Page:The Strange Voyage and Adventures of Domingo Gonsales, to the World in the Moon.djvu/17

Rh the avaritious Humour of this Boaster, and so was necessitated to take some other Course. I embarked in a stout Carrick bound for the East-Indies, carrying the Value of two thousand Ducats to trade with, leaving as much more for the Support of my Wife and Children behind, whatever Misfortune might happen to me. In the Indies I thrived exceedingly, laying out my Stock in Diamonds, Emeralds, and Pearls, which I bought at such easy Rates, that my Stock safely arriving in Spain, (as I understood it did) must needs yield ten for one. But having doubled Cape Bona Esperanza in my Way home, I fell dangerously sick, expecting nothing but Death, which had undoubtedly happened, but that we just then recovered the blessed Isle of St. Helens, the only Paradise I believe on Earth, for Healthfulness of Air, and Fruitfulness of Soil, producing all Necessaries for the Life of Man. It is about 16 Leagues in Compass, and has no firm Land or Continent within 300 Leagues, nay not so much as an Island within an hundred Leagues of it; so that it may seem a Miracle of Nature, that out of so vast and tempertuous an Ocean, such a small Rock or Piece of Ground should arise and discover itself. On the South is a good Harbour, and near it divers small Houses built by the Portuguese to accommodate Strangers, with a pretty Chapel handsomely beautified with a Tower, and Bell therein. Near it is a Stream of excellent fresh. Water, divers handsome Walks, planted on both Sides with Orange, Lemon, Pomegranate, Almond-Trees and the like, which bear Fruit all the Year, as do also divers others. There are Store of Garden Herbs, with Wheat, Pease, Barley, and most Kinds of Pulse; but it chiefly aboundeth with Cattle and Fowl, as Goats, Swine, Sheep, Partridges, wild Hens, Pheasants, Rh