1767.
September.
This accident greatly enlarged the leaks in the Etoile, which she had had from the beginning of her voyage. It now became absolutely necessary to unload this vessel, if not to heave her down[[54]], in order to discover and stop this leak, which seemed to lie very low, and very forward. This operation could not be performed at Montevideo; where, besides, there was not timber sufficient to repair the masts; I therefore wrote to the chevalier du Bouchage, to represent our situation to the marquis de Buccarelli; and to obtain, that by his leave the Etoile might be allowed to come up the river, and to go into the Encenada de Baragan; I likewise gave him orders to send timber and the other materials, which we should want thither. The governor-general consented to our demands; and, the 7th of September, not being able to find any pilot, | Navigation from Montevideo[Montevideo] to Baragan.| I went on board the Etoile, with the carpenters and caulkers of the Boudeuse, in order to sail the next morning, and undertake in person a navigation, which we were told was very hazardous. Two register-ships; the San-Fernando and the Carmen, provided with a pilot, were ready the same day, to sail for Montevideo to Encenada; and I intended to follow them; but the San-Fernando, which had got the pilot, named Philip, on board, weighed in the night, between the seventh and eighth, purely with a view of hiding his track from us; and left her companion in the same distress. However, we sailed on the eighth in the morning, preceded by our canoes; the Carman remaining to wait for a schooner to direct her route. In the evening we reached the San-Fernando, passed by her; and, on the tenth in the afternoon, we came to an anchor in the road of the Encenada: Philip, who was a bad pilot, and a wicked fellow, always steering in our water.
In this road I found the Venus frigate of twenty-six guns, and some merchant-ships; which were bound, together with her, to sail directly for Europe. I likewise found there la Esmeralda, and la Liebre; who were preparing to return to the Malouines, with provisions and ammunitions of all sorts; from whence they were to sail for the South Seas, in order to take in the Jesuits of Chili and Peru. There was likewise the xebeck[[55]] el Andaluz; which arrived from Ferrol, at the end of July, in company with another xebeck, named el Aventurero; but the latter was lost on the point of what is called the English-Sand; and the crew had time to save their lives. The Andaluz was preparing to carry presents and missionaries to the inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego; the king of Spain being desirous of testifying his gratitude to those people, for the services they rendered the Spaniards of the ship la Concepcion, which was lost on their coasts in 1765.
The Etoile goes to be repaired[repaired] there.
I went on shore at Baragan, whither the chevalier du Bouchage had already sent part of the timber we wanted. He found it very difficult and expensive to collect it at Buenos Ayres, in the king’s arsenal, and in some private timber-yards; the stores of both consisting of the timbers of such ships as were wrecked in the river. At Baragan we found no supplies; but, on the contrary, difficulties of many kinds; and every thing conspired to make all operations go on very slowly. The Encenada de Baragan is, indeed, merely a bad kind of bay, formed by the mouth of a little river, which is about a quarter of a league broad; but the depth of water is only in the middle, in a narrow channel; which is constantly filling more and more; and, in which, only ships drawing no more than twelve feet water can enter. In all the other parts of the river, there is not six inches of water during the ebb; but as the tides are irregular in Rio de la Plata; and the water sometimes high or low, for eight days together, according to the winds that blow, the landing of boats was connected with great difficulties. There are no magazines on shore; the houses, or rather huts, are but few, made of rushes, covered over with leather, and built without any regularity, on a barren soil; and their inhabitants are hardly able to get their subsistance; all which causes still more difficulties. The ships, which draw too much water to be able to enter this creek, must anchor at the point of Lara, a league and a half west. There they are exposed to all the winds; but the ground being very good for anchoring, they may winter there, though labouring under many inconveniences.
1767. October.
I left M. de la Giraudais, at the point of Lara, to take care of what related to his ship; and I went to Buenos Ayres, from whence I sent him a large schooner, by which he might heave down as soon as he came into the Encenada. For that purpose, it was necessary to unload part of the goods she had on board; and M. de Buccarelli gave us leave to deposit them on board the Esmeralda and the Liebre. The 8th of October the Etoile was able to go into port; and it appeared, that her repair would not take so much time as was at first expected. Indeed, they had hardly begun to unload her, when her leak diminished considerably; and she did not leak at all when she drew only eight feet of water forward. After taking up some planks of her sheathing, they saw that the seam of her entrance was entirely without oakum for the length of four feet and a half, from the depth of eight feet of her draught upwards. They discovered likewise two auger holes, into which they had not put the bolts. All these faults and damages being quickly repaired, new railing put on the head, a new bowsprit made and rigged, and the ship being new caulked all over, she returned to the point of Lara on the 21st, where she took in her lading again, from on board the Spanish frigates. In that road she likewise stowed the wood, flour, biscuit, and different provisions I sent her.
Departure of several vessels for Europe,
and arrival of others.
From thence, the Venus and four other vessels laden with leather, sailed for Cadiz, at the end of September, having on board two hundred and fifty Jesuits, and the French families from the Malouines, seven excepted, who having no room in these ships, were obliged to wait for another opportunity. The marquiss of Buccarelli transported them to Buenos Ayres, where he provided them with subsistence and lodgings. At the same time we got intelligence of the arrival of the Diamante, a register ship, bound for Buenos Ayres, and of the San-miguel, another register ship, bound for Lima. The situation of the last ship was very distressing: after struggling with the winds at Cape Horn during forty-five days, thirty-nine men of her crew being dead, and the others attacked by the scurvy, and a sea carrying away her rudder, she was obliged to bear away for this river, and arrived at the port of Maldonados seven months after leaving Cadiz, having no more than three sailors and a few officers that were able to do duty. At the request of the Spaniards we sent an officer with some sailors to bring her into the port of Montevideo. On the fifth of October the Spanish frigate la Aguila arrived there, having left Ferrol in March. She touched at the isle of St. Catherine, and the Portuguese had arrested her there at the same time that they stopped the Diligent at Rio Janeiro.