CHAPTER I

[Illustration: Frontispiece]

To THE WISE MAN ALL THE WORLD'S A SOIL--BEN JONSON

[Illustration: Title page]

A VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD

_in the years 1740-4 by_

LORD ANSON

LONDON: PUBLISHED by J. M. DENT & SONS Ltd.

AND IN NEW YORK BY E. P. DUTTON & CO

{vii}

INTRODUCTION

The men-of-war in which Anson went to sea were built mostly of oak.

They were painted externally yellow, with a blue stripe round the upper

works. Internally, they were painted red. They carried cannon on one,

two, or three decks according to their size. The biggest ships carried

a hundred cannon and nearly a thousand men. The ship in which this

famous voyage was made was of the middle size, then called the

fourth-rate. She carried sixty cannon, and a crew of four hundred men.

Her lower gun deck, a little above the level of the water, was about

140 feet long. She was of about a thousand tons burthen.

Though this seems small to us, it is not small for a wooden ship. It

is not possible to build a long wooden ship. The _Centurion_, though

short, was broad, bulky, and deep. She was fit for the sea. As she

was built more to carry cannon than to sail, she was a slow sailer.

She became slower as the barnacles gathered on her planks under the

water. She carried three wooden masts, each fitted with two or three

square sails, extended by wooden yards. Both yards and masts were

frequently injured in bad weather.

The cannon were arranged in rows along her decks. On the lower gun

deck, a little above the level of the water, she carried twenty-six

twenty-four-pounders, thirteen on a side. These guns were

muzzle-loading cannon which flung twenty-four-pound balls for a

distance of about a mile. On the deck above this chief battery, she

carried a lighter battery of twenty-six nine- or twelve-pounder guns,

thirteen on a side. These guns were also muzzle-loading. They flung

their balls for a distance of a little more than a mile.

On the quarter-deck, the poop, the forecastle, and aloft in the tops

(the strong platforms on the masts), were lighter guns, throwing balls

of from a half to six pounds' weight. {viii} Some of the lightest guns

were mounted on swivels, so that they could be easily pointed in any

direction. All the guns were clumsy weapons. They could not be aimed

with any nicety. The iron round shot fired from them did not fit the

bores of the pieces. The gun-carriages were clumsy, and difficult to

move. Even when the carriage had been so moved that the gun was

accurately trained, and when the gun itself had been raised or

depressed till it was accurately pointed, the gunner could not tell how

much the ball would wobble in the bore before it left the muzzle. For

these reasons all the effective sea-fights were fought at close range,

from within a quarter of a mile of the target to close alongside. At a

close range, the muskets and small-arms could be used with effect.

The broadside cannon pointed through square portholes cut in the ship's

sides. The ports were fitted with heavy wooden lids which could be

tightly closed when necessary. In bad weather, the lower-deck gun

ports could not be opened without danger of swamping the ship.

Sometimes, when the lower-deck guns were fought in a gale, the men

stood knee deep in water.

In action the guns were "run out" till their muzzles were well outside

the port, so that the flashes might not set the ship's side on fire.

The shock of the discharge made them recoil into a position in which

they could be reloaded. The guns were run out by means of side

tackles. They were kept from recoiling too far by strong ropes called

breechings. When not in use, and not likely to be used, they were

"housed," or so arranged that their muzzles could be lashed firmly to

the ship's side. In a sea way, when the ship rolled very badly, there

was danger of the guns breaking loose and rolling this way and that

till they had knocked the ship's side out. To prevent this happening,

clamps of wood were screwed behind the wheels of the gun-carriages, and

extra breechings were rove, whenever bad weather threatened.

The great weight of the rows of cannon put a severe strain upon the

upper works of the ship. In bad weather, during excessive rolling,

this strain was often great enough to open the seams in the ship's

sides. To prevent this, and other costly damage, it was the custom to

keep the big men-of-war in harbour from October until the Spring. In

the {ix} smaller vessels the strain was made less by striking down some

of the guns into the hold.

The guns were fired by the application of a slow-match to the priming

powder in the touch-holes. The slow-matches were twisted round wooden

forks called linstocks. After firing, when the guns had recoiled,

their bores were scraped with scrapers called "worms" to remove scraps

of burning wad or cartridge. They were then sponged out with a wet

sponge, and charged by the ramming home of fresh cartridges, wads, and

balls. A gun's crew numbered from four to twelve men, according to the

size of the piece. When a gun was trained aft or forward, to bear on

an object before or abaft the beam, the gun's crew hove it about with

crows and handspikes.

As this, and the other exercise of sponging, loading, and running out

the guns in the heat, stench, and fury of a sea-fight was excessively

hard labour, the men went into action stripped to the waist. The decks

on those occasions were thickly sanded, lest the blood upon them should

make them too slippery for the survivors' feet. Tubs of water were

placed between the guns for the wetting of the sponges and the

extinguishing of chance fires. The ship's boys carried the cartridges

to the guns from the magazines below the water-line. The round-shot

were placed close to hand in rope rings called garlands. Nets were

spread under the masts to catch wreck from aloft. The decks were

"cleared for action." All loose articles about the decks, and all

movable wooden articles such as bulkheads (the partitions between

cabins), mess-tables, chests, casks, etc., were flung into the hold or

overboard, lest shot striking them should splinter them. Splinters

were far more dangerous than shot. In this book it may be noticed that

the officers hoped to have no fighting while the gun decks of the ships

in the squadron were cumbered with provision casks.

The ships of war carried enormous crews. The _Centurion_ carried four

hundred seamen and one hundred soldiers. At sea, most of this

complement was divided into two watches. Both watches were subdivided

into several divisions, to each of which was allotted some special

duty, as the working of the main-mast, the keeping of the main deck

clean, etc., etc. Many members of the crew {x} stood no watch, but

worked at special crafts and occupations about the ship. A wooden ship

of war employed and kept busy a carpenter and carpenter's mates, a

sailmaker and sailmaker's mates, a cooper and a gunner, each with his

mates, and many other specially skilled craftsmen and their assistants.

She was a little world, carrying within herself all that she needed.

Her daily business required men to sail her and steer her, men to fight

her guns, men to rule her, men to drill, men to play the spy, men to

teach, preach, and decorate, men to clean her, caulk her, paint her and

keep her sweet, men to serve out food, water, and intoxicants, men to

tinker, repair, and cook and forge, to doctor and operate, to bury and

flog, to pump, fumigate and scrape, and to load and unload. She called

for so many skilled craftsmen, and provided so much special employment

out of the way of seamanship, that the big crew was never big enough.

The special employments took away now one man, now another, till there

were few left to work the ship. The soldiers and marines acted as a

military guard for the prevention of mutiny. They worked about the

ship, hauling ropes, etc., when not engaged in military duty.

The hundreds of men in the ship's crew lived below decks. Most of them

lived on the lower gun deck in the narrow spaces (known as berths)

between the guns. Here they kept their chests, mess-tables, crockery,

and other gear. Here they ate and drank, made merry, danced, got

drunk, and, in port, entertained their female acquaintance. Many more,

including the midshipmen, surgeon, and gunner, lived below the lower

gun deck, in the orlop or cable tier, where sunlight could never come

and fresh air never came willingly. At night the men slept in

hammocks, which they slung from the beams. They were packed together

very tightly, man to man, hammock touching hammock. In the morning,

the hammocks were lashed up and stowed in racks till the evening.

There was no "regulation" naval uniform until some years after the

_Centurion's_ return to England. The officers and men seem to have

worn what clothes they pleased. The ships carried stores of clothes

which were issued to the men as they needed them. The store clothes,

being (perhaps) of similar patterns, may have given a sort of {xi}

uniformity to the appearance of the crews after some months at sea. In

some of the prints of the time the men are drawn wearing rough, buckled

shoes, coarse stockings, aprons or short skirts of frieze, baize, or

tarred canvas, and short jackets worn open. Anson, like most captains,

took care that the men in his boat's crew all dressed alike. The

marines wore their regimental uniforms.

Life at sea has always been, and may always be, a harder life than the

hardest of shore lives.

Life ashore in the early and middle eighteenth century was, in the

main, both hard and brutal. Society ashore was made up of a little,

brilliant, artificial class, a great, dull, honest, and hardworking

mass, and a brutal, dirty, and debased rabble. Society at sea was like

society ashore, except that, being composed of men, and confronted with

the elements, and based on a grand ceremonial tradition, it was never

brilliant, and never artificial. It was, in the main, an honest and

hardworking society. Much in it was brutal, dirty, and debased; but it

had always behind it an order and a ceremony grand, impressive, and

unfaltering. That life in that society was often barbarous and

disgusting cannot be doubted. The best men in the ships were taken by

force from the merchant service. The others were gathered by

press-gangs and gaol-deliveries. They were knocked into shape by

brutal methods and kept in hand by brutal punishments. The officers

were not always gentlemen; and when they were, they were frequently

incompetent. The administration was scandalously corrupt. The ships

were unhealthy, the food foul, the pay small, and the treatment cruel.

The attractions of the service seem to have been these: the chance of

making a large sum of prize-money, and the possibility of getting drunk

once a day on the enormous daily ration of intoxicating liquor. The

men were crammed together into a dark, stinking, confined space, in

which privacy was impossible, peace a dream, and cleanliness a memory.

Here they were fed on rotten food, till they died by the score, as this

book testifies.

"We sent," says Mr. Walter, chaplain in the _Centurion_, "about eighty

sick from the _Centurion_; and the other ships, I believe, sent nearly

as many, in proportion.... As soon as we had performed this necessary

duty, we scraped our decks, and gave our ship a thorough cleaning; then

smoked {xii} it between decks, and after all washed every part well

with vinegar. These operations were extremely necessary for correcting

the noisome stench on board, and destroying the vermin; for ... both

these nuisances had increased upon us to a very loathsome degree."

"The Biscuit," says Mr. Thomas, the teacher of mathematics in the

_Centurion_, "(was) so worm-eaten it was scarce anything but dust, and

a little blow would reduce it to that immediately; our Beef and Pork

was likewise very rusty and rotten, and the surgeon endeavoured to

hinder us from eating any of it, alledging it was, tho' a slow, yet a

sure Poison."

That tradition and force of will could keep life efficient, and direct

it to great ends, in such circumstances, deserves our admiration and

our reverence.

The traditions and unpleasantness of the sea service are suggested

vividly in many pages of this book. A few glimpses of both may be

obtained from the following extracts from some of the logs and papers

which deal with this voyage and with Anson's entry into the Navy. The

marine chapters in Smollett's _Roderick Random_ give a fair picture of

the way of life below decks during the years of which this book treats.

George Anson was born at Shugborough, in Staffordshire, on April 23,

1697. His first ship was the _Ruby_, Captain Peter Chamberlen, a

54-gun ship, with a scratch crew of 185 men. George Anson's name

appears in her pay book between the names of John Baker, ordinary

seaman, and George Hirgate, captain's servant. He joined her on

February 2, 1712. The ship had lain cleaning and fitting "at Chatham

and in the River Medway" since the 4th of the preceding month. Two

days after the boy came aboard she weighed her anchor "at 1 afternoon,"

fresh gales and cloudy, and ran out to the Nore where she anchored in

seven fathoms and moored.

It is not known what duties the boy performed during his first days of

service. The ship fired twenty-one guns in honour of the queen's

birthday on February 7. The weather was hazy, foggy, and cold, with

snow and rain; lighters came off with dry provisions, and the ship's

boats brought off water. On February 9, the _Centurion_, an earlier,

smaller _Centurion_ than the ship afterwards made {xiii} famous by him,

anchored close to them. On the 16th, two Dutch men-of-war, with a

convoy, anchored close to them. Yards and topmasts were struck and

again got up on the 17th. On the 24th, three shot were fired at a

brigantine to bring her to.

On the 27th, Sir John Norris and Sir Charles Wager hoisted their flags

aboard the _Cambridge_ and the _Ruby_ respectively, and signal was made

for a court-martial. Six men of the _Dover_ were tried for mutiny,

theft, disorderly conduct, and desertion of their ship after she had

gone ashore "near Alborough Haven." Being all found guilty they were

whipped from ship to ship next morning. Each received six lashes on

the bare back at the side of each ship then riding at the Nore. A week

later, the _Ruby_ and the _Centurion_ sailed leisurely to Spithead,

chasing a Danish ship on the way. On March 11, the _Ruby_ anchored at

Spithead and struck her topmasts. On March 18, Captain Chamberlen

removed "into ye _Monmouth_" with all his "followers," Anson among

them. The _Monmouth_ sailed on April 13, with three other men-of-war,

as a guard to the West Indian fleet, bound for Port Royal. Her master

says that on June 7, in lat. 21° 36' N., long. 18° 9' W., "we duckt

those men that want willing to pay for crossing the tropick." In

August, off the Jamaican coast, a man fell overboard and was drowned.

Later in the month, a hurricane very nearly put an end to Anson and

_Monmouth_ together. Both pumps were kept going, there was four feet

of water on the ballast and the same between decks, the foretopmast

went, the main and mizen masts were cut away, and men with buckets

worked for their lives "bealing at each hatchway." Port Royal was

reached on September 1. The _Monmouth_ made a cruise after pirates in

Blewfields Bay, and returned to Spithead in June 1713.

Anson is next heard of as a second lieutenant aboard the _Hampshire_.

He was in the _Montague_, 60-gun ship, in Sir George Byng's action off

Cape Passaro, in March 1718. In 1722, he commanded the _Weasel_ sloop

in some obscure services in the North Sea against the Dutch smugglers

and French Jacobites. During this command he made several captures of

brandy. From 1724 till 1735 he was employed in various commands,

mostly in the {xiv} American colonies, against the pirates. From 1735

till 1737 he was not employed at sea.

In 1737, he took command of the _Centurion_, and sailed in her to the

Guinea Coast, to protect our gum merchants from the French. His gunner

was disordered in his head during the cruise; and Sierra Leone was so

unhealthy that "the merchant ships had scarce a well man on board." A

man going mad and others dying were the only adventures of the voyage.

He was back in the Downs to prepare for this more eventful voyage by

July 21, 1739.

In November he wrote to the Admiralty that in hot climates "the Pease

and Oatemeal put on board his Maj'y Ships have generally decayed and

become not fitt to issue, before they have all been expended." He

proposed taking instead of peas and oatmeal a proportion of "Stockfish,

Grotts, Grout, and Rice." The Admiralty sanctioned the change; but the

purser seems to have failed to procure the substitutes. Whether, as

was the way of the pursers of that time, he pocketed money on the

occasion, cannot be known. He died at sea long before the lack was

discovered.

A more tragical matter took place in this November. A Mr. McKie, a

naval mate, was attacked on Gosport Beach by twenty or thirty of the

_Centurion's_ crew, under one William Cheney, a boatswain's mate; and

the said William Cheney "with a stick did cutt and bruse" the said

McKie, and tore his shirt and conveyed away his "Murning ring," which

was flat burglary in the said Cheney. "Mr. Cheney aledges no other

reason for beating and Abusing Mr. McKie but the said McKie having got

drunk at Sea, did then beat and abuse him." As Hamlet says, this was

hire and salary, not revenge.

Months went by, doubtfully enlivened thus, till June 1740, when the

pressing of men began. The _Centurion's_ men went pressing, and got

seventy-three men, a fair catch, but not enough. She despatched a

tender to the Downs to press men from homeward bound merchant ships.

This method of getting a crew was the best then in use, because the men

obtained by it were trained seamen, which those obtained from the

gaols, the gin-shops, and the slums seldom were. It was an extremely

cruel method. A man within sight of his home, after a voyage of

perhaps two {xv} years, might be dragged from his ship (before his

wages were paid) to serve willy-nilly in the Navy, at a third of the

pay, for the next half-dozen years. An impartial conscription seems

noble beside such a method. Knowing how the ships were manned, it

cannot seem strange that the Navy was not then a loved nor an honoured

service. Nineteen of the _Centurion's_ catch loved and honoured it so

little that they contrived to desert (risking death at the yard-arm by

doing so) during the weeks of waiting at Portsmouth.

Before the tender sailed for the Downs, Anson discovered that the

dockyard men had scamped their work in the _Centurion_. They had

supplied her with a defective foremast "Not fitt for Sarves." High up

on the mast was "a rotten Nott eleven inches deep," a danger to spar

and ship together. The dockyard officials, who had probably pocketed

the money for a good spar, swore that the Nott only "wants a Plugg

drove in" to be perfection. Dockyard men at this time and for many

years afterwards deserved to be suspended both from their duties and by

their necks. Soon after the wrangle over the spar, there was a wrangle

about the _Gloucester's_ beef. Forty-two out of her seventy-two

puncheons of beef were found to be stinking. With some doubts as to

what would happen in the leaf if such things happened in the bud, Anson

got his squadron to sea. Early in the voyage his master "shoved" his

boatswain while he was knotting a cable, and the boatswain complained.

"The Boatswain," says the letter, "is very often Drunk and incapable of

his Duty." Later in the voyage, when many hundreds had died, Mr.

Cheney, who hit Mr. McKie, became boatswain in his stead.

The squadron sailed from England on September 18, 1740, with six ships

of war manned by 1872 seamen and marines, twenty-four of whom were

sick. At Madeira, on November 4, after less than seven weeks at sea,

there were 122 sick, and fourteen had been buried. Less than eleven

weeks later, at St. Catherine's in Brazil, there were 450 sick, and 160

had been buried. From this time until what was left of the squadron

reached Juan Fernandez, sickness and death took continual toll. It is

shocking to see the _Centurion's_ muster lists slowly decreasing, by

one or two a week, till she was up to the Horn, then dropping six, ten,

twenty, or twenty-four a week, as the scurvy and the frost {xvi} took

hold. Few but the young survived. What that passage of the Horn was

like may be read here at length; but perhaps nothing in this book is so

eloquent of human misery as the following entries from Anson's private

record:--

"1741. 8 May.--Heavy Flaws and dangerous Gusts, expecting every Moment

to have my masts Carry'd away, having very little succor, from the

standing rigging, every Shroud knotted, and not men able to keep the

deck sufficient to take in a Topsail, all being violently afflicted

with the Scurvy, and every day lessening our Number by six eight and

Ten.

"1741. 1st Sept.--I mustered my Ship's Company, the number of Men I

brought out of England, being Five hundred, are now reduced by

Mortality to Two hundred and Thirteen, and many of them in a weak and

Low condition."

Nothing in any of the records is so eloquent as the remark in Pascoe

Thomas's account of the voyage:--

"I have seen 4 or 5 dead Bodies at a time, some sown up in their

Hammocks and others not, washing about the Decks, for Want of Help to

bury them in the Sea."

On December 7, 1741, the 1872 men had dwindled down to 201. Of the six

ships of war only one, the _Centurion_, still held her course. She was

leaking an inch an hour, but she showed bright to the world under a new

coat of paint. On this day Anson sent home a letter to the Admiralty

(from Canton in China). The letter was delivered 173 days later.

In spite of the miseries of the service, there were compensations. The

entry off Payta--

"1741. 12 Nov.--I keept Possession of the Town three days and employed

my Boats in plundering"--

must have been pleasant to write; and the entries for Tuesday, June 21,

1743, and following days, become almost incoherent:--

{xvii}

"reced 112 baggs and 6 Chests of Silver.

"11 Baggs of Virgin silver 72 Chests of Dollers and baggs of Dollers

114 Chests and 100 baggs of Dollers 4 baggs of wrought Plate and Virgin

Silver."

The arrival at Portsmouth is thus described:--

"1744. Friday, 15 June.--Came to with the S Bower in 10 fath water and

at 9 began to Moor."

Later interesting entries are:--

"Monday, 2nd July.--Fresh gales and Cloudy sent away the Treasure in 32

Waggons to London with 139 Officers and Seamen to guard it.

"Thursday, 19 July.--Mod and fair, found in the Fish Room three Chests

of Treasure" (which had been overlooked).

The last entry of all is for:--

"Friday, 20 July.--Hard Gales with rain at 4 p.m. all the men on the

spot were paid and the Pendant was Struck."

An old print represents an officer of the _Centurion_ dropping booty

into the apron of a lady friend. Behind him the waggons and their

guard proceed, with a great display of flags. The passing of the

treasure was acclaimed with much enthusiasm both upon the road and in

London. It was no doubt the biggest prize ever brought to England by a

single ship. Anson's share made him a rich man. The rest of the

survivors profited according to their rank.

Anson's subsequent career may be told in a few words. He was created

Lord Anson on June 13, 1747. From 1751 to 1756 and from 1757 till his

death he was a very competent and energetic First Lord of the

Admiralty. He became Admiral of the Fleet in 1761. He died on June 6,

1762. The figurehead of the _Centurion_, the lion which "was very

loose" in the Cape Horn storms of 1741, was preserved at the family

seat at Shugborough till it fell to pieces. A portrait of Anson, which

has been frequently copied and engraved, still exists there. The face

is that of {xviii} a man placidly and agreeably contented. It is the

face of the polite and even spirit who "always kept up his usual

composure and steadiness," and only once allowed joy to "break through"

"the equable and unvaried character which he had hitherto preserved."

Something of that character is in this placid and agreeable story told

by Mr. Walter, chaplain, from Anson's private records.

The book is one of the most popular of the English books of voyages.

It is a pleasantly written work. The story is told with a grace and

quietness "very grateful and refreshing." The story itself is

remarkable. It bears witness to the often illustrated contrast between

the excellence of Englishmen and the stupidity of their governors. The

management of the squadron before it sailed gave continuous evidence of

imbecility. Something fine in a couple of hundred "emaciated

ship-mates" drove them on to triumph through every possible

disadvantage. In the general joy over their triumph, the imbecility

was forgotten. There is something pathetic in the mismanagement of the

squadron. The ships were sent to sea on the longest and most dangerous

of voyages with no anti-scorbutics. When scurvy broke out the only

medicines available were "the pill and drop of Dr. Ward" (very violent

emetic purgatives), which came not from the government, but from

Anson's own stores. In the absence of proper medicines, Anson produced

these things, "and first try'd them on himself." This spirit in our

captains and in our common men has borne us (so far) fairly

triumphantly out of the bogs into which our stupidity so often drives

us.

JOHN MASEFIELD.

_January_ 30, 1911.

{xix}

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A Voyage to the South Seas, and to many other Parts of the World,

performed from the Month of September in the Year 1740, to June 1744,

by Commodore Anson, in his Majesty's Ship the _Centurion_. By an

officer of the Fleet, 1744.

An authentic journal of the late expedition under the command of

Commodore Anson. Containing a regular and exact account of the whole

proceedings, etc. To which is added A Narrative of the Extraordinary

Hardships suffered by the Adventurers, in this voyage. By John

Philips, midshipman of the _Centurion_, 1744.

A True Journal of a Voyage to the South Seas and round the Globe, in

the _Centurion_, 1745, by Pascoe Thomas.

A Voyage round the World in the Year 1740, 1, 2, 3, 4; compiled from

papers and other materials of the Right Honourable George Anson, and

published under his direction by Richard Walter, M.A., chaplain of His

Majesty's ship _Centurion_ in that expedition, 1748, and many later

editions. One in 1749 was illustrated with 42 plates.

A supplement to Lord Anson's Voyage round the World, containing a

discovery and description of the Island of Frivola, by the Abbé Coyer,

1752.

Anson's voyages were included in J. Harris's Navigantium atque

Itinerantium Bibliotheca, etc., vol. 1., revised and enlarged edition

by Campbell, 1744-8, 1764; and also in J. H. More's A New and Complete

Collection of Voyages, etc., vol. i., 1780.

LIFE: By John Barrow, 1839.

{xxi}

CONTENTS

BOOK I

CHAP.

I. Of the Equipment of the Squadron: the Incidents relating thereto,

from its first Appointment to its setting sail from St. Helens

II. The Passage from St. Helens to the Island of Madera; with a short

Account of that Island, and of our Stay there

III. The History of the Spanish Squadron commanded by Don Joseph

Pizarro

IV. From Madera to St. Catherine's

V. Proceedings at St. Catherine's, and a Description of the Place,

with a short Account of Brazil

VI. The run from St. Catherine's to Port St. Julian, with some Account

of that Port, and of the Country to the southward of the River of Plate

VII. Departure from the Bay of St. Julian, and the Passage from thence

to Streights Le Maire

VIII. From Streights Le Maire to Cape Noir

IX. Observations and Directions for facilitating the Passage of our

future Cruisers round Cape Horn

X. From Cape Noir to the Island of Juan Fernandes

BOOK II

I. The Arrival of the _Centurion_ at the Island of Juan Fernandes,

with a Description of that Island

II. The Arrival of the _Gloucester_ and the _Anna_ Pink at the Island

of Juan Fernandes, and the Transactions at that Place during this

Interval

III. A short Narrative of what befel the _Anna_ Pink before she joined

us, with an Account of the Loss of the _Wager_, and of the putting back

of the _Severn_ and _Pearl_, the two remaining Ships of the Squadron

IV. Conclusion of our Proceedings at Juan Fernandes, from the Arrival

of the _Anna_ Pink to our final Departure from thence

{xxii}

V. Our Cruise from the time of our leaving Juan Fernandes to the

taking of the Town of Paita

VI. The taking of Paita, and our Proceedings there

VII. From our Departure from Paita to our Arrival at Quibo

VIII. Our Proceedings at Quibo, with an Account of the Place

IX. From Quibo to the Coast of Mexico

X. An Account of the Commerce carried on between the City of Manila on

the Island of Luconia, and the Port of Acapulco on the Coast of Mexico

XI. Our Cruise off the Port of Acapulco for the Manila Ship

XII. Description of the Harbour of Chequetan, and of the adjacent

Coast and Country

XIII. Our Proceedings at Chequetan and on the adjacent Coast, till our

setting sail for Asia

XIV. A brief Account of what might have been expected from our

Squadron had it arrived in the South Seas in good time

BOOK III

I. The Run from the Coast of Mexico to the Ladrones or Marian Islands

II. Our Arrival at Tinian, and an Account of the Island and of our

Proceedings there till the _Centurion_ drove out to Sea

III. Transactions at Tinian after the Departure of the _Centurion_

IV. Proceedings on Board the _Centurion_ when driven out to Sea

V. Employment at Tinian till the final Departure of the _Centurion_

from thence; with a Description of the Ladrones

VI. From Tinian to Macao

VII. Proceedings at Macao

VIII. From Macao to Cape Espiritu Santo--the taking of the Manila

Galeon, and returning back again

IX. Transactions in the River of Canton

X. Proceedings at the City of Canton, and the Return of the

_Centurion_ to England

Index

[Illustration: A CHART OF THE SOUTHERN PART OF SOUTH AMERICA]

With the Track of the _Centurion_ from the Island of St. Catherine's to

the Island of Juan Fernandas

[Illustration: A CHART OF PART OF PACIFIC OCEAN]

The Chart shows Anson's track in the _Centurion_ from Acapulco to

Tenian, and thence to China.

A

VOYAGE

ROUND THE

WORLD

In the Years MDCCXL, I, II, III, IV.

BY

GEORGE ANSON, ESQ;

Commander in Chief of a Squadron of His Majesty's

Ships, sent upon an Expedition to the _South-Seas_.

COMPILED

From Papers and other Materials of the Right Honourable

GEORGE Lord _ANSON_, and published under his Direction,

By RICHARD WALTER, M.A.

Chaplain of his MAJESTY'S Ship the _Centurion_, in that Expedition.

{1}

TO

HIS GRACE, JOHN

DUKE OF BEDFORD, MARQUIS OF TAVISTOCK, EARL OF BEDFORD, BARON RUSSEL,

BARON RUSSEL OF THORNHAUGH, AND BARON ROWLAND OF STREATHAM;

_One of His Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State; and

Lord-Lieutenant and Custos Rotulorum of the County of Bedford._

MY LORD,

The following narrative of a very singular naval atchievement is

addressed to your Grace, both on account of the infinite obligations

which the commander-in-chief at all times professes to have received

from your friendship, and also as the subject itself naturally claims

the patronage of one under whose direction the British navy has resumed

its ancient spirit and lustre, and has in one summer ennobled itself by

two victories, the most decisive, and (if the strength and number of

the captures be considered) the most important, that are to be met with

in our annals. Indeed, an uninterrupted series of success, and a

manifest superiority gained universally over the enemy, both in

commerce and glory, seem to be the necessary effects of a revival of

strict discipline, and of an unbiassed regard to merit and service.

These are marks that must distinguish the happy period of time in which

your Grace presided, and afford a fitter subject for history than for

an address of this nature. Very signal advantages of rank and

distinction obtained and secured to the naval profession by your

Grace's auspicious influence, will remain a lasting monument of your

unwearied zeal and attachment to it, and be for ever remembered with

the highest gratitude by all who shall be employed in it. As these

were the generous rewards of past exploits, they {2} will be likewise

the noblest incentives and surest pledges of the future. That your

Grace's eminent talents, magnanimity, and disinterested zeal, whence

the public has already reaped such signal benefits, may in all times

prove equally successful in advancing the prosperity of Great Britain,

is the ardent wish of,

MY LORD,

Your Grace's most obedient, most devoted, and

most humble servant,

RICHARD WALTER.

{3}

AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION

Notwithstanding the great improvement of navigation within the last two

centuries, a voyage round the world is still considered as an

enterprize of so very singular a nature, that the public have never

failed to be extremely inquisitive about the various accidents and

turns of fortune with which this uncommon attempt is generally

attended. And though the amusement expected in these narrations is

doubtless one great source of that curiosity with the bulk of readers,

yet the more intelligent part of mankind have always agreed that from

accounts of this nature, if faithfully executed, the more important

purposes of navigation, commerce, and national interest may be greatly

promoted: for every authentic description of foreign coasts and

countries will contribute to one or more of these great ends, in

proportion to the wealth, wants, or commodities of those countries, and

our ignorance of those coasts; and therefore a voyage round the world

promises a species of information of all others the most desirable and

interesting, since great part of it is performed in seas with which we

are as yet but very imperfectly acquainted, and in the neighbourhood of

a country renowned for the abundance of its wealth, though it is at the

same time stigmatised for its poverty in the necessaries and

conveniences of a civilized life.

These considerations have occasioned the compiling the ensuing work;

which, in gratifying the inquisitive disposition of mankind, and

contributing to the safety and success of future navigators, and to the

extension of our commerce and power, may doubtless vie with any

narration of this kind hitherto made public: since as to the first of

these heads it may well be supposed that the general curiosity hath

been strongly excited by the circumstances of this undertaking already

known to the world; for whether we consider the force of the squadron

sent on this service, or the diversified distresses that each single

ship was separately involved in, or the uncommon instances of varying

fortune which attended {4} the whole enterprize, each of these

articles, I conceive, must, from its rude, well-known outlines, appear

worthy of a compleater and more finished delineation.

Besides these descriptions and directions relating thereto, there is

inserted in the ensuing work an ample account of a particular

navigation of which hitherto little more than the name has been known,

except to those immediately employed in it: I mean the track described

by the Manila ship, in her passage to Acapulco, through the northern

part of the Pacific Ocean. This material article is collected from the

draughts and journals met with on board the Manila galeon, founded on

the experience of more than a hundred and fifty years' practice, and

corroborated in its principal circumstances by the concurrent evidence

of all the Spanish prisoners taken in that vessel. And as many of

their journals, which I have examined, appear to have been not ill

kept, I presume the particulars of their route may be very safely

relied on by future navigators. The advantages which may be drawn from

an exact knowledge of this navigation, and the beneficial projects that

may be formed thereon, both in war and peace, are by no means proper to

be discussed in this place, but they will easily offer themselves to

the skillful in maritime affairs. However, as the Manila ships are the

only ones which have ever traversed this vast ocean, except a French

straggler or two which have been afterwards seized on the coast of

Mexico, and as, during near two ages in which this trade has been

carried on, the Spaniards have, with the greatest care, secreted all

accounts of their voyages from the rest of the world, these reasons

alone would authorize the insertion of those papers, and would

recommend them to the inquisitive as a very great improvement in

geography, and worthy of attention from the singularity of many

circumstances therein recited.

Thus much it has been thought necessary to premise with regard to the

ensuing work, which it is hoped the reader will, on perusal, find much

ampler and more important than this slight sketch can well explain.

But as there are hereafter occasionally interspersed some accounts of

Spanish transactions, and many observations relating to the disposition

of the American Spaniards, and to the condition of the countries

bordering on the South Seas, and as herein I may appear to differ

greatly from the opinions generally established, I think it behoves {5}

me particularly to recite the authorities I have been guided by in

these matters, that I may not be censured as having given way either to

a thoughtless credulity on one hand, or, what would be a much more

criminal imputation, to a willful and deliberate misrepresentation on

the other.

Mr. Anson, before he set sail upon this expedition, besides the printed

journals to those parts, took care to furnish himself with the best

manuscript accounts he could procure of all the Spanish settlements

upon the coasts of Chili, Peru, and Mexico: these he carefully compared

with the examinations of his prisoners, and the informations of several

intelligent persons who fell into his hands in the South Seas. He had

likewise the good fortune, in some of his captures, to possess himself

of a great number of letters and papers of a public nature, many of

them written by the Viceroy of Peru to the Viceroy of Santa Fee, to the

Presidents of Panama and Chili, to Don Blass de Lezo, admiral of the

galeons, and to divers other persons in considerable employments; and

in these letters there was usually inserted a recital of those they

were intended to answer; so that they contained no small part of the

correspondence between those officers for some time previous to our

arrival on that coast. We took, besides, many letters sent from

persons entrusted by the Spanish Government to their friends and

correspondents, which were frequently filled with narrations of public

business, and sometimes contained undisguised animadversions on the

views and conduct of their superiors. From these materials those

accounts of the Spanish affairs are drawn which may at first sight

appear the most exceptionable. In particular, the history of the

various casualties which befel Pizarro's squadron is for the most part

composed from intercepted letters. Though indeed the relation of the

insurrection of Orellana and his followers is founded on rather a less

disputable authority: for it was taken from the mouth of an English

gentleman then on board Pizarro, who often conversed with Orellana; and

it was upon inquiry confirmed in its principal circumstances by others

who were in the ship at the same time: so that the fact, however

extraordinary, is, I conceive, not to be contested.

And on this occasion I cannot but mention, that though I have

endeavoured with my utmost care to adhere strictly to truth in every

article of the ensuing narration, yet I am {6} apprehensive that in so

complicated a work some oversights must have been committed by the

inattention to which at times all mankind are liable. However, I am as

yet conscious of none but literal and insignificant mistakes; and if

there are others more considerable which have escaped me, I flatter

myself they are not of moment enough to affect any material

transaction, and therefore I hope they may justly claim the reader's

indulgence.

After this general account of the ensuing work, it might be expected,

perhaps, that I should proceed to the work itself, but I cannot finish

this Introduction without adding a few reflections on a matter very

nearly connected with the present subject, and, as I conceive, neither

destitute of utility nor unworthy the attention of the public; I mean

the animating my countrymen, both in their public and private stations,

to the encouragement and pursuit of all kinds of geographical and

nautical observations, and of every species of mechanical and

commercial information. It is by a settled attachment to these

seemingly minute particulars that our ambitious neighbours have

established some part of that power with which we are now struggling:

and as we have the means in our hands of pursuing these subjects more

effectually than they can, it would be a dishonour to us longer to

neglect so easy and beneficial a practice. For, as we have a navy much

more numerous than theirs, great part of which is always employed in

very distant nations, either in the protection of our colonies and

commerce, or in assisting our allies against the common enemy, this

gives us frequent opportunities of furnishing ourselves with such kind

of materials as are here recommended, and such as might turn greatly to

our advantage either in war or peace. Since, not to mention what might

be expected from the officers of the navy, if their application to

these subjects was properly encouraged, it would create no new expence

to the government to establish a particular regulation for this

purpose, as all that would be requisite would be constantly to embark

on board some of our men-of-war which are sent on these distant cruises

a person who, with the character of an engineer and the skill and

talents necessary to that profession, should be employed in drawing

such coasts and planning such harbours as the ship should touch at, and

in making such other observations of all kinds as might either prove of

advantage to future {7} navigators, or might any ways tend to promote

the public service. Persons habituated to these operations (which

could not fail at the same time of improving them in their proper

business) would be extremely useful in many other lights besides those

already mentioned, and might tend to secure our fleets from those

disgraces with which their attempts against places on shore have been

often attended; and in a nation like ours, where all sciences are more

eagerly and universally pursued and better understood than in any other

part of the world, proper subjects for these employments could not long

be wanting if due encouragement were given to them. This method here

recommended is known to have been frequently practised by the French,

particularly in the instance of Mons. Frazier, an engineer, who has

published a celebrated voyage to the South Seas; for this person, in

the year 1711, was purposely sent by the French king into that country

on board a merchantman, that he might examine and describe the coast,

and take plans of all the fortified places, the better to enable the

French to prosecute their illicit trade, or, on a rupture between them

and the court of Spain, to form their enterprizes in those seas with

more readiness and certainty. Should we pursue this method, we might

hope that the emulation amongst those who are commissioned for these

undertakings, and the experience which even in the most peaceable

intervals they would hereby acquire, might at length procure us a

proper number of able engineers, and might efface the national scandal

which our deficiency in that species of men has sometimes exposed us

to: and surely every step to encourage and improve them is of great

moment to the publick, as no persons, when they are properly

instructed, make better returns in war for the distinctions and

emoluments bestowed on them in time of peace. Of which the advantages

the French have reaped from their dexterity (too numerous and recent to

be soon forgot) are an ample confirmation.

And having mentioned engineers, or such as are skilled in drawing and

the other usual practices of that profession, as the properest persons

to be employed in these foreign enquiries, I cannot (as it offers

itself so naturally to the subject in hand) but lament how very

imperfect many of our accounts of distant countries are rendered by the

relators being unskilled in drawing, and in the general principles of

surveying, {8} even where other abilities have not been wanting. Had

more of our travellers been initiated in these acquirements, and had

there been added thereto some little skill in the common astronomical

observations (all which a person of ordinary talents might attain with

a very moderate share of application), we should by this time have seen

the geography of the globe much correcter than we now find it: the

dangers of navigation would have been considerably lessened, and the

manners, arts, and produce of foreign countries would have been better

known to us than they are. Indeed, when I consider the strong

incitements that all travellers have to pursue some part at least of

these qualifications, especially drawing; when I consider how much it

will facilitate their observations, assist and strengthen their

memories, and of how tedious, and often unintelligible, a load of

description it would rid them, I cannot but wonder that any person who

intends to visit distant countries with a view of informing either

himself or others, should be wanting in so necessary a piece of skill.

And to enforce this argument still further, I must add that besides the

uses of drawing, already mentioned, there is one which, tho' not so

obvious, is yet perhaps of more consequence than all that has been

hitherto urged; I mean the strength and distinguishing power it adds to

some of our faculties. This appears from hence, that those who are

used to draw objects observe them with more accuracy than others who

are not habituated to that practice. For we may easily find by a

little experience, that when we view any object, however simple, our

attention or memory is scarcely at any time so strong as to enable us,

when we have turned our eyes away from it, to recollect exactly every

part it consisted of, and to recall all the circumstances of its

appearance; since on examination it will be discovered that in some we

were mistaken and others we had totally overlooked: but he that is

accustomed to draw what he sees is at the same time accustomed to

rectify this inattention; for by confronting his ideas copied on the

paper with the object he intends to represent, he finds out what

circumstances have deceived him in its appearance, and hence he at

length acquires the habit of observing much more at one view, and

retains what he sees with more correctness than he could ever have done

without his practice and proficiency in drawing.

If what has been said merits the attention of travellers of {9} all

sorts, it is, I think, more particularly applicable to the gentlemen of

the navy; since, without drawing and planning, neither charts nor views

of land can be taken, and without these it is sufficiently evident that

navigation is at a full stand. It is doubtless from a persuasion of

the utility of these qualifications that his Majesty has established a

drawing master at Portsmouth for the instruction of those who are

presumed to be hereafter intrusted with the command of his royal navy:

and tho' some have been so far misled as to suppose that the perfection

of sea-officers consisted in a turn of mind and temper resembling the

boisterous element they had to deal with, and have condemned all

literature and science as effeminate and derogatory to that ferocity

which, they would falsely persuade us, was the most unerring

characteristic of courage: yet it is to be hoped that such absurdities

as these have at no time been authorised by the public opinion, and

that the belief of them daily diminishes. If those who adhere to these

mischievous positions were capable of being influenced by reason or

swayed by example, I should think it sufficient for their conviction to

observe that the most valuable drawings made in the following voyage,

though done with such a degree of skill that even professed artists

could with difficulty imitate them, were taken by Mr. Piercy Brett, one

of Mr. Anson's lieutenants, and since captain of the _Lion_ man-of-war;

who, in his memorable engagement with the _Elizabeth_ (for the

importance of the service, or the resolution with which it was

conducted, inferior to none this age has seen), has given ample proof

that a proficiency in the arts I have been here recommending is

extremely consistent with the most exemplary bravery, and the most

distinguished skill in every function belonging to the duty of a

sea-officer. Indeed, when the many branches of science are attended

to, of which even the common practice of navigation is composed, and

the many improvements which men of skill have added to this practice

within these few years, it would induce one to believe that the

advantages of reflection and speculative knowledge were in no

profession more eminent than in that of a sea-officer; for, not to

mention some expertness in geography, geometry, and astronomy, which it

would be dishonourable for him to be without (as his journal and his

estimate of the daily position of the ship are founded on particular

branches of these {10} arts), it may be well supposed that the

management and working of a ship, the discovery of her most eligible

position in the water (usually stiled her trim), and the disposition of

her sails in the most advantageous manner, are articles wherein the

knowledge of mechanicks cannot but be greatly assistant. And perhaps

the application of this kind of knowledge to naval subjects may produce

as great improvements in sailing and working a ship as it has already

done in many other matters conducive to the ease and convenience of

human life. Since, when the fabric of a ship and the variety of her

sails are considered, together with the artificial contrivances for

adapting them to her different motions, as it cannot be doubted but

these things have been brought about by more than ordinary sagacity and

invention; so neither can it be doubted but that in some conjunctures a

speculative and scientific turn of mind may find out the means of

directing and disposing this complicated mechanism much more

advantageously than can be done by mere habit, or by a servile copying

of what others may perhaps have erroneously practised in similar

emergencies. But it is time to finish this digression, and to leave

the reader to the perusal of the ensuing work, which, with how little

art soever it may be executed, will yet, from the importance of the

subject and the utility and excellence of the materials, merit some

share of the public attention.

{11}

ANSON'S VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD

BOOK I

CHAPTER I

OF THE EQUIPMENT OF THE SQUADRON: THE INCIDENTS RELATING THERETO, FROM

ITS FIRST APPOINTMENT TO ITS SETTING SAIL FROM ST. HELENS

The squadron under the command of Mr. Anson (of which I here propose to

recite the most material proceedings) having undergone many changes in

its destination, its force, and its equipment, during the ten months

between its original appointment and its final sailing from St. Helens;

I conceive the history of these alterations is a detail necessary to be

made public, both for the honour of those who first planned and

promoted this enterprize, and for the justification of those who have

been entrusted with its execution. Since it will from hence appear

that the accidents the expedition was afterwards exposed to, and which

prevented it from producing all the national advantages the strength of

the squadron, and the expectation of the public, seemed to presage,

were principally owing to a series of interruptions, which delayed the

commander in the course of his preparations, and which it exceeded his

utmost industry either to avoid or to get removed.

When, in the latter end of the summer of the year 1739, it was foreseen

that a war with Spain was inevitable, it was the opinion of some

considerable persons then trusted with the administration of affairs,

that the most prudent step the nation could take, on the breaking out

of the war, was attacking that crown in her distant settlements; for by

this means (as at that time there was the greatest probability of

success) it was supposed that we should cut off the principal resources

{12} of the enemy, and should reduce them to the necessity of sincerely

desiring a peace, as they would hereby be deprived of the returns of

that treasure by which alone they could be enabled to carry on a war.

In pursuance of these sentiments, several projects were examined, and

several resolutions were taken by the council. And in all these

deliberations it was from the first determined that George Anson, Esq.,

then captain of the _Centurion_, should be employed as

commander-in-chief of an expedition of this kind: and he at that time

being absent on a cruize, a vessel was dispatched to his station so

early as the beginning of September to order him to return with his

ship to Portsmouth. And soon after he came there, that is on the 10th

of November following, he received a letter from Sir Charles Wager

directing him to repair to London, and to attend the Board of

Admiralty: where, when he arrived, he was informed by Sir Charles that

two squadrons would be immediately fitted out for two secret

expeditions, which, however, would have some connexion with each other;

that he, Mr. Anson, was intended to command one of them, and Mr.

Cornwall (who hath since lost his life gloriously in the defence of his

country's honour) the other; that the squadron under Mr. Anson was to

take on board three independent companies of a hundred men each, and

Bland's regiment of foot; that Colonel Bland was likewise to embark

with his regiment, and to command the land-forces; and that, as soon as

this squadron could be fitted for the sea, they were to set sail, with

express orders to touch at no place till they came to Java Head in the

East Indies; that there they were only to stop to take in water, and

thence to proceed directly to the city of Manila, situated on Luconia,

one of the Philippine Islands; that the other squadron was to be of

equal force with this commanded by Mr. Anson, and was intended to pass

round Cape Horn, into the South Seas, to range along that coast; and

after cruising upon the enemy in those parts, and attempting their

settlements, this squadron in its return was to rendezvous at Manila,

there to join the squadron under Mr. Anson, where they were to refresh

their men, and refit their ships, and perhaps receive orders for other

considerable enterprizes.

This scheme was doubtless extremely well projected, and could not but

greatly advance the public service, and the reputation and fortune of

those concerned in its execution; {13} for had Mr. Anson proceeded for

Manila at the time and in the manner proposed by Sir Charles Wager, he

would, in all probability, have arrived there before they had received

any advice of the war between us and Spain, and consequently before

they had been in the least prepared for the reception of an enemy, or

had any apprehensions of their danger. The city of Manila might be

well supposed to have been at that time in the same defenceless

condition with all the other Spanish settlements, just at the breaking

out of the war; that is to say, their fortifications neglected, and in

many places decayed; their cannon dismounted, or rendered useless by

the mouldring of their carriages; their magazines, whether of military

stores or provision, all empty; their garrisons unpaid, and

consequently thin, ill affected, and dispirited; and the royal chests

in Peru, whence alone all these disorders could receive their redress,

drained to the very bottom; this, from the intercepted letters of their

viceroys and governors, it is well known to have been the defenceless

state of Panama, and the other Spanish places on the coast of the South

Sea, for near a twelvemonth after our declaration of war. And it

cannot be supposed that the city of Manila, removed still farther by

almost half the circumference of the globe, should have experienced

from the Spanish government a greater share of attention and concern

for its security than Panama, and the other important ports in Peru and

Chili, on which their possession of that immense empire depends.

Indeed, it is well known that Manila was at that time incapable of

making any considerable defence, and in all probability would have

surrendered only on the appearance of our squadron before it. The

consequence of this city, and the island it stands on, may be in some

measure estimated, from the known healthiness of its air, the

excellency of its port and bay, the number and wealth of its

inhabitants, and the very extensive and beneficial commerce which it

carries on to the principal ports in the East Indies, and China, and

its exclusive trade to Acapulco, the returns for which, being made in

silver, are, upon the lowest valuation, not less than three millions of

dollars per annum.

On this scheme Sir Charles Wager was so intent that in a few days after

this first conference, that is, on November 18, Mr. Anson received an

order to take under his command the {14} _Argyle_, _Severn_, _Pearl_,

_Wager_, and _Tryal_ sloop; and other orders were issued to him in the

same month, and in the December following, relating to the victualling

of this squadron. But Mr. Anson attending the Admiralty the beginning

of January, he was informed by Sir Charles Wager that for reasons with

which he, Sir Charles, was not acquainted, the expedition to Manila was

laid aside. It may be conceived that Mr. Anson was extremely chagrined

at the losing the command of so infallible, so honourable, and in every

respect, so desirable an enterprize, especially too as he had already,

at a very great expence, made the necessary provision for his own

accommodation in this voyage, which he had reason to expect would prove

a very long one. However, Sir Charles, to render his disappointment in

some degree more tolerable, informed him that the expedition to the

South Seas was still intended, and that he, Mr. Anson, and his

squadron, as their first destination was now countermanded, should be

employed in that service. And on the 10th of January he received his

commission, appointing him commander-in-chief of the forementioned

squadron, which (the _Argyle_ being in the course of their preparation

changed for the _Gloucester_) was the same he sailed with above eight

months after from St. Helens. On this change of destination, the

equipment of the squadron was still prosecuted with as much vigour as

ever, and the victualling, and whatever depended on the commodore, was

soon so far advanced that he conceived the ships might be capable of

putting to sea the instant he should receive his final orders, of which

he was in daily expectation. And at last, on the 28th of June 1740,

the Duke of Newcastle, principal Secretary of State, delivered to him

his Majesty's instructions, dated January 31, 1739, with an additional

instruction from the Lords Justices, dated June 19, 1740. On the

receipt of these, Mr. Anson immediately repaired to Spithead, with a

resolution to sail with the first fair wind, flattering himself that

all his difficulties were now at an end. For though he knew by the

musters that his squadron wanted three hundred seamen of their

complement (a deficiency which, with all its assiduity, he had not been

able to get supplied), yet, as Sir Charles Wager informed him, that an

order from the Board of Admiralty was dispatched to Sir John Norris to

spare him the numbers which he wanted, he doubted not of its being

complied with. But {15} on his arrival at Portsmouth, he found himself

greatly mistaken, and disappointed in this persuasion; for on his

application, Sir John Norris told him he could spare him none, for he

wanted men for his own fleet. This occasioned an inevitable and a very

considerable delay; for it was the end of July before this deficiency

was by any means supplied, and all that was then done was extremely

short of his necessities and expectation. For Admiral Balchen, who

succeeded to the command at Spithead, after Sir John Norris had sailed

to the westward, instead of three hundred able sailors, which Mr. Anson

wanted of his complement, ordered on board the squadron a hundred and

seventy men only; of which thirty-two were from the hospital and sick

quarter, thirty-seven from the _Salisbury_, with three officers of

Colonel Lowther's regiment, and ninety-eight marines, and these were

all that were ever granted to make up the forementioned deficiency.

But the commodore's mortification did not end here. It has been

already observed that it was at first intended that Colonel Bland's

regiment, and three independent companies of a hundred men each, should

embark as land-forces on board the squadron. But this disposition was

now changed, and all the land-forces that were to be allowed were five

hundred invalids to be collected from the out-pensioners of Chelsea

College. As these out-pensioners consist of soldiers who from their

age, wounds, or other infirmities, are incapable of service in marching

regiments, Mr. Anson was greatly chagrined at having such a decrepid

detachment allotted him; for he was fully persuaded that the greatest

part of them would perish long before they arrived at the scene of

action, since the delays he had already encountered necessarily

confined his passage round Cape Horn to the most rigorous season of the

year. Sir Charles Wager too joined in opinion with the commodore, that

invalids were no ways proper for this service, and sollicited

strenuously to have them exchanged: but he was told that persons who

were supposed to be better judges of soldiers than he or Mr. Anson,

thought them the properest men that could be employed on this occasion.

And upon this determination they were ordered on board the squadron on

the 5th of August; but instead of five hundred, there came on board no

more than two hundred and fifty-nine; for all those who had limbs and

strength to walk out of Portsmouth deserted, leaving behind {16} them

only such as were literally invalids, most of them being sixty years of

age, and some of them upwards of seventy. Indeed it is difficult to

conceive a more moving scene than the embarkation of these unhappy

veterans: they were themselves extremely averse to the service they

were engaged in, and fully apprised of all the disasters they were

afterwards exposed to; the apprehensions of which were strongly marked

by the concern that appeared in their countenances, which was mixed

with no small degree of indignation, to be thus hurried from their

repose into a fatiguing employ, to which neither the strength of their

bodies, nor the vigour of their minds, were any ways proportioned, and

where, without seeing the face of an enemy, or in the least promoting

the success of the enterprize, they would, in all probability,

uselessly perish by lingering and painful diseases; and this too after

they had spent the activity and strength of their youth in their

country's service.

I cannot but observe, on this melancholy incident, how extremely

unfortunate it was, both to this aged and diseased detachment, and to

the expedition they were employed in, that amongst all the

out-pensioners of Chelsea Hospital, which were supposed to amount to

two thousand men, the most crazy and infirm only should be culled out

for so laborious and perilous an undertaking. For it was well known

that however unfit invalids in general might be for this service, yet

by a prudent choice there might have been found amongst them five

hundred men who had some remains of vigour left: and Mr. Anson fully

expected that the best of them would have been allotted him; whereas

the whole detachment that was sent to him seemed to be made up of the

most decrepid and miserable objects that could be collected out of the

whole body; and by the desertion above-mentioned, these were a second

time cleared of that little health and strength which were to be found

amongst them, and he was to take up with such as were much fitter for

an infirmary than for any military duty.

And here it is necessary to mention another material particular in the

equipment of this squadron. It was proposed to Mr. Anson, after it was

resolved that he should be sent to the South Seas, to take with him two

persons under the denomination of Agent Victuallers. Those who were

mentioned for this employment had formerly been in the Spanish {17}

West Indies, in the South Sea Company's service, and it was supposed

that by their knowledge and intelligence on that coast they might often

procure provisions for him by compact with the inhabitants, when it was

not to be got by force of arms: these agent victuallers were, for this

purpose, to be allowed to carry to the value of £15,000 in merchandize

on board the squadron; for they had represented that it would be much

easier for them to procure provisions with goods than with the value of

the same goods in money. Whatever colours were given to this scheme,

it was difficult to persuade the generality of mankind that it was not

principally intended for the enrichment of the agents, by the

beneficial commerce they proposed to carry on upon that coast. Mr.

Anson from the beginning objected both to the appointment of agent

victuallers and the allowing them to carry a cargo on board the

squadron: for he conceived that in those few amicable ports where the

squadron might touch, he needed not their assistance to contract for

any provisions the place afforded; and on the enemy's coast, he did not

imagine that they could ever procure him the necessaries he should

want, unless (which he was resolved not to comply with) the military

operations of his squadron were to be regulated by the ridiculous views

of their trading projects. All that he thought the government ought to

have done on this occasion was to put on board to the value of £2000 or

£3000 only of such goods as the Indians or the Spanish planters in the

less cultivated part of the coast might be tempted with; since it was

in such places only that he imagined it would be worth while to truck

with the enemy for provisions: and in these places it was sufficiently

evident a very small cargo would suffice.

But though the commodore objected both to the appointment of these

officers and to their project, of the success of which he had no

opinion; yet, as they had insinuated that their scheme, besides

victualling their squadron, might contribute to settling a trade upon

that coast, which might be afterwards carried on without difficulty,

and might thereby prove a very considerable national advantage, they

were much listened to by some considerable persons: and of the £15,000

which was to be the amount of their cargo, the government agreed to

advance them 10,000 upon imprest, and the remaining 5000 they raised on

bottomry bonds; and {18} the goods purchased by this sum were all that

were taken to sea by the squadron, how much soever the amount of them

might be afterwards magnified by common report.

This cargo was at first shipped on board the _Wager_ storeship, and one

of the victuallers; no part of it being admitted on board the

men-of-war. But when the commodore was at St. Catherine's, he

considered that in case the squadron should be separated, it might be

pretended that some of the ships were disappointed of provisions for

want of a cargo to truck with, and therefore he distributed some of the

least bulky commodities on board the men-of-war, leaving the remainder

principally on board the _Wager_, where it was lost; and more of the

goods perishing by various accidents to be recited hereafter, and no

part of them being disposed of upon the coast, the few that came home

to England did not produce, when sold, above a fourth part of the

original price. So true was the commodore's judgment of the event of

this project, which had been by many considered as infallibly

productive of immense gains. But to return to the transactions at

Portsmouth.

To supply the place of the two hundred and forty invalids which had

deserted, as is mentioned above, there were ordered on board two

hundred and ten marines detached from different regiments. These were

raw and undisciplined men, for they were just raised, and had scarcely

anything more of the soldier than their regimentals, none of them

having been so far trained as to be permitted to fire. The last

detachment of these marines came on board the 8th of August, and on the

10th the squadron sailed from Spithead to St. Helens, there to wait for

a wind to proceed on the expedition.

But the delays we had already suffered had not yet spent all their

influence, for we were now advanced into a season of the year when the

westerly winds are usually very constant, and very violent; and it was

thought proper that we should put to sea in company with the fleet

commanded by Admiral Balchen, and the expedition under Lord Cathcart.

As we made up in all twenty-one men-of-war, and a hundred and

twenty-four sail of merchant-men and transports, we had no hopes of

getting out of the Channel with so large a number of ships without the

continuance of a fair wind for some considerable time. This was what

we had every day {19} less and less reason to expect, as the time of

the equinox drew near; so that our golden dreams and our ideal

possession of the Peruvian treasures grew each day more faint, and the

difficulties and dangers of the passage round Cape Horn in the winter

season filled our imaginations in their room. For it was forty days

from our arrival at St. Helens, to our final departure from thence: and

even then (having orders to proceed without Lord Cathcart) we tided it

down the Channel with a contrary wind. But this interval of forty days

was not free from the displeasing fatigue of often setting sail, and

being as often obliged to return; nor exempt from dangers, greater than

have been sometimes undergone in surrounding the globe. For the wind

coming fair for the first time, on the 23d of August, we got under

sail, and Mr. Balchen shewed himself truly solicitous to have

proceeded to sea, but the wind soon returning to its old quarter

obliged us to put back to St. Helens, not without considerable hazard,

and some damage received by two of the transports, who, in tacking, ran

foul of each other. Besides this, we made two or three more attempts

to sail, but without any better success. And, on the 6th of September,

being returned to an anchor at St. Helens, after one of these fruitless

efforts, the wind blew so fresh that the whole fleet struck their yards

and topmasts to prevent driving: yet, notwithstanding this precaution,

the _Centurion_ drove the next evening, and brought both cables ahead,

and we were in no small danger of driving foul of the _Prince

Frederick_, a seventy gun ship, moored at a small distance under our

stern; though we happily escaped, by her driving at the same time, and

so preserving her distance: but we did not think ourselves secure till

we at last let go the sheet-anchor, which fortunately brought us up.

However, on the 9th of September, we were in some degree relieved from

this lingring vexatious situation, by an order which Mr. Anson received

from the Lords Justices, to put to sea the first opportunity with his

own squadron only, if Lord Cathcart should not be ready. Being thus

freed from the troublesome company of so large a fleet, our commodore

resolved to weigh and tide it down the Channel, as soon as the weather

should become sufficiently moderate; and this might easily have been

done with our own squadron alone full two months sooner, had the orders

of the Admiralty, for supplying us with seamen, been punctually

complied with, {20} and had we met with none of those other delays

mentioned in this narration. It is true, our hopes of a speedy

departure were even now somewhat damped by a subsequent order which Mr.

Anson received on the 12th of September; for by that he was required to

take under his convoy the _St. Albans_, with the Turky fleet, and to

join the _Dragon_ and the _Winchester_, with the Streights and the

American trade, at Torbay or Plymouth, and to proceed with them to sea

as far as their way and ours lay together. This incumbrance of a

convoy gave us some uneasiness, as we feared it might prove the means

of lengthening our passage to the Maderas. However, Mr. Anson, now

having the command himself, resolved to adhere to his former

determination, and to tide it down the Channel with the first moderate

weather; and that the junction of his convoy might occasion as little

loss of time as possible, he immediately sent directions to Torbay that

the fleets he was there to take under his care might be in a readiness

to join him instantly on his approach. And at last, on the 18th of

September, he weighed from St. Helens; and though the wind was at first

contrary, had the good fortune to get clear of the Channel in four

days, as will be more particularly related in the ensuing chapter.

Having thus gone through the respective steps taken in the equipment of

this squadron, it is sufficiently obvious how different an aspect this

expedition bore at its first appointment in the beginning of January,

from what it had in the latter end of September, when it left the

Channel; and how much its numbers, its strength, and the probability of

its success were diminished by the various incidents which took place

in that interval. For instead of having all our old and ordinary

seamen exchanged for such as were young and able (which the commodore

was at first promised) and having our numbers compleated to their full

complement, we were obliged to retain our first crews, which were very

indifferent; and a deficiency of three hundred men in our numbers was

no otherwise made up to us than by sending us on board a hundred and

seventy men, the greatest part composed of such as were discharged from

hospitals, or new-raised marines who had never been at sea before. And

in the land-forces allotted to us, the change was still more

disadvantageous; for there, instead of three independent companies of a

hundred men each, and Bland's regiment of foot, {21} which was an old

one, we had only four hundred and seventy invalids and marines, one

part of them incapable of action by their age and infirmities, and the

other part useless by their ignorance of their duty. But the

diminishing the strength of the squadron was not the greatest

inconveniency which attended these alterations; for the contests,

representations, and difficulties which they continually produced (as

we have above seen, that in these cases the authority of the Admiralty

was not always submitted to) occasioned a delay and waste of time, which

in its consequences was the source of all the disasters to which this

enterprise was afterwards exposed: for by this means we were obliged to

make our passage round Cape Horn in the most tempestuous season of the

year; whence proceeded the separation of our squadron, the loss of

numbers of our men, and the imminent hazard of our total destruction.

By this delay, too, the enemy had been so well informed of our designs,

that a person who had been employed in the South Sea Company's service,

and arrived from Panama three or four days before we left Portsmouth,

was able to relate to Mr. Anson most of the particulars of the

destination and strength of our squadron, from what he had learnt

amongst the Spaniards before he left them. And this was afterwards

confirmed by a more extraordinary circumstance: For we shall find that,

when the Spaniards (fully satisfied that our expedition was intended

for the South Seas) had fitted out a squadron to oppose us, which had

so far got the start of us, as to arrive before us off the island of

Madera, the commander of this squadron was so well instructed in the

form and make of Mr. Anson's broad pendant, and had imitated it so

exactly, that he thereby decoyed the _Pearl_, one of our squadron,

within gun-shot of him, before the captain of the _Pearl_ was able to

discover his mistake.

{22}

CHAPTER II

THE PASSAGE FROM ST. HELENS TO THE ISLAND OF MADERA; WITH A SHORT

ACCOUNT OF THAT ISLAND, AND OF OUR STAY THERE

On the 18th of September 1740, the squadron, as we have observed in the

preceding chapter, weighed from St. Helens with a contrary wind, the

commodore proposing to tide it down the Channel, as he dreaded less the

inconveniences he should thereby have to struggle with, than the risk

he should run of ruining the enterprise by an uncertain, and, in all

probability, a tedious attendance for a fair wind.

The squadron allotted to this service consisted of five men-of-war, a

sloop of war and two victualling ships. They were the _Centurion_ of

sixty guns, four hundred men, George Anson, Esq., commander; the

_Gloucester_ of fifty guns, three hundred men, Richard Norris,

commander; the _Severn_ of fifty guns, three hundred men, the

Honourable Edward Legg, commander; the _Pearl_ of forty guns, two

hundred and fifty men, Matthew Mitchel, commander; the _Wager_ of

twenty-eight guns, one hundred and sixty men, Dandy Kidd, commander;

and the _Tryal_ sloop of eight guns, one hundred men, the Honourable

John Murray, commander; the two victuallers were pinks, the largest of

about four hundred, and the other of about two hundred tons burthen.

These were to attend us till the provisions we had taken on board were

so far consumed as to make room for the additional quantity they

carried with them, which, when we had taken into our ships, they were

to be discharged. Besides the complement of men borne by the

above-mentioned ships as their crews, there were embarked on board the

squadron about four hundred and seventy invalids and marines, under the

denomination of land forces (as has been particularly mentioned in the

preceding chapter) which were commanded by Lieutenant Colonel

Cracherode. With this squadron, together with the _St. Albans_ and the

_Lark_, and the trade {23} under their convoy, Mr. Anson, after

weighing from St. Helen's, tided it down the Channel for the first

forty-eight hours; and, on the 20th, in the morning, we discovered off

the Ram Head the _Dragon_, _Winchester_, _South Sea Castle_, and _Rye_,

with a number of merchantmen under their convoy. These we joined about

noon the same day, our commodore having orders to see them (together

with the _St. Albans_ and _Lark_) as far into the sea as their course

and ours lay together. When we came in sight of this last mentioned

fleet, Mr. Anson first hoisted his broad pennant, and was saluted by

all the men-of-war in company.

When we had joined this last convoy, we made up eleven men-of-war, and

about one hundred and fifty sail of merchantmen, consisting of the

Turky, the Streights, and the American trade. Mr. Anson, the same day,

made a signal for all the captains of the men-of-war to come on board

him, where he delivered them their fighting and sailing instructions,

and then, with a fair wind, we all stood towards the south-west; and

the next day at noon, being the 21st, we had run forty leagues from the

Ram Head. Being now clear of the land, our commodore, to render our

view more extensive, ordered Captain Mitchel, in the _Pearl_, to make

sail two leagues ahead of the fleet every morning, and to repair to his

station every evening. Thus we proceeded till the 25th, when the

_Winchester_ and the American convoy made the concerted signal for

leave to separate, which being answered by the commodore, they left us:

as the _St. Albans_ and the _Dragon_, with the Turkey and Streights

convoy, did on the 29th. After which separation, there remained in

company only our own squadron and our two victuallers, with which we

kept on our course for the island of Madera. But the winds were so

contrary that we had the mortification to be forty days in our passage

thither from St. Helens, though it is known to be often done in ten or

twelve. This delay was a most unpleasing circumstance, productive of

much discontent and ill-humour amongst our people, of which those only

can have a tolerable idea who have had the experience of a like

situation. For besides the peevishness and despondency which foul and

contrary winds and a lingring voyage never fail to create on all

occasions, we, in particular, had very substantial reasons to be

greatly alarmed at this unexpected impediment. Since as we had

departed {24} from England much later than we ought to have done, we

had placed almost all our hopes of success in the chance of retrieving

in some measure at sea the time we had so unhappily wasted at Spithead

and St. Helens. However, at last, on Monday, October the 25th, at five

in the morning, we, to our great joy, made the land, and in the

afternoon came to an anchor in Madera Road, in forty fathom water; the

Brazen Head bearing from us E. by S. the Loo N.N.W. and great church

N.N.E. We had hardly let go our anchor when an English privateer sloop

ran under our stern and saluted the commodore with nine guns, which we

returned with five. And, the next day, the consul of the island

visiting the commodore, we saluted him with nine guns on his coming on

board.

This island of Madera, where we are now arrived, is famous through all

our American settlements for its excellent wines, which seem to be

designed by Providence for the refreshment of the inhabitants of the

torrid zone. It is situated in a fine climate, in the latitude of 32°

27' north; and in the longitude from London (by our different

reckonings) of 18-½° to 19-½° west, though laid down in the charts in

17°. It is composed of one continued hill, of a considerable height,

extending itself from east to west: the declivity of which, on the

south side, is cultivated and interspersed with vineyards: and in the

midst of this slope the merchants have fixed their country seats, which

help to form a very agreeable prospect. There is but one considerable

town in the whole island; it is named Fonchiale, and is seated on the

south part of the island, at the bottom of a large bay. Towards the

sea, it is defended by a high wall, with a battery of cannon, besides a

castle on the Loo, which is a rock standing in the water at a small

distance from the shore. Fonchiale is the only place of trade, and

indeed the only place where it is possible for a boat to land. And

even here the beach is covered with large stones, and a violent surf

continually beats upon it; so that the commodore did not care to

venture the ships' long-boats to fetch the water off, there was so much

danger of their being lost; and therefore ordered the captains of the

squadron to employ Portuguese boats on that service.

We continued about a week at this island, watering our ships, and

providing the squadron with wine and other refreshments. Here on the

3d of November, Captain Richard {25} Norris signified by a letter to

the commodore, his desire to quit his command on board the _Gloucester_

in order to return to England for the recovery of his health. This

request the commodore complied with; and thereupon was pleased to

appoint Captain Matthew Mitchel to command the _Gloucester_ in his

room, and to remove Captain Kidd from the _Wager_ to the _Pearl_, and

Captain Murray from the _Tryal_ sloop to the _Wager_, giving command of

the _Tryal_ to Lieutenant Cheap. These promotions being settled, with

other changes in the lieutenancies, the commodore, on the following

day, gave to the captains their orders, appointing St. Jago, one of the

Cape de Verd Islands, to be the first place of rendezvous in case of

separation; and directing them, if they did not meet the _Centurion_

there, to make the best of their way to the island of St. Catherine's,

on the coast of Brazil. The water for the squadron being the same day

compleated, and each ship supplied with as much wine and other

refreshments as they could take in, we weighed anchor in the afternoon,

and took our leave of the island of Madera. But before I go on with

the narration of our own transactions, I think it necessary to give

some account of the proceedings of the enemy, and of the measures they

had taken to render all our designs abortive.

When Mr. Anson visited the governor of Madera, he received information

from him that for three or four days, in the latter end of October,

there had appeared to the westward of that island, seven or eight ships

of the line, and a patache, which last was sent every day close in to

make the land. The governor assured the commodore, upon his honour,

that none upon the island had either given them intelligence, or had in

any sort communicated with them, but that he believed them to be either

French or Spanish, but was rather inclined to think them Spanish. On

this intelligence Mr. Anson sent an officer in a clean sloop, eight

leagues to the westward, to reconnoitre them, and, if possible, to

discover what they were: but the officer returned without being able to

get a sight of them, so that we still remained in uncertainty.

However, we could not but conjecture that this fleet was intended to

put a stop to our expedition, which, had they cruised to the eastward

of the island instead of the westward, they could not but have executed

with great facility. For as, in that case, they must have certainly

{26} fallen in with us, we should have been obliged to throw overboard

vast quantities of provision to clear our ships for an engagement; and

this alone, without any regard to the event of the action, would have

effectually prevented our progress. This was so obvious a measure that

we could not help imagining reasons which might have prevented them

from pursuing it. And we therefore supposed that this French or

Spanish squadron was sent out, upon advice of our sailing in company

with Admiral Balchen and Lord Cathcart's expedition: and thence, from

an apprehension of being overmatched, they might not think it

adviseable to meet with us till we had parted company, which they might

judge would not happen before our arrival at this island. These were

our speculations at that time, and from hence we had reason to suppose

that we might still fall in with them in our way to the Cape de Verd

Islands. We afterwards, in the course of our expedition, were

persuaded that this was the Spanish squadron, commanded by Don Joseph

Pizarro, which was sent out purposely to traverse the views and

enterprizes of our squadron, to which in strength they were greatly

superior. As this Spanish armament then was so nearly connected with

our expedition, and as the catastrophe it underwent, though not

effected by our force, was yet a considerable advantage to this nation,

produced in consequence of our equipment, I have, in the following

chapter, given a summary account of their proceedings, from their first

setting out from Spain in the year 1740, till the _Asia_, the only ship

of the whole squadron which returned to Europe, arrived at the Groyne

in the beginning of the year 1746.

{27}

CHAPTER III

THE HISTORY OF THE SPANISH SQUADRON COMMANDED BY DON JOSEPH PIZARRO

The squadron fitted out by the court of Spain to attend our motions,

and traverse our projects, we supposed to have been the ships seen off

Madera, as mentioned in the preceding chapter. As this force was sent

out particularly against our expedition, I cannot but imagine that the

following history of the casualties it met with, as far as by

intercepted letters and other information the same has come to my

knowledge, is a very essential part of the present work. For hence it

will appear that we were the occasion that a considerable part of the

naval power of Spain was diverted from the prosecution of the ambitious

views of that court in Europe. And whatever men and ships were lost by

the enemy in this undertaking, were lost in consequence of the

precautions they took to secure themselves against our enterprizes.

This squadron (besides two ships intended for the West Indies, which

did not part company till after they had left the Maderas) was composed

of the following men-of-war, commanded by Don Joseph Pizarro:--

The _Asia_ of sixty-six guns, and seven hundred men; this was the

admiral's ship.

The _Guipuscoa_ of seventy-four guns, and seven hundred men.

The _Hermiona_ of fifty-four guns, and five hundred men.

The _Esperanza_ of fifty guns, and four hundred and fifty men.

The _St. Estevan_ of forty guns, and three hundred and fifty men.

And a patache of twenty guns.

These ships, over and above their complement of sailors and marines,

had on board an old Spanish regiment of foot, {28} intended to

reinforce the garisons on the coast of the South Seas. When this fleet

had cruised for some days to the leeward of the Maderas, as is

mentioned in the preceding chapter, they left that station in the

beginning of November, and steered for the river of Plate, where they

arrived the 5th of January, O.S., and coming to an anchor in the bay of

Maldonado, at the mouth of that river, their admiral Pizarro sent

immediately to Buenos Ayres for a supply of provisions; for they had

departed from Spain with only four months' provisions on board. While

they lay here expecting this supply, they received intelligence, by the

treachery of the Portuguese governor of St. Catherine's, of Mr. Anson's

having arrived at that island on the 21st of December preceding, and of

his preparing to put to sea again with the utmost expedition. Pizarro,

notwithstanding his superior force, had his reasons (and as some say,

his orders, likewise) for avoiding our squadron anywhere short of the

South Seas. He was besides extremely desirous of getting round Cape

Horn before us, as he imagined that step alone would effectually baffle

all our designs; and therefore, on hearing that we were in his

neighbourhood, and that we should soon be ready to proceed for Cape

Horn, he weighed anchor with the five large ships (the patache being

disabled and condemned, and the men taken out of her), after a stay of

seventeen days only, and got under sail without his provisions, which

arrived at Maldonado within a day or two after his departure. But

notwithstanding the precipitation with which he departed, we put to sea

from St. Catherine's four days before him, and in some part of our

passage to Cape Horn the two squadrons were so near together that the

_Pearl_, one of our ships, being separated from the rest, fell in with

the Spanish fleet, and mistaking the _Asia_ for the _Centurion_, had

got within gun-shot of Pizarro before she discovered her error, and

narrowly escaped being taken.

It being the 22d of January when the Spaniards weighed from Maldonado

(as has been already mentioned), they could not expect to get into the

latitude of Cape Horn before the equinox; and as they had reason to

apprehend very tempestuous weather in doubling it at that season, and

as the Spanish sailors, being for the most part accustomed to a fair

weather country, might be expected to be very averse to so dangerous

and fatiguing a navigation, the better to {29} encourage them, some

part of their pay was advanced to them in European goods, which they

were to be permitted to dispose of in the South Seas, that so the hopes

of the great profit each man was to make on his venture might animate

him in his duty, and render him less disposed to repine at the labour,

the hardships, and the perils he would in all probability meet with

before his arrival on the coast of Peru.

Pizarro with his squadron having, towards the latter end of February,

run the length of Cape Horn, he then stood to the westward, in order to

double it; but in the night of the last day of February, O.S., while

with this view they were turning to windward, the _Guipuscoa_, the

_Hermiona_, and the _Esperanza_ were separated from the admiral; and,

on the 6th of March following, the _Guipuscoa_ was separated from the

other two; and, on the 7th (being the day after we had passed Streights

le Maire), there came on a most furious storm at N.W. which, in

despight of all their efforts, drove the whole squadron to the

eastward, and after several fruitless attempts, obliged them to bear

away for the river of Plate, where Pizarro in the _Asia_ arrived about

the middle of May, and a few days after him the _Esperanza_ and the

_Estevan_. The _Hermiona_ was supposed to founder at sea, for she was

never heard of more; and the _Guipuscoa_ was run on shore and sunk on

the coast of Brazil. The calamities of all kinds which this squadron

underwent in this unsuccessful navigation can only be paralleled by

what we ourselves experienced in the same climate, when buffeted by the

same storms. There was indeed some diversity in our distresses, which

rendered it difficult to decide whose situation was most worthy of

commiseration. For to all the misfortunes we had in common with each

other, as shattered rigging, leaky ships, and the fatigues and

despondency which necessarily attend these disasters, there was

superadded on board our squadron the ravage of a most destructive and

incurable disease, and on board the Spanish squadron the devastation of

famine.

For this squadron, either from the hurry of their outset, their

presumption of a supply at Buenos Ayres, or from other less obvious

motives, departed from Spain, as has been already observed, with no

more than four months' provision on board, and even that, as it is

said, at short allowance only; so that, when by the storms they met

with off Cape Horn {30} their continuance at sea was prolonged a month

or more beyond their expectation, they were reduced to such infinite

distress, that rats, when they could be caught, were sold for four

dollars apiece; and a sailor who died on board had his death concealed

for some days by his brother, who during that time lay in the same

hammock with the corpse, only to receive the dead man's allowance of

provisions. In this dreadful situation they were alarmed (if their

horrors were capable of augmentation) by the discovery of a conspiracy

among the marines on board the _Asia_, the admiral's ship. This had

taken its rise chiefly from the miseries they endured: for though no

less was proposed by the conspirators than the massacring the officers

and the whole crew, yet their motive for this bloody resolution seemed

to be no more than their desire of relieving their hunger by

appropriating the whole ship's provisions to themselves. But their

designs were prevented, when just upon the point of execution, by means

of one of their confessors; and three of their ringleaders were

immediately put to death. However, though the conspiracy was

suppressed, their other calamities admitted of no alleviation, but grew

each day more and more destructive. So that by the complicated

distress of fatigue, sickness, and hunger, the three ships which

escaped lost the greatest part of their men. The _Asia_, their

admiral's ship, arrived at Monte Vedio, in the river of Plate, with

half her crew only; the _St. Estevan_ had lost, in like manner, half

her hands when she anchored in the bay of Barragan; the _Esperanza_, a

fifty-gun ship, was still more unfortunate; for of four hundred and

fifty hands which she brought from Spain, only fifty-eight remained

alive, and the whole regiment of foot perished except sixty men. But

to give the reader a more distinct and particular idea of what they

underwent upon this occasion, I shall lay before him a short account of

the fate of the _Guipuscoa_, extracted from a letter written by Don

Joseph Mendinuetta, her captain, to a person of distinction at Lima, a

copy of which fell into our hands afterwards in the South Seas.

He mentions that he separated from the _Hermiona_ and the _Esperanza_

in a fog on the 6th of March, being then, as I suppose, to the S.E. of

Staten-land, and plying to the westward; that in the night after it

blew a furious storm at N.W. which, at half an hour after ten, split

his main-sail, and {31} obliged him to bear away with his fore-sail;

that the ship went ten knots an hour with a prodigious sea, and often

run her gangway under water; that he likewise sprung his mainmast; and

the ship made so much water, that with four pumps and bailing he could

not free her. That on the 9th it was calm, but the sea continued so

high that the ship in rolling opened all her upper works and seams, and

started the butt ends of her planking, and the greatest part of her top

timbers, the bolts being drawn by the violence of her roll: that in

this condition, with other additional disasters to the hull and

rigging, they continued beating to the westward till the 12th: that

they were then in sixty degrees of south latitude, in great want of

provisions, numbers every day perishing by the fatigue of pumping, and

those who survived being quite dispirited by labour, hunger, and the

severity of the weather, they having two spans of snow upon the decks:

that then finding the wind fixed in the western quarter, and blowing

strong, and consequently their passage to the westward impossible, they

resolved to bear away for the river of Plate: that on the 22d they were

obliged to throw overboard all the upper-deck guns and an anchor, and

to take six turns of the cable round the ship to prevent her opening:

that on the 4th of April, it being calm, but a very high sea, the ship

rolled so much that the main-mast came by the board, and in a few hours

after she lost, in like manner, her fore-mast and her mizen-mast: and

that, to accumulate their misfortunes, they were soon obliged to cut

away their bowsprit, to diminish, if possible, the leakage at her head;

that by this time he had lost two hundred and fifty men by hunger and

fatigue; for those who were capable of working at the pumps (at which

every officer without exception took his turn) were allowed only an

ounce and half of biscuit per diem; and those who were so sick or so

weak that they could not assist in this necessary labour, had no more

than an ounce of wheat; so that it was common for the men to fall down

dead at the pumps: that, including the officers, they could only muster

from eighty to a hundred persons capable of duty: that the south-west

winds blew so fresh after they had lost their masts, that they could

not immediately set up jury-masts, but were obliged to drive like a

wreck, between the latitudes of 32 and 28, till the 24th of April, when

they made the coast of Brazil at Rio de Patas, ten leagues to the

southward of the {32} island of St. Catherine's; that here they came to

an anchor, and that the captain was very desirous of proceeding to St.

Catherine's, if possible, in order to save the hull of the ship, and

the guns and stores on board her; but the crew instantly left off

pumping, and being enraged at the hardships they had suffered, and the

numbers they had lost (there being at that time no less than thirty

dead bodies lying on the deck), they all with one voice cried out, "On

shore, on shore!" and obliged the captain to run the ship in directly

for the land, where, the 5th day after, she sunk with her stores and

all her furniture on board her; but the remainder of the crew, whom

hunger and fatigue had spared, to the number of four hundred, got safe

on shore.

From this account of the adventures and catastrophe of the _Guipuscoa_

we may form some conjecture of the manner in which the _Hermiona_ was

lost, and of the distresses endured by the three remaining ships of the

squadron, which got into the river of Plate. These last being in great

want of masts, yards, rigging, and all kinds of naval stores, and

having no supply at Buenos Ayres, nor in any of their neighbouring

settlements, Pizarro dispatched an advice-boat with a letter of credit

to Rio Janeiro, to purchase what was wanting from the Portuguese. He,

at the same time, sent an express across the continent to St. Jago in

Chili, to be thence forwarded to the Viceroy of Peru, informing him of

the disasters that had befallen his squadron, and desiring a remittance

of 200,000 dollars from the royal chests at Lima, to enable him to

victual and refit his remaining ships, that he might be again in a

condition to attempt the passage to the South Seas, as soon as the

season of the year should be more favourable. It is mentioned by the

Spaniards as a most extraordinary circumstance that the Indian charged

with this express (though it was then the depth of winter, when the

Cordilleras are esteemed impassable on account of the snow) was only

thirteen days in his journey from Buenos Ayres to St. Jago in Chili,

though these places are distant three hundred Spanish leagues, near

forty of which are amongst the snows and precipices of the Cordilleras.

The return to this dispatch of Pizarro's from the Viceroy of Peru was

no ways favourable; instead of 200,000 dollars, the sum demanded, the

viceroy remitted him only 100,000, telling him that it was with great

difficulty he was able to {33} procure him even that: though the

inhabitants of Lima, who considered the presence of Pizarro as

absolutely necessary to their security, were much discontented at this

procedure, and did not fail to assert that it was not the want of

money, but the interested views of some of the viceroy's confidents,

that prevented Pizarro from having the whole sum he had asked for.

The advice-boat sent to Rio Janeiro also executed her commission but

imperfectly; for though she brought back a considerable quantity of

pitch, tar, and cordage, yet she could not procure either masts or

yards: and, as an additional misfortune, Pizarro was disappointed of

some masts he expected from Paragua; for a carpenter, whom he had

entrusted with a large sum of money, and had sent there to cut masts,

instead of prosecuting the business he was employed in, had married in

the country, and refused to return. However, by removing the masts of

the _Esperanza_ into the _Asia_, and making use of what spare masts and

yards they had on board, they made a shift to refit the _Asia_ and the

_St. Estevan_. And in the October following, Pizarro was preparing to

put to sea with these two ships, in order to attempt the passage round

Cape Horn a second time, but the _St. Estevan_, in coming down the

river Plate, ran on a shoal, and beat off her rudder, on which and

other damages she received she was condemned and broke up, and Pizarro

in the _Asia_ proceeded to sea without her. Having now the summer

before him, and the winds favourable, no doubt was made of his having a

fortunate and speedy passage; but being off Cape Horn, and going right

before the wind in very moderate weather, though in a swelling sea, by

some misconduct of the officer of the watch, the ship rolled away her

masts, and was a second time obliged to put back to the river of Plate

in great distress.

The _Asia_ having considerably suffered in this second unfortunate

expedition, the _Esperanza_, which had been left behind at Monte Vedio,

was ordered to be refitted, and the command of her being given to

Mindinuetta, who was captain of the _Guipuscoa_ when she was lost; he,

in the November of the succeeding year, that is, in November 1742,

sailed from the river of Plate for the South Seas, and arrived safe on

the coast of Chili, where his commodore, Pizarro, passing overland from

Buenos Ayres, met him. There were great animosities and contests

between these two gentlemen {34} at their meeting, occasioned

principally by the claim of Pizarro to command the _Esperanza_, which

Mindinuetta had brought round; for Mindinuetta refused to deliver her

up to him, insisting that, as he came into the South Seas alone and

under no superior, it was not now in the power of Pizarro to resume

that authority which he had once parted with. However, the President

of Chili interposing, and declaring for Pizarro, Mindinuetta, after a

long and obstinate struggle, was obliged to submit.

But Pizarro had not yet compleated the series of his adventures, for

when he and Mindinuetta came back by land from Chili to Buenos Ayres,

in the year 1745, they found at Monte Vedio the _Asia_, which near

three years before they had left there.

This ship they resolved, if possible, to carry to Europe; and with this

view they refitted her in the best manner they could; but their great

difficulty was to procure a sufficient number of hands to navigate her,

for all the remaining sailors of the squadron to be met with in the

neighbourhood of Buenos Ayres did not amount to a hundred men. They

endeavoured to supply this defect by pressing many of the inhabitants

of Buenos Ayres, and putting on board besides all the English prisoners

then in their custody, together with a number of Portuguese smugglers

which they had taken at different times, and some of the Indians of the

country. Among these last there was a chief and ten of his followers

which had been surprised by a party of Spanish soldiers about three

months before. The name of this chief was Orellana; he belonged to a

very powerful tribe which had committed great ravages in the

neighbourhood of Buenos Ayres. With this motley crew (all of them,

except the European Spaniards, extremely averse to the voyage) Pizarro

set sail from Monte Vedio in the river of Plate, about the beginning of

November 1745; and the native Spaniards, being no strangers to the

dissatisfaction of their forced men, treated both those, the English

prisoners, and the Indians, with great insolence and barbarity, but

more particularly the Indians, for it was common for the meanest

officers in the ship to beat them most cruelly on the slightest

pretences, and oftentimes only to exert their superiority. Orellana

and his followers, though in appearance sufficiently patient and

submissive, meditated a severe revenge for all these inhumanities. As

he conversed {35} very well in Spanish (these Indians having, in time

of peace, a great intercourse with Buenos Ayres) he affected to talk

with such of the English as understood that language, and seemed very

desirous of being informed how many Englishmen there were on board, and

which they were. As he knew that the English were as much enemies to

the Spaniards as himself, he had doubtless an intention of disclosing

his purposes to them, and making them partners in the scheme he had

projected for revenging his wrongs, and recovering his liberty; but

having sounded them at a distance, and not finding them so precipitate

and vindictive as he expected, he proceeded no further with them, but

resolved to trust alone to the resolution of his ten faithful

followers. These, it should seem, readily engaged to observe his

directions, and to execute whatever commands he gave them; and having

agreed on the measures necessary to be taken, they first furnished

themselves with Dutch knives sharp at the point, which being common

knives used in the ship, they found no difficulty in procuring: besides

this, they employed their leisure in secretly cutting out thongs from

raw hides, of which there were great numbers on board, and in fixing to

each end of these thongs the double-headed shot of the small

quarter-deck guns; this, when swung round their heads, according to the

practice of their country, was a most mischievous weapon, in the use of

which the Indians about Buenos Ayres are trained from their infancy,

and consequently are extremely expert. These particulars being in good

forwardness, the execution of their scheme was perhaps precipitated by

a particular outrage committed on Orellana himself. For one of the

officers, who was a very brutal fellow, ordered Orellana aloft, which

being what he was incapable of performing, the officer, under pretence

of his disobedience, beat him with such violence, that he left him

bleeding on the deck, and stupified for some time with his bruises and

wounds. This usage undoubtedly heightened his thirst for revenge, and

made him eager and impatient, till the means of executing it were in

his power; so that within a day or two after this incident, he and his

followers opened their desperate resolves in the ensuing manner.

It was about nine in the evening, when many of the principal officers

were on the quarter-deck, indulging in the freshness of the night air;

the waste of the ship was filled {36} with live cattle, and the

forecastle was manned with its customary watch. Orellana and his

companions, under cover of the night, having prepared their weapons,

and thrown off their trousers and the more cumbrous part of their

dress, came all together on the quarter-deck, and drew towards the door

of the great cabin. The boatswain immediately reprimanded them and

ordered them to be gone. On this Orellana spoke to his followers in

his native language, when four of them drew off, two towards each

gangway, and the chief and the six remaining Indians seemed to be

slowly quitting the quarter-deck. When the detached Indians had taken

possession of the gangway, Orellana placed his hands hollow to his

mouth, and bellowed out the war-cry used by those savages, which is

said to be the harshest and most terrifying sound known in nature.

This hideous yell was the signal for beginning the massacre: For on

this they all drew their knives, and brandished their prepared

double-headed shot; and the six with their chief, which remained on the

quarter-deck, immediately fell on the Spaniards who were intermingled

with them, and laid near forty of them at their feet, of which above

twenty were killed on the spot, and the rest disabled. Many of the

officers, in the beginning of the tumult, pushed into the great cabin,

where they put out the lights, and barricadoed the door; whilst of the

others, who had avoided the first fury of the Indians, some endeavoured

to escape along the gangways into the forecastle, where the Indians,

placed on purpose, stabbed the greatest part of them, as they attempted

to pass by, or forced them off the gangways into the waste: some threw

themselves voluntarily over the barricadoes into the waste, and thought

themselves fortunate to lie concealed amongst the cattle. But the

greatest part escaped up the main shrouds, and sheltered themselves

either in the tops or rigging. And though the Indians attacked only

the quarter-deck, yet the watch in the forecastle finding their

communication cut off, and being terrified by the wounds of the few,

who, not being killed on the spot, had strength sufficient to force

their passage, and not knowing either who their enemies were, or what

were their numbers, they likewise gave all over for lost, and in great

confusion ran up into the rigging of the foremast and bowsprit.

Thus these eleven Indians, with a resolution perhaps without example,

possessed themselves almost in an instant {37} of the quarter-deck of a

ship mounting sixty-six guns, and mann'd with near five hundred hands,

and continued in peaceable possession of this post a considerable time.

For the officers in the great cabbin (amongst whom were Pizarro and

Mindinuetta), the crew between decks, and those who had escaped into

the tops and rigging, were only anxious for their own safety, and were

for a long time incapable of forming any project for suppressing the

insurrection, and recovering the possession of the ship. It is true,

the yells of the Indians, the groans of the wounded, and the confused

clamours of the crew, all heightened by the obscurity of the night, had

at first greatly magnified their danger, and had filled them with the

imaginary terrors, which darkness, disorder, and an ignorance of the

real strength of an enemy never fail to produce. For as the Spaniards

were sensible of the disaffection of their prest hands, and were also

conscious of their barbarity to their prisoners, they imagined the

conspiracy was general, and considered their own destruction as

infallible; so that, it is said, some of them had once taken the

resolution of leaping into the sea, but were prevented by their

companions.

However, when the Indians had entirely cleared the quarter-deck, the

tumult in a great measure subsided, for those who had escaped were kept

silent by their fears, and the Indians were incapable of pursuing them

to renew the disorder. Orellana, when he saw himself master of the

quarter-deck, broke open the arm chest, which, on a slight suspicion of

mutiny, had been ordered there a few days before, as to a place of the

greatest security. Here he took it for granted he should find

cutlasses sufficient for himself and his companions, in the use of

which weapon they were all extremely skilful, and with these, it was

imagined, they proposed to have forced the great cabbin. But on

opening the chest, there appeared nothing but fire-arms, which to them

were of no use. There were indeed cutlasses in the chest, but they

were hid by the fire-arms being laid over them. This was a sensible

disappointment to them, and by this time Pizarro and his companions in

the great cabbin were capable of conversing aloud through the cabbin

windows and port-holes with those in the gun-room and between decks,

and from thence they learnt that the English (whom they principally

suspected) were all safe below, and had not {38} intermeddled in this

mutiny; and by other particulars they at last discovered that none were

concerned in it but Orellana and his people. On this Pizarro and the

officers resolved to attack them on the quarter-deck, before any of the

discontented on board should so far recover their first surprize, as to

reflect on the facility and certainty of seizing the ship by a junction

with the Indians in the present emergency. With this view Pizarro got

together what arms were in the cabbin, and distributed them to those

who were with him. But there were no other fire-arms to be met with

but pistols, and for these they had neither powder nor ball. However,

having now settled a correspondence with the gun-room, they lowered

down a bucket out of the cabbin window, into which the gunner, out of

one of the gun-room ports, put a quantity of pistol-cartridges. When

they had thus procured ammunition, and had loaded their pistols, they

set the cabbin door partly open, and fired several shots amongst the

Indians on the quarter-deck, though at first without effect. But at

last Mindinuetta, whom we have often mentioned, had the good fortune to

shoot Orellona dead on the spot; on which his faithful companions,

abandoning all thoughts of farther resistance, instantly leaped into

the sea, where they every man perished. Thus was this insurrection

quelled, and the possession of the quarter-deck regained, after it had

been full two hours in the power of this great and daring chief, and

his gallant unhappy countrymen.

Pizarro having escaped this imminent peril, steered for Europe, and

arrived safe on the coast of Gallicia, in the beginning of the year

1746, after having been absent between four and five years, and having,

by his attendance on our expedition, diminished the naval power of

Spain by above three thousand hands (the flower of their sailors), and

by four considerable ships of war and a patache. For we have seen that

the _Hermiona_ foundered at sea; the _Guipuscoa_ was stranded, and sunk

on the coast of Brazil; the _St. Estevan_ was condemned, and broke up

in the river of Plate; and the _Esperanza_, being left in the South

Seas, is doubtless by this time incapable of returning to Spain. So

that the _Asia_, only, with less than one hundred hands, may be

regarded as all the remains of that squadron with which Pizarro first

put to sea. And whoever considers the very large proportion, which

this squadron bore to the whole navy of Spain, will, I believe, {39}

confess, that, had our undertaking been attended with no other

advantages than that of ruining so great a part of the sea force of so

dangerous an enemy, this alone would be a sufficient equivalent for our

equipment, and an incontestable proof of the service which the nation

has thence received. Having thus concluded this summary of Pizarro's

adventures, I shall now return again to the narration of our own

transactions.

{40}

CHAPTER IV

FROM MADERA TO ST. CATHERINE'S

I have already mentioned, that on the 3d of November we weighed from

Madera, after orders had been given to the captains to rendezvous at

St. Jago, one of the Cape de Verd Islands, in case the squadron was

separated. But the next day, when we were got to sea, the commodore

considering that the season was far advanced, and that touching at St.

Jago would create a new delay, he for this reason thought proper to

alter his rendezvous, and to appoint the island of St. Catherine's, on

the coast of Brazil, to be the first place to which the ships of the

squadron were to repair in case of separation.

In our passage to the island of St. Catherine's, we found the direction

of the trade-winds to differ considerably from what we had reason to

expect, both from the general histories given of these winds, and the

experience of former navigators. For the learned Dr. Halley, in his

account of the trade-winds which take place in the Ethiopia and

Atlantic Ocean, tells us that from the latitude of 28° N., to the

latitude of 10° N., there is generally a fresh gale of N.E. wind, which

towards the African side rarely comes to the eastward of E.N.E., or

passes to the northward of N.N.E.; but on the American side the wind is

somewhat more easterly, though most commonly even there it is a point

or two to the northward of the east. That from 10° N. to 4° N., the

calms and tornadoes take place; and from 4° N. to 30° S., the winds are

generally and perpetually between the south and the east. This account

we expected to have verified by our own experience; but we found

considerable variations from it, both in respect to the steadiness of

the winds, and the quarter from whence they blew. For though we met

with a N.E. wind about the latitude of 28° N., yet from the latitude of

25° to the latitude of 18° N., the wind was never once to the northward

of the east, but, on the contrary, almost constantly to the southward

of it. However, from thence to the latitude {41} of 6° 20' N., we had

it usually to the northward of the east, though not entirely, it having

for a short time changed to E.S.E. From hence, to about 4° 46' N., the

weather was very unsettled; sometimes the wind was N.E. then changed to

S.E., and sometimes we had a dead calm attended with small rain and

lightning. After this, the wind continued almost invariably between

the S. and E., to the latitude of 7° 30' S.; and then again as

invariably between the N. and E., to the latitude of 15° 30' S.; then

E. and S.E., to 21° 37' S. But after this, even to the latitude of 27°

44' S., the wind was never once between the S. and the E., though we

had it at all times in all the other quarters of the compass. But this

last circumstance may be in some measure accounted for from our

approach to the main continent of the Brazils. I mention not these

particulars with a view of cavilling at the received accounts of these

trade-winds, which I doubt not are in general sufficiently accurate;

but I thought it a matter worthy of public notice that such deviations

from the established rules do sometimes take place. Besides, this

observation may not only be of service to navigators, by putting them

on their guard against these hitherto unexpected irregularities, but is

a circumstance necessary to be attended to in the solution of that

great question about the causes of trade-winds, and monsoons, a

question which, in my opinion, has not been hitherto discussed with

that clearness and accuracy which its importance (whether it be

considered as a naval or philosophical inquiry) seems to demand.

On the 16th of November, one of our victuallers made a signal to speak

with the commodore, and we shortened sail for her to come up with us.

The master came on board, and acquainted Mr. Anson that he had complied

with the terms of his charter-party, and desired to be unloaded and

dismissed. Mr. Anson, on consulting the captains of the squadron,

found all the ships had still such quantities of provision between

their decks, and were withal so deep, that they could not, without

great difficulty, take in their several proportions of brandy from the

_Industry_ pink, one of the victuallers only: consequently he was

obliged to continue the other of them, the _Anna_ pink, in the service

of attending the squadron. This being resolved on, the commodore the

next day made a signal for the ships to bring to, and to take on board

their shares of the brandy from the _Industry_ pink; and in this the

long {42} boats of the squadron were employed the three following days,

that is, till the 19th in the evening, when the pink being unloaded,

she parted company with us, being bound for Barbadoes, there to take in

a freight for England. Most of the officers of the squadron took the

opportunity of writing to their friends at home by this ship; but she

was afterwards, as I have been since informed, unhappily taken by the

Spaniards.

On the 20th of November, the captains of the squadron represented to

the commodore that their ships' companies were very sickly, and that it

was their own opinion, as well as their surgeons', that it would tend

to the preservation of the men to let in more air between decks, but

that their ships were so deep they could not possibly open their lower

ports. On this representation, the commodore ordered six air scuttles

to be cut in each ship, in such places where they would least weaken it.

And on this occasion I cannot but observe, how much it is the duty of

all those who either by office or authority have any influence in the

direction of our naval affairs, to attend to this important article,

the preservation of the lives and health of our seamen. If it could be

supposed that the motives of humanity were insufficient for this

purpose, yet policy, and a regard to the success of our arms, and the

interest and honour of each particular commander, should naturally lead

us to a careful and impartial examination of every probable method

proposed for maintaining a ship's crew in health and vigour. But hath

this been always done? Have the late invented plain and obvious

methods of keeping our ships sweet and clean by a constant supply of

fresh air been considered with that candour and temper which the great

benefits promised hereby ought naturally to have inspired? On the

contrary, have not these salutary schemes been often treated with

neglect and contempt? And have not some of those who have been

entrusted with experimenting their effects, been guilty of the most

indefensible partiality in the accounts they have given of these

trials? Indeed, it must be confessed that many distinguished persons,

both in the direction and command of our fleets, have exerted

themselves on these occasions with a judicious and dispassionate

examination becoming the interesting nature of the inquiry; but the

wonder is, that any could be found irrational enough {43} to act a

contrary part in despight of the strongest dictates of prudence and

humanity. I must, however, own that I do not believe this conduct to

have arisen from motive so savage as the first reflection thereon does

naturally suggest: but I rather impute it to an obstinate, and in some

degree, superstitious attachment to such practices as have been long

established, and to a settled contempt and hatred of all kinds of

innovations, especial such as are projected by landmen and persons

residing on shore. But let us return from this, I hope not,

impertinent digression.

We crossed the equinoxial with a fine fresh gale at S.E. on Friday the

28th of November, at four in the morning, being then in the longitude

of 27° 59' west from London. And on the 2d of December, in the

morning, we saw a sail in the N.W. quarter, and made the _Gloucester's_

and _Tryal's_ signals to chace, and half an hour after we let out our

reefs and chased with the squadron; and about noon a signal was made

for the _Wager_ to take our remaining victualler, the _Anna_ pink, in

tow. But at seven in the evening, finding we did not near the chace,

and that the _Wager_ was very far astern, we shortened sail, and made a

signal for the cruizers to join the squadron. The next day but one we

again discovered a sail, which on a nearer approach we judged to be the

same vessel. We chased her the whole day, and though we rather gained

upon her, yet night came on before we could overtake her, which obliged

us to give over the chace, to collect our scattered squadron. We were

much chagrined at the escape of this vessel, as we then apprehended her

to be an advice-boat sent from Old Spain to Buenos Ayres with notice of

our expedition. But we have since learnt that we were deceived in this

conjecture, and that it was our East India Company's packet bound to

St. Helena.

On the 10th of December, being by our accounts in the latitude of 20°

S., and 36° 30' longitude west from London, the _Tryal_ fired a gun to

denote soundings. We immediately sounded, and found sixty fathom

water, the bottom coarse ground with broken shells. The _Tryal_ being

ahead of us, had at one time thirty-seven fathom, which afterwards

increased to ninety: and then she found no bottom, which happened to us

too at our second trial, though we sounded with a hundred and fifty

fathom of line. This is the shoal which is laid down in most charts by

the name of the Abrollos; and it appeared {44} we were upon the very

edge of it; perhaps farther in it may be extremely dangerous. We were

then, by our different accounts, from ninety to sixty leagues east of

the coast of Brazil. The next day but one we spoke with a Portuguese

brigantine from Rio Janeiro, bound to Bahia del todos Santos, who

informed us that we were thirty-four leagues from Cape St. Thomas, and

forty leagues from Cape Frio, which last bore from us W.S.W. By our

accounts we were near eighty leagues from Cape Frio; and though on the

information of this brigantine we altered our course and stood more to

the southward, yet by our coming in with the land afterwards, we were

fully convinced that our reckoning was much correcter than our

Portuguese intelligence. We found a considerable current setting to

the southward after we had passed the latitude of 16° S. And the same

took place all along the coast of Brazil, and even to the southward of

the river of Plate, it amounting sometimes to thirty miles in

twenty-four hours, and once to above forty miles.

If this current is occasioned (as it is most probable) by the running

off of the water accumulated on the coast of Brazil by the constant

sweeping of the eastern trade-wind over the Ethiopic Ocean, then it is

most natural to suppose that its general course is determined by the

bearings of the adjacent shore. Perhaps too, in almost every other

instance of currents, the same may hold true, as I believe no examples

occur of considerable currents being observed at any great distance

from land. If this then could be laid down for a general principle, it

would be always easy to correct the reckoning by the observed latitude.

But it were much to be wished, for the general interests of navigation,

that the actual settings of the different currents which are known to

take place in various parts of the world were examined more frequently

and accurately than hitherto appears to have been done.

We now began to grow impatient for a sight of land, both for the

recovery of our sick, and for the refreshment and security of those who

as yet continued healthy. When we departed from St. Helens, we were in

so good a condition that we lost but two men on board the _Centurion_

in our long passage to Madera. But in this present run between Madera

and St. Catherine's we were remarkably sickly, so that many died, and

great numbers were confined to their hammocks, {45} both in our own

ship, and in the rest of the squadron, and several of these past all

hopes of recovery. The disorders they in general laboured under were

such as are common to the hot climates, and what most ships bound to

the southward experience in a greater or less degree. These are those

kind of fevers which they usually call calentures: a disease which was

not only terrible in its first instance, but even the remains of it

often proved fatal to those who considered themselves as recovered from

it; for it always left them in a very weak and helpless condition, and

usually afflicted either with fluxes or tenesmus's. By our continuance

at sea all these complaints were every day increasing, so that it was

with great joy we discovered the coast of Brazil on the 16th of

December, at seven in the morning.

The coast of Brazil appeared high and mountainous land, extending from

W. to W.S.W., and when we first saw it, it was about seventeen leagues

distant. At noon we perceived a low double land bearing W.S.W. about

ten leagues distant, which we took to be the island of St. Catherine's.

That afternoon and the next morning, the wind being N.N.W., we gained

very little to windward, and were apprehensive of being driven to the

leeward of the island; but a little before noon the next day the wind

came about to the southward, and enabled us to steer in between the

north point of St. Catherine's and the neighbouring island of Alvoredo.

As we stood in for the land, we had regular soundings, gradually

decreasing from thirty-six to twelve fathom, all muddy ground. In this

last depth of water we let go our anchor at five o'clock in the evening

of the 18th, the north-west point of the island of St. Catherine's

bearing S.S.W., distant three miles; and the island Alvoredo N.N.E.,

distant two leagues. Here we found the tide to set S.S.E. and N.N.W.,

at the rate of two knots, the tide of flood coming from the southward.

We could from our ships observe two fortifications at a considerable

distance within us, which seemed designed to prevent the passage of an

enemy between the island of St. Catherine's and the main. And we could

soon perceive that our squadron had alarmed the coast, for we saw the

two forts hoist their colours and fire several guns, which we supposed

were signals for assembling the inhabitants. To prevent any confusion,

the commodore immediately sent a boat with an officer on shore to

compliment the governor, and to {46} desire a pilot to carry us into

the road. The governor returned a very civil answer, and ordered us a

pilot. On the morning of the 20th we weighed and stood in, and towards

noon the pilot came on board us, who, the same afternoon, brought us to

an anchor in five fathom and an half, in a large commodious bay on the

continent side, called by the French Bon Port. In standing from our

last anchorage to this place we everywhere found an ouzy bottom, with a

depth of water first regularly decreasing to five fathom, and then

increasing to seven, after which we had six and five fathom

alternately. The next morning we weighed again with the squadron, in

order to run above the two fortifications we have mentioned, which are

called the castles of Santa Cruiz and St. Juan. Our soundings now

between the island and the main were four, five, and six fathom, with

muddy ground. As we passed by the castle of Santa Cruiz, we saluted it

with eleven guns, and were answered by an equal number; and at one in

the afternoon the squadron came to an anchor in five fathom and a half,

the governor's island bearing N.N.W., St. Juan's Castle N.E.½E., and

the island of St. Antonio south. In this position we moored at the

island of St. Catherine's on Sunday the 21st of December, the whole

squadron being, as I have already mentioned, sickly, and in great want

of refreshments; both which inconveniencies we hoped to have soon

removed at this settlement, celebrated by former navigators for its

healthiness, and the plenty of its provisions, and for the freedom,

indulgence, and friendly assistance there given to the ships of all

European nations in amity with the crown of Portugal.

{47}

CHAPTER V

PROCEEDINGS AT ST. CATHERINE'S, AND A DESCRIPTION OF THE PLACE, WITH A

SHORT ACCOUNT OF BRAZIL

Our first care, after having moored our ships, was to get our sick men

on shore, preparatory to which, each ship was ordered by the commodore

to erect two tents: one of them for the reception of the diseased, and

the other for the accommodation of the surgeon and his assistants. We

sent about eighty sick from the _Centurion_; and the other ships, I

believe, sent nearly as many, in proportion to the number of their

hands. As soon as we had performed this necessary duty, we scraped our

decks, and gave our ship a thorough cleansing: then smoked it between

decks, and after all washed every part well with vinegar. These

operations were extremely necessary for correcting the noisome stench

on board, and destroying the vermin; for from the number of our men,

and the heat of the climate, both these nusances had increased upon us

to a very loathsome degree; and besides being most intolerably

offensive, they were doubtless in some sort productive of the sickness

we had laboured under for a considerable time before our arrival at

this island.

Our next employment was wooding and watering our squadron, caulking our

ships' sides and decks, overhauling our rigging, and securing our masts

against the tempestuous weather we were, in all probability, to meet

with in our passage round Cape Horn in so advanced and inconvenient a

season. But before I engage in the particulars of these transactions,

it will not be improper to give some account of the present state of

this island of St. Catherine's, and of the neighbouring country, both

as the circumstances of this place are now greatly changed from what

they were in the time of former writers, and as these changes laid us

under many more difficulties and perplexities than we had reason to

expect, or than other British ships, hereafter bound to the South Seas,

may perhaps think it prudent to struggle with.

This island is esteemed by the natives to be nowhere above {48} two

leagues in breadth, though about nine in length; it lies in 49° 45' of

west longitude of London, and extends from the south latitude of 27°

35', to that of 28°. Although it be of a considerable height, yet it

is scarce discernible at the distance of ten leagues, being then

obscured under the continent of Brazil, whose mountains are exceeding

high; but on a nearer approach it is easy to be distinguished, and may

be readily known by a number of small islands lying at each end, and

scattered along the east side of it. Frezier has given a draught of

the island of St. Catherine's, and of the neighbouring coast, and the

minuter isles adjacent; but he has, by mistake, called the island of

Alvoredo the Isle de Gal, whereas the true Isle de Gal lies seven or

eight miles to the north-westward of it, and is much smaller. He has

also called an island to the southward of St. Catherine's Alvoredo, and

has omitted the island Masaqura; in other respects his plan is

sufficiently exact.

The north entrance of the harbour is in breadth about five miles, and

the distance from thence to the island of St. Antonio is eight miles,

and the course from the entrance to St. Antonio is S.S.W.½W. About the

middle of the island the harbour is contracted by two points of land to

a narrow channel no more than a quarter of a mile broad; and to defend

this passage, a battery was erecting on the point of land on the island

side. But this seems to be a very useless work, as the channel has no

more than two fathom water, and consequently is navigable only for

barks and boats, and therefore seems to be a passage that an enemy

could have no inducement to attempt, especially as the common passage

at the north end of the island is so broad and safe that no squadron

can be prevented from coming in by any of their fortifications when the

sea breeze is made. However, the Brigadier Don Jose Sylva de Paz, the

governor of this settlement, is deemed an expert engineer, and he

doubtless understands 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 the battery mentioned above,

there are three other forts carrying on for the defence of the harbour,

none of which are yet compleated. The first of these, called St. Juan,

is built on a point of St. Catherine's, near Parrot Island; the second,

in form of a half-moon, is on the island of St. Antonio; and the third,

which {49} seems to be the chief, and has some appearance of a regular

fortification, is on an island near the continent, where the governor

resides.

The soil of the island is truly luxuriant, producing fruits of many

kinds spontaneously; and the ground is covered over with one continued

forest of trees of a perpetual verdure, which, from the exuberance of

the soil, are so entangled with briars, thorns, and underwood, as to

form a thicket absolutely impenetrable, except by some narrow pathways

which the inhabitants have made for their own convenience. These, with

a few spots cleared for plantations along the shore facing the

continent, are the only uncovered parts of the island. The woods are

extremely fragrant, from the many aromatic trees and shrubs with which

they abound, and the fruits and vegetables of all climates thrive here,

almost without culture, and are to be procured in great plenty, so that

here is no want of pine-apples, peaches, grapes, oranges, lemons,

citrons, melons, apricots, nor plantains. There are besides great

abundance of two other productions of no small consideration for a

sea-store, I mean onions and potatoes. The flesh provisions are,

however, much inferior to the vegetables. There are indeed small wild

cattle to be purchased, somewhat like buffaloes, but these are very

indifferent food, their flesh being of a loose contexture, and

generally of a disagreeable flavour, which is probably owing to the

wild calabash on which they feed. There are likewise great plenty of

pheasants, but they are not to be compared in taste to those we have in

England. The other provisions of the place are monkeys, parrots, and,

above all, fish of various sorts; these abound in the harbour, are

exceeding good, and are easily catched, for there are a great number of

small sandy bays very convenient for haling the Seyne.

The water both on the island and the opposite continent is excellent,

and preserves at sea as well as that of the Thames. For after it has

been in the cask a day or two it begins to purge itself, and stinks

most intolerably, and is soon covered over with a green scum. But

this, in a few days, subsides to the bottom, and leaves the water as

clear as chrystal, and perfectly sweet. The French (who, during their

South Sea trade in Queen Anne's reign, first brought this place into

repute) usually wooded and watered in Bon Port, on the continent side,

where they anchored with great safety in six {50} fathom water; and

this is doubtless the most commodious road for such ships as intend to

make only a short stay. But we watered on the St. Catherine's side, at

a plantation opposite the island of St. Antonio.

These are the advantages of this island of St. Catherine's; but there

are many inconveniencies attending it, partly from its climate, but

more from its new regulations, and the late form of government

established there. With regard to the climate, it must be remembered

that the woods and hills which surround the harbour prevent a free

circulation of the air. And the vigorous vegetation which constantly

takes place there, furnishes such a prodigious quantity of vapour that

all the night, and great part of the morning, a thick fog covers the

whole country, and continues till either the sun gathers strength to

dissipate it, or it is dispersed by a brisk sea-breeze. This renders

the place close and humid, and probably occasioned the many fevers and

fluxes we were there afflicted with. To these exceptions I must not

omit to add, that all the day we were pestered with great numbers of

muscatos, which are not much unlike the gnats in England, but more

venomous in their stings. And at sunset, when the muscatos retired,

they were succeeded by an infinity of sand-flies, which, though scarce

discernible to the naked eye, make a mighty buzzing, and, wherever they

bite, raise a small bump in the flesh which is soon attended with a

painful itching, like that arising from the bite of an English harvest

bug. But as the only light in which this place deserves our

consideration is its favourable situation for supplying and refreshing

our cruisers intended for the South Seas, in this view its greatest

inconveniences remain still to be related. And to do this more

distinctly, it will not be amiss to consider the changes which it has

lately undergone, both in its inhabitants, its police, and its governor.

In the time of Frezier and Shelvocke, this place served only as a

retreat to vagabonds and outlaws, who fled thither from all parts of

Brazil. They did indeed acknowledge a subjection to the crown of

Portugal, and had a person among them whom they called their captain,

who was considered in some sort as their governor; but both their

allegiance to their king, and their obedience to their captain, seemed

to be little more than verbal. For as they had plenty of provisions,

but no money, they were in a condition to support {51} themselves

without the assistance of any neighbouring settlements, and had not

amongst them the means of tempting any adjacent governor to busy his

authority about them. In this situation they were extremely hospitable

and friendly to such foreign ships as came amongst them. For these

ships wanting only provisions, of which the natives had great store;

and the natives wanting clothes (for they often despised money, and

refused to take it), which the ships furnished them with in exchange

for their provisions, both sides found their account in this traffick;

and their captain or governor had neither power nor interest to

restrain it, or to tax it. But of late (for reasons which shall be

hereafter mentioned) these honest vagabonds have been obliged to

receive amongst them a new colony, and to submit to new laws and new

forms of government. Instead of their former ragged bare-legged

captain (whom, however, they took care to keep innocent), they have now

the honour to be governed by Don Jose Sylva de Paz, a brigadier of the

armies of Portugal. This gentleman has with him a garrison of

soldiers, and has consequently a more extensive and a better supported

power than any of his predecessors; and as he wears better clothes, and

lives more splendidly, and has besides a much better knowledge of the

importance of money than they could ever pretend to, so he puts in

practice certain methods of procuring it, with which they were utterly

unacquainted. But it may be much doubted if the inhabitants consider

these methods as tending to promote either their interests or that of

their sovereign the King of Portugal. This is certain, that his

behaviour cannot but be extremely embarrassing to such British ships as

touch there in their way to the South Seas. For one of his practices

was placing centinels at all the avenues, to prevent the people from

selling us any refreshments, except at such exorbitant rates as we

could not afford to give. His pretence for this extraordinary stretch

of power was, that he was obliged to preserve their provisions for

upwards of an hundred families, which they daily expected to reinforce

their colony. Hence he appears to be no novice in his profession, by

his readiness at inventing a plausible pretence for his interested

management. However, this, though sufficiently provoking, was far from

being the most exceptionable part of his conduct. For by the

neighbourhood of the river Plate, a considerable smuggling traffick is

carried on between the Portuguese and {52} the Spaniards, especially in

the exchanging gold for silver, by which both princes are defrauded of

their fifths; and in this prohibited commerce, Don Jose was so deeply

engaged, that in order to ingratiate himself with his Spanish

correspondents (for no other reason can be given for his procedure) he

treacherously dispatched an express to Buenos Ayres, in the river of

Plate, where Pizarro then lay, with an account of our arrival, and of

the strength of our squadron; particularly mentioning the number of

ships, guns, and men, and every circumstance which he could suppose our

enemy desirous of being acquainted with. And the same perfidy every

British cruiser may expect who touches at St. Catherine's while it is

under the government of Don Jose Sylva de Paz.

Thus much, with what we shall be necessitated to relate in the course

of our own proceedings, may suffice as to the present state of St.

Catherine's, and the character of its governor. But as the reader may

be desirous of knowing to what causes the late new modelling of this

settlement is owing; to satisfy him in this particular, it will be

necessary to give a short account of the adjacent continent of Brazil,

and of the wonderful discoveries which have been made there within

these last forty years, which, from a country of but mean estimation,

has rendered it now perhaps the most considerable colony on the face of

the globe.

This country was first discovered by Americus Vesputio, a Florentine,

who had the good fortune to be honoured with giving his name to the

immense continent, some time before found out by Columbus. Vesputio

being in the service of the Portuguese, it was settled and planted by

that nation, and, with the other dominions of Portugal, devolved to the

crown of Spain when that kingdom became subject to it. During the long

war between Spain and the States of Holland, the Dutch possessed

themselves of the northermost part of Brazil, and were masters of it

for some years. But when the Portuguese revolted from the Spanish

Government, this country took part in the revolt, and soon re-possessed

themselves of the places the Dutch had taken; since which time it has

continued without interruption under the crown of Portugal, being, till

the beginning of the present century, only productive of sugar and

tobacco, and a few other commodities of very little account.

{53}

But this country, which for many years was only considered for the

produce of its plantations, has been lately discovered to abound with

the two minerals which mankind hold in the greatest esteem, and which

they exert their utmost art and industry in acquiring, I mean gold and

diamonds. Gold was first found in the mountains which lie adjacent to

the city of Rio Janeiro. The occasion of its discovery is variously

related, but the most common account is, that the Indians lying on the

back of the Portuguese settlements, were observed by the soldiers

employed in an expedition against them, to make use of this metal for

their fish-hooks, and their manner of procuring it being enquired into,

it appeared that great quantities of it were annually washed from the

hills, and left amongst the sand and gravel, which remained in the

vallies after the running off, or evaporation of the water. It is now

little more than forty years since any quantities of gold worth notice

have been imported to Europe from Brazil, but since that time the

annual imports from thence have been continually augmented by the

discovery of places in other provinces, where it is to be met with as

plentifully as at first about Rio Janeiro. And it is now said that

there is a small slender vein of it spread through all the country at

about twenty-four feet from the surface, but that this vein is too thin

and poor to answer the expence of digging; however, where the rivers or

rains have had any course for a considerable time, there gold is always

to be collected, the water having separated the metal from the earth,

and deposited it b the sands, thereby saving the expences of digging:

so that it is esteemed an infallible gain to be able to divert a stream

from its channel, and to ransack its bed. From this account of

gathering this metal, it should follow that there are properly no gold

mines in Brazil; and this the governor of Rio Grande (who being at St.

Catherine's, frequently visited Mr. Anson) did most confidently affirm,

assuring us that the gold was all collected either from rivers, or from

the beds of torrents after floods. It is indeed asserted, that in the

mountains large rocks are found abounding with this metal, and I myself

have seen the fragment of one of these rocks, with a considerable lump

of gold intangled in it; but even in this case the workmen break off

the rocks, and do not properly mine into them, and the great expence in

subsisting among these mountains, and afterwards in separating the

metal from the stone, makes {54} this method of procuring gold to be

but rarely put in practice.

The examining the bottoms of rivers and the gullies of torrents, and

the washing the gold found therein from the sand and dirt with which it

is always mixed, are works performed by slaves, who are principally

negroes, kept in great numbers by the Portuguese for these purposes.

The regulation of the duty of these slaves is singular, for they are

each of them obliged to furnish their master with the eighth part of an

ounce of gold per diem; and if they are either so fortunate or

industrious as to collect a greater quantity, the surplus is considered

as their own property, and they have the liberty of disposing of it as

they think fit. So that it is said, some negroes who have accidentally

fallen upon rich washing places have themselves purchased slaves, and

have lived afterwards in great splendour, their original master having

no other demand on them than the daily supply of the forementioned

eighth, which, as the Portuguese ounce is somewhat lighter than our

troy ounce, may amount to about nine shillings sterling.

The quantity of gold thus collected in the Brazils, and returned

annually to Lisbon, may be in some degree estimated from the amount of

the king's fifth. This hath of late been esteemed, one year with

another, to be one hundred and fifty arroves of 32 lb. Portuguese

weight each, which at £4 the troy ounce, makes very near £300,000

sterling, and consequently the capital, of which this is the fifth, is

about a million and a half sterling. It is obvious that the annual

return of gold to Lisbon cannot be less than this, though it be

difficult to determine how much it exceeds it; perhaps we may not be

very much mistaken in our conjecture, if we suppose the gold exchanged

for silver with the Spaniards at Buenos Ayres, and what is brought

privily to Europe and escapes the duty, amounts to near half a million

more, which will make the whole annual produce of the Brazilian gold

near two millions sterling, a prodigious sum to be found in a country

which a few years since was not known to furnish a single grain.

I have already mentioned that besides gold this country does likewise

produce diamonds. The discovery of these valuable stones is much more

recent than that of gold, it being as yet scarce 20 years since the

first were brought to Europe. They are found in the same manner as the

gold, {55} in the gullies of torrents and beds of rivers, but only in

particular places, and not so universally spread through the country.

They were often found in washing the gold before they were known to be

diamonds, and were consequently thrown away with the sand and gravel

separated from it; and it is very well remembered that numbers of very

large stones, which would have made the fortunes of the possessors,

have passed unregarded through the hands of those who now with

impatience support the mortifying reflection. However, about twenty

years since a person acquainted with the appearance of rough diamonds

conceived that these pebbles, as they were then esteemed, were of the

same kind: but it is said that there was a considerable interval

between the first starting of this opinion and the confirmation of it

by proper trials and examination, it proving difficult to persuade the

inhabitants that what they had been long accustomed to despise could be

of the importance represented by this discovery, and I have been

informed that in this interval a governor of one of their places

procured a good number of these stones, which he pretended to make use

of at cards to mark with instead of counters. But it was at last

confirmed by skilful jewellers in Europe, consulted on this occasion,

that the stones thus found in Brazil were truly diamonds, many of which

were not inferior, either in lustre, or any other quality, to those of

the East Indies. On this determination, the Portuguese, in the

neighbourhood of those places where they had first been observed, set

themselves to search for them with great assiduity. And they were not

without great hopes of discovering considerable masses of them, as they

found large rocks of chrystal in many of the mountains, from whence the

streams came which washed down the diamonds.

But it was soon represented to the King of Portugal that if such plenty

of diamonds should be met with, as their sanguine conjectures seemed to

indicate, this would so debase their value and diminish their

estimation, that besides ruining all the Europeans who had any quantity

of Indian diamonds in their possession, it would render the discovery

itself of no importance, and would prevent his majesty from receiving

any advantages from it, and on these considerations his majesty has

thought proper to restrain the general search of diamonds, and has

erected a diamond company for that {56} purpose, with an exclusive

charter. This company, in consideration of a sum paid to the king, is

vested with the property of all diamonds found in Brazil: but to hinder

their collecting too large quantities, and thereby reducing their

value, they are prohibited from employing above eight hundred slaves in

searching after them. And to prevent any of his other subjects from

acting the same part, and likewise to secure the company from being

defrauded by the interfering of interlopers in their trade and

property, he has depopulated a large town and a considerable district

round it, and has obliged the inhabitants, who are said to amount to

six thousand, to remove to another part of the country; for this town

being in the neighbourhood of the diamonds, it was thought impossible

to prevent such a number of people who were on the spot from frequently

smuggling.

In consequence of these important discoveries in Brazil, new laws, new

governments, and new regulations have been established in many parts of

the country. For not long since a considerable tract, possessed by a

set of inhabitants who from their principal settlement were called

Paulists, was almost independent of the crown of Portugal, to which it

scarcely acknowledged more than a nominal allegiance. These Paulists

are said to be descendants of those Portuguese who retired from the

northern part of Brazil when it was invaded and possessed by the Dutch.

As from the confusion of the times they were long neglected by their

superiors, and were obliged to provide for their own security and

defence, the necessity of their affairs produced a kind of government

amongst them which they found sufficient for the confined manner of

life to which they were inured. And being thus habituated to their own

regulations, they at length grew fond of their independency: so that

rejecting and despising the mandates of the court of Lisbon, they were

often engaged in a state of downright rebellion, and the mountains

surrounding their country, and the difficulty of clearing the few

passages that open into it, generally put it in their power to make

their own terms before they submitted. But as gold was found to abound

in this country of the Paulists, the present King of Portugal (during

whose reign almost the whole discoveries I have mentioned were begun

and compleated) thought it incumbent on him to reduce this province,

which now became of great consequence, to the {57} same dependency and

obedience with the rest of the country, which, I am told, he has at

last, though with great difficulty, happily effected. And the same

motives which induced his Majesty to undertake the reduction of the

Paulists has also occasioned the changes I have mentioned to have taken

place at the island of St. Catherine's. For the governor of Rio

Grande, of whom I have already spoken, assured us that in the

neighbourhood of this island there were considerable rivers which were

found to be extremely rich, and that this was the reason that a

garrison, a military governor, and a new colony was settled there. And

as the harbour at this island is by much the securest and the most

capacious of any on the coast, it is not improbable, if the riches of

the neighbourhood answer their expectation, but it may become in time

the principal settlement in Brazil, and the most considerable port in

all South America.

Thus much I have thought necessary to insert in relation to the present

state of Brazil, and of the island of St. Catherine's. For as this

last place has been generally recommended as the most eligible port for

our cruisers to refresh at, which are bound to the South Seas, I

believed it to be my duty to instruct my countrymen in the hitherto

unsuspected inconveniencies which attend that place; and as the

Brazilian gold and diamonds are subjects about which, from their

novelty, very few particulars have been hitherto published, I conceived

this account I had collected of them would appear to the reader to be

neither a trifling nor a useless digression. These subjects being thus

dispatched, I shall now return to the series of our own proceedings.

When we first arrived at St. Catherine's we were employed in refreshing

our sick on shore, in wooding and watering the squadron, cleansing our

ships, and examining and securing our masts and rigging, as I have

already observed in the foregoing chapter. At the same time Mr. Anson

gave directions that the ships' companies should be supplied with fresh

meat, and that they should be victualled with whole allowance of all

the kinds of provision. In consequence of these orders, we had fresh

beef sent on board us continually for our daily expence, and what was

wanting to make up our allowance we received from our victualler the

_Anna_ pink, in order to preserve the provisions on board our squadron

entire for our future service. The season of the year growing each day

{58} less favourable for our passage round Cape Horn, Mr. Anson was

very desirous of leaving this place as soon as possible, and we were at

first in hopes that our whole business would be done and we should be

in a readiness to sail in about a fortnight from our arrival; but, on

examining the _Tryal's_ masts, we, to our no small vexation, found

inevitable employment for twice that time. For, on a survey, it was

found that the main-mast was sprung at the upper woulding, though it

was thought capable of being secured by a couple of fishes; but the

fore-mast was reported to be unfit for service, and thereupon the

carpenters were sent into the woods to endeavour to find a stick proper

for a fore-mast. But after a search of four days they returned without

having been able to meet with any tree fit for the purpose. This

obliged them to come to a second consultation about the old fore-mast,

when it was agreed to endeavour to secure it by casing it with three

fishes, and in this work the carpenters were employed till within a day

or two of our sailing. In the meantime, the commodore, thinking it

necessary to have a clean vessel on our arrival in the South Seas,

ordered the _Tryal_ to be hove down, as this would not occasion any

loss of time, but might be compleated while the carpenters were

refitting her masts, which was done on shore.

On the 27th of December we discovered a sail in the offing, and not

knowing but she might be a Spaniard, the eighteen-oared boat was manned

and armed, and sent under the command of our second lieutenant, to

examine her before she arrived within the protection of the forts. She

proved to be a Portuguese brigantine from Rio Grande; and though our

officer, as it appeared on inquiry, had behaved with the utmost

civility to the master, and had refused to accept a calf which the

master would have forced on him as a present, yet the governor took

great offence at our sending our boat, and talked of it in a high

strain as a violation of the peace subsisting between the crowns of

Great Britain and Portugal. We at first imputed this ridiculous

blustering to no deeper a cause than Don Jose's insolence; but as we

found he proceeded so far as to charge our officer with behaving

rudely, and opening letters, and particularly with an attempt to take

out of the vessel by violence the very calf which we knew he had

refused to receive as a present (a circumstance which we were satisfied

the governor was well acquainted {59} with), we had thence reason to

suspect that he purposely sought this quarrel, and had more important

motives for engaging in it than the mere captious bias of his temper.

What these motives were it was not so easy for us to determine at that

time; but as we afterwards found by letters which fell into our hands

in the South Seas that he had dispatched an express to Buenos Ayres,

where Pizarro then lay, with an account of our squadron's arrival at

St. Catherine's, together with the most ample and circumstantial

intelligence of our force and condition, we thence conjectured that Don

Jose had raised this groundless clamour only to prevent our visiting

the brigantine when she should put to sea again, lest we might there

find proofs of his perfidious behaviour, and perhaps, at the same time,

discover the secret of his smuggling correspondence with his

neighbouring governors, and the Spaniards at Buenos Ayres. But to

proceed.

It was near a month before the _Tryal_ was refitted; for not only her

lower masts were defective, as hath been already mentioned, but her

main top-mast and fore-yard were likewise decayed and rotten. While

this work was carrying on, the other ships of the squadron fixed new

standing rigging, and set up a sufficient number of preventer shrouds

to each mast, to secure them in the most effectual manner. And in

order to render the ships stiffer and to enable them to carry more sail

abroad, and to prevent their straining their upper works in hard gales

of wind, each captain had orders given him to strike down some of their

great guns into the hold. These precautions being complied with, and

each ship having taken in as much wood and water as there was room for,

the _Tryal_ was at last compleated, and the whole squadron was ready

for the sea: on which the tents on shore were struck, and all the sick

were received on board. And here we 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

twenty-eight men since our arrival, yet the number of her sick was in

the same interval increased from eighty to ninety-six. When our crews

were embarked, and everything was prepared for our departure, the

commodore made a signal for all captains, and delivered them their

orders, containing the successive place of rendezvous from hence to the

coast of China. And {60} then, on the next day, being the 18th of

January, the signal was made for weighing, and the squadron put to sea,

leaving without regret this island of St. Catherine's, where we had

been so extremely disappointed in our refreshments, in our

accommodations, and in the humane and friendly offices which we had

been taught to expect in a place which hath been so much celebrated for

its hospitality, freedom, and conveniency.

{61}

CHAPTER VI

THE RUN FROM ST. CATHERINE'S TO PORT ST. JULIAN, WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF

THAT PORT, AND OF THE COUNTRY TO THE SOUTHWARD OF THE RIVER OF PLATE

In leaving St. Catherine's, we left the last amicable port we proposed

to touch at, and were now proceeding to an hostile, or at best, a

desart and inhospitable coast. And as we were to expect a more

boisterous climate to the southward than any we had yet experienced,

not only our danger of separation would by this means be much greater

than it had been hitherto, but other accidents of a more mischievous

nature were likewise to be apprehended, and as much as possible to be

provided against. Mr. Anson, therefore, in appointing the various

stations at which the ships of the squadron were to rendezvous, had

considered that it was possible his own ship might be disabled from

getting round Cape Horn, or might be lost, and had given proper

direction, that even in that case the expedition should not be

abandoned. For the orders delivered to the captains, the day before we

sailed from St. Catherine's, were, that in case of separation, which

they were with the utmost care to endeavour to avoid, the first place

of rendezvous should be the bay of port St. Julian; describing the

place from Sir John Narborough's account of it. There they were to

supply themselves with as much salt as they could take in, both for

their own use and for the use of the squadron; and if, after a stay of

ten days, they were not joined by the commodore, they were then to

proceed through Streights le Maire round Cape Horn into the South Seas,

where the next place of rendezvous was to be the island of Nostra

Senora del Socoro, in the latitude of 45° south, and longitude from the

Lizard 71° 12' west. They were to bring this island to bear E.N.E. and

to cruize from five to twelve leagues distance from it as long as their

store of wood and water would permit, both which they were to expend

with the utmost frugality. And when they were under an absolute

necessity of a fresh supply, they were to stand in, {62} and endeavour

to find out an anchoring place; and in case they could not, and the

weather made it dangerous to supply their ships by standing off and on,

they were then to make the best of their way to the island of Juan

Fernandes, in the latitude of 33° 37' south. At this island, as soon

as they had recruited their wood and water, they were to continue

cruizing off the anchoring place for fifty-six days; in which time, if

they were not joined by the commodore, they might conclude that some

accident had befallen him, and they were forthwith to put themselves

under the command of the senior officer, who was to use his utmost

endeavours to annoy the enemy both by sea and land. With these views

their new commodore was to continue in those seas as long as his

provisions lasted, or as long as they were recruited by what he should

take from the enemy, reserving only a sufficient quantity to carry him

and the ships under his command to Macao, at the entrance of the river

of Canton on the coast of China, where, having supplied himself with a

new stock of provisions, he was thence, without delay, to make the best

of his way to England. And as it was found impossible as yet to unload

our victualler, the _Anna_ pink, the commodore gave the master of her

the same rendezvous, and the same orders to put himself under the

command of the remaining senior officer.

Under these orders the squadron sailed from St. Catherine's on Sunday

the 18th of January, as hath been already mentioned in the preceding

chapter. The next day we had very squally weather, attended with rain,

lightning, and thunder, but it soon became fair again with light

breezes, and continued thus till Wednesday evening, when it blew fresh

again; and increasing all night, by eight the next morning it became a

most violent storm, and we had with it so thick a fog, that it was

impossible to see the distance of two ships' length, so that the whole

squadron disappeared. On this a signal was made, by firing guns, to

bring to with the larboard tacks, the wind being then due east. We

ourselves immediately handed the top-sails, bunted the main-sail, and

lay to under a reefed mizen till noon, when the fog dispersed, and we

soon discovered all the ships of the squadron, except the _Pearl_, who

did not join us till near a month afterwards. Indeed the _Tryal_ sloop

was a great way to the leeward, having lost her main-mast in the

squall, and having been {63} obliged, for fear of bilging, to cut away

the raft. We therefore bore down with the squadron to her relief, and

the _Gloucester_ was ordered to take her in tow, for the weather did

not entirely abate till the day after, and even then a great swell

continued from the eastward in consequence of the preceding storm.

After this accident we stood to the southward with little interruption,

and here we experienced the same setting of the current which we had

observed before our arrival at St. Catherine's; that is, we generally

found ourselves to the southward of our reckoning by about twenty miles

each day. This deviation, with a little inequality, lasted till we had

passed the latitude of the river of Plate; and even then we discovered

that the same current, however difficult to be accounted for, did yet

undoubtedly take place; for we were not satisfied in deducing it from

the error in our reckoning, but we actually tried it more than once

when a calm made it practicable.

As soon as we had passed the latitude of the river of Plate, we had

soundings which continued all along the coast of Patagonia. These

soundings, when well ascertained, being of great use in determining the

position of the ships, and we having tried them more frequently, and in

greater depths, and with more attention than, I believe, hath been done

before us, I shall recite our observations as succinctly as I can. In

the latitude of 36° 52' we had sixty fathom of water, with a bottom of

fine black and grey sand; from thence to 39° 55' we varied our depths

from fifty to eighty fathom, though we had constantly the same bottom

as before; between the last mentioned latitude and 43° 16' we had only

fine grey sand, with the same variation of depths, except that we once

or twice lessened our water to forty fathom. After this, we continued

in forty fathom for about half a degree, having a bottom of coarse sand

and broken shells, at which time we were in sight of land, and not

above seven leagues from it. As we edged from the land, we met with

variety of soundings; first black sand, then muddy, and soon after

rough ground with stones; but when we had increased our water to

forty-eight fathom we had a muddy bottom to the latitude of 46° 10'.

Hence, drawing towards the shore, we had first thirty-six fathom, and

still kept shoaling our water, till at length we came into twelve

fathom, having {64} constantly small stones and pebbles at the bottom.

Part of this time we had a view of Cape Blanco, which lies in about the

latitude of 47° 10', and longitude west from London 69°. This is the

most remarkable land upon the coast. Steering from hence S. by E.

nearly, we, in a run of about thirty leagues, deepned our water to

fifty fathom without once altering the bottom: and then drawing towards

the shore with a S.W. course, varying rather to the westward, we had

constantly a sandy bottom till our coming into thirty fathom, where we

had again a sight of land distant from us about eight leagues lying in

the latitudes of 48° 31'. We made this land on the 17th of February,

and at five that afternoon we came to an anchor, having the same

soundings as before, in the latitude of 48° 58', the souther-most land

then in view bearing S.S.W., the northermost N.½E., a small island

N.W., and the westermost hummock W.S.W. In this station we found the

tide to set S. by W.; and weighing again at five the next morning, we

an hour afterwards discovered a sail, upon which the _Severn_ and

_Gloucester_ were both directed to give chase; but we soon perceived it

to be the _Pearl_, which separated from us a few days after we left St.

Catherine's, and on this we made a signal for the _Severn_ to rejoin

the squadron, leaving the _Gloucester_ alone in the pursuit. And now

we were surprised to see that on the _Gloucester's_ approach the people

on board the _Pearl_ increased their sail, and stood from her.

However, the _Gloucester_ came up with them, but found them with their

hammocks in their nettings, and every thing ready for an engagement.

At two in the afternoon the _Pearl_ joined us, and running up under our

stern, Lieutenant Salt haled the commodore, and acquainted him that

Captain Kidd died on the 31st of January. He likewise informed us that

he had seen five large ships the 10th instant, which he for some time

imagined to be our squadron: so that he suffered the commanding ship,

which wore a red broad pendant exactly resembling that of the commodore

at the main top-mast head, to come within gun-shot of him before he

discovered his mistake; but then, finding it not to be the _Centurion_,

he haled close upon the wind, and crowded from them with all his sail,

and standing cross a ripling, where they hesitated to follow him, he

happily escaped. He made them to be five Spanish men-of-war, one of

them exceedingly {65} like the _Gloucester_, which was the occasion of

his apprehensions when the _Gloucester_ chaced him. By their

appearance he thought they consisted of two ships of seventy guns, two

of fifty, and one of forty guns. It seems the whole squadron continued

in chace of him all that day, but at night, finding they could not get

near him, they gave over the chace, and directed their course to the

southward.

Had it not been for the necessity we were under of refitting the

_Tryal_, this piece of intelligence would have prevented our making any

stay at St. Julian's; but as it was impossible for that sloop to

proceed round the Cape in her present condition, some stay there was

inevitable, and therefore the same evening we came to an anchor again

in twenty-five fathom water; the bottom a mixture of mud and sand, and

the high hummock bearing S.W. by W. And weighing at nine in the

morning, we sent the two cutters belonging to the _Centurion_ and

_Severn_ in shore to discover the harbour of St. Julian, while the

ships kept standing along the coast, about the distance of a league

from the land. At six o'clock we anchored in the bay of St. Julian in

nineteen fathom, the bottom muddy ground with sand, the northermost

land in sight bearing N. and by E., the southermost S.-½E., and the

high hummock, to which Sir John Narborough formerly gave the name of

Wood's Mount, W.S.W. Soon after, the cutter returned on board, having

discovered the harbour, which did not appear to us in our situation,

the northermost point shutting in upon the southermost, and in

appearance closing the entrance.

Being come to an anchor in this bay of St. Julian, principally with a

view of refitting the _Tryal_, the carpenters were immediately employed

in that business, and continued so during our whole stay at the place.

The _Tryal's_ main-mast having been carried away about twelve feet

below the cap, they contrived to make the remaining part of the mast

serve again; and the _Wager_ was ordered to supply her with a spare

main top-mast, which the carpenters converted into a new fore-mast.

And I cannot help observing that this accident to the _Tryal's_ mast,

which gave us so much uneasiness at that time, on account of the delay

it occasioned, was, in all probability, the means of preserving the

sloop, and all her crew. For before this, her masts, how well soever

proportioned to a better climate, were much too lofty for these {66}

high southern latitudes, so that had they weathered the preceding

storm, it would have been impossible for them to have stood against

those seas and tempests we afterwards encountered in passing round Cape

Horn, and the loss of masts in that boisterous climate would scarcely

have been attended with less than the loss of the vessel and of every

man on board her, since it would have been impracticable for the other

ships to have given them any relief during the continuance of those

impetuous storms.

Whilst we stayed at this place, the commodore appointed the Honourable

Captain Murray to succeed to the _Pearl_, and Captain Cheap to the

_Wager_, and he promoted Mr. Charles Saunders, his first lieutenant, to

the command of the _Tryal_ sloop. But Captain Saunders lying

dangerously ill of a fever on board the _Centurion_, and it being the

opinion of the surgeons that the removing him on board his own ship in

his present condition might tend to the hazard of his life, Mr. Anson

gave an order to Mr. Saumarez, first lieutenant of the _Centurion_, to

act as master and commander of the _Tryal_ during the illness of

Captain Saunders.

Here the commodore, too, in order to ease the expedition of all

unnecessary expence, held a farther consultation with his captains

about unloading and discharging the _Anna_ pink; but they represented

to him that they were so far from being in a condition of taking any

part of her loading on board, that they had still great quantities of

provisions in the way of their guns between decks, and that their ships

were withal so very deep that they were not fit for action without

being cleared. This put the commodore under a necessity of retaining

the pink in the service; and as it was apprehended we should certainly

meet with the Spanish squadron in passing the Cape, Mr. Anson thought

it adviseable to give orders to the captains to put all their

provisions which were in the way of their guns on board the _Anna_

pink, and to remount such of their guns as had formerly, for the ease

of their ships, been ordered into the hold.

This bay of St. Julian, where we are now at anchor, being a convenient

rendezvous, in case of separation, for all cruizers bound to the

southward, and the whole coast of Patagonia, from the river of Plate to

the Streights of Magellan, lying nearly parallel to their usual route,

a short account of the singularity of this country, with a particular

{67} description of port St. Julian, may, perhaps, be neither

unacceptable to the curious, nor unworthy the attention of future

navigators, as some of them, by unforeseen accidents, may be obliged to

run in with the land, and to make some stay on this coast, in which

case the knowledge of the country, its produce and inhabitants, cannot

but be of the utmost consequence to them.

To begin then with the tract of country usually styled Patagonia. This

is the name often given to the southermost part of South America, which

is unpossessed by the Spaniards, extending from their settlements to

the Streights of Magellan. This country on the east side is extremely

remarkable for a peculiarity not to be paralleled in any other known

part of the globe, for though the whole territory to the northward of

the river of Plate is full of wood, and stored with immense quantities

of large timber trees, yet to the southward of the river no trees of

any kind are to be met with except a few peach trees, first planted and

cultivated by the Spaniards in the neighbourhood of Buenos Ayres. So

that on the whole eastern coast of Patagonia, extending near four

hundred leagues in length, and reaching as far back as any discoveries

have yet been made, no other wood has been found than a few

insignificant shrubs. Sir John Narborough in particular, who was sent

out by King Charles the Second expressly to examine this country and

the Streights of Magellan, and who, in pursuance of his orders,

wintered upon this coast in Port St. Julian and Port Desire, in the

year 1670; Sir John Narborough, I say, tells us that he never saw a

stick of wood in the country large enough to make the handle of an

hatchet.

But though the country be so destitute of wood, it abounds with

pasture. For the land appears in general to be made up of downs, of a

light dry gravelly soil, and produces great quantities of long coarse

grass, which grows in tufts, interspersed with large barren spots of

gravel between them. This grass, in many places, feeds immense herds

of cattle, for the Spaniards at Buenos Ayres having, soon after their

first settling there, brought over a few black cattle from Europe, they

have thriven prodigiously by the plenty of herbage which they

everywhere met with, and are now increased to that degree, and are

extended so far into different parts of Patagonia, that they are not

considered as private {68} property; but many thousands at a time are

slaughtered every year by the hunters, only for their hides and tallow.

The manner of killing these cattle, being a practice peculiar to that

part of the world, merits a more circumstantial description. The

hunters employed on this occasion, being all of them mounted on

horseback (and both the Spaniards and Indians in that part of the world

are usually most excellent horsemen), they arm themselves with a kind

of a spear, which, at its end, instead of a blade fixed in the same

line with the wood in the usual manner, has its blade fixed across.

With this instrument they ride at a beast, and surround him, when the

hunter that comes behind him hamstrings him, and as after this

operation the beast soon tumbles, without being able to raise himself

again, they leave him on the ground and pursue others, whom they serve

in the same manner. Sometimes there is a second party, who attend the

hunters to skin the cattle as they fall, but it is said that at other

times the hunters chuse to let them languish in torment till the next

day, from an opinion that the anguish, which the animal in the meantime

endures, may burst the lymphaticks, and thereby facilitate the

separation of the skin from the carcase; and though their priests have

loudly condemned this most barbarous practice, and have gone so far, if

my memory does not fail me, as to excommunicate those who follow it,

yet all their efforts to put an entire stop to it have hitherto proved

ineffectual.

Besides the numbers of cattle which are every year slaughtered for

their hides and tallow, in the manner already described, it is often

necessary for the uses of agriculture, and for other purposes, to take

them alive without wounding them. This is performed with a most

wonderful and almost incredible dexterity, and principally by the use

of a machine which the English who have resided at Buenos Ayres

generally denominate a lash. It is made of a thong of several fathoms

in length, and very strong, with a running noose at one end of it.

This the hunters (who in this case are also mounted on horseback) take

in their right hands, it being first properly coiled up, and having its

end opposite to the noose fastened to the saddle; and thus prepared

they ride at a herd of cattle. When they arrive within a certain

distance of a beast, they throw their thong at him with such exactness

that they never fail of fixing the noose about his {69} horns. The

beast, when he finds himself entangled, generally runs, but the horse,

being swifter, attends him, and prevents the thong from being too much

strained, till a second hunter, who follows the game, throws another

noose about one of its hind legs; and this being done, both horses (for

they are trained to this practice) instantly turn different ways, in

order to strain the two thongs in contrary directions, on which the

beast, by their opposite pulls, is presently overthrown, and then the

horses stop, keeping the thongs still upon the stretch. Being thus on

the ground, and incapable of resistance (for he is extended between the

two horses), the hunters alight, and secure him in such a manner that

they afterwards easily convey him to whatever place they please. They

in like manner noose horses, and, as it is said, even tigers; and

however strange this last circumstance may appear, there are not

wanting persons of credit who assert it. Indeed, it must be owned,

that the address both of the Spaniards and Indians in that part of the

world in the use of this lash or noose, and the certainty with which

they throw it, and fix it on any intended part of the beast at a

considerable distance, are matters only to be believed from the

repeated and concurrent testimony of all who have frequented that

country, and might reasonably be questioned, did it rely on a single

report, or had it been ever contradicted or denied by any one who had

resided at Buenos Ayres.

The cattle which are killed in the manner I have already observed are

slaughtered only for their hides and tallow, to which sometimes are

added their tongues, but the rest of their flesh is left to putrify, or

to be devoured by the birds and wild beasts. The greatest part of this

carrion falls to the share of the wild dogs, of which there are immense

numbers to be found in that country.

These are supposed to have been originally produced by Spanish dogs

from Buenos Ayres, who, allured by the great quantity of carrion, and

the facility they had by that means of subsisting, left their masters,

and ran wild amongst the cattle; for they are plainly of the breed of

European dogs, an animal not originally found in America. But though

these dogs are said to be some thousands in a company, they hitherto

neither diminish nor prevent the increase of the cattle, not daring to

attack the herds, by reason of the numbers, which constantly feed

together; but contenting {70} themselves with the carrion left them by

the hunters, and perhaps now and then with a few stragglers, who, by

accidents, are separated from the main body they belong to.

Besides the wild cattle which have spread themselves in such vast herds

from Buenos Ayres towards the southward, the same country is in like

manner furnished with horses. These too were first brought from Spain,

and are also prodigiously increased, and run wild to a much greater

distance than the black cattle; and though many of them are excellent,

yet their number makes them of very little value, the best of them

being often sold in the neighbouring settlements, where money is plenty

and commodities very dear, for not more than a dollar a-piece. It is

not as yet certain how far to the southward these herds of wild cattle

and horses have extended themselves, but there is some reason to

conjecture that stragglers of both kinds are to be met with very near

the Streights of Magellan; and they will in time doubtless fill all the

southern part of this continent with their breed, which cannot fail of

proving of considerable advantage to such ships as may touch upon the

coast, for the horses themselves are said to be very good eating, and,

as such, are preferred by some of the Indians even before the black

cattle. But whatever plenty of flesh provisions may be hereafter found

here, there is one material refreshment which this eastern side of

Patagonia seems to be very defective in, and that is fresh water, for

the land being generally of a nitrous and saline nature, the ponds and

streams are frequently brackish. However, as good water has been found

there, though in small quantities, it is not improbable, but on a

further search, this inconvenience may be removed.

To the account already given, I must add that there are in all parts of

this country a good number of vicunnas or Peruvian sheep; but these, by

reason of their shyness and swiftness, are killed with difficulty. On

the eastern coast, too, there are found immense quantities of seals,

and a vast variety of sea-fowl, amongst which the most remarkable are

the penguins. They are in size and shape like a goose, but instead of

wings, they have short stumps like fins, which are of no use to them,

except in the water. Their bills are narrow, like that of an

albitross, and they stand and walk in an erect posture. From this and

their white bellies, Sir John {71} Narborough has whimsically likened

them to little children standing up in white aprons.

The inhabitants of this eastern coast (to which I have all along

hitherto confined my relation) appear to be but few, and have rarely

been seen more than two or three at a time by any ships that have

touched here. We, during our stay at the port of St. Julian, saw none.

However, towards Buenos Ayres they are sufficiently numerous, and

oftentimes very troublesome to the Spaniards, but there the greater

breadth and variety of the country, and a milder climate, yield them a

better protection, for in that place the continent is between three and

four hundred leagues in breadth, whereas at Port St. Julian it is

little more than a hundred; so that I conceive the same Indians who

frequent the western coast of Patagonia and the Streights of Magellan

often ramble to this side. As the Indians near Buenos Ayres exceed

these southern Indians in number, so they greatly surpass them in

activity and spirit, and seem in their manners to be nearly allied to

those gallant Chilian Indians who have long set the whole Spanish power

at defiance, have often ravaged their country, and remain to this hour

independent. For the Indians about Buenos Ayres have learnt to be

excellent horsemen, and are extremely expert in the management of all

cutting weapons, though ignorant of the use of firearms, which the

Spaniards are very solicitous to keep out of their hands. And of the

vigour and resolution of these Indians, the behaviour of Orellana and

his followers, whom we have formerly mentioned, is a memorable

instance. Indeed were we disposed to aim at the utter subversion of

the Spanish power in America, no means seem more probable to effect it

than due encouragement and assistance given to these Indians and those

of Chili.

Thus much may suffice in relation to the eastern coast of Patagonia.

The western coast is of less extent, and by reason of the Andes which

skirt it, and stretch quite down to the water, is a very rocky and

dangerous shore. However, I shall be hereafter necessitated to make

further mention of it, and therefore shall not enlarge thereon at this

time, but shall conclude this account with a short description of the

harbour of St. Julian.

We, on our first arrival here, sent an officer on shore to the salt

pond in order to procure a quantity of salt for the {72} use of the

squadron, Sir John Narborough having observed when he was here that the

salt produced in that place was very white and good, and that in

February there was enough of it to fill a thousand ships; but our

officer returned with a sample which was very bad, and he told us that

even of this there was but little to be got. I suppose the weather had

been more rainy than ordinary, and had destroyed it.

{73}

CHAPTER VII

DEPARTURE FROM THE BAY OF ST. JULIAN, AND THE PASSAGE FROM THENCE TO

STREIGHTS LE MAIRE

The _Tryal_ being nearly refitted, which was our principal occupation

at this bay of St. Julian, and the sole occasion of our stay, the

commodore thought it necessary, as we were now directly bound for the

South Seas and the enemy's coasts, to fix the plan of his first

operations; and, therefore, on the 24th of February, a signal was made

for all captains, and a council of war was held on board the

_Centurion_, at which were present the Honourable Edward Legg, Captain

Matthew Mitchell, the Honourable George Murray, Captain David Cheap,

together with Colonel Mordaunt Cracherode, commander of the

land-forces. At this council Mr. Anson proposed that their first

attempt, after their arrival in the South Seas, should be the attack of

the town and harbour of Baldivia, the principal frontier of the

district of Chili; Mr. Anson informing them, at the same time, that it

was an article contained in his Majesty's instructions to him to

endeavour to secure some port in the South Seas where the ships of the

squadron might be careened and refitted. To this proposition made by

the commodore, the council unanimously and readily agreed, and, in

consequence of this resolution, new instructions were given to the

captains of the squadron, by which, though they were still directed, in

case of separation, to make the best of their way to the island of

Nuestra Senora del Socoro (yet notwithstanding the orders they had

formerly given them at St. Catherine's) they were to cruise off that

island only ten days; from whence, if not joined by the commodore, they

were to proceed and cruise off the harbour of Baldivia, making the land

between the latitudes of 40° and 40° 30', and taking care to keep to

the southward of the port; and if in fourteen days they were not joined

by the rest of the squadron, they were then to quit this station, and

to direct their course to the island of Juan Fernandes, after which

they were to {74} regulate their further proceedings by their former

orders. The same directions were also given to the master of the

_Anna_ pink, who was not to fail in answering the signals made by any

ship of the squadron, and was to be very careful to destroy his papers

and orders if he should be so unfortunate as to fall into the hands of

the enemy. And as the separation of the squadron might prove of the

utmost prejudice to his Majesty's service, each captain was ordered to

give it in charge to the respective officers of the watch not to keep

their ship at a greater distance from the _Centurion_ than two miles,

as they would answer it at their peril; and if any captain should find

his ship beyond the distance specified, he was to acquaint the

commodore with the name of the officer who had thus neglected his duty.

These necessary regulations being established, and the _Tryal_ sloop

compleated, the squadron weighed on Friday the 27th of February, at

seven in the morning, and stood to the sea; the _Gloucester_ indeed

found a difficulty in purchasing her anchor, and was left a

considerable way a-stern, so that in the night we fired several guns as

a signal to her captain to make sail, but he did not come up to us till

the next morning, when we found that they had been obliged to cut their

cable, and leave their best bower behind them. At ten in the morning,

the day after our departure, Wood's Mount, the high land over St.

Julian, bore from us N. by W. distant ten leagues, and we had fifty-two

fathom of water. And now standing to the southward, we had great

expectation of falling in with Pizarro's squadron; for, during our stay

at Port St. Julian, there had generally been hard gales between the

W.N.W. and S.W., so that we had reason to conclude the Spaniards had

gained no ground upon us in that interval. Indeed it was the prospect

of meeting with them that had occasioned our commodore to be so very

solicitous to prevent the separation of our ships, for had we been

solely intent upon getting round Cape Horn in the shortest time, the

properest method for this purpose would have been to have ordered each

ship to have made the best of her way to the rendezvous without waiting

for the rest.

From our departure from St. Julian to the 4th of March we had little

wind, with thick hazy weather and some rain; and our soundings were

generally from forty to fifty fathom, with a bottom of black and grey

sand, sometimes intermixed {75} with pebble stones. On the 4th of

March we were in sight of Cape Virgin Mary, and not more than six or

seven leagues distant from it. This cape is the northern boundary of

the entrance of the Straights of Magellan; it lies in the latitude of

52° 21' south, and longitude from London 71° 44' west, and seems to be

a low flat land, ending in a point. Off this cape our depth of water

was from thirty-five to forty-eight fathom. The afternoon of this day

was very bright and clear, with small breezes of wind, inclinable to a

calm, and 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 _Gloucester_, and which was succeeded by a cloud of

smoke. 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

an officer on board was preparing for use, in case we should fall in

with the Spanish fleet, and that it had been extinguished without any

damage to the ship.

We here found what was constantly verified by all our observations in

these high latitudes, that fair weather was always of an exceeding

short duration, and that when it was remarkably fine it was a certain

presage of a succeeding storm, for the calm and sunshine of our

afternoon ended in a most turbulent night, the wind freshning from the

S.W. as the night came on, and increasing its violence continually till

nine in the morning the next day, when it blew so hard that we were

obliged to bring-to with the squadron, and to continue under a reefed

mizen till eleven at night, having in that time from forty-three to

fifty-seven fathom water, with black sand and gravel; and by an

observation we had at noon, we concluded a current had set us twelve

miles to the southward of our reckoning. Towards midnight, the wind

abating, we made sail again, and steering south, we discovered in the

morning, for the first time, the land called Terra del Fuego,

stretching from the S. by W., to the S.E-½E. This indeed afforded us

but a very uncomfortable prospect, it appearing of a stupendous height,

covered everywhere with snow. The dreariness of this scene can be but

imperfectly represented by any drawing. We steered along this shore

all day, having soundings from forty to fifty {76} fathom, with stones

and gravel. And as we intended to pass through Streights Le Maire next

day, we lay-to at night, that we might not overshoot them, and took

this opportunity to prepare ourselves for the tempestuous climate we

were soon to be engaged in; with which view we employed ourselves good

part of the night in bending an entire new suit of sails to the yards.

At four the next morning, being the 7th of March, we made sail, and at

eight saw the land, and soon after we began to open the streights, at

which time Cape St. James bore from us E.S.E., Cape St. Vincent

S.E.½E., the middlemost of the Three Brothers S. and by W., Montegorda

south, and Cape St. Bartholomew, which is the souther-most point of

Staten-land, E.S.E. And here I must observe, that though Frezier has

given us a very correct prospect of the part of Terra del Fuego which

borders on the streights, yet he has omitted that of Staten-land, which

forms the opposite shore: hence we found it difficult to determine

exactly where the streights lay, till they began to open to our view;

and for want of this, if we had not happened to have coasted a

considerable way along shore, we might have missed the streights, and

have got to the eastward of Staten-land before we knew it. This is an

accident that has happened to many ships, particularly, as Frezier

mentions, to the _Incarnation_ and _Concord_, who intending to pass

through Streights Le Maire, were deceived by three hills on Staten-land

like the Three Brothers, and some creeks resembling those of Terra del

Fuego, and thereby overshot the streights.

And on occasion of the prospect of Staten-land, I cannot but remark,

that though Terra del Fuego had an aspect extremely barren and

desolate, yet this island of Staten-land far surpasses it in the

wildness and horror of its appearance, it seeming to be entirely

composed of inaccessible rocks, without the least mixture of earth or

mold between them. These rocks terminate in a vast number of ragged

points, which spire up to a prodigious height, and are all of them

covered with everlasting snow; the points themselves are on every side

surrounded with frightful precipices, and often overhang in a most

astonishing manner, and the hills which bear them are generally

separated from each other by narrow clefts which appear as if the

country had been frequently rent by earthquakes; for these chasms are

nearly perpendicular, and extend through the substance {77} of the main

rocks, almost to their very bottoms: so that nothing can be imagined

more savage and gloomy than the whole aspect of this coast. But to

proceed.

I have above mentioned, that on the 7th of March, in the morning, we

opened Streights Le Maire, and soon after, or about ten o'clock, the

_Pearl_ and the _Tryal_ being ordered to keep ahead of the squadron, we

entered them with fair weather and a brisk gale, and were hurried

through by the rapidity of the tide in about two hours, though they are

between seven and eight leagues in length. As these Streights are

often esteemed to be the boundary between the Atlantic and Pacific

Oceans, and as we presumed we had nothing before us from hence but an

open sea, till we arrived on those opulent coasts where all our hopes

and wishes centered, we could not help perswading ourselves that the

greatest difficulty of our voyage was now at an end, and that our most

sanguine dreams were upon the point of being realised; and hence we

indulged our imaginations in those romantic schemes which the fancied

possession of the Chilian gold and Peruvian silver might be conceived

to inspire. These joyous ideas were considerably heightened by the

brightness of the sky and serenity of the weather, which was indeed

most remarkably pleasing; for though the winter was now advancing

apace, yet the morning of this day, in its brilliancy and mildness,

gave place to none we had seen since our departure from England. Thus

animated by these flattering delusions, we passed those memorable

Streights, ignorant of the dreadful calamities which were then

impending, and just ready to break upon us; ignorant that the time drew

near when the squadron would be separated never to unite again, and

that this day of our passage was the last chearful day that the

greatest part of us would ever live to enjoy.

{78}

CHAPTER VIII

FROM STREIGHTS LE MAIRE TO CAPE NOIR

We had scarcely reached the southern extremity of the Streights Le

Maire, when our flattering hopes were instantly lost in the

apprehensions of immediate destruction: for before the sternmost ships

of the squadron were clear of the streights, the serenity of the sky

was suddenly obscured, and we observed all the presages of an impending

storm; and presently the wind shifted to the southward, and blew in

such violent squalls that we were obliged to hand our topsails, and

reef our main-sail; whilst the tide, too, which had hitherto favoured

us, at once turned furiously against us, and drove us to the eastward

with prodigious rapidity, so that we were in great anxiety for the

_Wager_ and the _Anna_ pink, the two sternmost vessels, fearing they

would be dashed to pieces against the shore of Staten-land: nor were

our apprehensions without foundation, for it was with the utmost

difficulty they escaped. And now the whole squadron, instead of

pursuing their intended course to the S.W., were driven to the eastward

by the united force of the storm and of the currents; so that next day

in the morning we found ourselves near seven leagues to the eastward of

Streights Le Maire, which then bore from us N.W. The violence of the

current, which had set us with so much precipitation to the eastward,

together with the fierceness and constancy of the westerly winds, soon

taught us to consider the doubling of Cape Horn as an enterprize that

might prove too mighty for our efforts, though some amongst us had

lately treated the difficulties which former voyagers were said to have

met with in this undertaking as little better than chimerical, and had

supposed them to arise rather from timidity and unskilfulness than from

the real embarrassments of the winds and seas: but we were now severely

convinced that these censures were rash and ill-grounded, for the

distresses with which we struggled, during the three succeeding months,

will not easily be paralleled in the relation of any former {79} naval

expedition. This will, I doubt not, be readily allowed by those who

shall carefully peruse the ensuing narration.

From the storm which came on before we had well got clear of Streights

Le Maire, we had a continual succession of such tempestuous weather as

surprized the oldest and most experienced mariners on board, and

obliged them to confess that what they had hitherto called storms were

inconsiderable gales compared with the violence of these winds, which

raised such short, and at the same time such mountainous waves, as

greatly surpassed in danger all seas known in any other part of the

globe: and it was not without great reason that this unusual appearance

filled us with continual terror; for, had any one of these waves broke

fairly over us, it must, in all probability, have sent us to the

bottom. Nor did we escape with terror only; for the ship rolling

incessantly gunwale to, gave us such quick and violent motions that the

men were in perpetual danger of being dashed to pieces against the

decks or sides of the ship. And though we were extremely careful to

secure ourselves from these shocks by grasping some fixed body, yet

many of our people were forced from their hold, some of whom were

killed, and others greatly injured; in particular, one of our best

seamen was canted overboard and drowned, another dislocated his neck, a

third was thrown into the main hold and broke his thigh, and one of our

boatswain's mates broke his collar-bone twice; not to mention many

other accidents of the same kind. These tempests, so dreadful in

themselves, though unattended by any other unfavourable circumstance,

were yet rendered more mischievous to us by their inequality, and the

deceitful intervals which they at sometimes afforded; for though we

were oftentimes obliged to lie-to, for days together, under a reefed

mizen, and were frequently reduced to lie at the mercy of the waves

under our bare poles, yet now and then we ventured to make sail with

our courses double reefed; and the weather proving more tolerable,

would perhaps encourage us to set our top-sails; after which, the wind,

without any previous notice, would return upon us with redoubled force,

and would in an instant tear our sails from the yards. And that no

circumstance might be wanting which could aggrandize our distress,

these blasts generally brought with them a great quantity of snow and

sleet, which cased our rigging, and froze our sails, thereby rendering

{80} them and our cordage brittle, and apt to snap upon the slightest

strain, adding great difficulty and labour to the working of the ship,

benumbing the limbs of our people, and making them incapable of

exerting themselves with their usual activity, and even disabling many

of them by mortifying their toes and fingers. It were indeed endless

to enumerate the various disasters of different kinds which befel us;

and I shall only mention the most material, which will sufficiently

evince the calamitous condition of the whole squadron during the course

of this navigation.

It was on the 7th of March, as hath been already observed, that we

passed Streights Le Maire, and were immediately afterwards driven to

the eastward by a violent storm, and the force of the current which set

that way. For the four or five succeeding days we had hard gales of

wind from the same quarter, with a most prodigious swell; so that

though we stood, during all that time, towards the S.W., yet we had no

reason to imagine we had made any way to the westward. In this

interval we had frequent squalls of rain and snow, and shipped great

quantities of water; after which, for three or four days, though the

seas ran mountains high, yet the weather was rather more moderate: but

on the 18th, we had again strong gales of wind, with extreme cold, and

at midnight the main top-sail split, and one of the straps of the main

dead-eyes broke. From hence to the 23d, the weather was more

favourable, though often intermixed with rain and sleet, and some hard

gales; but as the waves did not subside, the ship, by labouring in this

lofty sea, was now grown so loose in her upper works that she let in

the water at every seam, so that every part within board was constantly

exposed to the sea-water, and scarcely any of the officers ever lay in

dry beds. Indeed it was very rare that two nights ever passed without

many of them being driven from their beds by the deluge of water that

came in upon them.

On the 23d, we had a most violent storm of wind, hail, and rain, with a

very great sea; and though we handed the main top-sail before the

height of the squall, yet we found the yard sprung; and soon after the

foot rope of the main-sail breaking, the main-sail itself split

instantly to rags, and, in spite of our endeavours to save it, much the

greater part of it was blown overboard. On this, the commodore made

the signal for the squadron to bring-to; and the storm at length {81}

flattening to a calm, we had an opportunity of getting down our main

top-sail yard to put the carpenters to work upon it, and of repairing

our rigging; after which, having bent a new main-sail, we got under

sail again with a moderate breeze; but in less than twenty-four hours

we were attacked by another storm still more furious than the former;

for it proved a perfect hurricane, and reduced us to the necessity of

lying-to under our bare poles. As our ship kept the wind better than

any of the rest, we were obliged, in the afternoon, to wear ship, in

order to join the squadron to the leeward, which otherwise we should

have been in danger of losing in the night: and as we dared not venture

any sail abroad, we were obliged to make use of an expedient which

answered our purpose; this was putting the helm a weather, and manning

the fore-shrouds: but though this method proved successful for the end

intended, yet in the execution of it one of our ablest seamen was

canted overboard; we perceived that, notwithstanding the prodigious

agitation of the waves, he swam very strong, and it was with the utmost

concern that we found ourselves incapable of assisting him; indeed we

were the more grieved at his unhappy fate, as we lost sight of him

struggling with the waves, and conceived from the manner in which he

swam that he might continue sensible, for a considerable time longer,

of the horror attending his irretrievable situation.

Before this last-mentioned storm was quite abated, we found two of our

main-shrouds and one mizen-shroud broke, all which we knotted, and set

up immediately. From hence we had an interval of three or four days

less tempestuous than usual, but accompanied with a thick fog, in which

we were obliged to fire guns almost every half-hour, to keep our

squadron together. On the 31st, we were alarmed by a gun fired from

the _Gloucester_, and a signal made by her to speak with the commodore;

we immediately bore down to her, and were prepared to hear of some

terrible disaster; but we were apprized of it before we joined her, for

we saw that her main-yard was broke in the slings. This was a grievous

misfortune to us all at this juncture, as it was obvious it would prove

an hindrance to our sailing, and would detain us the longer in these

inhospitable latitudes. But our future success and safety was not to

be promoted by repining, but by resolution and activity; and therefore

that this unhappy {82} incident might delay us as little as possible,

the commodore ordered several carpenters to be put on board the

_Gloucester_ from the other ships of the squadron, in order to repair

her damage with the utmost expedition. And the captain of the _Tryal_

complaining at the same time that his pumps were so bad, and the sloop

made so great a quantity of water, that he was scarcely able to keep

her free, the commodore ordered him a pump ready fitted from his own

ship. It was very fortunate for the _Gloucester_ and the _Tryal_ that

the weather proved more favourable this day than for many days, both

before and after; since by this means they were enabled to receive the

assistance which seemed essential to their preservation, and which they

could scarcely have had at any other time, as it would have been

extremely hazardous to have ventured a boat on board.

The next day, that is, on the 1st of April, the weather returned again

to its customary bias, the sky looked dark and gloomy, and the wind

began to freshen and to blow in squalls; however, it was not yet so

boisterous as to prevent our carrying our top-sails close reefed; but

its appearance was such as plainly prognosticated that a still severer

tempest was at hand: and accordingly, on the 3d of April, there came on

a storm which both in its violence and continuation (for it lasted

three days) exceeded all that we had hitherto encountered. In its

first onset we received a furious shock from a sea which broke upon our

larboard quarter, where it stove in the quarter gallery, and rushed

into the ship like a deluge; our rigging too suffered extremely from

the blow; amongst the rest, one of the straps of the main dead-eyes was

broke, as was also a main-shroud and puttock-shroud, so that to ease

the stress upon the masts and shrouds, we lowered both our main and

fore-yards, and furled all our sails, and in this posture we lay-to for

three days, when the storm somewhat abating, we ventured to make sail

under our courses only; but even this we could not do long; for the

next day, which was the 7th, we had another hard gale of wind, with

lightening and rain, which obliged us to lie-to again till night. It

was wonderful that notwithstanding the hard weather we had endured, no

extraordinary accident had happened to any of the squadron since the

breaking of the _Gloucester's_ main-yard: but this good fortune now no

longer attended us; for at three the next morning, several guns were

fired to leeward as signals of distress: and the {83} commodore making

a signal for the squadron to bring-to, we, at daybreak, saw the _Wager_

a considerable way to leeward of any of the other ships; and we soon

perceived that she had lost her mizen-mast and main top-sail yard. We

immediately bore down to her, and found this disaster had arisen from

the badness of her iron work; for all the chain-plates to windward had

given way, upon the ship's fetching a deep roll. This proved the more

unfortunate to the _Wager_, as her carpenter had been on board the

_Gloucester_ ever since the 31st of March, and the weather was now too

severe to permit him to return. Nor was the _Wager_ the only ship of

the squadron that suffered in this tempest; for the next day a signal

of distress was made by the _Anna_ pink, and, upon speaking with the

master, we learnt that they had broke their fore-stay and the gammon of

the bowsprit, and were in no small danger of having all their masts

come by the board; so that we were obliged to bear away until they had

made all fast, after which we haled upon a wind again.

And now after all our solicitude, and the numerous ills of every kind

to which we had been incessantly exposed for near forty days, we had

great consolation in the flattering hopes we entertained that our

fatigues were drawing to a period, and that we should soon arrive in a

more hospitable climate, where we should be amply repayed for all our

past sufferings. For, towards the latter end of March, we were

advanced, by our reckoning, near 10° to the westward of the westernmost

point of Terra del Fuego, and this allowance being double what former

navigators have thought necessary to be taken, in order to compensate

the drift of the western current, we esteemed ourselves to be well

advanced within the limits of the southern ocean, and had therefore

been ever since standing to the northward with as much expedition as

the turbulence of the weather and our frequent disasters permitted.

And, on the 13th of April, we were but a degree in latitude to the

southward of the west entrance of the Streights of Magellan; so that we

fully expected, in a very few days, to have experienced the celebrated

tranquillity of the Pacifick Ocean.

But these were delusions which only served to render our disappointment

more terrible; for the next morning, between one and two, as we were

standing to the northward, and the weather, which had till then been

hazy, accidentally cleared up, the pink made a signal for seeing land

right ahead; and {84} it being but two miles distant, we were all under

the most dreadful apprehensions of running on shore, which, had either

the wind blown from its usual quarter with its wonted vigour, or had

not the moon suddenly shone out, not a ship amongst us could possibly

have avoided: but the wind, which some few hours before blew in squalls

from the S.W., having fortunately shifted to W.N.W., we were enabled to

stand to the southward, and to clear ourselves of this unexpected

danger, and were fortunate enough by noon to have gained an offing of

near twenty leagues.

By the latitude of this land we fell in with, it was agreed to be a

part of Terra del Fuego, near the southern outlet described in

Frezier's chart of the Streights of Magellan, and was supposed to be

that point called by him Cape Noir. It was indeed most wonderful that

the currents should have driven us to the eastward with such strength;

for the whole squadron esteemed themselves upwards of ten degrees more

westerly than this land, so that in running down, by our account, about

nineteen degrees of longitude, we had not really advanced half that

distance. And now, instead of having our labours and anxieties

relieved by approaching a warmer climate and more tranquil seas, we

were to steer again to the southward, and were again to combat those

western blasts which had so often terrified us; and this too when we

were greatly enfeebled by our men falling sick, and dying apace, and

when our spirits, dejected by a long continuance at sea, and by our

late disappointment, were much less capable of supporting us in the

various difficulties which we could not but expect in this new

undertaking. Add to all this, too, the discouragement we received by

the diminution of the strength of the squadron; for, three days before

this, we lost sight of the _Severn_ and the _Pearl_ in the morning, and

though we spread our ships, and beat about for them some time, yet we

never saw them more; whence we had apprehensions that they too might

have fallen in with this land in the night, and by being less favoured

by the wind and the moon than we were, might have run on shore and have

perished. Full of these desponding thoughts and gloomy presages, we

stood away to the S.W., prepared by our late disaster to suspect that

how large soever an allowance we made in our westing for the drift of

the western current, we might still, upon a second trial, perhaps find

it insufficient.

{85}

CHAPTER IX

OBSERVATIONS AND DIRECTIONS FOR FACILITATING THE PASSAGE OF OUR FUTURE

CRUISERS ROUND CAPE HORN

The improper season of the year in which we attempted to double Cape

Horn, and to which is to be imputed the disappointment (recited in the

foregoing chapter) of falling in with Terra del Fuego, when we reckoned

ourselves above a hundred leagues to the westward of that whole coast,

and consequently well advanced into the Pacifick Ocean; this

unseasonable navigation, I say, to which we were necessitated by our

too late departure from England, was the fatal source of all the

misfortunes we afterwards encountered. For from hence proceeded the

separation of our ships, the destruction of our people, the ruin of our

project on Baldivia, and of all our other views on the Spanish places,

and the reduction of our squadron from the formidable condition in

which it passed Streights Le Maire to a couple of shattered half-manned

cruisers and a sloop, so far disabled that in many climates they

scarcely durst have put to sea. To prevent, therefore, as much as in

me lies, all ships hereafter bound to the South Seas from suffering the

same calamities, I think it my duty to insert in this place such

directions and observations as either my own experience and reflection,

or the conversation of the most skilful navigators on board the

squadron, could furnish me with, in relation to the most eligible

manner of doubling Cape Horn, whether in regard to the season of the

year, the course proper to be steered, or the places of refreshment

both on the east and west side of South America.

And first, with regard to the proper place for refreshment on the east

side of South America. For this purpose the island of St. Catherine's

has been usually recommended by former writers, and on their faith we

put in there, as has been formerly mentioned. But the treatment we met

with, and the small store of refreshments we could procure there, are

sufficient reasons to render all ships for the future cautious {86} how

they trust themselves in the government of Don Jose Sylva de Paz, for

they may certainly depend on having their strength, condition, and

designs betrayed to the Spaniards, as far as the knowledge the governor

can procure of these particulars will give him leave. And as this

treacherous conduct is inspired by the views of private gain in the

illicit commerce carried on to the river of Plate, rather than by any

national affection which the Portuguese bear the Spaniards, the same

perfidy may perhaps be expected from most of the governors of the

Brazil coast, since these smuggling engagements are doubtless very

extensive and general. And though the governors should themselves

detest so faithless a procedure, yet as ships are perpetually passing

from some or other of the Brazil ports to the river of Plate, the

Spaniards could scarcely fail of receiving, by this means, casual

intelligence of any British ships upon the coast, which, however

imperfect such intelligence might be, would prove of dangerous import

to the views and interests of those cruisers who were thus discovered.

For the Spanish trade in the South Seas running all in one track from

north to south, with very little deviation to the eastward or westward,

it is in the power of two or three cruisers, properly stationed in

different parts of this track, to possess themselves of every ship that

puts to sea; but this is only so long as they can continue concealed

from the neighbouring coast, for the instant an enemy is known to be in

those seas, all navigation is prohibited, and consequently all captures

are at an end, since the Spaniards, well apprized of these advantages

of the enemy, send expresses along the coast and lay a general embargo

on all their trade; a measure which they prudentially foresee will not

only prevent their vessels being taken, but will soon lay any cruisers

who have not strength sufficient to attempt their places under

necessity of returning home. Hence then appears the great importance

of concealing all expeditions of this kind, and hence, too, it follows

how extremely prejudicial that intelligence may prove which is given by

the Portuguese governors to the Spaniards in relation to the designs of

ships touching at the ports of Brazil.

However, notwithstanding the inconveniences we have mentioned of

touching on the coast of Brazil, it will often-times happen that ships

bound round Cape Horn will be {87} obliged to call there for a supply

of wood and water, and other refreshments. In this case, St.

Catherine's is the last place I would recommend, both as the proper

animals for a live stock at sea, as hogs, sheep, and fowls, cannot be

procured there (for want of which we found ourselves greatly

distressed, by being reduced to live almost entirely on salt

provisions), and also because, from its being nearer the river of Plate

than many of their other settlements, the inducements and conveniences

of betraying us are much stronger. The place I would recommend is Rio

Janeiro, where two of our squadron put in after they were separated

from us in passing Cape Horn, for here, as I have been informed by one

of the gentlemen on board those ships, any quantity of hogs and poultry

may be procured; and this place being more distant from the river of

Plate, the difficulty of intelligence is somewhat inhanced, and

consequently the chance of continuing there undiscovered in some degree

augmented. Other measures, which may effectually obviate all these

embarrassments, shall be considered more at large hereafter.

I next proceed to the consideration of the proper course to be steered

for doubling Cape Horn. And here, I think, I am sufficiently

authorised by our own fatal experience, and by a careful comparison and

examination of the journals of former navigators, to give this piece of

advice, which in prudence I think ought never to be departed from: that

is, that all ships bound to the South Seas, instead of passing through

Streights Le Maire, should constantly pass to the eastward of

Staten-land, and should be invariably bent on running to the southward,

as far as the latitude of 61 or 62 degrees, before they endeavour to

stand to the westward; and that when they are got into that latitude

they should then make sure of sufficient westing before they once think

of steering to the northward.

But as directions diametrically opposite to these have been formerly

given by other writers, it is incumbent on me to produce my reasons for

each part of this maxim. And first, as to the passing to the eastward

of Staten-land. Those who have attended to the risque we ran in

passing Streights Le Maire, the danger we were in of being driven upon

Staten-land by the current, when, though we happily escaped being put

on shore, we were yet carried to the eastward of that island; those who

reflect on this, and the like {88} accidents which have happened to

other ships, will surely not esteem it prudent to pass through

Streights Le Maire, and run the risque of shipwreck, and after all find

themselves no farther to the westward (the only reason hitherto given

for this practice) than they might have been in the same time by a

secure navigation in an open sea.

And next as to the directions I have given for running into the

latitude of 61 or 62 south, before any endeavour is made to stand to

the westward. The reasons for this precept are, that in all

probability the violence of the currents will be hereby avoided, and

the weather will prove less tempestuous and uncertain. This last

circumstance we ourselves experienced most remarkably, for after we had

unexpectedly fallen in with the land, as has been mentioned in the

preceding chapter, we stood away to the southward to run clear of it,

and were no sooner advanced into sixty degrees or upwards but we met

with much better weather and smoother water than in any other part of

the whole passage. The air indeed was very cold and sharp, and we had

strong gales, but they were steady and uniform, and we had at the same

time sunshine and a clear sky; whereas in the lower latitudes the winds

every now and then intermitted, as it were, to recover new strength,

and then returned suddenly in the most violent gusts, threatening at

each blast the loss of our masts, which must have ended in our certain

destruction. And that the currents in this high latitude would be of

much less efficacy than nearer the land seems to be evinced from these

considerations, that all currents run with greater violence near the

shore than at sea, and that at great distances from shore they are

scarcely perceptible. Indeed the reason of this seems sufficiently

obvious, if we consider that constant currents are, in all probability,

produced by constant winds, the wind driving before it, though with a

slow and imperceptible motion, a large body of water, which being

accumulated upon any coast that it meets with, must escape along the

shore by the endeavours of its surface to reduce itself to the same

level with the rest of the ocean. And it is reasonable to suppose that

those violent gusts of wind which we experienced near the shore, so

very different from what we found in the latitude of sixty degrees and

upwards, may be owing to a similar cause, for a westerly wind almost

perpetually prevails in the southern part of the Pacific Ocean. {89}

And this current of air being interrupted by those immense hills called

the Andes, and by the mountains on Terra del Fuego, which together bar

up the whole country to the southward as far as Cape Horn, a part of it

only can force its way over the tops of those prodigious precipices,

whilst the rest must naturally follow the direction of the coast, and

must range down the land to the southward, and sweep with an impetuous

and irregular blast round Cape Horn and the southermost part of Terra

del Fuego. However, not to rely on these speculations, we may, I

believe, establish as incontestible these matters of fact, that both

the rapidity of the currents and the violence of the western gales are

less sensible in the latitude of 61 or 62 degrees than nearer the shore

of Terra del Fuego.

But though I am satisfied from both our own experience, and the

relations of other navigators, of the importance of the precept I here

insist on, that of running into the latitude of 61 or 62 degrees,

before any endeavours are made to stand to the westward, yet I would

advise no ships hereafter to trust so far to this management as to

neglect another most essential maxim, which is the making this passage

in the height of summer--that is, in the months of December and

January; and the more distant the time of passing is taken from this

season, the more disastrous it may be reasonably expected to prove.

Indeed, if the mere violence of the western winds be considered, the

time of our passage, which was about the equinox, was perhaps the most

unfavourable of the whole year; but then it must be remembered that

independent of the winds there are in the depth of winter many other

inconveniences to be apprehended which are almost insuperable, for the

severity of the cold and the shortness of the days would render it

impracticable at that season to run so far to the southward as is here

recommended; and the same reasons would greatly augment the alarms of

sailing in the neighbourhood of an unknown shore, dreadful in its

appearance in the midst of summer, and would make a winter navigation

on this coast to be, of all others, the most dismaying and terrible.

As I would therefore advise all ships to make their passage in December

and January, if possible, so I would warn them never to attempt the

doubling Cape Horn, from the eastward, after the month of March.

{90}

And now, as to the remaining consideration, that is, the properest port

for cruisers to refresh at on their first arrival in the South Seas.

On this head there is scarcely any choice, the island of Juan Fernandes

being the only place that can be prudently recommended for this

purpose. For though there are many ports on the western side of

Patagonia, between the Streights of Magellan and the Spanish

settlements, where ships might ride in great safety, might recruit

their wood and water, and might procure some few refreshments, yet that

coast is in itself so dangerous from its numerous rocks and breakers,

and from the violence of the western winds which blow constantly full

upon it, that it is by no means adviseable to fall in with that land,

at least till the roads, channels, and anchorage, in each part of it

are accurately surveyed, and both the perils and shelter it abounds

with are more distinctly known.

Thus having given the best directions in my power for the success of

our cruisers who may be hereafter bound to the South Seas, it might be

expected that I should again resume the thread of my narration. Yet as

both in the preceding and subsequent parts of this work I have thought

it my duty not only to recite all such facts, and to inculcate such

maxims as had the least appearance of proving beneficial to future

navigators, but also occasionally to recommend such measures to the

public as I conceive are adapted to promote the same laudable purpose,

I cannot desist from the present subject without beseeching those to

whom the conduct of our naval affairs is committed to endeavour to

remove the many perplexities and embarrassments with which the

navigation to the South Seas is at present necessarily encumbered. An

effort of this kind could not fail of proving highly honourable to

themselves, and extremely beneficial to their country. For it seems to

be sufficiently evident, that whatever improvements navigation shall

receive, either by the invention of methods that shall render its

practice less hazardous, or by the more accurate delineation of the

coasts, roads, and ports already known, or by the discovery of new

nations, or new species of commerce; it seems, I say, sufficiently

evident, that by whatever means navigation is promoted, the

conveniences hence arising must ultimately redound to the emolument of

Great Britain. Since as our fleets are at present superior to those of

the {91} whole world united, it must be a matchless degree of

supineness or mean-spiritedness if we permitted any of the advantages

which new discoveries, or a more extended navigation, may produce to

mankind to be ravished from us.

As, therefore, it appears that all our future expeditions to the South

Seas must run a considerable risque of proving abortive whilst in our

passage thither, we are under the necessity of touching at Brazil, the

discovery of some place more to the southward, where ships might

refresh and supply themselves with the necessary sea-stock for their

voyage round Cape Horn, would be an expedient which would relieve us

from this embarrassment, and would surely be a matter worthy of the

attention of the public. Nor does this seem difficult to be effected.

For we have already the imperfect knowledge of two places which might

perhaps, on examination, prove extremely convenient for this purpose.

One of them is Pepys's Island, in the latitude of 47° south, and laid

down by Dr. Halley about eighty leagues to the eastward of Cape Blanco,

on the coast of Patagonia; the other is Falkland's Isles, in the

latitude of 51-½°, lying nearly south of Pepys's Island. The first of

these was discovered by Captain Cowley in his voyage round the world in

the year 1686, who represents it as a commodious place for ships to

wood and water at, and says it is provided with a very good and

capacious harbour, where a thousand sail of ships might ride at anchor

in great safety; that it abounds with fowls, and that as the shore is

either rocks or sands, it seems to promise great plenty of fish. The

second place, or Falkland's Isles, has been seen by many ships, both

French and English, being the land laid down by Frezier, in his chart

of the extremity of South America, under the title of the New Islands.

Woodes Rogers, who run along the N.E. coast of these isles in the year

1708, tells us that they extended about two degrees in length, and

appeared with gentle descents from hill to hill, and seemed to be good

ground, interspersed with woods, and not destitute of harbours. Either

of these places, as they are islands at a considerable distance from

the continent, may be supposed, from their latitude, to lie in a

climate sufficiently temperate. It is true, they are too little known

to be at present recommended as the most eligible places of refreshment

for ships bound to the southward, but if the Admiralty should think it

adviseable to {92} order them to be surveyed, which may be done at a

very small expence by a vessel fitted out on purpose, and if, on this

examination, one or both of these places should appear proper for the

purpose intended, it is scarcely to be conceived of what prodigious

import a convenient station might prove, situated so far to the

southward, and so near Cape Horn. The Duke and Duchess of Bristol were

but thirty-five days from their losing sight of Falkland's Isles to

their arrival at Juan Fernandes in the South Seas: and as the returning

back is much facilitated by the western winds, I doubt not but a voyage

might be made from Falkland's Isles to Juan Fernandes and back again in

little more than two months. This, even in time of peace, might be of

great consequence to this nation; and, in time of war, would make us

masters of those seas.

And as all discoveries of this kind, though extremely honourable to

those who direct and promote them, may yet be carried on at an

inconsiderable expence, since small vessels are much the properest to

be employed in this service: it were to be wished that the whole coast

of Patagonia, Terra del Fuego, and Staten-land were carefully surveyed,

and the numerous channels, roads, and harbours with which they abound

were accurately examined. This might open to us facilities of passing

into the Pacifick Ocean, which as yet we may be unacquainted with, and

would render all that southern navigation infinitely securer than at

present; particularly an exact draught of the west coast of Patagonia,

from the Streights of Magellan to the Spanish settlements, might

perhaps furnish us with better and more convenient ports for

refreshment, and better situated for the purposes either of war or

commerce, and above a fortnight's sail nearer to Falkland's Island than

the island of Juan Fernandes. The discovery of this coast hath

formerly been thought of such consequence by reason of its

neighbourhood to the Araucos and other Chilian Indians, who are

generally at war, or at least on ill terms, with their Spanish

neighbours, that Sir John Narborough was purposely fitted out in the

reign of King Charles II. to survey the Streights of Magellan, the

neighbouring coast of Patagonia, and the Spanish ports on that

frontier, with directions, if possible, to procure some intercourse

with the Chilian Indians, and to establish a commerce and a lasting

correspondence with them. His {93} Majesty's views in employing Sir

John Narborough in this expedition were not solely the advantage he

might hope to receive from the alliance of those savages, in

restraining and intimidating the crown of Spain; but he conceived that,

independent of those motives, the immediate traffick with these Indians

might prove extremely advantageous to the English nation. For it is

well known that at the first discovery of Chili by the Spaniards, it

abounded with vast quantities of gold, much beyond what it has at any

time produced since it has been in their possession. And hence it has

been generally believed that the richest mines are carefully concealed

by the Indians, as well knowing that the discovery of them would only

excite in the Spaniards a greater thirst for conquest and tyranny, and

would render their own independence more precarious. But with respect

to their commerce with the English, these reasons would no longer

influence them; since it would be in our power to furnish them with

arms and ammunition of all kinds, of which they are extremely desirous,

together with many other conveniencies which their intercourse with the

Spaniards has taught them to relish. They would then, in all

probability, open their mines, and gladly embrace a traffick of such

mutual convenience to both nations; for then their gold, instead of

proving an incitement to enslave them, would procure them weapons to

assert their liberty, to chastise their tyrants, and to secure

themselves for ever from the Spanish yoke; whilst with our assistance,

and under our protection, they might become a considerable people, and

might secure to us that wealth which formerly by the House of Austria,

and lately by the House of Bourbon, has been most mischievously

lavished in the pursuit of universal monarchy.

It is true, Sir John Narborough did not succeed in opening this

commerce, which, in appearance, promised so many advantages to this

nation. However, his disappointment was merely accidental, and his

transactions upon that coast (besides the many valuable improvements he

furnished to geography and navigation) are rather an encouragement for

future trials of this kind than any objection against them; his

principal misfortune being the losing company of a small bark which

attended him, and having some of his people trepanned at Baldivia.

However, it appeared, by the precautions and fears of the Spaniards,

that they were fully {94} convinced of the practicability of the scheme

he was sent to execute, and extremely alarmed with the apprehension of

its consequences. It is said that his Majesty King Charles the Second

was so far prepossessed with the belief of the emoluments which might

redound to the publick from this expedition, and was so eager to be

informed of the event of it, that having intelligence of Sir John

Narborough's passing through the Downs on his return, he had not

patience to attend his arrival at court, but went himself in his barge

to Gravesend to meet him.

To facilitate as much as possible any attempts of this kind which may

be hereafter undertaken, I prepared a chart of that part of the world,

as far as it is hitherto known, which I flatter myself is, in some

respects, much correcter than any which has been yet published. To

evince which, it may be necessary to mention what materials I have

principally made use of, and what changes I have introduced different

from other authors.

The two most celebrated charts hitherto published of the southermost

part of South America, are those of Dr. Halley, in his general chart of

the magnetic variation, and of Frezier in his voyage to the South Seas.

But besides these, there is a chart of the Streights of Magellan, and

of some part of the adjacent coast, by Sir John Narborough

above-mentioned, which is doubtless infinitely exacter in that part

than Frezier's, and in some respects superior to Halley's, particularly

in what relates to the longitudes of the different parts of those

streights. The coast from Cape Blanco to Terra del Fuego, and thence

to Streights Le Maire, we were in some measure capable of correcting by

our own observations, as we ranged that shore generally in sight of

land. The position of the land to the northward of the Streights of

Magellan, on the west side, is doubtless laid down but very

imperfectly; and yet I believe it to be much nearer the truth than what

has hitherto been done, as it is drawn from the information of some of

the _Wager's_ crew who were shipwrecked on that shore and afterwards

coasted it down, and as it agrees pretty nearly with the description of

some Spanish manuscripts I have seen. The channel dividing Terra del

Fuego is drawn from Frezier; but Sir Francis Drake, who first

discovered Cape Horn, and the S.W. part of Terra del Fuego, observed

that whole coast to be divided by {95} a great number of inlets, all

which he conceived did communicate with the Streights of Magellan. And

I doubt not that whenever this country is thoroughly examined this

circumstance will be verified, and Terra del Fuego will be found to

consist of several islands.

And having mentioned Frezier so often, I must not omit warning all

future navigators against relying on the longitude of Streights Le

Maire, or of any part of that coast, laid down in his chart, the whole

being from 8 to 10 degrees too far to the eastward, if any faith can be

given to the concurrent evidences of a great number of journals,

verified in some particulars by astronomical observation. For

instance, Sir John Narborough places Cape Virgin Mary in 65° 42' of

west longitude from the Lizard, that is in about 71-½° from London.

And the ships of our squadron, who took their departure from St.

Catherine's (where the longitude was rectified by an observation of the

eclipse of the moon), found Cape Virgin Mary to be from 70-½° to 72-½°

from London, according to their different reckonings; and since there

were no circumstances in our run that could render it considerably

erroneous, it cannot be esteemed in less than 71 degrees of west

longitude; whereas Frezier lays it down in less than 66 degrees from

Paris, that is, little more than 63 degrees from London, which is

doubtless 8 degrees short of its true quantity. Again, our squadron

found Cape Virgin Mary and Streights Le Maire to be not more than 2-½°

different in longitude, which in Frezier are distant near 4 degrees, so

that not only the longitude of Cape St. Bartholomew is laid down in him

near 10 degrees too little, but the coast from the Streights of

Magellan to Streights Le Maire is enlarged to near double its real

extent.

But to have done with Frezier, whose errors, the importance of the

subject, and not a fondness for cavilling, has obliged me to remark

(though his treatment of Dr. Halley might, on the present occasion,

authorise much severer usage), I must, in the next place, relate

wherein I differ from that of our learned countryman last mentioned.

It is well known that this gentleman was sent abroad by the public to

make such geographical and astronomical observations as might

facilitate the future practice of navigation, and particularly to

determine the variation of the compass in such places as he should

touch at, and, if {96} possible, to ascertain its general laws and

affections. These things Dr. Halley, to his immortal reputation and

the honour of our nation, in good measure accomplished, especially with

regard to the variation of the compass, a subject, of all others, the

most interesting to those employed in the art of navigation. He

likewise corrected the position of the coast of Brazil, which had been

very erroneously laid down by all former hydrographers; and from a

judicious comparison of the observations of others, he happily

succeeded in settling the geography of many considerable places where

he had not himself been. So that the chart he composed, with the

variation of the needle marked thereon, being the result of his labours

on this subject, was allowed by all Europe to be far compleater in its

geography than any that had till then been published, whilst it was at

the same time most surprisingly exact in the quantity of variation

assigned to the different parts of the globe; a subject so very

intricate and perplexing, that all general determinations about it had

been usually deemed impossible.

But as the only means he had of correcting the situation of those

coasts, where he did not touch himself, were the observations of

others, when those observations were wanting, or were inaccurate, it

was no imputation on his skill that his decisions were defective. And

this, upon the best comparison I have been able to make, is the case

with regard to that part of his chart, which contains the south coast

of South America. For though the coast of Brazil, and the opposite

coast of Peru on the South Seas, are laid down, I presume, with the

greatest accuracy, yet from about the river of Plate on the east side,

and its opposite point on the west, the coast gradually declines too

much to the westward, so as at the Streights of Magellan to be, as I

conceive, about fifty leagues removed from its true position; at least,

this is the result of the observations of our squadron, which agree

extremely well with those of Sir John Narborough. I must add that Dr.

Halley has, in the philosophical transactions, given the foundation on

which he has proceeded in fixing Port St. Julian in 76-½° of west

longitude, which the concurrent journals of our squadron place from

70-¾° to 71-½°. This, he tells us, was an observation of an eclipse of

the moon made at that place by Mr. Wood, then Sir John Narborough's

lieutenant, and which is said to have happened {97} there at eight in

the evening, on the 18th of September 1670. But Captain Wood's journal

of this whole voyage under Sir John Narborough is since published

together with this observation, in which he determines the longitude of

Port St. Julian to be 73 degrees from London, and the time of the

eclipse to have been different from Dr. Halley's account. But the

numbers he has given are so faultily printed that nothing can be

determined from them.

{98}

CHAPTER X

FROM CAPE NOIR TO THE ISLAND OF JUAN FERNANDES

After the mortifying disappointment of falling in with the coast of

Terra del Fuego, when we esteemed ourselves ten degrees to the westward

of it, as hath been at large recited in the eighth chapter, we stood

away to the S.W. till the 22d of April, when we were in upwards of 60°

of south latitude, and by our account near 6° to the westward of Cape

Noir. In this run, we had a series of as favourable weather as could

well be expected in that part of the world, even in a better season, so

that this interval, setting the inquietude of our thoughts aside, was

by far the most eligible of any we enjoyed from Streights Le Maire to

the west coast of America. This moderate weather continued with little

variation till the 24th, but on the 24th, in the evening, the wind

began to blow fresh, and soon increased to a prodigious storm, and the

weather being extremely thick, about midnight we lost sight of the

other four ships of the squadron, which, notwithstanding the violence

of the preceding storms, had hitherto kept in company with us. Nor was

this our sole misfortune, for the next morning, endeavouring to hand

the top-sails, the clew-lines and bunt-lines broke, and the sheets

being half-flown, every seam in the top-sails was soon split from top

to bottom, and the main top-sail shook so strongly in the wind that it

carried away the top lanthorn, and endangered the head of the mast;

however, at length some of the most daring of our men ventured upon the

yard and cut the sail away close to the reefs, though with the utmost

hazard of their lives. Whilst at the same time the fore top-sail beat

about the yard with so much fury that it was soon blown to pieces; nor

was our attention to our top-sails our sole employment, for the

main-sail blew loose, which obliged us to lower down the yard to secure

the sail, and the fore-yard being likewise lowered, we lay-to under a

mizen. In this storm, besides the loss of our top-sails, we had much

of our {99} rigging broke, and lost a main-studding sail-boom out of

the chains.

On the 25th, about noon, the weather became more moderate, which

enabled us to sway up our yards, and to repair, in the best manner we

could, our shattered rigging, but still we had no sight of the rest of

our squadron, nor indeed were we joined by any of them again till after

our arrival at Juan Fernandes, nor did any two of them, as we have

since learned, continue in company together. This total and almost

instantaneous separation was the more wonderful as we had hitherto kept

together for seven weeks, through all the reiterated tempests of this

turbulent climate. It must indeed be owned that we had hence room to

expect that we might make our passage in a shorter time than if we had

continued together, because we could now make the best of our way

without being retarded by the misfortunes of the other ships; but then

we had the melancholy reflection that we ourselves were hereby deprived

of the assistance of others, and our safety would depend upon our

single ship, so that if a plank started, or any other accident of the

same nature should take place, we must all irrecoverably perish; or

should we be driven on shore, we had the uncomfortable prospect of

ending our days on some desolate coast, without any reasonable hope of

ever getting off again, whereas, with another ship in company, all

these calamities are much less formidable, since in every kind of

danger there would be some probability that one ship at least might

escape, and might be capable of preserving or relieving the crew of the

other.

The remaining part of this month of April we had generally hard gales,

although we had been every day, since the 22d, edging to the northward;

however, on the last day of the month, we flattered ourselves with the

expectation of soon terminating all our sufferings, for we that day

found ourselves in the latitude of 52° 13', which being to the

northward of the Streights of Magellan, we were assured that we had

compleated our passage, and had arrived in the confines of the southern

ocean; and this ocean being denominated Pacifick, from the equability

of the seasons which are said to prevail there, and the facility and

security with which navigation is there carried on, we doubted not but

we should be speedily cheared with the moderate gales, the smooth

water, {100} and the temperate air for which that track of the globe

has been so renowned. And under the influence of these pleasing

circumstances we hoped to experience some kind of compensation for the

complicated miseries which had so constantly attended us for the last

eight weeks. But here we were again disappointed, for in the

succeeding month of May our sufferings rose to a much higher pitch than

they had ever yet done, whether we consider the violence of the storms,

the shattering of our sails and rigging, or the diminishing and

weakening of our crew by deaths and sickness, and the probable prospect

of our total destruction. All this will be sufficiently evident from

the following circumstantial account of our diversified misfortunes.

Soon after our passing Streights Le Maire, the scurvy began to make its

appearance amongst us, and our long continuance at sea, the fatigue we

underwent, and the various disappointments we met with, had occasioned

its spreading to such a degree that at the latter end of April there

were but few on board who were not in some degree afflicted with it,

and in that month no less than forty-three died of it on board the

_Centurion_. But though we thought that the distemper had then risen

to an extraordinary height, and were willing to hope that as we

advanced to the northward its malignity would abate, yet we found, on

the contrary, that in the month of May we lost near double that number;

and as we did not get to land till the middle of June, the mortality

went on increasing, and the disease extended itself so prodigiously

that, after the loss of above two hundred men, we could not at last

muster more than six fore-mast men in a watch capable of duty.

This disease, so frequently attending long voyages, and so particularly

destructive to us, is surely the most singular and unaccountable of any

that affects the human body. Its symptoms are inconstant and

innumerable, and its progress and effects extremely irregular; for

scarcely any two persons have complaints exactly resembling each other,

and where there hath been found some conformity in the symptoms, the

order of their appearance has been totally different. However, though

it frequently puts on the form of many other diseases, and is therefore

not to be described by any exclusive and infallible criterions, yet

there are some symptoms which are more general than the rest, and,

{101} occurring the oftenest, deserve a more particular enumeration.

These common appearances are large discoloured spots dispersed over the

whole surface of the body, swelled legs, putrid gums, and, above all,

an extraordinary lassitude of the whole body, especially after any

exercise, however inconsiderable; and this lassitude at last

degenerates into a proneness to swoon, and even die, on the least

exertion of strength, or even on the least motion.

This disease is likewise usually attended with a strange dejection of

the spirits, and with shiverings, tremblings, and a disposition to be

seized with the most dreadful terrors on the slightest accident.

Indeed it was most remarkable, in all our reiterated experience of this

malady, that whatever discouraged our people, or at any time damped

their hopes, never failed to add new vigour to the distemper; for it

usually killed those who were in the last stages of it, and confined

those to their hammocks who were before capable of some kind of duty;

so that it seemed as if alacrity of mind, and sanguine thoughts, were

no contemptible preservatives from its fatal malignity.

But it is not easy to compleat the long roll of the various

concomitants of this disease; for it often produced putrid fevers,

pleurisies, the jaundice, and violent rheumatic pains, and sometimes it

occasioned an obstinate costiveness, which was generally attended with

a difficulty of breathing, and this was esteemed the most deadly of all

the scorbutick symptoms; at other times the whole body, but more

especially the legs, were subject to ulcers of the worst kind, attended

with rotten bones, and such a luxuriancy of fungous flesh as yielded to

no remedy. But a most extraordinary circumstance, and what would be

scarcely credible upon any single evidence, is, that the scars of

wounds which had been for many years healed were forced open again by

this virulent distemper. Of this there was a remarkable instance in

one of the invalids on board the _Centurion_, who had been wounded

above fifty years before at the battle of the Boyne, for though he was

cured soon after, and had continued well for a great number of years

past, yet on his being attacked by the scurvy, his wounds, in the

progress of his disease, broke out afresh, and appeared as if they had

never been healed: nay, what is still more astonishing, the callus of a

broken bone, which had been compleatly formed for a long {102} time,

was found to be hereby dissolved, and the fracture seemed as if it had

never been consolidated. Indeed, the effects of this disease were in

almost every instance wonderful; for many of our people, though

confined to their hammocks, appeared to have no inconsiderable share of

health, for they eat and drank heartily, were chearful, and talked with

much seeming vigour, and with a loud strong tone of voice; and yet, on

their being the least moved, though it was from only one part of the

ship to the other, and that too in their hammocks, they have

immediately expired; and others, who have confided in their seeming

strength, and have resolved to get out of their hammocks, have died

before they could well reach the deck; nor was it an uncommon thing for

those who were able to walk the deck, and to do some kind of duty, to

drop down dead in an instant, on any endeavours to act with their

utmost effort, many of our people having perished in this manner during

the course of this voyage.

With this terrible disease we struggled the greatest part of the time

of our beating round Cape Horn; and though it did not then rage with

its utmost violence, yet we buried no less than forty-three men on

board the _Centurion_ in the month of April, as hath been already

observed; however, we still entertained hopes that when we should have

once secured our passage round the Cape, we should put a period to

this, and all the other evils which had so constantly pursued us. But

it was our misfortune to find that the Pacifick Ocean was to us less

hospitable than the turbulent neighbourhood of Terra del Fuego and Cape

Horn. For being arrived, on the 8th of May, off the island of Socoro,

which was the first rendezvous appointed for the squadron, and where we

hoped to have met with some of our companions, we cruised for them in

that station several days. But here we were not only disappointed in

our expectations of being joined by our friends, and were thereby

induced to favour the gloomy suggestions of their having all perished;

but we were likewise perpetually alarmed with the fears of being driven

on shore upon this coast, which appeared too craggy and irregular to

give us the least prospect that in such a case any of us could possibly

escape immediate destruction. For the land had indeed a most

tremendous aspect: the most distant part of it, and which appeared far

{103} within the country, being the mountains usually called the Andes

or Cordilleras, was extremely high and covered with snow; and the coast

itself seemed quite rocky and barren, and the water's edge skirted with

precipices. In some places indeed we discerned several deep bays

running into the land, but the entrance into them was generally blocked

up by numbers of little islands; and though it was not improbable but

there might be convenient shelter in some of those bays, and proper

channels leading thereto, yet, as we were utterly ignorant of the

coast, had we been driven ashore by the western winds which blew almost

constantly there, we did not expect to have avoided the loss of our

ship, and of our lives.

This continued peril, which lasted for above a fortnight, was greatly

aggravated by the difficulties we found in working the ship, as the

scurvy had by this time destroyed so great a part of our hands, and had

in some degree affected almost the whole crew. Nor did we, as we

hoped, find the winds less violent as we advanced to the northward; for

we had often prodigious squalls which split our sails, greatly damaged

our rigging, and endangered our masts. Indeed, during the greatest

part of the time we were upon this coast, the wind blew so hard, that

in another situation, where we had sufficient sea room, we should

certainly have lain-to; but in the present exigency we were

necessitated to carry both our courses and top-sails in order to keep

clear of this lee shore. In one of these squalls, which was attended

by several violent claps of thunder, a sudden flash of fire darted

along our decks, which, dividing, exploded with a report like that of

several pistols, and wounded many of our men and officers as it passed,

marking them in different parts of the body. This flame was attended

with a strong sulphureous stench, and was doubtless of the same nature

with the larger and more violent blasts of lightning which then filled

the air.

It were endless to recite minutely the various disasters, fatigues, and

terrors which we encountered on this coast; all these went on

increasing till the 22d of May, at which time the fury of all the

storms which we had hitherto encountered seemed to be combined, and to

have conspired our destruction. In this hurricane almost all our sails

were split, and great part of our standing rigging broken; and, about

eight in the evening, a mountainous over-grown sea {104} took us upon

our starboard-quarter, and gave us so prodigious a shock that several

of our shrouds broke with the jerk, by which our masts were greatly

endangered; our ballast and stores too were so strangely shifted that

the ship heeled afterwards two streaks to port. Indeed it was a most

tremendous blow, and we were thrown into the utmost consternation from

the apprehension of instantly foundering; and though the wind abated in

a few hours, yet, as we had no more sails left in a condition to bend

to our yards, the ship laboured very much in a hollow sea, rolling

gunwale to, for want of sail to steady her: so that we expected our

masts, which were now very slenderly supported, to come by the board

every moment. However, we exerted ourselves the best we could to

stirrup our shrouds, to reeve new lanyards, and to mend our sails; but

while these necessary operations were carrying on, we ran great risque

of being driven on shore on the island of Chiloe, which was not far

distant from us; but in the midst of our peril the wind happily shifted

to the southward, and we steered off the land with the main-sail only,

the master and myself undertaking the management of the helm, while

every one else on board was busied in securing the masts, and bending

the sails as fast as they could be repaired. This was the last effort

of that stormy climate; for in a day or two after we got clear of the

land, and found the weather more moderate than we had yet experienced

since our passing Streights Le Maire. And now having cruized in vain

for more than a fortnight in quest of the other ships of the squadron,

it was resolved to take the advantage of the present favourable season,

and the offing we had made from this terrible coast, and to make the

best of our way for the island of Juan Fernandes. For though our next

rendezvous was appointed off the harbour of Baldivia, yet as we had

hitherto seen none of our companions at this first rendezvous, it was

not to be supposed that any of them would be found at the second:

indeed we had the greatest reason to suspect that all but ourselves had

perished. Besides, we were by this time reduced to so low a condition,

that instead of attempting to attack the places of the enemy, our

utmost hopes could only suggest to us the possibility of saving the

ship, and some part of the remaining enfeebled crew, by our speedy

arrival at Juan Fernandes; for this was the only road in that part of

the {105} world where there was any probability of our recovering our

sick, or refitting our vessel, and consequently our getting thither was

the only chance we had left to avoid perishing at sea.

Our deplorable situation then allowing no room for deliberation, we

stood for the island of Juan Fernandes; and to save time, which was now

extremely precious (our men dying four, five, and six in a day), and

likewise to avoid being engaged again with a lee shore, we resolved, if

possible, to hit the island upon a meridian. And, on the 28th of May,

being nearly in the parallel upon which it is laid down, we had great

expectations of seeing it: but not finding it in the position in which

the charts had taught us to expect it, we began to fear that we had

gone too far to the westward; and therefore, though the commodore

himself was strongly persuaded that he saw it on the morning of the

28th, yet his officers believing it to be only a cloud, to which

opinion the haziness of the weather gave some kind of countenance, it

was, on a consultation, resolved to stand to the eastward, in the

parallel of the island, as it was certain that by this course we should

either fall in with the island, if we were already to the westward of

it, or should at least make the mainland of Chili, from whence we might

take a new departure, and assure ourselves, by running to the westward

afterwards, of not missing the island a second time.

On the 30th of May we had a view of the continent of Chili, distant

about twelve or thirteen leagues; the land made exceeding high and

uneven, and appeared quite white; what we saw being doubtless a part of

the Cordilleras, which are always covered with snow. Though by this

view of the land we ascertained our position, yet it gave us great

uneasiness to find that we had so needlessly altered our course, when

we were, in all probability, just upon the point of making the island;

for the mortality amongst us was now increased to a most dreadful

degree, and those who remained alive were utterly dispirited by this

new disappointment, and the prospect of their longer continuance at

sea. Our water too began to grow scarce; so that a general dejection

prevailed amongst us, which added much to the virulence of the disease,

and destroyed numbers of our best men; and to all these calamities

there was added this vexatious circumstance, that when, after having

got a sight of the {106} main, we tacked and stood to the westward in

quest of the island, we were so much delayed by calms and contrary

winds, that it cost us nine days to regain the westing which, when we

stood to the eastward, we ran down in two. In this desponding

condition, with a crazy ship, a great scarcity of fresh water, and a

crew so universally diseased that there were not above ten fore-mast

men in a watch capable of doing duty, and even some of these lame, and

unable to go aloft: under these disheartening circumstances, we stood

to the westward; and, on the 9th of June, at daybreak, we at last

discovered the long-wished-for island of Juan Fernandes. With this

discovery I shall close this chapter and the first book, after

observing (which will furnish a very strong image of our unparalleled

distresses) that by our suspecting ourselves to be to the westward of

the island on the 28th of May, and in consequence of this standing in

for the main, we lost between seventy and eighty of our men, whom we

should doubtless have saved had we made the island that day, which, had

we kept on our course for a few hours longer, we could not have failed

to have done.

{107}

BOOK II

CHAPTER I

THE ARRIVAL OF THE "CENTURION" AT THE ISLAND OF JUAN FERNANDES, WITH A

DESCRIPTION OF THAT ISLAND

On the 9th of June, at daybreak, as is mentioned in the preceding

chapter, we first descried the island of Juan Fernandes, bearing N. by

E.½E., at eleven or twelve leagues distance. And though, on this first

view, it appeared to be a very mountainous place, extremely ragged and

irregular, yet as it was land, and the land we sought for, it was to us

a most agreeable sight: because at this place only we could hope to put

a period to those terrible calamities we had so long struggled with,

which had already swept away above half our crew, and which, had we

continued a few days longer at sea, would inevitably have compleated

our destruction. For we were by this time reduced to so helpless a

condition, that out of two hundred and odd men which remained alive, we

could not, taking all our watches together, muster hands enough to work

the ship on an emergency, though we included the officers, their

servants, and the boys.

The wind being northerly when we first made the island, we kept plying

all that day, and the next night, in order to get in with the land; and

wearing the ship in the middle watch, we had a melancholy instance of

the almost incredible debility of our people; for the lieutenant could

muster no more than two quarter-masters and six fore-mast men capable

of working; so that without the assistance of the officers, servants,

and the boys, it might have proved impossible for us to have reached

the island, after we had got sight of it; and even with this assistance

they were two hours in trimming the sails: to so wretched a condition

was a sixty-gun ship reduced, which had passed Streights Le Maire but

three months before, with between four and five hundred men, almost all

of them in health and vigour.

{108}

However, on the 10th in the afternoon we got under the lee of the

island, and kept ranging along it, at about two miles distance, in

order to look out for the proper anchorage, which was described to be

in a bay on the north side. Being now nearer in with the shore, we

could discover that the broken craggy precipices, which had appeared so

unpromising at a distance, were far from barren, being in most places

covered with woods, and that between them there were everywhere

interspersed the finest vallies, clothed with a most beautiful verdure,

and watered with numerous streams and cascades, no valley of any extent

being unprovided of its proper rill. The water too, as we afterwards

found, was not inferior to any we had ever tasted, and was constantly

clear. The aspect of this country, thus diversified, would, at all

times, have been extremely delightful; but in our distressed situation,

languishing as we were for the land and its vegetable productions (an

inclination constantly attending every stage of the sea-scurvy), it is

scarcely credible with what eagerness and transport we viewed the

shore, and with how much impatience we longed for the greens and other

refreshments which were then in sight, and particularly the water, for

of this we had been confined to a very sparing allowance a considerable

time, and had then but five ton remaining on board. Those only who

have endured a long series of thirst, and who can readily recal the

desire and agitation which the ideas alone of springs and brooks have

at that time raised in them, can judge of the emotion with which we

eyed a large cascade of the most transparent water, which poured itself

from a rock near a hundred feet high into the sea at a small distance

from the ship. Even those amongst the diseased who were not in the

very last stages of the distemper, though they had been long confined

to their hammocks, exerted the small remains of strength that were left

them, and crawled up to the deck to feast themselves with this reviving

prospect. Thus we coasted the shore, fully employed in the

contemplation of this enchanting landskip, which still improved upon us

the farther we advanced. But at last the night closed upon us, before

we had satisfied ourselves which was the proper bay to anchor in; and

therefore we resolved to keep in soundings all night (we having then

from sixty-four to seventy fathom), and to send our boat next morning

to discover the road. However, the current {109} shifted in the night,

and set us so near the land that we were obliged to let go the best

bower in fifty-six fathom, not half a mile from the shore. At four in

the morning, the cutter was dispatched with our third lieutenant to

find out the bay we were in search of, who returned again at noon with

the boat laden with seals and grass; for though the island abounded

with better vegetables, yet the boat's crew, in their short stay, had

not met with them; and they well knew that even grass would prove a

dainty, as indeed it was all soon and eagerly devoured. The seals too

were considered as fresh provision, but as yet were not much admired,

though they grew afterwards into more repute: for what rendered them

less valuable at this juncture was the prodigious quantity of excellent

fish which the people on board had taken during the absence of the boat.

The cutter, in this expedition, had discovered the bay where we

intended to anchor, which we found was to the westward of our present

station; and, the next morning, the weather proving favourable, we

endeavoured to weigh, in order to proceed thither; but though, on this

occasion, we mustered all the strength we could, obliging even the

sick, who were scarce able to keep on their legs, to assist us, yet the

capstan was so weakly manned that it was near four hours before we hove

the cable right up and down: after which, with our utmost efforts, and

with many surges and some purchases we made use of to increase our

power, we found ourselves incapable of starting the anchor from the

ground. However, at noon, as a fresh gale blew towards the bay, we

were induced to set the sails, which fortunately tripped the anchor;

and then we steered along shore till we came abreast of the point that

forms the eastern part of the bay. On the opening of the bay, the

wind, that had befriended us thus far, shifted and blew from thence in

squalls; but by means of the headway we had got we loofed close in,

till the anchor brought us up in fifty-six fathom. Soon after we had

thus got to our new birth we discovered a sail, which we made no doubt

was one of our squadron; and on its nearer approach we found it to be

the _Tryal_ sloop. We immediately sent some of our hands on board her,

by whose assistance she was brought to an anchor between us and the

land. We soon found that the sloop had not been exempted from the same

calamities which we had so severely felt; for {110} her commander,

Captain Saunders, waiting on the commodore, informed him that out of

his small complement he had buried thirty-four of his men; and those

that remained were so universally afflicted with the scurvy, that only

himself, his lieutenant, and three of his men, were able to stand by

the sails. The _Tryal_ came to an anchor within us on the 12th, about

noon, and we carried our hawsers on board her, in order to moor

ourselves nearer in shore; but the wind coming off the land in violent

gusts, prevented our mooring in the birth we intended. Indeed our

principal attention was employed on business rather of more importance:

for we were now extremely occupied in sending on shore materials to

raise tents for the reception of the sick, who died apace on board, and

doubtless the distemper was considerably augmented by the stench and

filthiness in which they lay; for the number of the deceased was so

great, and so few could be spared from the necessary duty of the sails

to look after them, that it was impossible to avoid a great relaxation

in the article of cleanliness, which had rendered the ship extremely

loathsome between decks. Notwithstanding our desire of freeing the

sick from their hateful situation, and their own extreme impatience to

get on shore, we had not hands enough to prepare the tents for their

reception before the 16th; but on that and the two following days we

sent them all on shore, amounting to a hundred and sixty-seven persons,

besides twelve or fourteen who died in the boats, on their being

exposed to the fresh air. The greatest part of our sick were so infirm

that we were obliged to carry them out of the ship in their hammocks,

and to convey them afterwards in the same manner from the water-side to

their tents, over a stony beach. This was a work of considerable

fatigue to the few who were healthy, and therefore the commodore,

according to his accustomed humanity, not only assisted herein with his

own labour, but obliged his officers, without distinction, to give

their helping hand. The extreme weakness of our sick may in some

measure be collected from the numbers who died after they had got on

shore; for it had generally been found that the land, and the

refreshments it produces, very soon recover most stages of the

sea-scurvy; and we flattered ourselves, that those who had not perished

on this first exposure to the open air, but had lived to be placed in

their tents, would have been speedily restored to {111} their health

and vigour. Yet, to our great mortification, it was near twenty days

after their landing before the mortality was tolerably ceased; and for

the first ten or twelve days we buried rarely less than six each day,

and many of those who survived recovered by very slow and insensible

degrees. Indeed, those who were well enough at their first getting on

shore to creep out of their tents, and crawl about, were soon relieved,

and recovered their health and strength in a very short time; but in

the rest, the disease seemed to have acquired a degree of inveteracy

which was altogether without example.

Having proceeded thus far, and got our sick on shore, I think it

necessary, before I enter into any longer detail of our transactions,

to give a distinct account of this island of Juan Fernandes, its

situation, productions, and all its conveniencies. These particulars

we were well enabled to be minutely instructed in during our three

months' stay there; and as it is the only commodious place in those

seas where British cruisers can refresh and recover their men after

their passage round Cape Horn, and where they may remain for some time

without alarming the Spanish coast, these its advantages will merit a

circumstantial description. Indeed Mr. Anson was particularly

industrious in directing the roads and coasts to be surveyed, and other

observations to be made, knowing from his own experience of how great

consequence these materials might prove to any British vessels

hereafter employed in those seas. For the uncertainty we were in of

its position, and our standing in for the main on the 28th of May, in

order to secure a sufficient easting, when we were indeed extremely

near it, cost us the lives of between seventy and eighty of our men, by

our longer continuance at sea: from which fatal accident we might have

been exempted had we been furnished with such an account of its

situation as we could fully have depended on.

The island of Juan Fernandes lies in the latitude of 33° 40' south, and

is a hundred and ten leagues distant from the continent of Chili. It

is said to have received its name from a Spaniard, who formerly

procured a grant of it, and resided there some time with a view of

settling on it, but afterwards abandoned it. The island itself is of

an irregular figure. Its greatest extent is between four and five

leagues, and its greatest breadth somewhat short of two leagues. The

only {112} safe anchoring at this island is on the north side, where

are the three bays mentioned above, but the middlemost, known by the

name of Cumberland Bay, is the widest and deepest, and in all respects

much the best; for the other two, denominated the East and West bays,

are scarcely more than good landing-places, where boats may

conveniently put their casks on shore. Cumberland Bay is well secured

to the southward, and is only exposed from the N. by W. to the E. by

S.; and as the northerly winds seldom blow in that climate, and never

with any violence, the danger from that quarter is not worth attending

to.

As the bay last described, or Cumberland Bay, is by far the most

commodious road in the island, so it is adviseable for all ships to

anchor on the western side of this bay, within little more than two

cables' lengths of the beach. Here they may ride in forty fathom of

water, and be, in a great measure, sheltered from a large heavy sea

which comes rolling in whenever an eastern or a western wind blows. It

is however expedient, in this case, to cackle or arm the cables with an

iron chain, or good rounding, for five or six fathom from the anchor,

to secure them from being rubbed by the foulness of the ground.

I have before observed that a northerly wind, to which alone this bay

is exposed, very rarely blew during our stay here; and as it was then

winter, it may be supposed, in other seasons, to be less frequent.

Indeed, in those few instances when it was in that quarter, it did not

blow with any great force; but this perhaps might be owing to the

highlands on the southward of the bay, which checked its current, and

thereby abated its violence, for we had reason to suppose that a few

leagues off it blew with considerable strength, since it sometimes

drove before it a prodigious sea, in which we rode forecastle in. But

though the northern winds are never to be apprehended, yet the southern

winds, which generally prevail here, frequently blow off the land in

violent gusts and squalls, which, however, rarely last longer than two

or three minutes. This seems to be owing to the obstruction of the

southern gale by the hills in the neighbourhood of the bay, for the

wind being collected by this means, at last forces its passage through

the narrow vallies, which, like so many funnels, both facilitate its

escape and increase its violence. These frequent and sudden gusts make

it difficult {113} for ships to work in with the wind off shore, or to

keep a clear hawse when anchored.

The northern part of this island is composed of high craggy hills, many

of them inaccessible, though generally covered with trees. The soil of

this part is loose and shallow, so that very large trees on the hills

soon perish for want of root, and are then easily overturned; which

occasioned the unfortunate death of one of our sailors, who being upon

the hills in search of goats, caught hold of a tree upon a declivity to

assist him in his ascent, and this giving way, he immediately rolled

down the hill, and though in his fall he fastened on another tree of

considerable bulk, yet that too gave way, and he fell amongst the

rocks, and was dashed to pieces. Mr. Brett likewise met with an

accident only by resting his back against a tree, near as large about

as himself, which stood on a slope; for the tree giving way, he fell to

a considerable distance, though without receiving any injury. Our

prisoners (whom, as will be related in the sequel, we afterwards

brought in here) remarked that the appearance of the hills in some part

of the island resembled that of the mountains in Chili where the gold

is found, so that it is not impossible but mines might be discovered

here. We observed, in some places, several hills of a peculiar sort of

red earth, exceeding vermilion in colour, which perhaps, on

examination, might prove useful for many purposes. The southern, or

rather the S.W., part of the island is widely different from the rest,

being dry, stony, and destitute of trees, and very flat and low

compared with the hills on the northern part. This part of the island

is never frequented by ships, being surrounded by a steep shore, and

having little or no fresh water; and, besides, it is exposed to the

southerly wind, which generally blows here the whole year round, and in

the winter solstice very hard.

The trees of which the woods on the northern side of the island are

composed are most of them aromaticks, and of many different sorts.

There are none of them of a size to yield any considerable timber,

except the myrtle-trees, which are the largest on the island, and

supplied us with all the timber we made use of, but even these would

not work to a greater length than forty feet. The top of the

myrtle-tree is circular, and appears as uniform and regular as if it

had been clipped by art. It bears on its bark an excrescence like moss

which in taste and smell resembles garlick, and {114} was used by our

people instead of it. We found here too the piemento-tree, and

likewise the cabbage-tree, though in no great plenty. And besides a

great number of plants of various kinds, which we were not botanists

enough either to describe or attend to, we found here almost all the

vegetables which are usually esteemed to be particularly adapted to the

cure of those scorbutick disorders which are contracted by salt diet

and long voyages. For here we had great quantities of water-cresses

and purslain, with excellent wild sorrel, and a vast profusion of

turnips and Sicilian radishes: these two last, having some resemblance

to each other, were confounded by our people under the general name of

turnips. We usually preferred the tops of the turnips to the roots,

which were often stringy, though some of them were free from that

exception, and remarkably good. These vegetables, with the fish and

flesh we got here, and which I shall more particularly describe

hereafter, were not only extremely grateful to our palates, after the

long course of salt diet which we had been confined to, but were

likewise of the most salutary consequence to our sick, in recovering

and invigorating them, and of no mean service to us who were well, in

destroying the lurking seeds of the scurvy, from which perhaps none of

us were totally exempt, and in refreshing and restoring us to our

wonted strength and activity.

To the vegetables I have already mentioned, of which we made perpetual

use, I must add that we found many acres of ground covered with oats

and clover. There were also some few cabbage-trees upon the island, as

was observed before, but as they generally grew on the precipices, and

in dangerous situations, and as it was necessary to cut down a large

tree for every single cabbage, this was a dainty that we were able but

rarely to indulge in.

The excellence of the climate and the looseness of the soil render this

place extremely proper for all kinds of vegetation; for if the ground

be anywhere accidentally turned up, it is immediately overgrown with

turnips and Sicilian radishes. Mr. Anson therefore having with him

garden-seeds of all kinds, and stones of different sorts of fruits, he,

for the better accommodation of his countrymen who should hereafter

touch here, sowed both lettuces, carrots, and other garden plants, and

sett in the woods a great variety of plum, apricot, and peach stones:

and these last, he has been informed, have {115} since thriven to a

very remarkable degree, for some gentlemen, who in their passage from

Lima to Old Spain were taken and brought to England, having procured

leave to wait upon Mr. Anson, to thank him for his generosity and

humanity to his prisoners, some of whom were their relations, they, in

casual discourse with him about his transactions in the South Seas,

particularly asked him if he had not planted a great number of fruit

trees on the island of Juan Fernandes, for they told him their late

navigators had discovered there numbers of peach-trees and

apricot-trees, which being fruits before unobserved in that place, they

concluded them to have been produced from kernels sett by him.

This may in general suffice as to the soil and vegetable productions of

this place; but the face of the country, at least of the north part of

the island, is so extremely singular that I cannot avoid giving it a

particular consideration. I have already taken notice of the wild,

inhospitable air with which it first appeared to us, and the gradual

improvement of this uncouth landskip as we drew nearer, till we were at

last captivated by the numerous beauties we discovered on the shore.

And I must now add that we found, during the time of our residence

there, that the inland parts of the island did no ways fall short of

the sanguine prepossessions which we first entertained in their favour:

for the woods, which covered most of the steepest hills, were free from

all bushes and underwood, and afforded an easy passage through every

part of them, and the irregularities of the hills and precipicies, in

the northern part of the island, necessarily traced out by their

various combinations a great number of romantic vallies, most of which

had a stream of the clearest water running through them, that tumbled

in cascades from rock to rock, as the bottom of the valley, by the

course of the neighbouring hills, was at any time broken into a sudden

sharp descent. Some particular spots occurred in these vallies where

the shade and fragrance of the contiguous woods, the loftiness of the

overhanging rocks, and the transparency and frequent falls of the

neighbouring streams, presented scenes of such elegance and dignity as

would with difficulty be rivalled in any other part of the globe. It

is in this place, perhaps, that the simple productions of unassisted

nature may be said to excel all the fictitious descriptions of the most

animated imagination. I shall finish this article {116} with a short

account of that spot where the commodore pitched his tent, and which he

made choice of for his own residence, though I despair of conveying an

adequate idea of its beauty. The piece of ground which he chose was a

small lawn that lay on a little ascent, at the distance of about half a

mile from the sea. In the front of his tent there was a large avenue

cut through the woods to the seaside, which sloping to the water with a

gentle descent, opened a prospect of the bay and the ships at anchor.

This lawn was screened behind by a tall wood of myrtle sweeping round

it, in the form of a theatre, the slope on which the wood stood, rising

with a much sharper ascent than the lawn itself, though not so much but

that the hills and precipices within land towered up considerably above

the tops of the trees, and added to the grandeur of the view. There

were, besides, two streams of crystal water, which ran on the right and

left of the tent, within an hundred yards distance, and were shaded by

the trees which skirted the lawn on either side, and compleated the

symmetry of the whole.

It remains now only that we speak of the animals and provisions which

we met with at this place. Former writers have related that this

island abounded with vast numbers of goats, and their accounts are not

to be questioned, this place being the usual haunt of the buccaneers

and privateers who formerly frequented those seas. And there are two

instances--one of a Musquito Indian, and the other of Alexander

Selkirk, a Scotchman, who were left here by their respective ships, and

lived alone upon this island for some years, and consequently were no

strangers to its produce. Selkirk, who was the last, after a stay of

between four and five years, was taken off the place by the _Duke_ and

_Duchess_ privateers of Bristol, as may be seen at large in the journal

of their voyage. His manner of life during his solitude was in most

particulars very remarkable; but there is one circumstance he relates,

which was so strangely verified by our own observation, that I cannot

help reciting it. He tells us, amongst other things, that as he often

caught more goats than he wanted, he sometimes marked their ears and

let them go. This was about thirty-two years before our arrival at the

island. Now it happened that the first goat that was killed by our

people at their landing had his ears slit, whence we concluded that he

had doubtless been formerly under {117} the power of Selkirk. This was

indeed an animal of a most venerable aspect, dignified with an

exceeding majestic beard, and with many other symptoms of antiquity.

During our stay on the island we met with others marked in the same

manner, all the males being distinguished by an exuberance of beard and

every other characteristick of extreme age.

But the great numbers of goats, which former writers describe to have

been found upon this island, are at present very much diminished, as

the Spaniards, being informed of the advantages which the buccaneers

and privateers drew from the provisions which goat's flesh here

furnished them with, have endeavoured to extirpate the breed, thereby

to deprive their enemies of this relief. For this purpose they have

put on shore great numbers of large dogs, who have increased apace and

have destroyed all the goats in the accessible part of the country, so

that there now remain only a few amongst the craggs and precipices,

where the dogs cannot follow them. These are divided into separate

herds of twenty or thirty each, which inhabit distinct fastnesses, and

never mingle with each other. By this means we found it extremely

difficult to kill them, and yet we were so desirous of their flesh,

which we all agreed much resembled venison, that we got knowledge, I

believe, of all their herds, and it was conceived, by comparing their

numbers together, that they scarcely exceeded two hundred upon the

whole island. I remember we had once an opportunity of observing a

remarkable dispute betwixt a herd of these animals and a number of

dogs; for going in our boat into the eastern bay, we perceived some

dogs running very eagerly upon the foot, and being willing to discover

what game they were after, we lay upon our oars some time to view them,

and at last saw them take to a hill, where looking a little further, we

observed upon the ridge of it an herd of goats, which seemed drawn up

for their reception. There was a very narrow path skirted on each side

by precipices, on which the master of the herd posted himself fronting

the enemy, the rest of the goats being all behind him, where the ground

was more open. As this spot was inaccessible by any other path,

excepting where this champion had placed himself, the dogs, though they

ran up-hill with great alacrity, yet when they came within about twenty

yards of him, they found they durst not encounter him (for he would

infallibly {118} have driven them down the precipice), but gave over

the chace, and quietly laid themselves down panting at a great rate.

These dogs, who are masters of all the accessible parts of the island,

are of various kinds, some of them very large, and are multiplied to a

prodigious degree. They sometimes came down to our habitations at

night, and stole our provision; and once or twice they set upon single

persons, but assistance being at hand they were driven off without

doing any mischief. As at present it is rare for goats to fall in

their way, we conceived that they lived principally upon young seals,

and indeed some of our people had the curiosity to kill dogs sometimes

and dress them, and it seemed to be agreed that they had a fishy taste.

Goat's flesh, as I have mentioned, being scarce, we rarely being able

to kill above one a day, and our people growing tired of fish (which,

as I shall hereafter observe, abound at this place), they at last

condescended to eat seals, which by degrees they came to relish, and

called it lamb. The seal, numbers of which haunt this island, hath

been so often mentioned by former writers that it is unnecessary to say

anything particular about them in this place. But there is another

amphibious creature to be met with here, called a sea-lion, that bears

some resemblance to a seal, though it is much larger. This too we eat

under the denomination of beef; and as it is so extraordinary an

animal, I conceive it well merits a particular description. They are

in size, when arrived at their full growth, from twelve to twenty feet

in length, and from eight to fifteen in circumference. They are

extremely fat, so that after having cut through the skin, which is

about an inch in thickness, there is at least a foot of fat before you

can come at either lean or bones; and we experienced more than once

that the fat of some of the largest afforded us a butt of oil. They

are likewise very full of blood, for if they are deeply wounded in a

dozen places, there will instantly gush out as many fountains of blood,

spouting to a considerable distance; and to try what quantity of blood

they contained, we shot one first, and then cut its throat, and

measuring the blood that came from him, we found that besides what

remained in the vessels, which to be sure was considerable, we got at

least two hogsheads. Their skins are covered with short hair, of a

light dun colour, but their tails and their fins, which serve them for

feet on shore, are {119} almost black; their fins or feet are divided

at the ends like fingers, the web which joins them not reaching to the

extremities, and each of these fingers is furnished with a nail. They

have a distant resemblance to an overgrown seal, though in some

particulars there is a manifest difference between them, especially in

the males. These have a large snout or trunk hanging down five or six

inches below the end of the upper jaw, which the females have not, and

this renders the countenance of the male and female easy to be

distinguished from each other, and besides, the males are of a much

larger size. The largest of these animals, which was found upon the

island, was the master of the flock, and from his driving off the other

males, and keeping a great number of females to himself, he was by the

seamen ludicrously styled the Bashaw. These animals divide their time

equally between the land and sea, continuing at sea all the summer, and

coming on shore at the setting in of the winter, where they reside

during that whole season. In this interval they engender and bring

forth their young, and have generally two at a birth, which they suckle

with their milk, they being at first about the size of a full-grown

seal. During the time these sea-lions continue on shore, they feed on

the grass and verdure which grows near the banks of the fresh-water

streams; and, when not employed on feeding, sleep in herds in the most

miry places they can find out. As they seem to be of a very lethargic

disposition, and are not easily awakened, each herd was observed to

place some of their males at a distance, in the nature of sentinels,

who never failed to alarm them whenever any one attempted to molest or

even to approach them; and they were very capable of alarming, even at

a considerable distance, for the noise they make is very loud, and of

different kinds, sometimes grunting like hogs, and at other times

snorting like horses in full vigour. They often, especially the males,

have furious battles with each other, principally about their females;

and we were one day extremely surprized by the sight of two animals,

which at first appeared different from all we had ever observed, but,

on a nearer approach, they proved to be two sea-lions, who had been

goring each other with their teeth, and were covered over with blood.

And the Bashaw before mentioned, who generally lay surrounded with a

seraglio of females, which no other male dared to approach, had not

acquired that envied {120} pre-eminence without many bloody contests,

of which the marks still remained in the numerous scars which were

visible in every part of his body. We killed many of them for food,

particularly for their hearts and tongues, which we esteemed exceeding

good eating, and preferable even to those of bullocks. In general

there was no difficulty in killing them, for they were incapable either

of escaping or resisting, as their motion is the most unwieldy that can

be conceived, their blubber, all the time they are moving, being

agitated in large waves under their skins. However, a sailor one day

being carelessly employed in skinning a young sea-lion, the female from

whence he had taken it came upon him unperceived, and getting his head

in her mouth, she with her teeth scored his skull in notches in many

places, and thereby wounded him so desperately, that, though all

possible care was taken of him, he died in a few days.

These are the principal animals which we found upon the island: for we

saw but few birds, and those chiefly hawks, blackbirds, owls, and

humming birds. We saw not the pardela, which burrows in the ground,

and which former writers have mentioned to be found here; but as we

often met with their holes, we supposed that the dogs had destroyed

them, as they have almost done the cats: for these were very numerous

in Selkirk's time, but we saw not above one or two during our whole

stay. However, the rats still keep their ground, and continue here in

great numbers, and were very troublesome to us by infesting our tents

nightly.

But that which furnished us with the most delicious repasts at this

island remains still to be described. This was the fish with which the

whole bay was most plentifully stored, and with the greatest variety:

for we found here cod of a prodigious size, and by the report of some

of our crew, who had been formerly employed in the Newfoundland

fishery, not in less plenty than is to be met with on the banks of that

island. We caught also cavallies, gropers, large breams, maids, silver

fish, congers of a peculiar kind, and above all, a black fish which we

most esteemed, called by some a chimney-sweeper, in shape resembling a

carp. The beach indeed is everywhere so full of rocks and loose stones

that there is no possibility of haling the Seyne; but with hooks and

lines we caught what numbers we pleased, so that a boat with two or

three lines would return loaded with fish in about {121} two or three

hours' time. The only interruption we ever met with arose from great

quantities of dog-fish and large sharks, which sometimes attended our

boats and prevented our sport. Besides the fish we have already

mentioned, we found here one delicacy in greater perfection, both as to

size, flavour, and quantity, than is perhaps to be met with in any

other part of the world. This was sea crayfish; they generally weighed

eight or nine pounds apiece, were of a most excellent taste, and lay in

such abundance near the water's edge, that the boat-hooks often struck

into them in putting the boat to and from the shore.

These are the most material articles relating to the accommodations,

soil, vegetables, animals, and other productions of the island of Juan

Fernandes: by which it must appear how properly that place was adapted

for recovering us from the deplorable situation to which our tedious

and unfortunate navigation round Cape Horn had reduced us. And having

thus given the reader some idea of the site and circumstances of this

place, which was to be our residence for three months, I shall now

proceed in the next chapter to relate all that occurred to us in that

interval, resuming my narration from the 18th day of June, being the

day in which the _Tryal_ sloop, having by a squall been driven out to

sea three days before, came again to her moorings, the day in which we

finished the sending our sick on shore, and about eight days after our

first anchoring at this island.

{122}