beads, &c. which were intended for the ufe of both fhips, and fo neceflary
for obtaining refreihments from the Indians, had, during the nine months they
had failed together, been put on board the Swallow ; neither were they provided
with a forge or iron, which many circumftances might render abfolutely necef-
fary to the prefervation of the ihip. Captain Carteret had, however, the
fatisfaftion to obferve, amidft all thefe difadvantages, that no marks of def-
pondency appeared among his people. .
Being come to an anchor, after much anxiety and fatigue, on the 12th, in
a little bay in the Straits, which they had not yet cleared, about fix o’clock in
the evening Captain Carteret went down into hisLcabin to take fome reft, but
he had fcarcely laid down before,he was alarmed with a univerfal ihout and
tumult among the people, all that were below running haftily upon the deck,
and joining the clamour of thofe above. The Captain immediately ftarted
up, imagining that a guft had forced the ihip from her anchor, and that fhe
was driving out of the bay ; but when he came upon deck, he heard the people
cry out, The Dolphin! The Dolphin! in a tranfport of furprize and joy,
that appeared to be little ihort of diftradtion. A few minutes, however, convinced
them, that what had been taken for a fail was nothing more than the
water which had been forced up, and whirled about in the air, by one of the
violent gufts that ^re continually coming off the high land, and which,
through the haze, had a moft deceitful appearance. The crew were for fome
little time dejedted by their difappointment, but their ufual fortitude and
chearfulnefs foon returned.
After furmounting many dangers and difficulties, particularly off Cape Defeada,
where they were in the utmoft danger of foundering from the exceffive violence
of the/wind ; on the 15th of April they cleared the weftern entrance of th6
Straits, which Captain Carteret judges.to be too dangerous for navigation.
They now fteered ta the northward, along the Coaft of Chili, and being ihort
of water, made for the Iiland of Mafafuero, or that of Juan Fernandez.
On the 9th of May they fell in with the former, and on the 10th the latter;
round the north end of which they hauled, and opened Cumberland Bay.
Captain
Captain Carteret did not know that the Spaniards had fortified this iiland,
confequently he was greatly furprized to fee a eonfiderable number o f men
about the beach, with a houfe, and four pieces of cannon near the water fide,
and a fort about three hundred yards from the fea, with Spaniih colours flying
on it. Being prevented by the fudden gufts of wind which came right out of
the bay from entering it, they failed for the Iiland of Mafafuero; and on the p. 323.
15th anchored oh the eaft fide of it, in the fame place where Commodore
Byron had lain about two years before; but they were foon driven off by the P* ®33*
violence of the wind, without being able to procure only a fmall quantity of
water. And from the 16 th to the 24th, they fuffered an uninterrupted feries
o f danger, fatigue, and misfortunes upon the coaft of this iiland, at the con-
ftant hazard of the boats and the lives of the beft men, which nothing but
the want of a fufficient ftock of water for the uncertain voyage they were about
to make, would have induced Captain Carteret to experience.
The Iiland of Mafafuero lies thirty-one leagues to the weft o f Juan Fernandez, p. 333.'
nearly in the fame latitude. The fouth part o f it is a very good place for p, ^35.
refreshment, efpecially in the fummer feafon. There is plenty oi-’wood and
water all round the ifland, but they are not to be procured without much
difficulty, a great quantity of ftones, and large fragments of the rock having
fallen from the high land into the fea, on which there breaks a furf very
dangerous to boats.. Befides the goats and fiih, .already mentioned in Com- p. 335»;
modore Byron’s Voyage, with which this ifland abounds,, feals are fo plenty,
that as the boat s crew walked along the ihore, thefe animals were continually
running againft them, making, at the fame time, a moft horrible noife. Their
fluns are covered with the fineft fur they had ever feen of the kind. There
are many birds here, and among others feme very large hawks; of the Pintado
Jjirds the people that went on ihore caught no lefs than feven hundred o f them
in one night; during a gale of wind, -they flew fafter into a fire that was p.,**-
made than they could well take them out.
After, their departure from this iffand, they failed to the weftward, having 0
dark, hazy., cold weather, with frequent thunder and lightning, fleet, and P' 34 '
rain, accompanied with hard .gate and heavy feas, as it was now the depth of ‘
# T .1 ' u 1 Winter