Whilst the smith was preparing the necessary iron work, others were employed in cutting down trees, and sawing them into plank, and this being the most laborious task, the commodore himself wrought at it for the encouragement of his people. As there were neither blocks nor cordage sufficient for tackles to hale the bark on shore, it was proposed to get her up on rollers; and for these the body of the cocoa-nut tree was extremely useful, for its smoothness and circular turn prevented much labour, and fitted it for the purpose with very little workmanship; many of these trees were therefore felled, and the ends of them properly opened for the reception of hand-spikes; and in the mean time a dry dock was dug for the bark, and ways laid from thence quite into the sea to facilitate the bringing her up. Besides those who were thus occupied in preparing measures for the future enlargement of the bark, a party was constantly ordered for the killing and preparing of provisions for the rest: And though in these various employments, some of which demanded considerable dexterity, it might have been expected there would have been great confusion and delay, yet good order being once established, and all hands engaged, their preparations advanced apace. Indeed, the common men, I presume, were not the less tractable for their want of spirituous liquors; for, there being neither wine nor brandy on shore, the juice of the cocoa-nut was their constant drink, and this, though extremely pleasant, was not at all intoxicating, but kept them very cool and orderly.
And now the officers began to consider of all the articles necessary for the fitting out the bark; when it was found, that the tents on shore, and the spare cordage accidentally left there by the Centurion, together with the sails and rigging already belonging to the bark, would serve to rig her indifferently well, when she was lengthened. As they had tallow in plenty, they proposed to pay her bottom with a mixture of tallow and lime, which it was known was well adapted to that purpose; so that with respect to her equipment, she would not have been very defective. There was, however, one exception, which would have proved extremely inconvenient, and that was her size; for as they could not make her quite forty tun burthen, she would have been incapable of containing half the crew below the deck, and must have been so top-heavy, that if they were all at the same time on deck, there would be no small hazard of her oversetting; but this was a difficulty not to be removed, as they could not augment her beyond the size already proposed. After the manner of rigging and fitting up the bark was considered and regulated, the next essential point to be thought on was, how to procure a sufficient stock of provisions for their voyage; and here they were greatly at a loss what course to take; for they had neither grain nor bread of any kind on shore, their bread-fruit, which would not keep at sea, having all along supplied its place; and though they had live cattle enough, yet they had no salt to cure beef for a sea-store, nor would meat take salt in that climate. Indeed, they had preserved a small quantity of jerked beef, which they found upon the place at their landing, but this was greatly disproportioned to the run of near six hundred leagues, which they were to engage in, and to the number of hands they should have on board. It was at last, however, resolved to take on board as many cocoa-nuts as they possibly could; to make the most of their jerked beef, by a very sparing distribution of it, and to endeavour to supply their want of bread by rice; to furnish themselves with which, it was proposed, when the bark was fitted up, to make an expedition to the island of Rota, where they were told that the Spaniards had large plantations of rice under the care of the Indian inhabitants: But as this last measure was to be executed by force, it became necessary to examine what ammunition had been left on shore, and to preserve it carefully; and on this enquiry, they had the mortification to find, that the utmost that could be collected, by the strictest search, did not amount to more than ninety charges of powder for their firelocks, which was considerably short of one a-piece for each of the company, and was indeed a very slender stock of ammunition, for such as were to eat no grain or bread for a month, but what they were to procure by force of arms.
But the most alarming circumstance, and what, without the providential interposition of very improbable events, had rendered all their schemes abortive, remains yet to be related. The general idea of the fabric and equipment of the vessel was settled in a few days, and when this was done, it was not difficult to make some estimation of the time necessary to complete her. After this, it was natural to expect that the officers would consider on the course they were to steer, and the land they were to make. These reflections led them to the disheartening discovery, that there was neither compass nor quadrant on the island. Indeed, the commodore had brought a pocket compass on shore for his own use, but Lieutenant Brett had borrowed it to determine the position of the neighbouring islands, and he had been driven to sea in the Centurion, without returning it; and as to a quadrant, that could not be expected to be found on shore, for as it was of no use at land, there could be no reason for bringing it from on board the ship. It was eight days, from the departure of the Centurion, before they were relieved from this terrible perplexity: At last, in rummaging a chest belonging to the Spanish bark, they found a small compass, which, though little better than the toys usually made for the amusement of school-boys, was to them an invaluable treasure. And a few days after, by a similar piece of good fortune, they found a quadrant on the sea-shore, which had been thrown overboard amongst other lumber belonging to the dead: The quadrant was eagerly seized, but it unluckily wanted vanes, and therefore, in its present state, was altogether useless; however, fortune still continuing in a favourable mood, it was not long before a person, out of curiosity, pulling out the drawer of an old table, which had been driven on shore, found some vanes, which fitted the quadrant very well; and it being thus completed, it was examined by the known latitude of the place, and found to answer to a sufficient degree of exactness.
All these obstacles being in some degree removed (which were always as much as possible concealed from the vulgar, that they might not grow remiss with the apprehension of labouring to no purpose,) the work proceeded very successfully and vigorously: The necessary iron-work was in great forwardness; and the timbers and planks (which, though not the most exquisite performances of the sawyer's art, were yet sufficient for the purpose,) were all prepared; so that on the 6th of October, being the 14th day from the departure of the ship, they haled the bark on shore, and, on the two succeeding days, she was sawn asunder (though with great care not to cut her planks,) and her two parts were separated the proper distance from each other, and, the materials being all ready before-hand, they, the next day, being the 9th of October, went on with great dispatch in their proposed enlargement of her; and by this time they had all their future operations so fairly in view, and were so much masters of them, that they were able to determine when the whole would be finished, and had accordingly fixed the 5th of November for the day of their putting to sea. But their projects and labours were drawing to a speedier and happier conclusion; for on the 11th of October, in the afternoon, one of the Gloucester's men, being upon a hill in the middle of the island, perceived the Centurion at a distance, and running down with his utmost speed towards the landing-place, he, in the way, saw some of his comrades, to whom he hallooed out with extacy, The ship, the ship! This being heard by Mr Gordon, a lieutenant of marines, who was convinced by the fellow's transport that his report was true, Mr Gordon ran towards the place where the commodore and his people were at work, and being fresh and in breath, easily outstripped the Gloucester's man, and got before him to the commodore, who, on hearing this happy and unexpected news, threw down his axe with which he was then at work, and by his joy broke through, for the first time, the equable and unvaried character which he had hitherto preserved; the others, who were with him, instantly ran down to the sea-side in a kind of frenzy, eager to feast themselves with a sight they had so ardently wished for, and of which they had now for a considerable time despaired. By five in the evening the Centurion was visible in the offing to them all; and, a boat being sent off with eighteen men to reinforce her, and with fresh meat and fruits for the refreshment of her crew, she, the next afternoon, happily came to an anchor in the road, when the commodore immediately went on board, and was received with the sincerest and heartiest acclamations: For, from the following short recital of the fears, the dangers and fatigues we in the ship underwent during our nineteen days absence from Tinian, it may be easily conceived, that a harbour, refreshments, repose, and the joining of our commander and shipmates, were not less pleasing to us than our return was to them.
SECTION XXVII.
Account of the Proceedings on board the Centurion when driven out to Sea.
The Centurion being now once more safely arrived at Tinian, to the mutual respite of the labours of our divided crew, it is high time that the reader, after the relation already given of the projects and employment of those left on shore, should be apprised of the fatigues and distresses to which we, who were driven off to sea, were exposed during the long interval of nineteen, days that we were absent from the island.
It has been already mentioned, that it was the 22d of September, about one o'clock, in an extreme dark night, when, by the united violence of a prodigious storm, and an exceeding rapid tide, we were driven from our anchors and forced to sea. Our condition was truly deplorable; we were in a leaky ship, with three cables in our hawses, to one of which hung our only remaining anchor; we had not a gun on board lashed, nor a port barred in; our shrowds were loose, and our top-masts unrigged, and we had struck our fore and main-yards close down, before the storm came on, so that there were no sails we could set, except our mizen. In this dreadful extremity we could muster no more strength on board to navigate the ship, than an hundred and eight hands, several negroes and Indians included: This was scarcely the fourth part of our complement, and of these the greater number were either boys, or such as, being lately recovered from the scurvy, had not yet arrived at half their vigour. No sooner were we at sea, but by the violence of the storm, and the working of the ship, we made a great quantity of water through our hawse-holes, ports, and scuppers, which, added to the constant effect of our leak, rendered our pumps alone a sufficient employment for us all: But though this leakage, by being a short time neglected, would inevitably end in our destruction, yet we had other dangers then impending, which occasioned this to be regarded as a secondary consideration only. For we all imagined that we were driving directly on the neighbouring island of Aguiguan, which was about two leagues distant; and as we had lowered our main and fore-yards close down, we had no sails we could set but the mizen, which was altogether insufficient to carry us clear of this instant peril; we therefore immediately applied ourselves to work, endeavouring, by the utmost of our efforts, to heave up the main and fore-yards, in hopes that, if we could but be enabled to make use of our lower canvass, we might possibly weather the island, and thereby save ourselves from this impending shipwreck. But after full three hours ineffectual labour, the jeers broke, and the men being quite jaded, we were obliged, by mere debility, to desist, and quietly to expect our fate, which we then conceived to be unavoidable: For we imagined ourselves by this time to be driven just upon the shore, and the night was so extremely dark, that we expected to discover the island no otherwise than by striking upon it; so that the belief of our destruction, and the uncertainly of the point of time when it would take place, occasioned us to pass several hours under the most serious apprehensions, that each succeeding moment would send us to the bottom. Nor did these continued terrors of instantly striking and sinking end but with the day-break, when we, with great transport, perceived that the island we had thus dreaded was at a considerable distance, and that a strong northern current had been the cause of our preservation.
The turbulent weather which forced us from Tinian, did not begin to abate till three days after; and then we swayed up the fore-yard, and began to heave up the main-yard, but the jeers broke and killed one of our men, and prevented us at that time from proceeding. The next day, being the 26th of September, was a day of most severe fatigue to us all; for it must be remembered, that in these exigences no rank or office exempted any person from the manual application and bodily labour of a common sailor. The business of this day was no less than an attempt to heave up the sheet-anchor, which we had hitherto dragged at our bows with two cables an end. This was a work of great importance to our future preservation: For, not to mention the impediment to our navigation, and the hazard it would be to our ship, if we attempted to make sail with the anchor in its present situation, we had this most interesting consideration to animate us, that it was the only anchor we had left; and, without securing it, we should be under the utmost difficulties and hazards, whenever we made the land again; and therefore, being all of us fully apprized of the consequence of this enterprize, we laboured at it with the severest application for full twelve hours, when we had indeed made a considerable progress, having brought the anchor in sight; but, it then growing dark, and we being excessively fatigued, we were obliged to desist, and to leave our work unfinished till the next morning, when, by the benefit of a night's rest, we completed it, and hung the anchor at our bow.