A Voyage Round the World. Anson George
a calf which the master would have forced on him as a present, yet the governor took great offence at our sending our boat, and talked of it in a high strain as a violation of the peace subsisting between the crowns of Great Britain and Portugal. We at first imputed this ridiculous blustering to no deeper a cause than Don Jose's insolence; but as we found he proceeded so far as to charge our officer with behaving rudely, and opening letters, and particularly with an attempt to take out of the vessel by violence the very calf which we knew he had refused to receive as a present (a circumstance which we were satisfied the governor was well acquainted with), we had thence reason to suspect that he purposely sought this quarrel, and had more important motives for engaging in it than the mere captious bias of his temper. What these motives were it was not so easy for us to determine at that time; but as we afterwards found by letters which fell into our hands in the South Seas that he had dispatched an express to Buenos Ayres, where Pizarro then lay, with an account of our squadron's arrival at St. Catherine's, together with the most ample and circumstantial intelligence of our force and condition, we thence conjectured that Don Jose had raised this groundless clamour only to prevent our visiting the brigantine when she should put to sea again, lest we might there find proofs of his perfidious behaviour, and perhaps, at the same time, discover the secret of his smuggling correspondence with his neighbouring governors, and the Spaniards at Buenos Ayres. But to proceed.
It was near a month before the Tryal was refitted; for not only her lower masts were defective, as hath been already mentioned, but her main top-mast and fore-yard were likewise decayed and rotten. While this work was carrying on, the other ships of the squadron fixed new standing rigging, and set up a sufficient number of preventer shrouds to each mast, to secure them in the most effectual manner. And in order to render the ships stiffer and to enable them to carry more sail abroad, and to prevent their straining their upper works in hard gales of wind, each captain had orders given him to strike down some of their great guns into the hold. These precautions being complied with, and each ship having taken in as much wood and water as there was room for, the Tryal was at last compleated, and the whole squadron was ready for the sea: on which the tents on shore were struck, and all the sick were received on board. And here we had a melancholy proof how much the healthiness of this place had been over-rated by former writers, for we found that though the Centurion alone had buried no less than twenty-eight men since our arrival, yet the number of her sick was in the same interval increased from eighty to ninety-six. When our crews were embarked, and everything was prepared for our departure, the commodore made a signal for all captains, and delivered them their orders, containing the successive place of rendezvous from hence to the coast of China. And then, on the next day, being the 18th of January, the signal was made for weighing, and the squadron put to sea, leaving without regret this island of St. Catherine's, where we had been so extremely disappointed in our refreshments, in our accommodations, and in the humane and friendly offices which we had been taught to expect in a place which hath been so much celebrated for its hospitality, freedom, and conveniency.
CHAPTER VI
THE RUN FROM ST. CATHERINE'S TO PORT ST. JULIAN, WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF THAT PORT, AND OF THE COUNTRY TO THE SOUTHWARD OF THE RIVER OF PLATE
In leaving St. Catherine's, we left the last amicable port we proposed to touch at, and were now proceeding to an hostile, or at best, a desart and inhospitable coast. And as we were to expect a more boisterous climate to the southward than any we had yet experienced, not only our danger of separation would by this means be much greater than it had been hitherto, but other accidents of a more mischievous nature were likewise to be apprehended, and as much as possible to be provided against. Mr. Anson, therefore, in appointing the various stations at which the ships of the squadron were to rendezvous, had considered that it was possible his own ship might be disabled from getting round Cape Horn, or might be lost, and had given proper direction, that even in that case the expedition should not be abandoned. For the orders delivered to the captains, the day before we sailed from St. Catherine's, were, that in case of separation, which they were with the utmost care to endeavour to avoid, the first place of rendezvous should be the bay of port St. Julian; describing the place from Sir John Narborough's account of it. There they were to supply themselves with as much salt as they could take in, both for their own use and for the use of the squadron; and if, after a stay of ten days, they were not joined by the commodore, they were then to proceed through Streights le Maire round Cape Horn into the South Seas, where the next place of rendezvous was to be the island of Nostra Senora del Socoro, in the latitude of 45° south, and longitude from the Lizard 71° 12' west. They were to bring this island to bear E.N.E. and to cruize from five to twelve leagues distance from it as long as their store of wood and water would permit, both which they were to expend with the utmost frugality. And when they were under an absolute necessity of a fresh supply, they were to stand in, and endeavour to find out an anchoring place; and in case they could not, and the weather made it dangerous to supply their ships by standing off and on, they were then to make the best of their way to the island of Juan Fernandes, in the latitude of 33° 37' south. At this island, as soon as they had recruited their wood and water, they were to continue cruizing off the anchoring place for fifty-six days; in which time, if they were not joined by the commodore, they might conclude that some accident had befallen him, and they were forthwith to put themselves under the command of the senior officer, who was to use his utmost endeavours to annoy the enemy both by sea and land. With these views their new commodore was to continue in those seas as long as his provisions lasted, or as long as they were recruited by what he should take from the enemy, reserving only a sufficient quantity to carry him and the ships under his command to Macao, at the entrance of the river of Canton on the coast of China, where, having supplied himself with a new stock of provisions, he was thence, without delay, to make the best of his way to England. And as it was found impossible as yet to unload our victualler, the Anna pink, the commodore gave the master of her the same rendezvous, and the same orders to put himself under the command of the remaining senior officer.
Under these orders the squadron sailed from St. Catherine's on Sunday the 18th of January, as hath been already mentioned in the preceding chapter. The next day we had very squally weather, attended with rain, lightning, and thunder, but it soon became fair again with light breezes, and continued thus till Wednesday evening, when it blew fresh again; and increasing all night, by eight the next morning it became a most violent storm, and we had with it so thick a fog, that it was impossible to see the distance of two ships' length, so that the whole squadron disappeared. On this a signal was made, by firing guns, to bring to with the larboard tacks, the wind being then due east. We ourselves immediately handed the top-sails, bunted the main-sail, and lay to under a reefed mizen till noon, when the fog dispersed, and we soon discovered all the ships of the squadron, except the Pearl, who did not join us till near a month afterwards. Indeed the Tryal sloop was a great way to the leeward, having lost her main-mast in the squall, and having been obliged, for fear of bilging, to cut away the raft. We therefore bore down with the squadron to her relief, and the Gloucester was ordered to take her in tow, for the weather did not entirely abate till the day after, and even then a great swell continued from the eastward in consequence of the preceding storm.
After this accident we stood to the southward with little interruption, and here we experienced the same setting of the current which we had observed before our arrival at St. Catherine's; that is, we generally found ourselves to the southward of our reckoning by about twenty miles each day. This deviation, with a little inequality, lasted till we had passed the latitude of the river of Plate; and even then we discovered that the same current, however difficult to be accounted for, did yet undoubtedly take place; for we were not satisfied in deducing it from the error in our reckoning, but we actually tried it more than once when a calm made it practicable.
As soon as we had passed the latitude of the river of Plate, we had soundings which continued all along the coast of Patagonia. These soundings, when well ascertained, being of great use in determining the position of the ships, and we having tried them more frequently, and in greater depths, and with more attention than, I believe, hath been done before us, I shall recite our observations as succinctly as I can. In the latitude of 36° 52' we had sixty fathom of water, with a bottom of fine black and grey sand; from thence to 39° 55' we varied our depths from fifty to eighty fathom, though we had constantly the same bottom as before; between the last