■ equipment, (he would not have been very defective. There was,
however, one exception, which would have proved extremely inconvenient,
and that was her fize : For as they could not make her quite
forty ton burthen, Ihe would have been incapable of containing
half the crew below the deck, and {he would have been fo top-heavy,
that i f they were all at the fame time ordered upon deck, there
would be no fmall hazard of her overfetting ; but this was a difficulty
not to be removed, as they could not augment her beyond the
lize already propofed. After the manner of rigging and fitting up
the Bark was confidered and regulated, the next efiential point to
be thought on was, how to procure a fufficient flock of provifions
for their voyage; and here they were greatly at a lofs what expedient
to have recourfe to, as they had neither grain nor bread o f any kind
on (hore; their bread fruit, which would not keep at fea, having all
along fupplied its place : And though they had live cattle enough,
yet they had no fait to cure beef for a fea-ftore, nor would meat
take fait in that climate. Indeed, they had preferved a fmall quantity
o f jerked beef, which they found upon the place at their landing
; but this was greatly difproportioned to the run of near fix'
hundred leagues, which they were to engage in, and to the number
of hands they fhould haye on board. It was at laft, however,
relolved to put on board as many coco-nuts as they poffibly could; to
prolong to the utmoft their jerked beef, by a very fparing diftribu-
tion of i t ; and to endeavour to fupply their want of bread by rice ;
to furnilh themfelves with which, it was propofed, when the. bark
was fitted up, to make an expedition to the Hand of Rota, where
they were told, that the Spaniards had large plantations o f rice
under the care of the Indian inhabitants : But as this laft meafure
was to be executed by force, it became neceflary to. examine what
ammunition had been left on fhore, and to preferve it carefully ; and
on this enquiry, they had the mortification to find, that their firelocks
would be of little fervice to them, fince all the powder that
could be colledled, by the ftricteft fearch, did not amount to more
than ninety charges, which was confiderably Ihort of one apiece to
each of the company, and was indeed a very flender ftock of ammunition,
munition, for fuch as were to eat no grain or bread during a whole
month, except what they were to procure by force o f arms.
But the s o f t alarming circumftance, and which, without the
providential interpofition of very improbable events, would have
rendered all their fcbemes abortive, remains yet to be related. The
general idea óf the fabric and equipment of the veffel was fettled in
a few days; and this being done, it was not difficult to frame fome
eftimation of the time neceflary to compieat her. After this, it
was natural to expeft that the officers would confider the courfé
they were to fleer, and the land they were to make. Théfe
refledtions led them to the diftieartniflg difcovery, that there Was
neither compafs nor quadrant on the Hand. Indeed the Commodore
had brought a pocket-compafs on {hore for his own ufe ) but
Lieutenant Brett had borrowed it to determine the pofition o f the
neighbouring iflands, and he had been driven to fea in the Centurion,
without returning it. And as to a quadrant, that could not be
expefted to be found on {hore-, fince as it was of no ufe at land,
there could be no reafon for bringing it from on board the {hip.
There were now eight days elapfed, fince the departure of the
Centurioji, and yet they were not in any degree relieved from this
terrible perplexity : At laft, in rummaging a cheft belonging to the
Spanifh bark, they difcovered a fmall compafs, which, though
little better than the toys ufually made for the amufement of
fchool-boys, was to them an invaluable treafure. And a few days
after, by a fimilar piece of good fortune, they met with a quadrant
on the éta-lhore, "which had been thrown over-board amongft
other lumber belonging to the dead : The quadrant was eagerly
feized, but on examination it unluckily wanted vanes, and therefore
in its prefent’ ftate was altogether ufelefs ; however, fortune
{pill continuing in a favourable mood-, it was not long before a person
through curiofity pulling out the drawer of an old table, which
had been driven on {hore, found therein fome vanes, which fitted
the quadrant very well; and it tieing thus compleated, it was examined
by the known latitude of the place, and upon trial anfwer-
ed to a fufficient degree of exadtnels,
When