THE SEQUEL to
Bulkeley and Cummins's
VOYAGE TO THE SOUTH SEAS

or the

*Adventures of Capt. Cheap, the Hon. Mr. Byron, Lieut. Hamilton,
Alexander Campbell and others, late of his Majesty's ship the /Wager/,
which was wrecked on a desolate island in Lat. 47. S. Long. 81. 40. W.
in the South Seas, anno 1741.*

containing

A faithful narrative of the unparalleled sufferings of these gentlemen,
after being left on the said island by the rest of the officers and
crew, who went off in the longboat. Their deplorable condition,
desperate enterprises, and prodigious distresses, till they fell into
the hands of the Indians, who carried them into New Spain, where they
remained prisoners of war, till sent back to Europe, on the terms of the
cartel, in 1746.

The whole interspersed with descriptions of the countries in which the
various scenes of their adventures lay; the manners, etc. of the
American Indians and Spaniards, and their treatment of the author and
his companions.

by ALEXANDER CAMPBELL,
Late midshipman of the /Wager/.

LONDON:
Printed for the author, and sold by W. Owen, publisher,
at Homer's Head, near Temple Bar, Fleet Street, 1747.
(Price one shilling and sixpence.)




[DEDICATION]

To the Honourable John Bing, Esq;
Rear-Admiral of the Blue.

Sir,

As I have had the honour of serving under you in his Majesty's ship the
/Augusta/, in 1738, and the year following; and as I am well assured
that no one will more impartially read, or is more capable of forming a
right judgment of the ensuing pages, so I know not to whom they could
have been more properly inscribed.

You will not, Sir, expect a seaman to say fine things in a dedication.
Besides, such things as I might be inclinable to say of you, though
unquestionably true, would so much resemble the flattery usual on these
occasions, as not only would ill-become a maritime pen, but, I dare say,
be no way acceptable to your Honour.

All I have to say in behalf of the following sheets, is, that they are
void of art, malice, or misrepresentation. The facts related in them are
undeniable, dressed in the plain unsophisticated language of an honest
tar, whose principal view in publishing them, is to clear his character
from a very gross calumny. Most of the hardships I suffered in following
the fortune of Captain Cheap, were the consequence of my voluntary
attachment to that gentleman, and the distresses I underwent with him,
and for him, are such as perhaps have never been equalled. In reward for
this the Captain has approved himself the greatest enemy I have in the
world. On my return to my native country, after such a voyage as God
grant no other man may ever make, I hoped that my services and
sufferings would have sufficiently pleaded my cause, and at last have
turned out to my advantage. But instead of this, I now find myself
destitute of employment, and without the least prospect of being
provided for in the service of my King and Country. Whether or not I
have merited from either so hard a fate, I leave to your Honour's
judgment, on the perusal of the ensuing narrative; in opposition to
which I should rejoice at your being thoroughly acquainted with the very
worst that my enemies can prove against me; for as your penetration
cannot be imposed on by gross untruths, and palpable misrepresentations,
and as they have nothing else to bring against me, so, in proportion to
the weakness of such evidence, the more strongly must the innocence
appear of

Your Honour's most humble,
And most obedient servant,

Alexander Campbell.

Portsmouth
Nov. 1, 1746.




THE INTRODUCTION

Having been cruelly aspersed by those who, of all persons in the world,
ought to have spoken, if not /kindly/, at least /fairly/ of me, I
thought it necessary to publish the ensuing narrative, in order to
justify my conduct, and make it appear to the World, that I have not
been generously treated. This is a piece of justice which I owe to
myself, and which any other man in the like circumstances would be
willing to pay.

I shall not say much of my services to Captain Cheap, in order to
aggravate his ungenerous returns. Had I never done, or endeavoured to do
him the least service, yet he ought not to have aspersed my character,
nor to have charged me with a crime which I would be the last man in his
Majesty's Navy to commit. The Captain was a witness all my sufferings,
and was it not cruel in him to prevent my receiving any recompense? Had
I even been the aggressor in any misunderstanding with him, yet it ought
to have been beneath him to pursue with so much malice, and take so
severe a revenge on his fellow-sufferer and faithful servant, for such I
voluntarily became to him in his greatest distress. But I was not the
aggressor; nor did I ever imagine he would have proved my enemy, who was
never his, but the very reverse.

Happening to come home a little before me, he takes the opportunity of
reporting that I was gone into the Spanish service. And what more could
he have done to render me odious among my brother-sailors, and hinder me
from being again employed, and getting my bread as formerly in the
service of my King and Country? This groundless charge has been
propagated with so much success, and (unfortunately for me) has been so
generally believed at the Admiralty Office, and by some gentleman in the
Navy, who might else have done me service, that I am looked on as a
traitor, or traitorously inclined, and am therefore ejected out of his
Majesty's service, and indeed out of all other service, unless I will
actually go over to the enemy, as it has been falsely said I have done.
But rather than do this, I will submit to beg my bread, or, starving,
die a reproach to ungrateful and cruel men.

That the public may truly be informed of my innocence, I have printed
this account of the voyage I was so unfortunately engaged in. When the
/Wager /was shipwrecked on the desolate island in the South Seas,
mentioned in the title, the crew thought themselves no longer obliged to
obey their Captain; and when they found that he would not give up his
command, they took arms and freed themselves from it by confining him.
But when all, except the very few whom anon I shall have occasion to
mention, despised and left the Captain, I remained steadily attached to
him, even in his greatest extremity; and on this account was myself
despised, and without regret abandoned to an almost hopeless fate.

Indeed while I was necessary to him the Captain expressed great kindness
for me, and made me large promises; but after following his desperate
fortune for three years, his ungenerous usage of me, forced me to quit
his company, and embark for Europe in a Spanish ship, rather than go
home with him in a French one. This however gave him the opportunity of
arriving in England, a few weeks before me: and an opportunity for doing
me a prejudice which the Captain industriously improved; very generously
and honestly reporting that I had entered into the Spanish service;
though I do not believe he himself suspected it. As to my not being come
home when he arrived, that was no proof, nor even ground for suspicion
that I was voluntarily absent. He could not know whether I was still
alive, or whether detained by sickness, imprisonment in old Spain, or by
contrary winds, or twenty other means which a generous man would have
supposed, rather than judge so uncharitably.

But if I live to be again employed in the Royal Navy, I hope that
opportunities may occur for convincing my countrymen (by all the
services one in my station can perform) that my zeal for, and fidelity
to my King and Country, ever have been, and ever will be incapable of
being moved either by temptations or dangers. I desire no greater
happiness in this world, than to make it publicly appear, that there is
not a Briton this day alive, who has a greater regard for his own and
his Country's honour, than I have ever preserved. To one proof of this
Captain Cheap himself is no stranger. Namely, that I might have had, in
New Spain, as well as at Madrid, the command of a Spanish man-of-war
given me, if I would have quitted the King of Great Britain's service.

If the reader should think that anything in this narrative borders in
any degree upon the marvellous, let it be tried by a collation with the
accounts of other voyagers; and then it will appear that never any
traveller more avoided exaggeration than I have done. I have designed
this tract as a plain simple relation of facts, intended chiefly to
place my own actions in a just light. If here and there I have
introduced descriptions of the countries, etc. which I had the
misfortune to see, it is only in complaisance to the custom of
journalists. However I have been scrupulously careful not to insert one
word of untruth: for falsities of any kind would be highly absurd in a
work designed to rescue the author's character from the imputation of
/unfaithfulness/.

A. C.




BOOK I
A succinct narrative of Commodore Anson's voyage to the South Seas, from
his setting out in the year 1740, to the loss of the ship /Wager/.


When our unhappy ship was lost, there was not one journal saved out of
her; therefore I shall not pretend to give a more circumstantial account
of the voyage, than merely what occurs to my memory. But what I relate I
perfectly remember, and will stake my reputation on the truth of every
circumstance.

Sept. 18th, the fleet consisting of eight sail, store-ships included,
sailed from St. Helen's [Isle of Wight, opposite Portsmouth, Ed.].
October 28th. anchored in the bay of Madeira. I was then on board the
/Tryal/, Capt. Murray. Here we wooded and watered, and took in wines for
the use of the fleet. In Nov. the Hon. Capt. Murray's command was
transferred to the /Wager/, and I was removed with him. Here Commodore
Anson received information of a squadron of ten sail of Spanish
men-of-war, under Admiral Pizarro cruising to the westward. On the 28th
crossed the Equinoctal [equator, Ed.]; and, December 19th anchored at
the isle of Santa Catarina [on the coast of Brazil, Ed.], in Lat. 28. S.
January 18th sailed for the river of San Julian, on the coast of
Patagonia. The 22nd, lost sight of the /Pearl/, Capt. Kidd. February
17th, the /Pearl/ rejoined us. During her absence she had been chased by
five men-of-war, of Pizarro's fleet; but throwing her boat, fresh water,
and a great quantity of stores overboard, she was thereby greatly
lightened, and outran the enemy. Meantime Capt. Kidd died, and Capt.
Murray succeeding him in the /Pearl/, Capt. Cheap was appointed
Commander of the /Wager/.

On the 28th, sailed from San Julian /*/, and March 7th, passed the
straits of Le Maire. April 19th, lost sight of the Commodore. This was a
great misfortune to us, we being at that time in a very bad condition,
having lost our mizzen-mast some days before. Here I must observe, in
behalf of our lieutenant, Mr. Beans, who had the watch that night, and
has had some reflections cast on him, for losing sight of the Commodore,
that I had the watch with him that night, and was most of the time on
the foretop-sail-yard, in order to take in the foretop-sail; and I could
not see the Commodore. But the lieutenant did often call to know if I
could see Mr. Anson's lights. The 23rd, I narrowly escaped drowning.
Going up the fore-shrouds, I was knocked down by a man falling from the
futtock-shrouds; but I lighting between the sheet anchor-stock and the
shrouds, was preserved, though the other man was drowned.

* For, what particularly regards the fleet from this time to our
separation from the Commodore, I refer the reader to the accounts
published by the gentlemen of the other ships, whose journals were not lost.

We now understood that the fleet was to rendezvous at the Island of N.
S. del Socorro, in Lat. 45 S. May 14th, the straps of the fore-jeer
blocks unfortunately broke, and the fore-yard came down about our ears:
the same day also we saw land. Hereupon the Captain ordered me to get up
the fore-yard as soon as possible; but most of the people being sick,
this could not be done very speedily, and now a constant series of
misfortunes began to fall on us. First, our Captain had the mishap to
fall down the after-ladder, as he was coming forward to see us get the
fore-yard up, and dislocated his shoulder. This accident was the more
unfortunate, as it happened at a juncture, when his care and skill, and
authority were most wanted. Probably, had he not been thus disabled from
discharging the duties of his post, the ship had not been lost; for not
a man in her ever doubted his abilities, both as a commander and a
sailor. Besides, his authority, had he been capable of stirring about
and exerting himself, would have kept every one to the duty of his
station, which might have gone a great way towards preserving the ship.

May 14th, between four and five o'clock in the morning, the vessel
struck. I was then in my berth shifting myself; and on feeling the
shock, I ran up and asked the master what was the matter. He answered,
/Nothing, it was only a great sea under the counter/. He had no sooner
spoken these words, than she struck again, with a more dreadful shock
than before. All in the ship were now alarmed, and running forward to
get hands to wear the ship, I saw breakers to the leeward; whereupon I
ran aft again, and told what I had seen, upon which we hauled the wind
again. The Captain ordered to let go the anchor, but the bite of the
cable being over the cat-head, we could not clear the anchor till it was
too late; for in the meantime the ship struck so hard that she broke the
tiller, and an anchor of 48 hundred, belonging to the /Centurion/, and
which lay in the main hatchway, went through her bottom. Hereupon, we
were obliged to haul up our mainsail, and bear away for the land,
steering the vessel by the braces and sheets. But we were unable to make
the shore, and the ship had immediately been lost outright, had not
Providence conducted us between two rocks, where the ship stuck fast,
unable either to proceed or sink. I now went to the Captain, who was in
a miserable condition, on account of his dislocated shoulder; and asked
him if he would go ashore, for I was afraid she would part very soon.
His answer was, /Go and save all the sick, and don't mind me/. He also
gave orders for hoisting the boats out as soon as possible; and
thereupon we all were immediately employed in getting things necessary
for our preservation. The yawl went on shore first, and carried as many
people as could get into her. Then the barge and cutter went with as
many as /would/ yet go ashore.

I observed that this very day, the spirit of discord and dissension had
entered the people. When I required some of them to return with me in
the yawl, to fetch such things from the ship as were necessary for every
man, (seeing there was nothing to be got on this desolate island, for
such we then guessed, and soon found it to be), they plainly answered,
that they would not go. However, some of the petty officers went with
me, and we informed the Captain that if he pleased to go ashore, the
yawl was ready to carry him. But he would not for a good while consent
to go, saying, /Carry everybody else first, and afterwards I will go/. I
then informed him that everyone that would go was already on shore,
whereupon the Captain raised himself in his bed, but not being able to
move along, we helped him into the boat, and carried him ashore. There
was on the island two or three huts built by the Indians, who frequently
land on it, and stay several days. One of these was fixed on for the
Captain; and happy for him it was, that any habitation could be had: for
in his condition he had certainly lost his life without such a shelter,
as many of the people afterwards did.

As soon as the Captain got into this hut, he ordered me to take the
yawl, and see if the men on board would come ashore. Accordingly I went,
but found them all in such confusion as cannot be imagined by any who
were not eye-witnesses of it. Some were singing psalms, others fighting,
others swearing, and some lay drunk on the deck. Seeing them in this
strange disorder, I spoke not a word to anybody, but observing some
casks of ball and powder on the quarterdeck, I began to put them into
the boat; whereupon two of the men came to me, crying out, /Damn ye! You
shall not have them, for the ship is lost and it is ours/. A third came
with a bayonet, swearing he would kill me; adding these words, /Damn
you! You have carried a straight arm all the voyage, and you shall
suffer for it/. And with that he threw the bayonet at me, but missed his
mark, and I immediately got into the yawl, and returned to the shore.

About the middle of the ensuing night, when the tide and wind together
made a great sea, and the ship was violently working, the people on
board began to be afraid, expecting every moment that she would part. At
last they pointed one of the guns (a four pounder, that lay on the
quarterdeck) towards the Captain's hut, and had like to have hit it,
which if they had, it must infallibly have been beat to pieces, and
might have proved fatal to those within. The Captain not liking that
they should send cannonballs on messages to him, ordered me and three
others of the petty officers to fetch the people from on board. But it
was now impossible for us to get on board, by reason of the mast that
lay alongside, and a great sea; so we went back and informed the Captain
of these impediments, /I cannot help it/, replied he, /but should be
very glad if they were all safe on shore/. So these people were left
some time longer on board, to continue their outrageous disorders. Some
of them broke open the lazaretto, where the wine was stowed, scuttled
the pipes, made themselves drunk, and several tumbled into the water
that was in the ship, and were drowned, which was more owing to the
liquor within than without. Others broke open the chests and cabins, and
loaded themselves with plunder, which, however, they were soon forced to
relinquish.

Next day the Captain again ordered the boat to go and try to bring the
people from on board; but when the petty officers called for hands to
row the boat off to the ship, the men refused, declaring plainly /that
they would not go, for the ship was lost, and everyone was at liberty to
shift for himself/. Hereupon I being always willing to obey my Captain,
attempted to persuade the men, by dint of /dry blows/, to go into the
boat. But though the /strongest arguments of this nature/, that I could
use, were in some measure effectual, yet they served to exasperate the
men against me to that degree, that I was in danger of my life. But this
I never suspected, till the lieutenant, Mr. Beans, informed me, that the
gunner's mate, and one of the boatswain's mates were plotting to murder
me; upon which I took proper precautions for my own security. Meantime
the Captain was taking all possible care to prevent mutiny, ordering the
officers to disarm the seamen as they came ashore; and a bell tent was
erected, in which the arms and ammunition were deposited. But this
proved of very little service; for the men went on board in the night,
and again furnished themselves with both, so that in a short time they
were all in a capacity of bidding their officers defiance. Thus the ship
being in effect entirely lost, we were involved in a state of anarchy
and confusion, which lasted till part of the people went off in the
longboat, and which added not a little to the hardships we endured on
this island.





BOOK II
The proceedings of the officers and crew from the loss of the ship, to
the departure of the longboat from Wager Island.


On the seventh day after the ship was lost, we began to want provisions;
but the weather being so bad that we could not work on the wreck, most
of us went alongshore, and gathered shellfish, of which we found a good
quantity.

As soon as the weather would permit, the Captain ordered the boat to the
wreck, and several casks of flour with some wine were brought off. All
this time the Captain expressed the greatest concern for the safety of
the people, and caused a store-tent to be made for securing the
provisions: but to little purpose, for some of the men robbed it every
night. Hereupon the Captain ordered the petty officers to stand century
[sentry, Ed.] at this tent, each four hours at a time, which was a great
hardship upon us, who were only four, and the weather rainy for several
weeks without intermission.

The ship's company by this time were formed into bodies, and lodged in
tents. The Captain with some of his officers occupied the hut
aforementioned. The warrant officers were in another, and the master
with some of the petty officers in a third.

Going one day aboard the ship, we saw three canoes full of Indians
making towards us. We made signals to them with our hats, and thereupon
they came near us without further hesitation. They had with them their
captain, or cacique, as they called him. I went with them on-shore to
our Captain, who treated them with great civility; upon which, the next
day they brought us three sheep, and a large quantity of very fine
mussels. So just a sense of gratitude had these poor ignorant people,
without any other instruction than what Nature gave them. /A good
example to many well-educated Christians!/

These Indians are of a very dark swarthy complexion, of a middling
stature; but extremely courteous in their behaviour. Their clothing is
but thin, though the climate is very cold. They only wear a clout [piece
of cloth, Ed.] about their middle, and something like a blanket which
they wear about their shoulders, having a hole to put their head
through, and this they call a punch [poncho, Ed.].

The time advancing, the Captain grew uneasy at our stay here, and would
have had the people attempt to go to the rendezvous (which we were now
told was to be at the island of Juan Fernandez) in order to join the
Commodore. But such animosities were now among the people, both officers
and sailors, that it was absolutely uncertain what might be the
consequence. Many were continually exclaiming against the Captain, and
threatening the petty officers that stood by him. As for their reasons
for behaving in this manner, I could never rightly comprehend them. In
truth, it must be owned that my attachment to the Captain was zealous,
even to bigotry. -- At last all the people of one tent deserted us, and
rambled whither they pleased. It was said that they had a design to blow
up the Captain in his tent; but this report was not generally believed,
nor did anything of that sort ever happen.

By the Captain's orders we were everyday working on the wreck, except
when the weather would not permit us to go on board; and I am sure if it
had not been for the Captain, many would have perished before they would
have given themselves this /necessary/ trouble, though the preservation
of their own lives, and the lives of their friends and companions
depended on it.

June 6th, Mr. Cozens, my brother-midshipman, was confined by the
Captain, whom he, being drunk, had used with such indecent language as
the latter could hardly be expected to receive without punishing.
Nevertheless in the evening of the same day the Captain ordered him to
be released. Soon after this, Mr. Cozens quarrelled with the surgeon,
whose intimacy with, and regard for the Captain was thought to be the
chief cause of the midshipman's anger. They went to blows, but the
surgeon got the better, and tying the hands of his antagonist behind
him, left him to be released by the next that came that way. At last
this unhappy gentleman going to the store-tent, where the purser was
serving the provisions, a quarrel ensued, and the latter took out a
pistol to shoot Mr. Cozens, but was prevented by the cooper, who struck
the pistol aside. The Captain hearing the pistol go off, and at the time
the purser crying out /Captain Cheap! Here is Cozens come to kill us/;
he thought that Cozens had fired the pistol; and thereupon taking up
another, he discharged it at Cozens, and mortally wounded him in the
head. The unfortunate midshipman languished several days after, and then
died. He was when sober, one of the best-natured men I ever knew.
Messrs. Cummins and Bulkeley have brought a heavy charge of cruelty
against Captain Cheap, giving us to understand that he would not allow
the surgeon to dress Mr. Cozens's wound. This may be true for ought that
I can positively say to the contrary, but such a thing was never
intimated to me, except by their journal. To which I refer the reader
for many occurrences relating to one voyage before these two gentlemen
and their associates left us on this desolate island.

About the end of June, the carpenter begun to alter the longboat,
intending to make her eleven or twelve foot longer by the keel; but this
work was extremely protracted by the disturbances among the people. For
in short our animosities and dissensions grew every day worse and worse.
Some of the officers being weary of acting under the Captain's command,
and having the majority of the people on their side, formed the design
of going through the Straits of Magellan for the coast of Brazil,
insisting upon it that this was the only probable step towards their
returning in safety to England. These projectors drew up a writing,
setting forth their reasons for attempting to go that way, rather than
to the Commodore; and after it was signed by themselves and their party,
they laid it before the Captain (whose consent to this project they had
in vain solicited) desiring him also to sign it. But this he refused,
telling them. "Their scheme was inconsistent with reason; and that it
was also against his honour ever to turn his back on the enemy." On this
all the men declared /they would not go to the northward, and that in
case the Captain should persist in his refusal to sign the paper, he
ought to have his command taken from him/.

And now all the people came armed with their chiefs to the Captain's
tent, telling him he /should no longer command them/, and used him
somewhat rudely. Some days after, the Captain, seeing that the carpenter
would not finish the boat, sent for him, and some of the officers,
telling them he would go where they pleased. Hereupon the boat was
finished, and shortly after launched; and everything was now made ready
for our quitting this island. But still they distrusted the Captain,
(who in truth, did not sincerely intend to go with them) and therefore
they determined to imprison him; which they did in a violent manner,
tying his hands behind him with a rope, and leading him out of his tent
in his shirt, (for he was in bed when they took him) they confined him
in another tent, in which he remained till the boat went off. His guard
consisted of six men and one officer.

All this time I never spoke of these things in public, thinking it
somewhat dangerous, as I was looked upon as one of the Captain's
friends. However, after he was confined, I went to speak with him, but
the officer of the guard would not suffer me to speak to him by myself,
nor would he let me into the tent until I was searched. When I had
admission to the Captain, I told him that I was willing to take my
chance with him, as I understood he chose to remain on the island after
the boat was gone off; which offer the Captain gladly accepted. However
as our new masters only proposed to leave the /yawl/ with us, which was
not large enough to carry us off, I went and desired them to leave the
barge, which they refused, unless the ten men that were in her would
stay with us. But I could only prevail on three of them.

October 16th, by our account (for there was two days difference between
the Captain's account and that kept by Bulkeley and Cummins and their
party) the longboat put to sea, and the barge with her, in which I also
set out as though I would have gone with them. Thus was Captain Cheap
left on this desolate island, in a miserable condition, /*/ with
only a few friends with him, (whose names the reader will see anon) with
no other vessel than a little yawl with her broadside out; and all the
fire-arms he had were very much out of order.

* For a particular account of the Captain's unwillingness to go in the
boat to the southward, and the people's reasons for not forcing him
along with them, and carrying him to England as a prisoner for murdering
Cozens, see Bulkeley and Cummins's narrative.

On the 17th, being now out at sea, I had an opportunity of speaking to
the people that were with me in the barge, and represented to them what
a shame it was to leave their Captain in such a situation; and added
"That if they did get home, which they could not reasonably hope to do
the way they were going, they would be hanged for mutiny. But if, on the
other hand, we should go back to the Captain, and with him to the
northward, we had a much better chance."

My discourse wrought upon most of them and they consented to go back;
but at the same time objected to our want of provisions, and /observed
that it would be dangerous to ask those in the boat for any, lest they
should take the barge from us/. However, as soon as we came to an
anchor, and went on board the boat, it luckily happened that Mr.
Bulkeley, the gunner, whom we now looked on as Captain, ordered me to
return with the barge to Wager Island as we called it, and to bring off
a tent belonging to Captain Pemberton of the Marines, which he said he
should want to make sails for the boat. Hereupon, determining to let
them see no more of the barge, I observed to the Hon. Mr. Byron,
midshipman, and brother to the Lord Byron, that now was the time if he
had a mind to go back to the Captain. This he immediately resolved to
do, but was afraid our new chiefs would suspect our intention, and stop
our voyage. But they did not, and we happily got safe to Wager Island
that night, where the Captain gladly received us.

Besides, Mr. Byron and myself, eight others went back with us in the
barge, viz, William Harvey, David Buckly, William Ross, Richard Noble,
Peter Plastow, Joseph Clinch, Rowland Crusset, and John Bosman.

When I went on shore, I asked the Captain what he would have done with
the barge; for the wind blew very hard, and as she had no grappling but
the ship's bell, I was afraid it would not ride her. And in case she
should be stove, we should then be in a most miserable state. However,
we were forced to venture her, having no remedy in our power.

This night the Hon. Mr. Byron and I supped with Captain Cheap, Mr.
Hamilton lieutenant of Marines, and the surgeon; and having much to talk
upon, we went home to our tent very late. The next morning, it blowing
so very hard that we could not go out to sea to get shellfish, the
Captain gave us some flour, and two pieces of his pork, and the day
following, it being moderate weather, we asked the Captain leave to go
over to the other side of the lagoon, which we called Long Island; and
to travel to the longboat, which we knew would be still waiting there,
upon other accounts, besides the expected return of the barge. As our
business with the longboat was to ask for our share of provisions, the
Captain readily consented to our going over. Accordingly we set out, and
after travelling all day through woods and marshes, we came to the
vessel in the evening. We found most of the people employed in getting
shellfish, and among the rest, the new commanders Mr. Bulkeley and Mr.
Beans; one of them asked me, in a surly manner, where the barge was.
Which I told them; and at the same time desired a share of the
provisions for us who chose to stay with the Captain, and also the few
things I had in the boat. /No, damn you/, it was replied, /you shall
have nothing except you bring the barge/. Mr. Byron went on board, and
spoke to the people, but could not prevail on them to give us anything.
On the contrary, they told us, "that if we did not return the next day
with the barge, they would arm the cutter and send her for it." However,
they knew better things; for if the cutter had come, we should have
endeavoured to have taken her from them. In short, not being able to
obtain anything from this obstinate crew, we went back and told the
Captain of our ill success. To which he replied, "Gentlemen, there is no
help for it; but the little provisions and clothes they have left me
shall be equally shared among us." He gave me three shirts and two white
waistcoats, and to the others in proportion.






BOOK III
The adventures and distresses of Captain David Cheap, the Hon. John
Byron and Alexander Campbell midshipmen, and others, from the time when
the boat left them on the desolate island, by them named Wager Island,
to their departure from thence in the barge, with their sufferings by
sea among the Indians, till their arrival at Chile in New Spain.


Being then abandoned by the longboat, and having but a small stock of
provisions to trust to for our future subsistence, our prospect was now
dismal enough. For indeed we had nothing but Providence without the
appearance of any human means for our deliverance to depend on.

Soon after the departure of the boat, I and some others went over to
Long lsland to gather shellfish; but coming home at night, it blew so
hard at north, that we could not weather the point of rocks to get into
Cheap's Bay, as we called it, but were obliged to bear away up the
lagoon; where we found seven of our men who had been set ashore there
for some misdemeanours, and whom the people in the boat had left to
starve; however we brought them to Capt. Cheap.

We are now twenty souls in this island, viz. Capt. Cheap; Lieut.
Hamilton of Marines; William Harvey, quartermaster; Walter Elliot,
surgeon; the Hon. John Byron, midshipman; Alexander Campbell, ditto;
Ross, ditto; Noble, ditto; Peter Plastow, Captain's steward; David
Bulkeley, second gunner; John Bosman, seaman; Dennis O'Lare, ditto;
Ridwood, boatswain's yeoman; Crosslet, corporal of Marines; Hales,
Hereford, Smith, Clinch, Demond, and Cresswick, all mariners. Our two
vessels, viz. the barge and yawl, we hauled up to high-water mark, both
greatly wanting to be repaired. /Necessity has no law/, says the old
proverb, and this we now experienced; for we all became workmen and
carpenters. Nor was Captain Cheap himself (who from the loss of the ship
all this time had hardly ever stirred out of his hut) an idle spectator
of our labours. He now became very brisk, went about everywhere to get
wood and water, made fires, and proved an excellent cook. I had the
honour to sup with him one night, when we had a slaw cake of his making,
the best I ever ate on the island. This the reader will doubtless think
a strange sort of food. It was nothing but water and flour, made into a
batter, and mixed with a small seaweed (i.e. the slaw) which grows on
the submarine rocks, and the whole is fried with pork-slush. This poor
stuff even the Captain was forced to content himself with!

All the month of November the weather was so very bad that we could
seldom get any shellfish, on which lay our chief dependence for
subsistence. When the Captain's provisions were gone, we had nothing but
slaw fried with tallow candles, which we found alongshore, whither they
were driven from the wreck; and hereupon we became so weak, as hardly to
be able to walk.

At length two Indian canoes came, but they brought nothing with them
except a few dogs, some of which we killed and ate. The weather being so
bad increased our misfortune, because the Indians could neither catch
seal nor dive for mussels, which is all they have to live on. Next day
they went away, and we saw no more of them for upwards of a month
afterwards.

Meantime we lived in the utmost necessity. Our chief dependence was upon
the sea fowl, of which we shot now and then a few, going out in the yawl
for this purpose.

Soon after the Indians left us, three of our company could not resist
the temptation of breaking open the Captain's store-tent, in which he
had saved some flour, fearing it would be more wanted when we should put
out to sea, and might not be able to reach the shore to get shellfish,
as we now sometimes could, though but in small quantities. Some of this
flour was taken by the three men who broke open the tent; their names
were Peter Plastow, John Ridwood, and Rowland Cresswick. They were
discovered by a little of the flour leaving white marks in their tent.
The Captain ordered them to be confined in another hut, till they would
confess, which they soon did; but in the night Plastow made his escape
and hid himself in the woods. The next day Ridwood and Cresswick were
tied to a tree, severely whipped, and ordered to Long Island; but
Cresswick escaping, Ridwood alone was sent thither in the barge, and
left by himself on that island, where in a short time he miserably perished.

December the third being a fine day, with a southerly wind, the Captain
ordered me off to the wreck, to see if I could find anything; and I had
the good fortune to take up three casks of very fine beef. When I
returned ashore with this welcome cargo, Captain Cheap, Mr. Hamilton,
the Hon. Mr. Byron, and the surgeon were standing on the beach; and the
Captain said, "Gentlemen, remember this day is the third of December,
that you may be able to swear to it, if you should be called for. By my
instructions we are to be paid as long as we can take anything from the
wreck." -- However, I did not find it so, being paid only to the time
when the ship was cast away.

As soon as we had got the meat ashore, the Captain ordered me to divide
it equally to every man; which I did; and as I had always the honour to
mess with Mr. Byron, so he and I took up our meat together, which, if I
remember right, came to fifty-three pieces of beef, so that we lived
very well during the remainder of the time we stayed on the island, and
began to grow strong again with this good English provision.

One method of cooking, and the manner in which we ate our beef was this.
We fried the fat with slaw, and other seaweed, and this composition
served us for bread to our meat. There grows upon this island a sort of
wild purslane [type of herb, Ed.], which we boiled, and this for some
time served us for cabbage to our beef; but as it had a very bad effect
upon us, purging us to a most desperate degree, we were obliged to leave
it off, though this herb was our only resource in bad weather, when we
could get no shellfish.

At length the people began to grow impatient for their departure from
this island, but the weather continuing still so very bad that it would
have been downright madness to put to sea, (unless we could have done it
in a good ship) the Captain therefore persuaded them to stay from time
to time till it should settle; and at last, on the fifteenth of December
in the morning, the people came to me, and desired me to go to the
Captain, and to let him know that it was a very fine day, and the wind
fair for running over the bay. Accordingly we went to the Captain, and
reported to him what they said. Hereupon he took me up to the top of a
hill, called by us Mount Misery, and through a perspective [telescope,
Ed.] showed me that the sea was very rough in the horizon. -- While the
Captain and I were here, he said to me, "Campbell, I am very much
obliged to you for your good behaviour to me, and your zeal for his
Majesty's service; and depend upon it, if it please God to send us home,
as I hope he will, I will do all that lies in my power for your
preferment." [promotion, Ed.] -- But, to my great misfortune, he has
acted quite a contrary part, having done all that lay in his power to
/prevent/ my preferment.

When we returned from Mount Misery, the people asked the Captain if they
should launch the boat; to which he replied, "With all my heart, if you
will, but you'll find a great sea without." This was about nine o'clock
in the forenoon. We immediately launched both boats, got everything we
had into them, and then put to sea. The Captain, with the Honourable Mr.
Byron, and the surgeon, were in the barge, with eight men to row; Mr.
Hamilton and myself were in the yawl, and we had six men to row.

We had not sailed above an hour and a half, when it began to blow hard,
and the wind shifted more to the westward, so that we were obliged to
bear away right before it. The seas were now so rough, that we every
instant expected to go to the bottom; to avoid which, as far as lay in
our power, we flung overboard almost everything we had, even the beef
which we had taken from the wreck, notwithstanding we knew not where to
get a bit more to save us from perishing through hunger, the most
miserable of all deaths. But this we did to avoid an immediate death,
though of a less shocking nature; trusting to God for our future
preservation. Our situation was the more desperate, as we were running
(we knew not whither) on a lee-shore in two open boats with a terrible
gale of wind, a great sea, and night coming on. Mr. Hamilton and I were
obliged to set our backs against the stern of the vessel, to keep the
seas out of her; though we did not think anything less than a miracle
could preserve us from destruction.

We did not all this time see the barge, the sea running so high; in
short, it is impossible to conceive how a boat could live in such
weather. But it pleased God, as we advanced on the lee-shore, looking
every moment when we should strike against the rocks, and while every
man was preparing for another world as well as he could, we saw an
opening in the rock, which we stood for, and found an inlet through the
mountains, but so narrow that we could hardly row with our oars. The
minute we entered this inlet, we found ourselves in a perfect calm, and
were therefore obliged to row. Soon after, through the Providence of the
Almighty, the barge came to the same place. None but those who have been
in the like circumstances can conceive our joy on so happy a meeting,
after such dreadful dangers past. But alas! this is only a shadow or
type [anticipation, Ed.] of what we are yet to experience.

There are many inlets through the mountains we are now among, but we
dared not venture through, not having any compass; and besides these
vast mountains being so high, and surrounding us on all sides, we could
not so much as see the sun to steer by.

We had not proceeded far up the above-mentioned inlet, before we landed,
and went in search of a place proper for making a fire, but could hardly
find one, the rocks being so high and perpendicular. At last, with a
great deal of trouble, we found a hollow place where we lay all night.
We had for our bedding only hard rocks, and those who did not like a bed
of this soil, were forced to take up with a watery one. The Heavens were
our canopy, and the only covering we had. When on Wager Island our case
was bad enough, but it is now much worse. There we found, or made huts,
which we lived in, secure from the rigour of the weather; but here we
have no other house than the wide world. The weather was so terribly
cold, and it froze so hard, that by morning several of us were almost
dead. We were up early, and the Captain, seeing the weather appeared
somewhat more favourable, ordered every man to the boats, in order to
put to sea again; but though the storm was much abated, we found such a
great sea, that we could hardly pull out; and when we did get out to
sea, we found the wind contrary; so that all this day we plied with the
oars.

Though there was a very great sea in the evening, we rowed for the shore
among some small islands, in order to shelter ourselves; but here we
found but very indifferent accommodations, the islands being low, and
the ground all swamp. It still raining very hard, the Captain ordered
the barge's mainsail on shore to make a tent of, but this was of very
little service to us. The people sheltered themselves under a great
tree, and making a good fire, dried one side while the other was
wetting. For eatables this place produced us a seaweed, which we called
sea-tangle; it grows only on the sunken rocks, and some of it is very large.

The next day being still rainy, the people were all employed in looking
for food, except two Marines who were lying in their wigwam. The Captain
ordering me to see after them, I accordingly went, and found them lying
in the wet, and almost dead with cold. However I was obliged to beat
them out to seek for subsistence for themselves.

At this time the Captain, Mr. Hamilton, the Hon. Mr. Byron, Mr. Elliot
the surgeon, and myself messed together, and we were all employed in
providing victuals and other necessaries for ourselves. Mr. Hamilton and
I fetched wood from the other side of the island, which cost us no
little trouble; and Mr. Byron was employed in cutting it. The surgeon
shot a wild goose, and the Captain made a fire and cooked it.

Our stay here lasted three days, the weather being all the while so bad
that we could not put to sea. The bay here we called Swamp Bay, because
all the islands about it were mere swamp. When we left this place, we
steered away northward to the other side of the bay; and as we were
rowing over it, we discovered an opening between the high land and a
point of low land, which we conjectured was an island. Being always
willing to keep from the coast as far as we could, we steered for this
opening; and when we came there we found a very fine bay, down which we
rowed all this day till we came to the end of it, when to our sorrow we
found ourselves obliged to come all the way back.

We lay the next night in a little cove, very convenient for the boats,
but not for us; for here we could procure nothing to eat, and victuals
was what we now wanted most. In this cove there is a redwood somewhat
like ironwood, which burnt very well though green. We called this place
Redwood Cove.

Next day we put to sea, and about nine o'clock were favoured with a fine
gale at south-west, as near as we could guess, our courses being
north-east or near it. The land ahead was very high, and there was an
opening between it and the mountains, which we steered for. The Captain
ordered me to go ahead with the yawl, to see if there was any passage
between the above high land and the continent; I did so, and found an
island which we called the Duke of Montrose's Island. Here we alll went
ashore, and made a fire upon a stony beach, in order to dress [prepare,
Ed.] supper. This is the sixth or seventh day since we left Wager
Island, and the Captain had expended all the flour which he had saved
for his sea-store. We had a tolerably good night, clear weather, /1/ 
and could see a great way. As there was a large bay to the north
of us, and very low land, so we were in hopes that the worst of our
voyage was over; for we had then come forty leagues to the northward
from Wager Island. We flattered ourselves that the island in the offing
might be the island of N. S. del Socorro, in Lat. 45, but it proved
otherwise to our great sorrow and disappointment.

1. But our lodging was hard, being forced to lie all night on the beach,
to which the Captain gave the name of Stone Beach.

Next morning we left Montrose Island, it being a pretty good day, and
the weather calm, though we had a great sea from the south-westward. We
rowed to the bottom of the bay above-mentioned, hoping to find some
inlet, but could not; so were obliged to return and work along the shore
to the westward. But the wind springing up at north, and being offshore
in smooth water, we then sailed alongshore until we came to a headland
nine or ten leagues from Montrose Island. Endeavouring to double this
headland, we discovered a great bay opening to the northward, but the
night being so nigh, and the wind contrary, we were obliged to put back
into a cove just by the headland.

This day as we were sailing alongshore, Mr. Hamilton shot a shag, which
gave rise to great animosities among us. We were not to eat anything but
what was equally shared among us who ate together, viz. the Captain, Mr.
Byron, Mr. EIliot, Mr. Hamilton, and myself. But this night Mr. Hamilton
and I being by ourselves, we dressed the shag which he had killed, and
ate it for supper, not thinking such a trifle would have given umbrage
to any. But the next morning by break of day we saw the barge under way,
going to sea without saying anything to us. However as we were ready
(for we lay in our boat all night, there being no place onshore to lie
on) we got up our anchor, and went after them.

This day the wind being contrary, we rowed till night, and then could
find no harbour to put into; so we put into a sandy bay, in which we
were forced to lie till morning upon our oars. It was a terrible night,
the wind and rain were both violent; and besides, (which made our case
the more deplorable) we were in great want of provisions. However we got
a few shellfish, and a small quantity of tangle [coarse seaweed, Ed.].

Next day, being (by our account) Christmas Day, 1741, we weighed anchor
in the morning, and the weather being calm, we rowed over this bay to a
headland about eight or nine leagues to the westward of us. At noon we
feasted ourselves with some tangle and Adam's Wine, in which we drank
the King's health. In the evening we arrived at the headland, and as we
were going in, the Captain called to me to go and look for a place to
anchor the boat at, which I did immediately. Near the shore I found a
fine sandy bay, which I steered for, thinking it would be a very good
place to land at, but I found the contrary; for an unexpected breaker
drove the yawl ashore. We all got out and thought to launch her, but the
next sea filled her full, and drove her upon the beach. Being unable to
launch her in this condition, we took everything out of her, and then
happily got her afloat, and thanks be to God for it; for if we could not
have launched her, we must have staid there, the barge all this while
never coming near us, but went to another bay more to the northward.

Meantime we in the yawl were in a most miserable condition, having
nothing to eat or drink, and all our rags of clothes quite wet; and when
we went to the barge, thinking they would offer us a dry shirt, or a
pair of stockings, we found ourselves woefully mistaken. We asked them
for a little fresh water, knowing very well that they had some, but they
told us they had none. We then desired the Captain to let us go up to
see if we could find any place where we could make a fire to dry
ourselves by. We had his leave, but having a point of land to go round,
and the wind blowing very hard, we were forced to go back to the barge
and lie (trembling with cold and hunger) in the bay all night.

Next day both our boats weighed anchor, but the weather being so bad
that we could not get out to sea, we rowed down the bay, in hopes of
finding something to eat; but not succeeding, we returned to the place
where we lay the night before, and there going ashore, found some
shellfish and tangle.

Next morning we weighed to go round the cape, which was the last we
could see, and which likewise proved the worst. Sailing alongshore, we
doubled one of the headlands, but the wind blowing extremely hard,
obliged us to put back for the bay, in which we lay the preceding night;
but the night came upon us before we could reach the bay, and forced us
to lie all night on our oars. Next day the weather continuing very bad,
we were laid up; and all hands were employed in looking for provisions,
of which we found but very little here. The seaweeds called by us slaw
and tangle, were all the victuals we could get.

As we were some time detained here by the bad weather, and being forced
up to the head of the bay in search of provisions, we met with fine
lagoons, found plenty of mussels, and killed some seal, so that we had
now a sea-stock sufficient to last us while we tried to double the cape
in order to proceed to the northward. This cape is called by the
Spaniards Cape Tres Montes; for it consists of three headlands of equal
height. When we came to the first of these headlands, we found the wind
right against us; whereupon we took down our masts, and rowed till we
passed the second. But now the wind and tide running strong, made a sea
worse than the Race of Portland; and night coming on, and finding no
harbour to put into, we were forced back to our former bay.

Next day the weather continuing so bad as to prevent our going to sea,
all hands went ashore to get provision, except two men left in each boat
to take care of them.

This day we killed a young seal, dressed it for dinner, and surely no
lamb was ever to be compared with it. After dinner Mr. Hamilton and I
went out with our guns, to see if we could shoot anything. He went one
way, and I another; and as l came back I saw the boats riding at a
grappling; but the wind shifting in an instant, from the northward to
the southward, made a great sea tumble into the bay in which the boats
rode, and began to break without the boats, and the third breaker that
came filled the yawl full and sunk her. The two men in her were Marines;
one of them was drowned; but the other I saved by hauling him out of the
sea.

The loss of the yawl was a great misfortune to us who belonged to her
(being seven in number) all our clothes, arms, etc. being lost with her.
As the barge was not capable of carrying both us and her own company,
being in all seventeen men, it was determined to leave four of the
Marines on this desolate place. This was a melancholy thing, but
necessity compelled us to it. And as we were obliged to leave some
behind us, the marines were fixed on, as not being of any service on
board. What made the case of these poor men the more deplorable, was the
place being destitute of seal, shellfish, or anything they could
possibly live upon. The Captain left them arms, ammunition, a frying
pan, and several other necessaries.

This dismal affair concluded, the rest of us went with the barge to try
the aforesaid cape again; and when we departed, the four poor wretches
stood on the beach, gave us three cheers, and cried /God bless the
King!/ Our hearts melted with compassion for them, but there was no
helping their misfortune. Their names were Smith, Hobbs, [p.30 does not
mention him. It could be Hales, Ed.] Hertford, and Corporal Crosslet.

When we got to the cape, we found ourselves the third time disappointed
there; the wind being always from the north to the west, with such a
terrible great sea, that it was impossible for any open boat to get
round. So we were obliged to return to Marine's Bay, as we called it on
account of the four men left there.

All that night we were obliged to lie on our oars, for it was so dark
that we dared not attempt to go ashore, especially in the rough state
the sea was in, which would greatly have hazarded the loss of the barge
also, and then we must all have infallibly perished.

It is now six weeks since we left Wager Island, during which our chief
subsistence has been drawn from under the stones at low water; and we
have been every day obliged to remove from place to place to gather
shellfish. The loss of the yawl was the more unfortunate to us who
belonged to her, as therein we lost all the poor clothes we had, except
what we happened at that time to have on our backs. All the clothes I
had now left, were an old shirt, one pair of cloth breeches, one
waistcoat, and an old hat, but neither shoe nor stocking.

On the twenty-ninth of January, some of the people declared against
making a fresh trial to go round the cape, and insisted on returning to
Wager Island; others were for leaving the barge, and attempting to
travel overland, which was the maddest thought imaginable, it being
impossible to travel in this wretched part of the American continent.
For on the coast side it is all wood and swamp, so that if a man should
happen to fall, he would be in great danger of drowning.

At last all agreed to go back to Wager Island, though we had now lost
all hopes of ever re-visiting our native country, all we expected being
to die at Wager Island, looking on that place, which we had been so much
used to, as a kind of home.

Before we set out we killed some seal for our voyage. As we came by the
place where we left the four Marines, we resolved to go and bring them
off. For we considered that if the boat sunk, we then should be free
from the miserable life we had, and die all together. But alas! all we
could find of them, or belonging to them, was one musket and their
ammunition; and we doubted not but that they had before now perished by
some means or other. Here it was that I ate the liver of a seal which we
killed as she was going to whelp; but it threw me into a fever, which
occasioned all my skin to come off from head to foot.

Putting to sea from Marine's Bay, we rowed away for the headland that we
left on Christmas Day; but it being calm all the day, it was night
before we could get into the cove; and then we were obliged to lie all
night upon our oars, keeping the boat's head out to the sea, for it both
rained and blew very hard.

Next day we set out for Montrose Island, but as soon as we opened the
headland that lay to the westward of us, the vessel almost overset, and
filled so fast with water, that we were forced to return to the
headland, and put into the cove, which as I have before observed, we
called Stone Cove. There we lay weather-bound for two days, after which
we again set out for Montrose Island; but could not yet fetch it, and
were obliged to put into another harbour. While we lay in this harbour,
I went on shore, and being very weak, my foot slipped so that I fell
from one rock to another, then into the water, and was almost drowned,
being stunned with the fall from the rocks.

Having lain here one day, we again put to sea, rowing to windward, with
the wind at north, in order to get to Montrose Island. All this while we
had nothing to eat but seal, which was almost rotten, and we could get
no slaw, so that we were in very great distress. It pleased God that the
next night brought us to Montrose Island, which was one of the best we
could find in this part of the world, though it produced nothing to eat,
except a berry which tasted like a gooseberry; but it was black, and
grew on a bush like a thorn.

Here we stayed some time, the weather being exceedingly bad, and we had
far to go without any harbour in the way. And even when we did put to
sea, the wind blew so hard, that we were forced to put back to the same
island we came from. Next day we again put to sea, with wind and rain
pretty moderate. But we had not been long out, before it began to blow
hard, and was so thick that we could not see whither we were steering,
till we heard the breakers on the shore, and in a little time could see
them white all around us. We were then obliged to haul aft the sheet,
and stand off the shore, which we happily, and I might also say
miraculously cleared. For who could imagine that any boat could carry so
much sail in such a storm?

At last it pleased God that we got safe into Redwood Cove; but being
straitened [put into difficulties, Ed.] for want of provisions, were
obliged to put to sea the next day, though the weather was still
exceedingly bad. We were all day pulling from this cove to the next
island, at which we arrived before night, and every one went out to
gather shellfish.

At this time Mr. Byron, Mr. Hamilton, and I ate together, and when we
came on shore I went with the former to gather [shell]fish, but Mr.
Hamilton being sick, stayed at home to make a half wigwam. This sort of
wigwam (or Indian house) consists of three arches about a yard and a
half high, and two yards wide, covered with bushes, or whatever can be
got for thatch. We made a fire at the door-place, or broadside, but it
proved of no use, for the smoke would not suffer us to tarry in the
wigwam; so we called this place Smoke Cove.

Here it was that I was obliged to eat my shoes; they were of sealskin,
and were at this time a very great dainty. We found here an Indian canoe
by herself, which we thought would be very serviceable to us, as a
fishing-vessel, when we got to Wager Island. She was easily launched and
hauled up, so that we could save the barge by laying her by while we
used the canoe. We put two hands into her, and towed her astern of the
barge.

When we set out from Smoke Cove, the weather was fair with little wind,
which obliged us to row all the way; and it pleased God we got safe into
Cheap's Bay the same day, about five or six o'clock in the afternoon. We
were all in a starved condition, having eaten nothing for three days but
tangle and other seaweeds. After landing we moored the barge with her
grappling to the sea, and stern fast to the land. Going up to the huts
which we left two months before, we found one of them nailed up, and
were obliged to break open the door to get in. It appeared that the
Indians had been there, by the things that were in the hut, particularly
a quantity of iron and other materials which we knew they had taken from
the wreck of our unfortunate ship. As the Indians hereabouts know
nothing of iron, and set no value on it, we conjectured that those who
had been here traded with the Spaniards.

We found some seal among the bushes, which the Indians had thrown away;
for it was so rotten, that none but men in our condition could have
borne the smell of it; we parted it equally among us, ate it all up, and
gave thanks to Almighty God for his providential care of us hitherto.

We stayed here fifteen days before any of the Indians came to the
island. Meantime we endured the greatest hardships imaginable, the
weather being so bad, that we could neither get shellfish nor seaweed.
In the interim some differences happened between the Captain, Mr. Byron,
Lieutenant Hamilton, and myself. There had been some misunderstanding
among us ever since Christmas Day, this being the twelfth of February by
our account. On this day Mr. Hamilton walking along the shore,
discovered several pieces of beef washing in the sea; and brought some
of them home to Mr. Byron and myself, his mess-mates. Hereupon I went
with Mr. Byron, and we took up several pieces more. The same night we
asked the Captain for his frying pan to melt down the fat, in order to
preserve it for frying of slaw or anything else. When we carried it
home, with one half of the fat we had found, the Captain would not
receive the fat.

Soon after this affair some Indians came with two canoes, and in one of
them was a native of the island of Chiloe, who could speak a little
Spanish. The surgeon could speak it likewise, and he asked the Indian if
he would carry us to Chiloe in the barge, telling him that he should
have her for his trouble, with all that was in her, as soon as we came
there. The Indian consenting, we immediately fell to providing for the
voyage; and were soon ready, for God knows we had neither victuals nor
clothing to trouble ourselves with.

March 6, 1741-2, we all, except one Marine, embarked in the barge with
the Indian for our pilot. This Marine, when we were going on board, came
upon the beach, and stole a greatcoat belonging to one of the men; which
done he hid himself in the woods, so that we could not find him, nor had
we ever any account of him afterwards.

And now high words arose between the Captain and Mr. Hamilton,
concerning the fat beef he had found some days before; and the
difference arose to such a pitch, that the Captain threatened to leave
the lieutenant on the island. After this they did not speak to each
other for a long time.

The first night of this our new voyage, we lay at an island which we
called Sheep Island, from three sheep which the Indians formerly brought
from it, and presented to the Captain. Next day the wind came to the
south, and we ran to the westward of Montrose Island. This night we lay
on our oars, for we could not find a harbour for the boat. All this
while we were in great want of provisions. On the morrow we went to the
bottom of a great bay, where we found our Indian's hut and his wife and
two children. Here we stayed two or three days, and then set out with
our guide, his wife, children, and another Indian, a young fellow, who
was either his servant, or partner in the canoe. He carried us to the
mouth of a river which we were to go up, but this was found impossible,
the stream was so rapid. In this river we were pulling and hauling from
eight o'clock in the morning till six in the afternoon. When we came out
we were almost dead with fatigue and want of sustenance; and John
Bosman, seaman, one of the strongest men in the boat, died this evening,
being the third day since we left the Indian's hut, and in the interim
had nothing to eat but a little boiled tangle.

This evening we had for supper some wild purslane, boiled with small
mussels. As I was lying by the fire, I heard the people say that it
would be well done to go off and leave the Captain behind for his
cruelty. For this day as we lay in the river, and were all faint for
want of food, he took out, before us all, a great piece of boiled seal
with tangle, and he and the surgeon ate it, without offering a bit to
any one of us, though he knew that poor Bosman perished merely for want
of something to eat.

The next day I acquainted Captain Cheap with the murmurs among the
people, and that Mr. Hamiton also heard what they said, at least he
might have heard them if he was not asleep, being as near to them as I
was. Upon this the Captain called Mr. Hamilton aside and taxed him with
conspiring to take the command from him. This day the Indian with his
wife and children, went out in their canoe to get some seal, for we had
nothing to eat; but at the same time he left us the Indian his partner,
to carry us to a place were we might get some shellfish. As soon as we
got thither, everyone went alongshore, except Mr. Elliot the surgeon,
who was very ill. The men got back to the boat before the officers, and
Mr. Elliot desired them to go off a little, and try if they could shoot
him a gull. Hereupon they all, being six in number, got into the barge,
taking the young Indian with them for their guide; and we never saw them
again, nor could we conceive whither it was that they thought proper to
convey themselves.

I leave the reader to imagine what a condition we five poor souls were
now in! The country was all rocks and woods, a mere desert, affording us
no better house or habitation than the shade of a tree. Nor had we one
morsel of victuals; no arms, nor ammunition, nor fire, nor clothing,
except the few wretched rags on our backs. For my own part, indeed, I
lost very little by the departure of the barge, all that I had to lose
being already gone into the yawl.

In this miserable state we were, comforting one another in the best
manner we could, when we saw a boat at a great distance, going over to
the eastern shore. We first made signals to her with our hats, then tied
a handkerchief to a long stick, and waved it in the air till they saw
us, and made for the place where we were; but not being able to make the
land anywhere near us, on account of the great sea which then ran on the
beach, they put ashore about two miles to the westward of us. Upon this
the Captain and Mr. Byron went to see what they were, and found them to
be the Indian and his wife who had left us some days before, to go in
search of provisions for us. These poor honest creatures were terribly
afraid that we would kill them, as they suspected that the men who had
run away with the barge, had served [treated, Ed.], or would serve the
young Indian they carried off with them. They made grievous lamentations
for their partner, and it was with great difficulty that we quieted them
by assurances that no harm would happen to him. At length they were
prevailed with to haul their canoe overland; and put her into a bay on
the other side of the island; from whence the Captain and Mr. Byron went
with them by sea to another point of the island, whither the other three
of us whom the barge had left viz. Mr. Hamilton, Mr. Elliot, and myself,
went also, and stayed fifteen days, the Indian expecting to be joined
there by some other Indians.

Meantime our Indian and his wife entirely maintained us, though upon
very short allowance. The woman being an excellent diver, went every day
at low water, and dived for sea-eggs [sea urchins, Ed.]. On these we
subsisted during the aforesaid fifteen days, but being narrowly stinted
[restricted, Ed.] as to the number of our eggs, we were all the while at
death's door, for want of food.

The surgeon's illness increasing, he sent for me, and told me that all
he had he would leave to me; but having neither pen nor ink, his will
was not strong enough to secure to me anything but his watch, and even
this I was afterwards forced to give away, when a prisoner among the
Spaniards.

At last the expected Indians came, and brought a little seal with them;
and, two days after, they sent two canoes with young men in them to
catch seal and sea-fowl. These canoes only stayed away one night, and
returned laden with seal and above three hundred sea-fowls; so we now
lived very well, till all was eaten up; for it is their way never to lay
in fresh provisions till their last supply is all gone. But we dared not
find the least fault with their conduct, they looking upon themselves as
our masters, and we finding ourselves obliged to submit to them in all
things.

All the meat these Indians have is seal, shellfish, and sometimes
whitefish, and sea-fowl. They have short nets, with which eight or ten
of them at a time go a-fishing. They stand almost up to their shoulders
in the water, with their nets extended, two men to a net; in one hand
they have a short baton, with which, as the fish jump, they knock them
down, and then with the other hand receive them into the net. Moreover
they have dogs which they train to go into the water, and therein bark
till they scare the fish into the nets. They have also darts made of
seal's bones, with which they often strike the fish. Their way of
catching seal is comical enough. They go in their canoes alongshore, and
when they find that the creatures are ashore, they go up into the hills,
and then come down behind the seals, (which are commonly very numerous
in these parts) and with a long club knock the animals on their head.
They do not care to come before the seal, and attack him face to face,
for these creatures are very bold, and will fight desperately. But it is
easy to avoid them; for having no legs they cannot readily wheel round
to defend themselves in flank and rear; but they can turn about with
great agility in the water. When the Indians have killed the seal, they
cut him up in great pieces, which they carry about with them in their
canoes. Another method of theirs to catch this animal is as follows.
They have a round net made of sealskin, which they fasten to a hoop, and
this net draws in the mouth with a very long rope made also of
seal-skin, and one end of the rope is fastened onshore. With this hoop
an Indian goes into the water till he comes to the place where the seal
lies, and holds the hoop up before him; at the same time another man who
is ashore, frightens the animal, so that he jumps into the net, driving
it forward till the rope is pulled straight, and then, as the other end
is fastened ashore, the mouth of the net closes upon the prisoner.

In some parts they have sea-fowl in great plenty, particularly shags.
They have also wild geese, and a sort of geese which cannot fly, but
will run upon the water as fast as the others can fly; we called them
race-horses. Others call them penguins, but they are not the right
penguins. Their down is very fine, and the Indians spin and make a sort
of blanket of it. Of these blankets I have seen very fine ones among the
Spaniards. The Indian art of fowling is whimsical enough.

At night when the fowls go onshore to roost, the fowlers light up the
bark of a tree, which when dry burns like a torch; and going alongshore
with this light (which dazzles the eyes of the fowl) in one hand, and a
stick in the other, they knock the fowl down and catch them.

There are many different nations or tribes of these Indians. One sort
are called Patagonians, another Coucous [Caucaus?, Ed.]; and among these
last we mostly lived. Our guide was of another tribe called Chonos. The
Coucous are very barbarous, yet not ill-natured. They are also nasty
[filthy, Ed.] and lousy; the lice they eat, and, I fancy, think them a
great dainty. For I have observed when an Indian has been gone from
home, his favourite wife (for they have several) has searched the
children's heads, and saved the vermin in a mussel-shell, for a present
to her husband on his return.

Their seal and fowls they always roast, or rather barbecue. The meat is
fastened on a stick, one end of which they put into the ground before
the fire, and keep it turning till done. Their method of basting their
roast meat is extremely curious. They give lumps of fat to the young
children, which they chew, and as it melts in their mouths, spit it out
on the meat.

In their commerce with the women, these Indians in some respects act
very monstrously; having no scruples as to proximity of blood, the men
taking their own sisters and daughters for wives. As I was one day
conversing with an Indian who had two wives, the one old, and the other
very young, he made me understand, by signs, that the latter was his
daughter by the former. This I could hardly believe till our guide
afterwards confirmed what the other said.

Their religion I could never understand: indeed all the appearances of
any that I could discern among them, was only this. They were often
taken with strange fits of madness, at which time the men assemble in
the largest wigwams, and the first thing they do is to cook up a great
deal of provisions. Some are employed in roasting, others in cutting the
meat into pieces proper for the spit; then some fall to singing, others
whistle, others cry, and now and then give terrible shrieks, which
almost frightened us before we were used to them. Some of them would
frequently fall into fits like convulsions, and taking fire-brands in
their hands, would go about burning and scorching the rest; while others
would paint all the company, strangers and all, if any happened to be
among them. And thus they served me twice, nor did I dare offer to
hinder them. It is impossible to express the passion or enthusiasm these
poor wretches are in when these ranting fits of devotion are on them.
After the men, the women take their turn, and act much in the same
manner: I have seen an old woman fourteen or fifteen days together in
this shocking condition. The songs they sing on these, and indeed on all
other occasions, are very melancholy; at least they seemed so to me, the
noise they make being rather like crying than singing. These religious
fits only take them when they have got in a large stock of provisions,
and they generally continue in them for a week together.

These Indians are of a middling stature, very strong, healthy, and
robust: all the while I was among them I did not see one of them sick.
There is something very odd in their manner of interring their dead.
They place the corpse in the same posture in which the infant is said to
lie in the womb: it is bound and held in this manner by the bark of a
large tree. At Marine's Bay we saw some of these corpses in a cove, in
which a scaffold was erected about six foot high, and made of forked
poles fixed in the ground, with bars laid across. There were some
corpses upon this scaffold, and some underneath it.

The language of these Indians sounds like the Arabic, every word they
speak coming gutturally from the throat. Their canoes are made of planks
sewed together with what we call a supple-jack [a pliant liana, Ed.].
They split the jack in two, scrape it very well, and let it dry, after
which it is strong, and will last a long time. Some of these canoes are
very large, having five planks, (whereas the common ones have but three)
one for the sail, and two on each side. The men's clothing is much the
same as described when speaking of the Indians who first came to us at
Wager Island. The women wear only a piece of cloth about their middle.
All the arms the Indians use are lances or darts, with which they very
dexterously strike whatever they aim at, as fish, seal, etc.

In the middle of March we again embarked with the Indians, who did not
put any two of us together in the same canoe; but the wind being
contrary, they soon landed again, at a small distance from the place
they set out from, their canoes not being able to keep the sea. Here Mr.
Elliot, surgeon of his Majesty's ship the /Wager/, departed this
miserable life.

After two days we again put to sea, and went over a bay to the mouth of
a river, into which the Indians rowed, and proceeded up it for three
days together. This river runs into a great many branches, and is in
some places very rapid. We could get nothing to eat during these three
days, except a sort of burdock [a European plant with large leaves,
Ed.], which the Indians seemed very fond of: they called it pangue
["gunnera scabra", a large-leafed Chilean plant, Ed.]. I was extremely
glad when we got to the head of the river, for my masters made me work
very hard, for which at that time I was not in a proper condition. At
first I was obliged to row, but seeing that I wanted strength, they set
me to heave the water out of the canoe, which she made in such great
quantities, that I could hardly keep her dry. -- When we landed at the
river-head, they hauled the canoes up into the woods, purposing to draw
them further overland in the morning. When the morning came, my master,
Cepey, (for that was his name) gave me a pair of oars to carry, but they
being too heavy, I was forced to leave them in the way till he brought
them off himself.

It is impossible to express the hardships we endured at this juncture;
and as difficult to determine which of the two we wanted most, food or
raiment. We were indeed miserable objects. Our bodies were languid,
emaciated, and equally preyed on by hunger within, and the most odious
of vermin without.

On the day after our arrival in this new country, we were obliged to
walk about eight miles through a wood, without shoe or stocking, and in
the worst road that ever man travelled. Our march all the way was upon
(or rather we waded through) a mere puddle, in which we often sunk above
knee-deep. And this wretched way was moreover full of stumps of trees
hidden under the water, which cut our feet and legs in terrible manner.

The next day the Indians got their canoes over the island, and put them
into a very fine lagoon. In the afternoon we all embarked, rowed over
the lagoon, and entered a river, which though pretty long, we soon ran
through, and then found ourselves out at sea. Captain Cheap, Mr. Byron,
and myself were now together in one large canoe, but Mr. Hamilton liked
his patron so well that he would not leave him, and so went in another
canoe. Our guide, or new master, made Mr. Byron and myself pull at the
oar, and though we were so weak as to be hardly able to stand, much less
to work, yet we were forced to buckle to, whether able or not. Indeed we
laboured the more willingly, as we were glad to do anything towards our
own preservation. Though, as I have said, our canoe was large, yet there
was nobody in her to row but the Indian, his partner, us two, and the
Indian's wife who steered. She was now our mistress, but not a very good
one; for when she divided the victuals, she gave us but a small share,
though we had a great share of the work. Thus we lived from the middle
of March to the beginning of June 1742.

Meantime we came by little and little to the northward, always hoping to
get away to the Spaniards, being naked, and starved to such a degree,
that neither tongue nor pen can possibly express our misery.

In this our pilgrimage, one day we happened to meet with some other
Indians, with whom we had a great deal of conversation. By them we
understood that there had been a ship on the coast, and by their
description of her, and particularly her red flag, we guessed her to be
English, and so it proved; for when we came to Chiloe, we were there
told that the /Anne Pink/ had come to an anchor on the coast, and had
taken an Indian and his wife on board, They who gave us this
intelligence were Spaniards taken prisoners by Mr. Anson, who put them
onboard the /Anne Pink/, but they soon found means to make their escape
in her longboat.

Some time before we got to Chiloe, our master being to separate from the
rest of the Indians, he desired Mr. Hamilton to come into our canoe, and
go with us to Chiloe; but the latter having fallen out with Mr. Cepey,
he did not care to go with him. Indeed Cepey was the most inhuman fellow
I ever knew among the Indians. Though he made Mr. Byron and I work like
slaves, he would not give us a morsel of victuals, except when possessed
of more than he himself could eat.

The rest of the Indians leaving us, carried Mr. Hamilton with them, and
it was three months before we saw him again. However one little canoe
stayed with us, the master of which had once been my patron, and was
very kind to me. And as my present master used me ill, I now resolved to
go the rest of the voyage with my former master; but Captain Cheap
seeming to be displeased at my intention, I remained in the same canoe
with him till we came to an island about thirty leagues south-east of
Chiloe; at which we waited two days for a fair wind, and then proceeded,
with the wind nigh south. But it blew so hard as to cause a great sea,
which rolling into the canoe, kept us continually lading [bailing, Ed.].
The sail was likewise so very bad, that we every moment expected to go
to the bottom. But it pleased God to deliver us from this, as he had
done from every preceding danger; and the next day we arrived safe at
Chiloe, an island in Lat. 43. inhabited both by Indians and Spaniards.

The day after we arrived, a great snow fell, and the cold almost killed
us; especially the Captain, who had for some time been exceedingly ill.
The same day our master (after he had hidden all the things he brought
from the wreck of the /Wager/, for fear of the Spaniards) carried us to
the house of an Indian of his acquaintance, who lived with the
Spaniards; but it being night before we got thither, the people were all
asleep. Hereupon our patron, in order to show his bravery, made me load
a fowling-piece of Mr. Byron's, and he fired it off. On the report of
the gun, the Indians, who are but little acquainted with fire-arms, got
out of their hut, and ran into the woods, frightened out of their
senses; but soon after one of them got upon a hill adjoining to the
place where we were, and from thence calling to us, asked if we were
Christians; to which our patron replied in the affirmative, and told who
himself was. Then they came to us, and that night we had a fine supper
of dried fish, broth, and potatoes.

Supper over, they carried us away to another village, where our patron
(who was a cacique or captain over the people hereabouts, and
consequently a man of great authority) woke one of the inhabitants, and
made him open the door of his hut. Here the Indians, compassionating
[taking pity on, Ed.] the Captain's illness, took great care of him,
made him a bed of sheepskins, and laid him before the fire; for it was
now (in June) the middle of winter here, and excessively cold. The frost
was very severe, and it went the harder with us, as we were very thinly
clothed. Captain Cheap was indeed extremely fortunate in meeting with so
much kindness from these Indians; for had they not taken so much care of
him as they did, he could not have lived two days after his arrival
among them. He was really in a most deplorable condition. His legs were
nothing but skin and bone; and yet the skin was puffed out from the
bone, till they appeared to be of a monstrous large size. Nevertheless
by the care of these Indians, under God, he escaped that death which now
so terribly threatened him, after having surmounted such and so many
eminent perils.

Whether it were that the Chiloean Indians took us for Spaniards, and
therefore out of policy were the more induced to use us so kindly, or
whether their behaviour was the pure effect of their natural humanity, I
cannot at all determine; but however the case might be, gratitude
demands that I speak a little more particularly of their kindness to us,
especially on the first night of our arrival among them. -- That night
they had no provisions in the house, except a little barley-meal, of
which a cake was immediately baked. As we had not for a long time tasted
any sort of bread, we thought this cake the best we had ever eaten in
our lives. However though it was night, the Indians went out for a
sheep, of which they made broth, and we had eggs and potatoes with our
meat. Next morning came several of their women, each with a plate of
victuals; some brought mutton, others hens and chickens. In the
afternoon as many of the men got together as a hut would hold, and
brought with them great jars of liquor made of barley-meal, and by them
called chicha; and over this we all made merry. Afterwards came the
women, each with an earthen pot full of dressed victuals. ln short they
made us as welcome, and showed us as much civility as possible in their
circumstances. However they could give us no clothes, the poor creatures
having very few for themselves.

As soon as we came among them, they sent to inform the Spanish
Corregidor of us, and it was not long before we were sent for. When the
Indians came to carry us to the place where some Spaniards by
appointment waited to receive us, I was in the woods, endeavouring to
rid myself of some of the numerous herd of cattle I had grazing on my
commons. It was night by the time we got to the Spaniards. The Indians
took us into a hut, in which we were received by a civil officer, who
with a strong guard of soldiers was to carry us to the town where the
Corregidor lived, which they called the city of Castro. However they did
not take us thither directly, but for the present confined us to a
hovel, a building with a roof but no walls, in which we were strictly
guarded by the soldiers, whom we found nothing like so humane and
good-natured as the Indians.

All the people of the island now came to see us, though they did not
care to venture too near us, being discreetly apprehensive of our
vermin. Meantime our friendly Indians continued very kind to us, and
gave us victuals as before; but the Spaniards had no compassion on us:
we were even forced to lie on the cold ground for want of some kind of
bedding.

Among others a Jesuit came to see us. He brought in his pocket a bottle
of brandy, and gave us a dram. Perceiving that I had a watch, the same
Mr. Elliot left me, he asked to see it; and then he desired me to change
with him for an old one which he had in his pocket, or to sell him mine.
We understood the Father's meaning, and knowing the great power which
those of his order have in Popish countries, and that it might be
dangerous to disoblige him; therefore, and because it was Captain
Cheap's desire, I made the Father a present of my watch. He was not
ungrateful; for soon after his departure, he sent me a piece of coarse
cloth, to make me two shirts; also two pair of thread stockings without
feet, and one pair of shoes, which proved too little for me. He also
sent me a sort of blanket, or Indian punch [poncho, Ed.], with a hole in
the middle to put my head through, as the Indians do.

Soon after we were sent for to Castro. The Spaniards carried us away in
the evening, because we should not see their city; at which when we
arrived, they used all the ceremony of a garrison, hailing the canoe,
and requiring us to stop till they had acquainted the commanding
officer. This done they admitted us, under a strong guard of soldiers
with forked sticks in their hands. During all this ceremony I doubted
not but that there was a garrison, with fortifications, etc. But as we
went up the hill which lies between this supposed fortification and the
town itself, I could see no such thing. In the town we were brought
before an old gentleman whom they called the Corregidor; and who was
dressed in a cloak, a very old tie-wig, and a spado [Spanish "espada", a
sword, Ed]. He received us in great pomp, conducted us to the Jesuit's
College, and presented us to the Principal, saying, /Father, pray see if
these men are Christians, or not/. Then he took his leave of us, and the
Fathers conducted us to a room in which were two beds, one for the
Captain, and the other for Mr. Byron and myself. Then they had us to a
very good supper. Everything was clean and decent, and we had a glass of
good wine.

When we went to bed, we found each a clean shirt, a clean sheet, and a
good bed, which made this the most agreeable night I ever knew. Next
morning I burned my old rags, lest they should breed a pestilence in the
place. Here we stayed and experienced the same good usage for above a
week, till the Governor, who lived at the north end of the island, at
the port of Chacao sent his son, with a guard to conduct us to that place.

When we left Castro, our guard used the same ceremony as at our arrival
there. They carried us out in the night to a farmhouse, in which we lay
till next morning, when we got horses, and rode across the country to a
bay in which they had canoes ready for us to embark. All this time we
were strictly guarded by the soldiers. After three days we arrived at a
little bay near the town of Chacao, from whence a soldier was sent to
the Governor, to acquaint him with our arrival there. Hereupon the
Governor sent them orders not to come in till it was dark; and we were
accordingly brought into the town in the night. As we marched up to the
Governor's, we passed by a line of men armed with matchlocks, the only
fire-arms they have in this country, and their matches were lighted. The
Governor received us in all his glory, sitting at the head of a great
table, covered with red baize. We also sat down at this table, and the
Governor conversed with us by his linguist, who was an Englishman, born
at Falmouth.

The Governor examined the Indian that brought us, and made him go with
his canoes and some soldiers to Wager Island, to work upon the wreck of
our ship, and to bring off Mr. Hamilton from among the Indians with whom
we had left him. And, accordingly, Mr. Hamilton was brought hither.

The Indian language is what everybody here speaks more than the Spanish;
but it is quite different from that of the Indians with whom we had so
many adventures after we left Wager Island. The language of the Chiloean
Indians seemed to us very fine and soft; and the Spaniards who
understand it esteem it as such.

This island lies in the South Seas, in Lat. 43. 15, and is the most
southern settlement the Spaniards have in this part of the world.
Shelvocke, in his voyage to these seas, tells us, that this island is as
good and as plentifully stored with the necessaries of life as the Isle
of Wight. But what he says is far from being true, and I may venture to
assert that the Spaniards here are more miserable than any other
European colony in America. The climate is extremely bad, and most of
the inhabitants eat nothing but fish, and even this for the most part
only of the shell-kind. Their bread is chiefly potatoes, of which they
have a very good sort, and in such plenty that they feed their hogs with
them. The swine here are small, but their flesh is very sweet, and makes
excellent hams. Some wheat is raised in this island, but not much /2/. 
Their most plentiful grain is barley, of which, as I before
observed, they make their chicha. They likewise eat barley-meal with
chicha and with water. They are but thinly stocked with cows and sheep,
and what they have are very lean, through want of good pasture, the
country being overrun with great woods. In these their horses, which are
also lean and small, chiefly subsist.

2. They sow but little wheat, because of their continual rains, which
rot the seed.

The Spaniards and Indians here live much alike; their houses are straw
huts, without chimneys, though not without fire, which they make in the
middle of the house, and thereby smoke themselves sufficiently. Even the
Governor's house has no chimney.

Their clothing is also very poor, none but persons of rank wearing
shirts; for they only are able to buy linen, when the annual Lima ship
arrives. All their trade is in hams, pork-slush, [pork fat, Ed.] and
deals, [lumber, Ed.] of which they have a great many. Coarse baize is
brought hither from Lima: they call it the country cloth, because it is
made in Peru. From Paraguay they have a herb called the Herb of Paraguay
on account of its growing there and nowhere else. Of this they make tea,
both for the morning and afternoon; and it is much drunk all over Chile
and Peru.

At Chacao is a very good harbour, but it is dangerous coming into it,
because the tides run strong; and also in the middle of its mouth lies a
sunken rock, which ought equally to be guarded against both in coming in
and going out. The town consists only of a few straw huts, scattered
here and there; and it is as thinly inhabited as built, except when the
Lima ship arrives, and then the country people flock all to this town.
Here is a little earthen fort, encircled by a ditch, and the ditch by a
sort of palisade. It mounts thirteen guns, four to the land, and nine to
the sea. The garrison consists of a captain of foot, (which post the
Governor himself fills) a town-major, a lieutenant, an ensign, and
eighty private men. As for arms, they have only matchlocks, as I have
already observed. At the island of Calbuco, which lies N. E. from hence,
at the distance of two leagues, there is another captain-governor, who
is called the Captain of Calbuco.

When the Governor of Chiloe sent the canoes to the wreck of the /Wager/,
we were in hopes that they would find the barge, and bring her here. The
Governor promised Captain Cheap that he should have the barge restored
to him, with all that was in her. But when his people did actually bring
the barge with them, he kept her concealed at another island, thinking
we could never know that he had it in his power to keep his word. But he
was mistaken; for soon after we left the island we heard that the barge
was brought thither, with two of the men in her, the other four having
perished through want, after they left us.

About the middle of December the annual Lima ship arrived at this
island. Her coming made me reflect on the unfortunate step taken by the
gunner and carpenter of our ship, and their party. Had they, instead of
going to the southward in the longboat, gone altogether with the Captain
to the northward, we might have made ourselves masters of the island of
Chiloe, and the Lima ship into the bargain. But their obstinacy deprived
both themselves and us of this opportunity of making our fortunes, and
doing considerable service to our country at the same time. Instead of
which, the few of the unfortunate officers and crew of the /Wager/, who
survived the hardships they underwent in this ill-fated voyage, have
brought nothing home with them but the melancholy tale of their
prodigious sufferings; a sad relation of the lives lost merely in the
search of preservation, not of riches.

The Lima ship is a fine vessel, of above two hundred tons burthen, but
carries neither great guns nor muskets. This, that we saw, had only six
white men on board, viz. the Master, Mate, Boatswain, and his mate, and
the Chaplain and his Clerk; all the others were Indians and Negroes.

January 2, 1742-3, we embarked on board of this ship, and four days
after we anchored in the port of Valparaiso, in Lat. 33. S. in the
kingdom of Chile. Here the master of the ship sent his boat ashore, to
acquaint the Governor that he had four English prisoners aboard; and
soon after we were ordered ashore :-- And now we thought ourselves once
more in the land of the living.





BOOK IV
The Adventures of Alexander Campbell, from his arrival in Chile, to his
return to Europe on board a Spanish man-of-war, and his happy arrival at
Portsmouth, in 1746.

When we first appeared on the beach, nobody came near us, except the
children to gaze, for to be sure they never saw such a ragged sight in
their lives before. But when it was publicly known that we were English,
we had all the town about us. After having been carried before the
Governor, Don Andres de Arabal, who was blind, we were, by his order,
confined in a very disagreeable hole, so dark that we could not see each
other. The soldiers told us that it was the place wherein they kept
their whores: so that we were now got into the House of Correction.

We had not been long in this prison, before the Captain and Mr. Hamilton
were sent for to Santiago, by the President Don Joseph Manso, who lived
there. Mr. Byron and I were continued in the House of Correction, till
the Captain got to Santiago, where he prevailed on Don Joseph to send
for us; and Jan. 24, we were introduced to the President. He told us he
was glad to see us so happily delivered out of so many dangers. Then he
desired us to go to the place where the Captain was, and to rest
ourselves. We found the Captain at the house of an English gentleman,
who also invited us, and gave us very hospitable entertainment. Nay, he
treated us all as if we had been his own brothers; and during the whole
two years that we remained here, we wanted for nothing that he could any
way procure.

On the day after our arrival, the President sent his Secretary to invite
the Honourable Mr. Byron and myself to dinner. We found Admiral Pizarro
and several of his officers there. They had come from Buenos Aires by
land, in order to proceed to Lima; for they could not get their ships of
war round Cape Horn.

As we were at this time without money, and also wanted clothes, one of
the Spanish officers offered us money upon our bill payable by the
English Consul at Lisbon. Hereupon we drew a joint bill on the Lord
Commissioner of his Majesty's Navy, directed for the Consul at Lisbon.
When the Captain received the money, which was 600 dollars, he gave Mr.
Hamilton and Byron their share, but to me he gave only eighty dollars
out of the six hundred. This gave rise to some words between the Captain
and me. I thought it very hard, as I had signed the bill equally with
the rest, and was at the same time as naked and necessitous as they,
that I should not receive my whole share, which was 150 dollars, and
which sum my brother-midshipman Mr. Byron had. The Captain's obstinate
refusal to give me the rest was the opening of that breach, which was
very much widened by another affair of much the same nature, viz.

When we had been in this country near twelve months, one Mr. William
Lindsey, who had formerly been in the South Sea Company's service at
Buenos Aires, hearing that four English prisoners were at such a place,
he wrote to inform us, that if we wanted money, he had some in a
merchant's hands at Santiago, which we might have upon sending him our
bill. This money the Captain received, and divided between himself, Mr.
Byron, and Mr. Hamilton. But when I asked him for my share, he gave me
to understand that I should not have a farthing; in vain did I represent
to him the necessity I was in, and that Mr. Lindsey's intention was to
serve us all, and not anyone in preference to another. In vain were my
complaints: my worthy Captain, for whom I had expressed so much zeal,
was inexorable. -- I appeal to the impartial reader whether this was
either just or generous usage; especially as Mr. Lindsey had written
alike to us all, intending the favour as much to any one as to the other
three. -- Surely none but Captain Cheap would have acted thus! But he
ought to have treated me otherwise, had it been but merely out of
compassion to a man in such necessitous circumstances as I was in, not
having clothes to cover me from the cold. But how much greater was the
obligation upon him, who has himself owned [admitted, Ed.] that he was
indebted to me for the preservation of his life, more than once or
twice? -- In short, I thought myself so ill used, that I left the house
wherein I resided, and took my abode in another.

As the reader will doubtless expect that I should give some account of
Chile, I have drawn up the following remarks.

This country is perhaps the finest in the world. It has five very good
seaports. The southernmost is Valdivia, a garrisoned town, in Lat. 40.
S. It is on the frontiers, between the Spaniards and a nation of warlike
Indians, who inhabit another exceedingly fine tract of land. These
Indians are continually at war with the Spaniards, to whom they never
give quarter. They have fine horses, and I have been told that they are
shod with silver. However it is certain that they have the richest
silver mines in America. Some years ago they suddenly fell upon three
Spanish towns in one night, and massacred all the inhabitants. These
towns were the finest the Spaniards had in those parts. They are called
Osorno, Imperial, and Villarrica, i. e. the rich village. -- In short
these Indians are a brave people, and fight in good order; and therefore
the Spaniards don't much care to disturb them.

Concepcion is the next seaport of the five, but this I never saw;
however I have had an account of the Indians who inhabit the country on
that side, and which may be depended on. In December they have a grand
meeting with the Spaniards at Concepcion, to which the Governor goes in
person; and with him the Indians renew or confirm the amity between the
two nations; or, if they do not agree on the articles, declare war. When
they make peace they cut off the head of a lamb; and when it is to be
war, they carry off the lamb with them. They do not write, but keep all
their accounts by knots on a string, which they tell over; and in this
manner they will compose a tolerably good history. I have already
described the Indian garment called a poncho. Of these the Indians I now
speak of, make a very fine sort, which the Spaniards wear when they ride
abroad.

Valparaiso is the principal seaport of Chile. Yet it has but a little
town, and most of the inhabitants are seamen's wives, and people that
get their living by the shipping, of which above 26 sail come here
annually, which is no small number, the nature of the trade from Old
Spain hither considered. The town has two forts; one in very good order,
regularly built, has twenty pieces of brass cannon, and two of iron. The
other fort they call the /Old Castle/; it lies under a great hill, on
the right-hand as the ships come into the harbour. -- Coquimbo, and
Copiapo, are the two last of the aforesaid five seaports. Their trade,
which is chiefly to Lima, is but small, and consists mostly of
wheat-flour, jerked beef, fruits, gold in bars, and the Herb of
Paraguay. In return they bring from Lima, sugar, and coarse cloth for
their Indians and Negroes. They have likewise some trade with Buenos
Aires, whither they send wine, fruits, and dollars; and bring back all
sorts of linen cloths, broadcloths, velvets, silks, stockings, in short,
all sorts of wearing apparel. But this is a contraband trade. -- They
trade also with Peru for mules, which they carry away in great numbers.

Without dispute the climate in Chile is as fine as any in the world. The
winter is very moderate; yet near the town of Santiago is a mountain
always covered with snow, but the town itself is neither very cold in
winter, nor too hot in summer, though in Lat. 33. S. The soil of the
country in general is extremely fertile; the husbandmen [working
farmers, Ed.] do no more than open the ground, and sow the wheat, and,
without manure, it commonly gives a hundredfold. Their fruit-trees bear
when only two years old. The pasture is very good, the cattle fat, and
the meat as fine as any in the world, and beef and mutton are here very
cheap. A good cow sells for three dollars, and a sheep for four reals,
which is not quite two shillings sterling. The Chileans have very fine
horses for all uses; I have seen some of them pace as fast as other
horses can gallop. The country-people are strong and healthy, but very
lazy; what makes them the more so is the goodness of the country, which
furnishes them with all the necessaries of life, and many of its
superfluities, and all this without requiring much labour from the
people. They are good horsemen, and are almost continually on horseback,
not choosing to go but from one house to another without riding; and
though they have nothing to do with the horse, yet they must have him
all the day at the door ready saddled.

The earth here produces all sorts of metals, viz. gold, silver, copper,
iron, tin, lead, and quicksilver [mercury, Ed.]; but as the inhabitants
know not how to work the last sort, they lie uncultivated; neither do
they make much of the lead mines. It is observed by the Spaniards, that
never any worker in these mines died rich; for when they have got a good
sum beforehand, they go no more to the mines till all is spent. The gold
mines are very rich, but the workers don't rightly understand them, and
therefore they are of much smaller advantage to the country than they
might be. They make the most of their copper, with which they supply all
Peru, and also send a great deal to Europe. The French who come into
these seas, are more fond of this copper than anything, not only on
account of its cheapness, but for the sake of the gold they get out of it.

The inhabitants of Chile are Spaniards and Indians, besides the Negroes,
slaves to the former. The Spaniards are very proud, and dress extremely
gay [showy, Ed.]; particularly the women, who spend a great deal of
money upon their persons and houses. They are a good sort of people, and
very courteous to strangers. Their women are also fond of gentlemen from
other countries, and of other nations. The dress of the fair sex here is
widely different from that of the Spanish women in Europe. They wear no
stays, only a little jacket, with large white sleeves to it. Their
petticoats are not close all round like the European petticoat; they are
very short, one part doubles over the other, and they tie it as low as
men button the waistband of their breeches. They wear no hoop, for the
smaller they are below, the more in fashion. Their shoes have no heels,
and are all cut in figures [geometrical designs, Ed.]. Their hair they
dress in a very fine taste, and wearing no caps, it looks extremely
handsome.

The Indians here are little better than slaves to the Spaniards, as well
as the Negroes. The Corregidor, or Governor of the province, makes them
work all the year, and pays them as he pleases.

The chief diversions of the Spaniards here, are wild-bull-feasting, and
a sort of cricket. In the bull-feast there is nothing that I thought
diverting, except the dexterity of the horsemen, and of the horses,
which are trained up to the exercise. When they go to catch the bull,
they have a very strong rope made of twisted bull's leather. The
horseman has one end of this rope fastened to his saddle; the other end
has a running noose. When the horseman and the bull approach to meet
each other (for the latter seldom fails to give his antagonist the
meeting) the man very dextrously tosses the noose end of the rope at the
bull's head, and catches him by the neck or horns, though at the
distance of eight, ten, or a dozen yards. The horse feeling the rope
(the other end of which is fastened to his saddle) pulled straight,
immediately attempts to gallop off. The bull follows in great wrath, but
in vain, being unable either to overtake the horse or to get from him;
and the fury of the beast on this account furnishes most of the sport.

Among the fruits which this country produces are apples, pears, peaches,
apricots, plums, cherries, lemons, oranges and vines, which bear great
quantities of grapes, of which they make pretty good wine.

The principal town of this province is Santiago, of which I have already
spoken. It is situated in a fine valley, is regularly built, and the
houses good though low, having but one floor. They build thus, on
account of the earthquakes that happen here almost every week. There are
several rivers about this town, which are plentifully stocked with fish,
particularly exceedingly fine trout.-- In short, if I spoke lavishly when
I called this one of the finest countries in the world, yet I must
insist upon it, that it only wants industrious inhabitants to make it such.

When we had been here eighteen months, we heard of the cartel [agreement
for exchange of prisoners, Ed.] that was agreed on between England and
Spain, and the Governor told us we might return to Europe in the first
ship that should sail for Old Spain. About six months after this, a
French ship came to Valparaiso, and from thence was to return to Europe.
On board this ship Captain Cheap, Mr. Hamilton, and Mr. Byron /1/
embarked; but the misunderstanding between me and the Captain, as
already related, and since which we had not conversed together, induced
me not to go home in the same ship with a man who had used me so ill;
but rather to embark in a Spanish man-of-war then lying at Buenos Aires.
Admiral Pizarro readily granted me a passage, saying, /you and the other
gentlemen shall be welcome/; and added at the same time, that /he should
be at home before the French ship/.

1. Since their return Captain Cheap has had the command of a man-of-war
of 40 guns given him; and Mr. Byron that of a 20-gun ship.

On the 20th of Jan. /2/ 1744-5, I set out from Santiago for Buenos
Aires, in company with four of Admiral Pizarro's officers. We rode about
30 miles the first day, but the sun was so hot that not being able to
travel in the middle of the day, we were obliged to make it out in the
night. The 21st we arrived at the foot of a mountain, said to be the
highest in the known world. The next day we began to ascend this vast
mountain, and were obliged to travel all day, the roads being so
dangerous that we dared not stir in the night. They are winding like a
staircase, and at the same time extremely narrow. In some places the
mules have but seven inches breadth of ground to set their feet on. They
are moreover prodigiously high and perpendicular. At the bottom runs a
great river full of rocks, so that whoever has the misfortune to fall
down from the road, must infallibly be dashed to pieces; but the mules
are so used to these roads, that they travel full as safe as a man on
foot can do. Indeed when they are loaded with cumbersome goods they are
in greater danger, and too many of them fall down these fatal
precipices. I saw one of them fall, and before the poor creature came to
the bottom, both he and his burden, which was merchants' goods, were
dashed into a thousand pieces.

2. And the French ship did not sail till the 22nd of February following.

We were five days before we got to the top of this great mountain.
Indeed we were delayed by being obliged to go with the carriers, who
move but slowly. On all this mountain hardly the least green thing
appears to cheer the sight of the weary traveller. It is all little else
than bare rock. When we came to the top, we found the air so excessively
cold, though in the midst of summer, as to starve or freeze two of the
carriers to death. At the same time I found myself as if I had been
seasick, and vomited very much. This I conjecture might be owing to the
height of the hill, and the air being rarified so much more than that
which I had been used to breathe in the lower world.

Though it was very troublesome to ascend this mountain, it was still
worse to go down it; which we also were five days in doing. It was
matter of astonishment to me, that one single mule, out of all we had,
escaped tumbling down. Indeed the carriers did lose 20 of them, some in
going up, others in descending the mountain; some broke their legs,
others dislocated their shoulders, and others perished through hunger.
At Mendoza, a little town on the east side of the mountain, we stayed
three days to get fresh mussels.

From Mendoza to Buenos Aires is 400 leagues, and all the way is so
desert, that in above 100 leagues not one house is to be seen. In this
road there are many dangers to encounter. The wild Indians, who are
always at war with the Spaniards, to whom they give no quarter, are here
in great multitudes. There are likewise a great many tigers, who
frequently fall upon travellers and devour them. Nay people are
sometimes killed by them in the very streets of Mendoza and Buenos
Aires. Here is also a creature which the Spaniards call a lion, but it
is more like a cat, but large, and exceedingly ravenous, and for fear of
them no man dares travel by himself.

The officers that travelled with me rode upon mules as I did; but
Admiral Pizarro himself, with the rest of his officers, went in wagons,
which are very large, and drawn by oxen. These poor animals, as well as
the mules, often perish on this road for want of water, a want which is
rendered still the more unsupportable by the hot weather, nor can the
traveller find a single tree under which to rest himself, or take
shelter from the scorching rays of the sun. Thus he finds the country
for above 200 leagues together, nor is a drop of water to be had at
above one place in all that way.

The Indians inhabiting the country through which this undelightful road
runs, are a very warlike people. Their arms are lances and slings, in
the use of which they are exceedingly dextrous. Their stature is large;
complexion swarthy, and their agility in the exercises of war admirable.
They live on these vast plains in tribes, or parties, each party having
a chief captain, or commander. When any of these captains invites
another to join in an expedition against the Spaniards, the inviter
dares not fly, let what will happen, for if he does, the other cuts off
his head directly.-- These uncivilized people are never at peace either
with the Spaniards, or amongst themselves, or other Indians in their
neighbourhood. They have fine horses, are very good horsemen, and ride
somewhat like our European Hussars. Their saddles are as small as those
used for racehorses in England; and their stirrup is only a bit of wood
with a hole in it, big enough to let in the rider's great toe. Their
bridles are made of hair, with a wooden bit. Fixed habitations they have
none, but keep roving about from place to place, like the wild Arabs, so
that the Spaniards can seldom find them. Their food is for the most part
horseflesh, though they have plenty of black cattle, wild deer, and
sheep of a kind peculiar to that country. They have also a great many
ostriches, which they kill for the sake of their feathers to wear when
going to battle.

These Indians often visit the Spanish frontiers, and carry off both
people and cattle. The men they kill, but keep the women and children
for slaves. However, some Indians in these parts are at peace with the
Spaniards, and trade with them for cloths, in exchange for which they
give the Spaniards tiger skins, etc. I have seen them kill these
creatures in the following manner. In his left hand the Indian holds a
baton about nine inches long, round the middle of which is a basket like
our cudgel-baskets, which is a guard for the hand. In his right hand he
holds a knife, and thus prepared he seeks the tiger, and either attacks
him, or awaits the creature's coming, according as it happens. When the
beast makes at the man, the latter runs the baton into the tiger's
mouth, which gags him so that he cannot shut his jaws; at the same
instant the knife is run into his belly, then he falls to the ground,
and is easily dispatched. But if the Indian misses his aim, and does not
strike the baton into the tiger's mouth at the first moment of the
onset, the beast generally has the advantage, and, as it frequently
happens, the man falls a prey to his adversary.

We saw great numbers of black cattle, horses, and mules, running wild on
the plains, and every man has them for catching. Many people at Buenos
Aires make it their business to go out all the summer to kill cattle
only for their skins.

In this journey we were obliged to carry our provisions with us,
(exclusive of beef, of which we could get enough anywhere) and water to
drink. We arrived at Buenos Aires on the tenth of March, after an
unpleasant journey of seven weeks. But in three or four days after our
arrival, an advice-boat [a swift vessel employed in conveying
despatches, Ed.] from Ferrol came with orders for Admiral Pizarro not to
sail from this town till the month of October, that he might arrive in
Spain in the January following. This was to prevent his falling in with
the English fleet, which the Spaniards knew would cruise in those seas
all the summer. For Pizarro's fleet was so badly manned, and so very
rich, that it was not thought safe to run the risk of a summer-passage home.

Here I met with three of our ship's company, who had been left ashore /3/ 
by the people of the longboat, a little to the southward of
Buenos Aires. The account they gave of their misfortune was as follows,
viz.

3. See an account of these three men and their companions, in Bulkeley
and Cummins's narrative.

        " That at some time after Bulkeley and Cummins, with the rest of
        the people, who sailed from Wager Island in the longboat and
        cutter, had left that place, they were obliged to send some of
        the people ashore to get fresh water. Some of these returned on
        board, but before all could return, the boat was driven out to
        sea, and eight poor miserable men who were left ashore never saw
        her afterwards. To avoid perishing through want of the
        necessaries of life, on this desert coast, they attempted to
        find the way to Buenos Aires, but were not able to travel, the
        country being marshy to such a degree as rendered it impassable.
        Hereupon they built a hut, and lived there upwards of a year,
        subsisting by the following means. The country abounding with
        wild dogs, they took some puppies, and brought them up to catch
        deer, of which there is plenty on this coast, and on the venison
        they lived well; till one fatal day, as they were divided, four
        in a party, seeking provisions, when one party came home, they
        found their hut plundered; and all their things gone. For they
        had arms and other conveniences left them when the boat went
        away. This disaster greatly surprised them, thinking the other
        four had robbed them, and were gone to seek themselves another
        dwelling-place. But, to their greater surprise as well as
        terror, they soon found their mistake; for as they were going
        about their hut, they found their four comrades lying on the
        ground, with their throats cut from ear to ear. I leave the
        reader to imagine how dismally the other four passed the night,
        expecting the dreadful moment when they should be served in the
        same manner. Next morning their eyes were saluted with the
        unwelcome sight of a great many Indians on horseback, coming
        towards their hut. Hereupon, not daring to flee, they advanced
        to meet the savages, and fell on their knees imploring mercy;
        but the barbarians, little regarding their humble submission,
        were just going to slaughter them, when an old man, one of their
        captains, prevented them. After a long consultation among
        themselves, the Indians made their prisoners mount behind four
        of them, and so carried them off.

        " These Indians sold them for slaves to other Indians, with whom
        they remained till a captain that was at peace with the
        Spaniards, of which nation he took these four men to be, went to
        the Governor of Buenos Aires, and agreed for a reward for
        bringing them off. The Governor promised him fifteen dollars for
        each; but when he returned, the Indians would on no terms let
        him have a Mulatto, who was one of the four, insisting upon his
        being an Indian, and therefore they would keep him. His name was
        John Duck, born in London. The other three were Isaac Morris,
        Samuel Cooper, and John Andrews. The names of their four
        companions who were massacred, were Guy Broadwater, Benjamin
        Smith, John Allen, and Joseph Clinch. "

This account Morris, Cooper, and Andrews gave, and desired me to publish
as soon as I came to England. They came with me from Buenos Aires to
Spain, where I left them, waiting for a discharge from the cartel. They
told me that the Indians have a great many Spanish women among them,
whom they have taken captive; that they had each of them a Spanish woman
given him as wife, and that some of them left children behind them.-- I
shall now say something of my own concerns during my six months
residence at Buenos Aires, where, as has been mentioned, I was obliged
to wait till the time came at which Admiral Pizarro was to set sail.

On the day of my arrival at this town, I waited on the Governor, Don
Domingo Rosas; who invited me to dine at his house, which I did. I
little thought that I should now be confined, after having been at
liberty in Chile above two years on my parole, and had always behaved as
became a prisoner at large; but after dinner, as I was coming away, to
my great surprise I found that I was confined in the fort, and not to go
out of the gate. Accordingly I remained in the fort six and thirty days,
at the end of which I was let out by the Admiral's procurement, and then
I had the whole town for my prison. But some time after, upon a
groundless report that a squadron of English men-of-war were coming into
the River Plate, I was again confined in the fort, and remained there
twenty-two days more; but the rumour being blown over, I was again
enlarged [released, Ed.].

Gratitude will not let me omit to mention the kindness of the Governor
of the Portuguese settlement adjoining to Buenos Aires. Hearing of me
while in that town, he wrote me a letter in English, acquainting me that
he would supply me with money, if I had occasion [need, Ed.]; and at the
same time sent me a present of English butter and a box of sweetmeats
[sweet foods, Ed.]. This gentleman was Governor of Santa Catalina when
Commodore Anson was there: his name Don Joseph Silva de Paz.

The town of Buenos Aires is pretty large, and in it are a great many
merchants; but how they live I can't imagine; for all their trade is
confined to the neighbouring Portuguese colony, and even this is
contraband, and carried on only in the night. I was told that there goes
every year from Buenos Aires to the above colony, above five millions of
dollars and upwards of thirty thousand cow-hides.

Here runs the famous River of Plate, which is said to be the largest in
the world. At Buenos Aires [it] is fifteen leagues wide, and [at] its
mouth, from Cape St. Mary's to Cape St. Antonio's, it is eighty leagues
over, and all fresh water. There are but three settlements on it, Buenos
Aires is the largest; the second is the Portuguese colony, on the north
side of the river, opposite to Buenos Aires; Montevideo is the third, on
the north side also, and forty leagues to the eastward of the
Portuguese. Here is a harbour for ships of small burden; however one of
the Spanish men-of-war lay here: she was indeed obliged to unship her
rudder for want of water, of which there is not above seventeen foot at
the highest tides; but there is a great deal of mud, into which she
sank, and lay there two years, with her guns, etc. in her, and received
no damage.-- Here the Spaniards have begun to build a fine fortification,
which they say will be the best and strongest in America, and which will
entirely command the river; on which they are very apprehensive of the
English making a settlement.

A little below Montevideo there is another fine harbour, called
Maldonado, with more water; the mouth is narrow, but within there is
room for 200 sail of ships. It is one of the safest in the world, and
wants for no accommodations that nature can furnish. On the south side
there is also another very fine harbour, besides Buenos Aires: the
Spaniards call it the Ensenada de Barragon.

Buenos Aires can indeed boast a healthy climate, but it is very subject
to sudden thunder and lightning, with terrible squalls of wind and rain,
which generally do much damage. Here all garden seeds brought from
Europe grow wild in two years after they are sown; nor does any tree
whatever grow to a large size. At a small distance from Montevideo, is a
hill enriched with gold mines, and some diamonds, which the Portuguese
from Rio Grande, come to gather in the River Negro, or the Black River,
which empties itself into the River of Plate, a little above Montevideo.

In August 1745, I received orders from the Governor of Buenos Aires to
go to Montevideo, to embark for Europe. The Governor of the latter place
treated me in a much handsomer manner than the Governor of Buenos Aires.
He invited me to dinner on the day of my arrival there, appointed me a
room, and told me I might go where I would on my parole. The same day,
in the evening, I had a general visit from the officers of the garrison,
who behaved to me with great politeness. Next day I had another visit
from the officers of the man-of-war that lay in the harbour, among whom
were two Irish captains, one Scotch captain, and one English lieutenant,
all belonging to Pizarro's fleet.

Montevideo is a newly settled town, has but few inhabitants, and little
trade. Now and then a register-ship [vessel authorized to trade with the
Spanish-Americam colonies?, Ed.] puts in, and here she gets a pilot to
conduct her to Buenos Aires. The garrison consists of two companies of
foot, and one of dragoons, all regular troops from Old Spain, but in all
they do not amount to above a hundred men. On the point going to the
harbour is the fort, which mounts fifteen pieces of cannon. The citadel
which they are building here, and which will command both sea, and land,
and the river, is foursquare; at each corner is a bastion, mounting
sixteen guns, so that the citadel mounts in all sixty-four pieces of
cannon. Some other forts are also begun, which when finished will make
the place very strong; but while I was there a stop was put to the work,
probably for want of money, or some particular materials. The town is
finely situated, in a pleasant country, abounding in all the necessaries
of life. They might make a vast deal [quantity, Ed.] of wine, if they
would cultivate their vines, the few they have planted yielding very
plentifully.

I stayed here from the middle of August till the thirteenth of October,
when I embarked on board the Spanish man-of-war above-mentioned, in
order to return to Europe. On board this ship I found sixteen English
prisoners, who had been taken two years before, in the River of Plate.
They belonged to the /Philip/, Captain Penkethman[?], whom the Spanish
merchants treacherously and barbarously murdered. They went on board to
trade, but found an opportunity to kill the captain, with eight or nine
of his people, and then made themselves master of the vessel.

October the 17th, N. S.[?] being got out of sight of land, about nine
o'clock at night, as I was going to bed, something fell down upon the
quarter-deck, which, as the ship was in a very bad condition, I imagined
was one of her masts or yards carried away, of which I had all along
been apprehensive. But the noise being repeated, and growing louder, I
got up to see what was the matter; but as I was going up the
after-ladder, I was saluted with a blow on the head which knocked me
down. Presently after I saw a soldier drop down dead. All the ship's
company were now in an uproar, crying out, /a Mutiny ! a Mutiny !
/Hereupon I went to my berth, and sat down, waiting the issue. At last
seeing several officers and men wounded, while others were killed
outright, I enquired the cause of so much bloodshed, and was informed
that twelve Indians from the plains of Buenos Aires, whom the Spaniards
had taken prisoners and were carrying to Spain for galley-slaves, had
risen upon the captors, and seemed as if resolved to be cut to pieces
rather than be carried into slavery. Hearing this, I went on the
forecastle, where I found the Irish and Scots captains, with most of the
Spanish officers, all in confusion; for by this time the twelve Indians
had made themselves masters of the quarterdeck, and not a Spaniard dared
attack them. Fearing they would set fire to the ship, which they might
easily have done, all the nettings on the quarterdeck being full of hay
for the cattle which were on board, I therefore proposed to go on the
quarterdeck, and attack them sword in hand. I was bravely seconded by
one of the Irish officers, who though an old man, had as much courage as
the youngest aboard. Followed by a few others, we attacked both gangways
at once, pressed the Indians hard, and killed their cacique or captain,
and one other. Their captain (whom they called a king, and whose name
was Gallidana [Morris gives the name as Orellana, Ed.]) was a very brave
fellow; during the whole action, he continually encouraged his men, by
putting his hand to his mouth, and making the noise they call the
war-whoop; and crying out, /We are brave Indians, but the Spaniards are
poltroons/ [cowards, Ed.], or words to that effect. As long as he spoke,
his men stood their ground, though attacked two ways at once; but when
he fell, and as soon as his voice ceased, they all got on the rails of
the quarterdeck, and jumped overboard; crying out, /though you have
killed our king, you shan't have the pleasure of killing us/.

The enemy having thus fled the field, the Spaniards began to look after
their dead and wounded. They found eleven men slain outright, among whom
were the master of the ship and two mates. Thirty-eight were wounded,
five of whom died of their wounds. A Jesuit also had his arm broken, and
was otherwise very much hurt. All this havoc did twelve Indians (armed
with nothing but knives, and some of the double-head shot, flung in the
middle, with which they knocked down the Spaniards) make among 444 men
that were aboard, among whom were thirty-two commissioned officers, most
of them formerly belonging to other ships of Pizarro's squadron, which
had been lost.

After this unlucky affair, nothing occurred to us but what is common at
sea, till we arrived on the coast of Portugal; when the appearance of
some ships put the Spaniards into a great fright, and they immediately
confined me and the other prisoners. They were under arms three days and
three nights, and it is certain they had good reason for their fears.
For in the first place the ship was very rich, having upwards of five
millions of dollars on board, though not all registered. Secondly, she
was in great want of hands, and those that were on board were very weak
and sickly.

January 20th 1745-6, we arrived at the port of Corcubion, near Cape
Finisterre; where I waited twenty days while the ship went round. Coming
to Ferrol, I was ordered to Madrid, where, on the day after my arrival,
I was introduced to one of the Ministry, who after asking me some
questions, ordered me to a room till further notice. Two days after I
was called for again, and he enquired of me the particulars of Mr.
Anson's voyage; to which I answered in general, that I was only a petty
officer in the fleet, and that all my business was to do as I was
ordered by my superiors. When they made me offers of entering into their
service, I plainly refused, telling them I would rather be a common
sailor in the service of my own King, than an officer under another.
When I begged to be set at liberty, and to go home by the way of
Portugal, the Minister said he would acquaint His Majesty with my
demand, and that I should soon have an answer. Next day I waited on the
same Minister, and he ordered me to go to the Secretary at War's Office,
where I should have a passport to Lisbon. I went directly and got the
passport, with fifteen dollars for my travelling charges; and then I
would have set out immediately, but the weather being bad, was obliged
to stay at Madrid five days longer; and when I did set out, I found it
almost impossible to travel, the heavy rains had so spoiled the roads;
but the most disagreeable circumstance, was the lightness of my purse,
which rendered my journey very uncomfortable indeed. At last it pleased
God that I got safe to Lisbon, where I no sooner arrived, than I waited
on the English consul, who told me that the /Edinburgh/, Commodore Coats
was going from thence to England. Hereupon I waited on the Commodore,
and desired my passage home, which he readily granted. After staying at
Lisbon only three days, I embarked for England, and in six more arrived
at Plymouth; thus happily surmounting, through the mercy of the
Almighty, a long and unfortunate voyage of five years and eight months.

From Plymouth I went to Portsmouth in the same ship, and proceeded
directly to London, where I arrived in the beginning of May, 1746; and
informed the Lords of the Admiralty of my arrival, by a petition to
their Lordships. Speaking at the same time with Mr. Corbet, Secretary to
the Admiralty, I found, to my great surprise, that their Lordships had
been told by Captain Cheap, that I was in the Spanish service! That this
was a false aspersion, the public will hardly require any other proof
than the reading [of] the foregoing narrative. If I had been in the
Spanish service, how could I have acquired a passport /4/ from a
Minister of Spain; and how could I likewise arrive here in England so
soon after the Captain? Upon the whole, I hope that what I have here
written will be sufficient to satisfy the public of my innocence, and
clear me of what is so wrongfully laid to my charge.

Alexander Campbell

4. This passport I sent enclosed in a letter to Mr. Secretary Corbet.


/F I N I S/