ordered on board the Centurion, and orders were given to unlade the
Industry pink, and each ship to take on board from her their respective
quotas of provisions; in pursuance of which we immediately began to
unlade her, lying by in the day, and making an easy sail in the night.
The 19th, having unloaded and discharged the Industry, at eight in the
evening she parted from us, in order to proceed to Barbadoes, whither
she was bound; but the Commodore having entered into a new contract with
the master of the Anne pink, she was detained with us for his Majesty’s
service, our ships being too much encumbered to admit of taking on board
any more provisions at this time.
The 28th, about five in the morning, we crossed the Equinoctial, in the
longitude of 28 deg. 15 min. W. from London, the variation of the
compass at that place being 35 min. E.
December the 2d, at eight in the morning, we saw a sail to the
north-west, to which we gave chace. At night we lost sight of her; but
next morning we saw her and gave chace again, but in the afternoon
quitted her. We imagined this sail to be a tender on the Spanish fleet,
sent purposely to get intelligence of us: but on our arrival at the Cape
of Good Hope, in our return home, we learned that she was the East-India
Company’s packet bound for the island of St. Helena.
The 10th, expecting to be near the coast of Brazil, we sounded, and
found 67 fathom water, on which we fired a gun for a signal, and altered
our course more to the southward. This day died Thomas Waller, our
surgeon, who was succeeded by Henry Ettrick, surgeon of the Wager; the
surgeon of the Trial succeeded him, and Joseph Allen, our surgeon’s
first mate, was made surgeon of the Trial.
The 11th, we spoke with a Portuguese brigantine from Rio Janeiro, bound
to Santos, one of the principal Portuguese settlements in the Brazils.
The 13th, we crossed the South Tropic for the first time, in long. 38
deg. 36 min. W. from London.
The 14th, died Robert Welden, our purser, who was succeeded by John
Rule, purser of the Wager, and Commodore’s Secretary; Thomas Harvey, one
of our midshipmen, was made purser of the Wager, in the room of Mr.
Rule.
The 17th, we saw the land of the Brazils, from W. to W. S. W. very
mountainous, and full of woods. I have, for several days last past,
found, by my observations, a strong current on this coast, setting to
the southward near three quarters of a mile an hour, which, perhaps, may
be occasioned by the neighbourhood of the vast river of Rio de la Plata;
another observation, which I shall have occasion to make after our
leaving the coast of Brazil, will very much corroborate this conjecture.
The same day, at four in the evening, we had 40 fathom of water, muddy
ground; the island of Alvoredo, a small island at the north-east end of
the large island of St. Katharine’s, then bearing N. W. by N. about
eight leagues distant; and the next day at seven in the evening we came
to an anchor in twelve fathom water, the north-east end of St.
Katharine’s bearing S. S. W. about three miles distant, and the island
of Alvoredo, N. N. E. about six miles distant. Here we found the tide to
set S. S. E. and N. N. W. We sent ashore a Lieutenant to the fort, to
compliment the Governor, and to desire a pilot to carry us into the
road. The Governor returned a very civil answer, and granted our
request. The next morning we weighed and ran up the harbour, and about
noon anchored in five fathom and a half water, in a place they there
call Buon Porto; but being still too far from the watering-place, we on
the 20th, about eleven in the morning, weighed and ran farther up
between St. Katharine’s and the main land of Brazil, and in the
afternoon anchored and moored in five fathom water, about two miles from
the watering-place; and the same evening our third Lieutenant went
ashore with materials for building a tent, to shelter the people who
were to be employed in watering. We likewise saluted the Portuguese fort
with eleven guns, who returned us the like number.
Our ships beginning to be very sickly, tents were erected on shore, one
for every ship, and the sick were sent ashore to them, with surgeons and
proper attendance.
The agents for victualling, of which we had two with us, were ordered to
procure what fresh provisions we could expend during our stay here,
which they accordingly did; but though their meat, which is altogether
beef, was both cheap and plenty, it was for the greatest part miserably
bad, and scarce fit to be eaten.
The men throughout the whole squadron began now to drop off apace with
fevers and fluxes, occasioned chiefly, I believe, by the violent heat of
the climate, and the bad air; the country being so very woody that the
air must thereby be stagnated, and rendered unhealthful.
We continued here wooding, watering, and overhauling our rigging, till
Sunday, Jan. 18, 1741, during which time we had variable uncertain
weather, sometimes sea and land breezes, at other times strong gales of
wind, with heavy rain, thunder and lightning, but always excessive heat.
While we lay here, we gave our ship a thorough cleansing, smoaked her
between decks, in order to destroy the vermin, and washed every part
with vinegar, which I mention because it is absolutely necessary in
large ships, the stench of so many sick persons being noisome in hot
climates.
Dec. 21, I observed an eclipse of the moon, and by comparing the time of
the end of it, with a calculation I purposely made of it in the meridian
of London, from Sir Isaac Newton’s New Theory of the Moon, I found the
place where the ship then lay to be 49 deg. 53 min. to the westward of
the meridian of London. The calculation itself, and the time it ended at
St. Katharine’s, I have unfortunately lost; but as the longitude is
thereby settled, they are of no farther use, and not worth retrieving at
the trouble of a new calculation.
Before we arrived at this island, we had received from the descriptions
of M. Frezier, a French author, and some other persons who had been on
the spot, such accounts as, together with the climate in which it is
situated, gave us very great ideas of its fruitfulness, and hopes of a
plentiful supply of every thing we wanted for a long run; but we found
ourselves miserably mistaken in almost every article we expected.
As here are several fine sandy bays, we had very good fishing with a
seine, for mullets, old wives, sting-rays, maids, turbots, and other
flat fish, silver fish, bass, a very boney long fish like a bass, but
which our seamen call a ten-pounder, and some other sorts. We likewise
had fresh beef for present expending plenty enough, but scarce better
than the carrion that we gave to our dogs. As for lemons, limes,
plantains, bananaes, potatoes, and other roots, fruits, and greens, with
which those climates generally abound, which the authors above mentioned
aver to be extremely plentiful here, and which we principally depended
on for sea-stores, there were so few at the time of our being here, that
I believe we could have consumed all that came to our knowledge of those
things in one day. The officers, however, no doubt found plenty; as Mr.
Walters agrees in his report with Frezier, that there was no want of
pine-apples, peaches, grapes, lemons, citrons, melons, apricots, and
adds, there were besides potatoes and onions for sea-stores. Sassafrass
is here in great plenty, and we cut much of it among other wood for
fuel. Guaiacum they report to be very plenty here likewise, but I saw
none of it, nor heard of any person who did during our stay. Rum and
sugar they have in small quantities, but very indifferent and dear. The
inhabitants are a mixture of Portuguese and Indians incorporated
together, and appear to be very poor, idle, lazy, ignorant and rude. I
believe the original of the Portuguese here was chiefly from felons, who
fled hither from other parts of the Brazils to shelter themselves from
justice; they never till lately having any government among them, except
a Chief chosen from among themselves, who was more like a Captain of
thieves and robbers, than the Commander of a colony. At present there
are some European Soldiers, and a Governor from Rio Janeiro, whose name
was Don Joffe Sylva de Paz, an expert engineer, who, as Mr. Walters
observes, understood one branch of his business very well, which is the
advantages which new works bring to those who are entrusted with the
care of erecting them; for, besides a battery on a neck of land that
narrows the channel to a little more than a quarter of a mile, there
were three other forts carrying on for the defence of the harbour, none
of which were then compleated.
The country, both the main and the island, is mountainous, and all
over-grown with thick woods, and those so entangled with the undergrowth
of thorny briars, brambles, and the like, that in most places they are
scarce penetrable. These woods are reported to be full of very fierce
tygers, which makes any excursions into the country dangerous, unless
you go well armed, and even then much caution is necessary.
They have here some hogs and fowls, but I believe not very plenty; and
in the woods are monkeys, apes, armadilloes, and other wild creatures
unknown to me; as also parrots, parroquets, and many other sorts of
birds proper to the climate. Alligators are said to be plenty near the
shores and in the lakes, but we saw none of them.
The country appears to me to be a good soil, and very capable of
improvement, were the inhabitants more civilized and industrious.
This island lies in latitude 27 deg. 30 min. S. longitude, as before
determined, 49 deg. 53 min. W. from London; and the variation of the
compass 11 deg. 20 min. easterly.
Dec. 27, we discovered a sail in the offing, and the eighteen-oar’d
barge was manned, and armed, and sent, under the command of the second
Lieutenant of the Centurion, to examine her before she arrived within
the protection of the fort. She proved to be a Portuguese brigantine
from Rio Grande; but, though the officer behaved to the master with the
utmost civility, yet the Governor took offence at our sending our boat,
complained of the violation of the peace, and made that a pretence for
sending Don Pisarro the most circumstantial intelligence of our force
and condition, as we afterwards found by letters intercepted in the
South Seas.
January 18, 1741, we left this island, having had a melancholy proof how
much the healthiness of this place had been over-rated by former
writers; for we found, that, though the Centurion alone had buried no
less than 28 men since our arrival, the number of the sick in the same
interval had increased to 96; and this very day we had three men die.
Before our departure the Commodore took every precaution to prevent a
separation; but considering that, in such boisterous seas as we were
about to encounter, he himself might be disabled, he called the officers
together, and in a full council so ordered it, that, if but one ship
escaped, the expedition should not be abandoned. Proper places of
rendezvous were appointed; the time was settled for staying at these
places; and, if the Commodore did not arrive in that time, the Captains
were ordered to put themselves under the command of the senior, and to
proceed without farther delay.
The 22d in the morning, we had very stormy weather, with some thunder,
lightning, and rain; and the Trial carried away the head of her
main-mast. A thick fog succeeding, we lay to, and soon after lost sight
of the Pearl, the Trial, and the Anne pink. In the afternoon we got
sight of and joined company with the Trial and the Anne, but the Pearl
was still missing.
From hence to February the 13th, very variable weather, mostly foggy
from latitude 35, or thereabouts, to latitude 39; the rest a mixture not
much unlike our weather in England in the month of October, except that
we had pretty often thunder and lightning, which are not so frequent
with us in that month. Being past the latitude of 36 degrees to the
southward, I observed the current, which had hitherto constantly set
southerly, now on the contrary, set to the northward; and the great
river of Rio de la Plata being situated in between 35 and 36 degrees
south, strengthens my conjecture that those currents are occasioned by
the flux and reflux of that mighty river.
February 13, we saw the land from S. by W. to S. half E. appearing
plain, with very few risings, and of a very moderate height, our
soundings at that time from 46 to 56 fathom, the first mud, the latter
stony ground. This day, at four in the evening, we were within about
four miles of Cape Blanco on the coast of Patagonia, and in 12 fathom
water; on which we hauled off, and ran along the coast, the soundings
from 20 to 60 fathom water. At five the next morning we saw the land
from W. by N. to S. W. half W. with an opening near the middle; which I
believe to be the harbour of Port Desire, so called by Sir John
Narborough. The northernmost land in sight is Cape Blanco, and the
southermost Penguin Island, so called from the great numbers of penguins
about it, of which birds Sir John’s ship’s company killed and salted
large quantities for provisions, and which he reports to be very good
and wholesome food. Cape Blanco is in the latitude of 47 deg. 10 min. S.
longitude from St. Katharine’s 17 deg. 38 min. W. which makes it from
London 67 deg. 20 min. W. taking the N. E. point of St. Katharine’s in
49 deg. 42 min. W. to be about 11 minutes to the eastward of the place
where the ship lay when I fixed it by observation.
The 17th, in the evening, we anchored about 17 or 18 leagues short of
the harbour of Port St. Julian, so called by Sir Francis Drake, who
touched there in his voyage round the globe, and where he condemned and
executed Mr. Doughty, the next person in command to himself, on pretence
of a conspiracy to murder him and ruin the expedition; whence a small
island within the harbour is to this day called the Island of True
Justice. The next morning we saw a sail at S. by E. which we believing
to be the Pearl, made the signal for the return of all cruizers; but she
not minding it, as I suppose not seeing it, we ordered the Gloucester to
chase, and at two in the afternoon the Gloucester and her chace, which
to our great satisfaction proved to be the Pearl, joined us. They
informed us, that, on January the 31st, their Commander, Captain Dandy
Kidd, died; and that on the 7th instant they were chased by five large
ships, which they believed to be Spanish men-of-war, and were some time
within gun-shot of them, though they never fired a gun, having
endeavoured to decoy the Pearl by hoisting a broad red pendant, like
that of the English Commodore, at the Admiral’s main-top-mast head, and
hoping by that means to be taken for our Commodore, and so to inveigle
and make sure of their prey; Capt. Mitchell, thus decoyed, narrowly
escaped them, by running through a space of water, where the tides or
currents making a great ripling, the Spaniards, who thought it was rocky
and broken ground, were afraid to follow her. These ships we supposed to
be the Spanish squadron, commanded by Admiral Pisarro, the same who got
so great a name among them for his conduct in bringing home their flota
safe into Port Andero the last year, eluding the vigilance of our
squadrons who waited for them off Cadiz, and was therefore looked on as
the properest person to be sent to intercept us. We should not have been
displeased, however, to have met them with our whole force, and did not
much doubt to have either destroyed or disabled them. But the time of
their destruction was not yet come; their miserable fate shall be
related in its proper place.
We were now, being the 18th, sailing along shore for the harbour of St.
Julian. I found the tide to set here north and south, about a mile an
hour. The time of flowing here on the full and change days is N. E. by
E. and S. W. by W. nearest. We sent one of our boats with an officer
in-shore, to sound and endeavour to discover the mouth of the harbour.
At six in the evening we came to an anchor in 12 fathom water. At eight
the Lieutenant returned, having found the harbour. We sent ashore our
boats to make farther discoveries, and to endeavour some to get fresh
water, and others to procure salt, (of which Sir J. Narborough observed,
when he was here, that in February there was enough of it to load 1000
ships) for the use of the squadron in the South Seas. We continued here
till the 27th, during which time we stove most of our empty casks, in
order to clear our ships as much as possible, and got up and mounted
such of our guns as we had before struck down into the hold in order to
ease the ships; for now, not knowing how soon we might meet with the
Spanish squadron, it was necessary to have them all in readiness. We
could find no fresh water here, and but a very small quantity of salt,
and no other refreshments whatever; all the country, as far as we could
discover, being quite barren and desolate. We got some provisions out of
the Anne victualler on board each of the other ships, repaired the
Trial’s mast, and assisted her and the victualler to overhaul and
new-fix most of their rigging. Having lost the hopes of a supply of
water here, we were put to the allowance of one quart a man for one day,
and three pints for another, alternately; but, considering our passage
had hitherto proved extremely stormy and cold, and a dead time of the
year coming on very fast, it was thought proper, in order to keep the
people in as good heart as possible, to give them whole allowance of all
other provisions, which was ordered accordingly.
Here we farther secured our lower-deck guns, by nailing quoins under the
trucks, in case the tackles, breechings, or iron-work, might give way,
or fail in the stormy weather which we had much reason to expect.
Here likewise the Commodore removed the Honourable Captain Murray into
the Pearl, in the room of Captain Kidd; and Captain Cheap into the Wager
in the room of Captain Murray. He advanced Mr. Charles Saunders, his
First Lieutenant, to be Commander of the Trial sloop, in the room of
Captain Cheap; and made Mr. Piercy Brett, First Lieutenant of the
Gloucester, Second Lieutenant of his own ship. The Trial being repaired,
and the Pearl, who had thrown about 14 ton of water overboard when
chased by the Spaniards, being supplied from the other ships, we made
ready to prosecute our voyage.
This harbour of Port St. Julian is a barred harbour, only fit to receive
small ships and vessels. We lay off in the road about two miles from the
mouth of it. It is not to be seen open from where we lay, one point
shutting in another; and before any small ship or vessel pretends to
venture into the harbour, they ought to send in their boats at low
water, and fix poles or buoys on the ends of the shoals, which, in a
manner, block up the passage. The country about it is pretty much on the
level, except a few copling hillocks to the northward, and a pretty high
one in the bay, which bears W. S. W. from the place where we lay at
anchor. The latitude of Port St. Julian is 49 deg. 10 min. S. its
longitude from London 69 deg. 48 min. W. and the variation of the
compass 17 deg. 20 min. E. We had here uncertain boisterous weather,
with much rain, some snow, and generally thick fog, with so much wind
and sea as made us ride hard, and hastened our departure from this
uneasy situation.
Sir John Narborough and some others write, that they have often seen and
conversed with the inhabitants in this and other parts of Patagonia, and
have given wonderful descriptions of them; but as we saw none of them, I
have nothing to say of that sort, nor indeed do I think there is any
thing in this wild part of the world worthy of the least notice.
The 27th, at six in the morning, we made the signal, weighed, and put to
sea; but the Gloucester being long in weighing her anchor, and the
weather proving thick and hazy, we soon lost sight of her, and at one in
the afternoon, tacked, and lay by for her coming up; at seven we fired a
gun, a signal for her, and soon after she joined us, having broke her
main-yard in the slings.
Previous to our leaving this port, a council was held on board the
Centurion, at which all the officers by sea and land attended, when it
was proposed by the Commodore, that their first attempt, after their
arrival in the South Seas, should be the attack of the town of Baldivia,
the principal frontier of the district of Chili. To this proposition the
council unanimously agreed; in consequence of which, new instructions
were given to the Captains of the squadron, by which they were directed,
in case of separation, to rendezvous at the island of Neustra Senoro del
Secoro, and there cruise for 10 days; after which, they were ordered to
repair to the height of Baldivia, and there between 40 deg. and 40 deg.
30 min. to continue to cruise 14 days longer; and, if in that time they
were not joined by the rest of the squadron, they were then to quit that
station, and direct their course to the island of Juan Fernandez.
March the 4th, in the morning, we passed by the Streights of Magellan,
so near that we saw them very plain; the northernmost point of which,
known by the name of Cape Virgin Mary, I found to be in the latitude of
52 deg. 28 min. S. longitude from London 70 deg. 55 min. W. variation of
the compass 18 deg. 40 min. E. the soundings, when it bears about S. W.
by W. at the distance of eight leagues, from 32 to 50 fathom, the bottom
black-grey sand and mud. The afternoon of this day being very bright and
clear, with small breezes, inclinable to calm, most of the Captains took
the opportunity of this favourable weather to pay a visit to the
Commodore; but, while they were in company together, they were all
greatly alarmed by a sudden flame which burst out on board the
Centurion, and which was succeeded by a cloud of smoak. However, they
were soon relieved from their apprehensions, by receiving information,
that the blast was occasioned by a spark of fire from the forge lighting
on some gunpowder, and other combustibles, which the officers on board
were preparing for use, in case we should fall in with the Spanish
fleet; and that it had been extinguished without any danger to the ship.
The 6th, in the morning, we saw the land of Terra del Fuego, consisting
of high craggy hills, towering above each other, mostly covered with
snow, with deep horrid vallies, some few scattered trees, no plains, nor
one chearful green through all the dismal prospect; so that the whole
may not improperly be termed the Land of Desolation; and I much question
whether a more dreary aspect is to be seen in any other part of the
habitable earth; for voyagers say this is inhabited, but surely its
inhabitants must be the most miserable of human beings. This evening we
lay by, that we might not overshoot the Streights of Le Maire in the
night; though I believe, had we kept on, and passed round Staten Land, a
small island or two, which lie to the eastward of those Streights, and
together with Terra del Fuego frame them, it would have been more to our
advantage than by passing through them.