Chapter IX: Part 9

The 7th, at eight in the morning, we were very near a point of land on Terra del Fuego, called Cape St. James, bearing E. S. E. another called Cape St. Vincent, S. E. half E. the middlemost of the Three Brothers, being three high hills on Terra del Fuego, appearing almost contiguous to each other, S. by W. and a very high Sugar-loaf Hill, called Monte Gorda, farther up in the country, and appearing above them, bore south from us. It is by these marks that you know you are near Strait Le Maire; and indeed we began to open them in this position. By noon we were almost through them, being assisted by a very strong tide with much rippling, and which made to the southward somewhat before 10 o’clock in the morning. The course through is almost directly south, and there are no shoals nor rocks in the passage from whence you may incur any danger; the only thing you have to fear is, the tide’s turning against you while you are in the straits, for in that case you are certainly hurried back again, and can have no passage there till the next turn of the tide. The breadth of this strait may be about six or seven leagues, and its length about seven or eight; which being passed, you enter into a vast open ocean, commonly known by the name of the South Sea. This strait lies in latitude 55 deg. south, longitude from London 67 deg. 30 min. west, variation of the compass 21 deg. 36 min. east, soundings in the straits from 43 to 58 fathom, the bottom black sand and pebble-stones. In passing through here, our joy was increased by the brightness of the sky and the serenity of the weather, which was indeed remarkably pleasing; for though the winter was now advancing apace, yet the morning of this day, in its brilliancy and mildness, gave place to none we had seen since our departure from England. But we here found what was constantly verified by all our observations in these high latitudes, that fair weather was ever the forerunner of a succeeding storm, and that sunshine and tempest followed one another like light and shade. We had scarcely reached the southern extremity of the straits, when the serenity of the sky, which had so much flattered our expectations, was all at once obscured, the wind shifted to the southward, and the sea began to swell to an astonishing height. Before night the tempest arose, and the tide, which had hitherto favoured us, turned furiously against us; so that, instead of pursuing our intended course, we were driven to the eastward, by the united force of wind and current, with so much precipitation, that in the morning we found ourselves seven leagues to the eastward of Streight Le Maire. From this time we had such a continual succession of tempestuous weather as surprized the oldest and most experienced mariners on board, and obliged them to confess, that what they had hitherto called storms were inconsiderable gales compared with the violence of these winds, which railed such short and at the same time such mountainous waves, as greatly surpassed in danger all seas known in any other part of the globe: and it was not without reason that this unusual appearance filled us with continual terror; for, had any one of these waves broke fairly over us, it must in all probability have sent us to the bottom. Nor did we escape with terror only; for the ship rolling incessantly gunwale-to, gave us such quick and violent motions, that the men were in perpetual danger of being dashed against the masts or sides of the ship: and though we were extremely careful to secure ourselves from these shocks by grasping at some fixed body, yet many of our people were forced from their holds, some of whom were killed, and others greatly injured; in particular, one of our best seamen was carried over-board and drowned, another dislocated his neck, a third was thrown into the main hold, and broke his thigh, and one of our boatswain’s mates broke his collar-bone twice; not to mention many other accidents of the same kind. These tempests, so dreadful in themselves, though unattended by any other unfavourable circumstance, were rendered more mischievous to us by their inequality, and the deceitful intervals which they at some times afforded; for, though we were often obliged to lie-to for days together under a reefed mizen, and were frequently reduced to lie at the mercy of the waves under our bare poles, yet now and then we ventured to make sail with our courses double reefed; and the weather proving more tolerable, would perhaps encourage us to set our top-sails: after which, the wind, without any previous notice, would return upon us with redoubled force, and would in an instant tear our sails from the yards. And, that no circumstance might be wanting which could aggravate our distress, these blasts generally brought with them a great quantity of snow and sleet, which cased our rigging, and froze our sails, thereby rendering them and our cordage brittle, and apt to snap upon the slightest strain, adding inexpressible difficulty and labour to the working of the ship, benumbing the limbs of the people employed in handing the sails, or handling the ropes, and making them incapable of exerting themselves with their usual activity, and even disabling many by mortifying their toes and fingers.

And now, as it were to add the finishing stroke to our misfortunes, our people began to be universally afflicted with that most terrible, obstinate, and, at sea, incurable disease, the scurvy, which quickly made a most dreadful havock among us, beginning at first to carry off two or three a day, but soon increasing, and at last carrying off eight or ten; and as most of the living were very ill of the same distemper, and the little remainder who preserved their healths better, in a manner, quite worn out with incessant labour, I have sometimes seen four or five dead bodies, some sown up in their hammocks, others not, washing about the decks, for want of help to bury them in the sea. But as the particulars of all the various disasters and sufferings of various kinds that befel us, would be endless, I shall only mention a few.

The 10th, 11th, and 12th, very stormy weather, with snow and sleet, and a very great over-grown sea from the S. W.

The 15th, one William Baker fell overboard and was drowned. The 16th, the Anne pink, which had separated from us the 11th in the storm, again joined us, in lat. 59 deg. 20 min. S.

Part of the 17th, 18th, and 19th, very strong gales, and a great rolling sea from the N. W.

The 18th, we had again strong gales of wind with extreme cold, and at midnight the main-top-sail split, and one of the straps of the main dead-eyes broke.

The 23d, and part of the 24th, a most violent storm of wind, hail, and rain, with a very lofty sea. The 23d, in the evening, we sprung the main-top-sail yard, and split the main-sail into rags, the greatest part of which was blown overboard. On these accidents we furled all our other sails, and lay-to under a mizzen.

The latter part of the 24th proving more moderate, we bent a new main-sail, got down the broken main-top-sail yard, and got up and rigged another in its place.

The 25th, it blew a very hurricane, and reduced us to the necessity of lying-to under our bare poles. As our ship kept the wind better than any of the rest, we were obliged in the afternoon to wear ship; in doing of which, we had no other expedient but clapping the helm a-weather, and manning the fore-shrouds; in the execution of which we had one of our best men canted overboard. We perceived, that, notwithstanding the prodigious agitation of the waves, he swam very strong; and it was with the utmost concern that we found ourselves incapable of assisting him. Indeed we were the more grieved at his unhappy fate, as we lost sight of him struggling with the waves, and conceived, from the manner in which he swam, that he might continue sensible for a considerable time longer of the horror attending his irretrievable situation.

The 26th being somewhat more moderate, we found two of our main-shrouds broke, which we repaired; we likewise bent our main-top-sail, and made sail.

The 30th, in the evening, the Gloucester made a signal of distress; and, on speaking with her, we found she had broke her main-yard in the slings; an accident the more grievous, as it tended unavoidably to delay us in these inhospitable latitudes, where every moment we were in danger of perishing. The weather proving favourable, all the carpenters were ordered on board the Gloucester, and next day she was ready to sail.

The 3d, 4th, 5th, and 6th of April, a continued storm of wind and rain; a dreadful sea, and very cold weather. We lowered our yards, furled our courses, and lay by for the most part under a mizzen and mizzen-stay sail. The 3d, about 11 o’clock at night, a raging sea took us on the larboard quarter, where it stove in the quarter gallery, and rushed into the ship like a deluge. For some time it laid the ship down upon her side; but she providentially righted again, though slowly; it threw down and half drowned all the people on the deck, broke one of the straps of the main dead-eyes, and snaped a mizzen and puttock shroud. This was the greatest sea which we had encountered since we came into those parts, and we met with but one such stroke more in the whole voyage; two or three such succeeding must certainly have sent us to the bottom.

The 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th, continued very stormy and squally, with snow, hail, rain, and a large sea; the weather continuing very cold.

The 8th, at four in the evening, the Anne pink made a signal of distress; and, on speaking with her, we found she had sprung her fore-stay, and the gammoning of her bowsprit. This was the more unfortunate, as none of the carpenters were yet returned from the Gloucester. Nor was the Anne the only ship that suffered in this storm; the Wager lost her mizzen-mast and main-top-sail yard, owing to the badness of the iron work. In this dilemma we were obliged to bear away till these ships had made all fast.

The 10th, foggy and hazy. This afternoon the Severn and Pearl were far a-stern, and seemed to me to lag designedly. We made a very easy sail all day, and lay by at night, and fired several guns as a signal for them to join us; the weather being pretty moderate, and the wind fair for them, they might have effected it with ease. By the close of the evening we could but just see them, and from that time saw them no more. However, we heard afterwards in the South Seas, by letters taken on board some of the Spanish ships, of their arrival at Rio Janeiro, in the Brazils.

The 15th, the weather proved somewhat more moderate. At half an hour past one in the morning we saw two islands right a-head, at about two leagues distance; we immediately wore our ship, and stood off to the southward. Those islands were very unexpected, as well as unwelcome, we imagining we had been to the westward of all lands and islands of the coast of Terra del Fuego; but we now found our mistake, and that there was a necessity of our standing farther to the southward, in order to get a sufficient westing. Those islands I find to lie in the latitude of 54 deg. 20 min. S. longitude from London 84 deg. 10 min. W. Mr. Walters supposes the land we fell in with on this occasion to be Cape Noir, and a part of Terra del Fuego.

From this time to the 23d we had nothing remarkable, the weather continuing very uncertain and variable, with a large sea and a very cold air; and the 21st, at nine at night, we were in the latitude of 60 deg. 5 min. S. being the greatest south latitude we made during the voyage.

The 23d, very hard gales and squalls, with much rain. This evening we lost sight of the Gloucester, Wager, Trial, and Anne pink, being all the remainder of our squadron, after the defection of the Severn and Pearl. The Wager’s unfortunate catastrophe is well known; the others afterwards joined us at Juan Fernandez, as shall be related in its proper place.

The 24th, 25th, and 26th, the wind being mostly fair, though still blowing hard, we made pretty good runs under an easy sail to the north-westward. The 24th it blew a hurricane, and the men endeavouring to hand the topsails, the clew-lines and bunt-lines broke, and the sheet being half flown, every seam in the fore-topsail was soon split from top to bottom, and the main-topsail shook so strongly in the wind, that it carried away the top lanthorn, and endangered the head of the mast; however, at length, some of the most daring of our men ventured upon the yard, and cut the sail away close to the reefs, though with the utmost hazard of their lives, whilst at the same time the fore-topsail beat about the yard with so much fury that it was soon blown to shreds: nor was our attention to our topsails our sole employment; for the mainsail blew loose, which obliged us to lower the yard to secure the sail, and the fore-yard being likewise lowered, we lay to under a mizen. The 25th, we found much of our running rigging broken, which we repaired. The 27th, we bent other topsails in the places of those split. Nothing more remarkable the rest of this month and the first week in the next, but stormy uncertain weather, and great sickness and mortality among our people.

Friday, May 8, at seven in the morning, saw the main land of Patagonia appearing in high mountains covered mostly with snow. We likewise saw several islands, one of which we took to be the Island del Soccoro, so called by Sir John Narborough, in his account of his voyage into those parts; and from the fine description this gentleman had given of this island, (having been there in the very height of summer), this place was appointed for our first general rendezvous in the South Seas. An unhappy appointment it was in its consequences; for when the people, already reduced to the last extremity, found this to be the place of rendezvous, where they had hoped to meet the rest of their companions with joy, and what a miserable part of the world it appeared to be, their grief gave way to despair; they saw no end of their sufferings, nor any door open to their safety. Those who had hitherto been well and in heart, now full of despondency, fell down, sickened, and died; and, to sum up this melancholy part, I verily believe, that our touching on this coast, the long stay we made here, and our hinderance by cross winds, which we should have avoided in a direct course to Juan Fernandez, lost us at least 60 or 70 of as stout and able men as any in the navy. This unspeakable distress was still aggravated by the difficulties we found in working the ship, as the scurvy had by this time destroyed no less than 200 of our men, and had in some degree affected almost the whole crew. It were, indeed, endless to recite minutely the various disasters, fatigues, and terrors, which we encountered on this coast; all these went on increasing till the 22d of May, at which time the fury of all the storms which we had hitherto experienced, seemed to be combined, and to have conspired our destruction. In this hurricane almost all our sails were split, and great part of our standing rigging broken; and, about eight in the evening, a mountainous overgrown sea took us on our starboard quarter, and gave us so prodigious a shock, that several of our shrouds broke with the jerk, by which our masts were in danger of coming by the board; our ballast and stores too were so strangely shifted, that the ship heeled afterwards two streaks a-port. Indeed, it was a most tremendous blow, and we were thrown into the utmost consternation, from the apprehension of instantly foundering. Our deplorable situation allowing no longer any room for deliberation, we stood for the island of Juan Fernandez; and, to save time, which was now very precious, our men dying four, five, and six in a day, we endeavoured to hit the island upon a meridian course. On the 28th of May, being nearly in the parallel in which it is laid down, we expected to have seen it, and indeed the Commodore was persuaded that he did see it; but all the other officers being of opinion that it was only a cloud, to which the haziness of the weather gave too much colour, we made sail to the eastward, and by so doing lost near 14 days in recovering our westing again. This was a most fatal disappointment; for in this run we lost about 80 of our men, which, probably, had the Commodore’s advice been attended to, would most of them have been saved.

The 8th of June, at six in the evening, we at length saw the island of Juan Fernandez, bearing N. by E. half E. about 15 or 16 leagues off. The 10th, at two in the morning, we anchored in 56 fathom, close under the N. E. end of the island. At 10 in the morning of the 11th, we with much labour and difficulty weighed our anchor, and at noon happily moored our ship in the Great Bay, about a mile from the shore, in 52 fathom water, to our inexpressible joy, having been from St. Katharine’s in the Brazils to this place 148 days, on such a dreadful and fatal passage as I believe very few other persons ever experienced.

The 11th, at two in the afternoon, the Trial sloop appeared in the offing. We immediately sent some of our hands on board her, by whose assistance she was brought to an anchor between us and the land. We soon found that the sloop had not been exempted from the like calamities which we had so severely felt; for her Commander, Captain Saunders, waiting on the Commodore, informed him, that, out of his small complement, he had buried 34 of his men; and those who recovered were so universally afflicted with the scurvy, that only himself, his Lieutenant, and three of his men, were able to stand by the sails.

The same day we got out our long-boat, and sent her on shore with materials for building tents for the sick, and with orders to bring on board some water.

The 15th, we sent our pinnace to assist the Trial, she being driven from her anchors to sea, by the violent flaws of wind which blow off the high lands. This and the next day we put ashore 75 sick men, in so weak a condition, that we were obliged to carry them out of the ship in their hammocks, and to convey them afterwards in the same manner from the water-side over a stoney beach to the tents prepared for their reception. In this work of humanity, not only the officers, but the Commodore himself, chearfully lent their assistance.

The 17th, the Trial came again to an anchor, and moored. This day and the next we sent on shore the remainder of our sick people, the whole number now on shore being 135, many of whom, being too far gone in the scurvy, died one after another to the number of not less than sixty.

We now began to send on shore materials for tents for the coopers, sail-makers, and some of the officers; a copper oven which we had with us for baking soft bread for the ship’s company, and the smith’s forge for making or repairing such iron-work as was necessary: and, after a short interval of relaxation, all hands were busily employed, some in cutting large quantities of wood for the ship’s use, some in making charcoal for the smith, and for a farther store; the bakers in baking bread, the coopers in making up and cleaning the casks for water, the sail-makers in mending the sails and making others; some in fishing for the sick, and the rest were otherways employed: and here being very great plenty of fine fish, all taken by the hook, two or three people could never fail to take us as much in about two hours as all the ship’s company could eat: besides this we took great quantities for salting and curing; and some private persons who had hooks and lines fished for themselves, and never failed of enough for their own use, and to give to those who had none. The people on board were employed in cleaning the ship, which was in a very filthy condition, and in stripping the masts, and overhauling the rigging. One of the boatswain’s mates, with some assistants, having run up a rope-walk on shore, was employed in making what small cordage we might want; others in watering, and, in short, in every thing that might contribute to put us in as good a condition, and in as short a time as possible; and as fast as the sick recovered, they were put on the like employments.

At first sight of this island, it appeared with a most unpromising aspect, being extremely mountainous, rugged, and irregular; but, upon our nearer approach, it improved upon us; and when we were landed, we found all the vegetables which are usually esteemed to be peculiarly adapted to the cure of those scorbutic disorders which are contracted by salt diet, and long continuance at sea; for here we found water-cresses and purslain, wild-sorrel, and Sicilian-radishes, in profusion. These vegetables, not to mention the turneps which now abound in every plain, with the fish and flesh we got here, were not only grateful to us in the extreme, but were likewise very refreshing to the sick, and contributed not a little to the recovery of those who were not already too far advanced in the disorder to admit of relief; and to the restoring of others to their wonted vigour, who, though not apparently under the malignancy of the distemper, and its baneful concomitants, were yet greatly debilitated by continual watching and anxiety of mind, from which not a soul on board was exempt.

During the time of our residence here, we found the inland parts of the island no ways to fall short of the sanguine prepossessions we had first entertained in its favour; for the woods, which covered most of the steepest hills, were free from all bushes and underwood, and afforded an easy passage through every part of them; and the irregularities of the hills and precipices, in the northern part of the island, necessarily traced out, by their various combinations, a great number of romantic vallies, most of which had a stream of the clearest water running through them, that tumbled in cascades from rock to rock, as the bottom of the valley by the course of the neighbouring hills was at any time broken into a sudden sharp descent. Some particular spots occurred in these vallies, where the shades and fragrance of the contiguous woods, the loftiness of the over-hanging rocks, and the transparency and frequent falls of the neighbouring streams, presented scenes of such elegance and dignity, as would with difficulty be rivalled in any other part of the globe. It is in this place, perhaps, that the simple productions of unassisted nature may be said to excel all the fictitious descriptions of the most animated imagination. The spot where the Commodore pitched his tent, and where he chose, during his stay, to fix his residence, exceeded in beauty any thing that words can be supposed to represent. It was a delightful little lawn, that lay on an easy ascent at the distance of about half a mile from the sea, and was probably the very spot on which Shelvock twenty years before had pitched his tent. In front there was a large avenue cut through the woods to the sea-side, which slopping to the water with a gentle descent, opened a prospect to the bay and the ships at anchor. This lawn was screened behind by a tall wood of myrtle sweeping round it in the form of a theatre, the slope on which the wood stood rising with a much sharper ascent than the lawn itself, though not so much but that the hills and precipices within land towered up considerably above the tops of the trees, and added to the grandeur of the view. There were, besides; two streams of chrystal water, which ran on the right and left of the tent, within an hundred yards distance, and were shaded by the trees that skirted the lawn on either side, and completed the symmetry of the whole. Add to these, the gentle murmuring of the distant brooks, the music of the birds among the myrtles, the sweet aromatic odour of the spice-trees that every where perfumed the air with their fragrance, and you may form in imagination a faint idea of this second paradise, which could only be exceeded by the perfection of the first.

It is astonishing, that, among all the voyagers who have visited this fortunate island before us, and who have obliged the world with descriptions of it, none of them have mentioned a charming little bird that, with its wild, various, and irregular notes, enchants the ear, and makes the woods resound with its melody. This untutored choirister is somewhat less in size than the goldfinch, its plumage beautifully intermixed with red and other vivid colours, and the golden crown upon its head so bright and glowing, when seen in the full light of the sun, that it surpasses all description. These little birds are far from being uncommon or unfamiliar; for they perched upon the branches of the myrtle-trees so near us, and sung so chearfully, as if they had been conscious we were strangers, and came to give us welcome.

There is, besides the above, another little bird, unnoticed by any former writer, and which seems likewise peculiar to the island, and consequently without a name; it is still less than the former in size, but not inferior in beauty, though not so musical; the back, wings, and head, are of a lively green, intermixed with fine shining golden spots, and the belly a snow white ground, with ebony coloured spots, so elegantly varied as no art can imitate. To the catalogue of birds mentioned by former writers as inhabitants of this island, should also be added blackbirds and thrushes very like those in England; and owls, but of a diminutive size.

Of four-footed animals we saw none but dogs, cats, rats, and goats; and of the latter but few, as the dogs of various kinds, greyhounds, mastifs, pointers, spaniels, and mungrels, have thinned them in the plains, and driven them to the inaccessible mountains; yet some were shot by the hunters, and were preferred by them to the best venison. Among those presented to the Commodore were two or three venerable through age, that had been marked more than thirty years before by Selkirk, who trained them for his sport, slit their ears, and turned them loose to graze the mountains.

I remember we had once an opportunity of observing a remarkable dispute betwixt a herd of those animals and a number of dogs; for going in our boat into the eastern bay we perceived some dogs run very eagerly upon the foot, and being willing to discover what game they were after, we lay upon our oars some time to view them, and at last saw them take a hill, where, looking a little farther, we observed upon the ridge of it an herd of goats, which seemed drawn up for their reception. There was a very narrow path skirted on each side by precipices, in which the leader of the herd posted himself fronting the enemy, the rest of the goats being ranged behind him where the ground was more open; as this spot was inaccessible by any other path, excepting where this champion had placed himself, the dogs, though they ran up hill with great alacrity, yet when they came within about twenty yards, found they durst not encounter this formidable Goliah, for he would infallibly have driven the first that approached him down the precipice; they therefore quietly laid themselves down, panting, and did not offer to stir while we remained in sight.

These dogs have multiplied prodigiously, and have destroyed most of the cats as well as goats: the rats, however, keep possession, and were very troublesome guests in the night, when they generally paid us their visits. It is not easy to determine in what manner such a multitude of dogs subsist, as they are much more numerous than all the other four-footed creatures upon the island. Our people, indeed, were inclined to think, that they lived in a great measure upon the young sea-lions and seals, and supported their opinion by the report of the sailors, some of whom killed the dogs for food, who said they tasted fishy: and, truly, there is hardly any other way of accounting for the subsistence of these animals; for, as has been said, they have already destroyed all the goats in the accessible parts of the country; so that there now remain only a few among the crags and precipices, where the dogs cannot follow them. These are divided into separate herds of 20 or 30 each, which inhabit distinct fastnesses, and never mingle with each other; by this means we found it extremely difficult to kill them, and yet we were so desirous of their flesh, that we discovered, I believe, all their herds, and it was thought, by comparing their numbers, that they scarcely exceeded 200 upon the whole island. The dogs had destroyed the pardellas, too, of which former writers have given a large account, so that there was not one of them to be seen; we found indeed their boroughs in the earth, which leaves no room to doubt of their being found in plenty in Selkirk’s time, as well as cats, of which there is now scarce one alive.

Flesh meat being thus extremely scarce, our people, being tired of fish, though excellent in their kind, at length condescended to eat seals, which, by degrees, they came to relish, and called them lamb. Of these, it being their brooding time, the numbers were incredible;--and likewise of the sea-lion,--these animals have frequently furious battles among themselves, principally about their females; and we were one day surprized by the sight of two animals, which, at first, seemed different from all we had ever observed; but, on a nearer approach, they proved to be two sea-lions that had been goring one another with their tushes, and were covered with blood, with which they plentifully abound. This led us to watch them more closely, and one was observed larger than the rest, and from his driving off other males, and keeping a great number of females to himself, he was by the seamen humorously stiled the Bashaw. To this pre-eminence, however, he had not arrived without many bloody contests; for, on our people’s attacking him in the midst of his seraglio of females, he made a desperate defence, and, when overpowered, the signals of his bravery appeared in numerous scars on every part of his body.

We had now been ten days on this island, when some of our people from an eminence discerned a ship to leeward with her courses even with the horizon, without any other sail abroad than her main-topsail; from which circumstance, it was immediately concluded, that it was one of our own squadron; but the weather being hazy, no definitive conjecture could be formed concerning her. She again disappeared for some days, and we were all thrown into the deepest concern, fearing the weakness of her condition had disabled her from working to windward, and that all her people had perished.

We continued our employ till the 26th, when we again saw the same ship; and, on her nearer approach, could distinguish her to be the Gloucester; and, making no doubt of her being in distress, the Commodore sent our boat on board her with water and refreshments. We found her in a miserable condition, not many above 100 people alive, and almost all those helpless with the scurvy; their water so very short, that they were obliged to allow but one pint a day to a man; and the continual flaws off the land, together with their being disabled in their sails and yards, hindered them from getting into the bay. The next day we sent them a fresh supply of fish, greens, water, and men to help to work the ship; soon after which the flaws drove them off again, and the ship appeared no more till the 30th, when at two in the afternoon she fired a gun, and made a signal of distress. She continued in this manner off and on, sometimes in sight, and sometimes not, till July 23, during which time, though we often relieved the people on board with water and other necessaries, yet their sufferings were insupportable, and their whole complement were reduced to about 96 living persons, all of whom must have perished in a few days more, had not the wind proved favourable to bring them into the bay; but providentially a fresh gale sprung up from the sea, and brought them to an anchor. We immediately sent men on board to assist in mooring the ship, and continued our constant assistance afterwards, during our stay at this place.

The 5th of August, the Commodore sent the Trial sloop to search the island of Little Juan Fernandez, lest any of the squadron should have mistaken that island for the place of rendezvous, and might remain there in expectation of meeting the rest of the fleet.

On the 16th, the Anne pink, which was separated from us with the rest of the squadron the 23d of April, appeared in sight. Her arrival gave us new spirits, she being laden principally with provisions, and we immediately were ordered full allowance of bread. This ship had been about two months in a safe harbour, on the main land, near the same parallel with del Soccoro, where she had been directed by Providence, and where she lay in security, enjoyed plenty, and her people, 16 in number, being once freed from their fears of shipwreck, very soon recovered their wonted vigour, having experienced none of those hardships that were endured by the rest of the fleet. They told us they had seen some Indians, and one time took one of their canoes with a man, a woman, some children, a dog, a cat, &c. and some implements for fishery; but in a day or two the whole family, the dog excepted, made their escape from them in the ship’s small boat, and left them their canoe in her stead. Those Indians, they say, understood a few Spanish words, and probably might have some little correspondence with the southern Spaniards of Chili, or their nearer bordering Indians; or, perhaps, some of the Fathers for propagating the faith may now and then have been among them. The principal refreshments they met with in this port, were wild celery, nettletops, and sorrel; cockles and muscles of an extraordinary size; good store of geese, sheep, and penguins. They judged it to lie in lat. 45 deg. 30 min. S. and it may be known by an island which faces it, and which the inhabitants call _Inchin_, and by a river in which they found excellent fish.

This vessel, the Anne pink, was the last that joined us at Juan Fernandez. The remaining ships of the squadron were the Severn, the Pearl, and the Wager store-ship. The Severn and Pearl, as has been already observed, parted company off Cape Noir, and, as we afterwards learned, put back to the Brazils; so that of all the ships that came into the South Seas, the Wager was the only ship that was missing. Captain Cheap, who commanded her, knowing the importance of the charge he had in trust, without which no enterprize on shore could be undertaken, was extremely solicitous to reach Baldivia as the last place of rendezvous, and the first to be attacked, before the rest of the squadron should have finished their cruise, that no blame might rest upon him, if the attack of that city should be judged improper to be carried into execution. But, whilst this brave officer was exerting himself in endeavouring to keep clear of the land in making the island of del Soccoro, he had the misfortune to dislocate his shoulder, and thereby to disable himself from prosecuting with vigour the purpose he had in view. The ship being little better than a wreck, the crew in a miserable desponding condition, the officers quite exhausted, the weather cold and stormy, and the wind and currents bearing in-shore, all these unlucky circumstances concurring, so entangled the ship with the land, that all the efforts of the feeble crew could not prevent her from running upon a sunken rock, where she grounded between two small islands, not a musquet-shot from the shore. In this situation she continued entire till every one on board might have reached the land in safety, and might have stored themselves with provisions, and every necessary for their present, subsistence and future escape: but the moment the ship struck, all subordination ceased; one part of the crew got possession of the liquors, intoxicated themselves in a beastly manner, and grew frantic in their cups; another part began to furnish themselves with arms, and to make themselves masters of the money and things of most value on board; while the Captain, and some of the principal officers, endeavoured in vain to maintain their authority, and to preserve a proper discipline among them, in order to effect the deliverance of as many as it was possible from the common danger in which all of them were involved; but the mutinous disposition that prevailed rendered every effort for their preservation ineffectual. Those who remained in possession of the ship and her stores, pointed the cannon, and fired at those who had gained the land; those at land grew riotous for want of provisions; nothing but anarchy and confusion prevailed; and, what added to the catastrophe, a midshipman named Cozens, who had busied himself in opposition to all good government, was, by the Captain, shot dead upon the spot. This put an end at once to all manner of subserviency; and after this every one thought himself at liberty to pursue what scheme he thought best for his own preservation.

Of about 130 persons who reached the shore, 30 died on the place; about 80 others, having converted the long-boat into a schooner, sailed to the southward, attended by the cutter. These, being distressed for want of provisions in re-doubling Cape Horn, and having lost their cutter in a storm, suffered unprecedented hardships in their return to the coast of Brazil, where only 30 of them arrived to give an account of the miserable fate of their companions, several of whom died of hunger; others desired to be set on shore; and some, beginning to be mutinous, they landed and deserted. Of the 19 who were left behind in Wager-Island with the Captain, 16 embarked on board the barge and the yawl, and attempted to escape to the northward; of these one was drowned in the yawl, and four were left on a desart part of the coast, where it is probable they all perished; the remaining 11, after a fruitless attempt to weather a point of land, called by the Spaniards Cape Tresmentes, were forced to return to Wager Island, from whence they first set out, where meeting with a Chiloen Indian, who could speak a little Spanish, they agreed with him to pilot them to Chiloe; but, after coasting along for four days, the Captain and his officers being on shore, five in number, the other six persuaded the Indian to put to sea without them, by which the rest were reduced to the sad necessity of travelling near 600 miles, sometimes by land, and sometimes by water, till at length, after a variety of misfortunes and hardships not to be parallelled in romance, four of them, namely, Captain Cheap, the Hon. Mr. Byron, who lately went round the world, Mr. Hamilton, and Mr. Campbell, arrived at Chiloe, where they were received by the Spaniards with great humanity. After some stay at Chiloe, the Captain and his three officers were sent to Valparaiso, and thence to St. Jago, the capital of Chili, where they continued above a year; but on advice of a cartel, the Captain, Mr. Byron, and Mr. Hamilton, were permitted to return to Europe; and Mr. Campbell, who in the mean time had changed his religion, chose to embark for Spain; but not meeting there with the encouragement he expected, he soon after returned to England, where he published an account of his adventures, but mentioned not a word of changing his religion, neither does he assign his reason for leaving Spain.

It is very remarkable, that the place where the Wager struck upon the rock, was so near the harbour where the Anne pink found shelter during the winter, that the Wager’s people were within hearing of the pink’s evening and morning gun, yet never had the thought to follow the sound, or to look out for any straggler from their own squadron.

On the 22d, the Trial arrived from searching the island of Little Fernandez, and reported that it lies about 20 leagues due west from this where we lay; that it is about three leagues in compass, being very mountainous, with some woods and good runs of water, with multitudes of goats, fish, sea-lions, and seals, as with us; but no ships were to be seen, nor any marks of any having been there.

While we continued at Juan Fernandez, besides our necessary employments, we likewise began, and pretty far advanced, a wharf for the better landing and embarking such necessaries as we had occasion for. We kept two ovens employed in baking bread for the ships companies, two smith’s forges for repairing old and fitting new iron-work, and made abundance of charcoal for future use. The Commodore likewise ordered the carpenters to take a careful survey of the Anne pink, the master of which set forth, that she was in so rotten a condition, as not to be fit to proceed nor return without very considerable repairs; which representation upon a survey being found to be true, the Commodore purchased her materials at a fair valuation, and ordered her to be broke up, and her crew to be put on board the Gloucester, that ship not having hands enough left to navigate her, much less to fight her, in case of an attack from the enemy.

This island lies in latitude 33 deg. 40 min. S. and longitude 87 deg. 37 min. W. from London; distance from the main continent 105 leagues; compass, by the best accounts of those who had been round it, 12 or 13 leagues. There are two small and very commodious bays within the points, which form the large one where we lay, one to the eastward, the other to the westward of us, and no doubt several others in other parts of the island; variation, by an observation July 2, in the morning, 8 deg. 4. min. half E. ’Twas reported, that the S. W. end of the island is much more flat and level than that where we resided, and the goats more numerous, but wood scarcer.

On Tuesday, Sept. the 8th, at noon, we saw a sail at sea bearing N. E. by E. and, perceiving by our glasses that she could be none of our squadron, nor an English-built ship, we fired a gun as a signal for getting all our people on board; and, having taken several men out of the Trial, bent our sails, set up our rigging, and slipt our small bower cable, at six in the evening we weighed in pursuit of her. In the morning of the next day we got down our stumps, which are generally set up in bad weather instead of top-gallant masts, and in their place got up our top-gallant masts and yards, rigged them, and bent their sails. At eleven the same morning we mustered and quartered the ship’s company. At noon the island of Juan Fernandez bore W. half S. distance eight leagues; the two next days we saw nothing of the chace, nor any thing remarkable.

Saturday, Sept. 12, at five in the morning we saw a sail to windward, which bore down towards us, and at about two leagues distance she hawled up the lee clue-garnet of her foresail, shewed her Spanish colours, and fired a gun, which we supposed to be a signal concerted between her and others which came out in company with her; but we not answering nor regarding it, she hauled close on a wind and stood from us, endeavouring to escape; upon which we gave chace, and it proving sometimes hazy and foggy, we were in danger of losing sight of her. About nine in the morning we tacked, and at noon coming within gun shot, we fired five shot at her rigging to bring her to; but she keeping on her course, we fired four more, on which she struck her colours, and surrendered without making any opposition. This ship happened not to be the same we went out after. She proved a rich merchant-ship, having on board 18,000l. sterling in dollars and plate, with some jewels, and abundance of gold and silver twist; but the bulk of her cargo consisted in sugars and bale goods, most of the latter European, but some the produce of the country. She was called the Nuestra Senora del Monte Carmelo. She was of about 500 tons, was commanded by Don Manuel Zamorra, and had on board 13 passengers, most of them persons of fortune, amongst whom was the son of the Governor of the city of St. Jago, the capital of Chili. She came from Callao, a port of Lima, the capital of the empire of Peru, bound for Valparaiso in Chili, where those ships annually trade, exchanging silver in return for gold and corn, the latter being very scarce in Peru. Some of the prisoners informed us, that, if we had taken her in her return from Chili to Peru, we should have met with as much gold in her as we had now found silver. She had in the whole a-board her 67 persons, many of them Indians and black slaves, who were afterwards very useful to us in assisting towards the ship’s duty. She had been 27 days from Callao, and wanted not above two days sail to compleat her voyage when we took her.

We found in this ship, on search among the letters from some merchants in Lima to their friends in Chili, an account of the fate of the Spanish squadron which had been sent after us, viz. that, in attempting to pass the Cape, they had been forced to put back, after encountering the most terrible storms and most pressing famine, being reduced to two ounces of bread and half a pint of water each man a day; that, besides being grievously attacked by the scurvy, which had made greater havock among them than among us, their ships were almost entirely disabled, their masts, sails, yards, rigging and hulls in a manner shattered and torn to pieces; that Admiral Pisarro, and one more of his squadron, after having suffered the greatest extremities, had got, with the utmost difficulty, to Buenos Ayres, on the River Plate; that another of the squadron, a ship of 70 guns, had been entirely lost near Rio Grande, and that two more had never been heard of; that on their return they had seen two large ships pass by very near them, which they supposed to be two ships of our squadron, but the weather proving stormy, and the sea running mountains high, they could not interfere with or attack each other. Those ships of ours we believed to be the Severn and the Pearl, and hoped they were safely arrived at some port of the Brazils. Those letters came over land from Buenos Ayres to Lima, and with them came others containing Admiral Pisarro’s advice and instructions to the Viceroy of Peru concerning us; wherein he told him, that, though he himself had been forced back in such a miserable condition, not having above 80 or 100 of his men living, and his ships in so ill a state, that, till sufficient reinforcements could come to him from Old Spain, he could not possibly come into those seas, yet as the English were a stubborn and resolute people, and daring enough to persist obstinately in the most desperate undertakings, he did believe some of us might possibly get round; but as he experimentally knew what of necessity we must have suffered in that dreadful passage, he made no doubt but we should be in a very weak and defenceless condition; he therefore advised the Viceroy to fit out all the strength of shipping he could, and send them to cruise at the island of Juan Fernandez, where we must of necessity touch to refresh our people, and to repair our ships; and farther advised, that, in case of meeting us, they should not stand to fight or cannonade at a distance, in which possibly we might have the advantage, or make our escape, but should board us at once sword in hand; which must, if well executed, in our weak condition, infallibly prove the means of taking us.

This was a well-laid scheme, and in pursuance of it the Viceroy equipt three ships at Callao, one of 50, one of 30, and one of 20 guns, all double manned with the choicest men they could possibly procure, and sent them to wait for us accordingly. Those ships arrived at Juan Fernandez some time, I think, in May, and continued till about June the 6th, when, imagining that we must be either put back or lost, they quitted their station, and sailed for the port of Conception in Chili, and by this means we luckily missed them: had it happened otherwise, as we arrived there with only our single ship, in such a defenceless condition, and had they put their orders in execution with any tolerable degree of resolution, we must in all human probability have fallen into their hands.

Our prisoners informed us further, that those ships, during their cruise, had met with a storm, in which they had received so much damage, that it must be at least two months before they could again be fit to go to sea. The whole of this intelligence was as favourable as we could have wished; and now we were at no loss to account for the fresh marks we found at Juan Fernandez, of that island’s having been lately visited by some white people.

Sunday the 13th, having got on board most of the prisoners of note, and all the silver, we made sail for Juan Fernandez; and the weather proving very moderate, at six in the evening that island bore N. W. by N. at the distance of five leagues. At three the next morning we fired three guns, as a signal to the ships in the bay. At four we anchored, got in our small bower cable, which we had slipped at leaving the place, and moored our ship.

The 15th we employed in watering, and setting up our rigging, in order to pursue our voyage. And this day, the Commodore being informed that several merchant-ships were now pursuing their trade without fear of any surprize, the Trial was ordered out on a cruise, and proceeded immediately.

The 16th we got up a new top-gallant-mast, and wanting some cordage we were supplied with it from the Gloucester. This and the following days, until the 19th, we spent in getting every thing ready for sea with the utmost expedition.