The Sufferings and Escape of Capt. Chas. H. Brown From an Awful Imprisonment by Chilian Convicts

by captain of the bark Florida Charles H. Brown

On Christmas morning, an Indian woman had appeared at the gate, requesting to enter and visit her son, who was in the barracks. She was carried before Cambiaso, and being questioned by him as to the movements of the Indians, and when they were coming to make another visit for barter, she contradicted herself continually. She confessed that she had seen the bodies of the Indian boys, but being asked who was with her when she saw them, she at first said, “No one;” then said she had been sent to the yard by one of the chiefs,—then that he was angry about the death of the boys. While she was being questioned, the herdsmen came hurrying into the camp, with the news that the Indians were killing the cattle, and carrying them off.

Cambiaso mustered his mounted troops hurriedly, arming them with muskets and clubs; and then, leaving the Indian woman under guard, he hastened out with his men in pursuit of the marauders. The Indians soon took the alarm, and mounting their swift horses, were off before him, leaving the slaughtered cattle lying on their pasture ground. He, however, soon put his men on the track, and leaving them to follow the Indians, returned on the gallop to the barracks, terribly exasperated. He rode in and called to the guard to bring out the Indian woman, crying, “Drag her out! kill her! shoot her down, she shall tell me no more lies!” She was dragged out before him, resisting with all her might, and pleading for her life, asking for her son, praying for his help. Her prayers were useless, and were not even listened to. Cambiaso himself collected a file of soldiers, and ordered her to be dragged to a tree and tied there. He gave the order to fire himself. Six or eight bullets struck her, but still she writhed in agony, and continued her shrieks for help. One of the soldiers, at a nod from Cambiaso, walked up to her and struck her on the head with a club, which silenced her for ever. Her dead body was hanging to the tree when I entered the yard.

The English mate, from whom I got most of this information, and who had been suffered to go at large almost unwatched since I left the barracks, told me that he had never seen Cambiaso in such a fiendish passion; that Garcia had tried to quiet him, but without the least effect.

The troops were still out, following the Indians, and great anxiety was expressed in the yard that they might overtake and capture them. The general opinion seemed to be that the Indians, seeing the weakened and disorderly state of the colony, had formed a plan to make a sudden attack upon them, and massacre them all, for the sake of the booty which they would secure. From what I gathered, I concluded that a party of Indians had come down the pass on their way to visit the barracks, when, finding the dead bodies of the boys on their road, they had sent the woman on as a spy. Why they had commenced slaughtering and driving off the cattle, without waiting for her return, I could not tell, unless the herdsmen were so few and so easily to be overpowered that the temptation was too great for them.

At about one in the afternoon, I succeeded in persuading Tapia and his men to put off again for the barque, and happy indeed was I to find myself again on board of her.

I determined not to go ashore again unless I was compelled to, and to keep as much out of Cambiaso’s way as possible. Fifty plans of escape had crossed my mind. Sometimes to leave the vessel, and strike across the country among the Indians—but from that, the fear of starvation deterred me; sometimes to get enough of my crew and of the prisoners friendly to me on board the vessel to navigate her, and make our escape in that way; but the Florida lay right under the guns of the fort, and the impossibility of getting her under weigh was too evident. Besides, I felt a great reluctance to any plan of escape which would leave my fellow sufferers, Mr. Dunn, captain Avalos, and so forth, still in the hands of the pirates. There seemed to be nothing but to wait the course of events, and avail myself of any favorable circumstance that might occur.

On the morning of the 26th, several men from the barracks came on board to visit us, as they sometimes did, and from them we learned that the soldiers sent after the Indians had returned without being able to overtake them, after following them for twelve hours; and that there was a good deal of anxiety on shore, lest the Indians should come up in force and attack them in the night.

I had felt some desire to see one of the native Patagonians, having still my school-boy belief that they were giants, as our geographies generally inform us. During my imprisonment at the barracks, one or two of the men had visited the yard, and I had seen them from my window. They were certainly large in stature, but by no means came up to the measure of my boyish imagination. They had heretofore shown themselves friendly towards the colonists, being probably kept in awe by governor Gamero, and the strict discipline which he enforced; but they were said to be very far from cowardly, and very savage and inhuman when roused by the excitement of fighting. I had often thought that Cambiaso had some dread of them, judging from two or three remarks about them which he had made to me from time to time.