Towards the middle of August, our men being indifferently recovered, they were permitted to quit the sick tents, and to build separate huts for themselves; as it was imagined, by living apart, that they might be much cleanlier, and consequently likely to recover their strength the sooner: But strict orders were given, at the same time, that they were instantly to repair to the water-side, on the firing of a gun from the ship. Their employment now on shore, was either the procurement of refreshments, the cutting of wood, or the procurement of oil from the blubber of sea-lions. This oil served for several purposes; as burning in lamps, mixing with pitch to pay the sides of our ships, or, when worked up with wood-ashes, to supply the place of tallow, of which we had none left, to give the ship boat-hose tops. Some of the men were also occupied in salting cod; for, having two Newfoundland fishermen in the Centurion, the commodore set them to work in providing a considerable quantity of salted cod for sea-store; though very little of it was used, as it was afterwards thought to be equally productive of scurvy with any other kind of salted provisions.
It has been before mentioned, that we set up a copper oven on shore, to bake bread for the sick: But it happened that the greatest part of the flour, for the use of the squadron, was on board the Anna pink. It should also have been mentioned, that the Tryal sloop informed us, on her arrival, that she had fallen in with our victualler, on the 9th of May, not far from the coast of Chili, and had kept company with her for four days, when they were parted in a gale of wind. This gave us some room to hope that she was safe, and might rejoin us: But, all June and July having passed without any news of her, we gave her over for lost; and the commodore, at the end of July, ordered all the ships on a short allowance of bread. Neither was it in bread alone that we feared a deficiency: For, since our arrival at Juan Fernandez, it was discovered that our former purser had neglected to take on board large quantities of several kinds of provisions, which the commodore had expressly ordered him to receive; so that the supposed loss of our victualler was, on all accounts, a most mortifying circumstance.
About noon on Thursday the 16th of August, after we had given over all hopes of the Anna pink, a sail was espied in the northern quarter, on which a gun was immediately fired from the Centurion, to call off the people from the shore, who readily obeyed the summons, by repairing to the beach, where the boats waited to fetch them on board. Being now prepared for the reception of the ship in view, whether friend or enemy, we had various speculations respecting her, many supposing at first, that it was the Tryal sloop returning from the examination of Masefuero. As she drew nearer, this opinion was confuted, by observing that she had three masts, when other conjectures were eagerly canvassed; some judging the vessel in sight to be the Severn and others the Pearl, while several affirmed that she did not belong to our squadron. But, about three in the afternoon, all speculations were ended by the unanimous persuasion that it was our victualler, the Anna pink. And, though, this ship had fallen in with the island to the northward like the Gloucester, she yet had the good fortune to come to anchor in the bay at five in the afternoon. Her arrival gave us all the utmost satisfaction, as the ship's companies were immediately restored to their full allowance of bread, and we were now relieved from the apprehensions of our provisions falling short before we could reach some friendly port,a calamity, in these seas, of all others the most irretrievable. This was the last ship that joined us; and, as the dangers she encountered, and the good fortune she afterwards experienced, are worthy of a separate narration, I shall refer them, together with a short account of the other missing ships, to the ensuing section.
SECTION XIII.
Short Account of what befell the Anna Pink before she rejoined; with an Account of the Loss of the Wager, and the putting back of the Severn and Pearl.
On the first recognition of the Anna pink, it seemed quite wonderful to us how the crew of a vessel, which had thus come to the rendezvous two months after us, should be capable of working their ship in the manner they did, and with so little appearance of debility and distress. This difficulty, however, was soon solved after she came to anchor; for we then found that she had been in harbour since the middle of May, near a month before our arrival at Juan Fernandez, so that their sufferings, excepting the risk they had run of being shipwrecked, were greatly short of what had been undergone by the rest of the squadron.
They fell in with the land on the 16th of May, in lat. 45° 15' S. being then about four leagues from shore. On the first sight of it, they wore ship and stood to the southward; but their fore-sail splitting, and the wind being strong at W.S.W. they drove towards the shore. The captain, either unable to clear the land, or, as others say, resolved to keep the sea no longer, steered now for the coast, in order to look out for some shelter among the many islands which appeared in sight, and had the good fortune to bring the ship to anchor to the eastward of the island of Inchin[1]. But, as they did not run sufficiently near the east shore of that island, and had not hands enough to veer away the cable briskly, they were soon driven to the eastwards, deepening their water from twenty-five to thirty-five fathoms. Still continuing to drive, they next day, being the 17th May, let go their sheet anchor, which brought them up for a short time: but on the 18th they drove again, till they came into sixty-five fathoms; and, being now within a mile of the land, they expected every moment to be forced on shore in a place where the coast was so very high and steep, that there was not the smallest prospect of saving the ship and cargo. As their boats were very leaky, and there was no appearance of a landing place, the whole crew, consisting of sixteen men and boys, gave themselves up for lost, believing, if even any of them happened to get on shore by some extraordinary chance, that they would be almost certainly massacred by the savages; as these people, knowing no other Europeans except Spaniards, might be expected to treat all strangers with the same cruelty which they have so often, and so signally, exercised against their Spanish neighbours.
Under these terrifying circumstances, the Anna continued to drive towards the rocks which formed the shore; and at last, when expecting every instant to strike, they perceived a small opening in the land, which raised their hopes of safety. Wherefore, immediately cutting away their two anchors, they steered for this opening, which they found to be a narrow opening between an island and the main, which led them into a most excellent harbour; which, for its security against all winds and swells, and the consequent smoothness of its water, may perhaps vie with any in the known world: And this place being scarcely two miles from the spot where they deemed their destruction inevitable, the horrors of shipwreck and immediate death, with which they had been so long and strongly possessed, vanished almost in an instant, giving place to the most joyous ideas of security, refreshment, and repose.
In this harbour, discovered almost by miracle, the Anna came to anchor in twenty-five fathoms, with only a hawser and small anchor of about three hundred weight. Here she continued for near two months, and her people, who were many of them ill of the scurvy, were soon restored to perfect health by the fresh provisions, which they procured in abundance, and the excellent water which they found in plenty on the adjacent shore. As this place may prove of the greatest importance to future navigators forced upon this coast by the western winds, which are almost perpetual in that part of the world, it may be proper to give the best account that could be collected of this port, as to its situation, conveniences, and productions, before continuing the adventures of the Anna pink. To facilitate, also, the knowledge of this place, to such as may be desirous hereafter of using it, there is annexed a plan both of the harbour and the large bay before it, through which the Anna drifted. This plan, perhaps, may not be in all respects as accurate as could be wished, being composed from the memorandums and rude sketches of the master and surgeon, who were not the most able draughtsmen; but, as the principal parts were laid down by their estimates of their distances from each other, in which kind of computation seamen are commonly very dextrous, the errors are probably not very considerable.
The latitude, which certainly is a very material point, was not very accurately ascertained, as the Anna had no observation either on the day she got there, or within a day of leaving the bay; but is supposed to be not very distant from 45° 30' S.[2] But the large extent of the bay, at the bottom of which the harbour is situated, renders this uncertainty of the less importance. The island lying before this bay, called Inchin by the Indians, is supposed to be one of the islands named Chonos by the Spanish accounts, and said to spread along all this coast,[3] being inhabited by a barbarous people, famous for their hatred to the Spaniards, and their cruelty to such of that nation as have fallen into their hands. It is even possible that the land in which this harbour is situated may be one of these islands, while the continent may be considerably to the eastward. This harbour, besides its depth of water and complete shelter, has two coves, where ships may very conveniently be hove down, as the water is constantly smooth. There are also several fine runs of excellent fresh water, which fall into the harbour, some so conveniently situated that the casks may be filled in the long-boat by means of a hose. The most remarkable of these is a stream in the N.E. part of the harbour, being a fresh-water river, where the crew of the Anna caught a few mullets of excellent flavour, and they were persuaded that it would be found to have plenty of fish in the proper season, it being winter when they were there.