the _Severn_, others the _Pearl_, and several affirming that it did not belong to our squadron: but about three in the afternoon our disputes were ended by an unanimous persuasion that it was our victualler the _Anna_ pink. This ship, though, like the _Gloucester_, she had fallen in to the northward of the island, had yet the good fortune to come to an anchor in the bay, at five in the afternoon. Her arrival gave us all the sincerest joy; for each ship's company was immediately restored to their full allowance of bread, and we were now freed from the {131} apprehensions of our provisions falling short before we could reach some amicable port; a calamity which in these seas is of all others the most irretrievable. This was the last ship that joined us; and the dangers she encountered, and the good fortune which she afterwards met with, being matters worthy of a separate narration, I shall refer them, together with a short account of the other missing ships of the squadron, to the ensuing chapter. {132} CHAPTER III A SHORT NARRATIVE OF WHAT BEFEL THE "ANNA" PINK BEFORE SHE JOINED US, WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE LOSS OF THE "WAGER," AND OF THE PUTTING BACK OF THE "SEVERN" AND "PEARL," THE TWO REMAINING SHIPS OF THE SQUADRON On the first appearance of the _Anna_ pink, it seemed wonderful to us how the crew of a vessel, which came to this rendezvous two months after us, should be capable of working their ship in the manner they did, with so little appearance of debility and distress. But this difficulty was soon solved when she came to an anchor; for we then found that they had been in harbour since the middle of May, which was near a month before we arrived at Juan Fernandes: so that their sufferings (the risk they had run of shipwreck only excepted) were greatly short of what had been undergone by the rest of the squadron. It seems, on the 16th of May, they fell in with the land, which was then but four leagues distant, in the latitude of 45° 15' south. On the first sight of it they wore ship and stood to the southward, but their fore top-sail splitting, and the wind being W.S.W., they drove towards the shore; and the captain at last, either unable to clear the land, or, as others say, resolved to keep the sea no longer, steered for the coast, with a view of discovering some shelter amongst the many islands which then appeared in sight: and about four hours after the first view of the land, the pink had the good fortune to come to an anchor to the eastward of the island of Inchin; but as they did not run sufficiently near to the east shore of that island, and had not hands enough to veer away the cable briskly, they were soon driven to the eastward, deepning their water from twenty-five fathom to thirty-five, and still continuing to drive, they, the next day, the 17th of May, let go their sheet-anchor. This, though it brought them up for a short time, yet, on the 18th, they drove again, till they came into