(18)
vers, and will overtake a Man in an Inſtant if he run ſtraight forward, but if he ſling to a Side he may eaſily eſcape this Monſter, as the ſcales that cover its Body (which are impenetrable to Bullets) hinder it from turning itſelf ſpeedily: It reſembles a great Log of Wood, and People are thereby deceived, and very often come within the reach of its Leap, before they are aware; and Numbers have this been devoured by it. Its Teeth are large, ſhharp, and terrible; and it as well as the Shark, lifts its upper Jaw to ſuch an extent as devour a Man at a mouthful. They abound in the Weſt Indies, and are with great difficulty killed, and are only to be ſlain with a Musket ſhot through the Head, as this one before related was, by a Leith Carpenter. They are very dangerous too to thoſe who divert themſelves by ſwimming in thoſe parts of the World, which I think it my duty the more to caution Travellers againſt.
When lying at Anchor in Nancy Bay, Potomack River in Virginia, we went up a Creek with our Flat (called in Scotland a Lighter) and returning down the Creek loaded with Tobacco to our Ship, the Tide being againſt us, we came too in the Mouth of the Creek; and obſerved a Negro coming off in his Canoe, which is hollowed out of a Log of Wood, and formed like a Boat; he made faſt his Rope to a ſtaſte of wood in the middle of the River, which ſtands like a Perch to direct the Chancel; Here he began to Fiſh, but the Day being hot, he ſtrerched himſelf down on his Belly in the bottom of the Canoe, and fell aſleep, which we could obſerve from our Flat. The Freſh coming down, and the Tide being out, the Sturgeons were jumping above the Surface ofthe
