It would have redounded greatly to the tenderness and humanity of Captain Cheap, if at this time he had remitted somewhat of that attention he shewed to self-preservation; which is hardly allowable but where the consequence of relieving others must be immediately and manifestly fatal to ourselves; but I would venture to affirm, that in these last affecting exigencies, as well as some others, a sparing perhaps adequate to the emergency, might have been admitted consistently with a due regard to his own necessities. The Captain had better opportunities for recruiting his stock than any of us; for his rank was considered by the Indian as a reason for supplying him when he would not find a bit for us. Upon the evening of the day in which these disasters happened, the Captain producing a large piece of boiled seal, suffered no one to partake with him but the surgeon, who was the only man in favour at this time. We did not expect, indeed, any relief from him in our present condition; for we had a few small muscles and herbs to eat; but the men could not help expressing the greatest indignation at his neglect of the deceased; saying that he deserved to be deserted by the rest for his savage behaviour.
The endeavouring to pass up this river was for us, who had so long struggled with hunger, a most unseasonable attempt; by which we were harassed to a degree that threatened to be fatal to more of us; but our guide, without any respect to the condition our hardships had reduced us to, was very solicitous for us to go that way, which possibly he had gone before in light canoes; but for such a boat as ours was impracticable. We conceived, therefore, at that time, that this was some short cut, which was to bring us forward in our voyage; but we had reason to think afterwards, that the greater probability there was of his getting the barge, which was the wages of his undertaking, safe to his settlement by this, rather than another course, was his motive for preferring it to the way we took afterwards, where there was a carrying place of considerable length, over which it would have been impossible to have carried our boat.
The country hereabouts wears the most uncouth, desolate, and rugged aspect imaginable; it is so circumstanced, as to discourage the most sanguine adventurers from attempts to settle it: were it for no other reason than the constant heavy rains, or rather torrents, which pour down here, and the vast sea and surf which the prevailing westerly winds impel upon this coast, it must be rendered inhospitable. All entrance into the woods is not only extremely difficult, but hazardous; not from any assaults you are likely to meet with from wild beasts; for even these could hardly find convenient harbour here; but from the deep swamp, which is the reigning soil of this country, and in which the woods may be said rather to float than grow; so that, except upon a range of deformed broken rocks which form the sea-coast, the traveller cannot find sound footing any where. With this unpromising scene before us we were now setting out in search of food, which nothing but the most pressing instances of hunger could induce us to do: we had, indeed, the young Indian servant to our cacique for our conductor, who was left by him to shew us where the shell-fish was most plenty. The cacique was gone with the rest of his family, in the canoe, with a view of getting some seal, upon a trip which would detain him from us three or four days.
After searching the coast some time with very little success, we began to think of returning to the barge; but six of the men, with the Indian, having advanced some few paces before the officers, got into the boat first; which they had no sooner done than they put off, and left us, to return no more. And now all the difficulties we had hitherto endured, seemed light in comparison of what we expected to suffer from this treachery of our men, who, with the boat, had taken away every thing that might be the means of preserving our lives. The little clothes we had saved from the wreck, our muskets and ammunition were gone, except a little powder, which must be preserved for kindling fires, and one gun, which I had, and was now become useless for want of ammunition; and all these wants were now come upon us at a time when we could not be worse situated for supplying them. Yet under these dismal and forlorn appearances was our delivery now preparing; and from these hopeless circumstances were we to draw hereafter an instance scarce to be paralleled, of the unsearchable ways of Providence. It was at that time little suspected by us, that the barge, in which we founded all our hopes of escaping from this savage coast, would certainly have proved the fatal cause of detaining us till we were consumed by the labour and hardships requisite to row her round the capes and great headlands; for it was impossible to carry her by land, as we did the boats of the Indians. At present, no condition could be worse that we thought ours to be: there ran at this time a very high sea, which breaking with great fury upon this coast, made it very improbable that sustenance in any proportion to our wants could be found upon it; yet, unpromising as this prospect was, and though little succour could be expected from this quarter, I could not help, as I strolled along shore from the rest, casting my eyes towards the sea. Continuing thus to look out, I thought I saw something now and then upon the top of a sea that looked black, which upon observing still more intently, I imagined at last to be a canoe; but reflecting afterwards how unusual it was for Indians to venture out in so mountainous a sea, and at such a distance from the land, I concluded myself to be deceived. However, its nearer approach convinced me, beyond all doubt, of its being a canoe; but that it could not put in any where hereabouts, but intended for some other part of the coast. I ran back as fast as I could to my companions, and acquainted them with what I had seen. The despondency they were in would not allow them to give credit to it at first; but afterwards, being convinced that it was as I reported it, we were all in the greatest hurry to strip off some of our rags to make a signal withal, which we fixed upon a long pole. This had the desired effect: the people in the canoe seeing the signal, made towards the land at about two mile distance from us; for no boat could approach the land where we were: there they put into a small cove, sheltered by a large ledge of rocks without, which broke the violence of the sea. Captain Cheap and I walked along shore, and got to the cove about the time they landed. Here we found the persons arrived in this canoe, to be our Indian guide and his wife, who had left us some days before. He would have asked us many questions; but neither Captain Cheap nor I understanding Spanish at that time, we took him along with us to the surgeon, whom we had left so ill that he could hardly raise himself from the ground. When the Indian began to confer with the surgeon, the first question was, What was become of the barge and his companion? and as he could give him no satisfactory answer to this question, the Indian took it for granted that Emanuel was murdered by us, and that he and his family ran the same risk; upon which he was preparing to provide for his security, by leaving us directly. The surgeon seeing this, did all in his power to pacify him, and convince him of the unreasonableness of his apprehensions; which he at length found means to do, by assuring him that the Indian would come to no harm, but that he would soon see him return safe; which providentially, and beyond our expectation, happened accordingly; for in a few days after, Emanuel having contrived to make his escape from the people in the barge, returned by ways that were impassable to any creature but an Indian. All that we could learn from Emanuel relative to his escape was, that he took the first opportunity of leaving them; which was upon their putting into a bay somewhere to the westward.
We had but one gun among us, and that was a small fowling-piece of mine; no ammunition but a few charges of powder I had about me; and as the Indian was very desirous of returning to the place where he had left his wife and canoe, Captain Cheap desired I would go with him and watch over him all night, to prevent his getting away. Accordingly I set out with him; and when he and his family betook themselves to rest in the little wigwam they had made for that purpose, I kept my station as centinel over them all night.
The next morning Captain Cheap, Mr. Hamilton, and the surgeon, joined us: the latter, by illness, being reduced to the most feeble condition, was supported by Mr. Hamilton and Mr. Campbell. After holding some little consultation together, as to the best manner of proceeding in our journey, it was agreed, that the Indian should haul his canoe, with our assistance, over land, quite across the island we were then upon, and put her into a bay on the other side, from whence he was to go in quest of some other Indians, by whom he expected to be joined; but as his canoe was too small to carry more than three or four persons, he thought it advisable to take only Captain Cheap and myself with him, and to leave his wife and children as pledges with our companions till his return.
As it was matter of uncertainty whether we should ever recover the barge or not, which was stipulated, on our side, to become the property of the cacique, upon his fulfilling his engagements with us; the inducements we now made use of to prevail upon him to proceed with us in our journey were, that he should have my fowling-piece, some little matters in the possession of Captain Cheap, and that we would use our interest to procure him some small pecuniary reward.
We were now to set off in the canoe, in which I was to assist him in rowing. Accordingly, putting from this island, we rowed hard all this day and the next, without any thing to eat but a scrap of seal, a very small portion of which fell to my share. About two hours after the close of the day, we put ashore, where we discovered six or seven wigwams. For my part, my strength was so exhausted with fatigue and hunger, that it would have been impossible for me to have held out another day at this toilsome work. As soon as we landed, the Indian conducted Captain Cheap with him into a wigwam; but I was left to shift for myself.
Thus left, I was for some time at a loss what I had best do; for knowing that in the variety of dispositions observable among the Indians, the surly and savage temper is the most prevalent, I had good reason to conclude, that if I obtruded myself upon them, my reception would be but indifferent. Necessity, however, put me upon the risk; I accordingly pushed into the next wigwam upon my hands and knees; for the entrance into these kind of buildings is too low to admit of any other manner of getting into them. To give a short description of these temporary houses, called wigwams, may not be improper here, for the satisfaction of those who never saw any; especially as they differ somewhat from those of North America, which are more generally known from the numerous accounts of that country.
When the Indians of this part of the world have occasion to stop any where in their rambles, if it be only for a night or two, the men, who take this business upon them, while the women are employed in much more laborious offices, such as diving in the sea for sea-eggs, and searching the rocks for shell-fish, getting fuel, &c., repair to the woods, and cutting a sufficient number of tall, strait branches, fix them in an irregular kind of circle, of uncertain dimensions; which having done, they bend the extremities of these branches so as to meet in a centre at top, where they bind them by a kind of woodbine, called supple-jack, which they split by holding it in their teeth. This frame, or skeleton of a hut, is made tight against the weather with a covering of boughs and bark; but as the bark is not got without some trouble, they generally take it with them when they remove, putting it at the bottom of their canoes: the rest of the wigwam they leave standing. The fire is made in the middle of the wigwam, round which they sit upon boughs; and as there is no vent for the smoke, besides the door-way, which is very low, except through some crevices, which cannot easily be stopped, they are not a little incommoded on that account; and the eyes of some of them are much affected by it.