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)
night upon our oars; and a most dreadful one it proved, blowing and
raining very hard. Here we were so pinched with hunger, that we eat the
shoes off our feet, which consisted of raw seal skin. In the morning
we got out of the bay; but the incessant foul weather had overcome us,
and we began to be indifferent as to what befel us; and the boats,
in the night, making into a bay, we nearly lost the yawl, a breaker
having filled her, and driven her ashore upon the beach. This, by some
of our accounts, was Christmas-day; but our accounts had so often been
interrupted by our distresses, that there was no depending upon them.
Upon seeing the yawl in this imminent danger, the barge stood off, and
went into another bay to the northward of it, where it was smoother
lying; but there was no possibility of getting on shore. In the night
the yawl joined us again. The next day was so bad, that we despaired
reaching the headland, so rowed down the bay in hopes of getting some
seal, as that animal had been seen the day before, but met with no
success; so returned to the same bay we had been in the night before,
where the surf having abated somewhat, we went ashore, and picked up a
few shell-fish. In the morning, we got on board early, and ran along
shore to the westward, for about three leagues, in order to get round a
cape, which was the westernmost land we could see. It blew very hard,
and there ran such a sea, that we heartily wished ourselves back again,
and accordingly made the best of our way for that bay which we had left
in the morning; but before we could reach it night came on, and we
passed a most dismal one, lying upon our oars.
The weather continuing very bad, we put in for the shore in the
morning, where we found nothing but tangle and sea-weed. We now passed
some days roving about for provisions, as the weather was too bad to
make another attempt to get round the cape as yet. We found some fine
Lagoons towards the head of the bay; and in them killed some seal, and
got a good quantity of shell-fish, which was a great relief to us.
We now made a second attempt to double the cape; but when we got the
length of it, and passed the first headland, for it consists of three
of an equal height, we got into a sea that was horrid; for it ran all
in heaps, like the Race of Portland, but much worse. We were happy to
put back again to the old place, with little hopes of ever getting
round this cape.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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