quantities of blood had been thrown into it, and curdled by the water.
This, the Spaniards say, is occasioned by the spawn of prawns, which
must certainly be a mistake. In our passage, the plunder was sold before
the mast, by the ship’s company’s agent, at very extravagant prices. At
the same time the account of every thing being taken, and the value of
the shares calculated, the ship’s company desired me to let them have
their dividend, according to the articles at St. Catherine’s, which
request I could not withstand. The prize-money and plunder amounting to
ten pieces of eight per share, was thereupon distributed; and all the
bales of coarse cloth, bays, linnen, ribbons, lace, silk, and several
other sorts of mercery wares, were equally divided, half to the owners,
and half to the ship’s company.
Jan. 11, at six in the morning, we saw the island of Juan Fernandez, and
from that day till the 15th I kept standing off and on the shore for my
boats, which were a fishing, who not having hitherto discovered any
marks whereby we might conclude that Clipperton had been here, I thought
it proper to render my coming hither serviceable in some respect, and
therefore sent the Mercury on shore to stop her leaks, while the boats
continued catching fish, of which we salted as much as filled five
puncheons. At length, going on shore to make a nicer search, some of my
men accidentally saw the word MAGEE, which was the name of Clipperton’s
surgeon, and CAPT. JOHN cut out under it upon a tree, but no directions
left, as was agreed on by him in his instructions to me. His actions
being thus grosly repugnant to his instructions, it was evident he never
meant I should keep him company, or ever join with him again.--[This
reflection may with great justice be retorted on the writer himself, and
can in no shape affect Clipperton who followed his instructions in the
most scrupulous manner.]--However, being by this confirmed in the
certainty of Clipperton’s arrival, I directly made the best of my way,
and sailed to the northward.
Jan. 21, having a design to look into Copiapo as I went along shore, I
sent Mr. Dodd, second Lieutenant of marines, with eight men, as a
reinforcement to the Mercury’s crew, and the next evening they left us
steering in for the land, whilst I kept a proper offing, to prevent our
being discovered. The next day the officer returned and told me, he had
looked into the port, but could see no shipping there, upon which I made
him sensible of his error, and sent him to the right place, which was
about six leagues to the northward of us, and ordered him to be ready to
look into Caldera by day-light the next morning. They did so, and saw
nothing; but, instead of making use of the land wind to come off to me,
they kept along shore, till the sea breeze came on, and could not come
to me till the morning after, by which means they hindered me almost a
whole day and night’s sailing; and in this vexatious manner were my
orders always executed!
Feb. 5th, I dispatched Mr. Brooks a-head to discover if there were any
shipping at Arica, and next day, I had a sight of the head-land of
Arica, and the island of Guano, with a ship at anchor on the northern
side of it, and saw the Mercury standing out of the bay, by which I
judged the ship was too warm for her, and therefore made all possible
haste to get up to her with our ship. When I came into the port, I found
her already taken, and that the Mercury only went accidentally adrift.
This prize was called the Rosario, of about 100 tons, laden with
cormorants dung, which the Spaniards call guana, and is brought from the
island of Iquique, for the culture of the agi, or cod-pepper, in the
vale of Arica. There was no white face in her but the pilot, whom I sent
to see if her owner would ransom her. At seven o’clock in the morning I
received a letter from the owner, expressing his poverty, and declaring
his readiness to comply to the utmost of his power: and the honest man
was as good as his word.
I agreed upon restoring to him his ship, and six negroes, for 1500
pieces of eight; and he was so punctual and expeditious, that at 10 the
next night he brought the sum agreed on. Soon after the receipt of this,
we took a vessel of about 10 tons, as she was coming into the road, with
a cargo of dried fish and guana, within a mile of the town. The master
of this bark likewise came off upon a balse, which is an odd sort of an
embarkation made of two large seal-skins separately blown up like
bladders, and then made fast and joined together by a frame of wood. On
this he brought off two jars of brandy, and 40 pieces of eight, for his
ransom, which, considering his mean appearance, was as much as I could
have expected. One part of his freight was valuable, which was his dried
fish.
Feb. 9, 1720, I sailed from Arica, and as I went out, the inhabitants
placed themselves round the bay, and made a very good hedge fire after
me for about half an hour. I judged there could not be less than 5 or
600 of them. I shaped my course for the road of Hilo, which we had a
sight of the next day at three in the afternoon, where we saw one large
ship and three small ones at anchor. The great ship immediately hoisted
French colours, and in the end proved to be the Sage Solomon, of 40
guns, commanded by Mons. Dumain, whom I had left at St. Catherine’s, and
who was now resolved to protect the vessels that were with him, and
obstruct my coming in. I at first thought of shewing my resentment, but,
upon second thoughts, I clapped the helm a-weather, and stood out to
sea.
Feb. 12, in the morning, the ship’s company had their moiety of the
money taken at Arica divided amongst them, according to their number of
shares.
Feb. 22, I came a-breast of Callao, the port for Lima, which is the
metropolis of Peru; but there being no great prospect of performing much
here in our present situation, I had nothing to do but to slip away from
hence in the night, by the help of a favourable breeze.
Feb. 26, the officers in the Mercury desired to be relieved, and it
being Capt. Hatley’s turn to go in her, he proposed to me that he might
continue along shore, till we had got the length of Lobos, an island in
about seven degrees of south latitude. I could not but approve of this,
considering the probability there was of his meeting with the Panama
ships; and every body being well pleased, I added to their complement of
men, and gave them a month’s provisions, and mounted two of our
quarter-deck guns on the Mercury, and lent Captain Hatley my pinnace. As
soon as every thing was ready for their departure, Captain Betagh, whose
duty and turn it was to relieve the marine officer in the Mercury, being
unwilling to go on this party, addressed himself to the people, and with
a fearful countenance told them, that he, and the rest who were to go
with him, were sent for a sacrifice, with many other expressions tending
to create a general mutiny. I now imagined no less than that he was
about to act what he had threatened when he told me, it should be a
short voyage with me; and, therefore, I addressed myself to the ship’s
company, desired to know who amongst them were of Betagh’s opinion?
Their answer was with one voice, None. This done, I ordered the Mercury
alongside, and Hatley and Betagh went on board of her; and, putting off
from us, gave three cheers, and stood right in for the land, in the
latitude by observation of 10 deg. 9 min. S.
The very next day they took a small bark laden with rice, chocolate,
wheat, flour, and the like. The day following they took another. On the
fourth day of their absence they became masters of a ship of near 200
tons, worth 150,000 pieces of eight. Flushed with this success, it seems
Betagh prevailed on Hatley, and the greatest part of the people with
them, to lay hold of this opportunity and go to India: but they no
sooner clapped their helm a-weather, than they saw a sail standing
towards them, which, in short, proved to be a Spanish man-of-war, who
caught them, and put an end to their Indian voyage. The English were
treated very indifferently; but Betagh, it seems, who was of their
religion, and of a nation which the Spaniards affect to be fond of, was
made an officer, and used very respectfully. This he certainly deserved
at their hands; for he gave them an account of the whole scheme of our
voyage; and not only informed them of what we had done, but also of what
I designed to do; so that they did not doubt but I myself should be in
their hands very speedily.
Feb. 29, at six in the morning, we saw a sail at anchor in the road of
Guanchaco; at eleven we came up, and anchored along side of her. There
was no body on board of her but two Indian men and a boy. They informed
us, there was a rich ship in the cove of Payta.
March 21, at three in the afternoon, we saw the Pena Oradado, or the
_Hole in the Rock_; and in an hour afterwards, we entered the cove of
Payta with French colours flying. There we found only a small ship at
anchor with her fore-mast out, and her main-top-mast unrigged; but the
taking of this town being considered in the scheme of our voyage as a
matter of great importance, I consulted with my officers concerning the
properest methods of going about it. At two of the clock the next
morning I landed with 46 men, leaving Mr. Coldsea the master, and some
others, to bring the ship nearer in, that we might the more
expeditiously embark the plunder we might get. Being now on shore, I
marched up to the great church without meeting any opposition; and
indeed I found the town entirely deserted by the inhabitants. At
day-light we saw what seemed great bodies of men on the hills, on each
side of us, who, I expected, when they had viewed our strength, would
have paid us a visit; but I found, that as we marched up towards them,
we drove them before us. The remainder of the day was spent in shipping
off what plunder we had got, which consisted of hogs, fowls, brown and
white calavances, beans, Indian corn, wheat, flour, sugar, and as much
cocoa-nut as we were able to stow away, with pans, and other
conveniences for preparing it; so that we were supplied with
breakfast-meat for the whole voyage, and full of provisions of one kind
or other. In the afternoon there came to us a messenger, to know what I
would take for the ransom of the town and ship; to which I answered, I
would have 10,000 pieces of eight, and those to be paid in twenty-four
hours, if they intended to save the town, or ship either. But the
Governor gave me to understand in plain terms, that he neither could nor
would ransom the town, and did not care what I did with it, so that I
spared the churches. Having received this negative answer, and got every
thing serviceable out of the town, I instantly ordered it to be set on
fire; and the houses, being extremely dry, consumed away apace. But no
sooner was Payta in a blaze than those on board made signals for me to
come off, and kept incessantly firing towards the mouth of the harbour.
Upon which I ordered all hands off, and went first on board myself in a
canoe, with three men only; but, before I had got half way, saw a large
ship lying with her fore-top-sail aback, and with a Spanish flag flying
at her fore-top-mast-head. At this prospect, two of my three people were
ready to sink; and when I looked back on the town, I could not forbear
wishing that I had not been so hasty. As the Admiral was coming in with
all his sails spread, Mr. Coldsea, by the assistance of the few on
board, fired at him so smartly, that he stopped the enemy’s career. The
Spaniard apprehending he should have hot work with us, brought his ship
to, that he might put himself into a condition of making a vigorous
attack upon us. This inactivity of the enemy gave me an opportunity of
getting on board, and suffered my men to come off, about 50 in number,
but the Spaniard was within pistol-shot before they had all got into the
ship; upon which, we cut our cable, and our ship falling the wrong way,
I had but just room enough to fill clear of him. Being now close by one
another, his formidable appearance struck an universal damp on every
one’s spirits; and I myself could foresee nothing but that we should be
torn to pieces by him, and longed for an opportunity to try our heels
with him, whilst our masts were standing. I expected every minute that
he would board us, and, upon hearing a shouting amongst them, and seeing
their forecastle full of men, I concluded they had now come to that
resolution; but I presently saw that the occasion of this joy was their
having shot down our ensign-staff; upon which, they, seeing our ensign
trailing in the water, were in hopes we had struck: but I soon
undeceived them, by spreading a new ensign in the mizzen shrouds. Upon
sight of this they lay snug, and held their way close upon our quarter;
at last, designing to do our business at once, they clapped their helm
well a starboard, to bring their whole broadside to point at us; but
their fire had little or no effect. All stood fast with us, and they
muzzled themselves; which gave me time both to get a-head, and to
windward of him, before he could fill his sails again; and now I found,
that, if our masts, which were by this time but slenderly supported,
would bear what sail we had abroad, we should soon steal away from him.
After this he was in a great hurry to get his spritsail-yard fore and
aft, threatening us very hard, and plying us with his fore-chace: but we
soon were out of his reach, and all hands were immediately employed in
repairing our damages. This ship was called the Peregrine, of 56 guns,
with upwards of 450 men on board of her.
During this action, we had not a man killed or wounded, although the
enemy often hulled us, and once, in particular, a shot coming into one
of our ports, dismounted one of our guns between decks, tearing off the
nut of the gun, and breaking itself into a great many pieces, which flew
fore and aft in the midst of a crowd of people, without hurting any one
of them. Our stern was also much shattered, and our rigging much
disabled. Our main-mast was a little wounded, yet stood a long while
with only one good shroud to support it; our fore-mast fared little
better, yet I kept all the canvas, except the main-top-gallant-sail, at
hard bats-end. An unlucky shot took the bow of our launch, as she lay
upon the quarter, and set fire to some cartridges of powder, which were
negligently left in her, and which blew away her moorings, and we lost
her. Seeing a great smoke arise on the quarter, I at first imagined some
accident had happened within board. In short, in about three glasses we
got quite clear of the Admiral, who tacked, and stood in for Payta, and
we shortened sail. A narrower escape from an enemy could not well have
been made, considering the vast difference between us, as to force. The
Spaniard had 56 guns; we, on the contrary, had but 20 mounted: they had
450 men; we, on our part, did not exceed 73; and 11 negroes and two
Indians were included in that number. He had farther this great odds
over us, of being in a settled readiness, whilst we were in the utmost
confusion. As for our small arms, they were wet and useless to us; and,
what is more, in the midst of the engagement, one third of my people,
instead of fighting, were hard at work, to make farther preparation for
an obstinate resistance, if we had been pushed to extremities; and
particularly the carpenter and his crew were busied in making ports for
stern-chace-guns, which, as it happened, we made no use of. Upon the
whole, we had the good fortune to escape this danger, which was the more
to be dreaded, because, as we had set fire to the town, they were
probably exasperated upon the account of the churches, which I never
intended to destroy; and, if I had fallen into their hands, they might
have given us but uncomfortable quarters. At the best, however, it
cannot but be allowed to have been a most unfortunate disaster. The loss
of my boat and anchor was irreparable, and may be said to be the cause
of that scene of trouble which will take up the remainder of this
narrative; for we had now but one anchor, that at Payta being the third
we had lost, and were besides entirely destitute of a boat of any kind.
At five, the same evening, we saw a sail under our lee-bow, which I took
to be the prize we had left to cruise for us near the Saddle of Payta;
and we, therefore, stood to the westward all night, and the next morning
we saw two sail a-stern of us. I tacked, and stood towards them, and in
a little time could see that one of them was standing in for Payta,
while the other kept stemming with us; but the nearer I approached her,
the less I liked her, and could not but think it adviseable to put my
ship about, and crowd sail from her. However, she gained upon us, and
advanced near enough to shew us she was the Brilliant, the Admiral’s
consort. She was a French-built ship, of 36 guns, manned with people of
that nation, and other Europeans. She was handsomely rigged, which is
rare to be seen in those parts, and sailed almost two foot for our one;
so that, notwithstanding we had almost a calm all the heat of the day,
she neared us apace. But, night coming on, I made use of the old
stratagem (I thought it might be new here), of turning a light adrift in
a half tub, instead of a boat, darkening one part of the lanthorn, that
it might the more appear to be a ship’s light, and then immediately
altered my course. As the day broke I handed all my sails, and in full
day-light could perceive nothing of the enemy. This was the ship wherein
Betagh, my late Captain of marines, was so much respected; and by his
advice it was, as I have been told, that the Admiral ordered his consort
to ply up to windward to Lobos, our first place of rendezvous, whilst he
himself came to Payta in search of us. This separation, though intended
as a sure means to catch us, proved to be very fortunately the means of
our preservation.
Being thus closely pursued, I took an offing of thirty leagues from the
shore, and then brought to, to consider what I had best to do. I was
still in the dark, as to my consort; an embargo, as I was told at Payta,
was laid on all shipping to leeward for the term of six months; and our
prize, which I designed to make a fire-ship of, was taken by the
Brilliant; I had but one anchor, and no boat at all; and I was as yet
ignorant of what had become of the Mercury.
In the midst of all this peril and perplexity, I called my officers
together, to let them know, it was my opinion, we had, as we were thus
circumstanced, a much better prospect to the windward than to the
leeward; that on the coast of Chili we should not be in the least
suspected, and should, at the same time, in the most effectual manner,
escape the enemy’s men-of-war; that, after taking in water at Juan
Fernandez, we might cruise out the whole season off the ports of
Conception, Valparaiso, and Coquimbo, where among the shipping we might
be stocked with anchors, cables, boats, and a vessel to make a fire-ship
of, on which I mightily depended. All this being universally approved
of, we got our tacks on board, and stretched away to windward.
My intentions after this were fixed upon the coast of Mexico. There I
proposed to run the height of Tres Marias and California, as the most
likely places to meet with the Success. These two places would have been
commodious; the first for salting of turtle, and the last for wooding
and watering at, and for laying myself in the track of the Manilla ship,
which, if I should have had the fortune to meet with, and, having a
fire-ship with me, I would have tried what I could have done with her.
March 26, having well secured our mast, and bent a new suit of sails, we
stood to the southward, expecting to gain our passage to windward in
about five weeks.
March 31, as they were pumping the ship, the water which came out of the
well, was not only in greater quantity than usual, but was also as black
as ink. This made me judge that some water had got to our powder; and
accordingly going into the powder-room, we heard the water come in like
a little sluice. This had quite spoiled the greatest part of our powder;
so that we only saved the quantity of six barrels. We found upon search
a leak to be on the bow, under the lower cheek of the head, occasioned
by a shot which had been lodged there in our late engagement, and which
falling out by the working of the ship in an head sea, had left room for
a stream of water; but we brought the ship by the stern, and, with great
difficulty, stopped it securely.
May 11, we saw the great island of Juan Fernandez, bearing east half
south. Here I plied on and off till the 21st, but could not get off as
much water as we daily expended.
May 21, a hard gale of wind came out of the sea upon us, and brought in
with it a tumbling swell; so that in a few hours, our cable, which was
never wet before, parted, and inevitable shipwreck appeared before our
eyes. But Providence so far interposed in our behalf, that, if we had
struck but a cable’s length farther to the eastward or westward of the
place where we did strike, we must certainly all have perished. Our
main-mast, fore-mast, and mizzen-top-mast, went all away together; and
happy it was for us that they did so; for, by making them serve by way
of raft, and by the help of those who were ashore before the wind came
on, we were all saved, except one man. In the midst of this surprize,
the first thing I took care of, was my commission; and, remembering the
powder to be uppermost in the bread-room, I got most of it up, with
about seven or eight bags of bread: these we saved, as the ship did not
come to pieces immediately. In a few minutes, however, after she first
struck, she was full of water. We saved, notwithstanding, two or three
compasses, some of our mathematical instruments, and books.
When we first got on shore, we were without any one thing necessary for
our relief; not so much as a seat whereon to rest our harrassed limbs,
except the wet ground, which, as far as we could see, was also like to
be our bed and pillow, and indeed it proved to be so.
In the evening, all the officers came to consult with me, how we should
get some necessaries out of the wreck; and, having by this time lighted
a fire, we wrapt ourselves in what we could get, laid ourselves round
it, and, notwithstanding the badness of the weather, we slept very
soundly; but, the next morning, getting up with the first glimpse of
day-light, we looked at each other like men awakened out of a dream; so
great and so sudden was the melancholy change in our condition, that we
could scarce trust to our senses.
I went immediately among the people to set them about the work we had
resolved upon the night before; but they were so scattered, there was no
getting them together, or we might, probably, have regained all our beef
and pork. This opportunity, however, was lost, by their eagerness to
build huts and tents, in order to settle themselves for good; for, while
they were thus employed, a furious gale of wind came on, which destroyed
all the provisions in the ship, except one cask of beef, and one of
farina de pao, which were washed whole on the strand. I had saved 1100
dollars belonging to the gentlemen adventurers, which were kept in my
chest in the great cabbin; the rest, being in the bottom of the
bread-room for security, could not possibly be come at. I need not say
how disconsolate my reflections were on the sad accident that had
happened. My first thoughts were on the means whereby to preserve our
lives, and on some scheme of œconomy to be observed amongst the people,
in relation to the distribution of such quantities of provisions as
should from time to time be obtained.
I found a very commodious spot of ground about half a mile from the sea,
on which I set up my tent. There was a fine run of water within a
stone’s cast of it on each side, with firing near at hand, and trees
proper for our use. The people settled within call about me, in as good
a manner as they could: and having all secured ourselves against the
inclemency of the weather, we used to pass our time in the evening round
a great fire, roasting craw-fish in the embers.
I now began to think of building such a vessel from the wreck as might
carry us all off at once from this island; and for that purpose
consulted with the carpenter; but was astonished at his answer, ‘he
could not make brick, he said, without straw,’ and walked away from me
in a surly humour. From him I went to the armourer, and asked him what
he could do towards building a small vessel for us; to which he
answered, that he hoped he could do all the iron-work; that he had, with
much labour, got his bellows out of the wreck, and that he did not doubt
but we should find a great many other useful things, when we came to set
about a search for them in good earnest.