A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 12 by Robert Kerr

R >> Robert Kerr >> A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 12

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During all this night and the next morning the wind blew with great
violence, and we had let go our best bower anchor when we were near the
shore, in hopes it would have brought us up, and had not yet been able
to weigh it. We now rode in a very disagreeable situation with our small
bower, and that unfortunately came home again; we therefore got a hawser
out of the Tamar, who lay in the stream, and after weighing the small
bower, we got out by her assistance, and then dropped it again, most
ardently wishing for fair weather, that we might get the ship properly
moored.

The next day we sounded the harbour higher up, and found the ground
softer, and the water not so deep; yet the wind continued to blow so
hard that we could not venture to change our station. We had found a
small spring of water about half a mile inland, upon the north side of
the bay, but it had a brackish taste; I had also made another excursion
of several miles into the country, which I found barren and desolate,
in every direction, as far as the eye could reach. We had seen many
guanicoes at a distance, but we could not get near enough to have a shot
at them; we tracked beasts of several kinds in the soil, near a pond of
salt water, and among them a very large tyger: We found also a nest of
ostrich's eggs, which we eat, and thought very good. It is probable that
all the animals which had left marks of their feet near the salt pond,
drank the water, and indeed we saw no fresh water for them. The spring
that we had found, which was not perfectly fresh, was the only one of
the kind that we had been able to discover; and for that we had been
obliged to dig, there being no appearance of it except a slight moisture
of the ground.

On the 24th, upon slack water, we carried both the ships higher up and
moored them: The extreme points of the harbour's mouth at low water bore
from E. by S.1/4 S. to E.; and the Steeple rock S.E.1/4 E. We had here, at
low water, but six fathom; but at spring tides the water rises no less
than four fathom and a half, which is seven-and-twenty feet. The tide
indeed in this place is such as perhaps it is not in any other.[13] It
happened by some accident that one of our men fell overboard; the boats
were all alongside, and the man was an exceeding good swimmer, yet
before any assistance could be sent after him, the rapidity of the
stream, had hurried him almost out of sight; we had however at last the
good fortune to save him. This day I was again on shore, and walked six
or seven miles up the country: I saw several hares as large as a fawn; I
shot one of them, which weighed more than six and twenty pounds, and if
I had had a good greyhound, I dare say the ship's company might have
lived upon hare two days in the week. In the mean time the people on
board were busy in getting up all the cables upon deck, and clearing the
hold, that a proper quantity of ballast might be taken in, and the guns
lowered into it, except a few which it might be thought necessary to
keep above.

[Footnote 13: "The harbour itself is not much more than half a mile
over. On the south shore is a remarkable rock in the form of a tower,
which appears on entering the harbour's mouth. Abreast of this rock we
lay at anchor in seven or eight fathom water, moored to the east and
west, with both bowers, which we found extremely necessary, on account
of the strong tide that regularly ebbs and flows every twelve hours.
Indeed the ebb is so rapid, that we found by our log-line it continued
to run five or six knots an hour; and in ten minutes after the ebb is
past, the flood returns with equal velocity; besides, the wind generally
blows during the whole night out of the harbour."]

On the 25th, I went a good way up the harbour in the boat, and having
landed on the north side, we soon after found an old oar of a very
singular make, and the barrel of a musket, with the king's broad arrow
upon it. The musket-barrel had suffered so much from the weather, that
it might be crumbled to dust between the fingers: I imagined it had been
left there by the Wager's people, or perhaps by Sir John Narborough.
Hitherto we had found no kind of vegetables except a species of wild
peas; but though we had seen no inhabitants, we saw places where they
had made their fires, which however did not appear to be recent. While
we were on shore we shot some wild ducks and a hare; the hare ran two
miles after he was wounded, though it appeared when he was taken up that
a ball had passed quite through his body. I went this day many miles up
the country, and had a long chace after one of the guanicoes, which was
the largest we had seen: He frequently stopped to look at us, when he
had left us at a good distance behind, and made a noise that resembled
the neighing of a horse; but when we came pretty near him he set out
again, and at last, my dog being so tired that he could not run him any
longer, he got quite away from us, and we saw him no more. We shot a
hare however, and a little ugly animal which stunk so intolerably that
none of us could go near him. The flesh of the hares here is as white as
snow, and nothing can be better tasted. A serjeant of marines, and some
others who were on shore at another part of the bay, had better success
than fell to our share, for they killed two old guanicoes and a fawn;
they were however obliged to leave them where they fell, not being able
to bring them down to the water side, near six miles, without farther
assistance, though they were but half the weight of those that are
mentioned by Sir John Narborough; some however I saw, which could not
weigh less than seven or eight and thirty stone, which is about three
hundred pounds. When we returned in the evening it blew very hard, and
the deck being so full of lumber that we could not hoist the boats in,
we moored them astern. About midnight, the storm continuing, our
six-oared cutter filled with water and broke adrift; the boat-keeper, by
whose neglect this accident happened, being on board her, very narrowly
escaped drowning by catching hold of the stern ladder. As it was tide
of flood when she went from the ship, we knew that she must drive up the
harbour; yet as the loss of her would be an irremediable misfortune, I
suffered much anxiety till I could send after her in the morning, and it
was then some hours before she was brought back, having driven many
miles with the stream. In the mean time, I sent another party to fetch
the guanicoes which our people had shot the night before; but they found
nothing left except the bones, the tygers having eaten the flesh, and
even cracked the bones of the limbs to come at the marrow. Several of
our people had been fifteen miles up the country in search of fresh
water, but could not find the least rill: We had sunk several wells to a
considerable depth where the ground appeared moist, but upon visiting
them, I had the mortification to find that, altogether, they would not
yield more than thirty gallons in twenty-four hours: This was a
discouraging circumstance, especially as our people, among other
expedients, had watched the guanicoes, and seen them drink at the salt
ponds. I therefore determined to leave the place as soon as the ship
could be got into a little order, and the six-oared cutter repaired,
which had been hauled up upon the beach for that purpose.

On the 27th, some of our people, who had been ashore on the north side
of the bay to try for more guanicoes, found the skull and bones of a
man, which they brought off with them, and one young guanicoe alive,
which we all agreed was one of the most beautiful creatures we had ever
seen: It soon grew very tame, and would suck our fingers like a calf;
but, notwithstanding all our care and contrivances to feed it, it died
in a few days. In the afternoon of this day it blew so hard that I was
obliged to keep a considerable number of hands continually by the
sheet-anchor, as there was too much reason to fear that our cables would
part, which however did not happen. In the mean time, some of our people
that were on shore with the carpenters, who were repairing the cutter on
the south side of the bay, found two more springs of tolerable water
about two miles from the beach, in a direct line from the ship's
station. To these springs I sent twenty hands early in the morning with
some small casks, called barecas, and in a few turns they brought on
board a tun of water, of which we began to be in great want. In the mean
time, I went myself about twelve miles up the river in my boat, and the
weather then growing bad, I went on shore: The river, as far as I could
see, was very broad; there were in it a number of islands, some of which
were very large, and I make no doubt but that it penetrates the country
for some hundreds of miles. It was upon one of the islands that I went
on shore, and I found there such a number of birds, that when they rose
they literally darkened the sky, and we could not walk a step without
treading upon their eggs. As they kept hovering over our heads at a
little distance, the men knocked down many of them with stones and
sticks, and carried off several hundreds of their eggs. After some time
I left the island and landed upon the main, where our men dressed and
eat their eggs, though there were young birds in most of them. I saw no
traces of inhabitants on either side of the river, but great numbers of
guanicoes, in herds of sixty or seventy together: They would not however
suffer us to approach them, but stood and gazed at us from the hills, in
this excursion the surgeon, who was of my party, shot a tyger cat, a
small but very fierce animal; for, though it was much wounded, it
maintained a very sharp contest with my dog for a considerable time
before it was killed.[14]

[Footnote 14: "On the south shore the rocks are not so numerous as on
the north side; and there are more hills and deep vallies; but they are
covered only by high grass and a few small shrubs. Hence this is but a
bad place to touch at, by any ship that is under the necessity of
wooding and watering. Our commodore, in order to clear the ground of the
overgrown grass, which grew in some places in great quantities, and also
to improve the soil, which appeared to be of a barren sandy nature, gave
orders for the grass to be set on fire in different places, which was no
sooner done, than the flames ran so fast, that in less than half an hour
they spread several miles round."]

On the 29th, we completed our ballast, which the strength of the tide,
and the constant gales of wind, rendered a very difficult and laborious
task; we also got on board another tun of water. On the morning of the
30th, the weather was so bad that we could not send a boat on shore; but
employed all hands on board in setting up the rigging. It grew more
moderate however about noon, and I then sent a boat to procure more
water. The two men who first came up to the well found there a large
tyger lying upon the ground; having gazed at each other some time, the
men, who had no fire-arms, seeing the beast treat them with as much
contemptuous neglect as the lion did the knight of La Mancha, begun to
throw stones at him: Of this insult, however, he did not deign to take
the least notice, but continued stretched upon the ground in great
tranquillity till the rest of the party came up, and then he very
leisurely rose and walked away.

On the first of December, our cutter being thoroughly repaired, we took
her on board, but the weather was so bad that we could not get off any
water: The next day we struck the tents which had been set up at the
watering-place, and got all ready for sea. The two wells from which, we
got our water bear about S.S.E. of the Steeple rock, from which they are
distant about two miles and a half; but I fixed a mark near them, that
they might be still more easily found than by their bearings. During our
stay in this harbour, we sounded every part of it with great care, as
high as a ship could go, and found that there is no danger but what may
be seen at low water; so that now fresh water is found, though at some
distance from the beach, it would be a very convenient place for ships
to touch at, if it were not for the rapidity of the tide. The country
about the bay abounds with guanicoes, and a great variety of wild fowl,
particularly ducks, geese, widgeon, and sea-pies, besides many others
for which we have no name. Here is also such plenty of excellent
mussels, that a boat may be loaded with them every time it is low water.
Wood indeed is scarce; however in some parts of this coast there are
bushes, which in a case of necessity might produce a tolerable supply of
fuel.

On Wednesday the 5th of December, I unmoored, in order to get out, but
the best bower came up foul, and before we could heave short upon the
small bower, the tide of ebb made strong; for at this place slack water
scarcely continues ten minutes; so that we were obliged to wait till it
should be low water. Between five and six in the evening, we weighed,
and steered out E.N.E. with a fresh gale at N.N.W.

SECTION III.

_Course from Port Desire, in search of Pepys' Island, and afterwards to
the Coast of Patagonia, with a Description of the Inhabitants._

As soon as we were out of the bay, we steered for Pepys' Island, which
is said to lie in latitude 47 deg.S. Our latitude was now 47 deg.22'S. longitude
65 deg.49' W.; Port Desire bore S. 66 deg. W. distant twenty-three leagues; and
Pepys' Island, according to Halley's chart, E.3/4 N. distant thirty-four
leagues. The variation here was 19 deg.E.

We continued our course the next day with a pleasant gale and fine
weather, so that we began to think that this part of the world was not
wholly without a summer. On the 7th, I found myself much farther to the
northward than I expected, and therefore supposed the ship's way had
been influenced by a current. I had now made eighty degrees easting,
which is the distance from the main at which Pepys' Island is placed in
Halley's chart, but unhappily we have no certain account of the place.
The only person who pretends to have seen it, is Cowley,[15] the account
of whose voyage is now before me; and all he says of its situation is,
that it lies in latitude 47 deg.S.; for he says nothing of its longitude: He
says, indeed, that it has a fine harbour; but he adds, that the wind
blew so hard he could not get into it, and that he therefore stood away
to the southward. At this time I also was steering southward; for the
weather being extremely fine, I could see very far to the northward of
the situation in which it is laid down. As I supposed it must lie to the
eastward of us, if indeed it had any existence, I made the Tamar signal
to spread early in the afternoon; and as the weather continued to be
very clear, we could see, between us, at least twenty leagues. We
steered S.E. by the compass, and at night brought-to, being, by my
account, in latitude 47 deg.18'S. The next morning it blew very hard at N.W.
by N. and I still thought the island might lie to the eastward; I
therefore intended to stand about thirty leagues that way, and if I
found no island, to return into the latitude of 47 deg. again. But a hard
gale coming on, with a great sea, I brought-to about six o'clock in the
evening under the main-sail; and at six o'clock the next morning, the
wind being at W.S.W. we made sail again under our courses to the
northward. I now judged myself to be about sixteen leagues to the
eastward of the track I had run before: Port Desire bore S.80 deg.53'W.
distant ninety-four leagues; and in this situation I saw a great
quantity of rock-weed, and many birds. We continued to stand to the
northward the next day under our courses, with a hard gale from S.W. to
N.W. and a great sea. At night, being in latitude 46 deg. 50' S. I wore
ship, and stood in to the westward again, our ships having spread every
day as far as they could be seen by each other: And on the 11th at noon,
being now certain that there could be no such island as is mentioned by
Cowley, and laid down by Halley under the name of Pepys' Island, I
resolved to stand in for the main, and take in wood and water, of which
both ships were in great want, at the first convenient place I could
find, especially as the season was advancing very fast, and we had no
time to lose. From this time we continued to haul in for the land as the
winds would permit, and kept a look-out for the islands of Sebald de
Wert,[16] which, by all the charts we had on board, could not be far
from our track: A great number of birds were every day about the ship,
and large whales were continually swimming by her. The weather in
general was fine, but very cold, and we all agreed notwithstanding the
hope we had once formed, that the only difference between the middle of
summer here, and the middle of winter in England, lies in the length of
the days. On Saturday the 15th, being in latitude 50 deg.33'S. longitude
66 deg.59'W. we were overtaken about six in the evening by the hardest gale
at S.W. that I was ever in, with a sea still higher than any I had seen
in going round Cape Horn with Lord Anson: I expected every moment that
it would fill us, our ship being much too deep-waisted for such a
voyage: It would have been safest to put before it under our bare poles,
but our stock of fresh water was not sufficient, and I was afraid of
being driven so far off the land as not to be able to recover it before
the whole was exhausted; we therefore lay-to under a balanced mizen, and
shipped many heavy seas, though we found our skreen bulk-heads of
infinite service.

[Footnote 15: For an account of his voyage, and of his supposed
discovery, see vol. x. page 217. It seems impossible to reconcile the
veracity of his narration with the non-existence of the island here
spoken of, which is not now allowed to hold a place in our maps. But the
reader will be better able to form a correct opinion on this subject,
after he has read the 5th Section, where the discovery of Cowley is
pretty fully discussed.--E.]

[Footnote 16: These may be considered the same as what are now called
Falkland's Islands, the name said to have been given them by Captain
Strong, in 1639; but they had been frequently seen before that period,
as by Sir Richard Hawkins in 1594, and Davis in 1592. They have various
other names, and are pretty well known.--E.]

The storm continued with unabated violence the whole night, but about
eight in the morning began to subside. At ten, we made sail under our
courses, and continued to steer for the land till Tuesday the 18th,
when, at four in the morning, we saw it from the mast-head. Our latitude
was now 51 deg.8'S. our longitude 71 deg.4'W. and Cape Virgin Mary, the north
entrance of the Streights of Magellan, bore S. 19 deg.50'W. distant nineteen
leagues. As we had little or no wind, we could not get in with the land
this day; the next morning, however, it being northerly, I stood in to a
deep bay, at the bottom of which there appeared to be a harbour, but I
found it barred, the sea breaking quite from one side of it to the
other; and at low water I could perceive that it was rocky, and almost
all dry: The water was shoal at a good distance from it, and I was in
six fathom before I stood out again. In this place there seemed to be
plenty of fish, and we saw many porpoises swimming after them, that were
as white as snow, with black spots; a very uncommon and beautiful sight.
The land here has the same appearance as about Port Desire, all downs,
without a single tree.

At break of day, on the 20th, we were off Cape Fairweather, which bore
about west at the distance of four leagues, and we had here but thirteen
fathom water, so that it appears necessary to give that cape a good
birth. From this place I ran close on shore to Cape Virgin Mary, but I
found the coast to lie S.S.E. very different from Sir John Narborough's
description, and a long spit of sand running to the southward of the
cape for above a league: In the evening I worked up close to this spit
of sand, having seen many guanicoes feeding in the vallies as we went
along, and a great smoke all the afternoon, about four or five leagues
up the strait, upon the north shore.[17] At this place I came to an
anchor in fifteen fathom water, but the Tamar was so far to leeward,
that she could not fetch the anchoring ground, and therefore kept under
way all night.

[Footnote 17: "At eight we discovered a good deal of smoke issuing from
different quarters, and on our nearer approach, could plainly perceive a
number of people on horseback."]

The next morning, at day-break, I got again under sail, and seeing the
same smoke that I had observed the day before, I stood in for it, and
anchored about two miles from the shore. This is the place where the
crew of the Wager, as they were passing the strait in their boat, after
the loss of the vessel, saw a number of horsemen, who waved what
appeared to be white handkerchiefs, inviting them to come on shore,
which they were very desirous to have done, but it blew so hard that
they were obliged to stand out to sea. Bulkeley, the gunner of the
Wager, who has published some account of her voyage, says, that they
were in doubt whether these people were Europeans who had been
shipwrecked upon the coast, or native inhabitants of the country about
the river Gallagoes. Just as we came to an anchor, I saw with my glass
exactly what was seen by the people in the Wager, a number of horsemen
riding backward and forward, directly abreast of the ship, and waving
somewhat white, as an invitation for us to come on shore. As I was very
desirous to know what these people were, I ordered out my twelve-oared
boat, and went towards the beach, with Mr Marshall, my second
lieutenant, and a party of men, very well armed; Mr Cumming, my first
lieutenant, following in the six-oared cutter.[18] When we came within a
little distance of the shore, we saw, as near as I can guess, about five
hundred people, some on foot, but the greater part on horseback: They
drew up upon a stony spit, which ran a good way into the sea, and upon
which it was very bad landing, for the water was shallow, and the stones
very large. The people on shore kept waving and hallooing, which, as we
understood, were invitations to land; I could not perceive that they had
any weapons among them, however I made signs that they should retire to
a little distance, with which they immediately complied: They continued
to shout with great vociferation, and in a short time we landed, though
not without great difficulty, most of the boat's crew being up to the
middle in water. I drew up my people upon the beach, with my officers at
their head, and gave orders that none of them should move from that
station, till I should either call or beckon to them. I then went
forward alone, towards the Indians, but perceiving that they retired as
I advanced, I made signs that one of them should come near: As it
happened, my signals were understood, and one of them, who afterwards
appeared to be a chief, came towards me: He was of a gigantic stature,
and seemed to realize the tales of monsters in a human shape: He had the
skin of some wild beast thrown over his shoulders, as a Scotch
Highlander wears his plaid, and was painted so as to make the most
hideous appearance I ever beheld: Round one eye was a large circle of
white, a circle of black surrounded the other, and the rest of his face
was streaked with paint of different colours: I did not measure him, but
if I may judge of his height by the proportion of his stature to my own,
it could not be much less than seven feet. When this frightful Colossus
came up, we muttered somewhat to each other as a salutation, and I then
walked with him towards his companions, to whom, as I advanced, I made
signs that they should sit down, and they all readily complied: There
were among them many women, who seemed to be proportionably large; and
few of the men were less than the chief who had come forward to meet me.
I had heard their voices very loud at a distance, and when I came near,
I perceived a good number of very old men, who were chanting some
unintelligible words in the most doleful cadence I ever heard, with an
air of serious solemnity, which inclined me to think that it was a
religious ceremony: They were all painted and clothed nearly in the same
manner; the circles round the two eyes were in no instance of one
colour, but they were not universally black and white, some being white
and red, and some red and black: Their teeth were as white as ivory,
remarkably even and well set; but except the skins, which they wore with
the hair inwards, most of them were naked, a few only having upon their
legs a kind of boot, with a short pointed stick fastened to each heel,
which served as a spur. Having looked round upon these enormous goblins
with no small astonishment, and with some difficulty made those that
were still galloping up sit down with the rest, I took out a quantity of
yellow and white beads, which I distributed among them, and which they
received with very strong expressions of pleasure: I then took out a
whole piece of green silk ribband, and giving the end of it into the
hands of one of them, I made the person that sat next take hold of it,
and so on as far as it would reach: All this while they sat very
quietly, nor did any of those that held the ribband attempt to pull it
from the rest, though I perceived that they were still more delighted
with it than with the beads. While the ribband was thus extended, I took
out a pair of scissars, and cut it between each two of the Indians that
held it, so that I left about a yard in the possession of every one,
which I afterwards tied about their heads, where they suffered it to
remain without so much as touching it while I was with them. Their
peaceable and orderly behaviour on this occasion certainly did them
honour, especially as my presents could not extend to the whole company:
Neither impatience to share the new finery, nor curiosity to gain a
nearer view of me and what I was doing, brought any one of them from the
station that I had allotted him.