By Sunday, the 2d of May, we were advanced within three leagues of Acapulco, and having seen nothing of our boat, we gave her over for lost, which, besides the compassionate concern for our shipmates, and for what it was apprehended they might have suffered, was in itself a misfortune in our present scarcity of hands, we were all greatly interested in: For the crew of the cutter, consisting of six men and the lieutenant, were the very flower of our people, purposely picked out for this service, and known to be every one of them of tried and approved resolution, and as skilful seamen as ever trod a deck. However, as it was the general belief among us that they were taken and carried into Acapulco, the commodore's prudence suggested a project which we hoped would recover them. This was founded on our having many Spanish and Indian prisoners in our possession, and a number of sick negroes, who could be of no service to us in the navigating of the ship. The commodore therefore wrote a letter the same day to the governor of Acapulco, telling him that he would release them all, provided the governor returned the cutter's crew; and the letter was dispatched the same afternoon by a Spanish officer, of whose honour we had a good opinion, and who was furnished with a launch belonging to one of our prizes, and a crew of six other prisoners who all gave their parole for their return. The officer, besides the commodore's letter, carried with him a petition signed by all the prisoners, beseeching his excellency to acquiesce in the terms proposed. From a consideration of the number of our prisoners, and the quality of some of them, we did not doubt but the governor would readily comply, and therefore we kept plying on and off the whole night, intending to keep well in with the land, that we might receive an answer at the limited time, which was the next day, being Monday: But both on the Monday and Tuesday we were driven so far off shore, that we could not hope to receive any answer; and on the Wednesday morning we found ourselves fourteen leagues from the harbour of Acapulco; but as the wind was now favourable, we pressed forwards with all our sail, and did not doubt of getting in with the land in a few hours. Whilst we were thus standing in, the man at the mast-head called out that he saw a boat under sail at a considerable distance to the south-eastward: This we took for granted was the answer of the governor to the commodore's message, and we instantly edged towards it; but when we drew nearer, we found to our unspeakable joy that it was our own cutter. While she was still at a distance, we imagined that she had been discharged out of the port of Acapulco by the governor; but when she drew nearer, the wan and meagre countenances of the crew, the length of their beards, and the feeble and hollow tone of their voices, convinced us that they had suffered much greater hardships than could be expected from even the severities of a Spanish prison. They were obliged to be helped into the ship, and were immediately put to bed, and with rest, and nourishing diet, which they were plentifully supplied with, from the commodore's table, they recovered their health and vigour apace. We learnt that they had kept the sea the whole time of their absence; that when they finished their cruise before Acapulco, and had just begun to ply to the westward in order to join the squadron, a strong adverse current had forced them down the coast to the eastward in spite of all their efforts; that at length their water being all expended, they were obliged to search the coast farther on to the eastward, in quest of some convenient landing-place, where they might get a fresh supply; that in this distress they ran upwards of eighty leagues to leeward, and found every where so large a surf, that there was not the least possibility of their landing; that they passed some days in this dreadful situation without water, and having no other means left them to allay their thirst than sucking the blood of the turtle which they caught; and at last, giving up all hopes of relief, the heat of the climate augmenting their necessities, and rendering their sufferings insupportable, they abandoned themselves to despair, fully persuaded that they should perish by the most terrible of all deaths; but that they were soon after happily relieved by a most unexpected incident, for there fell so heavy a rain, that by spreading their sails horizontally, and by putting bullets in the centres of them to draw them to a point, they caught as much water as filled all their casks; that immediately upon this fortunate supply they stood to the westward in quest of the commodore; and being now luckily favoured by a strong current, they joined us in less than fifty hours, from the time they stood to the westward, after having been absent from us full forty-three days. Those who have an idea of the inconsiderable size of a cutter belonging to a sixty-gun ship, (being only an open boat about twenty-two feet in length,) and who will attend to the various accidents to which she was exposed during a six weeks continuance alone, in the open ocean, on so impracticable and dangerous a coast, will readily own that her return to us, after all the difficulties which she actually experienced, and the hazards to which she was each hour exposed, was little short of miraculous.
I cannot finish this article without remarking how little reliance navigators ought to have on the accounts of the Buccaneer writers: For though in this run eighty leagues to the eastward of Acapulco, she found no place where it was possible for a boat to land, yet those writers have not been ashamed to feign harbours and convenient watering-places within these limits, thereby exposing such as should confide in their relations to the risk of being destroyed by thirst.
Having received our cutter, the sole object of our coming a second time before Acapulco, the commodore resolved not to lose a moment's time longer, but to run off the coast with the utmost expedition, both as the stormy season on the coast of Mexico was now approaching apace, and as we were apprehensive of having the westerly monsoon to struggle with when we came upon the coast of China; and therefore he no longer stood towards Acapulco, as he now wanted no answer from the governor; but yet he resolved not to deprive his prisoners of the liberty which he had promised them; so that they were all immediately embarked in two launches which belonged to our prizes, those from the Centurion in one launch, and those from the Gloucester in the other. The launches were well equipped with masts, sails, and oars, and, lest the wind might prove unfavourable, they had a stock of water and provisions put on board them sufficient for fourteen days. There were discharged thirty-nine persons from on board the Centurion, and eighteen from the Gloucester, the greatest part of them Spaniards, the rest Indians and sick negroes: But as our crews were very weak, we kept the mulattoes and some of the stoutest of the negroes, with a few Indians, to assist us; but we dismissed every Spanish prisoner whatever. We have since learnt, that these two launches arrived safe at Acapulco, where the prisoners could not enough extol the humanity with which they had been treated; and that the governor, before their arrival, had returned a very obliging answer to the commodore's letter, and had attended it with a present of two boats laden with the choicest refreshments and provisions which were to be got at Acapulco; but that these boats not having found our ships, were at length obliged to put back again, after having thrown all their provisions overboard in a storm which threatened their destruction.
The sending away our prisoners was our last transaction on the American coast; for no sooner had we parted with them, than we and the Gloucester made sail to the S.W., proposing to get a good offing from the land, where we hoped, in a few days, to meet with the regular trade-wind, which the accounts of former navigators had represented as much brisker and steadier in this ocean, than in any other part of the globe: For it has been esteemed no uncommon passage to run from hence to the eastermost parts of Asia in two months; and we flattered ourselves that we were as capable of making an expeditious passage as any ships that had ever run this course before us; so that we hoped soon to gain the coast of China, for which we were now bound. And conformable to the general idea of this navigation given by former voyagers, we considered it as free from all kinds of embarrassment of bad weather, fatigue, or sickness; and consequently we undertook it with alacrity, especially as it was no contemptible step towards oar arrival at our native country, for which many of us by this time began to have great longings. Thus, on the 6th of May, we, for the last time, lost sight of the mountains of Mexico, persuaded, that in a few weeks we should arrive at the river of Canton in China, where we expected to meet with many English ships, and numbers of our countrymen; and hoped to enjoy the advantages of an amicable, well-frequented port, inhabited by a polished people, and abounding with the conveniences and indulgences of a civilized life, which for near twenty months had never been once in our power.
[It is judged advisable to omit altogether the next section of the original, as occupied by mere reckoning on the advantages "which might have been expected from the squadron, had it arrived in the South Seas in good time." They are in part specified at the beginning.]
SECTION XXIV.
The Run from the Coast of Mexico to the Ladrones or Marian Islands.
When we left the coast of America, we stood to the S. W. with a view of meeting with the N.E. trade-wind, which the accounts of former writers made us expect at seventy or eighty leagues distance from the land: We had another reason for standing to the southward, which was the getting into the latitude of 13° or 14° north; that being the parallel where the Pacific Ocean is most usually crossed, and consequently where the navigation is esteemed the safest: This last purpose we had soon answered, being in a day or two sufficiently advanced to the south. At the same time we were also farther from the shore, than we had presumed was necessary for the falling in with the trade-wind: But in this particular we were most grievously disappointed; for the wind still continued to the westward, or at best variable. As the getting into the N.E. trade-wind, was to us a matter of the last consequence, we stood more to the southward, and made many experiments to meet with it; but it was seven weeks, from our leaving the coast, before we got into it. This was an interval, in which we believed we should well nigh have reached the easternmost parts of Asia: But we were so baffled with the contrary and variable winds, which for all that time perplexed us, that we were not as yet advanced above a fourth part of the way. The delay alone would have been a sufficient mortification; but there were other circumstances attending it, which rendered this situation not less terrible, and our apprehensions perhaps still greater than in any of our past distresses. For our two ships were by this time extremely crazy; and many days had not passed, before we discovered a spring in the fore-mast of the Centurion, which rounded about twenty-six inches of its circumference, and which was judged to be at least four inches deep: And no sooner had our carpenters secured this with fishing it, but the Gloucester made a signal of distress; and we learnt that she had a dangerous spring in her main-mast, twelve feet below the trussel-trees; so that she could not carry any sail upon it. Our carpenters, on a strict examination of this mast, found it so very rotten and decayed, that they judged it necessary to cut it down as low as it appeared to have been injured; and by this it was reduced to nothing but a stump, which served only as a step to the topmast. These accidents augmented our delay, and occasioned us great anxiety about our future security: For on our leaving the coast of Mexico, the scurvy had begun to make its appearance again amongst our people; though from our departure from Juan Fernandes we had till then enjoyed a most uninterrupted state of health. We too well knew the effects of this disease, from our former fatal experience, to suppose that any thing but a speedy passage could secure the greater part of our crew from perishing by it: And as, after-being seven weeks at sea, there did not appear any reasons that could persuade us we were nearer the trade-wind than when we first set out, there was no ground for us to suppose but our passage would prove at least three times as long as we at first expected; and consequently we had the melancholy prospect, either of dying by the scurvy, or perishing with the ship for want of hands to navigate her. Indeed, some amongst us were at first willing to believe, that in this warm climate, so different from what we felt in passing round Cape Horn, the violence of this disease, and its fatality, might be in some degree mitigated; as it had not been unusual to suppose that its particular virulence in that passage was in a great measure owing to the severity of the weather; but the havock of the distemper, in our present circumstances, soon convinced us of the falsity of this speculation; as it likewise exploded some other opinions, which usually pass current about the cause and nature of this disease.[1]
Our surgeon (who, during our passage round Cape Horn, had ascribed the mortality we suffered to the severity of the climate) exerted himself in the present run to the utmost, and at last declared, that all his measures were totally ineffectual, and did not in the least avail his patients. When we reached the trade-wind, and it settled between the north and the east, yet it seldom blew with so much strength, but the Centurion might have carried all her small sails abroad with the greatest safety; so that now, had we been a single ship, we might have run down our longitude apace, and have reached the Ladrones soon enough to have recovered great numbers of our men, who afterwards perished. But the Gloucester, by the loss of her main-mast, sailed so very heavily, that we had seldom any more than our top-sails set, and yet were frequently obliged to lie to for her: And, I conceive, that in the whole we lost little less than a month by our attendance upon her, in consequence of the various mischances she encountered. In all this run it was remarkable, that we were rarely many days together, without seeing great numbers of birds; which is a proof that there are many islands, or at least rocks, scattered all along, at no very considerable distance from our track. Some indeed there are marked in a Spanish chart; but the frequency of the birds seems to evince, that there are many more than have been hitherto discovered: For the greatest part of the birds we observed were such as are known to roost on shore; and the manner of their appearance sufficiently made out, that they came from some distant haunt every morning, and returned thither again in the evening; for we never saw them early or late; and the hour of their arrival and departure gradually varied, which we supposed was occasioned by our running nearer their haunts, or getting farther from them.
The trade-wind continued to favour us without any fluctuation, from the end of June till towards the end of July. But on the 26th of July, being then, as we esteemed, about three hundred leagues distant from the Ladrones, we met with a westerly wind, which did not come about again to the eastward in four days time. This was a most dispiriting incident, as it at once damped all our hopes of speedy relief, especially too as it was attended with a vexatious accident to the Gloucester: For in one part of these four days the wind-flatted to a calm, and the ships rolled very deep; by which means the Gloucester's forecap split, and her top-mast came by the board, and broke her fore-yard directly in the slings. As she was hereby rendered incapable of making any sail for some time, we were obliged, as soon as a gale sprung up, to take her in tow; and near twenty of the healthiest and ablest of our seamen were taken from the business of our own ship, and were employed for eight or ten days together on board the Gloucester in repairing her damages: But these things, mortifying as we thought them, were but the beginning of our disasters; for scarce had our people finished their business in the Gloucester, before we met with a most violent storm in the western board, which obliged us to lie to. In the beginning of this storm our ship sprung a leak, and let in so much water, that all our people, officers included, were employed continually in working the pumps: And the next day we had the vexation to see the Gloucester, with her top-mast once more by the board; and whilst we were viewing her with great concern for this new distress, we saw her main-top mast, which had hitherto served as a jury main-mast, share the same fate. This completed our misfortunes, and rendered them without resource; for we knew the Gloucester's crew were so few and feeble, that without our assistance they could not be relieved: And our sick were now so far increased, and those that remained in health so continually fatigued with the additional duty of our pumps, that it was impossible for us to lend them any aid. Indeed we were not as yet fully apprized of the deplorable situation of the Gloucester's crew; for when the storm abated, (which during its continuance prevented all communication with them) the Gloucester bore up under our stern; and Captain Mitchel informed the commodore, that besides the loss of his masts, which was all that had appeared to us, the ship had then no less than seven feet of water in her hold, although his officers and men had been kept constantly at the pump for the last twenty-four hours.