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1766. ■ which I knew by experience -would be of the utmoft import?-
, ance,. i f it was intended that I Ihould make another voyage
round the world; but I was told that the veffel and’ Her
equipment were very fit for the fervice fhe was to perform,
and none of the requifites for which I applied were allowed:
me. I was therefore confirmed in my opinion, that, i f the
Dolphin was to go round the world, it could never be in-
•tended that I Ihould go farther .than Falkland’s Iflands,,wh^rfi
the Jafon, a fine frigate, which was,' like ihe Dofphiii,
Iheathed with copper, and amply equipped; would-fupply
my place. I w a s however deficient in junk, an article
which is effentially neceflary in !bVery Vdyage, ahd-for this.
I applied when I got to Plymouth, but fw a s told that a quantity
fufiicient for both the Ihips had been put on board the.
Dolphin..
Friday On Friday- the aad' o f 1 AuguftV 1 •$>,_, the, ffiip’s companyhaving
the evening before received Wft.
weighed, and made fail from.Plymouth Sound jn compariy-
with the Dolphin,, under the command o f Captain Wallis,,
and the Prince Frederic ftorerlhip, commanded t>y Lieutenant-
James Brine, i We p ro c e ed ed together without any retnark-
s»nda^er‘ able incident till the 7th o f September,, when we came to an 1
anchor in Madeira road.
While I lay at this place, not being yet acquainted with;
m y deftination, I reprefented my want o f junk, and the reply
that had been made to my application for. a fupply by
the commiffioner at Plymouth, in a letter, to Captain Wallis,,
who fent me five hundred weight. This quantity however
was fo inadequate to my wants, that I was foon afterwards
reduced to the difagreeable neceffity of cutting off fome of
my cables to fave my rigging.
On
On the gth, very early in thé morning, the Lieutenant ac.
quainted me that, in the night, nine of my belt men had
fecretly fet off from the Ihip to fwim on Ihore, having ftrip-
ped themfelves naked and left all their clothes behind them,
taking only their money, which they had fecured in a handkerchief
that was tied round their waift; that they proceeded
together till they came very near the furf, which
breaks high upon the Ihore, and that one of them, being
'then terrified at the found, had fwum back again to the Ihip,
nnd been taken on board, but that the reft had ventured
through. As the lofs of thefe men would have been very
feverely felt, I immediately fat down to write a letter
to the Conful, entreating his affiftance to recover them;
but before I had finilhed it, he fent me word, that all
o f them having, to the great aftonilhment o f the natives,
been found naked on the beach, they had been taken mto
cuftody, and would be delivered up to my order. The boat
was difpatched immediately, and as foon as I heard they
■ were on board, I went upon the deck. I was greatly piealed
to fee a contrition in their countenances, which at once fecretly
determined me not to inflift the pumlhment by which
they feemed moft heartily willing to expiate their faults but
I alked them what could have induced them to quit the Ihip,
and defert the fervice-of their country, at .the nlk of being
devoured by flunks, or dalhed to pieces by the furf againft
the Ihore. They anfwered, that though they had indeed at
fuch rilks ventured to fwim on Ihore, they never had .any
intention of deferting the Ihip, w h ic h they were determined
to Hand by as long as Hie could fwim; but that being well
allured they were going a long voyage, and none being able
to tell who might live, or who might die, they thought it
hard not to have an opportunity of fpending their own money,
and therefore determined, as they faid, once more to