A voyage round the world in the years MDCCXL, I, II, III, IV

by Baron George Anson Anson

But to have done with Frezier, whose errors, the importance of the subject, and not a fondness for cavilling, has obliged me to remark (though his treatment of Dr. Halley might, on the present occasion, authorise much severer usage), I must, in the next place, relate wherein I differ from that of our learned countryman last mentioned.

It is well known that this gentleman was sent abroad by the public to make such geographical and astronomical observations as might facilitate the future practice of navigation, and particularly to determine the variation of the compass in such places as he should touch at, and, if possible, to ascertain its general laws and affections. These things Dr. Halley, to his immortal reputation and the honour of our nation, in good measure accomplished, especially with regard to the variation of the compass, a subject, of all others, the most interesting to those employed in the art of navigation. He likewise corrected the position of the coast of Brazil, which had been very erroneously laid down by all former hydrographers; and from a judicious comparison of the observations of others, he happily succeeded in settling the geography of many considerable places where he had not himself been. So that the chart he composed, with the variation of the needle marked thereon, being the result of his labours on this subject, was allowed by all Europe to be far compleater in its geography than any that had till then been published, whilst it was at the same time most surprisingly exact in the quantity of variation assigned to the different parts of the globe; a subject so very intricate and perplexing, that all general determinations about it had been usually deemed impossible.

But as the only means he had of correcting the situation of those coasts, where he did not touch himself, were the observations of others, when those observations were wanting, or were inaccurate, it was no imputation on his skill that his decisions were defective. And this, upon the best comparison I have been able to make, is the case with regard to that part of his chart, which contains the south coast of South America. For though the coast of Brazil, and the opposite coast of Peru on the South Seas, are laid down, I presume, with the greatest accuracy, yet from about the river of Plate on the east side, and its opposite point on the west, the coast gradually declines too much to the westward, so as at the Streights of Magellan to be, as I conceive, about fifty leagues removed from its true position; at least, this is the result of the observations of our squadron, which agree extremely well with those of Sir John Narborough. I must add that Dr. Halley has, in the philosophical transactions, given the foundation on which he has proceeded in fixing Port St. Julian in 76-½° of west longitude, which the concurrent journals of our squadron place from 70-¾° to 71-½°. This, he tells us, was an observation of an eclipse of the moon made at that place by Mr. Wood, then Sir John Narborough's lieutenant, and which is said to have happened there at eight in the evening, on the 18th of September 1670. But Captain Wood's journal of this whole voyage under Sir John Narborough is since published together with this observation, in which he determines the longitude of Port St. Julian to be 73 degrees from London, and the time of the eclipse to have been different from Dr. Halley's account. But the numbers he has given are so faultily printed that nothing can be determined from them.

CHAPTER X

FROM CAPE NOIR TO THE ISLAND OF JUAN FERNANDES

After the mortifying disappointment of falling in with the coast of Terra del Fuego, when we esteemed ourselves ten degrees to the westward of it, as hath been at large recited in the eighth chapter, we stood away to the S.W. till the 22d of April, when we were in upwards of 60° of south latitude, and by our account near 6° to the westward of Cape Noir. In this run, we had a series of as favourable weather as could well be expected in that part of the world, even in a better season, so that this interval, setting the inquietude of our thoughts aside, was by far the most eligible of any we enjoyed from Streights Le Maire to the west coast of America. This moderate weather continued with little variation till the 24th, but on the 24th, in the evening, the wind began to blow fresh, and soon increased to a prodigious storm, and the weather being extremely thick, about midnight we lost sight of the other four ships of the squadron, which, notwithstanding the violence of the preceding storms, had hitherto kept in company with us. Nor was this our sole misfortune, for the next morning, endeavouring to hand the top-sails, the clew-lines and bunt-lines broke, and the sheets being half-flown, every seam in the top-sails was soon split from top to bottom, and the main top-sail shook so strongly in the wind that it carried away the top lanthorn, and endangered the head of the mast; however, at length some of the most daring of our men ventured upon the yard and cut the sail away close to the reefs, though with the utmost hazard of their lives. Whilst at the same time the fore top-sail beat about the yard with so much fury that it was soon blown to pieces; nor was our attention to our top-sails our sole employment, for the main-sail blew loose, which obliged us to lower down the yard to secure the sail, and the fore-yard being likewise lowered, we lay-to under a mizen. In this storm, besides the loss of our top-sails, we had much of our rigging broke, and lost a main-studding sail-boom out of the chains.

On the 25th, about noon, the weather became more moderate, which enabled us to sway up our yards, and to repair, in the best manner we could, our shattered rigging, but still we had no sight of the rest of our squadron, nor indeed were we joined by any of them again till after our arrival at Juan Fernandes, nor did any two of them, as we have since learned, continue in company together. This total and almost instantaneous separation was the more wonderful as we had hitherto kept together for seven weeks, through all the reiterated tempests of this turbulent climate. It must indeed be owned that we had hence room to expect that we might make our passage in a shorter time than if we had continued together, because we could now make the best of our way without being retarded by the misfortunes of the other ships; but then we had the melancholy reflection that we ourselves were hereby deprived of the assistance of others, and our safety would depend upon our single ship, so that if a plank started, or any other accident of the same nature should take place, we must all irrecoverably perish; or should we be driven on shore, we had the uncomfortable prospect of ending our days on some desolate coast, without any reasonable hope of ever getting off again, whereas, with another ship in company, all these calamities are much less formidable, since in every kind of danger there would be some probability that one ship at least might escape, and might be capable of preserving or relieving the crew of the other.

The remaining part of this month of April we had generally hard gales, although we had been every day, since the 22d, edging to the northward; however, on the last day of the month, we flattered ourselves with the expectation of soon terminating all our sufferings, for we that day found ourselves in the latitude of 52° 13', which being to the northward of the Streights of Magellan, we were assured that we had compleated our passage, and had arrived in the confines of the southern ocean; and this ocean being denominated Pacifick, from the equability of the seasons which are said to prevail there, and the facility and security with which navigation is there carried on, we doubted not but we should be speedily cheared with the moderate gales, the smooth water, and the temperate air for which that track of the globe has been so renowned. And under the influence of these pleasing circumstances we hoped to experience some kind of compensation for the complicated miseries which had so constantly attended us for the last eight weeks. But here we were again disappointed, for in the succeeding month of May our sufferings rose to a much higher pitch than they had ever yet done, whether we consider the violence of the storms, the shattering of our sails and rigging, or the diminishing and weakening of our crew by deaths and sickness, and the probable prospect of our total destruction. All this will be sufficiently evident from the following circumstantial account of our diversified misfortunes.