Native of Patagonia carried away. On the 5th of November, they sailed out of the English Gulf, taking with them their young Indian prisoner, to whom they gave the name of Orson. As they departed, the natives on some of the lands to the Eastward made great fires. At six in the evening the ship was without the mouth of the Gulf: the wind blew fresh from NW, and they stood out SWbW, to keep clear of breakers which lie four leagues without the entrance of the Gulf to the South and SSE. Many reefs and rocks were seen hereabouts, on account of which, they kept close to the wind till they were a good distance clear of the land.
Their navigation from here to the Atlantic was, more than could have been imagined, like the journey of travellers by night in a strange country without a guide. The weather was stormy, and they would not venture to steer in for the Strait of Magalhanes, which they had purposed to do for the benefit of the provision which the shores of the Strait afford of fresh water, fish, vegetables, and wood. They ran to the South to go round the Tierra del Fuego, having the wind from the NW, which was the most favourable for this navigation; but they frequently lay to, because the weather was thick. Passage round Cape Horn. On the 12th, they had not passed the Tierra del Fuego. The latitude according to observation that day was 55° 25′, and the course they steered was SSE. 14th. Appearance like Land. Latitude observed, 57° 50′ S. On the 14th, Ringrose says, 'the latitude was observed 57° 50′ S, and on this day we could perceive land, from which at noon we were due West.' They steered EbS, and expected that at daylight the next morning they should be close in with the land; but the weather became cloudy with much fall of snow, and nothing more of it was seen. No longitude or meridian distance is noticed, and it must remain doubtful whether what they took for land was floating ice; or their observation for the latitude erroneous, and that they saw the Isles of Diego Ramirez.
Ice Islands. Three days afterwards, in latitude 58° 30′ S, they fell in with Ice Islands, one of which they reckoned to be two leagues in circumference. A strong current set here Southward. They held on their course Eastward so far that when at length they did sail Northward, they saw neither the Tierra del Fuego nor Staten Island.
December. December the 5th, they divided the plunder which had been reserved, each man's share of which amounted to 328 pieces of eight. Their course was now bent for the West Indies.
1682. January. January the 15th, died William Stephens, a seaman, whose death was attributed to his having eaten three manchineal
apples six months before, when on the coast of New Spain, 'from which time he wasted away till he became a perfect skeleton.'
Arrive in the West Indies. January the 28th, 1682, they made the Island of Barbadoes, but learnt that the Richmond, a British frigate, was lying in the road. Ringrose and his fellow journalists say, 'we having acted in all our voyage without a commission, dared not be so bold as to put in, lest the said frigate should seize us for pyrateering, and strip us of all we had got in the whole voyage.' They next sailed to Antigua; but the Governor at that Island, Colonel Codrington, would not give them leave to enter the harbour, though they endeavoured to soften him by sending a present of jewels to his lady, which, however, were not accepted. Sharp and his crew grew impatient at their uneasy situation, and came to a determination to separate. Some of them landed at Antigua; Sharp and others landed at Nevis, whence they got passage to England. Their ship, which was the Trinidad captured in the Bay of Panama, was left to seven men of the company who had lost their money by gaming. The Buccaneer journals say nothing of their Patagonian captive Orson after the ship sailed from his country; and what became of the ship after Sharp quitted her does not appear.
Bart. Sharp and some of his men tried for Piracy. Bartholomew Sharp, and a few others, on their arrival in England, were apprehended, and a Court of Admiralty was held at the Marshalsea in Southwark, where, at the instance of the Spanish Ambassador, they were tried for committing acts of piracy in the South Sea; but from the defectiveness of the evidence produced, they escaped conviction. One of the principal charges against them was for taking the Spanish ship Rosario, and killing the Captain and another man belonging to her; 'but it was proved,' says the author of the anonymous Narrative, who was one of the men brought to trial, 'that the
Spaniards fired at us first and it was judged that we ought to defend ourselves.' Three Buccaneers of Sharp's crew were also tried at Jamaica, one of whom was condemned and hanged, 'who,' the narrator says, 'was wheedled into an open confession: the other two stood it out, and escaped for want of witnesses to prove the fact against them.' Thus terminated what may be called the First Expedition of the Buccaneers in the South Sea; the boat excursion by Morgan's men in the Bay of Panama being of too little consequence to be so reckoned. They had now made successful experiment of the route both by sea and land; and the Spaniards in the South Sea had reason to apprehend a speedy renewal of their visits.