Byron's Narrative of the Loss of the Wager: With an account of the great distresses suffered by himself and his companions on the coast of Patagonia from the year 1740 till their arrival in England 1746Byron, John
History
Byron's Narrative of the Loss of the Wager: With an account of the great distresses suffered by himself and his companions on the coast of Patagonia from the year 1740 till their arrival in England 1746
Byron, John
Chiloé (Chile); Patagonia (Argentina and Chile); Wager (Ship)
We were in all about a hundred and forty who had got to shore; but
some few remained still on board, detained either by drunkenness, or
a view of pillaging the wreck, among which was the boatswain. These
were visited by an officer in the yawl, who was to endeavour to prevail
upon them to join the rest; but finding them in the greatest disorder,
and disposed to mutiny, he was obliged to desist from his purpose and
return without them. Though we were very desirous, and our necessities
required that we should take some survey of the land we were upon; yet
being strongly pre-possessed that the savages were retired but some
little distance from us, and waited to see us divided, our parties did
not make this day, any great excursions from the hut; but as far as
we went, we found it very morassy and unpromising. The spot which we
occupied was a bay formed by hilly promontories, that to the north so
exceeding steep, that in order to ascend it (for there was no going
round, the bottom being washed by the sea), we were at the labour
of cutting steps. This, which we called Mount Misery, was of use to
us in taking some observations afterwards, when the weather would
permit: the southern promontory was not so inaccessible. Beyond this,
I, with some others, having reached another bay, found driven ashore
some parts of the wreck, but no kind of provision; nor did we meet
with any shell-fish, which we were chiefly in search of. We therefore
returned to the rest, and for that day made no other repast than what
the wild cellery afforded us. The ensuing night proved exceedingly
tempestuous; and, the sea running very high, threatened those on board
with immediate destruction by the parting of the wreck. They then were
as solicitous to get ashore, as they were before obstinate in refusing
the assistance we sent them; and when they found the boat did not come
to their relief at the instant they expected it, without considering
how impracticable a thing it was to send it them in such a sea, they
fired one of the quarter-deck guns at the hut; the ball of which did
but just pass over the covering of it, and was plainly heard by the
captain and us who were within. Another attempt, therefore, was made
to bring these madmen to land, which, however, by the violence of the
sea, and other impediments, occasioned by the mast that lay alongside,
proved ineffectual. This unavoidable delay made the people on board
outrageous: they fell to beating every thing to pieces that fell in
the way; and, carrying their intemperance to the greatest excess,
broke open chests and cabins for plunder that could be of no use to
them: and so earnest were they in this wantonness of theft, that one
man had evidently been murdered on account of some division of the
spoil, or for the sake of the share that fell to him, having all the
marks of a strangled corpse. One thing in this outrage they seemed
particularly attentive to, which was, to provide themselves with arms
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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