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)
were: there they put into a small cove, sheltered by a large ledge of
rocks without, which broke the violence of the sea. Captain Cheap and
I walked along shore, and got to the cove about the time they landed.
Here we found the persons arrived in this canoe, to be our Indian guide
and his wife, who had left us some days before. He would have asked us
many questions; but neither Captain Cheap nor I understanding Spanish
at that time, we took him along with us to the surgeon, whom we had
left so ill that he could hardly raise himself from the ground. When
the Indian began to confer with the surgeon, the first question was,
What was become of the barge and his companion? and as he could give
him no satisfactory answer to this question, the Indian took it for
granted that Emanuel was murdered by us, and that he and his family ran
the same risk; upon which he was preparing to provide for his security,
by leaving us directly. The surgeon seeing this, did all in his
power to pacify him, and convince him of the unreasonableness of his
apprehensions; which he at length found means to do, by assuring him
that the Indian would come to no harm, but that he would soon see him
return safe; which providentially, and beyond our expectation, happened
accordingly; for in a few days after, Emanuel having contrived to make
his escape from the people in the barge, returned by ways that were
impassable to any creature but an Indian. All that we could learn from
Emanuel relative to his escape was, that he took the first opportunity
of leaving them; which was upon their putting into a bay somewhere to
the westward.
We had but one gun among us, and that was a small fowling-piece of
mine; no ammunition but a few charges of powder I had about me; and
as the Indian was very desirous of returning to the place where he had
left his wife and canoe, Captain Cheap desired I would go with him and
watch over him all night, to prevent his getting away. Accordingly I
set out with him; and when he and his family betook themselves to rest
in the little wigwam they had made for that purpose, I kept my station
as centinel over them all night.
The next morning Captain Cheap, Mr. Hamilton, and the surgeon, joined
us: the latter, by illness, being reduced to the most feeble condition,
was supported by Mr. Hamilton and Mr. Campbell. After holding some
little consultation together, as to the best manner of proceeding in
our journey, it was agreed, that the Indian should haul his canoe, with
our assistance, over land, quite across the island we were then upon,
and put her into a bay on the other side, from whence he was to go in
quest of some other Indians, by whom he expected to be joined; but as
his canoe was too small to carry more than three or four persons, he
thought it advisable to take only Captain Cheap and myself with him,
and to leave his wife and children as pledges with our companions till
his return.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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