which, added to the constant effect of our leak, rendered our pumps alone a sufficient employment for us all. But though this leakage, by being a short time neglected, would inevitably end in our destruction, yet we had other dangers then impending, which occasioned this to be regarded as a secondary consideration only. For we all imagined that we were driving directly on the neighbouring island of Aguigan, which was about two leagues distant; and as we had lowered our main and fore yards close down, we had no sails we could set but the mizzen, which was altogether insufficient to carry us clear of this instant peril. We therefore immediately applied ourselves to work, endeavouring by the utmost of our efforts to heave up the main and fore yards, in hopes that, if we could but be enabled to make use of our lower canvas, we might possibly weather the island, and thereby save ourselves from this impending shipwreck. But after full three hours' ineffectual labour the jeers broke, and the men being quite jaded, we were obliged by mere debility to desist, and quietly to expect our fate, which we then conceived to be unavoidable. For we imagined ourselves by this time to be driven just upon the shore, and the night was so extremely dark, that we expected to discover the island no otherwise than by striking upon it; so that the belief of our destruction, and the uncertainty of the point of time when it would take place, occasioned us to pass several hours under the most serious apprehensions, that each succeeding moment would'send us to the bottom. Nor did these continued terrors of instantly striking and sinking end but with the daybreak; when we with great transport perceived that the island we had thus dreaded was at a considerable distance, and that a strong northern current had been the cause of our preservation.

The turbulent weather which forced us from Tinian did not begin to abate till three days after; and then we swayed up the foreyard, and began to heave up the mainyard, but the

| jeers broke and killed one of our men, and prevented us at that time from proceeding. The next day, being the 26th of September, was a day of most severe fatigue to us all; for it must be remembered that in these exigencies no rank or office exempted any person from the manual application and bodily labour of a common sailor. The business of this day was no less than an attempt to heave up the sheet-anchor, which we had hitherto dragged at our bows with two cables an end. This was a work of great importance to our future preservation; for, not to mention the impediment to our navigation, and the hazard it would be to our ship if we attempted to make sail with the anchor in its present situation, we had this most interesting consideration to animate us, that it was the only anchor we had left, and, without securing it, we should be under the utmost difficulties and hazards whenever we made the land again; and therefore, being all of us fully apprised of the consequence of this enterprise, we laboured at it with the severest application for full twelve hours, when we had indeed made a considerable progress, having brought the anchor in sight. But it then growing dark, and we being exces sively fatigued, we were obliged to desist, and to leave the work unfinished till the next morning, when, by the benefit of a night's rest, we completed it, and hung the anchor at our bow.

It was the 27th of September, in the morning, that is, five days after our departure, when we thus secured our anchor; and the same day we got up our mainyard. And having now conquered in some degree the distress and disorder which we were necessarily involved in at our first driving out to sea, and being enabled to make use of our canvas, we set our courses, and for the first time stood to the eastward, in hopes of regaining the Island of Tinian, and joining our Commodore in a few days; for we were then, by our accounts, only forty-seven leagues to the south-west

1742.]

of Tinian, so that on the 1st day of October, having then run the distance necessary for making the island according to our reckoning, we were in full expectation of seeing it; but we were unhappily disappointed, and were thereby convinced that a current had driven us to the westward. And as we could not judge how much we might hereby have deviated, and consequently how long we might still expect to be at sea, we had great apprehensions that our stock of water might prove deficient; for we were doubtful about the quantity we had on board, and found many of our casks so decayed as to be half leaked out. However, we were delivered from our uncertainty the next day, by having a sight of the Island of Guam, by which we discovered that the currents had driven us forty-four leagues to the westward of our accounts. This sight of land having satisfied us of our situation, we kept plying to the eastward, though with excessive labour; for the wind continuing fixed in the eastern board, we were obliged to tack often, and our crew were so weak, that without the assistance of every man on board, it was not in our power to put the ship about. This severe employment lasted till the 11th of October, being the nineteenth day from our departure, when, arriving in the offing of Tinian, we were reinforced from the shore, as has been already mentioned; and on the evening of the same day we, to our inexpressible joy, came to an anchor in the road, thereby procuring to our shipmates on shore, as well as to ourselves, a cessation from the fatigues and apprehensions which this disastrous incident had given rise to.

CHAPTER V.

WHEN the Commodore came on board the Centurion on her return to Tinian, as already mentioned, he resolved to stay no longer at the island than was absolutely necessary to complete our

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stock of water, a work which we immediately set ourselves about. But the loss of our long-boat, which was staved against our poop when we were driven out to sea, put us to great inconveniences in getting our water on board, for we were obliged to raft off all our casks, and the tide ran so strong that, besides the frequent delays and difficulties it occasioned, we more than once lost the whole raft. Nor was this our only misfortune, for on the 14th of October, being but the third day after our arrival, a sudden gust of wind brought home our anchor, forced us off the bank, and drove the ship out to sea a second time. The Commodore, it is true, and the principal officers, were now on board; but we had near seventy men on shore who had been employed in filling our water and procuring provisions. These had with them our two cutters, but as they were too many for the cutters to bring off at once, we sent the eighteen-oared barge to assist them, and at the same time made a signal for all that could to embark. The two cutters soon came off to us full of men, but forty of the company who were employed in killing cattle in the wood and in bringing them down to the landing-place were left behind; and though the eighteenoared barge was left for their conveyance, yet, as the ship soon drove to a considerable distance, it was not in their power to join us. However, as the weather was favourable, and our crew was now stronger than when we were first driven out, we in about five days' time returned again to an anchor at Tinian, and relieved those we had left behind us from their second fears of being deserted by their ship.

On our arrival we found that the Spanish bark, the old object of their hopes, had undergone a new metamorphosis. For those we had left on shore began to despair of our return, and conceiving that the lengthening the bark as formerly proposed was both a toilsome and unnecessary measure, considering the small number they consisted of, they had resolved to join her again and to restore her to

fears. While we were passing by these rocks of Vele Rete, there was an outery of fire on the forecastle; this occasioned a general alarm, and the whole crew instantly flocked together in the utmost confusion, so that the officers found it difficult for some time to appease the uproar. But having at last reduced the people to order, it was perceived that the fire proceeded from the furnace; and pulling down the brick-work, it was extinguished with great facility, for it had taken its rise from the bricks, which, being overheated, had begun to communicate the fire to the adjacent wood-work. In the evening we were surprised with a view of what we at first sight conceived to have been breakers, but on a stricter examination we found them to be only a great number of fires on the Island of Formosa. These, we imagined, were intended by the inhabitants of that island as signals for us to touch there; but that suited not our views, we being impatient to reach the port of Macao as soon as possible. From Formosa we steered WNW., and sometimes still more northerly, proposing to fall in with the coast of China to the eastward of Pedro Blanco; for the rock so called is usually esteemed an excellent direction for ships bound to Macao. We continued this course till the following night, and then frequently brought to, to try if we were in soundings; but it was the 5th of November, at nine in the morning, before we struck ground, and then we had forty-two fathoms, and a bottom of grey sand mixed with shells. When we had got about twenty miles farther WNW., we had thirty-five fathoms, and the same bottom, from whence our soundings gradually decreased from thirty-five to twenty-five fathoms; but soon after, to our great surprise, they jumped back again to thirty fathoms. This was an alteration we could not very well account for, since all the charts laid down regular sound

1 In recent maps a sandbank is laid down at this part of the Centurion's

course.

ings everywhere to the northward of Pedro Blanco; and for this reason we kept a very careful look-out, and altered our course to NNW., and having run thirty-five miles in this direction our soundings again gradually diminished to twenty-two fathoms, and we at last, about midnight, got sight of the mainland of China, bearing N. by W., four leagues distant.

We then brought the ship to, with her head to the sea, proposing to wait for the morning; and before sunrise we were surprised to find ourselves in the midst of an incredible number of fishing-boats, which seemed to cover the surface of the sea as far as the eye could reach. I may well style their number incredible, since I cannot believe, upon the lowest estimate, that there were so few as 6000; most of them manned with five hands, and none with less than three. Nor was this swarm of fishing vessels peculiar to this spot; for, as we ran on to the westward, we found them as abundant on every part of the coast. We at first doubted not but we should procure a pilot from them to carry us to Macao; but though many of them came close to the ship, and we endeavoured to tempt them by showing them a number of dollars, a most alluring bait for Chinese of all ranks and professions, yet we could not entice them on board us; though I presume the only difficulty was their not comprehending what we wanted them to do, for we could have no communication with them but by signs. Indeed we often pronounced the word Macao; but this we had reason to suppose they understood in a different sense; for in return they sometimes held up fish to us, and we afterwards learned that the Chinese name for fish is of a somewhat similar sound. But what surprised us most was the inattention and want of curiosity which we observed in this herd of fishermen. A ship like ours had doubtless never been in those seas before; perhaps there might not be one amongst all the Chinese employed in this fishery who had ever seen any European vessel; so that we might reasonably