Captain Cooke had been very ill ever since their departure from Juan
Fernandez, and died as soon as they came within two or three leagues of
Cape Blanco, which indeed is a frequent incident at sea, as people who
have been long ill often die on coming in sight of land. Coming to
anchor a few hours after a league within the cape, near the mouth of the
before-mentioned rivulet, in 14 fathoms on clear hard sand, his body was
immediately carried on shore for interment, under a guard of twelve
armed men. While the people were digging his grave, they were joined by
three Spanish Indians, who asked many questions, and were at length
seized, though one of them afterwards escaped. The other two were
carried aboard, and confessed that they were sent as spies from Nicoya,
a small Mulatto town twelve or fourteen leagues from the cape, and
seated on the banks of a river of the same name,[155] being a convenient
place for building and refitting ships. The president of Panama had sent
intelligence to this place of the English being in these seas, in
consequence of which the inhabitants, who mostly subsist by cultivating
corn, and by slaughtering great numbers of cattle which feed on their
extensive savannas, had sent their ox hides to the North Sea by way of
the lake of Nicaragua, as also a certain red wood, called in Jamaica
_Blood wood_, or Nicaragua wood, which is used in dying. These
commodities are exchanged for linen and woollen manufactures, and other
European goods.

[Footnote 155: There is no river at Niceya, but it is seated on a bay or
harbour within the gulf of the same name.--E.]

Learning from their prisoners that there was a large cattle pen at no
great distance, where cows and bulls could be had in abundance, and
being very desirous of having some fresh beef which had long been very