A Voyage Round the World. Anson George
when the Indians had entirely cleared the quarter-deck, the tumult in a great measure subsided, for those who had escaped were kept silent by their fears, and the Indians were incapable of pursuing them to renew the disorder. Orellana, when he saw himself master of the quarter-deck, broke open the arm chest, which, on a slight suspicion of mutiny, had been ordered there a few days before, as to a place of the greatest security. Here he took it for granted he should find cutlasses sufficient for himself and his companions, in the use of which weapon they were all extremely skilful, and with these, it was imagined, they proposed to have forced the great cabbin. But on opening the chest, there appeared nothing but fire-arms, which to them were of no use. There were indeed cutlasses in the chest, but they were hid by the fire-arms being laid over them. This was a sensible disappointment to them, and by this time Pizarro and his companions in the great cabbin were capable of conversing aloud through the cabbin windows and port-holes with those in the gun-room and between decks, and from thence they learnt that the English (whom they principally suspected) were all safe below, and had not intermeddled in this mutiny; and by other particulars they at last discovered that none were concerned in it but Orellana and his people. On this Pizarro and the officers resolved to attack them on the quarter-deck, before any of the discontented on board should so far recover their first surprize, as to reflect on the facility and certainty of seizing the ship by a junction with the Indians in the present emergency. With this view Pizarro got together what arms were in the cabbin, and distributed them to those who were with him. But there were no other fire-arms to be met with but pistols, and for these they had neither powder nor ball. However, having now settled a correspondence with the gun-room, they lowered down a bucket out of the cabbin window, into which the gunner, out of one of the gun-room ports, put a quantity of pistol-cartridges. When they had thus procured ammunition, and had loaded their pistols, they set the cabbin door partly open, and fired several shots amongst the Indians on the quarter-deck, though at first without effect. But at last Mindinuetta, whom we have often mentioned, had the good fortune to shoot Orellona dead on the spot; on which his faithful companions, abandoning all thoughts of farther resistance, instantly leaped into the sea, where they every man perished. Thus was this insurrection quelled, and the possession of the quarter-deck regained, after it had been full two hours in the power of this great and daring chief, and his gallant unhappy countrymen.
Pizarro having escaped this imminent peril, steered for Europe, and arrived safe on the coast of Gallicia, in the beginning of the year 1746, after having been absent between four and five years, and having, by his attendance on our expedition, diminished the naval power of Spain by above three thousand hands (the flower of their sailors), and by four considerable ships of war and a patache. For we have seen that the Hermiona foundered at sea; the Guipuscoa was stranded, and sunk on the coast of Brazil; the St. Estevan was condemned, and broke up in the river of Plate; and the Esperanza, being left in the South Seas, is doubtless by this time incapable of returning to Spain. So that the Asia, only, with less than one hundred hands, may be regarded as all the remains of that squadron with which Pizarro first put to sea. And whoever considers the very large proportion, which this squadron bore to the whole navy of Spain, will, I believe, confess, that, had our undertaking been attended with no other advantages than that of ruining so great a part of the sea force of so dangerous an enemy, this alone would be a sufficient equivalent for our equipment, and an incontestable proof of the service which the nation has thence received. Having thus concluded this summary of Pizarro's adventures, I shall now return again to the narration of our own transactions.
CHAPTER IV
FROM MADERA TO ST. CATHERINE'S
I have already mentioned, that on the 3d of November we weighed from Madera, after orders had been given to the captains to rendezvous at St. Jago, one of the Cape de Verd Islands, in case the squadron was separated. But the next day, when we were got to sea, the commodore considering that the season was far advanced, and that touching at St. Jago would create a new delay, he for this reason thought proper to alter his rendezvous, and to appoint the island of St. Catherine's, on the coast of Brazil, to be the first place to which the ships of the squadron were to repair in case of separation.
In our passage to the island of St. Catherine's, we found the direction of the trade-winds to differ considerably from what we had reason to expect, both from the general histories given of these winds, and the experience of former navigators. For the learned Dr. Halley, in his account of the trade-winds which take place in the Ethiopia and Atlantic Ocean, tells us that from the latitude of 28° N., to the latitude of 10° N., there is generally a fresh gale of N.E. wind, which towards the African side rarely comes to the eastward of E.N.E., or passes to the northward of N.N.E.; but on the American side the wind is somewhat more easterly, though most commonly even there it is a point or two to the northward of the east. That from 10° N. to 4° N., the calms and tornadoes take place; and from 4° N. to 30° S., the winds are generally and perpetually between the south and the east. This account we expected to have verified by our own experience; but we found considerable variations from it, both in respect to the steadiness of the winds, and the quarter from whence they blew. For though we met with a N.E. wind about the latitude of 28° N., yet from the latitude of 25° to the latitude of 18° N., the wind was never once to the northward of the east, but, on the contrary, almost constantly to the southward of it. However, from thence to the latitude of 6° 20' N., we had it usually to the northward of the east, though not entirely, it having for a short time changed to E.S.E. From hence, to about 4° 46' N., the weather was very unsettled; sometimes the wind was N.E. then changed to S.E., and sometimes we had a dead calm attended with small rain and lightning. After this, the wind continued almost invariably between the S. and E., to the latitude of 7° 30' S.; and then again as invariably between the N. and E., to the latitude of 15° 30' S.; then E. and S.E., to 21° 37' S. But after this, even to the latitude of 27° 44' S., the wind was never once between the S. and the E., though we had it at all times in all the other quarters of the compass. But this last circumstance may be in some measure accounted for from our approach to the main continent of the Brazils. I mention not these particulars with a view of cavilling at the received accounts of these trade-winds, which I doubt not are in general sufficiently accurate; but I thought it a matter worthy of public notice that such deviations from the established rules do sometimes take place. Besides, this observation may not only be of service to navigators, by putting them on their guard against these hitherto unexpected irregularities, but is a circumstance necessary to be attended to in the solution of that great question about the causes of trade-winds, and monsoons, a question which, in my opinion, has not been hitherto discussed with that clearness and accuracy which its importance (whether it be considered as a naval or philosophical inquiry) seems to demand.
On the 16th of November, one of our victuallers made a signal to speak with the commodore, and we shortened sail for her to come up with us. The master came on board, and acquainted Mr. Anson that he had complied with the terms of his charter-party, and desired to be unloaded and dismissed. Mr. Anson, on consulting the captains of the squadron, found all the ships had still such quantities of provision between their decks, and were withal so deep, that they could not, without great difficulty, take in their several proportions of brandy from the Industry pink, one of the victuallers only: consequently he was obliged to continue the other of them, the Anna pink, in the service of attending the squadron. This being resolved on, the commodore the next day made a signal for the ships to bring to, and to take on board their shares of the brandy from the Industry pink; and in this the long boats of the squadron were employed the three following days, that is, till the 19th in the evening, when the pink being unloaded, she parted company with us, being bound for Barbadoes, there to take in a freight for England. Most of the officers of the squadron took the opportunity of writing to their friends at home by this ship; but she was afterwards, as I have been since informed, unhappily taken by the Spaniards.
On the 20th of November, the captains of the squadron represented to the commodore that their ships' companies were very sickly, and that it was their own opinion, as well as their surgeons', that it would tend to the preservation of the men to let in more air between decks, but that their ships were so deep they could not possibly open their lower ports. On this representation, the commodore ordered six air scuttles to be cut in each ship, in such places where they would least weaken it.
And