RELEASE OF PRISONERS.

CHAPTER I.

BOOK III.

there were other circumstances attending it which rendered this situation not less terrible, and our apprehensions perhaps still greater, than in any of our past distresses. For our two ships were by this time extremely crazy; and many days had not passed before we discovered a spring in the foremast of the Centurion, which rounded about twenty-six inches of its circumference, and which was judged to be at least four inches deep. And no sooner had our car

1

WHEN, on the 6th of May 1742, we left the coast of America, we stood to the SW. with a view of meeting with the NE. trade-wind, which the accounts of former writers made us expect at seventy or eighty leagues' distance from the land. We had, besides, another reason for standing to the southward, which was the getting into the Latitude of 13° or 14° N., that being the parallel where the Pacific Ocean is most usually crossed, and conse-penters secured this with fishing it, quently where the navigation is esteem- but the Gloucester made a signal ed the safest. This last purpose we of distress; and we learned that she had soon answered, being in a day or had a dangerous spring in her maintwo sufficiently advanced to the south. mast twelve feet below the trusselAt the same time, we were also farther trees, so that she could not carry from the shore than we had presumed any sail upon it. Our carpenters, was necessary for falling in with the on a strict examination of this mast, trade-wind; but in this particular we found it so very rotten and decayed were most grievously disappointed, for that they judged it necessary to the wind still continued to the west-cut it down as low as it appeared to ward, or at best variable. As the getting into the NE. trade was to us a matter of the last consequence, we stood more to the southward, and made many experiments to meet with it; but all our efforts were for a long time unsuccessful, so that it was seven weeks from our leaving the coast before we got into the true trade-wind. This was an interval in which we believed we should well nigh have reached the easternmost parts of Asia; but we were so baffled with the contrary and variable winds which for all that time perplexed us, that we were not as yet advanced above a fourth part of the way. The delay alone would have been a sufficient mortification, but

cussing a probability subject to so many conditions that the Narrator could not contemplate, it will appear to the reader that quite enough has been said, both in the opening Chapter and throughout the whole narrative, to show wherein and how the squadron came short of its intents.

have been injured, and by this it was reduced to nothing but a stump, which served only as a step to the topmast. These accidents augmented our delay and occasioned us great anxiety about our future security, for on our leaving the coast of Mexico the scurvy had begun to make its appearance again amongst our people, though from our departure from Juan Fernandez we had till then enjoyed a most uninterrupted state of health. We too well knew the effects of this disease from our former fatal experience, to suppose that anything but a speedy passage could secure the greater part of our crew from perishing by it; and as, after being seven weeks at sea, there did not appear any reasons that could persuade us we were nearer the

1 Or trestle-trees; 66 'two strong pieces of timber placed horizontally and fore-and-aft on opposite sides of a mast-head, to support the cross-trees and top, and also for the fid of the mast above to rest on."

1742.] APPEARANCE OF SCURVY AMONGST THE CREW. 429

and did not in the least avail his patients.3

When we reached the trade-wind, and it settled between the north and the east, yet it seldom blew with so much strength but the Centurion might have carried all her small sails abroad with the greatest safety; so that now, had we been a single ship, we might have run down our longi tude apace, and have reached the Ladrones soon enough to have recovered great numbers of our men who after

trade-wind than when we first set out, there was no ground for us to suppose but our passage would prove at least three times as long as we at first expected; and consequently we had the melancholy prospect either of dying by the scurvy or perishing with the ship for want of hands to navigate her. Indeed some amongst us were at first willing to believe that in this warm climate, so different from what we felt in passing round Cape Horn, the violence of this disease and its fatality might be in some degree miti-wards perished. But the Gloucester, gated, as it had not been unusual to suppose that its particular virulence in that passage was in a great measure owing to the severity of the weather. But the havoc of the distemper in our present circumstances soon convinced us of the falsity of this speculation, as it likewise exploded some other opinions which usually pass current about the cause and nature of this disease. Our surgeon (who, during our passage round Cape Horn, had ascribed the mortality we suffered to the severity of the climate) exerted himself in the present run to the utmost, and at last declared that all his measures were totally ineffectual,

1 Some observations on the general medical treatment of the disease, and on the effect of certain specifics tried on some of the crew, have been here omitted. Speaking of the scurvy, Thomas strives to remove the prevalent notion that it attacks none but the lazy; whereas experience in the voyage proved the direct contrary, the most laborious, active, stirring persons being oftenest seized with the disease, and the continuance of their labour, instead of curing, only helped to kill them the sooner. Nor, he adds, does the scurvy generally in cline people to indolence till it has come to such a height that at the least motion the sufferer is ready to faint.

2 Mr Henry Ettrick, originally of the Wager; he succeeded Mr Thomas Walter, the first surgeon of the Centurion, who died off the coast of Brazil.

by the loss of her mainmast, sailed so very heavily that we had seldom any more than our topsails set, and yet were frequently obliged to lie to for her; and, I conceive, that in the whole we lost little less than a month by our attendance upon her, in consequence of the various mischances she encountered. In all this run, it was remarkable that we were rarely many days together without seeing great numbers of birds, which is a proof that there are many islands, or at least rocks, scattered all along at no very considerable distance from our track.4 Some indeed there are

About the middle of June, Thomas remarks that abundance of scorbutic symptoms, such as blackness in the skin, hard nodes in the flesh, shortness of breath, and a general lassitude and weakness of all the parts, began to prevail almost universally among the people. Towards the end of July he writes: "About this time our people began to die very fast, and I believe above five parts out of six of the ship's company were ill and expected to follow in a short time. Those whose breath was anyways af fected, dropped off immediately; but those who were attacked first in the more remote parts of the body, languished generally a month or six weeks, the distemper advancing in the meantime towards the lungs by a very regular and sensible approach.

4 More recent discoveries have fully borne out this sagacious conjecture. Thomas records, early in July: "We had, not only now, but for almost our

being then, as we esteemed, about 300 leagues distant from the Ladrones, we met with a westerly wind, which did not come about again to the eastward in four days' time. This was a most dispiriting incident, as it at once damped all our hopes of speedy relief, especially, too, as it was attended with a vexatious accident to the Gloucester; for in one part of these four days the wind flattened to a calm, and the ships rolled very deep, by which means the Gloucester's forecap split, and her topmast came by the board and broke her foreyard directly in the slings. As she was hereby rendered incapable of mak

marked in Spanish charts; but the frequency of the birds seems to evince that there are many more than have been hitherto discovered; for the greatest part of the birds, we observed, were such as are known to roost on shore; and the manner of their appearance sufficiently made out that they came from some distant haunt every morning, and returned thither again in the evening; for we never saw them early or late, and the hour of their arrival and departure gradually varied, which we supposed was occasioned by our running nearer their haunts or getting farther from them. The trade-wind continued to favouring any sail for some time, we were us without any fluctuation from the obliged, as soon as a gale sprung up, to end of June till towards the end of take her in tow; and near twenty of July. But on the 26th of July, the healthiest and ablest of our seamen were taken from the business of our own ship, and were employed for eight or ten days together on board the Gloucester in repairing her damages. But these things, mortifying as we thought them, were but the beginning of our disasters; for scarce had our people finished their business in the Gloucester, before we met with a most violent storm in the western board, which obliged us to lie to. In the beginning of this storm our ship sprung a leak, and let in so much water, that all our people, officers included, were employed continually in working the pumps. And the next day we had the vexation to see the Gloucester

whole passage, abundance of birds of prey, also flying fish, which are their proper food, and vast quantities of skip-jacks, albicores, &c., whereof we took a great number, which contributed much to our refreshment after the loss of the tortoises, that generally leave all ships about twenty or thirty leagues off the land. I think this the more worthy of notice, because Dampier, Rogers, Cook, Cowley, and most other voyagers, some of whom have been not only once, but several times on this voyage, have reported that they never saw a fish or fowl in this whole run. For my part, I readily believe and conclude, that this difference in our observations and accounts is really occasioned by the different seasons of the year in which we happened to perform this passage; it being a known truth, and confirmed by the experience of thousands in all ages, that most fish have their different seasons for their different rendezvouses. The 10th, we saw three gannets, or, as they call them in Scotland, solan geese, being, by what I can learn from the most intelligent of that nation whom I have conversed with, and who often have opportunity to observe them in several different parts, of one and the same species."

1 Anson records in his Official Report: "On the 15th of June the Gloucester found her mainmast sprung at the head, which, upon examination, was discovered to be entirely rotten. On the 29th of July the Gloucester carried away her foretopmast and foreyard. My ship's company are now miserably afflicted with the scurvy, the ship very leaky, the men and officers that were well being only able to make one spell at the pump.' "This is all," observes Sir John Barrow, "that Anson says of the second attack of this afflicting malady; but, coming from the Commodore, it speaks volumes."

"

DISTRESS OF THE GLOUCESTER.