their laying time, they come ahore to feed, but then what’s very remarkable in thee Creatures, they always reort to different Places to breed, leaving their uual Haunts for two or three Months, and ’tis thought they eat nothing in all that Seaon.

They pas’d their Time here in Dancing, and other Diverions, agreeable to thee ort of Folks; and among the ret, they appointed a Mock Court of Judicature to try one another for Pyracy, and he that was a Criminal one Day was made Judge another.