ashore, in company with the agent, the first lieutenant and doctor,
having previously agreed with the Governor about his ransom. Our launch
was employed six days in bringing wood, water, and provision aboard;
during which time, the Governor desired he might have some arms and
ammunition in exchange: accordingly Captain Clipperton sent him twelve
fuzees, three jars of powder, sixty round shot, four pair of pistols,
besides cutlasses, long swords, and daggers. The 25th, they received a
letter, in which the Governor demanded the Marquis’s jewels, some
consecrated plate, and two negroes, being Christians, and subjects to
the King of Spain; as also a certificate, under the Captain and officers
hands, that peace was proclaimed, detaining Mr. Godfrey and Mr. Pritty
till all this was performed. The Captain returned for answer, that the
Solidad, the last prize taken on the coast of Chili, declared there was
peace between England and Spain; but, withal, assured the Governor,
that, if he did not, in twenty-four hours, send the ransom with the two
gentlemen, he would demolish the houses upon the shore, burn the ship in
the harbour, and do all the mischief he could at the Philippine islands.
After this declaration, hostilities commenced on both sides. The people
on shore had raised a battery from whence they fired at the pinnace. The
ship ran a-ground between two fires, one from the battery over their
heads, and another from the ship in the harbour. In endeavouring to get
their ship off, they ran foul of the rocks. The enemy fired so warmly
with stones and shot, that they suffered extremely in their hull and
rigging. They had three men wounded, besides the misfortune of losing
Mr. Davidson, their first Lieutenant, who was an honest man, and a good
officer.
[Illustration: _The distrest Situation of the Success between the fire
of the Spanish Fort at Umata & the Ship in the harbour herself at the
Same time Wedged on a Rock_]
In this emergency, the Captain being overcome with liquor, the officers
signed a paper indemnifying Mr. Cook for taking upon him the command.
They cleared away the hold, ready to start their water, to make the ship
lighter; and got their upper and lower deck guns forward, to bring her
by the head, the ship hanging abaft on the rock.
During the last twenty-four hours, they had happily only one man
wounded; but the ship was wretchedly torn and mangled between wind and
water. The 30th, at six in the afternoon, the ship floating, they cut
away the yawl, she being sunk with the shot; the other boats were much
damaged; they hove to their small bower, then cut it away, and the other
two hawsers, and sent their pinnace a-head, to tow the ship off. Just as
they got afloat, the enemy fired so smartly from the new battery, that
their shot raked them through between wind and water, killing one of
their people, and wounding two others. They lost both their bow-anchors
and cables, the stern and kedge anchors, four hawsers, four of their
lower-deck guns, and nineteen barrels of powder, two men killed, and six
wounded, having stood for no less than fifty hours a fair mark for the
enemy to fire at; and, if they had not got clear, it was believed they
would have been sunk before morning. At ten in the forenoon they brought
to, and began to splice their rigging, not a rope of which escaped a
shot. Their carpenters were employed in fixing the masts and yards, and
the rest of their people in fixing the rigging. At six in the afternoon
they took their departure, leaving Mr. Godfrey and Mr. Pritty in the
hands of the enemy. This was certainly one of the worst errors committed
by Clipperton; for he should never have quitted the Marquis, without
having the ransom in his hands.
On the 24th of June, they were in sight of the Bashee Islands; and, on
the last day of the month, they saw the island-shoals of Prata.
On the 1st of July, they fell in with other islands, and passed several
boats that were fishing, though no such islands are laid down in any
chart. They anchored under one of these islands, and dispatched their
pinnace for intelligence; but not being able to learn their course to
Macao, nor to get a pilot, they determined to sail for Amoy; before
which port they arrived on the 5th in the evening, but were afraid to
enter it in the night, and therefore plied off and on till day-light.
They took notice of a great number of snakes in the sea, which were
brought down by the rivers that empty themselves on that coast. In the
evening of the 6th of July, they entered the port, and were well pleased
to find themselves once more in a place where they might hope to obtain
refreshments, and to be able to repair their ship; but they were no
sooner anchored in this port, than they had 10 custom-house officers put
on board them. The first thing these custom-house officers demanded was,
what the ship was reputed to be, and what business she had there.
Captain Clipperton answered, the ship belonged to the King of Great
Britain, and that she put in there by stress of weather, in order to
obtain provisions and necessaries. Next morning, the men mutinied, and
insisted on being immediately paid their prize-money. Mr. Taylor, to
whom we are indebted for this account, interposing, one Edward Boreman
told him, he had best desist, unless he had a mind to have a brace of
balls through his head. Mr. Cook, who commanded in the affair of Guam,
and who succeeded Mr. Davidson as First Lieutenant, now demanded thirty
shares, in right of his office; in which he was supported by the men.
Captain Clipperton, and the rest of the officers, seeing the turn things
were likely to take, were very desirous, that some allowance should be
made to the officers that were taken prisoners, and to Mr. Hendry and
Mr. Dod, who joined them from the Speedwell: but the men would hear of
no such allowances. Whilst these disputes lasted, some took it into
their heads to go ashore, without asking leave; and, when Captain
Clipperton would have corrected them, the whole company declared on
their side, and prevented it. After this, all things fell into
confusion: The men refused to work till they had their prize-money; and,
upon complaint, a guard of soldiers was sent on board, with a peremptory
order from the Mandarin to Captain Clipperton to comply.
On September 16, the distribution was made; and no allowance being
reserved for such as were taken prisoners, the representatives of those
who were dead, or the two gentlemen who had served on board the
Speedwell, the prize-money of a fore-mast-man was 419 dollars. According
to this distribution, the owners share in ready money, wrought silver,
gold, and jewels, amounted to between 6 and 7000l. sterling, which
Captain Clipperton caused to be immediately put on board a Portuguese
East-Indiaman, called the Queen of Angels, Don Francisco la Vero
Commander, which ship was unfortunately burnt at Rio Janeiro, on the
coast of Brasil, June 6, 1722. So that of these effects the owners
received no more, the charges of salvage deducted, than 1800l.
On September 30, they weighed anchor from the bay of Amoy, which lies in
the province of Tonkin, after having paid, under the article of port
charges, the most exorbitant sum of 1700 dollars; and then proceeded to
Macao, in the road of which they anchored, Oct. 4. As soon as Capt.
Clipperton entered the port, he saluted the fortress; which compliment
being returned, he went on shore, and found there the Captain of the
Portuguese man-of-war, who had undertaken to carry what belonged to the
owners to Brasil. The mutinous crew found themselves at a loss here, the
Portuguese Captain declaring absolutely in favour of their Commander;
and, therefore, Captain Cook, and another officer, took passage to
Canton, to consult Mr. Winder, supercargo to an East-Indiaman, and son
to one of the principal proprietors, as to the measures which should be
taken about carrying the Success home; and, upon their return, the ship
was surveyed, condemned, and sold for 4000 dollars: but Capt.
Clipperton, to shew his opinion of her, agreed with the persons who
bought her, for his passage in her to Batavia; a plain indication, that
there was no danger of her foundering at sea. The ship being sold, every
man thought himself at liberty to shift as well as he could, and to use
his best endeavour to save what little was left him. They were, by this
time, satisfied, that Captain Mitchell, his crew, and cargo, were all
gone to the bottom, or else fallen into the hands of the Spaniards;
which was to them pretty much the same thing; and, therefore, what they
had now in possession was all they had to expect. Twenty of them,
however, who had agreed to give six dollars a-piece for a passage in a
Chinese vessel to Canton, were taken by a pirate, and most of them lost
all their effects. After a short stay at Macao, Mr. Taylor, the chief
mate, got safe to Canton in an armed boat, for which he, and the rest of
the English seamen that staid with him, paid 20 dollars a-head: and when
they arrived, they were well received, and promised all imaginable
assistance towards getting home. There were, at this time, several ships
there ready to sail. The Captains of these vessels being solicited by
the factory to take Captain Clipperton’s men on board, they met, and
agreed to carry them to Great Britain for five pounds a man; and
accordingly they all paid their money. Mr. Taylor arrived safely at
Batavia in the month of December, sailed from thence to the Cape of Good
Hope in February, came to St. Helena in March, and, in May 1722, arrived
in London. The rest of the ship’s company returned, some sooner, some
later, as opportunities offered; but, as for Capt. Mitchell, who was
sent to Brasil with a small crew, he was never heard of, and most
probably was destroyed on the island of Velas, where he went ashore for
the sake of getting fresh provisions.
Captain Clipperton sailed in the Success, after she was sold, as a
passenger, from Macao to Batavia; from whence he procured a passage home
in a Dutch East-India ship, and arrived, in the beginning of July, 1722,
at Galway, in Ireland, where he died in less than a week of a broken
heart.
Thus ended the unfortunate voyage of Captain Clipperton; that of Captain
Shelvock remains to be related.
THE
VOYAGE
OF
CAPTAIN SHELVOCK
ROUND THE WORLD.
We have already given an account, in the introduction to the preceding
voyage, of the motives that influenced the owners to undertake it, and
of the difficulties and discouragements that attended the first setting
out. It remains now only to relate the proceedings of Captain Shelvock,
the second in command, who has himself been very circumstantial in
laying before the public the following particulars.
On the 13th of February, 1719, we sailed from Plymouth, in company with
the Success, of 36 guns, Captain John Clipperton, who, in consideration
of his knowledge of the coasts and customs of Chili, Peru, and Mexico,
was to act as chief of the expedition.
On the 15th, I came under his lee, complained of the crankness of my
ship, and desired him to send for his wine and brandy, which he
neglecting, lost his sea stock of liquors; for we never saw any thing of
each other till about two years afterwards.
Thursday 19, a storm arose, and about midnight a sea drove in our
quarter and one of our stern dead lights. For a considerable time we
were under apprehensions of foundering; a succession of prodigious seas
drove over us; and in this melancholy state, the chain pump was the only
means of our deliverance.
February 20, we had no sight of the Success, and at midnight set the
topsails and stood to the north-westward.
This storm so terrified my ship’s company, that no less than 70 of them
were resolved upon bearing away for England, there to make complaint
against the ship. But, on the 23d, perceiving their discontent, I
ordered them all on deck, and used what arguments with them I was master
of, to encourage them to proceed; but all I could say was but to little
purpose. They continued in their resolution to clap the helm a
_weather_; and grew to that height of insolence at last, that I was
obliged to call upon my officers to assist in bringing the mutineers to
reason. For this end most of them appeared armed; and the sight of this
so startled the ringleaders, that they very submissively begged I would
forgive them; as I did, upon promise for the future to behave as became
them. After this, seeing them inclined to be tractable, I ordered them
some brandy, and they drank to our prosperous voyage. But the very next
evening, Simon Hatley, my second Captain, had like to have thrown every
thing into confusion, by telling me upon deck, before most of the ship’s
company, that he had private orders from one of the chief of the
gentlemen adventurers, and Captain Clipperton, to take the charge of the
ship upon himself. I asked him if he had a private commission too? but
to this he returned nothing but expressions of contempt. This
unseamanlike behaviour, immediately after my separation from my consort,
laid me under a necessity of behaving with all possible circumspection,
to prevent our being divided into parties, which would infallibly
frustrate the ends of our expedition.
We had a very tedious passage to our first place of rendezvous, the
Canary Islands; and did not arrive there till the 17th of March, where
having finished our cruise without any thing remarkable, except taking
an open boat with salt and wine, hearing nothing of the Success, on
March the 29th, we took our departure from the island of Ferro, in hopes
of meeting with Captain Clipperton among the islands of Cape de Verd,
and we took our prize along with us. But in our passage, my people began
again to murmur; and one Turner Stevens, my gunner, very gravely made a
proposal to me, in the hearing of all the other officers, to go a
cruizing in the Red Sea; for, said he, there can be no harm in robbing
those Mahometans; but, as for the poor Spaniards, continued he, they are
good Christians, and it would, doubtless, be a sin to injure them. Upon
this, I ordered him under confinement; and the man, after that, having
threatened, in a very outrageous manner, to blow up the ship, I, at his
own request, discharged him as soon as we arrived, together with my
chief mate, who had likewise been guilty of many and great misdemeanors.
On the 14th of April, we made the Isle of May; and, running along shore,
saw a wreck, which we were told was the Vanzittern Indiaman, Captain
Hide, who three weeks before had been cast away. I endeavoured to avail
myself of this accident, to supply the necessaries we stood in need of;
but could procure nothing but two or three sheathing-boards. At this
place I sold our prize for 150 dollars to the Governor; and filled all
our water-casks, and gave my ship a very good heel. Six of my people
having deserted, I applied in vain to the officer on shore to deliver
them up to me; but, threatening the Master of a Portuguese ship to make
reprisals, he brought me off two of them, which happened to be the best.
They fell on their knees, and asked pardon, assuring me the Commander on
shore had seduced them, his design being to fend the bark I sold him on
the Vanzittern’s wreck, where he said they might all make their
fortunes; so I lost the other four.
Finding I could neither hear of the Success, nor get what might be
serviceable to us in this place, and having read in Frezier’s voyage,
that in the island of St. Catherine’s, on the coast of Brasil, in
latitude 27 deg. 30 min. S. every thing might be had that we stood in
need of, I concluded it would be best for me to put in there.
April 20, we sailed from the Isle of May, having wrenched the drum-head
of our capstane in weighing anchor, which took us up the remainder of
the day to repair. We were 55 days in going to St. Catherine’s, during
which little remarkable happened; except that on June the 5th we saw a
ship stemming with us, and spoke with her. I ordered the five-oar’d boat
to be hoisted out, and sent Captain Hatley in her, to enquire after
news, and gave him money to buy us tobacco. The Success, amongst other
things, had got our stock of tobacco, and had made what the seamen call
a west-country famine on board of us. When Hatley returned, he told me
she was a Portuguese from Rio Janeiro, and bound to Fernambuco. Instead
of tobacco, which he said the ship had none to dispose of, he had laid
out my money in china ware, sweet-meats, and the like; and, upon my
expressing my dissatisfaction at his having squandered away my money in
so silly a manner, his answer was, that he had laid out his own in the
same manner. My reply was, I did not like his proceedings.
On Friday, June 19, we made the island of St. Catherine’s; and at ten
the next morning anchored in ten fathom water, the island of Gall
bearing E. N. E. distant two leagues, and the eastermost point of St.
Catherine’s E. and by S. distant four leagues. The first thing I did,
was to send the carpenter on shore, with all the people that could be
useful to him in felling of trees, and sawing them into plank, and to
order the cooper and his crew to trim the casks, and fill them with
water. Those who remained on board, I employed in different services.
Mean while the inhabitants came off to us every day with the product of
the place, which we purchased with salt.
On July 2, we were alarmed, at break of day, by the appearance of a
large ship at anchor four or five miles below the place where we lay. I
sent an officer in the launch, well manned and armed, to see what he
could make of her, and put my ship into the best posture of defence I
could. About noon my launch returned, and brought word that this ship
was the Ruby, formerly an English man-of-war, and now one of M.
Martinet’s squadron; that she came from the South Seas, and was
commanded by M. la Jonquiere; that he, his officers, and seamen, to the
number of 420, were all French; and tho’ in the Spanish service, they
had not the least design to molest us. My Lieutenant became thus
punctually informed, by a direct breach of orders in going aboard, and
his temerity might have cost me very dear; for, had they been enemies, I
should have lost 23 of my best hands; but their return confirmed the
truth of his story: yet it was a great misfortune, that I had not, to
the best of my knowledge, one man of experience or capacity sufficient
to enable him to perform the common duty of an officer.
The next day, the Ruby turned up towards us, and the Captain sent one of
his lieutenants and a priest, to assure me of his friendship, and to
desire I would dine with him, which I did, and met with a very handsome
reception, with offers of what money I would have upon my bills on
London, or in general any thing else his ship afforded. He informed me
that the Spaniards in the South Seas had advice of our two ships, and
that they talked of fitting out some men of war to receive us.
About this time there was a report spread, that Hatley had taken a bribe
of the Master of the Portuguese we met on the 5th of June, or had robbed
him of 80 or 100 moidores, had given ten to his cockswain, and six to
each of his boat’s crew, not to divulge it. I charged him with what had
been said against him; his answer was, He had done nothing he was
ashamed of, or that he could not justify. All I could do was to protest
against him, and I gave the protest to Captain Clipperton in the South
Seas.
July 6, M. la Jonquiere, accompanied by several of his officers and
passengers, came to dine with me; but in the midst of our entertainment,
my boatswain took it into his head to create a disturbance, because he
had not been invited into the cabbin as a guest. He first assaulted
Betagh the Captain of marines, and then Mr. Adams the surgeon. This
outrage, which was supported by a party he had formed, being, by the
help of my officers and the French gentlemen, pretty well quieted, M. la
Jonquiere declared, that, if they persisted in their disobedience, he
would see the ringleaders punished by carrying them home in irons; and
as they grew a little quieter, he expostulated with them, and appealed
to themselves, whether they did not think it monstrous for people to
behave themselves in such a manner.
The next morning I was informed, that the authors of the disturbance
were most of them sorry for what had happened the night before,
attributing the whole blame to the boatswain, and the effect of too much
liquor. I was glad to hear this, and therefore passed it all over with
only threatening how I would manage them, if ever they were guilty of
the like again. I had resolved to punish the boatswain in the severest
manner; but I was prevailed on not to do it, he, in very humble plight,
asking my pardon, and begging I would not use any severity towards him.
He said it was drink that had made him mad, and withal desired I would
give him leave to go home in the French ship. This I willingly agreed
to, he being a very odd sort of a fellow, and always incensing the
people against the number of officers, whom he termed Blood-suckers.
July 15, we saw a great ship plying into the harbour’s mouth; but when
she discovered us, she made the best of her way out again. This
possessed M. la Jonquiere with a notion of her being our consort, and
put him into a hurry to be gone. Accordingly, when night came on, he
weighed, and went to sea the next morning, and at his departure saluted
me with five guns. Three Frenchmen, belonging to me, went away with him;
but I had two Frenchmen, and one Morphew, an Irishman, in lieu of them.
During all this, our carpenter went on but slowly in the woods; and at
last, when we came to case the stern all over with thick plank, we could
find, to my great astonishment, no nails fit for that use. I was now
told, that the first carpenter, and his crew, had sold most of the
stores before the ship came to Plymouth, which was before I commanded
her.
July 25, a large ship came in, called the Wise Solomon, of St. Malo’s,
of 40 guns, and about 160 men, commanded by M. Dumain Girard, and bound
to the coasts of Chili and Peru to trade. She was the same ship we saw
coming in before, and had spoke with the Ruby at sea. This gentleman, I
soon perceived, notwithstanding a little forced civility at his first
arrival, was a designing mercenary man, and full of all the conceit and
vanity ascribed to his nation.
Desiring him to spare me some nails, he readily answered he would; but,
at the same time, gave me to understand that he could not afford them
for less than 32 dollars a hundred, which sum I was fain to give him; I
likewise bought of him 60 cheeses, and 300 weight of butter; so that it
happened well for me, that I had some money from one of the Ruby’s
people. This done, I now thought of making a quick dispatch from this
place, when there came a letter from my ship’s company to me, with
articles annexed to it for the immediate division of prize-money, which
they said they were resolved to insist on, alledging that they knew by
woeful experience how they were used on board the Duke and Dutchess,
that they were never paid one tenth of their due, and that they had been
well informed what a paymaster a certain gentleman would make, if ever
their fortunes should fall into his hands. They were so very importunate
with me to comply with their articles, that both myself, and all my
chief officers, thought it would be best and most adviseable to sign
their papers with them, rather than run the risque of their proceeding,
when they should get out to sea, to acts of piracy. As soon as they had
gained their point, they expressed great satisfaction, and promised to
be always ready to hazard their lives in any undertaking I should think
conducive to the ends we were fitted out for.
August 3, there came in here the St. Francisco Xavier, a Portuguese
man-of-war, of 40 guns, and 300 men, from Lisbon, bound to Macao in
China, commanded by Captain la Riviere, a Frenchman. I made no doubt but
that Captain Hatley’s affair would be reported to this gentleman, and,
therefore, I told Hatley, that I expected he would go and vindicate
himself to the Portuguese Captain, to prevent any disturbances that
might arise on his account. To which he readily replied he would.
Hatley, at his return, told me, the Captain seemed to be angry with him
for thinking he could harbour any ill thought of a gentleman bound on a
voyage, which, to his knowledge, could hardly fail of answering the
largest expectations.