CHAPTER I.

BOOK II.

However, on the 10th, in the afternoon, we got under the lee of the island, and kept ranging along it at about two miles' distance, in order to look out for the proper anchorage, which was described to be in a bay on the north side. And now, being nearer in with the shore, we could discover that the broken craggy precipices, which had appeared so unpromising at a distance, were far from barren, being in most places covered with woods; and that between them there were everywhere interspersed the finest valleys, clothed with a most beautiful verdure, and watered with numerous streams and cascades; no valley, of any extent, being unprovided of its proper rill. The water, too, as we afterwards found, was not inferior to any we had ever tasted, and was constantly clear; so that the aspect of this country would at all times have been extremely delightful, but in our distressed situation, lan

ON the 9th of June, at daybreak, as is mentioned in the preceding Chapter, we first descried the Island of Juan Fernandez, bearing N. by E. half E., at eleven or twelve leagues' distance. And though, on this view, it appeared to be a mountainous place, extremely ragged and irregular; yet, as it was land, and the land we sought for, it was to us a most agreeable sight. For at this place only we could hope to put a period to those terrible calamities we had so long struggled with, which had already swept away above half our crew, and which, had we continued a few days longer at sea, would inevitably have completed our destruction. For we were by this time reduced to so helpless a condition, that out of 200 and odd men who remained alive, we could not, taking all our watches together, muster hands enough to work the ship on an emergency, though we in-guishing as we were for the land and cluded the officers, their servants, and the boys.

The wind being northerly when we first made the island, we kept plying all that day, and the next night, in order to get in with the land; and wearing the ship in the middle watch, we had a melancholy instance of the almost incredible debility of our people; for the lieutenant could muster no more than two quarter-masters and six foremast men capable of working; so that without the assistance of the officers, servants, and boys, it might have proved impossible for us to have reached the island after we had got sight of it; and even with this assistance they were two hours in trimming the sails. To so wretched a condition was a sixtygun ship reduced, which had passed Straits Le Maire but three months before, with between 400 and 500 men, almost all of them in health and vigour.

its vegetable productions (an inclination constantly attending every stage of the sea- scurvy), it is scarcely credible with what eagerness and transport we viewed the shore, and with how much impatience we longed for the greens and other refreshments which were then in sight; and particularly for the water, for of this we had been confined to a very sparing allowance for a considerable time, and had then but five tons remaining on board. Those only who have endured a long series of thirst, and who can readily recall the desire and agitation which the ideas alone of springs and brooks have at that time raised in them, can judge of the emotion with which we eyed a large cascade of the most transparent water, which poured itself from a rock near 100 feet high into the sea, at a small distance from the ship. Even those amongst the diseased, who were not in the very last stages of the distemper,

1741.]

ARRIVAL AT JUAN FERNANDEZ.

363

though they had long been confined | up and down; after which, with our to their hammocks, exerted the small utmost efforts, and with many surges remains of strength that were left and some purchases we made use of them, and crawled up to the deck to to increase our power, we found ourfeast themselves with this reviving selves incapable of starting the anchor prospect. Thus we coasted the shore, from the ground. However, at noon, fully employed in the contemplation as a fresh gale blew towards the bay, of this diversified landscape, which we were induced to set the sails, which still improved upon us the farther we fortunately tripped the anchor; on advanced. But at last the night which we steered along shore till we closed upon us before we had satisfied came abreast of the point that forms ourselves which was the proper bay the eastern part of the bay. On to anchor in; and therefore we re- opening the bay, the wind, that had solved to keep in soundings all night befriended us thus far, shifted, and (we having then from sixty-four blew from thence in squalls; but by to seventy fathoms), and to send our means of the headway we had got, boat next morning to discover the we luffed close in, till the anchor road. However, the current shifted brought us up in fifty-six fathoms.1 in the night, and set us so near the Soon after we had thus got to our new land, that we were obliged to let go berth, we discovered a sail, which we the best bower in fifty-six fathoms, made no doubt was one of our squadnot half-a-mile from the shore. At ron; and on its nearer approach, we four in the morning the cutter was found it to be the Trial sloop. We despatched with our third lieutenant immediately sent some of our hands to find out the bay we were in search on board her, by whose assistance she of, who returned again at noon with was brought to an anchor between us the boat laden with seals and grass; and the land. We soon found that for though the island abounded with the sloop had not been exempted from better vegetables, yet the boat's crew, those calamities which we had so in their short stay, had not met with severely felt; for her commander, them; and they well knew that even Captain Saunders, waiting on the grass would prove a dainty, and, in- Commodore, informed him, that out deed, it was all soon and eagerly de- of his small complement he had buried voured. The seals, too, were con- thirty-four of his men; and those sidered as fresh provision; but as yet that remained were so universally were not much admired, though they afflicted with the scurvy, that only grew afterwards into more repute; himself, his lieutenant, and three for what rendered them less valuable of his men, were able to stand by at this juncture was the prodigious the sails. quantity of excellent fish which the people on board had taken during the absence of the boat.

The cutter, in this expedition, had discovered the bay where we intended to anchor, which we found was to the westward of our present station; and the next morning, the weather proving favourable, we endeavoured to weigh, in order to proceed thither. But though, on this occasion, we mustered all the strength we could, obliging even the sick, who were scarce able to keep on their legs, to assist us, yet the capstan was so weakly manned, that it was near four hours before we hove the cable right

The Trial came to an anchor within us on the 12th about noon, and we carried our hawsers on board her, in order to moor ourselves nearer in shore; but the wind, coming off the land in violent gusts, prevented our mooring in the berth we intended, especially as our principal attention was now employed on business rather of more importance. For we were

1 "To our inexpressible joy," says Thomas, "having been from St Catherine's, in the Brazils, to this place 148 days, on such a dreadful and fatal a passage, as, I believe, very few persons ever experienced."

many of those who survived recovered by very slow and insensible degrees. Indeed, those who were well enough, at their first getting on shore, to creep out of their tents and crawl about, were soon relieved, and recovered their health and strength in a very short time; but in the rest the disease seemed to have acquired a degree of inveteracy which was altogether without example.

now extremely occupied in sending on shore materials to raise tents for the reception of the sick, who died apace on board; and doubtless the distemper was considerably augmented by the stench and filthiness in which they lay; for the number of the diseased was so great, and so few could be spared from the necessary duty of the sails to look after them, that it was impossible to avoid a great relaxation in the article of cleanliness, which had rendered the ship extremely loathsome between decks. But not withstanding our desire of freeing the sick from their hateful situation, and their own extreme impatience to get on shore, we had not hands enough to prepare the tents for their reception before the 16th; but on that and the two following days we sent them all on shore, amounting to 167 persons, besides at least a dozen who died in the boats on their being exposed to the fresh air. The greatest part of our sick were so infirm, that we were obliged to carry them out of the ship in their hammocks, and to convey them afterwards in the same manner from the water-side to their tents, over a stony beach. This was work of considerable fatigue to the few who were healthy; and therefore the Commodore, with his accustomed humanity, not only assisted herein with his own labour, but obliged his officers, without distinction, to give their helping hand. The extreme weakness of our sick may in some measure be collected from the numbers who died after they had got on shore; for it had generally been found that the land, and the refreshments it produces, very soon recover most stages of the sea-scurvy; and we flattered ourselves that those who had not perished on this first exposure to the open air, but had lived to be placed in their tents, would have been speedily restored to their health and vigour. But, to our great mortification, it was near twenty days after their landing before the mortality was tolerably ceased; and for the first ten or twelve days we buried rarely less than six each day, and

a

1

The excellence of the climate and the looseness of the soil render this place extremely proper for all kinds of vegetation; for if the ground be anywhere accidentally turned up it is immediately overgrown with turnips and Sicilian radishes; and therefore Mr Anson having with him garden seeds of all kinds, and stones of different sorts of fruits, he, for the better accommodation of his countrymen who should hereafter touch here, sowed both lettuces, carrots, and other garden plants, and set in the woods a great variety of plum, apricot, and peach stones. And these last, he has been informed, have since thriven to a very remarkable degree; for some gentlemen, who in their passage from Lima to Old Spain were taken and brought to England, having procured leave to wait upon Mr Anson to thank him for his generosity and humanity to his prisoners, some of whom were their relations, they in casual discourse with him about his transactions in the South Seas, particularly asked him if he had not planted a great number of fruit-stones on the Island of Juan Fernandez; for they told him their late navigators had discovered there numbers of peach trees and apricot trees, which being fruits before unobserved in that place,

1 The Narrator here goes into a long and minute description of Juan Fernandez, for the advantage of future British cruisers in those seas; but the island has been described in Dampier's Voyage (page 158), and the Editor has omitted those parts of Mr Walter's account which do not bear on the actual proceedings of the squadron.

1741.]

THE STAY ON THE ISLAND.

The spot where the Commodore pitched his tent, and which he made choice of for his own residence, was a small lawn that lay on a little ascent, at the distance of about half-amile from the sea.1 In the front of his tent there was a large avenue cut through the woods to the seaside, which sloping to the water, with a gentle descent, opened a prospect of the bay and the ships at anchor. This lawn was screened behind by a tall wood of myrtle sweeping round it in the form of a theatre, the ground on which the wood stood rising with a much sharper ascent than the lawn itself, though not so much but that the hills and precipices within land towered up considerably above the tops of the trees, and added to the grandeur of the view. There were, besides, two streams of crystal water which ran on the right and left of the tent, within 100 yards' distance, and were shaded by the trees which skirted the lawn on either side, and completed the symmetry of the whole.

365

they concluded them to be produced | Alexander Selkirk, a Scotchman, who from kernels set by him. were left by their respective ships, and lived alone upon this island for some years, and consequently were no strangers to its produce. Selkirk, who was the last, after a stay of between four and five years, was taken off the place by the Duke and Duchess privateers, of Bristol, as may be seen at large in the journal of their voyage. His manner of life during his solitude was in most particulars very remarkable; but there is one circumstance he relates which was so strangely verified by our own observation, that I cannot help reciting it. He tells us, among other things, as he often caught more goats than he wanted, he sometimes marked their ears and let them go. This was about thirtytwo years before our arrival at the island. Now it happened that the first goat that was killed by our people at their landing had his ears slit; whence we concluded that he had doubtless been formerly under the power of Selkirk. This was indeed an animal of a most venerable aspect, dignified with an exceeding majestic beard, and with many other symptoms of antiquity. During our stay on the island we met with others marked in the same manner, all the males being distinguished by an exuberance of beard, and every other characteristic of extreme age.

It remains now only that we speak of the animals and provisions which we met with at this place. Former writers have related that this island abounded with vast numbers of goats; and their accounts are not to be questioned, this place being the usual haunt of the buccaneers and privateers who formerly frequented those seas. And there are two instances-one of a Mosquito Indian, and the other of

And was probably, as Thomas suggests, the very spot on which Shelvocke pitched his tent after his shipwreck on the island in May 1720. Shelvocke, as quoted in Kerr's Collection of Voyages, Part I., Book IV., chap. 12, sec. 22, says: "I now took some pains to find out a convenient place in which to set up my tent, and at length found a commodious spot of ground not half-a-mile from the sea, having a fine stream of water on each side, with trees close at hand for firing, and building our huts."

I remember we had once an opportunity of observing a remarkable dispute betwixt a herd of these animals and a number of dogs, for going in our boat into the eastern bay, we saw some dogs running very eagerly upon the foot, and being willing to discover what game they were after, we lay upon our oars some time to view them; and at last we saw them take to a hill, and looking a little farther we observed upon the ridge of it a herd of goats which seemed drawn up for their reception; there was a very narrow path, skirted on each side by precipices, on which the master of the herd posted himself fronting the enemy, the rest of the goats being all behind him, where the ground was open. As this spot was inaccessible

more

by any other path excepting where this champion had placed himself, the dogs, though they ran up-hill with great alacrity, yet when they came within about twenty yards of him durst not encounter him (for he would infallibly have driven them down the precipice), but gave over the chase, and quietly laid themselves down, panting at a great rate. The dogs, which, as I have mentioned, are masters of all the accessible parts of the island, are of various kinds, but some of them very large, and are multiplied to a prodigious degree. They sometimes came down to our habitations at night and stole our provision, and once or twice they set upon single persons, but assistance being at hand, they were driven off without doing any mischief. As at present it is rare for goats to fall in their way, we conceived that they lived principally upon young seals; and indeed some of our people had the curiosity to kill dogs sometimes and dress them, and they seemed to agree that they had a fishy

taste.

very full of blood, for if they are deeply wounded in a dozen places, there will instantly gush out as many fountains of blood, spouting to a considerable distance; and to try what quantity of blood they contained, we shot one first, and then cut its throat; and measuring the blood that came from him, we found that, besides what remained in the vessels-which, to be sure, was considerable-we got at least two hogsheads. We killed many of them for food, particularly for their hearts and tongues, which we esteemed exceeding good eating, and preferable even to those of bullocks. And in general there was no difficulty in killing them, for they were incapable either of escaping or resisting, their motion being the most unwieldy that can be conceived, their blubber, all the time they are moving, being agitated in large waves under their skins. However, a sailor one day being carelessly employed in skinning a young sea-lion, the female from which he had taken it came upon him unperceived, and getting his head in her mouth, she with her teeth scored his skull in notches in many places, and thereby wounded him so desperately that, though all possible care was taken of him, he died in a few days.

Goats' flesh, as I have mentioned, being scarce, we rarely being able to kill above one a day, and our people growing tired of fish (which abounds at this place), they at last condescended to eat seals, which by degrees they came to relish, and called it lamb. The seal, numbers of which haunt this island, has been so often described by former writers that it is unnecessary to say anything particular about them in this place. But there is another amphibious creature to be met with here, called a sea-lion, that bears some resemblance to a seal, though it is much larger. This, too, we ate, under the denomination of beef. They are in size, when arrived at their full growth, from twelve to twenty feet in length, and from eight to fifteen in circumference; they are extremely fat, so that after having cut through the skin, which is about an inch in thickness, there is at least a foot of fat before you can come at either lean or bones; and we experienced more than once that the fat of some of the largest afforded us a butt of oil. They are likewise

But that which furnished us with the most delicious repasts at this island remains still to be described. This was the fish with which the whole bay was most plentifully stored, and with the greatest variety. For we found here cod of a prodigious size; and by the report of some of our crew, who had been formerly employed in the Newfoundland fishery, not in less plenty than is to be met with on the banks of that island. We caught also cavillies, gropers, large breams, maids, silver-fish, congers of a peculiar kind, and above all, a black fish which we most esteemed, called by some a chimney-sweeper, in shape resembling a carp. Indeed the beach is everywhere so full of rocks and loose stones that there is no possibility of hauling the seyne; but with hooks and lines we caught what numbers we pleased,