A Voyage Round the World

The letter left in the canoe for Mr. Hughes, the commander of the cutter, the time of whose return was now considerably elapsed, directed him to go back immediately to his former station before Acapulco, where he would find Mr. Anson, who resolved to cruise for him there a certain number of days; after which it was added that the commodore would return to the southward to join the rest of the squadron. This last article was inserted to deceive the Spaniards, if they got possession of the canoe, as we afterwards learnt they did; but could not impose on Mr. Hughes, who well knew that the commodore had no squadron to join, nor any intention of steering back to Peru.

Being now in the offing of Chequetan, bound across the vast Pacifick Ocean in our way to China, we were impatient to run off the coast as soon as possible, since the stormy season was approaching apace. As we had no farther views in the American seas, we had hoped that nothing would have prevented us from steering to the westward the moment we got out of the harbour of Chequetan: and it was no small mortification to us that our necessary employment there had detained us so much longer than we expected, but now, when we had put to sea, we were farther detained by the absence of the cutter, and the necessity we were under of standing towards Acapulco in search of her. Indeed, as the time of her cruise had been expired for near a fortnight, we suspected that she had been discovered from the shore, and that the Governor of Acapulco had thereupon sent out a force to seize her, which, as she carried but six hands, was no very difficult enterprize. However, this being only conjecture, the commodore, as soon as he was got clear of the harbour of Chequetan, stood along the coast to the eastward in search of her: and to prevent her from passing by us in the dark, we brought to every night, and the Gloucester, whose station was a league within us towards the shore, carried a light, which the cutter could not but perceive if she kept along shore, as we supposed she would do; besides, as a farther security, the Centurion and Gloucester alternately shewed two false fires every half-hour. Indeed, had she escaped us, she would have found orders in the canoe to have returned immediately before Acapulco, where Mr. Anson proposed to cruise for her some days.

By Sunday, the 2d of May, we were advanced within three leagues of Acapulco, and having seen nothing of our boat, we gave her over as lost, which, besides the compassionate concern for our ship-mates, and for what it was apprehended they might have suffered, was in itself a misfortune, which, in our present scarcity of hands, we were all greatly interested in: since the crew of the cutter, consisting of six men and the lieutenant, were the very flower of our people, purposely picked out for this service, and known to be every one of them of tried and approved resolution, and as skilful seamen as ever trod a deck. However, as it was the general belief among us that they were taken and carried into Acapulco, the commodore's prudence suggested a project which we hoped would recover them. This was founded on our having many Spanish and Indian prisoners in our possession, and a number of sick negroes, who could be of no service to us in the navigating of the ship. The commodore therefore wrote a letter the same day to the Governor of Acapulco, telling him that he would release them all provided the governor returned the cutter's crew. This letter was dispatched in the afternoon by a Spanish officer, of whose honour we had a good opinion, and who was furnished with a launch belonging to one of our prizes and a crew of six other prisoners, who gave their parole for their return. The Spanish officer too, besides the commodore's letter, carried with him a joint petition, signed by all the rest of the prisoners, beseeching the governor to acquiesce in the terms proposed for their liberty. From a consideration of the number of our prisoners and the quality of some of them, we did not doubt but the governor would readily comply with Mr. Anson's proposal, and therefore we kept plying on and off the whole night, intending to keep well in with the land that we might receive an answer at the limited time, which was the next day, being Monday. But both on Monday and Tuesday we were driven so far off shore that we could not hope that any answer could reach us; and even on the Wednesday morning we found ourselves fourteen leagues from the harbour of Acapulco; however, as the wind was then favourable, we pressed forwards with all our sail, and did not doubt of getting in with the land that afternoon. Whilst we were thus standing in, the centinel called out from the mast-head that he saw a boat under sail at a considerable distance to the south-eastward. This we took for granted was the answer of the governor to the commodore's message, and we instantly edged towards her; but as we approached her we found, to our unspeakable joy, that it was our own cutter. And though, while she was still at a distance, we imagined that she had been discharged out of the port of Acapulco by the governor; yet, when she drew nearer, the wan and meagre countenances of the crew, the length of their beards, and the feeble and hollow tone of their voices, convinced us that they had suffered much greater hardships than could be expected from even the severities of a Spanish prison. They were obliged to be helped into the ship, and were immediately put to bed, where by rest and nourishing diet, which they were plentifully supplied with from the commodore's table, they recovered their health and vigour apace. And now we learnt that they had kept the sea the whole time of their absence, which was above six weeks; that when they had finished their cruise before Acapulco, and had just begun to ply to the westward, in order to join the squadron, a strong adverse current had forced them down the coast to the eastward, in spight of all their efforts to the contrary, that at length, their water being all expended, they were obliged to search the coast farther on to the eastward in quest of some convenient landing-place where they might get a fresh supply; that in this distress they ran upwards of eighty leagues to leeward, and found everywhere so large a surf that there was not the least possibility of their landing; that they passed some days in this dreadful situation without water, having no other means left them to allay their thirst than sucking the blood of the turtle which they caught; that at last, giving up all hopes of succour, the heat of the climate too augmenting their necessities, and rendering their sufferings insupportable, they abandoned themselves to despair, fully persuaded that they should perish by the most terrible of all deaths; but that soon after a most unexpected incident happily relieved them. For there fell so heavy a rain, that on spreading their sails horizontally, and putting bullets in the centers of them to draw them to a point, they caught as much water as filled all their casks; that immediately upon this fortunate supply they stood to the westward in quest of the commodore; and being now luckily favoured by a strong current, they joined us in less than fifty hours from that time, after having been absent in the whole full forty-three days. Those who have an idea of the inconsiderable size of a cutter belonging to a sixty-gun ship (being only an open boat about twenty-two feet in length), and who will reflect on the various casualties that must have attended her during a six weeks' continuance alone, in the open ocean, on so impracticable and dangerous a coast, will readily own that her return to us at last, after all the difficulties which she actually experienced, and the dangers to which she was each hour exposed, may be considered as little short of miraculous.

I cannot finish this article of the cutter without remarking how slender a reliance navigators ought to have on the accounts of the buccaneer writers; for though in this run of hers, eighty leagues to the eastward of Acapulco, she found no place where it was possible that a boat could land; yet those writers have not been ashamed to feign harbours and convenient watering-places within these limits, thereby exposing such as should confide in their relations to the risque of being destroyed by thirst.

I must farther add on this occasion that, when we stood near the port of Acapulco, in order to send our message to the governor, and to receive his answer, Mr. Brett took that opportunity of delineating a view of the entrance of the port and of the neighbouring coast, which, added to the plan of the place formerly mentioned, may be of considerable use hereafter.

Having thus recovered our cutter, the sole object of our coming a second time before Acapulco, the commodore determined not to lose a moment's time more, but to run off the coast with the utmost expedition, both as the stormy season on the coast of Mexico was now approaching apace, and as we were apprehensive of having the westerly monsoon to struggle with when we came upon the coast of China: for this reason we no longer stood towards Acapulco, as at present we wanted no answer from the governor. However, Mr. Anson resolved not to deprive his prisoners of the liberty which he had promised them; and therefore they were all immediately embarked in two launches which belonged to our prizes, those from the Centurion in one launch, and those from the Gloucester in the other. The launches were well equipped with masts, sails, and oars; and lest the wind might prove unfavourable, they had a stock of water and provisions put on board them sufficient for fourteen days. There were discharged thirty-nine persons from on board the Centurion, and eighteen from the Gloucester, the greatest part of them Spaniards, the rest being Indians and sick negroes. Indeed, as our crews were very weak, we kept the Mulattoes and some of the stoutest of our negroes with a few Indians to assist us; but we dismissed every Spanish prisoner whatever. We have since learnt that these two launches arrived safe at Acapulco, where the prisoners could not enough extol the humanity with which they had been treated. It seems the governor, before their arrival, had returned a very obliging answer to our letter, and had at the same time ordered out two boats laden with the choicest refreshments and provisions that were to be procured at Acapulco, which he intended as a present to the commodore: but these boats not having found our ships, were at length obliged to put back again, after having thrown all their provisions overboard in a storm which threatened their destruction.

The sending away our prisoners was our last transaction on the American coast; for no sooner had we parted with them than we and the Gloucester made sail to the S.W., proposing to get a good offing from the land, where we hoped, in a few days, to meet with the regular trade-wind, which the accounts of former navigators had represented as much brisker and steadier in this ocean than in any other part of the world: for it has been esteemed no uncommon passage to run from hence to the eastermost isles of Asia in two months; and we flattered ourselves that we were as capable of making an expeditious voyage as any ships that had ever sailed this course before us; so that we hoped soon to gain the coast of China, for which we were now bound. As we conceived this navigation to be free from all kinds of embarrassment of bad weather, fatigue, or sickness, conformable to the general idea of it given by former travellers, we consequently undertook it with alacrity, especially as it was no contemptible step towards our arrival at our native country, for which many of us by this time began to have great longings. Thus, on the 6th of May, we, for the last time, lost sight of the mountains of Mexico, persuaded that in a few weeks we should arrive at the river of Canton in China, where we expected to meet with many English ships and with numbers of our countrymen; and hoped to enjoy the advantages of an amicable, well-frequented port, inhabited by a polished people and abounding with the conveniences and indulgencies of a civilized life; blessings which now for near twenty months had never been once in our power. But, before we take our final leave of America, there yet remains the consideration of a matter well worthy of attention, the discussion of which shall be referred to the ensuing chapter.

CHAPTER XIV

A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN EXPECTED FROM OUR SQUADRON HAD IT ARRIVED IN THE SOUTH SEAS IN GOOD TIME

After the recital of the transactions of the commodore, and the ships under his command, on the coasts of Peru and Mexico, contained in the preceding narration, it will be no useless digression to examine what the whole squadron might have been capable of atchieving had it arrived on its destined scene of action in so good a plight as it would probably have done had the passage round Cape Horn been attempted at a more seasonable time of the year. This disquisition may be serviceable to those who shall hereafter form projects of the like nature for that part of the world, or who may be entrusted with their execution. And therefore I propose, in this chapter, to consider, as succinctly as I can, the numerous advantages which the public might have received from the operations of the squadron had it set sail from England a few months sooner than it did.

To begin then: I presume it will be granted me that in the summer time we might have got round Cape Horn with an inconsiderable loss, and without any material damage to our ships or rigging. For the Duke and Duchess of Bristol, who between them had above three hundred men, buried no more than two from the coast of Brazil to Juan Fernandez; and out of a hundred and eighty-three hands which were on board the Duke alone, there were only twenty-one sick of the scurvy when they arrived at that island. Whence as men-of-war are much better provided with all conveniences than privateers, we might doubtless have appeared before Baldivia in full strength, and in a condition of entering immediately on action; and therefore, as that place was in a very defenceless state, its cannon incapable of service, and its garrison in great measure unarmed, it was impossible that it could have opposed our force, or that its half-starved inhabitants, most of whom are convicts banished thither from other parts, could have had any other thoughts than that of submitting. This would have been a very important acquisition; since when Baldivia, which is an excellent port, had been once in our possession, we should immediately have been terrible to the whole kingdom of Chili, and should doubtless have awed the most distant parts of the Spanish Empire in America. Indeed it is far from improbable that, by a prudent use of this place, aided by our other advantages, we might have given a violent shock to the authority of Spain on that whole continent, and might have rendered some at least of her provinces independent. This would certainly have turned the whole attention of the Spanish ministry to that part of the world where the danger would have been so pressing, and thence Great Britain and her allies might have been rid of the numerous difficulties which the wealth of the Spanish Indies, operating in conjunction with the Gallick intrigues, have constantly thrown in their way.

But that I may not be thought to over-rate the force of this squadron by ascribing to it a power of overturning the Spanish Government in America, it is necessary to enter into a more particular discussion, and to premise a few observations on the condition of the provinces bordering near the South Seas, and on the disposition of the inhabitants, both Spaniards and Indians, at that time. For hence it will appear that the conjuncture was the most favourable we could have desired, since we shall find that the Creolian subjects were disaffected and their governors at variance, that the country was wretchedly provided with arms and stores, and they had fallen into a total neglect of all military regulations in their garrisons; and that the Indians on their frontier were universally discontented, and seemed to be watching with impatience the favourable moment when they might take a severe revenge for the barbarities they had groaned under during more than two ages: so that every circumstance concurred to facilitate the enterprizes of our squadron. Of all these articles we were amply informed by the letters we took on board our prizes; none of these vessels, as I remember, having had the precaution to throw their papers overboard.

The ill blood amongst the governors was greatly augmented by their apprehensions of our squadron; for every one being willing to have it believed that the bad condition of his government was not the effect of negligence, there were continual demands and remonstrances among them in order to throw the blame upon each other. Thus, for instance, the President of St. Jago in Chili, the President of Panama, and many other governors and military officers were perpetually soliciting the Viceroy of Peru to furnish them with the necessary sums of money for putting their provinces and places in a proper state of defence to oppose our designs: but the customary answer of the viceroy to these representations was that he was unable to comply with their requests, urging the emptiness of the royal chest at Lima, and the difficulties he was under to support the expences of his own government: he in one of his letters (which we intercepted) mentioning his apprehensions that he might soon be necessitated to stop the pay of the troops and even of the garrison of Callao, the key of the whole kingdom of Peru. Indeed he did at times remit to these governors some part of their demands; but as what he sent them was greatly short of their wants, these partial supplies rather tended to the raising jealousies and heart-burnings among them than contributed to the purposes for which they had at first been desired.

Besides these mutual janglings amongst the governors, the whole body of the people were extremely dissatisfied, they being fully persuaded that the affairs of Spain for many years before had been managed by the influence of a particular foreign interest, which was altogether detached from the advantages of the Spanish nation: so that the inhabitants of these distant provinces believed themselves to be sacrificed to an ambition which never considered their convenience or emoluments nor paid any regard to the reputation of their name or the honour of their country. That this was the temper of the Creolian Spaniards at that time might be proved from a hundred instances; but I shall content myself with one which is indeed conclusive: this is the testimony of the French mathematicians sent into America to measure the magnitude of an equatorial degree of latitude. For in the relation of the murther of a surgeon belonging to their company in one of the cities of Peru, and of the popular tumult thence occasioned, written by one of those astronomers, the author confesses that the multitude during the uproar universally joined in imprecations on their bad government, and bestowed the most abusive language upon the French, detesting them, in all probability, more particularly as being of a nation to whose influence in the Spanish counsels the Spaniards imputed all their misfortunes.

And whilst the Creolian Spaniards were thus dissatisfied, it appears by the letters we intercepted that the Indians on almost every frontier were ripe for a revolt, and would have taken up arms upon the slightest encouragement; particularly the Indians in the southern parts of Peru, as likewise the Arraucos, and the rest of the Chilian Indians, the most powerful and terrible to the Spanish name of any on that continent. For it seems in some disputes between the Spaniards and the Indians, which happened a short time before our arrival, the Spaniards had insulted the Indians with an account of the force which they expected from Old Spain under the command of Admiral Pizarro, and had vaunted that he was coming thither to compleat the great work which had been left unfinished by his ancestors. These threats alarmed the Indians, and made them believe that their extirpation was resolved on. For the Pizarros being the first conquerors of that coast, the Peruvian Indians held the name, and all that bore it, in execration; not having forgot the destruction of their monarchy, the massacre of their beloved Inca, Atapalipa, the extinction of their religion, and the slaughter of their ancestors, all perpetrated by the family of the Pizarros. The Chilian Indians too abhorred a chief who was descended of a race which, by its lieutenants, had first attempted to inslave them, and had necessitated the stoutest of their tribes for more than a century to be continually wasting their blood in defence of their independency.

Nor let it be supposed that among barbarous nations the traditions of these distant transactions could not be preserved for so long an interval; since those who have been acquainted with that part of the world agree that the Indians, in their publick feasts and annual solemnities, constantly revive the memory of these tragick incidents; and such as have been present at these spectacles have constantly observed that all the recital and representations of this kind were received with emotions so vehement, and with so enthusiastick a rage, as plainly demonstrated how strongly the memory of their former wrongs was implanted in them, and how acceptable the means of revenge would at all times prove. To this I must add too, that the Spanish governors themselves were so fully informed of the disposition of the Indians at this conjuncture, and were so apprehensive of a general defection among them, that they employed all their industry to reconcile the most dangerous tribes, and to prevent them from immediately taking up arms. Among the rest, the President of Chili in particular made large concessions to the Arraucos and the other Chilian Indians, by which, and by distributing considerable presents to their leading men, he at last got them to consent to a prolongation of the truce between the two nations. But these negociations were not concluded at the time when we might have been in the South Seas; and had they been compleated, yet the hatred of these Indians to the Spaniards was so great that it would have been impossible for their chiefs, how deeply soever corrupted, to have kept them from joining us against their old detested enemy.

Thus then it appears that on our arrival in the South Seas we might have found the whole coast unprovided with troops and destitute even of arms: for we well know, from very particular intelligence, that there were not three hundred fire-arms, of which too the greatest part were matchlocks, in all the province of Chili. Whilst at the same time, the Indians were ripe for a revolt, the Spaniards disposed to mutiny, and the governors enraged with one another, and each prepared to rejoice in the disgrace of his antagonist. At this fortunate crisis we, on the other hand, might have consisted of near two thousand men, the greatest part in health and vigour, all well armed, and united under a chief whose enterprising genius (as we have seen) could not be depressed by a continued series of the most sinister events, and whose equable and prudent turn of temper would have remained unvaried in the midst of the greatest degree of good success; and who besides possessed, in a distinguished manner, the two qualities the most necessary for these uncommon undertakings – I mean that of maintaining his authority and preserving, at the same time, the affections of his people. Our other officers too, of every rank, appear, by the experience the public hath since had of them, to have been equal to any attempt they might have been charged with by their commander: and our men (at all times brave if well conducted) in such a cause, where treasure was the object, and under such leaders, would doubtless have been prepared to rival the most celebrated achievements hitherto performed by British mariners.

It cannot then be contested but that Baldivia must have surrendered on the appearance of our squadron: after which, it may be presumed, that the Arraucos, the Pulches, and Penguinches, inhabiting the banks of the river Imperial, about twenty-five leagues to the northward of this place, would have immediately taken up arms, being disposed thereto, as hath been already related, and encouraged by the arrival of so considerable a force in their neighbourhood. As these Indians can bring into the field near thirty thousand men, the greatest part of them horse, their first step would have been the invading the province of Chili, which they would have found totally unprovided both of ammunition and weapons; and as its inhabitants are a luxurious and effeminate race, they would have been incapable, on such an emergency, of giving any opposition to this rugged enemy: so that it is no strained conjecture to imagine that the Indians would have been soon masters of the whole country. Moreover, the other Indians, on the frontiers of Peru, being equally disposed with the Arraucos to shake off the Spanish yoke, it is highly probable that they likewise would have embraced this favourable occasion, and that a general insurrection would have taken place through all the Spanish territories of South America; in which case, the only resource left to the Creolians (dissatisfied as they were with the Spanish government) would have been to have made the best terms they could with their Indian neighbours, and to have withdrawn themselves from the obedience of a master who had shown so little regard to their security. This last supposition may perhaps appear chimerical to those who measure the possibility of all events by the scanty standard of their own experience; but the temper of the times, and the strong dislike of the natives to the measures then pursued by the Spanish court, sufficiently evince at least its possibility. However, not to insist on the presumption of a general revolt, it is sufficient for our purpose to conclude that the Arraucos would scarcely have failed of taking arms on our appearance: since this alone would so far have terrified the enemy that they would no longer have employed their thoughts on the means of opposing us, but would have turned all their care to the Indian affairs; as they still remember, with the utmost horror, the sacking of their cities, the rifling of their convents, the captivity of their wives and daughters, and the desolation of their country by these resolute savages in the last war between the two nations. For it must be observed that the Chilian Indians have been frequently successful against the Spaniards, and possess at this time a large tract of country which was formerly full of Spanish towns and villages, whose inhabitants were all either destroyed or carried into captivity by the Arraucos and the other neighbouring Indians, who in a war against the Spaniards never fail to join their forces.