1741.] DEATHS FROM SCURVY ON BOARD. rigging broke, and lost a main studding-sail boom out of the chains. On the 25th, about noon, the weather became more moderate, which enabled us to sway up our yards, and to repair, in the best manner we could, our shattered rigging; but still we had no sight of the rest of our squadron, nor indeed were we joined by any of them again till after our arrival at Juan Fernandez, nor did any two of them, as we have since learned, continue in company together. And this total separation was the more wonderful, as we had hitherto kept together for seven weeks, through all the reiterated tempests of this turbulent climate. It must indeed be owned that this separation gave us room to expect that we might make our passage in a shorter time than if we had continued together, because we could now make the best of our way without being retarded by the misfortunes of the other ships; but then we had the melancholy reflection that we ourselves were hereby deprived of the assistance of others, and our safety would depend upon our single ship. So that, if a plank started, or any other accident of the same nature should take place, we must all irrecoverably perish; or, should we be driven on shore, we had the uncomfortable prospect of ending our days on some desolate coast, without any reasonable hope of ever getting away; whereas, with another ship in company, all these calamities are much less formidable, since in every kind of danger there would be some proba.bility that one ship at least might escape, and might be capable of preserving or relieving the crew of the other. The remaining part of this month of April we had generally hard gales, although we had been every day since the 22d edging to the northward; however, on the last day of the month we flattered ourselves with the hopes of soon terminating all our sufferings, for we that day found ourselves in the Latitude of 52° 13', which, being to the northward of the Straits of Magellan, we were assured that we 357 had completed our passage, and had arrived in the confines of the Southern Ocean; and this Ocean being nominated Pacific, from the equability of the seasons which are said to prevail there, and the facility and security with which navigation is there carried on, we doubted not but we should be speedily cheered with the moderate gales, the smooth water, and the temperate air, for which that tract of the globe has been so renowned. And under the influence of these pleasing circumstances we hoped to experience some kind of compensation for the complicated miseries which had so constantly attended us for the last eight weeks. But here we were again disappointed; for in the succeeding month of May our sufferings rose to a much higher pitch than they had ever yet done, whether we consider the violence of the storms, the shattering of our sails and rigging, or the diminishing and weakening of our crew by deaths and sickness, and the probable prospect of our total destruction. All this will be sufficiently evident from the following circumstantial account of our diversified misfortunes. Soon after our passing Straits Le Maire, the scurvy began to make its appearance amongst us; and our long continuance at sea, the fatigue we underwent, and the various disappointments we met with, had occasioned its spreading to such a degree, that at the latter end of April there were but few on board who were not in some degree afflicted with it; and in that month no less than forty-three died of it on board the Centurion. But though we thought that the distemper had then risen to an extraordinary height, and were willing to hope that as we advanced to the northward its malignity would abate; yet we found, on the contrary, that in the month of May we lost nearly double that number. And as we did not get to land till the middle of June, the mortality went on increasing, and the disease extended itself so prodigiously, that after the loss of above 200 men we could not at last muster more than six foremast men in a watch capable of duty. This disease, so frequently attending all long voyages, and so particularly destructive to us, is surely the most singular and unaccountable of any that affects the human body. For its symptoms are inconstant and innumerable, and its progress and effects extremely irregular; for scarcely any two persons have the same complaints, and where there has been found some conformity in the symptoms the order of their appearance has been totally different. However, though it frequently puts on the form of many other diseases, and is therefore not to be described by any exclusive and infallible criterions; yet there are some symptoms which are more general than the rest, and, therefore, occurring the oftenest, deserve a more particular enumeration. These common appearances are large discoloured spots dispersed over the whole surface of the body, swelled legs, putrid gums, and above all, an extraordinary lassitude of the whole body, especially after any exercise however inconsider able; and this lassitude at last degenerates into a proneness to swoon on the least exertion of strength, or even on the least motion. This disease is likewise usually attended with a strange dejection of the spirits, and with shiverings, tremblings, and a disposition to be seized with the most dreadful terrors on the slightest accident. Indeed it was most remarkable, in all our reiterated experience of this malady, that whatever discouraged our people, or at any time damped their hopes, never failed to add new vigour to the distemper; for it usually killed those who were in the last stage of it, and confined those to their hammocks who were before capable of some kind of duty; so that it seemed as if alacrity of mind and sanguine thoughts were no contemptible preservatives from its fatal malignity. 1 But it is not easy to complete the long roll of the various concomitants 1 Ed. 1776: "And even to die." of this disease; for it often produced putrid fevers, pleurisies, the jaundice, and violent rheumatic pains, and sometimes it occasioned an obstinate costiveness, which was generally attended with a difficulty of breathing; and this was esteemed the most deadly of all the scorbutic symptoms. At other times the whole body, but more especially the legs, were subject to ulcers of the worst kind, attended with rotten bones, and such a luxuriance of fungus flesh, as yielded to no remedy. But a most extraordinary eircumstance, and what would be scarcely credible upon any single evidence, is, that the scars of wounds which had been for many years healed were forced open again by this virulent distemper. Of this there was a remarkable instance in one of the invalids on board the Centurion, who had been wounded above fifty years before at the battle of the Boyne; for though he was cured soon after, and had continued well for a great number of years past, yet, on his being attacked by the scurvy, his wounds, in the progress of his disease, broke out afresh, and appeared as if they had never been healed. Nay, what is still more astonishing, the callus of a broken bone, which had been completely formed for a long time, was found to be hereby dissolved, and the fracture seemed as if it had never been consolidated. Indeed, the effects of this disease were in almost every instance wonderful; for many of our people, though confined to their hammocks, appeared to have no inconsiderable share of health, for they ate and drank heartily, were cheerful, and talked with much seeming vigour and with a loud, strong tone of voice; and yet on their being the least moved, though it was only from one part of the ship to the other, and that in their hammocks, they have immediately expired; and others who have confided in their seeming strength, and have resolved to get out of their hammocks, have died before they could well reach the deck; and it was no uncommon thing for those who were able to walk the deck, and 1741.] GLOOMY PROSPECTS. to do some kind of duty, to drop down dead in an instant, on any endeavours to act with their utmost vigour, many of our people having perished in this manner during the course of this Voyage. With this terrible disease we struggled the greatest part of the time of our beating round Cape Horn; and though it did not then rage with its utmost violence, yet we buried no less than forty-three men on board the Centurion in the month of April, as has been already observed. We still entertained hopes, that when we should have once secured our passage round the Cape, we should put a period to this and all the other evils which had so constantly pursued us. But it was our misfortune to find, that the Pacific Ocean was to us less hospitable than the turbulent neighbourhood of Tierra del Fuego and Cape Horn; for being arrived, on : 359 the 8th of May, off the Island of Socoro, which was the first rendezvous appointed for the squadron, and where we hoped to have met with some of our companions, we cruised for them in that station several days. And here we were not only disappointed in our hopes of being joined by our friends, and thereby induced to favour the gloomy suggestions of their having all perished; but we were likewise perpetually alarmed with the fears of being driven on shore upon this coast, which appeared too craggy and irregular to give us the least hopes that in such a case any of us could possibly escape immediate destruction. For the land had indeed a most tremendous aspect; the most distant part of it, and which appeared far within the country, being the mountains usually called the Andes or Cordilleras, was extremely high, and covered with snow; and the coast itself seemed quite rocky and barren, and the water's edge skirted with precipices. In some places, indeed, there appeared several deep bays running into the land, but the entrance into them was generally blocked though it was not improbable but there might be convenient shelter in some of those bays, and proper channels leading thereto; yet, as we were utterly ignorant of the coast, had we been driven ashore by the western winds which blew almost constantly there, we did not expect to have avoided the loss of our ship and of our lives. 1 Thomas dwells far more impressively on this disappointment Friday, May 8, at seven in the morning, saw the main land of Patagonia appearing in high mountains covered mostly with snow. We like-up by numbers of little islands; and wise saw several islands, one of which we took to be the Island del Soccoro, so called by Sir John Narborough, in his account of his voyage into those parts; and from the fine description this gentleman had given of this island (having been there in the very height of summer), this place was appointed for our first general rendezvous in the South Seas. An unhappy appointment it was in its consequences; for when the people, already reduced to the last extremity, found this to be the place of rendezvous, where they had hoped to meet, the rest of their companions with joy, and what a miserable part of the world it appeared to be, their grief gave way to despair; they saw no end of their sufferings, nor any door open to their safety. Those who had hitherto been well and in heart, now full of despondency, fell down, sickened, and died; and, to sum up this melancholy part, I verily believe, that our touching on And this continued peril, which this coast, the long stay we made here, and our hindrance by cross winds, which we should have avoided in a direct course to Juan Fernandez, lost us at least sixty or seventy of as stout and able men as any in the navy. This unspeakable distress was still aggravated by the difficulties we found in working the ship, as the scurvy had by this time destroyed no less than 200 of our men, and had in some degree affected almost the whole crew." prodigious a shock, that several of our lasted for above a fortnight, was It were endless to recite minutely the various disasters, fatigues, and terrors which we encountered on this coast; all these went on increasing till the 22d of May, at which time the fury of all the storms which we had hitherto encountered seemed to be combined, and to have conspired our destruction. In this hurricane almost all our sails were split, and great part of our standing rigging broken; and, about eight in the evening, a mountainous overgrown sea took us upon our starboard quarter, and gave us so 1 Auson himself writes in his Official Report, under date May 8th, that he "had not men able to keep the deck sufficient to take in a topsail, all being violently afflicted with the scurvy, and every day lessening our number by six, eight, or ten." 1741.] EXTREME DISTRESS OF THE CREW. 361 were by this time reduced to so low a | being doubtless a part of the Cordilcondition, that, instead of attempting leras, which are always covered with to attack the places of the enemy, our snow. Though by this view of the utmost hopes could only suggest to us land we ascertained our position, yet the possibility of saving the ship, and it gave us great uneasiness to find that some part of the remaining enfeebled we had so needlessly altered our course crew, by our speedy arrival at Juan when we were, in all probability, just Fernandez; for this was the only road upon the point of making the island; in that part of the world where there for the mortality amongst us was now was any probability of our recovering increased to a most dreadful degree, our sick, or refitting our vessel, and and those who remained alive were consequently our getting thither was utterly dispirited by this new disapthe only chance we had left to avoid pointment and the prospect of their perishing at sea. longer continuance at sea. Our water, too, began to grow scarce, so that a general dejection prevailed amongst us, which added much to the virulence of the disease, and destroyed numbers of our best men; and to all these calamities there was added this vexatious circumstance, that when, after having got a sight of the main, we tacked and stood to the westward in quest of the island, we were so much delayed by calms and contrary winds, Our deplorable situation, then, allowing no room for deliberation, we stood for the Island of Juan Fernandez: and to save time, which was now extremely precious (our men dying four, five, and six in a day), and likewise to avoid being engaged again with a lee-shore, we resolved if possible to hit the island upon a meridian. And on the 28th of May, being nearly in the parallel upon which it is laid down, we had great expectations of see-that it cost us nine days to regain the ing it; but not finding it in the position in which the charts had taught us to expect it, we began to fear that we had got too far to the westward; and therefore, though the Commodore himself was strongly persuaded that he saw it on the morning of the 28th, yet his officers believing it to be only a cloud, to which opinion the haziness of the weather gave some kind of countenance, it was on a consultation resolved to stand to the eastward in the parallel of the island; as it was certain that by this course we should either fall in with the island, if we were already to the westward of it, or should at least make the mainland of Chili, whence we might take a new departure, and assure ourselves, by running to the westward afterwards, of not missing the island a second time. On the 30th of May we had a view of the continent of Chili, distant about twelve or thirteen leagues; the land made exceeding high and uneven, and appeared quite white; what we saw westing which, when we stood to the eastward, we ran down in two. In this desponding condition, with a crazy ship, a great scarcity of fresh water, and a crew so universally diseased that there were not above ten foremast men in a watch capable of doing duty, and even some of these lame, and unable to go aloft: under these disheartening circumstances, I say, we stood to the westward; and, on the 9th of June, at daybreak, we at last discovered the long-wished-for Island of Juan Fernandez. And with this discovery I shall close this Chapter, and the First Book, after observing (which will furnish a very strong image of our unparalleled distresses) that by our suspecting ourselves to be to the westward of the island on the 28th of May, and, in consequence of this, standing in for the main, we lost between seventy and eighty of our men, whom we should doubtless have saved had we made the island that day, which, had we kept on our course for a few hours longer, we could not have failed to have done. |