The 29th of November, we fell in with the bay of Salvador, upon the

coast of Brasil, twelve leagues on this side Cape Frio, where we were

becalmed until the 2d of December: at which time we took a small bark

bound for the river of Plate, with sugar, haberdash-wares, and negroes.

The master of this bark brought us to an isle called Placentia, thirty

leagues west from Cape Frio, where we arrived the 5th of December, and

rifled six or seven houses inhabited by the Portuguese. The 11th, we

departed from this place, and, the 14th, arrived at the island of St.

Sebastian; from whence Mr. Cocke and Captain Davis presently departed

with the Desire and Black Pinnace, for taking the town of Santos. The

15th, at evening, we anchored at the bar of Santos, from whence we

departed, with our boats, to the town; by which expedition, we took all

the people at mass, both men and women, whom we kept all that day in the

church as prisoners. The cause why Mr. Cavendish desired to take this

town, was to supply his great wants; and, having it now in quiet

possession, we stood in assurance of having provisions in great

abundance. But such was the negligence of Captain Cocke, that the

Indians were suffered to carry out whatsoever they would in open view,

and no man did controul them: and the next day, after we had won the

town, our prisoners were all set at liberty; only four poor old men were

kept as pledges to supply our wants. Thus, in three days, the town,

which was able to furnish such another fleet with all kinds of

necessaries, was left unto us nakedly bare, without people and

provisions.

Eight or ten days after, Mr. Cavendish himself came hither, where he

remained until the 22d of January, seeking by entreaty to have that

whereof we were once possessed. But, in conclusion, we departed worse

furnished from the town, than when we came unto it. The 22d, we burnt

St. Vincent’s to the ground. The 24th, we set sail, shaping our course

for the straits of Magellan.

The 7th of February, we had a very great storm; and, the 8th, our fleet

was separated by the fury of the tempest. Then our Captain called unto

him the master of our ship, a very honest and sufficient man; and,

conferring with him, he concluded to go for Port Desire, hoping that the

General would come thither, because that in his first voyage he had

found great relief there; for our Captain could never get any direction

what course to take in any such extremities, though many times he had

entreated for it, as often I have heard him with grief report. In

sailing to this port, by good chance, we met with the Roebuck, wherein

Mr. Cocke had endured great extremities, and lost his boat, and

therefore desired our Captain to keep him company, for he was in a very

desperate situation. Our Captain hoisted out his boat, and went on board

him to know his estate, and, returning, told us the hardness thereof,

and desired the Master and all the company to be careful in all their

watches not to lose the Roebuck, and so we both arrived at Port Desire

the sixth of March.

The 16th of March, the Black Pinnace came to us; but the Dainty came

not, but returned back to England, leaving their captain on board the

Roebuck, without any provision more than the apparel that he wore. The

18th the Leicester came into the road, and Mr. Cavendish came into the

harbour in a boat which he had made at sea; for his long boat and

pinnace were lost at sea: and being on board the Desire, he told our

captain of all his extremities, and spoke most hardly of his company,

and of divers gentlemen that were with him, purposing no more to go on

board his own ship, but to stay in the Desire. We all sorrowed to hear

such hard speeches of our good friends; but having spoken with the

gentlemen of the Leicester, we found them faithful, honest, and resolute

in proceeding, although it pleased our General otherwise to conceive of

them.

The 20th of March, we departed from Port Desire, Mr. Cavendish being in

the Desire with us. The 8th of April, we fell in with the straits of

Magellan, enduring many furious storms between Port Desire and the

strait. The 14th, we passed through the first strait. The 16th, we

passed the second strait, being ten leagues distant from the first. The

18th, we doubled Cape Froward, which cape lieth in 53 degrees 30

minutes. The 21st we were forced, through the fury of the weather, to

put into a small cove with our ships, four leagues from the said cape,

upon the south shore, where we remained until the 15th of May. In the

which time we endured extreme storms, with perpetual snow, where many of

our men died with cursed famine, and miserable cold, not having

wherewith to cover their bodies, nor to fill their bellies, but living

by muscles, water, and weeds of the sea, with a small relief, from the

ship’s store, in meal, sometimes. And all the sick men in the Leicester

were most uncharitably put on shore into the woods, in the snow, rain,

and cold, when men of good health could scarcely endure it, where they

ended their lives in the highest degree of misery, Mr. Cavendish all the

while being on board the Desire. In these great extremities of snow and

cold, doubting what the end would be, he asked our captain’s opinion,

because he was a man that had good experience of the north-west parts,

in his three several discoveries that way, employed by the merchants of

London. Our captain told him, that this snow was a matter of no long

continuance, and gave him sufficient reason for it, and that thereby he

could not much be prejudiced or hindered in his proceeding.

Notwithstanding, he called together all the company, and told them, that

he purposed not to stay in the straits, but to depart upon some other

voyage, or else to return again for Brazil: but his resolution was to go

for the Cape of Good Hope. The company answered, that, if it pleased

him, they did desire to stay God’s favour for a wind, and to endure all

hardness whatsoever, rather than to give over the voyage, considering

they had been here but a small time, and because they were within forty

leagues of the South Sea, it grieved them now to return:

notwithstanding, whatever he ordered, that they would perform. So he

concluded to go for the Cape of Good Hope, and to give over this voyage.

Then our captain, after Mr. Cavendish was come on board the Desire from

talking with the company, told him, that, if it pleased him to consider

the great extremity of his situation, the slenderness of his provisions,

with the weakness of his men, it was no course for him to proceed in

that new enterprize: for if the rest of your ships (said he) be

furnished answerable to this, it is impossible to perform your

determination; for we have no more sails than masts, no victuals, no

ground-tackling, no cordage more than is over-head, and, among

seventy-five persons, there is but the master alone that can order the

ship, and but fourteen sailors: the rest are gentlemen, serving-men, and

artificers. Therefore it will be a desperate case to take so hard an

enterprize in hand. These persuasions did our captain not only use to

Mr. Cavendish, but also to Mr. Cocke. In fine, upon a petition delivered

in writing by the chief of the whole company, the General determined to

depart out of the straits of Magellan, and to return again for Santos in

Brazil.

So the 15th of May, we set sail, our General being then in the

Leicester. The 18th, we were free of the straits, but at Cape Froward it

was our hard hap to have our boat sunk at our stern in the night, and to

lose all our oars.

On the 20th, being thwart of Port Desire, in the night the General

altered his course, as we suppose, by which occasion we lost him: for,

in the evening, he stood close by a wind to seaward, having the wind at

north-north-east, and we standing the same way, the wind not altering,

could not the next day see him: so that we then persuaded ourselves,

that he was gone for Port Desire to relieve himself, or that he had

sustained some mischance at sea, and was gone thither to remedy it.

Whereupon our captain called the General’s men unto him, with the rest,

and asked their opinion what was to be done. Every one conjectured that

the General was gone for Port Desire. Then the Master, being the

General’s man, and careful of his master’s service, as also of good

judgment in sea-matters, told the company how dangerous it was to go for

Port Desire, if we should there miss the General: for (said he) we have

no boat to land ourselves, nor any anchors or cables that I dare trust

in so quick streams as are there: yet, in all likelihood concluding that

the General was gone thither, we steered our course for Port Desire, and

by chance met with the Black Pinnace, which had likewise lost the fleet,

being in a very miserable case: so we both concluded to seek the General

at Port Desire.

The 26th day of May, we came to Port Desire, where not finding our

General as we hoped, being most slenderly victualled, without sails,

boat, oars, nails, cordage, and all other necessaries for our relief, we

were struck into a deadly sorrow. But, referring all to Providence, we

entered the harbour, and found a place of quiet road, which before we

knew not. Having moored our ship with the pinnace’s boat, we landed upon

the south shore, where we found a standing pool of fresh-water, which by

estimation might hold about ten tons, whereby we were greatly comforted.

From this pool we fetched more than forty tons of water, and yet we left

the pool as full as we found it. And, because at our first being at this

harbour we were at this place and found no water, we persuaded ourselves

that God had sent it for our relief. Also there were such extraordinary

low ebbs as we had never seen, whereby we got muscles in plenty and

great abundance of smelts, so that, with hooks made of pins, every man

caught as many as he could eat: by which means we preserved our ship’s

victuals, and spent not any during the time of our abode here.

Our Captain and Master, considering our ability to go to the General,

found our wants so great, as that in a month we could not fit our ship

to set sail; for we must needs set up a smith’s forge to make bolts,

spikes, and nails, besides the repairing of our other wants. Whereupon

they concluded it to be their best course, to take the pinnace, and to

furnish her, and to go to the General with all expedition, leaving the

ship and the rest of the company until the General’s return; for he had

vowed to our Captain, that he would return again to the straits, as he

had told us. The Captain and Master of the pinnace, being the General’s

men, were well contented with the motion.

But the General having in our ship two most pestilent fellows, when they

heard of this determination, they utterly misliked it, and, in secret,

dealt with the company of both ships, vehemently persuading them that

our Captain and Master would leave them in the country to be devoured by

the cannibals, and that they were merciless and without charity:

whereupon the whole company joined in secret with them, in a night, to

murder our Captain and Master, with myself and all those they thought

were their friends. There were marks taken in his cabbin, how to kill

him with musquets through the ship’s side, and bullets made of silver

for the execution, if their other purposes should fail. All agreed

hereunto except the boatswain of our ship, who, when he knew the matter,

revealed it to the Master, and so to the Captain. Then the matter being

called in question, those two murderous fellows were found out, whose

names were Charles Parker and Edward Smith.

The Captain, being thus hardly beset, in peril of famine, and in danger

of being murdered, was constrained to use lenity, and by courteous means

to pacify this fury: shewing, that, to do the General service, unto whom

he had vowed faith in this action, was the cause why he purposed to go

unto him in the pinnace, considering that the pinnace was so necessary a

thing for him, as that he could not be without her, because he was

fearful of the shore in so great ships. Whereupon all cried, with

cursing and swearing, that the pinnace should not go unless the ship

went. Then the Captain desired them to shew themselves christians, and

not so blasphemously to behave themselves, without regard and

thanksgiving to God for their great deliverance. By which gentle

speeches, the matter was pacified, and the Captain and Master, at the

request of the company, were content to forgive this great treachery of

Parker and Smith, who, after many admonitions, concluded in these words:

“The Lord judge between you and me:” which after came to a most sharp

revenge, even by the punishment of the Almighty. Thus, by a general

consent, it was concluded not to depart, but to stay there for the

General’s return. Then our captain and Master, seeing that they could

not do the General that service which they desired, made a motion to the

company, that they would lay down under their hands the losing of the

General, with the extremities wherein we then stood: whereunto they

consented, and wrote under their hands what followeth:

_The Testimonial of the Company of the_ Desire, _touching the losing

of their General, which appeareth to have been utterly against their

meanings._

“The 26th of August 1591, we whose names are here underwritten, with

divers others, departed from Plymouth, under Mr. Thomas Cavendish our

General, with four ships of his, viz. the Leicester, the Roebuck, the

Desire, and the Black Pinnace, for the performance of a voyage into the

South Sea. The 19th of November, we fell in with the bay of Salvador, in

Brazil. The 16th of December we took the town of Santos, hoping there to

revictual ourselves, but it fell not out to our contentment. The 24th of

January we set sail from Santos, shaping our course for the straits of

Magellan. The 8th of February, by violent storms, the said fleet being

parted, the Roebuck and the Desire arrived at Port Desire the sixth of

March. The sixteenth of March, the Black Pinnace arrived there also: and

the 18th of the same, our Admiral came into the road, with whom we

departed the 20th of March in poor and weak estate. The 8th of April

1592, we entered the straits of Magellan. The 21st of April we anchored

beyond Cape Froward, within 40 leagues of the South Sea, where we rode

until the 15th of May. In which time we had great store of snow, with

some gusty weather, the wind continuing still west-north-west against

us. In this time we were inforced, for the preserving of our victuals,

to live the most part upon muscles, our provision was so slender; so

that many of our men died in this hard extremity. Then our General

returned for Brazil, there to winter, and to procure victuals for this

voyage against the next year. So we departed the straits, the 15th of

May. The 21st, being thwart of Port Desire, 36 leagues off the shore,

the wind then at north-east and by-north; at five of the clock at night,

lying north-east, we suddenly cast about, lying south-east and by-south,

and sometimes south-east: the whole fleet following the Admiral, our

ship coming under his lee, shot a-head of him, and so framed sail fit to

keep company. This night we were severed, by what occasion we protest we

know not, whether we lost them or they us. In the morning we only saw

the Black Pinnace, then supposing the Admiral had overshot us. All this

day we stood to the eastwards, hoping to find him; because it was not

likely that he would stand to the shore again so suddenly. But missing

him towards night, we stood to the shoreward, hoping by that course to

find him. The 22d of May, at night, we had a violent storm, with the

wind at north-west, and we were inforced to hull, not being able to bear

sail; and this night we perished our main tressle-trees, so that we

could no more use our main-top-sail, lying most dangerously in the sea.

The pinnace likewise received a great leak, so that we were inforced to

seek the next shore for our relief. And, because famine was like to be

the best end, we desired to go for Port Desire, hoping, with seals and

penguins, to relieve ourselves, and so to make shift to follow the

General, or there to stay his coming from Brasil. The 24th of May we had

much wind at north. The 25th was calm, and the sea very lofty, so that

our ship had dangerous foul weather. The 26th, our fore-shrouds broke,

so that, if we had not been near the shore, it had been impossible for

us to get out of the sea. And now, being here moored in Port Desire, our

shrouds are all rotten, not having a running rope whereto we may trust,

and being provided only of one shift of sails, all worn, our top-sails

not able to abide any stress of weather; neither have we any pitch, tar,

or nails, nor any store for the supplying of these wants; and we live

only upon seals and muscles, having but five hogsheads of pork within

board, and meal three ounces for a man a day, with water for to drink.

And for as much as it hath pleased God to separate our fleet, and to

bring us into such hard extremities, that only now by his mere mercy we

expect relief, though otherwise we are hopeless of comfort; yet, because

the wonderful works of God, in his exceeding great favour towards us his

creatures, are far beyond the scope of man’s capacity, therefore by him

we hope to have deliverance in this our deep distress. Also, for as much

as those upon whom God will bestow the favour of life, with return home

to their country, may not only remain blameless, but also manifest the

truth of our actions, we have thought good, in christian charity, to lay

down under our hands the truth of all our proceedings, even till the

time of this our distress.

Given in Port Desire, the 2d of June, 1592,” &c.

After they had delivered this under their hands, then we began to labour

to preserve our lives; and we built up a smith’s forge, and made nails,

bolts, and spikes; others made ropes of a piece of our cable; and the

rest gathered muscles, and took smelts, for the whole company. Three

leagues from this harbour there is an isle with four small isles about

it, where there are abundance of seals; and, at that time of the year,

the penguins came thither, in great plenty, to breed. We concluded with

the pinnace, that she should sometimes go thither to catch seals for us;

upon which condition we would share victuals with her man for man;

whereunto the whole company agreed. So we parted our poor store, and she

laboured to fetch us seals to eat, wherewith we lived when smelts and

muscles failed; for in the nep-tides we could get no muscles. Thus, in

the most miserable calamity, we remained until the 6th of August, still

keeping watch upon the hills to look for our General and so great was

our vexation and anguish of soul, as I think never flesh and blood

endured more. Our misery daily increasing, time passing, and our hope of

the General being very cold, our Captain and Master were fully persuaded

that the General might, perhaps, go directly for the straits, and not

come to this harbour: whereupon, they thought no course more convenient,

than to go presently for the straits, and there to stay his coming; for,

in that place he could not pass, but of force we must see him: Whereunto

the company most willingly consented, as also the Captain and Master of

the pinnace; so that upon this determination we made all possible speed

to depart.

[Illustration: Cavendishes Crew _in Great distress at Port desire,

Setup a Forge & repair their shatterd Vessels_.]

The 6th of August we set sail, and went to Penguin Isle; and, the next

day, we salted 20 hogsheads of seals, which was as much as our salt

could do. The 7th, towards night, we departed from Penguin Isle. The

9th, we had a sore storm, so that we were constrained to hull, for our

sails were not fit to endure any force. The 14th, we were driven in

among certain isles never before discovered by any known relation, lying

fifty leagues, or better, off the shore, east and northerly from the

straits; in which place, had not the wind ceased, we must of necessity

have perished. But, the wind shifting, we directed our course for the

straits; and, the 18th of August, we fell in with the Cape in a very

thick fog; and, the same night, we anchored ten leagues within the Cape.

The 19th, we passed the first and second straits. The 21st, we doubled

Cape Froward. The 22d, we anchored in Salvage Cove, so called because we

saw many savages there. Notwithstanding the extreme cold of this place,

yet do all these people go naked, and live in the woods like satyrs,

painted and disguised, and flee from you like wild deer. They are very

strong, and threw stones at us of three or four pounds weight, an

incredible distance. The 24th, in the morning, we departed from this

cove, and the same day we came into the north-west reach, which is the

last reach of the straits. The 25th, we anchored in a good cove, within

14 leagues of the South Sea: in this place we purposed to stay for the

General; for the strait at this place, is scarce three miles broad, so

that he could not pass but we must see him. After we had staid here a

fortnight in the depth of winter, our victuals consuming (for our seals

stunk most vilely, and our men died pitifully through cold and famine,

for the greatest part of them had not cloaths to defend them from the

extremity of the winter’s cold) being in this heavy distress, our

Captain and Master thought it the best course to depart from the straits

into the South Sea, and to go for the isle of Santa Maria, which is to

the northward of Baldivia, in 37 deg. 15 min. where we might have

relief, and be in a temperate clime, and there stay for the General, for

of necessity he must come by that isle. So we departed the 13th of

September, and came in sight of the South Sea. On the 14th, we were

forced back again, and recovered a cove, three leagues within the

straits from the South Sea. Again we put forth, and being eight or ten

leagues free of the land, the wind rising furiously at west-north-west,

we were forced back again into the straits for want of sails; for we

never durst bear sail in any stress of weather, they were so weak: so

again we recovered the cove three leagues within the straits, where we

endured most furious weather; so that one of our two cables brake,

whereby we were hopeless of life: yet it pleased God to calm the storm,

and we unreeved our sheets, tacks, halliards, and other ropes, and

moored our ship to the trees, close by the rocks. We laboured to recover

our anchor again, but could not, it lay so deep in the water, and, as we

think, covered with oaze. Now had we but one anchor, which had but one

whole fluke, a cable spliced in two places, and a piece of an old one.

In the midst of these our troubles, the wind came fair the first of

October; whereupon, with all expedition, we loosed our moorings, and

weighed our anchor, and so towed off into the channel; for we had mended

our boat in Port Desire, and had five oars of the pinnace. When we had

weighed our anchor, we found our cable broken; only one strand held.

Being in the channel, we reeved our ropes, and again rigged our ship; no

man’s hand was idle, but all laboured even for the last gasp of life.

Here our company was divided; some desired to go again for Port Desire,

and there to be set on shore, where they might travel for their lives;

and some stood with the Captain and Master to proceed. Whereupon the

Captain said to the Master, “Master, you see the wonderful extremity of

our estate, and the great doubts among our company of the truth of your

reports, as touching relief to be had in the South Sea. Now, good

Master, for as much as you have been in this voyage once before with

your Master the General, satisfy the company of such truths as are to

you best known; and, you the rest of the General’s men, who likewise

have been with him in his first voyage, if you hear any thing contrary

to the truth, spare not to reprove it, I pray you.” Then the Master

said, “If you think good to return, I will not gainsay it: but this I

think, if life may be preserved by any means, it is in proceeding; for

at the isle of Santa Maria I do assure you of wheat, pork, and roots

enough. Also, I will bring you to an isle where pelicans be in great

abundance, and we shall have meal in great plenty, besides a possibility

of intercepting some ships upon the coast of Chili and Peru. But, if we

return, there is nothing but death to be hoped for: therefore, do as you

like, I am ready; but my desire is to proceed.” These his speeches,

being confirmed by others that were in the former voyage, there was a

general consent for proceeding; and so, the 2d of October, we put into

the South Sea, and were free of all land. This night the wind began to

blow very much at west-north-west, and still increased in fury, so that

we were in great doubt what course to take. To put into the straits we

durst not, for lack of ground-tackle: to bear sail we doubted, the

tempest was so furious, and our sails so bad. The pinnace came round

with us, and told us that she had received many grievous seas, and that

her ropes did every hour fail her, so as they could not tell what shift

to make. We, being unable in any sort to help her, stood under our

courses in view of the lee-shore, still expediting our ruinous end.

The 4th of October, the storm growing beyond measure furious, the

pinnace, being in the wind of us, struck suddenly a hull, so that we

thought she had received some grievous sea, or sprung a leak, or that

her sails failed her, because she came not with us; but we durst not

hull in that unmerciful storm, but sometimes tried under our main

course, sometimes with a haddock of our sail, for our ship was very

leeward, and most laboursome in the sea. This night we lost the pinnace,

and never saw her again.

The 5th, our fore-sail was split and all torn: then our Master took the

mizzen, and brought it to the fore-mast, to make our ship work, and with

our sprit-sail we mended our fore-sail, the storm continuing beyond all

description in fury, with hail, snow, rain, and wind, such and so

mighty, as that in nature it could not possibly be more, the sea such

and so lofty, with continual breach, that many times we were doubtful

whether our ship did sink or swim.

The 10th of October, being, by the account of our Captain and Master,

very near the shore, the weather dark, the storm furious, and most of

our men having given over to labour, we yielded ourselves to death

without further hope of succour. Our Captain sitting in the gallery very

pensive, I came and brought him some _rosa solis_, to comfort him; for

he was so cold, that he was scarce able to move a joint. After he had

drank, and was comforted in heart, he began, for the ease of his

conscience, to make a large repetition of his forepassed time, and, with

many grievous sighs, he concluded with a short prayer for our

preservation. Having ended, he desired me not to make known to any of

the company his intolerable grief and anguish of mind, because they

should not thereby be dismaid. And so suddenly, before I went from him,

the sun shined clear; so that he and the Master both observed the true

elevation of the Pole, whereby they knew by what course to recover the

straits. Wherewithal our Captain and Master were so revived, and gave

such comfortable speeches to the company, that every man rejoiced, as

though we had received a present deliverance. The next day, being the

11th of October, we saw Cape Deseado, being the cape on the south shore

(the north shore being nothing but a company of dangerous rocks, isles,

and shoals). This cape being within two leagues to the leeward of us,

our Master greatly doubted that we could not double the same:

nevertheless, being a man of good spirit, he resolutely made quick

dispatch, and set sail. Our sails had not been half an hour on board,

but the foot-rope of our fore-sail brake, so that nothing held but the

oylet-holes. The seas continually brake over the ship’s poop, and flew

into the sails with such violence, that we still expected the tearing of

our sails, or over-setting of the ship; and, besides, to our utter

discomfort, we perceived that we fell still more and more to lee-ward,

so that we could not double the cape. We were now come within half a

mile of the cape, and so near the shore, that the counter-surf of the

sea would rebound against the ship’s side, so that we were much dismaid

with the horror of our present end. Being thus at the very point of our

death, the wind and the seas raging beyond measure, our Master veered

some of the main sheet; and whether it was by that occasion, or by some

current, or by the wonderful power of God, as we verily think it was,

the ship quickened her way, and shot past that rock, where we thought

she would have shored. Then between the cape and the point there was a

little bay; so that we were somewhat farther from the shore: and, when

we came so far as the cape, we yielded to death; yet the Father of all

mercies delivered us, and we doubled the cape about the length of our

ship, or very little more. Being shot past the cape, we presently took

in our sails, which only God had preserved unto us; and when we were

shot in between the high lands, the wind blowing trade, without an inch

of sail, we spooned before the sea, three men being not able to guide

the helm, and in six hours we were put twenty-five leagues within the

straits, where we found a sea answerable to the ocean.

In this time we freed our ship from water, and after we had rested a

little, our men were not able to move; their sinews were stiff, and

their flesh dead, and many of them (which is most lamentable to be

reported) were so eaten with lice, as that in their flesh did lie

clusters of them, as big as pease, yea and some as big as beans. Being

in this misery, we were constrained to put into a cove, for the

refreshing of our men. Our Master knowing the shore, and every cove very

perfectly, put in with the shore, and moored to the trees, as before

time we had done, laying our anchor to the sea-ward. Here we continued

until the 20th of October; but not being able any longer to stay,

through extremity of famine, the 21st we put off into the channel, the

weather being reasonably calm: but before night it blew most extremely

at west-north-west. The storm growing outrageous, our men could scarcely

stand by their labour; and, the straits being full of turning reaches,

we were constrained by the discretion of the Captain and Master in their

accounts, to guide the ship in the hell-dark night, when we could not

see any shore, the channel being in some places scarce three miles

broad. But our Captain, as we first passed through the straits, drew

such an exquisite plan of the same, as I am assured it cannot in any

sort be bettered: which plan he and the Master so often perused, and so

carefully regarded, as that in memory they had every turn and creek, and

in the deep-dark night, without any doubting, they conveyed the ship

through that crooked channel: so that I conclude, the world hath not any

so skilful pilots for that place, as they are; for otherwise we could

never have passed in such sort as we did.

The 25th, we came to an island in the straits, named Penguin Isle,

whither we sent our boat to seek relief, for there were great abundance

of birds, and the weather was very calm; so we came to an anchor by the

island in seven fathoms. While our boat was on shore, and we had great

store of penguins, there arose a sudden storm, so that our ship did

drive over a breach, and our boat sunk at the shore. Captain Cotton and

the Lieutenant, being on shore, leapt into the boat and freed the same,

and threw away all the birds, and with great difficulty recovered the

ship: myself also was in the boat at the same time, where for my life I

laboured to the best of my power. The ship, all this while, driving upon

the lee-shore, when we came on board we helped to set sail, and weighed

the anchor; for before our coming they could scarce hoist up their

yards, yet with much ado they set their fore-course. Thus in a mighty

fret of weather, the 27th day of October we were free of the straits,

and the 30th of October we came to Penguin Isle, being three leagues

from Port Desire, the place where we purposed to seek for our relief.

When we were come to this isle we sent our boat on shore, which returned

laden with birds and eggs; and our men said the penguins were so thick

upon the isle, that ships might be laden with them; for they could not

go without trampling upon the birds, whereat we greatly rejoiced. Then

the captain appointed Charles Parker and Edward Smith, with twenty

others, to go on shore, and to stay upon the isle, for the killing and

drying of these penguins, and promised, after the ship was in harbour,

to send the rest, not only for expedition, but also to save the small

store of victuals in the ship. But Parker, Smith, and the rest of their

faction, suspected that this was a device of the captain’s to leave his

men on shore, that, by these means, there might be victuals for the rest

to recover their country: and when they remembered that this was the

place where they would have slain their captain and master, surely

(thought they) for revenge hereof will they leave us on shore. Which,

when our captain understood, he called God to witness, that revenge was

no part of his thoughts; they gave him thanks, desiring to go into the

harbour with the ship, which he granted. So there were only ten left

upon the isle, and the last of October we entered the harbour. Our

master, at our last being here, having taken careful notice of every

creek in the river, in a very convenient place, upon sandy oaze, ran the

ship a-ground, laying our anchor to sea-ward, and with our running ropes

moored her to stakes upon the shore, which he had fastened for that

purpose; where the ship remained till our departure.

The 3d of November, our boat with water, wood, and as many as she could

carry, went for the isle of Penguins; but being deep she durst not

proceed, but returned again the same night. Then Parker, Smith,

Townshend, Purpet, with five others, desired that they might go by land,

and that the boat might fetch them when they were against the isle, it

being scarce a mile from the shore. The captain bade them do what they

thought best, advising them to take weapons with them: “For, (saith he)

although we have not at any time seen people in this place, yet in the

country there may be savages.” They answered: “That here were great

store of deer, and ostriches: but if there were savages, they would

devour them.” Notwithstanding, the captain caused them to take weapons

with them, carlivers, swords, and targets: so the 6th of November, they

departed by land, and the boat by sea; but from that day to this day we

never heard of our men. The 11th, while most of our men were at the

isle, only the captain and master, with six others, being left in the

ship, there came a great multitude of savages to the ship, throwing dust

in the air, leaping and running like brute beasts, having vizards on

their faces like dogs faces, or else their faces are dogs faces indeed.

We greatly feared lest they would set our ship on fire, for they would

suddenly make fire, whereat we much marvelled: they came to windward of

our ship, and set the bushes on fire, so that we were in a very stinking

smoak; but as soon as they came within our shot, we shot at them, and

striking one of them in the thigh, they all presently fled; so that we

never saw more of them. Hereby we judged, that these cannibals had slain

our nine men. When we considered who they were that were thus murdered,

and found that they were the principal men who would have murdered the

captain and master, with their friends, we saw the just judgment of God,

and made supplication to his Divine Majesty to be merciful unto us.

While we were in this harbour, our captain and master went with the boat

to discover how far this river did run, that, if need should enforce us

to leave our ship, we might know how far we might go by water: so they

found, that, farther than twenty miles, they could not go with the boat.

At their return they sent the boat to the isle of penguins: whereby we

understood that the penguins dried to our hearts content, and that the

multitude of them was infinite. All the time that we were in this place,

we fared passing well with eggs, penguins, young seals, young gulls, and

other birds, such as I know not, of all which we had abundance. In this

place we found an herb called Scurvy-grass, which we fried with eggs,

using train-oil instead of butter. This herb did so purge the blood,

that it took away all kinds of swellings, of which many had died, and

restored us to perfect health of body; so that we were in as good case

as when we came first out of England. We staid in this harbour until the

22d of December, in which time we had dried 20,000 penguins; and the

captain, the master, and myself, had made some salt, by laying

salt-water upon the rocks in holes, which, in six days would be kerned.

Thus God did feed us, even as it were with manna from heaven.

The 22d of December, we departed with our ship for the isle, where, with

great difficulty, by the skilful industry of our master, we got 14,000

of our birds, and had almost lost our captain in labouring to bring the

birds on board: and, had not our master been very expert in the set of

those tides, which run after many fashions, we had also lost our ship in

the same place. The 22d at night we departed with 14,000 dried penguins,

not being able to fetch the rest, and shaped our course for Brazil. Now,

our captain rated our victuals, and brought us to such allowance, as

that our victuals might last six months for our hope was, that within

six months we might recover our country, though our sails were very bad.

So our allowance was two ounces and an half of meal for a man a-day, and

to have so twice a-week; so that five ounces did serve for a week. Three

days a week, we had oil, three spoonfuls for a man a-day; and two days

in a week pease, a pint among four men a-day, and every day five

penguins for four men, and six quarts of water for four men a-day. This

was our allowance; wherewith we lived, though weakly, and very feeble.

The 30th of January, we arrived at the isle of Placentia in Brazil, the

first place that, outward-bound, we were at: and having made the shoal,

our ship lying off at sea, the captain, with twenty-four of the company,

went with the boat on shore, being a whole night before they could

recover it. The last of January, at sun-rising, they suddenly landed,

hoping to take the Portuguese in their houses, and by that means to

recover some Casavi meal, or other victuals for our relief; but when

they looked for the houses, they were all razed and burnt to the ground,

so that we thought no man had remained on the island. Then the captain

went to the gardens, and brought from thence fruits and roots for the

company, and came on board the ship, and brought her into a fine creek

which we had found out, where we might moor her by the trees, and where

there was water, and hoops to trim our casks. Our case being very

desperate, we presently laboured for dispatch away; some cut hoops,

which the coopers made, others laboured upon the sails and ship, every

man travailing for his life; and still a guard was kept on shore to

defend those that laboured, every man having likewise his weapon by him.

The 3d of February, our men, with twenty-three shot, went again to the

gardens, being three miles from us upon the north shore, and fetched

Casavi-roots out of the ground, to relieve our company, instead of

bread; for we spent not of our meal while we staid here. The 5th of

February, being Monday, our captain and master hastened the company to

their labour; so some went with the coopers to gather hoops, and the

rest laboured on board. This night many of our men in the ship dreamed

of murder and slaughter: in the morning they reported their dreams: one

saying to another, “This night I dreamed that thou wert slain.” Another

answered, “And I dreamed that thou wert slain.” And this was general

through the ship. The captain hearing this, who likewise had dreamed

very strangely himself, gave very strict charge, that those who went on

shore should take weapons with them, and saw them himself delivered into

the boat, and sent some of purpose to guard the labourers. All the

forenoon they laboured in quietness, and when it was ten o’clock, the

heat being extreme, they came to a rock near the wood’s side (for all

this country is nothing but thick woods), and there they boiled

Casavi-roots, and dined. After dinner some slept, others washed

themselves in the sea, all being stripped to their shirts, and no man

keeping watch, no match lighted, and not a piece charged. Suddenly, as

they were thus sleeping and sporting, having got themselves into a

corner, out of sight of the ship, there came a multitude of Indians and

Portuguese upon them, and slew them sleeping: only two escaped, one very

sore hurt, the other not touched, by whom we understood of this

miserable massacre. With all speed we manned our boat, and landed to

succour our men; but we found them slain, and laid naked in rank one by

another, with their faces upward, and a cross set by them: and withal we

saw two very great pinnaces come from the river of Janeiro very full of

men; who we suspected came from thence to take us; because there came

from Janeiro soldiers to Santos, when the General had taken the town,

and was strong in it. Of seventy-six persons who departed in our ship

out of England, we were now left but twenty-seven, having lost thirteen

in this place, with their chief furniture, as muskets, calivers, powder,

and shot. Our casks were all in decay, so that we could not take in more

water than was in our ship, for want of casks, and that which we had was

marvellous ill-conditioned. And being there moored by trees, for want of

cables and anchors, we still expected the cutting of our moorings, to be

beaten from our decks with our own furniture, and to be assailed by them

of Janeiro. What distress we were now driven into, I am not able to

express. To depart with eight tons of water in such bad casks, was to

starve at sea, and in staying our case was ruinous. These were hard

choices; but, being thus perplexed, we made choice rather to fall into

the hands of the Lord than into the hands of men. So, concluding to

depart, the 6th of February we were off in the channel, with our

ordnance, and small shot, in readiness for any assault that should come;

and, having a small gale of wind, we recovered the sea in most deep

distress. Then bemoaning our estate one to another, and recounting over

all our extremities, nothing grieved us more than the loss of our men

twice, first being slaughtered by the cannibals at Port Desire, and at

this isle of Placentia by the Indians and Portuguese. And considering

what they were who were lost, we found that all those who conspired the

murdering of our Captain and Master were now slain by savages, the

gunner only excepted. Being thus at sea, when we came to Cape Frio the

wind was contrary; so that three weeks we were grievously vexed with

cross winds; and, our water consuming, our hope of life was very small.

Some desired to go to Baya, and to submit themselves to the Portuguese,

rather than to die for thirst: but the Captain, with fair persuasions

altered their purpose of yielding to the Portuguese. In this distress it

pleased God to send us rain in such plenty, as that we were well

watered, and in good comfort to return. But after we came near unto the

sun, our dried penguins began to corrupt, and there bred in them a most

loathsome and ugly worm, of an inch long. This worm did so mightily

increase, and devour our victuals, that there was in reason no hope how

we should avoid famine, but be devoured of these wicked creatures; there

was nothing that they did not devour, iron only excepted; our cloaths,

hats, boots, shoes, shirts, and stockings: and for the ship, they did so

eat the timbers, as that we greatly feared they would undo us, by

gnawing through the ship’s side. Great was the care of our Captain,

Master, and company, to consume these vermin, but the more we laboured

to kill them, the more they increased; so that at the last we could not

sleep for them, but they would eat our flesh, and bite like musquetos.

In this woeful case, after we had passed the Equinoctial Line towards

the north, our men began to fall sick of such a monstrous disease, as I

think the like was never heard of: for in their ancles it began to

swell; from thence in two days it would be in their breasts, so that

they could not draw their breath; and then fell into their lower parts,

and there did swell most grievously, and most dreadful to behold, so

that they could neither stand, lie, nor go: whereupon our men grew big

with grief. Our Captain, with extreme anguish of his soul, was in such

woeful distress, that he desired only a speedy end; for divers grew

raging mad, and some died in most loathsome and furious pain. It were

incredible to write our misery as it was. There was no man in perfect

health, but the Captain and one boy; the Master being a man of good

spirit, with extreme labour, bore out his grief, so that it grew not

upon him. To be short, all our men died, except sixteen, of which there

were but five able to move. The Captain was in good health, the Master

indifferent, Captain Cotton and myself swolen and short-winded, yet

better than the rest who were sick, and one boy in health: upon us five

only the labour of the ship did stand: The Captain and Master as

occasion served, would take in and heave out the top-sails; the Master

only attended on the sprit-sail; and all of us at the capstan without

sheets and tacks. In fine, our misery and weakness was so great, that we

could not take in or heave out a sail: so our top-sail and sprit-sail

were torn all in pieces by the weather. The Master and Captain taking

their turns at the helm, were mightily distressed, and monstrously

grieved with the woeful lamentation of our sick men. Thus, as lost

wanderers upon the sea, the 11th of June 1593, it pleased God that we

arrived at Bear Haven in Ireland, and there ran the ship on shore; where

the Irishmen helped us to take in our sails, and to moor our ship for

floating; which slender pains of theirs cost our Captain ten pounds,

before he could have the ship in safety. Thus, without victuals, sails,

men, or any furniture, God only guided us into Ireland, where the

Captain left the Master and three or four of the company to keep the

ship; and, within five days after, he and certain others had passage in

an English fisher-boat to Padstow, in Cornwall. In this manner our small

remnant, by God’s mercy only, were preserved and restored to our

country, to whom be all honour and glory world without end.”

We have already observed, that the above relation is the only complete

account of this voyage which has hitherto appeared; by which we would be

understood to mean, that it is the only complete account of the

proceedings of any one of the ships engaged in this second expedition of

Cavendish, from her first setting out till her return home. There are

other accounts of the distresses attending this voyage, but they refer

to parts only, and do not contain a regular series of events from

beginning to end, as we shall endeavour to shew, in pursuance of our

plan of tracing the great out-lines of the lives of our celebrated

circum-navigators, from their first entering upon action till the period

of their retreat.

When the impartial reader revolves in his mind the effects of distresses

like those already described in the foregoing account, upon a company of

ungovernable sailors, not under that subordination which regular

discipline always establishes to Officers properly commissioned, he will

then be prepared to determine, whether Cavendish complains with reason

against Davis, as being the death of him, and to use his own words, “the

decay of the whole action;” or, whether the miscarriage did not arise

partly from unavoidable accidents, and partly from the impetuosity of

his own temper, and his own misconduct.

The misfortunes that attended the progress of this most distressful

voyage, appear to us to have taken their rise from the accident of being

becalmed for seven-and-twenty days under the Line; during which time

they not only consumed a considerable proportion of their provisions,

but the men became sick; and the scurvy, which seldom makes its

approaches on this side the Equator, had already infected near half the

crews.

This reduced them to the necessity, not only of seeking land where fresh

provisions might be procured, but of wasting more time with a view to

the recovery of the sick, than was consistent with the navigation of

those boisterous seas through which they were to pass.

We have already seen that when they were masters of Santos, they were in

the utmost distress for want of provisions, and yet the opportunity was

suffered to pass without obtaining any effectual relief; and that this

distress is not aggravated by the writer of the above voyage, appears

from the testimony of Knivet, in Purchas’s Pilgrams, who says, “that

here they had such disorders among themselves, that if the Portuguese

had been of any courage, they might have destroyed the whole fleet; for

our men, says he, would fight for their victuals, as if they had been no

Christians but Jews”, (which by the way shews the strange notions which

the multitude in those days entertained of the uncharitable disposition

of the Jews to one another; a characteristic not at all applicable to

that people); “and they that got the best would get them into some hole,

or into the wilderness under some tree, and there they would remain as

long as they had meat.”

From this early beginning of distress, very little hope could be

reasonably entertained of the issue. The season was advancing fast, when

the severity of the weather would render their proceeding into the South

Seas by the straits of Magellan very dangerous; and, being already in

want of provisions, they could have no means of an effectual supply till

they could reach the fertile countries on the opposite side of those

straits; the General’s prolonging his stay therefore on the eastermost

coasts of Brazil till the 22d of January, was not only an imprudent but

a fatal delay; and, as it was foreseen, proved the actual ruin of the

voyage.

At the time when they should have passed the straits of Magellan, they

were in consultation, if not worse employed, at Santos; and after they

set sail they were attacked by a storm, of which Cavendish himself says,

“a _worser_ might not be endured. Such was the fury of the

west-south-west winds, as we were driven from the shore four hundred

leagues, and constrained to beat from 50 deg. to the southward into 40

degrees to the northward again, before we could come near the shore; in

which time we had a new shift of sails clean blown away, and our ship in

danger to sink in the sea three times; which with extremity of men’s

labour we recovered.” Here the reason that prevented Cavendish’s arrival

at Port Desire till the 18th of March, 12 days after the Desire and

Roebuck, is fully explained. And after he had refitted his ship and

refreshed his men, and was ready to sail, he goes on in the same letter,

which is directed to Sir Tristriam Gorges, “And now,” says he, “we were

almost four months beating between the coast of Brazil and the straits,

being in distance not above 600 leagues, which is commonly run in twenty

or thirty days; but such was the adverseness of our fortune, that in

coming thither we spent the summer, and found in the straits the

beginning of a most extreme winter, not durable for Christians.”

After this concession, compared with what the writer of Davis’s voyage

has related of the sufferings of his people, let the reader determine

with what justice Cavendish arraigns Davis, when he attributes to the

villainy of that officer his own death, and the ruin of the voyage.

But to pursue the narrative of the General’s proceedings from the time

of his parting with the Desire and Black Pinnace in the night of the

20th of May, as already related in the preceding voyage. It appears

indeed, that he continued his course to the coast of Brazil accompanied

by the Roebuck, which, however, was parted from him in lat. 36° S. in

one of the most grievous storms, as he himself confesses, that any

Christians ever endured upon the seas to live, in which the Roebuck

sprung her masts, and was otherwise so much damaged as to arrive in the

bay of St. Vincent in the greatest distress, being little better than a

mere wreck.

The General himself suffered considerably, and was forced to take

shelter likewise in the same bay, though the little town of St. Vincent

they had burnt on their leaving Santos the summer before. Here

twenty-five of his men, getting drunk on shore, were suddenly set upon

by the Portuguese, in revenge for their former treatment, and every man

of them slaughtered. To revenge this treachery, as it is called,

Cavendish determined to attack Santos, and to level it with the ground;

and now, being joined by the crew of the Roebuck, he landed above the

town, but was most shamefully repulsed, after having plundered a few

farm-houses, and, as it should seem the custom was, set them on fire.

Here being disappointed of his revenge, he departed with a view to

attack a small inhabited island about twenty leagues to the westward;

from whence, when he had provided himself with such necessaries as the

island could afford, he intended, according to his promise, and

agreeable to the expectations of Davis, to have returned to the straits

of Magellan, and to have proceeded to the South Seas in prosecution of

his first design. But there seemed a fatality attending every measure he

devised.

He was diverted from the prosecution of this enterprize by the

persuasions of a Portuguese pilot on board, who advised the attack of

Spirito Santo, as the only place that could supply his wants, and enable

him to refit his ships. In this undertaking he lost fourscore of his men

killed, and forty wounded. And now, having no alternative, but either to

return home, or to burn one of his ships for want of hands, and proceed

with the other to the straits; the crew of the Roebuck, fearing, as they

well might, that theirs was the ship destined for the flames, watched

their opportunity when their Captain was sick on board the General, to

make their escape in the night, taking with them both the surgeons, and,

as Cavendish says, double the proportion of provisions for their number

of men, “having with them at their departure but six and forty men, and

carrying away with them the proportion for six months victual of 120 men

at large.” Yet it is not easy to reconcile the truth of this assertion

with the distresses for want of provisions which are all along

complained of from their first arrival on the coast of Brazil in the

summer to the present time. In the straits of Magellan, it is asserted,

that, to save their victuals, they were forced in a great measure to

live upon sea-weeds, muscles, periwincles, and the fruits of the

country; for, says Knivet, the allowance from the ship was but

little.--But to proceed:

Cavendish, finding himself thus forsaken, every-where disappointed,

betrayed, as he complains, and distressed to the last extremity, his

ship full of sick and wounded, and himself with a wounded spirit,

directed his course to the island of St. Sebastian, 200 leagues to the

westward of Spirito Santo, where he arrived when he had but just one

cask of water left. Here he set 20 of his sick men ashore; and, having

refitted his ship, and refreshed his people, he wanted very much to have

sailed back to the straits: “But, says his biographer, his mutinous crew

obliged him to sail for England;” and he died before his return.

In his letter to Sir Tristriam Gorges, which appears to have been

written a little before his death, he discovers the utmost perturbation

of mind. “And now, says he, what with grief for the loss of my most dear

cousin [John Lock], and the continual trouble I endured among such

hell-hounds [his ship’s crew], wishing myself upon any desart place in

the world, there to die, rather than thus basely to return home again;

which course I had put in execution, had I found an island which the

charts make to be in eight degrees to the southward of the Line. I swear

to you I sought it with all diligence, meaning (if I had found it) there

to have ended my unfortunate life. But God suffered not such happiness

to light upon me; for I could by no means find it; so was forced to come

towards England.”

The bitterness which he expresses against his crew might, and did,

probably, arise from their determined resolution not to expose

themselves to the like hardships they had already undergone, and in

which the major part of their companions were suffered to perish without

pity, and to languish without relief: for, if we may believe Jane, the

sick men on board the General were most uncharitably put on shore into

the woods in the straits of Magellan; where, according to Cavendish’s

own account, “there was nothing but such flights of snow, and

extremities of frosts, as in his life he had never beheld or felt the

like. The men, adds he, were well in the morning, and by night frozen to

death.” In this miserable manner, in seven or eight days, 40 of his crew

actually perished, and 70 more sickened.

Of the ships that sailed in this expedition, consisting of five sail, we

can trace only three that returned to England, namely, the Galleon,

otherwise named the Leicester, of which the General was Commander; the

Dainty, commanded by Captain Cotton, who went a volunteer, and whose

ship, having parted company on her first arrival on the coast of Brazil,

instead of pursuing her voyage to the South Seas, returned back to

England with very little damage.

The Roebuck, in which sailed from Plymouth 170 brave seamen, after

stealing away from the General in the night, as already related, was

never more heard of; the Black Pinnace foundered in a violent storm in

the South Sea, and in her about 70 men. Of the crews of the Desire, only

26 out of 150 lived to see their native country; and, of the General’s

ship, though the number that perished cannot be exactly ascertained, yet

there could not more than 50 at most survive their General.

Now, if the gallant actions and glorious exploits that entitle men to

fame and immortality, involve in their atchievement so many of their

fellow-creatures in misery, let the benevolent and humane unite with us

in depreciating such murderous practices; and, instead of holding forth

a Drake, or a Cavendish, as examples worthy of imitation, let us hold in

detestation all those false worthies, whose actions have their rise in

“a ravenous appetite for robbery, and in an insatiable desire of

acquiring wealth without industry, and greatness without virtue.”

THE

VOYAGES

OF

CAPT. WILLIAM DAMPIER.

Among the Navigators who first surrounded the globe, Captain William

Dampier, considered as a Mariner and Naturalist, will ever be held in

the foremost rank. From his Voyages the world received the earliest and

best information of remote countries, and their genuine productions; and

it is on his plan that future navigators have thought fit to proceed in

giving an account of new discoveries. His history will afford a notable

instance of the power of genius and application unassisted by learning,

when the mind is wholly bent upon the pursuit and improvement of one

art.

He was the son of parents who lived in the parish of East Coker, in

Somersetshire, reputable, but not rich. While they lived they gave him

an education very ill suited to a sea-faring life; but they both dying

when he was yet young, those to whose care he was entrusted removed him

from the grammar-school, and put him to an English school to learn

writing and accompts. Here he did not remain long before an opportunity

offered of placing him with the master of a ship at Weymouth, agreeable

to the inclinations which he had very early discovered of going to sea;

a lesson to parents and guardians to consult the genius of children, if

they would wish them to rise to eminence in the profession to which they

are bred.

With this master he made a short voyage to France, and was highly

gratified: but, his next voyage being to Newfoundland, where he was

employed a whole summer in the fishery, the rigour of the climate and

the nature of the service so cooled his ardour for sea-adventures, that

he determined to relinquish the employment, and return to his friends.

He was now eighteen years of age; and, after leading for some time an

idle life, finding his friends begin to look cool upon him, he formed a

resolution to leave the country, and to try his fortune in town. His

course of life, and the natural bent of his inclination, led him to seek

the company of sea-faring companions, who, being pleased with his jovial

humour, encouraged him to resume his old employment, to which, having an

opportunity to enter on board an Indiaman, he was easily persuaded.

In this ship, the John and Martha, Captain Earning, he sailed to Bantam,

in quality of a foremastman; and in little more than a year returned to

England, perfectly reconciled to the business of a mariner, which, by

the severity of the service he was first employed in, he had determined

never to follow.

In this voyage, by favour of the master of the ship, he learned the

rudiments of the art of navigation, in which he afterwards became a

great proficient; but he had not yet learned to keep a journal. It

should seem that he employed the following year, after his Indian

voyage, in improving those hints which he received from the master, and

in qualifying himself for an easier and more advantageous birth, than

that of going before the mast for the future. With this view he retired

again into the country, and spent the summer with his brother. But,

tired of a studious life, he embraced the occasion of the Dutch war, to

enter on board the Royal Prince, commanded by Sir Edward Sprague, but in

what station does not appear. He tells us, indeed, that he was in two

engagements; but that, falling sick, he was put on board the hospital

ship, and saw the third only at a distance, in which his Commander was

unfortunately killed: so that he does not seem to have risen higher at

this period than the ordinary rank of an able seaman.

Being soon after removed to Harwich among the rest of the sick and

wounded, he there languished till the conclusion of the Dutch war, when

he received his discharge; and then returned again to Somersetshire for

the recovery of his health; which was no sooner restored than he

prepared again to go to sea.

But Colonel Hellier, a neighbouring Gentleman, having a large plantation

in Jamaica, being acquainted with his resolution, made him an offer of

going there as a superintendant, with a handsome appointment; which he

very readily accepted; and, about the beginning of the year 1674,

embarked for Jamaica. But he soon grew tired of land service; his roving

disposition still inclining him to seek the sea. The road, he says, to

take possession of his new office, when he arrived at Jamaica, was

formerly a great way round: but Mr. Hellier, the Colonel’s brother,

being desirous of shortening the way, coasted along the river with some

companions, till they found it run between rocks that rose perpendicular

on both sides: they endeavoured to climb that which intercepted the way

to the plantation: but, while they with the utmost danger and difficulty

were surmounting the rock, a dog they had with them found a more

convenient passage through a hole. This suggested to Mr. Hellier a new

track: so by blowing up some fragments of the rock in one part, and

levelling some hollows in others, a passage was obtained wide enough for

a loaded horse. By this accidental discovery the road was shortened near

one half.

He was now in his 22d year. In six months after his arrival at Jamaica

he was tired of his superintendency, and quitted it; and soon after

engaged in a trade with the logwood-cutters in Campeachy bay; which

trade he followed near three years, and then commenced logwood-cutter

himself. Unsettled in his mind, and still eager in pursuit of new

adventures, in less than a year he quitted the logwood-cutters; and

about the beginning of 1678, returned to England.

In 1679, we find him again returned to Jamaica, with a cargo of

merchandize, which being sold at Port Royal, he furnished himself with

other goods, such as he knew he could carry to a good market at

Campeachy; and by this advantageous traffic, he so enriched himself, as

to be able to purchase an estate in his own country, of one whom he knew

had a good title to it. And now, sufficiently happy, he was preparing to

return home; when one Mr. Hobby invited him to make a short trading

voyage to the Moskito-shore, a part of the world he had not yet seen.

This invitation to embark in a new adventure he could not resist and,

therefore, sent home the writings of his late purchase to his brother,

with the same friends whom he purposed to have accompanied to England

himself, and then went on board with Mr. Hobby.

The Moskitos, he says, are Indians that inhabit the main, between the

Honduras and Nicaragua. They are tall, well-made, raw-boned, lusty,

strong, and nimble of foot, long visaged, have lank black hair, look

stern, are hard favoured, and of a dark copper-coloured complexion. They

are but a small nation; the same, perhaps, that Drake calls Symerons.

They are very dexterous at throwing the lance, fisgig, harpoon, or any

manner of dart, being bred to it from their infancy; for, the children,

imitating their parents, never go abroad without a lance, which they

throw indifferently at almost every object that falls in their way, till

by constant practice they become masters of the art. They next learn to

parry a lance, arrow, or dart; and the training of them to this exercise

is in this manner: Two boys place themselves at a small distance, and

throw light blunt lances at each other; one throws the lance, and the

other parries, alternately. He that parries holds a small stick in his

right hand, with which he turns aside the lance that is darted at him:

and, by constantly practising in this manner, they at last become so

dexterous, that they will shoot arrows at each other, and parry them as

fast as they are shot. This they will do with a small stick no bigger

than the rammer of an ordinary fowling-piece.

Before they arrive at manhood, they become so dexterous, that they

disregard the arrows of their enemies; and, unless they are poured thick

upon them, and come more than one at a time, they will suffer not one in

a thousand to hit them.

They are no less expert at striking of fish; and two or three of them

will in those seas maintain a ship’s company of 100 men. Turtle and

manatee are their principal pursuit: the former will commonly weigh 600

weight; and two Moskito-men will strike two of them a-day, while the

season lasts, for many days together. The manatee is known also by the

name of the sea-cow, and is struck with a harpoon, so contrived by the

Moskito-men as to be thrown with a long stick; but they are very

cautious of discovering their art even to the English--the Spaniards

they hate mortally. The turtle they strike with a different instrument,

of which our author has given a cut.

About this time the æra of buccaneering commences. The buccaneers were a

set of low men, who, in humble imitation of their betters, first began

with fitting out small vessels in some of the islands in the West

Indies, and then cruising in them till they were able to make themselves

masters of better ships. This being accomplished, they went in

formidable companies as occasion offered, and declared open war against

all the Spanish settlements. These freebooters had generally two or

three Moskito-men on board each of their vessels, whom they found

serviceable in many other respects besides supplying them with fish. By

their situation they had opportunities of being well acquainted with the

strength and riches of the Spanish settlements, and by their inclination

they were their avowed enemies. They therefore served the buccaneers for

guides, and at the same time assisted in their most hazardous attacks.

This being premised, let us now return to Dampier, who, as has just been

said, had agreed to make a voyage with Captain Hobby; and having set

sail from Port Royal, either by accident or design, they fell in with

Coxen, Sawkings, Sharp, and other buccaneers, who were riding at anchor

on the west side of the island of Jamaica, and were then meditating an

enterprize over the isthmus of Darien, in order to fall suddenly upon

the Spaniards in the South Seas. This expedition, it was given out,

would enrich the undertakers; and as all who engaged in it, according to

the law of buccaneers, were to be proportionable sharers, all Captain

Hobby’s men deserted him to join the buccaneers, Dampier only excepted,

who, after three or four days consideration, was easily persuaded to

make one among the rest.

Shortly after Christmas, 1680, they all set sail, and steering to Porto

Bello, on the 5th of April, they landed near Golden Island, to the

number of between three and four hundred men, and began their march

guided by chiefs of the Muskito Indians, and headed by Captain Sawkings,

who, by general consent, was chosen their leader.

After a fatiguing journey of nine days, in which many of them suffered

great hardships, they arrived at Santa Martha, a Spanish settlement on a

river of that name that empties itself into the Southern ocean; which

after some opposition they took. They were made to believe, before they

approached it, that it was a place of considerable strength, abounding

in riches, and inhabited by merchants of considerable property; but upon

entering it, they were greatly disappointed, and therefore, as might be

expected from such a lawless crew, they were as ready to fall upon those

who had projected the enterprise, as upon those whom they accounted the

enemy.

They now, much discontented with one another, parted company. One party,

continuing their march to the Southern ocean, and there embarking, some

in canoes, some in periagos, and some in small barks which they found in

the river, continued their course to the bay of Panama, and in their way

attempted the little town of Puebla Novo, before which their commander

in chief Captain Sawkins was killed, and his followers defeated. In what

manner this undisciplined crew procured ships, guns, and ammunition, we

are not told; yet ships, guns, and ammunition to pursue their ravages

they did procure as appears by the sequel.

Captain Coxen, with his company, foreseeing many difficulties in this

Southern project, after the taking of Santa Martha returned to the North

Seas, where he continued his piracies with various success.

Dampier, however, followed the views of those who persevered in their

first resolution of prosecuting their fortune in the South Seas; and he

continued to accompany them during the year 1680; but, after the death

of Sawkings, Captain Sharpe being chosen commander in chief in his room,

Dampier with many of his companions, suspecting both the courage honesty

of their new leader, entered into a confederacy to displace him, and to

choose Captain Watling in his room, which they soon found means to

accomplish by general consent. Under Captain Sharpe the only enterprize

of consequence was the taking of Ylo, a small island on the Peruvian

coast, from whence they sailed to Juan Fernandez, where, as has been

said, Captain Sharpe was displaced.

It happened, however, that Captain Watling, soon after his advancement,

having planned an attack upon Arica, fell a victim to his own project;

for he was killed in the first onset, and his party defeated. The

confederates, after this misfortune, remaining some time without a

leader, fell again into party divisions; one party declaring themselves

in favour of their former Commander, the other opposing his re-election.

To put an end to these dissentions, it was at last agreed to part

companies, and to cast lots which company should keep possession of the

ship. It happened that the party in opposition to Dampier proved the

fortunate party; so that Dampier and his companions were reduced to the

necessity of returning either to the N. Sea over the same isthmus by

which they came into the South, or submitting themselves to the mercy of

the Spaniards. Nor does it appear that any of them carried more riches

back than they brought with them, notwithstanding the vast promises with

which they had been flattered at their first setting out: for it has

been generally observed, that the confederacies of the wicked are

defeated by their own deceit; and that they themselves are, for the most

part, the instruments of their own misfortunes.

The company with which Dampier chose to associate, consisted of 44 men

who bore arms, a Spanish Indian who bore arms also, two Moskito Indians,

already described, with five slaves taken in the South Seas, whom they

kept to carry their luggage. The vessels they had to carry this company

were, the long-boat belonging to the ship, and two canoes, one of which

had been sawn asunder, and joined again; and these were furnished for

their defence with two patararoes, the companies small arms, and very

scanty proportion of provisions and ammunition: and, thus equipped, they

had to sail more than 200 leagues before they reached the river of Santa

Martha, from whence they were to set out on their march by land for the

North Sea. Such an enterprize, one would imagine, could hardly have been

undertaken with any hope of succeeding by reasonable men.

On April the 17th, 1681, they parted with Captain Sharpe, 12 leagues to

the north-west of the island of Plate; and, on May the 1st, they landed,

after many strange adventures, in the bay of Panama, in order to pursue

their journey. Here they found the river Santa Martha, of which they

meant to avail themselves, blocked up by a ship of considerable force,

that had been stationed there for more than six months to intercept

their passage. This obliged them to seek a new tract, through which,

however, the greatest part of the company, with incredible difficulty,

passed safe to the opposite shore, among whom was Dampier, whose

hardiness enabled him to undergo the severest trials, and whose

well-judged precautions exempted him from many unnecessary sufferings to

which others by their imprudence frequently exposed themselves.

On the 1st of May, about three in the afternoon, they began their march;

and, on the 23d, they completed their journey; in which time they

travelled 110 miles, crossing some lofty mountains, but chiefly keeping

along the vallies among deep and dangerous rivers, some of which they

forded, some they passed by felling large trees upon the banks, and some

they were obliged to swim over in their cloaths and accoutrements. Those

who could not swim were dragged through by means of ropes. Their first

landing-place upon the south coast was very disadvantageous to them, and

forced them to a circuit of 50 miles more than was necessary, could they

have landed in the bay of Santa Martha, or navigated the river Chepoa,

by either of which the Indians pass from one shore to the other in three

days, and sometimes in less.

Those who arrived on the north coast first, among whom was Dampier,

embarked immediately on board a French buccaneer, Captain Tristrian,

Commander, who, in two days after they arrived, joined eight sail of

buccaneers more, who were planning another expedition over-land to

Panama: but, when they were told of the ill success of the first, the

fatigues they must undergo, the risques they must run, and at length the

uncertainty of the event, they unanimously concurred in relinquishing

that design, and held a consultation what other enterprize was fit for

such a formidable body of them to undertake. At length, they concluded

to attack a Spanish town up Carpenter’s river, and for that purpose set

sail one after another, in order to preserve secresy, having previously

appointed a place of rendezvous. When the ship in which our navigator

sailed arrived at the place appointed, they found Captain Wright there

before them, who had taken a Spanish Tartan with 30 men, well furnished

with small arms, and four patararoes, who with 12 armadillos had been

fitted out to seek the buccaneers, and to sink them. This, they that

came over-land, who were heartily tired with living among the French,

thought a good opportunity to set up for themselves; they, therefore

applied to Captain Wright, requesting him to fit up the Tartan for them;

to which, after some hesitation, he consented, on condition that they

should be under his command as one and the same ship; to which they made

no objection.

The rest of the fleet not arriving at the general rendezvous, according

to agreement, it was soon discovered, that the Spanish armadillos [or

small men of war] had fallen in with and dispersed them. Every one,

therefore, was at liberty to pursue his own enterprise; and Captain

Wright with his new associates chose the coast of Carthagena to try

their fortune. Here they were joined by Captain Yankey; and, falling in

with a stout ship, they fought and took her. She proved to be a prize of

14 guns and 40 men, laden with sugar and tobacco, and had eight or ten

tons of marmalet on board. The Captains differed about the right to the

ship. Yankey, however, took possession by vote of the crews; and Captain

Wright took Yankey’s ship, which was better than his own. The cargo,

after a great deal of difficulty, they disposed of at a Dutch settlement

for less than one-fourth of its value.

However, the goods being now converted into ready money, the produce was

shared, and the Captains parted. Captain Wright stood for the Caracca

coast, with his men drunk, and quarrelling every day; and Captain Yankey

pursued a quite different course. On the coast of the Caraccas, Captain

Wright took three barks, one laden with hides, one with European

commodities, and a third with earthen-wares and brandy. With these barks

he went to the island Rocu; and, having divided the cargoes into three

equal parts, he gave to every 20 men (for they were 60 in all) one part

and a bark, and so dismissed them. That in which our navigator had an

interest was brought to Virginia on July 16, 1682, where we shall leave

both him and the ship, to give some account of Captain Yankey.

On board of Yankey sailed one Mr. Cook, as quarter-master, the second in

command, according to buccaneer law; and, they having taken a prize from

the Spaniards, the command of the prize was claimed by Mr. Cook, on

board of which all who chose to sail under the new Captain had liberty

so to do: among others there were several who came over land with him

from the South Seas (for he too had left Captain Sharpe, and had

followed the example of Dampier). All these chose to follow the fortune

of their old acquaintance: but the Frenchmen grudging the English the

possession of so fine a vessel, together with their share of the goods

on board her, combined together; and, after plundering them of ship,

goods, arms, and money, turned them all a-drift on the island of Vacca.

In this destitute condition, Captain Tristrian, of whom mention has

already been made, shewed some compassion, by taking on board about

eight or nine of them, among whom were Captain Cook and Captain Davis,

formerly masters of buccaneers, who, being carried into Petit Guavres,

found means, when the French crews were carousing on shore, to make

themselves masters of their benefactor’s ship, to slip her cable, and to

steer with all the sail they could spread to Vacca to the relief of

their starving countrymen, who, overjoyed to be released, instantly came

on board; and, soon after they set sail, had the good fortune to make

prize of a ship laden with wine, which was newly come from France. They

afterwards fell in with a ship of good force, of which they likewise

made prize; and in her they came to the resolution of sailing into the

South Seas, and ranging the coasts of Chili and Peru. But, first, it was

necessary for them to sail to Virginia to dispose of their spare ships

and cargoes, and to fit their capital prize for war. This they did by

mounting her with 28 guns, and furnishing her with stores, provisions,

and other necessaries for the prosecution of so long a voyage. When

these ships arrived at Virginia, Dampier, and all those who came

over-land with him, happened to be there; and, being made acquainted,

with Captain Cook’s intention, they very readily agreed to join in his

adventure.

And now, having followed Dampier through all the busy scenes of action

in which he was engaged, till his 30th year, we come at length to that

period, at which the more notable adventures of his life commence.

On the 18th of August, 1683, he set sail from Achamack river, in

Virginia, in the prize under the command of Captain Cook; and, on the

23d, they met with a violent tempest, which lasted without intermission

till the 28th, during which time they shipt some of the heaviest seas

that ever ship endured. But as soon as the storm abated, they had fine

weather, and a brisk gale, till they arrived at the islands of Cape

Verd, where they staid to careen their ship, to refresh themselves, and

to take in fresh water. This they did at the little island of Sal: but,

being told that the island of Mayo abounded most with cattle, they left

Sal, and went to Mayo to purchase provisions. Here they met with a cold

reception; the inhabitants absolutely refusing to have any traffic with

them, or to suffer them to land: the reason was, that about a week

before, an English ship pretending friendship had cast anchor, and by a

shew of kindness had invited the Governor with his train on board; but,

as soon as they had them in their power, they caused them to write for

cattle and other provisions, by way of ransom, to regain their liberty;

and, what was still more base, after they were furnished with what they

required, they carried off their prisoners, who had not then been heard

of. Dampier afterwards learnt, that the Englishman who was guilty of

this treachery was Captain Bond, who afterwards surrendering himself to

the Spaniards, entered into their service, and taught them to fit out

fire-ships, of which they were before totally ignorant in the South

Seas.

From Mayo they sailed to Sherboro, on the coast of Africa, where they

staid a few days, and purchased rice, palm-wines, sugar, honey, and

fowls, and then made sail for the straits of Magellan. On the 6th of

February, 1684, they came in sight of the straits mouth; but the wind

being contrary, they continued their course to the south, and doubled

Cape Horn. In latitude 57, when they thought themselves clear of the

cape, they encountered a storm on the 14th of February, which lasted

without abatement till the 3d of March, during which time the rain

poured down immoderately for many days; by which, however, they were

plentifully supplied with fresh water.

When the storm abated, the wind changed to the south, and proved very

favourable; for at this time they found themselves in lat. 60 deg. S.

But, the gale continuing brisk, by the 17th of March they had run to the

height of Baldivia, in 48 deg. S. On the 19th, in the morning, they saw

a ship to the southward coming after them with all the sail she could

croud. Supposing her to be a Spanish ship from Baldivia and Lima, they

lay by for her; but, on her nearer approach, they saw she was an English

ship; and, upon hailing her, was told that her Captain’s name was Eaton,

that she came from London, and was bound for a cruise in the South Seas.

Rogues are always good friends till they come to share their booty; so

these free-booters agreed to sail together; and accordingly kept company

to the island of Juan Fernandez, where they both prepared to refresh and

refit.

March 22, 1684, they anchored in the south bay, in 25 fathoms water, not

a cable’s length from the shore; and as soon as Captain Cook’s ship was

moored, Dampier was eager to go ashore to look for a _Moskito-man_, whom

they had left in this island, when they were driven from it in the year

1681, by three Spanish men of war, Dampier being at that time in the

ship commanded by Captain Watling, just after Captain Sharpe was

displaced. This man, when Captain Watling drew off his crew, happened to

be in the woods hunting for goats; and the ship was under sail before he

came back. Dampier was curious to know whether this Moskito-man was yet

alive; and, if he was, how it had fared with him and it seemed that the

Indian was no less anxious to enquire after his friends, when he saw

that the ships that were approaching were English ships. The poor fellow

had observed them the day before, when first they came in sight, and,

judging about what time they would come to an anchor, he had killed

three goats, and gathered greens, ready to dress as soon as the company

should be at liberty to come on shore. He was already upon the beach

before the ships could be well secured, and was first seen by one of his

countrymen who happened to be on board; and it was no small pleasure to

mark the excessive joy of these two Indians at their meeting. The

Moskito-man belonging to the ship was named _Robin_: he on the island

_Will_. Robin was the first who leapt on shore; and, running to Will,

threw himself flat on his face at his feet, who, helping him up, and

embracing him, fell flat in like manner with his face at Robin’s feet,

and was by him taken up and embraced as before. The surprize, the

tenderness, the solemnity of the interview, which was exceedingly

affectionate on both sides, was admired even by the crews of buccaneers,

who were spectators from the ships of what passed on shore. When

Dampier, who was his old friend, came up, _Will_ was no less transported

with joy to see him than to meet his countryman, but he expressed it in

quite another manner: other friends too he met with among the crew who

knew him, and they were all over-joyed at meeting so unexpectedly; for

these men are very much beloved on board the ships wherever they sail,

for their readiness to assist in whatever service they are put upon.

When the ceremonies of congratulation were over, and they had time to

make enquiries, he told them, that he was several times sought after by

the Spaniards, who knew that he was left upon the island; because when

the ship set sail he was in sight of the shore, and was seen by them

before he could secret himself: but as he was continually upon the

watch, and had discovered a secret retreat, they never had been able to

find him. He had with him, he said, his gun and his knife, a small horn

of powder, and a few shot. These being soon spent, he contrived a way,

by notching his knife, to saw the barrel of his gun in small pieces,

with which he made harpoons, lance-heads, hooks, and a long knife;

heating the pieces first in the fire, which he lighted after the English

manner, by striking his gun-flint against the back of his knife. The

iron when it was hot he hammered with stones, and formed it into the

various shapes he had occasion to apply it. By continued labour and

perseverance, he had worked himself such a complete set of instruments,

for killing and catching his provisions by land and water, as surprized

the people when they were brought out for their inspection. But, says

Dampier, it is no more than these Moskito-men are accustomed to do in

their own country, where they make their own fishing and striking

instruments, without either forge or anvil: and other Indians are still

more ingenious; for they make hatchets of a very hard stone, with which

they cut down trees, make canoes, and frame their houses.

Poor Will had built himself a little house about half a mile from the

shore, which he had made warm and convenient, by lining it with

goat-skins. He had likewise raised himself a couch about two feet above

the ground, which he had also made soft with the fur of the animals he

caught, and with the down of the young birds (for he could catch no

other) which he occasionally met with and pluckt. Cloaths he had none;

for he had worn them to rags among the bushes and brambles through which

he was often obliged to pursue his prey. He had been on the island about

three years; and in all that time had never conversed with any human

being. He had seen Spaniards; but he always took care, after the first,

that none of them should ever see him.

At this island these free-booters staid sixteen days; and, on the 8th of

April, the two ships set sail together, and pursued their course

northwards towards the Line, at the distance of 12 or 14 leagues from

the shore, for fear of being seen. The land from 24 deg. to 10 deg. S.

is of a most prodigious height, with ridges of such lofty mountains from

one end of Peru and Chili to the other, that their summits seem to rise

above the clouds; and from the sea they appear for ever blue. Dampier

attributes to the excessive height of these mountains, the want of great

rivers in all this tract; and says, there seldom falls any rain from 30

deg. to 4 deg. S. He adds, that the limits of the Pacific Ocean ought to

be confined within that space extended westward indefinitely; for, in

all this tract of water, says he, there are no dark rainy clouds, nor

any winds, but trade winds, no tempests, no tornadoes, or hurricanes,

though north of the Line, they are met with in this Ocean as well as the

Atlantic. There is, however, often a thick horizon, so as to hinder an

observation of the sun with the quadrant; and, sometimes, hazy mornings,

and thick mists, but not such as will wet one. The rivers in all this

tract, he says, run small; sometimes they run at one season of the year,

and at others are quite dry. These observations, if just, are truly

wonderful.

They coasted along the Pacific Ocean from Juan Fernandez to lat. 90 deg.

40 min. S. without meeting with any thing worthy of note; but, on the 3d

of May, they fell in with a ship laden with timber, which they instantly

took without resistance. From this ship they learnt, that the Spaniards

were apprized of their being upon their coasts, and that the Viceroy had

sent expresses to all the sea-ports to put the inhabitants upon their

guard against any sudden attack.

On this intelligence they immediately altered their course, and steered

for Lobos de la Mer, in lat. 6 deg. 24 min. S. Here they cleared their

ships bottoms; and strictly questioned their prisoners concerning the

state of the country, and which were the towns of greatest note. Several

towns were mentioned; but Truxillo appeared to be that which, if

conquered, would yield the most profit: Truxillo was therefore the place

agreed upon to make a descent. In their passage they descried three

sail: Eaton pursued two of those to seaward; and Cook presently made

prize of that which was nearest the land. They were ships laden with

flour for Panama; in one of which was found a letter from the Viceroy of

Lima to the President of Panama, acquainting him with enemies being upon

the coast, and with the supposed strength of their forces. They also

found an image of the Blessed Virgin in wood, and a stately mule, being

a present to the President, with seven or eight tons of marmalate of

quinces, which is eaten as a great delicacy in that country. From the

prisoners taken in these prizes they learned, that the Spaniards were

fortifying Truxillo, and that a garrison was already established. The

attack of that town was therefore judged impracticable; and it was

resolved to retire to the Gallapagos with the prizes, and there to

consult what next was best to be undertaken. The Gallapagos are a

cluster of islands lying on the Equator, very little known or

frequented, till the buccaneers found their way into the South Seas; the

nearest of them lies 110 leagues to the westward of the main, in long.

70 deg. W. from England. For these islands they set sail on the 29th of

May, and reached them on the 31st. Here they found plenty of turtle,

which they feasted upon fresh every day. They staid about ten or twelve

days; and laid up about 5000 packs of meal from their prizes to serve as

a future supply in case of necessity.

Being told by an Indian prisoner that was born at Rio Lexa, that there

were great riches in his city, and that he would shew them the way to

the place, they concluded to set sail, and to trust to the fidelity of

their Indian guide; intending, however, to anchor by the way at the

island of Cocos, in lat. 5 deg. 40 min. S. to lodge some of their meal,

as more convenient to have recourse to on ordinary occasions than the

islands of Gallapagos. With this intent their stoutest meal-ship was

taken with them; but, not being able to make the island, they steered to

the continent.

It happened, however, in the course of this short run, that Captain

Cook, who had been taken ill at Juan Fernandez, as soon as he came

within a few leagues of Cape Blanco, in latitude 9 deg. 56 min. S.

suddenly died, “though in the morning, says Dampier, he was as likely to

live as he had been for a long time before;” but, he adds, “it is usual

for sick men coming from the sea, to die off as soon as they come within

sight of land.” The death of Captain Cook occasioned a general

consultation, when it was agreed to come to an anchor in Caldera-bay,

within a league of Cape Blanco, and there to give him christian burial.

While the men were employed in digging the grave, three Indians came up

to see what they were about, and entered into conversation with the

diggers, at the same time appearing very shy; but, notwithstanding their

caution, as soon as the corps was decently interred, they were all three

seized at once by the company, and very strictly examined. They at first

pretended to know nothing of the Spaniards; but at length they

acknowledged that they were sent from Nicoya, a town about 12 leagues

off, to learn what they could concerning any strangers that should touch

upon the coast, the people of that town having advice that enemies were

in the adjoining seas, and that therefore it behoved them to be upon

their guard. They learnt likewise from these Indians, that the

inhabitants in that neighbourhood were chiefly husbandmen, and bred

cattle; that they traded in hides, corn, and other provisions, for which

they received in return, shoes, hats, linnen, and other cloth; and that,

at no great distance, there were some very large cattle-pens, where they

might furnish themselves with as many buffaloes as would fill their

ships. This was welcome news to sailors, none of whom had tasted any

fresh meat for many weeks; and a company of 24 of them set out

immediately with an Indian for their guide, to look for the cattle-pens.

After a short march of between three and four miles, they came in sight

of a savannah where a great number of cattle were grazing; of which,

some were for instantly killing as many as they could carry away, while

others were for staying all night, and driving them into the pens to

supply the ships at once, before the owners were apprized of their

design. This resolution prevailed; but Dampier, who was of the party,

and who never chose to run unnecessary hazards, returned to the ships

with about half the company, together with the Indian guide, while the

rest chose to stay where they were. In the morning, when these voluntary

drovers were expected to return with their cattle, none came: it was

therefore feared that some disaster had befallen them; and boats were

manned, and sent out to look for them.

[Illustration: _Capt^n Davis’s Men taken off the Rock by their

Comrades._]

As the boats were rowing along, some of the company happened to spy a

number of people upon a rock up to their middles in water; and, upon

nearing them, they soon saw that they were the very people they were in

search of; and, therefore, hastened to take them on board. Lucky it was,

that the boatmen happened to spy them just as they did, for in an hour

more they had been all swallowed up by the tide. They had been suffered

to sleep all night unmolested; and in the morning when they were

scattered about among the cattle, and driving them into the pens, they

were surprized by the sudden appearance of about 60 Spanish soldiers

well armed, who placed themselves in a convenient situation to cut off

their retreat. Alarmed at this unexpected discovery, they hastened to

join in a body, resolving to sell their lives dear, if they found it

impossible to make their escape. Accordingly, they looked well round

them in order to discover an opening to some other part of the shore,

than that against which their ships rode, marching at the same time in

as good order as their situation would admit, and giving the Spaniards

now-and-then a volley of shot, to keep them at a proper distance. The

Spaniards, who are not over eager to come to a close engagement, kept

themselves sheltered behind the bushes, whistling some random shot at

the fugitives, by way of return; which, however, did them no harm. In

this cautious manner they advanced slowly towards the beach where

Captain Cook was buried; and, looking for their boat, saw her in flames

by the water-side, near the spot where they had grounded her the night

before. All hope of retreat being now cut off; and the Spaniards, to

make sure of their surrender, having posted themselves in such a manner

as to prevent all communication with the ships, they were at length

reduced to the last extremity; when, fortunately, spying a rock just

above water, about 100 yards from the shore, they all determined to

commit themselves to the mercy of the ocean, rather than fall into the

hands of the Spaniards. With this resolution they rushed together into

the tide, holding fast by one another, and determining that if one

perished all should perish. In this manner they made good their landing

upon the rock, where they had continued seven hours when they happened

to be discovered by their comrades, who were suffered by the Spaniards

to release them without firing a gun.

After this disappointment it was thought adviseable not to hazard a

second attempt; they therefore weighed anchor, and continued their

course to Ria Lexa, having first chosen Mr. Edward Davis, the next in

command to Captain Cook, Commander in his room. On the 20th of July they

set sail, and in three days they were a-breast of their intended port.

Ria Lexa is known by a high-peaked volcano, which smokes all the day,

and in the night sometimes sends forth flames of fire. It lies a

considerable distance from the main, and before you approach the town

there is a small island on which the Spaniards had placed a guard. This

guard the buccaneers surprized; but from them they learnt, that the town

was strongly fortified; that the Governor was informed of their being

upon the coast, and that the garrison was well provided for defence.

This news discouraged the adventurers, who did not come to fight but to

plunder: they therefore instantly withdrew from Ria Lexa, and steering

for the gulph of Amapalla, they there careened their ships, and parted

company. This gulph is a large arm of the sea running ten leagues up

into the country. On the south point lies Cape Cawina, and on the N. W.

St. Michael’s Mount, in lat. 12 deg. 40 min. N. But before they came to

the gulph, it was agreed that Captain Davis should go before with two

canoes well-manned, in order, by surprising some of the natives, to gain

intelligence. Accordingly, as soon as they approached the gulph, the

canoes departed, and Captain Davis, the first night, arrived at a small

island on which there was a town called Mangera, which, for want of a

guide, he could not find. In the morning he found it; but the Indian

inhabitants had all fled, and left the place deserted; only the padre,

with two boys to attend him, were left to take their fate. As all that

Captain Davis wanted was a prisoner for the sake of information, one

more intelligent than the friar could not have fallen into his hands.

From him they learnt, that there were several Indian villages in the

gulph; but that there were only three towns that had churches; that he

served all the three; that there was only another white man, besides

himself, in the whole gulph, who was a kind of secretary to the Spanish

government, and who collected the revenues and kept the accompts.

Captain Davis, upon receiving this intelligence, taking with him the

friar and his two boys, ventured to approach Amapalla, which stands upon

an eminence. As Davis with his men gained the ascent, the Secretary,

attended by the Casique or Indian Chief, demanding, in Spanish, who they

were, and from whence they came, was answered by Davis, that they were

Biscayers, and that they were sent thither by the King of Spain to clear

the seas from enemies; that their ships were foul, and were coming there

to clean; and that he was come before to prepare a convenient station,

and to demand assistance from his Majesty’s Indian subjects. The

Secretary bid him welcome; said he loved an Old Spain man; and gave him

and his followers a kind invitation to come and take their residence in

the town. Captain Davis ascended the hill, placing the friar in the

front. They were received with every possible mark of respect both by

the Secretary and the Indian inhabitants, and after the first

salutations were past, they were conducted to the church, where all

business of a public nature is transacted. Accordingly, the friar

entered first and was followed by Captain Davis and most of the

by-standers; but one or two of the Indians loitering behind were pushed

in by Davis’s men, who then, suspecting some mischief, sprung back

again, and all the rest of the Indians taking the alarm, followed their

example, leaving Davis and the friar, looking at one another in high

confirmation, ignorant as posts of the cause that had occasioned the

desertion, while, at the same time, the brutes who had caused the rout

were firing upon the poor Indians for flying, and in the skirmish the

Secretary was killed upon the spot, the only person in all the gulph

that could speak Spanish, the friar and his two boys excepted.

Davis’s design was, when they were all in the church, to have shut them

in, and made his own terms with them: but, poor wretches! there was no

need to practice farther treachery with them; for, notwithstanding the

brutality of these pretended Biscayers, the Indians shewed them every

kind of civility, helped them to repair their ships, hewed down timber

for them, and brought it to the docks; furnished them with cattle and

fresh provisions from the main; and assisted them in filling water, and

carrying wood aboard. All this while the friar with his two lads were

kept prisoners, and it was feared, when they were ready to sail, that

they would have carried them off; for the Indians had a great veneration

for their priest. He had learned their language, and was very useful to

them both by his kind offices and admonitions.

They remained here from the latter end of July till the 3d of September,

when they set the friar and his youths on shore; and, the two Captains,

or more properly the two crews, having quarrelled, each of them pursued

a different course. Davis steered along the main of Peru, till having

ranged the whole coast of South America, they came to the island of

Plata, in lat. 1 deg. 10 min. S. so called by the Spaniards, after Drake

had shared the plunder of the Cacafuego upon it. Here the two ships met

again, when Captain Eaton’s men reported that they had met in their

course with dreadful tornadoes, with thunder and lightning frightful to

the last degree; that the air smelt of sulphur, and they every moment

expected to be involved in smoke and flame. Captain Eaton proposed a

reconciliation but, his terms being rejected, he staid but one night,

and the day following Davis left the island, and attempted the little

town of Manta, about seven or eight leagues from Plata. They found the

place deserted, and brought away one old woman, the only living creature

they found in the place. She informed them, that a great many enemies

were come over-land from the north seas; that they were yet in canoes

and periagoes; and that the Viceroy had commanded all the Spanish

trading ships on the coast to be burnt, to prevent their falling into

the enemies hands. On this news, Davis retired again to the island of

Plata, to wait the event, where soon after an English ship arrived,

called the Cygnet, commanded by Captain Swan. This ship had been fitted

out by some merchants of London, with a view to trade; but all trade

being effectually at a stop, Swan was easily persuaded to put his goods

up to auction among the adventurers with whom he accidentally fell in,

to man his ship with them, and to turn buccaneer himself. The new comers

were headed by a Captain Harris, who contented himself for the present

to command a small bark under Captain Swan. There was great joy at this

meeting; and Captain Davis and Captain Swan were, like other rogues,

very fond of each other for their own villainous purposes. They now

wished for Captain Eaton again, that having men enough they might all

unite, and undertake some place of consequence. With this view they

fitted up a small bark, and dispatched her in pursuit of him, appointing

a place of rendezvous, if the bark should be fortunate enough to meet

with him. In the mean time they set sail, directing their course to

Payta, a small town in lat. 5 deg. 15 min. S. built under a rock near

the sea-side. In their way they fell in with a large ship of 400 tons,

laden with timber, by whom they received intelligence that the Viceroy

had ordered 10 frigates to be fitted up with all expedition, in order to

drive them out of those seas. “Captain Davis’s unsettled crew, says

Dampier, began now heartily to repent their not accepting of Captain

Eaton’s terms.” However, they pursued their course, and on the 3d of

November landed in the road of Payta, and next morning attempted the

town, which they found deserted, and not so much as one day’s provisions

left in the whole place. Here they got intelligence, that Captain Eaton

had burnt a ship in that road the week before, and was sailed to the

westward; by which they judged that he had taken his departure for the

East Indies, by which course it was always his intention to return home.

They, therefore, began to prepare for their defence, in case of being

attacked by the Spanish frigates. They burnt Captain Harris’s bark,

because she was a heavy sailor, and fitted up another small bark for a

fire-ship; and, having examined their powder and ammunition, and

overhauled their rigging, and put every thing in the best order they

could, they made sail for the isles of Lobos. At Lobos they found a

letter left by the bark that was sent in quest of Captain Eaton,

acquainting them that he had been there, but had sailed some days before

the arrival of the bark; and that the bark was gone to Plata, the place

of rendezvous. Here it was concerted to attempt the town of Guaiaquil,

before they returned to Plata. Accordingly, on the 29th in the morning,

they set sail from Labos, steering directly for the bay of Guaiaquil.

This bay runs in between Cape Blanco on the south side, and Point

Shanday on the north, 25 leagues from Cape Blanco. In the bottom of this

bay lies the island of Santa Clara, in the form of a corpse laid out in

a shroud, of which the east end represents the head, and the west end

the feet. Ships that are bound to the port of Guaiaquil keep to the

southward of this isle, to avoid the shoals on the north side, where, it

is reported, a very rich wreck lies sunk, and that a person, who came

from the King of Spain with a patent to fish for wrecks, had taken up

some of the plate, but he dying, the patent expired without much effect.

The Indians, however, have taken some by stealth, and would probably

have got much more but for the swarms of cat-fish that hover round this

island, the prick of whose fins is so poisonous that whenever they draw

blood the wound proves mortal. From Santa Clara to Puna Arona is about

seven leagues, on which island the inhabitants, who are all seamen or

fishermen, are obliged to keep constant watch, and to give notice to the

Governor of Guiaquil of the approach of all shipping, whether friends or

foes. The houses in the town of Puna stand upon posts 10 or 12 feet

high, with ladders on the outsides to ascend the rooms. Dampier says, he

never saw any such in any other part of the world, except among the

Malayans in the East Indies. They are thatched with palmeto-leaves, and

their chambers well boarded, in which they exceed the Malayans. From

Puna to Guiaquil is seven leagues, and at the distance of one league

from the entrance of the river, which rises about two miles on the other

side Guiaquil, it is divided into two streams, one stream leading to

Leon, the other to Guiaquil. Guiaquil, according to Dampier, is one of

the principal sea-ports in the South Seas. The commodities exported from

that city are cocoa, hides, tallow, sarsaparilla and other drugs, and

woolen-cloth, commonly called Quito cloth. This cloth, which is made at

the rich inland town of Quito, is worn by all the common people

throughout the kingdom of Peru. But, besides cloth, Quito abounds with

gold, washed down from the mountains that surround it, which the Indians

make a trade of gathering in the adjacent brooks, where it is sometimes

found in solid lumps, but generally in small dust mixed with sand.

As soon as the ships entered the bay they cast anchor off Cape Blanco;

and the crews manned their boats and small barks to advance with the

more secrecy towards the town. In their way they made prize of a small

vessel, laden with Quito-cloth, the master of which told them of the

watch at Puna; and at the same time acquainted them that three ships

were expected to sail from Guiaquil next tide with 1000 negro slaves.

They had not rowed far before they fell in with one of the ships laden

with negroes, and took her. They cut her main-mast down, and left her at

anchor. The next day they made prize of the other two; but in taking

them they alarmed the town: and, there being no discipline observed, no

Commander in Chief to lead them on in a body, one party counteracted the

other party; so that none of their attacks took place. Captain Davis

advanced with a party of his men till they were quite exhausted in

marching through swamps and mangroves. Captain Swan and most of his men

were for retreating, seeing the town alarmed; but, being upbraided with

cowardice, agreed to proceed. They had two Indian guides; and one of

them undertook to lead the way into the town, and was followed by a

Davis’s man, who was fastened to him by a rope, to prevent his making

his escape. But, a little before they came within musket-shot, Davis’s

man, who had boasted of his courage, and sought the post of honour, to

be next man to the guide, cut the string, and let the guide loose; who,

finding himself at liberty, took to his heels, and made his escape. The

other, when he saw him out of reach, cried out, that somebody had cut

the string, and that the guide was gone. This spread a general panic; so

the design was all at once defeated; for, after that, not a man would

advance a step farther, but all retired to their boats and embarked

without either firing a gun, or having a gun fired at them. After

looking at the town for half an hour, they departed: and, having drest a

cow, and filled their bellies, they fell down the bay with the tide,

rifled the negro-ships, and took about 40 of the stoutest men along with

them, and turned the rest adrift. Dampier remarks upon this miscarriage,

that there never was a fairer opportunity for men to enrich themselves

than they had: but all their golden dreams vanished at once; and they

returned as they went, directing their course to Plata, to meet the bark

sent in search of Captain Eaton.

When they arrived, they found her with her crew almost famished; for

having sought the ships at Lobos, and from Lobos to Plata, and from

Plata to Lobos again, without finding them, and having scarce 14 days

provisions on board when they set out, they were constrained to make a

descent upon the village of Santa Helena, where they succeeded, and got

a small quantity of maize, with which and the turtle they happened to

strike, and some boobies and penguins they killed, they had made shift

to subsist, though with the utmost difficulty. Such was the regard these

plunderers bore for each other, when projects of robbery were in view.

Here the cargo of the cloth-bark, the only booty they had made, was

shared by lots, and Captain Swan had the bark to serve him as a tender.

Here also, according to custom, they quarrelled; Captain Davis’s men

placing the miscarriage to the cowardice of Captain Swan’s; and Captain

Swan’s to the over-forwardness of Captain Davis’s. At length the matter

was compromised by the mediation of the two Commanders; and they agreed

in the next place to attack Lavelia, a pretty large town in the bay of

Panama, about seven leagues from the sea-side, on the banks of a river

on the north-side of the bay.

On this expedition they set sail the 23d of December, 1684. On the 28th,

they arrived at a small village called Tomaco, which they surprized and

took, and in it a Spanish Knight, Don Diego de Pinas, who came in a ship

from Lima to load timber, in which ship there were only eight Spaniards,

and twelve or thirteen jars of good old wine. The wine they seized, but

let the ship go.

On the 1st of January, 1685, in passing from Tomaco to Gallo they took a

packet-boat from Panama to Lima with letters. The Spaniards threw the

letters over-board; but there being a string and a small buoy to the box

in which they were inclosed, the box was seen and taken up. The contents

of the public dispatches were, that the armada from Old Spain were

arrived at Porto Bello, and that the President of Panama had received

orders to hasten the Plate fleet from Lima.

This was joyful news for the buccaneers, who now thought of nothing but

sharing the treasures of Peru. They laid aside their pitiful project

upon Lavelia, and concluded to careen their ships at the King’s Isles,

near the entrance of the gulph of Panama, to which gulph no ships could

sail without being seen from these isles. There were now two ships and

three barks in company, a fire-ship, and two small tenders. They all

changed their course, and steered for the isles, in their way to which

they took a ship of 90 tons, laden with flour. On the 23d of January

they arrived at the place appointed; and on the 25th, they cast anchor

in the harbour of Galleria, setting all hands to work to clean the

barks, in order to cruise in the channel till the next spring-tide, when

the large ships might be laid up to be cleaned also.

On the 27th, the barks, being finished, were sent to cruise in the

entrance of the gulph; and on the 4th day after, they brought in a prize

laden with corn, salt-beef, and fowls. The beef and fowls came in good

time. The 14th of February, they made an end of careening their large

ships, took in wood and water, and, on the 15th, sailed into the

channel, to cruise for the plate-fleet. When they came a-breast of Old

Panama, they sent their Knight upon his parole with a letter to the

President, to treat for the exchange of prisoners; but by some accident,

says Dampier, he was killed. The next day they sent another letter to

the President by a _Mestiso_ (a mixed breed, half Indian half Spaniard).

This letter produced the desired effect. The English prisoners were

released, and about 40 Spaniards were returned in their room.

Leaving Panama, they cast anchor before Tobago; and, while they lay in

that road, a stratagem was played upon them that was near proving fatal

to men and ships. A pretended merchant from Panama came by stealth to

trade with them for such merchandize as they might have on board (a

thing not uncommon on those coasts), and was well received. It was

agreed, that in the night he should send his bark out with such

commodities as they wanted, and take back such as they had to return.

Accordingly the bargain was made, and the bark came out as was expected,

hailing the ships with the watchword that was to be her security. Being

cautious, however, lest some mischief should be intended, they called to

the people on board the bark to cast anchor; which they not regarding,

were instantly fired at; upon which the crew took to their canoes, and

set fire to the pretended smuggling ship, which had been prepared as a

fireship by that Capt. Bond who carried off the officers from Mayo, as

has been already related in the beginning of the voyage. This was aimed

chiefly at Captain Davis’s ship; but at the same time, Captain Swan’s

people observed a small float on the water with something like a man in

it, making towards their ship; the man, seeing he was discovered, dived,

and the float disappeared: this, they apprehended, when they saw the

fireship blow up, was some combustible matter intended to be stuck to

the rudder of Swan’s ship, as was formerly attempted upon that of

Captain Sharpe’s in the harbour of Coquimbo. Both ships, however, were

glad to cut their cables, and it was with difficulty that Davis’s

escaped. The fireship drove burning, towards Tobago, but after the first

explosion she did not burn clear, only made a smother, not being

properly contrived.