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The transport of sugar from Guines to the Havannah, a distance of twelve leagues, now costs one piastre per quintal. In the bad season and in time of war, when corsairs are cruising between Cape Catoche, Tortugas and Mariel, the passage from the Spanish main to the island of Cuba would be shortened by entering, not at the Havannah, but at some port of the southern coast.
Everything was ready for another cruise through the Keys and small islands, when the captain, who had secretly been interviewing another fortune-teller, announced his intention of sailing to the coast of Mexico. The first point sighted was Cape Catoche, the northeast point of Yucatan.
At about 9 A.M. a cloud bank in the north began to rise, and by 11.30 we had a densely overcast sky, with heavy rain-squalls. I was running for Cape Catoche, and was greatly disappointed at not getting a meridian altitude, especially after the promise of the morning. At about 11.30 made the land two islands, as described by the man at the masthead. At 4 P.M. sounded in twenty-eight fathoms.
The sailors affirm that this odour is not perceived when they approach from Cape Catoche on the barren coast of Mexico.
The New Continent, stretching from south to north, forms a sort of dyke to this current. The waters are carried at first north-west, and passing into the Gulf of Mexico through the strait formed by Cape Catoche and Cape St.
In the system of the migration of plants we must suppose that the Pinus occidentalis of Cuba came from Yucatan before the opening of the channel between Cape Catoche and Cape San Antonio, and not from the United States, so rich in coniferous plants; for in Florida the species of which we have here traced the botanical geography has not been discovered.
Antonio and the town of Matanzas, situated at the opening of the old channel, closes the Gulf of Mexico on the south-east, leaving the ocean current known by the name of the Gulf Stream, no other outlet on the south than a strait between Cape St. Antonio and Cape Catoche; and no other on the north than the channel of Bahama, between Bahia-Honda and the shoals of Florida.
The freebooters had shared 700 pieces of eight per man, and carrying their prize to Petit Goave had compounded with the French governor for a part of the booty. The buccaneers assembled near Cape Catoche to the number of about 1000 men, and sailed in the middle of May for Vera Cruz.
We doubled Cape Catoche very successfully last night, hauling around it gradually in from twenty-five to thirty fathoms, and ran along in the latter depth all night, course W. and W. by S., sounding every hour. The wind blew half a gale, and the weather looked threatening. This morning the wind hauled more to the eastward, and moderated somewhat.
It may be mentioned here, as an important military consideration, that from the mouth of the Mississippi westward to Cape Catoche the tip of the Yucatan Peninsula there is no harbor that can be considered at all satisfactory for ships of war of the larger classes.
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