leo L O R D A N S O N ’ S V O Y A G E
Commander fliould be prefent to confront them. And, therefore,
when they were juft ready to put to fea, they fet him at liberty,
leaving him and the few who chofe to take their fortunes with
him, no other embarkation but the y aw l; to which the barge was
: afterwards added, by the people oil board her being prevailed on to
-torn back.
When the fhip was wrecked, there were alive on board the
Wager near an hundred and thirty perfons: o f thefe above thirty
died during their ftay upon the place, and near eighty went off in
the long-boat and the cutter to the fouthward ; lb that there remained
with the Captain, after their departure, no more than nineteen
perfons, which, however, were as many as the barge and the
yawl, the oflly embarkations left them, could well carry off. It
was the 13th o f OSlober, five months after the IhipwrCek, that the
long-boat, Converted into a fo’hooflef, weighed, and ftood to the
fouthward, -giving the Captain, who, with Lieutenant Hamilton of
■ the land-forces, and the furgeon, were, then on the beach, three
cheers at their departure; and on the 29th of January following
they arrived at Rio Grande, on the eoaft o f Brazil: but having, by
.various accidents, left about twenty o f their people on fhote at the
different places they touched at, and a- greater number having pe-
rilhed by hunger during the courfe o f their navigation, there were
no more than thirty of them remaining when they arrived in that
Fort. Indeed, the- undertaking of itfelf was a meft [extraordinary
one; for (not tomention the length of the run) the veffel was lcarcely
able to contain the number that firft put to fea in her; and their
ftoek of provifions (being only what they had laved out o f the ffiip)
was extremely Header: they had this additional misfortune be-
fides, that the Cutter, the only boat they had with them, fobn
broke away from the ftern, and was ft&vedto pieces; fo that, when
their provifion and their water failed them, they had frequently no
means o f getting on Ihore to fearch for a freffi fupply.
After the long-boat and cutter were gone, the Captain, and
thufe who were left with him, propofed to pafs to- the- northward
in
R O U N D T H E W O R L D . 151
in thé barge and yawl: but the weather was fo bad, and the difficulty
o f fublifting fo great, that it was two months from the departure
of the long-boat before he washable to put to foa. It
feems, the place where the Wagerwas-eaft away was not a part o f
the Continent, as was firftimagined; but an Ifland atfeme diftance
from the Main, which afforded no other forts of provifion but
Ihell-filh, and a few herbs; and, as the greateft part of what they
had gotten from the ffiip was carried off in the long-boat, the
Captain and his people were often in extreme want o f food, elpe-
eially as they chofe to preferve what little fea-provifions remained, -
for their ftore,. when they- ffiould go to the northward, During ;
their refidence at this Iftand, which was by the feamen denominated
Wager’s IJland, they had now and then a (haggling canoe or
two -of Indians, which came-and bartered their fiffi and other pro-
vilions with, our-people-. This was Lome littlé relief to their ne--
ceffities, and at another-feafon might perhaps have been greater;
for, as there were feveral Indian huts on the ffiore, . it was fuppofed ‘
that in fome years, during the height of lumnaer, many o f thefe -
favages might refort thither to fiffi. Indeed, from what has been -
related in the account o f the Anna Pink, it ffiould feem to be- the
general pradtice of thole- Indians,- to frequent this coaft in- the
ftmmer-time for the benefit of lifting, and to retire in the winter-
into a better climate-,-- more to the northward.
On this mention -of th e Pinna Pink, I cannot but obférve, how
much it is to be- lamented) that the Wager's people had no knowledge
o f her being fo near them on the- coaft ; for, as ffie was not •
above thirty leagues diftant from them, and’came into theirneigh—
b'outhood about the fame time the Wager was loft, and was a fine-
roomy ffiip, ffie could ealily have taken them all on board, and'
have carriedthem to Juan Fernandes: Indeed, I fufpeft ffie was •
ftill nearer to them- than what is here eftimated ; for feveral of the
Wager’ s people, at different times, heard the report of a- cannon,,
which, I conceive, could be no other than the evening-gun fired -
from the Anna Pink, ,efpeeially as what was heard at Wager’s IJland '
was=>