Our Arrival at Tinian, and an Account of the Island, and of our Proceedings there, till the Centurion drove out to Sea.

It was the 26th of August, 1742, in the morning, when we lost sight of Anatacan. The next morning we discovered three other islands to the eastward, which were from ten to fourteen leagues from us. These were, as we afterwards learnt, the islands of Saypan, Tinian, and Aguigan. We immediately steered towards Tinian, which was the middlemost of the three, but had so much of calms and light airs, that though we were helped forwards by the currents, yet next day, at day-break, we were at least five leagues distant from it. However, we kept on our course, and about ten in the morning we perceived a proa under sail to the southward, between Tinian and Aguigan. As we imagined from hence that these islands were inhabited, and knew that the Spaniards had always a force at Guam, we took the necessary precautions for our own security, and for preventing the enemy from taking advantage of our present wretched circumstances, of which they would be sufficiently informed by the manner of our working the ship; we therefore mustered all our hands, who were capable of standing to their arms, and loaded our upper and quarter-deck guns with grape-shot; and, that we might the more readily procure some intelligence of the state of these islands, we showed Spanish colours, and hoisted a red flag at the fore-top-masthead, to give our ship the appearance of the Manilla galleon, hoping thereby to decoy some of the inhabitants on board us. Thus preparing ourselves, and standing towards the land, we were near enough, at three in the afternoon, to send the cutter in shore, to find out a proper birth for the ship; and we soon perceived that a proa came off the shore to meet the cutter, fully persuaded, as we afterwards found, that we were the Manilla ship. As we saw the cutter returning back with the proa in tow, we immediately sent the pinnace to receive the proa and the prisoners, and to bring them on board, that the cutter might proceed on her errand. The pinnace came back with a Spaniard and four Indians, which were the people taken in the proa. The Spaniard was immediately examined as to the produce and circumstances of this island of Tinian, and his account of it surpassed even our most sanguine hopes; for he informed us that it was uninhabited, which, in our present defenceless condition, was an advantage not to be despised, especially as it wanted but few of the conveniences that could be expected in the most cultivated country; for he assured us, that there was great plenty of very good water, and that there were an incredible number of cattle, hogs, and poultry running wild on the island, all of them excellent in their kind; that the woods produced sweet and sour oranges, limes, lemons, and cocoa-nuts in great plenty, besides a fruit peculiar to these islands (called by Dampier, Bread-fruit); that from the quantity and goodness of the provisions produced here, the Spaniards at Guam made use of it as a store for supplying the garrison; that he himself was a serjeant of that garrison, and was sent here with twenty-two Indians to jerk beef, which he was to load for Guam on board a small bark of about fifteen tun, which lay at anchor near the shore.

This account was received by us with inexpressible joy: Part of it we were ourselves able to verify on the spot, as we were by this time near enough to discover several numerous herds of cattle feeding in different places of the island; and we did not any ways doubt the rest of his relation, as the appearance of the shore prejudiced us greatly in its favour, and made us hope, that not only our necessities might be there fully relieved, and our diseased recovered, but that, amidst those pleasing scenes which were then in view, we might procure ourselves some amusement and relaxation, after the numerous fatigues we had undergone: For the prospect of the country did by no means resemble that of an uninhabited and uncultivated place, but had much more the air of a magnificent plantation, where large lawns and stately woods had been laid out together with great skill, and where the whole had been so artfully combined, and so judiciously adapted to the slopes of the hills, and the inequalities of the ground, as to produce a most striking effect, and to do honour to the invention of the contriver. Thus (an event not unlike what we had already seen) we were forced upon the most desirable and salutary measures by accidents, which at first sight we considered as the greatest of misfortunes; for had we not been driven by the contrary winds and currents to the northward of our course (a circumstance which at that time gave us the most terrible apprehensions) we should, in all probability, never have arrived at this delightful island, and consequently we should have missed of that place, where alone all our wants could be most amply relieved, our sick recovered, and our enfeebled crew once more refreshed, and enabled to put again to sea.

The Spanish serjeant, from whom we received the account of the island, having informed us that there were some Indians on shore under his command, employed in jerking beef, and that there was a bark at anchor to take it on board, we were desirous, if possible, to prevent the Indians from escaping, who doubtless would have given the governor of Guam intelligence of our arrival; and we therefore immediately dispatched the pinnace to secure the bark, which the serjeant told us was the only embarkation on the place; and then, about eight in the evening, we let go our anchor in twenty-two fathom; and though it was almost calm, and whatever vigour and spirit was to be found on board was doubtless exerted to the utmost on this pleasing occasion, when, after having kept the sea for some months, we were going to take possession of this little paradise, yet we were full five hours in furling our sails: It is true, we were somewhat weakened by the crews of the cutter and pinnace having been sent on shore; but it is not less true, that, including those absent with the boats and some negro and Indian prisoners, all the hands we could muster capable of standing at a gun amounted to no more than seventy-one, most of which number too were incapable of duty; but on the greatest emergencies this was all the force we could collect, in our present enfeebled condition, from the united crews of the Centurion, the Gloucester, and the Tryal, which, when we departed from England, consisted altogether of near a thousand hands.

When we had furled our sails, the remaining part of the night was allowed to our people for their repose, to recover them from the fatigue they had undergone; and in the morning a party was sent on shore well armed, of which I myself was one, to make ourselves masters of the landing place, as we were not certain what opposition might be made by the Indians on the island: We landed without difficulty, for the Indians having perceived, by our seizure of the bark the night before, that we were enemies, they immediately fled into the woody parts of the island. We found on shore many huts which they had inhabited, and which saved us both the time and trouble of erecting tents; one of these huts which the Indians made use of for a storehouse was very large, being twenty yards long, and fifteen broad; this we immediately cleared of some bales of jerked beef, which we found in it, and converted it into an hospital for our sick, who as soon as the place was ready to receive them were brought on shore, being in all a hundred and twenty-eight: Numbers of these were so very helpless that we were obliged to carry them from the boats to the hospital upon our shoulders, in which humane employment (as before at Juan Fernandes) the commodore himself, and every one of his officers, were engaged without distinction; and, notwithstanding the great debility and the dying aspects of the greatest part of our sick, it is almost incredible how soon they began to feel the salutary influence of the land; for, though we buried twenty-one men on this and the preceeding day, yet we did not lose above ten men more during our whole two months stay here; and in general, our diseased received so much benefit from the fruits of the island, particularly the fruits of the acid kind, that, in a week's time, there were but few who were not so far recovered, as to be able to move about without help.[1]

Whilst we were employed in the removal of our sick on shore, four of the Indians, being part of the Spanish serjeant's detachment, came and surrendered themselves to us, so that with those we took in the proa, we had now eight of them in our custody. One of the four, who submitted, undertook to show us the most convenient place for killing cattle, and two of our men were ordered to attend him on that service; but one of them unwarily trusting the Indian with his firelock and pistol, the Indian escaped with them into the woods: His countrymen, who remained behind, were apprehensive of suffering for this perfidy of their comrade, and therefore begged leave to send one of their own party into the country, who they engaged should both bring back the arms, and persuade the whole detachment from Guam to submit to us. The commodore granted their request; and one of them was dispatched on this errand, who returned next day, and brought back the firelock and pistol, but assured us, he had met with them in a path-way in the wood, and protested that he had not been able to meet with any one of his countrymen: This report had so little the air of truth, that we suspected there was some treachery carrying on, and therefore, to prevent any future communication amongst them, we immediately ordered all the Indians who were in our power on board the ship, and did not permit them to return any more on shore.

When our sick were well settled on the island, we employed all the hands that could be spared from attending them; in arming the cables with a good rounding, several fathom from the anchor, to secure them from being rubbed by the coral rocks, which here abounded: And this being completed, our next attention was our leak, and in order to raise it out of water, we, on the first of September, began to get the guns aft to bring the ship by the stern; and now the carpenters, being able to come at it on the outside, ripped off the old sheathing that was left, and caulked all the seams on both sides the cut-water, and leaded them over, and then new-sheathed the bows to the surface of the water: By this means we conceived the defect was sufficiently secured; but upon our beginning to bring the guns into their places, we had the mortification to perceive, that the water rushed into the ship in the old place, with as much violence as ever: Hereupon we were necessitated to begin again; and that our second attempt might be more effectual, we cleared the fore store-room, and sent a hundred and thirty barrels of powder on board the small Spanish bark we had seized here, by which means we raised the ship about three feet out of the water forwards, and the carpenters ripped off the sheathing lower down, and new caulked all the seams, and afterwards laid on new sheathing; and then, supposing the leak lobe effectually stopped, we began to move the guns forwards; but the upper deck guns were scarcely in their places, when, to our amazement, it burst out again; and now, as we durst not cut away the lining within board, lest a but-end or a plank might start, and we might go down immediately, we had no other resource left than chincing and caulking within board; and indeed by this means the leak was stopped for some time; but when our guns were all in their places, and our stores were taken on board, the water again forced its way through a hole in the stem, where one of the bolts was driven in; and on this we desisted from all farther efforts, being now well assured, that the defect was in the stem itself, and that it was not to be remedied till we should have an opportunity of heaving down.

Towards the middle of September, several of our sick were tolerably recovered by their residence on shore; and, on the 12th of September, all those who were so far relieved, since their arrival, as to be capable of doing duty, were sent on board the ship: And then the commodore, who was himself ill of the scurvy, had a tent erected for him on shore, where he went with the view of staying a few days for the recovery of his health, being convinced, by the general experience of his people, that no other method but living on the land was to be trusted to for the removal of this dreadful malady. The place, where his tent was pitched on this occasion, was near the well, whence we got all our water, and was indeed a most elegant spot. As the crew on board were now reinforced by the recovered hands returned from the island, we began to send our cask on shore to be fitted up, which till now could not be done, for the coopers were not well enough to work. We likewise weighed our anchors, that we might examine our cables, which we suspected had by this time received considerable damage. And as the new moon was now approaching, when we apprehended violent gales, the commodore, for our greater security, ordered that part of the cables next to the anchors to be armed with the chains of the fire-grapnels; and they were besides cackled twenty fathom from the anchors, and seven fathom from the service, with a good rounding of a 41/2 inch hawser; and to all these precautions we added that of lowering the main and fore-yard close down, that in case of blowing weather the wind might have less power upon the ship, to make her ride a strain.

Thus effectually prepared, as we conceived, we expected the new moon, which was the 18th of September, and riding safe that and the three succeeding days, (though the weather proved very squally and uncertain) we flattered ourselves (for I was then on board) that the prudence of our measures had secured us from all accidents; but, on the 22d, the wind blew from the eastward with such fury, that we soon despaired of riding out the storm; and therefore we should have been extremely glad that the commodore and the rest of our people on shore, which were the greatest part of our hands, had been on board with us, since our only hopes of safety seemed to depend on our putting immediately to sea; but all communication with the shore was now effectually cut off, for there was no possibility that a boat could live, so that we were necessitated to ride it out, till our cables parted. Indeed it was not long before this happened, for the small bower parted at five in the afternoon, and the ship swung off to the best bower; and as the night came on, the violence of the wind still increased; but notwithstanding its inexpressible fury, the tide ran with so much rapidity, as to prevail over it; for the tide having set to the northward in the beginning of the storm, turned suddenly to the southward about six in the evening, and forced the ship before it in despight of the storm, which blew upon the beam: And now the sea broke most surprisingly all round us, and a large tumbling swell threatened to poop us; the long-boat, which was at this time moored a-stern, was on a sudden canted so high, that it broke the transom of the commodore's gallery, whose cabin was on the quarter-deck, and would doubtless have risen as high as the tafferel, had it not been for this stroke which stove the boat all to pieces; but the poor boat-keeper, though extremely bruised, was saved almost by miracle. About eight the tide slackened, but the wind did not abate; so that at eleven, the best bower-cable, by which alone we rode, parted. Our sheet-anchor, which was the only one we had left, was instantly cut from the bow; but before it could reach the bottom, we were driven from twenty-two into thirty-five fathom; and after we had veered away one whole cable, and two-thirds of another, we could not find ground with sixty fathom of line: This was a plain indication, that the anchor lay near the edge of the bank, and could not hold us. In this pressing danger, Mr Sanmarez, our first lieutenant, who now commanded on board, ordered several guns to be fired, and lights to be shown, as a signal to the commodore of our distress; and in a short time after, it being then about one o'clock, and the night excessively dark, a strong gust, attended with rain and lightning, drove us off the bank, and forced us out to sea, leaving behind us, on the island, Mr Anson, with many more of our officers, and great part of our crew, amounting in the whole to an hundred and thirteen persons. Thus were we all, both at sea and on shore, reduced to the utmost despair by this catastrophe, those on shore conceiving they had no means left them ever to leave the island, and we on board utterly unprepared to struggle with the fury of the seas and winds we were now exposed to, and expecting each moment, to be our last.

Footnote 1: [(return)]

The description of this beautiful island, and its most desirable productions, is deferred till we come to the voyage of Commodore Byron, who visited it in 1765.E.