Page 388
An. 1687
John Fitz-Gerald an Irishman.
befide Shop-keepers, and Handy-crafts men in a bundance. Small Veffels run up near the Town, but the Acapulco Ships, and others of greater bur- then, lye a league fhort of it, where there is a ftrong Fort alfo, and Store-houfes to put Goods in.
I had the major part of this relation 2 or 3 years after this time, from Mr. Coppinger our Surgeon; for he made a Voyage hither from Porta Nova, a Town on the Coaft of Coromandel, in a Portugueze Ship, as I think. Here he found 10 or 12 of Cap- tain Swan's men; fome of thofe that we left at Mindanao. For after we came from thence, they bought a Proe there, by the inftigation of an Irifh- man, who went by the name of John Fitz-Gerald, a perfon that fpoke Spanish very well; and fo in this their Proe they came hither. They had been here but 18 months when Mr. Coppinger arrived here, and Mr. Fitz-Gerald had in this time gotten a Spanish Muftefa Woman to Wife, and a good Dowry with her. He then profeffed Phyfic and Surgery, and was highly efteemed among the Spaniards for his fuppofed Knowledge in thofe Arts: For being al- ways troubled with fore Shins while he was with us, he kept fome Plaifters and Salves by him; and with thefe he fet up, upon his bare natural ftock of knowledge, and his Experience in Kibes. But then he had a very great ftock of confidence with- al, to help out the other, and being an Irifh Roman Catholick, and having the Spanish Language, he had a great advantage of all his Conforts; and he alone lived well there of them all. We were not within fight of this Town, but I was fhewn the Hills that over-looked it, and drew a draft of them as we lay off at Sea; which I have caufed to be ingraven among a few others that I took my felf; See the Table. The