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
On the first appearance of the _Anna_ pink, it seemed wonderful to us
how the crew of a vessel, which came to this rendezvous two months
after us, should be capable of working their ship in the manner they
did, with so little appearance of debility and distress. But this
difficulty was soon solved when she came to an anchor; for we then
found that they had been in harbour since the middle of May, which was
near a month before we arrived at Juan Fernandes: so that their
sufferings (the risk they had run of shipwreck only excepted) were
greatly short of what had been undergone by the rest of the squadron.
It seems, on the 16th of May, they fell in with the land, which was
then but four leagues distant, in the latitude of 45° 15' south. On
the first sight of it they wore ship and stood to the southward, but
their fore top-sail splitting, and the wind being W.S.W., they drove
towards the shore; and the captain at last, either unable to clear the
land, or, as others say, resolved to keep the sea no longer, steered
for the coast, with a view of discovering some shelter amongst the many
islands which then appeared in sight: and about four hours after the
first view of the land, the pink had the good fortune to come to an
anchor to the eastward of the island of Inchin; but as they did not run
sufficiently near to the east shore of that island, and had not hands
enough to veer away the cable briskly, they were soon driven to the
eastward, deepning their water from twenty-five fathom to thirty-five,
and still continuing to drive, they, the next day, the 17th of May, let
go their sheet-anchor. This, though it brought them up for a short
time, yet, on the 18th, they drove again, till they came into
sixty-five fathom water, and were now within a mile of the {133} land,
and expected to be forced on shore every moment, in a place where the
coast was so very high and steep, too, that there was not the least
prospect of saving the ship or cargo. As their boats were very leaky,
and there was no appearance of a landing-place, the whole crew,
consisting of sixteen men and boys, gave themselves over for lost,
apprehending that if any of them by some extraordinary chance should
get on shore, they would, in all probability, be massacred by the
savages on the coast: for these, knowing no other Europeans but
Spaniards, it might be expected they would treat all strangers with the
same cruelty which they had so often and so signally exerted against
their Spanish neighbours. Under these terrifying circumstances, the
pink drove nearer and nearer to the rocks which formed the shore; but
at last, when the crew expected each instant to strike, they perceived
a small opening in the land, which raised their hopes; and immediately
cutting away their two anchors, they steered for it, and found it to be
a small channel betwixt an island and the main, that led them into a
most excellent harbour, which, for its security against all winds and
swells, and the smoothness of its water, may perhaps compare with any
in the known world. And this place being scarcely two miles distant
from the spot where they deemed their destruction inevitable, the
horrors of shipwreck and of immediate death, which had so long and so
strongly possessed them, vanished almost instantaneously, and gave
place to the more joyous ideas of security, refreshment, and repose.
In this harbour, discovered in this almost miraculous manner, the pink
came to an anchor in twenty-five fathom water, with only a hawser and a
small anchor of about three hundredweight. Here she continued for near
two months, and here her people, who were many of them ill of the
scurvy, were soon restored to perfect health by the fresh provisions,
of which they procured good store, and the excellent water with which
the adjacent shore abounded. As this place may prove of the greatest
importance to future navigators, who may be forced upon this coast by
the westerly winds, which are almost perpetual in that part of the
world, I shall, before I enter into any farther particulars of the
adventures of the pink, give the best account I could collect of this
port, its situation, conveniencies, and productions.
{134}
The latitude of this harbour, which is indeed a material point, is not
well ascertained, the pink having no observation either the day before
she came here, or within a day of her leaving it. But it is supposed
that it is not very distant from 45° 30' south, and the large extent of
the bay before the harbour renders this uncertainty of less moment.
The island of Inchin lying before the bay is thought to be one of the
islands of Chonos which are mentioned in the Spanish accounts as
spreading all along that coast, and are said by them to be inhabited by
a barbarous people, famous for their hatred of the Spaniards, and for
their cruelties to such of that nation as have fallen into their hands;
and it is possible too that the land, on which the harbour itself lies,
may be another of those islands, and that the continent may be
considerably farther to the eastward. The depths of water in the
different parts of the port, and the channels by which it communicates
with the bay, are sufficiently marked. But it must be remembered that
there are two coves in it, where ships may conveniently heave down, the
water being constantly smooth; and there are several fine runs of
excellent fresh water which fall into the harbour, some of them so
luckily situated that the casks may be filled in the long-boat with an
hose. The most remarkable of these is the stream in the N.E. part of
the port. This is a fresh-water river, where the pink's people got
some few mullets of an excellent flavour, and they were persuaded that
in a proper season (it being winter when they were there) it abounded
with fish. The principal refreshments they met with in this port were
greens, as wild celery, nettle-tops, etc. (which after so long a
continuance at sea they devoured with great eagerness); shell-fish, as
cockles and muscles of an extraordinary size, and extremely delicious;
and good store of geese, shags, and penguins. The climate, though it
was the depth of winter, was not remarkably rigorous, nor the trees and
the face of the country destitute of verdure, whence in the summer many
other species of fresh provisions, besides these here enumerated, might
doubtless be found there. Notwithstanding the tales of the Spanish
historians in relation to the violence and barbarity of the
inhabitants, it doth not appear that their numbers are sufficient to
give the least jealousy to any ship of ordinary force, or that their
disposition is by any means so mischievous {135} or merciless as hath
hitherto been represented. With all these advantages, this place is so
far removed from the Spanish frontier, and so little known to the
Spaniards themselves, that there is reason to suppose that by proper
precautions a ship might continue here undiscovered a long time. It is
moreover a post of great defence, for by possessing the island that
closes up the harbour, and which is accessible in very few places, a
small force might secure this port against all the strength the
Spaniards could muster in that part of the world, since this island
towards the harbour is steep too, and has six fathom water close to the
shore, so that the pink anchored within forty yards of it. Whence it
is obvious how impossible it would prove, either to board or to cut out
any vessel protected by a force posted on shore within pistol-shot, and
where those who were thus posted could not themselves be attacked. All
these circumstances seem to render this port worthy of a more accurate
examination; and it is to be hoped that the important uses which this
rude account of it seems to suggest may hereafter recommend it to the
consideration of the public, and to the attention of those who are more
immediately entrusted with the conduct of our naval affairs.
After this description of the place where the pink lay for two months,
it may be expected that I should relate the discoveries made by the
crew on the adjacent coast, and the principal incidents during their
stay there; but here I must observe, that, being only a few in number,
they did not dare to detach any of their people on distant searches,
for they were perpetually terrified with the apprehension that they
should be attacked either by the Spaniards or the Indians; so that
their excursions were generally confined to that tract of land which
surrounded the port, and where they were never out of view of the ship.
Though had they at first known how little foundation there was for
these fears, yet the country in the neighbourhood was so grown up with
wood, and traversed with mountains, that it appeared impracticable to
penetrate it: whence no account of the inland parts could be expected
from them. Indeed they were able to disprove the relations given by
Spanish writers, who have represented this coast as inhabited by a
fierce and powerful people, for they were certain that no such
inhabitants were there to be found, at least during the {136} winter
season, since all the time they continued there, they saw no more than
one Indian family, which came into the harbour in a periagua, about a
month after the arrival of the pink, and consisted of an Indian near
forty years old, his wife, and two children, one three years of age and
the other still at the breast. They seemed to have with them all their
property, which was a dog and a cat, a fishing-net, a hatchet, a knife,
a cradle, some bark of trees intended for the covering of a hut, a
reel, some worsted, a flint and steel, and a few roots of a yellow hue
and a very disagreeable taste which served them for bread. The master
of the pink, as soon as he perceived them, sent his yawl, who brought
them on board; and fearing, lest they might discover him, if they were
permitted to go away, he took, as he conceived, proper precautions for
securing them, but without any mixture of ill usage or violence, for in
the daytime they were permitted to go where they pleased about the
ship, but at night were locked up in the forecastle. As they were fed
in the same manner with the rest of the crew, and were often indulged
with brandy, which they seemed greatly to relish, it did not at first
appear that they were much dissatisfied with their situation,
especially as the master took the Indian on shore when he went a
shooting (who always seemed extremely delighted when the master killed
his game), and as all the crew treated them with great humanity; but it
was soon perceived, that though the woman continued easy and chearful,
yet the man grew pensive and restless at his confinement. He seemed to
be a person of good natural parts, and though not capable of conversing
with the pink's people, otherwise than by signs, was yet very curious
and inquisitive, and shewed great dexterity in the manner of making
himself understood. In particular, seeing so few people on board such
a large ship, he let them know that he supposed they were once more
numerous; and to represent to them what he imagined was become of their
companions, he laid himself down on the deck closing his eyes, and
stretching himself out motionless, to imitate the appearance of a dead
body. But the strongest proof of his sagacity was the manner of his
getting away, for after being in custody on board the pink eight days,
the scuttle of the forecastle, where he and his family were locked up
every night, happened to be unnailed, and the following night being
extremely dark and stormy, {137} he contrived to convey his wife and
children through the unnailed scuttle, and then over the ship's side
into the yawl; and to prevent being pursued, he cut away the long-boat
and his own periagua, which were towing astern, and immediately rowed
ashore. All this he conducted with so much diligence and secrecy, that
though there was a watch on the quarter-deck with loaded arms, yet he
was not discovered by them till the noise of his oars in the water,
after he had put off from the ship, gave them notice of his escape; and
then it was too late either to prevent him, or to pursue him, for,
their boats being all adrift, it was a considerable time before they
could contrive the means of getting on shore themselves to search for
their boats. The Indian, too, by this effort, besides the recovery of
his liberty, was in some sort revenged on those who had confined him,
both by the perplexity they were involved in from the loss of their
boats, and by the terror he threw them in at his departure, for on the
first alarm of the watch, who cried out, "the Indians!" the whole ship
was in the utmost confusion, believing themselves to be boarded by a
fleet of armed periaguas.
The resolution and sagacity with which the Indian behaved upon this
occasion, had it been exerted on a more extensive object than the
retrieving the freedom of a single family, might perhaps have
immortalized the exploit, and have given him a rank amongst the
illustrious names of antiquity. Indeed his late masters did so much
justice to his merit as to own that it was a most gallant enterprize,
and that they were grieved they had ever been necessitated, by their
attention to their own safety, to abridge the liberty of a person of
whose prudence and courage they had now such a distinguished proof. As
it was supposed by some of them that he still continued in the woods in
the neighbourhood of the port, where it was feared he might suffer for
want of provisions, they easily prevailed upon the master to leave a
quantity of such food as they thought would be most agreeable to him in
a particular part where they imagined he would be likely to find it,
and there was reason to conjecture that this piece of humanity was not
altogether useless to him, for, on visiting the place some time after,
it was found that the provision was gone, and in a manner that made
them conclude it had fallen into his hands.
But, however, though many of them were satisfied that {138} this Indian
still continued near them, yet others would needs conclude that he was
gone to the island of Chiloe, where they feared he would alarm the
Spaniards, and would soon return with a force sufficient to surprize
the pink. On this occasion the master of the pink was prevailed on to
omit firing the evening gun; for it must be remembered (and there is a
particular reason hereafter for attending to this circumstance) that
the master, from an ostentatious imitation of the practice of
men-of-war, had hitherto fired a gun every evening at the setting of
the watch. This he pretended was to awe the enemy, if there was any
within hearing, and to convince them that the pink was always on her
guard, but it being now represented to him that his great security was
his concealment, and that the evening gun might possibly discover him
and serve to guide the enemy to him, he was prevailed on to omit it for
the future; and his crew being now well refreshed, and their wood and
water sufficiently replenished, he, in a few days after the escape of
the Indian, put to sea, and had a fortunate passage to the rendezvous
at the island of Juan Fernandes, where he arrived on the 16th of
August, as hath been already mentioned in the preceding chapter.
This vessel, the _Anna_ pink, was, as I have observed, the last that
joined the commodore at Juan Fernandes. The remaining ships of the
squadron were the _Severn_, the _Pearl_, and the _Wager_ store-ship.
The _Severn_ and _Pearl_ parted company with the squadron off Cape
Noir, and, as we afterwards learnt, put back to the Brazils, so that of
all the ships which came into the South Seas, the _Wager_, Captain
Cheap, was the only one that was missing. This ship had on board a few
field-pieces mounted for land-service, together with some cohorn
mortars, and several kinds of artillery stores and pioneers' tools
intended for the operations on shore. Therefore, as the enterprise on
Baldivia had been resolved on for the first undertaking of the
squadron, Captain Cheap was extremely solicitous that these materials,
which were in his custody, might be ready before Baldivia; that if the
squadron should possibly rendezvous there (as he knew not the condition
they were then reduced to), no delay nor disappointment might be
imputed to him.
But whilst the _Wager_, with these views, was making the best of her
way to her first rendezvous off the island of Socoro, whence (as there
was little probability of meeting {139} any of the squadron there) she
proposed to steer directly for Baldivia, she made the land on the 14th
of May, about the latitude of 47° south; and the captain exerting
himself on this occasion, in order to get clear of it, he had the
misfortune to fall down the after-ladder, and dislocated his shoulder,
which rendered him incapable of acting. This accident, together with
the crazy condition of the ship, which was little better than a wreck,
prevented her from getting off to sea, and entangled her more and more
with the land, insomuch that the next morning, at daybreak, she struck
on a sunken rock, and soon after bilged and grounded between two small
islands at about a musket-shot from the shore.
In this situation the ship continued entire a long time, so that all
the crew had it in their power to get safe on shore; but a general
confusion taking place, numbers of them, instead of consulting their
safety, or reflecting on their calamitous condition, fell to pillaging
the ship, arming themselves with the first weapons that came to hand,
and threatening to murder all who should oppose them. This frenzy was
greatly heightened by the liquors they found on board, with which they
got so extremely drunk that some of them, falling down between decks,
were drowned, as the water flowed into the wreck, being incapable of
raising themselves up and retreating from it. The captain, therefore,
having done his utmost to get the whole crew on shore, was at last
obliged to leave the mutineers behind him, and to follow his officers,
and such as he had been able to prevail on, but he did not fail to send
back the boats to persuade those who remained to have some regard to
their preservation, though all his efforts were for some time without
success. However, the weather next day proving stormy, and there being
great danger of the ship's parting, they began to be alarmed with the
fears of perishing, and were desirous of getting to land; but it seems
their madness had not yet left them, for the boat not appearing to
fetch them off so soon as they expected, they at last pointed a
four-pounder, which was on the quarter-deck, against the hut, where
they knew the captain resided on shore, and fired two shot, which
passed but just over it.
From this specimen of the behaviour of part of the crew, it will not be
difficult to frame some conjecture of the disorder and anarchy which
took place when they at last got all on shore. For the men conceived
that, by the loss of the {140} ship, the authority of the officers was
at an end, and they being now on a desolate coast, where scarcely any
other provisions could be got except what should be saved out of the
wreck, this was another unsurmountable source of discord, since the
working upon the wreck, and the securing the provisions, so that they
might be preserved for future exigences as much as possible, and the
taking care that what was necessary for their present subsistance might
be sparingly and equally distributed, were matters not to be brought
about but by discipline and subordination; and the mutinous disposition
of the people, stimulated by the impulses of immediate hunger, rendered
every regulation made for this purpose ineffectual, so that there were
continual concealments, frauds, and thefts, which animated each man
against his fellow, and produced infinite feuds and contests. And
hence there was a perverse and malevolent disposition constantly kept
up amongst them, which rendered them utterly ungovernable.
Besides these heart-burnings occasioned by petulence and hunger, there
was another important point which set the greatest part of the people
at variance with the captain. This was their differing with him in
opinion on the measures to be pursued in the present exigency: for the
captain was determined, if possible, to fit up the boats in the best
manner he could, and to proceed with them to the northward, since
having with him above an hundred men in health, and having gotten some
fire-arms and ammunition from the wreck, he did not doubt but they
could master any Spanish vessel they should encounter with in those
seas, and he thought he could not fail of meeting with one in the
neighbourhood of Chiloe or Baldivia, in which, when he had taken her,
he intended to proceed to the rendezvous at Juan Fernandes; and he
farther insisted that should they light on no prize by the way, yet the
boats alone would easily carry them thither. But this was a scheme
that, however prudent, was no ways relished by the generality of his
people; for, being quite jaded with the distresses and dangers they had
already run through, they could not think of prosecuting an enterprise
farther which had hitherto proved so disastrous. The common resolution
therefore was to lengthen the long-boat, and with that and the rest of
the boats to steer to the southward, to pass through the Streights of
Magellan, {141} and to range along the east side of South America till
they should arrive at Brazil, where they doubted not to be well
received, and to procure a passage to Great Britain. This project was
at first sight infinitely more hazardous and tedious than what was
proposed by the captain; but as it had the air of returning home, and
flattered them with the hopes of bringing them once more to their
native country, that circumstance alone rendered them inattentive to
all its inconveniences, and made them adhere to it with insurmountable
obstinacy; so that the captain himself, though he never changed his
opinion, was yet obliged to give way to the torrent, and in appearance
to acquiesce in this resolution, whilst he endeavoured underhand to
give it all the obstruction he could, particularly in the lengthening
the long-boat, which he contrived should be of such a size, that though
it might serve to carry them to Juan Fernandes, would yet, he hoped,
appear incapable of so long a navigation as that to the coast of Brazil.
But the captain, by his steady opposition at first to this favourite
project, had much embittered the people against him, to which likewise
the following unhappy accident greatly contributed. There was a
midshipman whose name was Cozens, who had appeared the foremost in all
the refractory proceedings of the crew. He had involved himself in
brawls with most of the officers who had adhered to the captain's
authority, and had even treated the captain himself with great abuse
and insolence. As his turbulence and brutality grew every day more and
more intolerable, it was not in the least doubted but there were some
violent measures in agitation, in which Cozens was engaged as the
ringleader: for which reason the captain, and those about him,
constantly kept themselves on their guard. One day the purser, having,
by the captain's order, stopped the allowance of a fellow who would not
work, Cozens, though the man did not complain to him, intermeddled in
the affair with great bitterness, and grossly insulted the purser, who
was then delivering out provisions just by the captain's tent, and was
himself sufficiently violent. The purser, enraged by his scurrility,
and perhaps piqued by former quarrels, cried out, "A mutiny," adding,
"The dog has pistols," and then himself fired a pistol at Cozens, which
however mist him: but the captain, on this outcry and the report of the
pistol, rushed out of his tent, {142} and, not doubting but it had been
fired by Cozens as the commencement of a mutiny, he immediately shot
him in the head without farther deliberation, and though he did not
kill him on the spot, yet the wound proved mortal, and he died about
fourteen days after.
However, this incident, though sufficiently displeasing to the people,
did yet, for a considerable time, awe them to their duty, and rendered
them more submissive to the captain's authority; but at last, when
towards the middle of October the long-boat was nearly compleated, and
they were preparing to put to sea, the additional provocation he gave
them by covertly traversing their project of proceeding through the
Streights of Magellan, and their fears that he might at length engage a
party sufficient to overturn this favourite measure, made them resolve
to make use of the death of Cozens as a reason for depriving him of his
command, under pretence of carrying him a prisoner to England, to be
tried for murder; and he was accordingly confined under a guard. But
they never intended to carry him with them, as they too well knew what
they had to apprehend on their return to England, if their commander
should be present to confront them: and therefore, when they were just
ready to put to sea, they set him at liberty, leaving him and the few
who chose to take their fortunes with him no other embarkation but the
yawl, to which the barge was afterwards added, by the people on board
her being prevailed on to return back.
When the ship was wreckt, there were alive on board the _Wager_ near an
hundred and thirty persons; of these above thirty died during their
stay upon the place, and near eighty went off in the long-boat and the
cutter to the southward: so that there remained with the captain, after
their departure, no more than nineteen persons, which, however, were as
many as the barge and the yawl, the only embarkations left them, could
well carry off. It was the 13th of October, five months after the
shipwreck, that the long-boat, converted into a schooner, weighed, and
stood to the southward, giving the captain, who, with Lieutenant
Hamilton of the land forces, and the surgeon, were then on the beach,
three cheers at their departure: and on the 29th of January following
they arrived at Rio Grande, on the coast of Brazil; but having, by
various accidents, left about twenty of their people on shore at the
different places they touched at, and a {143} greater number having
perished by hunger during the course of their navigation, there were no
more than thirty of them remaining when they arrived in that port.
Indeed, the undertaking of itself was a most extraordinary one; for
(not to mention the length of the run) the vessel was scarcely able to
contain the number that first put to sea in her, and their stock of
provisions (being only what they had saved out of the ship) was
extremely slender. They had this additional misfortune besides, that
the cutter, the only boat they had with them, soon broke away from the
stern, and was staved to pieces; so that when their provision and their
water failed them, they had frequently no means of getting on shore to
search for a fresh supply.
After the long-boat and cutter were gone, the captain, and those who
were left with him, proposed to pass to the northward in the barge and
yawl: but the weather was so bad, and the difficulty of subsisting so
great, that it was two months from the departure of the long-boat
before he was able to put to sea. It seems the place where the _Wager_
was cast away was not a part of the continent, as was first imagined,
but an island at some distance from the main, which afforded no other
sorts of provision but shell-fish and a few herbs; and as the greatest
part of what they had gotten from the ship was carried off in the
long-boat, the captain and his people were often in extreme want of
food, especially as they chose to preserve what little sea provisions
remained, for their store when they should go to the northward. During
their residence at this island, which was by the seamen denominated
Wager's Island, they had now and then a straggling canoe or two of
Indians, which came and bartered their fish and other provisions with
our people. This was some little relief to their necessities, and at
another season might perhaps have been greater: for as there were
several Indian huts on the shore, it was supposed that in some years,
during the height of summer, many of these savages might resort thither
to fish: indeed, from what has been related in the account of the
_Anna_ pink, it should seem to be the general practice of those Indians
to frequent this coast in the summer time for the benefit of fishing,
and to retire in the winter into a better climate, more to the
northward.
On this mention of the _Anna_ pink, I cannot but observe {144} how much
it is to be lamented that the _Wager's_ people had no knowledge of her
being so near them on the coast; for as she was not above thirty
leagues distant from them, and came into their neighbourhood about the
same time the _Wager_ was lost, and was a fine roomy ship, she could
easily have taken them all on board, and have carried them to Juan
Fernandes. Indeed, I suspect she was still nearer to them than what is
here estimated; for several of the _Wager's_ people, at different
times, heard the report of a cannon, which I conceive could be no other
than the evening gun fired from the _Anna_ pink, especially as what was
heard at Wager's Island was about the same time of the day. But to
return to Captain Cheap.
Upon the 14th of December, the captain and his people embarked in the
barge and the yawl, in order to proceed to the northward, taking on
board with them all the provisions they could amass from the wreck of
the ship; but they had scarcely been an hour at sea, when the wind
began to blow hard, and the sea ran so high that they were obliged to
throw the greatest part of their provisions overboard, to avoid
immediate destruction. This was a terrible misfortune, in a part of
the world where food is so difficult to be got: however, they persisted
in their design, putting on shore as often as they could to seek
subsistance. But about a fortnight after, another dreadful accident
befel them, for the yawl sunk at an anchor, and one of the men in her
was drowned; and as the barge was incapable of carrying the whole
company, they were now reduced to the hard necessity of leaving four
marines behind them on that desolate shore. Notwithstanding these
disasters, they still kept on their course to the northward, though
greatly delayed by the perverseness of the winds, and the frequent
interruptions which their search after food occasioned, and constantly
struggling with a series of the most sinister events, till at last,
about the end of January, having made three unsuccessful attempts to
double a headland, which they supposed to be what the Spaniards called
Cape Tres Montes, it was unanimously resolved, finding the difficulties
insurmountable, to give over this expedition, and to return again to
Wager Island, where they got back about the middle of February, quite
disheartened and dejected with their reiterated disappointments, and
almost perishing with hunger and fatigue.
However, on their return they had the good luck to meet {145} with
several pieces of beef, which had been washed out of the wreck and were
swimming in the sea. This was a most seasonable relief to them after
the hardships they had endured: and to compleat their good fortune,
there came, in a short time, two canoes of Indians, amongst which was a
native of Chiloe, who spoke a little Spanish; and the surgeon, who was
with Captain Cheap, understanding that language, he made a bargain with
the Indian, that if he would carry the captain and his people to Chiloe
in the barge, he should have her and all that belonged to her for his
pains. Accordingly, on the 6th of March, the eleven persons to which
the company was now reduced embarked in the barge on this new
expedition; but after having proceeded for a few days, the captain and
four of his principal officers being on shore, the six, who together
with an Indian remained in the barge, put off with her to sea, and did
not return again.
By this means there were left on shore Captain Cheap, Mr. Hamilton,
lieutenant of marines, the Honourable Mr. Byron and Mr. Campbell,
midshipmen, and Mr. Elliot the surgeon. One would have thought that
their distresses had long before this time been incapable of
augmentation; but they found, on reflection, that their present
situation was much more dismaying than anything they had yet gone
through, being left on a desolate coast without any provision, or the
means of procuring any; for their arms, ammunition, and every
conveniency they were masters of, except the tattered habits they had
on, were all carried away in the barge.
But when they had sufficiently revolved in their own minds the various
circumstances of this unexpected calamity, and were persuaded that they
had no relief to hope for, they perceived a canoe at a distance, which
proved to be that of the Indian who had undertaken to carry them to
Chiloe, he and all his family being then on board it. He made no
difficulty of coming to them; for it seems he had left Captain Cheap
and his people a little before to go a-fishing, and had in the meantime
committed them to the care of the other Indian, whom the sailors had
carried to sea in the barge. When he came on shore, and found the
barge gone and his companion missing, he was extremely concerned, and
could with difficulty be persuaded that the other Indian was not {146}
murdered; yet being at last satisfied with the account that was given
him, he still undertook to carry them to the Spanish settlements, and
(as the Indians are well skilled in fishing and fowling) to procure
them provisions by the way.
About the middle of March, Captain Cheap and the four who were left
with him set out for Chiloe, the Indian having provided a number of
canoes, and gotten many of his neighbours together for that purpose.
Soon after they embarked, Mr. Elliot, the surgeon, died, so that there
now remained only four of the whole company. At last, after a very
complicated passage by land and water, Captain Cheap, Mr. Byron, and
Mr. Campbell arrived in the beginning of June at the island of Chiloe,
where they were received by the Spaniards with great humanity; but, on
account of some quarrel among the Indians, Mr. Hamilton did not get
there till two months later. Thus was it above a twelvemonth from the
loss of the _Wager_ before this fatiguing peregrination ended: and not
till by a variety of misfortunes the company was diminished from twenty
to no more than four, and those too brought so low that, had their
distresses continued but a few days longer, in all probability none of
them would have survived. For the captain himself was with difficulty
recovered, and the rest were so reduced by the severity of the weather,
their labour, their want of food, and of all kinds of necessaries, that
it was wonderful how they supported themselves so long. After some
stay at Chiloe, the captain and the three who were with him were sent
to Valparaiso, and thence to St. Jago, the capital of Chili, where they
continued above a year: but on the advice of a cartel being settled
betwixt Great Britain and Spain, Captain Cheap, Mr. Byron, and Mr.
Hamilton were permitted to return to Europe on board a French ship.
The other midshipman, Mr. Campbell, having changed his religion whilst
at St. Jago, chose to go back to Buenos Ayres with Pizarro and his
officers, with whom he went afterwards to Spain on board the _Asia_;
but having there failed in his endeavours to procure a commission from
the court of Spain, he returned to England, and attempted to get
reinstated in the British navy. He has since published a narration of
his adventures, in which he complains of the injustice that had been
done him, and strongly disavows his ever being in the Spanish service:
but {147} as the change of his religion, and his offering himself to
the court of Spain (though he was not accepted), are matters which, he
is conscious, are capable of being incontestably proved, on these two
heads he has been entirely silent. And now, after this account of the
accidents which befel the _Anna_ pink, and the catastrophe of the
_Wager_, I shall again resume the thread of our own story.
{148}