THE ARRIVAL OF THE "CENTURION" AT THE ISLAND OF
JUAN FERNANDES, WITH A DESCRIPTION OF THAT ISLAND
On the 9th of June, at daybreak, as is mentioned in the preceding chapter, we first descried the island of Juan Fernandes, bearing N. by E.½E., at eleven or twelve leagues distance. And though, on this first view, it appeared to be a very mountainous place, extremely ragged and irregular, yet as it was land, and the land we sought for, it was to us a most agreeable sight: because at this place only we could hope to put a period to those terrible calamities we had so long struggled with, which had already swept away above half our crew, and which, had we continued a few days longer at sea, would inevitably have compleated our destruction. For we were by this time reduced to so helpless a condition, that out of two hundred and odd men which remained alive, we could not, taking all our watches together, muster hands enough to work the ship on an emergency, though we included the officers, their servants, and the boys.
The wind being northerly when we first made the island, we kept plying all that day, and the next night, in order to get in with the land; and wearing the ship in the middle watch, we had a melancholy instance of the almost incredible debility of our people; for the lieutenant could muster no more than two quarter-masters and six fore-mast men capable of working; so that without the assistance of the officers, servants, and the boys, it might have proved impossible for us to have reached the island, after we had got sight of it; and even with this assistance they were two hours in trimming the sails: to so wretched a condition was a sixty-gun ship reduced, which had passed Streights Le Maire but three months before, with between four and five hundred men, almost all of them in health and vigour.
However, on the 10th in the afternoon we got under the lee of the island, and kept ranging along it, at about two miles distance, in order to look out for the proper anchorage, which was described to be in a bay on the north side. Being now nearer in with the shore, we could discover that the broken craggy precipices, which had appeared so unpromising at a distance, were far from barren, being in most places covered with woods, and that between them there were everywhere interspersed the finest vallies, clothed with a most beautiful verdure, and watered with numerous streams and cascades, no valley of any extent being unprovided of its proper rill. The water too, as we afterwards found, was not inferior to any we had ever tasted, and was constantly clear. The aspect of this country, thus diversified, would, at all times, have been extremely delightful; but in our distressed situation, languishing as we were for the land and its vegetable productions (an inclination constantly attending every stage of the sea-scurvy), it is scarcely credible with what eagerness and transport we viewed the shore, and with how much impatience we longed for the greens and other refreshments which were then in sight, and particularly the water, for of this we had been confined to a very sparing allowance a considerable time, and had then but five ton remaining on board. Those only who have endured a long series of thirst, and who can readily recal the desire and agitation which the ideas alone of springs and brooks have at that time raised in them, can judge of the emotion with which we eyed a large cascade of the most transparent water, which poured itself from a rock near a hundred feet high into the sea at a small distance from the ship. Even those amongst the diseased who were not in the very last stages of the distemper, though they had been long confined to their hammocks, exerted the small remains of strength that were left them, and crawled up to the deck to feast themselves with this reviving prospect. Thus we coasted the shore, fully employed in the contemplation of this enchanting landskip, which still improved upon us the farther we advanced. But at last the night closed upon us, before we had satisfied ourselves which was the proper bay to anchor in; and therefore we resolved to keep in soundings all night (we having then from sixty-four to seventy fathom), and to send our boat next morning to discover the road. However, the current shifted in the night, and set us so near the land that we were obliged to let go the best bower in fifty-six fathom, not half a mile from the shore. At four in the morning, the cutter was dispatched with our third lieutenant to find out the bay we were in search of, who returned again at noon with the boat laden with seals and grass; for though the island abounded with better vegetables, yet the boat's crew, in their short stay, had not met with them; and they well knew that even grass would prove a dainty, as indeed it was all soon and eagerly devoured. The seals too were considered as fresh provision, but as yet were not much admired, though they grew afterwards into more repute: for what rendered them less valuable at this juncture was the prodigious quantity of excellent fish which the people on board had taken during the absence of the boat.
The cutter, in this expedition, had discovered the bay where we intended to anchor, which we found was to the westward of our present station; and, the next morning, the weather proving favourable, we endeavoured to weigh, in order to proceed thither; but though, on this occasion, we mustered all the strength we could, obliging even the sick, who were scarce able to keep on their legs, to assist us, yet the capstan was so weakly manned that it was near four hours before we hove the cable right up and down: after which, with our utmost efforts, and with many surges and some purchases we made use of to increase our power, we found ourselves incapable of starting the anchor from the ground. However, at noon, as a fresh gale blew towards the bay, we were induced to set the sails, which fortunately tripped the anchor; and then we steered along shore till we came abreast of the point that forms the eastern part of the bay. On the opening of the bay, the wind, that had befriended us thus far, shifted and blew from thence in squalls; but by means of the headway we had got we loofed close in, till the anchor brought us up in fifty-six fathom. Soon after we had thus got to our new birth we discovered a sail, which we made no doubt was one of our squadron; and on its nearer approach we found it to be the Tryal sloop. 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 same 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 thirty-four of his men; and those that remained 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 Tryal came to an anchor within us on the 12th, about noon, and we carried our hawsers on board her, in order to moor ourselves nearer in shore; but the wind coming off the land in violent gusts, prevented our mooring in the birth we intended. Indeed our principal attention was employed on business rather of more importance: for we were now extremely occupied in sending on shore materials to raise tents for the reception of the sick, who died apace on board, and doubtless the distemper was considerably augmented by the stench and filthiness in which they lay; for the number of the deceased was so great, and so few could be spared from the necessary duty of the sails to look after them, that it was impossible to avoid a great relaxation in the article of cleanliness, which had rendered the ship extremely loathsome between decks. Notwithstanding our desire of freeing the sick from their hateful situation, and their own extreme impatience to get on shore, we had not hands enough to prepare the tents for their reception before the 16th; but on that and the two following days we sent them all on shore, amounting to a hundred and sixty-seven persons, besides twelve or fourteen who died in the boats, on their being exposed to the fresh air. The greatest part of our sick were so infirm 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 to their tents, over a stony beach. This was a work of considerable fatigue to the few who were healthy, and therefore the commodore, according to his accustomed humanity, not only assisted herein with his own labour, but obliged his officers, without distinction, to give their helping hand. The extreme weakness of our sick may in some measure be collected from the numbers who died after they had got on shore; for it had generally been found that the land, and the refreshments it produces, very soon recover most stages of the sea-scurvy; and we flattered ourselves, that those who had not perished on this first exposure to the open air, but had lived to be placed in their tents, would have been speedily restored to their health and vigour. Yet, to our great mortification, it was near twenty days after their landing before the mortality was tolerably ceased; and for the first ten or twelve days we buried rarely less than six each day, and many of those who survived recovered by very slow and insensible degrees. Indeed, those who were well enough at their first getting on shore to creep out of their tents, and crawl about, were soon relieved, and recovered their health and strength in a very short time; but in the rest, the disease seemed to have acquired a degree of inveteracy which was altogether without example.
Having proceeded thus far, and got our sick on shore, I think it necessary, before I enter into any longer detail of our transactions, to give a distinct account of this island of Juan Fernandes, its situation, productions, and all its conveniencies. These particulars we were well enabled to be minutely instructed in during our three months' stay there; and as it is the only commodious place in those seas where British cruisers can refresh and recover their men after their passage round Cape Horn, and where they may remain for some time without alarming the Spanish coast, these its advantages will merit a circumstantial description. Indeed Mr. Anson was particularly industrious in directing the roads and coasts to be surveyed, and other observations to be made, knowing from his own experience of how great consequence these materials might prove to any British vessels hereafter employed in those seas. For the uncertainty we were in of its position, and our standing in for the main on the 28th of May, in order to secure a sufficient easting, when we were indeed extremely near it, cost us the lives of between seventy and eighty of our men, by our longer continuance at sea: from which fatal accident we might have been exempted had we been furnished with such an account of its situation as we could fully have depended on.
The island of Juan Fernandes lies in the latitude of 33° 40' south, and is a hundred and ten leagues distant from the continent of Chili. It is said to have received its name from a Spaniard, who formerly procured a grant of it, and resided there some time with a view of settling on it, but afterwards abandoned it. The island itself is of an irregular figure. Its greatest extent is between four and five leagues, and its greatest breadth somewhat short of two leagues. The only safe anchoring at this island is on the north side, where are the three bays mentioned above, but the middlemost, known by the name of Cumberland Bay, is the widest and deepest, and in all respects much the best; for the other two, denominated the East and West bays, are scarcely more than good landing-places, where boats may conveniently put their casks on shore. Cumberland Bay is well secured to the southward, and is only exposed from the N. by W. to the E. by S.; and as the northerly winds seldom blow in that climate, and never with any violence, the danger from that quarter is not worth attending to.
As the bay last described, or Cumberland Bay, is by far the most commodious road in the island, so it is adviseable for all ships to anchor on the western side of this bay, within little more than two cables' lengths of the beach. Here they may ride in forty fathom of water, and be, in a great measure, sheltered from a large heavy sea which comes rolling in whenever an eastern or a western wind blows. It is however expedient, in this case, to cackle or arm the cables with an iron chain, or good rounding, for five or six fathom from the anchor, to secure them from being rubbed by the foulness of the ground.
I have before observed that a northerly wind, to which alone this bay is exposed, very rarely blew during our stay here; and as it was then winter, it may be supposed, in other seasons, to be less frequent. Indeed, in those few instances when it was in that quarter, it did not blow with any great force; but this perhaps might be owing to the highlands on the southward of the bay, which checked its current, and thereby abated its violence, for we had reason to suppose that a few leagues off it blew with considerable strength, since it sometimes drove before it a prodigious sea, in which we rode forecastle in. But though the northern winds are never to be apprehended, yet the southern winds, which generally prevail here, frequently blow off the land in violent gusts and squalls, which, however, rarely last longer than two or three minutes. This seems to be owing to the obstruction of the southern gale by the hills in the neighbourhood of the bay, for the wind being collected by this means, at last forces its passage through the narrow vallies, which, like so many funnels, both facilitate its escape and increase its violence. These frequent and sudden gusts make it difficult for ships to work in with the wind off shore, or to keep a clear hawse when anchored.
The northern part of this island is composed of high craggy hills, many of them inaccessible, though generally covered with trees. The soil of this part is loose and shallow, so that very large trees on the hills soon perish for want of root, and are then easily overturned; which occasioned the unfortunate death of one of our sailors, who being upon the hills in search of goats, caught hold of a tree upon a declivity to assist him in his ascent, and this giving way, he immediately rolled down the hill, and though in his fall he fastened on another tree of considerable bulk, yet that too gave way, and he fell amongst the rocks, and was dashed to pieces. Mr. Brett likewise met with an accident only by resting his back against a tree, near as large about as himself, which stood on a slope; for the tree giving way, he fell to a considerable distance, though without receiving any injury. Our prisoners (whom, as will be related in the sequel, we afterwards brought in here) remarked that the appearance of the hills in some part of the island resembled that of the mountains in Chili where the gold is found, so that it is not impossible but mines might be discovered here. We observed, in some places, several hills of a peculiar sort of red earth, exceeding vermilion in colour, which perhaps, on examination, might prove useful for many purposes. The southern, or rather the S.W., part of the island is widely different from the rest, being dry, stony, and destitute of trees, and very flat and low compared with the hills on the northern part. This part of the island is never frequented by ships, being surrounded by a steep shore, and having little or no fresh water; and, besides, it is exposed to the southerly wind, which generally blows here the whole year round, and in the winter solstice very hard.
The trees of which the woods on the northern side of the island are composed are most of them aromaticks, and of many different sorts. There are none of them of a size to yield any considerable timber, except the myrtle-trees, which are the largest on the island, and supplied us with all the timber we made use of, but even these would not work to a greater length than forty feet. The top of the myrtle-tree is circular, and appears as uniform and regular as if it had been clipped by art. It bears on its bark an excrescence like moss which in taste and smell resembles garlick, and was used by our people instead of it. We found here too the piemento-tree, and likewise the cabbage-tree, though in no great plenty. And besides a great number of plants of various kinds, which we were not botanists enough either to describe or attend to, we found here almost all the vegetables which are usually esteemed to be particularly adapted to the cure of those scorbutick disorders which are contracted by salt diet and long voyages. For here we had great quantities of water-cresses and purslain, with excellent wild sorrel, and a vast profusion of turnips and Sicilian radishes: these two last, having some resemblance to each other, were confounded by our people under the general name of turnips. We usually preferred the tops of the turnips to the roots, which were often stringy, though some of them were free from that exception, and remarkably good. These vegetables, with the fish and flesh we got here, and which I shall more particularly describe hereafter, were not only extremely grateful to our palates, after the long course of salt diet which we had been confined to, but were likewise of the most salutary consequence to our sick, in recovering and invigorating them, and of no mean service to us who were well, in destroying the lurking seeds of the scurvy, from which perhaps none of us were totally exempt, and in refreshing and restoring us to our wonted strength and activity.
To the vegetables I have already mentioned, of which we made perpetual use, I must add that we found many acres of ground covered with oats and clover. There were also some few cabbage-trees upon the island, as was observed before, but as they generally grew on the precipices, and in dangerous situations, and as it was necessary to cut down a large tree for every single cabbage, this was a dainty that we were able but rarely to indulge in.
The excellence of the climate and the looseness of the soil render this place extremely proper for all kinds of vegetation; for if the ground be anywhere accidentally turned up, it is immediately overgrown with turnips and Sicilian radishes. Mr. Anson therefore having with him garden-seeds of all kinds, and stones of different sorts of fruits, he, for the better accommodation of his countrymen who should hereafter touch here, sowed both lettuces, carrots, and other garden plants, and sett in the woods a great variety of plum, apricot, and peach stones: and these last, he has been informed, have since thriven to a very remarkable degree, for some gentlemen, who in their passage from Lima to Old Spain were taken and brought to England, having procured leave to wait upon Mr. Anson, to thank him for his generosity and humanity to his prisoners, some of whom were their relations, they, in casual discourse with him about his transactions in the South Seas, particularly asked him if he had not planted a great number of fruit trees on the island of Juan Fernandes, for they told him their late navigators had discovered there numbers of peach-trees and apricot-trees, which being fruits before unobserved in that place, they concluded them to have been produced from kernels sett by him.
This may in general suffice as to the soil and vegetable productions of this place; but the face of the country, at least of the north part of the island, is so extremely singular that I cannot avoid giving it a particular consideration. I have already taken notice of the wild, inhospitable air with which it first appeared to us, and the gradual improvement of this uncouth landskip as we drew nearer, till we were at last captivated by the numerous beauties we discovered on the shore. And I must now add that we found, during the time of our residence there, that the inland parts of the island did no ways fall short of the sanguine prepossessions which we first entertained in their 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 precipicies, 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 shade and fragrance of the contiguous woods, the loftiness of the overhanging 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. I shall finish this article with a short account of that spot where the commodore pitched his tent, and which he made choice of for his own residence, though I despair of conveying an adequate idea of its beauty. The piece of ground which he chose was a small lawn that lay on a little ascent, at the distance of about half a mile from the sea. In the front of his tent there was a large avenue cut through the woods to the seaside, which sloping to the water with a gentle descent, opened a prospect of 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 crystal water, which ran on the right and left of the tent, within an hundred yards distance, and were shaded by the trees which skirted the lawn on either side, and compleated the symmetry of the whole.
It remains now only that we speak of the animals and provisions which we met with at this place. Former writers have related that this island abounded with vast numbers of goats, and their accounts are not to be questioned, this place being the usual haunt of the buccaneers and privateers who formerly frequented those seas. And there are two instances—one of a Musquito Indian, and the other of Alexander Selkirk, a Scotchman, who were left here by their respective ships, and lived alone upon this island for some years, and consequently were no strangers to its produce. Selkirk, who was the last, after a stay of between four and five years, was taken off the place by the Duke and Duchess privateers of Bristol, as may be seen at large in the journal of their voyage. His manner of life during his solitude was in most particulars very remarkable; but there is one circumstance he relates, which was so strangely verified by our own observation, that I cannot help reciting it. He tells us, amongst other things, that as he often caught more goats than he wanted, he sometimes marked their ears and let them go. This was about thirty-two years before our arrival at the island. Now it happened that the first goat that was killed by our people at their landing had his ears slit, whence we concluded that he had doubtless been formerly under the power of Selkirk. This was indeed an animal of a most venerable aspect, dignified with an exceeding majestic beard, and with many other symptoms of antiquity. During our stay on the island we met with others marked in the same manner, all the males being distinguished by an exuberance of beard and every other characteristick of extreme age.
But the great numbers of goats, which former writers describe to have been found upon this island, are at present very much diminished, as the Spaniards, being informed of the advantages which the buccaneers and privateers drew from the provisions which goat's flesh here furnished them with, have endeavoured to extirpate the breed, thereby to deprive their enemies of this relief. For this purpose they have put on shore great numbers of large dogs, who have increased apace and have destroyed all the goats in the accessible part of the country, so that there now remain only a few amongst the craggs and precipices, where the dogs cannot follow them. These are divided into separate herds of twenty or thirty 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, which we all agreed much resembled venison, that we got knowledge, I believe, of all their herds, and it was conceived, by comparing their numbers together, that they scarcely exceeded two hundred upon the whole island. I remember we had once an opportunity of observing a remarkable dispute betwixt a herd of these animals and a number of dogs; for going in our boat into the eastern bay, we perceived some dogs running 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 to a hill, where looking a little further, 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, on which the master of the herd posted himself fronting the enemy, the rest of the goats being all 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 of him, they found they durst not encounter him (for he would infallibly have driven them down the precipice), but gave over the chace, and quietly laid themselves down panting at a great rate. These dogs, who are masters of all the accessible parts of the island, are of various kinds, some of them very large, and are multiplied to a prodigious degree. They sometimes came down to our habitations at night, and stole our provision; and once or twice they set upon single persons, but assistance being at hand they were driven off without doing any mischief. As at present it is rare for goats to fall in their way, we conceived that they lived principally upon young seals, and indeed some of our people had the curiosity to kill dogs sometimes and dress them, and it seemed to be agreed that they had a fishy taste.
Goat's flesh, as I have mentioned, being scarce, we rarely being able to kill above one a day, and our people growing tired of fish (which, as I shall hereafter observe, abound at this place), they at last condescended to eat seals, which by degrees they came to relish, and called it lamb. The seal, numbers of which haunt this island, hath been so often mentioned by former writers that it is unnecessary to say anything particular about them in this place. But there is another amphibious creature to be met with here, called a sea-lion, that bears some resemblance to a seal, though it is much larger. This too we eat under the denomination of beef; and as it is so extraordinary an animal, I conceive it well merits a particular description. They are in size, when arrived at their full growth, from twelve to twenty feet in length, and from eight to fifteen in circumference. They are extremely fat, so that after having cut through the skin, which is about an inch in thickness, there is at least a foot of fat before you can come at either lean or bones; and we experienced more than once that the fat of some of the largest afforded us a butt of oil. They are likewise very full of blood, for if they are deeply wounded in a dozen places, there will instantly gush out as many fountains of blood, spouting to a considerable distance; and to try what quantity of blood they contained, we shot one first, and then cut its throat, and measuring the blood that came from him, we found that besides what remained in the vessels, which to be sure was considerable, we got at least two hogsheads. Their skins are covered with short hair, of a light dun colour, but their tails and their fins, which serve them for feet on shore, are almost black; their fins or feet are divided at the ends like fingers, the web which joins them not reaching to the extremities, and each of these fingers is furnished with a nail. They have a distant resemblance to an overgrown seal, though in some particulars there is a manifest difference between them, especially in the males. These have a large snout or trunk hanging down five or six inches below the end of the upper jaw, which the females have not, and this renders the countenance of the male and female easy to be distinguished from each other, and besides, the males are of a much larger size. The largest of these animals, which was found upon the island, was the master of the flock, and from his driving off the other males, and keeping a great number of females to himself, he was by the seamen ludicrously styled the Bashaw. These animals divide their time equally between the land and sea, continuing at sea all the summer, and coming on shore at the setting in of the winter, where they reside during that whole season. In this interval they engender and bring forth their young, and have generally two at a birth, which they suckle with their milk, they being at first about the size of a full-grown seal. During the time these sea-lions continue on shore, they feed on the grass and verdure which grows near the banks of the fresh-water streams; and, when not employed on feeding, sleep in herds in the most miry places they can find out. As they seem to be of a very lethargic disposition, and are not easily awakened, each herd was observed to place some of their males at a distance, in the nature of sentinels, who never failed to alarm them whenever any one attempted to molest or even to approach them; and they were very capable of alarming, even at a considerable distance, for the noise they make is very loud, and of different kinds, sometimes grunting like hogs, and at other times snorting like horses in full vigour. They often, especially the males, have furious battles with each other, principally about their females; and we were one day extremely surprized by the sight of two animals, which at first appeared different from all we had ever observed, but, on a nearer approach, they proved to be two sea-lions, who had been goring each other with their teeth, and were covered over with blood. And the Bashaw before mentioned, who generally lay surrounded with a seraglio of females, which no other male dared to approach, had not acquired that envied pre-eminence without many bloody contests, of which the marks still remained in the numerous scars which were visible in every part of his body. We killed many of them for food, particularly for their hearts and tongues, which we esteemed exceeding good eating, and preferable even to those of bullocks. In general there was no difficulty in killing them, for they were incapable either of escaping or resisting, as their motion is the most unwieldy that can be conceived, their blubber, all the time they are moving, being agitated in large waves under their skins. However, a sailor one day being carelessly employed in skinning a young sea-lion, the female from whence he had taken it came upon him unperceived, and getting his head in her mouth, she with her teeth scored his skull in notches in many places, and thereby wounded him so desperately, that, though all possible care was taken of him, he died in a few days.
These are the principal animals which we found upon the island: for we saw but few birds, and those chiefly hawks, blackbirds, owls, and humming birds. We saw not the pardela, which burrows in the ground, and which former writers have mentioned to be found here; but as we often met with their holes, we supposed that the dogs had destroyed them, as they have almost done the cats: for these were very numerous in Selkirk's time, but we saw not above one or two during our whole stay. However, the rats still keep their ground, and continue here in great numbers, and were very troublesome to us by infesting our tents nightly.
But that which furnished us with the most delicious repasts at this island remains still to be described. This was the fish with which the whole bay was most plentifully stored, and with the greatest variety: for we found here cod of a prodigious size, and by the report of some of our crew, who had been formerly employed in the Newfoundland fishery, not in less plenty than is to be met with on the banks of that island. We caught also cavallies, gropers, large breams, maids, silver fish, congers of a peculiar kind, and above all, a black fish which we most esteemed, called by some a chimney-sweeper, in shape resembling a carp. The beach indeed is everywhere so full of rocks and loose stones that there is no possibility of haling the Seyne; but with hooks and lines we caught what numbers we pleased, so that a boat with two or three lines would return loaded with fish in about two or three hours' time. The only interruption we ever met with arose from great quantities of dog-fish and large sharks, which sometimes attended our boats and prevented our sport. Besides the fish we have already mentioned, we found here one delicacy in greater perfection, both as to size, flavour, and quantity, than is perhaps to be met with in any other part of the world. This was sea crayfish; they generally weighed eight or nine pounds apiece, were of a most excellent taste, and lay in such abundance near the water's edge, that the boat-hooks often struck into them in putting the boat to and from the shore.
These are the most material articles relating to the accommodations, soil, vegetables, animals, and other productions of the island of Juan Fernandes: by which it must appear how properly that place was adapted for recovering us from the deplorable situation to which our tedious and unfortunate navigation round Cape Horn had reduced us. And having thus given the reader some idea of the site and circumstances of this place, which was to be our residence for three months, I shall now proceed in the next chapter to relate all that occurred to us in that interval, resuming my narration from the 18th day of June, being the day in which the Tryal sloop, having by a squall been driven out to sea three days before, came again to her moorings, the day in which we finished the sending our sick on shore, and about eight days after our first anchoring at this island.
THE ARRIVAL OF THE "GLOUCESTER" AND THE "ANNA" PINK AT THE ISLAND OF JUAN FERNANDES, AND THE TRANSACTIONS AT THAT PLACE DURING THIS INTERVAL
The arrival of the Tryal sloop at this island so soon after we came there ourselves gave us great hopes of being speedily joined by the rest of the squadron, and we were for some days continually looking out, in expectation of their coming in sight. But near a fortnight being elapsed without any of them having appeared, we began to despair of ever meeting them again, as we knew that if our ship continued so much longer at sea we should every man of us have perished, and the vessel, occupied by dead bodies only, would have been left to the caprice of the winds and waves: and this we had great reason to fear was the fate of our consorts, as each hour added to the probability of these desponding suggestions.
But on the 21st of June, some of our people, from an eminence on shore, discerned a ship to leeward, with her courses even with the horizon; and they, at the same time, particularly observed that she had no sail abroad except her courses and her main top-sail. This circumstance made them conclude that it was one of our squadron, which had probably suffered in her sails and rigging as severely as we had done: but they were prevented from forming more definitive conjectures about her, for, after viewing her for a short time, the weather grew thick and hazy, and they lost sight of her. On this report, and no ship appearing for some days, we were all under the greatest concern, suspecting that her people were in the utmost distress for want of water, and so diminished and weakened by sickness as not to be able to ply up to windward; so that we feared that, after having been in sight of the island, her whole crew would notwithstanding perish at sea. However, on the 26th, towards noon, we discerned a sail in the north-east quarter, which we conceived to be the very same ship that had been seen before, and our conjectures proved true: and about one o'clock she approached so near that we could distinguish her to be the Gloucester. As we had no doubt of her being in great distress, the commodore immediately ordered his boat to her assistance, laden with fresh water, fish, and vegetables, which was a very seasonable relief to them; for our apprehensions of their calamities appeared to be but too well grounded, as perhaps there never was a crew in a more distressed situation. They had already thrown overboard two-thirds of their complement, and of those which remained alive, scarcely any were capable of doing duty, except the officers and their servants. They had been a considerable time at the small allowance of a pint of fresh water to each man for twenty-four hours, and yet they had so little left, that, had it not been for the supply we sent them, they must soon have died of thirst. The ship plied in within three miles of the bay; but, the winds and currents being contrary, she could not reach the road. However, she continued in the offing the next day; but as she had no chance of coming to an anchor, unless the winds and currents shifted, the commodore repeated his assistance, sending to her the Tryal's boat manned with the Centurion's people, and a farther supply of water and other refreshments. Captain Mitchel, the captain of the Gloucester, was under a necessity of detaining both this boat and that sent the preceding day; for without the help of their crews he had no longer strength enough to navigate the ship. In this tantalizing situation the Gloucester continued for near a fortnight, without being able to fetch the road, though frequently attempting it, and at some times bidding very fair for it. On the 9th of July, we observed her stretching away to the eastward at a considerable distance, which we supposed was with a design to get to the southward of the island; but as we soon lost sight of her, and she did not appear for near a week, we were prodigiously concerned, knowing that she must be again in extreme distress for want of water. After great impatience about her, we discovered her again on the 16th endeavouring to come round the eastern point of the island; but the wind, still blowing directly from the bay, prevented her getting nearer than within four leagues of the land. On this, Captain Mitchel made signals of distress, and our long-boat was sent to him with a store of water, and plenty of fish, and other refreshments. And the long-boat being not to be spared, the cockswain had positive orders from the commodore to return again immediately; but the weather proving stormy the next day, and the boat not appearing, we much feared she was lost, which would have proved an irretrievable misfortune to us all: however, the third day after, we were relieved from this anxiety by the joyful sight of the long-boat's sails upon the water; on which we sent the cutter immediately to her assistance, who towed her alongside in a few hours, when we found that the crew of our long-boat had taken in six of the Gloucester's sick men to bring them on shore, two of which had died in the boat. We now learnt that the Gloucester was in a most dreadful condition, having scarcely a man in health on board, except those they received from us: and, numbers of their sick dying daily, it appeared that, had it not been for the last supply sent by our long-boat, both the healthy and diseased must have all perished together for want of water. These calamities were the more terrifying as they appeared to be without remedy: for the Gloucester had already spent a month in her endeavours to fetch the bay, and she was now no farther advanced than at the first moment she made the island; on the contrary, the people on board her had worn out all their hopes of ever succeeding in it, by the many experiments they had made of its difficulty. Indeed, the same day her situation grew more desperate than ever, for after she had received our last supply of refreshments, we again lost sight of her; so that we in general despaired of her ever coming to an anchor.
Thus was this unhappy vessel bandied about within a few leagues of her intended harbour, whilst the neighbourhood of that place and of those circumstances which could alone put an end to the calamities they laboured under, served only to aggravate their distress by torturing them with a view of the relief it was not in their power to reach. But she was at last delivered from this dreadful situation at a time when we least expected it; for after having lost sight of her for several days, we were pleasingly surprized, on the morning of the 23d of July, to see her open the N.W. point of the bay with a flowing sail, when we immediately dispatched what boats we had to her assistance, and in an hour's time from our first perceiving her, she anchored safe within us in the bay. And now we were more particularly convinced of the importance of the assistance and refreshments we so often sent them, and how impossible it would have been for a man of them to have survived had we given less attention to their wants; for notwithstanding the water, the greens, and fresh provisions which we supplied them with, and the hands we sent them to navigate the ship, by which the fatigue of their own people was diminished, their sick relieved, and the mortality abated; notwithstanding this indulgent care of the commodore, they yet buried above three-fourths of their crew, and a very small proportion of the remainder were capable of assisting in the duty of the ship. On their coming to an anchor, our first endeavours were to assist them in mooring, and our next to send their sick on shore. These were now reduced by deaths to less than fourscore, of which we expected to lose the greatest part; but whether it was that those farthest advanced in the distemper were all dead, or that the greens and fresh provisions we had sent on board had prepared those which remained for a more speedy recovery, it happened, contrary to our expectations, that their sick were in general relieved and restored to their strength in a much shorter time than our own had been when we first came to the island, and very few of them died on shore.
I have thus given an account of the principal events relating to the arrival of the Gloucester in one continued narration. I shall only add, that we never were joined by any other of our ships, except our victualler, the Anna pink, who came in about the middle of August, and whose history I shall defer for the present, as it is now high time to return to the account of our own transactions on board and on shore, during the interval of the Gloucester's frequent and ineffectual attempts to reach the island.
Our next employment, after sending our sick on shore from the Centurion, was cleansing our ship and filling our water. The first of these measures was indispensably necessary to our future health, as the numbers of sick, and the unavoidable negligence arising from our deplorable situation at sea, had rendered the decks most intolerably loathsome. And the filling our water was a caution that appeared not less essential to our security, as we had reason to apprehend that accidents might intervene which would oblige us to quit the island at a very short warning; for some appearances we had discovered on shore upon our first landing, gave us grounds to believe that there were Spanish cruisers in these seas, which had left the island but a short time before our arrival, and might possibly return thither again, either for a recruit of water, or in search of us, since we could not doubt but that the sole business they had at sea was to intercept us, and we knew that this island was the likeliest place, in their own opinion, to meet with us. The circumstances which gave rise to these reflections (in part of which we were not mistaken, as shall be observed more at large hereafter) were our finding on shore several pieces of earthen jars, made use of in those seas for water and other liquids, which appeared to be fresh broken: we saw, too, many heaps of ashes, and near them fish-bones and pieces of fish, besides whole fish scattered here and there, which plainly appeared to have been but a short time out of the water, as they were but just beginning to decay. These were certain indications that there had been ships at this place but a short time before we came there; and as all Spanish merchantmen are instructed to avoid the island, on account of its being the common rendezvous of their enemies, we concluded those who had touched here to be ships of force; and not knowing that Pizarro was returned to Buenos Ayres, and ignorant what strength might have been fitted out at Callao, we were under some concern for our safety, being in so wretched and enfeebled a condition, that notwithstanding the rank of our ship, and the sixty guns she carried on board, which would only have aggravated our dishonour, there was scarcely a privateer sent to sea that was not an over-match for us. However, our fears on this head proved imaginary, and we were not exposed to the disgrace which might have been expected to have befallen us, had we been necessitated (as we must have been, had the enemy appeared) to fight our sixty-gun ship with no more than thirty hands.
Whilst the cleaning our ship and the filling our water went on, we set up a large copper oven on shore near the sick tents, in which we baked bread every day for our ship's company; for being extremely desirous of recovering our sick as soon as possible, we conceived that new bread, added to their greens and fresh fish, might prove a powerful article in their relief. Indeed we had all imaginable reason to endeavour at the augmenting our present strength, as every little accident, which to a full crew would be insignificant, was extremely alarming in our present helpless situation. Of this we had a troublesome instance on the 30th of June; for at five in the morning, we were astonished by a violent gust of wind directly off shore, which instantly parted our small bower cable about ten fathom from the ring of the anchor: the ship at once swung off to the best bower, which happily stood the violence of the jerk, and brought us up with two cables in eighty fathom. At this time we had not above a dozen seamen in the ship, and we were apprehensive, if the squall continued, that we should be driven to sea in this wretched condition. However, we sent the boat on shore to bring off all who were capable of acting; and the wind soon abating of its fury, gave us an opportunity of receiving the boat back again with a reinforcement. With this additional strength we immediately went to work to heave in what remained of the cable, which we suspected had received some damage from the foulness of the ground before it parted; and agreeable to our conjecture, we found that seven fathom and a half of the outer end had been rubbed, and rendered unserviceable. In the afternoon we bent the cable to the spare anchor, and got it over the ship's side; and the next morning, July 1, being favoured with the wind in gentle breezes, we warped the ship in again, and let go the anchor in forty-one fathom; the eastermost point now bearing from us E.½S.; the westermost N.W. by W.; and the bay as before, S.S.W.; a situation in which we remained secure for the future. However, we were much concerned for the loss of our anchor, and swept frequently for it, in hopes to have recovered it; but the buoy having sunk at the very instant that the cable parted, we were never able to find it.
And now as we advanced in July, some of our men being tolerably recovered, the strongest of them were put upon cutting down trees, and splitting them into billets; while others, who were too weak for this employ, undertook to carry the billets by one at a time to the water-side: this they performed, some of them with the help of crutches, and others supported by a single stick. We next sent the forge on shore, and employed our smiths, who were but just capable of working, in mending our chain-plates, and our other broken and decayed iron-work. We began too the repairs of our rigging; but as we had not junk enough to make spun-yarn, we deferred the general overhale, in hopes of the daily arrival of the Gloucester, who we knew had a great quantity of junk on board. However, that we might dispatch as fast as possible in our refitting, we set up a large tent on the beach for the sail-makers; and they were immediately employed in repairing our old sails, and making us new ones. These occupations, with our cleansing and watering the ship (which was by this time pretty well compleated), the attendance on our sick, and the frequent relief sent to the Gloucester, were the principal transactions of our infirm crew till the arrival of the Gloucester at an anchor in the bay. And then Captain Mitchel waiting on the commodore, informed him that he had been forced by the winds, in his last absence, as far as the small island called Masa Fuero, lying about twenty-two leagues to the westward of Juan Fernandes; and that he endeavoured to send his boat on shore there for water, of which he could observe several streams, but the wind blew so strong upon the shore, and occasioned such a surf, that it was impossible for the boat to land, though the attempt was not altogether useless, for his people returned with a boatload of fish. This island had been represented by former navigators as a barren rock; but Captain Mitchel assured the commodore that it was almost everywhere covered with trees and verdure, and was near four miles in length; and added, that it appeared to him far from impossible but some small bay might be found on it which might afford sufficient shelter for any ship desirous of refreshing there.
As four ships of our squadron were missing, this description of the island of Masa Fuero gave rise to a conjecture that some of them might possibly have fallen in with that island, and might have mistaken it for the true place of our rendezvous. This suspicion was the more plausible as we had no draught of either island that could be relied on: and therefore Mr. Anson determined to send the Tryal sloop thither, as soon as she could be fitted for the sea, in order to examine all its bays and creeks, that we might be satisfied whether any of our missing ships were there or not. For this purpose, some of our best hands were sent on board the Tryal the next morning, to overhale and fix her rigging; and our long-boat was employed in compleating her water, and whatever stores and necessaries she wanted were immediately supplied either from the Centurion or the Gloucester. But it was the 4th of August before the Tryal was in readiness to sail, when, having weighed, it soon after fell calm, and the tide set her very near the eastern shore. Captain Saunders hung out lights and fired several guns to acquaint us with his danger; upon which all the boats were sent to his relief, who towed the sloop into the bay, where she anchored until the next morning, and then weighing again, proceeded on her cruize with a fair breeze.
And now, after the Gloucester's arrival, we were employed in earnest in examining and repairing our rigging; but in the stripping our foremast, we were alarmed by discovering it was sprung just above the partners of the upper deck. The spring was two inches in depth, and twelve in circumference; however, the carpenters, on inspecting it, gave it as their opinion that fishing it with two leaves of an anchor-stock would render it as secure as ever. But, besides this defect in our mast, we had other difficulties in refitting, from the want of cordage and canvas; for though we had taken to sea much greater quantities of both than had ever been done before, yet the continued bad weather we met with had occasioned such a consumption of these stores that we were driven to great straits, as after working up all our junk and old shrouds to make twice-laid cordage, we were at last obliged to unlay a cable to work into running rigging. And with all the canvas, and remnants of old sails that could be mustered, we could only make up one compleat suit.
Towards the middle of August, our men being indifferently recovered, they were permitted to quit their sick tents, and to build separate huts for themselves, as it was imagined that by living apart they would be much cleanlier, and consequently likely to recover their strength the sooner; but at the same time particular orders were given, that on the firing of a gun from the ship they should instantly repair to the water-side. Their employment on shore was now either the procuring of refreshments, the cutting of wood, or the making of oil from the blubber of the sea-lions. This oil served us for several purposes, as burning in lamps, or mixing with pitch to pay the ship's sides, or, when worked up with wood-ashes, to supply the use of tallow (of which we had none left) to give the ship boot-hose tops. Some of the men too were occupied in salting of cod; for there being two Newfoundland fishermen in the Centurion, the commodore set them about laying in a considerable quantity of salted cod for a sea-store, though very little of it was used, as it was afterwards thought to be as productive of the scurvy as any other kind of salt provisions.
I have before mentioned that we had a copper oven on shore to bake bread for the sick; but it happened that the greatest part of the flour for the use of the squadron was embarked on board our victualler the Anna pink: and I should have mentioned that the Tryal sloop, at her arrival, had informed us, that on the 9th of May she had fallen in with our victualler not far distant from the continent of Chili, and had kept company with her for four days, when they were parted in a hard gale of wind. This afforded us some room to hope that she was safe, and that she might join us; but all June and July being past without any news of her, we then gave her over for lost, and at the end of July, the commodore ordered all the ships to a short allowance of bread. Nor was it in our bread only that we feared a deficiency; for since our arrival at this island we discovered that our former purser had neglected to take on board large quantities of several kinds of provisions which the commodore had expressly ordered him to receive; so that the supposed loss of our victualler was on all accounts a mortifying consideration. However, on Sunday, the 16th of August, about noon, we espied a sail in the northern quarter, and a gun was immediately fired from the Centurion to call off the people from shore, who readily obeyed the summons, repairing to the beach, where the boats waited to carry them on board. And being now prepared for the reception of this ship in view, whether friend or enemy, we had various speculations about her; at first, many imagined it to be the Tryal sloop returned from her cruize, though as she drew nearer this opinion was confuted, by observing she was a vessel with three masts. Then other conjectures were eagerly canvassed, some judging it to be the Severn, others the Pearl, and several affirming that it did not belong to our squadron: but about three in the afternoon our disputes were ended by an unanimous persuasion that it was our victualler the Anna pink. This ship, though, like the Gloucester, she had fallen in to the northward of the island, had yet the good fortune to come to an anchor in the bay, at five in the afternoon. Her arrival gave us all the sincerest joy; for each ship's company was immediately restored to their full allowance of bread, and we were now freed from the apprehensions of our provisions falling short before we could reach some amicable port; a calamity which in these seas is of all others the most irretrievable. This was the last ship that joined us; and the dangers she encountered, and the good fortune which she afterwards met with, being matters worthy of a separate narration, I shall refer them, together with a short account of the other missing ships of the squadron, to the ensuing chapter.
A SHORT NARRATIVE OF WHAT BEFEL THE "ANNA" PINK BEFORE SHE JOINED US, WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE LOSS OF THE "WAGER," AND OF THE PUTTING BACK OF THE "SEVERN" AND "PEARL," THE TWO REMAINING SHIPS OF THE SQUADRON
On the first appearance of the Anna pink, it seemed wonderful to us how the crew of a vessel, which came to this rendezvous two months after us, should be capable of working their ship in the manner they did, with so little appearance of debility and distress. But this difficulty was soon solved when she came to an anchor; for we then found that they had been in harbour since the middle of May, which was near a month before we arrived at Juan Fernandes: so that their sufferings (the risk they had run of shipwreck only excepted) were greatly short of what had been undergone by the rest of the squadron. It seems, on the 16th of May, they fell in with the land, which was then but four leagues distant, in the latitude of 45° 15' south. On the first sight of it they wore ship and stood to the southward, but their fore top-sail splitting, and the wind being W.S.W., they drove towards the shore; and the captain at last, either unable to clear the land, or, as others say, resolved to keep the sea no longer, steered for the coast, with a view of discovering some shelter amongst the many islands which then appeared in sight: and about four hours after the first view of the land, the pink had the good fortune to come to an anchor to the eastward of the island of Inchin; but as they did not run sufficiently near to the east shore of that island, and had not hands enough to veer away the cable briskly, they were soon driven to the eastward, deepning their water from twenty-five fathom to thirty-five, and still continuing to drive, they, the next day, the 17th of May, let go their sheet-anchor. This, though it brought them up for a short time, yet, on the 18th, they drove again, till they came into sixty-five fathom water, and were now within a mile of the land, and expected to be forced on shore every moment, in a place where the coast was so very high and steep, too, that there was not the least prospect of saving the ship or cargo. As their boats were very leaky, and there was no appearance of a landing-place, the whole crew, consisting of sixteen men and boys, gave themselves over for lost, apprehending that if any of them by some extraordinary chance should get on shore, they would, in all probability, be massacred by the savages on the coast: for these, knowing no other Europeans but Spaniards, it might be expected they would treat all strangers with the same cruelty which they had so often and so signally exerted against their Spanish neighbours. Under these terrifying circumstances, the pink drove nearer and nearer to the rocks which formed the shore; but at last, when the crew expected each instant to strike, they perceived a small opening in the land, which raised their hopes; and immediately cutting away their two anchors, they steered for it, and found it to be a small channel betwixt an island and the main, that led them into a most excellent harbour, which, for its security against all winds and swells, and the smoothness of its water, may perhaps compare with any in the known world. And this place being scarcely two miles distant from the spot where they deemed their destruction inevitable, the horrors of shipwreck and of immediate death, which had so long and so strongly possessed them, vanished almost instantaneously, and gave place to the more joyous ideas of security, refreshment, and repose.
In this harbour, discovered in this almost miraculous manner, the pink came to an anchor in twenty-five fathom water, with only a hawser and a small anchor of about three hundredweight. Here she continued for near two months, and here her people, who were many of them ill of the scurvy, were soon restored to perfect health by the fresh provisions, of which they procured good store, and the excellent water with which the adjacent shore abounded. As this place may prove of the greatest importance to future navigators, who may be forced upon this coast by the westerly winds, which are almost perpetual in that part of the world, I shall, before I enter into any farther particulars of the adventures of the pink, give the best account I could collect of this port, its situation, conveniencies, and productions.
The latitude of this harbour, which is indeed a material point, is not well ascertained, the pink having no observation either the day before she came here, or within a day of her leaving it. But it is supposed that it is not very distant from 45° 30' south, and the large extent of the bay before the harbour renders this uncertainty of less moment. The island of Inchin lying before the bay is thought to be one of the islands of Chonos which are mentioned in the Spanish accounts as spreading all along that coast, and are said by them to be inhabited by a barbarous people, famous for their hatred of the Spaniards, and for their cruelties to such of that nation as have fallen into their hands; and it is possible too that the land, on which the harbour itself lies, may be another of those islands, and that the continent may be considerably farther to the eastward. The depths of water in the different parts of the port, and the channels by which it communicates with the bay, are sufficiently marked. But it must be remembered that there are two coves in it, where ships may conveniently heave down, the water being constantly smooth; and there are several fine runs of excellent fresh water which fall into the harbour, some of them so luckily situated that the casks may be filled in the long-boat with an hose. The most remarkable of these is the stream in the N.E. part of the port. This is a fresh-water river, where the pink's people got some few mullets of an excellent flavour, and they were persuaded that in a proper season (it being winter when they were there) it abounded with fish. The principal refreshments they met with in this port were greens, as wild celery, nettle-tops, etc. (which after so long a continuance at sea they devoured with great eagerness); shell-fish, as cockles and muscles of an extraordinary size, and extremely delicious; and good store of geese, shags, and penguins. The climate, though it was the depth of winter, was not remarkably rigorous, nor the trees and the face of the country destitute of verdure, whence in the summer many other species of fresh provisions, besides these here enumerated, might doubtless be found there. Notwithstanding the tales of the Spanish historians in relation to the violence and barbarity of the inhabitants, it doth not appear that their numbers are sufficient to give the least jealousy to any ship of ordinary force, or that their disposition is by any means so mischievous or merciless as hath hitherto been represented. With all these advantages, this place is so far removed from the Spanish frontier, and so little known to the Spaniards themselves, that there is reason to suppose that by proper precautions a ship might continue here undiscovered a long time. It is moreover a post of great defence, for by possessing the island that closes up the harbour, and which is accessible in very few places, a small force might secure this port against all the strength the Spaniards could muster in that part of the world, since this island towards the harbour is steep too, and has six fathom water close to the shore, so that the pink anchored within forty yards of it. Whence it is obvious how impossible it would prove, either to board or to cut out any vessel protected by a force posted on shore within pistol-shot, and where those who were thus posted could not themselves be attacked. All these circumstances seem to render this port worthy of a more accurate examination; and it is to be hoped that the important uses which this rude account of it seems to suggest may hereafter recommend it to the consideration of the public, and to the attention of those who are more immediately entrusted with the conduct of our naval affairs.
After this description of the place where the pink lay for two months, it may be expected that I should relate the discoveries made by the crew on the adjacent coast, and the principal incidents during their stay there; but here I must observe, that, being only a few in number, they did not dare to detach any of their people on distant searches, for they were perpetually terrified with the apprehension that they should be attacked either by the Spaniards or the Indians; so that their excursions were generally confined to that tract of land which surrounded the port, and where they were never out of view of the ship. Though had they at first known how little foundation there was for these fears, yet the country in the neighbourhood was so grown up with wood, and traversed with mountains, that it appeared impracticable to penetrate it: whence no account of the inland parts could be expected from them. Indeed they were able to disprove the relations given by Spanish writers, who have represented this coast as inhabited by a fierce and powerful people, for they were certain that no such inhabitants were there to be found, at least during the winter season, since all the time they continued there, they saw no more than one Indian family, which came into the harbour in a periagua, about a month after the arrival of the pink, and consisted of an Indian near forty years old, his wife, and two children, one three years of age and the other still at the breast. They seemed to have with them all their property, which was a dog and a cat, a fishing-net, a hatchet, a knife, a cradle, some bark of trees intended for the covering of a hut, a reel, some worsted, a flint and steel, and a few roots of a yellow hue and a very disagreeable taste which served them for bread. The master of the pink, as soon as he perceived them, sent his yawl, who brought them on board; and fearing, lest they might discover him, if they were permitted to go away, he took, as he conceived, proper precautions for securing them, but without any mixture of ill usage or violence, for in the daytime they were permitted to go where they pleased about the ship, but at night were locked up in the forecastle. As they were fed in the same manner with the rest of the crew, and were often indulged with brandy, which they seemed greatly to relish, it did not at first appear that they were much dissatisfied with their situation, especially as the master took the Indian on shore when he went a shooting (who always seemed extremely delighted when the master killed his game), and as all the crew treated them with great humanity; but it was soon perceived, that though the woman continued easy and chearful, yet the man grew pensive and restless at his confinement. He seemed to be a person of good natural parts, and though not capable of conversing with the pink's people, otherwise than by signs, was yet very curious and inquisitive, and shewed great dexterity in the manner of making himself understood. In particular, seeing so few people on board such a large ship, he let them know that he supposed they were once more numerous; and to represent to them what he imagined was become of their companions, he laid himself down on the deck closing his eyes, and stretching himself out motionless, to imitate the appearance of a dead body. But the strongest proof of his sagacity was the manner of his getting away, for after being in custody on board the pink eight days, the scuttle of the forecastle, where he and his family were locked up every night, happened to be unnailed, and the following night being extremely dark and stormy, he contrived to convey his wife and children through the unnailed scuttle, and then over the ship's side into the yawl; and to prevent being pursued, he cut away the long-boat and his own periagua, which were towing astern, and immediately rowed ashore. All this he conducted with so much diligence and secrecy, that though there was a watch on the quarter-deck with loaded arms, yet he was not discovered by them till the noise of his oars in the water, after he had put off from the ship, gave them notice of his escape; and then it was too late either to prevent him, or to pursue him, for, their boats being all adrift, it was a considerable time before they could contrive the means of getting on shore themselves to search for their boats. The Indian, too, by this effort, besides the recovery of his liberty, was in some sort revenged on those who had confined him, both by the perplexity they were involved in from the loss of their boats, and by the terror he threw them in at his departure, for on the first alarm of the watch, who cried out, "the Indians!" the whole ship was in the utmost confusion, believing themselves to be boarded by a fleet of armed periaguas.
The resolution and sagacity with which the Indian behaved upon this occasion, had it been exerted on a more extensive object than the retrieving the freedom of a single family, might perhaps have immortalized the exploit, and have given him a rank amongst the illustrious names of antiquity. Indeed his late masters did so much justice to his merit as to own that it was a most gallant enterprize, and that they were grieved they had ever been necessitated, by their attention to their own safety, to abridge the liberty of a person of whose prudence and courage they had now such a distinguished proof. As it was supposed by some of them that he still continued in the woods in the neighbourhood of the port, where it was feared he might suffer for want of provisions, they easily prevailed upon the master to leave a quantity of such food as they thought would be most agreeable to him in a particular part where they imagined he would be likely to find it, and there was reason to conjecture that this piece of humanity was not altogether useless to him, for, on visiting the place some time after, it was found that the provision was gone, and in a manner that made them conclude it had fallen into his hands.
But, however, though many of them were satisfied that this Indian still continued near them, yet others would needs conclude that he was gone to the island of Chiloe, where they feared he would alarm the Spaniards, and would soon return with a force sufficient to surprize the pink. On this occasion the master of the pink was prevailed on to omit firing the evening gun; for it must be remembered (and there is a particular reason hereafter for attending to this circumstance) that the master, from an ostentatious imitation of the practice of men-of-war, had hitherto fired a gun every evening at the setting of the watch. This he pretended was to awe the enemy, if there was any within hearing, and to convince them that the pink was always on her guard, but it being now represented to him that his great security was his concealment, and that the evening gun might possibly discover him and serve to guide the enemy to him, he was prevailed on to omit it for the future; and his crew being now well refreshed, and their wood and water sufficiently replenished, he, in a few days after the escape of the Indian, put to sea, and had a fortunate passage to the rendezvous at the island of Juan Fernandes, where he arrived on the 16th of August, as hath been already mentioned in the preceding chapter.
This vessel, the Anna pink, was, as I have observed, the last that joined the commodore at Juan Fernandes. The remaining ships of the squadron were the Severn, the Pearl, and the Wager store-ship. The Severn and Pearl parted company with the squadron off Cape Noir, and, as we afterwards learnt, put back to the Brazils, so that of all the ships which came into the South Seas, the Wager, Captain Cheap, was the only one that was missing. This ship had on board a few field-pieces mounted for land-service, together with some cohorn mortars, and several kinds of artillery stores and pioneers' tools intended for the operations on shore. Therefore, as the enterprise on Baldivia had been resolved on for the first undertaking of the squadron, Captain Cheap was extremely solicitous that these materials, which were in his custody, might be ready before Baldivia; that if the squadron should possibly rendezvous there (as he knew not the condition they were then reduced to), no delay nor disappointment might be imputed to him.
But whilst the Wager, with these views, was making the best of her way to her first rendezvous off the island of Socoro, whence (as there was little probability of meeting any of the squadron there) she proposed to steer directly for Baldivia, she made the land on the 14th of May, about the latitude of 47° south; and the captain exerting himself on this occasion, in order to get clear of it, he had the misfortune to fall down the after-ladder, and dislocated his shoulder, which rendered him incapable of acting. This accident, together with the crazy condition of the ship, which was little better than a wreck, prevented her from getting off to sea, and entangled her more and more with the land, insomuch that the next morning, at daybreak, she struck on a sunken rock, and soon after bilged and grounded between two small islands at about a musket-shot from the shore.
In this situation the ship continued entire a long time, so that all the crew had it in their power to get safe on shore; but a general confusion taking place, numbers of them, instead of consulting their safety, or reflecting on their calamitous condition, fell to pillaging the ship, arming themselves with the first weapons that came to hand, and threatening to murder all who should oppose them. This frenzy was greatly heightened by the liquors they found on board, with which they got so extremely drunk that some of them, falling down between decks, were drowned, as the water flowed into the wreck, being incapable of raising themselves up and retreating from it. The captain, therefore, having done his utmost to get the whole crew on shore, was at last obliged to leave the mutineers behind him, and to follow his officers, and such as he had been able to prevail on, but he did not fail to send back the boats to persuade those who remained to have some regard to their preservation, though all his efforts were for some time without success. However, the weather next day proving stormy, and there being great danger of the ship's parting, they began to be alarmed with the fears of perishing, and were desirous of getting to land; but it seems their madness had not yet left them, for the boat not appearing to fetch them off so soon as they expected, they at last pointed a four-pounder, which was on the quarter-deck, against the hut, where they knew the captain resided on shore, and fired two shot, which passed but just over it.