LANDING THE SICK. CENTURION DRIVEN TO SEA.
When we had furled our sails, the remaining part of the night was allowed
to our people for their repose, to recover them from the fatigue they had
undergone, and in the morning a party was sent on shore well armed, of
which I myself was one, to make ourselves masters of the landing-place,
as we were not certain what opposition might be made by the Indians on
the island. We landed without difficulty, for the Indians having
perceived by our seizure of the bark the night before, that we were
enemies, they immediately fled into the woody parts of the island. We
found on shore many huts which they had inhabited, and which saved us
both the time and trouble of erecting tents. One of these huts, which the
Indians made use of for a storehouse, was very large, being twenty yards
long and fifteen broad; this we immediately cleared of some bales of
jerked beef which we found in it, and converted it into an hospital for
our sick, who, as soon as the place was ready to receive them, were
brought on shore, being in all one hundred and twenty-eight. Numbers of
these were so very helpless that we were obliged to carry them from the
boats to the hospital upon our shoulders, in which humane employment (as
before at Juan Fernandez) the Commodore himself and every one of his
officers were engaged without distinction; and notwithstanding the great
debility of the greatest part of our sick, it is almost incredible how
soon they began to feel the salutary influence of the land. For though we
buried twenty-one men on this and the preceding day, yet we did not lose
above ten men more during our whole two months' stay here; and in general
our diseased received so much benefit from the fruits of the island,
particularly the fruits of the acid kind, that in a week's time there
were but few who were not so far recovered as to be able to move about
without help; and on the 12th of September all those who were so far
relieved as to be capable of doing duty were sent on board the ship. And
then the Commodore, who was himself ill of the scurvy, had a tent erected
for him on shore, where he went with the view of staying a few days for
the recovery of his health, being convinced, by the general experience of
his people, that no other method but living on the land was to be trusted
to for the removal of this dreadful malady. As the crew on board were now
reinforced by the recovered hands returned from the island, we began to
send our casks on shore to be fitted up, which till now could not be
done, for the coopers were not well enough to work. We likewise weighed
our anchors that we might examine our cables, which we suspected had by
this time received considerable damage. And as the new moon was now
approaching, when we apprehended violent gales, the Commodore, for our
greater security, ordered that part of the cables next to the anchors to
be armed with the chains of the fire-grapnels, and they were besides
cackled twenty fathoms from the anchors and seven fathoms from the
service, with a good rounding of a 4 1/2 inch hawser, and to all these
precautions we added that of lowering the main and fore yards close down,
that in case of blowing weather the wind might have less power upon the
ship to make her ride a-strain.
A FURIOUS STORM.
Thus effectually prepared, as we conceived, we expected the new moon,
which was the 18th of September; and riding safe that and the three
succeeding days (though the weather proved very squally and uncertain),
we flattered ourselves (for I was then on board) that the prudence of our
measures had secured us from all accidents. But on the 22nd the wind blew
from the eastward with such fury that we soon despaired of riding out the
storm; and therefore we should have been extremely glad that the
Commodore and the rest of our people on shore, which were the greatest of
our hands, had been on board with us, since our only hopes of safety
seemed to depend on our putting immediately to sea. But all communication
with the shore was now effectually cut off, for there was no possibility
that a boat could live so that we were necessitated to ride it out till
our cables parted. Indeed, it was not long before this happened, for the
small bower parted at five in the afternoon, and the ship swung off to
the best bower; and as the night came on the violence of the wind still
increased. But, notwithstanding its inexpressible fury, the tide ran with
so much rapidity as to prevail over it; for the tide, having set to the
northward in the beginning of the storm, turned suddenly to the southward
about six in the evening, and forced the ship before it in despite of the
storm, which blew upon the beam. And now the sea broke most surprisingly
all round us, and a large tumbling swell threatened to poop us; the
long-boat, which was at this time moored astern, was on a sudden canted
so high that it broke the transom of the Commodore's gallery, and would
doubtless have risen as high as the taffrail had it not been for this
stroke which stove the boat all to pieces; but the poor boat-keeper,
though extremely bruised, was saved almost by miracle. About eight the
tide slackened, but the wind did not abate; so that at eleven the best
bower cable, by which alone we rode, parted. Our sheet anchor, which was
the only one we had left, was instantly cut from the bow; but before it
could reach the bottom we were driven from twenty-two into thirty-five
fathoms; and after we had veered away one whole cable and two-thirds of
another, we could not find ground with sixty fathoms of line. This was a
plain indication that the anchor lay near the edge of the bank, and could
not hold us long.
In this pressing danger Mr. Suamarez, our first lieutenant, who now
commanded on board, ordered several guns to be fired and lights to be
shown, as a signal to the Commodore of our distress; and in a short time
after, it being then about one o'clock, and the night excessively dark, a
strong gust, attended with rain and lightning, drove us off the bank and
forced us out to sea, leaving behind us on the island Mr. Anson, with
many more of our officers, and great part of our crew, amounting in the
whole to one hundred and thirteen persons. Thus were we all, both at sea
and on shore, reduced to the utmost despair by this catastrophe; those on
shore conceiving they had no means left them ever to leave the island,
and we on board utterly unprepared to struggle with the fury of the seas
and winds we were now exposed to, and expecting each moment to be our
last.