Chapter XXXIX: Section XII

_Separate Arrivals of the Gloucester, and Anna Pink, at Juan Fernandez, and Transactions at that Island during the Interval._

The arrival of the Tryal 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 accordingly for some days continually looking out, in expectation of their coming in sight. After near a fortnight had elapsed without any of them appearing, we began to despair of ever meeting them again, knowing, if our ship had continued so much longer at sea, that we should every man of us have perished, and the vessel, occupied only by dead bodies, must 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 every 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, with her courses even with the horizon. They could, at the same time, observe that she had no sails aboard, except her courses and main-topsail. This circumstance made them conclude that it must be one of our squadron, which had probably suffered as severely in her sails and rigging as we had done. They were prevented, however, from forming more definite conjectures concerning her; for, after viewing her a short time, the weather grew thick and hazy, and she was no longer to be seen.

On this report, and no ship appearing for some days, we were all under the greatest concern, suspecting that her people must be under the utmost distress for want of water, and so weakened and diminished in numbers by sickness, as to be unable to ply up to windward, so that we dreaded, after having been in sight of the island, that her whole crew might yet perish at sea. On the 21st, at noon, we again discerned a ship at sea in the N.E. quarter, which we conceived to be the same that had been seen before, and our conjecture proved true. About one o'clock she had come so near that we could plainly distinguish her to be the Gloucester; and as we had no doubt of her being in great distress, the commodore immediately ordered out his boat to our assistance, laden with fresh water, fish, and vegetables, which was a most comfortable relief to them; for our apprehensions of their calamitous situation were only too well founded, as there never was, perhaps, a crew in greater distress. They had already thrown two-thirds of their complement overboard; and of those who 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 water to each man in twenty-four hours, and yet had so very little left, that they must soon have died of thirst, had it not been for the supply sent them by our commodore.

The Gloucester plied up within three miles of the bay, but could not reach the road, both wind and currents being contrary. She continued, however, in the offing next day; and as she had no chance of being able to come to anchor, the commodore repeated his assistance, sending off the Tryal's boat, manned with the people of the Centurion, with a farther supply of water, and other refreshments. Captain Mitchell of the Gloucester was under the necessity of detaining both this boat and that sent the preceding day, as he had no longer strength to navigate his ship without the aid of both their crews. The Gloucester continued near a fortnight in this tantalizing situation, without being able to fetch the road, though frequently making the attempt, and even at times bidding fair to effect the object in view. On the 9th 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 she did not again appear for near a week, we were prodigiously alarmed for her safety, knowing that she must be again in extreme distress for want of water. After great impatience about her, we again discovered her on the 16th, endeavouring to come round the eastern point of the island, but the wind still blowing directly from the bay, prevented her from getting nearer than within four miles of the land.

Captain Mitchell now made signals of distress, and our long-boat, was sent off with a good supply of water, and plenty of fish and other refreshments: And, as the long-boat could not be wanted, the cockswain had positive orders from the commodore to return immediately. But next day proving stormy, and the boat not appearing, we much feared she was lost, which would have been an irretrievable misfortune to us all. We were relieved, however, from this anxiety on the third day after, by the joyful appearance of her sails on the water, on which the cutter was sent to her assistance, and towed her alongside in a few hours, when we found that the long-boat had taken in six of the Gloucester's sick men, to bring them on shore, two of whom had died in the boat. We now learnt that the Gloucester was in a most dreadful condition, having scarcely a man in health on board, except the few she had received from us. Numbers of their sick were dying daily, and it appeared, had it not been for the last supply sent by our long-boat, that both the healthy and diseased must all have perished for want of water. This calamitous situation was the more terrifying, as it appeared to be without remedy; for the Gloucester had already spent a month in fruitless endeavours to fetch the bay, and was now no farther advanced than when she first made the island. The hopes of her people of ever succeeding were now worn out, by the experience of its difficulty; and, indeed, her situation became that same day more desperate than ever, as we again lost sight of her, after receiving our last supply of refreshments, so that we universally despaired of her ever coming to anchor.

Thus was this unhappy vessel bandied about, within a few leagues of her intended harbour, while the near neighbourhood of that place, and of these circumstances which could alone put an end to the calamities under which her people laboured, served only to aggravate their distress, by torturing them with a view of the relief they were unable to reach. She was at length 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 joyfully surprised, in the morning of the 23d July, to see her open the N.W. point of the bay with a flowing sail, when we immediately dispatched what boats we had to her assistance, and within an hour from our first perceiving her, she anchored safe within us in the bay.

We were now more particularly convinced of the importance of the assistance and refreshments we had repeatedly sent her, and how impossible it must have been for a single man of her crew to have survived, had we given less attention to their wants. For, notwithstanding the water, vegetables, and fresh provisions with which we had supplied them, and the hands we had sent to assist in navigating the ship, by which the fatigue of her own people had been greatly diminished, their sick relieved, and the mortality abated; notwithstanding this provident care of our commodore, they yet buried above three-fourths of their crew, and a very small proportion of the survivors remained capable of assisting in the duty of the ship. On getting to anchor, our first care was to assist them in mooring, and the next to get their sick on shore. These were now reduced, by numerous deaths, to less than fourscore, of which we expected the greatest part to have died; but whether it was that those farthest advanced in the cruel distemper had already perished, or that the vegetables and fresh provisions we had sent had prepared those who remained alive for a more speedy recovery, it so happened, contrary to our fears, that their sick, in general, were relieved and restored to health 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.

Having 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 were never 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 defer for the present, as it is now high time, to return to our own transactions, both on board and ashore, during the anxious interval of the Gloucester making frequent and ineffectual attempts to reach the island.

Our next employment, after sending our sick on shore from the Centurion, was cleansing our ship, and filling our water casks. The former of these measures was indispensably necessary to our future health, as the number of our sick, and the unavoidable negligence arising from our deplorable situation at sea, had rendered the decks most intolerably loathsome. The filling our water was also a caution that appeared essential to our security, as we had reason to apprehend that accidents might intervene which would oblige us to quit the island at a very short warning, as some appearances we had discovered on shore, at our first landing, gave us grounds to believe that there were Spanish cruizers in these seas, which had left the island only a short time before our arrival, and might possibly return again, either for a supply of water, or in search of us. For we could not doubt that the sole purpose they had at sea was to intercept us, and we knew that this island was the likeliest place, in their opinion, to meet with us. The circumstances which gave rise to these reflections, in part of which we were not mistaken, as will appear more at large hereafter, were our finding on shore several pieces of earthen jars, made use of in these seas for holding water and other liquids, which appeared fresh broken. We saw also many heaps of casks, near which were fish bones and pieces of fish, besides whole fish scattered here and there, which plainly appeared to have been only a short time out of the water, as they were but just beginning to decay.

These were infallible indications that there had been a ship or ships at this place only a short time before our arrival; and, as all Spanish merchant ships are instructed to avoid this island, on account of its being the common rendezvous of their enemies, we concluded that those which had touched here must have been ships of force; and, as we knew not that Pizarro had returned to the Rio Plata, and were ignorant what strength might have been fitted out at Calao, we were under considerable apprehensions for our safety, being in so wretched and enfeebled a condition, as, notwithstanding the rank of our ship, and the sixty guns with which she was armed, there was hardly a privateer sent to sea that was not an overmatch for us. Our fears on this head, however, fortunately proved imaginary, and we were not exposed to the disgrace which must unavoidably have befallen us, had we been reduced to the necessity, by the appearance of an enemy, of fighting our sixty-gun ship with no more than thirty hands.

While employed in cleaning our ship, and filling our water casks, we set up a large copper oven on shore, near the sick tents, in which fresh bread was baked every day for the ship's company, as, being extremely desirous of recovering our sick as soon as possible, we believed that new bread, added to their green vegetables and fresh fish, might prove powerfully conducive to their relief. Indeed, we had all imaginable inducements to endeavour at augmenting our present strength, as every little accident, which to a full crew would have been insignificant, was extremely alarming in our present helpless condition. Of this we had a troublesome instance, on the 30th of June, at five in the morning, when we were alarmed by a violent gust of wind directly off shore, which instantly parted our small bower cable, about ten fathoms from the ring of the anchor. The ship at once swung off to the best bower, which happily stood the violence of the jerk, and brought us up, with two cables on end, in eighty fathoms.

At this time we had not above a dozen seamen in the ship, and were apprehensive, if the squall continued, that we might be driven out to sea in this helpless condition. We sent, therefore, the boat on shore, to bring off all who were capable of acting; and the wind soon abating of its fury, gave us an opportunity of receiving the boat back with a reinforcement. With this additional strength, we went immediately to work, to have in what remained of the broken cable, which we suspected to have received some injury from the ground before it parted, and accordingly we found that seven fathoms and a half had been chaffed and rendered unserviceable. In the afternoon, we bent this cable to the spare anchor, and got it over the bows. Next morning, the 1st of July, being favoured by the wind in gentle breezes, we warped the ship in again, and let go the anchor in forty-one fathoms; the eastern point of the bay now bearing from us E. 1/2 S. the western point N.W. by W. and the bottom of the bay S.S.W. as before. We were, however, much concerned for the loss of our anchor, and swept frequently to endeavour its recovery; but the buoy having sunk at the instant when the cable parted, we could never find it again.

As the month of July advanced, and some of our sick men were tolerably recovered, the strongest of them were set to cut down trees, and to split them into billets, while others, too weak for this work, undertook to carry the billets, by one at a time, to the water side. This they performed, some by the help of crutches, and others supported by a single stick. We next set up the forge on shore, and employed our smith, who was just capable of working, to repair our chain-plates, and other broken and decayed iron-work. We began also the repair of our rigging; but as we had not enough of junk to make spun-yarn, we deferred the general overhaul in the daily hope of the Gloucester arriving, which was known to have a great quantity of junk on board. That we might dispatch our refitting as fast as possible, we set up a large tent on the beach for the sail-makers, who were employed diligently in repairing our old sails and making new ones. These occupations, with cleansing and watering our ship, now pretty well completed, together with attending 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 anchor in the bay.

Captain Mitchell immediately waited on the commodore, whom he informed, that, in his last absence, he had been forced as far as the small island of _Masefuero_, nearly in the same latitude with the larger island of Juan Fernandez, and thirty leagues farther W. That he had endeavoured to send his boat on shore there for water, of which he observed several streams; but the wind blew so strong upon the shore, and caused so great a surf, that it was impossible to get to land. The attempt, however, was not entirely useless, as the boat came back loaded with fish. This island had been represented, by former navigators, as a mere barren rock, but Captain Mitchell assured the commodore, that it was almost every where covered with trees and verdure, and was nearly four miles in length. He believed also, that some small bay might possibly be found in it which might afford sufficient shelter to any ship desirous of procuring refreshments.

As four ships of our squadron were still missing, this description of Masefuero gave rise to a conjecture, that some of them might possibly have fallen in with that island, mistaking it for the true place of rendezvous. This suspicion was the more reasonable, that we had no draught of either island that could be relied upon; wherefore the commodore resolved to send the Tryal sloop thither, as soon as she could be made ready for sea, in order to examine all its creeks and bays, that it might be ascertained whether any of our missing ships were there or not. For this purpose, some of our best hands were sent on board the Tryal next morning, to overhaul and fix her rigging, and our long-boat was employed to complete her water; what stores and necessaries she wanted, being immediately supplied from the Centurion and Gloucester. It was the 4th of August before the Tryal was in readiness to sail. When, having weighed, it soon after fell calm, and the tide set her very near the eastern shore of the bay. Captain Saunders immediately hung out lights, and fired several guns, to apprise us of his danger; upon which all the boats were sent to his aid, which towed the sloop into the bay, where she anchored till next morning, and then proceeded with a fair breeze.

We were now busily employed in examining and repairing our rigging, and that of the Gloucester; but, in stripping our fore-mast, we were alarmed by discovering that it was sprung just above the partners of the upper deck. This spring was two inches in depth and twelve in circumference; but the carpenters, on inspection, gave it as their opinion, that fishing it with two leaves of an anchor-stock would render it as secure as ever. Besides this defect in our mast, we had other difficulties in refitting, from the want of cordage and canvass; for, although we had taken to sea much greater quantities of both than had ever been done before, yet the continued bad weather we had met with, after passing the straits of Le Maire, had occasioned so great a consumption of these stores, that we were reduced to great straits; as, after working up all our junk and old shrouds, to make twice laid cordage, we were at last reduced to the necessity to unlay a cable, to work up into running rigging; and, with all the canvass 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 the sick tents, and to build separate huts for themselves; as it was imagined, by living apart, that they might be much cleanlier, and consequently likely to recover their strength the sooner: But strict orders were given, at the same time, that they were instantly to repair to the water-side, on the firing of a gun from the ship. Their employment now on shore, was either the procurement of refreshments, the cutting of wood, or the procurement of oil from the blubber of sea-lions. This oil served for several purposes; as burning in lamps, mixing with pitch to pay the sides of our ships, or, when worked up with wood-ashes, to supply the place of tallow, of which we had none left, to give the ship boat-hose tops. Some of the men were also occupied in salting cod; for, having two Newfoundland fishermen in the Centurion, the commodore set them to work in providing a considerable quantity of salted cod for sea-store; though very little of it was used, as it was afterwards thought to be equally productive of scurvy with any other kind of salted provisions.

It has been before mentioned, that we set up 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 on board the Anna pink. It should also have been mentioned, that the Tryal sloop informed us, on her arrival, that she had fallen in with our victualler, on the 9th of May, not far from the coast of Chili, and had kept company with her for four days, when they were parted in a gale of wind. This gave us some room to hope that she was safe, and might rejoin us: But, all June and July having passed without any news of her, we gave her over for lost; and the commodore, at the end of July, ordered all the ships on a short allowance of bread. Neither was it in bread alone that we feared a deficiency: For, since our arrival at Juan Fernandez, it was discovered that our former purser had neglected to take on board large quantities of several kinds of provisions, which the commodore had expressly ordered him to receive; so that the supposed loss of our victualler was, on all accounts, a most mortifying circumstance.

About noon on Thursday the 16th of August, after we had given over all hopes of the Anna pink, a sail was espied in the northern quarter, on which a gun was immediately fired from the Centurion, to call off the people from the shore, who readily obeyed the summons, by repairing to the beach, where the boats waited to fetch them on board. Being now prepared for the reception of the ship in view, whether friend or enemy, we had various speculations respecting her, many supposing at first, that it was the Tryal sloop returning from the examination of Masefuero. As she drew nearer, this opinion was confuted, by observing that she had three masts, when other conjectures were eagerly canvassed; some judging the vessel in sight to be the Severn and others the Pearl, while several affirmed that she did not belong to our squadron. But, about three in the afternoon, all speculations were ended by the unanimous persuasion that it was our victualler, the Anna pink. And, though, this ship had fallen in with the island to the northward like the Gloucester, she yet had the good fortune to come to anchor in the bay at five in the afternoon. Her arrival gave us all the utmost satisfaction, as the ship's companies were immediately restored to their full allowance of bread, and we were now relieved from the apprehensions of our provisions falling short before we could reach some friendly port,--a calamity, in these seas, of all others the most irretrievable. This was the last ship that joined us; and, as the dangers she encountered, and the good fortune she afterwards experienced, are worthy of a separate narration, I shall refer them, together with a short account of the other missing ships, to the ensuing section.