2+ L O R D A N S O N ’ S V O Y A G E
foot periftied, except fixty men. But, to give the reader a more
diftin£t and particular idea o f what they underwent upon this oc-
calion, I fhall lay before him afhort account of the fate of the Gui-
pufioa, cxtrafted from a letter written by Don Jofeph Mendinuetta
her Captain, to aperfon of diftin&ion at Lima-, a copy of which
fell into our hands afterwards in the South-Seas.
He mentions, that he feparated from the Hermiona and the E ffe-
ranza in the fog, on the 6th of March, biting then, as I fuppofe, to
the S. E. of Staten-Land, and plying to the weftward; that in the
night after, ' it blew a furious florin at N. W . which, at half an hour
after ten, fplit his mainfail, and obliged him to bear away with his
forefail; that the fhip went ten knots an hour with a prodigious
fea, and often ran her gangway under water ; that he likewife
fprung his main-maft ; and the fhip made fo much water, that with
four pumps and bailing he could not free her : That on the 19th it
was calm; but the fea continued fo- high, that the fhip in rolling
opened all her tipper works and feams, and ft a r ted the butt-ends- of
her planking and the greateft part of her top-timbers, the bolts
being drawn by the violence o f her roll r That in this condition,
with other additional difafters to the hull and rigging, they continued
beating to the weflrward till'the 12th : That they were then
in fixty degrees of fouth latitude, in great want of provilioris, numbers
every day perifhing by the fatigue o f pumping, and thofe who:
furvived being quite difpirked by labour, hunger, and the feverity
of the weather, they having two fpans of fnow upon the decks t
That then, finding the wind fixed in the weftern quarter, and blowing
ftrong, and confequently their paflage to the weftward impof-
fible, they refolved to bear away for the river o f Plate.: That on the
2 2d, they were obliged to. throw overboard all the upper-deck
guns, and an anchor, and to take fix turns o f the cable round the’
fhip, to prevent her opening; That,on the 4th o f April, it being
eal-m, but a very high fea, the fhip rolled fo much, that the main-
maft came by the board, and in a few hours after fhe loft, in like
soaotter, her fore-mail and her mizen-maft 1 and that, to accumulate
late their misfortunes, they were foon obliged to cut away their
bowfprit, to diminifh, i f poffible, the leakage at her head: That
by this time he had loft two hundredjand fifty men by hunger and
fatigue; for thofe who were capable of working at the pumps
(at which every Officer, without exception, took his turn) were allowed
only an ounce and half of bifcuit per diem ; and thofe who
were.fo fick or weak, that they could not aflift in this neceffary
labour, had no more than an ounce o f wheat; fo that it was common
for the men to fall down dead ‘at the pumps: That, including
the Officers, they could only mufter from eighty to a hundred per-
fons-capable o f duty: That the fouth-weft winds blew fo frefh,
after they had loft their mails, that they could not immediately fet
up jury-mafts ; but were obliged to drive like a wreck, between
the latitudes of 32 and 38, till the 24th of April, when they.made
the coaft of B razil at Rio de Pat as, ten leagues to the fouthward
of the Ifland o f St. Catherine s ; that here they came to an anchor,
and that the Captain was very defirous of proceeding to St. Catherine's,
i f poffible, in order to fave the hull of the fhip, and the guns
and ftores on board h e r ; but the crew inftantly left off pumping,
and being enraged at the hardfhips they had fuffered, and the
numbers they hadlWl (there being at that time no lefs than thirty
dead bodies lying on the deck), they all with one voice cried out
ON SH O R E , ON SHORE, and obliged the Captain to run the fhip in
diretlly for the land, where, the 5th day after, fhe funk, with her
ftores and all her furniture on board her ) but the' remainder of
the crew, whom hunger and fatigue had ’(pared, to the number of
four hundred, got fafe.on fhore.
From this account of the adventures and cataftrophe’ o f the
Guipufcoa, we may form fome conjecture o f the manner in which
the Hermiona was loft, and o f the diftreffes endured by the three
remaining fhips-of the fquadfon, which gotintothe river of Plate.
Thefe lajt being in great want of mafts, yards, rigging, and all kind
o f naval ftores, and having no fupply at Buenos Ayres, nor in any of
their neighbouring fettlements, Pizarro difpatched an advice-boat
K 1 ' . with