I suffered our prisoners to return to their own ship again; but the
chief of them would not leave me till they had drawn up a writing, which
they signed, whereby they acknowledged the circumstances of our
engagement, in the manner I have already related. In short, no people,
circumstanced as we were, could part in a more friendly manner than we
did.
Thus were we put by our design of surrendering, and were going to
undertake a long and hazardous voyage to Asia. Our strength was indeed
considerably augmented, for we had now 15 guns, and ammunition enough to
supply them.
Before we proceeded any farther, it was necessary to get in a full stock
of water. The island of Quibo was hazardous for us, being too near
Panama; it was therefore determined to ply up to Cano, where, having a
good boat, we soon did our business. In our passage thither, the
sweetmeats of all kinds, which we had taken out of our late prize, were
divided among the messes. It happened that one of the fellows, one day,
complained he had a box of malmalade which he could not stick his knife
into, and desired it might be changed. I opened it, and found in it a
cake of virgin silver, moulded on purpose to fill such boxes, and being
very porous, it was of near the same weight of so much malmalade. In
overhauling the rest, we found five more of these boxes. This was a
contrivance to defraud the King of Spain of his fifths, which he claims
in all the silver taken out of any of the mines in Peru. We doubtless
left a great many of these boxes behind us, so that this deceit served
them in a double capacity, to defraud their king’s officers, and blind
their enemies. An affair as vexatious as this, is said to have been
discovered too late on board a prize the Success had taken, where they
found a very considerable quantity of Pinna’s or virgin silver, in the
form of bricks, very artfully plaistered over with clay, and dried in
the sun, which being all the consistence they give their bricks in that
country, they were taken to be really such, and a great number of them
were thrown overboard as so much rubbish, without any discovery of what
they were, till the four or five last pieces. How true this may be I
can’t say, but it was reported to me, as matter of fact, by several of
the officers belonging to Captain Clipperton.
I must here observe, that every thing we took in the Conception was
divided among us according to the Juan Fernandian articles, and that I
had no more than six instead of sixty shares. They would not so much as
allow me the money I had out laid at St. Catherine’s, which was upwards
of a hundred pounds. I had some difficulty to persuade them to run to
the northward so far as California; and was obliged to use many
arguments to prevail upon them to believe that the harbour of Puerto
Seguro was the only port of security where we could safely lay down and
refit our ship; but having at last obtained their consents, I weighed
from Cano, steering to the northward, and had favourable gales for 48
hours; but then came on the constant, or what may be called the trade
wind on this coast, which being as contrary to us as they well could be,
I was willing to try how far off these winds might prevail, which, in my
opinion, may be called the eddy of the true trade wind, whose course may
be perverted by the interposition of this vast mountainous continent.
Accordingly I found, that, at the distance of 60 leagues, we had light
winds and variable, and that, at the distance of between 70 and 80
leagues, it settled at E. N. E. and N. E. I therefore kept at this
distance from the land till we had run up to the height of 20 degrees
north. In all this passage, we were not in the least sensible of any
currents, and entirely out of the way of certain riplings and overfalls
of water, which we frequently met with nearer to the land, and which
often surprized us when we were becalmed in deep water.
In this passage we were accompanied by vast shoals of fish, and were
continually incommoded by numerous flocks of the birds called boobies,
making our ship their resting place, which fouled our yards and deck
with their dung as fast as we could clean them. However, for change of
diet, some of my people made ragouts of them, and the smoakers made
stems for their pipes of their long wing-bones.
We fell in with Cape Corientes in the beginning of the month of August,
and were carried away to the islands called the Tres Marias, by a hard
gale at south, and came to an anchor under the lee of the middlemost of
these islands, but could see no sign of the Success having been there.
After a tedious search on all the three islands for fresh water, there
was nothing like a stream of it that we could find. This was the more
astonishing to us, as one or two of our late navigators have reported
that fresh water is to be found there in sufficient plenty. It may have
been so when they were there; but we were unfortunate enough to seek,
when none was to be found.
After employing three days in a fruitless search, I stretched over for
the coast of California, and arrived thereon the 11th of August. The
inhabitants, as soon as they discovered us, made fires all along the
shore as the ship ran by them; and, towards the evening, it falling
calm, two of them came off to us on a bark-log, but were a long time
before they would accept of our invitation to come on board of us. At
length, they ventured in; when, in a moment, seeing our blacks
promiscuously standing together with us white men, they, with very angry
countenances, separated them from us; and would hardly suffer them to
look at us. They talked to us with great vehemence, but we could
comprehend nothing more of their meaning, than that they rejoiced to see
us. Night coming on, they took their leave, and we gave them a knife or
two, an old coat, and some other trifles, which seemed to please them
very well. They expressed themselves by signs in such a manner, that we
could guess they gave us repeated invitations to go on shore with them.
On Sunday the 13th of August, at day-break, we found ourselves near
Puerto Seguro, which may be readily known by three white rocks, not much
unlike the Needles of the Isle of Wight, and you must keep close on
board the outermost to fetch into the bay. We entered Puerto Seguro,
surrounded by numbers of small embarkations of the inhabitants, while
the shore, on all sides, was crouded with Indians, whose numbers visibly
encreased by multitudes which flocked together from the adjacent parts.
Our anchor was no sooner down, than they came off to us in shoals, some
few on their bark-logs, but most of them swimming, talking and calling
out to one another in a noisy and confused manner, but such as plainly
shewed how desirous they were to come to us. Our ship was in an instant
full of these swarthy gentlemen quite naked, and amongst the rest was
their King, or Chief-man, who, unexpectedly, delivered to me his batoon,
or ensign of royalty, which I immediately returned to him. This man,
notwithstanding the wildness of his appearance to us, had a good
countenance, and his behaviour had something that was very engaging in
it. I was, at first, at a loss to know how to entertain our numerous
guests, but at length I thought of regaling them with some of our liquid
sweetmeats, which we had in great plenty. This they liked extremely, and
the spoons, which were mostly silver, they returned with great honesty.
Having thus commenced a friendship with them, at day-break next morning
our boat went on shore to cut wood and fill water; and before the sun
was up, we were again crouded with our former guests, who seemed as if
they could never be weary of gazing at us. To keep up the amity we had
already contracted with them, I ordered a great boiler to be carried on
shore, with good store of flour and sugar, and a negroe cook, who was
continually boiling of hasty pudding for the numbers of spectators on
the beach; and it really behoved us to endeavour to keep in their
favour, for on seeing a few of our men rolling great and cumbersome
casks of water over the heavy sand, it inclined them to help us. To this
may added, a sense of the kind treatment they met with from us, and the
particular readiness of their Chief to serve us, by shewing his people a
good example; for, after Mr. Randall, my Lieutenant, he himself took up
the second log of wood to carry to the boat, and was immediately
followed by two or three hundred of them, who, encouraged by his
example, all took to the work, repaying our civilities with their
services, and every day they seemed more and more fond of us.
Mean while, the rumour of our arrival was spread through all the
neighbouring parts, and some of the clans, different from those who
inhabited the shores, came daily to take a view of us. Those who came
from any distance in the country could not swim; and that they were
different from those we had first seen on our arrival here, appeared by
their manner of painting themselves, and by other little distinctions
which were visible amongst them; but they all united to assist us, nor
were any of them idle but the women, who used to sit in companies on the
scorching sand, waiting for their share of what was going forward, which
they used to receive very thankfully and without quarrelling.
Having done all our business here, in the space of five days, on the
18th of August, in the morning, we prepared for our departure in the
afternoon. We employed the morning in making a large distribution of
sugar amongst the women. To the men we gave a great many knives, old
axes, and old iron, which we had taken in our prizes. These were the
most useful things to them, and of which they stood most in need; in
return for which, some of them gave us bows and arrows, deer-skin bags,
live foxes, squirrels, and the like. Great many of the men staid in the
ship all the while we were purchasing our anchor, and it was not till we
were under weigh that they all jumped overboard to join in the
lamentations of their countrymen on shore.
The men in this southern part of California, are tall, straight, and
well made; their limbs are large, their hair coarse and black, and
barely reaches down to their shoulders. The women are of a much smaller
size; their hair is much longer than the mens, and with it some of their
faces are almost covered. The men go quite naked, and have not the least
thing to cover any part of them, except their heads, round which they
wear a band of red and white silk-grass, adorned on each side with a
tuft of hawk’s feathers. The women, on the contrary, wear a thick fringe
of silk-grass, which hangs down to their knees, and have either a deer’s
skin, or the skin of a large bird, carelessly wrapped over their
shoulders.
[Illustration: _A Californian Woman habited in the Skin of a Deer_]
Nothing can be more wild and savage to look at, than these people at
first sight: but there is a wide difference between what they seem, and
what they really are; for, by all we could discern in their behaviour
towards one another, and in their deportment towards us, they are endued
with great good nature.
They seem to lead a careless life, and to enjoy every thing in common
amongst them; and, having nothing but their daily food to provide, they
are strangers to those numerous gratifications, the want of which
multiply distresses among nations more civilized and more refined. Their
contentment makes them honest, for they never offered to steal even the
things most useful to them. In a word, they seem to pass their lives,
according to the notions we have of the purest simplicity of the
earliest ages of the world, before discord and contention were heard of
amongst men. Having no enemies, they live in perfect peace and harmony
with one another. Hunting and fishing are their only employments, except
making the instruments they use in these pursuits, which are the
simplest that can be. They have no canoes, and go to sea on bark-logs;
but they are the most expert divers I ever beheld. By their simple
manner of living, and their continual exercise, they live to a great
age; and yet, what is very surprizing, they do not appear to be very
numerous, considering the extent of their country. Their only enemies
are the wild beasts, and of these there are plenty in the woods and
forests. They do not appear to be so jealous of their women as they have
been represented; for we had the company of some hundreds of them, young
and old, without any restraint from the men. Two things were remarkable,
that they never would suffer us to take snuff, but would earnestly take
it from us whenever we attempted it; nor would they ever suffer us to
look through a spying-glass, which I had frequent resort to, to see how
our work of wooding and watering went on. In these two instances, they
always took upon them to controul us, and in these two only; the causes
of which we could never learn.
They go out to sea on their bark-logs, which are only composed of five
logs of a light wood, made fast to each other by wooden pegs, rowing
with a double paddle and with their harpoons, which are made of a sort
of hard wood, they strike the largest albicores, and bring them in when
struck. This was altogether surprizing to us, who had so often
experienced the strength of that fish, and the difficulty of getting
them into our ship, when either hooked or struck. One would imagine,
that as soon as these Indians had struck one of these albicores, on his
light embarkation, it would run away with him and his bark-log; but they
either strike them so as to give them some mortal wound, or have some
particular way of managing them, for they struggle and resist in vain.
When we were in this port, it was apparently their fishing season; but
by the number of deer-skins one sees amongst them, it is natural to
conclude they have also their season for hunting. The skins of their
deer are grey, and so are the skins of their foxes and squirrels; of all
which, it is likely, they eat indifferently, as of most other animals
that become their prey. Of birds amongst them we saw scarce any, but a
few pelicans.
[Illustration: _An Indian of the Southermost parts of California as
Returning from Fishing & another on his Barklog_]
What these Indians used instead of bread is very remarkable. It is a
small black seed of an oily substance, which they grind much the same
way as we do our chocolate, and afterwards make it up in some such
manner. The look of these black lumps or rolls so made up, is not very
inviting, yet the taste is not very disagreeable. When they want to
drink, they go to the river.
Their arms are bows and arrows. Their bows are about six feet in length,
and their arrows seem to be somewhat too long for their bows. Their
bow-strings are made of deer’s sinews, and their arrows are composed of
a hollow cane for two-thirds of their length, and the other third next
the point is of a heavy kind of wood, which is headed with a piece of
flint, and sometimes with a kind of agate, the edges of which are
indented, or cut in teeth like a saw. They made no manner of shew of
their arms to us, and it was rarely that we saw them in the hands of any
of the men. The women had them in the woods in search of game, which may
be thence presumed to be some part of their employment. Upon the whole,
they may be truly said to be a happy people.
Aug. 18, I sailed, as before-mentioned, from Puerto Seguro, and the same
evening we took our departure from Cape St. Lucar, in latitude 23 deg.
50 min. N. bound to Canton, in China, the most likely place where we
could hope to meet with English ships homeward bound for Europe.
Aug. 21, we discovered an island bearing W. S. W. 110 leagues distant
from Cape St. Lucar. I endeavoured to get in with it; but night coming
on, I could not lose time to view it. This isle my people called after
my name. From hence we steered gradually into the parallel of 13 deg. N.
but had our way stopped for two or three days by westerly winds. We were
astonished at such an unforeseen delay, and began to dread we might meet
with many such reverses of winds in this passage; nor could we
conjecture, or conceive what might be the cause or causes of them. In
the midst of this, the usual trade-wind prevailed again, and delivered
us from the fears and apprehensions we had been involved in upon this
occasion. With this we proceeded on our passage, keeping the parallel or
track of the thirteenth degree of northern latitude, except when we
judged ourselves to be near the shoals of St. Bartholomew. We then
ventured to sail a degree, more northerly, and so continued to do for a
run of 60 or 70 leagues.
About a fortnight after we had left California, my people, who had
hitherto enjoyed an uninterrupted state of health, began to be afflicted
with a sickness which particularly affected their stomachs. This we took
to be owing, in a great measure, to the quantities of sweetmeats they
were continually devouring, together with the dried beef, half devoured
with ants, cockroaches, and other vermin, which was their daily food.
This sickness increased every day, insomuch that, out of our small
number, we once buried two in one day, one of whom was John Popplestone,
our ingenious armourer, who was of such use to us on the island of Juan
Fernandez. Before we had stretched with favourable gales the length of
Guam, most of my people were sick and disabled, my ship began to be very
leaky, and, to add still to our misfortunes, we had the ill luck to have
one of our pumps split, and rendered useless.
Under these circumstances, we met with black and dismal weather, with
tempestuous winds, flying and varying all round the compass. These
boisterous gales raised such a tumbling sea, and our ship laboured so
much in it, that the knee of her head, and the whole beak-head, became
loose; so that the bowsprit fetched way, and played with the motion of
the ship, which it continued to do all the time we were out at sea, and
till we arrived at Canton. Our main-mast stood for some time without
shrouds on the larboard side, till we could unlay our best cable to make
more, having knotted and spliced the old shrouds till our labour was in
vain.
In the midst of all this sickness and distress, I myself was taken
violently ill, and had no hope to recover till a fit of the gout gave me
some relief. Great was our want of every thing fit or comfortable for
persons in such a state of sickness; yet, about the beginning of
October, we passed by Guam; and, though upon the very brink of
perishing, we dared not venture in, for fear the inhabitants should take
the advantage of our weakness, and make some attempt upon our lives.
From Guam I directed my course for the island of Formosa. And now,
though the length of our voyage was decreasing very fast, our sickness
was daily increasing upon us in a much greater proportion; and most
truly it may be said, that both our ship and ourselves were no longer
fit for the sea. It was the 3d of November before we had sight of that
island, and the 10th, before we could get any sort of directions to
enable us to reach our intended port. At length, as we were passing
through a very narrow channel, between a couple of islands, a fisherman
took notice, by our cautious manner of working, that we were strangers,
and made signs to us to bring our ship to, till he came up with us; when
we made him understand in general, that we were bound to Macao, and he
made signs that he would conduct us thither, if we would give him as
many pieces of silver as he counted little fish out of his basket, which
amounted to 40. We accordingly counted out 40 dollars into a hat, and
next day he took us in charge, and anchored us safe in the road of
Macao, near the entrance of the river of Canton.
Soon after our arrival, there came off to us a great many of the
Success’s people, to make us a visit; I was amazed at the sight of them,
and was very glad to hear their story. They said, their Commander,
Clipperton, left me designedly; that they went directly to Guam, where
they were very well refreshed, and supplied with provisions; that their
Captain sold the Governor a great quantity of powder and shot, and
several other valuable things, and permitted the Marquis of Villa Rocha,
who was his prisoner, to go on shore there; that Mr. Godfrey the agent,
and a marine officer, went to settle the accounts for what supplies of
things they had had; and that, as soon as they were landed, and the boat
come off again, Captain Clipperton weighed with his ship, in order to
attack a ship of 20 guns from Manilla, that had lain quietly in the road
in company with him all the time: that in approaching her he ran his own
ship upon the rocks, and soon found the enemy was prepared for him:
that, his condition being desperate, and supposing the loss of his ship
inevitable, he had recourse to his case of brandy, and took so
abundantly of it, that he fell on the deck, and snored out his time in a
beastly manner, whilst his First Lieutenant, Davidson, in his stead,
undertook the command of the ship, which he bravely executed till he was
killed: he was succeeded by Captain Cook, their Second Lieutenant, who
made a handsome resistance, and got the ship afloat again, after she had
lain on the rocks forty-eight hours: that they lost their prisoner the
Marquis de la Rocha, and also Mr. Godfrey the agent-general, with the
officer already mentioned; which gave the ships company so much
distaste, that they would not suffer him to have the command of them any
more, and, locking him up in his cabbin, chose Captain Cook to take
charge of the ship.
They had, it seems, much bad weather between Guam and Amoy in China,
whither they got with much difficulty; and there made a dividend of all
they had taken, half to the owners, and half to the ship’s company.
Clipperton designed for the straits of Malacca; but his people, fearing
he had no good intentions, would go no farther with him than Macao, that
being a Christian port. Upon their arrival there, the Governor ordered
Clipperton into custody. It seems he had broke prison formerly from
thence, where he had been confined (as far as could be learned) on
account of his having run away with Dampier’s commission and one of his
prizes; but upon producing his Majesty’s commission now for the Success,
they gave him no farther trouble, and only contented themselves with
fleecing him a little. Here he sold his ship, the Success, for about
1000l. sterling.--[Such is the account given by Captain Shelvock, for
the information, as he says, of the gentlemen-owners, who will never,
either publicly or privately, be let into the truth of that story.]