shillings a yard, sells there for ten or eleven dollars; and every
other article in proportion. We found many Spaniards here that had
been taken by Commodore Anson, and had been for some time prisoners on
board the Centurion. They all spoke in the highest terms of the kind
treatment they had received; and it is natural to imagine, that it was
chiefly owing to that laudable example of humanity, our reception here
was so good. They had never had anything but privateers and buccaneers
amongst them before, who handled their prisoners very roughly; so that
the Spaniards in general, both of Peru and Chili, had the greatest
dread of being taken by the English; but some of them told us, that
they were so happy on board the Centurion, that they should not have
been sorry if the Commodore had taken them with him to England. After
we had been here some time, Mr. Campbell changed his religion, and of
course left us. At the end of two years, the president sent for us,
and informed us a French ship from Lima, bound to Spain, had put into
Valparaiso, and that we should embark in her. After taking leave of our
good friend Mr. Gedd, and all our acquaintance at St. Jago, we set out
for Valparaiso, mules and a guide being provided for us. I had forgot
to say before, that Captain Cheap had been allowed by the president
six reals a day, and we had four for our maintenance the whole time we
were at St. Jago, which money we took up as we wanted it. Our journey
back was much pleasanter than we found it when we were first brought
hither, as we had now no mules to drive. The first person I met, upon
our entrance into Valparaiso, was the poor soldier whom I mentioned to
have been so kind to us when we were imprisoned in the fort. I now made
him a little present, which, as it came quite unexpected, made him very
happy. We took lodgings till the ship was ready to sail, and diverted
ourselves as we pleased, having the good fortune, at this time, to have
nothing to do with the governor or his fort. The town is but a poor
little place; there are, indeed, a good many storehouses built by the
water side for the reception of goods from the shipping.
About the 20th of December, 1744, we embarked on board the Lys frigate,
belonging to St. Malo. She was a ship of four hundred and twenty
tons, sixteen guns, and sixty men. She had several passengers on
board; and amongst the rest, Don George Juan, a man of very superior
abilities, (and since that time well known in England) who, with Don
Antonio Ulloa, had been several years in Peru, upon a design of
measuring some degrees of the meridian near the equator. We were now
bound to Conception, in order to join three other French ships that
were likewise bound home. As this was a time of the year when the
southerly winds prevail upon this coast, we stood off a long way to the
westward, making the island of Juan Fernandez. We did not get into the
bay of Conception till the 6th of January, 1745, where we anchored at
Talcaguana, and there found the Louis Erasme, the Marquis d'Antin, and
the Delivrance, the three French ships that we were to accompany. It is
but sixty leagues from Valparaiso to Conception, though we had been so
long making this passage; but there is no beating up, near the shore,
against the southerly wind, which is the trade at this season, as you
are sure to have a lee-current; so that the quickest way of making a
passage is to stand off a hundred and twenty or thirty leagues from the
land.
The bay of Conception is a large, fine bay; but there are several
shoals in it, and only two good anchoring-places, though a ship may
anchor within a quarter of a league of the town; but this only in the
very fine months, as you lay much exposed. The best anchoring-place is
Talcaguana, the southernmost neck of the bay, in five or six fathom
water, good holding ground, and where you are sheltered from the
northerly winds. The town has no other defence than a low battery,
which only commands the anchoring-place before it. The country is
extremely pleasant, and affords the greatest plenty of provisions of
all kinds. In some excursions we made daily from Talcaguana, we saw
great numbers of very large snakes; but we were told they were quite
harmless. I have read some former accounts of Chili, by the jesuits,
wherein they tell you that no venomous creature is to be found in it,
and that they even made the experiment of bringing bugs here, which
died immediately; but I never was in any place that swarmed with them
so much as St. Jago; and they have a large spider there, whose bite
is so venomous, that I have seen from it some of the most shocking
sights I ever saw in my life; and it certainly proves mortal if proper
remedies are not applied in time. I was once bit by one on the cheek,
whilst asleep, and, presently after, all that part of my face turned
as black as ink. I was cured by the application of a bluish kind of
stone (the same, perhaps, they call the serpent-stone in the East
Indies, and which is a composition). The stone stuck, for some time,
of itself on my face, and dropping off, was put into milk till it had
digested the poison it had extracted, and then applied again till the
pain abated, and I was soon afterwards well. Whilst the ships remained
at Conception, the people were employed in killing cattle and salting
them for the voyage; and every ship took on board as many bullocks
and sheep as their decks could well hold; and having completed their
business here, they sailed the 27th of January; but about eight days
after our ship sprung a very dangerous leak forward; but so low,
that there was no possibility of stopping it without returning into
port, and lightening her till they could come at it. Accordingly we
separated from the other ships, and made the best of our way for
Valparaiso, keeping all hands at the pump night and day, passengers
and all. However, as it happened, this proved a lucky circumstance
for the Lys, as the three other ships were taken; and this certainly
would have been her fate likewise, had she kept company with the rest.
As soon as we got into port, they lightened the ship forwards, and
brought her by the stern till they came at the leak, which was soon
stopped. They made all the dispatch possible in completing the water
again. Whilst at Valparaiso, we had one of the most violent shocks of
an earthquake that we had ever felt yet. On the first of March we put
to sea again, the season being already far advanced for passing Cape
Horn. The next day we went to an allowance of a quart of water a day
for each man, which continued the whole passage. We were obliged to
stand a long way to the westward; and went to the northward of Juan
Fernandez above a degree, before we had a wind that we could make any
southing with. On the 25th, in the latitude of 46 degrees, we met with
a violent hard gale at west, which obliged us to lie to under a reefed
mainsail for some days; and before we got round the Cape, we had many
very hard gales, with a prodigious sea and constant thick snow; and
after being so long in so delightful a climate as Chili, the cold was
almost insupportable. After doubling the Cape, we got but slowly to
the northward; and, indeed, at the best of times, the ship never went
above six knots; for she was a heavy-going thing. On the 27th of May
we crossed the line; when finding that our water was grown extremely
short, and that it would be almost impossible to reach Europe without
a supply, it was resolved to bear away for Martinico. On the 29th of
June, in the morning, we made the Island of Tobago, and then shaped
a course for Martinico; and on the first of July, by our reckonings,
expected to see it, but were disappointed. This was imputed to the
currents, which, whether they had set the ship to the eastward or
westward, nobody could tell; but upon looking over the charts, it
was imagined, if the current had driven her to the westward, it must
have been among the Granadillos, which was thought impossible without
seeing any of them, as they are so near together, and a most dangerous
place for rocks. It was then concluded we were to the eastward, and
accordingly we steered S.W. by W., but having run this course for above
thirty leagues, and no land appearing, it was resolved to stand to the
northward till we should gain the latitude of Porto Rico, and on the
4th in the evening we made that island; so that it was now certain the
ship had been hustled through the Granadillos in the night, which was,
without doubt, as extraordinary a passage as ever ship made. It was
now resolved to go between the islands of Porto Rico and St. Domingo
for Cape François, therefore we lay to that night. In the morning, we
made sail along shore; and about ten o'clock, as I was walking the
quarter-deck, Captain Cheap came out of the cabin, and told me he had
just seen a beef-barrel go by the ship; that he was sure it had but
lately been thrown overboard, and that he would venture any wager we
saw an English cruizer before long. In about half an hour after we saw
two sail to leeward, from off the quarter-deck; for they kept no look
out from the mast-head, and we presently observed they were in chace
of us. The French and Spaniards on board now began to grow a good deal
alarmed, when it fell stark calm; but not before the ships had neared
us so much, that we plainly discerned them to be English men of war;
the one a two-decker, the other a twenty-gun ship. The French had
now thoughts, when a breeze should spring up, of running the ship on
shore upon Porto Rico, but when they came to consider what a set of
banditti inhabited that island, and that in all probability they would
have their throats cut for the sake of plundering the wreck, they were
resolved to take their chance, and stand to the northward between the
two islands. In the evening, a fresh breeze sprung up, and we shaped
a course accordingly. The two ships had it presently afterwards, and
neared us amazingly fast. Now every body on board gave themselves up;
the officers were busy in their cabins, filling their pockets with
what was most valuable; the men put on their best clothes, and many of
them came to me with little lumps of gold, desiring I would take them,
as they said they had much rather I should benefit by them, whom they
were acquainted with, than those that chased them. I told them there
was time enough, though I thought they were as surely taken as if the
English had been already on board. A fine moonlight night came on, and
we expected every moment to see the ships along-side of us; but we saw
nothing of them in the night, and, to our great astonishment, in the
morning no ships were to be seen even from the mast-head. Thus did
these two cruizers lose one of the richest prizes, by not chasing an
hour or two longer. There were near two millions of dollars on board,
besides a valuable cargo. On the eighth, at six in the morning, we were
off Cape La Grange; and, what is very remarkable, the French at Cape
François told us afterwards that was the only day they ever remembered,
since the war, that the Cape had been without one or two English
privateers cruising off it; and but the evening before, two of them had
taken two outward bound St. Domingo men, and had gone with them for
Jamaica; so that this ship might be justly esteemed a most lucky one.
In the afternoon we came to an anchor in Cape François harbour.
In this long run we had not buried a single man; nor do I remember that
there was one sick the whole passage; but at this place many were taken
ill, and three or four died; for there is no part of the West Indies
more unhealthy than this; yet the country is beautiful, and extremely
well cultivated. After being here some time, the governor ordered us to
wait upon him, which we did; when he took no more notice of us than if
we had been his slaves, never asking us even to sit down.
Towards the end of August, a French squadron of five men of war came
in, commanded by Monsieur L'Etanducre, who were to convoy the trade
to France. Neither he nor his officers ever took any kind of notice
of Captain Cheap, though we met them every day ashore. One evening,
as we were going aboard with the captain of our ship, a midshipman
belonging to Monsieur L'Etanducre, jumped into our boat, and ordered
the people to carry him on board the ship he belonged to, leaving us
to wait upon the beach for two hours before the boat returned. On the
sixth of September we put to sea, in company with the five men of war,
and about fifty sail of merchant-men. On the eighth we made the Cayco
Grande; and the next day a Jamaica privateer, a large fine sloop, hove
in sight, keeping a little to windward of the convoy, resolving to pick
up one or two of them in the night, if possible. This obliged Monsieur
L'Etanducre to send a frigate to speak to all the convoy, and order
them to keep close to him in the night; which they did, and in such a
manner, that sometimes seven or eight of them were on board one another
together; by which they received much damage; and to repair which,
the whole squadron was obliged to lay to sometimes for a whole day.
The privateer kept her station, jogging on with the fleet. At last,
the commodore ordered two of his best-going ships to chase her. She
appeared to take no notice of them till they were pretty near her, and
then would make sail and be out of sight presently. The chasing ships
no sooner returned, than the privateer was in company again. As by this
every night some accident happened to some of the convoy by keeping so
close together, a fine ship of thirty guns, belonging to Marseilles,
hauled out a little to windward of the rest of the fleet; which
L'Etanducre perceiving in the morning, ordered the frigate to bring the
captain of her on board of him; and then making a signal for all the
convoy to close to him, he fired a gun, and hoisted a red flag at the
ensign staff; and immediately after the captain of the merchant-man
was run up to the main-yard-arm, and from thence ducked three times. He
was then sent on board his ship again, with orders to keep his colours
flying the whole day, in order to distinguish him from the rest. We
were then told, that the person who was treated in this cruel manner,
was a young man of an exceeding good family in the south of France,
and likewise a man of great spirit; and that he would not fail to call
Monsieur L'Etanducre to account when an opportunity should offer; and
the affair made much noise in France afterwards. One day, the ship
we were in happened to be out of her station, by sailing so heavily,
when the commodore made the signal to speak to our captain, who seemed
frightened out of his wits. When we came near him, he began with the
grossest abuse, threatening our captain, that if ever he was out of his
station again, he would serve him as he had done the other. This rigid
discipline, however, preserved the convoy; for though the privateer
kept company a long time, she was not so fortunate as to meet with the
reward of her perseverance.
On the 27th of October, in the evening, we made Cape Ortegal; and on
the 31st, came to an anchor in Brest road. The Lys having so valuable
a cargo on board, was towed into the harbour the next morning, and
lashed alongside one of their men of war. The money was soon landed;
and the officers and men, who had been so many years absent from
their native country, were glad to get on shore. Nobody remained on
board but a man or two to look after the ship, and we three English
prisoners who had no leave to go ashore. The weather was extremely
cold, and felt particularly so to us, who had been so long used to hot
climates; and what made it still worse, we were very thinly clad. We
had neither fire nor candle; for they were allowed on board of no ship
in the harbour, for fear of accidents, being close to their magazines
in the dock-yard. Some of the officers belonging to the ship were so
kind to send us off victuals every day, or we might have starved; for
Monsieur L'Intendant never sent us even a message; and though there was
a very large squadron of men of war fitting out at that time, not one
officer belonging to them ever came near Captain Cheap. From five in
the evening we were obliged to sit in the dark; and if we chose to have
any supper, it was necessary to place it very near us before that time,
or we never could have found it. We had passed seven or eight days in
this melancholy manner, when one morning a kind of row-galley came
alongside, with a number of English prisoners belonging to two large
privateers the French had taken. We were ordered into the same boat
with them, and were carried four leagues up the river to Landernaw. At
this town we were upon our parole; so took the best lodgings we could
get, and lived very well for three months, when an order came from
the court of Spain to allow us to return home by the first ship that
offered. Upon this, hearing there was a Dutch ship at Morlaix ready to
sail, we took horses and travelled to that town, where we were obliged
to remain six weeks, before we had an opportunity of getting away. At
last we agreed with the master of a Dutch dogger to land us at Dover,
and paid him beforehand. When we had got down the river into the road,
a French privateer that was almost ready to sail upon a cruize, hailed
the Dutchman, and told him to come to an anchor; and that if he offered
to sail before him, he would sink him. This he was forced to comply
with, and lay three days in the road, cursing the Frenchman, who at
the end of that time put to sea, and then we were at liberty to do the
same. We had a long uncomfortable passage. About the ninth day, before
sunset, we saw Dover, and reminded the Dutchman of his agreement to
land us there. He said he would; but instead of that, in the morning
we were off the coast of France. We complained loudly of this piece of
villany, and insisted upon his returning to land us, when an English
man of war appeared to windward, and presently bore down to us. She
sent her boat on board with an officer, who informed us the ship he
came from was the Squirrel, commanded by Captain Masterson. We went on
board of her, and Captain Masterson immediately sent one of the cutters
he had with him, to land us at Dover, where we arrived that afternoon,
and directly set out for Canterbury upon post-horses; but Captain Cheap
was so tired by the time he got there, that he could proceed no further
that night. The next morning he still found himself so much fatigued,
that he could ride no longer; therefore it was agreed that he and Mr.
Hamilton should take a post-chaise, and that I should ride; but here an
unlucky difficulty was started; for upon sharing the little money we
had, it was found to be not sufficient to pay the charges to London;
and my proportion fell so short, that it was, by calculation, barely
enough to pay for horses, without a farthing for eating a bit upon the
road, or even for the very turnpikes. Those I was obliged to defraud,
by riding as hard as I could through them all, not paying the least
regard to the men, who called out to stop me. The want of refreshment
I bore as well as I could. When I got to the Borough, I took a coach
and drove to Marlborough-street, where my friends had lived when I left
England; but when I came there, I found the house shut up. Having been
absent so many years, and in all that time never having heard a word
from home, I knew not who was dead or who was living, or where to go
next; or even how to pay the coachman. I recollected a linen-draper's
shop, not far from thence, which our family had used. I therefore drove
there next, and making myself known, they paid the coachman. I then
enquired after our family, and was told my sister had married Lord
Carlisle, and was at that time in Soho-square. I immediately walked
to the house, and knocked at the door; but the porter not liking my
figure, which was half French, half Spanish, with the addition of a
large pair of boots covered with dirt, he was going to shut the door in
my face; but I prevailed with him to let me come in.
I need not acquaint my readers with what surprise and joy my sister
received me. She immediately furnished me with money sufficient to
appear like the rest of my countrymen; till that time I could not be
properly said to have finished all the extraordinary scenes which a
series of unfortunate adventures had kept me in for the space of five
years and upwards.
THE END.
LONDON:
BRADBURY AND EVANS, BOUVERIE-STREET.
* * * * *
Transcriber's Notes:
Maintained original spelling, hypenation and punctuation.
Obvious printer errors have been corrected.