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)
One day we fell in with about forty Indians, who came down to the beach
we landed on, curiously painted. Our cacique seemed to understand but
little of their language, and it sounded to us very different from
what we had heard before. However, they made us comprehend that a ship
had been upon the coast not far from where we then were, and that she
had a red flag: this we understood some time after to have been the
Anne pink, whose adventures are particularly related in Lord Anson's
voyage; and we passed through the very harbour she had lain in.
As there was but one small canoe that intended to accompany us any
longer, and that in which Mr. Hamilton had been to this time, intended
to proceed no farther to the northward, our cacique proposed to him to
come into our canoe, which he refused, as the insolence of this fellow
was to him insupportable; he therefore rather chose to remain where he
was, till chance should throw in his way some other means of getting
forward: so here we left him; and it was some months before we saw him
again.
We now got on, by very slow degrees, to the northward; and as the
difficulties and hardships we daily went through would only be a
repetition of those already mentioned, I shall say no more, but that
at last we reached an island, about thirty leagues to the southward
of Chiloe. Here we remained two days for a favourable opportunity to
cross the bay, the very thoughts of which seemed to frighten our
cacique out of his senses; and, indeed, there was great reason for his
apprehensions; for there ran a most dreadful hollow sea, dangerous,
indeed, for any open boat whatever, but a thousand times more for such
a crazy vessel as we were in. He at length mustered up resolution
enough to attempt it, first having crossed himself for an hour
together, and made a kind of lug-sail out of the bits of blankets they
wore about them, sewed together with split supple jacks. We then put
off, and a terrible passage we had. The bottom plank of the canoe was
split, which opened upon every sea; and the water continually rushing
over the gunnel, I may say that we were in a manner full the whole
way over, though all hands were employed in baling without ceasing
a moment. As we drew near the shore, the cacique was eager to land,
having been terrified to that degree with this run, that if it had not
been for us, every soul must have perished; for he had very near got
in amongst the breakers, where the sea drove with such violence upon
the rocks, that not even an Indian could have escaped, especially as
it was in the night. We kept off till we got into smooth water, and
landed upon the island of Chiloe; though in a part of it that was
not inhabited. Here we staid all the next day, in a very heavy snow,
to recover ourselves a little after our fatigue; but the cold was so
excessive, having neither shoe nor stocking, we thought we should have
lost our feet; and Captain Cheap was so ill, that if he had had but a
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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