Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 6.djvu/72

66 66 DR. JOHN SCOULER. immense quantities of Mentha piperita& Melissa officinalis which grew on its margins. In the afternoon we returned to the ship well satisfied with our collection, but with very little water as the stream lost itself in the sand about 1 and ^ mile from the beach. 17th. We now landed in Cumberland Bay which we found much superior to the bay we had visited yesterday for procuring water & refreshments. On approaching the landing place we were surprised by the appearance of a smoke arising among the trees & of two goats feeding near the shore. On landing we were pleased at the unex- pected appearance of an Englishman who came & offered us all the assistance in his power. He told us that at first he had taken us for the boat's crew of a Spanish privateer & had betook himself to the woods as his little establish- ment on shore had been formerly destroyed by a Royalist party. His name was William Clark, he had sailed from Liverpool several years ago and he had visited almost every port of the S. Pacific. At present he belongs to a party of English & Chilians employed by a merchant of Coquimbo engaged in killing the goats & bullocks which are so plentifull here & in remitting their flesh & skins to different parts of Chili. We were all highly delighted with this beautifull spot. A fine stream of water fell into the bay a few yards from our boat, the sea abounded in excellent fish & European fruits were scattered about in profusion. We enumerated the following foreign vege- tables: oats, pears, apples, strawberries, peaches, vines, rue, mint, balm, radishes, Indian mess [mace] & figs. Our new acquaintance informed us that his companions were at the other extremity of the island killing cattle & that he was left to take care of the house and property. He had a little European furniture in his cottage but it was in an injured state. He had an iron pot to boil his meat in but the bottom was knocked out ; to get over this diffi-