Baron George Anson Anson

“ We now learnt that the Gloucester was in a most dreadful condition, having scarcely a man in health on board, except those they received from us: and, numbers of their sick dying daily, it appeared that, had it not been for the last supply sent by our long-boat, both the healthy and diseased must have all perished together for want of water. These calamities were the more terrifying as they appeared to be without remedy: for the Gloucester had already spent a month in her endeavours to fetch the bay, and she was now no farther advanced than at the first moment she made the island ”

“ In its first onset we received a furious shock from a sea which broke upon our larboard quarter, where it stove in the quarter gallery, and rushed into the ship like a deluge; our rigging too suffered extremely from the blow; amongst the rest, one of the straps of the main dead-eyes was broke, as was also a main-shroud and puttock-shroud, so that to ease the stress upon the masts and shrouds, we lowered both our main and fore-yards, and furled all our sails, and in this posture we lay-to for three days, when the storm somewhat abating, we ventured to make sail under our courses only ”

“ For we soon esteemed ourselves to be driven just upon the shore, and the night was so extremely dark that we expected to discover the island no otherwise than by striking upon it; so that the belief of our destruction, and the uncertainty of the point of time when it should take place, occasioned us to pass several hours under the most serious apprehensions that each succeeding moment would send us to the bottom. ”

“ Indeed, the only pretension of the Chinese to a more refined morality than their neighbours is founded not on their integrity or beneficence, but solely on the affected evenness of their demeanor, and their constant attention to suppress all symptoms of passion and violence. But it must be considered that hypocrisy and fraud are often not less mischievous to the general interests of mankind than impetuosity and vehemence of temper: since these, though usually liable to the imputation of imprudence, do not exclude sincerity, benevolence, resolution, nor many other laudable qualities. ”

“ It is true, the yells of the Indians, the groans of the wounded, and the confused clamours of the crew, all heightened by the obscurity of the night, had at first greatly magnified their danger, and had filled them with the imaginary terrors, which darkness, disorder, and an ignorance of the real strength of an enemy never fail to produce. For as the Spaniards were sensible of the disaffection of their prest hands, and were also conscious of their barbarity to their prisoners, they imagined the conspiracy was general, and considered their own destruction as infallible ”

“ All I have aimed at in what I have advanced is only to evince that, in some instances, both the cure and prevention of this malady is impossible to be effected by any management, or by the application of any remedies which can be made use of at sea. Indeed, I am myself fully persuaded that, when it has got to a certain head, there are no other means in nature for relieving the sick but carrying them on shore, or at least bringing them into the neighbourhood of the land. ”

“ This is an inconvenience so sensibly felt by the commerce at Manila, that it is always recommended to the Governor of Guam to use his best endeavours for the discovery of some secure port in the neighbouring ocean. How industrious he may be to comply with his instructions I know not; but this is certain, that notwithstanding the many islands already found out between the coast of Mexico and the Philippines, there is not any one safe port to be met with in that whole track, though in other parts of the world it is not uncommon for very small islands to furnish most excellent harbours. ”

“ Indeed, the effects of this disease were in almost every instance wonderful; for many of our people, though confined to their hammocks, appeared to have no inconsiderable share of health, for they eat and drank heartily, were chearful, and talked with much seeming vigour, and with a loud strong tone of voice; and yet, on their being the least moved, though it was from only one part of the ship to the other, and that too in their hammocks, they have immediately expired ”

“ But as to those who keep at any considerable distance from the coast, there is no other method to be taken for finding the place than that of making it by the latitude, for there are so many ranges of mountains rising one upon the back of another within land, that no drawings of the appearance of the coast can be at all depended on when off {241} at sea, every little change of distance or variation of position bringing new mountains in view, and producing an infinity of different prospects, which render all attempts of delineating the aspect of the coast impossible. ”

“ Considering the scarcity of other provisions on some part of the coast of the South Seas, it appears wonderful that a species of food so very palatable and salubrious as turtle, and there so much abounding, should be proscribed by the Spaniards as unwholesome, and little less than poisonous. Perhaps the strange appearance of this animal may have been the foundation of this ridiculous and superstitious aversion, which is strongly rooted in the inhabitants of those countries, and of which we had many instances during the course of this navigation. ”

“ For, as these are the weapons with which they are to engage, what greater inequality can there be betwixt two contending parties than that one side should perfectly understand the management of them, and should have the skill to employ them in the most effectual manner for the annoyance of their enemy; while the other side should, by their awkward handling of their arms, render them rather terrible to themselves than mischievous to their antagonist? ”

“ As we made up in all twenty-one men-of-war, and a hundred and twenty-four sail of merchant-men and transports, we had no hopes of getting out of the Channel with so large a number of ships without the continuance of a fair wind for some considerable time. This was what we had every day {19} less and less reason to expect, as the time of the equinox drew near; so that our golden dreams and our ideal possession of the Peruvian treasures grew each day more faint, and the difficulties and dangers of the passage round Cape Horn in the winter season filled our imaginations in their room. ”

“ Nor were the allurements of Tinian confined to the excellency of its landskips only; since the fortunate animals, which during the greatest part of the year are the sole lords of this happy soil, partake in some measure of the romantic cast of the island, and are no small addition to its wonderful scenery; for the cattle, of which it is not uncommon to see herds of some thousands feeding together in a large meadow, are certainly the most remarkable in the world, as they are all of them milk-white, except their ears, which are generally brown or black. ”

“ Those who have an idea of the inconsiderable size of a cutter belonging to a sixty-gun ship (being only an open boat about twenty-two feet in length) , and who will reflect on the various casualties that must have attended her during a six weeks' continuance alone, in the open ocean, on so impracticable and dangerous a coast, will readily own that her return to us at last, after all the difficulties which she actually experienced, and the dangers to which she was each hour exposed, may be considered as little short of miraculous. ”

“ The soil of the island is truly luxuriant, producing fruits of many kinds spontaneously; and the ground is covered over with one continued forest of trees of a perpetual verdure, which, from the exuberance of the soil, are so entangled with briars, thorns, and underwood, as to form a thicket absolutely impenetrable, except by some narrow pathways which the inhabitants have made for their own convenience. These, with a few spots cleared for plantations along the shore facing the continent, are the only uncovered parts of the island. ”

“ It may now perhaps be wondered at that an island so exquisitely furnished with the conveniencies of life, and so well adapted not only to the subsistence but likewise to the enjoyment of mankind, should be entirely destitute of inhabitants, especially as it is in the neighbourhood of other islands, which in some measure depend upon this for their support. ”

“ And on this occasion, I must beg leave to make a short digression on the heat and cold of different climates, and on the varieties which occur in the same place in different parts of the year, and in different places in the same degree of latitude.
The ancients conceived that of the five zones into which they divided the surface of the globe, two only were habitable, supposing that the heat between the tropics, and the cold within the polar circles, were too intense to be supported by mankind. ”

“ The storm which drove the Centurion to sea blew with too much turbulence to permit either the commodore or any of the people on shore to hear the guns which she fired as signals of distress, and the frequent glare of the lightning had prevented the explosions from being observed: so that when at daybreak it was perceived from the shore that the ship was missing, there was the utmost consternation amongst them: for much the greatest part of them immediately concluded that she was lost, and intreated the commodore that the boat might be sent round the island to look after the wreck ”

“ For the governor of Rio Grande, of whom I have already spoken, assured us that in the neighbourhood of this island there were considerable rivers which were found to be extremely rich, and that this was the reason that a garrison, a military governor, and a new colony was settled there. And as the harbour at this island is by much the securest and the most capacious of any on the coast, it is not improbable, if the riches of the neighbourhood answer their expectation, but it may become in time the principal settlement in Brazil, and the most considerable port in all South America. ”

“ Thus, with the most gloomy persuasion of our approaching destruction, we stood from the island of Anatacan, having all of us the strongest apprehensions (and those not ill grounded) either of dying by the scurvy, or of being destroyed with the ship, which, for want of hands to work her pumps, might in a short time be expected to founder. ”

“ Society at sea was like society ashore, except that, being composed of men, and confronted with the elements, and based on a grand ceremonial tradition, it was never brilliant, and never artificial. It was, in the main, an honest and hardworking society. ”

“ And the vigorous vegetation which constantly takes place there, furnishes such a prodigious quantity of vapour that all the night, and great part of the morning, a thick fog covers the whole country, and continues till either the sun gathers strength to dissipate it, or it is dispersed by a brisk sea-breeze. ”

“ The river of Canton, off the mouth of which this city lies, is the only Chinese port frequented by European ships; and is, on many accounts, a more commodious harbour than Macao: but the peculiar customs of the Chinese, solely adapted to the entertainment of trading ships, and the apprehensions of the commodore, lest he should embroil the East India Company with the Regency of Canton if he should insist on being treated upon a different footing than the merchantmen, made him resolve rather to go to Macao than to venture into the river of Canton. ”

“ At this island we caught what quantity we pleased with great facility; for as they are an amphibious animal, and get on shore to lay their eggs, which they generally deposit in a large hole in the sand just above the high-water mark, covering them up, and leaving them to be hatched by the heat of the sun, we usually dispersed several of our men along the beach, whose business it was to turn them on their backs when they came to land, and the turtle being thereby prevented from getting away, we brought them off at our leisure. ”

“ Indeed, when I consider the strong incitements that all travellers have to pursue some part at least of these qualifications, especially drawing; when I consider how much it will facilitate their observations, assist and strengthen their memories, and of how tedious, and often unintelligible, a load of description it would rid them, I cannot but wonder that any person who intends to visit distant countries with a view of informing either himself or others, should be wanting in so necessary a piece of skill. ”

“ These measures were obviously necessary, considering the hazards to which the commodore and his people would have been exposed had they been less careful. Indeed, the sufferings of the poor prisoners, though impossible to be alleviated, were much to be commiserated; for the weather was extremely hot, the stench of the hold loathsome beyond all conception, and their allowance of water but just sufficient to keep them alive, it not being practicable to spare them more than at the rate of a pint a day for each, the crew themselves having only an allowance of a pint and a half. ”

“ The port of Paita, though in reality little more than a bay, is esteemed the best on that part of the coast, and is indeed a very secure and commodious anchorage. It is greatly frequented by all vessels coming from the north, since here only the ships from Acapulco, Sonsonnate, Realeijo, and Panama can touch and refresh in their passage to Callao: and the length of these voyages (the wind for the greatest part of the year being full against them) renders it impossible to perform them without calling upon the coast for a recruit of fresh water. ”

“ By sea there was no force capable of opposing us; for how soon soever we had sailed, Pizarro's squadron could not have sailed sooner than it did, and therefore could not have avoided the fate it met with. As we should have been masters of the ports of Chili, we could thereby have supplied ourselves with the provisions we wanted in the greatest plenty; and from Baldivia to the equinoctial we ran no risque of losing our men by sickness (that being of all climates the most temperate and healthy) , nor of having our ships disabled by bad weather. ”

“ The sea now broke most surprizingly all round us, and a large tumbling swell threatened to poop us, by which the long-boat at this time, moored astern, was on a sudden canted so high that it broke the transon of the commodore's gallery, whose cabin was on the quarter-deck, and would doubtless have risen as high as the trafferel had it not been for the stroke, which stove the boat all to pieces ”

“ As their boats were very leaky, and there was no appearance of a landing-place, the whole crew, consisting of sixteen men and boys, gave themselves over for lost, apprehending that if any of them by some extraordinary chance should get on shore, they would, in all probability, be massacred by the savages on the coast: for these, knowing no other Europeans but Spaniards, it might be expected they would treat all strangers with the same cruelty which they had so often and so signally exerted against their Spanish neighbours. ”

“ The island of Inchin lying before the bay is thought to be one of the islands of Chonos which are mentioned in the Spanish accounts as spreading all along that coast, and are said by them to be inhabited by a barbarous people, famous for their hatred of the Spaniards, and for their cruelties to such of that nation as have fallen into their hands; and it is possible too that the land, on which the harbour itself lies, may be another of those islands, and that the continent may be considerably farther to the eastward. ”

“ Indeed, thus much may undoubtedly be asserted, that in artifice, falsehood, and an attachment to all kinds of lucre many of the Chinese are difficult to be paralleled by any other people. But then the particular application of these talents, and the manner in which they operate on every emergency, are often beyond the reach of a foreigner's penetration: so that though it may be surely concluded that the Chinese had some interest in thus amusing the commodore, yet it may not be easy to assign the individual views by which they were influenced. ”