except by good luck we happened to catch turtles.  On this coast there was also a particular kind of fish called manatee, which is most excellent eating, and the flesh is more like beef than fish; the scales are as large as a shilling, and the skin thicker than I ever saw that of any other fish.  Within the brackish waters along shore there were likewise vast numbers of alligators, which made the fish scarce.  I was on board this sloop sixteen days, during which, in our coasting, we came to another place, where there was a smaller sloop called the Indian Queen, commanded by one John Baker.  He also was an Englishman, and had been a long time along the shore trading for turtle shells and silver, and had got a good quantity of each on board.  He wanted some hands very much; and, understanding I was a free man, and wanted to go to Jamaica, he told me if he could get one or two, that he would sail immediately for that island:  he also pretended to me some marks of attention and respect, and promised to give me forty-five shillings sterling a month if I would go with him.  I thought this much better than cutting wood for nothing.  I therefore told the other captain that I wanted to go to Jamaica in the other vessel; but he would not listen to me:  and, seeing me resolved to go in a day or two, he got the vessel to sail, intending to carry me away against my will.  This treatment mortified me extremely.  I immediately, according to an agreement I had made with the captain of the Indian Queen, called for her boat, which was lying near us, and it came alongside; and, by the means of a north-pole shipmate which I met with in the sloop I was in, I got my things into the boat, and went on board of the Indian Queen, July the 10th.  A few days after I was there, we got all things ready and sailed:  but again, to my great mortification, this vessel still went to the south, nearly as far as Carthagena, trading along the coast, instead of going to Jamaica, as the captain had promised me:  and, what was worst of all, he was a very cruel and bloody-minded man, and was a horrid blasphemer.  Among others he had a white pilot, one Stoker, whom he beat often as severely as he did some negroes he had on board.  One night in particular, after he had beaten this man most cruelly, he put him into the boat, and made two negroes row him to a desolate key, or small island; and he loaded two pistols, and swore bitterly that he would shoot the negroes if they brought Stoker on board again.  There was not the least doubt but that he would do as he said, and the two poor fellows were obliged to obey the cruel mandate; but, when the captain was asleep, the two negroes took a blanket and carried it to the unfortunate Stoker, which I believe was the means of saving his life from the annoyance of insects.  A great deal of entreaty was used with the captain the next day, before he would consent to let Stoker come on board; and when the poor man was brought on board he was very ill, from his situation during the night, and