These being a desperate and factious set, did not distress us much by their

departure, but rather added to our future security. One in particular,

James Mitchell by name, we had all the reason in the world to think had

committed no less than two murders since the loss of our ship, one on the

person found strangled on board, another on the body of a man whom we

discovered among some bushes upon Mount Misery, stabbed in several places,

and shockingly mangled. This diminution of our number was succeeded by an

unfortunate accident much more affecting in its consequences, I mean the

death of Mr Cozens, midshipman; in relating which with the necessary

impartiality and exactness, I think myself obliged to be more than ordinary

particular. Having one day among other things, got a cask of pease out of

the wreck, about which I was almost constantly employed, I brought it to

shore in the yawl, when having landed it, the captain came down upon the

beach, and bid me to go up to some of the tents and order hands to come

down and roll it up; but finding none except Mr Cozens, I delivered him the

orders, who immediately came down to the captain, where I left them when I

returned to the wreck. Upon my coming on shore again, I found that Mr

Cozens was put under confinement by the captain for being drunk and giving

him abusive language; however, he was soon after released. A day or two

after he had some dispute with the surgeon, and came to blows: all these

things incensed the captain greatly against him. I believe this unfortunate

man was kept warm with liquor, and set on by some ill-designing persons;

for, when sober, I never knew a better-natured man, or one more

inoffensive. Some little time after, at the hour of serving provisions, Mr

Cozens was at the store-tent; and having, it seems, lately had a quarrel

with the purser, and now some words arising between them, the latter told

him he was come to mutiny; and without any further ceremony fired a pistol

at his head, which narrowly missed him. The captain, hearing the report of

the pistol, and perhaps the purser's words, that Cozens was come to mutiny,

ran out of his hut with a cocked pistol in his hand, and, without asking

any questions, immediately shot him through the head. I was at this time in

my hut, as the weather was extremely bad, but running out upon the alarm of

this firing, the first thing I saw was Mr Cozens on the ground weltering in

his blood: he was sensible, and took me by the hand, as he did several

others, shaking his head, as if he meant to take leave of us. If Mr Cozens'

behaviour to his captain was indecent and provoking, the captain's, on the

other hand, was rash and hasty. If the first was wanting in that respect

and observance which is due from a petty officer to his commander, the

latter was still more unadvised in the method he took for the enforcement

of his authority; of which, indeed, he was jealous to the last degree, and

which he saw daily declining, and ready to be trampled upon. His mistaken

apprehension of a mutinous design in Mr Cozens, the sole motive of this

rash action, was so far from answering the end he proposed by it, that the

men, who before were much dissatisfied and uneasy, were by this unfortunate

step thrown almost into open sedition and revolt. It was evident that the

people, who ran out of their tents, alarmed by the report of fire-arms,

though they disguised their real sentiments for the present, were extremely

affected at this catastrophe of Mr Cozens, for he was greatly beloved by

them: their minds were now exasperated, and it was to be apprehended, that

their resentment, which was smothered for the present, would shortly shew

itself in some desperate enterprize. The unhappy victim, who lay weltering

in his blood on the ground before them, seemed to absorb their whole

attention; the eyes of all were fixed upon him; and visible marks of the

deepest concern appeared in the countenances of the spectators. The

persuasion the captain was under, at the time he shot Mr Cozens, that his

intentions were mutinous, together with a jealousy of the diminution of his

authority, occasioned also his behaving with less compassion and tenderness

towards him afterwards than was consistent with the unhappy condition of

the poor sufferer: for when it was begged as a favour by his mess-mates,

that Mr Cozens might be removed to their tent, though a necessary thing in

his dangerous situation, yet it was not permitted; but the poor wretch was

suffered to languish on the ground some days with no other covering than a

bit of canvas thrown over some bushes, where he died. But to return to our

story: the captain, addressing himself to the people thus assembled, told

them, that it was his resolution to maintain his command over them as

usual, which still remained in as much force as ever; and then ordered them

all to return to their respective tents, with which order they instantly

complied. Now we had saved our long-boat from the wreck, and got it in our

possession, there was nothing that seemed so necessary towards the

advancing our delivery from this desolate place as the new-modelling this

vessel, so as to have room for all those who were inclined to go off in

her, and to put her in a condition to bear the stormy seas we must of

course encounter. We therefore hauled her up, and having placed her upon

blocks, sawed her in two, in order to lengthen her about twelve feet by the

keel. For this purpose, all those who could be spared from the more

immediate task of procuring subsistence, were employed in fitting and

shaping timber as the carpenter directed them; I say, in procuring

subsistence, because the weather lately having been very tempestuous, and

the wreck working much, had disgorged a great part of her contents, which

were every where dispersed about the shore.

We now sent frequent parties up the lagoons, which sometimes succeeded in

getting some sea-fowl for us. The Indians appearing again in the offing, we

put off our yawl in order to frustrate any design they might have of going

up the lagoon towards the deserters, who would have availed themselves of

some of their canoes to have got upon the main. Having conducted them in,

we found that their intention was to settle among us, for they had brought

their wives and children with them, in all about fifty persons, who

immediately set about building themselves wigwams, and seemed much

reconciled to our company; and, could we have entertained them as we ought,

they would have been of great assistance to us, who were extremely put to

it to subsist ourselves, being a hundred in number; but the men, now

subject to little or no controul, endeavoured to seduce their wives, which

gave the Indians such offence, that in a short time they found means to

depart, taking every thing along with them; and we, being sensible of the

cause, never expected to see them return again. The carpenter having made

some progress in his work upon the long-boat, in which he was enabled to

proceed tolerably, by the tools and other articles of his business

retrieved from the wreck, the men began to think of the course they should

take to get home; or rather, having borrowed Sir John Narborough's voyage

of Captain Cheap, by the application of Mr Bulkely, which book he saw me

reading one day in my tent, they immediately upon perusing it, concluded

upon making their voyage home by the Straits of Magellan. This plan was

proposed to the captain, who by no means approved of it, his design being

to go northwards, with a view of seizing a ship of the enemy's, by which

means he might join the commodore: at-present, therefore, here it rested.

But the men were in high spirits from the prospect they had of getting off

in the long-boat, overlooking all the difficulties and hazards of a voyage

almost impracticable, and caressing the carpenter, who indeed was an

excellent workman, and deserved all the encouragement they could give him.

The Indians having left us, and the weather continuing tempestuous and

rainy, the distresses of the people for want of food became insupportable.

Our number, which was at first 145, was now reduced to 100, and chiefly by

famine, which put the rest upon all shifts and devices to support

themselves.

One day, when I was at home in my hut with my Indian dog, a party came to

my door, and told me their necessities were such, that they must eat the

creature or starve.

Though their plea was urgent, I could not help using some arguments to

endeavour to dissuade them from killing him, as his faithful services and

fondness deserved it at my hands; but, without weighing my arguments, they

took him away by force and killed him; upon which, thinking that I had at

least as good a right to a share as the rest, I sat down with them and

partook of their repast. Three weeks after that I was glad to make a meal

of his paws and skin, which, upon recollecting the spot where they had

killed him, I found thrown aside and rotten. The pressing calls of hunger

drove our men to their wit's end, and put them upon a variety of devices to

satisfy it. Among the ingenious this way, one Phipps, a boatswain's mate,

having got a water puncheon, scuttled it; then lashing two logs, one on

each side, set out in quest of adventures in this extraordinary and

original piece of embarkation. By this means he would frequently, when all

the rest were starving, provide himself with wild-fowl; and it must have

been very bad weather indeed which could deter him from putting out to sea

when his occasions required. Sometimes he would venture far out in the

offing, and be absent the whole day; at last, it was his misfortune, at a

great distance from shore, to be overset by a heavy sea, but being near a

rock, though no swimmer, he managed so as to scramble to it, and with great

difficulty ascended it: There he remained two days with very little hopes

of any relief, for he was too far off to be seen from shore; but

fortunately a boat, having put off and gone in quest of wild-fowl that way,

discovered him making such signals as he was able, and brought him back to

the island. But this accident did not discourage him, but that soon after,

having procured an ox's hide, used on board for sifting powder, and called

a gunner's hide, by the assistance of some hoops he formed something like a

canoe, in which he made several successful voyages. When the weather would

permit us, we seldom failed of getting some wild-fowl, though never in any

plenty, by putting off with our boats; but this most inhospitable climate

is not only deprived of the sun for the most part by a thick, rainy

atmosphere, but is also visited by almost incessant tempests. It must be

confessed we reaped some benefit from these hard gales and overgrown seas,

which drove several things ashore; but there was no dependence on such

accidental relief; and we were always alert to avail ourselves of every

interval of fair weather, though so little to be depended on, that we were

often unexpectedly and to our peril overtaken by a sudden change. In one of

our excursions, I, with two more, in a wretched punt of our own making, had

no sooner landed at our station upon a high rock, than the punt was driven

loose by a sudden squall; and had not one of the men, at the risk of his

life, jumped into the sea and swam on board her, we must in all probability

have perished, for we were more than three leagues from the island at the

time. Among the birds we generally shot, was the painted goose, whose

plumage is variegated with the most lively colours; and a bird much larger

than a goose, which we called the racehorse, from the velocity with which

it moved upon the surface of the water, in a sort of half-flying half-

running motion. But we were not so successful in our endeavours by land;

for though we sometimes got pretty far into the woods, we met with very few

birds in our walks. We never saw but three woodcocks, two of which were

killed by Mr Hamilton, and one by myself. These, with some humming-birds,

and a large kind of robin red-breast, were the only feathered inhabitants

of this island, excepting a small bird with two very long feathers in his

tail, which was generally seen amongst the rocks, and was so tame, that I

have had them rest upon my shoulder whilst I have been gathering shellfish.

Indeed, we were visited by many birds of prey, some very large, but these

only occasionally, and, as we imagined, allured by some dead whale in the

neighbourhood, which was once seen. However, if we were so fortunate as to

kill one of them, we thought ourselves very well off. In one of my walks,

seeing a bird of this latter kind upon an eminence, I endeavoured to come

upon it unperceived with my gun, by means of the woods which lay at the

back of that eminence; but when I had proceeded so far in the wood as to

think I was in a line with it, I heard a growling close by me, which made

me think it advisable to retire as soon as possible: The woods were so

gloomy I could see nothing; but as I retired, this noise followed me close

till I had got out of them. Some of our men did assure me that they had

seen a very large beast in the woods, but their description of it was too

imperfect to be relied upon. The wood here is chiefly of the aromatic kind;

the iron wood, a wood of a very deep red hue, and another, of an exceeding

bright yellow. All the low spots are very swampy; but, what we thought

strange, upon the summits of the highest hills were found beds of shells, a

foot or two thick.

The long-boat being nearly finished, some of our company were selected to

go out in the barge in order to reconnoitre the coast to the southward,

which might assist us in the navigation we were going upon. This party

consisted of Mr Bulkely, Mr Jones, the purser, myself, and ten men. The

first night we put into a good harbour, a few leagues to the southward of

Wager's Island, where finding a large bitch big with puppies, we regaled

upon them. In this expedition we had our usual bad weather and breaking

seas, which were grown to such a height the third day, that we were

obliged, through distress, to push in at the first inlet we saw at hand.

This we had no sooner entered, than we were presented with a view of a fine

bay, in which having secured the barge, we went ashore; but the weather

being very rainy, and finding nothing to subsist upon, we pitched a bell-

tent, which we had brought with us, in the wood, opposite to where the

barge lay. As this tent was not large enough to contain us all, I proposed

to four of the people to go to the end of the bay, about two miles distant

from the bell-tent, to occupy the skeleton of an old Indian wigwam, which I

had discovered in a walk that way upon our first landing. This we covered

to windward with sea-weed; and lighting a fire, laid ourselves down, in

hopes of finding a remedy for our hunger in sleep; but we had not long

composed ourselves before one of our company was disturbed by the blowing

of some animal at his face, and upon opening his eyes was not a little

astonished to see by the glimmering of the fire, a large beast standing

over him. He had presence of mind enough to snatch a brand from the fire,

which was now very low, and thrust it at the nose of the animal, who

thereupon made off: This done, the man awoke us, and related, with horror

in his countenance, the narrow escape he had of being devoured. But though

we were under no small apprehensions of another visit from this animal, yet

our fatigue and heaviness was greater than our fears, and we once more

composed ourselves to rest, and slept the remainder of the night without

any further disturbance. In the morning, we were not a little anxious to

know how our companions had fared; and this anxiety was increased upon

tracing the footsteps of the beast in the sand in a direction towards the

bell-tent. The impression was deep and plain, of a large round foot well

furnished with claws. Upon our acquainting the people in the tent with the

circumstances of our story, we found that they too had been visited by the

same unwelcome guest, which they had driven away by much the same

expedient.

We now returned from this cruise, with a strong gale, to Wager's Island,

having found it impracticable to make farther discoveries in the barge on

so dangerous a coast, and in such heavy seas. Here we soon discovered, by

the quarters of dogs hanging up, that the Indians had brought a fresh

supply to our market. Upon enquiry, we found that there had been six canoes

of them, who, among other methods of taking fish, had taught their dogs to

drive the fish into a corner of some pond or lake, from whence they were

easily taken out by the skill and address of these savages. The old cabal,

during our absence, had been frequently revived; the debates of which

generally ended in riot and drunkenness. This cabal was chiefly held in a

large tent, which the people belonging to it had taken some pains to make

snug and convenient, and lined with bales of broad cloth driven from the

wreck. Eighteen of the stoutest fellows of the ship's company had

possession of this tent, from whence were dispatched committees to the

captain, with the resolutions they had taken with regard to their

departure, but oftener for liquor. Their determination was to go in the

long-boat to the southward by the Straits of Magellan; and the point they

were labouring, was to prevail upon the captain to accompany them. But

though he had fixed upon a quite different plan, which was to go to the

northward, yet he thought it politic at present seemingly to acquiesce with

them, in order to keep them quiet. When they began to stipulate with him,

that he should be under some restrictions in point of command, and should

do nothing without consulting his officers, he insisted upon the full

exercise of his authority as before. This broke all measures between them,

and they were from this time determined he should go with them whether he

would or no. A better pretence they could not have for effecting this

design, than the unfortunate affair of Mr Cozens, which they therefore made

use of for seizing his person, and putting him under confinement, in order

to bring him to his trial in England.

The long-boat was now launched and ready for sailing, and all the men

embarked, excepting Captain Pemberton with a party of marines, who drew

them up upon the beach with intent to conduct Captain Cheap on board; but

he was at length persuaded to desist from this resolution by Mr Bulkely.

The men too, finding they were straitened for room, and that their stock of

provision would not admit of their taking supernumeraries aboard, were now

no less strenuous for his enlargement, and being left to his option of

staying behind. Therefore, after having distributed their share in the

reserved stock of provision, which was very small, we departed, leaving

Captain Cheap, Mr Hamilton of the marines, and the surgeon, upon the

island. I had all along been in the dark as to the turn this affair would

take; and not in the least suspecting but that it was determined Captain

Cheap should be taken with us, readily embarked under that persuasion; but

when I found that this design, which was so seriously carried on to the

last, was suddenly dropped, I was determined, upon the first opportunity,

to leave them, which was at this instant impossible for me to do, the long-

boat lying at some distance off shore at anchor.

We were in all eighty-one when we left the island, distributed into the

long-boat, cutter, and barge; fifty-nine on board the first, twelve in the

second, in the last ten. It was our purpose to put into some harbour, if

possible, every evening, as we were in no condition to keep those terrible

seas long; for without other assistance, our stock of provisions was no

more than might have been consumed in a few days; our water was chiefly

contained in a few powder-barrels; our flour was to be lengthened out by a

mixture of sea-weed; and our other supplies depended upon the success of

our guns and industry among the rocks. Captain Pemberton having brought on

board his men, we weighed, but by a sudden squall of wind having split our

foresail, we with difficulty cleared the rocks by means of our boats, bore

away for a sandy bay on the south side of the lagoon, and anchored in ten

fathom. The next morning we got under weigh, but it blowing hard at W. by

N. with a great swell, put into a small bay again, well sheltered by a

ledge of rocks without us. At this time it was thought necessary to send

the barge away back to Cheap's bay for some spare canvas, which was

imagined would be soon wanted. I thought this a good opportunity of

returning, and therefore made one with those who went upon this business in

the barge. We were no sooner clear of the long-boat, than all of those in

the boat with me declared they had the same intention.

When we arrived at the island, we were extremely welcome to Captain Cheap.

The next day, I asked him leave to try if I could prevail upon those in the

long-boat to give us our share of provisions: this he granted; but said, if

we went in the barge they would certainly take her from us. I told him my

design was to walk it, and only desired the boat might land me upon the

main, and wait for me till I came back. I had the most dreadful journey of

it imaginable, through thick woods and swamps all the way; but I might as

well have spared myself that trouble, as it was to no manner of purpose,

for they would not give me, nor any one of us that left them, a single

ounce of provisions of any kind, I therefore returned, and after that made

a second attempt, but all in vain. They even threatened, if we did not

return with the barge, they would fetch her by force. It is impossible to

conceive the distressed situation we were now in at the time of the long-

boat's departure. I don't mention this event as the occasion of it; by

which, if we who were left on the island experienced any alteration at all,

it was for the better, and which, in all probability, had it been deferred,

might have been fatal to the greatest part of us; but at this time the

subsistence on which we had hitherto depended chiefly, which was the shell-

fish, were every where along shore eat up; and as to stock saved from the

wreck, it may be guessed what the amount of that might be, when the share

allotted to the captain, Lieutenant Hamilton, and the surgeon, was no more

than six pieces of beef, as many of pork, and ninety pounds of flour. As to

myself and those that left the long-boat, it was the least revenge they

thought they could take of us to withhold our provision from us, though at

the same time it was hard and unjust. For a day or two after our return

there was some little pittance dealt out to us, yet it was upon the foot of

favour; and we were soon left to our usual industry for a farther supply.

This was now exerted to very little purpose, for the reason before

assigned; to which may be added, the wreck was now blown up, all her upper

works gone, and no hopes of any valuable driftage from her for the future.

A weed called slaugh, fried in the tallow of some candles we had saved, and

wild sellery, were our only fare, by which our strengths was so much

impaired, that we could scarcely crawl. It was my misfortune too to labour

under a severe flux, by which, I was reduced to a very feeble state; so

that, in attempting to traverse the rocks in search of shell-fish, I fell

from one into very deep water, and with difficulty saved my life by

swimming.

As the captain was now freed, by the departure of the long-boat, from the

riotous applications, menaces, and disturbance of an unruly crew, and left

at liberty to follow the plan he had resolved upon, of going northward, he

began to think seriously of putting it in execution, in order to which, a

message was sent to the deserters, who had seated themselves on the other

side of the neighbouring lagoon, to sound them, whether they were inclined

to join the captain in his undertaking, and if they were, to bring them

over to him. For this set, the party gone off in the long-boat had left an

half-allowance proportion of the common stock of provision. These men, upon

the proposal, readily agreed to join their commander; and being conducted

to him, increased our number to twenty. The boats which remained in our

possession to carry off all these people were only the barge and yawl, two

very crazy bottoms; the broadside of the last was entirely out, and the

first had suffered much in a variety of bad weather she had gone through,

and was much out of repair. And now our carpenter was gone from us, we had

no remedy for these misfortunes but the little skill we had gained from

him. However, we made tolerable shift to patch up the boats for our

purpose. In the height of our distresses, when hunger, which seems to

include and absorb all others, was most prevailing, we were cheered with

the appearance once more of our friendly Indians, as we thought, from whom

we hoped for some relief; but as the consideration was wanting for which

alone they would part with their commodities, we were not at all benefited

by their stay, which was very short. The little reserve too of flour made

by the captain for our sea-stock when we should leave the island, was now

diminished by theft: the thieves, who were three of our men, were however

soon discovered, and two of them apprehended, but the third made his escape

to the woods. Considering the pressing state of our necessities, this theft

was looked upon as a most heinous crime, and therefore required an

extraordinary punishment: accordingly, the captain ordered these

delinquents to be severely whipped, and then to be banished to an island at

some distance from us; but before this latter part of the sentence could be

put in execution, one of them fled, but the other was put alone upon a

barren island, which afforded not the least shelter: however, we, in

compassion, and contrary to order, patched him up a bit of a hut and

kindled him a fire, and then left the poor wretch to shift for himself. In

two or three days after, going to the island in our boat with some little

refreshment, such as our miserable circumstances would admit of, and with

an intent of bringing him back, we found him dead and stiff. I was now

reduced to the lowest condition by my illness, which was increased by the

vile stuff I eat, when we were favoured by a fair day, a thing very

extraordinary in this climate. We instantly took the advantage of it, and

once more visited the last remains of the wreck, her bottom. Here our pains

were repaid with the great good fortune of hooking up three casks of beef,

which were brought safe to shore. This providential supply could not have

happened at a more seasonable time than now, when we were afflicted with

the greatest dearth we had ever experienced, and the little strength we had

remaining was to be exerted in our endeavours to leave the island.

Accordingly we soon found a remedy for our sickness, which was nothing but

the effects of famine, and were greatly restored by food. The provision was

equally distributed among us all, and served us for the remainder of our

stay here.

We began to grow extremely impatient to leave the island, as the days were

now nearly at their longest, and about Midsummer in these parts; but as to

the weather, there seems to be little difference in a difference of

seasons. Accordingly, on the 15th of December, the day being tolerable, we

told Captain Cheap we thought it a fine opportunity to run across the bay.

But he first desired two or three of us to accompany him to our place of

observation, the top of Mount Misery, when, looking through his

perspective, he observed to us that the sea ran very high without. However,

this had no weight with the people, who were desirous, at all events, to be

gone. I should here observe, that Captain Cheap's plan was, if possible, to

get to the island of Chiloe, and if we found any vessel there, to board her

immediately and cut her out. This he might certainly have done with ease,

had it been his good fortune to get round with the boats.

We now launched both boats, and got every thing on board of them as quick

as possible. Captain Cheap, the surgeon, and myself, were in the barge with

nine men, and, Lieutenant Hamilton and Mr Campbell in the yawl with six. I

steered the barge, and Mr Campbell the yawl; but we had not been two hours

at sea before the wind shifted more to the westward and began to blow very

hard, and the sea ran extremely high, so that we could no longer keep our

heads towards the cape or headland we had designed for. This cape we had

had a view of, in one of the intervals of fair weather during our abode on

the island, from Mount Misery; and it seemed to be distant between twenty

and thirty leagues from us. We were now obliged to bear away right before

the wind. Though the yawl was not far from us, we could see nothing of her,

except now and then upon the top of a mountainous sea. In both the boats

the men were obliged to sit as close as possible, to receive the seas on

their backs, to prevent their filling us, which was what we every moment

expected. We were obliged to throw every thing overboard to lighten the

boats, all our beef, and even the grapnel, to prevent sinking. Night was

coming on, and we were running on a lee-shore fast, where the sea broke in

a frightful manner. Not one amongst us imagined it possible for boats to

live in such a sea. In this situation, as we neared the shore, expecting to

be beat to pieces by the first breaker, we perceived a small opening

between the rocks, which we stood for, and found a very narrow passage

between them, which brought us into a harbour for the boats, as calm and

smooth as a mill-pond. The yawl had got in before us, and our joy was great

at meeting again after so unexpected a deliverance. Here we secured the

boats, and ascended a rock.

It rained excessively hard all the first part of the night, and was

extremely cold; and though we had not a dry thread about us, and no wood

could be found for firing, we were obliged to pass the night in that

uncomfortable situation, without any covering, shivering in our wet

clothes. The frost coming on with the morning, it was impossible for any of

us to get a moment's sleep; and having flung overboard our provision the

day before, there being no prospect of finding any thing to eat on this

coast, in the morning we pulled out of the cove, but found so great a sea

without, that we could make but little of it. After tugging all day,

towards night we put in among some small islands, landed upon one of them,

and found it a mere swamp. As the weather was the same, we passed this

night much as we had done the preceding; sea-tangle was all we could get to

eat at first, but the next day we had better luck; the surgeon got a goose,

and we found materials for a good fire.

We were confined here three or four days, the weather all that time proving

so bad that we could not put out. As soon as it grew moderate, we left this

place and shaped our course to the northward; and perceiving a large

opening between very high land and a low point, we steered for it, and when

got that length, found a large bay, down which we rowed, flattering

ourselves there might be a passage that way; but towards night we came to

the bottom of the bay, and finding no outlet, we were obliged to return the

same way we came, having found nothing the whole day to alleviate our

hunger.

CHAPTER IV.

Occurrences on our Voyage.--We encounter bad Weather and various Dangers

and Distresses.--Leave a Part of our Crew behind on a desert Shore.--A

strange Cemetry discovered.--Narrow Escape from Wreck.--Return to Mount

Misery.--We are visited by a Chanos Indian Cacique, who talks Spanish, with

whom we again take our Departure from the Island.

Next night we put into a little cove, which, from the great quantity of red

wood found there, we called Red-wood Cove. Leaving this place in the

morning, we had the wind southerly, blowing fresh, by which we made much

way that day to the northward. Towards evening we were in with a pretty

large island. Putting ashore on it, we found it clothed with the finest

trees we had ever seen, their stems running up to a prodigious height,

without knot or branch, and as straight as cedars; the leaf of these trees

resembles the myrtle leaf, only somewhat larger. I have seen trees larger

than these in circumference on the coast of Guinea, and there only; but for

a length of stem, which gradually tapered, I have no where met with any to

compare to them. The wood was of a hard substance, and if not too heavy,

would have made good masts; the dimensions of some of these trees being

equal to a main-mast of a first-rate man of war. The shore was covered with

drift wood of a very large size, most of it cedar, which makes a brisk

fire; but is so subject to snap and fly, that when we waked in the morning,

after a sound sleep, we found our clothes singed in many places with the

sparks, and covered with splinters.

The next morning being calm, we rowed out, but as soon as clear of the

island, we found a great swell from the westward; we rowed to the bottom of

a very large bay which was to the northward of us, the land very low, and

we were in hopes of finding some inlet through, but did not, so kept along

shore to the westward. This part, which I take to be above fifty leagues

from Wager Island, is the very bottom of the large bay it lies in. Here was

the only passage to be found, which, if we could by any means have got

information of it, would have saved us much fruitless labour. Of this

passage I shall have occasion to say more hereafter.

Having at this time an off-shore wind, we kept the wind close on board till

we came to a head-land: it was near night before we got abreast of the

head-land, and opening it discovered a very large bay to the northward, and

another head-land to the westward, at a great distance. We endeavoured to

cut short our passage to it by crossing, which is very seldom to be

effected in these overgrown seas by boats; and this we experienced now, for

the wind springing up, and beginning to blow fresh, we were obliged to put

back towards the first head-land, into a small cove, just big enough to

shelter the two boats. Here an accident happened that alarmed us much.

After securing our boats, we climbed up a rock scarcely large enough to

contain our numbers: having nothing to eat, we betook ourselves to our

usual receipt for hunger, which was going to sleep. We accordingly made a

fire, and stowed ourselves round it as well as we could, but two of our men

being incommoded for want of room, went a little way from us into a small

nook, over which a great cliff hung, and served them for a canopy.

In the middle of the night we were awakened with a terrible rambling, which

we apprehended to be nothing less than the shock of an earthquake, which we

had before experienced in these parts; and this conjecture we had reason to

think not ill founded, upon hearing hollow groans and cries as of men half

swallowed up. We immediately got up, and ran to the place from whence the

cries came, and then we were put out of all doubt as to the opinion we had

formed of this accident, for here we found the two men almost buried under

loose stones and earth; but upon a little farther enquiry, we were

undeceived as to the cause we had imputed this noise to, which we found to

be occasioned by the sudden giving way of the impending cliff, which fell a

little beyond our people, carrying trees and rocks with it and loose earth,

the latter of which fell in part on our men, whom we with some pains

rescued from their uneasy situation, from which they escaped with some

bruises.

The next morning we got out early, and the wind being westerly, rowed the

whole day for the head-land we had seen the night before; but when we had

got that length, could find no harbour, but were obliged to go into a sandy

bay, and lay the whole night upon our oars, and a most dreadful one it

proved, blowing and raining very hard. Here we were so pinched with hunger,

that we eat the shoes off our feet, which consisted of raw seal-skin. In

the morning we got out of the bay, but the incessant foul weather had

overcome us, and we began to be indifferent as to what befel us; and the

boats in the night making into a bay, we nearly lost the yawl, a breaker

having filled her and driven her ashore upon the beach. This, by some of

our accounts, was Christmas-day; but our accounts had so often been

interrupted by our distresses, that there was no depending upon them. Upon

seeing the yawl in this imminent danger, the barge stood off and went into

another bay to the northward of it, where it was smoother lying; but there

was no possibility of getting on shore. In the night the yawl joined us

again.

The next day was so bad, that we despaired reaching the head-land, so rowed

down the bay in hopes of getting some seal, as that animal had been seen

the day before, but met with no success; so returned to the same bay we had

been in the night before, where the surf having abated somewhat, we went

ashore and picked up a few shell-fish. In the morning we got on board

early, and ran along shore to the westward for about three leagues, in

order to get round a cape, which was the westernmost land we could see. It

blew very hard, and there ran such a sea, that we heartily wished ourselves

back again, and accordingly made the best of our way for that bay which we

had left in the morning; but before we could reach it night came on, and we

passed a most dismal one, lying upon our oars.

The weather continuing very bad, we put in for the shore in the morning,

where we found nothing but tangle and sea-weed. We now passed some days

roving about for provisions, as the weather was too bad to make another

attempt to get round the cape as yet. We found some fine lagoons towards

the head of the bay, and in them killed some seal, and got a good quantity

of shell-fish, which was a great relief to us. We now made a second attempt

to double the cape; but when we got the length of it, and passed the first

head-land, for it consists of three of an equal height, we got into a sea

that was horrid, for it ran all in heaps like the Race of Portland, but

much worse. We were happy to put back to the old place, with little hopes

of ever getting round this cape.

Next day, the weather proving very bad, all hands went ashore to procure

some sustenance, except two in each boat, which were left as boat-keepers:

this office we took by turns, and it was now my lot to be upon this duty

with another man. The yawl lay within us at a grapnel; in the night it blew

very hard, and a great sea tumbled in upon the shore; but being extremely

fatigued, we in the boats went to sleep: notwithstanding, however, I was at

last awakened by the uncommon motion of the boat, and the roaring of the

breakers every where about us. At the same time I heard a shrieking, like

to that of persons in distress; I looked out, and saw the yawl canted

bottom upwards by a sea, and soon afterwards disappeared. One of our men,

whose name was William Rose, a quarter-master, was drowned; the other was

thrown ashore by the surf, with his head buried in the sand, but by the

immediate assistance of the people on shore, was saved. As for us in the

barge, we expected the same fate every moment, for the sea broke a long way

without us. However, we got her head to it, and hove up our grapnel, or

should rather say kellick, which we had made to serve in the room of our

grapnel, hove overboard some time before to lighten the boat. By this means

we used our utmost efforts to pull her without the breakers some way, and

then let go our kellick again. Here we lay all the next day in a great sea,

not knowing what would be our fate. To add to our mortification, we could

see our companions in tolerable plight ashore, eating seal, while we were

starving with hunger and cold. For this month past we had not known what it

was to have a dry thread about us.

The next day being something more moderate, we ventured in with the barge

as near as we could to the shore, and our companions threw us some seals

liver, which having eat greedily, we were seized with excessive sickness,

which affected us so much that our skin peeled off from, head to foot.

Whilst the people were on shore here, Mr Hamilton met with a large seal or

sea-lion, and fired a brace of balls into him, upon which the animal turned

upon him open-mouthed; but presently fixing his bayonet, he thrust it down

its throat, with, a good part of the barrel of the gun, which the creature

bit in two seemingly with as much ease as if it had been a twig.

Notwithstanding the wounds it received, it eluded all farther efforts to

kill it, and got clear off.

I call this animal a large seal or sea-lion, because it resembles a seal in

many particulars; but then it exceeds it so much in size, as to be

sufficiently determined, by that distinction only, to be of another

species. Mr Walter, in Lord Anson's voyage, has given a particular

description of those which are seen about Juan Fernandes; but they have in

other climates different appearances as well as different qualities, as we

had occasion to observe in this and a late voyage I made. However, as so

much already has been said of the sea-lion, I shall only mention two

peculiarities, one relative to its appearance, and the other to its

properties of action, which distinguish it from those described by him.

Those I saw were without that snout or trunk hanging below the end of the

upper jaw; but then the males were furnished with a large shaggy mane,

which gave them a most formidable appearance. And, whereas, he says those

he saw were unwieldy and easily destroyed, we found some, on the contrary,

that lay at a mile's distance from the water, which came down upon us when

disturbed with such impetuosity, that it was as much as we could do to get

out of their way; and, when attacked, would turn upon us with, great

agility.

Having lost the yawl, and being too many for the barge to carry off, we

were compelled to leave four of our men behind. They were all marines, who

seemed to have no great objection to the determination made with regard to

them, so exceedingly disheartened and worn out were they with the

distresses and dangers they had already gone through. And, indeed, I

believe it would have been a matter of indifference to the greatest part of

the rest, whether they should embark or take their chance. The captain

distributed to these poor fellows arms and ammunition, and some other

necessaries. When we parted, they stood upon the beach, giving us three

cheers, and called out, God bless the King! We saw them a little after

setting out upon their forlorn hope, and helping one another over a hideous

tract of rocks; but considering the difficulties attending this only way of

travelling left them, for the woods are impracticable, from their thickness

and the deep swamps every where to be met in them; considering too that the

coast here is rendered so inhospitable by the heavy seas that are

constantly tumbling upon it, as not to afford even a little shell-fish, it

is probable that all met with a miserable end.

We rowed along shore to the westward in order to make one more attempt to

double the cape; when abreast of the first head-land, there ran such a sea

that we expected every moment the boat would go down. But as the

preservation of life had now in a great measure lost its actuating

principle upon us, we still kept pushing through it, till we opened a bay

to the northward. In all my life I never saw so dreadful a sea as drove in

here; it began to break at more than half a mile from the shore. Perceiving

now that it was impossible for any boat to get round, the men lay upon

their oars till the boat was very near the breakers, the mountainous swell

that then ran heaving her in at a great rate. I thought it was their

intention to put an end to their lives and misery at once, but nobody spoke

for some time. At last Captain Cheap told them they must either perish

immediately, or pull stoutly for it to get off the shore, but they might do

as they pleased. They chose, however, to exert themselves a little, and

after infinite difficulty got round the head-land again, giving up all

thoughts of making any further attempt to double the cape. It was night

before we could get back to the bay, where we were compelled to leave four

of our men, in order to save, if possible, the remainder; for we must all

have certainly perished, if more than sixteen had been crowded into so

small a boat: this bay we named Marine Bay. When we had returned to this

bay, we found the surf ran so high, that we were obliged to lay upon our

oars all night; and it was now resolved to go back to Wager's island, there

to linger out a miserable life, as we had not the least prospect of

returning home.

But before we set out, in consequence of this resolution, it was necessary,

if possible, to get some little stock of seal to support us in a passage,

upon which, whenever we might put in, we were not likely to meet with any

supply. Accordingly, it was determined to go up that lagoon, in which, we

had before got some seal, to provide ourselves with some more, but we did

not leave the bay till we had made some search after the unhappy marines we

had left on shore. Could we have found them, we had now agreed to take them

on board again, though it would have been the certain destruction of us

all. This, at another time, would have been mere madness; but we were now

resigned to our fate, which we none of us thought far off; however, there

was nothing to be seen of them, and no traces but a musket on the beach.

Upon returning up the lagoon, we were so fortunate as to kill some seal,

which we boiled and laid in the boat for sea-stock. While we were ranging

along shore in detached parties in quest of this and whatever other eatable

might come in our way, our surgeon, who was then by himself, discovered a

pretty large hole, which seemed to lead to some den or repository within

the rocks. It was not so rude or natural, but that there were some signs of

its having been cleared and made more accessible by industry. The surgeon

for some time hesitated whether he should venture in, from his uncertainty

as to the reception he might meet with from any inhabitant; but his

curiosity getting the better of his fears, he determined to go in, which he

did upon his hands and knees, as the passage was too low for him to enter

otherwise.

After having proceeded a considerable way thus, he arrived at a spacious

chamber, but whether hollowed out by hands, or natural, he could not be

positive. The light into this chamber was conveyed through a hole at the

top; in the midst was a kind of bier, made of sticks laid crossways,

supported by props of about five feet in height. Upon this bier five or six

bodies were extended, which, in appearance, had been deposited there a long

time, but had suffered no decay or diminution. They were without covering,

and the flesh of their bodies was become perfectly dry and hard, which

whether done by any art or secret the savages may be possessed of, or

occasioned by any drying virtue in the air of the cave, could not be

guessed. Indeed, the surgeon finding nothing there to eat, which was his

chief inducement for his creeping into this hole, did not amuse himself

with long disquisitions, or make that accurate examination which he would

have done at another time; but crawling out as he came in, he went and told

the first he met of what he had seen. Some had the curiosity to go in

likewise.

I had forgot to mention that there was another range of bodies deposited in

the same manner upon another platform under the bier. Probably this was the

burial-place of their great men called Caciques; but from whence they could

be brought we were utterly at a loss to conceive, there being no traces of

any Indian settlement hereabout. We had seen no savages since we left the

island, or observed any marks in the coves or bays to the northward where

we had touched, such as of fire-places or old wig-wams, which they never

fail of leaving behind them; and it is very probable, from the violent seas

that are always beating upon this coast, its deformed aspect, and the very

swampy soil that every where borders upon it, that it is little frequented.

We now crossed the first bay for the head-land we left on Christmas-day,

much dejected; for under our former sufferings we were in some measure

supported with the hopes, that as we advanced, however little, they were so

much the nearer their termination; but now our prospect was dismal and

dispiriting indeed, as we had the same difficulties and dangers to

encounter, not only without any flattering views to lessen them, but under

the aggravating circumstance of their leading to an inevitable and

miserable death; for we could not possibly conceive that the fate of

starving could be avoided by any human means, upon, that desolate island we

were returning to. The shell-fish, which was the only subsistence that

island had hitherto afforded in any measure, was exhausted; and the Indians

had shewn themselves so little affected by the common incitements of

compassion, that we had no hopes to build upon any impressions of that sort

in them. They had already refused to barter their dogs with us, for want of

a valuable commodity on our side; so that it is wonderful we did not give

ourselves up to despondency, and lay aside all farther attempts; but we

were supported by that invisible Power, who can make the most untoward

circumstances subservient to his gracious purposes.

At this time our usual bad weather attended us; the night too set in long

before we could reach the cove we before had taken shelter in, so that we

were obliged to keep the boat's head to the sea all night, the sea every

where astern of us running over hideous breakers. In the morning, we

designed standing over for that island in which we had observed those

strait and lofty trees before-mentioned, and which Captain Cheap named

Montrose Island; but as soon as we opened the head-land to the westward of

us, a sudden squall took the boat, and very near overset her. We were

instantly full of water; but by baling with our hats and hands, and any

thing that would hold water, we with difficulty freed her. Under this

alarming circumstance, we found it advisable to return back and put in to

the cove which the night before we were prevented getting into. We were

detained here two or three days by exceeding bad weather, so that had we

not fortunately provided ourselves with some seal, we must have starved,

for this place afforded us nothing.

At length we reached Montrose Island. This is by much the best and

pleasantest spot we had seen in this part of the world, though it has

nothing on it eatable but some berries, which resemble goose-berries in

flavour: they are of a black hue, and grow in swampy ground; and the bush

or tree that bears them, is much taller than that of our goose berries. We

remained here some time, living upon these berries and the remainder of our

seal, which was now grown quite rotten. Our two or three first attempts to

put out from this island were without success, the tempestuous weather

obliging us to put back again. One of our people was much inclined to

remain here, thinking it at least as good a place as Wager's Island to end

his days upon; but he was obliged by the rest to go off with them. We had

not been long out before it began to blow a storm of wind; and the mist

came on so thick, that we could not see the land, and were at a loss which

way to steer; but we heard the sea, which ran exceedingly high, breaking

near us, upon which we immediately hauled aft the sheet, and hardly

weathered the breakers by a boat's length. At the same time we shipped a

sea that nearly filled us; it struck us with that violence as to throw me

and one or two more down into the bottom of the boat, where we were half

drowned before we could get up again. This was one of the most

extraordinary escapes we had in the course of this expedition; for Captain

Cheap and every one else had entirely given themselves up for lost.

However, it pleased God that we got that evening into Red-wood Cove, where

the weather continued so bad all night we could keep no fire in to dry

ourselves with; but there being no other alternative for us but to stay

here and starve, or put to sea again, we chose the latter, and put out in

the morning again, though the weather was very little mended.

In three or four days after, we arrived at our old station, Wager's Island,

but in such a miserable plight, that though we thought our condition upon

setting out would not admit of any additional circumstance of misery, yet

it was to be envied in comparison of what we now suffered, so worn and

reduced were we by fatigue and hunger, having eat nothing for some days but

sea-weed and tangle. Upon this expedition, we had been out, by our account,

just two months; in which we had rounded, backwards and forwards, the great

bay formed to the northward by that high land we had observed from Mount

Misery.

The first thing we did upon our arrival was to secure the barge, as this

was our sole dependence for any relief that might offer by sea; which done,

we repaired to our huts, which formed a kind of village or street,

consisting of several irregular habitations, some of which being covered by

a kind of brush-wood thatch, afforded tolerable shelter against the

inclemency of the weather. Among these, there was one which we observed

with some surprise to be nailed up. We broke it open, and found some iron-

work, picked out with much pains from those pieces of the wreck which, were

driven ashore. We concluded from hence, that the Indians who had been here

in our absence were not of that tribe with which we had some commerce

before, who seemed to set no value upon iron, but from some other quarter;

and must have had communication with the Spaniards, from whom they had

learned the value and use of that commodity.

Thieving from strangers is a commendable talent among savages in general,

and bespeaks an address which they much admire; though the strictest

honesty with regard to the property of each other is observed among them.

There is no doubt but they ransacked all our houses, but the men had taken

care before they went off in the long-boat to strip them of their most

valuable furniture, that is, the bales of cloth used for lining, and

converted them into trowsers and watch-coats. Upon farther search, we

found, thrown aside in the bushes at the back of one of the huts, some

pieces of seal in a very putrid condition, which, however, our stomachs

were far from loathing. The next business which the people set about very

seriously, was to proceed to Mount Misery, and bury the corpse of the

murdered person mentioned to have been discovered there some little time

after our being cast away; for to the neglect of this necessary tribute to

that unfortunate person the men assigned all their ill success upon the

late expedition.

That common people in general are addicted to superstitious conceits, is an

observation founded on experience, and the reason is evident; but I cannot

allow that common seamen are more so than others of the lower class. In the

most enlightened ages of antiquity, we find it to have been the popular

opinion, that the spirits of the dead were not at rest till their bodies

were interred; and that they did not cease to haunt and trouble those who

had neglected this duty to the departed. This is still believed by the

vulgar in most countries; and in our men this persuasion was much

heightened by the melancholy condition they were reduced to, and was

farther confirmed by an occurrence which happened some little time before

we went upon our last expedition. One night we were alarmed with a strange

cry, which resembled that of a man drowning. Many of us ran out of our huts

towards the place from whence the noise proceeded, which was not far off

shore, where we could perceive, but not distinctly, (for it was then

moonlight) an appearance like that of a man swimming half out of water. The

noise that this creature uttered was so unlike that of any animal they had

heard before, that it made a great impression upon the men; and they

frequently recalled this apparition at the time of their distresses, with

reflections on the neglect of the office they were now fulfilling.

We were soon driven again to the greatest straits for want of something to

subsist upon, by the extreme bad weather that now set in upon us. Wild

sellery was all we could procure, which raked our stomachs instead of

assuaging our hunger. That dreadful and last resource of men, in not much

worse circumstances than ours, of consigning one man to death for the

support of the rest, began to be mentioned in whispers; and indeed there

were some among as who, by eating what they found raw, were become little

better than cannibals. But fortunately for us, and opportunely to prevent

this horrid proceeding, Mr Hamilton at this time found some rotten pieces

of beef cast up by the sea at some miles distance from the huts, which he,

though a temptation which few would have resisted in parallel

circumstances, scorned to conceal from the rest, but generously distributed

among us.

A few days after, the mystery of the nailing up of the hut, and what had

been doing by the Indians upon the island in our absence, was partly

explained to us; for about the 15th day after our return, there came a

party of Indians to the island in two canoes, who were not a little

surprised to find us here again. Among these, was an Indian of the tribe of

the Chonos, who live in the neighbourhood of Chiloe.[117] He talked the

Spanish language, but with that savage accent which renders it almost

unintelligible to any but those who are adepts in that language. He was

likewise a cacique, or leading man of his tribe, which authority was

confirmed to him by the Spaniards; for he carried the usual badge and mark

of distinction by which the Spaniards and their dependants hold their

military and civil employments, which is a stick with a silver head. These

badges, of which the Indians are very vain, at once serve to retain the

cacique in the strongest attachment to the Spanish government, and give him

greater weight with his own dependants: yet, withal, he is the merest

slave, and has not one thing he can call his own.

This report of our shipwreck (as we supposed) having reached the Chonos, by

means of the intermediate tribes, which handed it to one another from those

Indians who first visited us, this cacique was either sent to learn the

truth of the rumour, or, having first got the intelligence, set out with a

view of making some advantage of the wreck, and appropriating such iron-

work as he could gather from it to his own use; for that metal is become

very valuable to those savages, since their commerce with the Spaniards has

taught them to apply it to several purposes. But as the secreting any thing

from a rapacious Spanish rey or governor (even an old rusty nail) by any of

their Indian dependants, is a very dangerous offence, he was careful to

conceal the little prize he had made till he could conveniently carry it

away; for in order to make friends of these savages, we had left their

hoard untouched.

Our surgeon, Mr Elliot, being master of a few Spanish words, made himself

so far understood by the cacique, as to let him know that our intention was

to reach some of the Spanish settlements if we could; that we were

unacquainted with the best and safest way, and what track was most likely

to afford us subsistence in our journey; promising, if he would undertake

to conduct us in the barge, he should have it and every thing in it for his

trouble as soon as it had served our present occasions. To these conditions

the cacique, after much persuasion, at length agreed. Accordingly, having

made the best preparation we could, we embarked on board the barge to the

number of fifteen, including the cacique, whose name was Martin, and his

servant Emanuel. We were, indeed, sixteen when we returned from our last

fruitless attempt to get off the island, but we had buried two since that,

who perished with hunger; and a marine, having committed theft, ran away to

avoid the punishment his crime deserved, and hid himself in the woods,

since which he was never heard of. We now put off, accompanied with the two

Indian canoes, in one of which was a savage with his two wives, who had an

air of dignity superior to the rest, and was handsome in his person. He had

his hut, during his stay with us, separate from the other Indians, who

seemed to pay him extraordinary respect; but in two or three nights, these

Indians, being independent of the Spaniards, and living somewhere to the

southward of our Chonos guide, left us to proceed on our journey by

ourselves.

The first night we lay at an island destitute of all refreshment, where

having found some shelter for our boat and made ourselves a fire, we slept

by it. The next night we were more unfortunate, though our wants were

increasing, for, having run to the westward of Montrose Island, we found no

shelter for the barge, but were under the necessity of lying upon our oars,

suffering the most extreme pangs of hunger. The next day brought us to the

bottom of a great bay, where the Indian guide had left his family, a wife

and two children, in a hut. Here we staid two or three days, during which

we were constantly employed in ranging along shore in quest of shell-fish.

[117] Chiloe is an island on the western coast of America, situated in 42°

40 of S. latitude, and the southernmost settlement under the Spanish

jurisdiction on that coast.

CHAPTER V.

Navigation of the River.--One of our Men dies from Fatigue.--Inhumanity of

the Captain.--Description of our Passage through a horrible and desolate

Country.--Our Conductor leaves us, and a Party of our Men desert with the

Boat.--Dreadful Situation of the Remainder.--The Cacique returns.--Account

of our Journey Overland.--Kindness of two Indian Women.--Description of the

Indian Mode of Fishing.--Cruel Treatment of my Indian Benefactress by her

Husband.

We now again proceeded on our voyage, having received on board the family

of our guide, who conducted us to a river, the stream of which was so

rapid, that, after our almost efforts from morning to evening, we gained

little upon the current, and at last were obliged to desist from our

attempt, and return. I had hitherto steered the boat, but one of our men

sinking under the fatigue, expired soon after, which obliged me to take the

oar in his room, and row against this heart-breaking stream. Whilst I was

thus employed, one of our men, whose name was John Bosman, though hitherto

the stoutest man among us, fell from his seat under the thwarts,

complaining that his strength was quite exhausted for want of food, and

that he should die very shortly. As he lay in this condition, he would

every now and then break out in the most pathetic wishes for some little

sustenance, that two or three monthfuls might be the means of saving his

life. The captain at this time had a large piece of boiled seal by him, and

was the only one that was provided with any thing like a meal; but we were

become so hardened against the impressions of others sufferings by our own,

so familiarized to scenes of this and every other kind of misery, that the

poor man's dying entreaties were vain. I sat next to him when he dropped,

and having a few dried shell-fish (about five or six) in my pocket, from

time to time put one in his mouth, which served only to prolong his pains;

from which, however, soon after my little supply failed, he was released by

death. For this, and another man I mentioned a little before to have

expired under the like circumstances, when we returned from this

unsuccessful enterprize, we made a grave in the sands.

It would have redounded greatly to the tenderness and humanity of Captain

Cheap, if at this time he had remitted somewhat of that attention he shewed

to self-preservation, which is hardly allowable but where the consequence

of relieving others must be immediately and manifestly fatal to ourselves;

but I would venture to affirm, that in these last affecting exigencies, as

well as some others, a sparing perhaps adequate to the emergency, might

have been admitted consistently with a due regard to his own necessities.

The captain had better opportunities of recruiting his stock than any of

us; for his rank was considered by the Indians a reason for supplying him

when he would not find a bit for us. Upon the evening of the day in which

these disasters happened, the captain producing a large piece of boiled

seal, suffered no one to partake with him but the surgeon, who was the only

man in favour at this time. We did not expect, indeed, any relief from him

in our present condition, for we had a few small mussels and herbs to eat;

but the men could not help expressing the greatest indignation at his

neglect of the deceased, saying, that he deserved to be deserted by the

rest for his savage behaviour.

The endeavouring to pass up this river was for us, who had so long

struggled with hunger, a most unseasonable attempt, by which we were

harassed to a degree that threatened to be fatal to more of us; but our

guide, without any respect to the condition our hardships had reduced us

to, was very solicitous for us to go that way, which possibly he had gone

before in light canoes, but for such a boat as ours, was impracticable. We

conceived, therefore, at that time, that this was some short cut, which was

to bring us forward in our voyage; but we had reason to think afterwards,

that the greater probability there was of his getting the barge, which was

the wages of his undertaking, safe to his settlement by this, rather than

another course, was his motive for preferring it to the way we took

afterwards, where there was a carrying place of considerable length, over

which it would have been impossible to have carried our boat.

The country hereabouts wears the most uncouth, desolate, and rugged aspect

imaginable; it is so circumstanced as to discourage the most sanguine

adventurers from attempts to settle in it: Were it for no other reason than

the constant heavy rains, or rather torrents, which pour down here, and the

vast sea and surf which the prevailing westerly winds impel upon this

coast, it must be rendered inhospitable. All entrance into the woods is not

only extremely difficult, but hazardous, not from any assaults you are

likely to meet with from wild beasts, for even these could hardly find

convenient harbour here, but from the deep swamp, which is the reigning

soil of this country, and in which the woods may be said rather to float

than grow; so that, except upon a range of deformed broken rocks which form

the sea-coast, the traveller cannot find sound footing any where. With this

unpromising scene before us we were now setting out in search of food,

which nothing but the most pressing instances of hunger could induce us to

do: We had, indeed, the young Indian servant to our cacique for our

conductor, who was left by him to show us where the shell-fish was most

plenty. The cacique was gone with the rest of his family in the canoe, with

a view of getting some seal, upon a trip which would detain him from us

three or four days.

After searching the coast some time with very little success, we began to

think of returning to the barge; but six of the men, with the Indian,

having advanced some few paces before the officers, got into the boat

first, which they had no sooner done than they put off and left us, to

return no more. And now all the difficulties we had hitherto endured seemed

light in comparison of what we expected to suffer from this treachery of

our men, who, with the boat, had taken away every thing that might be the

means of preserving our lives. The little clothes we had saved from the

wreck, our muskets and ammunition, were gone, except a little powder, which

must be preserved for kindling fires, and one gun which I had, and was now

become useless for want of ammunition; and all these wants were now come

upon us at a time when we could not be worse situated for supplying them.

Yet under these dismal and forlorn appearances was our delivery now

preparing; and from these hopeless circumstances were we to draw hereafter

an instance scarce to be paralleled, of the unsearchable ways of

Providence.

It was at that time little suspected by us, that the barge, in which we

founded all our hopes of escaping from this savage coast, would certainly

have proved the fatal cause of detaining us till we were consumed by the

labour and hardships requisite to row her round the capes and great

headlands; for it was impossible to carry her by land as we did the boats

of the Indians. At present, no condition could be worse than we thought

ours to be: There ran at this time a very high sea, which breaking with

great fury upon this coast, made it very improbable that sustenance in any

proportion to our wants could be found upon it; yet unpromising as this

prospect was, and though little succour could be expected from this

quarter, I could not help, as I strolled along shore from the rest, casting

my eyes towards the sea. Continuing thus to look out, I thought I saw

something now and then upon the top of a sea that looked black, which, upon

observing still more intently, I imagined at last to be a canoe; but

reflecting afterwards how unusual it was for Indians to venture out in so

mountainous a sea, and at such a distance from the land, I concluded myself

to be deceived. However, its nearer approach convinced me, beyond all

doubt, of its being a canoe; but that it could not put in any where

hereabouts, but intended for some other part of the coast. I ran back as

fast as I could to my companions, and acquainted them with what I had seen.

The despondency they were in would not allow them to give credit to it at

first; but afterwards, being convinced that it was as I reported it, we

were all in the greatest hurry to strip off some of our rags to make a

signal withal, which we fixed upon a long pole. This had the desired

effect: The people in the canoe seeing the signal, made towards the land at

about two miles distance from us, for no boat could approach the land where

we were. There they put into a small cove, sheltered by a large ledge of

rocks without, which broke the violence of the sea. Captain Cheap and I

walked along shore, and got to the cove about the time they landed. Here we

found the persons arrived in this canoe to be our Indian guide and his

wife, who had left us some days before. He would have asked us many

questions, but neither Captain Cheap nor I understanding Spanish at that

time, we took him along with us to the surgeon, whom we had left so ill

that he could hardly raise himself from the ground.

When the Indian began to confer with the surgeon, the first question was,

What was become of the barge and his companions? and as he could give him

no satisfactory answer to this question, the Indian took it for granted

that Emanuel was murdered by us, and that he and his family ran the same

risk; upon which he was preparing to provide for his security, by leaving

us directly. The surgeon seeing this, did all in his power to pacify him,

and convince him of the unreasonableness of his apprehensions, which he at

length found means to do, by assuring him that the Indian would come to no

harm, but that he would soon see him return safe: which providentially, and

beyond our expectation, happened accordingly, for in a few days after,

Emanuel, having contrived to make his escape from the people in the barge,

returned by ways that were impassable to any creature but an Indian. All

that we could learn from Emanuel relative to his escape was, that he took

the first opportunity of leaving them, which was upon their putting into a

bay somewhere to the westward.

We had but one gun among us, and that was a small fowling-piece of mine; no

ammunition but a few charges of powder I had about me; and as the Indian

was very desirous of returning to the place where he had left his wife and

canoe, Captain Cheap desired I would go with him and watch over him all

night, to prevent his getting away. Accordingly I set out with him, and

when he and his family betook themselves to rest in the little wigwam they

had made for that purpose, I kept my station as centinel over them all

night.

The next morning Captain Cheap, Mr Hamilton, and the surgeon joined us; the

latter, by illness, being reduced to the most feeble condition, was

supported by Mr Hamilton and Mr Campbell. After holding some little

consultation together, as to the best manner of proceeding in our journey,

it was agreed, that the Indian should haul his canoe, with our assistance,

over land, quite across the island we were then upon, and put her into a

bay on the other side, from whence he was to go in quest of some other

Indians by whom he expected to be joined; but as his canoe was too small to

carry more than three or four persons, he thought it advisable to take only

Captain Cheap and myself with him, and to leave his wife and children as

pledges with our companions till his return.

As it was matter of uncertainty whether we should ever recover the barge or

not, which was stipulated, on our side, to become the property of the

cacique upon his fulfilling his engagements with us; the inducements we now

made use of to prevail upon him to proceed with us in our journey were,

that he should have my fowling-piece, some little matters in the possession

of Captain Cheap, and that we would use our interest to procure him some

small pecuniary reward.

We were now to set off in the canoe, in which I was to assist him in

rowing. Accordingly, putting from this island, we rowed hard all this day

and the next, without any thing to eat but a scrap of seal, a very small

portion of which fell to my share. About two hours after the close of the

day, we put ashore, where we discovered six or seven wigwams. For my part,

my strength was so exhausted with fatigue and hunger, that it would have

been impossible for me to have held out another day at this toilsome work.

As soon as we landed, the Indian conducted Captain Cheap with him into a

wigwam, but I was left to shift for myself.

Thus left, I was for some time at a loss what I had best do, for knowing

that in the variety of dispositions observable among the Indians, the surly

and savage temper is the most prevalent, I had good reason to conclude,

that if I obtruded myself upon them, my reception would be but indifferent.

Necessity, however, put me upon the risk; I accordingly pushed into the

next wigwam upon my hands and knees, for the entrance into these kind of

buildings is too low to admit of any other manner of getting into them. To

give a short description of these temporary houses called wigwams, may not

be improper here, for the satisfaction of those who never saw any,

especially as they differ somewhat from those of North America, which are

more generally known from the numerous accounts of that country.

When the Indians of this part of the world have occasion to stop any where

in their rambles, if it be only for a night or two, the men, who take this

business upon them, while the women are employed in much more laborious

offices, such as diving in the sea for sea-eggs, and searching the rocks

for shell-fish, getting fuel, &c., repair to the woods, and cutting a

sufficient number of tall strait branches, fix them in an irregular kind of

circle of uncertain dimensions; which having done, they bend the

extremities of these branches so as to meet in a centre at top, where they

bind them by a kind of woodbine called supple-jack, which they split by

holding it in their teeth. This frame, or skeleton of a hut, is made tight

against the weather with a covering of boughs and bark; but as the bark is

not got without some trouble, they generally take it with them when they

remove, putting it at the bottom of their canoes: The rest of the wigwam

they leave standing. The fire is made in the middle of the wigwam, round

which they sit upon boughs; and as there is no vent for the smoke besides

the door-way, which is very low, except through some crevices which cannot

easily be stopped, they are not a little incommoded on that account, and

the eyes of some of them are much affected by it.

But to return. In this wigwam, into which I took the liberty to introduce

myself, I found only two women, who, upon first seeing a figure they were

not accustomed to, and such a figure too as I then made, were struck with

astonishment. They were sitting by a fire, to which I approached without

any apology. However inclined I might have been to make one, my ignorance

of their language made it impossible to attempt it. One of these women

appeared to be young, and very handsome for an Indian; the other old, and

as frightful as it is possible to conceive any thing in human shape to be.

Having stared at me some little time, they both went out; and I, without

farther ceremony, sat me down by the fire to warm myself and dry the rags I

wore. Yet I cannot say my situation was very easy, as I expected every

instant to see two or three men come in and thrust me out, if they did not

deal with me in a rougher manner.

Soon after, the two women came in again, having, as I supposed, conferred

with the Indian our conductor; and, appearing to be in great good humour,

began to chatter and laugh immoderately. Perceiving the wet and cold

condition I was in, they seemed to have compassion on me, and the old woman

went out and brought some wood, with which she made a good fire; but my

hunger being impatient, I could not forbear expressing my desire that they

would extend their hospitality a little farther, and bring me something so

eat. They soon comprehended my meaning, and the younger beginning to

rummage under some pieces of bark that lay in the corner of the wigwam,

produced a fine large fish; this they presently put upon the fire to broil,

and when it was just warm through, they made a sign for me to eat. They had

no need to repeat the invitation; I fell to, and dispatched it in so short

a time, that I was in hopes they would comprehend, without further tokens,

that I was ready for another; but it was of no consequence, for their stock

of eatables was entirely exhausted.

After sitting some time in conference together, in which conversation I

could bear no part, the women made some signs to me to lay down and go to

sleep, first having strewed some dry boughs upon the ground. I laid myself

down, and soon fell fast asleep; and about three or four hours after

awaking, I found myself covered with a bit of blanket, made of the down of

birds, which the women usually wear about their waist. The young woman, who

had carefully covered me, whilst sleeping, with her own blanket, was lying

close by me; the old woman lay on the other side of her. The fire was low

and almost burnt out; but as soon as they found me awake they renewed it,

by putting on more fuel. What I had hitherto eat served only to sharpen my

appetite; I could not help, therefore, being earnest with them to get me

some more victuals. Having understood my necessities, they talked together

some little time; after which getting up, they both went out, taking with

them a couple of dogs, which they train to assist them in fishing. After an

hour's absence they came in trembling with cold, and their hair streaming

with water, and brought two fish, which having broiled, they gave me the

largest share, and then we all lay down as before to rest.

In the morning, my curiosity led me to visit the neighbouring wigwams, in

which were only one or two men, the rest of the inhabitants were all women

and children. I then proceeded to enquire after Captain Cheap and our

Indian guide, whom I found in the wigwam they at first occupied: The

authority of the cacique had procured the captain no despicable

entertainment. We could not learn what business the men, whose wives and

children were here left behind, were gone out upon; but as they seldom or

never go upon fishing parties (for they have no hunting here) without their

wives, who take the most laborious part of this pursuit upon themselves, it

is probable they were gone upon some warlike expedition, in which they use

bows and arrows sometimes, but always the lance. This weapon they throw

with great dexterity and force, and never stir abroad without it.

About this time their return was looked for, a hearing by no means pleasant

to me; I was therefore determined to enjoy myself as long as they were

absent, and make the most of the good fare I was possessed of, to the

pleasure of which I thought a little cleanliness might in some measure

contribute; I therefore went to a brook, and taking off my shirt, which

might be said to be alive with vermin, set myself about to wash it; which

having done as well as I could, and hung on a bush to dry, I heard a bustle

about the wigwams, and soon perceived that the women were preparing to

depart, having stripped their wigwams of their bark covering, and carried

it into their canoes. Putting on, therefore, my shirt just as it was, I

hastened to join them, having a great desire of being present at one of

their fishing parties.

It was my lot to be put into the canoe with my two patronesses and some

others who assisted in rowing; we were in all four canoes. After rowing

some time, they gained such an offing as they required, where the water

here was about eight or ten fathoms deep, and there lay upon their oars.

And now the youngest of the two women, taking a basket in her mouth, jumped

overboard, and diving to the bottom, continued under water an amazing time;

when she had filled the basket with sea-eggs, she came up to the boat-side,

and delivering it so filled to the other women in the boat, they took out

the contents and returned it to her. The diver then, after having taken a

short time to breathe, went down and up again with the same success, and so

several times for the space of half an hour. It seems as if Providence had

endued this people with a kind of amphibious nature, as the sea is the only

source from whence almost all their subsistence is derived. This element

too, being here very boisterous, and falling with a most heavy surf upon a

rugged coast, very little, except some seal, is to be got any where but in

the quiet bosom of the deep. What occasions this reflection, is the early

propensity I had so frequently observed in the children of these savages to

this occupation, who, even at the age of three years, might be seen

crawling upon their hands and knees among the rocks and breakers, from

which they would tumble themselves into the sea without regard to the cold,

which is here often intense, and shewing no fear of the noise and roaring

of the surf.

This sea-egg is a shell-fish, from which several prickles project in all

directions, by means whereof it removes itself from place to place. In it

are found four or five yolks, resembling the inner divisions of an orange,

which are of a very nutritive quality and excellent flavour.

The water was at this time extremely cold, and when the divers got into the

boats, they seemed greatly benumbed; and it is usual with them after this

exercise, if they are near enough their wigwams, to run to the fire, to

which presenting one side, they rub and chafe it for some time; then

turning the other, use it in the same manner till the circulation of the

blood is restored. This practice, if it has no worse effect, must occasion

their being more susceptible of the impressions of cold than if they waited

the gradual advances of their natural warmth in the open air. I leave it to

the decision of the gentlemen of the faculty, whether this too hasty

approach to the fire may not subject them to a disorder I have observed

among them, called the elephantiasis, or swelling of the legs.[118]

The divers having returned to their boats, we continued to row till towards

evening, when we landed upon a low point. As soon as the canoes were hauled

up, they employed themselves in erecting their wigwams, which they dispatch

with great address and quickness. I still enjoyed the protection of my two

good Indian women, who made me their guest here as before; they first

regaled me with sea-eggs, and then went out upon another kind of fishery by

the means of dogs and nets. These dogs are a cur-like looking animal, but

very sagacious, and easily trained to this business. Though in appearance

an uncomfortable sort of sport, yet they engage in it readily, seem to

enjoy it much, and express their eagerness by barking every time they raise

their heads above the water to breathe. The net is held by two Indians, who

get into the water; then the dogs, taking a large compass, dive after the

fish, and drive them into the net; but it is only in particular places that

the fish are taken in this manner. At the close of the evening, the women

brought in two fish, which served us for supper, and then we reposed

ourselves as before. Here we remained all the next day, and the morning

after embarked again, and rowed till noon; then landing, we descried the

canoes of the Indian men, who had been some time expected from an

expedition they had been upon. This was soon to make a great alteration in

the situation of my affairs, a presage of which I could read in the

melancholy countenance of my young hostess. She endeavoured to express

herself in very earnest terms to me, but I had not yet acquired a competent

knowledge of the Indian language to understand her.

As soon as the men were landed, she and the old Indian woman went up, not

without some marks of dread upon them, to an elderly Indian man, whose

remarkably surly and stern countenance was well calculated to raise such

sensations in his dependants. He seemed to be a cacique or chief man among

them, by the airs of importance he assumed to himself, and the deference

paid him by the rest. After some little conference passed between these

Indians and our cacique conductor, of which, most probably, the

circumstances of our history and the occasion of our coming here might be

the chief subject, for they fixed their eyes constantly upon us, they

applied themselves to building their wigwams.

I now understood that the two Indian women with whom I had sojourned were

wives to this chieftain, though one was young enough to be his daughter;

and as far as I could learn, did really stand in the different relations to

him both of daughter and wife. It was easy to be perceived that all did not

go well between them at this time, either that he was not satisfied with

the answers that they returned him to his questions, or that he suspected

some misconduct on their side; for presently after breaking out into savage

fury, he took the young one up in his arms, and threw her with violence

against the stones; but his brutal resentment did not stop here, he beat

her afterwards in a cruel manner. I could not see this treatment of my

benefactress without the highest concern for her, and rage against the

author of it; especially as the natural jealousy of these people gave

occasion to think that it was on my account she suffered. I could hardly

suppress the first emotions of my resentment, which prompted me to return

him his barbarity in his own kind; but besides that this might have drawn

upon her fresh marks of his severity, it was neither politic, nor indeed in

my power to have done it to any good purpose at this time.

[118] There are two very different disorders incident to the human body,

which bear the same name, derived from some resemblance they hold with

different parts of the animal so well known in the countries to which

these disorders are peculiar. That which was first so named is the

leprosy, which brings a scurf on the skin not unlike the hide of an

elephant. The other affects the patient with such enormous swelling of

the legs and feet, that they give the idea of those shapeless pillars

which support that creature; and therefore this disease has also been

called elephantiasis by the Arabian physicians; who, together with the

Malabrians, among whom it is endemial, attribute it to the drinking

bad waters, and the too sudden transitions from heat to cold.

CHAPTER VI.

The Cacique's Conduct changes.--Description of the Indian Mode of

Bird-fowling.--Their Religion.--Mr Elliot, our Surgeon, dies.--Transactions

on our Journey.--Miserable Situation to which we are reduced.

Our cacique now made us understand that we must embark directly in the same

canoe which brought us, and return to our companions; and that the Indians

we were about to leave would join us in a few days, when we should all set

out in a body, in order to proceed to the northward. In our way back

nothing very material happened; but upon our arrival, which was the next

day, we found Mr Elliot, the surgeon, in a very bad way; his illness had

been continually increasing since we left him. Mr Hamilton and Mr Campbell

were almost starved, having fared very ill since we left them; a few sea-

eggs were all the subsistence they had lived upon, and these procured by

the cacique's wife in the manner I mentioned before. This woman was the

very reverse of my hostess; and as she found her husband was of so much

consequence to us, took upon her with much haughtiness, and treated us as

dependants and slaves. He was not more engaging in his carriage towards us;

he would give no part of what he had to spare to any but Captain Cheap,

whom his interest led him to prefer to the rest, though our wants were

often greater. The captain, on his part, contributed to keep us in this

abject situation, by approving this distinction the cacique shewed to him.

Had he treated us with not quite so much distance, the cacique might have

been more regardful of our wants. The little regard and attention which our

necessitous condition drew from Captain Cheap, may be imputed likewise, in

some measure, to the effects of a mind soured by a series of crosses and

disappointments; which, indeed, had operated on us all to a great neglect

of each other, and sometimes of ourselves.

We were not suffered to be in the same wigwam with the cacique and his

wife, which, if we had had any countenance from Captain Cheap, would not

have been refused. What we had made for ourselves was in such a bungling

manner, that it scarce deserved the name even of this wretched sort of

habitation. But our untoward circumstances now found some relief in the

arrival of the Indians we waited for, who brought with them some seal, a

small portion of which fell to our share. A night or two after, they sent

out some of their young men, who procured us a quantity of a very delicate

kind of birds, called shags and cormorants. Their manner of taking these

birds resembles something a sport called bat-fowling. They find out their

haunts among the rocks and cliffs in the night, when, taking with them

torches made of the bark of the birch tree, which is common here, and grows

to a very large size, (this bark has a very unctuous qaality, and emits a

bright and clear light, and in the northern parts of America is used

frequently instead of a candle) they bring the boat's side as near as

possible to the rocks, under the roosting-places of these birds, then

waving their lights backwards and forwards, the birds are dazzled and

confounded so as to fall into the canoe, where they are instantly knocked

on the head with a short stick the Indians take with them for that purpose.

Seal are taken in some less-frequented parts of these coasts with great

ease; but when their haunts have been two or three times disturbed, they

soon learn to provide for their safety, by repairing to the water upon the

first alarm. This is the case with them hereabouts; but as they frequently

raise their heads above water, either to breathe or look about them, I have

seen an Indian at this interval throw his lance with such dexterity, as to

strike the animal through both its eyes at a great distance; and it is very

seldom that they miss their aim.

As we were wholly unacquainted with these methods of providing food for

ourselves, and were without arms and ammunition, we were drove to the

utmost straits, and found ourselves rather in worse condition than we had

been at any time before; for the Indians, having now nothing to fear from

us, we found we had nothing to expect from them upon any other motive.

Accordingly, if they ever did relieve us, it was through caprice; for at

most times, they would shew themselves unconcerned at our greatest

distresses. But the good Indian women, whose friendship I had experienced

before, continued, from time to time, their good offices to me. Though I

was not suffered to enter their wigwams, they would find opportunities of

throwing in my way such scraps as they could secrete from their husbands.

The obligation I was under to them on this account is great, as the hazard

they ran in conferring these favours was little less than death. The men,

unrestrained by any laws or ties of conscience in the management of their

own families, exercise a most despotic authority over their wives, whom

they consider in the same view they do any other part of their property,

and dispose of them accordingly: Even their common treatment of them is

cruel; for though the toil and hazard of procuring food lies entirely upon

the women, yet they are not suffered to touch any part of it till the

husband is satisfied, and then he assigns them their portion, which is

generally very scanty, and such as he has not a stomach for himself. This

arbitrary proceeding, with respect to their own families, is not peculiar

to this people only. I have had occasion to observe it in more instances

than this I have mentioned, among many other nations of savages I have

since seen.

These Indians are of a middling stature, well set, and very active, and

make their way among the rocks with an amazing agility. Their feet, by this

kind of exercise, contract a callosity which renders the use of shoes quite

unnecessary to them. But before I conclude the few observations I have to

make on a people so confined in all their notions and practice, it may be

expected I should say something of their religion; but as their gross

ignorance is in nothing more conspicuous, and as we found it advisable to

keep out of their way when the fits of devotion came upon them, which is

rather frantic than religious, the reader can expect very little

satisfaction on this head. Accident has sometimes made me unavoidably a

spectator of scenes I should have chosen to have withdrawn myself from; and

so far I am instructed. As there are no fixed seasons for their religious

exercises, the younger people wait till the elders find themselves devoutly

disposed, who begin the ceremony by several deep and dismal groans, which

rise gradually to a hideous kind of singing, from which they proceed to

enthusiasm, and work themselves into a disposition that borders on madness;

for, suddenly jumping up, they snatch fire-brands from the fire, put them

in their mouths, and run about burning every body they come near; at other

times it is a custom with them to wound one another with sharp mussel-

shells till they are besmeared with blood. These orgies continue till these

who preside in them foam at the mouth, grow faint, are exhausted with

fatigue, and dissolve in a profusion of sweat. When the men drop their part

in this frenzy, the women take it up, acting over again much the same kind

of wild scene, except that they rather outdo the men in shrieks and noise.

Our cacique, who had been reclaimed from these abominations by the

Spaniards, and just knew the exterior form of crossing himself, pretended

to be much offended at these profane ceremonies, and that he would have

died sooner than have partaken of them. Among other expressions of his

disapprobation, he declared, that whilst the savages solemnized these

horrid rites, he never failed to hear strange and uncommon noises in the

woods, and to see frightful visions, and assured us that the devil was the

chief actor among them upon these occasions.

It might be about the middle of March that we embarked with these Indians.

They separated our little company entirely, not putting any two of us

together in the same canoe. The oar was my lot, as usual, as also Mr

Campbell's; Mr Hamilton could not row, and Captain Cheap was out of the

question; our surgeon was more dead than alive at the time, and lay at the

bottom of the canoe he was in. The weather coming on too bad for their

canoes to keep the sea, we landed again, without making any great progress

that day. Here Mr Elliot, our surgeon, died. At our first setting out, he

promised the fairest for holding out, being a very strong active young man:

He had gone through an infinite deal of fatigue, as Mr Hamilton and he were

the best shots amongst us, and whilst our ammunition lasted never spared

themselves, and in a great measure provided for the rest; but he died the

death many others had done before him, being quite starved. We scraped a

hole for him in the sand, and buried him in the best manner we could.

Here I must relate a little anecdote of our Christian cacique. He and his

wife had gone off at some distance from the shore in their canoe, when she

dived for sea-eggs; but not meeting with great success, they returned a

good deal out of humour. A little boy of theirs, about three years old,

whom they appeared to be doatingly fond of, watching for his father and

mother's return, ran into the surf to meet them: The father handed a basket

of sea-eggs to the child, which being too heavy for him to carry, he let it

fall; upon which the father jumped out of the canoe, and catching the boy

up in his arms, dashed him with the utmost violence against the stones. The

poor little creature lay motionless and bleeding, and in that condition was

taken up by the mother, but died soon after. She appeared inconsolable for

some time, but the brute his father shewed little concern about it.

A day or two after we put to sea again, and crossed the great bay I

mentioned we had been to the bottom of, when we first hauled away to the

westward. The land here was very low and sandy, with something like the

mouth of a river, which discharged itself into the sea, and which had been

taken no notice of by us before, as it was so shallow that the Indians were

obliged to take every thing out of their canoes, and carry it over the neck

of land, and then, haul the boats over into a river which at this part of

it was very broad, more resembling a lake than a river. We rowed up it for

four or five leagues, and then took into a branch of it, that ran first to

the eastward, and then to the northward: Here it became much narrower, and

the stream excessively rapid, so that we made but little way, though we

worked very hard. At night we landed upon its banks, and had a most

uncomfortable lodging, it being a perfect swamp; and we had nothing to

cover us, though it rained very hard. The Indians were little better off

than we, as there was no wood here to make their wigwams; so that all they

could do was to prop up the bark they carry in the bottom of their canoes

with their oars, and shelter themselves as well as they could to leeward of

it. They, knowing the difficulties that were to be encountered here, had

provided themselves with some seal; but we had not the least morsel to eat,

after the heavy fatigues of the day, excepting a sort of root we saw some

of the Indians make use of, which was very disagreeable to the taste. We

laboured all the next day against the stream, and fared as we had done the

day before. The next day brought us to the carrying-place. Here was plenty

of wood, but nothing to be got for sustenance.

The first thing the Indians did was to take every thing out of their

canoes, and after hauling them ashore, they made their wigwams. We passed

this night, as generally we had done, under a tree; but what we suffered at

this time is not easily to be expressed. I had been three days at the oar

without any kind of nourishment but the wretched root I mentioned before. I

had no shirt, as mine was rotted off by bits, and we were devoured by

vermin. All my clothes consisted of an old short grieko, which is something

like a bearskin with a piece of a waistcoat under it, which once had been

of red cloth, both which I had on when I was cast away; I had a ragged pair

of trowsers, without either shoe or stocking.

The first thing the Indians did in the morning was to take their canoes to

pieces; and here, for the information of the reader, it will be necessary

to describe the structure of these boats, which are extremely well

calculated for the use of these Indians, as they are frequently obliged to

carry them over land a long way together, through thick woods, to avoid

doubling capes and head-lands, in seas where no open boats could live. They

generally consist of five pieces or planks, one for the bottom, and two for

each side; and as these people have no iron tools, the labour must be great

in hacking a single plank out of a large tree with shells and flints,

though with the help of fire. Along the edges of the plank, they make small

holes, at about an inch from one to the other, and sew them together with

the supplejack or woodbine; but as these holes are not filled up by the

substance of the woodbine, their boats would be immediately full of water

if they had not a method of preventing it. They do this very effectually by

the bark of a tree, which they first steep in water for some time, and then

beat it between two stones till it answers the use of oakum, and then

chinse each hole so well, that they do not admit of the least water coming

through, and are easily taken asunder and put together again. When they

have occasion to go over land, as at this time, each man or woman carries a

plank, whereas it would be impossible for them to drag a heavy boat entire.

Every body had something to carry except Captain Cheap, and he was obliged

to be assisted, or never would have got over this march; for a worse than

this I believe never was made. He, with the others, set out some time

before me. I waited for two Indians who belonged to the canoe I came in,

and who remained to carry over the last of the things from the side we were

on. I had a piece of wet heavy canvas which belonged to Captain Cheap, with

a bit of stinking seal wrapped in it, (which had been given him that

morning by some of the Indians) to carry upon my head, which was a

sufficient weight for a strong man in health through such roads, and a

grievous burthen to one in my condition.

Our way was through a thick wood, the bottom of which was a mere quagmire,

most part of it up to our knees, and often to our middle, and every now and

then we had a large tree to get over, for they often lay directly in our

road. Besides this, we were continually treading upon the stumps of trees,

which were not to be avoided, as they were covered with water; and having

neither shoe nor stocking, my feet and legs were frequently torn and

wounded. Before I had got half a mile the two Indians had left me, and

making the best of my way lest they should be all gone before I got to the

other side, I fell off a tree that crossed the road into a very deep swamp,

where I very narrowly escaped drowning, by the weight of the burthen I had

on my head. It was a long while before I could extricate myself from this

difficulty, and when I did, my strength was quite exhausted. I sat down

under a tree, and there gave way to melancholy reflections. However, as I

was sensible these reflections would answer no end, they did not last long.

I got up, and marking a great tree, I then deposited my load, not being

able to carry it any farther, and set out to join my company.

It was some hours before I reached my companions. I found them sitting

under a tree, and sat myself down by them without speaking a word; nor did

they speak to me, as I remember, for some time, when Captain Cheap breaking

silence, began to ask after the seal and piece of canvas. I told him the

disaster I had met with, which he might have easily guessed by the

condition the rags I had on were in, as well as having my feet and ancles

cut to pieces; but, instead of compassion for my sufferings, I heard

nothing but grumbling from every one for the irreparable loss they had

sustained by me. I made no answer, but after resting myself a little, I got

up and struck into the wood, and walked back at least five miles to the

tree I had marked, and returned just time enough to deliver it before my

companions embarked, with the Indians, upon a great lake, the opposite part

of which seemed to wash the foot of the Cordilleras. I wanted to embark

with them, but was given to understand I was to wait for some other Indians

that were to follow them. I knew not where these Indians were to come from:

I was left alone upon the beach, and night was at hand. They left me not

even a morsel of the stinking seal that I had suffered so much about.

I kept my eyes upon the boats as long as I could distinguish them, and then

returned into the wood, and sat myself down upon the root of a tree, having

eat nothing the whole day but the stem of a plant which resembles that of

an artichoke, which is of a juicy consistence and acid taste. Quite worn

out with fatigue, I soon fell asleep; and awaking before day, I thought I

heard some voices at no great distance from me. As the day appeared,

looking further into the wood, I perceived a wigwam, and immediately made

towards it; but the reception I met with was not at all agreeable, for

stooping to get into it, I presently received two or three hearty kicks in

my face, and at the same time heard the sound of voices, seemingly in

anger, which made me retire, and wait at the foot of a tree, where I

remained till an old woman peeped out and made signs to me to draw near. I

obeyed very readily, and went into the wigwam. In it were three men and two

women; one young man seemed to have great respect shewn to him by the rest,

though he was the most miserable object I ever saw. He was a perfect

skeleton, and covered with sores from head to foot. I was happy to sit a

moment by their fire, as I was quite benumbed with cold. The old woman took

out a piece of seal, holding one part of it between her feet, and the other

end in her teeth, and then cut off some thin slices with a sharp shell, and

distributed them about to the other Indians. She then put a bit on the

fire, taking a piece of fat in her mouth, which she kept chewing, every now

and then spirting some of it on the piece that was warming upon the fire;

for they never do more with it than warm it through. When it was ready, she

gave me a little bit, which I swallowed whole, being almost starved.

As these Indians were all strangers to me, I did not know which way they

were going; and indeed it was now become quite indifferent to me which way

I went, whether to the northward or southward, so that they would but take

me with them and give me something to eat. However, to make them comprehend

me, I pointed first to the southward, and after to the lake, and I soon

understood they were going to the northward. They all went out together,

excepting the sick Indian, and took up the planks of the canoes, which lay

near the wigwam, and carried them upon the beach, and presently put it

together, and getting every thing into it, they put me to the oar. We rowed

across the lake to the mouth of a very rapid river, where we put ashore for

that night, not daring to get any way down in the dark, as it required the

greatest skill, even in the day, to avoid running foul of the stumps and

roots of trees, of which this river was full. I passed a melancholy night,

as they would not suffer me to come near the wigwam they had made; nor had

they given me the least bit of any one thing to eat since we embarked.

In the morning we set off again. The weather proved extremely bad the whole

day. We went down the river at an amazing rate, and just before night they

put ashore upon a stony beach. They hauled the canoe up, and all

disappeared in a moment, and I was left quite alone; it rained violently,

and was very dark. I thought it was as well to lay down upon the beach,

half side in water, as to get into a swamp under a dropping tree. In this

dismal situation I fell asleep, and awaked three or four hours after in

such agonies with the cramp, that I thought I must die upon the spot. I

attempted several times to raise myself upon my legs, but could not. At

last I made shift to get upon my knees, and looking towards the wood, I saw

a great fire at some distance from me. I was a long time crawling to it,

and when I reached it, I threw myself almost into it, in hopes of finding

some relief from the pain I suffered. This intrusion gave great offence to

the Indians, who immediately got up, kicking and beating me till they drove

me to some distance from it; however, I contrived a little after to place

myself so as to receive some warmth from it, by which I got rid of the

cramp.

In the morning we left this place, and were soon after out of the river.

Being now at sea again, the Indians intended putting ashore at the first

convenient place to look for shell-fish, their stock of provisions having

been quite exhausted for some time. At low water we landed upon a spot that

seemed to promise well, and here we found plenty of limpets. Though at this

time starving, I did not attempt to eat one, lest I should lose a moment in

gathering them, not knowing how soon the Indians might be going again. I

had almost filled my hat when I saw them returning to the canoe. I made

what haste I could to her, for I believe they would have made no conscience

of leaving me behind. I sat down to my oar again, placing my hat close to

me, every now and then eating a limpet. The Indians were employed the same

way, when one of them seeing me throw the shells overboard, spoke to the

rest in a violent passion, and getting up, fell upon me, and seizing me by

an old ragged handkerchief I had about my neck, almost throttled me; whilst

another took me by the legs, and was going to throw me overboard if the old

woman had not prevented, them.

I was all this time entirely ignorant by what means I had given offence,

till I observed that the Indians, after eating the limpets, carefully put

the shells in a heap at the bottom, of the canoe. I then concluded there

was some superstition about throwing these shells into the sea, my

ignorance of which had very nearly cost me my life. I was resolved to eat

no more limpets till we landed, which we did some time after upon an

island. I then took notice that the Indians brought all their shells

ashore, and laid them above high-water mark. Here, as I was going to eat a

large bunch of berries I had gathered from a tree, for they looked very

tempting, one of the Indians snatched them out of my hand and threw them

away, making me to understand that they were poisonous. Thus, in all

probability, did these people now save my life, who, a few hours before,

were going to take it from me for throwing away a shell.

In two days after I joined my companions again, but don't remember that

there was the least joy shewn on either side at meeting. At this place was

a very large canoe belonging to our guide, which would have required at

least six men to the oar to have made any kind of expedition; instead of

that, there was only Campbell and myself, besides the Indian, his companion

or servant, to row, the cacique himself never touching an oar, but sitting,

with his wife all the time much at his ease. Mr Hamilton continued in the

same canoe he had been in all along, and which still was to keep us company

some way further, though many of the others had left us. This was dreadful

hard work to such poor starved wretches as we were, to be slaving at the

oar all day long in such a heavy boat; and this inhuman fellow would never

give us a scrap to eat, excepting when he took so much seal that he could

not contrive to carry it all away with him, which happened very seldom.

After working like galley slaves all day, towards night, when we landed,

instead of taking any rest, Mr Campbell and I were sometimes obliged to go

miles along shore to get a few shell-fish; and just as we have made a

little fire in order to dress them, he has commanded us into the boat

again, and kept us rowing the whole night without ever landing. It is

impossible for me to describe the miserable state we were reduced to: Our

bodies were so emaciated, that we hardly appeared the figures of men.

It has often happened to me in the coldest night, both in hail and snow,

where we had nothing but an open beach to lay down upon, in order to

procure a little rest, that I have been obliged to pull off the few rags I

had on, as it was impossible to get a moment's sleep with them on for the

vermin that swarmed about them, though I used as often as I had time, to

take my clothes off, and putting them upon a large stone, beat them with

another, in hopes of killing hundreds at once, for it was endless work to

pick them off. What we suffered from this was ten times worse even than

hunger. But we were clean in comparison to Captain Cheap, for I could

compare his body to nothing but an ant-hill, with thousands of those

insects crawling over it; for he was now past attempting to rid himself in

the least from this torment, as he had quite lost himself, not recollecting

our names that were about him, or even his own. His beard was as long as a

hermit's; that and his face being covered with train-oil and dirt, from

having long accustomed himself to sleep upon a bag, by the way of pillow,

in which he kept the pieces of stinking seal. This prudent method he took

to prevent our getting at it whilst he slept. His legs were as big as

millposts, though his body appeared to be nothing but skin and bone.

One day we fell in with about forty Indians, who came down to the beach we

landed on, curiously painted. Our cacique seemed to understand but little

of their language, and it sounded to us very different from what we had

heard before. However, they made us comprehend that a ship had been upon

the coast not far from where we then were, and that she had a red flag:

This we understood some time after to have been the Anne pink, whose

adventures are particularly related in Lord Anson's Voyage; and we passed

through the very harbour she had lain in.

As there was but one small canoe that intended to accompany us any longer,

and that in which Mr Hamilton had been to this time intended to proceed no

further to the northward, our cacique proposed to him to come into our

canoe, which he refused, as the insolence of this fellow was to him

insupportable; he therefore rather chose to remain where he was, till

chance should throw in his way some other means of getting forward; so here

we left him, and it was some months before we saw him again.

CHAPTER VII.

We land on the Island of Chiloe.--To our great Joy we at length discover

Something having the Appearance of a House.--Kindness of the Natives.--We

are delivered to the Custody of a Spanish Guard.--Transactions with the

Spanish Residents.--Arrival at Chaco.--Manners of the Inhabitants.

We now got on, by very slow degrees, to the northward; and as the

difficulties and hardships we daily went through would only be a repetition

of those already mentioned, I shall say no more, but that at last we

reached an island about thirty leagues to the southward of Chiloe. Here we

remained two days for a favourable opportunity to cross the bay, the very

thoughts of which seemed to frighten our cacique out of his senses; and

indeed there was great reason for his apprehensions, for there ran a most

dreadful hollow sea, dangerous indeed for any open boat whatever, but a

thousand times more for such a crazy vessel as we were in. He at length

mustered up resolution enough to attempt it, first having crossed himself

for an hour together, and made a kind of lug-sail out of the bits of

blankets they wore about them, sewed together with split supple-jacks. We

then put off, and a terrible passage we had. The bottom plank of the canoe

was split, which opened upon every sea; and the water continually rushing

over the gunnel, I may say that we were in a manner full the whole way

over, though all hands were employed in bailing, without ceasing a moment.

As we drew near the shore, the cacique was eager to land, having been

terrified to that degree with this run, that if it had not been for us,

every soul must have perished; for he had very near got in amongst the

breakers, where the sea drove with such violence upon the rocks, that not

even an Indian could have escaped, especially as it was in the night. We

kept off till we got into smooth water, and landed upon the island of

Chiloe, though in a part of it that was not inhabited. Here we staid all

the next day, in a very heavy snow, to recover ourselves a little after our

fatigue; but the cold was so excessive, having neither shoe nor stocking,

we thought we should have lost our feet; and Captain Cheap was so ill, that

if he had had but a few leagues further to have gone without relief, he

could not have held out. It pleased God now that our sufferings, in a great

measure, were drawing to an end.

What things our cacique had brought with him from the wreck, he here buried

under ground, in order to conceal them from the Spaniards, who would not

have left him a rusty nail if they had known of it. Towards evening we set

off again; and about nine the same night, to our great joy, we observed

something that had the appearance of a house, It belonged to an

acquaintance of our cacique; and as he was possessed of my fowling-piece,

and we had preserved about one charge of powder, he made us load it for

him, and desired we would shew him how to discharge it; upon which,

standing up, and holding his head from it as far as possible, he fired, and

fell back into the bottom of the canoe. The Indians belonging to the house,

not in the least used to fire-arms, ran out and hid themselves in the

woods. But after some time, one of them bolder than the rest, got upon a

hill and hollowed to us, asking who and what we were. Our cacique now made

himself known, and they presently came down to the boat, bringing with them

some fish and plenty of potatoes. This was the most comfortable meal we had

made for many long months; and as soon as this was over, we rowed about two

miles farther to a little village, where we landed. Here our cacique

presently awaked all the inhabitants by the noise he made, and obliged one

of them to open his door to us, and immediately to make a large fire, for

the weather was very severe, this being the month of June, the depth of

winter in this part of the world. The Indians now flocked thick about us,

and seemed to have great compassion for us, as our cacique related to them

what part be knew of our history. They knew not what countrymen we were,

nor could our guide inform them; for he had often asked us if we were

French, Dutch, or English, the only nations he had ever heard of besides

the Spaniards. We always answered we were from Grande Bretagne, which he

could make nothing of; for we were afraid, if he knew us to be English, as

he had heard that nation was at war with the Spaniards, he never would have

conducted us to Chiloe.

These good-natured compassionate creatures seemed to vie with each other

who should take the most care of us. They made a bed of sheep-skins close

to the fire for Captain Cheap, and laid him upon it; and indeed, had it not

been for the kind assistance he now met with, he could not have survived

three days longer. Though it was now about midnight, they went out and

killed a sheep, of which they made broth, and baked a large cake of barley-

meal. Any body may imagine what a treat this was to wretches who had not

tasted a bit of bread, or any wholesome diet, for such a length of time.

After we could eat no longer, we went to sleep about the fire, which the

Indians took care to keep up. In the morning, the women came from far and

near, each bringing with her something. Almost every one had a pipkin in

her hand, containing either fowls or mutton made into broth, potatoes,

eggs, or other eatables. We fell to work as if we had eat nothing in the

night, and employed ourselves so for the best part of the day.

In the evening, the men filled our house, bringing with them some jars of a

liquor they called chica, made of barley-meal, and not very unlike our oat-

ale in taste, which will intoxicate those who drink a sufficient quantity

of it, for a little has no effect. As soon as the drink was out, a fresh

supply of victuals was brought in; and in this manner we passed the whole

time we remained with these hospitable Indians. They are a strong well-made

people, extremely well-featured, both men and women, and vastly neat in

their persons. The men's dress is called by them a puncho, which is a

square piece of cloth, generally in stripes of different colours, with a

slit in the middle of it, wide enough to let their heads through, so that

it hangs on their shoulders, half of it falling before and the other behind

them: Under this they wear a short kind of flannel shirt without sleeves or

neck. They have wide-knee'd breeches, something like the Dutch seamen, and

on their legs a sort of knit buskins without any feet to them, but never

any shoes. Their hair is always combed very smooth, and tied very tight up

in a great bunch close to the neck; some wear a very neat hat of their own

making, and others go without. The women wear a shift like the men's

shirts, without sleeves, and over it a square piece of cloth, which they

fasten before with a large silver pin, and a petticoat of different

stripes. They take as much care of their hair as the men; and both have

always a kind of fillet bound very tight about the fore-head, and made fast

behind. In short, these people are as cleanly as the several savage nations

we had met with before were beastly.