A Voyage Round the World

Towards the latter end of April, the unloading of our three prizes, our wooding and watering, and in short, every one of our proposed employments at the harbour of Chequetan, were compleated: so that, on the 27th of April, the Tryal's prize, the Carmelo, and the Carmin, all which we here intended to destroy, were towed on shore and scuttled, a quantity of combustible materials having been distributed in their upper works: and the next morning the Centurion with the Gloucester weighed anchor, though as there was but little wind, and that not in their favour, they were obliged to warp out of the harbour. When they had reached the offing, one of the boats was dispatched back again to set fire to our prizes, which was accordingly executed. After this a canoe was left fixed to a grapnel in the middle of the harbour, with a bottle in it well corked, inclosing a letter to Mr. Hughes, who commanded the cutter, which had been ordered to cruise before the port of Acapulco when we ourselves quitted that station. And on this occasion I must mention more particularly than I have yet done the views of the commodore in leaving the cutter before that port.

When we were necessitated to proceed for Chequetan to recruit our water, Mr. Anson considered that our arrival in that harbour would soon be known at Acapulco; and therefore he hoped that on the intelligence of our being employed in port, the galeon might put to sea, especially as Chequetan is so very remote from the course generally steered by the galeon. He therefore ordered the cutter to cruise twenty-four days off the port of Acapulco, and her commander was directed, on perceiving the galeon under sail, to make the best of his way to the commodore at Chequetan. As the Centurion was doubtless a much better sailor than the galeon, Mr. Anson, in this case, resolved to have got to sea as soon as possible, and to have pursued the galeon across the Pacifick Ocean: where supposing he should not have met with her in his passage (which, considering that he would have kept nearly the same parallel, was very improbable), yet he was certain of arriving off Cape Espiritu Santo, on the island of Samal, before her; and that being the first land she makes on her return to the Philippines, we could not have failed to have fallen in with her by cruising a few days in that station. However, the Viceroy of Mexico ruined this project by keeping the galeon in the port of Acapulco all that year.

The letter left in the canoe for Mr. Hughes, the commander of the cutter, the time of whose return was now considerably elapsed, directed him to go back immediately to his former station before Acapulco, where he would find Mr. Anson, who resolved to cruise for him there a certain number of days; after which it was added that the commodore would return to the southward to join the rest of the squadron. This last article was inserted to deceive the Spaniards, if they got possession of the canoe, as we afterwards learnt they did; but could not impose on Mr. Hughes, who well knew that the commodore had no squadron to join, nor any intention of steering back to Peru.

Being now in the offing of Chequetan, bound across the vast Pacifick Ocean in our way to China, we were impatient to run off the coast as soon as possible, since the stormy season was approaching apace. As we had no farther views in the American seas, we had hoped that nothing would have prevented us from steering to the westward the moment we got out of the harbour of Chequetan: and it was no small mortification to us that our necessary employment there had detained us so much longer than we expected, but now, when we had put to sea, we were farther detained by the absence of the cutter, and the necessity we were under of standing towards Acapulco in search of her. Indeed, as the time of her cruise had been expired for near a fortnight, we suspected that she had been discovered from the shore, and that the Governor of Acapulco had thereupon sent out a force to seize her, which, as she carried but six hands, was no very difficult enterprize. However, this being only conjecture, the commodore, as soon as he was got clear of the harbour of Chequetan, stood along the coast to the eastward in search of her: and to prevent her from passing by us in the dark, we brought to every night, and the Gloucester, whose station was a league within us towards the shore, carried a light, which the cutter could not but perceive if she kept along shore, as we supposed she would do; besides, as a farther security, the Centurion and Gloucester alternately shewed two false fires every half-hour. Indeed, had she escaped us, she would have found orders in the canoe to have returned immediately before Acapulco, where Mr. Anson proposed to cruise for her some days.

By Sunday, the 2d of May, we were advanced within three leagues of Acapulco, and having seen nothing of our boat, we gave her over as lost, which, besides the compassionate concern for our ship-mates, and for what it was apprehended they might have suffered, was in itself a misfortune, which, in our present scarcity of hands, we were all greatly interested in: since the crew of the cutter, consisting of six men and the lieutenant, were the very flower of our people, purposely picked out for this service, and known to be every one of them of tried and approved resolution, and as skilful seamen as ever trod a deck. However, as it was the general belief among us that they were taken and carried into Acapulco, the commodore's prudence suggested a project which we hoped would recover them. This was founded on our having many Spanish and Indian prisoners in our possession, and a number of sick negroes, who could be of no service to us in the navigating of the ship. The commodore therefore wrote a letter the same day to the Governor of Acapulco, telling him that he would release them all provided the governor returned the cutter's crew. This letter was dispatched in the afternoon by a Spanish officer, of whose honour we had a good opinion, and who was furnished with a launch belonging to one of our prizes and a crew of six other prisoners, who gave their parole for their return. The Spanish officer too, besides the commodore's letter, carried with him a joint petition, signed by all the rest of the prisoners, beseeching the governor to acquiesce in the terms proposed for their liberty. From a consideration of the number of our prisoners and the quality of some of them, we did not doubt but the governor would readily comply with Mr. Anson's proposal, and therefore we kept plying on and off the whole night, intending to keep well in with the land that we might receive an answer at the limited time, which was the next day, being Monday. But both on Monday and Tuesday we were driven so far off shore that we could not hope that any answer could reach us; and even on the Wednesday morning we found ourselves fourteen leagues from the harbour of Acapulco; however, as the wind was then favourable, we pressed forwards with all our sail, and did not doubt of getting in with the land that afternoon. Whilst we were thus standing in, the centinel called out from the mast-head that he saw a boat under sail at a considerable distance to the south-eastward. This we took for granted was the answer of the governor to the commodore's message, and we instantly edged towards her; but as we approached her we found, to our unspeakable joy, that it was our own cutter. And though, while she was still at a distance, we imagined that she had been discharged out of the port of Acapulco by the governor; yet, when she drew nearer, the wan and meagre countenances of the crew, the length of their beards, and the feeble and hollow tone of their voices, convinced us that they had suffered much greater hardships than could be expected from even the severities of a Spanish prison. They were obliged to be helped into the ship, and were immediately put to bed, where by rest and nourishing diet, which they were plentifully supplied with from the commodore's table, they recovered their health and vigour apace. And now we learnt that they had kept the sea the whole time of their absence, which was above six weeks; that when they had finished their cruise before Acapulco, and had just begun to ply to the westward, in order to join the squadron, a strong adverse current had forced them down the coast to the eastward, in spight of all their efforts to the contrary, that at length, their water being all expended, they were obliged to search the coast farther on to the eastward in quest of some convenient landing-place where they might get a fresh supply; that in this distress they ran upwards of eighty leagues to leeward, and found everywhere so large a surf that there was not the least possibility of their landing; that they passed some days in this dreadful situation without water, having no other means left them to allay their thirst than sucking the blood of the turtle which they caught; that at last, giving up all hopes of succour, the heat of the climate too augmenting their necessities, and rendering their sufferings insupportable, they abandoned themselves to despair, fully persuaded that they should perish by the most terrible of all deaths; but that soon after a most unexpected incident happily relieved them. For there fell so heavy a rain, that on spreading their sails horizontally, and putting bullets in the centers of them to draw them to a point, they caught as much water as filled all their casks; that immediately upon this fortunate supply they stood to the westward in quest of the commodore; and being now luckily favoured by a strong current, they joined us in less than fifty hours from that time, after having been absent in the whole full forty-three days. Those who have an idea of the inconsiderable size of a cutter belonging to a sixty-gun ship (being only an open boat about twenty-two feet in length), and who will reflect on the various casualties that must have attended her during a six weeks' continuance alone, in the open ocean, on so impracticable and dangerous a coast, will readily own that her return to us at last, after all the difficulties which she actually experienced, and the dangers to which she was each hour exposed, may be considered as little short of miraculous.

I cannot finish this article of the cutter without remarking how slender a reliance navigators ought to have on the accounts of the buccaneer writers; for though in this run of hers, eighty leagues to the eastward of Acapulco, she found no place where it was possible that a boat could land; yet those writers have not been ashamed to feign harbours and convenient watering-places within these limits, thereby exposing such as should confide in their relations to the risque of being destroyed by thirst.

I must farther add on this occasion that, when we stood near the port of Acapulco, in order to send our message to the governor, and to receive his answer, Mr. Brett took that opportunity of delineating a view of the entrance of the port and of the neighbouring coast, which, added to the plan of the place formerly mentioned, may be of considerable use hereafter.

Having thus recovered our cutter, the sole object of our coming a second time before Acapulco, the commodore determined not to lose a moment's time more, but to run off the coast with the utmost expedition, both as the stormy season on the coast of Mexico was now approaching apace, and as we were apprehensive of having the westerly monsoon to struggle with when we came upon the coast of China: for this reason we no longer stood towards Acapulco, as at present we wanted no answer from the governor. However, Mr. Anson resolved not to deprive his prisoners of the liberty which he had promised them; and therefore they were all immediately embarked in two launches which belonged to our prizes, those from the Centurion in one launch, and those from the Gloucester in the other. The launches were well equipped with masts, sails, and oars; and lest the wind might prove unfavourable, they had a stock of water and provisions put on board them sufficient for fourteen days. There were discharged thirty-nine persons from on board the Centurion, and eighteen from the Gloucester, the greatest part of them Spaniards, the rest being Indians and sick negroes. Indeed, as our crews were very weak, we kept the Mulattoes and some of the stoutest of our negroes with a few Indians to assist us; but we dismissed every Spanish prisoner whatever. We have since learnt that these two launches arrived safe at Acapulco, where the prisoners could not enough extol the humanity with which they had been treated. It seems the governor, before their arrival, had returned a very obliging answer to our letter, and had at the same time ordered out two boats laden with the choicest refreshments and provisions that were to be procured at Acapulco, which he intended as a present to the commodore: but these boats not having found our ships, were at length obliged to put back again, after having thrown all their provisions overboard in a storm which threatened their destruction.

The sending away our prisoners was our last transaction on the American coast; for no sooner had we parted with them than we and the Gloucester made sail to the S.W., proposing to get a good offing from the land, where we hoped, in a few days, to meet with the regular trade-wind, which the accounts of former navigators had represented as much brisker and steadier in this ocean than in any other part of the world: for it has been esteemed no uncommon passage to run from hence to the eastermost isles of Asia in two months; and we flattered ourselves that we were as capable of making an expeditious voyage as any ships that had ever sailed this course before us; so that we hoped soon to gain the coast of China, for which we were now bound. As we conceived this navigation to be free from all kinds of embarrassment of bad weather, fatigue, or sickness, conformable to the general idea of it given by former travellers, we consequently undertook it with alacrity, especially as it was no contemptible step towards our arrival at our native country, for which many of us by this time began to have great longings. Thus, on the 6th of May, we, for the last time, lost sight of the mountains of Mexico, persuaded that in a few weeks we should arrive at the river of Canton in China, where we expected to meet with many English ships and with numbers of our countrymen; and hoped to enjoy the advantages of an amicable, well-frequented port, inhabited by a polished people and abounding with the conveniences and indulgencies of a civilized life; blessings which now for near twenty months had never been once in our power. But, before we take our final leave of America, there yet remains the consideration of a matter well worthy of attention, the discussion of which shall be referred to the ensuing chapter.

CHAPTER XIV

A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN EXPECTED FROM OUR SQUADRON HAD IT ARRIVED IN THE SOUTH SEAS IN GOOD TIME

After the recital of the transactions of the commodore, and the ships under his command, on the coasts of Peru and Mexico, contained in the preceding narration, it will be no useless digression to examine what the whole squadron might have been capable of atchieving had it arrived on its destined scene of action in so good a plight as it would probably have done had the passage round Cape Horn been attempted at a more seasonable time of the year. This disquisition may be serviceable to those who shall hereafter form projects of the like nature for that part of the world, or who may be entrusted with their execution. And therefore I propose, in this chapter, to consider, as succinctly as I can, the numerous advantages which the public might have received from the operations of the squadron had it set sail from England a few months sooner than it did.

To begin then: I presume it will be granted me that in the summer time we might have got round Cape Horn with an inconsiderable loss, and without any material damage to our ships or rigging. For the Duke and Duchess of Bristol, who between them had above three hundred men, buried no more than two from the coast of Brazil to Juan Fernandez; and out of a hundred and eighty-three hands which were on board the Duke alone, there were only twenty-one sick of the scurvy when they arrived at that island. Whence as men-of-war are much better provided with all conveniences than privateers, we might doubtless have appeared before Baldivia in full strength, and in a condition of entering immediately on action; and therefore, as that place was in a very defenceless state, its cannon incapable of service, and its garrison in great measure unarmed, it was impossible that it could have opposed our force, or that its half-starved inhabitants, most of whom are convicts banished thither from other parts, could have had any other thoughts than that of submitting. This would have been a very important acquisition; since when Baldivia, which is an excellent port, had been once in our possession, we should immediately have been terrible to the whole kingdom of Chili, and should doubtless have awed the most distant parts of the Spanish Empire in America. Indeed it is far from improbable that, by a prudent use of this place, aided by our other advantages, we might have given a violent shock to the authority of Spain on that whole continent, and might have rendered some at least of her provinces independent. This would certainly have turned the whole attention of the Spanish ministry to that part of the world where the danger would have been so pressing, and thence Great Britain and her allies might have been rid of the numerous difficulties which the wealth of the Spanish Indies, operating in conjunction with the Gallick intrigues, have constantly thrown in their way.

But that I may not be thought to over-rate the force of this squadron by ascribing to it a power of overturning the Spanish Government in America, it is necessary to enter into a more particular discussion, and to premise a few observations on the condition of the provinces bordering near the South Seas, and on the disposition of the inhabitants, both Spaniards and Indians, at that time. For hence it will appear that the conjuncture was the most favourable we could have desired, since we shall find that the Creolian subjects were disaffected and their governors at variance, that the country was wretchedly provided with arms and stores, and they had fallen into a total neglect of all military regulations in their garrisons; and that the Indians on their frontier were universally discontented, and seemed to be watching with impatience the favourable moment when they might take a severe revenge for the barbarities they had groaned under during more than two ages: so that every circumstance concurred to facilitate the enterprizes of our squadron. Of all these articles we were amply informed by the letters we took on board our prizes; none of these vessels, as I remember, having had the precaution to throw their papers overboard.

The ill blood amongst the governors was greatly augmented by their apprehensions of our squadron; for every one being willing to have it believed that the bad condition of his government was not the effect of negligence, there were continual demands and remonstrances among them in order to throw the blame upon each other. Thus, for instance, the President of St. Jago in Chili, the President of Panama, and many other governors and military officers were perpetually soliciting the Viceroy of Peru to furnish them with the necessary sums of money for putting their provinces and places in a proper state of defence to oppose our designs: but the customary answer of the viceroy to these representations was that he was unable to comply with their requests, urging the emptiness of the royal chest at Lima, and the difficulties he was under to support the expences of his own government: he in one of his letters (which we intercepted) mentioning his apprehensions that he might soon be necessitated to stop the pay of the troops and even of the garrison of Callao, the key of the whole kingdom of Peru. Indeed he did at times remit to these governors some part of their demands; but as what he sent them was greatly short of their wants, these partial supplies rather tended to the raising jealousies and heart-burnings among them than contributed to the purposes for which they had at first been desired.

Besides these mutual janglings amongst the governors, the whole body of the people were extremely dissatisfied, they being fully persuaded that the affairs of Spain for many years before had been managed by the influence of a particular foreign interest, which was altogether detached from the advantages of the Spanish nation: so that the inhabitants of these distant provinces believed themselves to be sacrificed to an ambition which never considered their convenience or emoluments nor paid any regard to the reputation of their name or the honour of their country. That this was the temper of the Creolian Spaniards at that time might be proved from a hundred instances; but I shall content myself with one which is indeed conclusive: this is the testimony of the French mathematicians sent into America to measure the magnitude of an equatorial degree of latitude. For in the relation of the murther of a surgeon belonging to their company in one of the cities of Peru, and of the popular tumult thence occasioned, written by one of those astronomers, the author confesses that the multitude during the uproar universally joined in imprecations on their bad government, and bestowed the most abusive language upon the French, detesting them, in all probability, more particularly as being of a nation to whose influence in the Spanish counsels the Spaniards imputed all their misfortunes.

And whilst the Creolian Spaniards were thus dissatisfied, it appears by the letters we intercepted that the Indians on almost every frontier were ripe for a revolt, and would have taken up arms upon the slightest encouragement; particularly the Indians in the southern parts of Peru, as likewise the Arraucos, and the rest of the Chilian Indians, the most powerful and terrible to the Spanish name of any on that continent. For it seems in some disputes between the Spaniards and the Indians, which happened a short time before our arrival, the Spaniards had insulted the Indians with an account of the force which they expected from Old Spain under the command of Admiral Pizarro, and had vaunted that he was coming thither to compleat the great work which had been left unfinished by his ancestors. These threats alarmed the Indians, and made them believe that their extirpation was resolved on. For the Pizarros being the first conquerors of that coast, the Peruvian Indians held the name, and all that bore it, in execration; not having forgot the destruction of their monarchy, the massacre of their beloved Inca, Atapalipa, the extinction of their religion, and the slaughter of their ancestors, all perpetrated by the family of the Pizarros. The Chilian Indians too abhorred a chief who was descended of a race which, by its lieutenants, had first attempted to inslave them, and had necessitated the stoutest of their tribes for more than a century to be continually wasting their blood in defence of their independency.

Nor let it be supposed that among barbarous nations the traditions of these distant transactions could not be preserved for so long an interval; since those who have been acquainted with that part of the world agree that the Indians, in their publick feasts and annual solemnities, constantly revive the memory of these tragick incidents; and such as have been present at these spectacles have constantly observed that all the recital and representations of this kind were received with emotions so vehement, and with so enthusiastick a rage, as plainly demonstrated how strongly the memory of their former wrongs was implanted in them, and how acceptable the means of revenge would at all times prove. To this I must add too, that the Spanish governors themselves were so fully informed of the disposition of the Indians at this conjuncture, and were so apprehensive of a general defection among them, that they employed all their industry to reconcile the most dangerous tribes, and to prevent them from immediately taking up arms. Among the rest, the President of Chili in particular made large concessions to the Arraucos and the other Chilian Indians, by which, and by distributing considerable presents to their leading men, he at last got them to consent to a prolongation of the truce between the two nations. But these negociations were not concluded at the time when we might have been in the South Seas; and had they been compleated, yet the hatred of these Indians to the Spaniards was so great that it would have been impossible for their chiefs, how deeply soever corrupted, to have kept them from joining us against their old detested enemy.

Thus then it appears that on our arrival in the South Seas we might have found the whole coast unprovided with troops and destitute even of arms: for we well know, from very particular intelligence, that there were not three hundred fire-arms, of which too the greatest part were matchlocks, in all the province of Chili. Whilst at the same time, the Indians were ripe for a revolt, the Spaniards disposed to mutiny, and the governors enraged with one another, and each prepared to rejoice in the disgrace of his antagonist. At this fortunate crisis we, on the other hand, might have consisted of near two thousand men, the greatest part in health and vigour, all well armed, and united under a chief whose enterprising genius (as we have seen) could not be depressed by a continued series of the most sinister events, and whose equable and prudent turn of temper would have remained unvaried in the midst of the greatest degree of good success; and who besides possessed, in a distinguished manner, the two qualities the most necessary for these uncommon undertakings – I mean that of maintaining his authority and preserving, at the same time, the affections of his people. Our other officers too, of every rank, appear, by the experience the public hath since had of them, to have been equal to any attempt they might have been charged with by their commander: and our men (at all times brave if well conducted) in such a cause, where treasure was the object, and under such leaders, would doubtless have been prepared to rival the most celebrated achievements hitherto performed by British mariners.

It cannot then be contested but that Baldivia must have surrendered on the appearance of our squadron: after which, it may be presumed, that the Arraucos, the Pulches, and Penguinches, inhabiting the banks of the river Imperial, about twenty-five leagues to the northward of this place, would have immediately taken up arms, being disposed thereto, as hath been already related, and encouraged by the arrival of so considerable a force in their neighbourhood. As these Indians can bring into the field near thirty thousand men, the greatest part of them horse, their first step would have been the invading the province of Chili, which they would have found totally unprovided both of ammunition and weapons; and as its inhabitants are a luxurious and effeminate race, they would have been incapable, on such an emergency, of giving any opposition to this rugged enemy: so that it is no strained conjecture to imagine that the Indians would have been soon masters of the whole country. Moreover, the other Indians, on the frontiers of Peru, being equally disposed with the Arraucos to shake off the Spanish yoke, it is highly probable that they likewise would have embraced this favourable occasion, and that a general insurrection would have taken place through all the Spanish territories of South America; in which case, the only resource left to the Creolians (dissatisfied as they were with the Spanish government) would have been to have made the best terms they could with their Indian neighbours, and to have withdrawn themselves from the obedience of a master who had shown so little regard to their security. This last supposition may perhaps appear chimerical to those who measure the possibility of all events by the scanty standard of their own experience; but the temper of the times, and the strong dislike of the natives to the measures then pursued by the Spanish court, sufficiently evince at least its possibility. However, not to insist on the presumption of a general revolt, it is sufficient for our purpose to conclude that the Arraucos would scarcely have failed of taking arms on our appearance: since this alone would so far have terrified the enemy that they would no longer have employed their thoughts on the means of opposing us, but would have turned all their care to the Indian affairs; as they still remember, with the utmost horror, the sacking of their cities, the rifling of their convents, the captivity of their wives and daughters, and the desolation of their country by these resolute savages in the last war between the two nations. For it must be observed that the Chilian Indians have been frequently successful against the Spaniards, and possess at this time a large tract of country which was formerly full of Spanish towns and villages, whose inhabitants were all either destroyed or carried into captivity by the Arraucos and the other neighbouring Indians, who in a war against the Spaniards never fail to join their forces.

But even, independent of an Indian revolt, there were two places only, on all the coast of the South Sea, which could be supposed capable of resisting our squadron; these were the cities of Panama and Callao: as to the first of these, its fortifications were so decayed, and it was so much in want of powder, that the president himself, in an intercepted letter, acknowledged it was incapable of being defended; whence I take it for granted it would have given us but little trouble, especially if we had opened a communication across the isthmus with our fleet on the other side. And with regard to the city and port of Callao, its condition was not much better than that of Panama; since its walls are built upon the plain ground, without either out-work or ditch before them, and consist only of very slender feeble masonry, without any earth behind them; so that a battery of five or six pieces of cannon, raised anywhere within four or five hundred paces of the place, would have had a full view of the whole rampart, and would have opened it in a short time; and the breach hereby formed, as the walls are so extremely thin, could not have been difficult of ascent; for the ruins would have been but little higher than the surface of the ground; and it would have yielded this particular advantage to the assailants, that the bullets, which grazed upon it, would have driven before them such shivers of brick and stone as would have prevented the garrison from forming behind it, supposing that the troops employed in defence of the place should have so far surpassed the usual limits of Creolian bravery as to resolve to stand a general assault. Indeed, such a resolution cannot be imputed to them; for the garrison and people were in general dissatisfied with the viceroy's behaviour, and were never expected to act a vigorous part. On the contrary, the viceroy himself greatly apprehended that the commodore would make him a visit at Lima, the capital of the kingdom of Peru; to prevent which, if possible, he had ordered twelve gallies to be built at Guaiaquil and other places, which were intended to oppose the landing of our boats, and to hinder us from pushing our men on shore. But this was an impracticable project of defence, and proceeded on the supposition that our ships, when we should land our men, would keep at such a distance that these gallies, by drawing little water, would have been out of the reach of our guns; whereas the commodore, before he had made such an attempt, would doubtless have been possessed of several prize ships, which he would not have hesitated to have run on shore for the protection of his boats; and besides, there were many places on that coast, and one particularly in the neighbourhood of Callao, where there was good anchoring, though a great depth of water, within a cable's length of the shore; consequently the cannon of the man-of-war would have swept all the coast to above a mile's distance from the water's edge, and would have effectually prevented any force from assembling to oppose the landing and forming of our men. And this landing-place had the additional advantage that it was but two leagues distant from Lima; so that we might have been at that city within four hours after we should have been first discovered from the shore. The place I have in view is about two leagues south of Callao, and just to the northward of the headland called, in Frezier's draught of that coast, Morro Solar. Here there is seventy or eighty fathom of water within two cables' length of the shore; and here the Spaniards themselves were so apprehensive of our attempting to land, that they had projected to build a fort close to the water; but as there was no money in the royal chests, they could not compleat so considerable a work, and therefore they contented themselves with keeping a guard of a hundred horse there, that they might be sure to receive early notice of our appearance on that coast. Indeed some of them (as we were told), conceiving our management at sea to be as pusillanimous as their own, pretended that this was a road where the commodore would never dare to hazard his ships, for fear that in so great a depth of water their anchors could not hold them.

And let it not be imagined that I am proceeding upon groundless and extravagant presumptions, when I conclude that fifteen hundred or a thousand of our people, well conducted, should have been an over-match for any numbers the Spaniards could muster in South America. Since, not to mention the experience we had of them at Paita and Petaplan, it must be remembered that our commodore was extremely solicitous to have all his men trained to the dexterous use of their fire-arms; whereas the Spaniards, in this part of the world, were wretched provided with arms, and were very awkward in the management of the few they had: and though on their repeated representations the court of Spain had ordered several thousand firelocks to be put on board Pizarro's squadron, yet those, it is evident, could not have been in America time enough to have been employed against us. Hence then by our arms, and our readiness in the use of them (not to insist on the timidity and softness of our enemy), we should in some degree have had the same advantages which the Spaniards themselves had on the first discovery of this country against its naked and unarmed inhabitants.

Now let it in the next place be considered what were the events which we had to fear, or what were the circumstances which could have prevented us from giving law to all the coast of South America, and thereby cutting off from Spain the resources which she drew from those immense provinces. By sea there was no force capable of opposing us; for how soon soever we had sailed, Pizarro's squadron could not have sailed sooner than it did, and therefore could not have avoided the fate it met with. As we should have been masters of the ports of Chili, we could thereby have supplied ourselves with the provisions we wanted in the greatest plenty; and from Baldivia to the equinoctial we ran no risque of losing our men by sickness (that being of all climates the most temperate and healthy), nor of having our ships disabled by bad weather. And had we wanted sailors to assist in the navigating of our squadron whilst a considerable proportion of our men were employed on shore, we could not have failed of getting whatever numbers we pleased in the ports we should have taken, and from the prizes which would have fallen into our hands. For I must observe that the Indians, who are the principal mariners in that part of the world, are extremely docile and dexterous; and though they are not fit to struggle with the inclemencies of a cold climate, yet in temperate seas they are most useful and laborious seamen.

Thus then it appears what important revolutions might have been brought about by our squadron had it departed from England as early as it ought to have done: and from hence it is easy to conclude what immense advantages might have thence accrued to the public. For, as on our success it would have been impossible that the kingdom of Spain should have received any treasure from the provinces bordering on the South Seas, or should even have had any communication with them, it is certain that the whole attention of that monarchy would have been immediately employed in endeavouring to regain these inestimable territories, either by force of arms or compact. By the first of these methods it was scarcely possible they could succeed; for it must have been at least a twelvemonth after our arrival before any ships from Spain could have got into the South Seas, and when they had been there, they would have found themselves without resource, since they would probably have been separated, disabled, and sickly, and would then have had no port remaining in their possession where they could either rendezvous or refit. Whilst we might have been supplied across the isthmus with whatever necessaries, stores, or even men we wanted; and might thereby have supported our squadron in as good a plight as when it first set sail from St. Helens. In short, it required but little prudence so to have conducted this business as to have rendered all the efforts of Spain, seconded by the power of France, ineffectual, and to have maintained our conquest in defiance of them both. Whence they must either have resolved to have left Great Britain mistress of the wealth of South America (the principal support of all their destructive projects), or they must have submitted to her terms, and have been contented to receive these provinces back again, as an equivalent for such restrictions to their future ambition as she in her prudence should have dictated to them. Having thus discussed the prodigious weight which the operations of our squadron might have added to the national influence of this kingdom, I shall here end this second book, referring to the next the passage of the shattered remains of our force across the Pacific Ocean, and all their subsequent transactions till the commodore's arrival in England.

BOOK III

CHAPTER I

THE RUN FROM THE COAST OF MEXICO TO THE LADRONES

OR MARIAN ISLANDS

When, on the 6th of May 1642, we left the coast of America, we stood to the S.W. with a view of meeting the N.E. tradewind, which the accounts of former writers taught us to expect at seventy or eighty leagues from the land. We had besides another reason for standing to the southward, which was the getting into the latitude of 13° or 14° north, that being the parallel where the Pacific Ocean is most usually crossed, and consequently where the navigation is esteemed the safest: this last purpose we had soon answered, being in a day or two sufficiently advanced to the south. But though we were at the same time more distant from the shore than we had presumed was necessary for the falling in with the trade-wind, yet in this particular we were most grievously disappointed, the wind still continuing to the westward, or at best variable. As the getting into the N.E. trade was to us a matter of the last consequence, we stood yet more to the southward, and made many experiments to meet with it; but all our efforts were for a long time unsuccessful; so that it was seven weeks from our leaving the coast before we got into the true trade-wind. This was an interval in which we had at first believed we should well-nigh have reached the eastermost parts of Asia; but we were so baffled with the contrary and variable winds, which for all that time perplexed us, that we were not as yet advanced above a fourth of the way. The delay alone would have been a sufficient mortification; but there were other circumstances attending it which rendered this situation not less terrible, and our apprehensions perhaps still greater, than in any of our past calamities. For our two ships were by this time extremely crazy; and many days had not passed before we discovered a spring in the fore-mast of the Centurion, which rounded about twenty-six inches of its circumference, and which was judged to be at least four inches deep. And no sooner had the carpenters secured this mast with fishing it, than the Gloucester made a signal of distress to inform us that she had a spring in her main-mast, twelve feet below the trussel trees; which appeared so dangerous that she could not carry any sail upon it. Our carpenters on a strict examination of this mast found it excessively rotten and decayed; and it being judged necessary to cut it down as low as it was defective, it was by this means reduced to nothing but a stump, which served only as a step to the top-mast. These accidents augmented our delay, and being added to our other distresses occasioned us great anxiety about our future safety. For though after our departure from Juan Fernandes we had enjoyed a most uninterrupted state of health, till our leaving the coast of Mexico, yet the scurvy now began to make fresh havock amongst our people: and we too well knew the effects of this disease by our former fatal experience to suppose that anything except a speedy passage could secure the greater part of our crew from being destroyed thereby. But as, after being seven weeks at sea, there did not appear any reasons that could persuade us we were nearer the trade-wind than when we set out, there was no ground for us to imagine that our passage would not prove at least three times as long as we at first expected; and consequently we had the melancholy prospect either of dying by the scurvy or of perishing with the ship for want of hands to navigate her. Indeed, several amongst us were willing to believe that in this warm climate, so different from what we felt in passing round Cape Horn, the violence of this disease, and its fatality, might be in some degree mitigated; as it had not been unusual to suppose that its particular virulence during that passage was in a great measure owing to the severity of the weather: but the ravage of the distemper, in our present circumstances, soon convinced us of the falsity of this speculation; as it likewise exploded certain other opinions which usually pass current about the cause and nature of this disease.

For it has been generally presumed that sufficient supplies of water and of fresh provisions are effectual preventives of this malady; but it happened that in the present case we had a considerable stock of fresh provisions on board, being the hogs and fowls which were taken at Paita; we besides almost daily caught great abundance of bonitos, dolphins, and albicores; and the unsettled season, which deprived us of the benefit of the trade-wind, proved extremely rainy; so that we were enabled to fill up our water-casks almost as fast as they were empty; and each man had five pints of water allowed him every day during the passage. But notwithstanding this plenty of water, notwithstanding that the fresh provisions were distributed amongst the sick, and the whole crew often fed upon fish; yet neither were the sick hereby relieved or the progress or malignity of the disease at all abated. Nor was it in these instances only that we found the general maxims upon this head defective: for tho' it has been usually esteemed a necessary piece of management to keep all ships where the crews are large as clean and airy between decks as possible; and it hath been believed by many that this particular alone, if well attended to, would prevent the appearance of the scurvy, or at least mitigate its virulence; yet we observed during the latter part of our run that, though we kept all our ports open and took uncommon pains in cleansing and sweetning the ships, the disease still raged with as much violence as ever; nor did its advancement seem to be thereby sensibly retarded.

However, I would not be understood to assert that fresh provisions, plenty of water, and a constant supply of sweet air between decks are matters of no moment: I am, on the contrary, well satisfied that they are all of them articles of great importance, and are doubtless extremely conducive to the health and vigour of a crew, and may in many cases prevent this fatal malady from taking place. All I have aimed at in what I have advanced is only to evince that, in some instances, both the cure and prevention of this malady is impossible to be effected by any management, or by the application of any remedies which can be made use of at sea. Indeed, I am myself fully persuaded that, when it has got to a certain head, there are no other means in nature for relieving the sick but carrying them on shore, or at least bringing them into the neighbourhood of the land. Perhaps a distinct and adequate knowledge of the source of this disease may never be discovered; but, in general, there is no difficulty in conceiving that, as a continued supply of fresh air is necessary to all animal life, and as this air is so particular a fluid that, without losing its elasticity, or any of its obvious properties, it may be rendered unfit for this purpose by the mixing with it some very subtle and otherwise imperceptible effluvia; it may be easily conceived, I say, that the steams arising from the ocean may have a tendency to render the air they are spread through less properly adapted to the support of the life of terrestrial animals, unless these steams are corrected by effluvia of another kind, which perhaps the land alone can afford.

To what hath been already said in relation to this disease, I shall add that our surgeon (who during our passage round Cape Horn had ascribed the mortality we suffered to the severity of the climate) exerted himself in the present run to the utmost: but he at last declared that all his measures were totally ineffectual, and did not in the least avail his patients. On this it was resolved by the commodore to try the success of two medicines which, just before his departure from England, were the subject of much discourse, I mean the pill and drop of Mr. Ward. For however violent the operations of these medicines are said to have sometimes proved, yet in the present instance, where, without some remedy, destruction seemed inevitable, the experiment at least was thought adviseable: and, therefore, one or both of them at different times were administred to persons in every stage of the distemper. Out of the numbers who took them, one, soon after swallowing the pill, was seized with a violent bleeding at the nose. He was before given over by the surgeon and lay almost at the point of death; but he immediately found himself much better, and continued to recover, tho' slowly, till we arrived on shore, which was near a fortnight after. A few others too were relieved for some days, but the disease returned again with as much virulence as ever. Though neither did these, nor the rest, who received no benefit, appear to be reduced to a worse condition than they would have been if they had taken nothing. The most remarkable property of these medicines, and what was obvious in almost every one that took them, was that they acted in proportion to the vigour of the patient; so that those who were within two or three days of dying were scarcely affected; and as the patient was differently advanced in the disease, the operation was either a gentle perspiration, an easy vomit, or a moderate purge: but if they were taken by one in full strength, they then produced all the forementioned effects with considerable violence, which sometimes continued for six or eight hours together with little intermission. However, let us return to the prosecution of our voyage.

I have already observed that a few days after our running off the coast of Mexico the Gloucester had her main-mast cut down to a stump, and we were obliged to fish our foremast; and that these misfortunes were greatly aggravated by our meeting with contrary and variable winds for near seven weeks. I shall now add that when we reached the trade-wind, and it settled between the north and the east, yet it seldom blew with so much strength that the Centurion might not have carried all her small sails abroad without the least danger; so that, had we been a single ship, we might have run down our longitude apace, and have arrived at the Ladrones soon enough to have recovered great numbers of our men who afterwards perished. But the Gloucester, by the loss of her main-mast, sailed so very heavily that we had seldom any more than our top-sails set, and yet were frequently obliged to lie to for her: and, I conceive, that on the whole we lost little less than a month by our attendance upon her, in consequence of the various mischances she encountered. During all this run it was remarkable that we were rarely many days together without seeing great numbers of birds; which is a proof that there are several islands, or at least rocks, scattered all along, at no very considerable distance from our track: but the frequency of these birds seem to ascertain that there are many more than have been hitherto discovered; for the most part of the birds we observed were such as are known to roost on shore; and the manner of their appearance sufficiently evinced that they came from some distant haunt every morning, and returned thither again in the evening, since we never saw them early or late; and the hour of their arrival and departure gradually varied, which we supposed was occasioned by our running nearer their haunts or getting farther from them.

The trade-wind continued to favour us, without any fluctuation, from the end of June till towards the end of July. But on the 26th of July, being then, as we esteemed, about three hundred leagues from the Ladrones, we met with a westerly wind, which did not come about again to the eastward in four days' time. This was a most dispiriting incident, as it at once damped all our hopes of speedy relief, especially too as it was attended with a vexatious accident to the Gloucester: for in one part of these four days the wind flatted to a calm, and the ships rolled very deep; by which means the Gloucester's forecap splitting, her fore top-mast came by the board, and broke her fore-yard directly in the slings. As she was hereby rendered incapable of making any sail for some time, we were under a necessity, as soon as a gale sprung up, to take her in tow; and near twenty of the healthiest and ablest of our seamen were removed from the duty of our own ship, and were continued eight or ten days together on board the Gloucester to assist in repairing her damages. But these things, mortifying as we thought them, were only the commencement of our disasters; for scarce had our people finished their business in the Gloucester before we met with a most violent storm from the western board, which obliged us to lie to. At the beginning of this storm our ship sprung a leak, and let in so much water that all our people, officers included, were constantly employed about the pumps: and the next day we had the vexation so see the Gloucester with her fore top-mast once more by the board. Nor was that the whole of her calamity, since whilst we were viewing her with great concern for this new distress, we saw her main top-mast, which had hitherto served her as a jury main-mast, share the same fate. This compleated our misfortunes, and rendered them without resource: for we knew the Gloucester's crew were so few and feeble that without our assistance they could not be relieved; whilst at the same time our sick were now so far increased, and those who remained in health so continually fatigued with the additional duty of our pumps, that it was impossible for us to lend them any aid. Indeed we were not as yet fully apprized of the deplorable situation of the Gloucester's crew; for when the storm abated, which during its continuance prevented all communication with them, the Gloucester bore up under our stern, and Captain Mitchel informed the commodore that besides the loss of his masts, which was all that was visible to us, the ship had then no less than seven feet of water in her hold, although his officers and men had been kept constantly at the pumps for the last twenty-four hours.

This new circumstance was indeed a most terrible accumulation to the other extraordinary distresses of the Gloucester, and required if possible the most speedy and vigorous assistance, which Captain Mitchel begged the commodore to afford him. But the debility of our people, and our own immediate preservation, rendered it impracticable for the commodore to comply with his request. All that could be done was to send our boat on board for a more particular account of the ship's condition, as it was soon suspected that the taking her people on board us, and then destroying her, was the only measure that could be prosecuted in the present emergency, both for the security of their lives and of our own.

Our boat soon returned with a representation of the state of the Gloucester, and of her several defects, signed by Captain Mitchel and all his officers; whence it appeared that she had sprung a leak by the stern post being loose, and working with every roll of the ship, and by two beams amidships being broken in the orlope, no part of which, as the carpenters reported, could possibly be repaired at sea; that both officers and men had wrought twenty-four hours at the pump without intermission, and were at length so fatigued that they could continue their labour no longer, but had been forced to desist, with seven feet of water in the hold, which covered all their casks, so that they could neither come at fresh water nor provision: that they had no mast standing, except the foremast, the mizen-mast, and the mizen top-mast, nor had they any spare masts to get up in the room of those they had lost: that the ship was, besides, extremely decayed in every part; for her knees and clamps were all become quite loose, and her upper works in general were so crazy that the quarter-deck was ready to drop down: that her crew was greatly reduced, as there remained alive on board her, officers included, no more than seventy-seven men, eighteen boys, and two prisoners, and that of this whole number only sixteen men and eleven boys were capable of keeping the deck, several of these too being very infirm.

The commodore, on the perusal of this melancholy representation, presently ordered them a supply of water and provisions, of which they seemed to be in the most pressing want, and at the same time sent his own carpenter on board them to examine into the truth of every particular; and it being found on the strictest enquiry that the preceding account was in no instance exaggerated, it plainly appeared there was no possibility of preserving the Gloucester any longer, as her leaks were irreparable, and the united hands on board both ships would not be able to free her, could we have spared the whole of our crew to her relief. What then could be resolved on, when it was the utmost we ourselves could do to manage our own pumps? Indeed there was no room for deliberation; the only step to be taken was the saving the lives of the few that remained on board the Gloucester, and the getting out of her as much as we could before she was destroyed. The commodore therefore immediately sent an order to Captain Mitchel to put his people on board the Centurion as expeditiously as he could, now the weather was calm and favourable, and to take out such stores as he could get at whilst the ship could be kept above water. And as our leak required less attention whilst the present easy weather continued, we sent our boats with as many men as we could spare to Captain Mitchel's assistance.

The removing the Gloucester's people on board us, and the getting out such stores as could most easily be come at, gave us full employment for two days. Mr. Anson was extremely desirous to have saved two of her cables and an anchor, but the ship rolled so much, and the men were so excessively fatigued, that they were incapable of effecting it; nay, it was even with the greatest difficulty that the prize-money which the Gloucester had taken in the South Seas was secured and sent on board the Centurion. However, the prize goods in the Gloucester, which amounted to several thousand pounds in value, and were principally the Centurion's property, were entirely lost; nor could any more provision be got out than five casks of flour, three of which were spoiled by the salt water. Their sick men, amounting to near seventy, were conveyed into the boats with as much care as the circumstances of that time would permit; but three or four of them expired as they were hoisting them into the Centurion.

It was the 15th of August, in the evening, before the Gloucester was cleared of everything that was proposed to be removed; and though the hold was now almost full of water, yet, as the carpenters were of opinion that she might still swim for some time, if the calm should continue and the water become smooth, it was resolved she should be burnt, as we knew not how little distant we might be at present from the island of Guam, which was in the possession of our enemies, to whom the wreck of such a ship would have been no contemptible acquisition. When she was set on fire, Captain Mitchel and his officers left her, and came on board the Centurion: and we immediately stood from the wreck, not without some apprehensions (as we had only a light breeze) that if she blew up soon the concussion of the air might damage our rigging; but she fortunately continued burning the whole night, so that though her guns fired successively as the flames reached them, yet it was six in the morning, when we were about four leagues distant, before she blew up. The report she made upon this occasion was but small, although the blast produced an exceeding black pillar of smoke, which shot up into the air to a very considerable height.

Thus perished his Majesty's ship the Gloucester. And now it might have been expected that, being freed from the embarrassments which her frequent disasters had involved us in, we should have proceeded on our way much brisker than we had hitherto done, especially as we had received some small addition to our strength by the taking on board the Gloucester's crew. However, we were soon taught that our anxieties were not yet to be relieved, and that, notwithstanding all we had already suffered, there remained much greater distresses which we were still to struggle with. For the late storm, which had proved so fatal to the Gloucester, had driven us to the northward of our intended course; and the current setting the same way, after the weather abated, had forced us yet a degree or two farther, so that we were now in 17-¼° of north latitude, instead of being in 13-½°, which was the parallel we proposed to keep, in order to reach the island of Guam. As it had been a perfect calm for some days since the cessation of the storm, and we were ignorant how near we were to the meridian of the Ladrones, though we supposed ourselves not to be far from it, we apprehended that we might be driven to the leeward of them by the current without discovering them. On this supposition, the only land we could make would be some of the eastern parts of Asia, where, if we could arrive, we should find the western monsoon in its full force, so that it would be impossible for the stoutest, best-manned ship to get in. Besides, this coast being between four and five hundred leagues distant from us, we, in our languishing circumstances, could expect no other than to be destroyed by the scurvy long before the most favourable gale could enable us to compleat so extensive a navigation. For our deaths were by this time extremely alarming, no day passing in which we did not bury eight or ten, and sometimes twelve, of our men; and those who had as yet continued healthy began to fall down apace. Indeed we made the best use we could of our present calm, by employing our carpenters in searching after the leak, which, notwithstanding the little wind we had, was now considerable. The carpenters at length discovered it to be in the gunner's fore store-room, where the water rushed in under the breast-hook on each side of the stern: but though they found where it was, they agreed it was impossible to stop it till they could come at it on the outside, which was evidently a matter not to be attempted till we should arrive in port. However, they did the best they could within board, and were fortunate enough to reduce it, which was a considerable relief to us.

We hitherto considered the calm which succeeded the storm, and which had now continued for some days, as a very great misfortune, since the currents were all the time driving us to the northward of our parallel, and we thereby risqued the missing of the Ladrones, which we at present conceived ourselves to be very near. But when a gale sprung up our condition was still worse; for it blew from the S.W., and consequently was directly opposed to the course we wanted to steer: and though it soon veered to the N.E., yet this served only to tantalize us, as it returned back again in a very short time to its old quarter. However, on the 22d of August we had the satisfaction to find that the current was shifted, and had set us to the southward; and the 23d, at daybreak, we were cheered with the discovery of two islands in the western board. This gave us all great joy, and raised our drooping spirits, for till then an universal dejection had seized us, and we almost despaired of ever seeing land again. The nearest of these islands, as we learnt afterwards, was Anatacan; this we judged to be full fifteen leagues from us; it seemed to be high land, though of an indifferent length. The other was the island of Serigan, which had rather the appearance of a rock than of a place we could hope to anchor at. We were extremely impatient to get in with the nearest island, where we expected to find anchoring ground and an opportunity of refreshing our sick. But the wind proved so variable all day, and there was so little of it that we advanced towards it but slowly; however, by the next morning we were got so far to the westward that we were in sight of a third island, which was that of Paxaros, and which is marked in the chart only as a rock. This was very small, and the land low, so that we had passed within less than a mile of it in the night without observing it. At noon, being then not four miles from the island of Anatacan, the boat was sent away to examine the anchoring ground and the produce of the place, and we were not a little solicitous for her return, as we conceived our fate to depend upon the report we should receive; for the other two islands were obviously enough incapable of furnishing us with any assistance, and we knew not that there were any besides which we could reach. In the evening the boat came back, and the crew informed us that there was no road for a ship to anchor in, the bottom being everywhere foul ground, and all except one small spot not less than fifty fathom in depth; that on that spot there was thirty fathom, though not above half a mile from the shore; and that the bank was steep too, and could not be depended on. They farther told us that they had landed on the island, not without some difficulty on account of the greatness of the swell; that they found the ground was everywhere covered with a kind of wild cane or rush; but that they met with no water, and did not believe the place to be inhabited, though the soil was good and abounded with groves of coconut trees.

The account of the impossibility of anchoring at this island occasioned a general melancholy on board, for we considered it as little less than the prelude to our destruction; and our despondency was increased by a disappointment we met with the succeeding night, when, as we were plying under top-sails, with an intention of getting nearer to the island, and of sending our boat on shore to load with coconuts for the refreshment of our sick, the wind proved squally, and blew so strong off shore, that we were driven too far to the southward to venture to send off our boat. And now the only possible circumstance that could secure the few which remained alive from perishing, was the accidental falling in with some other of the Ladrone Islands better prepared for our accommodation; but as our knowledge of these islands was extremely imperfect, we were to trust entirely to chance for our guidance; only as they are all of them usually laid down near the same meridian, and we conceived those we had already seen to be part of them, we concluded to stand to the southward, as the most probable means of discovering the rest. Thus, with the most gloomy persuasion of our approaching destruction, we stood from the island of Anatacan, having all of us the strongest apprehensions (and those not ill grounded) either of dying by the scurvy, or of being destroyed with the ship, which, for want of hands to work her pumps, might in a short time be expected to founder.

CHAPTER II

OUR ARRIVAL AT TINIAN, AND AN ACCOUNT OF THE ISLAND AND OF OUR PROCEEDINGS THERE TILL THE "CENTURION" DROVE OUT TO SEA

It was the 26th of August, 1742, in the morning, when we lost sight of the island of Anatacan, dreading that it was the last land we should ever fix our eyes on. But the next morning we discovered three other islands to the eastward, which were between ten and fourteen leagues distant from us. These were, as we afterwards learnt, the island of Saypan, Tinian, and Aguigan. We immediately steered towards Tinian, which was the middlemost of the three; but we had so much of calms and light airs, that though we were helped forwards by the currents, yet on the morrow, at daybreak, we had not advanced nearer than within five leagues of it. However, we kept on our course, and about ten o'clock we perceived a proa under sail to the southward between Tinian and Aguigan. As we imagined from hence that these islands were inhabited, and knew that the Spaniards had always a force at Guam, we took the necessary precautions for our own security: and endeavoured to prevent the enemy as much as possible from making an advantage of our present wretched circumstances, of which we feared they would be sufficiently informed by the manner of our working the ship. We therefore mustered all our hands who were capable of standing to their arms, and loaded our upper and quarter-deck guns with grape shot; and that we might the more readily procure some intelligence of the state of these islands, we showed Spanish colours, and hoisted a red flag at the fore top-mast-head, hoping thereby to give our ship the appearance of the Manila galeon, and to decoy some of the inhabitants on board us. Thus preparing ourselves, and standing towards the land, we were near enough, at three in the afternoon, to send the cutter on shore to find out a proper birth for the ship; and we soon perceived that a proa put off from the island to meet the cutter, fully persuaded, as we afterwards found, that we were the Manila ship. As we saw the cutter returning with the proa in tow, we instantly sent the pinnace to receive the proa and the prisoners, and to bring them on board, that the cutter might proceed on her errand. The pinnace came back with a Spaniard and four Indians, which were the people taken in the proa: and the Spaniard being immediately examined as to the produce and circumstances of this island of Tinian, his account of it surpassed even our most sanguine hopes. For he informed us that though it was uninhabited (which in itself, considering our present defenceless condition, was a convenience not to be despised), yet it wanted but few of the accommodations that could be expected in the most cultivated country. In particular, he assured us that there was plenty of very good water; that there were an incredible number of cattle, hogs, and poultry running wild on the island, all of them excellent in their kind; that the woods afforded sweet and sour oranges, limes, lemons, and coconuts in great abundance, besides a fruit peculiar to these islands, which served instead of bread; that from the quantity and goodness of the provisions produced here, the Spaniards at Guam made use of it as a store for supplying the garrison; and that he himself was a serjeant of that garrison, who was sent hither with twenty-two Indians to jerk beef, which he was to load for Guam on board a small bark of about fifteen tun, which lay at anchor near the shore.

This relation was received by us with inexpressible joy. Part of it we were ourselves able to verify on the spot, as we were by this time near enough to discover several numerous herds of cattle feeding in different places of the island; and we did not any ways doubt the rest of his narration, since the appearance of the shore prejudiced us greatly in its favour, and made us hope that not only our necessities might be there fully relieved, and our diseased recovered, but that, amidst those pleasing scenes which were then in view, we might procure ourselves some amusement and relaxation, after the numerous fatigues we had undergone. For the prospect of the country did by no means resemble that of an uninhabited and uncultivated place; but had much more the air of a magnificent plantation where large lawns and stately woods had been laid out together with great skill, and where the whole had been so artfully combined, and so judiciously adapted to the slopes of the hills, and the inequalities of the ground, as to produce a most striking effect, and to do honour to the invention of the contriver. Thus (an event not unlike what we had already seen) we were forced upon the most desirable and salutary measures by accidents which at first sight we considered as the greatest of misfortunes; for had we not been driven by the contrary winds and currents to the northward of our course (a circumstance which at that time gave us the most terrible apprehensions), we should, in all probability, never have arrived at this delightful island, and consequently we should have missed of that place where alone all our wants could be most amply relieved, our sick recovered, and our enfeebled crew once more refreshed, and enabled to put again to sea.

The Spanish serjeant, from whom we received the account of the island, having informed us that there were some Indians on shore under his command, employed in jerking beef, and that there was a bark at anchor to take it on board, we were desirous, if possible, to prevent the Indians from escaping, since they would certainly have given the Governor of Guam intelligence of our arrival: we therefore immediately dispatched the pinnace to secure the bark, as the serjeant told us that was the only embarkation on the place; and then about eight in the evening we let go our anchor in twenty-two fathom. But though it was almost calm, and whatever vigour and spirit was to be found on board was doubtless exerted to the utmost on this pleasing occasion, when, after having kept the sea for some months, we were going to take possession of this little paradise, yet we were full five hours in furling our sails. It is true we were somewhat weakened by the crews of the cutter and pinnace which were sent on shore; but it is not less true that, including those absent with the boats and some negroes and Indians prisoners, all the hands we could muster capable of standing at a gun amounted to no more than seventy-one, most of which too were incapable of duty except on the greatest emergencies. This, inconsiderable as it may appear, was the whole force we could collect in our present enfeebled condition from the united crews of the Centurion, the Gloucester, and the Tryal, which, when we departed from England, consisted all together of near a thousand hands.

When we had furled our sails, our people were allowed to repose themselves during the remainder of the night, to recover them from the fatigue they had undergone. But in the morning a party was sent on shore well armed, of which I myself was one, to make ourselves masters of the landing-place, since we were not certain what opposition might be made by the Indians on the island. We landed, however, without difficulty, for the Indians having perceived, by our seizure of the bark the night before, that we were enemies, they immediately fled into the woody parts of the island. We found on shore many huts which they had inhabited, and which saved us both the time and trouble of erecting tents. One of these huts, which the Indians made use offer a store-house, was very large, being twenty yards long and fifteen broad: this we immediately cleared of some bales of jerked beef which had been left in it, and converted it into an hospital for our sick, who as soon as the place was ready to receive them, were brought on shore, being in all a hundred and twenty-eight. Numbers of these were so very helpless that we were obliged to carry them from the boats to the hospital upon our shoulders, in which humane employment (as before at Juan Fernandes) the commodore himself, and every one of his officers, were engaged without distinction; and notwithstanding the extreme debility and the dying aspects of the greatest part of our sick, it is almost incredible how soon they began to feel the salutary influence of the land: for, though we buried twenty-one men on this and the preceding day, yet we did not lose above ten men more during the whole two months we staid here; but our diseased in general reaped so much benefit from the fruits of the island, particularly those of the acid kind, that in a week's time there were but few of them who were not so far recovered as to be able to move about without help.

Being now in some sort established at this place, we were enabled more distinctly to examine its qualities and productions; and that the reader may the better judge of our manner of life here, and future navigators be better apprized of the conveniencies we met with, I shall, before I proceed any farther in the history of our own adventures, throw together the most interesting particulars that came to our knowledge relating to the situation, soil, produce, and accommodations of this island of Tinian.

This island lies in the latitude of 15° 8' north, and longitude from Acapulco 114° 50' west. Its length is about twelve miles, and its breadth about half as much, it extending from the S.S.W. to N.N.E. The soil is everywhere dry and healthy, and being withal somewhat sandy, it is thereby the less disposed to a rank and over-luxuriant vegetation; and hence the meadows and the bottoms of the woods are much neater and smoother than is customary in hot climates. The land rose in gentle slopes from the very beach where we watered to the middle of the island, though the general course of its ascent was often interrupted by vallies of an easy descent, many of which wind irregularly through the country. These vallies and the gradual swellings of the ground which their different combinations gave rise to were most beautifully diversified by the mutual encroachments of woods and lawns, which coasted each other and traversed the island in large tracts. The woods consisted of tall and well-spread trees, the greatest part of them celebrated either for their aspect or their fruit: whilst the lawns were usually of a considerable breadth, their turf quite clean and uniform, it being composed of a very fine trefoil, which was intermixed with a variety of flowers. The woods too were in many places open, and free from all bushes and underwood, so that they terminated on the lawns with a well-defined outline, where neither shrubs nor weeds were to be seen; but the neatness of the adjacent turf was frequently extended to a considerable distance under the hollow shade formed by the trees. Hence arose a great number of the most elegant and entertaining prospects, according to the different blendings of these woods and lawns, and their various intersections with each other, as they spread themselves differently through the vallies, and over the slopes and declivities in which the place abounded. Nor were the allurements of Tinian confined to the excellency of its landskips only; since the fortunate animals, which during the greatest part of the year are the sole lords of this happy soil, partake in some measure of the romantic cast of the island, and are no small addition to its wonderful scenery; for the cattle, of which it is not uncommon to see herds of some thousands feeding together in a large meadow, are certainly the most remarkable in the world, as they are all of them milk-white, except their ears, which are generally brown or black. And though there are no inhabitants here, yet the clamour and frequent parading of domestic poultry, which range the woods in great numbers, perpetually excite the idea of the neighbourhood of farms and villages, and greatly contribute to the chearfulness and beauty of the place. The cattle on Tinian we computed were at least ten thousand; we had no difficulty in getting near them, for they were not at all shy of us. Our first method of killing them was shooting them; but at last, when by accidents to be hereafter recited we were obliged to husband our ammunition, our men ran them down with ease. Their flesh was extremely well tasted, and was believed by us to be much more easily digested than any we had ever met with. The fowls too were exceeding good, and were likewise run down with little trouble; for they could scarce fly further than an hundred yards at a flight, and even that fatigued them to such a degree that they could not readily rise again, so that, aided by the openness of the woods, we could at all times furnish ourselves with whatever number we wanted. Besides the cattle and the poultry we found here abundance of wild hogs. These were most excellent food, but as they were a very fierce animal, we were obliged either to shoot them, or to hunt them with large dogs, which we found upon the place at our landing, and which belonged to the detachment which was then upon the island amassing provisions for the garrison of Guam. As these dogs had been purposely trained to the killing of the wild hogs, they followed us very readily and hunted for us; but though they were a large bold breed, the hogs fought with so much fury that they frequently destroyed them, whence we by degrees lost the greatest part of them.