ANSON'S VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD. 

THE TEXT REDUCED. 

WITH INTRODUCTION, NOTES AND GLOSSARY

BY

H. W. HOUSEHOLD, M. A. FORMERLY ASSISTANT MASTER AT CLIFTON COLLEGE. 

RIVINGTONS34, KING STREET, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON. 

1901. 

CONTENTS. 

INTRODUCTION BY THE EDITOR. 

CHAPTER 1. PURPOSE OF THE VOYAGE. COMPOSITION OF THE SQUADRON. ARRIVAL AT MADEIRA. 

CHAPTER 2. SPANISH PREPARATIONS. FATE OF PIZARRO'S SQUADRON. 

CHAPTER 3. FROM MADEIRA TO ST. CATHERINE'S. UNHEALTHINESS OF THE SQUADRON. 

CHAPTER 4. THE COMMODORE'S INSTRUCTIONS. BAD WEATHER. NARROW ESCAPE OF THE PEARL. ST JULIAN. 

CHAPTER 5. FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS. TIERRA DEL FUEGO. THE STRAITS OF LE MAIRE. 

CHAPTER 6. HEAVY GALES. A LONG BATTLE WITH WIND AND SEA. THE CENTURION LOSES HER CONSORTS. 

CHAPTER 7. OUTBREAK OF SCURVY. DANGER OF SHIPWRECK. 

CHAPTER 8. ARRIVAL AT JUAN FERNANDEZ. THE TRIAL REJOINS. 

CHAPTER 9. THE SICK LANDED. ALEXANDER SELKIRK. SEALS AND SEA-LIONS. 

CHAPTER 10. REAPPEARANCE OF THE GLOUCESTER. DISTRESS ON BOARD. HER EFFORTS TO ENTER THE BAY. 

CHAPTER 11. TRACES OF SPANISH CRUISERS. ARRIVAL OF THE ANNA PINK. 

CHAPTER 12. THE WRECK OF THE WAGER. A MUTINY. 

CHAPTER 13. THE WRECK OF THE WAGER (CONTINUED). THE ADVENTURES OF THE CAPTAIN'S PARTY. 

CHAPTER 14. THE LOSSES FROM SCURVY. STATE AND PROSPECTS OF THE SQUADRON. 

CHAPTER 15. A PRIZE. SPANISH PREPARATIONS. A NARROW ESCAPE. 

CHAPTER 16. THE COMMODORE'S PLANS. ANOTHER PRIZE. THE TRIAL DESTROYED. 

CHAPTER 17. MORE CAPTURES. ALARM OF THE COAST. PAITA. 

CHAPTER 18. THE ATTACK ON PAITA. 

CHAPTER 19. THE ATTACK ON PAITA (CONTINUED). KIND TREATMENT AND RELEASE OF THE PRISONERS. THEIR GRATITUDE. 

CHAPTER 20. A CLEVER TRICK. WATERING AT QUIBO. CATCHING THE TURTLE. 

CHAPTER 21. DELAY AND DISAPPOINTMENT. CHASING A HEATH FIRE. ACAPULCO. THE MANILA GALLEON. FRESH HOPES. 

CHAPTER 22. THE MANILA TRADE. 

CHAPTER 23. WAITING FOR THE GALLEON. DISAPPOINTMENT. CHEQUETAN. 

CHAPTER 24. THE PRIZES SCUTTLED. NEWS OF THE SQUADRON REACHES ENGLAND. BOUND FOR CHINA. 

CHAPTER 25. DELAYS AND ACCIDENTS. SCURVY AGAIN. A LEAK. THE GLOUCESTER ABANDONED. 

CHAPTER 26. THE LADRONES SIGHTED. TINIAN. 

CHAPTER 27. LANDING THE SICK. CENTURION DRIVEN TO SEA. 

CHAPTER 28. ANSON CHEERS HIS MEN. PLANS FOR ESCAPE. RETURN OF THE CENTURION. 

CHAPTER 29. THE CENTURION AGAIN DRIVEN TO SEA. HER RETURN. DEPARTURE FROM TINIAN. 

CHAPTER 30. CHINESE FISHING FLEETS. ARRIVAL AT MACAO. 

CHAPTER 31. MACAO. INTERVIEW WITH THE GOVERNOR. A VISIT TO CANTON. 

CHAPTER 32. A LETTER TO THE VICEROY. A CHINESE MANDARIN. THE CENTURION IS REFITTED AND PUTS TO SEA. 

CHAPTER 33. WAITING FOR THE MANILA GALLEON. 

CHAPTER 34. THE CAPTURE OF THE GALLEON. 

CHAPTER 35. SECURING THE PRISONERS. MACAO AGAIN. AMOUNT OF THE TREASURE. 

CHAPTER 36. THE CANTON RIVER. NEGOTIATING WITH THE CHINESE. PRISONERS RELEASED. 

CHAPTER 37. CHINESE TRICKERY. 

CHAPTER 38. PREPARATIONS FOR A VISIT TO CANTON. 

CHAPTER 39. STORES AND PROVISIONS. A FIRE IN CANTON. SAILORS AS FIREMEN. THE VICEROY'S GRATITUDE. 

CHAPTER 40. ANSON RECEIVED BY THE VICEROY. CENTURION SETS SAIL. TABLE BAY. SPITHEAD. 

MAPS. 1. MAP OF SOUTH AMERICA. 2. MAP OF THE CHINA SEA. 

NOTES. 

GLOSSARY. 

. . . 

INTRODUCTION. 

It was in the reign of Elizabeth that England first became the enemy ofSpain. Rivals as yet Spain had none, whether in Europe or beyond theseas. There was only one great mmilitary monarchy in Europe, only onegreat colonising power in the New World, and that was Spain. WhileEngland was still slowly recovering from the prostration consequent uponthe Wars of the Roses, and nearly a century had to run before sheestablished her earliest colony in Newfoundland, the enterprise anddisciplined courage of the Spaniards had added an enormous empire acrossthe Atlantic to the already great dominions of the Spanish crown. In 1520Magellan, whose ship was the first to circumnavigate the globe, pushedhis way into the Pacific and reached the Philippines. In 1521 Cortezcompleted the conquest of Mexico. Pizarro in 1532 added Peru, and shortlyafterwards Chile to the Spanish Empire. 

From the gold mines of Chile and the silver mines of Peru a wealth ofbullion hitherto undreamed of poured into the treasuries of Spain. But notreasuries, however full, could meet the demands of Phillip II. Hisfanatical ambition had thought to dominate Europe and root out the newlyreformed religion which had already established itself in the greaterpart of the north and west, and nowhere more firmly than among hissubjects in the Netherlands and among the English. England for years hehad seemed to hold in the hollow of his hand. The Dutch, at the beginningof their great struggle for freedom, appeared even to themselves to beembarking upon a hopeless task. Yet from their desperate struggle Englandand Holland rose up two mighty nations full of genius for commerce andfor war, while Spain had already advanced far along that path of declinewhich led rapidly to the extinction of her preeminence in Europe and theloss of her colonies beyond the seas. 

By the daring genius of Drake and the great English seamen of the age ofElizabeth the field of operations was transferred from the Channel to theAmerican coast. The sack of Spanish towns and the spoil of treasure shipsenriched the adventurers, whose methods were closely akin to piracy, andwho rarely paused to ask whether the two countries were formally at war. "No peace beyond the line" was a rule of action that scarcely served tocloak successful piracy. In Spanish eyes it was, not without reason, wholly unjustifiable. 

The colonial policy of Spain was calculated to raise up everywhere a hostof enemies. In her mistaken anxiety to keep all the wealth of hercolonies to herself she prohibited the rest of the world from engaging intrade with them. Only with her might they buy and sell. The result wasthat a great smuggling trade sprang up. No watchfulness could defeat thedaring and ingenuity of the English, Dutch, and French sailors whofrequented the Caribbean Sea. No threats could prevent the colonists fromattempting to buy and sell in the market that paid them best. Theferocious vengeance of the Spaniards, which in some cases almostexterminated the population of their own colonies, converted the tradersinto the Buccaneers, an association of sailors of all nations whoestablished themselves in one of the islands of the Caribbean Sea, andwho for three-quarters of a century were the scourge of the Spanish tradeand dominions. Their cruelty was as remarkable as their skill and daring. They spared neither man, nor woman, nor child. Even half a century aftertheir association had been broken up the memory of their inhumanbarbarity was so vivid that no Spanish prisoner ever mounted Anson's deckwithout a lively dread, which was only equalled by the general surpriseat his kindly and courteous treatment. The sight of an English sailorwoke terror in every heart. 

At last, in 1713, by the Treaty of Utrecht, that closed the famous War ofthe Spanish Succession, in which Marlborough gained his wonderfulvictories, Spain consented to resign her claim to a monopoly of tradewith her colonies so far as to permit one English ship a year to visitthe American coasts. But the concession was unavailing. It granted toolittle to satisfy the traders. The one ship was sent, but as soon as hercargo had been cleared she was reloaded from others which lay in theoffing, and the Spanish colonists, only too glad to enrich themselves, actively connived at the irregularity. The Spanish cruisers endeavouredto enforce respect for the treaty. They claimed, not without justice, tosearch English vessels seen in American waters and to confiscateforbidden cargoes. English pride rebelled, and English sailors resisted. Violent affrays took place. The story of Jenkins' ear kindled a wild, unreasoning blaze of popular resentment, and by 1739 the two countrieswere on the verge of war. In the temper of the English people Walpoledared not admit the Spanish right of search, and he was compelled bypopular feeling to begin a war for which he was not prepared, in a causein which he did not believe. 

It was at this point that Anson's expedition was fitted out. 

George Anson was born in 1697. He came of a lawyer stock inStaffordshire. In 1712 he entered the navy as a volunteer on board theRuby. His promotion was rapid, owing partly to his own merit, partly tothe influence of his relations. By 1724 he was captain of the Scarboroughfrigate, and was sent out to South Carolina to protect the coast and thetrading ships against pirates, and also against the Spanish cruisers, which were already exercising that right of searching English vesselsthat finally provoked the war of 1739. There he remained till 1730. Hewas again on the same station from 1732 to 1735. In 1737 he was appointedto the Centurion, a small ship of the line carrying sixty guns, and wassent first to the West Coast of Africa and then to the West Indies. In1739 he was recalled to conduct the expedition which has made his name sofamous. 

In the account of that voyage, which his Chaplain, Mr. Walter, wroteunder his supervision, everything is told so straightforwardly, and seemsso reasonable and simple, that one is apt to underestimate thedifficulties which he had to face, and the courage and skill which aloneenabled him to overcome them. Seldom has an undertaking been moreremorselessly dogged by an adverse fate than that of Anson. Seldom haveplain common sense, professional knowledge, and unflinching resolutionachieved a more memorable triumph. 

On his return from the great voyage he was promoted rear-admiral, and in1746 he was given command of the Channel fleet. In 1747 he engaged andutterly overwhelmed an inferior French fleet, captured several vessels, and took treasure amounting to 300, 000 pounds. For this achievement hewas made a peer. In 1751 he became First Lord of the Admiralty, and tohis untiring efforts in the preparation of squadrons and the training ofseamen is due some part, at any rate, of the glory won by English sailorsduring the famous days of Pitt's great ministry. He died in 1762. 

No finer testimony to his skill in choosing and in training hissubordinates can be found than in the list of men who served under him inthe Centurion and afterwards rose to fame. "In the whole history of ourNavy, " it has been said, "there is not another instance of so manyjuniors from one ship rising to distinction, men like Saunders, Suamarez, Peircy Brett, Keppel, Hyde Parker, John Campbell. "

He was a man who had a thorough knowledge of his profession. No detailswere beneath him. His preparations were always thorough and admirablyadapted to the purpose in view. Always cool, wary, resourceful, andbrave, he was ready to do the right thing, whether he had to capture atown, delude his enemies, cheer his disheartened crew, or frustrate thewiliness of a Chinese viceroy. 

Though without anything of the heroic genius of a Nelson, he is still oneof the finest of those great sailors who have done so much for England;one of whom she will ever be proud, and one whose life and deeds willalways afford an example for posterity to follow. 

. . . 

ANSON'S VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD. 

CHAPTER 1. PURPOSE OF THE VOYAGE. --COMPOSITION OF THE SQUADRON--MADEIRA. 

THE SQUADRON SAILS. 

When, in the latter end of the summer of the year 1739, it was foreseenthat a war with Spain was inevitable, it was the opinion of severalconsiderable persons, then trusted with the administration of affairs, that the most prudent step the nation could take, on the breaking out ofthe war, was attacking that Crown in her distant settlements. It was fromthe first determined that George Anson, Esquire, then captain of the"Centurion", should be employed as commander-in-chief of an expedition ofthis kind. The squadron, under Mr. Anson, was intended to pass round CapeHorn into the South Seas, and there to range along the coast, cruisingupon the enemy in those parts, and attempting their settlements. On the28th of June, 1740, the Duke of Newcastle, Principal Secretary of State, delivered to him His Majesty's instructions. On the receipt of these, Mr. Anson immediately repaired to Spithead, with a resolution to sail withthe first fair wind, flattering himself that all his delays were now atan end. For though he knew by the musters that his squadron wanted 300seamen of their complement, yet as Sir Charles Wager* informed him thatan order from the Board of Admiralty was despatched to Sir John Norris tospare him the numbers which he wanted, he doubted not of his complyingtherewith. But on his arrival at Portsmouth he found himself greatlymistaken and disappointed in this persuasion, for Admiral Balchen, whosucceeded to the command at Spithead after Sir John Norris had sailed tothe westward, instead of 300 able sailors, which Mr. Anson wanted of hiscomplement, ordered on board the squadron 170 men only, of which 32 werefrom the hospital and sick quarters, 37 from the Salisbury, with officersof Colonel Lowther's regiment, and 98 marines; and these were all thatwere ever granted to make up the forementioned deficiency. 

(*Note. Sir Charles Wager was at that time First Lord of the Admiralty inWalpole's Ministry. )

But the Commodore's mortification did not end here. It was at firstintended that Colonel Bland's regiment, and three independent companiesof 100 men each, should embark as land forces on board the squadron. Butthis disposition was now changed, and all the land forces that were to beallowed were 500 invalids, to be collected from the out-pensioners ofChelsea College. * As these out-pensioners consist of soldiers, who, fromtheir age, wounds, or other infirmities, are incapable of service inmarching regiments, Mr. Anson was greatly chagrined at having such adecrepit detachment allotted to him; for he was fully persuaded that thegreatest part of them would perish long before they arrived at the sceneof action, since the delays he had already encountered necessarilyconfined his passage round Cape Horn to the most vigorous season of theyear. ** They were ordered on board the squadron on the 5th of August; butinstead of 500 there came on board no more than 259; for all those whohad limbs and strength to walk out of Portsmouth deserted, leaving behindthem only such as were literally invalids, most of them being sixty yearsof age, and some of them upwards of seventy. 

(*Note. A local name for Chelsea Hospital, a home for old and disabledsoldiers. It was founded by Charles II and the buildings were designed byWren. )

(**Note. The squadron did not reach the neighbourhood of Cape Horn untilMarch when the autumn of the Southern Hemisphere had begun and with itthe stormy season. )

To supply the place of the 240 invalids which had deserted there wereordered on board 210 marines detached from different regiments. Thesewere raw and undisciplined men, for they were just raised, and hadscarcely anything more of the soldier than their regimentals, none ofthem having been so far trained as to be permitted to fire. The lastdetachment of these marines came on board the 8th of August, and on the10th the squadron sailed from Spithead to St. Helens, there to wait for awind to proceed on the expedition. 

But the diminishing the strength of the squadron was not the greatestinconvenience which attended these alterations, for the contests, representations, and difficulties which they continually producedoccasioned a delay and waste of time which in its consequences was thesource of all the disasters to which this enterprise was afterwardsexposed. For by this means we were obliged to make our passage round CapeHorn in the most tempestuous season of the year, whence proceeded theseparation of our squadron, the loss of numbers of our men, and theimminent hazard of our total destruction. And by this delay, too, theenemy had been so well informed of our designs that a person who had beenemployed in the South Sea Company's* service, and arrived from Panamathree or four days before we left Portsmouth, was able to relate to Mr. Anson most of the particulars of the destination and strength of oursquadron from what he had learned among the Spaniards before he leftthem. And this was afterwards confirmed by a more extraordinarycircumstance; for we shall find that when the Spaniards (fully satisfiedthat our expedition was intended for the South Seas) had fitted out asquadron to oppose us, which had so far got the start of us as to arrivebefore us off the island of Madeira, the Commander of this squadron wasso well instructed in the form and make of Mr. Anson's broad pennant, andhad imitated it so exactly that he thereby decoyed the "Pearl", one ofour squadron, within gunshot of him before the captain of the Pearl wasable to discover his mistake. 

(*Note. The South Sea Company was formed in 1711 on the model of the EastIndia Company to trade in the Pacific; and on the conclusion of theTreaty of Utrecht it was given the monopoly of the English trade with theSpanish coasts of America. The grant of certain privileges by Governmentled to wild speculation in its shares which gave rise to the famous SouthSea Bubble of 1720. )

On the 18th of September, 1740, the squadron weighed from St. Helens witha contrary wind. It consisted of five men-of-war, a sloop-of-war, and twovictualling ships. They were the Centurion, of 60 guns, 400 men, GeorgeAnson, Esquire, commander; the "Gloucester", of 50 guns, 300 men, RichardNorris, commander; the "Severn", of 50 guns, 300 men, the HonourableEdward Legg, commander; the Pearl, of 40 guns, 250 men, Matthew Mitchel, commander; the "Wager", of 28 guns, 160 men, Dandy Kidd, commander; andthe "Trial", sloop, of 8 guns, 100 men, the Honourable John Murray, commander. The two victuallers were pinks, the largest about 400 and theother about 200 tons burthen; these were to attend us till the provisionswe had taken on board were so far consumed as to make room for theadditional quantity they carried with them, which when we had taken intoour ships they were to be discharged. Besides the complement of men borneby the above-mentioned ships as their crews, there were embarked on boardthe squadron about 470 invalids and marines, under the denomination ofland forces, which were commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Cracherode. 

The winds were so contrary that we had the mortification to be forty daysin our passage from St. Helens to the island of Madeira, though it isknown to be often done in ten or twelve. However, at last, on Monday, October the 25th, at five in the morning, we, to our great joy, made theland, and in the afternoon came to an anchor in Madeira Road. 

We continued about a week at this island, watering our ships andproviding the squadron with wine and other refreshments. 

When Mr. Anson visited the Governor of Madeira* he received informationfrom him that for three or four days in the latter end of October therehad appeared, to the westward of that island, seven or eight ships of theline. The Governor assured the Commodore, upon his honour, that none uponthe island had either given them intelligence or had in any sortcommunicated with them, but that he believed them to be either French orSpanish, but was rather inclined to think them Spanish. On thisintelligence Mr. Anson sent an officer in a clean sloop eight leagues tothe westward to reconnoitre them, and, if possible, to discover what theywere. But the officer returned without being able to get a sight of them, so that we still remained in uncertainty. However, we could not butconjecture that this fleet was intended to put a stop to our expedition. Afterwards, in the course of our expedition, we were many of us persuadedthat this was the Spanish squadron commanded by Don Joseph Pizarro, whichwas sent out purposely to traverse the views and enterprises of oursquadron, to which in strength they were greatly superior. 

(*Note. Madeira then as now belonged to Portugal--a neutral power at thattime usually jealous of Spain. )

CHAPTER 2. SPANISH PREPARATIONS--FATE OF PIZARRO'S SQUADRON. 

DON JOSEPH PIZARRO. 

When the squadron fitted out by the Court of Spain to attend our motionshad cruised for some days to the leeward of Madeira they left thatstation in the beginning of November and steered for the River of Plate, where they arrived the 5th of January, Old Style, * and coming to ananchor in the bay of Maldonado at the mouth of that river their admiral, Pizarro, sent immediately to Buenos Ayres for a supply of provisions forthey had departed from Spain with only four months' provisions on board. While they lay here expecting this supply they received intelligence bythe treachery of the Portuguese Governor of St. Catherine's, of Mr. Anson's having arrived at that island on the 21st of December preceding, and of his preparing to put to sea again with the utmost expedition. Pizarro, notwithstanding his superior force, had his reasons (and as somesay, his orders likewise) for avoiding our squadron anywhere short of theSouth Seas. He was besides extremely desirous of getting round Cape Hornbefore us, as he imagined that step alone would effectually baffle allour designs, and therefore, on hearing that we were in hisneighbourhood** and that we should soon be ready to proceed for Cape Hornhe weighed anchor*** after a stay of seventeen days only and got undersail without his provisions, which arrived at Maldonado within a day ortwo after his departure. But notwithstanding the precipitation with whichhe departed we put to sea from St. Catherine's four days before him andin some part of our passage to Cape Horn the two squadrons were so neartogether that the Pearl, one of our ships, being separated from the rest, fell in with the Spanish fleet, and mistaking the Asia for the Centurionhad got within gunshot of Pizarro before she discovered her error, andnarrowly escaped being taken. 

(*Note. The calendar as regulated by Julius Caesar in 46 BC assumed thelength of the solar year to be exactly 365 1/2 days, whereas it is elevenminutes and a few with seconds less. By 1582 the error had becomeconsiderable for the calendar was ten days behind the sun. Pope GregoryXIII therefore ordained that ten days in that year should be dropped andOctober 5th reckoned as October 15th. In order to avoid error in thefuture it was settled that three of the leap years that occur in 400years should be considered common years. So 1600 was and 2000 will be aleap year but 1700, 1800 and 1900 were not. The New Style (NS. ) wasadopted by Catholic countries. Protestant countries as a rule rejected itand adhered to the old Style (OS. ). The result was a considerableconfusion in dates as will be plain in the course of the book. The NewStyle was adopted by England in 1751, when eleven days had to be omitted, and September 3rd was reckoned as September 14th. Ignorant people thoughtthat they were defrauded of eleven days wages. "Give us back our elevendays" became a popular cry against the Minister of the time. Russia andother countries under the Greek Church still adhere to the old Style andare now thirteen days behind. )

(**Note. Anson's squadron was then at St. Catherine's in Brazil. Seebelow, Chapter 3. )

(***Note. The Spanish squadron when it sailed from Maldonado consisted ofthe following ships: "Asia", 66 guns, flag ship; "Guipuscoa", 74;"Hermiona", 54; "Esperanza", 50; "St. Estevan", 40. The Asia was the onlyship that ever returned to Spain. )

Pizarro with his squadron having, towards the latter end of February, runthe length of Cape Horn, he then stood to the westward in order to doubleit; but in the night of the last day of February, OS. While, with thisview, they were turned to windward the Guipuscoa, the Hermiona, and theEsperanza were separated from the Admiral. On the 6th of March followingthe Guipuscoa was separated from the other two, and on the 7th (being theday after we had passed straits le Maire) there came on a most furiousstorm at north-west, which, in despite of all their efforts, drove thewhole squadron to the eastward, and obliged them, after several fruitlessattempts, to bear away for the River of Plate, where Pizarro in the Asiaarrived about the middle of May and a few days after him the Esperanzaand the St. Estevan. The Hermiona was supposed to founder at sea for shewas never heard of more and the Guipuscoa was run ashore and sunk on thecoast of Brazil. The calamities of all kinds which this squadronunderwentin this unsuccessful navigation can only be paralleled by whatwe ourselves experienced in the same climate when buffeted by the samestorms. There was indeed some diversity in our distresses which renderedit difficult to decide whose situation was most worthy of commiseration;for to all the misfortunes we had in common with each other as shatteredrigging, leaky ships, and the fatigues and despondency which necessarilyattend these disasters, there was superadded on board our squadron theravage of a most destructive and incurable disease* and on board theSpanish squadron the devastation of famine. 

(*Note. Scurvy. )

FAMINE. 

For this squadron departed from Spain as has been already observed withno more than four months' provision and even that, as it is said, atshort allowance only, so that, when by the storms they met with off CapeHorn their continuance at sea was prolonged a month or more beyond theirexpectation they were thereby reduced to such infinite distress thatrats, when they could be caught, were sold for four dollars a piece and asailor who died on board had his death concealed for some days by hisbrother who during that time lay in the same hammock with the corpse onlyto receive the dead man's allowance of provisions. 

By the complicated distress of fatigue, sickness, and hunger, the threeships which escaped lost the greatest part of their men. The Asia, theirAdmiral's ship, arrived at Monte Video in the River of Plate with halfher crew only; the St. Estevan had lost in like manner half her handswhen she anchored in the Bay of Barragan. The Esperanza, a 50-gun ship, was still more unfortunate, for of 450 hands which she brought from Spainonly 55 remained alive. 

By removing the masts of the Esperanza into the Asia, and making use ofwhat spare masts and yards they had on board, they made a shift to refitthe Asia and the St. Estevan, and in the October following Pizarro waspreparing to put to sea with these two ships in order to attempt thepassage round Cape Horn a second time, but the St. Estevan, in comingdown the River of Plate, ran on a shoal and beat off her rudder, onwhich, and other damages she received, she was condemned and broke up, and Pizarro in the Asia proceeded to sea without her. Having now thesummer before him and the winds favourable, no doubt was made of hishaving a fortunate and speedy passage; but being off Cape Horn and goingright before the wind in very moderate weather, though in a swelling seaby some misconduct of the officer of the watch the ship rolled away hermasts and was a second time obliged to put back to the River of Plate ingreat distress. 

The Asia having considerably suffered in this second unfortunateexpedition the Esperanza which had been left behind at Monte Video, wasordered to be refitted, the command of her being given to Mindinuetta, who was captain of the Guipuscoa when she was lost. He, in the Novemberof the succeeding year that is, in November, 1742, sailed from the Riverof Plate for the South Seas and arrived safe on the coast of Chile wherehis Commodore, Pizarro, passing overland from Buenos Ayres met him. Therewere great animosities and contests between these two gentlemen at theirmeeting occasioned principally by the claim of Pizarro to command theEsperanza, which Mindinuetta had brought round, for Mindinuetta refusedto deliver her up to him, insisting that as he came into the South Seasalone, and under no superior, it was not now in the power of Pizarro toresume that authority which he had once parted with. However thePresident of Chile interposing, and declaring for Pizarro, Mindinuettaafter a long and obstinate struggle, was obliged to submit. 

But Pizarro had not yet completed the series of his adventures, for whenhe and Mindinuetta came back by land from Chile to Buenos Ayres in theyear 1745 they found at Monte Video the Asia, which near three yearsbefore they had left there. This ship they resolved, if possible, tocarry to Europe, and with this view they refitted her in the best mannerthey could; but their great difficulty was to procure a sufficient numberof hands to navigate her, for all the remaining sailors of the squadronto be met with in the neighbourhood of Buenos Ayres did not amount to ahundred men. They endeavoured to supply this defect by pressing many ofthe inhabitants of Buenos Ayres, and putting on board besides all theEnglish prisoners then in their custody, together with a number ofPortuguese smugglers whom they had taken at different times, and some ofthe Indians of the country. Among these last there was a chief and ten ofhis followers who had been surprised by a party of Spanish soldiers aboutthree months before. The name of this chief was Orellana; he belonged toa very powerful tribe which had committed great ravages in theneighbourhood of Buenos Ayres. With this motley crew (all of them exceptthe European Spaniards extremely averse to the voyage) Pizarro set sailfrom Monte Video, in the River of Plate about the beginning of November, 1745, and the native Spaniards, being no strangers to the dissatisfactionof their forced men treated both the English prisoners and the Indianswith great insolence and barbarity, but more particularly the Indians;for it was common for the meanest officers in the ship to beat them mostcruelly on the slightest pretences, and often times only to exert theirsuperiority. Orellana and his followers, though in appearancesufficiently patient and submissive, meditated a severe revenge for allthese inhumanities. Having agreed on the measures necessary to be taken, they first furnished themselves with Dutch knives sharp at the point, which, being the common knives used in the ship, they found no difficultyin procuring. Besides this they employed their leisure in secretlycutting out thongs from raw hides, of which there were great numbers onboard, and in fixing to each end of these thongs the double-headed shotof the small quarter-deck guns; this, when swung round their headsaccording to the practice of their country was a most mischievous weapon*in the use of which the Indians about Buenos Ayres are trained from theirinfancy, and consequently are extremely expert. 

SPANISH CRUELTY. 

These particulars being in good forwardness, the execution of theirscheme was perhaps precipitated by a particular outrage committed onOrellana himself; for one of the officers, who was a very brutal fellow, ordered Orellana aloft, which being what he was incapable of performing, the officer, under pretence of his disobedience, beat him with suchviolence that he left him bleeding on the deck and stupefied for sometime with his bruises and wounds. This usage undoubtedly heightened histhirst for revenge, and made him eager and impatient till the means ofexecuting it were in his power, so that within a day or two after thisincident he and his followers opened their desperate resolves in theensuing manner. 

(*Note. It is called a bola. )

A DARING ADVENTURE. 

It was about nine in the evening, when many of the principal officerswere on the quarter-deck indulging in the freshness of the night air; thewaist of the ship was filled with live cattle, and the forecastle wasmanned with its customary watch. Orellana and his companions under coverof the night, having prepared their weapons and thrown off their trousersand the more cumbrous part of their dress, came altogether on thequarter-deck and drew towards the door of the great cabin. The boatswainimmediately reprimanded them and ordered them to be gone. On thisOrellana spoke to his followers in his native language when four of themdrew off, two towards each gangway, and the chief and the six remainingIndians seemed to be slowly quitting the quarter-deck. When the detachedIndians had taken possession of the gangways, Orellana placed his handshollow to his mouth and bellowed out the war-cry used by those savages, which is said to be the harshest and most terrifying sound known innature. This hideous yell was the signal for beginning the massacre, foron this the Indians all drew their knives and brandished their prepareddouble-headed shot, and the six, with their chief, who remained on thequarter-deck, immediately fell on the Spaniards who were intermingledwith them, and laid near forty of them at their feet, of whom abovetwenty were killed on the spot, and the rest disabled. Many of theofficers, in the beginning of the tumult, pushed into the great cabin, where they put out the lights and barricaded the door. And of the others, who had avoided the first fury of the Indians, some endeavoured to escapealong the gangways into the forecastle, but the Indians placed there onpurpose stabbed the greatest part of them as they attempted to pass by, or forced them off the gangways into the waist. Others threw themselvesvoluntarily over the barricades into the waist, and thought themselveshappy to lie concealed amongst the cattle; but the greatest part escapedup the main-shrouds and sheltered themselves either in the tops orrigging; and though the Indians attacked only the quarter-deck, yet thewatch in the forecastle, finding their communication cut off, and beingterrified by the wounds of the few who, not being killed on the spot, hadstrength sufficient to force their passage along the gangways, and notknowing either who their enemies were or what were their numbers, theylikewise gave all over for lost, and in great confusion ran up into therigging of the foremast and bowsprit. 

Thus these eleven Indians, with a resolution perhaps without example, possessed themselves almost in an instant of the quarter-deck of a shipmounting sixty-six guns, with a crew of nearly five hundred men, andcontinued in peaceable possession of this post a considerable time; forthe officers in the great cabin (amongst whom were Pizarro andMindinuetta), the crew between decks, and those who had escaped into thetops and rigging, were only anxious for their own safety, and were for along time incapable of forming any project for suppressing theinsurrection and recovering the possession of the ship. It is true, theyells of the Indians, the groans of the wounded and the confused clamoursof the crew, all heightened by the obscurity of the night, had at firstgreatly magnified their danger, and had filled them with the imaginaryterrors which darkness, disorder, and an ignorance of the real strengthof an enemy never fail to produce. For as the Spaniards were sensible ofthe disaffection of their pressed hands, and were also conscious of theirbarbarity to their prisoners, they imagined the conspiracy was general, and considered their own destruction as infallible; so that, it is said, some of them had once taken the resolution of leaping into the sea, butwere prevented by their companions. 

However, when the Indians had entirely cleared the quarter-deck, thetumult in a great measure subsided; for those who had escaped were keptsilent by their fears, and the Indians were incapable of pursuing them torenew the disorder. Orellana, when he saw himself master of thequarter-deck, broke open the arm chest, which, on a slight suspicion ofmutiny, had been ordered there a few days before, as to a place of thegreatest security. Here, he took it for granted, he should find cutlassessufficient for himself and his companions, in the use of which weaponthey were all extremely skilful, and with these, it was imagined, theyproposed to have forced the great cabin; but on opening the chest thereappeared nothing but firearms, which to them were of no use. There wereindeed cutlasses in the chest, but they were hid by the firearms beinglaid over them. This was a sensible disappointment to them, and by thistime Pizarro and his companions in the great cabin were capable ofconversing aloud, through the cabin windows and port-holes, with those inthe gun-room and between decks; and from hence they learned that theEnglish (whom they principally suspected) were all safe below, and hadnot intermeddled in this mutiny; and by other particulars they at lastdiscovered that none were concerned in it but Orellana and his people. Onthis Pizarro and the officers resolved to attack them on thequarter-deck, before any of the discontented on board should so farrecover their first surprise as to reflect on the facility and certaintyof seizing the ship by a junction with the Indians in the presentemergency. With this view Pizarro got together what arms were in thecabin, and distributed them to those who were with him; but there were noother firearms to be met with but pistols, and for these they had neitherpowder nor ball. However, having now settled a correspondence with thegun room, they lowered down a bucket out of the cabin window, into whichthe gunner, out of one of the gun-room ports, put a quantity of pistolcartridges. When they had thus procured ammunition, and had loaded theirpistols, they set the cabin door partly open, and fired some shot amongstthe Indians on the quarter-deck, at first without effect. But at lastMindinuetta had the good fortune to shoot Orellana dead on the spot; onwhich his faithful companions, abandoning all thoughts of furtherresistance, instantly leaped into the sea, where they every man perished. Thus was this insurrection quelled, and the possession of thequarter-deck regained, after it had been full two hours in the power ofthis great and daring chief and his gallant and unhappy countrymen. 

Pizarro, having escaped this imminent peril, steered for Europe, andarrived safe on the coast of Galicia* in the beginning of the year 1746, after having been absent between four and five years. 

(*Note. Galicia is the north-western province of Spain. )

CHAPTER 3. FROM MADEIRA TO ST. CATHERINE'S--UNHEALTHINESS OF THE SQUADRON. 

On the 3rd of November we weighed from Madeira. 

On the 20th the captains of the squadron represented to the Commodorethat their ships' companies were very sickly, and that it was their ownopinion as well as their surgeons' that it would tend to the preservationof the men to let in more air between decks; but that their ships were sodeep they could not possibly open their lower ports. On thisrepresentation the Commodore ordered six air-scuttles to be cut in eachship, in such places where they would least weaken it. 

We crossed the Equinoctial, with a fine fresh gale at south-east onFriday, the 28th of November, at four in the morning, being then in thelongitude of 27 degrees 59 minutes west from London. 

On the 12th of December we spoke with a Portuguese brigantine from Rio deJaneiro, who informed us that we were sixty-four leagues from Cape St. Thomas, and forty leagues from Cape Frio. 

DISEASE. 

We now began to grow impatient for a sight of land, both for the recoveryof our sick and for the refreshment and security of those who as yetcontinued healthier. When we departed from St. Helens, we were in so gooda condition that we lost but two men on board the Centurion in our longpassage to Madeira. But in this present run between Madeira and St. Catherine's we had been very sickly, so that many died, and great numberswere confined to their hammocks, both in our own ship and in the rest ofthe squadron; and several of these past all hopes of recovery. By ourcontinuance at sea all our complaints were every day increasin, so thatit was with great joy that we discovered the coast of Brazil on the 18thof December, at seven in the morning. 

We moored at the island of St. Catherine's on Sunday, the 21st ofDecember, the whole squadron being sickly and in great want ofrefreshments: both which inconveniences we hoped to have soon removed atthis settlement, celebrated by former navigators for its healthiness andits provisions, and for the freedom, indulgence, and friendly assistancethere given to the ships of all European nations in amity with the Crownof Portugal. 

Our first care, after having moored our ships, was to send our sick menon shore. We sent about eighty sick from the Centurion, and the otherships I believe, sent nearly as many in proportion to the number of theirhands. As soon as we had performed this necessary duty, we scraped ourdecks, and gave our ship a thorough cleansing; then smoked it betweendecks, and after all washed every part well with vinegar. Our nextemployment was wooding and watering our squadron, caulking our ships'sides and decks, overhauling our rigging, and securing our masts againstthe tempestuous weather we were, in all probability, to meet with in ourpassage round Cape Horn in so advanced and inconvenient a season. 

In order to render the ships stiffer, and to enable them to carry moresail abroad, and to prevent their labouring in hard gales of wind, eachcaptain had orders given him to strike down some of their great guns intothe hold. These precautions being complied with, and each ship havingtaken in as much wood and water as there was room for, the whole squadronwas ready for the sea; on which the tents on shore were struck, and allthe sick were received on board. And here we had a melancholy proof howmuch the healthiness of this place had been overrated by former writers, for we found that though the Centurion alone had buried no less thantwenty-eight men since our arrival, yet the number of our sick was in thesame interval increased from eighty to ninety-six. 

And now our crews being embarked, and everything prepared for ourdeparture, the Commodore made a signal for all captains, and deliveredthem their orders, containing the successive places of rendezvous fromhence to the coast of China. And then on the next day, being the 18th ofJanuary, 1741, the signal was made for weighing, and the squadron put tosea. 

CHAPTER 4. THE COMMODORE'S INSTRUCTIONS--BAD WEATHER--NARROW ESCAPE OF THE PEARL--ST JULIAN. 

THE LAST AMICABLE PORT. 

In leaving St. Catherine's, we left the last amicable port we proposed totouch at, and were now proceeding to a hostile, or at best a desert andinhospitable coast. And as we were to expect a more boisterous climate tothe southward than any we had yet experienced, not only our danger ofseparation would by this means be much greater than it had been hitherto, but other accidents of a more pernicious nature were likewise to beapprehended, and as much as possible to be provided against. Andtherefore Mr. Anson, in appointing the various stations at which theships of the squadron were to rendezvous, had considered that it waspossible his own ship might be disabled from getting round Cape Horn, ormight be lost; and had given proper directions that even in that case theexpedition should not be abandoned. For the orders delivered to thecaptains the day before we sailed for St. Catherine's were that in caseof separation--which they were with the utmost care to endeavour toavoid--the first place of rendezvous should be the Bay of Port St. Julian. If after a stay there of ten days, they were not joined by theCommodore, they were then to proceed through Straits le Maire round CapeHorn into the South Seas, where the next place of rendezvous was to bethe island of Nuestra Senora del Socoro. * They were to bring this islandto bear east-north-east, and to cruise from five to twelve leagues'distance from it, as long as their store of wood and water would permit, both which they were to expend with the utmost frugality. And when theywere under an absolute necessity of a fresh supply, they were to standin, and endeavour to find out an anchoring-place; and in case they couldnot, and the weather made it dangerous to supply their ships by standingoff and on, they were then to make the best of their way to the island ofJuan Fernandez. And as soon as they had recruited their wood and water, they were to continue cruising off the anchoring-place of that island forfifty-six days, in which time, if they were not joined by the Commodore, they might conclude that some accident had befallen him; and they wereforthwith to put themselves under the command of the senior officer, whowas to use his utmost endeavours to annoy the enemy both by sea and land. With these views their new Commodore was to continue in those seas aslong as his provisions lasted, or as long as they were recruited by whathe should take from the enemy, reserving only a sufficient quantity tocarry him and the ships under his command to Macao at the entrance of theRiver Tigris, near Canton, on the coast of China, where, having suppliedhimself with a new stock of provisions he was thence without delay tomake the best of his way to England. 

(*Note. Nuestra Senora del Socoro is one of the smaller outer islands ofthe Chonos Archipelago on the western coast of Patagonia. )

The next day we had very squally weather, attended with rain, lightning, and thunder; but it soon became fair again, with light breezes, andcontinued thus till Wednesday evening, when it blew fresh again; andincreasing all night, by eight the next morning it became a most violentstorm, and we had with it so thick a fog that it was impossible to see atthe distance of two ships' lengths, so that the whole squadrondisappeared. * On this a signal was made by firing guns, to bring to withthe larboard tacks, the wind being then due east. We ourselves lay tounder a reefed mizzen till noon, when the fog dispersed; and we soondiscovered all the ships of the squadron, except the Pearl, which did notjoin us till near a month afterwards. The Trial sloop was a great way toleeward, having lost her mainmast in this squall, and having beenobliged, for fear of bilging, to cut away the wreck. We bore down withthe squadron to her relief, and the Gloucester was ordered to take her intow, for the weather did not entirely abate until the day after, and eventhen a great swell continued from the eastward in consequence of thepreceding storm. 

(*Note. I. E. From the sight of those on board the Centurion. )

A RUSE DE GUERRE. 

On the 17th of February at five in the afternoon, we came to an anchor inthe latitude of 48 degrees 58 minutes. Weighing again at five the nextmorning, we an hour afterwards discovered a sail upon which the Severnand Gloucester were both directed to give chase; but we soon perceived itto be the Pearl, which separated from us a few days after we left St. Catherine's; and on this we made a signal for the Severn to rejoin thesquadron, leaving the Gloucester alone in the pursuit. And now we weresurprised to see that, on the Gloucester's approach, the people on boardthe Pearl increased their sail and stood from her. However, theGloucester came up with them, but found them with their hammocks in theirnettings and everything ready for an engagement. At two in the afternoonthe Pearl joined us, and running up under our stern, Lieutenant Salthailed the Commodore, and acquainted him that Captain Kidd* died on the31st of January. He likewise informed him that he had seen five largeships on the 10th instant, which he for some time imagined to be oursquadron; that he suffered the commanding ship, which wore a red broadpennant exactly resembling that of the Commodore, at the main top-masthead, to come within gun-shot of him before he discovered his mistake;but then, finding it not to be the Centurion, he hauled close upon thewind, and crowded from them with all his sail, and standing across arippling, where they hesitated to follow him, he happily escaped. He madethem out to be five Spanish men-of-war, one of them exceedingly like theGloucester, which was the occasion of his apprehensions when theGloucester chased him. By their appearance he thought they consisted oftwo ships of 70 guns, two of 50, and one of 40 guns. The whole squadroncontinued in chase of him all that day, but at night, finding they couldnot get near him, they gave over the chase, and directed their course tothe southward. 

(*Note. Captain Mitchel commanded the Pearl when the squadron started;but Captain Norris of the Gloucester had gone home sick from Madeira andseveral changes had taken place in the commands. The death of CaptainKidd caused fresh promotions. Captain Mitchel now commanded theGloucester and Captain Murray the Pearl; while Lieutenants Cheap andSaunders had been promoted captains of the Wager and Trial. )

And now, had it not been for the necessity we were under of refitting theTrial, this piece of intelligence would have prevented our making anystay at St. Julian; but as it was impossible for that sloop to proceedround the Cape in the present condition, some stay there was inevitable;and, therefore, we sent the two cutters belonging to the Centurion andSevern in shore to discover the harbour of St. Julian, while the shipskept standing along the coast at about the distance of a league from theland. At six o'clock we anchored in the Bay of St. Julian. Soon after thecutters returned on board, having discovered the harbour, which did notappear to us in our situation, the northernmost point shutting in uponthe southernmost, and in appearance closing the entrance. 

Being come to an anchor in this Bay of St. Julian, principally with aview of refitting the Trial, the carpenters were immediately employed inthat business, and continued so during our whole stay at the place. Herethe Commodore, too, in order to ease the expedition of all unnecessaryexpense, held a consultation with his captains about unloading anddischarging the Anna pink;* but they represented to him that they were sofar from being in a condition of taking any part of her loading on boardthat they had still great quantities of provisions in the way of theirguns between decks, and that their ships were withal so very deep thatthey were not fit for action without being cleared. This put theCommodore under the necessity of retaining the pink in the service; andas it was apprehended we should certainly meet with the Spanish squadronin passing the Cape, Mr. Anson thought it advisable to give orders to thecaptains to put all their provisions which were in the way of their gunson board the Anna pink, and to remount such of their guns as had formerlyfor the ease of their ships been ordered into the hold. 

(*Note. The Industry pink had been unloaded and discharged on November19th. )

CHAPTER 5. FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS--TIERRA DEL FUEGO--THE STRAITS OF LE MAIRE. 

A COUNCIL OF WAR. 

The Trial being nearly refitted, which was our principal occupation atthis Bay of ST. Julian, and the sole occasion of our stay, the Commodorethought it necessary, as we were now directly bound for the South Seasand the enemy's coasts, to regulate the plan of his future operations. And therefore, on the 24th of February, a signal was made for allcaptains, and a council of war was held on board the Centurion. At thiscouncil Mr. Anson proposed that their first attempt, after their arrivalin the South Seas, should be the attack of the town and harbour ofBaldivia, the principal frontier place of the district of Chile. To thisproposition made by the Commodore the council unanimously and readilyagreed; and in consequence of this resolution instructions were given tothe captains of the squadron, by which they were directed in case ofseparation to make the best of their way to the island of Nuestra Senoradel Socoro, and to cruise off that island ten days; from whence, if notjoined by the Commodore, they were to proceed and cruise off the harbourof Baldivia, making the land between the latitudes of 40 degrees and 40degrees 30 minutes, and taking care to keep to the southward of the port;and if in fourteen days they were not joined by the rest of the squadron, they were then to quit this station, and to direct their course to theisland of Juan Fernandez, after which they were to regulate their furtherproceedings by their former orders. And as separation of the squadronmight prove of the utmost prejudice to His Majesty's service, eachcaptain was ordered to give it in charge to the respective officers ofthe watch not to keep their ship at a greater distance from the Centurionthan two miles, as they would answer it at their peril; and if anycaptain should find his ship beyond the distance specified, he was toacquaint the Commodore with the name of the officer who had thusneglected his duty. 

These necessary regulations being established, and the Trial sloopcompleted, the squadron weighed on Friday, the 27th of February, at sevenin the morning, and stood to sea. 

From our departure from St. Julian to the 4th of March we had littlewind, with thick, hazy weather and some rain. On the 4th of March we werein sight of Cape Virgin Mary, * and not more than six or seven leaguesdistant from it. The afternoon of this day was very bright and clear, with small breezes of wind, inclinable to a calm; and most of thecaptains took the opportunity of this favourable weather to pay a visitto the Commodore. 

(*Note. Cape de las Virgenes, the south-eastern extremity of Patagonia atthe entrance to the straits of Magellan. )

We here found, what was constantly verified by all our observations inthese high latitudes, * that fair weather was always of an exceeding shortduration, and that when it was remarkably fine it was a certain presageof a succeeding storm; for the calm and sunshine of our afternoon endedin a most turbulent night, the wind freshening from the south-west as thenight came on, and increasing its violence continually till nine in themorning the next day, when it blew so hard that we were obliged to bringto with the squadron, and to continue under a reefed mizzen till elevenat night. Towards midnight, the wind abating, we made sail again; andsteering south, we discovered in the morning for the first time the landcalled Tierra del Fuego. This indeed afforded us but a very uncomfortableprospect, it appearing of a stupendous height, covered everywhere withsnow. As we intended to pass through Straits le Maire next day, we lay toat night that we might not over shoot them, and took this opportunity toprepare ourselves for the tempestuous climate we were soon to be engagedin; with which view we employed ourselves good part of the night inbending an entire new suit of sails to the yards. At four the nextmorning, being the 7th of March, we made sail, and at eight saw the land, and soon after we began to open the Straits. 

THE EVE OF DISASTER. 

About ten o'clock, the Pearl and the Trial being ordered to keep ahead ofthe squadron, we entered them with fair weather and a brisk gale, andwere hurried through by the rapidity of the tide in about two hours, though they are between seven and eight leagues in length. As theseStraits are often considered as the boundary between the Atlantic andPacific Oceans, and as we presumed we had nothing now before us but anopen sea till we arrived on those opulent coasts where all our hopes andwishes centred, we could not help flattering ourselves that the greatestdifficulty of our passage was now at an end, and that our most sanguinedreams were upon the point of being realised, and hence we indulged ourimaginations in those romantic schemes which the fancied possession ofthe Chilean gold and Peruvian silver might be conceived to inspire. Thesejoyous ideas were heightened by the brightness of the sky and theserenity of the weather, which was indeed most remarkably pleasing; forthough the winter was now advancing apace, yet the morning of this day, in its brilliancy and mildness, gave place to none we had seen since ourdeparture from England. Thus animated by these delusions, we traversedthese memorable Straits, ignorant of the dreadful calamities that werethen impending, and just ready to break upon us; ignorant that the timedrew near when the squadron would be separated never to unite again, andthat this day of our passage was the last cheerful day that the greatestpart of us would ever live to enjoy. 

(*Note. The Equator is the zero (0 degrees) of latitude. The latitudebecomes higher as one proceeds to the poles (90 degrees). )

CHAPTER 6. HEAVY GALES--A LONG BATTLE WITH WIND AND SEA--THE CENTURION LOSES HER CONSORTS. 

We had scarcely reached the southern extremity of the straits of leMaire, when our flattering hopes were instantly lost in the apprehensionsof immediate destruction. For before the sternmost ships of the squadronwere clear of the Straits, the serenity of the sky was suddenly changed, and gave us all the presages of an impending storm; and immediately thewind shifted to the southward, and blew in such violent squalls that wewere obliged to hand our topsails and reef our mainsail. The tide, too, which had hitherto favoured us, now turned against us and drove us to theeastward with prodigious rapidity, so that we were in great anxiety forthe Wager and the Anna pink, the two sternmost vessels, fearing theywould be dashed to pieces against the shore of Staten Land. Nor were ourapprehensions without foundation, for it was with the utmost difficultythey escaped. And now the whole squadron, instead of pursuing theirintended course to the south-west, were driven to the eastward by theunited force of the storm and of the currents; so that next day in themorning we found ourselves near seven leagues to the eastward of StatenLand. The violence of the current, which had set us with so muchprecipitation to the eastward, together with the force and constancy ofthe westerly winds, soon taught us to consider the doubling of Cape Hornas an enterprise that might prove too mighty for our efforts, though someamongst us had lately treated the difficulties which former voyagers weresaid to have met with in this undertaking as little better thanchimerical, and had supposed them to arise rather from timidity andunskilfulness than from the real embarrassments of the winds and seas. But we were severely convinced that these censures were rash andill-grounded, for the distresses with which we struggled during the threesucceeding months will not easily be paralleled in the relation of anyformer naval expedition. 

From the storm which came on before we had well got clear of Straits leMaire, we had a continual succession of such tempestuous weather assurprised the oldest and most experienced mariners on board, and obligedthem to confess that what they had hitherto called storms wereinconsiderable gales compared with the violence of these winds, whichraised such short and at the same time such mountainous waves as greatlysurpassed in danger all seas known in any other part of the globe. And itwas not without great reason that this unusual appearance filled us withcontinual terror, for had any one of these waves broke fairly over us, itmust in all probability have sent us to the bottom. 

SEAS MOUNTAINS HIGH. 

It was on the 7th of March, as has been already observed, that we passedStraits le Maire, and were immediately afterwards driven to the eastwardby a violent storm and the force of the current which set that way. Forthe four or five succeeding days we had hard gales of wind from the samequarter, with a most prodigious swell; so that though we stood, duringall that time, towards the south-west, yet we had no reason to imagine wehad made any way to the westward. In this interval we had frequentsqualls of rain and snow, and shipped great quantities of water; afterwhich for three or four days, though the seas ran mountains high, yet theweather was rather more moderate. But on the 18th we had again stronggales of wind with extreme cold. From hence to the 23rd the weather wasmore favourable, though often intermixed with rain and sleet, and somehard gales; but as the waves did not subside, the ship, by labouring inthis lofty sea, was now grown so loose in her upper works that she let inthe water at every seam; so that every part within board was constantlyexposed to the sea-water, and scarcely any of the officers ever lay indry beds. Indeed, it was very rare that two nights ever passed withoutmany of them being driven from their beds by the deluge of water thatcame upon them. 

On the 23rd we had a most violent storm of wind, hail, and rain, with avery great sea; and though we handed the main-topsail before the heightof the squall, yet we found the yard sprung; and soon after, thefoot-rope of the mainsail breaking, the mainsail itself split instantlyto rags, and in spite of our endeavours to save it, much the greater partof it was blown overboard. On this the Commodore made the signal for thesquadron to bring to; and, the storm at length flattening to a calm, wehad an opportunity of getting down our main-topsail yard to put thecarpenters at work upon it, and of repairing our rigging; after which, having bent a new mainsail, we got under sail again with a moderatebreeze. But in less than twenty-four hours we were attacked by anotherstorm still more furious than the former; for it proved a perfecthurricane, and reduced us to the necessity of lying to under our barepoles. 

As our ship kept the wind better any of the rest, we were obliged in theafternoon to wear ship, in order to join the squadron to the leeward, which otherwise we should have been in danger of losing in the night;and as we dared not venture any sail abroad, we were obliged to make useof an expedient which answered our purpose; this was putting the helma-weather and manning the fore-shrouds. But though this method provedsuccessful for the end intended, yet in the execution of it one of ourablest seaman was canted overboard; and notwithstanding the prodigiousagitation of the waves, we perceived that he swam very strong, and it waswith the utmost concern that we found ourselves incapable of assistinghim; and we were the more grieved at his unhappy fate, since we lostsight of him struggling with the waves, and conceived from the manner inwhich he swam that he might continue sensible for a considerable timelonger of the horror attending his irretrievable situation. 

It was this incident that inspired Cowper's 'Castaway, ' and called forththe touching verse given below--a verse so eloquent in its testimony tothat gentler side of Anson's nature, which won for him the affection andregard not only of his own sailors, but even of his Spanish prisoners. 

Of this poor sailor, and of the page in the ship's books that bore hisname, Cowper wrote:

No poet wept him; but the pageOf narrative sincere, That tells his name, his worth, his age, Is wet with Anson's tear. And tears by bards or heroes shedAlike immortalise the dead. 

From hence we had an interval of three or four days less tempestuous thanusual, but accompanied with a thick fog, in which we were obliged to fireguns almost every half-hour to keep our squadron together. 

On the first of April the weather returned again to its customary bias, the sky looked dark and gloomy, and the wind began to freshen and to blowin squalls; however, it was not yet so boisterous as to prevent ourcarrying our topsails close reefed; but its appearance was such asplainly prognosticated that a still severer tempest was at hand. Andaccordingly, on the 3rd of April, there came on a storm which both in itsviolence and continuation (for it lasted three days) exceeded all that wehad hitherto encountered. In its first onset we received a furious shockfrom the sea which broke upon our larboard quarter, where it stove in thequarter gallery, and rushed into the ship like a deluge; our rigging, too, suffered extremely, so that to ease the stress upon the masts andshrouds we lowered both our main and fore yards, and furled all oursails, and in this posture we lay to for three days, when, the stormsomewhat abating, we ventured to make sail under our courses only. Buteven this we could not do long, for the next day, which was the 7th, wehad another hard gale of wind, with lightning and rain, which obliged usto lie to again all night. 

And now, after all our solicitude, and the numerous ills of every kind towhich we had been incessantly exposed for near forty days, we had greatconsolation in the flattering hopes we entertained, that our fatigueswere drawing to a period, and that we should soon arrive in a morehospitable climate, where we should be amply repaid for all our pastsufferings. For, towards the latter end of March, we were advanced by ourreckoning near 10 degrees to the westward of the westernmost point ofTierra del Fuego, and this allowance being double what former navigatorshave thought necessary to be taken in order to compensate the drift ofthe eastern current, we esteemed ourselves to be well advanced within thelimits of the southern ocean, and had therefore been ever since standingto the northward with as much expedition as the turbulence of the weatherand our frequent disasters permitted. And, on the 13th of April, we werebut a degree in latitude to the southward of the west entrance of thestraits of Magellan, so that we fully expected, in a very few days, tohave experienced the celebrated tranquillity of the Pacific Ocean. 

AN UNEXPECTED DANGER. 

But these were delusions which only served to render our disappointmentmore terrible; for the next morning, between one and two, as we werestanding to the northward, and the weather, which had till then beenhazy, accidentally cleared up, the pink made a signal for seeing landright ahead and it being but two miles distant, we were all under themost dreadful apprehensions of running on shore; which, had either thewind blown from its usual quarter with its wonted vigour, or had not themoon suddenly shone out, not a ship amongst us could possibly haveavoided. But the wind, which some few hours before blew in squalls fromthe south-west, having fortunately shifted to west-north-west, we wereenabled to stand to the southward, and to clear ourselves of thisunexpected danger; so that by noon we had gained an offing of near twentyleagues. 

By the latitude of this land we fell in with, it was agreed to be a partof Tierra del Fuego, near the southern outlet of the Straits of Magellan. It was indeed most wonderful that the currents should have driven us tothe eastward with such strength; for the whole squadron esteemedthemselves upwards of ten degrees more westerly than this land. And now, instead of having our labours and anxieties relieved by approaching awarmer climate and more tranquil seas, we were to steer again to thesouthward, and again to combat those western blasts which had so oftenterrified us; and this, too, when we were weakened by our men fallingsick and dying apace, and when our spirits, dejected by a longcontinuance at sea, and by our late disappointment, were much lesscapable of supporting us in the various difficulties which we could notbut expect in this new undertaking. Add to all this, too, thediscouragement we received by the diminution of the strength of thesquadron; for three days before this we lost sight of the Severn and thePearl in the morning; and though we spread our ships, and beat about forsome time, yet we never saw them more; whence we had apprehensions thatthey too might have fallen in with this land in the night, and, beingless favoured by the wind and the moon than we were, might have run onshore and have perished. 

After the mortifying disappointment of falling in with the coast ofTierra del Fuego, when we esteemed ourselves 10 degrees to the westwardof it, we stood away to the south-west till the 22nd of April, when wewere in upwards of 60 degrees south, and by our account near 6 degrees tothe westward of Cape Noir. * And in this run we had a series of asfavourable weather as could well be expected in that part of the world, even in a better season; so that this interval, setting the inquietude ofour thoughts aside, was by far the most eligible of any we enjoyed fromStraits le Maire to the west coast of America. This moderate weathercontinued with little variation till the 24th; but on the 24th in theevening the wind began to blow fresh, and soon increased to a prodigiousstorm; and the weather being extremely thick, about midnight we lostsight of the other ships of the squadron, which, notwithstanding theviolence of the preceding storms, had hitherto kept in company with us. 

(*Note. Part of Tierra del Fuego near the southern outlet of the Straitsof Magellan. )

On the 25th, about noon, the weather became more moderate, but still wehad no sight of the rest of the squadron, nor indeed were we joined byany of them again till after our arrival at Juan Fernandez, nor did anytwo of them, as we have since learned, continue in company together. 

The remaining part of this month of April we had generally hard gales, although we had been every day since the 22nd edging to the northward. However, on the last day of the month we flattered ourselves with thehopes of soon terminating all our sufferings, for we that day foundourselves in the latitude of 52 degrees 13 minutes, which, being to thenorthward of the Straits of Magellan we were assured that we hadcompleted our passage, and had arrived in the confines of the SouthernOcean; and this ocean being nominated Pacific, * from the equability ofthe seasons which are said to prevail there, and the facility andsecurity with which navigation is there carried on, we doubted not but weshould be speedily cheered with the moderate gales, the smooth water, andthe temperate air, for which that tract of the globe has been sorenowned. And under the influence of these pleasing circumstances wehoped to experience some kind of compensation for the complicatedmiseries which had so constantly attended us for the last eight weeks. But here we were again disappointed; for in the succeeding month of Mayour sufferings rose to a much higher pitch than they had ever yet done, whether we consider the violence of the storms, the shattering of oursails and rigging, or the diminishing and weakening of our crew by deathsand sickness, and the probable prospect of our total destruction. 

(*Note. Peace-making. So named by Magellan from the fine weather heexperienced there in 1520 and 1521. He was the first European to enterthat ocean. The name was scarcely deserved. )

CHAPTER 7. OUTBREAK OF SCURVY*--DANGER OF SHIPWRECK. 

(*Note. 'Scurvy. ' The nature of the disease and the proper method oftreatment were not fully understood in Anson's day. It is caused byimproper diet and particularly by the want of fresh vegetables. Lemon andlime juice are the best protectives against it and they were made anessential element in nautical diet in 1795. The disease which used tocause dreadful mortality on long voyages has since that time graduallydisappeared and is now very rarely met with. )

THE PACIFIC. 

Soon after our passing Straits le Maire the scurvy began to make itsappearance amongst us; and our long continuance at sea, the fatigue weunderwent, and the various disappointments we met with, had occasion itsspreading to such a degree, that at the latter end of April there werebut few on board who were not in some degree afflicted with it; and inthat month no less than forty-three died of it on board the Centurion. But though we thought that the distemper had then risen to anextraordinary height, and were willing to hope that as we advanced to thenorthward its malignant would abate, yet we found, on the contrary, thatin the month of May we lost nearly double that number. And as we did notget to land till the middle of June, the mortality went on increasing, and the disease extended itself so prodigiously that after the loss ofabove two hundred men we could not at last muster more than six foremastmen in a watch capable of duty. 

This disease, so frequently attending all long voyages, and soparticularly destructive to us, is usually attended with a strangedejection of the spirits, and with shiverings, tremblings, and adisposition to be seized with the most dreadful terrors on the slightestaccident. Indeed, it was most remarkable, in all our reiteratedexperience of this malady, that whatever discouraged our people, or atany time damped their hopes, never failed to add new vigour to thedistemper, for it usually killed those who were in the last stage of it, and confined those to their hammocks who were before capable of some kindof duty; so that it seemed as if alacrity of mind and sanguine thoughtswere no contemptible preservatives from its fatal malignity. 

A most extraordinary circumstance, and what would be scarcely credibleupon any single evidence, is, that the scars of wounds which had been formany years healed were forced open again by this virulent distemper. Ofthis there was a remarkable instance in one of the invalids on board theCenturion, who had been wounded above fifty years before at the battle ofthe Boyne;* for though he was cured soon after, and had continued wellfor a great number of years past, yet, on his being attacked by thescurvy, his wounds, in the progress of his disease, broke out afresh, andappeared as if they had never been healed. Nay, what is still moreastonishing, the callous of a broken bone, which had been completelyformed for a long time, was found to be hereby dissolved, and thefracture seemed as if it had never been consolidated. Indeed, the effectsof this disease were in almost every instance wonderful; for many of ourpeople, though confined to their hammocks, appeared to have noinconsiderable share of health, for they ate and drank heartily, werecheerful, and talked with much seeming vigour, and with a loud, strongtone of voice; and yet on their being the least moved, though it was onlyfrom one part of the ship to the other, and that in their hammocks, theyhave immediately expired; and others who have confided in their seemingstrength, and have resolved to get out of their hammocks, have diedbefore they could well reach the deck. And it was no uncommon thing forthose who were able to walk the deck, and to do some kind of duty, todrop down dead in an instant, on any endeavours to act with their utmostvigour, many of our people having perished in this manner during thecourse of this voyage. 

(*Note. William III defeated James II and his army of Irish and Frenchtroops July 12th, 1690. )

THE ISLAND OF SOCORO. 

With this terrible disease we struggled the greatest part of the time ofour beating round Cape Horn. We entertained hopes that when we shouldhave once secured our passage round the Cape, we should put a period tothis and all the other evils which had so constantly pursued us. But itwas our misfortune to find that the Pacific Ocean was to us lesshospitable than the turbulent neighbourhood of Tierra del Fuego and CapeHorn; for being arrived, on the 8th of May, off the island of Socoro, which was the first rendezvous appointed for the squadron, and where wehoped to have met with some of our companions, we cruised for them inthat station several days. And here we were not only disappointed in ourhopes of being joined by our friends, and thereby induced to favour thegloomy suggestions of their having all perished, but we were likewiseperpetually alarmed with the fears of being driven on shore upon thiscoast, which appeared too craggy and irregular to give us the least hopesthat in such a case any of us could possibly escape immediatedestruction. For the land had indeed a most tremendous aspect; the mostdistant part of it, and which appeared far within the country, being themountains usually called the Andes or Cordilleras, was extremely high, and covered with snow; and the coast itself seemed quite rocky andbarren, and the water's edge skirted with precipices. As we were utterlyignorant of the coast, had we been driven ashore by the western winds, which blew almost constantly there, we did not expect to have avoided theloss of our ship and of our lives. 

And this continued peril, which lasted for about a fortnight, was greatlyaggravated by the difficulties we found in working the ship; as thescurvy had by this time destroyed so great a part of our hands, and hadin some degree affected almost the whole crew. Nor did we, as we hoped, find the winds less violent as we advanced to the northward; for we hadoften prodigious squalls, which split our sails, greatly damaged ourrigging, and endangered our masts. 

CHAPTER 8. JUAN FERNANDEZ--THE TRIAL REJOINS. 

THE SEARCH FOR JUAN FERNANDEZ. 

It were endless to recite minutely the various disasters, fatigues, andterrors which we encountered on this coast; all these went on increasingtill the 22nd of May, at which time the fury of all the storms which wehad hitherto encountered seemed to be combined, and to have conspired ourdestruction. In this hurricane almost all our sails were split, and greatpart of our standing rigging broken; and, about eight in the evening, amountainous overgrown sea took us upon our starboard quarter, and gave usso prodigious a shock that several of our shrouds broke with the jerk, bywhich our masts were greatly endangered. Our ballast and stores, too, were so strangely shifted that the ship heeled afterwards two streaks toport. Indeed, it was a most tremendous blow, and we were thrown into theutmost consternation from the apprehension of instantly foundering. Thiswas the last effort of that stormy climate, for in a day or two we foundthe weather more moderate than we had yet experienced since our passingStraits le Maire. And now having cruised in vain for more than afortnight in quest of the other ships of the squadron, it was resolved totake advantage of the present favourable season and the offing we hadmade from this terrible coast, and to make the best of our way for theisland of Juan Fernandez. * For though our next rendezvous was appointedoff the harbour of Baldivia, yet as we had hitherto seen none of ourcompanions at this first rendezvous, it was not to be supposed that anyof them would be found at the second; indeed, we had the greatest reasonto suspect that all but ourselves had perished. Besides, we were by thistime reduced to so low a condition that, instead of attempting to attackthe places of the enemy, our utmost hopes could only suggest to us thepossibility of saving the ship, and some part of the remaining enfeebledcrew, by our speedy arrival at Juan Fernandez; for this was the only roadin that part of the world where there was any probability of ourrecovering our sick or refitting our vessel, and consequently our gettingthither was the only chance we had left to avoid perishing at sea. 

(*Note. 'Juan Fernandez. ' This island which is 13 miles long by 4 milesbroad, now belongs to Chili. It was discovered in 1563 by Juan Fernandez. As it was unoccupied it was a favourite resort of the buccaneersthroughout the seventeenth century, as well as of English squadronsdespatched like those of Dampier and Anson, to prey on Spanish commerce, and needing to refit and water after the long voyage round Cape Horn. TheSpaniards at last occupied it in 1750, in self-defence. It was here thatAlexander Selkirk was put ashore in 1704. )

Our deplorable situation, then, allowing no room for deliberation, westood for the island of Juan Fernandez. On the 28th of May, being nearlyin the parallel upon which it is laid down, we had great expectations ofseeing it; but not finding it in the position in which the charts hadtaught us to expect it, we began to fear that we had got too far to thewestward; and therefore, though the Commodore himself was stronglypersuaded that he saw it on the morning of the 28th, yet his officersbelieving it to be only a cloud, to which opinion the haziness of theweather gave some kind of countenance, it was on a consultation resolvedto stand to the eastward in the parallel of the island; as it was certainthat by this course we should either fall in with the island, if we werealready to the westward of it, or should at least make the mainland ofChili, whence we might take a new departure, and assure ourselves, byrunning to the westward afterwards, of not missing the island a secondtime. 

On the 30th of May we had a view of the continent of Chili, distantabout twelve or thirteen leagues. It gave us great uneasiness to findthat we had so needlessly altered our course when we were, in allprobability, just upon the point of making the island; for the mortalityamongst us was now increased to a most dreadful degree, and those whoremained alive were utterly dispirited by this new disappointment and theprospect of their longer continuance at sea. Our water, too, began togrow scarce, so that a general dejection prevailed amongst us, whichadded much to the virulence of the disease, and destroyed numbers of ourbest men; and to all these calamities there was added this vexatiouscircumstance that when, after having got sight of the main, we tacked andstood to the westward in quest of the island, we were so much delayed bycalms and contrary winds that it cost us nine days to regain the westingwhich, when we stood to the eastward, we ran down in two. In thisdesponding condition, with a crazy ship, a great scarcity of water, and acrew so universally diseased that there were not above ten foremast menin a watch capable of doing duty, and even some of these lame and unableto go aloft; under these disheartening circumstances, I say, we stood tothe westward; and on the 9th of June, at daybreak, we at last discoveredthe long-wished-for island of Juan Fernandez. 

It appeared to be a mountainous place, extremely ragged and irregular;yet as it was land and, the land we sought for, it was to us a mostagreeable sight. For at this place only we could hope to put a period tothose terrible calamities we had so long struggled with, which hadalready swept away above half our crew, and which, had we continued a fewdays longer at sea, would inevitably have completed our destruction. Forwe were by this time reduced to so helpless a condition, that out of twohundred and odd men who remained alive, we could not, taking all ourwatches 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 plyingall that day and the next night, in order to get in with the land; andwearing the ship in the middle watch, we had a melancholy instance of themost incredible debility of our people; for the lieutenant could musterno more than two quarter-masters and six foremast men capable of working;so that without the assistance of the officers, servants, and boys, itmight have proved impossible for us to have reached the island after wehad got sight of it; and even with this assistance they were two hours intrimming the sails. To so wretched a condition was a 60-gun ship reduced, which had passed Straits le Maire but three months before, with betweenfour hundred and five hundred men, almost all of them in health andvigour. 

EVEN GRASS A DAINTY. 

However, on the 10th, in the afternoon, we got under the lee of theisland, and kept ranging along it at about two miles' distance, in orderto look out for the proper anchorage, which was described to be in a bayon the north side. But at last the night closed upon us before we hadsatisfied ourselves which was the proper bay to anchor in, and thereforewe resolved to send our boat next morning to discover the road. At fourin the morning the cutter was despatched with our third lieutenant tofind out the bay we were in search of, who returned again at noon withthe boat laden with seals and grass; for though the island abounded withbetter vegetables, yet the boat's crew, in their short stay, had not metwith them; and they well knew that even grass would prove a dainty, and, indeed, it was all soon and eagerly devoured. The seals, too, wereconsidered as fresh provision, but as yet were not much admired, thoughthey grew afterwards into more repute; for what rendered them lessvaluable at this juncture was the prodigious quantity of excellent fishwhich the people on board had taken during the absence of the boat. 

The cutter, in this expedition, had discovered the bay where we intendedto anchor, which we found was to the westward of our present station; andthe next morning we steered along shore till we came abreast of the pointthat forms the eastern part of the bay. On opening the bay, the wind, that had befriended us thus far, shifted, and blew from thence insqualls; but by means of the headway we had got, we luffed close in, tillthe anchor brought us up in fifty-six fathoms. Soon after we had thus gotto our new berth, we discovered a sail, which we made no doubt was one ofour squadron; and on its nearer approach, we found it to be the Trialsloop. We immediately sent some of our hands on board her, by whoseassistance she was brought to an anchor between us and the land. We soonfound that the sloop had not been exempted from those calamities which wehad so severely felt; for her commander, Captain Saunders, waiting on theCommodore, informed him that out of his small complement he had buriedthirty-four of his men; and those that remained were so universallyafflicted with the scurvy that only himself, his lieutenant, and three ofhis men were able to stand by the sails. 

CHAPTER 9. THE SICK LANDED--ALEXANDER SELKIRK*--SEALS AND SEA-LIONS. 

(*Note. Alexander Selkirk (1676 to 1721) was an adventurous sailor whojoined Dampier's privateering expedition to the South Seas in 1703. Hequarrelled with his captain, Stradling, and requested to be landed on theuninhabited island of Juan Fernandez. He immediately repented of hisrequest, and begged to be taken off; but his prayers were disregarded, and he remained on the island from September, 1704, until he was pickedup in 1709 by Dampier's new expedition. An account of his adventures waspublished, which apparently gave Defoe his idea of Robinson Crusoe. )

We were now extremely occupied in sending on shore materials to raisetents for the reception of the sick, who died apace on board. But we hadnot hands enough to prepare the tents for their reception before the16th. On that and the two following days we sent them all on shore, amounting to a hundred and sixty-seven persons, besides at least a dozenwho died in the boats on their being exposed to the fresh air. Thegreatest part of our sick were so infirm that we were obliged to carrythem out of the ship in their hammocks, and to convey them afterwards inthe same manner from the waterside to their tents, over a stony beach. This was a work of considerable fatigue to the few who were healthy; andtherefore the Commodore, with his accustomed humanity, not only assistedherein with his own labour, but obliged his officers, withoutdistinction, to give their helping hand. 

The excellence of the climate and the looseness of the soil render thisplace extremely proper for all kinds of vegetation; for if the ground beanywhere accidentally turned up, it is immediately overgrown with turnipsand Sicilian radishes; and therefore, Mr. Anson having with him gardenseeds of all kinds, and stones of different sorts of fruits, he, for thebetter accommodation of his countrymen who should hereafter touch here, sowed both lettuces, carrots, and other garden plants, and set in thewoods a great variety of plum, apricot, and peach stones. And these last, he has been informed, have since thriven to a very remarkable degree; forsome gentlemen, who in their passage from Lima to old Spain were takenand brought to England, having procured leave to wait upon Mr. Anson tothank him for his generosity and humanity to his prisoners, some of whomwere their relations, they in casual discourse with him about histransactions in the South Seas, particularly asked him if he had notplanted a great number of fruit-stones on the island of Juan Fernandez;for they told him their late navigators had discovered there numbers ofpeach trees and apricot trees, which being fruits before unobserved inthat place, they concluded them to be produced from kernels set by him. 

ALEXANDER SELKIRK. 

Former writers have related that this island abounded with vast numbersof goats; and their accounts are not to be questioned, this place beingthe usual haunt of the buccaneers* and privateers who formerly frequentedthose seas. And there are two instances--one of a Mosquito Indian, andthe other of Alexander Selkirk, a Scotchman, who were left by theirrespective ships, and lived alone upon this island for some years, andconsequently 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 bythe Duke and Duchess privateers, of Bristol, as may be seen at large inthe journal of their voyage. His manner of life during his solitude wasin most particulars very remarkable; but there is one circumstance herelates which was so strangely verified by our own observation that Icannot help reciting it. He tells us, among other things, as he oftencaught more goats than he wanted, he sometimes marked their ears and letthem go. This was about thirty-two years before our arrival at theisland. Now it happened that the first goat that was killed by our peopleat their landing had his ears slit; whence we concluded that he haddoubtless been formerly under the power of Selkirk. This was indeed ananimal of a most venerable aspect, dignified with an exceeding majesticbeard, and with many other symptoms of antiquity. During our stay on theisland we met with others marked in the same manner, all the males beingdistinguished by an exuberance of beard and every other characteristic ofextreme age. But the great numbers of goats, which former writersdescribed to have been found upon this island, are at present very muchdiminished. For the Spaniards being informed of the advantages which thebuccaneers and privateers drew from the provisions which goats' fleshhere furnished them with, they have endeavoured to extirpate the breed, thereby to deprive their enemies of this relief. For this purpose theyhave 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 among the crags and precipices wherethe dogs cannot follow them. 

(Note. 'The buccaneers. ' The name "buccaneer" originally meant one whodried or smoked flesh on a "boucan, " a kind of hurdle used for thispurpose by the natives of Central and South America. The English, French, and Dutch smugglers who, in spite of the monopoly so jealously guarded bythe Spaniards (see Introduction above) traded in the Caribbean seas, usedto provision at St. Domingo largely with beef, jerked or sun-dried on theboucans. These men formed an organised body, under a chief chosen bythemselves, and, under the name of the buccaneers, were forthree-quarters of a century the terror of the Spaniards. In 1655 theywere powerful enough to give material assistance to the English fleetwhich conquered Jamaica. In 1671 they raised a force of 2, 000 men, marched across the isthmus, and besieged and took Panama; their success, as usual, being marked by horrible atrocities. In 1685 a Spanish fleet offourteen sail, which had been fitted out to put them down, found tenbuccaneer ships in the bay of Panama, but dared not give them battle. Thewar between France and England after 1688 dissolved the alliance betweenthe French and English buccaneers; and the last conspicuous event intheir history was the capture of Cartagena in 1697. Soon after this datethey disappeared as an organised body, though for many years members ofthe band remained as pirates in the South Seas. )

Goats' flesh being scarce, we rarely being able to kill above one a day, and our people growing tired of fish (which abounds at this place), theyat last condescended to eat seals, which by degrees they came to relish, and called it lamb. But there is another amphibious creature to be metwith here, called a sea-lion, that bears some resemblance to a seal, though it is much larger. This, too, we ate, under the denomination ofbeef. In general there was no difficulty in killing them, for they wereincapable either of escaping or resisting, their motion being the mostunwieldy that can be conceived, their blubber, all the time they weremoving, being agitated in large waves under their skins. However, asailor one day being carelessly employed in skinning a young sea-lion, the female from which he had taken it came upon him unperceived, andgetting his head in her mouth, she with her teeth scored his skull innotches in many places, and thereby wounded him so desperately thatthough all possible care was taken of him, he died in a few days. 

CHAPTER 10. REAPPEARANCE OF THE GLOUCESTER--DISTRESS ON BOARD--HER EFFORTS TO ENTER THE BAY. 

The arrival of the Trial sloop at this island so soon after we came thereourselves gave us great hopes of being speedily joined by the rest of thesquadron; and we were for some days continually looking out inexpectation of their coming in sight. But near a fortnight being elapsedwithout any of them having appeared, we began to despair of ever meetingthem again. 

RETURN OF THE GLOUCESTER. 

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. However, after viewing her for a short time, the weather grew thick andhazy, and they lost sight of her. On the 26th, towards noon, we discerneda sail in the north-east quarter, which we conceived to be the very sameship that had been seen before, and our conjectures proved true; andabout one o'clock she approached so near that we could distinguish her tobe the Gloucester. As we had no doubt of her being in great distress, theCommodore immediately ordered his boat to her assistance, laden withfresh water, fish, and vegetables, which was a very seasonable relief tothem; for perhaps there never was a crew in a more distressed situation. They had already thrown overboard two-thirds of their complement, and ofthose that remained alive scarcely any were capable of doing duty exceptthe officers and their servants. They had been a considerable time at thesmall allowance of a pint of fresh water to each man for twenty-fourhours, and yet they had so little left that, had it not been for thesupply we sent them, they must soon have died of thirst. 

The ship plied in within three miles of the bay, but, the winds andcurrents being contrary, she could not reach the road. However shecontinued in the offing the next day, but had no chance of coming to ananchor unless the wind and current shifted; and therefore the Commodorerepeated his assistance, sending to her the Trial's boat manned with theCenturion's people, and a further supply of water and other refreshments. Captain Mitchel, the captain of the Gloucester, was under a necessity ofdetaining both this boat and that sent the preceding day; for without thehelp of their crews he had no longer strength enough to navigate theship. In this tantalising situation the Gloucester continued for near afortnight, without being able to fetch the road, though frequentlyattempting it, and at some times bidding very fair for it. On the 9th ofJuly we observed her stretching away to the eastward at a considerabledistance, which we supposed was with a design to get to the southward ofthe island; but as we soon lost sight of her and she did not appear fornear a week, we were prodigiously concerned, knowing that she must beagain in extreme distress for want of water. After great impatience abouther, we discovered her again on the 16th, endeavouring to come round theeastern point of the island; but the wind, still blowing directly fromthe bay, prevented her getting nearer than within four leagues of theland. On this captain Mitchel made signals of distress, and our long-boatwas sent to him with a store of water and plenty of fish and otherrefreshments; and the long-boat being not to be spared, the coxswain hadpositive orders from the Commodore to return again immediately; but theweather proving stormy the next day, and the boat not appearing, we muchfeared she was lost, which would have proved an irretrievable misfortuneto us all. But the third day after we were relieved from this anxiety bythe joyful sight of the long-boat's sails upon the water, and we sent thecutter immediately to her assistance, which towed her alongside in a fewhours. The crew of our long-boat had taken in six of the Gloucester'ssick men to bring them on shore, two of whom had died in the boat. Andnow we learned that the Gloucester was in a most dreadful condition, having scarcely a man in health on board, except those they received fromus; and numbers of their sick dying daily, we found that, had it not beenfor the last supply sent by our long-boat, both the healthy and diseasedmust have all perished together for want of water. And these calamitieswere the more terrifying, as they appeared to be without remedy, for theGloucester 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 theisland; on the contrary, the people on board her had worn out all theirhopes of ever succeeding in it by the many experiments they had made ofits difficulty. Indeed, the same day her situation grew more desperatethan ever, for after she had received our last supply of refreshments, weagain lost sight of her, so that we in general despaired of her evercoming to an anchor. 

Thus was this unhappy vessel bandied about within a few leagues of herintended harbour, whilst the neighbourhood of that place, and of thosecircumstances which could alone put an end to the calamities theylaboured under, served only to aggravate their distress by torturing themwith a view of the relief it was not in their power to reach. 

THE GLOUCESTER COMES TO ANCHOR. 

But she was at last delivered from this dreadful situation, at a timewhen we least expected it, for, after having lost sight of her forseveral days, we were pleasingly surprised, on the morning of the 23rd ofJuly, to see her open the north-west point of the bay with a flowingsail; when we immediately despatched what boats we had to her assistance, and in an hour's time from our first perceiving her she anchored safewithin us in the bay. 

CHAPTER 11. TRACES OF SPANISH CRUISERS--ARRIVAL OF THE ANNA PINK. 

During the interval of the Gloucester's frequent and ineffectual attemptsto reach the island, our employment was cleansing our ship and fillingour water. The first of these measures was indispensably necessary to ourfuture health, as the numbers of sick and the unavoidable negligencearising from our deplorable situation at sea, had rendered the decks mostintolerably loathsome; and the filling of our water was a caution thatappeared not less essential to our future security, as we had reason toapprehend that accidents might oblige us to quit the island at a veryshort warning. For some appearances, which we had discovered on shoreupon our first landing, gave us grounds to believe that there wereSpanish cruisers in these seas, which had left the island but a shorttime before our arrival, and might possibly return there again in searchof us; for we knew that this island was the likeliest place, in their ownopinion, to meet with us. The circumstances which gave rise to thesereflections were our finding on shore several pieces of earthen jars, made use of in those seas for water and other liquids, which appeared tobe fresh broken. We saw, too, many heaps of ashes, and near themfish-bones and pieces of fish, besides whole fish scattered here andthere, which plainly appeared to have been but a short time out of thewater, as they were but just beginning to decay. These appearances werecertain indications that there had been ships at this place but a shorttime before we came there; and as all Spanish merchantmen are instructedto avoid the island on account of its being the common rendezvous oftheir enemies, we concluded those who had touched here to be ships offorce; and not knowingthat Pizarro was returned to Buenos Ayres, andignorant what strength might have been fitted out at Calla, we were undersome concern for our safety, being in so wretched and enfeebled acondition that, notwithstanding the rank of our ship and the sixty gunsshe carried on board, which would only have aggravated our dishonour, there was scarcely a privateer sent to sea that was not an overmatch forus. However, our fears on this head proved imaginary, and we were notexposed to the disgrace which might have been expected to have befallenus had we been necessitated to fight our sixty-gun ship with no more thanthirty hands. 

After the Gloucester's arrival we were employed in earnest in examiningand repairing our rigging. 

Towards the middle of August our men being indifferently recovered, theywere permitted to quit their sick tents and to build separate huts forthemselves; as it was imagined that by living a part they would be muchcleanlier, and consequently likely to recover their strength the sooner;but at the same time particular orders were given that on the firing of agun from the ship they should instantly repair to the waterside. 

I should have mentioned that the Trial sloop at her arrival had informedus that on the 9th of May she had fallen in with our victualler not fardistant from the continent of Chili, and had kept company with her forfour days, when they were parted in a hard gale of wind. This gave ussome room to hope that she was safe, and that she might soon join us; butall June and July being past without any news of her, we suspected shewas lost, and at the end of July the Commodore ordered all the ships to ashort allowance of bread. * And it was not in our bread only that wefeared a deficiency, for since our arrival at this island we discoveredthat our former purser had neglected to take on board large quantities ofseveral kinds of provisions which the Commodore had expressly ordered himto receive; so that the supposed loss of our victualler was on allaccounts a mortifying consideration. 

THE ANNA PINK. 

However, on Sunday, the 16th of August, about noon, we espied a sail inthe northern quarter, and a gun was immediately fired from the Centurionto call off the people from shore, who readily obeyed the summons andrepaired to the beach, where the boats waited to carry them on board. Andnow being prepared for the reception of this ship in view whether friendor enemy, we had various speculations about her; but about three in theafternoon our disputes were ended by unanimous persuasion that it was ourvictualler, the Anna pink. This ship, though, like the Gloucester, shehad fallen in to the northward of the island, had yet the good fortune tocome to an anchor in the bay at five in the afternoon. Her arrival gaveus all the sincerest joy, for each ship's company was now restored to itsfull allowance of bread, and we were now freed from the apprehensions ofour provisions falling short before we could reach some amicable port--acalamity which, in these seas, is of all others the most irretrievable. This was the last ship that joined us. 

(*Note. The flour was on board the Anna pink. )

CHAPTER 12. THE WRECK OF THE WAGER--A MUTINY. 

The remaining ships of the squadron were the Severn, the Pearl, and theWager, store-ship. The Severn and Pearl parted company with the squadronoff Cape Noir and, as we afterwards learned, put back to the Brazils, sothat of all the ships which came into the South Seas the Wager, CaptainCheap, was the only one that was missing. This ship had on board somefield-pieces mounted for land service, together with some Cohorn mortars, and several kinds of artillery, stores, and tools, intended for theoperations on shore; and therefore, as the enterprise on Baldivia hadbeen resolved on for the first undertaking of the squadron, Captain Cheapwas extremely solicitous that these materials, which were in his custody, might be ready before Baldivia, that if the squadron should possiblyrendezvous there, no delay nor disappointment might be imputed to him. 

But whilst the Wager, with these views, was making the best of her way toher first rendezvous off the island of Socoro, she made the land on the14th of May, about the latitude of 47 degrees south, and the captain, exerting himself on this occasion in order to get clear of it, he had themisfortune to fall down the after-ladder, and thereby dislocated hisshoulder, which rendered him incapable of acting. This accident, togetherwith the crazy condition of the ship, which was little better than awreck, prevented her from getting off to sea, and entangled her more andmore with the land, so that the next morning at daybreak she struck on asunken rock, and soon after bilged and grounded between two small islandsat about a musket-shot from the shore. 

DISORDER AND ANARCHY. 

In this situation the ship continued entire a long time, so that all thecrew had it in their power to get safe on shore, but a general confusiontaking place, numbers of them, instead of consulting their safety orreflecting on their calamitous condition, fell to pillaging the ship, arming themselves with the first weapons that came to hand andthreatening to murder all who should oppose them. This frenzy was greatlyheightened by the liquors they found on board, with which they got soextremely drunk that some of them, tumbling down between decks, weredrowned as the water flowed in, being incapable of getting up andretreating to other places where the water had not yet entered, and thecaptain, having done his utmost to get the whole crew on shore, was atlast obliged to leave these mutineers behind him and to follow hisofficers and such as he had been able to prevail on; but he did not failto send back the boats to persuade those who remained to have some regardto their preservation, though all his efforts were for some time withoutsuccess. However the weather next day proving stormy, and there beinggreat danger of the ship's parting, they began to be alarmed with thefears of perishing, and were desirous of getting to land; but it seemstheir madness had not yet left them, for the boat not appearing to fetchthem off as soon as they expected, they at last pointed a four-pounderwhich was on the quarter-deck against the hut where they knew the captainresided on shore, and fired two shots, which passed but just over it. 

From this specimen of the behaviour of part of the crew it will not bedifficult to frame some conjecture of the disorder and anarchy which tookplace when they at last got all on shore. 

There was another important point which set the greatest part of thepeople at variance with the captain: this was their differing with him inopinion on the measures to be pursued in the present exigency, for thecaptain was determined, if possible, to fit up the boats in the bestmanner he could and to proceed with them to the northward; for havingwith him above a hundred men in health, and having got some firearms andammunition from the wreck, he did not doubt that they could master anySpanish vessel they should meet with in those seas, and he thought hecould not fail of meeting with one in the neighbourhood of Chiloe orBaldivia, in which, when he had taken her, he intended to proceed to therendezvous at Juan Fernandez; and he further insisted, that should theymeet with no prize by the way, yet the boats alone would easily carrythem there. But this was a scheme that, however prudent, was no waysrelished by the generality of his people, for, being quite jaded with thedistresses and dangers they had already run through, they could not thinkof prosecuting an enterprise further which had hitherto proved sodisastrous, and, therefore, the common resolution was to lengthen thelong-boat, and with that and the rest of the boats to steer to thesouthward, to pass through the Straits of Magellan, and to range alongthe east side of South America till they should arrive at Brazil, wherethey doubted not to be well received, and to procure a passage to GreatBritain. This project was at first sight infinitely more hazardous andtedious than what was proposed by the captain, but as it had the air ofreturning home, and flattered them with the hopes of bringing them oncemore to their native country, this circumstance alone rendered theminattentive to all its inconveniences, and made them adhere to it withinsurmountable obstinacy, so that the captain himself, though he neverchanged his opinion, was yet obliged to give way to the torrent, and inappearance to acquiesce in this resolution, whilst he endeavouredunderhand to give it all the obstruction he could, particularly in thelengthening of the long-boat, which he contrived should be of such a sizethat, though it might serve to carry them to Juan Fernandez, would yet, he hoped, appear incapable of so long a navigation as that to the coastof Brazil. 

AN UNHAPPY ACCIDENT. 

But the captain, by his steady opposition at first to this favouriteproject, had much embittered the people against him, to which, likewise, the following unhappy accident greatly contributed. There was amidshipman whose name was Cozens, who had appeared the foremost in allthe refractory proceedings of the crew. He had involved himself in brawlswith most of the officers who had adhered to the captain's authority, andhad even treated the captain himself with great abuse and insolence. Ashis turbulence and brutality grew every day more and more intolerable, itwas not in the least doubted but there were some violent measures inagitation in which Cozens was engaged as the ringleader, for which reasonthe captain and those about him constantly kept themselves on theirguard. But at last the purser having, by the captain's order, stopped theallowance of a fellow who would not work, Cozens, though the man did notcomplain to him, intermeddled in the affair with great eagerness, andgrossly insulting the purser, who was then delivering our provisions justby the captain's tent, and was himself sufficiently violent, the purser, enraged by his scurrility, and perhaps piqued by former quarrels, criedout--"A mutiny!" adding "that the dog had pistols, " and then himselffired a shot at Cozens, which, however, missed him. But the captain, onthis outcry and the report of the pistol, rushed out of his tent, and, not doubting but it had been fired by Cozens as the commencement of amutiny, he immediately shot him in the head without further deliberation, and though he did not kill him on the spot, yet the wound proved mortal, and he died about fourteen days after. 

This incident, however displeasing to the people, did yet for aconsiderable time awe them to their duty, and rendered them moresubmissive to the captain's authority. But at last, when towards themiddle of October the long-boat was nearly completed and they werepreparing to put to sea, the additional provocation he gave them bycovertly traversing their project of proceeding through the Straits ofMagellan, and their fears that he might at length engage a partysufficient to overturn this favourite measure, made them resolve to makeuse of the death of Cozens as a reason for depriving him of his command, under pretence of carrying him a prisoner to England to be tried formurder, and he was accordingly confined under a guard. But they neverintended to carry him with them, as they too well knew what they had toapprehend on their return to England if their commander should be presentto confront them, and therefore, when they were just ready to put to sea, they set him at liberty, leaving him and the few who chose to take theirfortunes with him no other embarkation but the yawl, to which the bargewas afterwards added by the people on board her being prevailed on toreturn back. 

CHAPTER 13. THE WRECK OF THE WAGER (CONTINUED)--THE ADVENTURES OF THE CAPTAIN'S PARTY. 

When the ship was wrecked there remained alive on board the Wager near ahundred and thirty persons; of these, above thirty died during their stayupon the place, and near eighty went off in the long-boat and the cutterto the southward; so that there remained with the captain, after theirdeparture, no more than nineteen persons, which, however, was as many asthe barge and the yawl--the only embarkations left them--could well carryoff. It was on the 13th of October, five months after the shipwreck, thatthe long-boat, converted into a schooner, weighed and stood to thesouthward, giving the captain who, with Lieutenant Hamilton, of the landforces, and the surgeon, was then on the beach, three cheers at theirdeparture. It was the 29th of January following before they arrived atRio Grande, on the coast of Brazil; and having by various accidents, leftabout twenty of their people on shore at the different places theytouched at, and a greater number having perished by hunger during thecourse of their navigation, there were no more than thirty of them leftwhen they arrived in that port. Indeed, the undertaking of itself was amost extraordinary one, for, not to mention the length of the run, thevessel was scarcely able to contain the number that first put to sea inher; and their stock of provisions (being only what they had saved out ofthe ship) was extremely slender; and the cutter, the only boat they hadwith them, soon broke away from the stern and was staved to pieces; sothat when their provision and their water failed them, they hadfrequently no means of getting on shore to search for a fresh supply. 

When the long-boat and cutter were gone, the captain and those who wereleft with him proposed to pass to the northward in the barge and yawl;but the weather was so bad, and the difficulty of subsisting so great, that it was two months after the departure of the long-boat before he wasable to put to sea. It seems the place where the Wager was cast away wasnot a part of the continent, as was first imagined, but an island at somedistance from the main, which afforded no other sorts of provision butshellfish and a few herbs; and as the greatest part of what they had gotfrom the ship was carried off in the long-boat, the captain and hispeople were often in great necessity, especially as they chose topreserve what little sea-provisions remained for their store when theyshould go to the northwards. 

Upon the 14th of December the captain and his people embarked in thebarge and the yawl in order to proceed to the northward, taking on boardwith them all the provisions they could amass from the wreck of a ship;but they had scarcely been an hour at sea when the wind began to blowhard, and the sea ran so high that they were obliged to throw thegreatest part of their provisions overboard to avoid immediatedestruction. 

STRUGGLING WITH DISASTER. 

This was a terrible misfortune in a part of the world where food is sodifficult to be got; however, they still persisted in their design, putting on shore as often as they could to seek subsistence. But, about afortnight after, another dreadful accident befell them, for the yawl sankat an anchor, and one of the men in her was drowned; and as the barge wasincapable of carrying the whole company, they were now reduced to thehard necessity of leaving four marines behind them on that desolateshore. But they still kept on their course to the northward, strugglingwith their disasters, and greatly delayed by the perverseness of thewinds and frequent interruptions which their search after foodoccasioned; till at last, about the end of January, having made threeunsuccessful attempts to double a headland which they supposed to be whatthe Spaniards called Cape Tres Montes, it was unanimously resolved togive over this expedition, the difficulties of which appearedinsuperable, and to return again to wager Island, where they got backabout the middle of February, quite disheartened and dejected with theirreiterated disappointments and almost perishing with hunger and fatigue. 

However, on their return they had the good luck to meet with severalpieces of beef which had been washed out of the ship and were swimming inthe sea. This was a most seasonable relief to them after the hardshipsthey had endured; and to complete their good fortune, there came in ashort time two canoes of Indians, amongst whom was a native of Chiloe whospoke a little Spanish; and the surgeon who was with Captain Cheapunderstanding that language, he made a bargain with the Indian, that ifhe would carry the captain and his people to Chiloe in the barge, heshould have her and all that belonged to her for his pains. Accordingly, on the 6th of March, the eleven persons, to which the company was nowreduced, embarked in the barge on this new expedition; but after havingproceeded for a few days, the captain and four of his principal officersbeing on shore, the six, who together with an Indian remained in thebarge, put off with her to sea and did not return. 

By this means there were left on shore Captain Cheap, Mr. Hamilton, lieutenant of marines; the Honourable Mr. Byron and Mr. Campbell, midshipman; and Mr. Elliot, the surgeon. One would have thought theirdistresses had long before this time been incapable of augmentation, butthey found, on reflection, that their present situation was much moredismaying than anything they had yet gone through, being left on adesolate coast without any provisions or the means of procuring any, fortheir arms, ammunition, and every conveniency they were masters of, except the tattered habits they had on, were all carried away in thebarge. But when they had sufficiently revolved in their own minds thevarious circumstances of this unexpected calamity, and were persuadedthat they had no relief to hope for, they perceived a canoe at adistance, which proved to be that of the Indian who had undertaken tocarry them to Chiloe, he and his family being then on board it. He madeno difficulty of coming to them, for it seems he had left Captain Cheapand his people a little before to go a-fishing, and had in the meantimecommitted them to the care of the other Indian, whom the sailors hadcarried to sea in the barge. But when he came on shore and found thebarge gone and his companion missing, he was extremely concerned, andcould with difficulty be persuaded that the other Indian was notmurdered; but being at last satisfied with the account that was givenhim, he still undertook to carry them to the Spanish settlements, and (asthe Indians are well skilled in fishing and fowling) to procure themprovisions by the way. 

CHILOE. 

About the middle of March, Captain Cheap and the four who were left withhim set out for Chiloe, the Indian having procured a number of canoes, and got many of his neighbours together for that purpose. Soon after theyembarked, Mr. Elliot, the surgeon, died, so that there now remained onlyfour of the whole company. At last, after a very complicated passage byland and water, Captain Cheap, Mr. Byron, and Mr. Campbell arrived, inthe beginning of June, at the island of Chiloe, where they were receivedby the Spaniards with great humanity; but, on account of some quarrelamong the Indians, Mr. Hamilton did not get thither till two monthsafter. Thus, above a twelvemonth after the loss of the Wager, ended thisfatiguing peregrination, which by a variety of misfortunes had diminishedthe company from twenty to no more than four, and those, too, brought solow that had their distresses continued but a few days longer, in allprobability none of them would have survived. For the captain himself waswith difficulty recovered and the rest were so reduced by the severity ofthe weather, their labour, and their want of all kinds of necessaries, that it was wonderful how they supported themselves so long. After somestay at Chiloe, the captain and the three who were with him were sent toValparaiso, and thence to Santiago, the capital of Chile where theycontinued above a year; but on the advice of a cartel being settledbetwixt Great Britain and Spain, Captain Cheap, Mr. Byron, and Mr. Hamilton were permitted to return to Europe on board a French ship. Theother midshipman, Mr. Campbell, having changed his religion whilst atSantiago, chose to go back overland to Buenos Ayres with Pizarro and hisofficers, with whom he went afterwards to Spain on board the Asia; andthere having failed in his endeavours to procure a commission from theCourt of Spain, he returned to England, and attempted to get reinstatedin the British Navy, and has since published a narration of hisadventures, in which he complains of the injustice that had been done himand strongly disavows his ever being in the Spanish service. But as thechange of his religion and his offering himself to the Court of Spain(though not accepted) are matters, which he is conscious, are capable ofbeing incontestably proved, on these two heads he has been entirelysilent. And now, after this account of the catastrophe of the Wager, Ishall again resume the thread of our own story. 

CHAPTER 14. THE LOSSES FROM SCURVY--STATE AND PROSPECTS OF THE SQUADRON. 

EXTRAORDINARY MORTALITY. 

Our people by the beginning of September were so far recovered of thescurvy that there was little danger of burying any more at present; andtherefore I shall now sum up the total of our loss since our departurefrom England, the better to convey some idea of our past sufferings andof our present strength. We had buried on board the Centurion since ourleaving St. Helens 292, and had now remaining on board 214. This willdoubtless appear a most extraordinary mortality; but yet on board theGloucester it had been much greater, for out of a much smaller crew thanours they had buried the same number, and had only eighty-two remainingalive. It might be expected that on board the Trial the slaughter wouldhave been the most terrible, as her decks were almost constantlyknee-deep in water; but it happened otherwise, for she escaped morefavourably than the rest, since she only buried forty-two, and had nowthirty-nine remaining alive. The havoc of this disease had fallen stillseverer on the invalids and marines than on the sailors; for on board theCenturion, out of fifty invalids and seventy-nine marines there remainedonly four invalids, including officers, and eleven marines; and on boardthe Gloucester every invalid perished, and out of forty-eight marinesonly two escaped. From this account it appears that the three shipstogether departed from England with 961 men on board, of whom 626 weredead before this time; so that the whole of our remaining crews, whichwere now to be distributed among three ships, amounted to no more than335 men and boys, a number greatly insufficient for manning the Centurionalone, and barely capable of navigating all the three with the utmostexertion of their strength and vigour. This prodigious reduction of ourmen was still the more terrifying as we were hitherto uncertain of thefate of Pizarro's squadron, and had reason to suppose that some part ofit at least had got round into these seas. Indeed we were satisfied fromour own experience that they must have suffered greatly in their passage;but then every port in the South Seas was open to them, and the wholepower of Chile and Peru would doubtless be united in refreshing andrefitting them, and recruiting the numbers they had lost. Besides, we hadsome obscure knowledge of a force to be fitted out at Callao; and, however contemptible the ships and sailors of this part of the world mayhave been generally esteemed, it was scarcely possible for anythingbearing the name of a ship of force to be feebler or less considerablethan ourselves. And had there been nothing to be apprehended from thenaval power of the Spaniards in this part of the world, yet our enfeebledcondition would nevertheless give us the greatest uneasiness, as we wereincapable of attempting any of their considerable places; for the riskingof twenty men, weak as we then were, was risking the safety of the whole. So that we conceived we should be necessitated to content ourselves withwhat few prizes we could pick up at sea before we were discovered, afterwhich we should in all probability be obliged to depart withprecipitation, and esteem ourselves fortunate to regain our nativecountry, leaving our enemies to triumph on the inconsiderable mischiefthey had received from a squadron whose equipment had filled them withsuch dreadful apprehensions. It is true the final event proved morehonourable than we had foreboded; but the intermediate calamities didlikewise greatly surpass our most gloomy apprehensions, and could theyhave been predicted to us at this island of Juan Fernandez, they woulddoubtless have appeared insurmountable. 

CHAPTER 15. A PRIZE--SPANISH PREPARATIONS--A NARROW ESCAPE. 

A CHASE. 

In the beginning of September, as has been already mentioned, our menwere tolerably well recovered; and now the time of navigation in thisclimate drawing near, we exerted ourselves in getting our ships inreadiness for the sea. On the 8th, about eleven in the morning, we espieda sail to the north-east, which continued to approach us till her coursesappeared even with the horizon. In this interval we all had hopes shemight prove one of our own squadron; but at length, finding she steeredaway to the eastward without hauling in for the island, we concluded shemust be a Spaniard. It was resolved to pursue her; and the Centurionbeing in the greatest forwardness, we immediately got all our hands onboard, set up our rigging, bent our sails, and by five in the afternoongot under sail. We had at this time very little wind, so that all theboats were employed to tow us out of the bay; and even what wind therewas lasted only long enough to give us an offing of two or three leagues, when it flattened to a calm. The night coming on, we lost sight of thechase, and were extremely impatient for the return of daylight, in hopesto find that she had been becalmed as well as we, though I must confessthat her greater distance from the land was a reasonable ground forsuspecting the contrary, as we indeed found in the morning, to our greatmortification; for though the weather continued perfectly clear, we hadno sight of the ship from the mast-head. But as we were now satisfiedthat it was an enemy, and the first we had seen in these seas, weresolved not to give over the search lightly; and a small breezespringing up from the west-north-west, we got up our top-gallant mastsand yards, set all the sails, and steered to the south-east, in hopes ofretrieving our chase, which we imagined to be bound to Valparaiso. Wecontinued on this course all that day and the next; and then, not gettingsight of our chase, we gave over the pursuit, conceiving that by thattime she must in all probability have reached her port. 

And now we prepared to return to Juan Fernandez, and hauled up to thesouth-west with that view, having but very little wind till the 12th, when, at three in the morning, there sprang up a fresh gale from thewest-south-west, and we tacked and stood to the north-west; and atdaybreak we were agreeably surprised with the sight of a sail on ourweather-bow, between four and five leagues distant. On this we crowdedall the sail we could, and stood after her, and soon perceived it not tobe the same ship we originally gave chase to. She at first bore down uponus, showing Spanish colours, and making a signal as to her consort; butobserving that we did not answer her signal, she instantly luffed closeto the wind and stood to the southward. Our people were now all inspirits, and put the ship about with great alacrity; and as the chaseappeared to be a large ship, and had mistaken us for her consort, weconceived that she was a man-of-war, and probably one of Pizarro'ssquadron. This induced the Commodore to order all the officers' cabins tobe knocked down and thrown overboard, with several casks of water andprovisions which stood between the guns; so that we had soon a clearship, ready for an engagement. About nine o'clock we had thick, hazyweather, and a shower of rain, during which we lost sight of the chase;and we were apprehensive, if the weather should continue, that by goingupon the other tack, or by some other artifice, she might escape us; butit clearing up in less than an hour, we found that we had both weatheredand forereached upon her considerably, and now we were near enoughdiscover that she was only a merchantman, without so much as a singletier of guns. About half an hour after twelve, being then within areasonable distance of her, we fired four shot amongst her rigging, onwhich they lowered their topsails and bore down to us, but in very greatconfusion, their top-gallant-sails and stay-sails all fluttering in thewind. This was owing to their having let run their sheets and halyardsjust as we fired at them, after which not a man amongst them had courageenough to venture aloft (for there the shot had passed but just before)to take them in. 

As soon as the vessel came within hail of us, the Commodore ordered themto bring to under his lee-quarter, and then hoisted out the boat and sentMr. Suamarez, his first lieutenant, to take possession of the prize, withdirections to send all the prisoners on board the Centurion, but firstthe officers and passengers. 

A TERRIFIED CREW. 

When Mr. Suamarez came on board them, they received him at the side withthe strongest tokens of the most abject submission, for they were all ofthem (especially the passengers, who were twenty-five in number), extremely terrified and under the greatest apprehensions of meeting withvery severe and cruel usage. But the lieutenant endeavoured with greatcourtesy to dissipate their fright, assuring them that their fears werealtogether groundless, and that they would find a generous enemy in theCommodore, who was not less remarkable for his lenity and humanity thanfor his resolution and courage. The passengers who were first sent onboard the Centurion informed us that our prize was called "Nuestra Senoradel Monte Carmelo", and was commanded by Don Manuel Zamorra. Her cargoconsisted chiefly of sugar, and great quantities of blue cloth made inthe province of Quito, somewhat resembling our English coarsebroad-cloths, but inferior to them. They had, besides, several bales of acoarser sort of cloth, of different colours, called by them Pannia daTierra, with a few bales of cotton and tobacco, which though strong wasnot ill-flavoured. These were the principal goods on board her; but wefound, besides, what was to us much more valuable than the rest of thecargo. This was some trunks of wrought plate, and twenty-three serons ofdollars, each weighing upwards of 200 pounds avoirdupois. The ship'sburthen was about 450 tons; she had fifty-three sailors on board, bothwhites and blacks; she came from Callao, and had been twenty-seven daysat sea before she fell into our hands. She was bound to the port ofValparaiso, in the kingdom of Chili, and proposed to have returned thenceloaded with corn and Chili wine, some gold, dried beef, and smallcordage, which at Callao they convert into larger rope. The prisonersinformed us that they left Callao in company with two other ships, whichthey had parted with some days before, and that at first they conceivedus to be one of their company; and by the description we gave them of theship we had chased from Juan Fernandez, they assured us she was of theirnumber, but that the coming in sight of that island was directlyrepugnant to the merchants' instructions, who had expressly forbid it, asknowing that if any English squadron was in those seas, the island ofFernandez was most probably the place of their rendezvous. 

And now it is necessary that I should relate the important intelligencewhich we met with on board her, partly from the information of theprisoners, and partly from the letters and papers which fell into ourhands. We here first learned with certainty the force and destination ofthat squadron which cruised off Madeira at our arrival there, andafterwards chased the Pearl in our passage to Port St. Julian. And wehad, at the same time, the satisfaction to find that Pizarro, after hisutmost endeavours to gain his passage into these seas, had been forcedback again into the River of Plate, with the loss of two of his largestships; and besides this disappointment of Pizarro, which considering ourgreat debility, was no unacceptable intelligence, we further learned thatan embargo had been laid upon all shipping in these seas by the Viceroyof Peru, in the month of May preceding, on a supposition that about thattime we might arrive upon the coast. But on the account sent overland byPizarro of his own distresses, part of which they knew we must haveencountered, as we were at sea during the same time, and on their havingno news of us in eight months after we were known to set sail from St. Catherine's, they were fully persuaded that we were either shipwrecked, or had perished at sea, or at least had been obliged to put back again;for it was conceived impossible for any ships to continue at sea duringso long an interval, and, therefore, on the application of the merchantsand the firm persuasion of our having miscarried, the embargo had beenlately taken off. 

A NARROW ESCAPE. 

This last article made us flatter ourselves that, as the enemy was stilla stranger to our having got round Cape Horn, and the navigation of theseseas was restored, we might meet with some considerable captures, andmight thereby indemnify ourselves for the incapacity we were now under ofattempting any of their considerable settlements on shore. And thus muchwe were certain of, from the information of our prisoners, that whateverour success might be as to the prizes we might light on, we had nothingto fear, weak as we were, from the Spanish force in this part of theworld; though we discovered that we had been in most imminent peril fromthe enemy when we least apprehended it, and when our other distresseswere at the greatest height. For we learned from the letters on boardthat Pizarro, in the express he dispatched to the Viceroy of Peru afterhis return to the River of Plate, had intimated to him that it waspossible some part at least of the English squadron might get round, butthat, as he was certain from his own experience that if they did arrivein those seas it must be in a very weak and defenceless condition, headvised the Viceroy, in order to be secure at all events, to fit out whatships of force he had, and send them to the southward, where in allprobability they would intercept us singly and before we had anopportunity of touching anywhere for refreshment, in which case hedoubted not but we should prove an easy conquest. The Viceroy of Peruapproved of this advice, and immediately fitted out four ships of forcefrom Callao, one of 50 guns, two of 40 guns, and one of 24 guns. Three ofthem were stationed off the port of Concepcion, * and one of them at theIsland of Juan Fernandez; and in these stations they continued cruisingfor us till the 6th of June, when, not seeing anything of us, andconceiving it to be impossible that we could have kept the seas so long, they quitted their cruise and returned to Callao, fully satisfied that wehad either perished or at least had been driven back. As the time oftheir quitting their station was but a few days before our arrival at theisland of Fernandez, it is evident that had we made that island on ourfirst search for it on the 28th of May, when we first expected to see it, and were in reality very near it, we had doubtless fallen in with somepart of the Spanish squadron; and in the distressed condition we werethen in the meeting with a healthy, well-provided enemy was an incidentthat could not but have been perplexing and might perhaps have provedfatal. I shall only add that these Spanish ships sent out to intercept ushad been greatly shattered by a storm during their cruise, and that, after their arrival at Callao, they had been laid up. And our prisonersassured us that whenever intelligence was received at Lima of our beingin these seas, it would be at least two months before this armament couldbe again fitted out. 

(*Note. La Concepcion in Chili, about 270 miles south of Valparaiso. )

The whole of this intelligence was as favourable as we in our reducedcircumstances could wish for; and now we were fully satisfied as to thebroken jars, ashes, and fish-bones which we had observed at our firstlanding at Juan Fernandez, these things being doubtless the relics of thecruisers stationed off that port. Having thus satisfied ourselves in thematerial articles, and having got on board the Centurion most of theprisoners and all the silver, we, at eight in the same evening, made sailto the northward, in company with our prize, and at six the next morningdiscovered the island of Juan Fernandez, where the next day both we andour prize came to an anchor. And here I cannot omit one remarkableincident which occurred when the prize and her crew came into the baywhere the rest of the squadron lay. The Spaniards in the Carmelo had beensufficiently informed of the distresses we had gone through, and weregreatly surprised that we had ever surmounted them; but when they saw theTrial sloop at anchor they were still more astonished, and it was withgreat difficulty they were prevailed on to believe that she came fromEngland with the rest of the squadron, they at first insisting that itwas impossible such a bauble as that could pass round Cape Horn when thebest ships of Spain were obliged to put back. 

CHAPTER 16. THE COMMODORE'S PLANS--ANOTHER PRIZE--THE TRIAL DESTROYED. 

By the time we arrived at Juan Fernandez the letters found on board ourprize were more minutely examined; and it appearing from them and fromthe accounts of our prisoners that several other merchantmen were boundfrom Callao to Valparaiso, Mr. Anson despatched the Trial sloop the verynext morning to cruise off the last-mentioned port, reinforcing her withten hands from on board his own ship. Mr. Anson likewise resolved, on theintelligence recited above, to separate the ships under his command andemploy them in distinct cruises, as he thought that by this means weshould not only increase our chance for prizes, but that we shouldlikewise run less risk of alarming the coast and of being discovered. 

THE LAST LEAVE OF JUAN FERNANDEZ. 

And now, the spirits of our people being greatly raised and theirdespondency dissipated by this earnest of success, they forgot all theirpast distresses and resumed their wonted alacrity, and labouredindefatigably in completing our water, receiving our lumber, andpreparing to take our farewell of the island. But as these occupationstook us up four or five days, with all our industry, the Commodore inthat interval directed that the guns belonging to the Anna pink*, beingfour 6-pounders, four 4-pounders, and two swivels, should be mounted onboard the Carmelo, our prize; and having sent on board the Gloucester sixpassengers and twenty-three seaman to assist in navigating the ship, hedirected Captain Mitchel to leave the island as soon as possible, theservice requiring the utmost despatch, ordering him to proceed to thelatitude of 5 degrees south, and there to cruise off the high land ofPaita, at such a distance from shore as should prevent his beingdiscovered. On this station he was to continue till he should be joinedby the Commodore, which would be whenever it should be known that theViceroy had fitted out the ships at Callao, or on Mr. Anson's receivingany other intelligence that should make it necessary to unite ourstrength. These orders being delivered to the captain of the Gloucester, and all our business completed, we on the Saturday following, being the19th of September, weighed our anchor in company with our prize, and gotout of the bay, taking our last leave of the island of Juan Fernandez, and steering to the eastward, with an intention of joining the Trialsloop in her station off Valparaiso. 

(*Note. The Anna pink being no longer seaworthy, was broken up at JuanFernandez. )

On the 24th, a little before sunset, we saw two sail to the eastward, onwhich our prize stood directly from us, to avoid giving any suspicion ofour being cruisers; whilst we in the meantime made ourselves ready for anengagement, and steered towards the two ships we had discovered with allour canvas. We soon perceived that one of these which had the appearanceof being a very stout ship made directly for us, whilst the other kept ata very great distance. By seven o'clock we were within pistol-shot of thenearest, and had a broadside ready to pour into her, the gunners havingtheir matches in their hands, and only waiting for orders to fire; but aswe knew it was now impossible for her to escape us, Mr. Anson, before hepermitted them to fire, ordered the master to hail the ship in Spanish, on which the commanding officer on board her, who proved to be Mr. Hughes, lieutenant of the Trial, answered us in English, and informed usthat she was a prize taken by the Trial a few days before, and that theother sail at a distance was the Trial herself, disabled in her masts. Wewere soon after joined by the Trial and Captain Saunders, her commander, came on board the Centurion. He informed the Commodore that he had takenthis ship the 18th instant, that she was a prime sailer, and had cost himthirty-six hours' chase before he could come up with her; that for sometime he gained so little upon her that he began to despair of taking her;and the Spaniards, though alarmed at first with seeing nothing but acloud of sail in pursuit of them, the Trial's hull being so low in thewater that no part of it appeared, yet knowing the goodness of theirship, and finding how little the Trial neared them, they at length laidaside their fears, and recommending themselves to the blessed Virgin forprotection, began to think themselves secure. And indeed, their successwas very near doing honour to their Ave Marias;* for altering theircourse in the night and shutting up their windows to prevent any of theirlights from being seen, they had some chance of escaping. But a smallcrevice in one of the shutters rendered all their invocationsineffectual, for through this crevice the people on board the Trialperceived a light, which they chased till they arrived within gun shot, and then Captain Saunders alarmed them unexpectedly with a broadside whenthey flattered themselves they were got out of his reach. However, forsome time after, they still kept the same sail abroad, and it was notobserved that this first salute had made any impression on them; but justas the Trial was preparing to repeat her broadside, the Spaniards creptfrom their holes, lowered their sails, and submitted without anyopposition. She was one of the largest merchantmen employed in thoseseas, being about six hundred tons burthen, and was called the"Arranzazu". She was bound from Callao to Valparaiso, and had much thesame cargo with the Carmelo we had taken before, except that her silveramounted only to about 5000 pounds sterling. 

(*Note. Ave Maria (Hail Mary!) are the opening words of a Roman Catholicprayer to the Virgin Mary. )

THE TRIAL DISABLED. 

But to balance this success we had the misfortune to find that the Trialhad sprung her mainmast, and that her maintopmast had come by the board;and as we were all of us standing to the eastward the next morning, witha fresh gale at south, she had the additional ill-luck to spring herforemast; so that now she had not a mast left on which she could carrysail. These unhappy incidents were still further aggravated by theimpossibility we were just then under of assisting her; for the wind blewso hard, and raised such a hollow sea, that we could not venture to hoistout our boat, and consequently could have no communication with her; sothat we were obliged to lie to for the greatest part of forty-eight hoursto attend her. 

The weather proving somewhat more dominate on the 27th, we sent our boatfor the captain of the Trial, who, when he came on board us, produced aninstrument, signed by himself and all his officers, representing that thesloop, besides being dismasted, was so very leaky in her hull that evenin moderate weather it was necessary to keep the pumps constantly atwork, and that they were then scarcely sufficient to keep her free; sothat in the late gale, though they had all been engaged at the pumps byturns, yet the water had increased upon them; and, upon the whole, theyapprehended her to be at present so very defective that if they met withmuch bad weather they must all inevitably perish, and therefore theypetitioned the Commodore to take some measures for their future safety. But the refitting of the Trial and the repairing of her defects was anundertaking that in the present conjuncture greatly exceeded his power;and besides, it would have been extreme imprudence in so critical ajuncture to have loitered away so much time as would have been necessaryfor these operations. The Commodore, therefore, had no choice left himbut that of taking out her people and destroying her; but at the sametime, as he conceived it necessary for His Majesty's Service to keep upthe appearance of our force, he appointed the Trial's prize (which hadbeen often employed by the Viceroy of Peru as a man-of-war) to be afrigate in His Majesty's Service, manning her with the Trial's crew andgiving new commissions to the captain and all the inferior officersaccordingly. This new frigate, when in the Spanish service, had mountedthirty-two guns, but she was now to have only twenty, which were thetwelve that were on board the Trial, and eight that had belonged to theAnna pink. When this affair was thus far regulated, Mr. Anson gave ordersto Captain Saunders to put it in execution, directing him to take out ofthe sloop the arms, stores, ammunition, and everything that could be ofany use to the other ships, and then to scuttle her and sink her. Andafter Captain Saunders had seen her destroyed he was to proceed with hisnew frigate (to be called the Trial's prize) and to cruise off the highland of Valparaiso, keeping it from him north-north-west, at the distanceof twelve or fourteen leagues. For as all ships bound from Valparaiso tothe northward steer that course, Mr. Anson proposed by this means to stopany intelligence that might be despatched to Callao of two of their shipsbeing missing, which might give them apprehensions of the Englishsquadron being in their neighbourhood. The Trial's prize was to continueon this station twenty-four days and if not joined by the Commodore atthe expiration of that term, she was then to proceed down the coast toPisco, or Nasca, where she would be certain to meet with Mr. Anson. TheCommodore likewise ordered Lieutenant Suamarez who commanded theCenturion's prize, to keep company with Captain Saunders both to assisthim in unloading the sloop, and also that, by spreading in their cruise, there might be less danger of any of the enemy's ships slipping byunobserved. These orders being despatched, the Centurion parted from themat eleven in the evening on the 27th of September, directing her courseto the southward, with a view of cruising for some days to the windwardof Valparaiso. 

CHAPTER 17. MORE CAPTURES--ALARM OF THE COAST--PAITA. 

DISAPPOINTMENT. 

Though, after leaving Captain Saunders, we were very expeditious inregaining our station, where we got the 29th at noon, yet in plying onand off till the 6th of October we had not the good fortune to discover asail of any sort, and then, having lost all hopes of making any advantageby a longer stay, we made sail to the leeward of the port in order tojoin our prizes; but when we arrived on the station appointed for them wedid not meet with them, though we continued there four or five days. Wesupposed that some chase had occasioned their leaving the station, andtherefore we proceeded down the coast to the high land of Nasca, whereCaptain Saunders was directed to join us. Here we arrived on the 21st, and were in great expectation of meeting with some of the enemy's shipson the coast, as both the accounts of former voyages and the informationof our prisoners assured us that all ships bound to Callao constantlymake this land, to prevent the danger of running to the leeward of theport. But notwithstanding the advantages of this station we saw no sailtill the 2nd of November, when two ships appeared in sight together. Weimmediately gave them chase, but soon perceived that they were theTrial's and Centurion's prizes. We found they had not been more fortunatein their cruise than we were, for they had seen no vessel since theyseparated from us. 

We bore away the same afternoon, taking particular care to keep at such adistance from the shore that there might be no danger of our beingdiscovered from thence. 

By the 5th of November, at three in the afternoon, we were advancedwithin view of the high land of Barranca, and an hour and a halfafterwards we had the satisfaction we had so long wished for, of seeing asail. She first appeared to leeward, and we all immediately gave herchase; but the Centurion so much out sailed the two prizes that we soonran them out of sight, and gained considerably on the chase. However, night coming on before we came up to her, we about seven o'clock lostsight of her, and were in some perplexity what course to steer; but atlast Mr. Anson resolved, as we were then before the wind, to keep all hissails set and not to change his course. For though we had no doubt butthe chase would alter her course in the night, yet, as it was uncertainwhat tack she would go upon, it was thought more prudent to keep on ourcourse, as we must by this means unavoidably near her, than to change iton conjecture, when, if we should mistake, we must infallibly lose her. Thus, then, we continued the chase about an hour and a half in the dark, someone or other on board us constantly imagining they discerned hersails right ahead of us; but at last Mr. Brett, then our secondlieutenant, did really discover her about four points on thelarboard-bow, steering off to the seaward. We immediately clapped thehelm a-weather and stood for her, and in less than an hour came up withher, and having fired fourteen shots at her, she struck. Our thirdlieutenant, Mr. Dennis, was sent in the boat with sixteen men to takepossession of the prize and to return the prisoners to our ship. Thisship was named the "Santa Teresa de Jesus", built at Guayaquil, of aboutthree hundred tons burthen, and was commanded by Bartolome Urrunaga, aBiscayer. She was bound from Guayaquil to Callao; her loading consistedof timber, cacao, cocoa-nuts, tobacco, hides, Pito thread (which is verystrong and is made of a species of grass) Quito cloth, wax, etc. Thespecie on board her was inconsiderable, being principally small silvermoney and not amounting to more than 170 pounds sterling. It is true hercargo was of great value, could we have disposed of it, but the Spaniardshaving strict orders never to ransom their ships, all the goods that wetook in these seas, except what little we had occasion for ourselves, were of no advantage to us. Indeed, though we could make no profitthereby ourselves, it was some satisfaction to us to consider that it wasso much really lost to the enemy, and that the despoiling them was nocontemptible branch of that service in which we were now employed by ourcountry. 

I have before observed that at the beginning of this chase the Centurionran her two consorts out of sight, for which reason we lay by all thenight, after we had taken the prize, for Captain Saunders and LieutenantSuamarez to join us, firing guns and making false fires every half-hourto prevent their passing us unobserved; but they were so far astern thatthey neither heard nor saw any of our signals and were not able to comeup with us till broad daylight. When they had joined us we proceededtogether to the northward, being now four sail in company. 

DESPOILING THE SPANIARDS. 

On the 10th of November we were three leagues south of the southernmostisland of Lobos, lying in the latitude of 6 degrees 27 minutes south. Wewere now drawing near to the station appointed to the Gloucester, forwhich reason, fearing to miss her, we made an easy sail all night. Thenext morning at daybreak, we saw a ship in shore, and to windward, plyingup to the coast. She had passed by us with the favour of the night, andwe, soon perceiving her not to be the Gloucester, gave her chase; but itproving very little wind, so that neither of us could make much way, theCommodore ordered the barge, his pinnace, and the Trial's pinnace to bemanned and armed, and to pursue the chase and board her. LieutenantBrett, who commanded the barge, came up with her first, about nineo'clock, and running alongside of her, he fired a volley of small shotbetween the masts, just over the heads of the people on board, and theninstantly entered with the greatest part of his men; but the enemy madeno resistance, being sufficiently frightened by the dazzling of thecutlasses, and the volley they had just received. Lieutenant Brettordered the sails to be trimmed, and bore down to the Commodore, takingup in his way the two pinnaces. When he was arrived within about fourmiles of us, he put off in the barge, bringing with him a number ofprisoners who had given him some material intelligence, which he wasdesirous the Commodore should be acquainted with as soon as possible. Onhis arrival we learned that the prize was called "Nuestra Senora delCarmen", of about two hundred and seventy tons burthen; she was commandedby Marcos Morena, a native of Venice, and had on board forty-threemariners. She was deep laden with steel, iron, wax, pepper, cedar, plank, snuff, rosaries, European bale goods, powder-blue, cinnamon, Romishindulgences, and other species of merchandise. And though this cargo, inour present circumstances was but of little value to us, yet with respectto the Spaniards it was the most considerable capture that fell into ourhands in this part of the world; for it amounted to upwards of 400, 000dollars prime cost at Panama. This ship was bound to Callao, and hadstopped at Paita in her passage to take in a recruit of water andprovisions, and had not left that place above twenty-four hours beforeshe fell into our hands. 

IMPORTANT INTELLIGENCE. 

I have mentioned that Mr. Brett had received some important intelligencefrom the prisoners, which he endeavoured to acquaint the Commodore withimmediately. The first person he received it from (though upon furtherexamination it was confirmed by the other prisoners) was one JohnWilliams, an Irishman, whom he found on board the Spanish vessel. Williams was a Papist, who worked his passage from Cadiz, and hadtravelled over all the kingdom of Mexico as a pedlar. He pretended thatby this business he got 4, 000 or 5, 000 dollars; but that he wasembarrassed by the priests, who knew he had money, and was at laststripped of all he had. He was, indeed, at present all in rags, being butjust got out of Paita gaol, where he had been confined for somemisdemeanour; he expressed great joy upon seeing his countrymen, andimmediately informed them that a few days before a vessel came intoPaita, where the master of her informed the Governor that he had beenchased in the offing by a very large ship, which, from her size and thecolour of her sails, he was persuaded must be one of the Englishsquadron. This we then conjectured to have been the Gloucester, as weafterwards found it was. The Governor, upon examining the master, wasfully satisfied of his relation, and immediately sent away an express toLima to acquaint the Viceroy therewith; and the royal officer residing atPaita, being apprehensive of a visit from the English, was busilyemployed in removing the King's treasure and his own to Piura, a townwithin land about fourteen leagues distant. We further learned from ourprisoners that there was a very considerable sum of money, belonging tosome merchants at Lima, that was now lodged at the custom-house at Paita;and that this was intended to be shipped on board a vessel which was thenin the port of Paita, and was preparing to sail with the utmostexpedition, being bound for the Bay of Sonsonnate, on the coast ofMexico, in order to purchase a part of the cargo of the Manila ship. *This vessel at Paita was esteemed a prime sailer, and had just received anew coat of tallow on her bottom; and, in the opinion of the prisoners, she might be able to sail the succeeding morning. 

(*Note. A full account of the Manila ship will be found in Chapter 22below. )

The character they gave us of this vessel, on which the money was to beshipped, left us little reason to believe that our ship, which had beenin the water near two years, could have any chance of coming up with her, if we once suffered her to escape out of the port. And therefore, as wewere now discovered, and the coast would be soon alarmed, and as ourcruising in these parts any longer would answer no purpose, the Commodoreresolved to surprise the place, having first minutely informed himself ofits strength and condition, and being fully satisfied that there waslittle danger of losing many of our men in the attempt. 

CHAPTER 18. THE ATTACK ON PAITA. 

The town of Paita is situated in the latitude of 5 degrees 12 minutessouth, in a most barren soil, composed only of sand and slate; the extentof it is but small, containing in all less than two hundred families. Thehouses are only ground floors, the walls built of split cane and mud, andthe roofs thatched with leaves. These edifices, though extremely slight, are abundantly sufficient for a climate where rain is considered as aprodigy, and is not seen in many years; so that it is said that a smallquantity of rain falling in this country in the year 1728, it ruined agreat number of buildings, which mouldered away, and, as it were, meltedbefore it. The inhabitants of Paita are principally Indians and blackslaves, or at least a mixed breed, the whites being very few. The port ofPaita, though in reality little more than a bay, is esteemed the best onthat part of the coast, and is indeed a very secure and commodiousanchorage. It is greatly frequented by all vessels coming from the north, since it is here only that the ships from Acapulco, Sonsonnate, Realejoand Panama can touch and refresh in their passage to Callao; and thelength of these voyages (the wind for the greatest part of the year beingfull against them) renders it impossible to perform them without callingupon the coast for a recruit of fresh water. It is true, Paita issituated on so parched a spot that it does not itself furnish a drop offresh water, or any kind of greens or provisions, except fish and a fewgoats; but there is an Indian town called Colan, about two or threeleagues distant to the northward, whence water, maize, greens, fowls, etc. , are brought to Paita on balsas, or floats, for the convenience ofthe ships that touch here; and cattle are sometimes brought from Piura, atown which lies about fourteen leagues up in the country. The town ofPaita is itself an open place; its sole protection and defence is a smallfort near the shore of the bay. It was of consequence to us to be wellinformed of the fabric and strength of this fort; and by the examinationof our prisoners we found that there were eight pieces of cannon mountedin it, but that it had neither ditch nor out work, being only surroundedby a plain brick wall; and that the garrison consisted of only one weakcompany, but the town itself might possibly arm three hundred men more. 

PREPARING FOR A NIGHT ATTACK. 

Mr. Anson having informed himself of the strength of the place, resolvedto attempt it that very night. We were then about twelve leagues distantfrom the shore, far enough to prevent our being discovered, yet not sofar but that, by making all the sail we could, we might arrive in the baywith our ships in the night. However, the Commodore prudently consideredthat this would be an improper method of proceeding, as our ships, beingsuch large bodies, might be easily discovered at a distance even in thenight, and might thereby alarm the inhabitants and give them anopportunity of removing their valuable effects. He therefore, as thestrength of the place did not require our whole force, resolved toattempt it with our boats only, ordering the eighteen-oared barge and ourown and the Trial's pinnaces on that service; and having picked outfifty-eight men to man them, well provided with arms and ammunition, hegave the command of the expedition to Lieutenant Brett, and gave him hisnecessary orders. And the better to prevent the disappointment andconfusion which might arise from the darkness of the night and theignorance of the streets and passages of the place, two of the Spanishpilots were ordered to attend the lieutenant and to conduct him to themost convenient landing-place, and were afterwards to be his guides onshore. And that we might have the greater security for their faithfulbehaviour on this occasion, the Commodore took care to assure all ourprisoners that if the pilots acted properly they should all of them bereleased and set on shore at this place; but in case of any misconduct ortreachery, he threatened them that the pilots should be instantly shotand that he would carry all the rest of the Spaniards who were on boardhim prisoners to England. 

During our preparations the ships themselves stood towards the port withall the sail they could make, being secure that we were yet at too greata distance to be seen. But about ten o'clock at night, the ships beingthen within five leagues of the place, Lieutenant Brett, with the boatsunder his command, put off, and arrived at the mouth of the bay withoutbeing discovered; but no sooner had he entered it than some of the peopleon board a vessel riding at anchor there perceived him, who instantly putoff in their boat, rowing towards the fort, shouting and crying, "TheEnglish! the English dogs!" by which the whole town was suddenly alarmed;and our people soon observed several lights hurrying backwards andforwards in the fort and other marks of the inhabitants being in greatmotion. Lieutenant Brett on this encouraged his men to pull briskly up tothe shore, that they might give the enemy as little time as possible toprepare for their defence. However, before our boats could reach theshore, the people in the fort had got ready some of their cannon andpointed them towards the landing-place; and though in the darkness of thenight it might be well supposed that chance had a greater share thanskill in their direction, yet the first shot passed extremely near one ofthe boats, whistling just over the heads of the crew. This made ourpeople redouble their efforts, so that they had reached the shore, andwere in part disembarked by the time the second gun fired. As soon as ourmen landed they were conducted by one of the Spanish pilots to theentrance of a narrow street, not above fifty yards distant from thebeach, where they were covered from the fire of the fort; and beingformed in the best manner the shortness of the time would allow, theyimmediately marched for the parade, which was a large square at the endof this stree, the fort being one side of the square and the Governor'shouse another. In this march (though performed with tolerable regularity)the shouts and clamours of three-score sailors who had been confined solong on ship-board, and were now for the first time on shore in anenemy's country--joyous as they always are when they land, and animatedbesides in the present case with the hopes of an immense pillage--thehuzzahs, I say, of this spirited detachment, joined with the noise oftheir drums and favoured by the night, had augmented their numbers, inthe opinion of the enemy, to at least three hundred; by which persuasionthe inhabitants were so greatly intimidated that they were much moresolicitous about the means of their flight than of their resistance. Sothat though upon entering the parade our people received a volley fromthe merchants who owned the treasure then in the town, and who, with afew others, had ranged themselves in a gallery that ran round theGovernor's house, yet that post was immediately abandoned upon the firstfire made by our people, who were thereby left in quiet possession of theparade. 

A SMART PIECE OF WORK. 

On this success Lieutenant Brett divided his men into two parties, ordering one of them to surround the Governor's house, and, if possible, to secure the Governor, whilst he himself with the other marched to thefort with an intent to force it. But, contrary to his expectation, heentered it without opposition; for the enemy, on his approach, abandonedit, and made their escape over the walls. By this means the whole placewas mastered in less than a quarter of an hour's time from the firstlanding, with no other loss than that of one man killed on the spot andtwo wounded, one of whom was the Spanish pilot of the Teresa, whoreceived a slight bruise by a ball which grazed on his wrist. Indeed, another of the company, the Honourable Mr. Keppel. Son to the Earl ofAlbemarle, had a very narrow escape; for having on a jockey cap, one sideof the peak was shaved off close to his temple by a ball, which, however, did him no other injury. And now Lieutenant Brett, after this success, placed a guard at the fort, and another at the Governor's house, andappointed sentinels at all the avenues of the town, both to prevent anysurprise from the enemy, and to secure the effects in the place frombeing embezzled. And this being done, his next care was to seize on thecustom-house where the treasure lay, and to examine if any of theinhabitants remained in the town, that he might know what furtherprecautions it was necessary to take. But he soon found that the numbersleft behind were no ways formidable; for the greatest part of them (beingin bed when the place was surprised) had run away with so muchprecipitation that they had not given themselves time to put on theirclothes. And in this precipitate rout the Governor was not the last tosecure himself for he fled betimes, half-naked. The few inhabitants whoremained were confined in one of the churches under a guard, except somestout Negroes who were found in the place. These, instead of being shutup, were employed the remaining part of the night to assist in carryingthe treasure from the custom-house and other places to the fort. However, there was care taken that they should be always attended by a file ofmusketeers. 

The transporting the treasure from the custom-house to the fort was theprincipal occupation of Mr. Brett's people after he had got possession ofthe place. But the sailors, while they were thus employed, could not beprevented from entering the houses which lay near them in search ofprivate pillage. And the first things which occurred to them being theclothes which the Spaniards in their flight had left behind them, andwhich, according to the custom of the country, were most of them eitherembroidered or laced, our people eagerly seized these glittering habits, and put them on over their own dirty trousers and jackets; notforgetting, at the same time, the tie or bag-wig, and laced hat, whichwere generally found with the clothes. When this practice was once begunthere was no preventing the whole detachment from imitating it; and thosewho came latest into the fashion, not finding men's clothes sufficient toequip themselves, were obliged to take up with women's gowns andpetticoats, which (provided there was finery enough) they made no scrupleof putting on and blending with their own greasy dress. So that, when aparty of them thus ridiculously metamorphosed first appeared before Mr. Brett, he was extremely surprised at their appearance and could notimmediately be satisfied they were his own people. 

CHAPTER 19. THE ATTACK ON PAITA (CONTINUED)--KIND TREATMENT AND RELEASE OF THE PRISONERS--THEIR GRATITUDE. 

These were the transactions of our detachment on shore at Paita the firstnight; and now to return to what was done on board the Centurion in thatinterval. I must observe that after the boats were gone off we lay bytill one o'clock in the morning, and then, supposing our detachment to benear landing, we made an easy sail for the bay. About seven in themorning we began to open the bay, and soon after we had a view of thetown; and though we had no reason to doubt of the success of theenterprise, yet it was with great joy that we first discovered aninfallible signal of the certainty of our hopes: this was by means of ourperspectives, for through them we saw an English flag hoisted on theflagstaff of the fort, which to us was an incontestable proof that ourpeople had got possession of the town. We plied into the bay with as muchexpedition as the wind, which then blew off shore, would permit us, andat eleven the Trial's boat came on board us, laden with dollars andchurch-plate; and the officer who commanded her informed us of thepreceding night's transactions, such as we have already related them. About two in the afternoon we came to an anchor in ten fathoms and ahalf, at a mile and a half distance from the town, and were consequentlynear enough to have a more immediate intercourse with those on shore. 

COLLECTING THE TREASURE. 

And now we found that Mr. Brett had hitherto gone on in collecting andremoving the treasure without interruption; but that the enemy hadrendezvoused from all parts of the country on a hill at the back of thetown, where they made no inconsiderable appearance; for, amongst the restof their force, there were two hundred horse, seemingly very well armedand mounted, and, as we conceived, properly trained and regimented, beingfurnished with trumpets, drums, and standards. These troops paraded aboutthe hill with great ostentation, sounding their military music andpractising every art to intimidate us (as our numbers on shore were bythis time not unknown to them), in hopes that we might be induced by ourfears to abandon the place before the pillage was completed. But we werenot so ignorant as to believe that this body of horse, which seemed to bewhat the enemy principally depended on, would dare to venture in streetsand among houses, even had their numbers been three times as great; andtherefore, notwithstanding their menaces, we went on, as long as thedaylight lasted, calmly, in sending off the treasure and in employing theboats to carry on board the refreshments such as hogs, fowls, etc. , whichwe found here in great abundance. But at night, to prevent any surprise, the Commodore sent on shore a reinforcement, who posted themselves in allthe streets leading to the parade; and for their greater security theytraversed the streets with barricades six feet high; and the enemycontinuing quiet all night, we at daybreak returned again to our labourof loading the boats and sending them off. 

On the second day of our being in possession of the place, several negroslaves deserted from the enemy on the hill, and coming into the town, voluntarily entered into our service. One of these was well known to agentleman on board, who remembered him formerly at Panama. And theSpaniards without the town being in extreme want of water, many of theirslaves crept into the place by stealth and carried away several jars ofwater to their masters on the hill; and though some of them were seizedby our men in the attempt, yet the thirst amongst the enemy was sopressing that they continued this practice till we left the place. Andnow, on this second day, we were assured, both by the deserters and bythese prisoners we took, that the Spaniards on the hill, who were by thistime increased to a formidable number, had resolved to storm the town andfort the succeeding night, and that one Gordon, a Scotch Papist andcaptain of a ship in those seas, was to have the command of thisenterprise. But we, notwithstanding, continued sending off our boats, andprosecuted our work without the least hurry or precipitation till theevening; and then a reinforcement was again sent on shore by theCommodore, and Lieutenant Brett doubled his guards at each of thebarricades; and our posts being connected by means of sentinels placedwithin call of each other, and the whole being visited by frequentrounds, attended with a drum, these marks of our vigilance cooled theirresolution and made them forget the vaunts of the preceding day; so thatwe passed the second night with as little molestation as we had done thefirst. 

We had finished sending the treasure on board the Centurion the eveningbefore, so that the third morning, being the 15th of November, the boatswere employed in carrying off the most valuable part of the effects thatremained in the town. And the Commodore intending to sail this day, heabout ten o'clock, pursuant to his promise, sent all his prisoners, amounting to eighty-eight, on shore, giving orders to Lieutenant Brett tosecure them in one of the churches under a strict guard till he was readyto embark his men. 

THE BURNING OF PAITA. 

Mr. Brett was at the same time ordered to set the whole town on fire, except the two churches (which by good fortune stood at some distancefrom the other houses), and then he was to abandon the place and to comeon board. These orders were punctually complied with, for Mr. Brettimmediately set his men to work to distribute pitch, tar, and othercombustibles (of which great quantities were found here) into housessituated in different streets of the town, so that, the place being firedin many quarters at the same time, the destruction might be more violentand sudden, and the enemy, after our departure, might not be able toextinguish it. These preparations being made, he in the next placeordered the cannon which he found in the fort to be nailed up; and then, setting fire to those houses which were most windward, he collected hismen and marched towards the beach, where the boats waited to carry themoff. And the part of the beach where he intended to embark being an openplace without the town, the Spaniards on the hill, perceiving he wasretreating, resolved to try if they could not precipitate his departure. For this purpose a small squadron of their horse, consisting of aboutsixty, picked out as I suppose for this service, marched down the hillwith much seeming resolution; so that, had we not been prepossessed witha juster opinion of their prowess, we might have suspected that, now wewere on the open beach with no advantage of situation, they wouldcertainly have charged us. But we presumed (and we were not mistaken)that this was mere ostentation; for, notwithstanding the pomp and paradethey advanced with, Mr. Brett had no sooner ordered his men to halt andface about, but the enemy stopped their career and never dared to advancea step farther. 

Our detachment under Lieutenant Brett having safely joined the squadron, the Commodore prepared to leave the place the same evening. 

ENGLISH HUMANITY. 

There remains, before I take leave of this place, another particularityto be mentioned, which, on account of the great honour which our nationalcharacter in those parts has thence received, and the reputation whichour Commodore in particular has thereby acquired, merits a distinct andcircumstantial discussion. It has been already related that all theprisoners taken by us in our preceding prizes were put on shore anddischarged at this place; amongst which there were some persons ofconsiderable distinction, particularly a youth of about seventeen yearsof age, son of the Vice-President of the Council of Chili. As thebarbarity of the buccaneers, and the artful use the ecclesiastics hadmade of it, had filled the natives of those countries with the mostterrible ideas of the English cruelty, we always found our prisoners attheir first coming on board us, to be extremely dejected and under greathorror and anxiety. In particular, this youth whom I last mentioned, having never been from home before, lamented his captivity in the mostmoving manner, regretting in very plaintive terms his parents, hisbrothers, his sisters, and his native country, of all which he was fullypersuaded he had taken his last farewell, believing that he was nowdevoted for the remaining part of his life to an abject and cruelservitude; nore was he singular in his fears, for his companions onboard, and indeed all the Spaniards that came into our power, had thesame desponding opinion of their situation. Mr. Anson constantly exertedhis utmost endeavours to efface these in human impressions they hadreceived of us, always taking care that as many of the principal peopleamong them as there was room for should dine at his table by turns, andgiving the strictest orders, too, that they should at all times and inevery circumstance be treated with the utmost decency and humanity. But, notwithstanding this precaution, it was generally observed that for thefirst day or two they did not quit their fears, but suspected thegentleness of their usage to be only preparatory to some unthought-ofcalamity. However, being confirmed by time, they grew perfectly easy intheir situation and remarkably cheerful, so that it was often disputablewhether or no they considered their being detained by us as a misfortune. For the youth I have above mentioned, who was near two months on boardus, had at last so far conquered his melancholy surmises, and had takensuch an affection to Mr. Anson, and seemed so much pleased with themanner of life, totally different from all he had ever seen before, thatit is doubtful to me whether if his opinion had been taken, he would nothave preferred a voyage to England in the Centurion to the being set onshore at Paita, where he was at liberty to return to his country and hisfriends. 

This conduct of the Commodore to his prisoners, which was continuedwithout interruption or deviation, gave them all the highest idea of hishumanity and benevolence, and induced them likewise (as mankind are fondof forming general opinions) to entertain very favourable thoughts of thewhole English nation. 

All the prisoners left us with the strongest assurances of their gratefulremembrance of his uncommon treatment. A Jesuit, in particular, whom theCommodore had taken, and who was an ecclesiastic of some distinction, could not help expressing himself with great thankfulness for thecivilities he and his countrymen had found on board, declaring that heshould consider it as his duty to do Mr. Anson justice at all times. 

CHAPTER 20. A CLEVER TRICK. WATERING AT QUIBO. CATCHING THE TURTLE. 

When we got under sail from the road of Paita we stood to the westward, and in the morning the Commodore gave orders that the whole squadronshould spread themselves, in order to look out for the Gloucester; for wenow drew near to the station where Captain Mitchel had been directed tocruise, and hourly expected to get sight of him, but the whole day passedwithout seeing him. 

DOLLARS AMONGST THE COTTON. 

At night having no sight of the Gloucester, the Commodore ordered thesquadron to bring to, that we might not pass her in the dark. The nextmorning we again looked out for her, and at ten we saw a sail, to whichwe gave chase, and at two in the afternoon we came near enough her todiscover her to be the Gloucester, with a small vessel in tow. About anhour after we were joined by them, and then we learned that CaptainMitchel in the whole time of his cruise, had only taken two prizes, oneof them being a small snow, whose cargo consisted chiefly of wine, brandy, and olives in jars, with about 7, 000 pounds in specie; and theother a large boat or launch which the Gloucester's barge came up withnear the shore. The prisoners on board this vessel alleged that they werevery poor and that their loading consisted only of cotton, though thecircumstances in which the barge surprised them seemed to insinuate thatthey were more opulent than they pretended to be, for the Gloucester'speople found them at dinner upon pigeon-pie served up in silver dishes. However, the officer who commanded the barge having opened several of thejars on board to satisfy his curiosity, and finding nothing in them butcotton, he was inclined to believe the account the prisoners gave him;but the cargo being taken into the Gloucester, and there examined morestrictly, they were agreeably surprised to find that the whole was a veryextraordinary piece of false package, and that there was concealedamongst the cotton, in every jar, a considerable quantity of doubledoubloons and dollars to the amount, in the whole, of near 12, 000 pounds. This treasure was going to Paita, and belonged to the same merchants whowere the proprietors of the greatest part of the money we had takenthere; so that, had this boat escaped the Gloucester, it is probable hercargo would have fallen into our hands. Besides these two prizes which wehave mentioned, the Gloucester's people told us that they had been insight of two or three other ships of the enemy, which had escaped them;and one of them, we had reason to believe from some of our intelligence, was of an immense value. 

Being now joined by the Gloucester and her prize, it was resolved that weshould stand to the northwards, and get as soon as possible to thesouthern parts of California, or to the adjacent coast of Mexico, thereto cruise for the Manila galleon, which we knew was now at sea, bound tothe port of Acapulco. And we doubted not to get on that station timeenough to intercept her, for this ship does not usually arrive atAcapulco till towards the middle of January, and we were now but in themiddle of November, and did not conceive that our passage thither wouldcost us above a month or five weeks; so that we imagined we had neartwice as much time as was necessary for our purpose. Indeed there was abusiness which we foresaw would occasions some delay, but we flatteredourselves that it would be despatched in four or five days, and thereforecould not interrupt our project. This was the recruiting of our water. Itwas for some time a matter of deliberation where we should take in thisnecessary article, but by consulting the accounts of former navigators, and examining our prisoners, we at last resolved for the island of Quibo, situated at the mouth of the Bay of Panama. 

Having determined, therefore, to go to Quibo, we directed our course tothe northward. 

On the 25th we had a sight of the island of Gallo, and hence we crossedthe Bay of Panama. Being now in a rainy climate, which we had been longdisused to, we found it necessary to caulk the sides of the Centurion, toprevent the rain-water from running into her. On the 3rd of December wehad a view of the island of Quibo, and at seven in the evening of the 5thwe came to an anchor in thirty-three fathoms. 

The next morning, after our coming to an anchor, an officer wasdespatched on shore to discover the watering-place, who having found it, returned before noon; and then we sent the long-boat for a load of water. This island of Quibo is extremely convenient for wooding and watering;for the trees grow close to the high-water mark and a large rapid streamof fresh water runs over the sandy beach into the sea, so that we werelittle more than two days in laying in all the wood and water we wanted. 

CATCHING THE TURTLE. 

The sea at this place furnished us with turtle in the greatest plenty andperfection. The green turtle is generally esteemed, by the greatest partof those who are acquainted with its taste, to be the most delicious ofall eatables; and that it is a most wholesome food we are amply convincedby our own experience. For we fed on it for near four months, andconsequently, had it been in any degree noxious, its ill effects couldnot possibly have escaped us. 

At this island we took what quantity we pleased with great facility; foras they are an amphibious animal, and get on shore to lay their eggs, which they generally deposit in a large hole in the sand, just above thehigh-water mark, covering them up and leaving them to be hatched by theheat of the sun, we usually dispersed several of our men along the beach, whose business it was to turn them on their backs when they came to land;and the turtle being thereby prevented from getting away, we carried themoff at our leisure. By this means we not only secured a sufficient stockfor the time we stayed on the island, but we took a number of them withus to sea, which proved of great service both in lengthening out ourstore of provision, and in heartening the whole crew with an almostconstant supply of fresh and palatable food. For the turtle being large, they generally weighing about 200 pounds weight each, those we took withus lasted us near a month, and by that time we met with a fresh recruiton the coast of Mexico, where we often saw them in the heat of the dayfloating in great numbers on the surface of the water fast asleep. Whenwe discovered them, we usually sent out our boat with a man in the bow, who was a dexterous diver, and when the boat came within a few yards ofthe turtle, the diver plunged into the water, and took care to rise closeupon it, seizing the shell near the tail, and pressing down the hinderparts. The turtle, when awakened, began to strike with its claws, whichmotion supported both it and the diver, till the boat came up and tookthem in. By this management we never wanted turtle for the succeedingfour months in which we continued at sea. 

CHAPTER 21. DELAY AND DISAPPOINTMENT--CHASING A HEATH FIRE--ACAPULCO--THE ManilaGALLEON--FRESH HOPES. 

On the 12th of December we stood from Quibo to the westward. We hadlittle doubt of arriving soon upon our intended station, * as we expected, upon increasing our offing from Quibo, to fall in with the regular tradewind. But, to our extreme vexation, we were baffled for near a month, either with tempestuous weather from the western quarter, or with deadcalms and heavy rains, attended with a sultry air. As our hopes were solong baffled, and our patience quite exhausted, we began at length todespair of succeeding in the great purpose we had in view, that ofintercepting the Manila galleon; and this produced a general dejectionamongst us, as we had at first considered this project as almostinfallible, and had indulged ourselves in the most boundless hopes of theadvantages we should thence receive. However, our despondency was at lastsomewhat alleviated by a favourable change of the wind; for on the 9th ofJanuary a gale for the first time sprang up from the north-east. As weadvanced apace towards our station our hopes began to revive, for thoughthe customary season of the arrival of the galleon at Acapulco wasalready elapsed, yet we were by this time unreasonable enough to flatterourselves that some accidental delay might, for our advantage, lengthenout her passage beyond its usual limits. On the 26th of January, beingthen to the northward of Acapulco, we tacked and stood to the eastward, with a view of making the land. 

(*Note. Off Cape Corrientes (20 degrees 20 minutes north). Anson hoped tointercept the Manila galleon here. )

A MORTIFYING DELUSION. 

We expected by our reckonings to have fallen in with it on the 28th; butthough the weather was perfectly clear, we had no sight of it at sunset, and therefore we continued on our course, not doubting but we should seeit by the next morning. About ten at night we discovered a light on thelarboard-bow, bearing from us north-north-east. The Trial's prize, too, which was about a mile ahead of us, made a signal at the same time forseeing a sail; and as we had none of us any doubt but what we saw was aship's light, we were all extremely animated with a firm persuasion thatit was the Manila galleon, which had been so long the object of ourwishes. And what added to our alacrity was our expectation of meetingwith two of them instead of one, for we took it for granted that thelight in view was carried in the top of one ship for a direction to herconsort. We chased the light, keeping all our hands at their respectivequarters, under an expectation of engaging in the next half-hour, as wesometimes conceived the chase to be about a mile distant, and at othertimes to be within reach of our guns; and some on board us positivelyaverred that besides the light they could plainly discern her sails. TheCommodore himself was so fully persuaded that we should be soon alongsideof her, that he sent for his first Lieutenant, who commanded betweendecks, and directed him to see all the great guns loaded with tworound-shot for the first broadside, and after that with one round-shotand one grape, strictly charging him at the same time not to suffer a gunto be fired till he, the Commodore, should give orders, which he informedthe Lieutenant would not be till we arrived within pistol-shot of theenemy. In this constant and eager attention we continued all night, always presuming that another quarter of an hour would bring us up withthis Manila ship, whose wealth, with that of her supposed consort, wenow estimated by round millions. But when the morning broke and daylightcame on, we were most strangely and vexatiously disappointed by findingthat the light which had occasioned all this bustle and expectancy wasonly a fire on the shore. And yet I believe there was no person on boardwho doubted of its being a ship's light, or of its being near at hand. Itwas, indeed, upon a very high mountain, and continued burning for severaldays afterwards. It was not a volcano, but, rather, as I suppose, stubbleor heath set on fire for some purpose of agriculture. 

At sun-rising, after this mortifying delusion, we found ourselves aboutnine leagues off the land. On this land we observed two remarkablehummocks, such as are usually called paps; these a Spanish pilot and twoIndians, who were the only persons amongst us that pretended to havetraded in this part of the world, affirmed to be over the harbour ofAcapulco. Indeed, we very much doubted their knowledge of the coast, forwe found these paps to be in the latitude of 17 degrees 56 minutes, whereas those over Acapulco are said to be in 17 degrees only, and weafterwards found our suspicions of their skill to be well grounded. 

And now, being in the track of the Manila galleon, it was a great doubtwith us (as it was near the end of January) whether she was or was notarrived. And as we now began to want a harbour to refresh our people, theuncertainty of our present situation gave us great uneasiness, and wewere very solicitous to get some positive intelligence, which mighteither set us at liberty to consult our necessities, if the galleon wasarrived, or might animate us to continue on our present cruise withcheerfulness if she was not. With this view the Commodore, afterexamining our prisoners very particularly, resolved to send a boat, undercolour of the night, into the harbour of Acapulco to see if the Manilaship was there or not. To execute this project, the barge was despatchedthe 6th of February. She did not return to us again till the 11th, whenthe officers acquainted Mr. Anson, that, agreeable to our suspicion, there was nothing like a harbour in the place where the Spanish pilotshad at first asserted Acapulco to lie; that, when they had satisfiedthemselves in this particular, they steered to the eastward in hopes ofdiscovering it, and had coasted along shore thirty-two leagues; that inthis whole range they met chiefly with sandy beaches of a great length, over which the sea broke with so much violence that it was impossible fora boat to land; that at the end of their run they could just discover twopaps at a very great distance to the eastward, which from theirappearance and their latitude they concluded to be those in theneighbourhood of Acapulco, but that, not having a sufficient quantity offresh water and provision for their passage thither and back again, theywere obliged to return to the Commodore to acquaint him with theirdisappointment. On this intelligence we all made sail to the eastward, inorder to get into the neighbourhood of that port, the Commodore resolvingto send the barge a second time upon the same enterprise when we werearrived within a moderate distance. And the next day, which was the 12thof February, we being by that time considerably advanced, the barge wasagain despatched, and particular instructions given to the officers topreserve themselves from being seen from the shore. On the 19th ofFebruary she returned, and we found that we were indeed disappointed inour expectation of intercepting the galleon before her arrival atAcapulco; but we learned other circumstances which still revived ourhopes, and which, we then conceived, would more than balance theopportunity we had already lost. For though our negro prisoners* informedus that the galleon arrived at Acapulco on our 9th of January, which wasabout twenty days before we fell in with this coast, yet they at the sametime told us that the galleon had delivered her cargo and was taking inwater and provisions for her return, and that the Viceroy of Mexico hadby proclamation fixed her departure from Acapulco to the 14th of March, New Style. 

(*Note. Three negroes in a fishing canoe had been captured by theCenturion's barge off Acapulco harbour. )

This last news was most joyfully received by us, as we had no doubt butshe must certainly fall into our hands, and as it was much more eligibleto seize her on her return than it would have been to have taken herbefore her arrival, as the specie for which she had sold her cargo, andwhich she would now have on board, would be prodigiously more to beesteemed by us than the cargo itself, great part of which would haveperished on our hands, and no part of it could have been disposed of byus at so advantageous a mart as Acapulco. 

Thus we were a second time engaged in an eager expectation of meetingwith this Manila ship, which, by the fame of its wealth, we had beentaught to consider as the most desirable prize that was to be met with inany part of the globe. 

CHAPTER 22. THE Manila* TRADE. 

(*Note. The capital of Luzon, the chief island of the Philippine group. The Philippines were discovered in 1521 by Magellan, who was killed thereby the natives. They were annexed by Spain in 1571 and were ceded to theUnited States of America in 1898, together with Cuba, after the brave butfutile attempt of the Spaniards to preserve what were almost the lastrelics of their colonial dominions. )

The trade carried on from Manila to China, and different parts of India, is principally for such commodities as are intended to supply thekingdoms of Mexico and Peru. These are spices; all sorts of Chinese silksand manufactures, particularly silk stockings, of which I have heard thatno less than 50, 000 pairs were the usual number shipped on board theannual ship; vast quantities of Indian stuffs--as calicoes and chintzes, which are much worn in America; together with other minuter articles--asgoldsmith's work, etc. , which is principally done at the city of Manilaitself by the Chinese, for it is said there are at least 20, 000 Chinesewho constantly reside there, either as servants, manufacturers, orbrokers. All these different commodities are collected at Manila, thenceto be transported annually in one or more ships to the port of Acapulco. 

THE Manila SHIP. 

This trade from Manila to Acapulco and back again is usually carried onin one or at most two annual ships, which set sail from Manila aboutJuly, arrive at Acapulco in the December, January, or February following, and, having there disposed of their effects, return for Manila some timein March, where they generally arrive in June, so that the whole voyagetakes up very near an entire year. For this reason, though there is oftenno more than one ship employed at a time, yet there is always one readyfor the sea when the other arrives, and therefore the commerce at Manilaare provided with three or four stout ships that, in case of anyaccident, the trade may not be suspended. The largest of these ships, whose name I have not learned, is described as little less than one ofour first-rate men-of-war, and indeed she must be of an enormous size, for it is known that when she was employed with other ships from the sameport to cruise for our China trade, she had no less than 1, 200 men onboard. Their other ships, though far inferior in bulk to this, are yetstout, large vessels, of the burthen of 1, 200 tons and upwards, andusually carry from 350 to 600 hands, passengers included, with fifty oddguns. As these are all King's ships, commissioned and paid by him, thereis usually one of the captains who is styled the "General, " and whocarries the royal standard of Spain at the main-topgallant masthead. 

The ship having received her cargo on board and being fitted for the sea, generally weighs from the mole of Cabite about the middle of July, takingadvantage of the westerly monsoon which then sets in to carry them tosea. When they are clear of the islands they stand to the northward ofthe east, in order to get into the latitude of thirty odd degrees, whenthey expect to meet with westerly winds, before which they run away forthe coast of California. It is most remarkable that, by the concurrenttestimony of all the Spanish navigators, there is not one port, nor evena tolerable road, as yet found out betwixt the Philippine Islands and thecoast of California and Mexico, * so that from the time the Manila shipfirst loses sight of land she never lets go her anchor till she arriveson the coast of California, and very often not till she gets to itssouthernmost extremity. 

(*Note. The Sandwich Islands were discovered by Captain Cook in 1779. TheSpanish ships had usually crossed the Pacific 9 or 10 degrees south ofthem. )

ACAPULCO. 

The most usual time of the arrival of the galleon at Acapulco is towardsthe middle of January, but this navigation is so uncertain that shesometimes gets in a month sooner, and at other times has been detained atsea above a month longer. The port of Acapulco is by much the securestand finest in all the northern parts of the Pacific Ocean, being as itwere, a basin surrounded with very high mountains, but the town is a mostwretched place and extremely unhealthy, for the air about it is so pentup by the hills that it has scarcely any circulation. The place is, besides, destitute of fresh water, except what is brought from aconsiderable distance, and is in all respects so inconvenient that exceptat the time of the mart, whilst the Manila galleon is in the port, it isalmost deserted. When the galleon arrives in this port she is generallymoored on its western side, and her cargo is delivered with all possibleexpedition; and now the town of Acapulco, from almost a solitude, isimmediately thronged with merchants from all parts of the kingdom ofMexico. The cargo being landed and disposed of, the silver and the goodsintended for Manila are taken on board, together with provisions andwater, and the ship prepares to put to sea with the utmost expedition. There is indeed no time to be lost, for it is an express order to thecaptain to be out of the port of Acapulco on his return before the firstday of April, New Style. 

And having mentioned the goods intended for Manila, I must observe thatthe principal return is always made in silver, and consequently the restof the cargo is but of little account; the other articles, besides thesilver, being some cochineal and a few sweetmeats, the produce of theAmerican settlements, together with European millinery ware for the womenat Manila, and some Spanish wines. And this difference in the cargo ofthe ship to and from Manila occasions a very remarkable variety in themanner of equipping the ship for these two different voyages. For thegalleon, when she sets sail from Manila, being deep laden with a varietyof bulky goods, has not the conveniency of mounting her lower tier ofguns, but carries them in her hold till she draws near Cape St. Lucas andis apprehensive of an enemy. Her hands, too, are as few as is consistentwith the safety of the ship, that she may be less pestered with thestowage of provisions. But on her return from Acapulco, as her cargo liesin less room, her lower tier is, or ought to be, always mounted beforeshe leaves the port, and her crew is augmented with a supply of sailorsand with one or two companies of foot, which are intended to reinforcethe garrison at Manila. And there being, besides, many merchants whotake their passage to Manila on board the galleon, her whole number ofhands on her return is usually little short of six hundred, all which areeasily provided for by reason of the small stowage necessary for thesilver. 

The galleon being thus fitted for her return, the captain, on leaving theport of Acapulco, steers for the latitude of 13 or 14 degrees, and runson that parallel till he gets sight of the island of Guam, one of theLadrones. The captain is told in his instructions that, to prevent hispassing the Ladrones in the dark, there are orders given that thoroughall the month of June fires shall be lighted every night on the highestpart of Guam and Rota, and kept in till the morning. At Guam there is asmall Spanish garrison, purposely intended to secure that place for therefreshment of the galleon and to yield her all the assistance in theirpower. However, the danger of the road at Guam is so great, that thoughthe galleon is ordered to call there, yet she rarely stays above a day ortwo, but getting her water and refreshments on board as soon as possible, she steers away directly for Cape Espiritu Santo, on the island ofSamal. *

TELEGRAPHY BY BEACON. 

Here the captain is again ordered to look out for signals, and he is toldthat sentinels will be posted, not only on that cape, but likewise inCatanduanas, Butusan, Birriborongo, and on the island of Batan. Thesesentinels are instructed to make a fire when they discover the ship, which the captain is carefully to observe; for if after this first fireis extinguished he perceives that four or more are lighted up again, heis then to conclude that there are enemies on the coast, and on this heis immediately to endeavour to speak with the sentinel on shore, and toprocure from him more particular intelligence of their force and of thestation they cruise in, pursuant to which he is to regulate his conduct, and to endeavour to gain some secure port amongst those islands withoutcoming in sight of the enemy; and in case he should be discovered when inport, and should be apprehensive of an attack, he is then to land histreasure and to take some of his artillery on shore for its defence, notneglecting to send frequent and particular accounts to the city ofManila of all that passes. But if after the first fire on shore thecaptain observes that two others only are made by the sentinels, he isthen to conclude that there is nothing to fear, and he is to pursue hiscourse without interruption, and to make the best of his way to the portof Cabite, which is the port to the city of Manila, and the constantstation for all the ships employed in this commerce to Acapulco. 

(*Note. Samal or Samar is an island about the centre of the Philippines, north of Mindanao. )

CHAPTER 23. WAITING FOR THE GALLEON--DISAPPOINTMENT--CHEQUETAN. 

On the 1st of March we made the highlands over Acapulco, and got with allpossible expedition into the situation prescribed by the Commodore'sorders. *

(*Note. The two men-of-war and the three prizes were arranged out ofsight of the land in "a circular line, " the two extremities of which werethirty-six miles apart. Within this line, and much nearer to the port, especially at night, were two cutters, whose duty it was to watch themouth of the harbour and signal to the ships outside them. )

And now we expected with the utmost impatience the 3rd of March, the dayfixed for her departure. And on that day we were all of us most eagerlyengaged in looking out towards Acapulco; and we were so strangelyprepossessed with the certainty of our intelligence, and with anassurance of her coming out of port, that some or other on board us wereconstantly imagining that they discovered one of our cutters returningwith a signal. But to our extreme vexation, both this day and thesucceeding night passed over without any news of the galleon. However, wedid not yet despair, but were all heartily disposed to flatter ourselvesthat some unforeseen accident had intervened which might have put off herdeparture for a few days; and suggestions of this kind occurred inplenty, as we knew that the time fixed by the Viceroy for her sailing wasoften prolonged on the petition of the merchants of Mexico. Thus we keptup our hopes, and did not abate of our vigilance; and as the 7th of Marchwas Sunday, the beginning of Passion Week, which is observed by thePapists with great strictness and a total cessation from all kinds oflabour, so that no ship is permitted to stir out of port during the wholeweek, this quieted our apprehensions for some days, and disposed us notto expect the galleon till the week following. On the Friday in this weekour cutters returned to us, and the officers on board them were veryconfident that the galleon was still in port, for that she could notpossibly have come out but they must have seen her. On the Monday morningsucceeding Passion Week--that is, on the 15th of March--the cutters wereagain despatched to their old station, and our hopes were once moreindulged in as sanguine prepossessions as before; but in a week's timeour eagerness was greatly abated, and a general dejection and despondencytook place in its room. For we were persuaded that the enemy had by someaccident discovered our being upon the coast, and had therefore laid anembargo on the galleon till the next year. And indeed this persuasion wasbut too well founded; for we afterwards learned that our barge, when senton the discovery of the port of Acapulco, had been seen from the shore, and that this circumstance (no embarkations but canoes ever frequentingthat coast) was to them a sufficient proof of the neighbourhood of oursquadron, on which they stopped the galleon till the succeeding year. 

SHORT OF WATER. 

When we had taken up the cutters, all the ships being joined, theCommodore made a signal to speak with their commanders, and upon enquiryinto the stock of fresh water remaining on board the squadron, it wasfound to be so very slender that we were under necessity of quitting ourstation to procure a fresh supply. And consulting what place was theproperest for this purpose, it was agreed that the harbour of Seguataneo, or Chequetan, being the nearest to us, was on that account the mosteligible, and it was therefore immediately resolved to make the best ofour way thither. By the 1st of April we were so far advanced towardsSeguataneo that we thought it expedient to send out two boats, that theymight range along the coast and discover the watering-place. They weregone some days, and our water being now very short, it was a particularfelicity to us that we met with daily supplies of turtle; for had we beenentirely confined to salt provisions, we must have suffered extremely inso warm a climate. Indeed, our present circumstances were sufficientlyalarming, and gave the most considerate amongst us as much concern as anyof the numerous perils we had hitherto encountered; for our boats, as weconceived by their not returning, had not as yet discovered a placeproper to water at, and by the leakage of our casks and other accidentswe had not ten days' water on board the whole squadron; so that, from theknown difficulty of procuring water on this coast, and the littlereliance we had on the buccaneer writers (the only guides we had to trustto), we were apprehensive of being soon exposed to a calamity, the mostterrible of any in the long, disheartening catalogue of the distresses ofa seafaring life. 

But these gloomy suggestions were soon happily ended, for our boatsreturned on the 5th of April, having discovered a place proper for ourpurpose about seven miles to the westward of the rocks of Seguataneo, which by the description they gave of it, appeared to be the port calledby Dampier* the harbour of Chequetan. On the 7th we stood in, and thatevening came to an anchor in eleven fathoms. Thus, after a four months'continuance at sea from the leaving of Quibo, and having but six days'water on board, we arrived in the harbour of Chequetan. 

(*Note. Dampier (1652 to 1715), the son of a tenant farmer, near Yeovil, played many parts in his time. He was a buccaneer, a pirate, acircumnavigator, an author, a captain in the navy and an hydrographer. His 'Voyage Round the World', published in 1697, procured him a commandin the navy; but though an excellent seaman, he proved an incapablecommander, as his buccaneer comrades had doubtless foreseen, for he hadnever been entrusted with any command among them. )

CHAPTER 24. THE PRIZES SCUTTLED--NEWS OF THE SQUADRON REACHES ENGLAND--BOUND FOR CHINA. 

The next morning after our coming to an anchor in the harbour ofChequetan, we sent about ninety of our men well armed on shore, forty ofwhom were ordered to march into the country, and the remaining fifty wereemployed to cover the watering-place and to prevent any interruption fromthe natives. Here it was agreed after a mature consultation to destroythe Trial's prize, as well as the Carmelo and Carmen, whose fate had beenbefore resolved on. Indeed, the ship was in good repair and fit for thesea; but as the whole number on board our squadron did not amount to thecomplement of a fourth-rate man-of-war, we found it was impossible todivide them into three ships without rendering them incapable ofnavigating in safety in the tempestuous weather we had reason to expecton the coast of China, where we supposed we should arrive about the timeof the change of the monsoons. These considerations determined theCommodore to destroy the Trial's prize and to reinforce the Gloucesterwith the greatest part of her crew. And in consequence of this resolve, all the stores on board the Trial's prize were removed into the otherships, and the prize herself, with the Carmelo and Carmen, were preparedfor scuttling with all the expedition we were masters of. But the greatdifficulties we were under in laying in a store of water, together withthe necessary repairs of our rigging and other unavoidable occupations, took us up so much time, and found us such unexpected employment, that itwas near the end of April before we were in a condition to leave theplace. 

During our stay here there happened an incident which proved the means ofconvincing our friends in England of our safety, which for some time theyhad despaired of and were then in doubt about. From this harbour ofChequetan there was but one pathway, which led through the woods into thecountry. This we found much beaten, and were thence convinced that it waswell known to the inhabitants. As it passed by the spring-head, and wasthe only avenue by which the Spaniards could approach us, we, at somedistance beyond the spring-head, felled several large trees and laid themone upon the other across the path, and at this barricade we constantlykept a guard, and we, besides, ordered our men employed in watering tohave their arms ready and, in case of any alarm, to march instantly tothis spot; and though our principal intention was to prevent our beingdisturbed by any sudden attack of the enemy's horse, yet it answeredanother purpose which was not in itself less important, this was tohinder our own people from straggling singly into the country, where wehad reason to believe they would be surprised by the Spaniards, who woulddoubtless be extremely solicitous to pick up some of them in hopes ofgetting intelligence of our future designs. To avoid this inconvenience, the strictest orders were given to the sentinels to let no personwhatever pass beyond their post. 

THE COMMODORE'S COOK. 

But, notwithstanding this precaution, we missed one Lewis Leger, who wasthe Commodore's cook, and as he was a Frenchman, and suspected to be aPapist, it was by some imagined that he had deserted with a view ofbetraying all that he knew to the enemy; but this appeared by the eventto be an ill-grounded surmise, for it was afterwards known that he hadbeen taken by some Indians, who carried him prisoner to Acapulco, whencehe was transferred to Mexico and then to Vera Cruz, where he was shippedon board a vessel bound to Old Spain; and the vessel being obliged bysome accident to put into Lisbon, Leger escaped on shore, and was by theBritish consul sent thence to England, where he brought the firstauthentic account of the safety of the Commodore, and of what he had donein the South Seas. The relation he gave of his own seizure was that hehad rambled into the woods at some distance from the barricade, where hehad first attempted to pass, but had been stopped and threatened to bepunished; that his principal view was to get a quantity of limes for hismaster's store, and that in this occupation he was surprised unawares byfour Indians, who stripped him naked and carried him in that condition toAcapulco, exposed to the scorching heat of the sun, which at that time ofthe year shone with its greatest violence. And afterwards at Mexico histreatment in prison was sufficiently severe, and the whole course of hiscaptivity was a continued instance of the hatred which the Spaniards bearto all those who endeavour to disturb them in the peaceable possession ofthe coasts of the South Seas. Indeed, Leger's fortune was, upon thewhole, extremely singular, for after the hazards he had run in theCommodore's squadron, and the severities he had suffered in his longconfinement amongst the enemy, a more fatal disaster attended him on hisreturn to England; for though, when he arrived in London, some of Mr. Anson's friends interested themselves in relieving him from the povertyto which his captivity had reduced him, yet he did not long enjoy thebenefit of their humanity, for he was killed in an insignificant nightbrawl, the cause of which could scarcely be discovered. 

On the 28th of April the Centurion and the Gloucester weighed anchor. Being now in the offing of Chequetan, bound across the vast Pacific Oceanin our way to China, we were impatient to run off the coast as soon aspossible, as the stormy season was approaching apace, and we had nofurther views in the American seas. 

The sending away our prisoners* was our last transaction on the Americancoast, for no sooner had we parted with them than we and the Gloucestermade sail to the south-west, proposing to get a good offing from theland, where we hoped in a few days to meet with the regular trade-wind. It has been esteemed no uncommon passage to run from hence to theeasternmost parts of Asia in two months, and we flattered ourselves thatwe were as capable of making an expeditious passage as any ship that hadever run this course before us; so that we hoped soon to gain the coastof China. On the 6th of May we for the last time lost sight of themountains of Mexico, persuaded that in a few weeks we should arrive atthe river of Canton in China, where we expected to meet with many Englishships, and numbers of our countrymen, and hoped to enjoy the advantagesof an amicable, well-frequented spot, inhabited by a polished people, andabounding with the conveniences and indulgences of a civilisedlife--blessings which now for nearly twenty months had never been once inour power. 

(*Note. Before leaving the American coast for China, Anson releasedfifty-seven of his prisoners, including all the Spaniards, and sent themto Acapulco. A certain number of natives were retained to assist inworking the ships. There had been some previous attempt at correspondencebetween Anson and the Spanish governor of Acapulco. The latter, withSpanish courtesy, when answering Anson's letter, despatched with hisanswer "a present of two boats laden with the choicest refreshments andprovisions which were to be found in Acapulco. " Unfortunately the boatswere unable to find Anson, and he never received either the letter or thepresent. )

CHAPTER 25. DELAYS AND ACCIDENTS--SCURVY AGAIN--A LEAK--THE GLOUCESTER ABANDONED. 

When on the 6th of May, 1742, we left the coast of America, we stood tothe south-west with a view of meeting with the north-east trade wind, which the accounts of former writers made us expect at seventy or eightyleagues distance from the land. We had, besides, another reason forstanding to the southward, which was the getting into the latitude of 13or 14 degrees north, that being the parallel where the Pacific Ocean ismost usually crossed, and consequently where the navigation is esteemedthe safest. This last purpose we had soon answered, being in a day or twosufficiently advanced to the south. At the same time we were also fartherfrom the shore than we had presumed was necessary for falling in with thetradewind; but in this particular we were most grievously disappointed, for the wind still continued to the westward, or at best variable. As thegetting into the north-east trade was to us a matter of the lastconsequence, we stood more to the southward, and made many experiments tomeet with it, but all our efforts were for a long time unsuccessful, sothat it was seven weeks from our leaving the coast before we got into thetrue trade wind. 

CONTRARY AND VARIABLE WINDS. 

This was an interval in which we believed we should well-nigh havereached the easternmost parts of Asia, but we were so baffled with thecontrary and variable winds which for all that time perplexed us, that wewere not as yet advanced above a fourth part of the way. The delay alonewould have been a sufficient mortification, but there were othercircumstances attending it which rendered this situation not lessterrible, and our apprehensions perhaps still greater, than in any of ourpast distresses, for our two ships were by this time extremely crazy, andmany days had not passed before we discovered a spring in the foremast ofthe Centurion, which rounded about twenty-six inches of itscircumference, and which was judged to be at least four inches deep; andno sooner had our carpenters secured this with fishing it but theGloucester made a signal of distress, and we learned that she had adangerous spring in her mainmast, so that she could not carry any sailupon it. Our carpenters, on a strict examination of this mast, found itso very rotten and decayed that they judged it necessary to cut it downas low as it appeared to have been injured, and by this it was reduced tonothing but a stump, which served only as a step to the topmast. Theseaccidents augmented our delay and occasioned us great anxiety about ourfuture security, for on our leaving the coast of Mexico the scurvy hadbegun to make its appearance again amongst our people, though from ourdeparture from Juan Fernandez we had till then enjoyed a mostuninterrupted state of health. We too well knew the effects of thisdisease from our former fatal experience to suppose that anything but aspeedy passage could secure the greater part of our crew from perishingby it, and as, after being seven weeks at sea, there did not appear anyreasons that could persuade us we were nearer the trade wind than when wefirst set out, there was no ground for us to suppose but our passagewould prove at least three times as long as we at first expected, andconsequently we had the melancholy prospect either of dying by the scurvyor perishing with the ship for want of hands to navigate her. 

SLOW PROGRESS. 

When we reached the trade wind, and it settled between the north and theeast, yet it seldom blew with so much strength but the Centurion mighthave carried all her small sails abroad with the greatest safety, so thatnow, had we been a single ship, we might have run down our longitudeapace, and have reached the Ladrones soon enough to have recovered greatnumbers of our men who afterwards perished. But the Gloucester, by theloss of her mainmast, sailed so very heavily that we had seldom any morethan our topsails set, and yet were frequently obliged to lie to for her, and I conceive that in the whole we lost little less than a month by ourattendance upon her, in consequence of the various mischances sheencountered. In all this run it was remarkable that we were rarely manydays together without seeing great numbers of birds, which is a proofthat there are many islands, or at least rocks, scattered all along at novery considerable distance from our track. Some indeed there are markedin Spanish charts, but the frequency of the birds seems to evince thatthere are many more than have been hitherto discovered, for the greatestpart of the birds, we observed, were such as are known to roost on shore, and the manner of their appearance sufficiently made out that they camefrom some distant haunt every morning, and returned thither again in theevening, for we never saw them early or late, and the hour of theirarrival and departure gradually varied, which we supposed was occasionedby our running nearer their haunts or getting farther from them. 

The trade wind continued to favour us without any fluctuation from theend of June till towards the end of July, but on the 26th of July, beingthen, as we esteemed, about three hundred leagues distant from theLadrones, we met with a westerly wind, which did not come about again tothe eastward in four days' time. This was a most dispiriting incident, asit at once damped all our hopes of speedy relief, especially, too, as itwas attended with a vexatious accident to the Gloucester, for in one partof those four days the wind flattened to a calm, and the ships rolledvery deep, by which means the Gloucester's forecap split and her topmastcame by the board and broke her foreyard directly in the slings. As shewas hereby rendered incapable of making any sail for some time, we wereobliged, as soon as a gale sprung up, to take her in tow, and near twentyof the healthiest and ablest of our seaman were taken from the businessof our own ship and were employed for eight or ten days together on boardthe Gloucester in repairing her damages. But these things, mortifying aswe thought them, were but the beginning of our disasters, for scarce hadour people finished their business in the Gloucester before we met with amost violent storm in the western board, which obliged us to lie to. Inthe beginning of this storm our ship sprung a leak, and let in so muchwater that all our people, officers included, were employed continuallyin working the pumps, and the next day we had the vexation to see theGloucester with her topmast once more by the board, and whilst we wereviewing her with great concern for this new distress we saw hermain-topmast, which had hitherto served as a jury mainmast, share thesame fate. This completed our misfortunes and rendered them withoutresource, for we knew the Gloucester's crew were so few and feeble thatwithout our assistance they could not be relieved, and our sick were nowso far increased, and those that remained in health so continuallyfatigued with the additional duty of our pumps, that it was impossiblefor us to lend them any aid. Indeed, we were not as yet fully apprised ofthe deplorable situation of the Gloucester's crew, for when the stormabated (which during its continuance prevented all communication withthem) the Gloucester bore up under our stern, and Captain Mitchelinformed the Commodore that besides the loss of his masts, which was allthat had appeared to us, the ship had then no less than seven feet ofwater in her hold, although his officers and men had been kept constantlyat the pump for the last twenty-four hours, and that her crew was greatlyreduced, for there remained alive on board her no more than seventy-sevenmen, eighteen boys, and two prisoners, officers included, and that ofthis whole number only sixteen men and eleven boys were capable ofkeeping the deck, and several of these very infirm. 

THUS PERISHED H. M. S. GLOUCESTER. 

It plainly appeared that there was no possibility of preserving theGloucester any longer, as her leaks were irreparable, and the unitedhands on board both ships capable of working would not be able to freeher, even if our own ship should not employ any part of them. The onlystep to be taken was the saving the lives of the few that remained onboard the Gloucester, and getting out of her as much as was possiblebefore she was destroyed; and therefore the Commodore immediately sent anorder to Captain Mitchel, as the weather was now calm and favourable, tosend his people on board the Centurion as expeditiously as he could andto take out such stores as he could get at whilst the ship could be keptabove water. And as our leak required less attention whilst the presenteasy weather continued, we sent our boats, with as many men as we couldspare, to Captain Mitchel's assistance. 

It was the 15th of August, in the evening, before the Gloucester wascleared of everything that was proposed to be removed; and though thehold was now almost full of water, yet as the carpenters were of opinionthat she might still swim for some time if the calm should continue andthe water become smooth, she was set on fire; for we knew not how near wemight now be to the island of Guam, which was in the possession of ourenemies, and the wreck of such a ship would have been to them nocontemptible acquisition. When she was set on fire Captain Mitchel andhis officers left her and came on board the Centurion, and we immediatelystood from the wreck, not without some apprehensions (as we had now onlya light breeze) that, if she blew up soon, the concussion of the airmight damage our rigging; but she fortunately burned, though veryfiercel, the whole night, her guns firing successively as the flamesreached them. And it was six in the morning, when we were about fourleagues distant, before she blew up. The report she made upon thisoccasion was but a small one, but there was an exceeding black pillar ofsmoke, which shot up into the air to a very considerable height. Thusperished His Majesty's ship the Gloucester. 

CHAPTER 26. THE LADRONES SIGHTED--TINIAN. 

The 23rd, at daybreak, we were cheered with the discovery of two islandsin the western board. This gave us all great joy, and raised our droopingspirits, for before this a universal dejection had seized us, and wealmost despaired of ever seeing land again. The nearest of these islandswe afterwards found to be Anatacan. The other was the island of Serigan, and had rather the appearance of a high rock than a place we could hopeto anchor at. We were extremely impatient to get in with the nearestisland, where we expected to meet with anchoring ground and anopportunity of refreshing our sick; but the wind proved so variable allday, and there was so little of it, that we advanced towards it butslowly. However, by the next morning we were got so far to the westwardthat we were in view of a third island, which was that of Paxaros, thoughmarked in the chart only as a rock. This was small and very low land, andwe had passed within less than a mile of it in the night without seeingit. And now at noon, being within four miles of the island of Anatacan, the boat was sent away to examine the anchoring ground and the produce ofthe place, and we were not a little solicitous for her return, as we thenconceived our fate to depend upon the report we should receive; for theother two islands were obviously enough incapable of furnishing us withany assistance, and we knew not then that there were any others which wecould reach. In the evening the boat came back, and the crew informed usthat there was no place for a ship to anchor. 

This account of the impossibility of anchoring at this island occasioneda general melancholy on board, for we considered it as little less thanthe prelude to our destruction; and now the only possible circumstancethat could secure the few that remained alive from perishing was theaccidental falling in with some other of the Ladrone Islands betterprepared for our accommodation, and as our knowledge of these islands wasextremely imperfect, we were to trust entirely to chance for ourguidance; only, as they are all of them usually laid down near the samemeridian, and we had conceived those we had already seen to be part ofthem, we concluded to stand to the southward as the most probable meansof falling in with the next. Thus, with the most gloomy persuasion of ourapproaching destruction, we stood from the island of Anatacan, having allof us the strongest apprehensions either of dying of the scurvy orperishing with the ship, which, for want of hands to work her pumps, might in a short time be expected to founder. 

TINIAN. 

It was the 26th of August, 1742, in the morning, when we lost sight ofAnatacan. The next morning we discovered three other islands to theeastward, which were from ten to fourteen leagues from us. These were, aswe afterwards learned, the islands of Saypan, Tinian and Aguigan. Weimmediately steered towards Tinian, which was the middle-most of thethree, but had so much of calms and light airs, that though we werehelped forwards by the currents, yet next day at daybreak we were atleast five leagues distant from it. However, we kept on our course, andabout ten in the morning we perceived a proa under sail to the southward, between Tinian and Aguigan. As we imagined from hence that these islandswere inhabited, and knew that the Spaniards had always a force at Guam, we took the necessary precautions for our own security and for preventingthe enemy from taking advantage of our present wretched circumstances, ofwhich they would be sufficiently informed by the manner of our workingthe ship. We therefore mustered all our hands who were capable ofstanding to their arms and loaded our upper and quarter-deck guns withgrapeshot, and that we might the more readily procure some intelligenceof the state of these islands, we showed Spanish colours and hoisted ared flag at the foretop masthead, to give our ship the appearance of theManila galleon, hoping thereby to decoy some of the inhabitants on boardus. Thus preparing ourselves, and standing towards the land, we were nearenough at three in the afternoon to send the cutter in shore to find outa proper berth for the ship, and we soon perceived that a proa came offthe shore to meet the cutter, fully persuaded, as we afterwards found, that we were the Manila ship. As we saw the cutter returning back withthe proa in tow, we immediately sent the pinnace to receive the proa andthe prisoners, and to bring them on board that the cutter might proceedon her errand. The pinnace came back with a Spaniard and four Indians, who were the people taken in the proa. The Spaniard was immediatelyexamined as to the produce and circumstances of this island of Tinian, and his account of it surpassed even our most sanguine hopes, for heinformed us that it was uninhabited, which, in our present defencelesscondition, was an advantage not to be despised, especially as it wantedbut few of the conveniences that could be expected in the most cultivatedcountry; for he assured us that there was great plenty of very goodwater, and that there were an incredible number of cattle, hogs, andpoultry, running wild on the island, all of them excellent in their kind;that the woods produced sweet and sour oranges, limes, lemons, andcocoa-nuts in great plenty, besides a fruit peculiar to these islands(called by Dampier breadfruit); that, from the quantity and goodness ofthe provisions produced here, the Spaniards at Guam made use of it as astore for supplying the garrison; that he himself was a sergeant of thatgarrison, and was sent here with twenty-two Indians to jerk beef, whichhe was to load for Guam on board a small bark of about fifteen tons whichlay at anchor near the shore. 

PLEASING SCENES. 

This account was received by us with inexpressible joy. Part of it wewere ourselves able to verify on the spot, as we were by this time nearenough to discover several numerous herds of cattle feeding in differentplaces of the island, and we did not anyways doubt the rest of hisrelation, as the appearance of the shore prejudiced us greatly in itsfavour, and made us hope that not only our necessities might be therefully relieved and our diseased recovered, but that amidst those pleasingscenes which were then in view, we might procure ourselves some amusementand relaxation after the numerous fatigues we had undergone. 

The Spanish sergeant, from whom we received the account of the island, having informed us that there were some Indians on shore under hiscommand employed in jerking beef, and that there was a bark at anchor totake it on board, we were desirous, if possible, to prevent the Indiansfrom escaping, who doubtless would have given the Governor of Guamintelligence of our arrival, and we therefore immediately despatched thepinnace to secure the bark, which the sergeant told us was the onlyembarkation on the place. And then, about eight in the evening, we let goour anchor in twenty-two fathoms. 

CHAPTER 27. LANDING THE SICK. CENTURION DRIVEN TO SEA. 

When we had furled our sails, the remaining part of the night was allowedto our people for their repose, to recover them from the fatigue they hadundergone, and in the morning a party was sent on shore well armed, ofwhich I myself was one, to make ourselves masters of the landing-place, as we were not certain what opposition might be made by the Indians onthe island. We landed without difficulty, for the Indians havingperceived by our seizure of the bark the night before, that we wereenemies, they immediately fled into the woody parts of the island. Wefound on shore many huts which they had inhabited, and which saved usboth the time and trouble of erecting tents. One of these huts, which theIndians made use of for a storehouse, was very large, being twenty yardslong and fifteen broad; this we immediately cleared of some bales ofjerked beef which we found in it, and converted it into an hospital forour sick, who, as soon as the place was ready to receive them, werebrought on shore, being in all one hundred and twenty-eight. Numbers ofthese were so very helpless that we were obliged to carry them from theboats to the hospital upon our shoulders, in which humane employment (asbefore at Juan Fernandez) the Commodore himself and every one of hisofficers were engaged without distinction; and notwithstanding the greatdebility of the greatest part of our sick, it is almost incredible howsoon they began to feel the salutary influence of the land. For though weburied twenty-one men on this and the preceding day, yet we did not loseabove ten men more during our whole two months' stay here; and in generalour diseased received so much benefit from the fruits of the island, particularly the fruits of the acid kind, that in a week's time therewere but few who were not so far recovered as to be able to move aboutwithout help; and on the 12th of September all those who were so farrelieved as to be capable of doing duty were sent on board the ship. Andthen the Commodore, who was himself ill of the scurvy, had a tent erectedfor him on shore, where he went with the view of staying a few days forthe recovery of his health, being convinced, by the general experience ofhis people, that no other method but living on the land was to be trustedto for the removal of this dreadful malady. As the crew on board were nowreinforced by the recovered hands returned from the island, we began tosend our casks on shore to be fitted up, which till now could not bedone, for the coopers were not well enough to work. We likewise weighedour anchors that we might examine our cables, which we suspected had bythis time received considerable damage. And as the new moon was nowapproaching, when we apprehended violent gales, the Commodore, for ourgreater security, ordered that part of the cables next to the anchors tobe armed with the chains of the fire-grapnels, and they were besidescackled twenty fathoms from the anchors and seven fathoms from theservice, with a good rounding of a 4 1/2 inch hawser, and to all theseprecautions we added that of lowering the main and fore yards close down, that in case of blowing weather the wind might have less power upon theship to make her ride a-strain. 

A FURIOUS STORM. 

Thus effectually prepared, as we conceived, we expected the new moon, which was the 18th of September; and riding safe that and the threesucceeding days (though the weather proved very squally and uncertain), we flattered ourselves (for I was then on board) that the prudence of ourmeasures had secured us from all accidents. But on the 22nd the wind blewfrom the eastward with such fury that we soon despaired of riding out thestorm; and therefore we should have been extremely glad that theCommodore and the rest of our people on shore, which were the greatest ofour hands, had been on board with us, since our only hopes of safetyseemed to depend on our putting immediately to sea. But all communicationwith the shore was now effectually cut off, for there was no possibilitythat a boat could live so that we were necessitated to ride it out tillour cables parted. Indeed, it was not long before this happened, for thesmall bower parted at five in the afternoon, and the ship swung off tothe best bower; and as the night came on the violence of the wind stillincreased. But, notwithstanding its inexpressible fury, the tide ran withso much rapidity as to prevail over it; for the tide, having set to thenorthward in the beginning of the storm, turned suddenly to the southwardabout six in the evening, and forced the ship before it in despite of thestorm, which blew upon the beam. And now the sea broke most surprisinglyall round us, and a large tumbling swell threatened to poop us; thelong-boat, which was at this time moored astern, was on a sudden cantedso high that it broke the transom of the Commodore's gallery, and woulddoubtless have risen as high as the taffrail had it not been for thisstroke which stove the boat all to pieces; but the poor boat-keeper, though extremely bruised, was saved almost by miracle. About eight thetide slackened, but the wind did not abate; so that at eleven the bestbower cable, by which alone we rode, parted. Our sheet anchor, which wasthe only one we had left, was instantly cut from the bow; but before itcould reach the bottom we were driven from twenty-two into thirty-fivefathoms; and after we had veered away one whole cable and two-thirds ofanother, we could not find ground with sixty fathoms of line. This was aplain indication that the anchor lay near the edge of the bank, and couldnot hold us long. 

In this pressing danger Mr. Suamarez, our first lieutenant, who nowcommanded on board, ordered several guns to be fired and lights to beshown, as a signal to the Commodore of our distress; and in a short timeafter, it being then about one o'clock, and the night excessively dark, astrong gust, attended with rain and lightning, drove us off the bank andforced us out to sea, leaving behind us on the island Mr. Anson, withmany more of our officers, and great part of our crew, amounting in thewhole to one hundred and thirteen persons. Thus were we all, both at seaand on shore, reduced to the utmost despair by this catastrophe; those onshore conceiving they had no means left them ever to leave the island, and we on board utterly unprepared to struggle with the fury of the seasand winds we were now exposed to, and expecting each moment to be ourlast. 

CHAPTER 28. ANSON CHEERS HIS MEN--PLANS FOR ESCAPE--RETURN OF THE CENTURION. 

The storm which drove the Centurion to sea blew with too much turbulenceto permit of either the Commodore or any of the people on shore hearingthe guns which she fired as signals of distress, and the frequent glareof the lightning had prevented the explosions from being observed; sothat when at daybreak it was perceived from the shore that the ship wasmissing, there was the utmost consternation amongst them. For much thegreatest part of them immediately concluded that she was lost, andentreated the Commodore that the boat might be sent round the island tolook for the wreck; and those who believed her safe had scarcely anyexpectation that she would ever be able to make the island again; for thewind continued to blow strong at east, and they knew how poorly she wasmanned and provided for struggling with so tempestuous a gale. And if theCenturion was lost, or should be incapable of returning, there appearedin either case no possibility of their ever getting off the island, forthey were at least six hundred leagues from Macao, which was theirnearest port; and they were masters of no other vessel than the smallSpanish bark, of about fifteen tons, which they seized at their firstarrival, and which would not even hold a fourth part of their number. Andthe chance of their being taken off the island by the casual arrival ofany other ship was altogether desperate, as perhaps no European ship hadever anchored here before, and it were madness to expect that likeincidents should send another here in a hundred ages to come; so thattheir desponding thoughts could only suggest to them the melancholyprospect of spending the remainder of their days on this island, andbidding adieu forever to their country, their friends, their families, and all their domestic endearments. 

A MELANCHOLY PROSPECT. 

Nor was this the worst they had to fear: for they had reason to expectthat the Governor of Guam, when he should be informed of their situation, might send a force sufficient to overpower them and to remove them tothat island; and then the most favourable treatment they could hope forwould be to be detained prisoners for life; since, from the known policyand cruelty of the Spaniards in their distant settlements, it was ratherto be expected that the Governor, if he once had them in his power, wouldmake their want of commissions (all of them being on board the Centurion)a pretext for treating them as pirates, and for depriving them of theirlives with infamy. 

In the midst of these gloomy reflections Mr. Anson had doubtless hisshare of disquietude, but he always kept up his usual composure andsteadiness; and having soon projected a scheme for extricating himselfand his men from their present anxious situation, he first communicatedit to some of the most intelligent persons about him; and havingsatisfied himself that it was practicable, he then endeavoured to animatehis people to a speedy and vigorous prosecution of it. With this view herepresented to them how little foundation there was for theirapprehensions of the Centurion's being lost; that he was not withouthopes that she might return in a few days, but if she did not, the worstthat could be supposed was that she was driven so far to the leeward ofthe island that she could not regain it, and that she would consequentlybe obliged to bear away for Macao, on the coast of China; that, as it wasnecessary to be prepared against all events, he had, in this case, considered of a method of carrying them off the island and joining theirold ship the Centurion again at Macao; that this method was to haul theSpanish bark on shore, to saw her asunder, and to lengthen her twelvefeet, which would enlarge her to near forty tons burthen, and wouldenable her to carry them all to China. He added that for his own part hewould share the fatigue and labour with them, and would expect no morefrom any man than what he, the Commodore himself, was ready to submit to, and concluded with representing to them the importance of saving time, and that, in order to be the better prepared for all events, it wasnecessary to set to work immediately and to take it for granted that theCenturion would not be able to put back (which was indeed the Commodore'ssecret opinion); since, if she did return, they should only throw away afew days' application, but, if she did not, their situation and theseason of the year required their utmost despatch. 

These remonstrances, though not without effect, did not immediatelyoperate so powerfully as Mr. Anson could have wished. It was some daysbefore they were all of them heartily engaged in the project; but atlast, being in general convinced of the impossibility of the ship'sreturn, they set themselves zealously to the different tasks allottedthem, and were as industrious and as eager as their commander coulddesire, punctually assembling at daybreak at the rendezvous, whence theywere distributed to their different employments, which they followed withunusual vigour till night came on. 

And now the work proceeded very successfully. The necessary ironwork wasin great forwardness, and the timbers and planks (which, though not themost exquisite performances of the sawyer's art, were yet sufficient forthe purpose) were all prepared; so that on the 6th of October, being thefourteenth day from the departure of the ship, they hauled the bark onshore, and on the two succeeding days she was sawn asunder (though withgreat care not to cut her planks), and her two parts were separated theproper distance from each other; and, the materials being all readybeforehand, they the next day, being the 9th of October, went on withgreat despatch in their proposed enlargement of her. And by this timethey had all their future operations so fairly in view, and were so muchmasters of them, that they were able to determine when the whole would befinished, and had accordingly fixed the 5th of November for the day oftheir putting to sea. 

THE CENTURION RETURNS. 

But their projects and labours were now drawing to a speedier and happierconclusion, for on the 11th of October, in the afternoon, one of theGloucester's men, being upon a hill in the middle of the island, perceived the Centurion at a distance, and running down with his utmostspeed towards the landing-place, he in the way saw some of his comrades, to whom he hallooed out with great ecstasy, "That ship! The ship!" Thisbeing heard by Mr. Gordon, a lieutenant of marines, who was convinced bythe fellow's transport that his report was true, Mr. Gordon ran towardsthe place where the Commodore and his people were at work, and beingfresh and in breath easily out stripped the Gloucester's man, and gotbefore him to the Commodore, who, on hearing this happy and unexpectednews, threw down his axe with which he was then at work, and by his joybroke through for the first time the equable and unvaried character whichhe had hitherto preserved. The others who were with him instantly randown to the seaside in a kind of frenzy, eager to feast themselves with asight they had so ardently wished for and of which they had now for aconsiderable time despaired. By five in the evening the Centurion wasvisible in the offing to them all; and, a boat being sent off witheighteen men to reinforce her, and with fresh meat and fruits for therefreshment of her crew, she the next afternoon happily came to an anchorin the road, where the Commodore immediately came on board her, and wasreceived by us with the sincerest and heartiest acclamations. 

CHAPTER 29. THE CENTURION AGAIN DRIVEN TO SEA--HER RETURN--DEPARTURE FROM TINIAN. 

When the Commodore came on board the Centurion on her return to Tinian asalready mentioned, he resolved to stay no longer at the island than wasabsolutely necessary to complete our stock of water, a work which weimmediately set ourselves about. But on the 14th of October, being butthe third day after our arrival, a sudden gust of wind brought home ouranchor, forced us off the bank and drove the ship out to sea a secondtime. However, as the weather was favourable, and our crew was nowstronger than when we were first driven out, we in about five days' timereturned again to an anchor at Tinian and relieved those we had leftbehind us from their second fears of being deserted by their ship. 

On our arrival we found that the Spanish bark, the old object of theirhopes, had undergone a new metamorphosis, for those we had left on shorebegan to despair of our return, and conceiving that the lengthening thebark as formerly proposed was both a toilsome and unnecessary measure, considering the small number they consisted of, they had resolved to joinher again and to restore her to her first state; and in this scheme theyhad made some progress for they had brought the two parts together, andwould have soon completed her had not our coming back put a period totheir labours and disquietude. 

On our coming to an anchor again after our second driving off to sea, welaboured indefatigably in getting in our water; and having by the 20th ofOctober completed it to fifty tuns, which we supposed would be sufficientfor our passage to Macao, we on the next day sent one of each mess onshore to gather as large a quantity of oranges lemons, cocoa-nuts, andother fruits of the island as they possibly could, for the use ofthemselves and messmates when at sea. And these purveyors returning onboard us on the evening of the same day, we then set fire to the bark andproa, hoisted in our boats, and got under sail, steering away for thesouth end of the island of Formosa and taking our leave for the third andlast time of the island of Tinian. 

CHAPTER 30. CHINESE FISHING FLEETS--ARRIVAL AT MACAO. 

The eastern monsoon was now, we reckoned, fairly settled, and we had aconstant gale blowing right upon our stern, so that we generally ran fromforty to fifty leagues a day. But we had a large hollow sea pursuing us, which occasioned the ship to labour much, whence we received great damagein our rigging, which was grown very rotten, and our leak was augmented;but happily for us our people were now in full health, so that there wereno complaints of fatigue, but all went through their attendance on thepumps, and every other duty of the ship, with ease and cheerfulness. 

FORMOSA. 

The 3rd of November, about four in the afternoon, we saw the island ofBotel Tobago Xima, and by eleven the next morning got a sight of thesouthern part of the island of Formosa. In the evening we were surprisedwith a view of what we at first sight conceived to have been breakers, but on a stricter examination we found them to be only a great number offires on the island of Formosa. These, we imagined, were intended by theinhabitants of that island as signals for us to touch there; but thatsuited not our views, we being impatient to reach the port of Macao assoon as possible. From Formosa we steered west-north-west, and sometimesstill more northerly, and on the 5th of November we at last aboutmidnight, got sight of the mainland of China, bearing north by west, fourleagues distant. 

We then brought the ship to, with her head to the sea, proposing to waitfor the morning; and before sunrise we were surprised to find ourselvesin the midst of an incredible number of fishing-boats, which seemed tocover the surface of the sea as far as the eye could reach. I may wellstyle their number incredible, since I cannot believe, upon the lowestestimate, that there were so few as 6, 000 most of them manned with fivehands, and none with less than three. Nor was this swarm of fishingvessels peculiar to this spot, for, as we ran onto the westward, we foundthem as abundant on every part of the coast. We at first doubted not butwe should procure a pilot from them to carry us to Macao; but though manyof them came close to the ship and we endeavoured to tempt them byshowing them a number of dollars--a most alluring bait for Chinese of allranks and professions--yet we could not entice them on board us; though Ipresume the only difficulty was their not comprehending what we wantedthem to do, for we could have no communication with them but by signs. Indeed we often pronounced the word Macao, but this we had reason tosuppose they understood in a different sense, for in return theysometimes held up fish to us, and we afterwards learned that the Chinesename for fish is of a somewhat similar sound. But what surprised us mostwas the inattention and want of curiosity which we observed in this herdof fishermen. A ship like ours had doubtless never been in those seasbefore; perhaps there might not be one amongst all the Chinese employedin this fishery who had ever seen any European vessel; so that we mightreasonably have expected to have been considered by them as a veryuncommon and extraordinary object. 

CHINESE INDIFFERENCE. 

But though many of their vessels came close to the ship, yet they did notappear to be at all interested about us. Nor did they deviate in theleast from their course to regard us; which insensibility, especially ofmaritime persons about a matter in their own profession, is scarcely tobe credited, did not the general behaviour of the Chinese in otherinstances furnish us with continual proof of a similar turn of mind. 

The next day, about two o'clock, as we were standing to the westwardwithin two leagues of the coast, and still surrounded by fishing vesselsin as great numbers as at first, we perceived that a boat ahead of uswaved a red flag and blew a horn. This we considered as a signal made tous either to warn us of some shoal or to inform us that they would supplyus with a pilot, and in this belief we immediately sent our cutter to theboat to know their intentions; but we were soon made sensible of ourmistake, and found that this boat was the Commodore of the whole fishery, and that the signal she had made was to order them all to leave offfishing and to return in shore, which we saw them instantly obey. On thisdisappointment we kept on our course to the westward, and the next daybeing the 7th, we were abreast of a chain of islands which stretched fromeast to west. These, as we afterwards found, were called the islands ofLema. These islands we left on the starboard side, passing within fourmiles of them, where we had twenty-four fathoms water. We were stillsurrounded by fishing-boats, and we once more sent the cutter on boardone of them to endeavour to procure a pilot, but could not prevail. However, one of the Chinese directed us by signs to sail round thewesternmost of the islands or rocks of Lema, and then to haul up. Wefollowed this direction, and in the evening came to anchor in eighteenfathoms. 

After having continued at anchor all night, we on the 9th, at four in themorning, sent our cutter to sound the channel where we proposed to pass;but before the return of the cutter a Chinese pilot put on board us, andtold us in broken Portuguese he would carry us to Macao for thirtydollars. These were immediately paid him, and we then weighed and madesail, and soon after several other pilots came on board us, who, torecommend themselves, produced certificates from the captains of severalships they had piloted in; but we continued the ship under the managementof the Chinese who came first on board. By this time we learned that wewere not far distant from Macao, and that there were in the river ofCanton, at the mouth of which Macao lies, eleven European ships, of whichfour were English. Our pilot carried us between the islands of Bamboo andCabouce, but the winds hanging in the northern board, and the tides oftensetting strongly against us, we were obliged to come frequently to ananchor, so that we did not get through between the two islands till the12th of November at two in the morning. At ten o'clock we happilyanchored in Macao road. Thus, after a fatiguing cruise of above twoyears' continuance, we once more arrived in an amicable port in acivilised country, where the conveniences of life were in great plenty;where the naval stores, which we now extremely wanted, could be in somedegree procured; where we expected the inexpressible satisfaction ofreceiving letters from our relations and friends; and where ourcountrymen who were lately arrived from England would be capable ofanswering the numerous enquiries we were prepared to make both aboutpublic and private occurrences, and to relate to us many particularswhich, whether of importance or not, would be listened to by us with theutmost attention, after the long suspension of our correspondence withour country to which the nature of our undertaking had hitherto subjectedus. 

CHAPTER 31. MACAO--INTERVIEW WITH THE GOVERNOR--A VISIT TO CANTON. 

The city of Macao is a Portuguese settlement situated in an island at themouth of the river of Canton. It was formerly a very rich and populouscity, and capable of defending itself against the power of the adjacentChinese governors, but at present it is much fallen from its ancientsplendour; for though it is inhabited by the Portuguese and has agovernor nominated by the King of Portugal, yet it subsists merely by thesufferance of the Chinese, who can starve the place and dispossess thePortuguese whenever they please. This obliges the Governor of Macao tobehave with great circumspection, and carefully to avoid everycircumstance that may give offence to the Chinese. The river of Canton, at the mouth of which this city lies, is the only Chinese port frequentedby European ships, and this river is indeed a more commodious harbour onmany accounts than Macao. But the peculiar customs of the Chinese, onlyadapted to the entertainment of trading ships, and the apprehensions ofthe Commodore lest he should embroil the East India Company with theRegency of Canton if he should insist on being treated upon a differentfooting than the merchant men, made him resolve to go first to Macaobefore he ventured into the port of Canton. Indeed, had not this reasonprevailed with him, he himself had nothing to fear, for it is certainthat he might have entered the port of Canton, and might have continuedthere as long as he pleased, and afterwards have left it again, althoughthe whole power of the Chinese Empire had been brought together to opposehim. 

The Commodore, not to depart from his usual prudence, no sooner came toan anchor in Macao road than he despatched an officer with hiscompliments to the Portuguese Governor of Macao, requesting HisExcellency by the same officer to advise him in what manner it would beproper to act to avoid offending the Chinese, which, as there were fourof our ships in their power at Canton, was a matter worthy of attention. The difficulty which the Commodore principally apprehended related to theduty usually paid by all ships in the river of Canton, according to theirtonnage. For as men-of-war are exempted in every foreign harbour from allmanner of port charges, the Commodore thought it would be derogatory tothe honour of his country to submit to this duty in China; and thereforehe desired the advice of the Governor of Macao, who, being a European, could not be ignorant of the privileges claimed by a British man-of-war, and consequently might be expected to give us the best lights foravoiding this perplexity. Our boat returned in the evening with twoofficers sent by the Governor, who informed the Commodore that it was theGovernor's opinion that if the Centurion ventured into the river ofCanton, the duty would certainly be demanded; and therefore, if theCommodore approved of it, he would send him a pilot who should conduct usinto another safe harbour, called the Typa, which was every waycommodious for careening the ship (an operation which we were resolved tobegin upon as soon as possible), and where the above-mentioned duty wouldin all probability be never asked for. 

This proposal the Commodore agreed to, and in the morning we weighedanchor, and, under the direction of the Portuguese pilot, steered for theintended harbour, where we moored in about five fathoms water. Thisharbour of the Typa is formed by a number of islands, and is about sixmiles distant from Macao. Here we saluted the Castle of Macao with elevenguns, which were returned by an equal number. 

The next day the Commodore paid a visit in person to the Governor, andwas saluted at his landing by eleven guns, which were returned by theCenturion. Mr. Anson's business in this visit was to solicit the Governorto grant us a supply of provisions, and to furnish us with such stores aswere necessary to refit the ship. The Governor seemed really inclined todo us all the service he could, and assured the Commodore, in a friendlymanner, that he would privately give us all the assistance in his power;but he, at the same time, frankly owned that he dared not openly furnishus with anything we demanded, unless we first procured an order for itfrom the Viceroy of Canton, for that he neither received provisions forhis garrison, nor any other necessaries, but by permission from theChinese Government; and as they took care only to furnish him from day today, he was indeed no other than their vassal, whom they could at alltimes compel to submit to their own terms, only by laying an embargo onhis provisions. 

On this declaration of the Governor, Mr. Anson resolved himself to go toCanton to procure a license from the Viceroy, and he accordingly hired aChinese boat for himself and his attendants. On his arrival there heconsulted with the super cargoes and officers of the English ships how toprocure an order from the Viceroy for the necessaries he wanted. As it isthe custom with these gentlemen never to apply to the supreme magistratehimself, whatever difficulties they labour under, but to transact allmatters relating to the Government by the mediation of the principalChinese merchants, Mr. Anson was advised to follow the same method uponthis occasion, the English promising to exert all their interest toengage the merchants in his favour. 

CHINESE PROMISES. 

And when the Chinese merchants were applied to, they readily undertookthe management of it, and promised to answer for its success; but afternear a month's delay and reiterated excuses, during which interval theypretended to be often upon the point of completing the business, they atlast threw off the mask, and declared they neither had applied to theViceroy, nor could they, for he was too great a man, they said, for themto approach on any occasion. 

CHAPTER 32. A LETTER TO THE VICEROY--A CHINESE MANDARIN--THE CENTURION IS REFITTED AND PUTS TO SEA. 

Mr. Anson now saw clearly that if he had at first carried his ship intothe river of Canton and had immediately applied himself to the mandarins, who are the chief officers of State, instead of employing the merchantsto apply for him, he would in all probability have had all his requestsgranted, and would have been soon despatched. He had already lost a monthby the wrong measures he had been put upon, but he resolved to lose aslittle more time as possible; and therefore, the 17th of December, beingthe next day after his return from Canton, he wrote a letter to theViceroy of that place acquainting him that he was commander-in-chief of asquadron of his Britannic Majesty's ships of war, which had been cruisingfor two years past in the South Seas against the Spaniards, who were atwar with the King his master; that, in his way back to England, he hadput into the port of Macao, having a considerable leak in his ship, andbeing in great want of provisions, so that it was impossible for him toproceed on his voyage till his ship was repaired, and he was suppliedwith the necessaries he wanted; that he had been at Canton in hopes ofbeing admitted to a personal audience of His Excellency, but being astranger to the customs of the country, he had not been able to informhimself what steps were necessary to be taken to procure such anaudience, and therefore was obliged to apply to him in this manner, todesire His Excellency to give orders for his being permitted to employcarpenters and proper workmen to refit his ship, and to furnish himselfwith provisions and stores, thereby to enable him to pursue his voyage toGreat Britain with this monsoon;* hoping at the same time that theseorders would be issued with as little delay as possible, lest it mightoccasion his loss of the season, and he might be prevented from departingtill the next winter. 

(*Note. Anson, of course, had no intention of sailing for England. Hisreason for the deception is given in chapter 33. )

A MANDARIN COMES ON BOARD. 

This letter was written on the 17th of December, and on the 19th in themorning a mandarin of the first rank, who was Governor of the city ofJanson, together with two mandarins of an inferior class, and a greatretinue of officers and servants, having with them eighteen half-galleysdecorated with a great number of streamers, and furnished with music, andfull of men, came to grapnel ahead of the Centurion; whence the mandarinsent a message to the Commodore, telling him that he (the mandarin) wasordered by the Viceroy of Canton to examine the condition of the ship, and desiring the ship's boat might be sent to fetch him on board. TheCenturion's boat was immediately despatched, and preparations were madefor receiving him; for a hundred of the most sightly of the crew wereuniformly dressed in the regimentals of the marines, and were drawn upunder arms on the main-deck, against his arrival. When he entered theship he was saluted by the drums and what other military music there wason board; and passing by the new-formed guard, he was met by theCommodore on the quarter-deck, who conducted him to the great cabin. Herethe mandarin explained his commission, declaring that his business was toexamine all the particulars mentioned in the Commodore's letter to theViceroy; that he was particularly instructed to inspect the leak, and hadfor that purpose brought with him two Chinese carpenters. 

This mandarin appeared to be a person of very considerable parts, andendowed with more frankness and honesty than is to be found in thegenerality of the Chinese. After the proper inquiries had been made, particularly about the leak, which the Chinese carpenters reported to beas dangerous as it had been represented, and consequently that it wasimpossible for the Centurion to proceed to sea without being refitted, the mandarin expressed himself satisfied with the account given in theCommodore's letter. And this magistrate, as he was more intelligent thanany other person of his nation that came to our knowledge, so likewisewas he more curious and inquisitive, viewing each part of the ship withparticular attention, and appearing greatly surprised at the largeness ofthe lower-deck guns, and at the weight and size of the shot. TheCommodore observing his astonishment thought this a proper opportunity toconvince the Chinese of the prudence of granting him a speedy and amplesupply of all he wanted. With this view he told the mandarin and thosewho were with him, that besides the demands he made for a general supply, he had a particular complaint against the proceedings of the custom-houseof Macao; that at his first arrival the Chinese boats had brought onboard plenty of greens and variety of fresh provisions for daily use, forwhich they had always been paid to their full satisfaction, but that thecustom-house officers at Macao had soon forbid them, by which means hewas deprived of those refreshments which were of the utmost consequenceto the health of his men after their long and sickly voyage; that asthey, the mandarins, had informed themselves of his wants, and wereeye-witnesses of the force and strength of his ship, they might besatisfied it was not for want of power to supply imself that he desiredthe permission of the Government to purchase what provisions he stood inneed of; that they must be convinced that the Centurion alone was capableof destroying the whole navigation of the port of Canton, or of any otherport in China, without running the least risk from all the force theChinese could collect; that it was true this was not the manner ofproceeding between nations in friendship with each other, but it waslikewise true that it was not customary for any nation to permit theships of their friends to starve and sink in their ports, when thosefriends had money to supply their wants and only desired liberty to layit out; that they must confess he and his people had hitherto behavedwith great modesty and reserve, but that as his wants were each dayincreasing, hunger would at last prove too strong for any restraint, andnecessity was acknowledged in all countries to be superior to every otherlaw, and therefore it could not be expected that his crew would longcontinue to starve in the midst of that plenty to which their eyes wereevery day witnesses. To this the Commodore added (though perhaps with aless serious air) that if by the delay of supplying him with freshprovisions his men should be reduced to the necessity of turningcannibals, and preying upon their own species, it was easy to be foreseenthat, independent of their friendship to their comrades, they would inpoint of luxury prefer the plump, well-fed Chinese to their own emaciatedshipmates. The first mandarin acquiesced in the justness of thisreasoning, and told the Commodore that he should that night proceed forCanton; that on his arrival a council of mandarins would be summoned, ofwhich he himself was a member, and that all that was demanded would beamply and speedily granted. And with regard to the Commodore's complaintof the custom-house of Macao, he undertook to rectify that immediately byhis own authority; for, desiring a list to be given him of the quantityof provision necessary for the expense of the ship for a day, he wrote apermit under it, and delivered it to one of his attendants, directing himto see that quantity sent on board early every morning; and this orderfrom that time forward was punctually complied with. 

A DINNER PARTY. 

When this weighty affair was thus in some degree regulated, the Commodoreinvited him and his two attendant mandarins to dinner, telling them atthe same time that if his provision, either in kind or quantity, was notwhat they might expect, they must thank themselves for having confinedhim to so hard an allowance. One of his dishes was beef, which theChinese all dislike, though Mr. Anson was not apprised of it; this seemsto be derived from the Indian superstition, * which for some ages past hasmade a great progress in China. However, his guests did not entirelyfast, for the three mandarins completely finished the white part of fourlarge fowls. But they were extremely embarrassed with their knives andforks, and were quite incapable of making use of them, so that, aftersome fruitless attempts to help themselves, which were sufficientlyawkward, one of the attendants was obliged to cut their meat in smallpieces for them. But whatever difficulty they might have in complyingwith the European manner of eating, they seemed not to be novices indrinking. The Commodore excused himself in this part of theentertainment, under the pretence of illness; but there being anothergentleman present, of a florid and jovial complexion, the chief mandarinclapped him on the shoulder, and told him by the interpreter thatcertainly he could not plead sickness, and therefore insisted on hisbearing him company; and that gentleman perceiving that after they haddespatched four or five bottles of Frontiniac, the mandarin stillcontinued unruffled, he ordered a bottle of citron-water to be broughtup, which the Chinese seemed much to relish; and this being near finishedthey arose from table, in appearance cool and uninfluenced by what theyhad drunk. And the Commodore, having, according to custom, made themandarin a present, they all departed in the same vessels that broughtthem. 

(*Note. The cow has been held in high honour in India from early times. The slaughtering and eating the flesh of kine is considered an abominablecrime. The connection between India and Chinese has always been close. The Buddhist religion was introduced from India during the first centuryof the Christian era, and with it no doubt the veneration of the cow. )

After their departure the Commodore with great impatience expected theresolution of the council, and the necessary licences for his refitment. For it must be observed that he could neither purchase stores nornecessaries with his money, nor did any kind of workman dare to engagethemselves to work for him, without the permission of the Governmentfirst obtained. 

Some time before this Captain Saunders took his passage to England onboard a Swedish ship, and was charged with despatches from the Commodore;and soon after, in the month of December, Captain Mitchel and ColonelCracherode embarked on board one of our company's ships; and I, havingobtained the Commodore's leave to return home, embarked with them. I mustobserve, too (having omitted it before), that whilst we lay here at Macaowe were informed by some of the officers of our Indiamen that the Severnand the Pearl, the two ships of our squadron which had separated from usoff Cape Noir, were safely arrived at Rio Janeiro, on the coast ofBrazil; and it was with great joy we received the news, after the strongpersuasion, which had so long prevailed amongst us, of their having bothperished. 

Notwithstanding the favourable disposition of the mandarin Governor ofJanson at his leaving Mr. Anson, several days had elapsed before he hadany advice from him, and Mr. Anson was privately informed there weregreat debates in council upon his affair. However, it should seem thatthe representation of the Commodore to the mandarins of the facility withwhich he could right himself, if justice were denied him, had at last itseffect; for on the 6th of January, in the morning, the Governor ofJanson, the Commodore's advocate, sent down the Viceroy of Canton'swarrant for the refitment of the Centurion, and for supplying her peoplewith all they wanted; and next day a number of Chinese smiths andcarpenters went on board. 

It was the beginning of April before they had new-rigged the ship, stowedtheir provisions and water on board, and fitted her for the sea; andbefore this time the Chinese grew very uneasy and extremely desirous thatshe should be gone, either not knowing, or pretending not to believe, that this was a point the Commodore was as eagerly set on as they couldbe. On the 3rd of April two mandarin boats came on board from Macao tourge his departure; and this having been often done before, though therehad been no pretence to suspect Mr. Anson of any affected delays, he atthis last message answered them in a determined tone, desiring them togive him no further trouble, for he would go when he thought proper andnot before. On this rebuke the Chinese (though it was not in their powerto compel him to be gone) immediately prohibited all provisions frombeing carried on board him, and took such care that their injunctionsshould be complied with, that from that time forwards nothing could bepurchased at any rate whatever. 

AT SEA AGAIN. 

On the 6th of April the Centurion weighed from the Typa, and warped tothe southward, and by the 15th she was got into Macao road, completingher water as she passed along, so that there remained now very fewarticles more to attend to; and her whole business being finished by the19th, she, at three in the afternoon of that day, weighed and made sail, and stood to sea. 

CHAPTER 33. WAITING FOR THE Manila GALLEON. 

The Commodore was now got to sea, with his ship very well refitted, hisstores replenished, and an additional stock of provisions on board. Hiscrew, too, was somewhat reinforced, for he had entered twenty-three menduring his stay at Macao, the greatest part of which were Lascars orIndian sailors, and some few Dutch. He gave out at Macao that he wasbound to Batavia, and thence to England; and though the western monsoonwas now set in, when that passage is considered as impracticable, yet bythe confidence he had expressed in the strength of his ship and thedexterity of his people he had persuaded not only his own crew, but thepeople at Macao likewise, that he proposed to try this unusualexperiment; so that there were many letters put on board him by theinhabitants of Canton and Macao for their friends at Batavia. 

But his real design was of a very different nature, for he knew thatinstead of one annual ship from Acapulco to Manila there would be thisyear, in all probability, two, since by being before Acapulco he hadprevented one of them from putting to sea the preceding season. Hetherefore resolved to cruise for these returning vessels off CapeEspiritu Santo, on the island of Samal, which is the first land theyalways make in the Philippine islands. And as June is generally the monthin which they arrive there, he doubted not but he should get to hisintended station in time enough to intercept them. It is true they weresaid to be stout vessels, mounting forty-four guns apiece, and carryingabove 500 hands, and might be expected to return in company; and hehimself had but 227 hands on board, of which near thirty were boys. Butthis disproportion of strength did not deter him, as he knew his ship tobe much better fitted for a sea engagement than theirs, and as he hadreason to expect that his men would exert themselves in the mostextraordinary manner when they had in view the immense wealth of theseManila galleons. 

This project the Commodore had resolved on in his own thoughts ever sincehis leaving the coast of Mexico, and the greatest mortification which hereceived from the various delays he had met with in China was hisapprehension lest he might be thereby so long retarded as to let thegalleons escape him. Indeed, at Macao, it was incumbent on him to keepthese views extremely secret, for there being a great intercourse and amutual connection of interests between that port and Manila, he hadreason to fear that, if his designs were discovered, intelligence wouldbe immediately sent to Manila and measures would be taken to prevent thegalleons from falling into his hands. But being now at sea, and entirelyclear of the coast, he summoned all his people on the quarter-deck, andinformed them of his resolution to cruise for the two Manila ships, ofwhose wealth they were not ignorant. He told them he should choose astation where he could not fail of meeting with them; and though theywere stout ships and full-manned, yet, if his own people behaved withtheir accustomed spirit, he was certain he should prove too hard for themboth, and that one of them at least could not fail of becoming his prize. He further added that many ridiculous tales had been propagated about thestrength of the sides of these ships, and their being impenetrable tocannon-shot; that these fictions had been principally invented topalliate the cowardice of those who had formerly engaged them; but hehoped they were none of those present weak enough to give credit to soabsurd a story. For his own part he did assure them upon his word that, whenever he met with them, he would fight them so near that they shouldfind his bullets, instead of being stopped by one of their sides, shouldgo through them both. 

CONFIDENT OF SUCCESS. 

This speech of the Commodore's was received by his people with great joy, for no sooner had he ended than they expressed their approbation, according to naval custom, by three strenuous cheers, and all declaredtheir determination to succeed or perish whenever the opportunitypresented itself. And now their hopes, which since their departure fromthe coast of Mexico had entirely subsided, were again revived; and theyall persuaded themselves that, notwithstanding the various casualties anddisappointments they had hitherto met with, they should yet be repaid theprice of their fatigues, and should at last return home enriched with thespoils of the enemy. For, firmly relying on the assurances of theCommodore that they should certainly meet with the vessels, they were allof them too sanguine to doubt a moment of mastering them; so that theyconsidered themselves as having them already in their possession. Andthis confidence was so universally spread through the whole ship'scompany that, the Commodore having taken some Chinese sheep to sea withhim for his own provision, and one day enquiring of his butcher why forsome time past he had seen no mutton at his table, asking him if all thesheep were killed, the butcher very seriously replied that there wereindeed two sheep left, but that if his honour would give him leave, heproposed to keep those for the entertainment of the General of thegalleons. 

When the Centurion left the port of Macao she stood for some days to thewestward, and on the 1st of May they saw part of the island of Formosa, and standing thence to the southward, they, on the 4th of May about sevenin the evening, discovered from the masthead five small islands, whichwere judged to be the Bashees, and they had afterwards a sight of BotelTobago Xima. After getting a sight of the Bashee Islands, they stoodbetween the south and south-west for Cape Espiritu Santo, and the 20th ofMay at noon they first discovered that cape, which about four o'clockthey brought to bear south-south-west, about eleven leagues distant. Itappeared to be of a moderate height, with several round hummocks on it. As it was known that there were sentinels placed upon this cape to makesignals to the Acapulco ship when she first falls in with the land, theCommodore immediately tacked, and ordered the top-gallant sails to betaken in to prevent being discovered; and this being the station in whichit was resolved to cruise for the galleons, they kept the cape betweenthe south and west, and endeavoured to confine themselves between thelatitude of 12 degrees 50 minutes and 13 degrees 5 minutes. 

It was the last of May, by the foreign style, when they arrived off thiscape; and the month of June, by the same style, being that in which theManila ships are usually expected, the Centurion's people were nowwaiting each hour with the utmost impatience for the happy crisis whichwas to balance the account of all their past calamities. As from thistime there was but small employment for the crew, the Commodore orderedthem almost every day to be exercised in the management of the great gunsand in the use of their small arms. This had been his practice, more orless, at all convenient seasons during the whole course of his voyage, and the advantages which he received from it in his engagement with thegalleon were an ample recompense for all his care and attention. The menwere taught the shortest method of loading with cartridges, and wereconstantly trained to fire at a mark, which was usually hung at theyard-arm, and some little reward was given to the most expert. The wholecrew, by this management, were rendered extremely skilful, quick inloading, all of them good marksmen, and some of them most extraordinaryones, so that I doubt not but, in the use of small arms, they were morethan a match for double their number who had not been habituated to thesame kind of exercise. 

AN ILL-TIMED DISAGREEMENT. 

It was the last of May, New Style, as has been already said, when theCenturion arrived off Cape Espiritu Santo, and consequently the next daybegan the month in which the galleons were to be expected. The Commodoretherefore made all necessary preparations for receiving them. All thistime, too, he was very solicitous to keep at such a distance from thecape as not to be discovered; but it has been since learned thatnotwithstanding his care, he was seen from the land, and advice of himwas sent to Manila, where it was at first disbelieved; but on reiteratedintelligence (for it seems he was seen more than once) the merchants werealarmed, and the Governor was applied to, who undertook (the commercesupplying the necessary sums) to fit out a force consisting of two shipsof 32 guns, one of 20 guns, and two sloops of 10 guns each, to attack theCenturion on her station. And some of these vessels did actually weighwith this view, but the principal ship not being ready, and the monsoonbeing against them, the commerce and the Government disagreed, and theenterprise was laid aside. This frequent discovery of the Centurion fromthe shore was somewhat extraordinary, for the pitch of the cape is nothigh, and she usually kept from ten to fifteen leagues distant, thoughonce, indeed, by an indraught of the tide, as was supposed, they foundthemselves in the morning within seven leagues of the land. 

CHAPTER 34. THE CAPTURE OF THE GALLEON. 

As the month of June advanced, the expectancy and impatience of theCommodore's people each day increased, and I think no better idea can begiven of their great eagerness on this occasion than by copying a fewparagraphs from the journal of an officer who was then on board, as itwill, I presume, be a more natural picture of the full attachment oftheir thoughts to the business of their cruise than can be given by anyother means. The paragraphs I have selected, as they occur in order oftime are as follows:

May 31. Exercising our men at their quarters, in great expectation ofmeeting with the galleons very soon, this being the 11th of June, theirstyle. 

June 3. Keeping in our stations and looking out for the galleons. 

June 5. Begin now to be in great expectations, this being the middle ofJune, their style. 

June 11. Begin to grow impatient at not seeing the galleons. 

June 13. The wind having blown fresh easterly for the forty-eight hourspast, gives us great expectations of seeing the galleons soon. 

June 15. Cruising on and off and looking out strictly. 

June 19. This being the last day of June, New Style, the galleons, ifthey arrive at all, must appear soon. 

 . . . 

From these samples it is sufficiently evident how completely the treasureof the galleons had engrossed their imagination, and how anxiously theypassed the latter part of their cruise, when the certainty of the arrivalof these vessels was dwindled down to probability only, and thatprobability became each hour more and more doubtful. 

THE GALLEON SIGHTED. 

However, on the 20th of June, Old Style, being just a month from theirarrival on their station, they were relieved from this state ofuncertainty when, at sunrise, they discovered a sail from the masthead inthe south-east quarter. On this a general joy spread through the wholeship, for they had no doubt but this was one of the galleons, and theyexpected soon to see the other. The Commodore instantly stood towardsher, and at half an hour after seven they were near enough to see herfrom the Centurion's deck, at which time the galleon fired a gun and tookin her top-gallant sails, which was supposed to be a signal to herconsort to hasten her up; and therefore the Centurion fired a gun toleeward, * to amuse her. The Commodore was surprised to find that in allthis time the galleon did not change her course, but continued to beardown upon him, for he hardly believed, what afterwards appeared to be thecase, that she knew his ship to be the Centurion and resolved to fighthim. 

(*Note. Probably as a pretended signal to a consort. The two ships wereendeavouring to deceive each other. )

About noon the Commodore was little more than a league distant from thegalleon, and could fetch her wake, so that she could not now escape, andno second ship appearing, it was concluded that she had been separatedfrom her consort. Soon after the galleon hauled up her foresail andbrought to under topsails, with her head to the northward, hoistingSpanish colours and having the standard of Spain flying at the topgallantmasthead. Mr. Anson in the meantime had prepared all things for anengagement on board the Centurion, and had taken all possible care bothfor the most effectual exertion of his small strength, and for avoidingthe confusion and tumult too frequent in actions of this kind. He pickedout about thirty of his choicest hands and best marksmen, whom hedistributed into his tops, and who fully answered his expectation by thesignal services they performed. As he had not hands enough remaining toquarter a sufficient number to each great gun in the customary manner, hetherefore, on his lower tier, fixed only two men to each gun, who were tobe solely employed in loading it, whilst the rest of his people weredivided into different gangs of ten or twelve men each, who wereconstantly moving about the decks to run out and fire such guns as wereloaded. By this management he was enabled to make use of all his guns, and, instead of firing broad sides with intervals between them, he keptup a constant fire without intermission, whence he doubted not to procurevery signal advantages; for it is common with the Spaniards to fall downupon the decks when they see a broadside preparing and to continue inthat posture till it is given; after which they rise again and, presumingthe danger to be for some time over, work their guns, and fire with greatbriskness till another broadside is ready; but the firing gun by gun inthe manner directed by the Commodore rendered this practice of theirsimpossible. 

A GALLANT FIGHT. 

The Centurion being thus prepared, and nearing the galleon apace, therehappened, a little after noon, several squalls of wind and rain, whichoften obscured the galleon from their sight; but whenever it cleared upthey observed her resolutely lying to, and towards one o'clock theCenturion hoisted her broad pendant and colours, she being then withingun shot of the enemy; and the Commodore, observing the Spaniards to haveneglected clearing their ship till that time, as he then saw themthrowing over board cattle and lumber, he gave orders to fire upon themwith the chase guns to embarrass them in their work, and prevent themfrom completing it, though his general directions had been not to engagetill they were within pistol-shot. The galleon returned the fire with twoof her stern-chasers, and the Centurion getting her sprit sail-yard foreand aft, that if necessary she might be ready for boarding, the Spaniardsin a bravado rigged their spritsail-yard fore and aft likewise. Soonafter the Centurion came abreast of the enemy within pistol-shot, keepingto the leeward with a view of preventing them from putting before thewind and gaining the port of Jalapay, from which they were about sevenleagues distant. And now the engagement began in earnest, and for thefirst half-hour Mr. Anson overreached the galleon and lay on her bow, where by the great wideness of his ports he could traverse almost all hisguns upon the enemy, whilst the galleon could only bring a part of hersto bear. Immediately on the commencement of the action the mats withwhich the galleon had stuffed her netting took fire and burned violently, blazing up half as high as the mizzen top. This accident (supposed to becaused by the Centurion's wads) threw the enemy into great confusion, andat the same time alarmed the Commodore, for he feared lest the galleonshould be burned, and lest he himself too might suffer by her driving onboard him. But the Spaniards at last freed themselves from the fire bycutting away the netting, and tumbling the whole mass which was in flamesinto the sea. But still the Centurion kept her first advantageousposition, firing her cannon with great regularity and briskness, whilstat the same time the galleon's decks lay open to her topmen, who havingat their first volley driven the Spaniards from their tops, madeprodigious havoc with their small arms, killing or wounding every officerbut one that ever appeared on the quarter-deck, and wounding inparticular the General of the galleon himself; and though the Centurion, after the first half-hour, lost her original situation and was closealongside the galleon, and the enemy continued to fire briskly for nearan hour longer, yet at last the Commodore's grape-shot swept their decksso effectually, and the number of their slain and wounded was soconsiderable, that they began to fall into great disorder, especially asthe General, who was the life of the action, was no longer capable ofexerting himself. Their embarrassment was visible from on board theCommodore, for the ships were so near that some of the Spanish officerswere seen running about with great assiduity to prevent the desirtion oftheir men from their quarters. But all their endeavours were in vain, forafter having, as a last effort, fired five or six guns with more judgmentthan usual, they gave up the contest, and the galleon's colours beingsinged off the ensign staff in the beginning of the engagement, shestruck the standard at her main top-gallant masthead, the person who wasemployed to do it having been in imminent peril of being killed, had notthe Commodore, who perceived what he was about, given express orders tohis people to desist from firing. 

Thus was the Centurion possessed of this rich prize, amounting in valueto near a million and a half of dollars. She was called the "NuestraSenora de Cabadonga", and was commanded by the General Don Jeronimo deMontero, a Portuguese by birth, and the most approved officer for skilland courage of any employed in that service. The galleon was much largerthan the Centurion, and had five hundred and fifty men and thirty-sixguns mounted for action, besides twenty-eight pidreroes in her gunwale, quarters, and tops, each of which carried a four-pound ball. She was verywell furnished with small arms, and was particularly provided againstboarding, both by her close quarters and by a strong network of 2-inchrope, which was laced over her waist and was defended by half-pikes. Shehad sixty-seven killed in the action and eighty-four wounded, whilst theCenturion had only two killed and a lieutenant and sixteen wounded, allof whom but one recovered; of so little consequence are the mostdestructive arms in untutored and unpractised hands. 

The treasure thus taken by the Centurion having been for at leasteighteen months the great object of their hopes, it is impossible todescribe the transport on board when, after all their reiterateddisappointments, they at last saw their wishes accomplished. But theirjoy was near being suddenly damped by a most tremendous incident, for nosooner had the galleon struck than one of the lieutenants, coming to Mr. Anson to congratulate him on his prize, whispered him at the same timethat the Centurion was dangerously on fire near the powder-room. TheCommodore received this dreadful news without any apparent emotion, andtaking care not to alarm his people, gave the necessary orders forextinguishing it, which was happily done in a short time, though itsappearance at first was extremely terrible. It seems some cartridges hadbeen blown up by accident between decks, whereby a quantity of oakum inthe after hatchway near the after powder-room was set on fire, and thegreat smother and smoke of the oakum occasioned the apprehension of amore extended and mischievous fire. At the same instant, too, the galleonfell on board the Centurion on the starboard quarter, but she was clearedwithout doing or receiving any considerable damage. 

The Commodore made his first lieutenant, Mr. Suamarez, captain of thisprize, appointing her a post-ship in His Majesty's service. CaptainSuamarez, before night, sent on board the Centurion all the Spanishprisoners but such as were thought the most proper to be retained toassist in navigating the galleon. 

WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN. 

And now the Commodore learned from some of these prisoners that the othership, which he had kept in the port of Acapulco the preceding year, instead of returning in company with the present prize, as was expected, had set sail from Acapulco alone much sooner than usual, and had in allprobability got into the port of Manila long before the Centurionarrived off Cape Espiritu Santo, so that Mr. Anson, notwithstanding hispresent success, had great reason to regret his loss of time at Macao, which prevented him from taking two rich prizes instead of one. 

CHAPTER 35. SECURING THE PRISONERS--MACAO AGAIN--AMOUNT OF THE TREASURE. 

The Commodore, when the action was ended, resolved to make the best ofhis way with his prize for the river of Canton, being in the meantimefully employed in securing his prisoners, and in removing the treasurefrom on board the galleon into the Centurion. The last of theseoperations was too important to be postponed, for as the navigation toCanton was through seas but little known, and where, from the season ofthe year, much bad weather might be expected, it was of great consequencethat the treasure should be sent on board the Centurion, which ship, bythe presence of the Commander-in-chief, the greater number of her hands, and her other advantages, was doubtless much safer against all thecasualties of winds and seas than the galleon; and the securing theprisoners was a matter of still more consequence, as not only thepossession of the treasure, but the lives of the captors dependedthereon. This was indeed an article which gave the Commodore much troubleand disquietude, for they were above double the number of his own people, and some of them, when they were brought on board the Centurion and hadobserved how slenderly she was manned, and the large proportion which thestriplings bore to the rest, could not help expressing themselves withgreat indignation to be thus beaten by a handful of boys. 

THE SUFFERINGS OF THE PRISONERS. 

The method which was taken to hinder them from rising was by placing allbut the officers and the wounded in the hold, where to give them as muchair as possible, two hatchways were left open; but then (to avoid alldanger whilst the Centurion's people should be employed upon the deck)there was a square partition of thick planks, made in the shape of afunnel, which enclosed each hatchway on the lower deck and reached tothat directly over it on the upper deck. These funnels served tocommunicate the air to the hold better than could have been done withoutthem, and at the same time added greatly to the security of the ship, forthey being seven or eight feet high, it would have been extremelydifficult for the Spaniards to have clambered up, and, still to augmentthat difficulty, four swivel-guns loaded with musket bullets were plantedat the mouth of each funnel, and a sentinel with lighted match constantlyattended, prepared to fire into the hold amongst them in case of anydisturbance. Their officers, who amounted to seventeen or eighteen, wereall lodged in the first lieutenant's cabin, under a constant guard of sixmen, and the General, as he was wounded, lay in the Commodore's cabinwith a sentinel always with him, and they were all informed that anyviolence or disturbance would be punished with instant death; and thatthe Centurion's people might be at all times prepared, if notwithstandingthese regulations any tumult should arise, the small arms were constantlykept loaded in a proper place, whilst all the men went armed withcutlasses and pistols, and no officer ever pulled off his clothes, andwhen he slept had always his arms lying ready by him. 

These measures were obviously necessary, considering the hazards to whichthe Commodore and his people would have been exposed had they been lesscareful. Indeed, the sufferings of the poor prisoners though impossibleto be alleviated, were much to be commiserated, for the weather wasextremely hot, the stench of the hold loathsome beyond all conception, and their allowance of water but just sufficient to keep them alive, itnot being practicable to spare them more than at the rate of a pint a dayfor each, the crew themselves having only an allowance of a pint and ahalf. All this considered, it was wonderful that not a man of them diedduring their long confinement, except three of the wounded, who died thesame night they were taken; though it must be confessed that the greatestpart of them were strangely metamorphosed by the heat of the hold, forwhen they were first taken they were sightly, robust fellows, but when, after above a month's imprisonment, they were discharged in the river ofCanton, they were reduced to mere skeletons, and their air and lookscorresponded much more to the conception formed of ghosts and spectresthan to the figure and appearance of real men. 

Thus employed in securing the treasure and the prisoners, the Commodore, as has been said, stood for the river of Canton, and on the 30th of June, at six in the evening, got sight of Cape Delangano, which then bore westten leagues distant, and the next day he made the Bashee Islands, and thewind being so far to the northward that it was difficult to weather them, it was resolved to stand through between Grafton and Monmouth Islands, where the passage seemed to be clear; but in getting through the sea hada very dangerous aspect, for it rippled and foamed as if it had been fullof breakers, which was still more terrible as it was then night. But theships got through very safe, the prize always keeping ahead, and it wasfound that the appearance which had alarmed them had been occasioned onlyby a strong tide, and on the 11th of July, having taken on board twoChinese pilots, one for the Centurion and the other for the prize, theycame to an anchor off the city of Macao. 

By this time the particulars of the cargo of the galleon were wellascertained, and it was found that she had on board 1, 313, 843 pieces ofeight and 35, 682 ounces of virgin silver, besides some cochineal and afew other commodities, which, however, were but of small account incomparison of the specie. And this being the Commodore's last prize, ithence appears that all the treasure taken by the Centurion was not muchshort of 400, 000 pounds independent of the ships and merchandise whichshe either burnt or destroyed, and which by the most reasonableestimation could not amount to so little as 600, 000 more; so that thewhole loss of the enemy by our squadron did doubtless exceed a millionsterling. To which, if there be added the great expense of the court ofSpain in fitting out Pizarro, and in paying the additional charges inAmerica incurred on our account, together with the loss of theirmen-of-war, the total of all these articles will be a most exorbitantsum, and is the strongest conviction of the utility of this expedition, which, with all its numerous disadvantages, did yet prove so extremelyprejudicial to the enemy. 

CHAPTER 36. THE CANTON RIVER--NEGOTIATING WITH THE CHINESE--PRISONERS RELEASED. 

The Commodore, having taken pilots on board, proceeded with his prize forthe river of Canton, and on the 14th of July came to an anchor short ofthe Bocca Tigris, which is a narrow passage forming the mouth of thatriver. This entrance he proposed to stand through the next day, and torun up as far as Tiger Island, which is a very safe road, secured fromall winds. 

CHINESE INQUIRIES. 

But whilst the Centurion and her prize were thus at anchor, a boat withan officer came off from the mandarin commanding the forts at BoccaTigris to examine what the ships were and whence they came. Mr. Ansoninformed the officer that his ship was a ship of war, belonging to theKing of Great Britain, and that the other in company with him was a prizehe had taken; that he was going into Canton River to shelter himselfagainst the hurricanes which were then coming on; and that as soon as themonsoon shifted he should proceed for England. The officer then desiredan account of what men, guns, and ammunition were on board, a list of allwhich, he said, was to be sent to the Government of Canton. But whenthese articles were repeated to him, particularly when he was told thatthere were in the Centurion four hundred fire locks and between threehundred and four hundred barrels of powder, he shrugged up his shouldersand seemed to be terrified with the bare recital, saying that no shipsever came into Canton River armed in that manner; adding that he durstnot set down the whole of this force, lest it should too much alarm theRegency. After he had finished his enquiries, and was preparing todepart, he desired to leave the two custom-house officers behind him, onwhich the Commodore told him that though as a man-of-war he wasprohibited from trading, and had nothing to do with customs or duties ofany kind, yet for the satisfaction of the Chinese he would permit two oftheir people to be left on board, who might themselves be witnesses howpunctually he should comply with his instructions. The officer seemedamazed when Mr. Anson mentioned being exempted from all duties, and toldhim that the Emperor's duty must be paid by all ships that came into hisports. 

On the 16th of July the Commodore sent his second lieutenant to Cantonwith a letter to the Viceroy, informing him of the reason of theCenturion's putting into that port, and that the Commodore himself soonproposed to repair to Canton to pay a visit to the Viceroy. Thelieutenant was very civilly received, and was promised that an answershould be sent to the Commodore the next day. In the meantime Mr. Ansongave leave to several of the officers of the galleon to go to Canton, they engaging their parole to return in two days. When these prisonersgot to Canton the Regency sent for them and examined them, enquiringparticularly by what means they had fallen into Mr. Anson's power. And onthis occasion the prisoners were honest enough to declare that as theKings of Great Britain and Spain were at war, they had proposed tothemselves the taking of the Centurion, and had bore down upon her withthat view, but that the event had been contrary to their hopes. However, they acknowledged that they had been treated by the Commodore much betterthan they believed they should have treated him had he fallen into theirhands. This confession from an enemy had great weight with the Chinese, who till then, though they had revered the Commodore's power, had yetsuspected his morals, and had considered him rather as a lawless freebooter than as one commissioned by the State for revenge of publicinjuries. But they now changed their opinion, and regarded him as a moreimportant person, to which perhaps the vast treasure of his prize mightnot a little contribute, the acquisition of wealth being a matter greatlyadapted to the estimation and reverence of the Chinese nation. 

In this examination of the Spanish prisoners, though the Chinese had noreason in the main to doubt the account which was given them, yet therewere two circumstances which appeared to them so singular as to deserve amore ample explanation. One of them was the great disproportion of menbetween the Centurion and the galleon, the other was the humanity withwhich the people of the galleon were treated after they were taken. Themandarins therefore asked the Spaniards how they came to be overpoweredby so inferior a force, and how it happened, since the two nations wereat war, that they were not put to death when they came into the hands ofthe English. To the first of these enquiries the Spanish replied thatthough they had more hands than the Centurion, yet she, being intendedsolely for war, had a great superiority in the size of her guns, and inmany other articles, over the galleon, which was a vessel fitted outprincipally for traffic. And as to the second question, they told theChinese that amongst the nations of Europe it was not customary to put todeath those who submitted, though they readily owned that the Commodore, from the natural bias of his temper, had treated both them and theircountrymen, who had formerly been in his power, with very unusualcourtesy, much beyond what they could have expected, or than was requiredby the customs established between nations at war with each other. Thesereplies fully satisfied the Chinese, and at the same time wrought verypowerfully in the Commodore's favour. 

A MESSAGE FROM THE VICEROY. 

On the 20th of July, in the morning, three mandarins, with a great numberof boats and a vast retinue, came on board the Centurion and delivered tothe Commodore the Viceroy of Canton's order for a daily supply ofprovisions, and for pilots to carry the ships up the river as far as thesecond bar; and at the same time they delivered him a message from theViceroy in answer to the letter sent to Canton. The substance of themessage was that the Viceroy desired to be excused from receiving theCommodore's visit during the then excessive hot weather, because theassembling the mandarins and soldiers necessary to that ceremony wouldprove extremely inconvenient and fatiguing; but that in September, whenthe weather would be more temperate, he should be glad to see both theCommodore himself and the English captain of the other ship that was withhim. As Mr. Anson knew that an express had been dispatched to the courtat Peking with an account of the Centurion and her prize being arrived inthe river of Canton, he had no doubt but the principal motive for puttingoff this visit was that the regency at Canton might gain time to receivethe Emperor's instructions about their behaviour on this unusual affair. 

When the mandarins had delivered their message they began to talk to theCommodore about the duties to be paid by his ships, but he immediatelytold them that he would never submit to any demand of that kind, addingthat no duties were ever demanded of men-of-war by nations accustomed totheir reception, and that his master's orders expressly forbade him frompaying any acknowledgment for his ships anchoring in any port whatever. The mandarins being thus cut short on the subject of the duty, they saidthey had another matter to mention, which was the only remaining one theyhad in charge. This was a request to the Commodore that he would releasethe prisoners he had taken on board the galleon, for that the Viceroy ofCanton apprehended the Emperor, his master, might be displeased if heshould be informed that persons who were his allies, and carried on agreat commerce with his subjects, were under confinement in hisdominions. Mr. Anson was himself extremely desirous to get rid of theSpaniards, having on his first arrival sent about one hundred of them toMacao, and those who remained, which were near four hundred more, were onmany accounts a great encumbrance to him. However, to enhance the favour, he at first raised some difficulties; but, permitting himself to beprevailed on, he at last told the mandarins that to show his readiness tooblige the Viceroy he would release the prisoners whenever they (theChinese) would send boats to fetch them off. This matter being adjusted, the mandarins departed; and on the 28th of July two Chinese junks weresent from Canton to take on board the prisoners, and to carry them toMacao. And the Commodore, agreeable to his promise, dismissed them all, and ordered his purser to send with them eight days' provision for theirsubsistence during their sailing down the river. This being despatched, the Centurion and her prize came to her moorings above the second bar, where they proposed to continue till the monsoon shifted. 

CHAPTER 37. CHINESE TRICKERY. 

Though the ships, in consequence of the Viceroy's permit, found nodifficulty in purchasing provisions for their daily consumption, yet itwas impossible for the Commodore to proceed to England without laying ina large quantity both of provisions and stores for his use during thevoyage. The procuring this supply was attended with much embarrassment, for there were people at Canton who had undertaken to furnish him withbiscuit and whatever else he wanted, and his linguist, towards the middleof September, had assured him from day to day that all was ready andwould be sent on board him immediately. But a fortnight being elapsed, and nothing being brought, the Commodore sent to Canton to enquire moreparticularly into the reasons of this disappointment, and he had soon thevexation to be informed that the whole was an illusion; that no order hadbeen procured from the Viceroy to furnish him with his sea stores, as hadbeen pretended; that there was no biscuit baked, nor any one of thearticles in readiness which had been promised him; nor did it appear thatthe contractors had taken the least step to comply with their agreement. This was most disagreeable news, and made it suspected that thefurnishing the Centurion for her return to Great Britain might prove amore troublesome matter than had been hitherto imagined; especially, too, as the month of September was nearly elapsed without Mr. Anson's havingreceived any message from the Viceroy of Canton. 

It were endless to recount all the artifices, extortions, and frauds, which were practised on the Commodore and his people by the Chinese. Themethod of buying all things in China being by weight, the tricks made useof by them to increase the weight of the provision they sold to theCenturion were almost incredible. One time, a large quantity of fowls andducks being brought for the ship's use, the greatest part of thempresently died. This alarmed the people on board with the apprehensionthat they had been killed by poison, but on examination it appeared thatit was only owing to their being crammed with stones and gravel toincrease their weight, the quantity thus forced into most of the ducksbeing found to amount to ten ounces in each. The hogs, too, which werebought ready killed of the Chinese butchers, had water injected into themfor the same purpose, so that a carcase hung up all night for the waterto drain from it has lost above a stone of its weight, and when, to avoidthis cheat, the hogs were bought alive, it was found that the Chinesegave them salt to increase their thirst, and having by this means excitedthem to drink great quantities of water, they then took measures toprevent them from discharging it again, and sold the tortured animal inthis inflated state. When the Commodore first put to sea from Macao, theypractised an artifice of another kind, for as the Chinese never object tothe eating of any food that dies of itself, they took care, by somesecret practises, that great part of his live sea-store should die in ashort time after it was put on board, hoping to make a second profit ofthe dead carcases which they expected would be thrown overboard, andtwo-thirds of the hogs dying before the Centurion was out of sight ofland, many of the Chinese boats followed her only to pick up the carrion. These instances may serve as a specimen of the manners of this celebratednation, which is often recommended to the rest of the world as a patternof all kinds of laudable qualities. 

CHAPTER 38. PREPARATIONS FOR A VISIT TO CANTON. 

The Commodore, towards the end of September, having found out (as hasbeen said) that those who had contracted to supply him with seaprovisions and stores had deceived him, and that the Viceroy had not sentto him according to his promise, he saw it would be impossible for him tosurmount the embarrassment he was under without going himself to Canton, and visiting the Viceroy. And therefore, on the 27th of September, hesent a message to the mandarin who attended the Centurion to inform himthat he, the Commodore, intended on the 1st of October to proceed in hisboat to Canton, adding that the day after he got there he should notifyhis arrival to the Viceroy, and should desire him to fix a time for hisaudience; to which the mandarin returned no other answer than that hewould acquaint the Viceroy with the Commodore's intentions. In themeantime all things were prepared for this expedition, and the boat'screw in particular which Mr. Anson proposed to take with him, wereclothed in a uniform dress resembling that of the watermen on the Thames. They were in number eighteen and a coxswain. They had scarlet jackets andblue silk waistcoats, the whole trimmed with silver buttons, and withsilver badges on their jackets and caps. 

A WISE PRECAUTION. 

As it was apprehended, and even asserted, that the payment of thecustomary duties for the Centurion and her prize would be demanded by theRegency of Canton, and would be insisted on previous to the granting apermission for victualling the ship for her future voyage, the Commodore, who was resolved never to establish so dishonourable a precedent, tookall possible precautions to prevent the Chinese from facilitating thesuccess of their unreasonable pretentions by having him in their power atCanton. And, therefore, for the security of his ship and the greattreasure on board her, he appointed his first lieutenant, Mr. Brett, tobe captain of the Centurion under him, giving him proper instructions forhis conduct, directing him particularly, if he, the Commodore, should bedetained at Canton on account of the duties in dispute, to take out themen from the Centurion's prize and to destroy her, and then to proceeddown the river through the Bocca Tigris with the Centurion alone, and toremain without that entrance till he received further orders from Mr. Anson. 

These necessary steps being taken, which were not unknown to the Chinese, it should seem as if their deliberations were in some sort embarrassedthereby. It is reasonable to imagine that they were in general verydesirous of getting the duties to be paid them, not perhaps solely inconsideration of the amount of those dues, but to keep up theirreputation for address and subtlety, and to avoid the imputation ofreceding from claims on which they had already so frequently insisted. However, as they now foresaw that they had no other method of succeedingthan by violence, and that even against this the Commodore was prepared, they were at last disposed, I conceive, to let the affair drop, ratherthan entangle themselves in a hostile measure which they found would onlyexpose them to the risk of having the whole navigation of their portdestroyed, without any certain prospect of gaining their favourite pointthereby. 

CHAPTER 39. STORES AND PROVISIONS--A FIRE IN CANTON--SAILORS AS FIREMEN--THE VICEROY'SGRATITUDE. 

BARGAINING. 

When the Commodore arrived at Canton he was visited by the principalChinese merchants, who affected to appear very much pleased that he hadmet with no obstruction in getting thither. They added that, as soon asthe Viceroy should be informed that Mr. Anson was at Canton, they werepersuaded a day would be immediately appointed for the visit, which wasthe principal business that had brought the Commodore thither. 

The next day the merchants returned to Mr. Anson, and told him that theViceroy was then so fully employed in preparing his despatches for Pekin, that there was no getting admittance to him for some days; but that theyhad engaged one of the officers of his court to give them information assoon as he should be at leisure when they proposed to notify Mr. Anson'sarrival, and to endeavour to fix the day of audience. The Commodore wasby this time too well acquainted with their artifices not to perceivethat this was a falsehood, and had he consulted only his own judgment hewould have applied directly to the Viceroy by other hands. But theChinese merchants had so far prepossessed the supercargoes of our shipswith chimerical fears, that they were extremely apprehensive of beingembroiled with the government and of suffering in their interest, ifthose measures were taken which appeared to Mr. Anson at that time to bethe most prudential; and therefore, lest the malice and double-dealing ofthe Chinese might have given rise to some sinister incident which wouldbe afterwards laid at his door, he resolved to continue passive as longas it should appear that he lost no time by thus suspending his ownopinion. With this view he promised not to take any immediate stephimself for getting admittance to the Viceroy, provided the Chinese withwhom he contracted for provisions would let him see that his bread wasbaked, his meat salted, and his stores prepared with the utmost despatch. But if, by the time when all was in readiness to be shipped off (which itwas supposed would be in about forty days), the merchants should not haveprocured the Viceroy's permission, then the Commodore proposed to applyfor it himself. These were the terms Mr. Anson thought proper to offer toquiet the uneasiness of the supercargoes; and notwithstanding theapparent equity of the conditions, many difficulties and objections wereurged, nor would the Chinese agree to them till the Commodore hadconsented to pay for every article he bespoke before it was put in hand. However, at last the contract being passed, it was some satisfaction tothe Commodore to be certain that his preparations were now going on, andbeing himself on the spot, he took care to hasten them as much aspossible. 

During this interval, in which the stores and provisions were gettingready, the merchants continually entertained Mr. Anson with accounts oftheir various endeavours to get a licence from the Viceroy, and theirfrequent disappointments, which to him was now a matter of amusement, ashe was fully satisfied there was not one word of truth in anything theysaid. But when all was completed, and wanted only to be shipped, whichwas about the 24th of November, at which time, too, the north-eastmonsoon was set in, he then resolved to apply himself to the Viceroy todemand an audience, as he was persuaded that without this ceremony theprocuring a permission to send his stores on board would meet with greatdifficulty. On the 24th of November, therefore, Mr. Anson sent one of hisofficers to the mandarin who commanded the guard of the principal gate ofthe city of Canton with a letter directed to the Viceroy. When thisletter was delivered to the mandarin, he received the officer who broughtit very civilly, and took down the contents of it in Chinese, andpromised that the Viceroy should be immediately acquainted with it, buttold the officer it was not necessary for him to wait for an answer, because a message would be sent to the Commodore himself. 

A FIRE AT CANTON. 

Two days after the sending the above-mentioned letter a fire broke out inthe suburbs of Canton. On the first alarm Mr. Anson went thither with hisofficers and his boat's crew to assist the Chinese. When he came there hefound that it had begun in a sailor's shed, and that by the slightness ofthe buildings and the awkwardness of the Chinese it was getting headapace. But he perceived that by pulling down some of the adjacent shedsit might easily be extinguished; and particularly observing that it wasrunning along a wooden cornice which would soon communicate it to a greatdistance, he ordered his people to begin with tearing away that cornice. This was presently attempted, and would have been soon executed, but inthe meantime he was told that, as there was no mandarin there to directwhat was to be done, the Chinese would make him (the Commodore)answerable for whatever should be pulled down by his orders. On this hispeople desisted, and he sent them to the English factory to assist insecuring the Company's treasure and effects, as it was easy to foreseethat no distance was a protection against the rage of such a fire, whereso little was done to put a stop to it; for all this time the Chinesecontented themselves with viewing it and now and then holding one oftheir idols near it, which they seemed to expect should check itsprogress. However, at last a mandarin came out of the city, attended byfour or five hundred firemen. These made some feeble efforts to pull downthe neighbouring houses, but by this time the fire had greatly extendeditself, and was got amongst the merchants' warehouses, and the Chinesefiremen, wanting both skill and spirit, were incapable of checking itsviolence, so that its fury increased upon them, and it was feared thewhole city would be destroyed. In this general confusion the Viceroyhimself came thither, and the Commodore was sent to and was entreated toafford his assistance, being told that he might take any measures heshould think most prudent in the present emergency. And now he wentthither a second time, carrying with him about forty of his people, whoupon this occasion exerted themselves in such a manner as in that countrywas altogether without example. For they were rather animated thandeterred by the flames and falling buildings amongst which they wrought, so that it was not uncommon to see the most forward of them tumble to theground on the roofs and amidst the ruins of houses which their ownefforts brought down with them. By their boldness and activity the firewas soon extinguished, to the amazement of the Chinese, and the buildingbeing all on one floor, and the materials slight, the seamen, notwithstanding their daring behaviour, happily escaped with no otherinjuries than some considerable bruises. The fire, though at last thusluckily extinguished, did great mischief during the time it continued, for it consumed an hundred shops and eleven streets full of warehouses, so that the damage amounted to an immense sum. It raged, indeed, withunusual violence, for in many of the warehouses there were largequantities of camphor, which greatly added to its fury, and produced acolumn of exceeding white flame, which shot up into the air to such aprodigious height that the flame itself was plainly seen on board theCenturion, though she was thirty miles distant. 

Whilst the Commodore and his people were labouring at the fire, and theterror of its becoming general still possessed the whole city, several ofthe most considerable Chinese merchants came to Mr. Anson to desire thathe would let each of them have one of his soldiers (for such they styledhis boat's crew from the uniformity of their dress) to guard theirwarehouses and dwelling-houses, which, from the known dishonesty of thepopulace, they feared would be pillaged in the tumult. Mr. Anson grantedthem this request, and all the men that he thus furnished to the Chinesebehaved greatly to the satisfaction of their employers, who afterwardshighly applauded their great diligence and fidelity. By this means theresolution of the English at the fire, and their trustiness andpunctuality elsewhere, was the subject of general conversation amongstthe Chinese, and the next morning many of the principal inhabitantswaited on the Commodore to thank him for his assistance, frankly owningto him that they could never have extinguished the fire of themselves, and that he had saved their city from being totally consumed. And soonafter a message came to the Commodore from the Viceroy, appointing the30th of November for his audience, which sudden resolution of theViceroy, in a matter that had been so long agitated in vain, was alsoowing to the signal services performed by Mr. Anson and his people at thefire, of which the Viceroy himself had been in some measure aneye-witness. The fixing this business of the audience was, on allaccounts, a circumstance which Mr. Anson was much pleased with, as he wassatisfied that the Chinese Government would not have determined thispoint without having agreed among themselves to give up their pretensionsto the duties they claimed, and to grant him all he could reasonably ask;for, as they well knew the Commodore's sentiments, it would have been apiece of imprudence not consistent with the refined cunning of theChinese to have admitted him to an audience only to have contested withhim. 

CHAPTER 40. ANSON RECEIVED BY THE VICEROY--CENTURION SETS SAIL--TABLE BAY--SPITHEAD. 

THE VICEROY. 

At ten o'clock in the morning, on the day appointed, a mandarin came tothe Commodore to let him know that the Viceroy was ready to receive him, on which the Commodore and his retinue immediately set out. And as soonas he entered the outer gate of the city, he found a guard of two hundredsoldiers drawn up ready to attend him; these conducted him to the greatparade before the Emperor's palace, where the Viceroy then resided. Inthis parade a body of troops, to the number of ten thousand, were drawnup under arms, and made a very fine appearance, being all of them newclothed for this ceremony, and Mr. Anson and his retinue having passedthrough the middle of them, he was then conducted to the great hall ofaudience, where he found the Viceroy seated under a rich canopy in theEmperor's chair of state, with all his Council of Mandarins attending. Here there was a vacant seat prepared for the Commodore, in which he wasplaced on his arrival. He was ranked the third in order from the Viceroy, there being above him only the head of the law and of the treasury, whoin the Chinese Government take place of all military officers. When theCommodore was seated he addressed himself to the Viceroy by hisinterpreter, and began with reciting the various methods he had formerlytaken to get an audience, adding that he imputed the delays he had metwith to the insincerity of those he had employed, and that he hadtherefore no other means left than to send, as he had done, his ownofficer with a letter to the gate. On the mention of this the Viceroystopped the interpreter, and bid him assure Mr. Anson that the firstknowledge they had of his being at Canton was from the letter. Mr. Ansonthen proceeded, acquainting the Viceroy that the proper season was nowset in for returning to Europe, and that he waited only for a license toship off his provisions and stores, which were all ready, and that, assoon as this should be granted to him, and he should have got hisnecessaries on board, he intended to leave the river of Canton and tomake the best of his way to England. The Viceroy replied to this that thelicense should be immediately issued, and that everything should beordered on board the following day. The Viceroy continued theconversation for some time, acknowledging in very civil terms how muchthe Chinese were obliged to him for his signal services at the fire, andowning that he had saved the city from being destroyed; and then, observing that the Centurion had been a good while on their coast, heclosed his discourse by wishing the Commodore a good voyage to Europe. After which, the Commodore thanking him for his civility and assistance, took his leave. 

Thus the Commodore, to his great joy, at last finished this troublesomeaffair, which for the preceding four months had given him greatdisquietude. Indeed, he was highly pleased with procuring a licence forthe shipping his stores and provisions; for thereby he was enabled toreturn to Great Britain with the first of the monsoon, and to prevent allintelligence of his being expected. But this, though a very importantpoint, was not the circumstance which gave him the greatest satisfaction, for he was more particularly attentive to the authentic precedentestablished on this occasion, by which His Majesty's ships of war are forthe future exempted from all demands of duty in any of the ports ofChina. 

HOMEWARD BOUND. 

In pursuance of the promises of the Viceroy, the provisions were begun tobe sent on board the day after the audience, and four days after theCommodore embarked at Canton for the Centurion, and on the 7th ofDecember the Centurion and her prize unmoored and stood down the river, passing through the Bocca Tigris on the 10th. And on this occasion I mustobserve that the Chinese had taken care to man the two forts on each sideof that passage with as many men as they could well contain, the greatestpart of them armed with pikes and matchlock muskets. These garrisonsaffected to show themselves as much as possible to the ships, and weredoubtless intended to induce Mr. Anson to think more reverently than hehad hitherto done of the Chinese military power. For this purpose theywere equipped with much parade, having a great number of colours exposedto view, and on the castle in particular there were laid considerableheaps of large stones, and a soldier of unusual size, dressed in verysightly armour, stalked about on the parapet with a battleaxe in his handendeavouring to put on as important and martial an air as possible, though some of the observers on board the Centurion shrewdly suspected, from the appearance of his armour, that instead of steel, it was composedonly of a particular kind of glittering paper. 

The Commodore, on the 12th of December, anchored before the town ofMacao. Whilst the ships lay here the merchants of Macao finished theiragreement for the galleon, for which they had offered 6, 000 dollars; thiswas much short of her value, but the impatience of the Commodore to getto sea, to which the merchants were no strangers, prompted them to insiston so unequal a bargain. Mr. Anson had learnt enough from the English atCanton to conjecture that the war betwixt Great Britain and Spain wasstill continued, and that probably the French might engage in theassistance of Spain before he could arrive in Great Britain; andtherefore, knowing that no intelligence could get to Europe of the prizehe had taken, and the treasure he had on board, till the return of themerchantmen from Canton, he was resolved to make all possible expeditionin getting back, that he might be himself the first messenger of his owngood fortune, and might thereby prevent the enemy from forming anyprojects to intercept him. For these reasons he, to avoid all delay, accepted the sum offered for the galleon, and she being delivered to themerchants, the 15th of December 1743, the Centurion the same day gotunder sail on her return to England. And on the 3rd of January she cameto an anchor at Prince's Island, in the Straits of Sunda, and continuedthere wooding and watering till the 8th, when she weighed and stood forthe Cape of Good Hope, where on the 11th of March she anchored in TableBay. 

Here the Commodore continued till the beginning of April, highlydelighted with the place, which by its extraordinary accommodations, thehealthiness of its air, and the picturesque appearance of the country, all enlivened by the addition of a civilised colony, was not disgraced inan imaginary comparison with the valleys of Juan Fernandez and the lawnsof Tinian. During his stay he entered about forty new men, and having bythe 3rd of April, 1744, completed his water and provision, he on that dayweighed and put to sea. The 19th of the same month they saw the island ofSt. Helena, which, however, they did not touch at, but stood on theirway; and on the 10th of June, being then in soundings, they spoke with anEnglish ship from Amsterdam bound for Philadelphia, whence they receivedthe first intelligence of a French war. The 12th they got sight of theLizard, and the 15th, in the evening, to their infinite joy, they camesafe to an anchor at Spithead. But that the signal perils which had sooften threatened them in the preceding part of the enterprise mightpursue them to the very last, Mr. Anson learned on his arrival that therewas a French fleet of considerable force cruising in the chops of theChannel, which, by the account of their position, he found the Centurionhad run through and had been all the time concealed by a fog. Thus wasthis expedition finished, when it had lasted three years and nine months, after having, by its event, strongly evinced this important truth: Thatthough prudence, intrepidity, and perseverance united are not exemptedfrom the blows of adverse fortune, yet in a long series of transactionsthey usually rise superior to its power, and in the end rarely fail ofproving successful. 

GLOSSARY. 

Anchors:

Bower anchors (the best bower and the small bower). The anchors carriedat the bows of a vessel. 

The sheet anchor (= shoot anchor). An anchor to be shot out or lowered incase of a great danger, carried abaft the forerigging; formerly thelargest anchor. 

Bag-wig. See Wig. 

Barge. See Boats. 

Bilging. To bilge = to be stove in, or suffer serious injury in thebilge, which is the bottom part of a ship's hull. 

Boats:

Barge. The second boat of a man-of-war; a long narrow boat, generallywith not less than ten oars, for the use of the chief officers. 

Cutter. A boat belonging to a ship of war, shorter and in proportionbroader than the barge or pinnace, fitted for rowing and sailing, andused for carrying light stores, passengers, etc. 

Longboat. The principal boat of the old man-of-war. Now replaced by steamlaunches. 

Pinnace. A boat for the accommodation of the inferior officers of aman-of-war, resembling the barge. 

Yawl. A small boat used for much the same purposes as the cutter. 

Bow-chasers. See Chasers. 

Bower. See Anchor. 

Bring to. To bring a vessel's head up to the wind so that the wind blowsfrom bow to stern. 

Broad pennant. See Commodore. 

Cacao. Chocolate nuts. 

Cackle. To cover a cable spirally with old three-inch rope to protect itfrom chafing. 

Callous (of a broken bone). The new bony tissue formed between and aroundthe fractured ends of a broken bone in the process of reuniting. 

Careening is the operation of heaving down a ship on one side, in orderto expose the other side for cleaning. 

Cartel. A written agreement between belligerents for an exchange ofprisoners. 

Caulk. To make a ship's seams watertight by plugging the crevices withoakum (i. E. Old untwisted rope). 

Chasers. Bow-chasers were two long chase-guns placed forward in the bowports to fire directly ahead. Stern-chasers were similar guns mountedastern. 

Clean. A clean ship is one whose bottom is free from barnacles and weedthat check the pace. 

Clearing for action. To get ready for battle by clearing the decks fromencumbrances and anything unnecessary or dangerous, such as woodenpartitions between cabins, etc. 

Cochineal. A dye stuff consisting of female cochineal insects killed anddried by heat. They yield a brilliant scarlet dye. 

Cohorn mortars. See Mortar. 

The commerce. Used several times in the sense of "the traders. "

Commodore. A naval officer ranking above a captain and below arear-admiral. In the British Navy the rank is a temporary one, given tosenior officers in command of detached squadrons. The broad pennant(chapter 4) is the flag that marks the presence of a commodore on board. 

Courses. The sails below the topsails and next to the deck. 

Cutter. See Boats. 

Dollar. A corruption of the German "thaler, " a name for a silver coinworth about four shillings. The name was extended in the form "dollar" toother coins of similar size, notably the old Spanish "piece of eight. "See Pieces of eight. 

Doubloon. A former Spanish gold coin worth about eight dollars. 

Eight. See Pieces of. 

Embargo. A temporary order from Government to prevent the arrival ordeparture of ships. 

Fetch (the wake of). To reach the track left by a ship. 

File (of musketeers). Latin filum, French file = a row. The word is usedto signify any line of men standing directly behind one another. Inordinary two-deep formations a file consists of two men, one in the frontrank and one in the rear rank. 

Fishing (a mast). To strengthen or mend a mast by fastening strips ofwood or iron along a weak or broken place. 

Foot-rope. A rope stretched under a yard arm for sailors to stand onwhile reefing or furling sails. 

Fore-cap. The cap is a stout block joining the bottom of one mast to thetop of another; as where the foretopmast joins the foremast. 

Foremast, foretopmast, etc. See Mast. 

Fore-reach. To gain upon or pass; to beat in sailing. 

Foreyard. The lowest yard on the foremast of a square-rigged vessel. 

Grapnel. A boat's anchor having more than two flukes. Come to grapnel, cf. Come to anchor. 

Half-galleys. A galley is a low, flat-built sea-going vessel with onedeck, propelled by sails and oars. A half-galley is a similar vessel, butmuch shorter. 

Half-pike. See Pike. 

Hand (the sails). To furl. 

Hawser. A large rope or small cable. 

Indulgences. The remission by authorised priests of the punishment due tosin. The sale of indulgences was one of the abuses that provoked theReformation. 

Jerk. To cure meat, especially beef, by cutting it into long thin slicesand drying it in the sun. 

Jury-mast. A small temporary mast often made of a yard; set up instead ofa mast that is broken down. 

Larboard (or port). The left side of a ship looking towards the bow. 

Lay to (lie to). To reduce sail to the lowest limits, so as to becomenearly stationary. 

Lee. The side or direction opposite to that from which the wind comes. 

Line, ship of the. A ship of sufficient size and armament to take a placein the line of battle. 

Linguist. Interpreter. 

Longboat. See Boats. 

Lumber. Sawn timber. 

Masts:The masts of a full-rigged three-masted ship are the following:Fore-mast, topmast, topgallant-mast, royal mast. Main-mast, topmast, topgallant-mast, royal mast. Mizzen-mast, topmast, topgallant-mast, royal mast. 

Monsoon. See Winds. 

Mortar. A kind of gun with a very short bore. It throws its projectile ata great elevation. 

Mortar, Cohorn (see chapter 7). Cohorn was a famous Dutch engineer andartillerist in the service of William III. 

Nailed up. Spiked. To spike a gun is to render it useless for the time byinserting into the vent a steel pin with side springs, which wheninserted open outwards to the shape of an arrowhead so that it cannot bereleased. 

Offing:1. The most distant part of the sea visible from the shore. 2. A still greater distance, sufficient to avoid the dangers of shipwreck, as "a good offing. "

Overreach. To pass. 

Parallel, i. E. Of latitude or longitude as the case may be. 

Pennant, Broad. See Commodore. 

Pidreroes. Light Spanish cannon. 

Pieces of eight. Old Spanish coins worth about four shillings each. Thepiece of eight was divided into eight silver reals. Hence the name whichwas applied to it in the Spanish Main. It was also frequently called adollar. 

Pike. A long shaft or pole, having an iron or steel point, used inmedieval warfare, now replaced by the bayonet. A half-pike was a similarweapon having a staff about half the length. 

Pink. An obsolete name for a small sailing ship. 

Pinnace. See Boats. 

Port (or larboard). The left side of a ship looking towards the bow. 

Post-captain. An obsolete title for a captain of three years' standing. 

Proa. A small Malay vessel. 

Quarter. The upper part of a vessel's side from abaft the main mast tothe stern. 

Quarter gallery. A gallery is a balcony built outside the body of a ship:at the stern (stern gallery) or at the quarters (quarter gallery). 

Reef. A portion of a sail that can be drawn close together. 

Rosaries. Strings of beads used by Roman Catholics in praying. Each beadtold (or counted) represents a prayer. 

Scuttle. To make a hole in the bottom of a ship in order to sink it. 

Serons (of dollars). A seron or seroon is a kind of small trunk made inSpanish America out of a piece of raw bullock's hide. 

Service (of a cable). The part next the anchor secured by cordage wrappedround it. 

Ship of the line. See Line. 

Shrouds. The stout ropes that are stretched from a masthead of a vesselto the sides or to the rims of a top, serving as a means of ascent and asa lateral strengthening stays to the masts. 

Sling. A rope or chain by which a lower yard is suspended. 

Sprit-sail. A quadrangular sail stretched from the mast by the help, notof a gaff along its top, but of a sprit (or yard) extending from the mastdiagonally to the upper aftmost corner of the sail, as in the case of aLondon barge. 

Sprit-sail yard. Another name for the sprit. 

Standing rigging. The parts of a vessel's rigging that are practicallypermanent. 

Starboard. The right side of a ship looking towards the bow. 

Stern-chasers. See Chasers. 

Streaks (or strakes). Lines of planking. 

Supercargo. A person employed by the owners of a ship to go a voyage andto oversee the cargo. 

Tacks ("got our tacks on board, " chapter 17). Ropes for hauling down andfastening the corners of certain sails. 

Taffrail. The upper part of the stern of a ship. 

Tie-wig. See Wig. 

Tradewind. See Winds. 

Transom. A beam across the stern-post to strengthen the after part of theship. 

Traverse. To turn guns to the right or left in aiming. 

Wake. The track left by a ship. 

Warp. To move a vessel into another position by hauling upon a hawserattached usually to the heads of piles or posts of a wharf. 

Wear (a ship). To bring a ship about by putting the helm up. The vesselis first run off before the wind and then brought to on the new tack. 

Weather:1. The windward side. 2. To go to windward of. 

Wig. A bag-wig is a wig with a bag to hold the back hair. It wasfashionable in the seventeenth century. A tie-wig is a court wig tiedwith ribbon at the bag. 

Winds. The tradewinds are winds which blow all the year through on theopen ocean in and near the torrid zone. In the northern hemisphere theyblow from the north-east, in the southern from the south-east. Theregularity of the tradewind is interfered with by the neighbourhood oflarge land masses. Their temperature varies much more with the change ofseasons than that of the ocean; and this variation produces a change inthe direction of the tradewind in the hot season, corresponding distantlyto a phenomenon which may be observed, daily instead of half-yearly, onthe English coast in hot summer weather, when a sea breeze blows duringthe day and a land breeze at night. In the northern hemisphere themonsoon--as this periodic wind is called--blows from the south-west (i. E. Towards the heated continent of South Asia) from April to October, andfrom the north-east, as the ordinary trade wind, during the rest of theyear. 

Works, upper. The sides of a vessel's hull from the water-line to thecovering board.