Having at this time an off-shore wind, we kept the land close on board, till we came to a head-land: it was near night before we got abreast of the headland, and opening it discovered a very large bay to the northward, and another headland to the westward, at a great distance. We endeavoured to cut short our passage to it by crossing, which is very seldom to be effected, in these overgrown seas, by boats: and this we experienced now; for the wind springing up, and beginning to blow fresh, we were obliged to put back towards the first headland, into a small cove, just big enough to shelter the two boats. Here an accident happened that alarmed us much. After securing our boats, we climbed up a rock scarcely large enough to contain our numbers: having nothing to eat, we betook ourselves to our usual receipt for hunger, which was going to sleep. We accordingly made a fire, and stowed ourselves round it as well as we could; but two of our men being incommoded for want of room, went a little way from us, into a small nook, over which a great cliff hung, and served them for a canopy. In the middle of the night we were awakened with a terrible rumbling, which we apprehended to be nothing less than the shock of an earthquake, which we had before experienced in these parts; and this conjecture we had reason to think not ill founded, upon hearing hollow groans and cries as of men half swallowed up. We immediately got up, and ran to the place from whence the cries came, and then we were put out of all doubt as to the opinion we had formed of this accident; for here we found the two men almost buried under loose stones and earth: but upon a little farther enquiry we were undeceived as to the cause we had imputed this noise to, which we found to be occasioned by the sudden giving way of the impending cliff, which fell a little beyond our people, carrying trees and rocks with it, and loose earth; the latter of which fell in part on our men, whom we with some pains rescued from their uneasy situation, from which they escaped with some bruises. The next morning we got out early, and the wind being westerly, rowed the whole day for the headland we had seen the night before; but when we had got that length could find no harbour, but were obliged to go into a sandy bay, and lay the whole night upon our oars; and a most dreadful one it proved, blowing and raining very hard. Here we were so pinched with hunger, that we eat the shoes off our feet, which consisted of raw seal skin. In the morning we got out of the bay; but the incessant foul weather had overcome us, and we began to be indifferent as to what befel us; and the boats, in the night, making into a bay, we nearly lost the yawl, a breaker having filled her, and driven her ashore upon the beach. This, by some of our accounts, was Christmas-day; but our accounts had so often been interrupted by our distresses, that there was no depending upon them. Upon seeing the yawl in this imminent danger, the barge stood off, and went into another bay to the northward of it, where it was smoother lying; but there was no possibility of getting on shore. In the night the yawl joined us again. The next day was so bad, that we despaired reaching the headland, so rowed down the bay in hopes of getting some seal, as that animal had been seen the day before, but met with no success; so returned to the same bay we had been in the night before, where the surf having abated somewhat, we went ashore, and picked up a few shell-fish. In the morning, we got on board early, and ran along shore to the westward, for about three leagues, in order to get round a cape, which was the westernmost land we could see. It blew very hard, and there ran such a sea, that we heartily wished ourselves back again, and accordingly made the best of our way for that bay which we had left in the morning; but before we could reach it night came on, and we passed a most dismal one, lying upon our oars.
The weather continuing very bad, we put in for the shore in the morning, where we found nothing but tangle and sea-weed. We now passed some days roving about for provisions, as the weather was too bad to make another attempt to get round the cape as yet. We found some fine Lagoons towards the head of the bay; and in them killed some seal, and got a good quantity of shell-fish, which was a great relief to us. We now made a second attempt to double the cape; but when we got the length of it, and passed the first headland, for it consists of three of an equal height, we got into a sea that was horrid; for it ran all in heaps, like the Race of Portland, but much worse. We were happy to put back again to the old place, with little hopes of ever getting round this cape.
Next day, the weather proving very bad, all hands went ashore to procure some sustenance, except two in each boat, which were left as boat-keepers; this office we took by turns; and it was now my lot to be upon this duty with another man. The yawl lay within us at a grapnel; in the night it blew very hard, and a great sea tumbled in upon the shore; but being extremely fatigued, we in the boats went to sleep, notwithstanding, however, I was at last awakened by the uncommon motion of the boat, and the roaring of the breakers every where about us. At the same time I heard a shrieking, like to that of persons in distress; I looked out, and saw the yawl canted bottom upwards by a sea, and soon afterwards disappeared. One of our men, whose name was William Rose, a quarter-master, was drowned; the other was thrown ashore by the surf, with his head buried in the sand; but by the immediate assistance of the people on shore, was saved. As for us in the barge, we expected the same fate every moment; for the sea broke a long way without us. However we got her head to it, and hove up our grapnel, or should rather say kellick, which we had made to serve in the room of our grapnel, hove overboard some time before, to lighten the boat. By this means we used our utmost efforts to pull her without the breakers some way, and then let go our kellick again. Here we lay all the next day, in a great sea, not knowing what would be our fate. To add to our mortification, we could see our companions in tolerable plight ashore, eating seal, while we were starving with hunger and cold. For this month past, we had not known what it was to have a dry thread about us.
The next day being something more moderate, we ventured in with the barge, as near as we could to the shore, and our companions threw us some seal's liver; which having eat greedily, we were seized with excessive sickness, which affected us so much, that our skin peeled off from head to foot.
Whilst the people were on shore here, Mr. Hamilton met with a large seal, or sea-lion, and fired a brace of balls into him, upon which the animal turned upon him open-mouthed; but presently fixing his bayonet, he thrust it down its throat, with a good part of the barrel of the gun, which the creature bit in two seemingly with as much ease as if it had been a twig. Notwithstanding the wounds it received, it eluded all farther efforts to kill it, and got clear off.
I call this animal a large seal, or sea-lion, because it resembles a seal in many particulars; but then it exceeds it so much in size, as to be sufficiently determined, by that distinction only, to be of another species. Mr. Walter, in Lord Anson's Voyage, has given a particular description of those which are seen about Juan Fernandes; but they have in other climates, different appearances as well as different qualities, as we had occasion to observe in this, and a late voyage I made. However, as so much already has been said of the sea-lion, I shall only mention two peculiarities; one relative to its appearance, and the other to its properties of action, which distinguish it from those described by him. Those I saw, were without that snout, or trunk, hanging below the end of the upper jaw; but then the males were furnished with a large shaggy mane, which gave them a most formidable appearance. And, whereas, he says, those he saw were unwieldy, and easily destroyed: we found some, on the contrary, that lay at a mile's distance from the water, which came down upon us, when disturbed, with such impetuosity, that it was as much as we could do to get out of their way; and when attacked, would turn upon us with great agility.
Having lost the yawl, and being too many for the barge to carry off, we were compelled to leave four of our men behind. They were all marines, who seemed to have no objection to the determination made with regard to them, so exceedingly disheartened and worn out were they with the distresses and dangers they had already gone through. And, indeed, I believe it would have been a matter of indifference to the greatest part of the rest, whether they should embark, or take their chance. The captain distributed to these poor fellows arms and ammunition, and some other necessaries. When we parted, they stood upon the beach, giving us three cheers, and called out, God bless the king. We saw them a little after, setting out upon their forlorn hope, and helping one another over a hideous tract of rocks; but considering the difficulties attending this only way of travelling left them—for the woods are impracticable, from their thickness, and the deep swamp everywhere to be met in them—considering too, that the coast here is rendered so inhospitable, by the heavy seas that are constantly tumbling upon it, as not to afford even a little shell-fish, it is probable that all met with a miserable end.
We rowed along shore to the westward, in order to make one more attempt to double the cape: when abreast of the first headland there ran such a sea, that we expected, every instant, the boat would go down. But as the preservation of life had now, in a great measure, lost its actuating principle upon us, we still kept pushing through it, till we opened a bay to the northward. In all my life, I never saw so dreadful a sea as drove in here; it began to break at more than half a mile from the shore. Perceiving now that it was impossible for any boat to get round, the men lay upon their oars till the boat was very near the breakers, the mountainous swell that then ran, heaving her in at a great rate. I thought it was their intention to put an end to their lives and misery at once; but nobody spoke for some time. At last, Captain Cheap told them, they must either perish immediately, or pull stoutly for it to get off the shore; but they might do as they pleased. They chose, however, to exert themselves a little, and after infinite difficulty, got round the headland again, giving up all thoughts of making any further attempt to double the cape. It was night before we could get back to the bay, where we were compelled to leave four of our men, in order to save, if possible, the remainder; for we must all have certainly perished, if more than sixteen had been crowded into so small a boat. This bay we named Marine Bay. When we had returned to this bay, we found the surf ran so high, that we were obliged to lay upon our oars all night; and it was now resolved to go back to Wager's Island, there to linger out a miserable life, as we had not the least prospect of returning home.
But before we set out, in consequence of this resolution, it was necessary, if possible, to get some little stock of seal to support us in a passage, upon which, wherever we might put in, we were not likely to meet with any supply. Accordingly, it was determined to go up that Lagoon in which we had before got some seal, to provide ourselves with some more; but we did not leave the bay till we had made some search after the unhappy marines we had left on shore. Could we have found them, we had now agreed to take them on board again, though it would have been the certain destruction of us all. This, at another time, would have been mere madness; but we were now resigned to our fate, which we none of us thought far off; however, there was nothing to be seen of them, and no traces but a musket on the beach.
Upon returning up the Lagoon, we were so fortunate as to kill some seal, which we boiled, and laid in the boat for sea-stock. While we were ranging along shore in detached parties in quest of this, and whatever other eatable might come in our way, our surgeon, who was then by himself, discovered a pretty large hole, which seemed to lead to some den, or repository, within the rocks. It was not so rude, or natural, but that there were some signs of its having been cleared, and made more accessible by industry. The surgeon for some time hesitated whether he should venture in, from his uncertainty as to the reception he might meet with from any inhabitant; but his curiosity getting the better of his fears, he determined to go in; which he did upon his hands and knees, as the passage was too low for him to enter otherwise. After having proceeded a considerable way thus, he arrived at a spacious chamber; but whether hollowed out by hands, or natural, he could not be positive. The light into this chamber was conveyed through a hole at the top; in the midst was a kind of bier, made of sticks laid crossways, supported by props of about five foot in height. Upon this bier, five or six bodies were extended; which, in appearance, had been deposited there a long time, but had suffered no decay or diminution. They were without covering, and the flesh of these bodies was become perfectly dry and hard; which, whether done by any art, or secret, the savages may be possessed of, or occasioned by any drying virtue in the air of the cave, could not be guessed. Indeed, the surgeon, finding nothing there to eat, which was the chief inducement for his creeping into this hole, did not amuse himself with long disquisitions, or make that accurate examination which he would have done at another time; but crawling out as he came in, he went and told the first he met of what he had seen. Some had the curiosity to go in likewise. I had forgot to mention that there was another range of bodies, deposited in the same manner, upon another platform under the bier. Probably this was the burial place of their great men, called caciques; but from whence they could be brought we were utterly at a loss to conceive, there being no traces of any Indian settlement hereabout. We had seen no savage since we left the island, or observed any marks in the coves, or bays to the northward, where we had touched,—such as of fire-places, or old wigwams, which they never fail of leaving behind them; and it is very probable, from the violent seas that are always beating upon this coast, its deformed aspect, and the very swampy soil that every where borders upon it, that it is little frequented.