WSW. By our accounts we were near | first saw it, it was about seventeen eighty leagues from Cape Frio; and leagues distant. At noon we perthough, on the information of this ceived a low double land bearing brigantine, we altered our course and WSW., about ten leagues distant, stood more to the southward, yet by which we took to be the Island of St our coming in with the land afterwards Catherine's. That afternoon and the we were fully convinced that our next morning, the wind being NNW., reckoning was much correcter than we gained very little to windward, our Portuguese intelligence. We and were apprehensive of being driven found a considerable current setting to the leeward of the island; but a to the southward after we had passed little before noon the next day the the Latitude of 16° S. And the same wind came about to the southward, took place all along the coast of Brazil, and enabled us to steer in between the and even to the southward of the River north point of St Catherine's and the of Plate, it amounting sometimes to neighbouring Island of Alvoredo. As thirty miles in twenty-four hours, and we stood in for the land, we had reguonce to above forty miles. lar soundings, gradually decreasing We now began to grow impatient from thirty-six to twelve fathoms, all for a sight of land, both for the re- muddy ground. In this last depth covery of our sick, and for the refresh- of water we let go our anchor at 5 ment and security of those who as yet o'clock in the evening of the 19th, continued healthier. When we de- the north-west point of the Island of parted from St Helens, we were in so St Catherine's bearing SSW. distant good a condition, that we lost but two three miles; and the Island Alvoredo men on board the Centurion in our NNE. distant two leagues. Here we long passage to Madeira. But in found the tide to set SSE. and NNW., this present run between Madeira and at the rate of two knots, the tide of St Catherine's we have been very flood coming from the southward. sickly, so that many died, and great We could from our ships observe two numbers were confined to their ham-fortifications at a considerable distance mocks, both in our own ship and in the rest of the squadron; and several of these past all hopes of recovery. The disorders they in general labour under are such as are common to the hot climates, and what most ships bound to the southward experience in a greater or less degree. These are those kind of fevers which they usually call calentures: a disease which was not only terrible in its first instance, but even the remains of it often proved fatal to those who considered themselves as recovered from it. For it always left them in a very weak and helpless condition, and usually afflicted with fluxes and tenesmuses. And by our continuance at sea all our complaints were every day increasing, so that it was with great joy that we discovered the coast of Brazil on the 18th of December, at seven in the morning. The coast of Brazil appeared high and mountainous land, extending from W. to WSW., and when we within us, which seemed designed to prevent the passage of an enemy between the Island of St Catherine's and the main. And we could soon perceive that our squadron had alarmed the coast, for we saw the two forts hoist their colours, and fire several guns, which we supposed to be intended for assembling the inhabitants. To prevent any confusion, the Commodore immediately sent a boat with an officer on shore, to compliment the Governor, and to desire a pilot to carry us into the road. The Governor returned a very civil answer, and ordered us a pilot. On the morning of the 20th we weighed and stood in, and towards noon the pilot came on board us, who the same afternoon brought us to an anchor in five fathoms and a half, in a large commodious bay on the continent side, called by the French Bon Port. In standing from our last anchorage to this place, we everywhere found an oozy bottom, with a depth of water first regularly 1740.] decreasing to five fathoms, and then increasing to seven, after which we had six and five fathoms alternately. The next morning we weighed again with the squadron, in order to run above the two fortifications we have mentioned, which are called the castles of Santa Cruz and St Juan. And now the soundings between the island and the main were four, five, and six fathoms, with muddy ground. As we passed by the castle of Santa Cruz, we saluted it with eleven guns, and were answered by an equal number; and at one in the afternoon the squadron came to an anchor in five fathoms and a half, the Governor's Island bearing NNW., St Juan's castle NE. half E., and the Island of St Antonio S. In this position we moored at the Island of St Catherine's on Sunday the 21st of December, the whole squadron being, as I have already mentioned, sickly and in great want of refreshments: both which inconveniencies we hoped to have soon removed at this settlement, celebrated by former navigators for its healthiness and its [abundance of] provisions, and for the freedom, indulgence, and friendly assistance there given to the ships of all European nations in amity with the Crown of Portugal. AT ANCHOR ON ST CATHERINE'S ISLAND. CHAPTER V.1 OUR first care, after having moored 1 The description of the island, ex- a 343 performed this necessary duty, we When we first arrived at St Catherine's we were employed in refreshing our sick on shore, in wooding and watering the squadron, cleansing our ships, and examining and securing our masts and rigging, as I have alter. At the same time, Mr Anson ready observed in the foregoing Chapgave directions that the ships' companies should be supplied with fresh meat, and that they should be victualled with whole allowance of all kinds of provision. In consequence of these orders, we had fresh beef sent on board us continually for our daily expense, and what was wanting to make up our allowance we received from our victualler, the Anna pink, in order to preserve the provisions on board our squadron entire for our future service. The season of the 1 year growing each day less favourable for our passage round Cape Horn, Mr Anson was very desirous of leaving this place as soon as possible; and we were at first in hopes that our whole business would be done, and we should be in readiness to sail in about a fortnight from our arrival; but, on examining the Trial's masts, we, to our no small vexation, found inevitable employment for twice that time. For, on a survey, it was found that the mainmast was sprung at the upper woulding, though it was thought capable of being secured by a couple of fishes; but the foremast was reported to be unfit for service, and thereupon the carpenters were sent into the woods to endeavour to find a stick proper for a foremast. But after a search of four days they returned without having been able to meet with any tree fit for the purpose. This obliged them to come to a second consultation about the old foremast, when it was agreed to endeavour to secure it by casing it with three fishes; and in this work the carpenters were employed till within a day or two of our sailing. In the meantime, the Commodore, thinking it necessary to have a clean vessel on our arrival in the South Seas, ordered the Trial to be hove down, as this would not occasion any loss of time, but might be completed while the carpenters were refitting her masts, which was done on shore. greatest part miserably bad, and scarce fit to be eaten. The men throughout the whole squadron began now to drop off apace with fevers and fluxes, occasioned, I believe, by the violent heat of the climate, and the bad air; the country being so very woody that the air must thereby be stagnated, and rendered unhealthful." Or "woolding;" explained in Bailey-"The winding of ropes hard about a yard or mast of a ship, after it hath been strengthened by some piece of timber nailed thereto." Young's "Nautical Dictionary," sub voce, also suggests the idea of previous "fishing" or repair. On the 27th of December we discovered a sail in the offing; and not knowing but she might be a Spaniard, the eighteen-oared boat was manned and armed, and sent under the command of our second lieutenant to examine her before she arrived within the protection of the forts. She proved to be a Portuguese brigantine from Rio Grande. And though our officer, as it appeared on inquiry, had behaved with the utmost civility to the master, and had refused to accept a calf which the master would have forced on him as a present, yet the Governor took great offence at our sending our boat, and talked of it in a high strain, as a violation of the peace subsisting between the Crowns of Great Britain and Portugal. We at first imputed this ridiculous blustering to no deeper a cause than Don Jose's insolence; but as we found he proceeded so far as to charge our officer with behaving rudely and opening letters, and particularly with an attempt to take out of the vessel by violence the very calf which we knew he had refused to receive as a present (a circumstance which we were satisfied the Governor was well acquainted with), we had hence reason to suspect that he purposely sought this quarrel, and had more important motives for engaging in it than the mere captious bias of his temper. What these motives were, it was not so easy for us to determine at that time; but as we afterwards found, by letters which fell into our hands in the South Seas, that he had despatched an express to Buenos Ayres, where Pizarro then lay, with an account of our squadron's arrival at St Catherine's, together with the most ample and circumstantial intelligence of our force and condition, we thence conjectured that Don Jose had raised this groundless clamour only to prevent our visiting the brigantine when she should put to sea again, lest we might there find proofs of his perfidious behaviour, and perhaps at the same time discover the secret of his smuggling correspondence with his neighbouring Governors, and the Spaniards at Buenos Ayres. 1741.] FROM ST CATHERINE'S TO THE BAY OF ST JULIAN. 345 CHAPTER VI. IN leaving St Catherine's, we left the last amicable port we proposed to touch at, and were now proceeding to an hostile, or at best a desert and inhospitable coast. And as we were to expect a more boisterous climate to the southward than any we had yet experienced, not only our danger of separation would by this means be much greater than it had been hitherto, but other accidents of a more pernicious nature were likewise to be apprehended, and as much as possible to be provided against. And there It was near a month before the Trial was refitted; for not only her lower masts were defective, as has been already mentioned, but her main-topmast and foreyard were likewise decayed and rotten. While this work was carrying on, the other ships of the squadron fixed new standing rigging, and set up a sufficient number of preventer shrouds to each mast to secure them in the most effectual manner. And in order to render the ships stiffer, and to enable them to carry more sail abroad, and to prevent their labouring in hard gales of wind, each captain had orders given him to strike down some of their great guns into the hold. These precautions before Mr Anson, in appointing the ing complied with, and each ship having taken in as much wood and water as there was room for, the Trial was at last completed, and the whole squadron was ready for the sea; on which the tents on shore were struck, and all the sick were received on board. And here we had a melancholy proof how much the healthiness of this place had been overrated by former writers, for we found that though the Centurion alone had buried no less than twenty-eight men since our arrival, yet the number of our sick was in the same interval increased from eighty to ninety-six. And now our crews being embarked, and everything prepared for our departure, the Commodore made a signal for all captains, and delivered them their orders, containing the successive places of rendezvous from hence to the coast of China. And then on the next day, being the 18th of January 1741, the signal was made for weighing, and the squadron put to sea, leaving without regret this Island of St Catherine's, where we had been so extremely disappointed in our refreshments, in our accommodations, and in the humane and friendly offices which we had been taught to expect in a place which has been so much celebrated for its hospitality, freedom, and conveniency. 1 Ed. 1776: "Chili;" an obvious blunder, as the opening paragraph of Chapter VI. shows. various stations at which the ships of the squadron were to rendezvous, had considered that it was possible his own ship might be disabled from getting round Cape Horn, or might be lost; and had given proper directions that even in that case the expedition should not be abandoned. For the orders delivered to the captains the day before we sailed from St Catherine's, were, that in case of separation which they were with the utmost care to endeavour to avoid-the first place of rendezvous should be the Bay of Port St Julian, describing the place from Sir John Narborough's account of it. There they were to supply themselves with as much salt as they could take in, both for their own use and the use of the squadron; and if, after a stay there of ten days, they were not joined by the Commodore, they were then to proceed through Straits le Maire round Cape Horn into the South Seas, where the next place of rendezvous was to be the Island of Nuestra Señora del Socoro," in the Latitude of 45° S., and Longitude from the Lizard, 71° 12′ W. They were to bring this island to bear ENE., and to cruise from five to twelve leagues distance from it, as long as their store of wood and water would permit, both which they were to ex 2 One of the smaller outer islands of the Chonos Archipelago, on the western coast of Patagonia. the distance of two ships' lengths, so that the whole squadron disappeared.1 On this a signal was made by firing guns, to bring to with the larboard tacks, the wind being then due east. We ourselves immediately handed the topsails, bunted the mainsail, and lay to under a reefed mizzen till noon, when the fog dispersed; and we soon discovered all the ships of the squadron, except the Pearl, which did not join us till near a month afterwards. The Trial sloop was a great way to leeward, having lost her mainmast in this squall, and having been obliged, for fear of bilging, to cut away the raft. We bore down with the squadron to her relief, and the Gloucester was ordered to take her in tow, for the weather did not entirely abate till the day after, and even then a great swell continued from the eastward in consequence of the preceding storm. After this accident we stood to the southward with little interrup. tion, and here we experienced the same setting of the current which we had observed before our arrival at St Catherine's, that is, we generally found ourselves to the southward of our reckoning by about twenty miles each day. This error continued, with a little variation, till we had passed the Latitude of the River of Plate; and even then we found that the same current, however difficult to be accounted for, did yet undoubtedly take place, for we were not satisfied in deducing it from the error in our reckoning, but we actually tried it more than once when a calin made it practicable. pend with the utmost frugality. And when they were under an absolute necessity of a fresh supply, they were to stand in, and endeavour to find out an anchoring-place; and in case they could not, and the weather made it dangerous to supply their ships by standing off and on, they were then to make the best of their way to the Island of Juan Fernandez, in the Latitude of 33° 37' S. And as soon as they had recruited their wood and water, they were to continue cruising off the anchoring-place of that island for fifty-six days, in which time, if they were not joined by the Commodore, they might conclude that some accident had befallen him; and they were forthwith to put themselves under the command of the senior officer, who was to use his utmost endeavours to annoy the enemy both by sea and land. That with these views their new Commodore was to continue in those seas as long as his provisions lasted, or as long as they were recruited by what he should take from the enemy, reserving only a sufficient quantity to carry him and the ships under his command to Macao at the entrance of the River Tigris, near Canton on the coast of China, where, having supplied himself with a new stock of provisions, he was thence without delay to make the best of his way to England. And as it was found impossible as yet to unload our victualler, the Anna pink, the Commodore gave the master of her the same rendezvous, and the same orders to put himself under the command of the remaining senior officer. Under these orders the squadron sailed from St Catherine's on Sunday the 18th of January, as has been already mentioned in the preceding Chapter. The next day we had very squally weather, attended with rain, lightning, and thunder; but it soon became fair again, with light breezes, and continued thus till Wednesday evening, when it blew fresh again; and increasing all night, by eight the next morning it became a most violent storm, and we had with it so thick a fog that it was impossible to see at When we had passed the Latitude of the River of Plate we had soundings all along the coast of Patagonia. These soundings, when well ascertained, being of great use in determining the position of the ship, and we having tried them more frequently in greater depths, and with more attention than I believe had been done before us, I 1 That is, was lost sight of by the Centurion, on board of which the Narrator sailed. Ed. 1776: "The wreck." |