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)
Amongst the Indians who had come to meet the governor here, there
were some caciques of those Indians who had treated us so kindly at
our first landing upon Chiloe. One of these, a young man, had been
guilty of some offence, and was put in irons, and threatened to be
more severely punished. We could not learn his crime, or whether the
governor did not do it in a great measure to shew us his power over
these Indian chiefs: however, we were under great concern for this
young man, who had been extremely kind to us, and begged Captain Cheap
to intercede with the governor for him. This he did, and the cacique
was released; the governor acquainting him at the same time, with great
warmth, that it was to us only he owed it, or otherwise he would have
made a severe example of him. The young man seemed to have been in no
dread of farther punishment, as I believe he felt all a man could do
from the indignity of being put in irons in the public square, before
all his brother caciques and many hundreds of other Indians. I thought
this was not a very politic step of the governor, as the cacique
came after to Captain Cheap to thank him for his goodness, and in all
probability would remember the English for some time after; and not
only he, but all the other caciques who had been witnesses of it, and
who seemed to feel, if possible, even more than the young man himself
did. We now returned to Chaco, and the governor told me, when the
annual ship came, which they expected in December, we should be sent
in her to Chili. We felt several earthquakes while we were here. One
day as I happened to be upon a visit at a house where I was very well
acquainted, an Indian came in, who lived at many leagues distance from
this town, and who had made this journey in order to purchase some
little trifles he wanted; amongst other things, he had bought some
prints of saints. Very proud of these, he produced them, and put them
into the hands of the women, who very devoutly first crossed themselves
with them, and afterwards kissed them; then gave them to me, saying at
the same time, they supposed such a heretic as I was would refuse to
kiss them. They were right in their conjectures: I returned them to the
Indian without going through that ceremony. At that very instant, there
happened a violent shock of an earthquake, which they imputed entirely
to the anger of the saints; and all quitted the house as fast as they
could, lest it should fall upon their heads. For my part, I made the
best of my way home for fear of being knocked on the head, when out of
the house, by the rabble, who looked on me as the cause of all this
mischief, and did not return to that house again till I thought this
affair was forgotten.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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