A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 11: Arranged in Systematic Order: Forming a Complete History; of the Origin and Progress of Navigation, Discovery, and; Commerce, by Sea and Land, from the Earliest Ages to the; Present TimeKerr, Robert
History
A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 11: Arranged in Systematic Order: Forming a Complete History; of the Origin and Progress of Navigation, Discovery, and; Commerce, by Sea and Land, from the Earliest Ages to the; Present Time
Kerr, Robert
Voyages and travels
We weighed anchor at five next morning, and an hour afterwards
descried a sail, which was soon found to be the Pearl, which had
separated from us a few days after leaving St Catharines. Yet she
increased her sail and stood away from the Gloucester; and when she
came up, the people of the Pearl had their hammocks in their netting,
and every thing ready for an engagement. The Pearl joined us about
two in the afternoon, and running up under our stern, Lieutenant
Salt informed the commodore that Captain Kidd had died on the 31st
of January. He likewise said that he had seen five large ships on
the 10th of this month, which he for some time imagined had been our
squadron, insomuch that he suffered the commanding ship, which wore a
red broad pendant exactly resembling that of our commodore at the
main top-mast head, to come within gun-shot of the Pearl before he
discovered the mistake; but then, finding it was not the Centurion,
he haled close upon a wind and crowded from theirs with all sail; and
standing across a rippling, where they hesitated to follow, he happily
escaped. He had made them out to be five Spanish ships of war, one of
which was so exceedingly like the Gloucester that he was under great
apprehension when chased now by the Gloucester. He thought they
consisted of two seventy-gun ships, two of fifty, and one of forty;
the whole of which squadron chased him all that day, but at night,
finding they could not get near, they gave over the chase and stood
away to the southward.
Had we not been under the necessity of refitting the Tryal, this
intelligence would have prevented our making any stay at St Julians;
but as it was impossible for that sloop to proceed round Cape Horn
in her present condition, some stay there became inevitable; and
therefore we came to an anchor again the same evening in twenty-five
fathoms, the bottom a mixture of mud and sand, a high hummock bearing
from us S.W. by W. Weighing at nine next morning, we sent the cutters
of the Centurion and Severn in shore to discover the harbour of St
Julian, while the ships kept standing along the coast about a league
from the land. At six in the evening we anchored in the bay of St
Julian, in nineteen fathoms, the bottom muddy ground with sand, the
northermost land in sight bearing N. by E. the S. 1/2 E. and the
high hummock, called Wood's Mount by Sir John Narborough, W.S.W. The
cutters returned soon after, having discovered the harbour, which did
not appear to us where we lay, the northermost point shutting in upon
the southermost, and closing the entrance in appearance.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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