A Voyage Round the World in the Years MDCCXL, I, II, III, IV. Baron George Anson Anson
for a wind to proceed on the expedition.
But the delays we had already suffered had not yet spent all their influence, for we were now advanced into a season of the year when the westerly winds are usually very constant, and very violent; and it was thought proper that we should put to sea in company with the fleet commanded by Admiral Balchen, and the expedition under Lord Cathcart. As we made up in all twenty-one men-of-war, and a hundred and twenty-four sail of merchant-men and transports, we had no hopes of getting out of the Channel with so large a number of ships without the continuance of a fair wind for some considerable time. This was what we had every day less and less reason to expect, as the time of the equinox drew near; so that our golden dreams and our ideal possession of the Peruvian treasures grew each day more faint, and the difficulties and dangers of the passage round Cape Horn in the winter season filled our imaginations in their room. For it was forty days from our arrival at St. Helens, to our final departure from thence: and even then (having orders to proceed without Lord Cathcart) we tided it down the Channel with a contrary wind. But this interval of forty days was not free from the displeasing fatigue of often setting sail, and being as often obliged to return; nor exempt from dangers, greater than have been sometimes undergone in surrounding the globe. For the wind coming fair for the first time, on the 23d of August, we got under sail, and Mr. Balchen shewed himself truly solicitous to have proceeded to sea, but the wind soon returning to its old quarter obliged us to put back to St. Helens, not without considerable hazard, and some damage received by two of the transports, who, in tacking, ran foul of each other. Besides this, we made two or three more attempts to sail, but without any better success. And, on the 6th of September, being returned to an anchor at St. Helens, after one of these fruitless efforts, the wind blew so fresh that the whole fleet struck their yards and topmasts to prevent driving: yet, notwithstanding this precaution, the Centurion drove the next evening, and brought both cables ahead, and we were in no small danger of driving foul of the Prince Frederick, a seventy gun ship, moored at a small distance under our stern; though we happily escaped, by her driving at the same time, and so preserving her distance: but we did not think ourselves secure till we at last let go the sheet-anchor, which fortunately brought us up. However, on the 9th of September, we were in some degree relieved from this lingring vexatious situation, by an order which Mr. Anson received from the Lords Justices, to put to sea the first opportunity with his own squadron only, if Lord Cathcart should not be ready. Being thus freed from the troublesome company of so large a fleet, our commodore resolved to weigh and tide it down the Channel, as soon as the weather should become sufficiently moderate; and this might easily have been done with our own squadron alone full two months sooner, had the orders of the Admiralty, for supplying us with seamen, been punctually complied with, and had we met with none of those other delays mentioned in this narration. It is true, our hopes of a speedy departure were even now somewhat damped by a subsequent order which Mr. Anson received on the 12th of September; for by that he was required to take under his convoy the St. Albans, with the Turky fleet, and to join the Dragon and the Winchester, with the Streights and the American trade, at Torbay or Plymouth, and to proceed with them to sea as far as their way and ours lay together. This incumbrance of a convoy gave us some uneasiness, as we feared it might prove the means of lengthening our passage to the Maderas. However, Mr. Anson, now having the command himself, resolved to adhere to his former determination, and to tide it down the Channel with the first moderate weather; and that the junction of his convoy might occasion as little loss of time as possible, he immediately sent directions to Torbay that the fleets he was there to take under his care might be in a readiness to join him instantly on his approach. And at last, on the 18th of September, he weighed from St. Helens; and though the wind was at first contrary, had the good fortune to get clear of the Channel in four days, as will be more particularly related in the ensuing chapter.
Having thus gone through the respective steps taken in the equipment of this squadron, it is sufficiently obvious how different an aspect this expedition bore at its first appointment in the beginning of January, from what it had in the latter end of September, when it left the Channel; and how much its numbers, its strength, and the probability of its success were diminished by the various incidents which took place in that interval. For instead of having all our old and ordinary seamen exchanged for such as were young and able (which the commodore was at first promised) and having our numbers compleated to their full complement, we were obliged to retain our first crews, which were very indifferent; and a deficiency of three hundred men in our numbers was no otherwise made up to us than by sending us on board a hundred and seventy men, the greatest part composed of such as were discharged from hospitals, or new-raised marines who had never been at sea before. And in the land-forces allotted to us, the change was still more disadvantageous; for there, instead of three independent companies of a hundred men each, and Bland's regiment of foot, which was an old one, we had only four hundred and seventy invalids and marines, one part of them incapable of action by their age and infirmities, and the other part useless by their ignorance of their duty. But the diminishing the strength of the squadron was not the greatest inconveniency which attended these alterations; for the contests, representations, and difficulties which they continually produced (as we have above seen, that in these cases the authority of the Admiralty was not always submitted to) occasioned a delay and waste of time, which in its consequences was the source of all the disasters to which this enterprise was afterwards exposed: for by this means we were obliged to make our passage round Cape Horn in the most tempestuous season of the year; whence proceeded the separation of our squadron, the loss of numbers of our men, and the imminent hazard of our total destruction. By this delay, too, the enemy had been so well informed of our designs, that a person who had been employed in the South Sea Company's service, and arrived from Panama three or four days before we left Portsmouth, was able to relate to Mr. Anson most of the particulars of the destination and strength of our squadron, from what he had learnt amongst the Spaniards before he left them. And this was afterwards confirmed by a more extraordinary circumstance: For we shall find that, when the Spaniards (fully satisfied that our expedition was intended for the South Seas) had fitted out a squadron to oppose us, which had so far got the start of us, as to arrive before us off the island of Madera, the commander of this squadron was so well instructed in the form and make of Mr. Anson's broad pendant, and had imitated it so exactly, that he thereby decoyed the Pearl, one of our squadron, within gun-shot of him, before the captain of the Pearl was able to discover his mistake.
CHAPTER II
THE PASSAGE FROM ST. HELENS TO THE ISLAND OF MADERA; WITH A SHORT ACCOUNT OF THAT ISLAND, AND OF OUR STAY THERE
On the 18th of September 1740, the squadron, as we have observed in the preceding chapter, weighed from St. Helens with a contrary wind, the commodore proposing to tide it down the Channel, as he dreaded less the inconveniences he should thereby have to struggle with, than the risk he should run of ruining the enterprise by an uncertain, and, in all probability, a tedious attendance for a fair wind.
The squadron allotted to this service consisted of five men-of-war, a sloop of war and two victualling ships. They were the Centurion of sixty guns, four hundred men, George Anson, Esq., commander; the Gloucester of fifty guns, three hundred men, Richard Norris, commander; the Severn of fifty guns, three hundred men, the Honourable Edward Legg, commander; the Pearl of forty guns, two hundred and fifty men, Matthew Mitchel, commander; the Wager of twenty-eight guns, one hundred and sixty men, Dandy Kidd, commander; and the Tryal sloop of eight guns, one hundred men, the Honourable John Murray, commander; the two victuallers were pinks, the largest of about four hundred, and the other of about two hundred tons burthen. These were to attend us till the provisions we had taken on board were so far consumed as to make room for the additional quantity they carried with them, which, when we had taken into our ships, they were to be discharged. Besides the complement of men borne by the above-mentioned ships as their crews, there were embarked on board the squadron about four hundred and seventy invalids and marines, under the denomination of land forces (as has been particularly mentioned in the preceding chapter) which were commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Cracherode. With this squadron, together with