Commodore ANSON’s VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD. (continued 4)

But, though this combination failed of its effect, there were other distresses that multiplied upon them, and which could not be prevented. Hunger and thirst, the most dreadful of all other calamities, daily became more grievous; the ships grew continually more and more leaky, and the men less able to stand at the pumps; nothing was to be seen but despondency in every countenance; nothing heard but lamentations and complaints, which were embittered by the absolute impossibility of relieving them. Under the weight of these affecting circumstances, the Asia was near sinking, when she arrived at Monte Vedio with scarce half her crew alive. The Estevan, when she anchored in the bay of Barragan, had in like manner lost about the same number of her hands; but, what was still worse, and is almost incredible, the Esperanza, out of a crew of 450 seamen which she brought from Spain, had only 58 that reached the shore, and the whole regiment of soldiers, 60 men only excepted, perished.

Being now in want of all kinds of necessaries, masts, yards, rigging, provisions, and money, Pizarro dispatched an express over land to St. Jago, in Chili, to be from thence forwarded to the Viceroy of Peru, desiring a remittance of 200,000 dollars; and what must astonish the reader is, that the Indian who was charged with this dispatch, though in the depth of winter, when the Cordilleras are judged impassable by reason of the snow, was only 13 days in his journey from Buenos Ayres to St. Jago, places distant from each other 300 Spanish leagues. At the same time an advice-boat was sent with a letter of credit to Rio Janeiro, to purchase what was wanting of the Portuguese; but neither the one nor the other of these dispatches succeeded to the wish of the Spanish Admiral. The Viceroy, instead of 200,000 dollars, sent him only 100,000; and the Portuguese, instead of furnishing him with masts and yards, the principal articles of naval stores that he wanted, spared him only some pitch, tar, and cordage, with which he was obliged to be contented: but a more mortifying disappointment he had still to suffer; for a carpenter, whom, after the return of the money, he had trusted with a considerable sum, and whom he had sent up into the country of Puraguay to cut masts, instead of prosecuting the business with which he was entrusted, married in the country, and settled out of his reach, refusing to return.

In this dilemma, the only thing that could be done, was, to shift the mails of the Esperanza into the Asia, and to fit up the Estevan with what spare masts and yards they could muster, and with these two ships to hazard a second attempt to double Cape Horn, as it was now summer, and the weather less severe. But a certain fatality seemed to preside over every part of this unfortunate expedition. The Estevan, as she was coming down the river Plate, ran on a shoal and beat off her rudder; and the Asia, though she proceeded alone with moderate weather and a favourable gale, yet when she came to the height of Cape Horn, and was tacking to change her course to the westward, by some misconduct in wearing the ship, rolled away her masts, and was a second time forced back to the river of Plate; from whence Pizarro undertook to cross the continent by land, and with some difficulty accomplished his design.

By this time Don Mindinuetta, Captain of the Guipuscoa, wrecked, as has been said, on the coast of Brazil, arrived, with those of his crew who escaped, at the place of general rendezvous; and, finding the Esperanza without masts, applied a second time to the Portuguese, by whose assistance he completed her repair, and, in 1742, doubled the Cape, and arrived in the South Seas, where he was met by Pizarro, who claimed the command of the Esperanza, which Mindinuetta disputing, an irreconcileable quarrel arose between the two Commanders, which the Viceroy of Peru in vain endeavoured to reconcile. In 1745, they both returned over land to the coast of Brazil, where they found the Asia still in a shattered condition. This ship, however, they determined to carry to Europe, and, with this view, they fitted her up in the best manner they could; and, having manned her partly with Portuguese, partly with English prisoners, and partly with Spaniards, together with some Indians whom they forced out of the country, they set sail from Monte Vedio for Europe about the beginning of November; but they had not been long at sea before the Indians, eleven in number, formed a conspiracy to destroy the Spaniards, and to regain their liberty, in which they had hopes of being joined by the English and Portuguese, whom the Spaniards used with great insolence. At the head of this conspiracy was their Chief Orellana; and one evening, about nine o’clock, he and his companions came all together on the quarter-deck, and drew towards the door of the great cabbin. The boatswain immediately reprimanded them, and ordered them to be gone; on this Orellana spoke to his followers in his native language, when four of them drew off, two towards each gangway, and the Chief and the remaining six seemed to be slowly quitting the quarter-deck. When the detached Indians had taken possession of the gang-way, Orellana placed his hands hollow to his mouth, and bellowed out the war-cry used by those savages. This was the signal for beginning the massacre; accordingly, the six, with their Chief, who remained on the quarter-deck, falling suddenly on the Spaniards who were intermingled with them, laid near forty of them at their feet, of which above twenty were killed on the spot, and the rest disabled. Many of the officers, in the beginning of the tumult, pushed into the great cabbin, where they put out the lights, and barricadoed the door; whilst of the rest, some endeavoured to escape along the gang-ways into the forecastle, where the Indians placed on purpose stabbed the greatest part of them as they attempted to pass by; others threw themselves into the waste, and thought themselves fortunate to lie concealed amongst the cattle; but the greatest part escaped up the main-shrouds, and sheltered themselves either in the tops or the rigging; and though the Indians attacked only the quarter-deck, yet the watch in the forecastle finding their communication cut off, in the utmost terror likewise gave all over for lost, and in great confusion ran up into the rigging of the fore-mast and bowsprit. But when the Indians had intirely cleared the quarter-deck, the tumult in a great measure subsided; for, not being joined, as they expected, by either the English or Portuguese, they could not pursue their advantage by carrying the disorder into those quarters to which they had driven the Spaniards, who thereby gained time for recollection; and, on finding none concerned in the plot but the Indians, they resolved to attack them in their turn on the quarter-deck. With this view, Pizarro and his officers ventured to half-open the cabbin-door, which Orellana attempting to force, was shot dead by Mindinuetta; on which his faithful followers, abandoning all thoughts of further resistance, instantly leaped into the sea. Thus was this insurrection quelled, and the Spaniards suffered afterwards quietly to proceed on their voyage; and, about the beginning of 1746, they arrived safe in Spain, after having been absent between four and five years.

By this unfortunate expedition the naval force of Spain was much weakened: they lost in it 3000 of their best sailors, one whole regiment of veteran soldiers, four stout ships of war, and a patache; for we have observed that the Hermiona foundered at sea; the Guipuscoa was stranded and sunk on the coast of Brazil; the St. Estevan was condemned and broke up in the river of Plate; and the Esperanza, being carried into the South Seas, was unable to redouble the Cape, or to return back; so that the Asia alone may be regarded as all the remains of that squadron with which Pizarro first put to sea.