United States or Kiribati ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
The night passed without an alarm. The next day the English launches were busy all day sounding the bay as far as the Boquerón, taking care to keep out of range of the artillery on shore. Night came on and when next morning the sun lit up the western world there was not an enemy visible. Drake had found the island too well prepared and deemed it prudent to postpone the conquest.
These passed, she slid in between San Lorenzo and Fronton, and entered the Boqueron Passage, coming in sight of the small lighthouse which was, strangely enough, still allowed to show its light at the back of the Dos de Mayo battery.
The island of Baru which, with the island of Tierra Bomba, forms the vast port of Carthagena, is, properly speaking, but a peninsula fourteen miles long, separated from the continent by the narrow channel of Pasacaballos. The archipelago of San Bernardo is situated opposite Cape Boqueron. Another archipelago, called Rosario, lies off the southern point of the peninsula of Baru.
A caravel with some launches showing white flags came on ahead, sounding, but on passing the Boquerón were saluted with a cannon shot, whereupon they withdrew replacing the white flags by red ones. This unexpectedly warm reception made it clear to the English admiral that the islanders had been forewarned and were not so defenseless as they had been reported.
It is situated on a long, uneven hill, at the foot of which lies the beautiful valley of the Juanjibos and Boqueròn Rivers, which is made a veritable garden of enchantment by the orange, lemon, and tamarind trees, together with various other plants, growing there in abundance. The town was founded in 1511 by Captain Miguel Toro, and has borne the title of city since 1877.
Lest a landing should be attempted at the Boquerón or at Goat's Creek, the two most likely places, the governor ordered a cannon to be planted at each and trenches to be dug.
Several of those hills between Cienega de Pesquero and the Punta del Comissario are linked two-and-two together, like basaltic columns; it is, however, very probable that they are calcareous, like the Tetas de Managua, south of the Havannah. In the archipelago of San Bernardo we passed between the island of Salamanquilla and Cape Boqueron.
Several attempts were now made to entice the remaining Spanish naval force from their shelter under the batteries, by placing the Esmeralda apparently within reach, and the flag-ship herself in situations of some danger. One day I carried her through an intricate strait called the Boqueron, in which nothing beyond a fifty-ton schooner was ever seen.
We passed on the southern extremity of the Placer de San Bernardo. The waters were milky, although a sounding of twenty-five fathoms did not indicate the bottom; the cooling of the water was not felt, doubtless owing to the rapidity of the current. Above the archipelago of Saint Bernard and Cape Boqueron we saw in the distance the mountains of Tigua.
On the northwest and west are the coves of Aguadilla, the town of this name being some 4 kilometers inland. There are the small coves of Rincon, Anasco, and Mayaguez, the latter being protected and of sufficient depth to anchor vessels of moderate draft; the harbor of Real de Cabo Rojo, nearly round, and entered by a narrow channel; and the cove of Boqueron.
Word Of The Day