OUR PROCEEDINGS AT CHEQUETAN AND ON THE ADJACENT COAST, TILL OUR
SETTING SAIL FOR ASIA
The next morning after our coming to an anchor in the harbour of
Chequetan, we sent about ninety of our men well armed on shore; forty
of whom were ordered to march into the country, as hath been mentioned,
and the remaining fifty were employed to cover the watering-place, and
to prevent any interruption from the natives.
Here we compleated the unloading of the _Carmelo_ and _Carmin_, which
we had begun at sea; that is to say, we took out of them the indico,
cacao, and cochineal, with some iron for ballast, which were all the
goods we intended to preserve, though they did not amount to a tenth of
their cargoes. Here too it was agreed, after a mature consultation, to
destroy the _Tryal's_ prize, as well as the _Carmelo_ and _Carmin_,
whose fate had been before resolved on. Indeed the _Tryal's_ prize was
in good repair, and fit for the sea; but as the whole numbers on board
our squadron did not amount to the complement of a fourth-rate
man-of-war, we found it was impossible to divide them into three ships
without rendering each of those ships incapable of navigating in safety
through the tempestuous weather we had reason to expect on the coast of
China, where we supposed we should arrive about the time of the change
of the monsoons. These considerations determined the commodore to
destroy the _Tryal's_ prize, and to reinforce the _Gloucester_ with the
best part of the crew. And in consequence of this resolve, all the
stores on board the _Tryal's_ prize were removed into the other ships,
and the prize herself, with the _Carmelo_ and _Carmin_, were prepared
for scuttling with all the expedition we were masters of; but the great
difficulties we were under in providing a store of water (which have
been already touched on), together with the necessary repairs of our
rigging and other unavoidable occupations, took us up so much time,
{249} and found us such unexpected employment, that it was near the end
of April before we were in a condition to leave the place.
During our stay here there happened an incident which, as it proved the
means of convincing our friends in England of our safety, which for
some time they had despaired of, and were then in doubt about, I shall
beg leave particularly to recite. I have observed, in the preceding
chapter, that from this harbour of Chequetan there was but one pathway
which led through the woods into the country. This we found much
beaten, and were thence convinced that it was well known to the
inhabitants. As it passed by the spring-head, and was the only avenue
by which the Spaniards could approach us, we, at some distance beyond
the spring-head, felled several large trees, and laid them one upon the
other across the path; and at this barricadoe we constantly kept a
guard. We besides ordered our men employed in watering to have their
arms ready, and, in case of any alarm, to march instantly to this post.
And though our principal intention herein was to prevent our being
disturbed by any sudden attack of the enemy's horse, yet it answered
another purpose which was not in itself less important: this was to
hinder our own people from straggling singly into the country, where we
had reason to believe they would be surprized by the Spaniards, who
would doubtless be extremely solicitous to pick up some of them in
hopes of getting intelligence of our future designs. To avoid this
inconvenience, the strictest orders were given to the centinels to let
no person whatever pass beyond their post. But notwithstanding this
precaution, we missed one Lewis Leger, who was the commodore's cook.
As he was a Frenchman, and was suspected to be a Papist, it was at
first imagined that he had deserted, with a view of betraying all that
he knew to the enemy; though this appeared, by the event, to be an
ill-grounded surmise, for it was afterwards known that he had been
taken by some Indians, who carried him prisoner to Acapulco, from
whence he was transferred to Mexico, and then to Vera Cruz, where he
was shipped on board a vessel bound to Old Spain. But the vessel being
obliged by some accident to put into Lisbon, Leger escaped on shore,
and was by the British consul sent from thence to England, where he
brought the first authentick account of the safety of the commodore,
and of his principal transactions {250} in the South Seas. The
relation he gave of his own seizure was that he rambled into the woods
at some distance from the barricadoe, where he had first attempted to
pass, but had been stopped and threatened to be punished; that his
principal view was to get a quantity of limes for his master's store,
and that in this occupation he was surprized unawares by four Indians,
who stripped him naked, and carried him in that condition to Acapulco,
exposed to the scorching heat of the sun, which at that time of the
year shone with its greatest violence; that afterwards at Mexico his
treatment in prison was sufficiently severe; so that the whole course
of his captivity was a continued instance of the hatred which the
Spaniards bear to all those who endeavour to disturb them in the
peaceable possession of the coasts of the South Seas. Indeed Leger's
fortune was, upon the whole, extremely singular, as, after the hazards
he had run in the commodore's squadron, and the severities he had
suffered in his long confinement amongst the enemy, a more fatal
disaster attended him on his return to England: for though, when he
arrived in London, some of Mr. Anson's friends interested themselves in
relieving him from the poverty to which his captivity had reduced him,
yet he did not long enjoy the benefit of their humanity, since he was
killed in an insignificant night-brawl, the cause of which could
scarcely be discovered.
And on occasion of this surprizal of Leger, I must observe, that though
the enemy never appeared in sight during our stay in the harbour, yet
we perceived that large parties of them were encamped in the woods
about us; for we could see their smokes, and could thence determine
that they were posted in a circular line surrounding us at a distance;
and just before our coming away they seemed, by the increase of their
fires, to have received a considerable reinforcement. But to return.
Towards the latter end of April, the unloading of our three prizes, our
wooding and watering, and in short, every one of our proposed
employments at the harbour of Chequetan, were compleated: so that, on
the 27th of April, the _Tryal's_ prize, the _Carmelo_, and the
_Carmin_, all which we here intended to destroy, were towed on shore
and scuttled, a quantity of combustible materials having been
distributed in their upper works: and the next morning the _Centurion_
with the _Gloucester_ weighed anchor, though as there was but little
{251} wind, and that not in their favour, they were obliged to warp out
of the harbour. When they had reached the offing, one of the boats was
dispatched back again to set fire to our prizes, which was accordingly
executed. After this a canoe was left fixed to a grapnel in the middle
of the harbour, with a bottle in it well corked, inclosing a letter to
Mr. Hughes, who commanded the cutter, which had been ordered to cruise
before the port of Acapulco when we ourselves quitted that station.
And on this occasion I must mention more particularly than I have yet
done the views of the commodore in leaving the cutter before that port.
When we were necessitated to proceed for Chequetan to recruit our
water, Mr. Anson considered that our arrival in that harbour would soon
be known at Acapulco; and therefore he hoped that on the intelligence
of our being employed in port, the galeon might put to sea, especially
as Chequetan is so very remote from the course generally steered by the
galeon. He therefore ordered the cutter to cruise twenty-four days off
the port of Acapulco, and her commander was directed, on perceiving the
galeon under sail, to make the best of his way to the commodore at
Chequetan. As the _Centurion_ was doubtless a much better sailor than
the galeon, Mr. Anson, in this case, resolved to have got to sea as
soon as possible, and to have pursued the galeon across the Pacifick
Ocean: where supposing he should not have met with her in his passage
(which, considering that he would have kept nearly the same parallel,
was very improbable), yet he was certain of arriving off Cape Espiritu
Santo, on the island of Samal, before her; and that being the first
land she makes on her return to the Philippines, we could not have
failed to have fallen in with her by cruising a few days in that
station. However, the Viceroy of Mexico ruined this project by keeping
the galeon in the port of Acapulco all that year.
The letter left in the canoe for Mr. Hughes, the commander of the
cutter, the time of whose return was now considerably elapsed, directed
him to go back immediately to his former station before Acapulco, where
he would find Mr. Anson, who resolved to cruise for him there a certain
number of days; after which it was added that the commodore would
return to the southward to join the rest of the squadron. This last
article was inserted to deceive the Spaniards, if they got possession
of the canoe, as we afterwards learnt they did; {252} but could not
impose on Mr. Hughes, who well knew that the commodore had no squadron
to join, nor any intention of steering back to Peru.
Being now in the offing of Chequetan, bound across the vast Pacifick
Ocean in our way to China, we were impatient to run off the coast as
soon as possible, since the stormy season was approaching apace. As we
had no farther views in the American seas, we had hoped that nothing
would have prevented us from steering to the westward the moment we got
out of the harbour of Chequetan: and it was no small mortification to
us that our necessary employment there had detained us so much longer
than we expected, but now, when we had put to sea, we were farther
detained by the absence of the cutter, and the necessity we were under
of standing towards Acapulco in search of her. Indeed, as the time of
her cruise had been expired for near a fortnight, we suspected that she
had been discovered from the shore, and that the Governor of Acapulco
had thereupon sent out a force to seize her, which, as she carried but
six hands, was no very difficult enterprize. However, this being only
conjecture, the commodore, as soon as he was got clear of the harbour
of Chequetan, stood along the coast to the eastward in search of her:
and to prevent her from passing by us in the dark, we brought to every
night, and the _Gloucester_, whose station was a league within us
towards the shore, carried a light, which the cutter could not but
perceive if she kept along shore, as we supposed she would do; besides,
as a farther security, the _Centurion_ and _Gloucester_ alternately
shewed two false fires every half-hour. Indeed, had she escaped us,
she would have found orders in the canoe to have returned immediately
before Acapulco, where Mr. Anson proposed to cruise for her some days.
By Sunday, the 2d of May, we were advanced within three leagues of
Acapulco, and having seen nothing of our boat, we gave her over as
lost, which, besides the compassionate concern for our ship-mates, and
for what it was apprehended they might have suffered, was in itself a
misfortune, which, in our present scarcity of hands, we were all
greatly interested in: since the crew of the cutter, consisting of six
men and the lieutenant, were the very flower of our people, purposely
picked out for this service, and known to be every one of them of tried
and approved resolution, and as skilful seamen {253} as ever trod a
deck. However, as it was the general belief among us that they were
taken and carried into Acapulco, the commodore's prudence suggested a
project which we hoped would recover them. This was founded on our
having many Spanish and Indian prisoners in our possession, and a
number of sick negroes, who could be of no service to us in the
navigating of the ship. The commodore therefore wrote a letter the
same day to the Governor of Acapulco, telling him that he would release
them all provided the governor returned the cutter's crew. This letter
was dispatched in the afternoon by a Spanish officer, of whose honour
we had a good opinion, and who was furnished with a launch belonging to
one of our prizes and a crew of six other prisoners, who gave their
parole for their return. The Spanish officer too, besides the
commodore's letter, carried with him a joint petition, signed by all
the rest of the prisoners, beseeching the governor to acquiesce in the
terms proposed for their liberty. From a consideration of the number
of our prisoners and the quality of some of them, we did not doubt but
the governor would readily comply with Mr. Anson's proposal, and
therefore we kept plying on and off the whole night, intending to keep
well in with the land that we might receive an answer at the limited
time, which was the next day, being Monday. But both on Monday and
Tuesday we were driven so far off shore that we could not hope that any
answer could reach us; and even on the Wednesday morning we found
ourselves fourteen leagues from the harbour of Acapulco; however, as
the wind was then favourable, we pressed forwards with all our sail,
and did not doubt of getting in with the land that afternoon. Whilst
we were thus standing in, the centinel called out from the mast-head
that he saw a boat under sail at a considerable distance to the
south-eastward. This we took for granted was the answer of the
governor to the commodore's message, and we instantly edged towards
her; but as we approached her we found, to our unspeakable joy, that it
was our own cutter. And though, while she was still at a distance, we
imagined that she had been discharged out of the port of Acapulco by
the governor; yet, when she drew nearer, the wan and meagre
countenances of the crew, the length of their beards, and the feeble
and hollow tone of their voices, convinced us that they had suffered
much greater hardships than could be expected {254} from even the
severities of a Spanish prison. They were obliged to be helped into
the ship, and were immediately put to bed, where by rest and nourishing
diet, which they were plentifully supplied with from the commodore's
table, they recovered their health and vigour apace. And now we learnt
that they had kept the sea the whole time of their absence, which was
above six weeks; that when they had finished their cruise before
Acapulco, and had just begun to ply to the westward, in order to join
the squadron, a strong adverse current had forced them down the coast
to the eastward, in spight of all their efforts to the contrary, that
at length, their water being all expended, they were obliged to search
the coast farther on to the eastward in quest of some convenient
landing-place where they might get a fresh supply; that in this
distress they ran upwards of eighty leagues to leeward, and found
everywhere so large a surf that there was not the least possibility of
their landing; that they passed some days in this dreadful situation
without water, having no other means left them to allay their thirst
than sucking the blood of the turtle which they caught; that at last,
giving up all hopes of succour, the heat of the climate too augmenting
their necessities, and rendering their sufferings insupportable, they
abandoned themselves to despair, fully persuaded that they should
perish by the most terrible of all deaths; but that soon after a most
unexpected incident happily relieved them. For there fell so heavy a
rain, that on spreading their sails horizontally, and putting bullets
in the centers of them to draw them to a point, they caught as much
water as filled all their casks; that immediately upon this fortunate
supply they stood to the westward in quest of the commodore; and being
now luckily favoured by a strong current, they joined us in less than
fifty hours from that time, after having been absent in the whole full
forty-three days. Those who have an idea of the inconsiderable size of
a cutter belonging to a sixty-gun ship (being only an open boat about
twenty-two feet in length), and who will reflect on the various
casualties that must have attended her during a six weeks' continuance
alone, in the open ocean, on so impracticable and dangerous a coast,
will readily own that her return to us at last, after all the
difficulties which she actually experienced, and the dangers to which
she was each hour exposed, may be considered as little short of
miraculous.
{255}
I cannot finish this article of the cutter without remarking how
slender a reliance navigators ought to have on the accounts of the
buccaneer writers; for though in this run of hers, eighty leagues to
the eastward of Acapulco, she found no place where it was possible that
a boat could land; yet those writers have not been ashamed to feign
harbours and convenient watering-places within these limits, thereby
exposing such as should confide in their relations to the risque of
being destroyed by thirst.
I must farther add on this occasion that, when we stood near the port
of Acapulco, in order to send our message to the governor, and to
receive his answer, Mr. Brett took that opportunity of delineating a
view of the entrance of the port and of the neighbouring coast, which,
added to the plan of the place formerly mentioned, may be of
considerable use hereafter.
Having thus recovered our cutter, the sole object of our coming a
second time before Acapulco, the commodore determined not to lose a
moment's time more, but to run off the coast with the utmost
expedition, both as the stormy season on the coast of Mexico was now
approaching apace, and as we were apprehensive of having the westerly
monsoon to struggle with when we came upon the coast of China: for this
reason we no longer stood towards Acapulco, as at present we wanted no
answer from the governor. However, Mr. Anson resolved not to deprive
his prisoners of the liberty which he had promised them; and therefore
they were all immediately embarked in two launches which belonged to
our prizes, those from the _Centurion_ in one launch, and those from
the _Gloucester_ in the other. The launches were well equipped with
masts, sails, and oars; and lest the wind might prove unfavourable,
they had a stock of water and provisions put on board them sufficient
for fourteen days. There were discharged thirty-nine persons from on
board the _Centurion_, and eighteen from the _Gloucester_, the greatest
part of them Spaniards, the rest being Indians and sick negroes.
Indeed, as our crews were very weak, we kept the Mulattoes and some of
the stoutest of our negroes with a few Indians to assist us; but we
dismissed every Spanish prisoner whatever. We have since learnt that
these two launches arrived safe at Acapulco, where the prisoners could
not enough extol the humanity with which they had been treated. It
seems the {256} governor, before their arrival, had returned a very
obliging answer to our letter, and had at the same time ordered out two
boats laden with the choicest refreshments and provisions that were to
be procured at Acapulco, which he intended as a present to the
commodore: but these boats not having found our ships, were at length
obliged to put back again, after having thrown all their provisions
overboard in a storm which threatened their destruction.
The sending away our prisoners was our last transaction on the American
coast; for no sooner had we parted with them than we and the
_Gloucester_ made sail to the S.W., proposing to get a good offing from
the land, where we hoped, in a few days, to meet with the regular
trade-wind, which the accounts of former navigators had represented as
much brisker and steadier in this ocean than in any other part of the
world: for it has been esteemed no uncommon passage to run from hence
to the eastermost isles of Asia in two months; and we flattered
ourselves that we were as capable of making an expeditious voyage as
any ships that had ever sailed this course before us; so that we hoped
soon to gain the coast of China, for which we were now bound. As we
conceived this navigation to be free from all kinds of embarrassment of
bad weather, fatigue, or sickness, conformable to the general idea of
it given by former travellers, we consequently undertook it with
alacrity, especially as it was no contemptible step towards our arrival
at our native country, for which many of us by this time began to have
great longings. Thus, on the 6th of May, we, for the last time, lost
sight of the mountains of Mexico, persuaded that in a few weeks we
should arrive at the river of Canton in China, where we expected to
meet with many English ships and with numbers of our countrymen; and
hoped to enjoy the advantages of an amicable, well-frequented port,
inhabited by a polished people and abounding with the conveniences and
indulgencies of a civilized life; blessings which now for near twenty
months had never been once in our power. But, before we take our final
leave of America, there yet remains the consideration of a matter well
worthy of attention, the discussion of which shall be referred to the
ensuing chapter.
{257}