1741.] PRODUCE OF JUAN FERNANDEZ. so that a boat with two or three lines | These are the most material articles relating to the accommodations, soil, vegetables, animals, and other productions of the Island of Juan Fernandez. By which it must appear how 1 Thomas adds, in somewhat enthusiastic terms, another and a pleasant feature of the island: "It is astonishing, that among all the voyagers who have visited this fortunate island before us, and who have obliged the world with descriptions of it, none of them have mentioned a charming little bird that, with its wild, various, and irregular notes, enchants the ear, and makes the woods resound with its melody. This untutored chorister is somewhat less in size than the goldfinch, its plumage beautifully intermixed with red and other vivid colours, and the golden crown upon its head so bright and glowing when seen in the full light of the sun that it surpasses all description. These little birds are far from being uncommon or unfamiliar, for they perched upon the branches of the myrtle-trees so near us, and sung so cheerfully, as if they had been conscious we were strangers, and came to give us welcome. There is, besides the above, another little bird unnoticed by any former writer, and which seems likewise peculiar to the island, and consequently without a name; it is still less than the former in size, but not inferior in beauty, 367 properly that place was adapted for CHAPTER II. THE arrival of the Trial sloop at this island, so soon after we came there ourselves [in the Centurion], gave us great hopes of being speedily joined by the rest of the squadron; and we were for some days continually looking out, in expectation of their coming in sight. But near a fortnight being elapsed without any of them having appeared, we began to despair of ever meeting them again; as we knew that, had our ship continued so much longer at sea, we should every man of us have perished, and the vessel, occupied by dead bodies only, would have been left to the caprice of the winds and waves: and this we had great reason to fear was the fate of our consorts, as each hour added to the probability of these desponding suggestions. But, on the 21st of June, some of our people, from an eminence on shore, discerned a ship to leeward, though not so musical; the back, wings, and head, are of a lively green, intermixed with fine shining golden spots, and the belly a snow-white ground, with ebony-coloured spots, so elegantly varied as no art can imitate." with her courses even with the hori- | reach the road. However, she conzon; and they at the same time particularly observed, that she had no sail abroad except her courses and her main-topsail. This circumstance made them conclude that it was one of our squadron, which had probably suffered in her sails and rigging as severely as we had done: but they were prevented from forming more definite conjectures about her; for, after viewing her for a short time, the weather grew thick and hazy, and they lost sight of her. On this report, and no ship appearing for some days, we were all under the greatest concern, suspecting that her people were in the utmost distress for want of water, and so diminished and weakened by sickness as not to be able to ply up to windward; so that we feared that, after having been in sight of the island, her whole crew would notwithstanding perish at sea. However, on the 26th, towards noon, we discerned a sail in the NE. quarter, which we conceived to be the very same ship that had been seen before, and our conjectures proved true; and about 1 o'clock she approached so near that we could distinguish her to be the Gloucester. As we had no doubt of her being in great distress, the Commodore immediately ordered his boat to her assistance, laden with fresh water, fish, and vegetables, which was a very seasonable relief to them for our apprehensions of their calamities appeared to be but too well grounded, as perhaps there never was a crew in a more distressed situation. They had already thrown overboard two-thirds of their complement, and of those that remained alive scarcely any were capable of doing duty, except the officers and their servants. They had been a considerable time at the small allowance of a pint of fresh water to each man for twenty-four hours; and yet they had so little left, that, had it not been for the supply we sent them, they must soon have died of thirst. The ship plied in within three miles of the bay; but, the winds and currents being contrary, she could not tinued in the offing the next day, but had no chance of coming to an anchor unless the wind and current shifted; and therefore the Commodore repeated his assistance, sending to her the Trial's boat manned with the Centurion's people, and a further supply of water and other refreshments. Captain Mitchel, the captain of the Gloucester, was under a necessity of detaining both this boat and that sent the preceding day; for without the help of their crews he had no longer strength enough to navigate the ship. In this tantalising situation the Gloucester continued for near a fortnight, without being able to fetch the road, though frequently attempting it, and at sometimes bidding very fair for it. On the 9th of July we observed her stretching away to the eastward at a considerable distance, which we supposed was with a design to get to the southward of the island; but as we soon lost sight of her, and she did not appear for near a week, we were prodigiously concerned, knowing that she must be again in extreme distress for want of water. After great impatience about her, we discovered her again on the 16th, endeavouring to come round the eastern point of the island; but the wind, still blowing directly from the bay, prevented her getting nearer than within four leagues of the land. On this Captain Mitchel made signals of distress; and our long-boat was sent to him with a store of water, and plenty of fish and other refreshments. And the long-boat being not to be spared, the cockswain had positive orders from the Commodore to return again immediately: but the weather proving stormy the next day, and the boat not appearing, we much feared she was lost, which would have proved an irretrievable misfortune to us all. But, the third day after, we were relieved from this anxiety by the joyful sight of the long-boat's sails upon the water; and we sent the cutter immediately to her assistance, which towed her alongside in a few hours. The crew of our long-boat had taken in six of the 1741.] ARRIVAL OF THE GLOUCESTER. Gloucester's sick men to bring them on shore, two of whom had died in the boat. And now we learned that the Gloucester was in a most dreadful condition, having scarcely a man in health on board, except those they received from us; and numbers of their sick dying daily, we found that, had it not been for the last supply sent by our long-boat, both the healthy and diseased must have all perished And together for want of water. these calamities were the more terrifying, as they appeared to be without remedy: for the Gloucester had already spent a month in her endeavours to fetch the bay, and she was now no farther advanced than at the first moment she made the island; on the contrary, the people on board her had worn out all their hopes of ever succeeding in it, by the many experiments they had made of its difficulty. Indeed, the same day her situation grew more desperate than ever; for after she had received our last supply of refreshments, we again lost sight of her; so that we in general despaired of her ever coming to an anchor. 369 to their wants; for notwithstanding the water, the greens, and fresh provisions which we supplied them with, and the hands we sent them to navigate the ship, by which the fatigue of their own people was diminished, their sick relieved, and the mortality abated: notwithstanding this indulgent care of the Commodore, they yet buried threefourths of their crew, and a very small proportion of the remainder were capable of assisting in the duty of the ship. On their coming to an anchor, our first care was to assist them in mooring, and our next to send the sick on shore. These were now reduced by deaths to less than fourscore, of which we expected to lose the greatest part; but whether it was that those farthest advanced in the distemper were all dead, or that the greens and fresh provisions we had sent on board had prepared those who remained for a more speedy recovery, it happened, contrary to our expectations, that their sick were in general relieved and restored to their strength in a much shorter time than our own had been when we first came to the island, and very few of them died on shore. Thus was this unhappy vessel bandied about within a few leagues of her intended harbour, whilst the neighbourhood of that place, and of those circumstances which could alone put an end to the calamities they laboured under, served only to aggravate their distress, by torturing them with a view of the relief it was not in their power to reach. But she was at last delivered from this dreadful situation, at a time when we least expected it; for, after having lost sight of her for several days, we were pleasingly surprised, on the morning of the 23d of July, to see her open the NW.point of the bay with a flowing sail; when we immediately despatched what boats we had to her assistance, and in an hour's time from our first perceiving her she anchored safe within us in the bay. And now we were more particularly convinced of the importance of the assistance and refreshments we so often sent them, and how impossible it would have been for a man of them to have survived had we given less attention | I have thus given an account of the principal events relating to the arrival of the Gloucester, in one continued narration; I shall only add, that we never were joined by any other of our ships, except our victualler, the Anna pink, which came in about the middle of August, and whose history I shall more particularly relate hereafter.1 As 1 The sick were put ashore here and the Centurion was cleansed from the effects of the recent distress on board, and the water was filled. In addition to supplies of vegetables and fresh fish, new bread was also baked in order to revive the health of the crew. soon as the health of the men was tolerably recovered, the strongest of them were employed in cutting down trees, and splitting them into billets; while the smiths had their forge sent ashore to mend the chain plates and other broken and decayed iron-work. A large tent was also set up on the 2 A The occupations of cleaning and watering the ship (which was by this time pretty well completed), the attendance on our sick, and the frequent relief sent to the Gloucester, were the principal transactions of our infirm crew till the arrival of the Gloucester at an anchor in the bay. And then Captain Mitchel, waiting on the Commodore, informed him, that he had been forced by the winds, in his last absence, as far as the small island called Mas-a-fuera, lying about twentytwo leagues to the westward of Juan Fernandez; and that he endeavoured to send his boat on shore at this place for water, of which he could observe several streams, but the wind blew so strong upon the shore, and occasioned such a surf, that it was impossible for the boat to land; though the attempt was not altogether useless, as they returned with a boat-load of fish. This island had been represented by former navigators as a barren rock; but Captain Mitchel assured the Commodore that it was almost everywhere covered with trees and verdure, and was near four miles in length; and added that it appeared to him far from impossible but some small bay might be found on it, which might afford sufficient shelter for any ship desirous of refreshing there. As four ships of our squadron were missing, this description of the Island of Mas-a-fuera gave rise to a conjecture that some of them might possibly have fallen in with that island, and have mistaken it for the true place of our rendezvous; and this suspicion was the more plausible, as we had no draught of either island that could be relied on. In consequence of this reasoning, Mr Anson determined to send the Trial sloop thither, as soon as she could be fitted for the sea, in order to examine all its bays and creeks, that we might be satisfied whether any of our missing ships were there or not. For this purpose, some of our best hands were sent on board the Trial the next morning, to overhaul and fix her rigging; and our beach for the use of the sail-makers in their repairs of the sails and rigging. long-boat was employed in completing her water; and whatever stores and necessaries she wanted were immediately supplied either from the Centurion or the Gloucester. But it was the 4th of August before the Trial was in readiness to sail, when having weighed, it soon after fell calm, and the tide set her very near the eastern shore. Captain Saunders hung out lights, and fired several guns to acquaint us with his danger; upon which all the boats were sent to his relief, who towed the sloop into the bay; where she anchored until the next morning, and then weighing again proceeded on her cruise with a fair breeze. And now after the Gloucester's arrival we were employed in earnest in examining and repairing our rigging; but in stripping our foremast we were alarmed by discovering it was sprung just above the partners of the upper deck. The spring was two inches in depth and twelve in circumference; but the carpenters, inspecting it, gave it as their opinion that fishing it with two leaves of an anchorstock would render it as secure as ever. But our greatest difficulty in refitting was the want of cordage and canvas; for though we had taken to sea much greater quantities of both than had ever been done before, yet the continued bad weather we met with had occasioned such a consumption of these stores, that we were driven to great straits. For after working up all our junk and old shrouds, to make twicelaid cordage, we were at last obliged to unlay a cable to work into running rigging; and with all the canvas, and remnants of old sails, that could be mustered, we could only make up one complete suit. Towards the middle of August, our men being indifferently recovered, they were permitted to quit their sick tents, and to build separate huts for themselves; as it was imagined that by living apart they would be much cleanlier, and consequently likely to recover their strength the sooner; but at the same time particular orders were given, that on the firing of a gun from the ship they should instantly repair to ! 1741.] ARRIVAL OF THE ANNA PINK. the waterside. Their employment on shore was now either the procuring of refreshments, the cutting of wood, or the making of oil from the blubber of the sea-lions. This oil served us for several uses, as burning in lamps, or mixing with pitch to pay the ship's sides, or, when mixed with wood-ashes, to supply the use of tallow, of which we had none left, to give the ship boot-hose tops. Some of the men, too, were occupied in salting cod; for there being two Newfoundland fishermen in the Centurion, the Commodore made use of them in laying in a considerable quantity of salted cod for a sea-store; but very little of it was made use of, as it was afterwards thought to be as productive of the scurvy as any other kind of salt provisions. I have before mentioned that we had a copper oven on shore to bake bread for the sick; but it happened that the greatest part of the flour for the use of the squadron was embarked on board our victualler, the Anna pink. And I should have mentioned that the Trial sloop, at her arrival, had informed us that on the 9th of May she had fallen in with our victualler not far distant from the continent of Chili, and had kept company with her for four days, when they were parted in a hard gale of wind. This gave us some room to hope that she was safe, and that she might soon join us; but all June and July being past without any news of her, we suspected she was lost; and at the end of July the Commodore ordered all the ships to a short allow ance of bread. And it was not in our bread only that we feared a deficiency; for since our arrival at this island we discovered that our former purser had neglected to take on board farge quantities of several kinds of provisions which the Commodore had 1 Boot-topping in those days denoted the scraping of a ship's bottom, or that part of its side near the surface of the water, and paying it over with a mixture of tallow, sulphur, resin, &c., as a temporary protection to the plank from worms. 371 expressly ordered him to receive; so that the supposed loss of our victualler was on all accounts a mortifying consideration. However, on Sunday the 16th of August, about noon, we espied a sail in the northern quarter, aud a gun was immediately fired from the Centurion to call off the people from shore, who readily obeyed the summons, and repaired to the beach, where the boats waited to carry them on board. And now being prepared for the reception of this ship in view, whether friend or enemy, we had various speculations about her. At first many imagined it to be the Trial sloop returned from her cruise; but as she drew nearer this opinion was confuted by observing she was a vessel with three masts. And then other conjectures were eagerly canvassed, some judging it to be the Severn, others the Pearl, and several affirming that it did not belong to our squadron. But about three in the afternoon our disputes were ended by an unanimous persuasion that it was our victualler, the Anna pink. This ship, though, like the Gloucester, she had fallen in to the northward of the island, had yet the good fortune to come to an anchor in the bay at five in the afternoon. Her arrival gave us all the sincerest joy; for each ship's company was now restored to its full allowance of bread, and we were now freed from the apprehensions of our provisions falling short before we could reach some amicable port-a calamity which in these seas is of all others the most irretrievable. This was the last ship that joined us; and the dangers she encountered, and the good fortune which she afterwards met with, being matters worthy of a separate narration, I shall refer them, together with a short account of the other ships of the squadron, to the ensuing Chapter. CHAPTER III. ON the first appearance of the Anna pink it seemed wonderful to us how |