Upon the 14th of December, the captain and his people embarked in the barge and the yawl, in order to proceed to the northward, taking on board with them all the provisions they could amass from the wreck of the ship; but they had scarcely been an hour at sea, when the wind began to blow hard, and the sea ran so high that they were obliged to throw the greatest part of their provisions overboard, to avoid immediate destruction. This was a terrible misfortune, in a part of the world where food is so difficult to be got: however, they persisted in their design, putting on shore as often as they could to seek subsistance. But about a fortnight after, another dreadful accident befel them, for the yawl sunk at an anchor, and one of the men in her was drowned; and as the barge was incapable of carrying the whole company, they were now reduced to the hard necessity of leaving four marines behind them on that desolate shore. Notwithstanding these disasters, they still kept on their course to the northward, though greatly delayed by the perverseness of the winds, and the frequent interruptions which their search after food occasioned, and constantly struggling with a series of the most sinister events, till at last, about the end of January, having made three unsuccessful attempts to double a headland, which they supposed to be what the Spaniards called Cape Tres Montes, it was unanimously resolved, finding the difficulties insurmountable, to give over this expedition, and to return again to Wager Island, where they got back about the middle of February, quite disheartened and dejected with their reiterated disappointments, and almost perishing with hunger and fatigue.
However, on their return they had the good luck to meet with several pieces of beef, which had been washed out of the wreck and were swimming in the sea. This was a most seasonable relief to them after the hardships they had endured: and to compleat their good fortune, there came, in a short time, two canoes of Indians, amongst which was a native of Chiloe, who spoke a little Spanish; and the surgeon, who was with Captain Cheap, understanding that language, he made a bargain with the Indian, that if he would carry the captain and his people to Chiloe in the barge, he should have her and all that belonged to her for his pains. Accordingly, on the 6th of March, the eleven persons to which the company was now reduced embarked in the barge on this new expedition; but after having proceeded for a few days, the captain and four of his principal officers being on shore, the six, who together with an Indian remained in the barge, put off with her to sea, and did not return again.
By this means there were left on shore Captain Cheap, Mr. Hamilton, lieutenant of marines, the Honourable Mr. Byron and Mr. Campbell, midshipmen, and Mr. Elliot the surgeon. One would have thought that their distresses had long before this time been incapable of augmentation; but they found, on reflection, that their present situation was much more dismaying than anything they had yet gone through, being left on a desolate coast without any provision, or the means of procuring any; for their arms, ammunition, and every conveniency they were masters of, except the tattered habits they had on, were all carried away in the barge.
But when they had sufficiently revolved in their own minds the various circumstances of this unexpected calamity, and were persuaded that they had no relief to hope for, they perceived a canoe at a distance, which proved to be that of the Indian who had undertaken to carry them to Chiloe, he and all his family being then on board it. He made no difficulty of coming to them; for it seems he had left Captain Cheap and his people a little before to go a-fishing, and had in the meantime committed them to the care of the other Indian, whom the sailors had carried to sea in the barge. When he came on shore, and found the barge gone and his companion missing, he was extremely concerned, and could with difficulty be persuaded that the other Indian was not murdered; yet being at last satisfied with the account that was given him, he still undertook to carry them to the Spanish settlements, and (as the Indians are well skilled in fishing and fowling) to procure them provisions by the way.
About the middle of March, Captain Cheap and the four who were left with him set out for Chiloe, the Indian having provided a number of canoes, and gotten many of his neighbours together for that purpose. Soon after they embarked, Mr. Elliot, the surgeon, died, so that there now remained only four of the whole company. At last, after a very complicated passage by land and water, Captain Cheap, Mr. Byron, and Mr. Campbell arrived in the beginning of June at the island of Chiloe, where they were received by the Spaniards with great humanity; but, on account of some quarrel among the Indians, Mr. Hamilton did not get there till two months later. Thus was it above a twelvemonth from the loss of the Wager before this fatiguing peregrination ended: and not till by a variety of misfortunes the company was diminished from twenty to no more than four, and those too brought so low that, had their distresses continued but a few days longer, in all probability none of them would have survived. For the captain himself was with difficulty recovered, and the rest were so reduced by the severity of the weather, their labour, their want of food, and of all kinds of necessaries, that it was wonderful how they supported themselves so long. After some stay at Chiloe, the captain and the three who were with him were sent to Valparaiso, and thence to St. Jago, the capital of Chili, where they continued above a year: but on the advice of a cartel being settled betwixt Great Britain and Spain, Captain Cheap, Mr. Byron, and Mr. Hamilton were permitted to return to Europe on board a French ship. The other midshipman, Mr. Campbell, having changed his religion whilst at St. Jago, chose to go back to Buenos Ayres with Pizarro and his officers, with whom he went afterwards to Spain on board the Asia; but having there failed in his endeavours to procure a commission from the court of Spain, he returned to England, and attempted to get reinstated in the British navy. He has since published a narration of his adventures, in which he complains of the injustice that had been done him, and strongly disavows his ever being in the Spanish service: but as the change of his religion, and his offering himself to the court of Spain (though he was not accepted), are matters which, he is conscious, are capable of being incontestably proved, on these two heads he has been entirely silent. And now, after this account of the accidents which befel the Anna pink, and the catastrophe of the Wager, I shall again resume the thread of our own story.
CHAPTER IV
CONCLUSION OF OUR PROCEEDINGS AT JUAN FERNANDES, FROM THE ARRIVAL OF THE "ANNA" PINK TO OUR FINAL DEPARTURE FROM THENCE
About a week after the arrival of our victualler, the Tryal sloop, that had been sent to the island of Masa Fuero, returned to an anchor at Juan Fernandes, having been round that island without meeting any part of our squadron. As upon this occasion the island of Masa Fuero was more particularly examined than I dare say it had ever been before, or perhaps ever will be again, and as the knowledge of it may, in certain circumstances, be of great consequence hereafter, I think it incumbent on me to insert the accounts given of this place by the officers of the Tryal sloop.