The Voyage of Captain Shelvock Round the World

We have already given an account, in the introduction to the preceding voyage, of the motives that influenced the owners to undertake it, and of the difficulties and discouragements that attended the first setting out. It remains now only to relate the proceedings of Captain Shelvock, the second in command, who has himself been very circumstantial in laying before the public the following particulars.

On the 13th of February, 1719, we sailed from Plymouth, in company with the Success, of 36 guns, Captain John Clipperton, who, in consideration of his knowledge of the coasts and customs of Chili, Peru, and Mexico, was to act as chief of the expedition.

On the 15th, I came under his lee, complained of the crankness of my ship, and desired him to send for his wine and brandy, which he neglecting, lost his sea stock of liquors; for we never saw any thing of each other till about two years afterwards.

Thursday 19, a storm arose, and about midnight a sea drove in our quarter and one of our stern dead lights. For a considerable time we were under apprehensions of foundering; a succession of prodigious seas drove over us; and in this melancholy state, the chain pump was the only means of our deliverance.

February 20, we had no sight of the Success, and at midnight set the topsails and stood to the north-westward.

This storm so terrified my ship’s company, that no less than 70 of them were resolved upon bearing away for England, there to make complaint against the ship. But, on the 23d, perceiving their discontent, I ordered them all on deck, and used what arguments with them I was master of, to encourage them to proceed; but all I could say was but to little purpose. They continued in their resolution to clap the helm a weather; and grew to that height of insolence at last, that I was obliged to call upon my officers to assist in bringing the mutineers to reason. For this end most of them appeared armed; and the sight of this so startled the ringleaders, that they very submissively begged I would forgive them; as I did, upon promise for the future to behave as became them. After this, seeing them inclined to be tractable, I ordered them some brandy, and they drank to our prosperous voyage. But the very next evening, Simon Hatley, my second Captain, had like to have thrown every thing into confusion, by telling me upon deck, before most of the ship’s company, that he had private orders from one of the chief of the gentlemen adventurers, and Captain Clipperton, to take the charge of the ship upon himself. I asked him if he had a private commission too? but to this he returned nothing but expressions of contempt. This unseamanlike behaviour, immediately after my separation from my consort, laid me under a necessity of behaving with all possible circumspection, to prevent our being divided into parties, which would infallibly frustrate the ends of our expedition.

We had a very tedious passage to our first place of rendezvous, the Canary Islands; and did not arrive there till the 17th of March, where having finished our cruise without any thing remarkable, except taking an open boat with salt and wine, hearing nothing of the Success, on March the 29th, we took our departure from the island of Ferro, in hopes of meeting with Captain Clipperton among the islands of Cape de Verd, and we took our prize along with us. But in our passage, my people began again to murmur; and one Turner Stevens, my gunner, very gravely made a proposal to me, in the hearing of all the other officers, to go a cruizing in the Red Sea; for, said he, there can be no harm in robbing those Mahometans; but, as for the poor Spaniards, continued he, they are good Christians, and it would, doubtless, be a sin to injure them. Upon this, I ordered him under confinement; and the man, after that, having threatened, in a very outrageous manner, to blow up the ship, I, at his own request, discharged him as soon as we arrived, together with my chief mate, who had likewise been guilty of many and great misdemeanors.

On the 14th of April, we made the Isle of May; and, running along shore, saw a wreck, which we were told was the Vanzittern Indiaman, Captain Hide, who three weeks before had been cast away. I endeavoured to avail myself of this accident, to supply the necessaries we stood in need of; but could procure nothing but two or three sheathing-boards. At this place I sold our prize for 150 dollars to the Governor; and filled all our water-casks, and gave my ship a very good heel. Six of my people having deserted, I applied in vain to the officer on shore to deliver them up to me; but, threatening the Master of a Portuguese ship to make reprisals, he brought me off two of them, which happened to be the best. They fell on their knees, and asked pardon, assuring me the Commander on shore had seduced them, his design being to fend the bark I sold him on the Vanzittern’s wreck, where he said they might all make their fortunes; so I lost the other four.

Finding I could neither hear of the Success, nor get what might be serviceable to us in this place, and having read in Frezier’s voyage, that in the island of St. Catherine’s, on the coast of Brasil, in latitude 27 deg. 30 min. S. every thing might be had that we stood in need of, I concluded it would be best for me to put in there.

April 20, we sailed from the Isle of May, having wrenched the drum-head of our capstane in weighing anchor, which took us up the remainder of the day to repair. We were 55 days in going to St. Catherine’s, during which little remarkable happened; except that on June the 5th we saw a ship stemming with us, and spoke with her. I ordered the five-oar’d boat to be hoisted out, and sent Captain Hatley in her, to enquire after news, and gave him money to buy us tobacco. The Success, amongst other things, had got our stock of tobacco, and had made what the seamen call a west-country famine on board of us. When Hatley returned, he told me she was a Portuguese from Rio Janeiro, and bound to Fernambuco. Instead of tobacco, which he said the ship had none to dispose of, he had laid out my money in china ware, sweet-meats, and the like; and, upon my expressing my dissatisfaction at his having squandered away my money in so silly a manner, his answer was, that he had laid out his own in the same manner. My reply was, I did not like his proceedings.

On Friday, June 19, we made the island of St. Catherine’s; and at ten the next morning anchored in ten fathom water, the island of Gall bearing E. N. E. distant two leagues, and the eastermost point of St. Catherine’s E. and by S. distant four leagues. The first thing I did, was to send the carpenter on shore, with all the people that could be useful to him in felling of trees, and sawing them into plank, and to order the cooper and his crew to trim the casks, and fill them with water. Those who remained on board, I employed in different services. Mean while the inhabitants came off to us every day with the product of the place, which we purchased with salt.

On July 2, we were alarmed, at break of day, by the appearance of a large ship at anchor four or five miles below the place where we lay. I sent an officer in the launch, well manned and armed, to see what he could make of her, and put my ship into the best posture of defence I could. About noon my launch returned, and brought word that this ship was the Ruby, formerly an English man-of-war, and now one of M. Martinet’s squadron; that she came from the South Seas, and was commanded by M. la Jonquiere; that he, his officers, and seamen, to the number of 420, were all French; and tho’ in the Spanish service, they had not the least design to molest us. My Lieutenant became thus punctually informed, by a direct breach of orders in going aboard, and his temerity might have cost me very dear; for, had they been enemies, I should have lost 23 of my best hands; but their return confirmed the truth of his story: yet it was a great misfortune, that I had not, to the best of my knowledge, one man of experience or capacity sufficient to enable him to perform the common duty of an officer.

The next day, the Ruby turned up towards us, and the Captain sent one of his lieutenants and a priest, to assure me of his friendship, and to desire I would dine with him, which I did, and met with a very handsome reception, with offers of what money I would have upon my bills on London, or in general any thing else his ship afforded. He informed me that the Spaniards in the South Seas had advice of our two ships, and that they talked of fitting out some men of war to receive us.

About this time there was a report spread, that Hatley had taken a bribe of the Master of the Portuguese we met on the 5th of June, or had robbed him of 80 or 100 moidores, had given ten to his cockswain, and six to each of his boat’s crew, not to divulge it. I charged him with what had been said against him; his answer was, He had done nothing he was ashamed of, or that he could not justify. All I could do was to protest against him, and I gave the protest to Captain Clipperton in the South Seas.

July 6, M. la Jonquiere, accompanied by several of his officers and passengers, came to dine with me; but in the midst of our entertainment, my boatswain took it into his head to create a disturbance, because he had not been invited into the cabbin as a guest. He first assaulted Betagh the Captain of marines, and then Mr. Adams the surgeon. This outrage, which was supported by a party he had formed, being, by the help of my officers and the French gentlemen, pretty well quieted, M. la Jonquiere declared, that, if they persisted in their disobedience, he would see the ringleaders punished by carrying them home in irons; and as they grew a little quieter, he expostulated with them, and appealed to themselves, whether they did not think it monstrous for people to behave themselves in such a manner.

The next morning I was informed, that the authors of the disturbance were most of them sorry for what had happened the night before, attributing the whole blame to the boatswain, and the effect of too much liquor. I was glad to hear this, and therefore passed it all over with only threatening how I would manage them, if ever they were guilty of the like again. I had resolved to punish the boatswain in the severest manner; but I was prevailed on not to do it, he, in very humble plight, asking my pardon, and begging I would not use any severity towards him. He said it was drink that had made him mad, and withal desired I would give him leave to go home in the French ship. This I willingly agreed to, he being a very odd sort of a fellow, and always incensing the people against the number of officers, whom he termed Blood-suckers.

July 15, we saw a great ship plying into the harbour’s mouth; but when she discovered us, she made the best of her way out again. This possessed M. la Jonquiere with a notion of her being our consort, and put him into a hurry to be gone. Accordingly, when night came on, he weighed, and went to sea the next morning, and at his departure saluted me with five guns. Three Frenchmen, belonging to me, went away with him; but I had two Frenchmen, and one Morphew, an Irishman, in lieu of them.

During all this, our carpenter went on but slowly in the woods; and at last, when we came to case the stern all over with thick plank, we could find, to my great astonishment, no nails fit for that use. I was now told, that the first carpenter, and his crew, had sold most of the stores before the ship came to Plymouth, which was before I commanded her.

July 25, a large ship came in, called the Wise Solomon, of St. Malo’s, of 40 guns, and about 160 men, commanded by M. Dumain Girard, and bound to the coasts of Chili and Peru to trade. She was the same ship we saw coming in before, and had spoke with the Ruby at sea. This gentleman, I soon perceived, notwithstanding a little forced civility at his first arrival, was a designing mercenary man, and full of all the conceit and vanity ascribed to his nation.

Desiring him to spare me some nails, he readily answered he would; but, at the same time, gave me to understand that he could not afford them for less than 32 dollars a hundred, which sum I was fain to give him; I likewise bought of him 60 cheeses, and 300 weight of butter; so that it happened well for me, that I had some money from one of the Ruby’s people. This done, I now thought of making a quick dispatch from this place, when there came a letter from my ship’s company to me, with articles annexed to it for the immediate division of prize-money, which they said they were resolved to insist on, alledging that they knew by woeful experience how they were used on board the Duke and Dutchess, that they were never paid one tenth of their due, and that they had been well informed what a paymaster a certain gentleman would make, if ever their fortunes should fall into his hands. They were so very importunate with me to comply with their articles, that both myself, and all my chief officers, thought it would be best and most adviseable to sign their papers with them, rather than run the risque of their proceeding, when they should get out to sea, to acts of piracy. As soon as they had gained their point, they expressed great satisfaction, and promised to be always ready to hazard their lives in any undertaking I should think conducive to the ends we were fitted out for.

August 3, there came in here the St. Francisco Xavier, a Portuguese man-of-war, of 40 guns, and 300 men, from Lisbon, bound to Macao in China, commanded by Captain la Riviere, a Frenchman. I made no doubt but that Captain Hatley’s affair would be reported to this gentleman, and, therefore, I told Hatley, that I expected he would go and vindicate himself to the Portuguese Captain, to prevent any disturbances that might arise on his account. To which he readily replied he would.

Hatley, at his return, told me, the Captain seemed to be angry with him for thinking he could harbour any ill thought of a gentleman bound on a voyage, which, to his knowledge, could hardly fail of answering the largest expectations.

August 6, three of my men deserted, and the mate and his party went up to the Portuguese plantations in search of them. It being almost midnight, the inhabitants took the alarm, and planted themselves in ambuscade to destroy them as they came back. No sooner had they returned into the boat, than they heard them rushing out of the woods, crying, “Kill the dogs, kill all the English dogs.” This outcry was instantly followed by a volley of small arms, which wounded three of my men, two through the thigh, and another through the arm.

I sent a letter of complaint, by Hatley, to the Captain of the Portuguese man-of-war in the harbour: but Hatley, at his entrance into the ship, was furiously assaulted by Emanuel Mansa (the Captain of the island), crying out, This was the man who had committed so many insolencies towards them, and that this was he who had burnt one of their houses, and had made it a common practice to abuse and affront him with the opprobrious name of cuckold. Upon this exclamation, the ship’s company sided with Mansa, and fell upon Hatley, and would certainly have used both him and his boat’s crew very severely, had not the Captain and his officers, with much difficulty, prevented it; for the Portuguese seamen were exasperated to that degree, that it is more than likely they would have murdered him, had they not been timely hindered.

The Captain, in his answer to my letter, expressed his sorrow for what had happened, said the people were without law, and that it was out of his power to punish them; that they were wild and lurked in the woods; and that in seeking revenge, it would only expose my men to butchery. He asked my pardon for the ill usage my officer had met with on board his ship; but withal gave me to understand, there could be no greater provocation to the people of that nation, than that which Hatley was accused of by Mansa. That his ship’s company had got Hatley amongst them before he knew any thing of the matter, and that he was obliged to call his priest to his assistance, before he could get him out of their hands, and in a very handsome manner touched upon Hatley’s story. I made no long stay after this disaster, but took our departure from the northernmost point of St. Catherine’s on the 9th of August; and on the 19th, Mr. La Port, my third Lieutenant, broke his leg.

From the time we left St. Catherine’s, till now, we had for the most part squally weather. As we advanced to the southward, my people’s stomachs increased with the sharpness of the air to that degree, that the allowance which the government gives in the navy was not sufficient to satisfy their hunger. Some of my officers, in particular Mr. Betagh, my Captain of marines, who had been formerly a purser of a man-of-war, and a man whom I had a great regard for, was the champion for an addition of allowance at my table; for he told me he had orders from the adventurers to eat with me; and what was my table, if I did not eat better than the cook? He did not stop here, but urged by his intemperance, and finding me unwilling to squander away our provisions, without knowing when or where we might get any more, he at length had the insolence to tell me publicly, that the voyage should be short with me, which he often repeated. I should have had reason to fear it, had he been capable of commanding; but, for his punishment, I excluded him both from my mess and the great cabbin. Upon this, finding I was in earnest with him, and fearing some heavier punishment, he sent me a letter, asking my pardon for what he had done; upon which I again restored him in a handsomer manner than he afterwards deserved, as will appear by the sequel.

Between St. Catherine’s and the river of Plate, the whales, grampusses, and other fish of monstrous bulk, are in such numbers, that I cannot see why a trade for blubber might not be carried on here. I may venture to affirm, it is a safer navigation than that carried on to the northward, and I am apt to believe here is a greater certainty of success in making up a cargo.

Sept. 19, about midnight I perceived the water to be discoloured all at once, and upon heaving the lead, we found ourselves in 26 fathom water; this done, I stood off again to sea, but we did not deepen our water in the running of five leagues. This seems to be a bank very near the entrance of the straits of Magellan. I had a fine opportunity of going through these straits: but Captain Clipperton in his plan pretended, out of the abundance of his judgment and experience, that the straits of Le Mair would be the best navigation for us, though he himself passed through the straits of Magellan. From this I might have conjectured, that he, who never was fond of having a consort with him, designed to make use of this as a likely expedient to separate himself; for he was a man that would do any thing, though ever so dishonest or inhuman;⁠—[a reflection, however, that carries more of malice than of truth on the face of it.]

Sept. 13, the fog clearing up, we had a full, but melancholy prospect, of the most desolate country that can be conceived, seeming no other than continued ridges and chains of mountains, one within another, perpetually buried in snow. Towards noon we were becalmed within three leagues of the mountains called the Three Brothers, so named from their equal height, near resemblance, and proximity to one another. Till now, we had not been sensible of any helps or hindrances by currents; but this afternoon we were hurried with incredible rapidity into the straits, and just as we had gained somewhat more than the mid-passage, the northern tide came rushing upon us with a violence equal to that of the tide which had brought us in, and, to our great astonishment, drove us out of the straits again at a great and extraordinary rate, notwithstanding we had a fresh and fair gale with us at N. W. Upon the shifting of this tide to windward, there arose such a short, and, while it lasted, so hollow a sea, and so lofty withal, that we alternately dipped our bowsprit end, and poop lanthorns, into the water. Our ship laboured in the most alarming manner, and became insensible of the guidance of her helm; but at midnight the tide shifted, and we put through the straits without seeing the land on either side, and in the morning had a very good offing to the southward. We had found it very cold before we came this length, but now we began to feel the extreme of it. The bleak westerly winds of themselves would have been sufficiently piercing, but they were always attended with drifts either of snow or sleet, which, continually beating on our sails and rigging, cased the masts and every rope with ice, so that there was no handling them. It was common with us to be two or three days together lying to under bare poles, exposed all the while to the assaults of prodigious seas, much larger than any I had ever observed before. The winds reigning thus tempestuously, without intermission, in the western board, we had stretched away into lat. 61 deg. 30 min. S. where we were in continual dread of falling foul of islands of ice, and where we found the variation to be 22 deg. 6 min. to the north-eastward.

October 1, as we were furling the main-sail, one William Camell cried out, that his hands were so benumbed, he could not hold himself; but before those who were next to him could lay hold of him, he fell into the sea, and the ship making fresh way, and the sea running high, we lost sight of him before we could bring to. Indeed, one would imagine it impossible that any thing could live in so rigid a climate; and, truly, we saw neither fish nor bird, except one solitary albitross, which accompanied us for several days, and hovered about us, till Hatley concluding, in a gloomy fit, that the company of this melancholy bird brought us ill luck, resolved to destroy him, in hopes we might then have better weather.

October 22, at eight at night, we carried away our fore-top-mast, and rigged another next morning. We crept by very slow degrees, after we had ventured to tack and stand to the northward, in hopes to weather our way into the Great South Seas; and indeed it may be averred, that from the time we passed the straits of Le Mair, till we had the first sight of the coast of Chili, we had been continually distressed by the winds, and discouraged by bad weather.

Nov. 14, we saw the coast of Chili, distant 10 leagues, lat. by observation 47 deg. 28 min. S.

Being now arrived on the confines of the Spanish settlements, we found ourselves under an absolute necessity of contriving some means by which we might recruit our wood and water. We had but seven buts of water remaining, and a much less proportion of wood. I thought it would be best for us to go first to Narborough’s island, and accordingly directed our course to that place.

Nov. 21, at seven in the morning, we had soundings in 28 fathom water, of fine grey and black sand. But here we found a wild road, which could not be deemed safe for us.⁠—[Here Captain Shelvock laments it as a great misfortune, that he could not reach Juan Fernandez, in latitude 33 deg. 30 min. S. without stopping; though at the same time it is plain, that he lost more time in searching for a nearer place of refreshment, than the direct passage to that island would have taken him up. But the imputation he would throw upon Clipperton is applicable only to himself: he never intended to act under him; and all his excuses are mere shifts.]

Surrounded with doubts and apprehensions, says he, lest we should be obliged to advance too far on these coasts, without a competent stock of provisions, one Joseph de la Fontaine, a Frenchman, assured me, that, if I would go to the island of Chiloe, which was at that time a little to the northward of us, there was no place for our purpose like it in all the South Seas; that the towns of Chacao and Calibuco, the first on the island itself, and the second on the continent, were rich places; that the former was the usual place of residence of the Governor, and that at the latter there was a wealthy college of Jesuits; and that there were considerable magazines kept up, which were always well stocked with provisions of all kinds.

On these considerations I formed a resolution of going to Chiloe; and on the 30th of November we entered the channel, with an intent to surprize and attack the towns of Chacao and Calibuco: but, immediately after we had come to, the windward tide made out with prodigious rapidity, which instantly caused a great sea; and the wind increasing at the same time, the channel all about us appeared like one continued breach. In the midst of this our ship laid a great strain upon her cable, which unfortunately parted, and we lost our anchor. We passed by two commodious bays; and, at length, we rounded a point of land out of the tide’s way, where we were commodiously sheltered from all inconveniences; and, the next morning, I sent my second Lieutenant to make a discovery of the towns of Chacao and Calibuco, and, at the same time, Captain Hatley, to find out a watering-place for us. He soon returned again, and brought with him an Indian, who gave us hopes of a sufficient supply of all we wanted, but afterwards came in the evening to tell us, the country was forbidden to supply us with any thing. The Lieutenant not being yet returned, this information made me apprehend the enemy had taken him, and by that means had learned who we were.

December 3, there came to us a Spanish officer, in a piragua rowed by eight Indians, who was sent by the Governor to be informed who we were. As soon as we had a sight of the piragua, I hoisted French colours, and, when the Spaniard came on board, I told him, we were a homeward-bound French ship called the St. Rose, and that my name was le Janis le Breton. Under this notion he staid with us all night, and next morning departed, not seeming to suspect us. I wrote to the Governor by this gentleman, signifying, that I wanted a supply of provisions to carry me back to France, desiring him to assist me in what he could; and received for answer a complaint against the violences of our men, in killing their sheep, and driving away their cattle, by which I knew that they had seen my Lieutenant. But I was in despair of ever seeing him, or the people who were with him, any more. I therefore sent a message to the Governor, that provisions I wanted, and provisions I must have, and that very speedily; and that all the forces of Chacao, Calibuco, Carelmapo, or Castro, should not frighten or deter me from supplying myself. Soon after, there came a piragua with a message, signifying, that if I would send an officer to Chacao, he would treat with me. But I gave him for answer, that I would treat no where but on board my own ship; and farther, that it was now too late, since I had already dispatched 80 men to take all they could find.

Soon after the pinnace arrived, which I had so long given over for lost, with all her crew; but they were so terrified, that I had no hopes of their being fit for service in any reasonable time. The officer had no excuse for not returning as soon as he had got a sight of the town, but that the tide hurried him away at unawares, and that in the fright he had forgot he had a graplin in the boat to come to with, till the tide had shifted. I said but little to him; and only made the officer sensible of his mismanagement, which had been the ruin of the advantageous views I might have had, in taking either Chacao or Calibuco.

December 16, we had now our decks full of live cattle, such as European sheep, hogs, guanicoes, poultry in abundance, and hams, &c. as also a good quantity of wheat, barley, potatoes, maize, or Indian corn; and, in short, I computed that I had added four months provisions to what remained of our English stock, and that without the least hindrance or molestation from the enemy.

December 17, we began to unmoor, and at noon we weighed, and sailed out with the wind at W. S. W. The night before we departed, one of our men made his escape into the woods. It was beyond all dispute that this fellow would give a full account of us. This, added to the ill conduct of my Lieutenant, together with the contrary execution of all my orders, by those officers whom I had hitherto entrusted in affairs of importance, made me despair of ever having any thing done to purpose; and on this occasion, I could not forbear reflecting on the mismanagement of some gentlemen in England, who blindly made use of their interest to prefer persons to posts for which they were utterly unfit.

I sailed from Chiloe with a design to go straight to the island of Juan Fernandez, but was prevented by my people, who were possessed with notions of vast advantages to be made by going to the port of Conception. It was our Frenchman, who had been so instrumental in our Chiloenian attempt, who was the cause of this. Finding his accounts hitherto tolerably just, they once more listened to him; and every one of my ship’s company, who could say any thing at this juncture, did not fail to speak his mind somewhat insolently; particularly William Morphew, one of the men I had out of the Ruby, and who had been in these seas several years, took upon him to tell me that it could not signify much whether we arrived two or three days sooner or later at Juan Fernandez; that I was a stranger here, but that the Frenchman and himself were so well acquainted with these seas, that every body hoped I would be advised and go to Conception, and not put a mere punctilio to orders in the balance against a certainty of success, if we were so happy as to arrive at that port in time. Considering now how easily they might be brought to throw off command, and how little I should be able to help myself, alone, as I might be said to be, if they came to that extremity, I complied with them, and resolved to spend two or three days in going to Conception; and, on December the 23d, we came abreast of the Teats of Bio Bio, and in the evening arrived in the bay, from whence I ordered the boats, well manned and armed, to go up in the night to surprize what ships or vessels might be in the harbour, and to make what observations they could concerning the place.

About noon, Captain Hatley returned in the pinnace, and informed me he had taken the Solidad d’Anday, of 150 tons, the only ship in the road or port, lately come from Baldivia, laden with timber; had no body on board except the boatswain, an old negroe, and two Indian boys. He took also a small vessel of about 25 tons, near the island of Quiriquine, which belonged to a priest who had been gathering fruits, and was now made a prisoner in her, together with four or five Indians. This vessel we found very useful, and called her the Mercury, being well built, and ready upon all occasions to look into port. There was another small vessel that passed within pistol-shot, but Capt. Hatley never once offered to follow her, or bring her to. Hatley, truly, said, he did not mind her, though his boat’s crew all agreed she was full of men. This vessel was bringing advice of us from Chiloe. I did not fail to reprimand him for this, but to what effect!

Dec. 26, the priest being very solicitous to ransom his bark, he left my ship in the morning, and, in my pinnace rowed by Indians, went ashore to get money for that purpose. At noon, Mr. Brooks, first Lieutenant, brought down the ship we had taken, and anchored her about half a mile short of us. The boatswain of her had not been on board above two hours before he gave me information of a vessel laden with wine, brandy, and other valuable things, bound to the island of Chiloe, lying at anchor in the bay of Herradura, about two leagues to the northward of us. Thither I ordered Mr. Randall, our second Lieutenant, with the boatswain of the Solidad, and 25 men, to go; with positive orders not to set a foot on shore, or make any hazardous attempt whatever. But the next evening they returned with a dismal story, that they went into the bay, and finding the vessel hauled dry on shore, the officer ordered his people to land, and bring away what they could out of her; but their career was soon stopped; for they had no sooner got upon the bank, than they discovered the enemy rushing out furiously upon them. They all escaped except five, who were overtaken in shoal water, and they all agreed that those five were cut to pieces. The Spaniards came down upon them, preceded by 20 or 30 horses a-breast, linked to each other. These were two deep; then came the enemy, mounted, and lying upon their horses necks, driving the others before them. They were not once seen to sit upright in their saddles, except when there was no danger, or to fire their musquets. This new addition to our misfortunes quite dispirited the greatest part of my ship’s company. Nothing was now heard but murmuring, and damning the South Seas, and declaring that, if this was making their fortune, they had better have staid at home and begged about the streets; but just as I was expostulating with Mr. Randall, who conducted this unfortunate undertaking, I was agreeably surprized with the sight of a large ship, which we saw coming about the northernmost point of the island of Quiriquine. It was almost dark, and she could not perceive what we were, so that she stood towards us without fear. As soon as she approached near enough, I hailed her, to which she returned no answer, and I fired into her. This was no sooner done, than she came to, and called for quarter. She was called the St. Fermin, came from Callao, burthen about 300 tons, and laden with sugar, melasses, rice, coarse French linnen, and some cloths of Quito, together with a small quantity of chocolate, and about 5 or 6000 dollars in money and wrought plate. I sent Mr. Hendry (the agent for prizes) to inspect her lading, and to order every thing he could find valuable out of her, and the ship’s company sent their agent likewise. In the afternoon they returned, and brought all the bales, boxes, chests, portmanteaus, &c. that were in her; and also all the rice, with a large quantity of sugar, melasses, and chocolate, and about 7000 weight of good rusk, with all her eatables, and stores.

Don Francisco Larrayn, her Captain, desired to ransom his ship, to which I willingly consented, and suffered him to go in his own launch to raise money for that purpose.

Dec. 30, there came a boat with an officer and a flag of truce, who brought word that three only of our people in the skirmish at Harradura were killed, the other two wounded, and in a fair way of recovery, and that the boat had brought advice of us, as I suspected, from that island. The officer brought me seven jars of very good wine, a present from the Governor, and a letter full of civility, but written with a great deal of craft. He desired to see my commission, and then he would treat with me according to the laws of arms.

January 1, Captain Betagh went to Conception with a copy of my commission, the declaration of war, &c. and soon after he returned with a Flemish jesuit, a Spanish lawyer, and an Englishman and a Scotchman. The jesuit assured me he was only come to pay his respects to me, and to do his utmost to promote the affair of the ransom, and bring it to an immediate conclusion. Therefore the first thing I did, was to shew my commission to the Englishman, who read it in Spanish. The jesuit then told me, that the Captains of the St. Fermin and Solidad had resolved to give me 12,000 dollars for the ransom of both the ships, and the Mercury included, instead of 16000 dollars which I had insisted on for the St. Fermin only. To this I positively answered, that all their persuasions, artifices, and pretences, should never make me agree with them. We had taken in the St. Fermin, ten large silver candlesticks, each of them weighing above twenty-five pounds sterling. The holy father, in a suppliant manner, represented to me that they were a legacy to his convent, and hoped I would make no dispute of so noble a charity as it would be to put them into the possession of those for whom they were designed. I offered to let him have them for their weight in dollars, which, considering the great price they pay in those parts for the fashion of wrought plate, was a very advantageous offer. But he said they never bought any thing for sacred uses; and that, as the workmen put a great deal of allay into plate, it would be difficult to determine the different values of the dollars and the candlesticks; so, after a deal of needless dispute and entreaties, both about this, and the ransom of the ships, the jesuit and the rest affirming that the Captains of the St. Fermin, &c. were not able to raise above 12,000 dollars, there was nothing done.

Two days passing without news from the Governor, I began to be certainly convinced they had something else in view more than the accommodation of the ransoms; but on January the 4th, my two wounded men came on board, and with them brought a letter, importing, that, as he had now sent back the prisoners, he hoped no difficulty would remain to prevent my sending on shore all the prisoners belonging to him.

January 6, the morning passed away without any news from the town. I now began to make preparations for sailing, and in those preparations spent the greatest part of the day. There being no appearance of any boat coming off to us, I ordered the St. Fermin to be set on fire. Her cotton sails being loosed, made a prodigious blaze. I had already set fire to the Solidad, to quicken their motions; and now, having concluded the treaty, I immediately got under sail, much chagrined at the loss of so many days without reaping any advantage. I was afterwards informed, that, if they had thought I would have destroyed the St. Fermin, they would have given even 20 or 30,000 dollars to have saved her; for she was one of the best sailers and the best fitted out ship of any of the Peruvian traders. I now directed our course to the island of Juan Fernandez, taking the Mercury with us.

January 8, the sea was all day perfectly red, appearing as if vast quantities of blood had been thrown into it, and curdled by the water. This, the Spaniards say, is occasioned by the spawn of prawns, which must certainly be a mistake. In our passage, the plunder was sold before the mast, by the ship’s company’s agent, at very extravagant prices. At the same time the account of every thing being taken, and the value of the shares calculated, the ship’s company desired me to let them have their dividend, according to the articles at St. Catherine’s, which request I could not withstand. The prize-money and plunder amounting to ten pieces of eight per share, was thereupon distributed; and all the bales of coarse cloth, bays, linnen, ribbons, lace, silk, and several other sorts of mercery wares, were equally divided, half to the owners, and half to the ship’s company.

Jan. 11, at six in the morning, we saw the island of Juan Fernandez, and from that day till the 15th I kept standing off and on the shore for my boats, which were a fishing, who not having hitherto discovered any marks whereby we might conclude that Clipperton had been here, I thought it proper to render my coming hither serviceable in some respect, and therefore sent the Mercury on shore to stop her leaks, while the boats continued catching fish, of which we salted as much as filled five puncheons. At length, going on shore to make a nicer search, some of my men accidentally saw the word Magee, which was the name of Clipperton’s surgeon, and Capt. John cut out under it upon a tree, but no directions left, as was agreed on by him in his instructions to me. His actions being thus grosly repugnant to his instructions, it was evident he never meant I should keep him company, or ever join with him again.⁠—[This reflection may with great justice be retorted on the writer himself, and can in no shape affect Clipperton who followed his instructions in the most scrupulous manner.]⁠—However, being by this confirmed in the certainty of Clipperton’s arrival, I directly made the best of my way, and sailed to the northward.

Jan. 21, having a design to look into Copiapo as I went along shore, I sent Mr. Dodd, second Lieutenant of marines, with eight men, as a reinforcement to the Mercury’s crew, and the next evening they left us steering in for the land, whilst I kept a proper offing, to prevent our being discovered. The next day the officer returned and told me, he had looked into the port, but could see no shipping there, upon which I made him sensible of his error, and sent him to the right place, which was about six leagues to the northward of us, and ordered him to be ready to look into Caldera by day-light the next morning. They did so, and saw nothing; but, instead of making use of the land wind to come off to me, they kept along shore, till the sea breeze came on, and could not come to me till the morning after, by which means they hindered me almost a whole day and night’s sailing; and in this vexatious manner were my orders always executed!

Feb. 5th, I dispatched Mr. Brooks a-head to discover if there were any shipping at Arica, and next day, I had a sight of the head-land of Arica, and the island of Guano, with a ship at anchor on the northern side of it, and saw the Mercury standing out of the bay, by which I judged the ship was too warm for her, and therefore made all possible haste to get up to her with our ship. When I came into the port, I found her already taken, and that the Mercury only went accidentally adrift. This prize was called the Rosario, of about 100 tons, laden with cormorants dung, which the Spaniards call guana, and is brought from the island of Iquique, for the culture of the agi, or cod-pepper, in the vale of Arica. There was no white face in her but the pilot, whom I sent to see if her owner would ransom her. At seven o’clock in the morning I received a letter from the owner, expressing his poverty, and declaring his readiness to comply to the utmost of his power: and the honest man was as good as his word.

I agreed upon restoring to him his ship, and six negroes, for 1500 pieces of eight; and he was so punctual and expeditious, that at 10 the next night he brought the sum agreed on. Soon after the receipt of this, we took a vessel of about 10 tons, as she was coming into the road, with a cargo of dried fish and guana, within a mile of the town. The master of this bark likewise came off upon a balse, which is an odd sort of an embarkation made of two large seal-skins separately blown up like bladders, and then made fast and joined together by a frame of wood. On this he brought off two jars of brandy, and 40 pieces of eight, for his ransom, which, considering his mean appearance, was as much as I could have expected. One part of his freight was valuable, which was his dried fish.

Feb. 9, 1720, I sailed from Arica, and as I went out, the inhabitants placed themselves round the bay, and made a very good hedge fire after me for about half an hour. I judged there could not be less than 5 or 600 of them. I shaped my course for the road of Hilo, which we had a sight of the next day at three in the afternoon, where we saw one large ship and three small ones at anchor. The great ship immediately hoisted French colours, and in the end proved to be the Sage Solomon, of 40 guns, commanded by Mons. Dumain, whom I had left at St. Catherine’s, and who was now resolved to protect the vessels that were with him, and obstruct my coming in. I at first thought of shewing my resentment, but, upon second thoughts, I clapped the helm a-weather, and stood out to sea.

Feb. 12, in the morning, the ship’s company had their moiety of the money taken at Arica divided amongst them, according to their number of shares.

Feb. 22, I came a-breast of Callao, the port for Lima, which is the metropolis of Peru; but there being no great prospect of performing much here in our present situation, I had nothing to do but to slip away from hence in the night, by the help of a favourable breeze.

Feb. 26, the officers in the Mercury desired to be relieved, and it being Capt. Hatley’s turn to go in her, he proposed to me that he might continue along shore, till we had got the length of Lobos, an island in about seven degrees of south latitude. I could not but approve of this, considering the probability there was of his meeting with the Panama ships; and every body being well pleased, I added to their complement of men, and gave them a month’s provisions, and mounted two of our quarter-deck guns on the Mercury, and lent Captain Hatley my pinnace. As soon as every thing was ready for their departure, Captain Betagh, whose duty and turn it was to relieve the marine officer in the Mercury, being unwilling to go on this party, addressed himself to the people, and with a fearful countenance told them, that he, and the rest who were to go with him, were sent for a sacrifice, with many other expressions tending to create a general mutiny. I now imagined no less than that he was about to act what he had threatened when he told me, it should be a short voyage with me; and, therefore, I addressed myself to the ship’s company, desired to know who amongst them were of Betagh’s opinion? Their answer was with one voice, None. This done, I ordered the Mercury alongside, and Hatley and Betagh went on board of her; and, putting off from us, gave three cheers, and stood right in for the land, in the latitude by observation of 10 deg. 9 min. S.

The very next day they took a small bark laden with rice, chocolate, wheat, flour, and the like. The day following they took another. On the fourth day of their absence they became masters of a ship of near 200 tons, worth 150,000 pieces of eight. Flushed with this success, it seems Betagh prevailed on Hatley, and the greatest part of the people with them, to lay hold of this opportunity and go to India: but they no sooner clapped their helm a-weather, than they saw a sail standing towards them, which, in short, proved to be a Spanish man-of-war, who caught them, and put an end to their Indian voyage. The English were treated very indifferently; but Betagh, it seems, who was of their religion, and of a nation which the Spaniards affect to be fond of, was made an officer, and used very respectfully. This he certainly deserved at their hands; for he gave them an account of the whole scheme of our voyage; and not only informed them of what we had done, but also of what I designed to do; so that they did not doubt but I myself should be in their hands very speedily.

Feb. 29, at six in the morning, we saw a sail at anchor in the road of Guanchaco; at eleven we came up, and anchored along side of her. There was no body on board of her but two Indian men and a boy. They informed us, there was a rich ship in the cove of Payta.

March 21, at three in the afternoon, we saw the Pena Oradado, or the Hole in the Rock; and in an hour afterwards, we entered the cove of Payta with French colours flying. There we found only a small ship at anchor with her fore-mast out, and her main-top-mast unrigged; but the taking of this town being considered in the scheme of our voyage as a matter of great importance, I consulted with my officers concerning the properest methods of going about it. At two of the clock the next morning I landed with 46 men, leaving Mr. Coldsea the master, and some others, to bring the ship nearer in, that we might the more expeditiously embark the plunder we might get. Being now on shore, I marched up to the great church without meeting any opposition; and indeed I found the town entirely deserted by the inhabitants. At day-light we saw what seemed great bodies of men on the hills, on each side of us, who, I expected, when they had viewed our strength, would have paid us a visit; but I found, that as we marched up towards them, we drove them before us. The remainder of the day was spent in shipping off what plunder we had got, which consisted of hogs, fowls, brown and white calavances, beans, Indian corn, wheat, flour, sugar, and as much cocoa-nut as we were able to stow away, with pans, and other conveniences for preparing it; so that we were supplied with breakfast-meat for the whole voyage, and full of provisions of one kind or other. In the afternoon there came to us a messenger, to know what I would take for the ransom of the town and ship; to which I answered, I would have 10,000 pieces of eight, and those to be paid in twenty-four hours, if they intended to save the town, or ship either. But the Governor gave me to understand in plain terms, that he neither could nor would ransom the town, and did not care what I did with it, so that I spared the churches. Having received this negative answer, and got every thing serviceable out of the town, I instantly ordered it to be set on fire; and the houses, being extremely dry, consumed away apace. But no sooner was Payta in a blaze than those on board made signals for me to come off, and kept incessantly firing towards the mouth of the harbour. Upon which I ordered all hands off, and went first on board myself in a canoe, with three men only; but, before I had got half way, saw a large ship lying with her fore-top-sail aback, and with a Spanish flag flying at her fore-top-mast-head. At this prospect, two of my three people were ready to sink; and when I looked back on the town, I could not forbear wishing that I had not been so hasty. As the Admiral was coming in with all his sails spread, Mr. Coldsea, by the assistance of the few on board, fired at him so smartly, that he stopped the enemy’s career. The Spaniard apprehending he should have hot work with us, brought his ship to, that he might put himself into a condition of making a vigorous attack upon us. This inactivity of the enemy gave me an opportunity of getting on board, and suffered my men to come off, about 50 in number, but the Spaniard was within pistol-shot before they had all got into the ship; upon which, we cut our cable, and our ship falling the wrong way, I had but just room enough to fill clear of him. Being now close by one another, his formidable appearance struck an universal damp on every one’s spirits; and I myself could foresee nothing but that we should be torn to pieces by him, and longed for an opportunity to try our heels with him, whilst our masts were standing. I expected every minute that he would board us, and, upon hearing a shouting amongst them, and seeing their forecastle full of men, I concluded they had now come to that resolution; but I presently saw that the occasion of this joy was their having shot down our ensign-staff; upon which, they, seeing our ensign trailing in the water, were in hopes we had struck: but I soon undeceived them, by spreading a new ensign in the mizzen shrouds. Upon sight of this they lay snug, and held their way close upon our quarter; at last, designing to do our business at once, they clapped their helm well a starboard, to bring their whole broadside to point at us; but their fire had little or no effect. All stood fast with us, and they muzzled themselves; which gave me time both to get a-head, and to windward of him, before he could fill his sails again; and now I found, that, if our masts, which were by this time but slenderly supported, would bear what sail we had abroad, we should soon steal away from him. After this he was in a great hurry to get his spritsail-yard fore and aft, threatening us very hard, and plying us with his fore-chace: but we soon were out of his reach, and all hands were immediately employed in repairing our damages. This ship was called the Peregrine, of 56 guns, with upwards of 450 men on board of her.

During this action, we had not a man killed or wounded, although the enemy often hulled us, and once, in particular, a shot coming into one of our ports, dismounted one of our guns between decks, tearing off the nut of the gun, and breaking itself into a great many pieces, which flew fore and aft in the midst of a crowd of people, without hurting any one of them. Our stern was also much shattered, and our rigging much disabled. Our main-mast was a little wounded, yet stood a long while with only one good shroud to support it; our fore-mast fared little better, yet I kept all the canvas, except the main-top-gallant-sail, at hard bats-end. An unlucky shot took the bow of our launch, as she lay upon the quarter, and set fire to some cartridges of powder, which were negligently left in her, and which blew away her moorings, and we lost her. Seeing a great smoke arise on the quarter, I at first imagined some accident had happened within board. In short, in about three glasses we got quite clear of the Admiral, who tacked, and stood in for Payta, and we shortened sail. A narrower escape from an enemy could not well have been made, considering the vast difference between us, as to force. The Spaniard had 56 guns; we, on the contrary, had but 20 mounted: they had 450 men; we, on our part, did not exceed 73; and 11 negroes and two Indians were included in that number. He had farther this great odds over us, of being in a settled readiness, whilst we were in the utmost confusion. As for our small arms, they were wet and useless to us; and, what is more, in the midst of the engagement, one third of my people, instead of fighting, were hard at work, to make farther preparation for an obstinate resistance, if we had been pushed to extremities; and particularly the carpenter and his crew were busied in making ports for stern-chace-guns, which, as it happened, we made no use of. Upon the whole, we had the good fortune to escape this danger, which was the more to be dreaded, because, as we had set fire to the town, they were probably exasperated upon the account of the churches, which I never intended to destroy; and, if I had fallen into their hands, they might have given us but uncomfortable quarters. At the best, however, it cannot but be allowed to have been a most unfortunate disaster. The loss of my boat and anchor was irreparable, and may be said to be the cause of that scene of trouble which will take up the remainder of this narrative; for we had now but one anchor, that at Payta being the third we had lost, and were besides entirely destitute of a boat of any kind.

At five, the same evening, we saw a sail under our lee-bow, which I took to be the prize we had left to cruise for us near the Saddle of Payta; and we, therefore, stood to the westward all night, and the next morning we saw two sail a-stern of us. I tacked, and stood towards them, and in a little time could see that one of them was standing in for Payta, while the other kept stemming with us; but the nearer I approached her, the less I liked her, and could not but think it adviseable to put my ship about, and crowd sail from her. However, she gained upon us, and advanced near enough to shew us she was the Brilliant, the Admiral’s consort. She was a French-built ship, of 36 guns, manned with people of that nation, and other Europeans. She was handsomely rigged, which is rare to be seen in those parts, and sailed almost two foot for our one; so that, notwithstanding we had almost a calm all the heat of the day, she neared us apace. But, night coming on, I made use of the old stratagem (I thought it might be new here), of turning a light adrift in a half tub, instead of a boat, darkening one part of the lanthorn, that it might the more appear to be a ship’s light, and then immediately altered my course. As the day broke I handed all my sails, and in full day-light could perceive nothing of the enemy. This was the ship wherein Betagh, my late Captain of marines, was so much respected; and by his advice it was, as I have been told, that the Admiral ordered his consort to ply up to windward to Lobos, our first place of rendezvous, whilst he himself came to Payta in search of us. This separation, though intended as a sure means to catch us, proved to be very fortunately the means of our preservation.

Being thus closely pursued, I took an offing of thirty leagues from the shore, and then brought to, to consider what I had best to do. I was still in the dark, as to my consort; an embargo, as I was told at Payta, was laid on all shipping to leeward for the term of six months; and our prize, which I designed to make a fire-ship of, was taken by the Brilliant; I had but one anchor, and no boat at all; and I was as yet ignorant of what had become of the Mercury.

In the midst of all this peril and perplexity, I called my officers together, to let them know, it was my opinion, we had, as we were thus circumstanced, a much better prospect to the windward than to the leeward; that on the coast of Chili we should not be in the least suspected, and should, at the same time, in the most effectual manner, escape the enemy’s men-of-war; that, after taking in water at Juan Fernandez, we might cruise out the whole season off the ports of Conception, Valparaiso, and Coquimbo, where among the shipping we might be stocked with anchors, cables, boats, and a vessel to make a fire-ship of, on which I mightily depended. All this being universally approved of, we got our tacks on board, and stretched away to windward.

My intentions after this were fixed upon the coast of Mexico. There I proposed to run the height of Tres Marias and California, as the most likely places to meet with the Success. These two places would have been commodious; the first for salting of turtle, and the last for wooding and watering at, and for laying myself in the track of the Manilla ship, which, if I should have had the fortune to meet with, and, having a fire-ship with me, I would have tried what I could have done with her.

March 26, having well secured our mast, and bent a new suit of sails, we stood to the southward, expecting to gain our passage to windward in about five weeks.

March 31, as they were pumping the ship, the water which came out of the well, was not only in greater quantity than usual, but was also as black as ink. This made me judge that some water had got to our powder; and accordingly going into the powder-room, we heard the water come in like a little sluice. This had quite spoiled the greatest part of our powder; so that we only saved the quantity of six barrels. We found upon search a leak to be on the bow, under the lower cheek of the head, occasioned by a shot which had been lodged there in our late engagement, and which falling out by the working of the ship in an head sea, had left room for a stream of water; but we brought the ship by the stern, and, with great difficulty, stopped it securely.

May 11, we saw the great island of Juan Fernandez, bearing east half south. Here I plied on and off till the 21st, but could not get off as much water as we daily expended.

May 21, a hard gale of wind came out of the sea upon us, and brought in with it a tumbling swell; so that in a few hours, our cable, which was never wet before, parted, and inevitable shipwreck appeared before our eyes. But Providence so far interposed in our behalf, that, if we had struck but a cable’s length farther to the eastward or westward of the place where we did strike, we must certainly all have perished. Our main-mast, fore-mast, and mizzen-top-mast, went all away together; and happy it was for us that they did so; for, by making them serve by way of raft, and by the help of those who were ashore before the wind came on, we were all saved, except one man. In the midst of this surprize, the first thing I took care of, was my commission; and, remembering the powder to be uppermost in the bread-room, I got most of it up, with about seven or eight bags of bread: these we saved, as the ship did not come to pieces immediately. In a few minutes, however, after she first struck, she was full of water. We saved, notwithstanding, two or three compasses, some of our mathematical instruments, and books.

When we first got on shore, we were without any one thing necessary for our relief; not so much as a seat whereon to rest our harrassed limbs, except the wet ground, which, as far as we could see, was also like to be our bed and pillow, and indeed it proved to be so.

In the evening, all the officers came to consult with me, how we should get some necessaries out of the wreck; and, having by this time lighted a fire, we wrapt ourselves in what we could get, laid ourselves round it, and, notwithstanding the badness of the weather, we slept very soundly; but, the next morning, getting up with the first glimpse of day-light, we looked at each other like men awakened out of a dream; so great and so sudden was the melancholy change in our condition, that we could scarce trust to our senses.

I went immediately among the people to set them about the work we had resolved upon the night before; but they were so scattered, there was no getting them together, or we might, probably, have regained all our beef and pork. This opportunity, however, was lost, by their eagerness to build huts and tents, in order to settle themselves for good; for, while they were thus employed, a furious gale of wind came on, which destroyed all the provisions in the ship, except one cask of beef, and one of farina de pao, which were washed whole on the strand. I had saved 1100 dollars belonging to the gentlemen adventurers, which were kept in my chest in the great cabbin; the rest, being in the bottom of the bread-room for security, could not possibly be come at. I need not say how disconsolate my reflections were on the sad accident that had happened. My first thoughts were on the means whereby to preserve our lives, and on some scheme of œconomy to be observed amongst the people, in relation to the distribution of such quantities of provisions as should from time to time be obtained.

I found a very commodious spot of ground about half a mile from the sea, on which I set up my tent. There was a fine run of water within a stone’s cast of it on each side, with firing near at hand, and trees proper for our use. The people settled within call about me, in as good a manner as they could: and having all secured ourselves against the inclemency of the weather, we used to pass our time in the evening round a great fire, roasting craw-fish in the embers.

I now began to think of building such a vessel from the wreck as might carry us all off at once from this island; and for that purpose consulted with the carpenter; but was astonished at his answer, ‘he could not make brick, he said, without straw,’ and walked away from me in a surly humour. From him I went to the armourer, and asked him what he could do towards building a small vessel for us; to which he answered, that he hoped he could do all the iron-work; that he had, with much labour, got his bellows out of the wreck, and that he did not doubt but we should find a great many other useful things, when we came to set about a search for them in good earnest.

June 8, we laid the blocks to build upon, and had the bowsprit ready. The carpenter for a little while went on with seeming good temper, but suddenly turning short upon me as I stood by him, he swore a great oath, he would not strike another stroke, ‘he truly would be no body’s slave, and thought himself now upon a footing with myself.’ This provoked me to use him a little roughly with my cane; but afterwards came to an agreement with him to give a four-pistole piece as soon as the stem and stern-post were up, and 100 pieces of eight when the bark was finished. He then went to work on the keel, and in two months time we made a tolerable show, owing to the diligence and ingenuity of Popplestone, the armourer, who made us hammers, chissels, files, gimlets, bullet-moulds, and an instrument to bore our cartouch-boxes. These last we covered with seals skins, and contrived them so as to be both handy and neat. He, besides all this, began and finished with his own hands, a large serviceable boat, which was what we very much stood in need of.

For a few days the people behaved themselves very regularly and diligently, half of them working one day, and half another. But the time soon arrived when we fell into such confusion and outrageous disorder, that it was a miracle we ever got off from this place by any assistance of our own; for, one afternoon, I missed all the people, and could see no body but Mr. Adams, our surgeon, Mr. Hendry the agent, my son, and Mr. Dodd, lieutenant of marines, who, for some reasons best known to himself, had a mind to act the madman. At night I was informed, they had assembled together at a great tree, had formed a new regulation and new articles, had excluded the gentlemen adventurers in England from having any part of what we should take for the future, and had divested me of the authority of their Captain, having regulated themselves according to the discipline of Jamaica. They had chosen Morphew to be their champion and speaker. This man addressed himself to me, and told me, ‘that, as the Speedwell was cast away, they were now of consequence at their own disposal, so that their obligations to the owners and me were of no validity, the ship being now no more; they therefore, he said, had now thought fit to frame such articles as would be most conducive to their own interest; and, if I would sign them, well; if not, they would not trust themselves under my conduct, as they should always be apprehensive that I should serve them as Clipperton had served some of his men, who (they heard) happening to be taken separately, he denied them, and suffered eight of them to be hanged as pirates before his face.’

In these articles, besides casting off the owners, I found myself reduced from sixty shares to six; and I at last was at a loss what to do in this dilemma; but I found myself under an indispensible necessity of signing the articles, in order to get off from the island, where otherwise I might have been forcibly left behind.

And now, having very unwillingly satisfied them in all I thought they could ask, I recommended to them the vessel we had begun, not doubting but after this they would have used their constant endeavours to finish her, that they might have an opportunity of putting their project in execution; and they said they would.

But early the next morning, going down to the beach as usual, and expecting to find every one employed, I saw none of them, except the carpenter, and two or three more; for, notwithstanding they were abettors of the designs that were carrying on, yet the hopes of a little money from me had made them work pretty diligently, though I cannot say they fatigued themselves. Upon enquiry, I was informed, that the rest of the people were again adjourned to the great tree; and it was not long before I was made acquainted with the result of their meeting; for, betimes the next morning, they surrounded my tent, while Morphew, and Stewart, their agent, came in to me, and told me, They came in the name of all the people to demand every thing belonging to the gentlemen adventurers out of my possession, and particularly 750 weight in Pinna or virgin silver, a silver dish weighing 75 ounces, and 250 dollars in money. I did not easily part with all this: but they desired I would make no dispute; for, as all this came out of the wreck, they insisted, the owners could have nothing to do with it, and they were determined to have it. In short, I was obliged to give it all up, and they shared it amongst them that very moment, according to their new regulation.

After this, they entirely destroyed what little power they had allowed me over them; and the meanest of them were taught they were as good as I. They sometimes denied me a quota of the fish, and wondered I could not go out to catch it as well as they; at best, they would give my servant who used to fetch it but the leavings, after they had chosen the prime: and, to complete their insults, my first lieutenant, who used sometimes to eat with me, entirely deserted my mess to join Morphew, to partake of his better fare.

Quite tired out with their incessant mutinies, I became at length so desperate, that I began to think of preferring the dangers of the sea, in a small open boat, to what I thought myself exposed to on this place from my ship’s company. I apprehended, they would never rest till they had made themselves entirely their own masters, by privately making away with me; and this made me melancholy and pensive, preparing myself for the worst that could happen. They perceiving this change in me, grew suspicious that I was now contriving some means to reduce them; and, therefore, they determined to get the arms out of my possession. To this purpose they all came in a body, headed by Brooks and Morphew, who, in the presence of all the people, used me with insupportable impudence; and even went so far as to threaten the life of my son, for only telling Morphew, that every one present had not chosen him for his speaker.

Having gained that point also, they had the pleasure of squandering away their time, and powder and shot, in firing at cats, or any thing else, to waste the ammunition.

What I have now related, is the substance of what occurred from May 24 till August 15, when we had sight of a large ship, which put us into a great hurry, and gave us a considerable alarm. Before she crossed the bay, I ordered all the fires to be put out, and confined the negroes and Indians, lest the ship should be becalmed under the land, and any of them should attempt to swim off to her. However, I was not long in fear, for she kept away large, and at too great a distance to perceive any thing distinctly of us.

On this occasion I got most of the people under arms, and was glad to see so many of them, in some measure, obedient to command. I told them, I was pleased to see their arms in such good order; to which they answered impertinently, that it was for their own sakes. But this alarm was scarce subsided before they became divided among themselves. The question started was, whether or no the bark should be carried on, or, whether they should not build two large shallops, and set what was done of the bark on fire. The workmen, and a considerable majority of the rest, sided with me in behalf of the bark: but at night the carpenter sent me word, that, if I did not deliver him the money agreed on at the beginning, notwithstanding the terms of the payment of it were not yet fulfilled, I should not see his face again; so I was obliged to treat this gentleman as he pleased to have me, and raise the money for him.

To complete the number of our divisions and dissentions, there arose a third party, who were resolved to have nothing to do with the other two, they purposing to stay on the island. These were to the number of 12, who accordingly separated themselves from the rest, and never appeared amongst us, except in the night, when they used to come about our tents, and the bark we were building, to steal powder, lead, and axes, and in short, whatever else they could lay their hands on. These, however, I found means to manage, and took from them all their arms, ammunition, and the rest of their plunder, and threatened, that, if they were found within musquet-shot of our tents, they should be treated as enemies.

In a little time these divisions had so far weakened the whole body, that, by degrees, they began to listen a little to what I said to them; and I prevailed so far as to get most of them into a working humour. Mr. Brooks now came with a feigned submission, and desired he might eat with me again; but this, in the main, abated nothing of his esteem for Morphew. His dissimulation, however, proved of signal service, as it contributed to the speedy finishing of the bark. This claimed the assistance of all our heads and hands; for when we came to plank her bottom, we had most disheartening difficulties to encounter; for, having no plank but pieces of the wreck’s deck, we found it so dry and stubborn, that fire and water had scarce any effect in making it pliable and fit for use. It rent and split, and flew like glass; so that now I had sufficient reasons to believe, after all our labour, that we must patiently wait to be taken off from hence by some Spanish ship, and, after all our troubles, be led to a prison, to reflect on our misfortunes past. However, by constant labour, and a variety of contrivances, we, in the end, patched our bark up in such a manner, than I dare say the like was never seen, and I may venture to affirm, that such a bottom never swam on the surface of the sea before.

Sept. 9, the boat, which I have already mentioned to be begun by the armourer, was launched; and, being now in a fair way of compleating our bark, there yet remained unconsidered and undetermined, what provisions we should get to support us in our present voyage. All the stock we had consisted of but one cask of beef, five or six bushels of farina or Cassader flour, together with four or five live hogs.

I made several experiments to cure both fish and seal, but found it impossible. At length, we luckily thought on a method of curing the conger-eel, by splitting it, and taking out the back bone, then dipping it in salt-water, and afterwards hanging it up to dry in a great smoke. As no other fish could be preserved after this manner, the fishermen were ordered to catch what congers they could. And now several of the people, who had not yet struck a stroke, began to repent of their folly, as they grew weary of living on this place, and offered their service to go a-fishing, every one making some foolish excuse or other, for having been so long idle. The new boat being sent to try her fortune, returned at night, and brought in a great parcel of fish of several sorts, amongst which were 200 conger-eels. This was a good beginning, and every tent took a proportion of them to cure.

Having this conveniency of a large boat, I desired Mr. Brooks, our only diver, to try what he could recover from that part of the wreck which lay under water. He accordingly undertook it, and could find but one small gun, which he weighed and brought on shore, together with two pieces of a large church-candlestick, which was a part of the plate which belonged to the gentlemen adventurers.

Our boat was now daily employed in fishing. The armourer constantly supplied them with hooks, and there was no want of lines, which were made of twisted ribbon. In the mean time, those who were ashore, made twice layed stuff for rigging and other uses. We patched up the canvas for sails; the cooper completed his casks; and, in a short time, we had masts an-end tolerably well rigged, and thought we made a comfortable figure.

And now, having done all we could, when we came to put in water, to try the tightness of our work, it was followed by an universal outcry, A sieve! a sieve! I was afraid the people would have despaired, and desisted from using any farther means: but, in a little time, and by incessant labour, we repaired the ship’s pumps, and fitted them to our bark. The next spring-tide we found means to launch her, which fell out on the 5th of October, by which time we had saved about 2300 conger-eels, weighing, one with another, about one pound each, and made about 60 gallons of seals oil to fry them in. This, with what I mentioned before, was all our sea-stock. As she went off the blocks, I named her the Recovery, though I was sadly afraid of hearing ill news from those afloat in her; but all proved indifferently well; and, knowing it to be dangerous for her to lie here long, especially having no other anchor than a great stone, and a slight rope to hold her with, and that the least puff of wind might have driven and destroyed her upon the rocks, we got all the water off that day, which we did so much easier and quicker, because the casks were ready stowed in the hold. She had two masts, and was of about the burthen, of twenty tons; and, to my great satisfaction, I found, that one pump, constantly working, kept her free. The next day, October the 6th, we got every one on board and embarked, leaving behind us eleven or twelve of those who had deserted us. They were deaf to all persuasions; and, in short, sent me word, ‘They were not yet prepared for the other world;’ so they, with the like number of blacks and Indians, remained behind on the island.

This island enjoys a fine wholesome air, insomuch that, out of 70 of us that were on it for the space of five months and eleven days, not one of us had an hour’s sickness, notwithstanding we fed on foul diet, without bread or salt. For my own part, I must acknowledge the bounty of Providence; for, although I lost much of my flesh, I became one of the strongest and most active men on the island, from being before very corpulent, and almost crippled with the gout. On the tops of some of the mountains of this island, are plains covered with groves of the Italian laurel. Palm-trees are likewise found in most parts, growing in smooth joints like a cane, some 30, some 40 feet high. What seamen call palm-cabbage is the very substance of the head of this tree, which being cut off, you find inclosed a white and tender young cabbage: but, for every one we got, we were obliged to cut down a fine lofty tree.

The northern part of this island is very well watered, and the water keeps well at sea, and is, I dare say, as good as any in the world. Down the western peak descend two cascades, to appearance, at least 300 feet perpendicular; which, with the palm-trees that grow up close by the edges of them, exhibit a very grand and romantic prospect.

We might have found goats enough in the mountains, if we had been able to follow them; and cats are so numerous, that there is hardly taking a step without starting one. Those whose stomachs could bear their flesh for food, found a more substantial relief from hunger by one meal of it, than from four or five of fish.

The Spaniards, who first flocked this island with goats, have since endeavoured to destroy these goats by dogs, which are likewise very numerous; but the goats have many inaccessible places of refuge, where no dogs can follow them; and they still continue to afford a plentiful supply to strangers.

While we were here, it was the season for the sea-lionesses to come to land, to bring forth their young. These have bodies of a monstrous bulk, being from 10 to 12 feet long, and near as much in circumference. I may venture to affirm, that, one with another, they would yield each a butt of train oil. They are so indolent, that, as soon as they have gained the land, they fall asleep, and in that condition remain a month together so torpid, that you might fire a pistol at their heads without disturbing them; but where the sea-lionesses lie, as they do in companies after they have yeaned, to give suck to their young, there is always an old lion, of the largest size, incessantly on the watch, and at the approach of an enemy makes a hideous roaring, threatening death to him who should be so hardy as to molest his charge; and, in truth, were they not so unwieldy, they would be a desperate creature to encounter. We were accustomed to walk amongst them without dread; for all, but those who were to take care of the young, were lost in the profoundest slumbers. On the land they ingender, and bring forth their young, who ingender also before they go off, against the next season; so quick and suddenly do they increase and propagate.

The seals here may properly be called sea-wolves, from the resemblance of their heads to the heads of wolves, differing in that particular from the seals in the northern hemisphere, where their heads are more like the dog’s. They are naturally surly, and snarl in an angry manner, on the approach of any body. Two fins compose their tails, and with the help of these they get along much faster than the lions.

Every thing one sees or hears in this island is different from what is elsewhere to be found. The very structure of the island, in all its parts, appears with a certain savage, irregular beauty, not easy to be expressed. The several prospects of lofty inaccessible hills in the day, and the solitariness of the gloomy narrow vallies in the night, added to the mixed, confused noise of the surge continually beating against the shore, the tumbling of the waters from an immense precipice, the roaring of sea-lions and sea-wolves, whose voices are more or less shrill or hoarse according to their youth or age, compose so wild and horrible a medley, that the stoutest man must long be accustomed to it, before he can taste the sweets of refreshing sleep, or wholly divest himself of terror.

October 6, we set sail, with nothing to subsist on at sea but the before-mentioned smoked congers, one cask of beef, and four live hogs, together with three or four bushels of farina. We were upwards of forty of us crowded together, and lying upon bundles of eels, with no convenience of keeping the men clean, nor any thing to defend us from their abominable stench; not a drop of water to be had without sucking it out of the cask through a pipe, which being used promiscuously, became intolerably nauseous. The unsavoury morsels we daily ate created perpetual quarrels amongst us, every one contending for the frying-pan. All the conveniency we had for firing, was an half tub filled with earth, which made our cooking so tedious, that we had a continual noise of frying from morning till night.

Thus we traversed the ocean: happy, however, in the thought of being once more afloat, and cherishing the hope that something would speedily fall into our hands. Every day, while the sea-breeze continued, we were hard put to it, for not having above 16 inches free board, and our bark tumbling prodigiously, the water continually ran over us; and, having only a grating deck, and no tarpaulin to cover it, our pumps would but just keep us free.

October 10, being the fourth day of our new expedition, we fell in with a large ship, which I could plainly see was Europe built. This struck me with the dread of her being a man-of-war; however, our case being desperate, I stood for her, and, before we could get quite up with her, the enemy discovered the brownness of our canvas, and, suspecting us, wore ship, and hauled close on a wind to the westward. This done, they hoisted their colours, fired a gun, and crouded away from us at a great rate; but, in about two hours it fell calm, and we had recourse to our oars. In the mean time we over-hauled our arms, which we found to be in very bad condition, one third of them being without flints, and we had but three cutlasses; so that we were but ill prepared for boarding, which was the only means we could have of taking any ship. We had but one small cannon, which we could not mount, and therefore were obliged to fire it as it lay along upon the deck; and to supply it we had no more ammunition than two round shot, a few chain-bolts and bolt-heads, the clapper of the Speedwell’s bell, and some bags of beach-stones to serve for partridge. In about four hours we came up with this ship, and every one seemed as easy in his mind as if actually in possession of her. But, as we advanced nearer, I saw her guns and patararoes, and a considerable number of men upon deck, with their arms glittering in the sun, who called out to us by the name of English Dogs, defying us, in a scornful way, to come on board of them, and at the same time gave us a volley of great and small shot, which killed our gunner, and almost brought our fore-mast by the board. This warm reception staggered a great many of my men who before seemed the forwardest, insomuch that they lay upon their oars for some time, in spite of all I could do to make them keep their way. We recovered ourselves again, and rowed close up with the enemy, and engaged them till all our small shot was expended, which obliged us to fall astern to make some slugs. In this manner we made three attempts, but with no better success.

All the night it was calm, and we were busied in making slugs, and had provided a large quantity by the next morning, when we came to a final determination of either carrying the ship, or of submitting to her; and accordingly, at day-break, I ordered twenty men in our yaul, to lay her athwart the hawse, whilst I boarded her in the bark. The people in the boat put off, giving me repeated assurances of their good behaviour; but, at the very juncture we were coming to action, a gale sprang up, and she went away from us.

This ship was called the Margarita, and was the same which had been a privateer belonging to St. Malo’s, and mounted forty guns, all the last war. In the skirmishes we had with her, we had none killed, except Gilbert Henderson, our gunner; and only three were wounded, viz. Mr. Brooks, First Lieutenant, through the thigh, Mr. Coldsea, the Master, through the groin, and one of the fore-mast-men through the small of his back. Two of these did very well, and I think there was something extraordinary in their cure; for the surgeon had nothing to apply to their wounds, but what he himself had prepared with seals oil, and other matters he had found on the island. Mr. Coldsea, indeed, lingered in a miserable manner for nine or ten months; but at length recovered.

Our condition now grew worse and worse; for soon after we had parted from this ship, a hard gale came on, which lasted four days without ceasing, during all which time we had not an hour’s hope of living a minute. We were obliged to scud away under bare poles, with our yaul in tow; and, having but a short scope of boat-rope, we were, on the descent of every sea, in the greatest danger of having the bark’s stern beat in by the violence of the boat’s precipitate fall after us; and, once in particular, a great hollow sea had like to have thrown her upon our deck, which would have put an end to our voyage immediately. The excessive fright of this storm made many of our people form a resolution of going on shore the very first opportunity.

In this extremity, calling to mind M. Frezier’s account of Iquique, I mentioned the surprizal of that place to the crew, which being universally approved of, we directed our course to that island.

It was three weeks before we got this length; and having nothing to ride the bark with, we were obliged to keep the sea with her, whilst the boat went in between the rocks, and was received by some Indians on the strand with a sort of welcome. The men, being landed, went to the Lieutenant’s house, broke it open, and rummaged the whole village, where they found a booty more valuable to us at that time than gold and silver. It consisted of about sixty bushels of wheat-flour, 120 of calavances and corn, some jerked beef, pork and mutton, some thousand weight of well-cured fish, a good number of fowls, some rusk, and four or five days eating of soft bread, together with five or six jars of Peruvian wine and brandy; and, to crown all, they had the good fortune to find a large boat near the shore, to bring off the booty with, which otherwise would have been of little use to us, our own boat being already sufficiently laden with the men.

Words cannot express the joy that reigned among us when they came on board: the scene was now changed from famine to plenty; the loaves of soft bread were distributed to every one, and the jars of wine were broached; but I took care they should drink but moderately of it, each man having no more than half a pint to his share: and, after a day or two’s living on wholesome diet, we wondered how our stomachs had been able to digest our rank and nauseous eels fried in train-oil, and could scarcely believe we had lived upon nothing else for a month past.

Mr. Randall, our Second Lieutenant, who commanded in this enterprize, told me, they did not meet with the least opposition, and that the few Indians they found seemed to be as glad of this opportunity of pillaging the Spaniards as we were.

The settlement at Iquique consists of about 60 scattered ill-built houses, which hardly deserve that name, and a small church. There is not the least verdure to be seen in or about it, nor does it afford the least necessary of life, of its own product, not even water, which they are obliged to fetch in boats from Pisagua, ten leagues to the northward.

By two Indian prisoners we took here, we were informed, that the Lieutenant’s boat was then at Pisagua, and that it would not be long before her return; however, being determined to make some attempt in the road of le Nasco, in lat. 16 deg. S. and at Pisco, in lat. 13 deg. 45 min. S. we set sail, and the very morning we came off the Sierra or high-land of le Nasco, two hours before day-light, we fell in with a large ship. The circumstances of our meeting and engaging her were, in some measure, the same with those we had with the Margarita. We met with both at the same time in the morning, and, whilst in pursuit of both, had the misfortune of being becalmed. We struggled with this last for six or seven hours, and were at length obliged to leave her, because the sea-breeze came in so strong, and the sea ran so high, that, had she been of no force, our slight bark must have been in pieces before a third part of us could have entered her. This ship was called the St. Francisco Palacio, of 700 tons, eight guns and ten peteraroes, and was well manned and provided with small arms.

It happened very unfortunately, that we should thus miss two of the best equipped ships in the private trade at that time in the South Seas. This last repulse was made a pretence for much murmuring; many, despairing of ever being able to take any thing as our condition was, were for surrendering to the enemy, who was all the night becalmed near us. To prevent their design, I took care to remove the two boats out of their power, by ordering two men in each of them, such as I thought I could trust, and to cast off from us at a little distance, that none might escape in them. But, notwithstanding the confidence I had in these four, the two in the best boat ran away with her; and the next day I was informed, that the First Lieutenant and Morphew had made a party, too strong for me to oppose, to go away with the boat that was left; but, it blowing fresh the next night, they were prevented from executing their design.

The next day we stood into the road of Pisco, as we had designed, where we discovered what appeared to be a large ship. We bore down to her with a resolute despair, and laid her athwart the hawse; but, to our great satisfaction, we met with no resistance, and were received by the Captain and his Officers with their hats off, in the most submissive manner asking for quarter. Before we came up, I had ordered our boat to intercept theirs, which was going on shore. They clapped her on board, but, not holding fast, they fell astern, and could not fetch up with her again; so that in this boat was conveyed away every thing that might have been valuable in the prize. She was a good ship, of about 200 tons, called the Jesus-Maria, almost laden with pitch, tar, copper, and plank, but nothing else. The Captain offered 1600 dollars for her ransom, but I could not give ear to it in the condition which I was then in.

The Spanish Captain informed me, that the Margarita had been arrived some time at Callao, where she had given a full account of us; that the Captain of her, and three more, were killed in the action with us, and that the Priest and several others were wounded; and that she was now ready to put to sea again, with an addition of ten guns and fifty men, to cruise for us: and, moreover, that the Flying fish, a frigate of 28 guns, was already out with the same intent. Upon this advice, having cleared our bark, we gave her to the Spanish Captain, and as soon as the breeze sprang up, we weighed, and went to sea, and in going out met with our boat, which I have mentioned to have left us in the night; they edged towards us, imagining we were Spaniards, by which means we got them again. The two fellows in her were almost dead, having ate or drank nothing for three days, and had just been ashore on a small island, to kill seals to drink their blood. They had no excuse for themselves, but that they fell asleep, and the faint breezes of the night had wafted us in the bark away from them.

Pisco being 40 leagues to the windward of Callao, I kept close hauled till I had gained a two degrees offing, and kept that distance till we had got well to the northward of Callao, and hauled in again for the land, a little to the southward of Truxillo, and looked into the roads of Guanchaco, Malabriga, and Cheripe; but, seeing no ship at those places, I passed between the island of Lobos de Tierra and the continent; and, Nov. 25, found ourselves near the Saddle of Payta, where having made some prisoners, I examined them concerning the condition of the town, which they answered was very poor at present, there being neither money nor provisions in it, and shewed me a small bark on the shore, which Capt. Clipperton had sent in here a little while before with some of his prisoners, which had given them such an alarm, that every thing had been again removed into the country. This unwelcome news did not hinder us from keeping on our way, with our Spanish colours flying, till we came to the place of anchorage.

No sooner was our anchor down than I sent away Mr. Brooks, with both the boats, armed with 24 men; no more of them, however, appeared than those who rowed, and two or three sitters in each, the rest, with their arms, lying in the bottom of the boat. Thus they advanced towards the town, without giving the least umbrage to the inhabitants, who were so thoroughly persuaded of our being Spaniards, that, when the people landed, they found the children playing on the beach, who were the first that took the alarm, and ran away at the sight of armed men. In an instant the whole place was in confusion; the town was deserted, and nothing left in it but a few bales of coarse cloth, about 500 of dried tole or dog-fish, two or three pedlars packs, and an inconsiderable quantity of bread and sweet-meats; so that we unluckily had but little employment for our boats.

As we lay at an anchor in the ship, we took a boat with about fifty jars of Peruvian wine and brandy, the master of which told us, he was come by stealth from Callao, there being orders that none but ships of some force should stir out. This man was the first who acquainted me with Captain Hatley’s being taken, and the value of his prizes; and likewise assured me, that, if Captain Clipperton had landed the first time he was here, there were 400,000 pieces of eight in it, besides a great quantity of jesuits bark, and other valuable commodities, of all which he might easily have made himself master; but he wanted courage. Some of the King of Spain’s treasure is frequently lodged under the Governor’s care; and, if he had made an attempt, even the second time, it would have been worth his while. As for Collan, which is two miles to the northward of this, situated near the mouth of a little river, it is a mean place, being entirely inhabited by Indians.

From this place we directed our course for the island of Gorgona, in the bay of Panama, and in our passage thither built a tank, or wooden cistern, big enough to hold 10 tons of water, wherewith to supply our want of casks, as without the help of some such contrivance we should have but little hopes of being ever able to return home. In our way we made the island of Plate, Cape St. Francis, and Gorgonella; and on Dec. 2, we came to anchor to the leeward of the northernmost point of Gorgona, within less than a quarter of a mile of the shore. Here we had the advantage of filling our water-casks in the boat, the water running in small streams into the sea, and cut down our wood at high water mark; so that in less than 48 hours we had done our business here, and hurried away to sea, for fear of those who might be in quest of us.

Having got out of the track of the enemies ships, we consulted on the best methods of proceeding, when the majority were for going directly over to the coasts of Asia. Upon this we changed our ship’s name from the Jesus Maria to the Happy Return, and applied all our endeavours towards abandoning these coasts; but the winds and currents were averse to it; and some of those who opposed our departure, did so much damage clandestinely to our tank, that the greatest part of our water leaked out. This, together with continual contrary winds and dead calms, which detained us till our provisions were much exhausted, rendered us incapable to undertake so long a run; and therefore, to furnish ourselves with what we wanted, I proposed a descent on the island of Quibo, in lat. 7 deg. 40 min. N. where, by Captain Rogers’s account, I guessed there must be inhabitants who lived in a plentiful manner on the product of the country.

On January 13, 1721, we anchored between Quibo and the isle of Quivetta, in a sandy bay, commodious for wooding and watering. The morning after our arrival, we saw two large piraguas rowing in for the isle of Quivetta, one of them with Spanish colours flying; and, after a little debate, whether it would be prudent for us to attack them in our boat or not, it was resolved, at all hazards, to go after them in our yaul. This enterprize was commanded by Mr. Brooks, our First Lieutenant, who found the men on shore, brought away their piraguas, and two prisoners, the one a Mulatto, and the other a Negro; the rest sought for refuge in the woods. The Mulatto mortified us very much, by telling us, that a vessel laden with provisions had passed by very near us in the night; but, to make amends, promised to conduct us to a place where we might supply ourselves without any hazard, provided we were not above two or three days about it. No news could be more welcome to us than this, wherefore we were very brisk in getting off our wood and water; and, on January the 19th, we got safe in between Mariato and the island of Sebaco, and anchored in six fathom water, over against a green field, which is instruction sufficient, there being but that clear spot hereabouts. Our guide desired we might be going at least three hours before day-light, and that then we should be in good time at the plantations. Accordingly I embarked at two the next morning in our own boat, and ordered the two lieutenants in the two piraguas, leaving my son and a few men with him, to take care of the ship. Our guide carried us up some part of the river St. Martin, and out of that into several branches of very narrow creeks amongst mangroves, where we had not room to row, which made me suspect he had no good design in his head; but we landed just at day-break on a fine savannah, or plain; and, after a march of about three miles, came to two farm-houses, whose owners had made their escape, except the wife and children of one house.

The place answered the man’s description, being surrounded by numerous herds of black cattle, hogs, and plenty of fowls of all sorts; and here we found some dried beef, plantains, and Indian corn; and, for present use, were entertained with a wholesome breakfast of hot cake and milk, a diet we had been long unacquainted with. When it came to be broad day, I saw our ship close by us, upon which I asked our Mulatto, How he came to bring us so far about? He answered, There was a river between us, and he did not know whether it was fordable or not. I therefore sent some to try, who found it was not above knee deep. Wherefore, to avoid the trouble of carrying our plunder so far as we had been led, I ordered our boats to row out of the river St. Martin, and to come to the beach over against the ship. We had not been long here before the master of the family we were with, being anxious for their safety, returned, and made an offer of as many of his black cattle as we should think fit to require; which offer we kindly received: and he brought us the number we thought we could save; for, having but little salt, and not being able to spare water to keep them alive when at sea, our demands were moderate; and the few we required, as soon as they were carried on board, were killed. Their flesh we preserved by cutting it into long slips of the thickness of a finger, and then sprinkling it with so small a quantity of salt, that we did not use above four or five pounds to a hundred weight; then letting it lie together two or three hours, we hung it up to dry in the sun, which perfectly cured it, and that better than it could have been done by any other way.

Having done all we proposed in coming here, we departed with our decks full of fowls and hogs, amongst which there was one with its navel, or something like it, on its back. The Spaniards say, that this, when wild in the woods, is a terrible animal to meet with, although at full growth it be but small.

January 25, we made a sail about two leagues to the leeward of us: we gave her chase till we found she was of European structure; and fearing she might be one of the enemy’s ships of war, I clapped on a wind, and in half an hour’s time it fell calm. Soon after, we saw a boat rowing towards us, which proved to be the Success’s pinnace, commanded by Mr. Davidson, their first Lieutenant. My first interview with him was attended by an astonishment equal on both sides; he could hardly believe that he saw us in so mean and forlorn a condition; and I could scarce believe that the Success (if in being) had been all this while wandering up and down these seas.

I entertained him with a rehearsal of the constant run of misfortunes which had befallen us in the long interval since we separated near the coast of England, till our present meeting that day; and he, on his part, entertained me with several remarkable incidents, which had happened to them in the course of their voyage. Particularly, he told me, that, about a twelvemonth before, they had taken a new French-built brigantine, and put their officers and ship’s company’s plunder on board of her, which they valued at ten thousand pounds sterling; that their second Captain, Mr. Mitchel, was intrusted with the command of her, and was ordered to go to some island on the coast of Mexico, and to stay there till Captain Clipperton should join him with his ship; but that they never could find the island since, and, therefore, judged that poor Mitchel, and his men, were either starved, or murdered by the Spaniards or Indians, or that he had perished with the island, such submersions being frequent on those coasts. The story of Captain Mitchel, who was a very worthy man, and an expert sailor, is, in all its circumstances, a very tragical one. There was always a jealousy between him and his Captain, who ordered him to a place, and pretended to give him infallible directions to find it, which never could be found afterwards, and, ’tis my opinion, never was above water; and the unfortunate gentleman, without doubt, perished in some obscure, miserable manner, in quest of a place that was never yet, and perhaps never may be discovered. In our discourse, I asked Mr. Davidson the value of the booty they had made, and he assured me it did not exceed 70,000 dollars⁠—but that they had lost great opportunities⁠—that in October, 1720, they were in the bay of Conception, and had the misfortune to leave three laden ships behind them, and missed a fourth, which was coming into the bay, and which was so near as to hail and talk to them, besides being becalmed by them;⁠—that though it was probable their launch could have taken them all four, yet, through their Captain’s deafness to advice, they took none of them:⁠—that, moreover, they had never yet cleaned their bottom, notwithstanding they had had it in their power to do it; and that this negligence had like to have cost them dear; for that, in their return from Conception, they looked into Coquimbo, where they saw five ships at anchor, three of which let slip after them, and overtook them apace, but by the favour of thick weather, and a hard gale of wind, they got clear of them; and further, that, off the port of Callao, they fell in with the Flying-fish frigate, which was cruising for me in the bark, and which, by unpardonable mismanagement on the part of Clipperton, got safe from them, although deeply laden with a valuable cargo designed for Cadiz. I have been since informed of this by one of my surgeon’s mates, who was taken in the Mercury, and was surgeon of the Flying-fish at that time.

This was the substance of my discourse with Mr. Davidson, when, in the mean time, a gale sprung up, which interrupted us, and I bore down to the Success, and went on board of her. I gave Captain Clipperton, and Mr. Godfrey, the agent-general, the whole history of my voyage hitherto, and expected that I should have been treated by them as one belonging to the same interest, but found I was mistaken; for they were unwilling to have any thing to do with me since my ship was lost. However, I conceived, that he could not be so inhuman, as to deny me the supply of such necessaries as I wanted, and he could conveniently spare. The answer I had to this was, that I should know more of his mind the next day. Amongst the rest of the discourse I had with him, he told me he was just come from the island of Cocos, that his people were sickly, and at very short allowance. Upon this, I offered my service to pilot him to Mariato, which was not above thirty leagues distant from us, where he might have refreshed his people, and supplied himself with what he would. But this was not accepted, he being resolved to make the best of his way to the Tres Marias, where, he said, there was turtle enough to be had; so I left him for that night.

The next morning, as I was going on board of him again, with some of my officers, he suddenly spread all his canvas, and crouded away from us, who were in the boat: upon which I returned to our ship again, and made signals of distress, and fired our gun several times, which was not regarded by him, till his very officers cried out on his barbarity, and, at last, he brought to. When I had sailed up with him, (being exasperated at such inhuman treatment) I sent Mr. Brooks, our First Lieutenant, to know the reason of his abrupt departure, and to tell him that we stood in need of several necessaries, which, if he was not inclined to give, I would purchase of him. Upon these terms he spared me two of his quarter-deck guns, sixty round shot, some musquet-balls and flints, and a Spanish chart of the coast of Mexico and part of India and China, a half-hour and a half-minute glass, a compass, and about 300 weight of salt; but with all the arguments I could use, I could not prevail on him to spare us the least thing out of his surgeon’s chest for the relief of Mr. Coldsea, our master, who had been ready to die of his wounds received in the engagement with the Margarita, for above three months past. When this was concluded, I again asked him if I could be of any service to him, and assured him, I had a pretty good ship under foot, though she made but a poor figure, and believed I could hold him way, and that he knew our cargo was pretty valuable. To all this he answered, that, if I had a cargo of gold, he had no business with me, and that I must take care of myself. Mr. Hendry, the agent, and Mr. Rainer and Mr. Dodd, Lieutenants of marines, seeing but little prospect that we should ever get home, and being weary of the work that was imposed upon them, desired I would let them go on board the Success, for a passage to England; which I consenting to, they went on board accordingly, and Clipperton left us to shift for ourselves, near the island of Cano. Having purchased this supply, I was for going to the southward into the bay of Panama, to try our fortune there; but the majority opposed me through fear, and were for going to the Tres Marias, to salt turtle there, and then stretch over for India. We directed our course thither; and, a few days after, met with the Success in quest of Sonsonnate, where they expected to receive the Marquis of Villa Roche’s ransom. That nobleman had been some time a prisoner with them, and his wife was now at Guatimala, a city within 30 leagues of that port. We ranged close under their stern, and asked how Captain Clipperton and the rest of the gentlemen did, but it was not thought proper to return any answer; so, without any concern, he steered one way, and we another. After this, calms, and contrary winds, and unaccountable currents, reduced us to a very small allowance, which we were obliged to diminish daily, and should have been in deeper distress than ever, had it not been for the turtle which we took on the surface of the water. We had a continual look-out for them, and they were easily known, at a great distance, by the number of sea-birds that perched on their backs. Upon sight of these, we used to lay aside the advantages we might have made of the wind, to embrace the opportunity of prolonging our provisions. Upon the whole, though we lost some of our way in pursuit of turtle after this manner, it was not the greatest inconvenience that attended us; the dressing it made a great consumption of our water, the quantity of which decreased upon us very suddenly, by the continual use of it in boiling the turtle with plantain flower. This relapse into a state of famine, threatening us with speedy and certain perdition, if means were not used to avert it, made me propose the plundering of some small town as we coasted along the shore. Guatulco was the nearest to us: but the very morning we were steering in for this place, at sun-rising we saw a sail a considerable way to leeward of us. We thought it would be better to take this ship than to venture on shore, and therefore we bore down to her, who in the end proved to be the Success. We now met with a double baulk, both as to our hopes of Guatulco and the ship; for we were by this accident got so far to the leeward of Guatulco, that it was needless to beat up so far against the wind for an uncertainty, when we had a gale, that, had it continued, would have carried us to some better port.

But the winds were but a few hours propitious, and were succeeded by perpetual contrary gales, which destroyed all our hopes, and brought us down to a small earthen plate of calavances, a kind of small bean, for 24 hours, which not being sufficient to keep us alive, we had recourse to the remainder of our smoked congers, which had for some months been neglected, and lain soaking and rotting in the bulge water. They were certainly as disagreeable food as ever men eat.

Under these calamitous circumstances did we meet with the Success a fourth time, near the port of Angels; and, after having made the appointed signal, we stood so near to one another, that, to use the sea phrase, a bisket might have been tossed from ship to ship, but we did not change a word with each other; for, Captain Clipperton, as I have since been informed, had ordered all his officers and ship’s company to take no notice of us: and, though he was so truly sensible of the difficulties and hazards we had to cope with, if our design was to go for India, that he said, The child that was born the day before would be grey-headed with age before we should arrive there (intimating by that expression, that it was impossible for us to do it), yet, notwithstanding, he, without any remorse, could see us on the brink of suffering the greatest severities our ill fortune could load us with, and not lend us a helping hand to deliver us from the impending ruin.

Thus surrounded on all sides by present want and threatening disasters, we, on the 12th of March, being off the port of Acapulco, saw a ship between us and the shore. I bore down to her, till perceiving her to be a large Europe-built ship, with Spanish colours flying, I concluded she was the Peregrine, who, as I had been informed, had carried the Prince of St. Bueno, who had been Viceroy of Peru, to this port in his way to Spain. With these suspicions, being as yet unwilling to run ourselves so immediately into the enemy’s clutches, I hauled again on a wind, which he seeing, he pulled down his Spanish, and hoisted an English ensign, and made the signal agreed on between Clipperton and me for knowing one another. Had they been in any other part, I should have been so far from entertaining any thoughts of such a change in him, that I should have looked on all his signals as the artifices of the enemy, who might have acquainted themselves with them by the information of such of our men as they might have taken prisoners. But now, making no doubt that it was he, I bore down to him, and being come along his side, he sent Captain Cook, his second Lieutenant, in his yaul, with an obliging letter to me, to inform me, he was cruising for the homeward-bound Manilla ship, and desiring I would assist him in the enterprize, and come on board of him the next morning, proposing a union of our two ships companies. I was very well pleased with this offer, and, without hesitation, returned him word that I would be with him early.

In the mean time, I read over his letter publicly to my people, and exhorted them seriously to consider of the great benefits that would accrue to us on all sides from it. Upon which they all expressed the most resigned willingness to join in the undertaking. But, as Clipperton had used us so unhandsomely before, they desired I would get some security for their shares, signed by Captain Clipperton, Mr. Godfrey the agent, and the rest of their officers. I went on board, and, according to their request, Capt. Clipperton, and Mr. Godfrey, the owners agent, immediately drew up an instrument fully worded for the purpose, and they and all the other officers signed it. This was all my people wanted to make them easy.

We then proceeded upon our main business; and, after mature deliberation, it was thought most adviseable, that I should send the greatest part of my men on board the Success, as soon as we saw the Manilla ship come out of Acapulco, and leave only a boat’s crew with me to bring me away, in case I should have occasion to make use of my ship as a fire-ship, or a smoaker, which we jointly proposed to do, if we found the enemy too hard for us; and it was determined to board her at once, as we should otherwise have much the worst of it, on account of their superior weight of metal, and the better capacity of their ships, which are built very strong, to bear a cannonading. Clipperton assured me, he was certain of the time when she would sail from this port, which the Spaniards say is always within a day or two after Passion-week, of which we had a fortnight yet to come.

Before I returned to my own ship, I acquainted Captain Clipperton with our slender stock of provisions, but particularly with our shortness of water; and he told me he had 80 tons of it on board, and he would spare me as much of it as I would have, or any thing else his ship afforded.

I had now the pleasure of being restored to my command in as regular a manner as ever; every one, from the highest to the lowest, expressing the satisfaction he had in the prospect before us. But, Morphew, that ringleader of all our disorders, fearing my resentment, thought it was his best way, to insinuate himself into the favour of the Captain and Officers of the Success, which he did effectually, by an humble, submissive, outward deportment, and prevailing presents. In short, he had his end, and left me; but, the next morning, Mr. Rainer, who acted with us afterwards as Captain of marines, came on board of us to visit his old shipmates, and so continued.

Thus we cruised in good order, and with a great deal of hope, until March 17, when, towards evening, Clipperton, contrary to his usual custom, stretched a-head of us about two leagues, without lowering so much as a top-gallant-sail for us to come up with him. I could not but be a little startled at this, as being quite contrary to his usual method. However, I kept standing after him, as I thought, in the night, till we were almost in the breakers on the shore, which of course obliged us to tack, and stand out to sea again, admiring all the time that we had had no signal for going about. The next morning we had no sight of any ship near us, which laid me under the most terrible apprehensions, considering the bad condition we were in for want of water, and the vast distance we were at from any place where we could expect to get a recruit of any, having now no choice left, but either to beat up 220 leagues against the wind, to go to the Tres Marias, or bear away a much more considerable distance for the gulph of Amapala, or the island of Cocos.

But, notwithstanding our distress, I kept our cruising station for him two or three days. At last it was resolved to bear away to the first convenient place to water at; and, in truth, it was time, for we were now 40 odd men, who had but three buts of water for a run of 300 leagues and upwards, on a coast subject to long calms, variable winds, and uncertain currents.

It was afterwards told me, that the night Clipperton left us, he assembled all his officers, and told them it was his intention immediately to quit the coast. His officers remonstrated to him on the barbarity of doing this without acquainting Captain Shelvock with his intention, and sparing us some water. But he put off their serious expostulations with an inhuman sneer, saying, That, if I should, through want, be obliged to surrender to the enemy, I should only share the same fate, that, perhaps, some others had met with before me.

Thus this man, perhaps, through an excess of mean-spiritedness, and dreading the engagement with a ship that was always known to defend itself with some obstinacy, neglected as fine an opportunity as most of our nation have ever had of taking this ship, which, as I was informed, by some Spaniards from Manilla, when I was in China, came out of Acapulco about a week after we left the cruize.⁠—[For Capt. Clipperton’s account of this transaction we refer the reader to the preceding voyage.]

On March 30, in the evening, we entered the road of Sonsonnate, and, as the sun set, saw a ship at anchor there. It being a moon-light night, I sent the first Lieutenant, with some of the best hands, to discover what this ship might be. On his return he informed me, the ship was a large one, of one tier of guns at least. I nevertheless continued to ply in all the night, and prepared for action. At day-light we found they had hoisted a jar of powder, containing about ten gallons, with lighted match, at each main and fore yard arm, and at the bowsprit end, with design to let them fall on our decks if we boarded them. This contrivance, if it had taken effect, would have soon made an end of both ships, and of all that were in them. Seeing them so desperate in their preparations, I expected a warm dispute with them; and, by what I could see, they were, in all points, superior by much to us in strength.

At eleven in the morning, the sea-breeze came in, and ran us upon them very fast, whilst our small arms were briskly and effectually employed to break their powder jars, before we came to board them, which we did without delay, and, after the exchange of a few shot when on board of each other, they submitted.

This ship was called the Sacra Familia, of 300 tons, six guns, and 70 men; besides a great number of small arms, with some grenade shells and shot. She had been, for some time before, arrived from Callao, with wine and brandy; but had now nothing in her but fifty jars of gunpowder, and a small parcel of rusk and jerked beef. In short, she could hardly be said to be worth the trouble we took, and the risques we ran for her: but she was reputed to be a better sailor, and was visibly better fitted out than our own; wherefore I changed ships, and we all went on board our prize, which was equipped in the warlike manner we found her, and commissioned, on purpose to take us.

A merchant, the escrivan of the ship, being on board, desired we would sell him the Jesus Maria, which we agreed to, and sent him on shore to raise the money for that purpose; and at night he came off with another Spanish gentleman, and brought us a letter of advice from the Governor on shore, signifying that there was a treaty of peace on foot between their Britannic and Catholic Majesties, which was what we had not before heard of. However, I sent to the Governor, signifying that I should be very glad to see the proclamation and articles; and that thereupon, I should be ready to obey the commands of my Sovereign; so we came to an agreement with the Governor to lye in the road till he sent to Guatimala, 50 leagues distant, for those papers, provided he would supply us with water and provisions. On the 5th of April, the Governor sent on board two papers, which, by the best interpretation we could get of them, did not appear to us to be in the form of proclamations. We told those who brought the papers aboard, that we were in great want of an interpreter; upon which they said, there were some Englishmen at Guatimala, whom they would send for, if we would stay three days for them, and that they would supply us with water and provisions till that time; which we agreed to, and they desired we would send our boat on shore every morning for the supply. Accordingly, on the 7th of April, we sent our boat on shore with Mr. Brooks, our first Lieutenant, and five men. This officer, men, and boat, the Governor detained under a flag of truce, and, at night, sent off a small boat, with two of our men, with a letter from himself, and another from Mr. Brooks. His letter signified, that, if we did not deliver up our ship to him, he would declare us pirates. And Mr. Brooks, by his, informed me, that it was his opinion, that the Governor was endeavouring to bully me into a surrender, having spoken very ambiguously of a cessation of arms: notwithstanding which, I sent the Governor a letter, signifying, that, if we could be secured of a safe and sure conduct for ourselves and effects to Panama, and from thence, by the way of Porto Bello, be conveyed to any of our British plantations, we would come to a farther treaty; which if he intended, he was desired to signify it by firing two guns as soon as he had received this advice, and by sending back my officer and men; if not, necessity would oblige us to sail. At three in the morning (the Governor having shewn no signal, nor sent any word) we weighed our anchor, yet lay to in the bay till ten, but then made sail, being forced thereto for want of water; having, however, no other intent, in case of the certainty of a peace, than to deliver up the ship we were now in at the first convenient port, as was signified to the Governor by letter.

Being now got out to sea, we reduced ourselves to a pint of water for 24 hours each man, and directed our course for the gulph of Amapala, which was about 35 leagues to the E.S.E. of this place, in order to get a fresh supply. The loss of my officer and boat’s crew, sensibly diminished the number of white faces, and we should have been so much weakened by it, that we should never have been able to manage this great ship, with her heavy cotton sails, if we had not taken with us our negro prisoners, who proved to be very good sailors. The loss of our boat was also a very great inconvenience to us; but as I only thought of taking water enough to carry us to Panama, where we were fully resolved to surrender, if it was really peace, I imagined we might make shift without her, and get such a quantity as we might want in two or three days time.

The winds were favourable, and we arrived there on the tenth following in the evening. As soon as we had entered the gulph we found ourselves in the midst of several small islands, one of which was the island of Tygers, where we expected to find water; but our expectations proved vain, for, after a hazardous and fruitless search not only on that, but on some of the greenest of the other isles, there was not the least drop of fresh water to be found, by us, on any of them.

In this miserable condition, threatened on all sides with inevitable destruction, unfit for the sea, fearful of trusting ourselves in the cruel hands of the inhabitants on the shore, quite dispirited by the continued course of misfortunes which had hitherto been our constant attendants; but, above all, lamenting this unhappy baulk in not finding water where we so much expected it, which had reduced us to such extremities as we had never known before; in short, ready to sink under the burden of our calamities, we weighed our anchor on the 13th of April before day-break, and stood out from this gulph. And now having the open sea before us, I brought my people in general to an obstinate resolution not to surrender on this part of the coast, let the consequences be ever so miserable. Upon this unanimous agreement, with not 40 gallons of water in the ship, and no other liquids to supply the want of it, we came to so small an allowance as half a pint of water for 24 hours; and even this allowance was rather too large, there being no place, that we knew of, where we could get any more, nearer than Quibo, to which island, about 200 leagues distant from us, we shaped our course, but having very uncertain winds and weather, we were 13 days at this allowance. Our sufferings from the extremity of thirst are hardly to be conceived; some drank their own water to allay the burning heat within them, but though this moistened their mouths, it increased their misery; some drank large draughts of sea-water, which was near putting a period to their lives; while others eat just enough of the calavances moistened with water to sustain life, and these suffered the least.

At length we were fortunately relieved, by falling in unexpectedly with the island of Cano, in lat. 9 deg. N. where seeing a run of water, Mr. Randall, without dreading the dangerous surf, passed through the breakers, and, to the unspeakable joy of all the company, soon returned on board with his jars filled; but as he could not bring off more than 60 or 70 gallons, I took care to restrain our people in the use of it, allowing to each man only a quart for their immediate use: and I was the more strict in this distribution, because Mr. Randall assured me, the breakers were so dangerous that he believed we should not be able to get at any more.

Being willing, however, to make another trial, I next day sent the boatswain, to endeavour to procure a further supply; but, after wasting the whole day in search of a smooth beach to land upon, he could not see one spot where he durst venture on shore. Therefore, thinking we had a stock sufficient to carry us to Quibo, I weighed anchor, and in ranging the island I accidentally discovered a smooth beach, where the little boat getting on shore, the crew filled nine jars, which lasted till we arrived at Quibo, where we anchored at the same place we had twice anchored at before. Here we consulted about surrendering ourselves to the Spaniards, being within 80 leagues of Panama, a place of little or no strength towards the sea, and but little frequented by the enemy’s ships of war, where we could treat with them at a distance, and be truly informed how affairs stood in Europe. During our deliberations we wooded and watered at leisure; and some searched the woods for fruits to refresh us, by way of prevention against the scurvy, which we had been all along less subject to than any ship I ever saw or heard of in such long runs. Those who were thus usefully employed brought us papas, guayavas, cassia, limes, and a small kind of white sour plumb, which was much eaten and admired by most of us; but, by its violent operation, it put stop to our proceedings for some days. However, we soon recovered, without any bad symptoms, and made an end of wooding and watering, and set sail, fully determined to surrender at Panama. In our way we passed by a great many small islands, but the most remarkable are, Montuosa, Sebaco, and the isle of Picara, which lies on the western side of Quibo.

May 15, a small bark, taking us for Spaniards, bore down to us, the master of which was in the greatest consternation when he found his mistake, but recovered when he heard we were bound for Panama to surrender, and readily offered his pilot thither, his vessel, called the Holy Sacrament, being bound to that port, laden with dried beef, pork, and live hogs, which, as she was leaky, he desired that I would take in tow. I was glad this bark fell into our hands, and readily complied with his request, because, if we found the Governor of Sonsonnate’s account to be false, we might be thoroughly enabled by this help to go to India. In the mean while, it had remained a point yet undetermined, who should be the person entrusted with the flag of truce; for my people, having known much treachery, were apprehensive the person sent would only, or chiefly, make good his own case and that of his friends to the Governor, and not care what became of the common men. At last, my son was judged the fittest to go, as he would surely return, if it were purely for my sake. Other difficulties were started that could not so easily be removed, notwithstanding which, we kept on our way, fully fixed in our resolution.

May 17, another small bark came down upon us, but having stood pretty near to us, she bore away again, and ran on shore directly, at the hazard of the lives of every soul on board. This unaccountable behaviour, gave us good reason to believe that the Governor of Sonsonnate’s account of a cessation of arms was groundless.

May 19, we saw a sail a-head of us, standing along shore, and being desirous of speaking with her, I let go the bark we had in tow, and made all the sail we could after her. We gained very little upon her all the day; but had, nevertheless, got a great way a-head of our bark, wherein were four of our own people and five Spaniards. However, notwithstanding night came on, all our sail was kept abroad, and next morning we were within gun-shot of her. I immediately ordered our colours to be spread, fired a gun to leeward, and set a man to wave a flag of truce; but, on sight of out English ensign, she fired at us, and so continued to do, with her decks full of men, abusing us with the grossest appellations. I made no return until I came close upon their quarter, and then I sent one of their countrymen to the bowsprit end, to inform them in Spanish, that we were bound to Panama, and desired to treat peaceably with them, and hoped, at least, they would have some regard to the white flag which they saw flying; but they still continued their fire; and presuming, as I supposed, by our quiet behaviour, that we were unable to defend ourselves, they were preparing to board us, which I no sooner perceived than I met them with our helm, and gave them so warm a salute, that they sheered round off from us. We just missed getting hold of them, but it falling almost immediately calm, we continued our engagement for the space of two or three hours at the distance of musquet-shot. At length, a breeze wafting us nearer to them, we found that as fast as we approached, so fast did their courage cool. Their Captain, however, still bravely encouraging his people, and exposing himself in the openest manner, was shot through the body, and dropped down dead; upon which they immediately, and with one voice, cried out for quarter, and put an end to the dispute. Mr. Randall, and two or three more, went on board the prize, and found the prisoners, in the most submissive posture, asking for mercy, which was granted, though they had no great reason to expect it, after their direct breach of the laws of arms and nations in firing at a flag of truce.

The most considerable prisoners, being brought on board, informed me, that their ship, called the Conception de Recova, belonging to Callao, was of the burthen of 200 tons, and laden with flour, loaves of sugar, bales of boxes of malmalade, jars of preserved peaches, grapes, limes, and the like, mounted six guns, and had 70 odd men on board. In this engagement, the Spanish Captain and a negroe were killed, and one or two slightly wounded. On our part, our gunner was slightly wounded by a pistol ball, and our main-mast had a small piece carried out of the side of it. We had now about 80 prisoners of all colours, though we ourselves were not above 26.

Amongst our prisoners we had several of note, particularly Don Baltazzar de Abarca, Conde de Rosa, an European nobleman, who had been Governor of Pisco, and was now upon his return to Spain, together with Captain Morel, who had formerly been taken by Captain Rogers. They were all treated with the utmost civility, which they the more wondered at, because, from a self-conviction of their own ungenerous behaviour towards us, they could not but expert to have been dealt with quite otherwise.

The winds and calms prevented our joining the Holy Sacrament, the prize we had left behind us, till May 22, when we bore down to her, and were surprized to find no soul on board, but that her decks and quarters were covered with blood. By many circumstances it plainly appeared, that the Spanish crew had butchered those who were left to assist them, while they were asleep; otherwise it could not have happened, that five unarmed Spaniards could have overpowered four Englishmen completely provided with arms for their defence. It is very probable, however, that these murderers paid with their lives, the loss of those lives they had taken away; for, being above four leagues from the land, and having no boat with them, they probably jumped into the sea on our approach, fearing, if they fell into our hands, to meet the vengeance due for so horrid a crime. That part of the deck which was dyed with gore they endeavoured to cover, by throwing the flocks and stuffings of beds over it; so that till these were removed, the blood was not to be seen.

This tragical accident put a damp to the pleasure we had enjoyed for a day or two past on the account of our late prize. Our prisoners, at such a sad and sudden change, began to be alarmed, and looked at one another as if they all expected to be the victims of our revenge upon this unhappy occasion. On the other hand, I was fearful lest these apprehensions should urge them to some desperate attempt, they being 80 in number, and we not above 17 on board of our own ship, and, when we were all together, not above 25 that could stand to arms. In this dilemma, I ordered all the prisoners into the stern-gallery, except the nobleman, and some of the chief officers, and a guard to be kept in the great cabbin.

The Spanish gentlemen observing this, let fall some expressions whereby I perceived they were afraid I intended to proceed to severities towards their people; but I assured them, that, if I was of so revengeful a nature, the laws of my country forbad me from indulging it; that I acted under my King’s commission; and that the natural abhorrence our nation had to barbarity, might quiet their fears, and make them perfectly easy. They then, on their part, in the most solemn manner disclaimed the very thought of an attempt upon our lives; and assured us, on their honour, that they thought they should never be able to make a just return for the generous treatment they had met with. It was, however, prudent to secure our prisoners of the meaner sort, and when we had so done, we hauled the Holy Sacrament along-side of us. She was half full of water, and the greatest part of her dried beef was wet and spoiled, but all that was not damaged we took out, together with some live hogs. We also took out of the Conception a twelvemonth’s provision of bread, flour, sugar and sweetmeats, and a like proportion for the Success, whom I expected to find at the Tres Marias, being then a stranger to Clipperton’s faithless desertion. I likewise took from them their launch and their negroes; for considering we had a large ship, and a run of 175 degrees of longitude to sail, which was little less than half way round the world, I thought we could do no other than reinforce ourselves with these blacks, who are commonly good sailors in these parts; and, indeed, we afterwards found we should never have reached the coasts of Asia without them.

Thus having supplied ourselves with every thing the Conception afforded, I suffered our prisoners to return to their own ship again; but the chief of them would not leave me till they had drawn up a writing, which they signed, whereby they acknowledged the circumstances of our engagement, in the manner I have already related. In short, no people, circumstanced as we were, could part in a more friendly manner than we did.

Thus were we put by our design of surrendering, and were going to undertake a long and hazardous voyage to Asia. Our strength was indeed considerably augmented, for we had now 15 guns, and ammunition enough to supply them.

Before we proceeded any farther, it was necessary to get in a full stock of water. The island of Quibo was hazardous for us, being too near Panama; it was therefore determined to ply up to Cano, where, having a good boat, we soon did our business. In our passage thither, the sweetmeats of all kinds, which we had taken out of our late prize, were divided among the messes. It happened that one of the fellows, one day, complained he had a box of malmalade which he could not stick his knife into, and desired it might be changed. I opened it, and found in it a cake of virgin silver, moulded on purpose to fill such boxes, and being very porous, it was of near the same weight of so much malmalade. In overhauling the rest, we found five more of these boxes. This was a contrivance to defraud the King of Spain of his fifths, which he claims in all the silver taken out of any of the mines in Peru. We doubtless left a great many of these boxes behind us, so that this deceit served them in a double capacity, to defraud their king’s officers, and blind their enemies. An affair as vexatious as this, is said to have been discovered too late on board a prize the Success had taken, where they found a very considerable quantity of Pinna’s or virgin silver, in the form of bricks, very artfully plaistered over with clay, and dried in the sun, which being all the consistence they give their bricks in that country, they were taken to be really such, and a great number of them were thrown overboard as so much rubbish, without any discovery of what they were, till the four or five last pieces. How true this may be I can’t say, but it was reported to me, as matter of fact, by several of the officers belonging to Captain Clipperton.

I must here observe, that every thing we took in the Conception was divided among us according to the Juan Fernandian articles, and that I had no more than six instead of sixty shares. They would not so much as allow me the money I had out laid at St. Catherine’s, which was upwards of a hundred pounds. I had some difficulty to persuade them to run to the northward so far as California; and was obliged to use many arguments to prevail upon them to believe that the harbour of Puerto Seguro was the only port of security where we could safely lay down and refit our ship; but having at last obtained their consents, I weighed from Cano, steering to the northward, and had favourable gales for 48 hours; but then came on the constant, or what may be called the trade wind on this coast, which being as contrary to us as they well could be, I was willing to try how far off these winds might prevail, which, in my opinion, may be called the eddy of the true trade wind, whose course may be perverted by the interposition of this vast mountainous continent.

Accordingly I found, that, at the distance of 60 leagues, we had light winds and variable, and that, at the distance of between 70 and 80 leagues, it settled at E. N. E. and N. E. I therefore kept at this distance from the land till we had run up to the height of 20 degrees north. In all this passage, we were not in the least sensible of any currents, and entirely out of the way of certain riplings and overfalls of water, which we frequently met with nearer to the land, and which often surprized us when we were becalmed in deep water.

In this passage we were accompanied by vast shoals of fish, and were continually incommoded by numerous flocks of the birds called boobies, making our ship their resting place, which fouled our yards and deck with their dung as fast as we could clean them. However, for change of diet, some of my people made ragouts of them, and the smoakers made stems for their pipes of their long wing-bones.

We fell in with Cape Corientes in the beginning of the month of August, and were carried away to the islands called the Tres Marias, by a hard gale at south, and came to an anchor under the lee of the middlemost of these islands, but could see no sign of the Success having been there. After a tedious search on all the three islands for fresh water, there was nothing like a stream of it that we could find. This was the more astonishing to us, as one or two of our late navigators have reported that fresh water is to be found there in sufficient plenty. It may have been so when they were there; but we were unfortunate enough to seek, when none was to be found.

After employing three days in a fruitless search, I stretched over for the coast of California, and arrived thereon the 11th of August. The inhabitants, as soon as they discovered us, made fires all along the shore as the ship ran by them; and, towards the evening, it falling calm, two of them came off to us on a bark-log, but were a long time before they would accept of our invitation to come on board of us. At length, they ventured in; when, in a moment, seeing our blacks promiscuously standing together with us white men, they, with very angry countenances, separated them from us; and would hardly suffer them to look at us. They talked to us with great vehemence, but we could comprehend nothing more of their meaning, than that they rejoiced to see us. Night coming on, they took their leave, and we gave them a knife or two, an old coat, and some other trifles, which seemed to please them very well. They expressed themselves by signs in such a manner, that we could guess they gave us repeated invitations to go on shore with them.

On Sunday the 13th of August, at day-break, we found ourselves near Puerto Seguro, which may be readily known by three white rocks, not much unlike the Needles of the Isle of Wight, and you must keep close on board the outermost to fetch into the bay. We entered Puerto Seguro, surrounded by numbers of small embarkations of the inhabitants, while the shore, on all sides, was crouded with Indians, whose numbers visibly encreased by multitudes which flocked together from the adjacent parts. Our anchor was no sooner down, than they came off to us in shoals, some few on their bark-logs, but most of them swimming, talking and calling out to one another in a noisy and confused manner, but such as plainly shewed how desirous they were to come to us. Our ship was in an instant full of these swarthy gentlemen quite naked, and amongst the rest was their King, or Chief-man, who, unexpectedly, delivered to me his batoon, or ensign of royalty, which I immediately returned to him. This man, notwithstanding the wildness of his appearance to us, had a good countenance, and his behaviour had something that was very engaging in it. I was, at first, at a loss to know how to entertain our numerous guests, but at length I thought of regaling them with some of our liquid sweetmeats, which we had in great plenty. This they liked extremely, and the spoons, which were mostly silver, they returned with great honesty.

Having thus commenced a friendship with them, at day-break next morning our boat went on shore to cut wood and fill water; and before the sun was up, we were again crouded with our former guests, who seemed as if they could never be weary of gazing at us. To keep up the amity we had already contracted with them, I ordered a great boiler to be carried on shore, with good store of flour and sugar, and a negroe cook, who was continually boiling of hasty pudding for the numbers of spectators on the beach; and it really behoved us to endeavour to keep in their favour, for on seeing a few of our men rolling great and cumbersome casks of water over the heavy sand, it inclined them to help us. To this may added, a sense of the kind treatment they met with from us, and the particular readiness of their Chief to serve us, by shewing his people a good example; for, after Mr. Randall, my Lieutenant, he himself took up the second log of wood to carry to the boat, and was immediately followed by two or three hundred of them, who, encouraged by his example, all took to the work, repaying our civilities with their services, and every day they seemed more and more fond of us.

Mean while, the rumour of our arrival was spread through all the neighbouring parts, and some of the clans, different from those who inhabited the shores, came daily to take a view of us. Those who came from any distance in the country could not swim; and that they were different from those we had first seen on our arrival here, appeared by their manner of painting themselves, and by other little distinctions which were visible amongst them; but they all united to assist us, nor were any of them idle but the women, who used to sit in companies on the scorching sand, waiting for their share of what was going forward, which they used to receive very thankfully and without quarrelling.

Having done all our business here, in the space of five days, on the 18th of August, in the morning, we prepared for our departure in the afternoon. We employed the morning in making a large distribution of sugar amongst the women. To the men we gave a great many knives, old axes, and old iron, which we had taken in our prizes. These were the most useful things to them, and of which they stood most in need; in return for which, some of them gave us bows and arrows, deer-skin bags, live foxes, squirrels, and the like. Great many of the men staid in the ship all the while we were purchasing our anchor, and it was not till we were under weigh that they all jumped overboard to join in the lamentations of their countrymen on shore.

The men in this southern part of California, are tall, straight, and well made; their limbs are large, their hair coarse and black, and barely reaches down to their shoulders. The women are of a much smaller size; their hair is much longer than the mens, and with it some of their faces are almost covered. The men go quite naked, and have not the least thing to cover any part of them, except their heads, round which they wear a band of red and white silk-grass, adorned on each side with a tuft of hawk’s feathers. The women, on the contrary, wear a thick fringe of silk-grass, which hangs down to their knees, and have either a deer’s skin, or the skin of a large bird, carelessly wrapped over their shoulders.

Nothing can be more wild and savage to look at, than these people at first sight: but there is a wide difference between what they seem, and what they really are; for, by all we could discern in their behaviour towards one another, and in their deportment towards us, they are endued with great good nature.

They seem to lead a careless life, and to enjoy every thing in common amongst them; and, having nothing but their daily food to provide, they are strangers to those numerous gratifications, the want of which multiply distresses among nations more civilized and more refined. Their contentment makes them honest, for they never offered to steal even the things most useful to them. In a word, they seem to pass their lives, according to the notions we have of the purest simplicity of the earliest ages of the world, before discord and contention were heard of amongst men. Having no enemies, they live in perfect peace and harmony with one another. Hunting and fishing are their only employments, except making the instruments they use in these pursuits, which are the simplest that can be. They have no canoes, and go to sea on bark-logs; but they are the most expert divers I ever beheld. By their simple manner of living, and their continual exercise, they live to a great age; and yet, what is very surprizing, they do not appear to be very numerous, considering the extent of their country. Their only enemies are the wild beasts, and of these there are plenty in the woods and forests. They do not appear to be so jealous of their women as they have been represented; for we had the company of some hundreds of them, young and old, without any restraint from the men. Two things were remarkable, that they never would suffer us to take snuff, but would earnestly take it from us whenever we attempted it; nor would they ever suffer us to look through a spying-glass, which I had frequent resort to, to see how our work of wooding and watering went on. In these two instances, they always took upon them to controul us, and in these two only; the causes of which we could never learn.

They go out to sea on their bark-logs, which are only composed of five logs of a light wood, made fast to each other by wooden pegs, rowing with a double paddle and with their harpoons, which are made of a sort of hard wood, they strike the largest albicores, and bring them in when struck. This was altogether surprizing to us, who had so often experienced the strength of that fish, and the difficulty of getting them into our ship, when either hooked or struck. One would imagine, that as soon as these Indians had struck one of these albicores, on his light embarkation, it would run away with him and his bark-log; but they either strike them so as to give them some mortal wound, or have some particular way of managing them, for they struggle and resist in vain. When we were in this port, it was apparently their fishing season; but by the number of deer-skins one sees amongst them, it is natural to conclude they have also their season for hunting. The skins of their deer are grey, and so are the skins of their foxes and squirrels; of all which, it is likely, they eat indifferently, as of most other animals that become their prey. Of birds amongst them we saw scarce any, but a few pelicans.

What these Indians used instead of bread is very remarkable. It is a small black seed of an oily substance, which they grind much the same way as we do our chocolate, and afterwards make it up in some such manner. The look of these black lumps or rolls so made up, is not very inviting, yet the taste is not very disagreeable. When they want to drink, they go to the river.

Their arms are bows and arrows. Their bows are about six feet in length, and their arrows seem to be somewhat too long for their bows. Their bow-strings are made of deer’s sinews, and their arrows are composed of a hollow cane for two-thirds of their length, and the other third next the point is of a heavy kind of wood, which is headed with a piece of flint, and sometimes with a kind of agate, the edges of which are indented, or cut in teeth like a saw. They made no manner of shew of their arms to us, and it was rarely that we saw them in the hands of any of the men. The women had them in the woods in search of game, which may be thence presumed to be some part of their employment. Upon the whole, they may be truly said to be a happy people.

Aug. 18, I sailed, as before-mentioned, from Puerto Seguro, and the same evening we took our departure from Cape St. Lucar, in latitude 23 deg. 50 min. N. bound to Canton, in China, the most likely place where we could hope to meet with English ships homeward bound for Europe.

Aug. 21, we discovered an island bearing W. S. W. 110 leagues distant from Cape St. Lucar. I endeavoured to get in with it; but night coming on, I could not lose time to view it. This isle my people called after my name. From hence we steered gradually into the parallel of 13 deg. N. but had our way stopped for two or three days by westerly winds. We were astonished at such an unforeseen delay, and began to dread we might meet with many such reverses of winds in this passage; nor could we conjecture, or conceive what might be the cause or causes of them. In the midst of this, the usual trade-wind prevailed again, and delivered us from the fears and apprehensions we had been involved in upon this occasion. With this we proceeded on our passage, keeping the parallel or track of the thirteenth degree of northern latitude, except when we judged ourselves to be near the shoals of St. Bartholomew. We then ventured to sail a degree, more northerly, and so continued to do for a run of 60 or 70 leagues.

About a fortnight after we had left California, my people, who had hitherto enjoyed an uninterrupted state of health, began to be afflicted with a sickness which particularly affected their stomachs. This we took to be owing, in a great measure, to the quantities of sweetmeats they were continually devouring, together with the dried beef, half devoured with ants, cockroaches, and other vermin, which was their daily food. This sickness increased every day, insomuch that, out of our small number, we once buried two in one day, one of whom was John Popplestone, our ingenious armourer, who was of such use to us on the island of Juan Fernandez. Before we had stretched with favourable gales the length of Guam, most of my people were sick and disabled, my ship began to be very leaky, and, to add still to our misfortunes, we had the ill luck to have one of our pumps split, and rendered useless.

Under these circumstances, we met with black and dismal weather, with tempestuous winds, flying and varying all round the compass. These boisterous gales raised such a tumbling sea, and our ship laboured so much in it, that the knee of her head, and the whole beak-head, became loose; so that the bowsprit fetched way, and played with the motion of the ship, which it continued to do all the time we were out at sea, and till we arrived at Canton. Our main-mast stood for some time without shrouds on the larboard side, till we could unlay our best cable to make more, having knotted and spliced the old shrouds till our labour was in vain.

In the midst of all this sickness and distress, I myself was taken violently ill, and had no hope to recover till a fit of the gout gave me some relief. Great was our want of every thing fit or comfortable for persons in such a state of sickness; yet, about the beginning of October, we passed by Guam; and, though upon the very brink of perishing, we dared not venture in, for fear the inhabitants should take the advantage of our weakness, and make some attempt upon our lives.

From Guam I directed my course for the island of Formosa. And now, though the length of our voyage was decreasing very fast, our sickness was daily increasing upon us in a much greater proportion; and most truly it may be said, that both our ship and ourselves were no longer fit for the sea. It was the 3d of November before we had sight of that island, and the 10th, before we could get any sort of directions to enable us to reach our intended port. At length, as we were passing through a very narrow channel, between a couple of islands, a fisherman took notice, by our cautious manner of working, that we were strangers, and made signs to us to bring our ship to, till he came up with us; when we made him understand in general, that we were bound to Macao, and he made signs that he would conduct us thither, if we would give him as many pieces of silver as he counted little fish out of his basket, which amounted to 40. We accordingly counted out 40 dollars into a hat, and next day he took us in charge, and anchored us safe in the road of Macao, near the entrance of the river of Canton.

Soon after our arrival, there came off to us a great many of the Success’s people, to make us a visit; I was amazed at the sight of them, and was very glad to hear their story. They said, their Commander, Clipperton, left me designedly; that they went directly to Guam, where they were very well refreshed, and supplied with provisions; that their Captain sold the Governor a great quantity of powder and shot, and several other valuable things, and permitted the Marquis of Villa Rocha, who was his prisoner, to go on shore there; that Mr. Godfrey the agent, and a marine officer, went to settle the accounts for what supplies of things they had had; and that, as soon as they were landed, and the boat come off again, Captain Clipperton weighed with his ship, in order to attack a ship of 20 guns from Manilla, that had lain quietly in the road in company with him all the time: that in approaching her he ran his own ship upon the rocks, and soon found the enemy was prepared for him: that, his condition being desperate, and supposing the loss of his ship inevitable, he had recourse to his case of brandy, and took so abundantly of it, that he fell on the deck, and snored out his time in a beastly manner, whilst his First Lieutenant, Davidson, in his stead, undertook the command of the ship, which he bravely executed till he was killed: he was succeeded by Captain Cook, their Second Lieutenant, who made a handsome resistance, and got the ship afloat again, after she had lain on the rocks forty-eight hours: that they lost their prisoner the Marquis de la Rocha, and also Mr. Godfrey the agent-general, with the officer already mentioned; which gave the ships company so much distaste, that they would not suffer him to have the command of them any more, and, locking him up in his cabbin, chose Captain Cook to take charge of the ship.

They had, it seems, much bad weather between Guam and Amoy in China, whither they got with much difficulty; and there made a dividend of all they had taken, half to the owners, and half to the ship’s company. Clipperton designed for the straits of Malacca; but his people, fearing he had no good intentions, would go no farther with him than Macao, that being a Christian port. Upon their arrival there, the Governor ordered Clipperton into custody. It seems he had broke prison formerly from thence, where he had been confined (as far as could be learned) on account of his having run away with Dampier’s commission and one of his prizes; but upon producing his Majesty’s commission now for the Success, they gave him no farther trouble, and only contented themselves with fleecing him a little. Here he sold his ship, the Success, for about 1000l. sterling.⁠—[Such is the account given by Captain Shelvock, for the information, as he says, of the gentlemen-owners, who will never, either publicly or privately, be let into the truth of that story.]

But to go on, Nov. 12, about noon, a pilot came off to us, and we immediately weighed, and entered the river of Canton, where, finding the Bonita and Hastings, two English country-ships, I anchored, and sent off an officer, to desire them to instruct us how to behave ourselves in this port, and to acquaint me with the customs of it. To this they answered, that, since the Cadogan and Frances, two European English ships were lying at Wampo, they would advise me to send up to their factories at Canton, to acquaint them of our arrival, and with the reasons which obliged me to come into that river, which I accordingly did the next day. I now thought I was going to rest a little from my labours; but, to my misfortune, I suffered as much here, all circumstances considered, as I had in any former part of my voyage; for the evening we anchored at Wampo, where the English ships commonly lie, there happened an accident which gave occasion to much trouble. One of my men, being in a hurry to remove his effects on board the Bonita, in order to go in her to Fort St. George, the Bonita’s boat was, in her way to their ship, pursued by a Hoppo, or custom-house boat, who wanted to search her. The fellow, being in liquor, and fearing they would take away the silver he had with him, fired a musquet at the pursuers, and killed the officer. Early the next morning, the corpse was laid at the door of one of the English houses or factories, where Chinese officers, appointed for that purpose, waited for the first considerable Englishman that should come out, without any regard to whom this act of violence and murder was to be imputed. It happened that the Supercargo belonging to the Bonita, was the first that came out; on him they seized, put him in chains, and led him, by way of example, about the suburbs of Canton. All that could be said or done by the most considerable of the Chinese merchants who were in commerce with the English, availed nothing; till my man, who committed the fact, was delivered to them, and then the Bonita’s Supercargo was soon after released.

It is the custom in China, at least at Canton, to exact a certain sum of money from all ships that come there, according to their measurement, which is divided into rates or portions of first, second, and third. I therefore every day expected the Hoppo to come to measure my ship, but was given to understand, that I must go up to Canton before that could be done, though even at the hazard of my life. I accordingly went, and staid two days at the Cadogan’s factory, during which time I was hourly alarmed by such stories as made me fear that I should, indisposed as I was, be dragged away from my bed, and put in irons: but at the end of two days, I was obliged to go down again to the ship, to be present at the measurement; and a day afterwards the Hoppo came with a numerous retinue, and seemed to do his business very quietly, but would not let me know what was the sum he intended to exact. This gave me much trouble, for I began to think the Chinese, through a false report of our great riches, had an intention to gratify their love of money by a heavy imposition; and in this I was not mistaken.

I had not been here many days before I was deserted by all my officers and ship’s company, who were continually employed in removing their effects from on board my ship to some of the Europeans, without my knowledge, as I was all the time confined to my bed. My officers were engaging the Indian gentlemen in their interest, and had left me and my son, with a few negroes, to look after the ship. In short, my ship’s company had so many ways of disposing of their effects, that it was impossible to oblige them to do what I should have thought justice to the gentlemen in England and to myself. In a word, they were all soon recovered of their illness by the assistance they met with here, and were become their own masters. The gentlemen who presided over the trade, so little considered our case, that they had half a mind to refuse me a passage in one of their ships; and, in effect, I was treated by them almost as one enemy might treat another in a neutral port.

The Captains Hill and Newsham, when they first came to see me, were astonished at the ruinous appearance of my ship; and when I had given then a short history of my voyage, and desired they would receive me with my effects, they answered, that, since they plainly saw my ship was in no condition to stir any farther, upon paying our passage, they would entertain us as soon as we pleased. This I depended upon, and expected to have no farther trouble than to remove ourselves at any time; but, on the contrary, I found that I had ignorantly applied to the wrong persons, and that my address should have been to the Supercargoes, by which means I was left neglected, while the English Captains were ordered to fall down with their ships five or six miles below us. Thus was I left destitute in the company of five foreign ships, who, perceiving my own countrymen to be so careless of me, were so kind as to offer me their service, and assisted me with what they could; and, had it not been for them, I don’t know what I might have suffered; for I was under perpetual alarms that the Chinese had a design to chop my ship, that is, to seize her.

Having found out my error in applying to the Captains, and not to the Supercargoes, I sent up a letter to them, not to desire, but to demand a passage for me, my officers, and ship’s company, which I was sensible they could not refuse, and indeed they did not; but their condescension was accompanied with a charge to the English Captains, not to receive any thing belonging to us, except it was consigned to the India Company in England. This was an article which my people utterly rejected, vowing they would as soon throw what they had into the sea, as comply with such a demand; for my part, it gave me no concern, being conscious to myself that I had infringed none of their privileges. At the same time that I was acquainted with this intention of receiving us as passengers, I was also informed of the Hoppo’s demand for anchorage in the river, which was no less than 6000 tahel; and, to quicken me in the payment of this exorbitant sum, there was a penalty annexed to this extortion of 500 additional tahel for every day we failed in the payment of it. In short, there was no means by which I could evade this unconscionable imposition; and as it was a day before I could possibly send the 6000 tahel up to Canton, they required 500 tahel more for neglect of payment; so that they received from me, upon this extraordinary occasion, the full sum of 6500 tahel, equal to 2166l. 13s. 4d. English money. This was, as is apprehended, about six times as much as the Cadogan paid, which was the largest English ship there, and measured a third more than mine. It was now high time to get out of my ship; but before I quitted her, I sold her for 2000 tahel, which money, and the rest of my effects, were consigned to the India Company.

Towards the latter end of December, 1722, I sailed in the Cadogan, commanded by Captain John Hill, in company with the Frances, Captain Newsham, who, sailing better than we, left us as soon as we were out at sea. Captain Hill, finding his ship very tender, put into Batavia, where we continued about 10 days, and were informed there were several pirates in those seas; we, therefore, when we departed from Batavia, joined the Dutch homeward-bound fleet in Bantam-bay. The Dutch Commodore promised to assist us in wooding and watering at Mew-island, the water at Batavia being very bad; but on our joining Capt. Newsham in the straits of Sunda, the Dutch made that a pretence to leave us before we got the length of Mew-island; and Capt. Newsham also deserted us the same evening, so that we were left to ourselves.

We continued at Mew-island six or seven days, during which time several boats came to us from Princes-island, and brought us turtle, cocoa-nuts, pine-apples, and other fruits.

Some of the people having seen wild cattle grazing near the strand, went on shore with design to kill them; but before they had advanced near enough, they discovered a small tyger, and saw the track of an old one, upon which they retired to the boat. At this place some of the gentlemen belonging to this ship, in their outward-bound passage, saw a rhinoceros.

From Mew-island we had a very pleasant passage to and about the Cape of Good Hope, which, in my opinion, was greatly owing to Captain Hill’s good conduct, in coming in with the land betimes, I mean upon the easternmost part of the bank, and keeping a moderate distance from the land. I cannot be positive, but I think we never exceeded a degree in distance from it, generally less, and some times even made the land itself.

In this course, I do not remember that we took in our top-sails above twice; once for a squall, which was over in an hour’s time: and, another time, being threatened by the appearance of bad weather, Capt. Hill made all the requisite preparations to receive it, which done, he stood in for the land; and, in a few hours, we had fair weather, a favourable gale, and all our small sails set, at the same time that there remained great appearance of foul weather to the southward of us, which continued for several days afterwards.

I have observed before, that the Frances and the Dutch ships had seven days the advantage of us, by leaving us in the straits of Sunda, notwithstanding which, we gained the Cape about as many days before the Frances, although she sailed so much better than we: and, as to the Dutch ships, there was no appearance at all of their arrival when we left the Cape.

The officers of our ship, by comparing their accounts with those of some of the gentlemen belonging to the Frances, found that she had suffered a great deal of bad weather; whilst we, who were 10 leagues, or thereabout, to the northward of them, or nearer the shore, enjoyed fine pleasant weather and fair wind continually, till we arrived in the Table-bay, which we did the latter end of March. This I should think of sufficient weight for any other to pursue the same track. Here we found Governor Boon, in the London East Indiaman, and others, bound for England.

Whilst we lay at the Cape of Good Hope, nothing remarkable occurred, and it has been so often described, that I can say nothing of it that has not been said by most who have been there before.

From the Cape of Good Hope we had an agreeable passage to the island of St. Helena, and from thence to England.

We made the Land’s-end in the latter end of July; and, being come into the British Channel, met with brisk gales from the western quarter, with thick foggy weather.

On July the 30th, in the evening, we anchored under Dungeness, and the same night some of the Supercargoes and passengers, and amongst the rest myself, hired a small vessel to carry us to Dover, where we arrived early the next morning, and the same day proceeded towards London, where we arrived on the first of August.

Thus ended a long and unfortunate voyage of three years, seven months, and some days; after having sailed very considerably more than round the circumference of the earth, and having gone through a great variety of dangers and distresses, both on sea and shore.