A Voyage Round the World

The commodore, on the perusal of this melancholy representation, presently ordered them a supply of water and provisions, of which they seemed to be in the most pressing want, and at the same time sent his own carpenter on board them to examine into the truth of every particular; and it being found on the strictest enquiry that the preceding account was in no instance exaggerated, it plainly appeared there was no possibility of preserving the Gloucester any longer, as her leaks were irreparable, and the united hands on board both ships would not be able to free her, could we have spared the whole of our crew to her relief. What then could be resolved on, when it was the utmost we ourselves could do to manage our own pumps? Indeed there was no room for deliberation; the only step to be taken was the saving the lives of the few that remained on board the Gloucester, and the getting out of her as much as we could before she was destroyed. The commodore therefore immediately sent an order to Captain Mitchel to put his people on board the Centurion as expeditiously as he could, now the weather was calm and favourable, and to take out such stores as he could get at whilst the ship could be kept above water. And as our leak required less attention whilst the present easy weather continued, we sent our boats with as many men as we could spare to Captain Mitchel's assistance.

The removing the Gloucester's people on board us, and the getting out such stores as could most easily be come at, gave us full employment for two days. Mr. Anson was extremely desirous to have saved two of her cables and an anchor, but the ship rolled so much, and the men were so excessively fatigued, that they were incapable of effecting it; nay, it was even with the greatest difficulty that the prize-money which the Gloucester had taken in the South Seas was secured and sent on board the Centurion. However, the prize goods in the Gloucester, which amounted to several thousand pounds in value, and were principally the Centurion's property, were entirely lost; nor could any more provision be got out than five casks of flour, three of which were spoiled by the salt water. Their sick men, amounting to near seventy, were conveyed into the boats with as much care as the circumstances of that time would permit; but three or four of them expired as they were hoisting them into the Centurion.

It was the 15th of August, in the evening, before the Gloucester was cleared of everything that was proposed to be removed; and though the hold was now almost full of water, yet, as the carpenters were of opinion that she might still swim for some time, if the calm should continue and the water become smooth, it was resolved she should be burnt, as we knew not how little distant we might be at present from the island of Guam, which was in the possession of our enemies, to whom the wreck of such a ship would have been no contemptible acquisition. When she was set on fire, Captain Mitchel and his officers left her, and came on board the Centurion: and we immediately stood from the wreck, not without some apprehensions (as we had only a light breeze) that if she blew up soon the concussion of the air might damage our rigging; but she fortunately continued burning the whole night, so that though her guns fired successively as the flames reached them, yet it was six in the morning, when we were about four leagues distant, before she blew up. The report she made upon this occasion was but small, although the blast produced an exceeding black pillar of smoke, which shot up into the air to a very considerable height.

Thus perished his Majesty's ship the Gloucester. And now it might have been expected that, being freed from the embarrassments which her frequent disasters had involved us in, we should have proceeded on our way much brisker than we had hitherto done, especially as we had received some small addition to our strength by the taking on board the Gloucester's crew. However, we were soon taught that our anxieties were not yet to be relieved, and that, notwithstanding all we had already suffered, there remained much greater distresses which we were still to struggle with. For the late storm, which had proved so fatal to the Gloucester, had driven us to the northward of our intended course; and the current setting the same way, after the weather abated, had forced us yet a degree or two farther, so that we were now in 17-¼° of north latitude, instead of being in 13-½°, which was the parallel we proposed to keep, in order to reach the island of Guam. As it had been a perfect calm for some days since the cessation of the storm, and we were ignorant how near we were to the meridian of the Ladrones, though we supposed ourselves not to be far from it, we apprehended that we might be driven to the leeward of them by the current without discovering them. On this supposition, the only land we could make would be some of the eastern parts of Asia, where, if we could arrive, we should find the western monsoon in its full force, so that it would be impossible for the stoutest, best-manned ship to get in. Besides, this coast being between four and five hundred leagues distant from us, we, in our languishing circumstances, could expect no other than to be destroyed by the scurvy long before the most favourable gale could enable us to compleat so extensive a navigation. For our deaths were by this time extremely alarming, no day passing in which we did not bury eight or ten, and sometimes twelve, of our men; and those who had as yet continued healthy began to fall down apace. Indeed we made the best use we could of our present calm, by employing our carpenters in searching after the leak, which, notwithstanding the little wind we had, was now considerable. The carpenters at length discovered it to be in the gunner's fore store-room, where the water rushed in under the breast-hook on each side of the stern: but though they found where it was, they agreed it was impossible to stop it till they could come at it on the outside, which was evidently a matter not to be attempted till we should arrive in port. However, they did the best they could within board, and were fortunate enough to reduce it, which was a considerable relief to us.

We hitherto considered the calm which succeeded the storm, and which had now continued for some days, as a very great misfortune, since the currents were all the time driving us to the northward of our parallel, and we thereby risqued the missing of the Ladrones, which we at present conceived ourselves to be very near. But when a gale sprung up our condition was still worse; for it blew from the S.W., and consequently was directly opposed to the course we wanted to steer: and though it soon veered to the N.E., yet this served only to tantalize us, as it returned back again in a very short time to its old quarter. However, on the 22d of August we had the satisfaction to find that the current was shifted, and had set us to the southward; and the 23d, at daybreak, we were cheered with the discovery of two islands in the western board. This gave us all great joy, and raised our drooping spirits, for till then an universal dejection had seized us, and we almost despaired of ever seeing land again. The nearest of these islands, as we learnt afterwards, was Anatacan; this we judged to be full fifteen leagues from us; it seemed to be high land, though of an indifferent length. The other was the island of Serigan, which had rather the appearance of a rock than of a place we could hope to anchor at. We were extremely impatient to get in with the nearest island, where we expected to find anchoring ground and an opportunity of refreshing our sick. But the wind proved so variable all day, and there was so little of it that we advanced towards it but slowly; however, by the next morning we were got so far to the westward that we were in sight of a third island, which was that of Paxaros, and which is marked in the chart only as a rock. This was very small, and the land low, so that we had passed within less than a mile of it in the night without observing it. At noon, being then not four miles from the island of Anatacan, the boat was sent away to examine the anchoring ground and the produce of the place, and we were not a little solicitous for her return, as we conceived our fate to depend upon the report we should receive; for the other two islands were obviously enough incapable of furnishing us with any assistance, and we knew not that there were any besides which we could reach. In the evening the boat came back, and the crew informed us that there was no road for a ship to anchor in, the bottom being everywhere foul ground, and all except one small spot not less than fifty fathom in depth; that on that spot there was thirty fathom, though not above half a mile from the shore; and that the bank was steep too, and could not be depended on. They farther told us that they had landed on the island, not without some difficulty on account of the greatness of the swell; that they found the ground was everywhere covered with a kind of wild cane or rush; but that they met with no water, and did not believe the place to be inhabited, though the soil was good and abounded with groves of coconut trees.

The account of the impossibility of anchoring at this island occasioned a general melancholy on board, for we considered it as little less than the prelude to our destruction; and our despondency was increased by a disappointment we met with the succeeding night, when, as we were plying under top-sails, with an intention of getting nearer to the island, and of sending our boat on shore to load with coconuts for the refreshment of our sick, the wind proved squally, and blew so strong off shore, that we were driven too far to the southward to venture to send off our boat. And now the only possible circumstance that could secure the few which remained alive from perishing, was the accidental falling in with some other of the Ladrone Islands better prepared for our accommodation; but as our knowledge of these islands was extremely imperfect, we were to trust entirely to chance for our guidance; only as they are all of them usually laid down near the same meridian, and we conceived those we had already seen to be part of them, we concluded to stand to the southward, as the most probable means of discovering the rest. Thus, with the most gloomy persuasion of our approaching destruction, we stood from the island of Anatacan, having all of us the strongest apprehensions (and those not ill grounded) either of dying by the scurvy, or of being destroyed with the ship, which, for want of hands to work her pumps, might in a short time be expected to founder.

CHAPTER II

OUR ARRIVAL AT TINIAN, AND AN ACCOUNT OF THE ISLAND AND OF OUR PROCEEDINGS THERE TILL THE "CENTURION" DROVE OUT TO SEA

It was the 26th of August, 1742, in the morning, when we lost sight of the island of Anatacan, dreading that it was the last land we should ever fix our eyes on. But the next morning we discovered three other islands to the eastward, which were between ten and fourteen leagues distant from us. These were, as we afterwards learnt, the island of Saypan, Tinian, and Aguigan. We immediately steered towards Tinian, which was the middlemost of the three; but we had so much of calms and light airs, that though we were helped forwards by the currents, yet on the morrow, at daybreak, we had not advanced nearer than within five leagues of it. However, we kept on our course, and about ten o'clock we perceived a proa under sail to the southward between Tinian and Aguigan. As we imagined from hence that these islands were inhabited, and knew that the Spaniards had always a force at Guam, we took the necessary precautions for our own security: and endeavoured to prevent the enemy as much as possible from making an advantage of our present wretched circumstances, of which we feared they would be sufficiently informed by the manner of our working the ship. We therefore mustered all our hands who were capable of standing to their arms, and loaded our upper and quarter-deck guns with grape shot; and that we might the more readily procure some intelligence of the state of these islands, we showed Spanish colours, and hoisted a red flag at the fore top-mast-head, hoping thereby to give our ship the appearance of the Manila galeon, and to decoy some of the inhabitants on board us. Thus preparing ourselves, and standing towards the land, we were near enough, at three in the afternoon, to send the cutter on shore to find out a proper birth for the ship; and we soon perceived that a proa put off from the island to meet the cutter, fully persuaded, as we afterwards found, that we were the Manila ship. As we saw the cutter returning with the proa in tow, we instantly sent the pinnace to receive the proa and the prisoners, and to bring them on board, that the cutter might proceed on her errand. The pinnace came back with a Spaniard and four Indians, which were the people taken in the proa: and the Spaniard being immediately examined as to the produce and circumstances of this island of Tinian, his account of it surpassed even our most sanguine hopes. For he informed us that though it was uninhabited (which in itself, considering our present defenceless condition, was a convenience not to be despised), yet it wanted but few of the accommodations that could be expected in the most cultivated country. In particular, he assured us that there was plenty of very good water; that there were an incredible number of cattle, hogs, and poultry running wild on the island, all of them excellent in their kind; that the woods afforded sweet and sour oranges, limes, lemons, and coconuts in great abundance, besides a fruit peculiar to these islands, which served instead of bread; that from the quantity and goodness of the provisions produced here, the Spaniards at Guam made use of it as a store for supplying the garrison; and that he himself was a serjeant of that garrison, who was sent hither with twenty-two Indians to jerk beef, which he was to load for Guam on board a small bark of about fifteen tun, which lay at anchor near the shore.

This relation was received by us with inexpressible joy. Part of it we were ourselves able to verify on the spot, as we were by this time near enough to discover several numerous herds of cattle feeding in different places of the island; and we did not any ways doubt the rest of his narration, since the appearance of the shore prejudiced us greatly in its favour, and made us hope that not only our necessities might be there fully relieved, and our diseased recovered, but that, amidst those pleasing scenes which were then in view, we might procure ourselves some amusement and relaxation, after the numerous fatigues we had undergone. For the prospect of the country did by no means resemble that of an uninhabited and uncultivated place; but had much more the air of a magnificent plantation where large lawns and stately woods had been laid out together with great skill, and where the whole had been so artfully combined, and so judiciously adapted to the slopes of the hills, and the inequalities of the ground, as to produce a most striking effect, and to do honour to the invention of the contriver. Thus (an event not unlike what we had already seen) we were forced upon the most desirable and salutary measures by accidents which at first sight we considered as the greatest of misfortunes; for had we not been driven by the contrary winds and currents to the northward of our course (a circumstance which at that time gave us the most terrible apprehensions), we should, in all probability, never have arrived at this delightful island, and consequently we should have missed of that place where alone all our wants could be most amply relieved, our sick recovered, and our enfeebled crew once more refreshed, and enabled to put again to sea.

The Spanish serjeant, from whom we received the account of the island, having informed us that there were some Indians on shore under his command, employed in jerking beef, and that there was a bark at anchor to take it on board, we were desirous, if possible, to prevent the Indians from escaping, since they would certainly have given the Governor of Guam intelligence of our arrival: we therefore immediately dispatched the pinnace to secure the bark, as the serjeant told us that was the only embarkation on the place; and then about eight in the evening we let go our anchor in twenty-two fathom. But though it was almost calm, and whatever vigour and spirit was to be found on board was doubtless exerted to the utmost on this pleasing occasion, when, after having kept the sea for some months, we were going to take possession of this little paradise, yet we were full five hours in furling our sails. It is true we were somewhat weakened by the crews of the cutter and pinnace which were sent on shore; but it is not less true that, including those absent with the boats and some negroes and Indians prisoners, all the hands we could muster capable of standing at a gun amounted to no more than seventy-one, most of which too were incapable of duty except on the greatest emergencies. This, inconsiderable as it may appear, was the whole force we could collect in our present enfeebled condition from the united crews of the Centurion, the Gloucester, and the Tryal, which, when we departed from England, consisted all together of near a thousand hands.

When we had furled our sails, our people were allowed to repose themselves during the remainder of the night, to recover them from the fatigue they had undergone. But in the morning a party was sent on shore well armed, of which I myself was one, to make ourselves masters of the landing-place, since we were not certain what opposition might be made by the Indians on the island. We landed, however, without difficulty, for the Indians having perceived, by our seizure of the bark the night before, that we were enemies, they immediately fled into the woody parts of the island. We found on shore many huts which they had inhabited, and which saved us both the time and trouble of erecting tents. One of these huts, which the Indians made use offer a store-house, was very large, being twenty yards long and fifteen broad: this we immediately cleared of some bales of jerked beef which had been left in it, and converted it into an hospital for our sick, who as soon as the place was ready to receive them, were brought on shore, being in all a hundred and twenty-eight. Numbers of these were so very helpless that we were obliged to carry them from the boats to the hospital upon our shoulders, in which humane employment (as before at Juan Fernandes) the commodore himself, and every one of his officers, were engaged without distinction; and notwithstanding the extreme debility and the dying aspects of the greatest part of our sick, it is almost incredible how soon they began to feel the salutary influence of the land: for, though we buried twenty-one men on this and the preceding day, yet we did not lose above ten men more during the whole two months we staid here; but our diseased in general reaped so much benefit from the fruits of the island, particularly those of the acid kind, that in a week's time there were but few of them who were not so far recovered as to be able to move about without help.

Being now in some sort established at this place, we were enabled more distinctly to examine its qualities and productions; and that the reader may the better judge of our manner of life here, and future navigators be better apprized of the conveniencies we met with, I shall, before I proceed any farther in the history of our own adventures, throw together the most interesting particulars that came to our knowledge relating to the situation, soil, produce, and accommodations of this island of Tinian.

This island lies in the latitude of 15° 8' north, and longitude from Acapulco 114° 50' west. Its length is about twelve miles, and its breadth about half as much, it extending from the S.S.W. to N.N.E. The soil is everywhere dry and healthy, and being withal somewhat sandy, it is thereby the less disposed to a rank and over-luxuriant vegetation; and hence the meadows and the bottoms of the woods are much neater and smoother than is customary in hot climates. The land rose in gentle slopes from the very beach where we watered to the middle of the island, though the general course of its ascent was often interrupted by vallies of an easy descent, many of which wind irregularly through the country. These vallies and the gradual swellings of the ground which their different combinations gave rise to were most beautifully diversified by the mutual encroachments of woods and lawns, which coasted each other and traversed the island in large tracts. The woods consisted of tall and well-spread trees, the greatest part of them celebrated either for their aspect or their fruit: whilst the lawns were usually of a considerable breadth, their turf quite clean and uniform, it being composed of a very fine trefoil, which was intermixed with a variety of flowers. The woods too were in many places open, and free from all bushes and underwood, so that they terminated on the lawns with a well-defined outline, where neither shrubs nor weeds were to be seen; but the neatness of the adjacent turf was frequently extended to a considerable distance under the hollow shade formed by the trees. Hence arose a great number of the most elegant and entertaining prospects, according to the different blendings of these woods and lawns, and their various intersections with each other, as they spread themselves differently through the vallies, and over the slopes and declivities in which the place abounded. Nor were the allurements of Tinian confined to the excellency of its landskips only; since the fortunate animals, which during the greatest part of the year are the sole lords of this happy soil, partake in some measure of the romantic cast of the island, and are no small addition to its wonderful scenery; for the cattle, of which it is not uncommon to see herds of some thousands feeding together in a large meadow, are certainly the most remarkable in the world, as they are all of them milk-white, except their ears, which are generally brown or black. And though there are no inhabitants here, yet the clamour and frequent parading of domestic poultry, which range the woods in great numbers, perpetually excite the idea of the neighbourhood of farms and villages, and greatly contribute to the chearfulness and beauty of the place. The cattle on Tinian we computed were at least ten thousand; we had no difficulty in getting near them, for they were not at all shy of us. Our first method of killing them was shooting them; but at last, when by accidents to be hereafter recited we were obliged to husband our ammunition, our men ran them down with ease. Their flesh was extremely well tasted, and was believed by us to be much more easily digested than any we had ever met with. The fowls too were exceeding good, and were likewise run down with little trouble; for they could scarce fly further than an hundred yards at a flight, and even that fatigued them to such a degree that they could not readily rise again, so that, aided by the openness of the woods, we could at all times furnish ourselves with whatever number we wanted. Besides the cattle and the poultry we found here abundance of wild hogs. These were most excellent food, but as they were a very fierce animal, we were obliged either to shoot them, or to hunt them with large dogs, which we found upon the place at our landing, and which belonged to the detachment which was then upon the island amassing provisions for the garrison of Guam. As these dogs had been purposely trained to the killing of the wild hogs, they followed us very readily and hunted for us; but though they were a large bold breed, the hogs fought with so much fury that they frequently destroyed them, whence we by degrees lost the greatest part of them.

This place was not only extremely grateful to us, from the plenty and excellency of its fresh provisions, but was as much perhaps to be admired on account of its fruits and vegetable productions, which were most fortunately adapted to the cure of the sea scurvy, the disease which had so terribly reduced us. For in the woods there were inconceivable quantities of coco-nuts, with the cabbages growing on the same tree. There were besides, guavoes, limes, sweet and sour oranges, and a kind of fruit peculiar to these islands, called by the Indians Rhymay, but by us the Bread Fruit, for it was constantly eaten by us during our stay upon the island instead of bread, and so universally preferred to it that no ship's bread was expended in that whole interval. It grew upon a tree which is somewhat lofty, and which towards the top divides into large and spreading branches. The leaves of this tree are of a remarkable deep green, are notched about the edges, and are generally from a foot to eighteen inches in length. The fruit itself is found indifferently on all parts of the branches; it is in shape rather elliptical than round; it is covered with a rough rind, and is usually seven or eight inches long; each of them grows singly and not in clusters. This fruit is fittest to be used when it is full grown but still green, in which state, after it is properly prepared by being roasted in the embers, its taste has some distant resemblance to that of an artichoke's bottom, and its texture is not very different, for it is soft and spongy. As it ripens it becomes softer and of a yellow colour, when it contracts a luscious taste and an agreeable smell, not unlike a ripe peach; but then it is esteemed unwholsome and is said to produce fluxes. I shall only add that it is described both by Dampier and in Ray's History of Plants. Besides the fruits already enumerated, there were many other vegetables extremely conducive to the cure of the malady we had long laboured under, such as water melons, dandelion, creeping purslan, mint, scurvy grass, and sorrel; all which, together with the fresh meats of the place, we devoured with great eagerness, prompted thereto by the strong inclination which, in scorbutic disorders, nature never fails of exciting for those powerful specifics.