NARRATIVE
of the Dangers and Distresses
which befel
ISAAC MORRIS
and seven more of the crew,
belonging to The Wager Store-Ship
which attended
COMMODORE ANSON
in his Voyage to the South Sea:
containing
An account of their adventures, after they were left by Bulkeley and Cummins, on an uninhabited part of Patagonia, in South America; where they remained about fifteen months, till they were seized by a party of Indians, and carried above a thousand miles into the inland country, with whom they resided upwards of sixteen months : After which they were carried to Buenos Aires, and ransomed by the Governor, who sent them on board the Asia, a Spanish man-of-war, and confined them there above thirteen months; when the Asia sailed for Europe.
interspersed with
A description of the manners and customs of the Indians in that part of the world, particularly their manner of taking the wild horses in hunting, as seen by the author himself.
the whole
serving as a supplement to Mr. Bulkeley's Journal, Campbell's Narrative, and Ld. Anson's Voyage.
by I. MORRIS, late midshipman of the Wager.
LONDON:
Printed for S. Birt, at the Bible and Ball, in Ave-mary-Lane;
and sold by A. Tozer, Bookseller, in Exeter.
THE
INTRODUCTION
The world has already been made acquainted with the particulars of the loss of the Wager, which attended Commodore Anson in his expedition to the South Seas, and with the transactions of the ship's crew, during our five months stay on the island where she was wrecked. Mr. Bulkeley has also faithfully related the manner of our quitting that island, by embarking in our longboat, which we built to a schooner, and given the true reasons why we parted from Capt. Cheap, and chose to attempt a return to England, by the way of Brazil, through the Straits of Magellan, rather than risk a passage with him to the coast of Chile.
Since Mr. Bulkeley's journal, a brother midshipman of the Wager, Mr. Campbell has published a narrative of what happened to Capt. Cheap, himself, and fourteen others, in their passage to Chile, which he calls a Sequel to Bulkeley and Cummins' Voyage to the South Seas; wherein he has given a melancholy account of the dangers they passed through in their voyage along the western part of the continent; dangers experienced by few, and, I believe, scarce exceeded by any but those which we underwent in our calamitous state.
Since that, Lord Anson's successful expedition has been published to the world by his chaplain, in a manner worthy of the author. The following narrative will serve as a supplement to the whole, and complete the melancholy tale of the scattered crew belonging to the unfortunate Wager.
These sheets would sooner have seen the light, if the misfortunes I sustained in such a long absence had not compelled me to embrace the first opportunity that offered of retrieving them, which has so strictly confined me to the merchant service, that, till now, I had not a proper opportunity of ranging the scattered memorandums in their order. And though the publishing them to the world now can be of no remarkable service to those who are unconcerned, yet from hence mankind may learn this at least, that let their situation be ever so deplorable, or their circumstances ever so desperate, patience, resolution, and a trust in Providence, will contribute greatly towards removing them, or at least to their support under them.
If I had been so fortunate as not to have been deprived of proper materials for keeping a journal, a multitude of incidents would have been recorded which have now slipped the memory, and a more particular account preserved of the manners and customs of the native Indians where we resided, which is now forgot; and no wonder: for being so overwhelmed with sorrow at our melancholy situation, and almost in a state of despair, the mind must naturally be so much taken up with its present sufferings as to be rendered quite unfit for the charge of historical remarks. I mention this, that the reader may not expect, in the following accounts, anything like the regularity of a journal. The facts are strictly true; what I noted down after my return is faithfully related, and I have endeavoured to be as concise as the nature of the thing would admit of, that this short narrative might not appear tedious to the reader.
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