j£4 L O R D A N S O N ’ S V O Y A G E
being at Iaft fatisfied with the account that was given him, he ftill
undertook to carry them to the Spanijh fettlements, and (as the
Indians are well ikilled in filhing and fowling) to procure them
provilions by the way.
About the middle o f March, Captain Cheap, and the four who
were left with him, fet out for Chiloe; the Indian having provided
a number of canoes, and gotten many o f his neighbours together,
for that purpofe. ' Soon after they embarked, Mr. Elliot the Surgeon
died, fo that there now remained only four of the whole
company. Atla ft, after a very complicated paffage by land and
water, Captain Cheap, Mr. Byron, and Mr. Campbel, arrived in the
beginning o f June at the Ifland of Chiloe, where they were received
by the Spaniards with great humanity ; but, on account of
feme quarrel among the Indians, Mr. Hamilton did not get thither
till two months later. Thus was it above a twelvemonth, from
the lofs o f the Wager, before this fatiguing peregrination ended;
and not till, by a variety o f misfortunes, the company was dimi-
nilhed from twenty to no more than four ; and thefe too brought
fo low, that, had their diftreffes continued but a few days longer,
in all probability none of them would have furvived: for the
Captain himfelf was with difficulty recovered ; and the reft were
fo reduced, by the feverity o f the weather, their labour, and their
want of food, and o f all kinds of neceffaries, that it was wonderful
how they fupported themfelves fo long. After fome flay at
Chiloe-, the Captain and the three that were with him were fent to
Valparaifo, and thence to S t, Jago, the Capital o f Chili, where
they continued above a yeart but,, on the advice o f a cartel being,
fettled betwixt Great-Britain and. Spain, Captain Cheap, Mr, Byron,
and Mr. Hamilton, were permitted to return to Europe on board:
a French fhip.. The other Midfhipman, .Mr. Campbel, having
changed his religion whilft at St, Jago, chofe to go. back to’
Buenos Byres with Pissarro and his officers, with whom he went
afterwards to Spain on board the AJia; but having there failed in
his. endeayours to procure a commiffion from the Court of Spain,
he
R O U N D T H E W O R L D . 155
he returned to England, and attempted to get reinflated in the
Britijh Navy. He has fince publifhed a narration of his adventures,
in which he complains of the injuftice that had been done
him, and ftrongly difavows his ever being in the Spanijh fervice:
but as the change of his religion, and his offering himfelf to the
Court of Spain (though he was not accepted), are matters which
he is confcious are capable o f being inconteftably proved, on
thefe two heads he has been entirely filent. And now, after this
account of the accidents which befel the Anna Pink, and the
cataftrophe o f the Wager, I fhall again refume the thread o f our
own ftory.
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