THE LADRONES SIGHTED--TINIAN.
The 23rd, at daybreak, we were cheered with the discovery of two islands
in the western board. This gave us all great joy, and raised our drooping
spirits, for before this a universal dejection had seized us, and we
almost despaired of ever seeing land again. The nearest of these islands
we afterwards found to be Anatacan. The other was the island of Serigan,
and had rather the appearance of a high rock than a place we could hope
to anchor at. We were extremely impatient to get in with the nearest
island, where we expected to meet with anchoring ground and an
opportunity of refreshing our sick; but the wind proved so variable all
day, and there was so little of it, that we advanced towards it but
slowly. However, by the next morning we were got so far to the westward
that we were in view of a third island, which was that of Paxaros, though
marked in the chart only as a rock. This was small and very low land, and
we had passed within less than a mile of it in the night without seeing
it. And now at noon, being within four miles of the island of Anatacan,
the boat was sent away to examine the anchoring ground and the produce of
the place, and we were not a little solicitous for her return, as we then
conceived our fate to depend upon the report we should receive; for the
other two islands were obviously enough incapable of furnishing us with
any assistance, and we knew not then that there were any others which we
could reach. In the evening the boat came back, and the crew informed us
that there was no place for a ship to anchor.
This account of the impossibility of anchoring at this island occasioned
a general melancholy on board, for we considered it as little less than
the prelude to our destruction; and now the only possible circumstance
that could secure the few that remained alive from perishing was the
accidental falling in with some other of the Ladrone Islands better
prepared for our accommodation, and as our knowledge of these islands was
extremely imperfect, we were to trust entirely to chance for our
guidance; only, as they are all of them usually laid down near the same
meridian, and we had conceived those we had already seen to be part of
them, we concluded to stand to the southward as the most probable means
of falling in with the next. Thus, with the most gloomy persuasion of our
approaching destruction, we stood from the island of Anatacan, having all
of us the strongest apprehensions either of dying of the scurvy or
perishing with the ship, which, for want of hands to work her pumps,
might in a short time be expected to founder.
TINIAN.
It was the 26th of August, 1742, in the morning, when we lost sight of
Anatacan. The next morning we discovered three other islands to the
eastward, which were from ten to fourteen leagues from us. These were, as
we afterwards learned, the islands of Saypan, Tinian and Aguigan. We
immediately steered towards Tinian, which was the middle-most of the
three, but had so much of calms and light airs, that though we were
helped forwards by the currents, yet next day at daybreak we were at
least five leagues distant from it. However, we kept on our course, and
about ten in the morning we perceived a proa under sail to the southward,
between Tinian and Aguigan. As we imagined from hence that these islands
were inhabited, and knew that the Spaniards had always a force at Guam,
we took the necessary precautions for our own security and for preventing
the enemy from taking advantage of our present wretched circumstances, of
which they would be sufficiently informed by the manner of our working
the ship. We therefore mustered all our hands who were capable of
standing to their arms and loaded our upper and quarter-deck guns with
grapeshot, and that we might the more readily procure some intelligence
of the state of these islands, we showed Spanish colours and hoisted a
red flag at the foretop masthead, to give our ship the appearance of the
Manila galleon, hoping thereby to decoy some of the inhabitants on board
us. Thus preparing ourselves, and standing towards the land, we were near
enough at three in the afternoon to send the cutter in shore to find out
a proper berth for the ship, and we soon perceived that a proa came off
the shore to meet the cutter, fully persuaded, as we afterwards found,
that we were the Manila ship. As we saw the cutter returning back with
the proa in tow, we immediately sent the pinnace to receive the proa and
the prisoners, and to bring them on board that the cutter might proceed
on her errand. The pinnace came back with a Spaniard and four Indians,
who were the people taken in the proa. The Spaniard was immediately
examined as to the produce and circumstances of this island of Tinian,
and his account of it surpassed even our most sanguine hopes, for he
informed us that it was uninhabited, which, in our present defenceless
condition, was an advantage not to be despised, especially as it wanted
but few of the conveniences that could be expected in the most cultivated
country; for he assured us that there was great plenty of very good
water, and that there were an incredible number of cattle, hogs, and
poultry, running wild on the island, all of them excellent in their kind;
that the woods produced sweet and sour oranges, limes, lemons, and
cocoa-nuts in great plenty, besides a fruit peculiar to these islands
(called by Dampier breadfruit); that, from the quantity and goodness of
the provisions produced here, the Spaniards at Guam made use of it as a
store for supplying the garrison; that he himself was a sergeant of that
garrison, and was sent here with twenty-two Indians to jerk beef, which
he was to load for Guam on board a small bark of about fifteen tons which
lay at anchor near the shore.
PLEASING SCENES.
This account was received by us with inexpressible joy. Part of it we
were ourselves able to verify on the spot, as we were by this time near
enough to discover several numerous herds of cattle feeding in different
places of the island, and we did not anyways doubt the rest of his
relation, as the appearance of the shore prejudiced us greatly in its
favour, and made us hope that not only our necessities might be there
fully relieved and our diseased recovered, but that amidst those pleasing
scenes which were then in view, we might procure ourselves some amusement
and relaxation after the numerous fatigues we had undergone.
The Spanish sergeant, from whom we received the account of the island,
having informed us that there were some Indians on shore under his
command employed in jerking beef, and that there was a bark at anchor to
take it on board, we were desirous, if possible, to prevent the Indians
from escaping, who doubtless would have given the Governor of Guam
intelligence of our arrival, and we therefore immediately despatched the
pinnace to secure the bark, which the sergeant told us was the only
embarkation on the place. And then, about eight in the evening, we let go
our anchor in twenty-two fathoms.