Chapter XIII: Part 13

And here it may be necessary just to mention, that this pass, not more than a quarter of a mile in breadth, is defended by two forts on the opposite sides; but these the Commodore disregarding, and being determined to enter the river without delay, as the stormy season was approaching, he caused the pilot to be brought before him, and in a determined tone threatened to hang him to the yard-arm, if he did not instantly take charge of the ship, and carry her safe, without striking ground, through the Bocca Tygris into the open river. The poor pilot performed his office, but did not escape punishment for what he could not help. He was instantly seized on being released from the Centurion, committed to prison, and rigorously disciplined with the bamboo. However, he found means to get access to the Commodore afterwards, to supplicate a recompence, who, ever ready to reward the sufferers in his service, gave him such a sum as more than contented him for his whipping. Nor was the poor pilot the only sufferer; for the Governors of the forts were both displaced for not preventing what it was in vain for them to attempt to oppose, and for not doing what all the council must know was impossible to be done.

On the 16th, the Commodore sent his Second Lieutenant to Canton, with a letter to the Viceroy, assigning his reasons for putting into that port, demanding a licence for purchasing provisions and stores, and intimating an intention of waiting upon his Excellency in person to make his acknowledgements. The Lieutenant was civilly received, and promised an answer the next day. In the mean time, the principal officers of the prize desired permission to go to Canton on their parole, which was readily granted. These no sooner arrived, than they were called before the magistracy, and examined; when they generously and frankly acknowledged, that they fell into the hands of the Commodore by the chance of war, and that though they were prisoners, they were notwithstanding at liberty to treat for their release; they said farther, that it was not the custom among European nations to put prisoners to death; but that the laws of war authorized much severer treatment than they had hitherto met with from their conquerors. This confession from an enemy had great weight with the Chinese, who, till then, though they had revered the Commodore’s naval force, had yet suspected his morals, and had considered him rather as a lawless free-booter, than as one commissioned by the state for the revenge of public injuries.

On the 20th of July, three Mandarines with their retinue came on board, and brought the Viceroy’s permit for a daily supply of provisions, and for pilots to carry the ships up the river as high as the second bar; and, at the same time, they delivered a message from the Viceroy, in answer to that part of the Commodore’s letter which related to his visiting his Excellency; the substance of which message was, that the Viceroy wished the Commodore to defer his visit till the hot season was over, but that, in September, when the weather would be more temperate, he should be glad to receive him. This the Commodore looked upon as a finesse, knowing an express was sent up to the Emperor’s court at Peking; whence the real motive for putting off the visit seemed to be to gain time to receive the Emperor’s instructions concerning the ceremony to be observed at his reception. The Mandarines, having dispatched this part of their commission, next entered upon the business of the port charges; whereupon the Commodore at once cut them short, by telling them, that, as he did not come to trade, he was not to be treated upon the same footing with trading ships; that his Britannic Majesty’s ships never paid customs in the ports of Europe, nor ever would be subject to any pecuniary imposts in any other port whatever. Finding nothing to be gained on this head, they told the Commodore, that they had still another matter in charge, and that was the release of the prisoners taken on board the galleon; for that the Emperor would never permit the subjects of princes with whom he was in alliance to be held in bondage in his dominions, nor could the Viceroy answer it to his Sovereign if he suffered it; and that, therefore, his Excellency hoped that the Commodore would give immediate orders for their release.

Though nothing could be more agreeable to the Commodore, who wanted much to be rid of the incumbrance, than this requisition, yet, to inhance the favour, he at first raised difficulties; but at length suffered himself to be prevailed upon by their intreaties, and concluded, by assuring them, that, to shew his readiness to oblige, he would deliver up the prisoners whenever the Viceroy would please to order boats to fetch them. Matters being thus adjusted, the Mandarines departed: and, in a few days, two Chinese junks were sent from Canton to carry them to Mocao, under the direction of one Captain Fial, Commander of a Spanish merchant-man, to whose ship we gave chace in our passage from the Bashee Islands to Mocao, but lost sight of her in the night.

To this gentleman the General of the galleon, and all his officers, except one who accompanied us to England, were delivered up. And now I have occasion to mention the General, I cannot help relating an affair which gave us on board the prize a great deal of concern, and sufficiently shewed the meanness of his spirit, and his beggarly craft. I have already taken notice of his being wounded in the engagement, and of his being indulged with the use of his own cabbin till he was fit to be removed. The Commodore, over and above this indulgence, sent him a surgeon from his own ship, upon a complaint that the Spanish surgeon on board the galleon was quite ignorant in his profession; but at the same time he sent an officer to demand his commission. Pretending to the officer that he was unable to move, he referred him to a small box in a locker of his private cabbin, in which, he said, it was, and likewise a sword-belt set with diamonds of great value, his own property; but, upon search, neither the commission nor the belt could be found: and, as some of our people had been rummaging both that and other parts of the ship, he protested, that, if they could not be there found, they must have been taken away and concealed. Under colour of this concealment, though he never produced his commission, he all along received the most humane and gentlemanlike treatment that the most worthy officer could desire or expect; and such was continued till his departure, when neither his chests, of which he had two very large ones, nor any of his trunks or cases were suffered to be searched: but every thing which he claimed as his personal effects were delivered to him with the greatest care and punctuality though, as I was afterwards informed, he had many valuable ventures concealed, which ought to have been delivered up as prize to the captors; but, as that was never examined into, he carried them off with the rest, and, it was supposed, was not the least among the gainers by the capture of his ship. He persisted, however, to the last in the loss of his commission and belt, and, though there were none on board on whom he could charge the theft, yet the Commodore sufficiently expressed his displeasure against the whole by the prohibition he laid upon us, as soon as the prize came to an anchor in the river, by which all communication was cut off between us and the country people, and no boat suffered to come near us but our own; by which severe order we were entirely debarred from purchasing our own provisions and necessaries from the Chinese, which the people in the Centurion were at full liberty to do; neither could we employ the Chinese tradesmen to supply us with apparel, of which we stood greatly in need, though in that too the Centurion’s people were indulged: and all this for no other reason, that was ever assigned, but that, if the jewels the General had lost were concealed, the Commodore was determined the secreter should have no opportunity of disposing of them without being discovered. Had this precaution been taken, as it ought, for the satisfaction of those who suffered under the severity of the censure, and had the effects of the Spanish General been properly inspected, the secreter would have been publickly exposed; for, when we afterwards fell down to Mocao with the ships, where we sold the prize, I was myself told by an Irish priest, that the General had both his commission and his belt; that he made no secret of the matter at Mocao; and that he had offered the jewels (being only made up by way of blind) among the merchants for sale.

But to return: during our stay in the river Canton, our people were employed in repairing the Centurion, over-hauling her sails and rigging, cleansing and ventilating her decks and quarters below, and in paying and decorating her hull; insomuch, that when she came to sail, she had more the appearance of a ship newly fitted out, than one that had been a three-years voyage in traversing the globe. While these things were doing on board the Centurion, we in the prize were busied in rummaging for treasure, till about the latter end of August, when we made a full end of our search, and found, upon account of the captors, in specie, 1,278,546 dollars, and 1,324 of wrought plate and virgin silver. The jewels we found were not then valued.

At the same time that the inferior officers and seamen were employed in these different services, the Commodore had a still more important business in hand. He knew it was impossible for us to proceed to Europe without an ample supply of provisions and other sea stores; and, though we were furnished with a daily allowance, yet no order had been obtained for victualling us for our intended voyage. Application had indeed been made, and terms agreed upon with the contractors to furnish whatever was necessary; and they had undertaken to procure the Viceroy’s permission for the delivery but when, about the middle of September, the proper officer was sent to enquire what forwardness these things were in, he found that neither the baker had begun to bake the bread, nor the butcher to kill the oxen, nor was the least step taken to comply with any one article of the agreement. We could no otherwise account for this faithless procedure of the Chinese, than by supposing they meant to starve us into a compliance with their accustomed demands for port charges, with which the Commodore was determined never to acquiesce. Indeed, it was suspected, that the contractors themselves had some interest in promoting the delay, though it was not easy to penetrate the views by which they were influenced, as it may with truth be asserted, that in artifice, falshood, and attachment to all kinds of lucre, the Chinese, as a nation, are not to be paralleled by any other people under the sun. It were endless to recount all the artifices, extortions, and frauds, which were practised on the Commodore and his people by this interested race. The method of buying provisions in China being by weight, the tricks made use of to make them heavy are almost incredible. At one time a number of fowls and ducks being bought for the ship’s store, the greatest part of them presently died, which spread a general alarm on board lest they, should have died of poison; but, on examination, it was discovered that they had been crammed with small stones and gravel to increase their weight. The hogs, too, bought of the Chinese butchers ready killed, were found to have had water injected into the carcases for the same purpose; and when, to avoid this cheat, the hogs were bought alive, it was found that salt had been given them to increase their thirst, that methods had been used to suppress their urine, and that the tortured animals had been sold in that inflated state. Mr. Walter adds--[for it is on his authority that these instances are reported]--that, as the Chinese never scruple to eat the animals that die of themselves, they contrived, by their secret practices, when the Commodore put to sea, that part of his live sea-store should die in a short time after it was put on board: in order, therefore, to make a second profit of the dead carcases which they expected would be thrown over-board, they followed in boats to pick up the carrion; and, accordingly, two thirds of the hogs dying before they were out of sight of land, their labour could not be in vain.

The treachery of the contractors being now discovered, the Commodore determined to renew his former requisition for an audience with the Viceroy. With this view, he notified his intention to the proper Mandarine, and desired that he would fix the time with the Viceroy when he would be pleased to receive him at the same time giving him to understand, that, on the first of October, he intended to proceed in his boat to Canton. The Mandarine returned for answer, that he would acquaint the Viceroy with the Commodore’s intentions. As it was apprehended, that the payment of the customary duties would be demanded at this interview, the Commodore took the necessary precautions to prevent the Chinese from facilitating the success of their pretensions by having him in their power at Canton, and, therefore, gave the command of the Centurion to his First Lieut. Mr. Brett (now Sir Piercy), with orders, if he should be detained, to lie at the mouth of the river, and suffer no ship or boat to pass or repass till he was released, by which the whole navigation of the river would be immediately obstructed.

This being known to the Chinese, they were now more than ever embarrassed in their deliberations. The morning of the 1st of October arrived, and just as the boats crew, eighteen in number, which the Commodore proposed to take with him, appeared in their uniform, namely, scarlet jackets and blue silk waistcoats, the whole trimmed with silver, with silver badges on their jackets and caps, his linguist came to him from the Mandarine, to tell him, that a letter had been received from the Viceroy, desiring the Commodore to defer his intended purpose for two or three days, which not being doubted, the men were ordered to be undrest, and the preparations were all laid aside; but, in the afternoon of the same day, another linguist came on board, seemingly in a great panic, informing him, that the Viceroy had expected him up that day; that the council was assembled, and the troops under arms to receive him; and that the Viceroy was highly incensed at the disappointment, and had sent the Commodore’s linguist to prison, chained, supposing him to be the sole cause of the contempt. This plausible tale gave the Commodore great uneasiness, not at that time suspecting any imposition; and though it afterwards appeared to be all a mere farce, yet the falshood was so well supported by the artifices of the Chinese merchants, that three days afterwards the Commodore received a letter, signed by all the Supercargoes of the English ships then at the place, expressing their uneasiness at what had happened, and intimating their fears that some insult would be offered to his boat, if he attempted to come to Canton before the Viceroy was fully satisfied of the mistake. To this letter the Commodore replied, that he did not believe there had been a mistake, but was persuaded it was a forgery of the Chinese to prevent his visiting the Viceroy; that, therefore, he would certainly come up to Canton on the 13th of October, confident that the Chinese would not dare to offer him any insult, as well knowing he should want neither power nor inclination to make them a proper return.

On the 13th of October, the Commodore continuing firm to his resolutions, all the Supercargoes of the English, Danish, and Swedish ships, came on board the Centurion, to accompany him to Canton, for which place he set out in his barge the same day, attended by his own boats, and by those of the trading ships, which on this occasion were sent to augment his retinue. As he passed by Wampo where the European vessels lay, he was saluted by all of them except the French, and in the evening he arrived safely at Canton.

The Chinese merchants, who affected to appear very much pleased that he had met with no opposition in his way, pretended that the Viceroy was then so fully employed in preparing his dispatches for Peking, that there was no getting admittance to him; but that they had engaged one of the officers of his court, as soon as he was at leisure, to notify the Commodore’s arrival, and endeavour to fix the audience. Though the Commodore knew this to be a falsehood, yet he suffered himself to be persuaded by the European Supercargoes not to appear to doubt it, provided the Chinese merchants would undertake that his bread should be baked, his meat salted, and his stores in readiness, within the space of 40 days; after which time, if the least article was pretended to be forgotten, he would force his way to the Viceroy, and prefer his complaint. During the interval, while the contractors were endeavouring in earnest to fulfil the terms of the agreement on their part, (which by the way they insisted should be paid for in advance on his), a fire broke out in the suburbs of Canton, which on the first alarm might easily have been extinguished, by pulling down some of the adjoining sheds; which the Commodore with his officers and crew observing, were instantly about to carry into execution but they were told, that whatever they pulled down they must build up again at their own expence, and that none but a Mandarine must presume to direct upon such occasions. The Commodore, on this admonition, dispatched his people to the English factory to assist them in securing their effects, as it was easy to foresee that no distance was safe from fire, where the common-people contented themselves with gazing at it, and now-and-then holding up an idol or two to extinguish it. At length, however, a Mandarine came out of the city, with 4 or 500 firemen, who made some very feeble efforts to pull down the neighbouring houses; but by this time the fire had extended itself, and had spread among the merchants warehouses, where the Chinese firemen had neither spirit nor skill to encounter it; so that it was feared the whole city would have been laid in ashes. In this emergency, the Viceroy vouchsafed to make his appearance, and a message was sent to the Commodore requesting his assistance. Accordingly, he hastened a second time, with about 40 of his people, to the place where the fire raged with the most violence, and in sight of the whole city performed such daring, and, to the people who beheld them, such astonishing feats, that they looked upon them as salamanders, and cried out, that they could live in fire. In truth, it was no uncommon thing to see the boldest and most active among them tumble on the roofs amidst the ruins of the houses which their own efforts had brought down under them. And thus, by their resolution and agility, the fire was very soon subdued, to the astonishment of the Chinese who were spectators of the wonders they performed. On this occasion the Swedish was the only European factory that suffered; yet on my arrival in England, to my no small diversion, I read in the Paris Gazette, that the city of Canton had been almost wholly destroyed; and that, in particular, the English, Dutch, Danish, and Portuguese factories, had been burnt down, and almost all their effects consumed; but that the French factory had providentially escaped, their goods being all shipped before the conflagration reached the quarter allotted for their residence.

This signal assistance gained the Admiral much respect; he was the next day waited upon by the principal inhabitants with presents and thanks; and soon after, a message came from the Viceroy appointing the 30th of November for the day of audience. Being highly pleased with this last intimation, he instantly gave orders for the necessary preparations; and engaged Mr. Flint, a gentleman belonging to the English factory, for his interpreter, who, being trained up from his infancy among the Chinese, spoke their language fluently, and who was not afraid to declare with boldness what the Admiral delivered him in charge, a part which the Chinese interpreters would not have dared to have performed with equal fidelity.

On the day appointed, at 10 o’clock, the Commodore and his retinue set out; and, as he entered the outer gate of the city, he was met by a guard of 200 soldiers, who conducted him to the great parade before the Emperor’s palace, in which the Viceroy then resided, where a body of troops to the number of 10,000 were drawn up under arms, who made a fine appearance, being all new cloathed for this ceremony. Through the middle of this body the Commodore with his retinue marched to the hall of audience, where he found the Viceroy seated under a rich canopy in the Emperor’s chair of state, with all his council of Mandarines attending. He was seated the third in order from the Viceroy, the chiefs of the law and treasury being the only persons seated above him. He then, addressing himself to the Viceroy by his interpreter, complained to him of the delays he had met with, the insincerity of those he had employed, the vexatious impositions of the officers of the customs, the grievances of the British subjects, and, finally, the loss sustained by the Haslingfield Indiaman, who had arrived there dismasted but a few days before the fire happened, by which the crew had been great sufferers, and the Captain in particular, who had lost a chest of treasure value 4500 tahel. To the latter article the Commodore received for answer, that, in, settling the Emperor’s customs with that ship, the Captain should be considered. To the other complaints, the Commodore received no answer at all. And having now gone through the several articles he had in charge from the company, he entered next upon his own affairs, and particularly concerning the licence to ship off his provisions and stores, which, he said, were all ready, and the season for sailing was now set in. The Viceroy replied to this, that the licence should be immediately issued, and that every thing should be ordered on board the following day. The business being now at an end, the Viceroy continued the conversation for some time on matters of indifference and curiosity; and, after observing that the Centurion had been long on their coast, he concluded with acknowledgments for the services the Commodore had rendered the Chinese nation by the activity of his people at the late fire, and with wishing him a prosperous voyage to Great Britain. Thus happily concluded this long-expected audience; and, in pursuance of the Viceroy’s promises, the provisions were begun to be shipped the very next day: and now all the preparations for putting to sea were pursued with so much expedition, that by the 9th the Centurion and her prize were ready to unmoor, and on the 10th passed through the Bocca Tygris into the open road, and on the 12th anchored before the town of Mocao. While they lay here, the Portuguese merchants entered into treaty with the Commodore for the purchase of the prize, for which they would give no more than 6000 dollars, though worth double that sum; but the impatience of the Commodore to be gone, that he might himself be the messenger of his own good fortune, and thereby prevent the enterprizes of the enemy to intercept him, prevailed upon him to conclude the bargain; and, she being delivered on the 15th of December, and the money received, in the afternoon of the same day he hoisted sail, and took his departure for his native home. On the 3d of January he came to an anchor on Prince’s Island, in the straits of Sunda, where he staid the best part of five days to wood and water, and on the 8th weighed and continued his course. From this time till the 20th we had foul and stormy weather, so bad that I thought it impossible to meet with such in latitudes so near the Equator; and the wind blowing directly against us, we were driven pretty near the coast of New Holland; and, had it continued blowing from the same quarter, with equal violence, for 48 hours longer, we should have found it difficult to have cleared that coast; but, on the 21st, the wind abated, and the weather became moderate. On the 24th the trade-wind set in, and we then proceeded on our passage with the highest alacrity.

On the 22d of February, at half after four in the morning, I discovered a comet to the eastward, near the horizon, being, as I judged, lately emerged from the sun’s rays. Its tail was at this time about 10 degrees in length; but in less than a fortnight it increased and extended itself to near 40 degrees. Its head appeared very large and bright; and, on a nice inspection, I have perceived it when the sun has been about a diameter above the horizon. The next time I observed its distance from the planet Venus to be 26 deg. 50 min. following the order of the planets; but not having instruments proper for taking altitudes without a very obvious sensible horizon, I was prevented from making more satisfactory observations. From this time, till the 6th of March, we had pleasant weather, with few exceptions; but on that and the three following days, being near the Cape of Good Hope, we had some boisterous storms; yet, when we arrived at Table-bay, on the 11th, the Dutch knew not that any such had happened. We found riding here two English East-Indiamen, the Salisbury and Warwick, each of which saluted us with 13 guns, and we returned 11. We also found five Dutch ships, one of which having, as Admiral, a flag at his main-top-mast-head, saluted us with 9 guns, to which we returned 7. At 11 at night we parted our best bower cable and hawser, both of which were very rotten, and the next day moored again with others purchased from the Dutch. Here the Commodore continued till the beginning of April, highly delighted with the place, and during his stay entered about 40 new men. On the 3d of May, having compleated our water and provisions, we on that day weighed and put to sea. On the 19th of April we passed within sight of the island of St. Helena, which, however, we did not visit. On the 26th we caught on board the ship a snake that measured in length six feet and two inches, which our surgeon, on examination, pronounced to be perfectly harmless. It was supposed to be brought on board with our wood, at Prince’s Island, in the straits of Sunda. The 30th, being before the wind, with a fine breeze, and a gentle rain, a violent and sudden squall took us a-head, threw all the ship’s sails a-back, carried away her fore-top-sail yard, split the fore-sail, the fore-top-sail, the fore-top-gallant-sail, and the mizzen and mizzen-top sail. During this squall the ship laid down very much, and we were in the utmost danger of our masts coming by the board; but providentially we escaped without further damage.

The 9th of June, in the evening, it being a thick fog, we on a sudden saw a ship close by us; we fired a shot, and brought her to. She proved an English ship from Amsterdam, bound for Philadelphia or Carolina, with Palatine emigrants. She gave us the first notice of a war with France, and proceeded on her voyage. The 10th of June we came into soundings. The 11th, at half past eleven in the morning, we discovered three sail, and at one in the afternoon spoke with one of them, being a Dutch ship from Dublin. At the same time, the second, being pretty near us, shewed Dutch colours. The third, who had been in chace of the others the whole day, perceiving we designed to speak with her, stood from us with all the sail she could crowd. We gave chace to her for about three hours, when, finding we did not gain upon her, we resumed our former course. On the 12th, in the morning, the fog clearing up, we perceived the Lizard Point: but that the signal perils, which had so often threatened us, and from which we had been more than once providentially delivered, might be discoverable to the last, we were afterwards told that there was a French fleet of considerable force cruising in the chops of the Channel, through the middle of which we had this night sailed without being perceived.

On the 13th, between the Isle of Portland and the Isle of Wight, we saw a ship towing another which was disabled in her masts. This ship proved the Salamander privateer, with a French prize. The 14th, at eleven in the morning, we anchored at the back of the Isle of Wight, and in the evening weighed, and again anchored at Spithead.--Thus we finished a long and perilous voyage, which had lasted three years and nine months, after having by its events, as Mr. Walter observes, strongly evinced this important truth, That though prudence, intrepidity, and perseverance, united, are not exempted from the blows of adverse fortune, yet, in a long series of transactions, they usually rise superior to its power, and in the end rarely fail of proving successful.”

[Having now brought this celebrated voyage to a conclusion, it may, perhaps, be expected that we should give some account of the Spanish squadron, which we have more than once had occasion to mention, and which was so near intercepting the Commodore at first setting out, that, had the Spanish Admiral cruised to the eastward of the island of Madeira, instead of the westward of it, the two fleets must have certainly met; and, in that case, whatever had been the event of the action, the progress of the voyage must have been effectually prevented.

This squadron was composed of the following ships: the Asia, of 66 guns, 700 men, commanded by Don Joseph Pizarro, as Admiral; the Guipuscoa, 74 guns, 700 men; the Hermione, 54 guns, 500 men; the Esperanza, 50 guns, 450 men; the Estevan, 40 guns, 350 men; and a patache of 20 guns, 120 men; and over and above this complement, they had on board an old Spanish regiment of foot, intended to reinforce their garrisons in the South Seas, and to counterbalance the land forces that it was known were intended to be put on board the Commodore.

When this fleet had cruised, as has been said, to the leeward of Madeira, till they were in a manner certain that the Commodore had either passed by, or deferred his voyage, their Admiral determined to pursue his instructions, and continue his course to the South Seas; but first, it was necessary to steer to the coast of Brazil to recruit his provisions, being victualled only for four months, and more than two of the four being already elapsed.

Accordingly, about the beginning of November, 1740, he quitted his station off the Madeiras, and, on the 5th of January following, arrived at the river of Plate; where coming to an anchor in the bay of Maldando, he sent immediately to Buenos Ayres for a supply.

While they lay here, they received intelligence, by the treachery of the Portuguese Governor of St. Catherine’s, of the Commodore’s arrival at that port, and of the weak condition he was then in; but, whatever were his reasons, Pizarro declined making any other use of this intelligence, than hastening his preparations to double the cape, which he hoped to effect before the Commodore was in readiness to follow him. With this view, after refreshing his crew, and recruiting his water, he instantly set sail without waiting for his provisions (which, however, arrived a day or two after he set sail), rightly concluding, that, if he got the start of the Commodore in the South Seas, he should not only alarm the coast, but so strengthen the forts against the attacks of the enemy, as effectually to baffle their designs, by depriving them of the means of procuring necessaries. But, notwithstanding this precipitation, the Commodore put to sea four days before him, and, in some part of the passage round the Cape, the fleets were so near each other, that the Pearl, as has been said, being separated in a storm, ran within gun-shot of the Asia before she found her mistake.

It was with the utmost difficulty, and not without considerable rewards, that the Spanish sailors were prevailed upon to undertake the passage round Cape Horn at that tempestuous season: however, being once engaged, they continued to persevere, till by the latter end of February they had run the length of the Cape, and were turning to the westward, when a storm arose, in which the Guipuscoa, Hermiona, and Esperanza, lost sight of the Admiral, and on the 6th of March the Guipuscoa was separated from the other two. On the 7th the storm increased, and by its irresistible violence drove the whole squadron to the eastward, and, after several unsuccessful efforts, obliged them to return to the coast of Brazil, where the Asia took shelter in the river of Plate, and about the middle of May was joined by the Esperanza and Estevan; the Hermiona having, as was supposed, foundered at sea, as she was never more heard of, and the Guipuscoa being run ashore and sunk on the coast of Brazil. The patache, we should have observed, was condemned before they quitted the coast of Brazil, and her crew distributed among the other ships; so that, of the six ships of which this squadron originally consisted, there now only remained three, and those in a most miserable condition; for, though it does not appear, that the Spaniards were so severely visited with that most fatal disease the sea-scurvy, which carried off so many of the English in this passage, yet they were reduced by famine to such infinite distress, that rats, when they could be caught, were sold for four dollars a-piece; and a sailor, who died on board, had his death concealed for several days by his brother, who during that time lay in the same hammock with the dead corpse, only to receive the dead man’s allowance.

In this dreadful situation, they were alarmed by the discovery of a conspiracy among the soldiers on board the Asia, to murder the Admiral, and all the ship’s crew, originating from no other motive but that of appropriating the whole stock of provisions to the conspirators own proper use. But this plot was prevented, when just upon the point of execution, by means of the priest on board, who, having taken the confession of one of the conspirators as he lay at the point of death, pursued proper measures to defeat their bloody purposes, and to bring three of the ringleaders to condign punishment.

But, though this combination failed of its effect, there were other distresses that multiplied upon them, and which could not be prevented. Hunger and thirst, the most dreadful of all other calamities, daily became more grievous; the ships grew continually more and more leaky, and the men less able to stand at the pumps; nothing was to be seen but despondency in every countenance; nothing heard but lamentations and complaints, which were embittered by the absolute impossibility of relieving them. Under the weight of these affecting circumstances, the Asia was near sinking, when she arrived at Monte Vedio with scarce half her crew alive. The Estevan, when she anchored in the bay of Barragan, had in like manner lost about the same number of her hands; but, what was still worse, and is almost incredible, the Esperanza, out of a crew of 450 seamen which she brought from Spain, had only 58 that reached the shore, and the whole regiment of soldiers, 60 men only excepted, perished.

Being now in want of all kinds of necessaries, masts, yards, rigging, provisions, and money, Pizarro dispatched an express over land to St. Jago, in Chili, to be from thence forwarded to the Viceroy of Peru, desiring a remittance of 200,000 dollars; and what must astonish the reader is, that the Indian who was charged with this dispatch, though in the depth of winter, when the Cordilleras are judged impassable by reason of the snow, was only 13 days in his journey from Buenos Ayres to St. Jago, places distant from each other 300 Spanish leagues. At the same time an advice-boat was sent with a letter of credit to Rio Janeiro, to purchase what was wanting of the Portuguese; but neither the one nor the other of these dispatches succeeded to the wish of the Spanish Admiral. The Viceroy, instead of 200,000 dollars, sent him only 100,000; and the Portuguese, instead of furnishing him with masts and yards, the principal articles of naval stores that he wanted, spared him only some pitch, tar, and cordage, with which he was obliged to be contented: but a more mortifying disappointment he had still to suffer; for a carpenter, whom, after the return of the money, he had trusted with a considerable sum, and whom he had sent up into the country of Puraguay to cut masts, instead of prosecuting the business with which he was entrusted, married in the country, and settled out of his reach, refusing to return.

In this dilemma, the only thing that could be done, was, to shift the mails of the Esperanza into the Asia, and to fit up the Estevan with what spare masts and yards they could muster, and with these two ships to hazard a second attempt to double Cape Horn, as it was now summer, and the weather less severe. But a certain fatality seemed to preside over every part of this unfortunate expedition. The Estevan, as she was coming down the river Plate, ran on a shoal and beat off her rudder; and the Asia, though she proceeded alone with moderate weather and a favourable gale, yet when she came to the height of Cape Horn, and was tacking to change her course to the westward, by some misconduct in wearing the ship, rolled away her masts, and was a second time forced back to the river of Plate; from whence Pizarro undertook to cross the continent by land, and with some difficulty accomplished his design.

By this time Don Mindinuetta, Captain of the Guipuscoa, wrecked, as has been said, on the coast of Brazil, arrived, with those of his crew who escaped, at the place of general rendezvous; and, finding the Esperanza without masts, applied a second time to the Portuguese, by whose assistance he completed her repair, and, in 1742, doubled the Cape, and arrived in the South Seas, where he was met by Pizarro, who claimed the command of the Esperanza, which Mindinuetta disputing, an irreconcileable quarrel arose between the two Commanders, which the Viceroy of Peru in vain endeavoured to reconcile. In 1745, they both returned over land to the coast of Brazil, where they found the Asia still in a shattered condition. This ship, however, they determined to carry to Europe, and, with this view, they fitted her up in the best manner they could; and, having manned her partly with Portuguese, partly with English prisoners, and partly with Spaniards, together with some Indians whom they forced out of the country, they set sail from Monte Vedio for Europe about the beginning of November; but they had not been long at sea before the Indians, eleven in number, formed a conspiracy to destroy the Spaniards, and to regain their liberty, in which they had hopes of being joined by the English and Portuguese, whom the Spaniards used with great insolence. At the head of this conspiracy was their Chief Orellana; and one evening, about nine o’clock, he and his companions came all together on the quarter-deck, and drew towards the door of the great cabbin. The boatswain immediately reprimanded them, and ordered them to be gone; on this Orellana spoke to his followers in his native language, when four of them drew off, two towards each gangway, and the Chief and the remaining six seemed to be slowly quitting the quarter-deck. When the detached Indians had taken possession of the gang-way, Orellana placed his hands hollow to his mouth, and bellowed out the war-cry used by those savages. This was the signal for beginning the massacre; accordingly, the six, with their Chief, who remained on the quarter-deck, falling suddenly on the Spaniards who were intermingled with them, laid near forty of them at their feet, of which above twenty were killed on the spot, and the rest disabled. Many of the officers, in the beginning of the tumult, pushed into the great cabbin, where they put out the lights, and barricadoed the door; whilst of the rest, some endeavoured to escape along the gang-ways into the forecastle, where the Indians placed on purpose stabbed the greatest part of them as they attempted to pass by; others threw themselves into the waste, and thought themselves fortunate to lie concealed amongst the cattle; but the greatest part escaped up the main-shrouds, and sheltered themselves either in the tops or the rigging; and though the Indians attacked only the quarter-deck, yet the watch in the forecastle finding their communication cut off, in the utmost terror likewise gave all over for lost, and in great confusion ran up into the rigging of the fore-mast and bowsprit. But when the Indians had intirely cleared the quarter-deck, the tumult in a great measure subsided; for, not being joined, as they expected, by either the English or Portuguese, they could not pursue their advantage by carrying the disorder into those quarters to which they had driven the Spaniards, who thereby gained time for recollection; and, on finding none concerned in the plot but the Indians, they resolved to attack them in their turn on the quarter-deck. With this view, Pizarro and his officers ventured to half-open the cabbin-door, which Orellana attempting to force, was shot dead by Mindinuetta; on which his faithful followers, abandoning all thoughts of further resistance, instantly leaped into the sea. Thus was this insurrection quelled, and the Spaniards suffered afterwards quietly to proceed on their voyage; and, about the beginning of 1746, they arrived safe in Spain, after having been absent between four and five years.

By this unfortunate expedition the naval force of Spain was much weakened: they lost in it 3000 of their best sailors, one whole regiment of veteran soldiers, four stout ships of war, and a patache; for we have observed that the Hermiona foundered at sea; the Guipuscoa was stranded and sunk on the coast of Brazil; the St. Estevan was condemned and broke up in the river of Plate; and the Esperanza, being carried into the South Seas, was unable to redouble the Cape, or to return back; so that the Asia alone may be regarded as all the remains of that squadron with which Pizarro first put to sea.

Transcriber’s notes

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