A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels Volume Xvii Part 27

And yet it is but justice, even to this ungovernable herd, to explain, that though, as I have said above, they appeared in the light of mutineers, they were not actually such in the eye of the law; for, till a subsequent act, made indeed on this occasion, the pay of a ship's crew ceased immediately upon her wreck, and consequently the officers' authority and command.

Having explained the foregoing particulars, I hope I may flatter myself, there are few things in the following sheets which will not be readily understood by the greatest part of my readers; therefore I will not detain them any longer.[115]

[115] Bulkeley's narrative above referred to, and which certainly deserves to be better known than it now is, will be found in this Appendix, No.

2. The impartial reader, it is believed, will hesitate to join with Byron in opinion as to the motives which occasioned its publication; nor is it unimportant for him to recollect, that Byron himself at one time sanctioned the chief measures and sentiments which Bulkeley and his a.s.sociates adopted.--E.

CHAPTER I.

Account of the Wager and her Equipment.--Captain Kid's Death.--Succeeded by Captain Cheap.--Our Disasters commence with our Voyage.--We lose Sight of our Squadron in a Gale of Wind.--Dreadful Storm.--Ship strikes.

The equipment and destination of the squadron fitted out in the year 1740, of which Commodore Anson had the command, being sufficiently known from the ample and well-penned relation of it under his direction, I shall recite no particulars that are to be found in that work. But it may be necessary, for the better understanding the disastrous fate of the Wager, the subject of the following sheets, to repeat the remark, that a strange infatuation seemed to prevail in the whole conduct of this embarkation: For though it was unaccountably detained till the season for its sailing was past, no proper use was made of that time, which should have been employed in providing a suitable force of sailors and soldiery; nor was there a due attention given to other requisites for so peculiar and extensive a destination.

This neglect not only rendered the expedition abortive in its princ.i.p.al object, but most materially affected the condition of each particular ship, and none so fatally as the Wager, who being an old Indiaman, bought into the service upon this occasion, was now fitted out as a man of war: But being made to serve as a store-ship, was deeply laden with all kinds of careening geer, military, and other stores, for the use of the other ships; and what is more, crowded, with bale-goods, and inc.u.mbered with merchandize. A ship of this quality and condition could not be expected to work with that readiness and ease which was necessary for her security and preservation in those heavy seas which she was to encounter. Her crew consisted of men pressed from long voyages to be sent upon a distant and hazardous service; on the other hand, all her land-forces were no more than a poor detachment of infirm and decrepid invalids from Chelsea hospital, desponding under the apprehensions of a long voyage. It is not then to be wondered, that Captain Kid, under whose command this ship sailed out of the port, should in his last moments presage her ill success, though nothing very material happened during his command.

At his death he was succeeded by Captain Cheap, who still, without any accident, kept company with the squadron till we had almost gained the southernmost mouth of Straits Le Maire; when, being the sternmost ship, we were, by the sudden shifting of the wind to the southward, and the turn of the tide, very near being wrecked upon the rocks of Staten Land; which, notwithstanding, having weathered, contrary to the expectation of the rest of the squadron, we endeavoured all in our power to make up our lost way, and regain our station. This we effected, and proceeded in our voyage, keeping company with the rest of the ships for some time, when by a great roll of a hollow sea we carried away our mizen-mast, all the chain-plates to windward being broken. Soon after, hard gales at west coming on with a prodigious swell, there broke a heavy sea in upon the ship, which stove our boats, and filled us for some time.

These accidents were the more disheartening, as our carpenter was on board the Gloucester, and detained there by the incessant tempestuous weather, and a sea impracticable for boats. In a few days he returned, and supplied the loss of a mizen-mast by a lower studding-sail boom; but this expedient, together with the patching up of our rigging, was a poor temporary relief to us. We were soon obliged to cut away our best bower-anchor to ease the fore-mast, the shrouds and chain-plates of which were all broken, and the ship in all parts in a most crazy condition.

Thus shattered and disabled, a single ship, (for we had now lost sight of our squadron) we had the additional mortification to find ourselves bearing for the land on our lee-sh.o.r.e, having thus far persevered in the course we held, from an error in conjecture: For the weather was unfavourable for observation, and there are no charts of that part of the coast. When those officers who first perceived their mistake endeavoured to persuade the captain to alter his course, and bear away, for the greater surety, to the westward, he persisted in making directly, as he thought, for the island of Socoro; and to such as dared from time to time to deliver their doubts of being entangled with the land stretching to the westward, he replied, That he thought himself in no case at liberty to deviate from his orders, and that the absence of his ship from the first place of rendezvous would entirely frustrate the whole squadron in the first object of their attack, and possibly decide upon the fortune of the whole expedition. For the better understanding the force of his reasoning, it is necessary to explain, that the island of Socoro is in the neighbourhood of Baldivia, the capture of which place could not be effected without the junction of that ship, which carried the ordnance and military stores.

The knowledge of the great importance of giving so early and unexpected a blow to the Spaniards, determined the captain to make the shortest way to the point in view; and that rigid adherence to orders, from which he thought himself in no case at liberty to depart, begot in him a stubborn defiance of all difficulties, and took away from him those apprehensions which so justly alarmed all such as, from ignorance of the orders, had nothing present to their minds but the dangers of a lee-sh.o.r.e.[116]

We had for some time been sensible of our approach to the land, from no other token than those of weeds and birds, which are the usual indications of nearing the coast; but at length we had an imperfect view of an eminence, which we conjectured to be one of the mountains of the Cordilleras. This, however, was not so distinctly seen, but that many conceived it to be the effect of imagination; but if the captain was persuaded of the nearness of our danger, it was now too late to remedy it; for at this time the straps of the fore jeer blocks breaking, the fore-yard came down, and the greatest part of the men being disabled through fatigue and sickness, it was some time before it could be got up again. The few hands who were employed in this business now plainly saw the land on the larboard beam, bearing N, W., upon which the ship was driving bodily.

Orders were then given immediately by the captain to sway the fore-yard up, and set the foresail; which done, we wore ship with her head to the southward, and endeavoured to crowd her off from the land; but the weather, from being exceedingly tempestuous, blowing now a perfect hurricane, and right in upon the sh.o.r.e, rendered our endeavours (for we were now only twelve hands fit for duty) entirely fruitless. The night came on, dreadful beyond description, in which, attempting to throw out our topsails to claw off the sh.o.r.e, they were immediately blown from the yards.

In the morning, about four o'clock, the ship struck. The shock we received upon this occasion, though very great, being not unlike a blow of a heavy sea, such as in the series of preceding storms we had often experienced, was taken for the same; but we were soon undeceived by her striking more violently than before, which laid her upon her beam-ends, the sea making a fair breach over her. Every person that now could stir was presently upon the quarter-deck; and many even of those were alert upon this occasion that had not shewed their faces upon deck for above two months before: Several poor wretches, who were in the last stage of the scurvy, and who could not get out of their hammocks, were immediately drowned.

In this dreadful situation she lay for some little time, every soul on board looking upon the present minute as his last, for there was nothing to be seen but breakers all around us. However, a mountainous sea hove her off from thence; but she presently struck again, and broke her tiller. In this terrifying and critical juncture, to have observed all the various modes of horror operating according to the several characters and complexions amongst us, it was necessary that the observer himself should have been free from all impressions of danger. Instances there were, however, of behaviour so very remarkable, they could not escape the notice of any one who was not entirely bereaved of his senses; for some were in this condition to all intents and purposes; particularly one, in the ravings despair brought upon him, was seen stalking about the deck flourishing a cutla.s.s over his head, and calling himself king of the country, and striking every body he came near, till his companions, seeing no other security against his tyranny, knocked him down. Some, reduced before by long sickness and the scurvy, became on this occasion, as it were, petrified and bereaved of all sense, like inanimate logs, and were bandied to and fro by the jerks and rolls of the ship, without exerting any efforts to help themselves. So terrible was the scene of foaming breakers around us, that one of the bravest men we had could not help expressing his dismay at it, saying, it was too shocking a sight to bear; and would have thrown himself over the rails of the quarterdeck into the sea had he not been prevented; but at the same time there were not wanting those who preserved a presence of mind truly heroic. The man at the helm, though both rudder and tiller were gone, kept his station; and being asked by one of the officers if the ship would steer or not, first took his time to make trial by the wheel, and then answered with as much respect and coolness as if the ship had been in the greatest safety, and immediately after applied himself with his usual serenity to his duty, persuaded it did not become him to desert it as long as the ship kept together. Mr Jones, mate, who now survives not only this wreck, but that of the Litchfield man of war upon the coast of Barbary, at the time when the ship was in the most imminent danger, not only shewed himself undaunted, but endeavoured to inspire the same resolution in the men, saying, "My friends, let us not be discouraged, did you never see a ship amongst breakers before? Let us endeavour to pa.s.s her through them. Come, lend a hand: here is a sheet, and here is a brace, lay hold: I don't doubt but we may stick her yet near enough to the land to save our lives." This had so good an effect, that many who before were half dead, seemed active again, and now went to work in earnest. This Mr Jones did purely to keep up the spirits of the people as long as possible; for he often said afterwards, he thought there was not the least chance of a single man's being saved. We now run in between an opening of the breakers, steering by the sheets and braces, when providentially we stuck fast between two great rocks; that to windward sheltered us in some measure from the violence of the sea. We immediately cut away the main and fore-mast, but the ship kept beating in such a manner, that we imagined she could not hold together but a very little while. The day now broke, and the weather, that had been extremely thick, cleared away for a few moments, and gave us a glimpse of the land not far from us. We now thought of nothing but saving our lives. To get the boats out, as our masts were gone, was a work of some time, which when accomplished, many were ready to jump into the first, by which means they narrowly escaped perishing before they reached the sh.o.r.e.

I now went to Captain Cheap, (who had the misfortune to dislocate his shoulder by a fall the day before, as he was going forward to get the fore- yard swayed up) and asked him if he would not go on sh.o.r.e; but he told me, as he had done before, that he would be the last to leave the ship; and he ordered me to a.s.sist in getting the men out as soon as possible. I had been with him very often from the time the ship first struck, as he desired I would, to acquaint him with every thing that pa.s.sed; and I particularly remarked, that he gave his orders at that time with as much coolness as ever he had done during the former part of the voyage.

The scene was now greatly changed, for many who but a few minutes before had shewn the strongest signs of despair, and were on their knees praying for mercy, imagining they were now not in that immediate danger, grew very riotous, broke open every chest and box that was at hand, stove in the heads of casks of brandy and wine as they were borne up to the hatch-way, and got so drunk, that some of them were drowned on board, and lay floating about the decks for some days after. Before I left the ship, I went down to my chest, which was at the bulk-head of the ward-room, in order to save some little matters if possible; but whilst I was there the ship thumped with such violence, and the water came in so fast, that I was forced to get upon the quarter-deck again without saving a single rag but what was upon my back. The boatswain and some of the people would not leave the ship so long as there was any liquor to be got at; upon which Captain Cheap suffered himself to be helped out of his bed, put into the boat, and carried on sh.o.r.e.

[116] Captain Cheap has been suspected of a design of going on the Spanish coast without the commodore; but no part of his conduct seems to authorize, in the least, such a suspicion. The author who brings this heavy charge against him, is equally mistaken in imagining that Captain Cheap had not instructions to sail to this island, and that the commodore did neither go nor send thither to inform himself if any of the squadron were there. This appears from the orders delivered to the captains of the squadron the day before they sailed from St Catherine's (L. Anson's Voyage, vol. xi, p. 267,); from the orders of the council on board the Centurion in the bay of St Julian, (p. 276,) and from the conduct of the commodore, (p. 305,) who cruized (with the utmost hazard) more than a fortnight off the island of Socoro, and along the coast in its neighbourhood. It was the second rendezvous at Baldivia, and not that at Socoro, that the commodore was forced by necessity to neglect.

CHAPTER II.

We land on a wild Sh.o.r.e.--No Appearance of Inhabitants.--One of our Lieutenants dies.--Conduct of a Part of the Crew who remained on the Wreck.--We name the Place of our Residence Mount Misery.--Narrative of Transactions there.--Indians appear in Canoes off the Coast.--Description of them.--Discontents amongst our People.

It is natural to think, that to men thus upon the point of perishing by shipwreck, the getting to land was the highest attainment of their wishes; undoubtedly it was a desirable event; yet, all things considered, our condition was but little mended by the change. Which ever way we looked, a scene of horror presented itself; on one side the wreck, (in which was all that we had in the world, to support and subsist us) together with a boisterous sea, presented us with the most dreary prospect; on the other, the land did not wear a much more favourable appearance: desolate and barren, without sign of culture, we could hope to receive little other benefit from it than the preservation it afforded us from the sea. It must be confessed this was a great and merciful deliverance from immediate destruction; but then we had wet, cold, and hunger to struggle with, and no visible remedy against any of those evils. Exerting ourselves, however, though faint, benumbed, and almost helpless, to find some wretched covert against the extreme inclemency of the weather, we discovered an Indian hut at a small distance from the beach, within a wood, in which as many as possible, without distinction, crowded themselves, the night coming on exceedingly tempestuous and rainy. But here our situation was such as to exclude all rest and refreshment by sleep from most of us, for, besides that we pressed upon one another extremely, we were not without our alarms and apprehensions of being attacked by the Indians, from a discovery we made of some of their lances and other arms in our hut; and our uncertainty of their strength and disposition gave alarm to our imagination, and kept us in continual anxiety.

In this miserable hovel, one of our company, a lieutenant of invalids, died this night; and of those who for want of room took shelter under a great tree, which stood them in very little stead, two more perished by the severity of that cold and rainy night. In the morning, the calls of hunger, which had been hitherto suppressed by our attention to more immediate dangers and difficulties, were now become too importunate to be resisted.

We had most of us fasted eight-and-forty hours, some more; it was time therefore to make enquiry among ourselves what store of sustenance had been brought from the wreck by dire providence of some, and what could be procured on the island by the industry of others; but the produce of the one amounted to no more than two or three pounds of biscuit-dust preserved in a bag; and all the success of those who ventured abroad, the weather being still exceedingly bad, was to kill one sea-gull and pick some wild sellery. These, therefore, were immediately put into a pot, with the addition of a large quant.i.ty of water, and made into a kind of soup, of which each partook as far as it would go; but we had no sooner thrown this down than we were seized with the most painful sickness at our stomachs, violent reachings, swoonings, and other symptoms of being poisoned. This was imputed to various causes, but in general to the herbs we made use of, in the nature and quality of which we fancied ourselves mistaken; but a little farther enquiry let us into the real occasion of it, which was no other than this: the biscuit-dust was the sweepings of the bread-room, but the bag in which they were put had been a tobacco-bag, the contents of which not being entirely taken out, what remained mixed with the biscuit- dust, and proved a strong emetic.

We were in all about a hundred and forty who had got to sh.o.r.e, but some few remained still on board, detained either by drunkenness or a view of pillaging the wreck, among whom was the boatswain. These were visited by an officer in the yawl, who was to endeavour to prevail upon them to join the rest; but finding them in the greatest disorder and disposed to mutiny, he was obliged to desist from his purpose and return without them. Though we were very desirous, and our necessities required that we should take some survey of the land we were upon, yet being strongly prepossessed that the savages were retired but some little distance from us, and waited to see us divided, our parties did not make this day any great excursions from the hut; but as far as we went, we found it very mora.s.sy and unpromising. The spot which we occupied was a bay formed by hilly promontories; that to the north so exceeding steep, that in order to ascend it (for there was no going round, the bottom being washed by the sea) we were at the labour of cutting steps. This, which we call Mount Misery, was of use to us in taking some observations afterwards when the weather would permit: the southern promontory was not so inaccessible. Beyond this, I, with some others, having reached another bay, found driven ash.o.r.e some parts of the wreck, but no kind of provision; nor did we meet with any sh.e.l.l-fish, which we were chiefly in search of. We therefore returned to the rest, and for that day made no other repast than what the wild sellery afforded us. The ensuing night proved exceedingly tempestuous; and, the sea running very high, threatened those on board with immediate destruction by the parting of the wreck. They then were as solicitous to get ash.o.r.e as they were before obstinate in refusing the a.s.sistance we sent them; and when they found the boat did not come to their relief at the instant they expected it, without considering how impracticable a thing it was to send it them in such a sea, they fired one of the quarter-deck guns at the hut, the ball of which did but just pa.s.s over the covering of it, and was plainly heard by the captain and us who were within. Another attempt, therefore, was made to bring these madmen to land; which, however, by the violence of the sea and other impediments, occasioned by the mast that lay alongside, proved ineffectual. This unavoidable delay made the people on board outrageous; they fell to beating every thing to pieces that fell in the way; and, carrying their intemperance to the greatest excess, broke open chests and cabins for plunder that could be of no use to them; and so earnest were they in this wantonness of theft, that one man had evidently been murdered on account of some division of the spoil, or for the sake of the share that fell to him, having all the marks of a strangled corpse. One thing in this outrage they seemed particularly attentive to, which was, to provide themselves with arms and ammunition, in order to support them in putting their mutinous designs in execution, and a.s.serting their claim to a lawless exemption from the authority of their officers, which they pretended must cease with the loss of the ship. But of these arms, which we stood in great need of, they were soon bereaved upon coming ash.o.r.e, by the resolution of Captain Cheap and Lieutenant Hamilton of the marines. Among these mutineers who had been left on board, as I observed before, was the boatswain, who, instead of exerting the authority he had over the rest, to keep them within bounds as much as possible, was himself a ringleader in their riot; him, without respect to the figure he then made, for he was in laced clothes, Captain Cheap, by a blow well laid on with his cane, felled to the ground.

It was scarce possible to refrain from laughter at the whimsical appearance these fellows made, who, having rifled the chests of the officers best suits, had put them on over their greasy trowsers and dirty checked shirts.

They were soon stripped of their finery, as they had before been obliged to resign their arms.

The incessant rains and exceeding cold weather in this climate, rendered it impossible for us to subsist long without shelter; and the hut being much too little to receive us all, it was necessary to fall upon some expedient, without delay, which might serve our purpose: accordingly the gunner, carpenter, and some more, turning the cutter keel upwards, and fixing it upon props, made no despicable habitation. Having thus established some sort of settlement, we had the more leisure to look about us, and to make our researches with greater accuracy than we had before, after such supplies as the most desolate coasts are seldom unfurnished with.

Accordingly we soon provided ourselves with some sea-fowl, and found limpets, mussels, and other sh.e.l.lfish in tolerable abundance; but this rummaging of the sh.o.r.e was now becoming extremely irksome to those who had any feeling, by the bodies of our drowned people thrown among the rocks, some of which were hideous spectacles, from the mangled condition they were in by the violent surf that drove in upon the coast. These horrors were overcome by the distresses of our people, who were even glad of the occasion of killing the gallinazo (the carrion crow of that country) while preying on these carcases, in order to make a meal of them. But a provision by no means proportionable to the number of mouths to be fed, could, by our utmost industry, be acquired from that part of the island we had hitherto traversed; therefore, till we were in a capacity of making more distant excursions, the wreck was to be applied to, as often as possible, for such supplies as could be got out of her. But as this was a very precarious fund in its present situation, and at best could not last us long; considering too that it was very uncertain how long we might be detained upon this island; the stores and provisions we were so fortunate as to retrieve, were not only to be dealt out with the most frugal economy, but a sufficient quant.i.ty, if possible, laid by, to fit us out, whenever we could agree upon any method of transporting ourselves from this dreary spot. The difficulties we had to encounter in these visits to the wreck, cannot be easily described; for no part of it being above water except the quarter- deck and part of the fore-castle, we were usually obliged to purchase such things as were within reach, by means of large hooks fastened to poles, in which business we were much incommoded by the dead bodies floating between decks.

In order to secure what we thus got in a manner to answer the ends and purposes above-mentioned, Captain Cheap ordered a store-tent to be erected near his hut, as a repository, from which nothing was to be dealt out but in the measure and proportion agreed upon by the officers; and though it was very hard upon us petty officers, who were fatigued with hunting all day in quest of food, to defend this tent from invasion by night, no other means could be devised for this purpose so effectual as the committing this charge to our care; and we were accordingly ordered to divide the task equally between us. Yet, notwithstanding our utmost vigilance and care, frequent robberies were committed upon our trust, the tent being accessible in more than one place. And one night when I had the watch, hearing a stir within, I came unawares upon the thief and presenting a pistol to his breast, obliged him to submit to be tied up to a post till I had an opportunity of securing him more effectually. Depredations continued to be made on our reserved stock, notwithstanding the great hazard attending such attempts; for our common safety made it necessary to punish them with the utmost rigour. This will not be wondered at, when it is known how little the allowance which might consistently be dispensed from thence was proportionable to our common exigencies, so that our daily and nightly task of roving after food was not in the least relaxed thereby; and all put together was so far from answering our necessities, that many at this time perished with hunger. A boy, when no other eatables could be found, having picked up the liver of one of the drowned men, (whose carcase had been torn to pieces by the force with which the sea drove it among the rocks) was with difficulty withheld from making a meal of it. The men were so a.s.siduous in their research after the few things which drove from the wreck, that in order to have no sharers of their good fortune, they examined the sh.o.r.e no less by night than by day; so that many of them who were less alert, or not so fortunate as their neighbours, perished with hunger, or were driven to the last extremity. It must be observed, that on the 14th of May we were cast away, and it was not till the twenty-fifth of this month that provision was served regularly from the store-tent.

The land we were now settled upon was about 90 leagues to the northward of the western mouth of the Straits of Magellan, in the lat.i.tude of between 47 and 48 south, from whence we could plainly see the Cordilleras; and by two lagoons on the north and south of us, stretching towards those mountains, we conjectured it was an island. But as yet we had no means of informing ourselves perfectly whether it was an island or the main; for besides that the inland parts at little distance from us seemed impracticable, from the exceeding great thickness of the wood, we had hitherto been in such confusion and want, (each finding full employment for his time, in sc.r.a.ping together a wretched subsistence, and providing shelter against the cold and rain) that no party could be formed to go upon discoveries. The climate and season too were utterly unfavourable to adventurers; and the coast, as far as our eye could stretch seaward, a scene of such dismal breakers as would discourage the most daring from making attempts in small boats. Nor were we a.s.sisted in our enquiries by any observation that could be made from that eminence we called Mount Misery, toward land, our prospect that way being intercepted by still higher hills and lofty woods: we had therefore no other expedient by means of which to come at this knowledge, but by fitting out one of our ship's boats upon some discovery, to inform us of our situation. Our long-boat was still on board the wreck; therefore a number of hands were now dispatched to cut the gunwale of the ship in order to get her out. Whilst we were employed in this business, there appeared three canoes of Indians paddling towards us: they had come round the point from the southern lagoons. It was some time before we could prevail upon them to lay aside their fears and approach us, which at length they were induced to do by the signs of friendship we made them, and by shewing some bale-goods, which they accepted, and suffered themselves to be conducted to the captain, who made them likewise some presents. They were strangely affected with the novelty thereof, but chiefly when shewn the looking-gla.s.s, in which the beholder could not conceive it to be his own face that was represented, but that of some other behind it, which he therefore went round to the back of the gla.s.s to find out.

These people were of a small stature, very swarthy, having long black coa.r.s.e hair hanging over their faces. It was evident, from their great surprise and every part of their behaviour, as well as their not having one thing in their possession which could be derived from white people, that they had never seen such. Their clothing was nothing but a bit of some beast's skin about their waists, and something woven from feathers over their shoulders; and as they uttered no word of any language we had ever heard, nor had any method of making themselves understood, we presumed they could have had no intercourse with Europeans. These savages, who upon their departure left us a few mussels, returned in two days, and surprised us by bringing three sheep. From whence they could procure these animals in a part of the world so distant from any Spanish settlement, cut off from all communication with the Spaniards by an inaccessible coast and unprofitable country, is difficult to conceive. Certain it is, that we saw no such creatures, nor ever heard of any such, from the Straits of Magellan till we got into the neighbourhood of Chiloe; it must be by some strange accident that these creatures came into their possession, but what that was we never could learn from them. At this interview we bartered with them for a dog or two, which we roasted and eat. In a few days after they made us another visit, and, bringing their wives with them, took up their abode with us for some days, then left us again.

Whenever the weather permitted, which was now grown something drier, but exceeding cold, we employed ourselves about the wreck, from which we had, at sundry times, recovered several articles of provision and liquor: these were deposited in the store-tent. Ill humour and discontent, from the difficulties we laboured under in procuring subsistence, and the little prospect there was of any amendment in our condition, was now breaking out apace. In some it shewed itself by a separation of settlement and habitation; in others, by a resolution of leaving the captain entirely, and making a wild journey by themselves, without determining upon any plan whatever. For my own part, seeing it was the fashion, and liking none of their parties, I built a little hut just big enough for myself and a poor Indian dog I found in the woods, who could shift for himself along sh.o.r.e at low water, by getting limpets. This creature grew so fond of me and faithful, that he would suffer n.o.body to come near the hut without biting them. Besides those seceders I mentioned, some laid a scheme of deserting us entirely; these were in number ten, the greatest part of them a most desperate and abandoned crew, who, to strike a notable stroke before they went off, placed half a barrel of gunpowder close to the captain's hut, laid a train to it, and were just preparing to perpetrate their wicked design of blowing up their commander, when they were with difficulty dissuaded from it by one who had some bowels and remorse of conscience left in him. These wretches, after rambling some time in the woods, and finding it impracticable to get off, for they were then convinced that we were not upon the main, as they had imagined when they first left us, but upon an island within four or five leagues of it, returned and settled about a league from us; however, they were still determined, as soon as they could procure craft fit for their purpose, to get to the main. But before they could effect this, we found means to prevail upon the armourer and one of the carpenter's crew, two very useful men to us, who had imprudently joined them, to come over again to their duty. The rest, (one or two excepted) having built a punt, and converted the hull of one of the ship's masts into a canoe, went away up one of the lagoons, and never were heard of more.

CHAPTER III.

Unfortunate Death of Mr Cozens.--Improper Conduct of Captain Cheap.--The Indians join us in a friendly Manner, but depart presently on account of the Misconduct of our Men.--Our Number dreadfully reduced by Famine.-- Description of the various Contrivances used for procuring Food.--Further Transactions.--Departure from the Island.

These being a desperate and factious set, did not distress us much by their departure, but rather added to our future security. One in particular, James Mitch.e.l.l by name, we had all the reason in the world to think had committed no less than two murders since the loss of our ship, one on the person found strangled on board, another on the body of a man whom we discovered among some bushes upon Mount Misery, stabbed in several places, and shockingly mangled. This diminution of our number was succeeded by an unfortunate accident much more affecting in its consequences, I mean the death of Mr Cozens, midshipman; in relating which with the necessary impartiality and exactness, I think myself obliged to be more than ordinary particular. Having one day among other things, got a cask of pease out of the wreck, about which I was almost constantly employed, I brought it to sh.o.r.e in the yawl, when having landed it, the captain came down upon the beach, and bid me to go up to some of the tents and order hands to come down and roll it up; but finding none except Mr Cozens, I delivered him the orders, who immediately came down to the captain, where I left them when I returned to the wreck. Upon my coming on sh.o.r.e again, I found that Mr Cozens was put under confinement by the captain for being drunk and giving him abusive language; however, he was soon after released. A day or two after he had some dispute with the surgeon, and came to blows: all these things incensed the captain greatly against him. I believe this unfortunate man was kept warm with liquor, and set on by some ill-designing persons; for, when sober, I never knew a better-natured man, or one more inoffensive. Some little time after, at the hour of serving provisions, Mr Cozens was at the store-tent; and having, it seems, lately had a quarrel with the purser, and now some words arising between them, the latter told him he was come to mutiny; and without any further ceremony fired a pistol at his head, which narrowly missed him. The captain, hearing the report of the pistol, and perhaps the purser's words, that Cozens was come to mutiny, ran out of his hut with a c.o.c.ked pistol in his hand, and, without asking any questions, immediately shot him through the head. I was at this time in my hut, as the weather was extremely bad, but running out upon the alarm of this firing, the first thing I saw was Mr Cozens on the ground weltering in his blood: he was sensible, and took me by the hand, as he did several others, shaking his head, as if he meant to take leave of us. If Mr Cozens'

behaviour to his captain was indecent and provoking, the captain's, on the other hand, was rash and hasty. If the first was wanting in that respect and observance which is due from a petty officer to his commander, the latter was still more unadvised in the method he took for the enforcement of his authority; of which, indeed, he was jealous to the last degree, and which he saw daily declining, and ready to be trampled upon. His mistaken apprehension of a mutinous design in Mr Cozens, the sole motive of this rash action, was so far from answering the end he proposed by it, that the men, who before were much dissatisfied and uneasy, were by this unfortunate step thrown almost into open sedition and revolt. It was evident that the people, who ran out of their tents, alarmed by the report of fire-arms, though they disguised their real sentiments for the present, were extremely affected at this catastrophe of Mr Cozens, for he was greatly beloved by them: their minds were now exasperated, and it was to be apprehended, that their resentment, which was smothered for the present, would shortly shew itself in some desperate enterprize. The unhappy victim, who lay weltering in his blood on the ground before them, seemed to absorb their whole attention; the eyes of all were fixed upon him; and visible marks of the deepest concern appeared in the countenances of the spectators. The persuasion the captain was under, at the time he shot Mr Cozens, that his intentions were mutinous, together with a jealousy of the diminution of his authority, occasioned also his behaving with less compa.s.sion and tenderness towards him afterwards than was consistent with the unhappy condition of the poor sufferer: for when it was begged as a favour by his mess-mates, that Mr Cozens might be removed to their tent, though a necessary thing in his dangerous situation, yet it was not permitted; but the poor wretch was suffered to languish on the ground some days with no other covering than a bit of canvas thrown over some bushes, where he died. But to return to our story: the captain, addressing himself to the people thus a.s.sembled, told them, that it was his resolution to maintain his command over them as usual, which still remained in as much force as ever; and then ordered them all to return to their respective tents, with which order they instantly complied. Now we had saved our long-boat from the wreck, and got it in our possession, there was nothing that seemed so necessary towards the advancing our delivery from this desolate place as the new-modelling this vessel, so as to have room for all those who were inclined to go off in her, and to put her in a condition to bear the stormy seas we must of course encounter. We therefore hauled her up, and having placed her upon blocks, sawed her in two, in order to lengthen her about twelve feet by the keel. For this purpose, all those who could be spared from the more immediate task of procuring subsistence, were employed in fitting and shaping timber as the carpenter directed them; I say, in procuring subsistence, because the weather lately having been very tempestuous, and the wreck working much, had disgorged a great part of her contents, which were every where dispersed about the sh.o.r.e.

We now sent frequent parties up the lagoons, which sometimes succeeded in getting some sea-fowl for us. The Indians appearing again in the offing, we put off our yawl in order to frustrate any design they might have of going up the lagoon towards the deserters, who would have availed themselves of some of their canoes to have got upon the main. Having conducted them in, we found that their intention was to settle among us, for they had brought their wives and children with them, in all about fifty persons, who immediately set about building themselves wigwams, and seemed much reconciled to our company; and, could we have entertained them as we ought, they would have been of great a.s.sistance to us, who were extremely put to it to subsist ourselves, being a hundred in number; but the men, now subject to little or no controul, endeavoured to seduce their wives, which gave the Indians such offence, that in a short time they found means to depart, taking every thing along with them; and we, being sensible of the cause, never expected to see them return again. The carpenter having made some progress in his work upon the long-boat, in which he was enabled to proceed tolerably, by the tools and other articles of his business retrieved from the wreck, the men began to think of the course they should take to get home; or rather, having borrowed Sir John Narborough's voyage of Captain Cheap, by the application of Mr Bulkely, which book he saw me reading one day in my tent, they immediately upon perusing it, concluded upon making their voyage home by the Straits of Magellan. This plan was proposed to the captain, who by no means approved of it, his design being to go northwards, with a view of seizing a ship of the enemy's, by which means he might join the commodore: at-present, therefore, here it rested.

But the men were in high spirits from the prospect they had of getting off in the long-boat, overlooking all the difficulties and hazards of a voyage almost impracticable, and caressing the carpenter, who indeed was an excellent workman, and deserved all the encouragement they could give him.

The Indians having left us, and the weather continuing tempestuous and rainy, the distresses of the people for want of food became insupportable.

Our number, which was at first 145, was now reduced to 100, and chiefly by famine, which put the rest upon all shifts and devices to support themselves.

One day, when I was at home in my hut with my Indian dog, a party came to my door, and told me their necessities were such, that they must eat the creature or starve.

Though their plea was urgent, I could not help using some arguments to endeavour to dissuade them from killing him, as his faithful services and fondness deserved it at my hands; but, without weighing my arguments, they took him away by force and killed him; upon which, thinking that I had at least as good a right to a share as the rest, I sat down with them and partook of their repast. Three weeks after that I was glad to make a meal of his paws and skin, which, upon recollecting the spot where they had killed him, I found thrown aside and rotten. The pressing calls of hunger drove our men to their wit's end, and put them upon a variety of devices to satisfy it. Among the ingenious this way, one Phipps, a boatswain's mate, having got a water puncheon, scuttled it; then lashing two logs, one on each side, set out in quest of adventures in this extraordinary and original piece of embarkation. By this means he would frequently, when all the rest were starving, provide himself with wild-fowl; and it must have been very bad weather indeed which could deter him from putting out to sea when his occasions required. Sometimes he would venture far out in the offing, and be absent the whole day; at last, it was his misfortune, at a great distance from sh.o.r.e, to be overset by a heavy sea, but being near a rock, though no swimmer, he managed so as to scramble to it, and with great difficulty ascended it: There he remained two days with very little hopes of any relief, for he was too far off to be seen from sh.o.r.e; but fortunately a boat, having put off and gone in quest of wild-fowl that way, discovered him making such signals as he was able, and brought him back to the island. But this accident did not discourage him, but that soon after, having procured an ox's hide, used on board for sifting powder, and called a gunner's hide, by the a.s.sistance of some hoops he formed something like a canoe, in which he made several successful voyages. When the weather would permit us, we seldom failed of getting some wild-fowl, though never in any plenty, by putting off with our boats; but this most inhospitable climate is not only deprived of the sun for the most part by a thick, rainy atmosphere, but is also visited by almost incessant tempests. It must be confessed we reaped some benefit from these hard gales and overgrown seas, which drove several things ash.o.r.e; but there was no dependence on such accidental relief; and we were always alert to avail ourselves of every interval of fair weather, though so little to be depended on, that we were often unexpectedly and to our peril overtaken by a sudden change. In one of our excursions, I, with two more, in a wretched punt of our own making, had no sooner landed at our station upon a high rock, than the punt was driven loose by a sudden squall; and had not one of the men, at the risk of his life, jumped into the sea and swam on board her, we must in all probability have perished, for we were more than three leagues from the island at the time. Among the birds we generally shot, was the painted goose, whose plumage is variegated with the most lively colours; and a bird much larger than a goose, which we called the racehorse, from the velocity with which it moved upon the surface of the water, in a sort of half-flying half- running motion. But we were not so successful in our endeavours by land; for though we sometimes got pretty far into the woods, we met with very few birds in our walks. We never saw but three woodc.o.c.ks, two of which were killed by Mr Hamilton, and one by myself. These, with some humming-birds, and a large kind of robin red-breast, were the only feathered inhabitants of this island, excepting a small bird with two very long feathers in his tail, which was generally seen amongst the rocks, and was so tame, that I have had them rest upon my shoulder whilst I have been gathering sh.e.l.lfish.

Indeed, we were visited by many birds of prey, some very large, but these only occasionally, and, as we imagined, allured by some dead whale in the neighbourhood, which was once seen. However, if we were so fortunate as to kill one of them, we thought ourselves very well off. In one of my walks, seeing a bird of this latter kind upon an eminence, I endeavoured to come upon it unperceived with my gun, by means of the woods which lay at the back of that eminence; but when I had proceeded so far in the wood as to think I was in a line with it, I heard a growling close by me, which made me think it advisable to retire as soon as possible: The woods were so gloomy I could see nothing; but as I retired, this noise followed me close till I had got out of them. Some of our men did a.s.sure me that they had seen a very large beast in the woods, but their description of it was too imperfect to be relied upon. The wood here is chiefly of the aromatic kind; the iron wood, a wood of a very deep red hue, and another, of an exceeding bright yellow. All the low spots are very swampy; but, what we thought strange, upon the summits of the highest hills were found beds of sh.e.l.ls, a foot or two thick.

The long-boat being nearly finished, some of our company were selected to go out in the barge in order to reconnoitre the coast to the southward, which might a.s.sist us in the navigation we were going upon. This party consisted of Mr Bulkely, Mr Jones, the purser, myself, and ten men. The first night we put into a good harbour, a few leagues to the southward of Wager's Island, where finding a large b.i.t.c.h big with puppies, we regaled upon them. In this expedition we had our usual bad weather and breaking seas, which were grown to such a height the third day, that we were obliged, through distress, to push in at the first inlet we saw at hand.

This we had no sooner entered, than we were presented with a view of a fine bay, in which having secured the barge, we went ash.o.r.e; but the weather being very rainy, and finding nothing to subsist upon, we pitched a bell- tent, which we had brought with us, in the wood, opposite to where the barge lay. As this tent was not large enough to contain us all, I proposed to four of the people to go to the end of the bay, about two miles distant from the bell-tent, to occupy the skeleton of an old Indian wigwam, which I had discovered in a walk that way upon our first landing. This we covered to windward with sea-weed; and lighting a fire, laid ourselves down, in hopes of finding a remedy for our hunger in sleep; but we had not long composed ourselves before one of our company was disturbed by the blowing of some animal at his face, and upon opening his eyes was not a little astonished to see by the glimmering of the fire, a large beast standing over him. He had presence of mind enough to s.n.a.t.c.h a brand from the fire, which was now very low, and thrust it at the nose of the animal, who thereupon made off: This done, the man awoke us, and related, with horror in his countenance, the narrow escape he had of being devoured. But though we were under no small apprehensions of another visit from this animal, yet our fatigue and heaviness was greater than our fears, and we once more composed ourselves to rest, and slept the remainder of the night without any further disturbance. In the morning, we were not a little anxious to know how our companions had fared; and this anxiety was increased upon tracing the footsteps of the beast in the sand in a direction towards the bell-tent. The impression was deep and plain, of a large round foot well furnished with claws. Upon our acquainting the people in the tent with the circ.u.mstances of our story, we found that they too had been visited by the same unwelcome guest, which they had driven away by much the same expedient.

We now returned from this cruise, with a strong gale, to Wager's Island, having found it impracticable to make farther discoveries in the barge on so dangerous a coast, and in such heavy seas. Here we soon discovered, by the quarters of dogs hanging up, that the Indians had brought a fresh supply to our market. Upon enquiry, we found that there had been six canoes of them, who, among other methods of taking fish, had taught their dogs to drive the fish into a corner of some pond or lake, from whence they were easily taken out by the skill and address of these savages. The old cabal, during our absence, had been frequently revived; the debates of which generally ended in riot and drunkenness. This cabal was chiefly held in a large tent, which the people belonging to it had taken some pains to make snug and convenient, and lined with bales of broad cloth driven from the wreck. Eighteen of the stoutest fellows of the ship's company had possession of this tent, from whence were dispatched committees to the captain, with the resolutions they had taken with regard to their departure, but oftener for liquor. Their determination was to go in the long-boat to the southward by the Straits of Magellan; and the point they were labouring, was to prevail upon the captain to accompany them. But though he had fixed upon a quite different plan, which was to go to the northward, yet he thought it politic at present seemingly to acquiesce with them, in order to keep them quiet. When they began to stipulate with him, that he should be under some restrictions in point of command, and should do nothing without consulting his officers, he insisted upon the full exercise of his authority as before. This broke all measures between them, and they were from this time determined he should go with them whether he would or no. A better pretence they could not have for effecting this design, than the unfortunate affair of Mr Cozens, which they therefore made use of for seizing his person, and putting him under confinement, in order to bring him to his trial in England.

The long-boat was now launched and ready for sailing, and all the men embarked, excepting Captain Pemberton with a party of marines, who drew them up upon the beach with intent to conduct Captain Cheap on board; but he was at length persuaded to desist from this resolution by Mr Bulkely.

The men too, finding they were straitened for room, and that their stock of provision would not admit of their taking supernumeraries aboard, were now no less strenuous for his enlargement, and being left to his option of staying behind. Therefore, after having distributed their share in the reserved stock of provision, which was very small, we departed, leaving Captain Cheap, Mr Hamilton of the marines, and the surgeon, upon the island. I had all along been in the dark as to the turn this affair would take; and not in the least suspecting but that it was determined Captain Cheap should be taken with us, readily embarked under that persuasion; but when I found that this design, which was so seriously carried on to the last, was suddenly dropped, I was determined, upon the first opportunity, to leave them, which was at this instant impossible for me to do, the long- boat lying at some distance off sh.o.r.e at anchor.