THE WRECK OF THE WAGER (CONTINUED)--THE ADVENTURES OF THE CAPTAIN'S PARTY.
When the ship was wrecked there remained alive on board the Wager near a
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, was as many as
the barge and the yawl--the only embarkations left them--could well carry
off. It was on 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, was then on the beach, three cheers at their
departure. It was the 29th of January following before they arrived at
Rio Grande, on the coast of Brazil; and having by various accidents, left
about twenty of their people on shore at the different places they
touched at, and a greater number having perished by hunger during the
course of their navigation, there were no more than thirty of them left
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; and 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.
When 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 after 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
shellfish and a few herbs; and as the greatest part of what they had got
from the ship was carried off in the long-boat, the captain and his
people were often in great necessity, especially as they chose to
preserve what little sea-provisions remained for their store when they
should go to the northwards.
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 a 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.
STRUGGLING WITH DISASTER.
This was a terrible misfortune in a part of the world where food is so
difficult to be got; however, they still persisted in their design,
putting on shore as often as they could to seek subsistence. But, about a
fortnight after, another dreadful accident befell them, for the yawl sank
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. But they still kept on their course to the northward, struggling
with their disasters, and greatly delayed by the perverseness of the
winds and frequent interruptions which their search after food
occasioned; 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 to
give over this expedition, the difficulties of which appeared
insuperable, 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 with several
pieces of beef which had been washed out of the ship and were swimming in
the sea. This was a most seasonable relief to them after the hardships
they had endured; and to complete their good fortune, there came in a
short time two canoes of Indians, amongst whom 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.
By this means there were left on shore Captain Cheap, Mr. Hamilton,
lieutenant of marines; the Honourable Mr. Byron and Mr. Campbell,
midshipman; and Mr. Elliot, the surgeon. One would have thought 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 provisions 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 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. But 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
murdered; but 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.
CHILOE.
About the middle of March, Captain Cheap and the four who were left with
him set out for Chiloe, the Indian having procured a number of canoes,
and got 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 thither till two months
after. Thus, above a twelvemonth after the loss of the Wager, ended this
fatiguing peregrination, which by a variety of misfortunes had diminished
the company 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, and their want 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 Santiago, the capital of Chile 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
Santiago, chose to go back overland to Buenos Ayres with Pizarro and his
officers, with whom he went afterwards to Spain on board the Asia; and
there having 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, and 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 as the
change of his religion and his offering himself to the Court of Spain
(though 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 catastrophe of the Wager, I
shall again resume the thread of our own story.