The latter end of the month of December was spent in unloading the provisions from the Anna pink; when we had the mortification to find, that great quantities of our provisions, as bread, rice, groats, &c. were decayed and unfit for use. This had been occasioned by the Anna taking in water, by her working and straining in bad weather; owing to which several of her casks had rotted, and many of her bags were soaked through. Having now no farther occasion for her services, the commodore, pursuant to his orders from the admiralty, sent notice to her master, Mr Gerard, that he now discharged the Anna pink from attending the squadron, and gave him a certificate at the same time, specifying how long she had been employed. In consequence of this dismission, her master was left at liberty, either to return directly to England, or to make the best of his way to any port where he thought he could take in such a cargo as might serve the interest of his owners. But, sensible of the bad condition of his ship, and her unfitness for any such voyage, the master wrote next day to the commodore, stating, that he had reason to apprehend the bottom of the Anna to be very much decayed, from the great quantity of water she had let in on her passage round Cape Horn, and ever since, in the tempestuous weather she had experienced on the coast of Patagonia; that her upper decks were rotten abaft; that she was extremely leaky; that her fore-beam was broken; and, in short, that, in his opinion, it was impossible to proceed with her to sea, unless she were thoroughly repaired. He therefore requested of the commodore, that the carpenters of the squadron might be directed to survey her, so that their judgment of her condition might be known. In compliance with this request, the carpenters were ordered to make a careful and accurate survey of the Anna, and to give in a faithful report to the commodore of her condition; directing them to proceed with such circumspection, that they might be able, if hereafter called upon, to confirm the veracity of their report upon oath. Pursuant to these orders, the carpenters immediately set about the examination, and made their report next day. This was in substance, That the Anna had no less than fourteen knees and twelve beams broken, and decayed; one breast-hook broken, and another decayed; her water-ways open and decayed; two standards and several clamps broken, besides others much rotten; all her iron-work greatly decayed; her spirkiting and timbers very rotten; that, having ripped off part of her sheathing, her wales and outside planks were extremely defective; and her bows and decks were very leaky. From all these defects and decays, they certified that, in their opinion, the vessel could not depart from Juan Fernandez, without great hazard, unless previously thoroughly repaired.
In our present situation, this thorough repair was impracticable, all the plank and iron in the squadron being insufficient for that purpose. Wherefore, the opinion of the master being confirmed by this report, he presented a petition to the commodore, in behalf of his owners, praying, as his vessel was incapable of leaving the island, that her hull, materials, and furniture, might be purchased for the use of the squadron. The commodore, therefore, ordered an inventory to be taken of every thing belonging to the pink, with its just value; and as many of her stores might become useful in repairing the other ship, these articles having become very scarce, in consequence of the great quantities already expended, he agreed with Mr Gerard to purchase the whole for £300. The pink was now broken up, Mr Gerard and her hands being sent on board the Gloucester, as that ship had buried the greatest number of men in proportion to her complement. Two or three of them were afterwards received into the Centurion on their petition, as they were averse from sailing in the same ship with their old master, on account of some ill usage they alledged to have suffered from him.
This transaction brought us down to the beginning of September, by which time our people were so far recovered from the scurvy, that there was little danger of burying any more for the present. I shall therefore now sum up the whole of our loss since our departure from England, the better to convey some idea of our past sufferings and our then remaining strength. In the Centurion, since leaving St Helens, we had buried 292 men, and had 214 remaining. This will doubtless appear a most extraordinary mortality, yet that in the Gloucester had been much greater; as, out of a much smaller crew than ours, she had lost the same number, and had only 82 remaining alive. It might have been expected that the mortality would have been the most terrible in the Tryal, as her decks were almost constantly knee deep in water: But it happened otherwise, for she escaped more favourably than the other two, having only buried 42, and had 39 remaining alive. The havoc of this cruel disease had fallen still more severely on the invalids and marines, than on the sailors. For, in the Centurion, out of 50 invalids and 79 marines, there only remained four invalids, including officers, and 11 marines. In the Gloucester every invalid perished; and of 48 marines, only two escaped. It appears from this account, that the three ships departed from England with 961 men on board, of whom 626 were dead, and 335 men and boys only remained alive; a number greatly insufficient for manning the Centurion alone, and barely capable of navigating all the three with the utmost exertion of their strength and vigour.
This prodigious reduction of our men was the more alarming, as we were hitherto unacquainted with the fate of the squadron under Pizarro, and had reason to suppose that some part of it, at least, had got round into the South Seas. We were, indeed, much of opinion, from our own sad experience, that they must have suffered greatly in the passage: but then every port in the South Sea was open to them, and the whole power of Peru and Chili would be exerted for their refreshment and repair, and for recruiting their loss of men. We had, also, some obscure information of a force to be fitted out against us from Paluo; and, however contemptible the ships and sailors of this part of the world may have been generally esteemed, it was hardly possible for any thing bearing the name of a ship of war, to be feebler or less considerable than ourselves. Even if there had been nothing to apprehend from the naval power of the Spaniards in these seas, yet our enfeebled situation necessarily gave us great uneasiness, as we were incapable of making an attempt against any of their considerable places; for, in our state of weakness, the risking even of twenty men, would have put the safety of the whole in hazard. We conceived, therefore, that we should be forced to content ourselves with what prizes we might be able to fall in with at sea, before we were discovered, and then to depart precipitately, and esteem ourselves fortunate to regain our native country; leaving our enemies to triumph on the inconsiderable mischief they had suffered from a squadron which had filled them with such dreadful apprehensions. We had reason to imagine the Spanish ostentation would remarkably exert itself on this subject, though our disappointment and their security neither originated in their valour nor our misconduct. Such were the desponding reflections which at this time arose, on the review and comparison of our remaining weakness with our original strength: And, indeed, our fears were far from being groundless, or disproportionate to our feeble and almost desperate condition: For, though the final event proved more honourable than we foreboded, yet the intermediate calamities did likewise surpass our most gloomy apprehensions; and, could these have been predicted to us while at Juan Fernandez, they would doubtless have appeared insurmountable.
In the beginning of September, as already mentioned, our men being tolerably well recovered, and the season of navigation in these seas drawing nigh, we exerted ourselves in getting our ships ready for sea. We converted the foremast of the Anna into a new main-mast for the Tryal; and, still flattering ourselves with the possible hope of some other ships of our squadron arriving, we intended to leave the main-mast of the Anna, to make a new mizen-mast for the Wager. All hands being thus employed in preparing for our departure, we espied a sail to the N.E. about eleven a.m. of the 18th September, which continued to approach us till her courses appeared even with the horizon. While advancing, we had great hopes that this might prove one of our squadron; but she at length steered away to the eastward, without hauling in for the island, on which we concluded that she must be Spanish. Great differences of opinion now took place, as to the possibility of her people having discovered our tents on shore; some of us strongly insisting, that she certainly had been near enough to have seen something that had given them a jealousy to an enemy, which had occasioned her standing away to the eastwards. Leaving these contests to be settled afterwards, it was resolved to pursue her; and, as the Centurion was in the greatest forwardness, all her hands were got immediately on board, her rigging set up, and her sails bent with all possible expedition, and we got under sail by five in the evening.
At this time we had so very little wind, that all the boats were employed to tow us out of the bay, and what wind there was lasted only long enough to give us an offing of two or three leagues, when it fell dead calm. As night came on we lost sight of the chase, and were extremely impatient for the return of light, in hopes to find that she had been becalmed, as well as we; yet her great distance from the land was 3 reasonable ground for suspecting the contrary, as we actually found in the morning, to our great mortification; for, though the weather was then quite clear, we had no sight of the chase from the mast-head. But, being now quite satisfied that she was an enemy, and the first we had seen in these seas, we resolved not to give over the chase lightly; and, on a small breeze springing up from the W.N.W. we got up our top-gallant masts and yards, set all the sails, and steered S.E. in hopes of retrieving the chase, which we imagined might be bound for Valparaiso. We continued on this course all that day and the next; and then, seeing nothing of the chase, gave over the pursuit, believing that she had, in all probability, reached her port.
Resolving to return to Juan Fernandez, we hauled up to the S.W. having very little wind till the 12th, at three a.m. when a gale sprung up at W.S.W. which obliged us to tack and stand to the N.W. At day-break, we were agreeably surprised by the appearance of a sail on our weather-bow, between four and five leagues distant, on which we crowded all sail and stood towards her, soon perceiving she was a different vessel from that we had chased before. She at first bore down towards us, shewing Spanish colours, and making a signal as to a consort; but, seeing we did not answer her signal, she instantly loofed close to the wind and stood to the southward. Our people were now all in high spirits, and put about ship with great briskness; and, as the chase appeared a large ship, and had mistaken us for her consort, we imagined that she must be a man of war, and probably belonged to the squadron of Pizarro. This induced the commodore to order all the officers cabins to be knocked down and thrown overboard, along with several casks of water and provisions, that stood between the guns; so that we had a clear ship, ready for action. About nine a.m. it came on thick hazy weather, with a shower of rain, during which we lost sight of the chase, and were apprehensive, if this weather should continue, she might escape us, by going on the other tack, or some other device. The weather cleared up, however, in less than an hour, when we found that we had both weathered and fore-reached upon her considerably, and were then near enough to perceive that she was only a merchant ship, without a single tire of guns. About half an hour after twelve noon, being within reasonable distance, we fired four shot among her rigging; on which they lowered their top-sails and bore down to us, but in very great confusion, their top-gallant-sails and stay-sails all fluttering in the wind. This was owing to their having let run their sheets and halyards, just as we fired at them; after which not a man among them would venture aloft to take them in, as our shot had passed there just before.
As soon as the vessel came within hail of us, the commodore ordered her to bring to under his lee quarter; and having the boat hoisted out, sent our first lieutenant, Mr Saumarez, to take possession of the prize, with orders to send all the prisoners on board the Centurion, the officers and passengers first. When Mr Saumarez boarded the prize, he was received by her people at the side with the most abject tokens of submission; as they were all, especially the passengers, who were twenty-five in number, extremely terrified, and under the greatest apprehensions of meeting with very severe and cruel usage. But the lieutenant endeavoured, with great courtesy, to dissipate their terror, assuring them that their fears were altogether groundless, and that they would find a generous enemy in the commodore, who was no less remarkable for his lenity and humanity, than for courage and resolution. The prisoners who were first sent on board the Centurion, informed us, that the prize was called Neustra Lenora del Monte Carmelo, and her commander Don Manuel Zamorra. Her cargo consisted chiefly of sugar, and a great quantity of blue cloth, made in the province of Quito, somewhat resembling our coarse English broad cloth, but inferior. They had also several bales of a coarser cloth, of different colours, somewhat like Colchester baize, called by them Panniada Tierra; with a few bales of cotton, and some tolerably well-flavoured tobacco, though strong. These were her principal goods; but we found besides, what was much more valuable than the rest of her cargo, some trunks full of wrought silver plate, and twenty-three serons of dollars, each weighing upwards of two hundred pounds.[2] This ship was of about 450 tons burden, having on board 53 sailors, including whites and blacks. She came from Calao, bound for Valparaiso, and had been twenty-seven days at sea. Her return cargo from Chili was to have been corn and Chili wine, with some gold, dried beef, and small cordage, which is afterwards converted at Calao into larger rope. This vessel had been built thirty years before; yet, as they lie in harbour all winter, and the climate is remarkably favourable, she was not considered as very old. Her rigging and sails were very indifferent, the latter being of cotton. She had only three four-pounders, which were quite unserviceable, as their carriages could scarcely support them; and they had no small arms on board, except a few pistols belonging to the passengers. They had sailed from Callao in company with two other ships, which they had parted from a few days before, and had at first taken our ship for one of their consorts; and, by the description we gave of the ship we had chased from Juan Fernandez, they assured us that she was one of their number; although the coming in sight of that island is directly contrary to the merchant's instructions, as knowing, if any English ships should be in these seas, that this island is most likely to be their place of rendezvous.
We met with very important intelligence in this prize, partly from the prisoners, and partly from letters and papers that fell into our hands. By these we first learnt with certainty the force and destination of that squadron which cruised off Madeira at our arrival there, and had afterwards chased the Pearl in our passage to Port St Julian. This squadron we now knew to be composed of five large Spanish ships, commanded by Admiral Pizarro, and purposely fitted out to traverse our designs, as has been already more amply related in our third section. We had now the satisfaction to find, that Pizarro, after his utmost endeavours to get round into these seas, had been forced back to the Rio Plata, after losing two of his largest ships; which, considering our great weakness, was no unacceptable intelligence. We also learnt, that, though an embargo had been laid on all shipping in the ports of South America, by the viceroy of Peru, in the preceding month of May, on the supposition that we might then arrive on the coast, yet it now no longer subsisted: For, on receiving the account overland of the distresses of Pizarro, part of which they knew we must also have suffered; and, on hearing nothing of us for eight months after we were known to have left St Catharines, they were fully satisfied we must either have been shipwrecked, have perished at sea, or have been obliged to put back again; as they conceived it impossible for any ships to have continued at sea for so long an interval, and therefore, on the application of the merchants, and the persuasion that we had miscarried, the embargo had been lately taken off.