_Passage from Rio de Janeiro to Port Desire; with some Description of
that Place._
On Monday the 22d, being now once more at sea, I called all hands upon
deck, and informed them, that I was not, as they imagined, bound
immediately to the East Indies, but upon certain discoveries, which it
was thought might be of great importance to our country; in
consideration of which, the lords commissioners of the Admiralty had
been pleased to promise them double pay, and several other advantages,
if during the voyage they should behave to my satisfaction. They all
expressed the greatest joy imaginable upon the occasion, and assured me,
that there was no danger or difficulty that they would not with the
utmost cheerfulness undergo in the service of their country, nor any
order that I could give them which they would not implicitly and
zealously obey.[11]
[Footnote 11: "We had all the reason possible to believe that we were
bound to the East Indies, and that we should now steer to the Cape of
Good Hope, the scheme being so well concerted by our commodore, as even
to deceive Lord Clive, who pressed him with great importunity to allow
him to take his passage in the Dolphin, we being in much greater
readiness for sea than the Kent; but to this the commodore could not
consent; but flattered his lordship with the hopes of his taking him on
board on their meeting at the Cape."]
We continued our course till Monday the 20th, having frequently hard
gales with sudden gusts, which obliged us to strike our
top-gallant-masts, and get up our stumps; but this day it blew a storm,
with a terrible sea, and the ship laboured so much, that, to ease her, I
ordered the two foremost and two aftermost guns to be thrown overboard:
The gale continued with nearly equal violence all the rest of the day,
and all night, so that we were obliged to lie-to under a double-reefed
main-sail; but in the morning, it being more moderate, and veering from
N.W. to S. by W. we made sail again, and stood to the westward. We were
now in latitude 35°50'S. and found the weather as cold as it is at the
same season in England, although the month of November here is a spring
month, answering to our May, and we were near twenty degrees neater the
Line: To us, who within little more than a week had suffered intolerable
heat, this change was most severely felt: And the men who, supposing
they were to continue in a hot climate during the whole voyage, had
contrived to sell not only all their warm clothes, but their bedding, at
the different ports where we had touched, now applied in great distress
for slops, and were all furnished for the climate.
On Friday the 2d of November, after administering the proper oaths to
the lieutenants of both ships, I delivered them their commissions; for
till this time they acted only under verbal orders from me, and expected
to receive their commissions in India, whither they imagined we were
bound. We now began to see a great number of birds about the ship, many
of them very large, of which some were brown and white, and some black:
There were among them large flocks of pintadoes, which are somewhat
larger than a pigeon, and spotted with black and white. On the 4th, we
saw a great quantity of rock weed, and several seals: The prevailing
winds were westerly, so that being continually driven to the eastward,
we foresaw that it would not be easy to get in with the coast of
Patagonia. On the 10th, we observed the water to change colour, but we
had no ground with one hundred and forty fathom. The next day we stood
in for the land till eight in the evening, when we had ground of red
sand with forty-five fathom. We steered S.W. by W. all night, and the
next morning had fifty-two fathom with the same ground: Our latitude now
being 42°34' S., longitude 58°17' W., the variation 11°1/4 E.
On Monday the 12th, about four o'clock in the afternoon, as I was
walking on the quarter-deck, all the people upon the forecastle called
out at once, "Land right a-head;" it was then very black almost round
the horizon, and we had had much thunder and lightning; I looked forward
under the fore-sail, and upon the lee-bow, and saw what at first
appeared to be an island, rising in two rude craggy hills, but upon
looking to leeward I saw land joining to it, and running a long way to
the south-east: We were then steering S.W. and I sent officers to the
mast-head to look out upon the weather-beam, and they called out that
they saw land also a great way to the windward. I immediately brought
to, and sounded; we had still fifty-two fathom, but I thought that we
were embayed, and rather wished than hoped that we should get clear
before night. We made sail and steered E.S.E. the land still having the
same appearance, and the hills looking blue, as they generally do at a
little distance in dark rainy weather, and now many of the people said
that they saw the sea break upon the sandy beaches; but having steered
out for about an hour, what we had taken for land vanished all at once,
and to our astonishment appeared to have been a fog-bank. Though I had
been almost continually at sea for seven-and-twenty years, I had never
seen such a deception before; others, however, have been equally
deceived; for the master of a ship not long since made oath, that he had
seen an island between the west end of Ireland and Newfoundland, and
even distinguished the trees that grew upon it Yet it is certain that no
such island exists, at least it could never be found, though several
ships were afterwards sent out on purpose to seek it. And I am sure,
that if the weather had not cleared up soon enough for us to see what we
had taken for land disappear, every man on board would freely have made
oath, that land had been discovered in this situation.
The next day, at four o'clock in the afternoon, the weather being
extremely fine, the wind shifted at once to the S.W. and began to blow
fresh, the sky at the same time becoming black to windward: In a few
minutes all the people that were upon the deck were alarmed with a
sudden and unusual noise, like the breaking of the sea upon the shore. I
ordered the top-sails to be handed immediately; but before it could be
done, I saw the sea approaching at some distance, in vast billows
covered with foam; I called to the people to haul up the fore-sail, and
let go the main-sheet instantly; for I was persuaded that if we had any
sail out when the gust reached us, we should either be overset, or lose
all our masts. It reached us, however, before we could raise the main
tack, and laid us upon our beam-ends; the main tack was then cut for it
was become impossible to cast it off; and the main sheet struck down the
first lieutenant, bruised him dreadfully, and beat out three of his
teeth: the main-topsail, which was not quite handed, was split to
pieces. If this squall, which came on with less warning and more
violence than any I had ever seen, had taken us in the night, I think
the ship must have been lost. When it came on we observed several
hundred of birds flying before it, which expressed their terror by loud
shrieks; it lasted about twenty minutes, and then gradually subsided.
The Tamar split her main-sail, but as she was to leeward of us, she had
more time to prepare. In a short time it began to blow very hard again,
so that we reefed our main-sail, and lay-to all night. As morning
approached the gale became more moderate, but we had still a great sea,
and the wind shifting to S. by W. we stood to the westward under our
courses. Soon after it was light, the sea appeared as red as blood,
being covered with a small shell-fish of that colour, somewhat
resembling our cray-fish, but less, of which we took up great quantities
in baskets.
At half an hour past four in the morning of the 15th of November, we saw
land, which had the appearance of an island about eight or nine leagues
long, there being no land in sight either to the northward or southward,
though by the charts it should be Cape Saint Helena, which projects from
the coast to a considerable distance, and forms two bays, one to the
north, and the other to the south. As the weather was very fine, I
tacked and stood in for it about ten o'clock; but as there were many
sunken rocks at about two leagues distance from it, upon which the sea
broke very high, and the wind seemed to be gradually dying away, I
tacked again and stood off. The land appeared to be barren and rocky,
without either tree or bush: When I was nearest to it I sounded, and had
forty-five fathom, with black muddy ground. To my great misfortune, my
three lieutenants and the master were at this time so ill as to be
incapable of duty, though the rest of the ship's company were in good
health.
The next day I shaped my course by the chart in the account of Lord
Anson's voyage, for Cape Blanco. In the evening it blew extremely hard
at S.W. by S. so that we brought to for the night under our main-sail.
In the morning we made sail again, but we had a great sea; and although,
it was now almost Midsummer in these parts, the weather was, in every
respect, much worse than it is in the Bay of Biscay at the depth of
winter. About six in the evening, having carried all the sail I could,
we made land, bearing about S.S.W. which, as we had a good observation
of the sun, we knew to be Cape Blanco; but it now began to blow with
more violence than ever, and the storm continued all night, with a sea
that was continually breaking over us, so that the ship laboured very
much. At four in the morning, we sounded and had forty fathom, with
rocky ground; having stood off in the night, we now wore and stood in
again, the storm still continuing with hail and snow; and about six
o'clock we saw the land again, bearing S.W. by W. The ship was now so
light, that in a gale of wind she drove bodily to leeward; so that I was
very solicitous to get into Port Desire,[12] that I might put her hold
in order, and take in sufficient ballast, to avoid the danger of being
caught upon a lee-shore in her present trim. We steered in for the land
with the wind at N.E. and in the evening brought to; but the wind coming
to the westward, we were driven off in the night. At seven the next
morning, we stood in again, steering S.W. by S. by the compass, and soon
perceived the sea to break right a-head of us; we immediately sounded,
and shoaled our water from thirteen to seven fathom, soon after
deepening it again from seventeen to forty-two; so that we went over the
end of a shoal, which a little farther to the northward might have been
fatal to us. Cape Blanco at this time bore W.S.W. 1/2 S. distant four
leagues: But we were still at a loss for Port Desire, it being
impossible that any description should be more confused than that which
Sir John Narborough has given of this harbour. I stood into a bay to the
southward of the cape, as he directs, but could find no such place; I
therefore stood along the shore to the southward, the wind blowing off
the land very hard, and saw several large columns of smoke rising in
many places, but no tree or bush, the country resembling in appearance
the barren downs of England. We observed also that the water was
frequently very shallow at the distance of seven or eight miles from the
shore, for we had many times not more than ten fathom.
[Footnote 12: So called after the name of his ship, the Desire, by Sir
Thomas Candish, or Cavendish, who put in there on the 27th of November,
1586. See vol. x.p. 70--E.]
We continued to stand along the shore all day as near as possible, and
in the evening we saw an island at the distance of about six leagues; in
the morning we stood in for it, and found that it corresponded with
Narborough's description of Penguin Island. As Port Desire is said to
lie about three leagues north-west of this island, I sent the boat to
look for it, and when she returned, having found it, I stood in for the
land. There were thousands of seals and penguins about the ship, and
near Penguin Island several smaller islands, or rather rocks. In the
evening we saw a remarkable rock, rising from the water like a steeple,
on the south side of the entrance of Port Desire; this rock is an
excellent mark to know the harbour, which it would otherwise be
difficult to find. At night, there being little wind, we anchored at the
distance of four or five miles from the shore; and in the morning, with
a breeze from the land, we turned up the harbour's mouth; we found it
very narrow, with many rocks and shoals about it, and the most rapid
tide I had ever known. I came to an anchor off the harbour in nine
fathom, the entrance of the river being open, and bearing W.S.W. Penguin
Island S.E. 1/2 E. distant about three leagues; the Steeple Rock S.W.
by. W. the northermost land N.N.W. and two rocks, which are covered at
half tide, and lie at the southermost extremity of a reef which runs
from the same land, N.E. by N. I mention all these bearings
particularly, because I think it may be of importance to future
navigators, especially as the descriptions that have been given of this
place by the few who have already visited it, are extremely defective.
The wind blew very hard the greater part of this day, and there ran an
ugly sea where we were stationed, yet I ordered our two boats to sound
the harbour, and attended in my own boat myself. We found it very narrow
for near two miles, with a tide running at the rate of eight miles an
hour; we found also many rocks and shoals, but all the danger shows
itself above water. When we came to the shore I landed, and walked a
little way into the country, which as far as I could see was all downs,
without a single tree or shrub. We saw the dung of many beasts, and had
a glimpse of four, which ran away as soon as we came in sight, so that
we could not certainly determine what they were; but we believed them to
be guanicoes, many of which we afterwards saw come down to the
water-side; they resemble our deer, but are much larger, the height of
some being not less than thirteen hands; they are very shy and very
swift. After I returned to my boat, I went farther up the harbour, and
landed upon an island that was covered with seals, of which we killed
above fifty, and among them many that were larger than a bullock, having
before half-loaded our boat with different kinds of birds, of which, and
seals, there are enough to supply the navy of England. Among the birds
one was very remarkable; the head resembled that of an eagle, except
that it had a large comb upon it; round the neck there was a white ruff,
exactly resembling a lady's tippet; the feathers on the back were as
black as jet, and as bright as the finest polish could render that
mineral; the legs were remarkably strong and large, the talons were like
those of an eagle, except that they were not so sharp, and the wings,
when they were extended, measured from point to point no less than
twelve feet.
The Tamar worked into the harbour with the tide of flood, but I kept my
station with the Dolphin till I should have a leading wind, and the wind
shifting to the eastward, I weighed about five o'clock in the afternoon,
intending to go up with the evening flood: Before I could get under
sail, however, the wind shifted again to N.W. by N. and it being low
water, the ship lying but just within the harbour, and there being no
tide to assist us, we were obliged to anchor near the south shore. The
wind came off the land in very hard flaws, and in a short time our
anchor coming home, the ship tailed on shore against a steep gravelly
beach. The anchoring ground, indeed, as far as we had yet sounded, was
bad, being very hard; so that, in this situation, if the wind blows
fresh, there is always the greatest reason to fear that the anchor
should come home before the ship can be brought up. While we were on
shore, it began to blow very hard, and the tide running like a sluice,
it was with the utmost difficulty that we could carry an anchor to heave
us off; however, after about four hours hard labour, this was effected,
and the ship floated in the stream. As there was only about six or seven
feet of the after-part of her that touched the ground, there was reason
to hope that she had suffered no damage; however, I determined to unhang
the rudder, that it might be examined.
During all this night and the next morning the wind blew with great
violence, and we had let go our best bower anchor when we were near the
shore, in hopes it would have brought us up, and had not yet been able
to weigh it. We now rode in a very disagreeable situation with our small
bower, and that unfortunately came home again; we therefore got a hawser
out of the Tamar, who lay in the stream, and after weighing the small
bower, we got out by her assistance, and then dropped it again, most
ardently wishing for fair weather, that we might get the ship properly
moored.
The next day we sounded the harbour higher up, and found the ground
softer, and the water not so deep; yet the wind continued to blow so
hard that we could not venture to change our station. We had found a
small spring of water about half a mile inland, upon the north side of
the bay, but it had a brackish taste; I had also made another excursion
of several miles into the country, which I found barren and desolate,
in every direction, as far as the eye could reach. We had seen many
guanicoes at a distance, but we could not get near enough to have a shot
at them; we tracked beasts of several kinds in the soil, near a pond of
salt water, and among them a very large tyger: We found also a nest of
ostrich's eggs, which we eat, and thought very good. It is probable that
all the animals which had left marks of their feet near the salt pond,
drank the water, and indeed we saw no fresh water for them. The spring
that we had found, which was not perfectly fresh, was the only one of
the kind that we had been able to discover; and for that we had been
obliged to dig, there being no appearance of it except a slight moisture
of the ground.
On the 24th, upon slack water, we carried both the ships higher up and
moored them: The extreme points of the harbour's mouth at low water bore
from E. by S.1/4 S. to E.; and the Steeple rock S.E.1/4 E. We had here, at
low water, but six fathom; but at spring tides the water rises no less
than four fathom and a half, which is seven-and-twenty feet. The tide
indeed in this place is such as perhaps it is not in any other.[13] It
happened by some accident that one of our men fell overboard; the boats
were all alongside, and the man was an exceeding good swimmer, yet
before any assistance could be sent after him, the rapidity of the
stream, had hurried him almost out of sight; we had however at last the
good fortune to save him. This day I was again on shore, and walked six
or seven miles up the country: I saw several hares as large as a fawn; I
shot one of them, which weighed more than six and twenty pounds, and if
I had had a good greyhound, I dare say the ship's company might have
lived upon hare two days in the week. In the mean time the people on
board were busy in getting up all the cables upon deck, and clearing the
hold, that a proper quantity of ballast might be taken in, and the guns
lowered into it, except a few which it might be thought necessary to
keep above.
[Footnote 13: "The harbour itself is not much more than half a mile
over. On the south shore is a remarkable rock in the form of a tower,
which appears on entering the harbour's mouth. Abreast of this rock we
lay at anchor in seven or eight fathom water, moored to the east and
west, with both bowers, which we found extremely necessary, on account
of the strong tide that regularly ebbs and flows every twelve hours.
Indeed the ebb is so rapid, that we found by our log-line it continued
to run five or six knots an hour; and in ten minutes after the ebb is
past, the flood returns with equal velocity; besides, the wind generally
blows during the whole night out of the harbour."]
On the 25th, I went a good way up the harbour in the boat, and having
landed on the north side, we soon after found an old oar of a very
singular make, and the barrel of a musket, with the king's broad arrow
upon it. The musket-barrel had suffered so much from the weather, that
it might be crumbled to dust between the fingers: I imagined it had been
left there by the Wager's people, or perhaps by Sir John Narborough.
Hitherto we had found no kind of vegetables except a species of wild
peas; but though we had seen no inhabitants, we saw places where they
had made their fires, which however did not appear to be recent. While
we were on shore we shot some wild ducks and a hare; the hare ran two
miles after he was wounded, though it appeared when he was taken up that
a ball had passed quite through his body. I went this day many miles up
the country, and had a long chace after one of the guanicoes, which was
the largest we had seen: He frequently stopped to look at us, when he
had left us at a good distance behind, and made a noise that resembled
the neighing of a horse; but when we came pretty near him he set out
again, and at last, my dog being so tired that he could not run him any
longer, he got quite away from us, and we saw him no more. We shot a
hare however, and a little ugly animal which stunk so intolerably that
none of us could go near him. The flesh of the hares here is as white as
snow, and nothing can be better tasted. A serjeant of marines, and some
others who were on shore at another part of the bay, had better success
than fell to our share, for they killed two old guanicoes and a fawn;
they were however obliged to leave them where they fell, not being able
to bring them down to the water side, near six miles, without farther
assistance, though they were but half the weight of those that are
mentioned by Sir John Narborough; some however I saw, which could not
weigh less than seven or eight and thirty stone, which is about three
hundred pounds. When we returned in the evening it blew very hard, and
the deck being so full of lumber that we could not hoist the boats in,
we moored them astern. About midnight, the storm continuing, our
six-oared cutter filled with water and broke adrift; the boat-keeper, by
whose neglect this accident happened, being on board her, very narrowly
escaped drowning by catching hold of the stern ladder. As it was tide
of flood when she went from the ship, we knew that she must drive up the
harbour; yet as the loss of her would be an irremediable misfortune, I
suffered much anxiety till I could send after her in the morning, and it
was then some hours before she was brought back, having driven many
miles with the stream. In the mean time, I sent another party to fetch
the guanicoes which our people had shot the night before; but they found
nothing left except the bones, the tygers having eaten the flesh, and
even cracked the bones of the limbs to come at the marrow. Several of
our people had been fifteen miles up the country in search of fresh
water, but could not find the least rill: We had sunk several wells to a
considerable depth where the ground appeared moist, but upon visiting
them, I had the mortification to find that, altogether, they would not
yield more than thirty gallons in twenty-four hours: This was a
discouraging circumstance, especially as our people, among other
expedients, had watched the guanicoes, and seen them drink at the salt
ponds. I therefore determined to leave the place as soon as the ship
could be got into a little order, and the six-oared cutter repaired,
which had been hauled up upon the beach for that purpose.
On the 27th, some of our people, who had been ashore on the north side
of the bay to try for more guanicoes, found the skull and bones of a
man, which they brought off with them, and one young guanicoe alive,
which we all agreed was one of the most beautiful creatures we had ever
seen: It soon grew very tame, and would suck our fingers like a calf;
but, notwithstanding all our care and contrivances to feed it, it died
in a few days. In the afternoon of this day it blew so hard that I was
obliged to keep a considerable number of hands continually by the
sheet-anchor, as there was too much reason to fear that our cables would
part, which however did not happen. In the mean time, some of our people
that were on shore with the carpenters, who were repairing the cutter on
the south side of the bay, found two more springs of tolerable water
about two miles from the beach, in a direct line from the ship's
station. To these springs I sent twenty hands early in the morning with
some small casks, called barecas, and in a few turns they brought on
board a tun of water, of which we began to be in great want. In the mean
time, I went myself about twelve miles up the river in my boat, and the
weather then growing bad, I went on shore: The river, as far as I could
see, was very broad; there were in it a number of islands, some of which
were very large, and I make no doubt but that it penetrates the country
for some hundreds of miles. It was upon one of the islands that I went
on shore, and I found there such a number of birds, that when they rose
they literally darkened the sky, and we could not walk a step without
treading upon their eggs. As they kept hovering over our heads at a
little distance, the men knocked down many of them with stones and
sticks, and carried off several hundreds of their eggs. After some time
I left the island and landed upon the main, where our men dressed and
eat their eggs, though there were young birds in most of them. I saw no
traces of inhabitants on either side of the river, but great numbers of
guanicoes, in herds of sixty or seventy together: They would not however
suffer us to approach them, but stood and gazed at us from the hills, in
this excursion the surgeon, who was of my party, shot a tyger cat, a
small but very fierce animal; for, though it was much wounded, it
maintained a very sharp contest with my dog for a considerable time
before it was killed.[14]
[Footnote 14: "On the south shore the rocks are not so numerous as on
the north side; and there are more hills and deep vallies; but they are
covered only by high grass and a few small shrubs. Hence this is but a
bad place to touch at, by any ship that is under the necessity of
wooding and watering. Our commodore, in order to clear the ground of the
overgrown grass, which grew in some places in great quantities, and also
to improve the soil, which appeared to be of a barren sandy nature, gave
orders for the grass to be set on fire in different places, which was no
sooner done, than the flames ran so fast, that in less than half an hour
they spread several miles round."]
On the 29th, we completed our ballast, which the strength of the tide,
and the constant gales of wind, rendered a very difficult and laborious
task; we also got on board another tun of water. On the morning of the
30th, the weather was so bad that we could not send a boat on shore; but
employed all hands on board in setting up the rigging. It grew more
moderate however about noon, and I then sent a boat to procure more
water. The two men who first came up to the well found there a large
tyger lying upon the ground; having gazed at each other some time, the
men, who had no fire-arms, seeing the beast treat them with as much
contemptuous neglect as the lion did the knight of La Mancha, begun to
throw stones at him: Of this insult, however, he did not deign to take
the least notice, but continued stretched upon the ground in great
tranquillity till the rest of the party came up, and then he very
leisurely rose and walked away.
On the first of December, our cutter being thoroughly repaired, we took
her on board, but the weather was so bad that we could not get off any
water: The next day we struck the tents which had been set up at the
watering-place, and got all ready for sea. The two wells from which, we
got our water bear about S.S.E. of the Steeple rock, from which they are
distant about two miles and a half; but I fixed a mark near them, that
they might be still more easily found than by their bearings. During our
stay in this harbour, we sounded every part of it with great care, as
high as a ship could go, and found that there is no danger but what may
be seen at low water; so that now fresh water is found, though at some
distance from the beach, it would be a very convenient place for ships
to touch at, if it were not for the rapidity of the tide. The country
about the bay abounds with guanicoes, and a great variety of wild fowl,
particularly ducks, geese, widgeon, and sea-pies, besides many others
for which we have no name. Here is also such plenty of excellent
mussels, that a boat may be loaded with them every time it is low water.
Wood indeed is scarce; however in some parts of this coast there are
bushes, which in a case of necessity might produce a tolerable supply of
fuel.
On Wednesday the 5th of December, I unmoored, in order to get out, but
the best bower came up foul, and before we could heave short upon the
small bower, the tide of ebb made strong; for at this place slack water
scarcely continues ten minutes; so that we were obliged to wait till it
should be low water. Between five and six in the evening, we weighed,
and steered out E.N.E. with a fresh gale at N.N.W.