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)
strayed from the rest upon those large plains we passed over; and this
I thought was the least I could do towards making some returns for the
obligations we were under to him.
When we got into St. Jago, the carrier delivered us to the captain of
the guard, at the palace gate; and he soon after introduced us to the
president, Don Joseph Manso, who received us very civilly, and then
sent us to the house where Captain Cheap and Mr. Hamilton were. We
found them extremely well lodged at the house of a Scotch physician,
whose name was Don Patricio Gedd. This gentleman had been a long time
in this city, and was greatly esteemed by the Spaniards, as well for
his abilities in his profession, as his humane disposition. He no
sooner heard that there were four English prisoners arrived in that
country, than he waited upon the president, and begged they might
be lodged at his house. This was granted; and had we been his own
brothers, we could not have met with a more friendly reception; and
during two years that we were with him, his constant study was to make
every thing as agreeable to us as possible. We were greatly distressed
to think of the expence he was at upon our account; but it was in vain
for us to argue with him about it. In short, to sum up his character in
a few words, there never was a man of more extensive humanity. Two or
three days after our arrival, the president sent Mr. Campbell and me
an invitation to dine with him, where we were to meet Admiral Pizarro
and his officers. This was a cruel stroke upon us, as we had not any
clothes fit to appear in, and dared not refuse the invitation. The
next day, a Spanish officer belonging to Admiral Pizarro's squadron,
whose name was Don Manuel de Guiror, came and made us an offer of two
thousand dollars. This generous Spaniard made this offer without any
view of ever being repaid, but purely out of a compassionate motive
of relieving us in our present distress. We returned him all the
acknowledgments his uncommon generous behaviour merited, and accepted
of six hundred dollars only, upon his receiving our draught for that
sum upon the English consul at Lisbon. We now got ourselves decently
clothed after the Spanish fashion; and as we were upon our parole, we
went out where we pleased to divert ourselves.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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