While in Holland, the news arrived of a Russian victory over the Turks and Tartars, and the imperial workman received the congratulations of the Emperor of Germany, the Kings of Sweden, Denmark, and other countries. He celebrated the event by giving a grand entertainment to the princ.i.p.al officials and merchants of Amsterdam, their wives and daughters. "The sumptuous dinner was accompanied and followed by a band of music, and in the evening were plays, dancing, masquerades, illuminations, and fireworks. His respectable friend, Witsen, told him that he had entertained his countrymen like an emperor." And now, after nine months"
hard work at Zardam, he had an interview with King William at the Hague, who arranged to transport him and his suite in one of the royal yachts, accompanied by two men-of-war.
[Ill.u.s.tration: OLD DOCKYARD AT DEPTFORD.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: SAYE"S COURT, DEPTFORD.]
No secret was made of the Czar"s rank in London, although he tried to live as privately as possible. He was placed under the special charge of the Marquis of Carmarthen, and a great intimacy sprang up between them. A large house was hired for him and his suite at the bottom of York Buildings, where the marquis and he used to spend their evenings together frequently in drinking "hot pepper and brandy." But then a pint of brandy and a bottle of sherry was nothing uncommon as a morning draught for the Czar. After seeing all the sights of London, he paid visits to Chatham, Portsmouth, and elsewhere, but the larger part of his time was spent at Deptford, where he repaired to investigate and learn the higher branches of naval architecture and navigation. There is little or no evidence, popular tradition to the contrary notwithstanding, that he ever worked as a shipwright there,(10) or engaged in more laborious employment than rowing, or in sailing yachts and boats about the Thames. The writer has before him now one of the conventional pictures of "Peter at Deptford." It represents a smooth-faced youth of feminine appearance, and about sixteen years old at most, vigorously engaged, apparently, in doing damage to a ship"s bulwarks with a gigantic hammer and formidable spike. The fact is that Peter was in his twenty-sixth year, had been the ruler of a great empire for several years, and was beyond his years in acquirements and earnestness; a man of strong pa.s.sions, and sadly given to drink. Peter was glad to get out of town. Crowds gave him an amount of annoyance that was inexplicable to a Londoner; and he avoided, as much as he could, b.a.l.l.s and a.s.semblies and public gatherings for the same reason. Nor could he have desired a more pleasant and suitable place than that which was provided for him, the celebrated Saye"s Court, Evelyn"s charming house and grounds(11) close to Deptford Dockyard, which had just become vacant by the removal of Admiral Benbow, who had been its tenant. A special doorway was broken through the boundary wall of the dockyard to facilitate communication for the Czar. Benbow had given poor Evelyn much dissatisfaction, but the new occupant was rather worse. His servant wrote to him, "There is a house full of people, right nasty. The Tzar lies next your study, and dines in the parlour next your study. He dines at ten o"clock, and six at night; is very seldom at home a whole night; very often in the king"s yard, or by water, dressed in several dresses. The king is expected there this day; the best parlour is pretty clean for him to be entertained in. The king pays for all he has." But, alas for poor Evelyn"s hedges! The Czar, by way of exercise, and to prove his strength, used to trundle a wheel-barrow, full tilt, through a favourite holly-hedge, "which," says Evelyn, "I can still show in my ruined gardens at Saye"s Court (thanks to the Tzar of Muscovy)." The Czar employed his days in acquiring information on all branches of naval architecture, and in sailing about the river with Carmarthen and Sir Anthony Deane, commissioner of the navy. "The Navy Board received directions from the Admiralty to hire two vessels to be at the command of the Tzar whenever he should think proper to sail on the Thames," and the king made him a present of a small vessel, the _Royal Transport_, giving orders to have such alterations and accommodations made in her as the Czar might desire.
"But his great delight was to get into a small-decked boat, belonging to the dockyard, and taking only Menzikoff, and three or four others of his suite, to work the vessel with them, he being the helmsman; by this practice he said he should be able to teach them how to command ships when they got home. Having finished their day"s work, they used to resort to a public house in Great Tower Street, close to Tower Hill, to smoke their pipes, and drink beer and brandy. The landlord had the Tzar of Muscovy"s head painted and put up for his sign." The original sign remained till 1808.
Greenwich Hospital surprised him, and King William, having one day asked him how he liked his hospital for decayed seamen, Peter answered simply, "If I were the adviser of your Majesty, I should counsel you to remove your court to Greenwich, and convert St. James"s into a hospital." In the first week of March a sham naval fight was organised near Spithead, for his amus.e.m.e.nt, eleven ships being engaged. The _Postman_, a journal of the period, says, "The representation of a sea engagement was excellently performed before the Tzar of Muscovy, and continued a considerable time, each ship having twelve pounds of powder allowed; but all the bullets were locked up in the hold, for fear the soldiers should mistake." The enterprising journal did not, probably, send down a special representative, as would any leading paper of to-day, and the small quant.i.ty of powder allowed must be a mistake. The Czar was greatly pleased with the performance, and told Admiral Mitch.e.l.l, who arranged the performance, that "he considered the condition of an English admiral happier than that of a Tzar of Russia." On their way home from Portsmouth, the Russian party, twenty-one in all, stopped a night at G.o.dalming. The sea air had done so much good to their appet.i.tes that at dinner they managed to get through an entire sheep, three quarters of lamb, five ribs of beef, weighing three stone, a shoulder and loin of veal, eight fowls, eight rabbits, two dozen and a half of sack, and one dozen of claret.
Their light breakfast consisted of half a sheep, a quarter of lamb, ten pullets, twelve chickens, seven dozen eggs, salad "in proportion," three quarts of brandy, and six quarts of mulled wine.
When residing at Deptford, he made the acquaintance of the celebrated Dr.
Halley, "to whom he communicated his plan of building a fleet, and in general of introducing the arts and sciences into his country," and asked his opinions and advice on various subjects. The doctor spoke German fluently, and the Tzar was so much pleased with the philosopher"s conversation and remarks that he had him frequently to dine with him; and in his company he visited the Royal Observatory in Greenwich Park. An important concession was made by him to some leading merchants, through the influence of the Marquis of Carmarthen. Tobacco had been so highly taxed that none but the wealthy Russians could afford it. The Czar agreed that on paying him down 12,000 (some accounts say 15,000) it should go in duty free. He stipulated that his friend Carmarthen should receive five shillings for every hogshead so admitted. Peter stuck to his friends, and his kindheartedness in general does much to obliterate the memory of some traits of character which are not to his credit. On leaving England, he "gave the king"s servants, at his departure, one hundred and twenty guineas, which was more than they deserved, they being very rude to him,"
says one plain-speaking historian. To the king he presented a rough ruby which the jewellers of Amsterdam had valued at 10,000 sterling. Peter carried this gem to King William in his waistcoat pocket, wrapped up in a piece of brown paper. The king had treated him in a royal fashion, so far as Peter would allow him, and before he departed induced him to sit to Sir G.o.dfrey Kneller for his portrait, which is now at Windsor. Four yachts and two ships of the Royal Navy were placed at his disposal when he departed once more for Holland. Peter took with him to Russia three English captains who had served in the Royal Navy, twenty-five captains of the merchant service, thirty pilots, thirty surgeons, two hundred gunners, and a number of mechanics and smiths, making a total of little less than five hundred persons, all natives of Great Britain. A letter from one of them to a relative in England shows how much Peter did, almost immediately on his return to Russia, in the interests of his navy. He had already thirty-six ships of war: twenty, ranging from thirty to sixty guns each, were to be launched the following spring; eighteen galleys were being constructed by Italian workmen, and one hundred smaller vessels were on the stocks. The forests of masts he had seen at London and Amsterdam had fired his ambition, and we now find him not merely determined to have a navy, but a port of the first cla.s.s. Hence St. Petersburg.
Pa.s.sing over events in the history of Peter the Great not bearing on maritime subjects, we learn that "Five months had scarcely elapsed from laying the first stone of St. Petersburg, when a report was brought to the Tzar that a large ship, under Dutch colours, was standing into the river.
It may be supposed this was a joyful piece of intelligence for the founder. It was nothing short of realising the wish nearest his heart: to open the Baltic for the nations of Europe to trade with his dominions, it const.i.tuted them his neighbours; and he at once antic.i.p.ated the day when his ships would beat the Swedish navy, and drive them from a sea on which they had long ridden triumphant with undivided sway. When Peter was employed in building his fleet at Voronitz, Patrick Gordon one day asked him, "Of what use do you expect all the vessels you are building to be, seeing you have no seaports?" "My vessels shall make ports for themselves," replied Peter, in a determined tone; a declaration which was now on the eve of being accomplished.
"No sooner was the communication made, than the Tzar, with his usual rapidity, set off to meet this welcome stranger. The skipper was invited to the house of Menzikoff: he sat down at table, and to his great astonishment, found that he was placed next the Tzar, and had actually been served by him. But not less astonished and delighted was Peter on learning that the ship belonged to, and had been freighted by his old Zaardam friend, with whom he had resided, Cornelius Calf. Permission was immediately given to the skipper to land his cargo, consisting of salt, wine, and other articles of provisions, free of all duties. Nothing could be more acceptable to the inhabitants of the new city than this cargo, the whole of which was purchased by Peter, Menzikoff, and the several officers, so that Auke Wybes, the skipper, made a most profitable adventure. On his departure he received a present of five hundred ducats, and each man of the crew, one hundred rix-dollars, as a premium for the first ship that had entered the port of St. Petersburg."(12) The second ship to arrive was also Dutch; the third was an English vessel; both received the same premium. The rapidity with which the swampy banks of the Neva were covered with wharfs and buildings has been almost unexampled in history. Peter had Amsterdam in his eye when he laid out St. Petersburg, and he had secured the services of a number of Dutch ship-builders and masons, architects, and surveyors well versed in making solid foundations on swampy land.
And now, while England was distracted by the civil war of the first Pretender, and by the rupture with Charles XII. of Sweden, she had much trouble with the Barbary pirates, who, in the West Indies in particular, constantly hara.s.sed her shipping interests. So great a nuisance had these "water-rats" become that 100 head-money was offered for every captain, 40 for any rank from a lieutenant to a gunner, and 20 for every pirate seaman. Any private who delivered up his commander was ent.i.tled to 200 on the conviction of the latter. But there were also at that period "land-rats" at home, as bad as any pirate, preying on the public purse.
This was the epoch when Hamlet"s words "they"re all mad there," might almost have been said of England, and with even greater truth of our neighbours across the Channel. Two extraordinary schemes, one of which was to make France the richest of commercial nations, and the second of which was to pay the national debt of England, were propounded, great companies raised, and supported by half the people, from princes to petty tradesmen.
As projects depending upon commerce with foreign countries, they, of course, are intimately connected with our subject. Need it be said that the writer refers to the two extraordinary delusions known as the Mississippi Scheme and the South Sea Bubble?
The first of these projects was designed to develop the resources of the great country lying round the Mississippi, especially Louisiana; to open up mineral deposits supposed to be wonderfully rich; and to carry on a general trade with that part of America. The second, which more intimately concerns us, included a monopoly of trade with the South Sea, a somewhat elastic t.i.tle, but which meant at the time commerce with the countries of Spanish America. The South Sea Company was originated by Harley, Earl of Oxford, in 1711, with the distinct view of "providing for the discharge of the army and navy debentures, and other parts of the floating debt, amounting to nearly ten million sterling." A company of merchants took this debt upon themselves, the Government agreeing to secure them, for a certain period, six per cent. interest, and grant them the monopoly of the trade to the South Seas. The most exaggerated ideas relating to the mineral wealth of South America were prevalent at the time, and when a report, most industriously spread, was circulated that Philip V. of Spain was ready to concede four ports of Chili and Peru for purposes of trade, South Sea stock rose in value with extraordinary rapidity. That monarch, however, never meant to grant anything like a free trade to the English.
After sundry negotiations had been opened the royal a.s.sent was given to a contract, conceding the privilege of supplying the colonies with negroes for thirty years, and of sending _once a year one vessel_ "limited both as to tonnage and value of cargo" to trade with Mexico, Peru, and Chili, the king to enjoy one-fourth of the profits. On these hard conditions and slender privileges was the great Bubble blown into popular esteem. Rumours of commercial treaties between England and Spain were circulated, whereby the latter was to grant free trade to all her colonies; the rich produce of the Potosi mines "was to be brought to England until silver should become almost as plentiful as iron. For cotton and woollen goods, with which we could supply them in abundance, the dwellers in Mexico were to empty their golden mines. The company of merchants trading to the South Seas would be the richest the world ever saw, and every hundred pounds invested would produce hundreds per annum to the stockholder."(13) These and still more lying statements were spread in every direction. The stock rose like a rocket. And, so far as the present writer can discover, the first voyage of the one annual ship, not made till 1717, six years after the first establishment of the company, was also its last! The following year the trade was suppressed by the rupture with Spain.
"It seemed at that time as if the whole nation had turned stock-jobbers.
Exchange Alley was every day blocked up by crowds, and Cornhill was impa.s.sable for the number of carriages. Everybody came to purchase stock.
"Every fool aspired to be a knave." In the words of a ballad published at the time, and sung about the streets-
""Then stars and garters did appear Among the meaner rabble; To buy and sell, to see and hear The Jews and Gentiles squabble.
"The greatest ladies thither came, And plied in chariots daily; Or p.a.w.ned their jewels for a sum To venture in the Alley.""
Not merely South Sea stock, but schemes of even a wilder nature now deluged the market. It would seem incredible, but it is vouched for on good authority, that one adventurer started "_A company for carrying on an undertaking of great advantage, but n.o.body to know what it is_," and in one day sold a thousand shares, the deposit on which was 2 per share. He thought it prudent to decamp with the 2,000, and was no more heard of.
Mackay publishes a list of eighty-six bubble companies, which were eventually declared illegal and abolished. But the South Sea Bubble was a Triton among these minnows, and the directors, having once tasted the profits of their scheme by the rapid rise of its shares, kept their emissaries at work. Nor indeed were they much needed, for every person interested in the stock endeavoured to draw a knot of listeners round him in "Change Alley, or its purlieus, to whom he expatiated on the treasures of the South American Seas. Then came the rumour that Gibraltar was to be exchanged for certain places on the coast of Peru. Instead of paying a tribute to the King of Spain, the company would be able to trade freely, and send as many ships as they liked.
"Visions of ingots danced before their eyes,"
and the directors opened their books for a subscription of a million, and then for a second million, and the frantic speculators took it all. Swift described "Change Alley as a gulf in the South Seas:-
"Subscribers here by thousands float, And jostle one another down, Each paddling in his leaky boat, And here they fish for gold and drown.
"Now buried in the depths below, Now mounted up to heaven again, They reel and stagger to and fro, At their wits" end, like drunken men.
"Meantime, secure on Garraway cliffs, A savage race, by shipwrecks fed, Lie waiting for the foundering skiffs, And strip the bodies of the dead."
The directors used every art to keep up the price of the stock. It rose finally to 1,000 per share. A few weeks afterwards it was down to 175, then to 135, and the Bubble had burst.
To detail the various plans tried or suggested to bolster up the company, the Parliamentary inquiries, or the stringent measures adopted to punish the directors, would be out of place here. Suffice it to say that a bill was brought in for restraining the South Sea directors and officers from leaving the kingdom for a twelvemonth. They were forbidden to realise on their estates and effects, neither must they will or remove them.
Eventually they were obliged to disgorge their gains. "A sum amounting to two million and fourteen thousand pounds was confiscated from their estates towards repairing the mischief they had done, each man being allowed a certain residue in proportion to his conduct and circ.u.mstances, with which he might begin the world anew. Sir John Blunt was only allowed 5,000 out of his fortune of upwards of 183,000; Sir John Fellows was allowed 10,000 out of 243,000; Sir Theodore Janssen 50,000 out of 243,000; Mr. Edward Gibbon 10,000 out of 106,000; Sir John Lambert 5,000 out of 72,000." After every effort on the part of the Committee of Investigation, a dividend of about 33 per cent. was divided among the unfortunate proprietors and stock-holders. It took long before public credit was restored.
[Ill.u.s.tration: COMMODORE ANSON.]
CHAPTER III.
THE HISTORY OF SHIPS AND SHIPPING INTERESTS (_continued_).
A Grand Epoch of Discovery-Anson"s Voyage-Difficulties of manning the Fleet-Five Hundred Invalided Pensioners drafted-The Spanish Squadron under Pizarro-Its Disastrous Voyage-One Vessel run ash.o.r.e-Rats at Four Dollars each-A Man-of-war held by eleven Indians-Anson at the Horn-Fearful Outbreak of Scurvy-Ash.o.r.e at Robinson Crusoe"s Island-Death of two-thirds of the Crews-Beauty of Juan Fernandez-Loss of the _Wager_-Drunken and Insubordinate Crew-Attempt to blow up the Captain-A Midshipman shot-Desertion of the Ship"s Company-Prizes taken by Anson-His Humanity to Prisoners-The _Gloucester_ abandoned at Sea-Delightful Stay at Tinian-The _Centurion_ blown out to Sea-Despair of those on Sh.o.r.e-Its Safe Return-Capture of the Manilla Galleon-A Hot Fight-Prize worth a Million and a half Dollars-Return to England.
The second of the greatest epochs of discovery-one, indeed, hardly inferior to that of Columbus and Da Gama, when Dampier, Byron, Wallis, and Carteret, Cook, and Clerke may be said to have substantially completed the map of the world in its most essential and leading features-would follow in proper sequence here, but for a pre-arranged plan, which will place "The Decisive Voyages of the World" by themselves. One voyage of this period, that of Commodore Anson, deserves mention, inasmuch as it was instigated for the purpose of making reprisals on the Spaniards for their behaviour in searching English ships found near any of their settlements in the West Indies or Spanish Main, and not for attempts at discovery. It also gives some little insight into the condition of the navy at the period. It was most wretchedly equipped and manned, and although the ships were placed under Anson"s command in November, 1739, they were not ready to sail till ten months later, so great was the difficulty in obtaining men. They had to be taken from all and any sources. Five hundred out-pensioners from Chelsea Hospital were sent on board, many of whom were sixty years of age, and some threescore and ten. Before the ships sailed, 240 of them, fortunately for themselves, deserted, their place being filled by a nearly equal number of raw marines, recruits who were so untrained that Anson would not permit them to fire off their muskets, for fear of accidents! Of the poor pensioners who sailed, not one returned to tell the story of their disasters, while of the whole squadron, consisting of six ships of war, mounting 226 guns, one alone, the _Centurion_, commanded by Anson himself, reached home, after a cruise of three years and nine months. The history of this voyage, as told by the chaplain of the vessel,(14) is one round of miseries and disasters.
"Mr. Anson," says the narrator of this eventful voyage, "was greatly chagrined at having such a decrepit attachment allotted to him; for he was fully persuaded that the greatest part of them would perish long before they arrived at the scene of action, since the delays he had already encountered necessarily confined his pa.s.sage round Cape Horn to the most rigorous season of the year. Sir Charles Wager (one of the Lords of the Admiralty) too, joined in opinion with the Commodore, that the invalids were no way proper for this service, and solicited strenuously to have them exchanged; but he was told that persons who were supposed to be better judges than he or Mr. Anson, thought them the properest men that could be employed on this occasion." All of the poor pensioners "who had limbs and strength to walk out of Portsmouth deserted, leaving behind them only such as were literally invalids.... Indeed, it is difficult to conceive a more moving scene than the embarkation of these unhappy veterans. They were themselves extremely averse to the service they were engaged on, and fully apprised of all the disasters they were afterwards exposed to, the apprehensions of which were strongly marked by the concern that appeared in their countenances, which were mixed with no small degree of indignation." Nor can one read these facts without sharing the same feeling. Brave men who had spent the best of their youth and prime in the service of their country, were ruthlessly sent to certain death.
On the 18th of September, 1740, the squadron, consisting of five men-of-war, a sloop-of-war, and two tenders, or victualling ships, made sail. The vessels comprised the _Centurion_, of sixty guns and 400 men, commanded by George Anson; the _Gloucester_ and _Severn_, each fifty guns and 300 men; the _Pearl_, of forty guns and 250 men; the _Wager_, of twenty-eight guns and 160 men; and the _Tryal_ sloop, eight guns and 100 men. On their way down the Channel they were joined by other men-of-war convoying the Turkey, Straits, and American merchant fleets, so that for some distance out to sea the combined fleet amounted to no less than eleven vessels of the Royal Navy, and 150 sail of merchantmen. Anson called at Madeira, and refreshed his crews, from thence appointing the Island of St. Catherine"s, on the coast of Brazil, as the rendezvous for his fleet. Arrived there it was found that a large number of the men were sickly, as many as eighty being so reported on the _Centurion_ alone, and the other ships in proportion. Tents were erected ash.o.r.e for the invalids, and the vessels were thoroughly cleaned, smoked between decks, and finally washed well with vinegar. The vessels themselves required many repairs to fit them for the intended voyage round the Horn. The then governor of this Portuguese island, one Don Jose Sylva De Paz, behaved very badly, doing all in his power to prevent Anson from obtaining fresh provisions, and secretly dispatched an express to Buenos Ayres, where a Spanish squadron under Don Josef Pizarro then lay, with an account of the number and strength of the English ships. The history and disasters of this squadron would fill a long chapter.
Pizarro had with him six ships of war, and a very large force of men, two of the vessels having seven hundred each on board. But in spite of his superior strength, he avoided any engagement at this time, and seems to have been extremely desirous of rounding Cape Horn before Anson, for he left before his provision ships arrived. Notwithstanding this haste the two squadrons were once or twice very close together on the pa.s.sage to Cape Horn, and the _Pearl_, being separated from the fleet, and mistaking the Spanish squadron for it, narrowly escaped falling into their hands. In a terrible gale off the Horn the Spanish vessels became separated, and Pizarro turned his own ship"s head, the _Asia_, for the Plata once more.
One of his squadron, the _Hermiona_, of fifty-four guns and 500 men, is believed to have foundered at sea, for she was never heard of more.
Another, the _Guipuscoa_, a still larger ship, with 700 souls on board, was run ash.o.r.e and sunk on the coast of Brazil. Famine and mutiny were added to the horrors of these voyages. On the latter-named ship 250 died from hunger and fatigue, for those who were still strong enough to work at the pumps received only an ounce and a half of biscuit _per diem_, while the incapable were allowed an ounce of wheat! Men fell down dead at the pumps, and out of an original crew of 700, not more than eighty or a hundred were capable of duty. The captain had conceived some hopes of saving his ship by taking her into St. Catherine"s. When the crew learned his intention, they left off pumping, and "being enraged at the hardships they had suffered, and the numbers they had lost (there being at that time no less than thirty dead bodies lying on the deck) they all, with one voice, cried out, "On sh.o.r.e! on sh.o.r.e!" and obliged the captain to run the ship in directly for the land, where the fifth day after she sunk with her stores and all her furniture on board her." Four hundred of the crew got, however, safely to sh.o.r.e. On another of the Spanish ships they became so reduced "that rats, when they could be caught, were sold for four dollars apiece; and a sailor who died on board had his death concealed for some days by his brother, who during that time lay in the same hammock with the corpse, only to receive the dead man"s allowance of provisions." The _Asia_ arrived at Monte Video with only half her crew; the _Esperanza_, a fifty-gun ship, had only fifty-eight remaining out of 450 men, and the _St. Estevan_ had lost about half her hands. The latter vessel was condemned, and broken up in the Plata.
When Pizarro determined, in 1745, to return to Spain, they managed to patch up the _Asia_, at Monte Video, but had only 100 of the original hands left. They pressed a number of Portuguese, and put on board a number of English prisoners (not, however, of Anson"s squadron) and some Indians of the country. Among the latter was a chief named Orellana, and ten of his tribe, whom the Spaniards treated with great inhumanity. The Indians determined to have their revenge. They managed to acquire a number of long knives, and employed their leisure in cutting thongs of raw hide, and in fixing to each end of the thongs the double-headed shot of the quarter-deck guns, which when swung round their heads, became powerful weapons. In two or three days all was ready for their scheme of vengeance.
It was about nine in the evening, when the decks were comparatively clear, that Orellana and his companions, having divested themselves of most of their clothes, came together to the quarter-deck, approaching the door of the great cabin. The boatswain ordered them away. Orellana, however, paid no attention to him, placed two of his men at either gangway, and raising a hideous war-cry, they commenced the ma.s.sacre, slashing in all directions with the knives, and brandishing the double-headed shot. The six who remained with the chief on the quarter-deck laid nearly forty Spaniards low in a few minutes, of whom twenty were killed on the spot. Many of the officers fled into the great cabin, and hastily barricaded the door. A perfect panic ensued on board. Many attempting to escape to the forecastle were stabbed as they pa.s.sed by the four Indian sentries, and others jumped into the waist, where they thought themselves fortunate to lie concealed among the cattle on board; a number fled up the main shrouds and kept on the tops or rigging. The fact is that those on board did not know whether it was not a general mutiny among the pressed hands and prisoners, and the yells of the Indians and groans of the dying, and the confused clamour of the crew, were all heightened in effect by the obscurity of the night. And now Orellana secured the arm-chest, which had been placed on the quarter-deck for security a few days before. It was of no use to him, as he only found a quant.i.ty of fire-arms, which he did not understand, or for which he had no ammunition; the cutla.s.ses, for which he was in search, were fortunately hidden underneath. By this time Pizarro had established some communication with the gun-rooms and between decks, and discovered that the English prisoners had not intermeddled in the mutiny, which was confined to the Indians. They had only pistols in the cabin, and no ammunition for them; at last, however, they managed to obtain some by lowering a bucket out of the cabin window, into which the gunner, out of one of the gun-room ports, put a quant.i.ty of cartridges. After loading, they cautiously and partially opened the cabin door, firing several shots, at first without effect. At last, Mindinuetta, one of the captains of the original squadron, had the fortune to shoot Orellana dead on the spot, on which his faithful companions one and all leaped into the sea and perished. For full two hours these eleven Indians had held a ship of sixty-six guns, and manned by nearly 500 hands!
Pizarro, having escaped this peril, reached Spain in safety, "after having been absent between four and five years, and having," says the narrator, "by his attendance on our expedition, diminished the naval power of Spain by above three thousand hands (the flower of their sailors), and by four considerable ships of war and a patache." He had not encountered Anson, nor done any of his ships damage. To the disasters and adventures encountered by that commander we must now return.
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE "CENTURION" OFF CAPE HORN]
Off Cape Horn the weather was so terrible that it obliged the oldest mariners on board "to confess that what they had hitherto called storms were inconsiderable gales." Short, mountainous waves pitched and tossed the vessels so violently that the men were in perpetual danger of being dashed to pieces. One of the best seamen on the _Centurion_ was canted overboard and drowned; his manly form was long seen struggling in the water, he being a good swimmer, while those on board were powerless to a.s.sist him. Another man was thrown violently into the hold and broke his thigh; a second dislocated his neck, and one of the boatswain"s mates broke his collar-bone twice. The squalls were so sudden that they were obliged to lie-to for days together, almost under bare poles, and when in a lull they ventured to set a little canvas, the blasts would return and carry away their sails. Squalls of rain and snow constantly occurred. The _Centurion_, labouring in the heavy seas, "was now grown so loose in her upper works that she let in the water at every seam, so that every part within board was constantly exposed to the sea-water, and scarcely any of the officers ever lay in dry beds. Indeed, it was very rare that two nights ever pa.s.sed without many of them being driven from their beds by the deluge of water that came in upon them." Shrouds snapped, and yards and masts were lost on several of the squadron. Two of the vessels, the _Severn_ and the _Pearl_, became separated from the fleet, and were no more seen by them on the voyage.
But their worst trouble was a terrible outbreak of that insidious disease, the scurvy. In April, May, and part of June, the loss on the _Centurion_ alone was two hundred men, and at length they could not muster more than six fore-mast hands in a watch capable of duty. The symptoms of this horrible complaint are various; but apart from the universal s...o...b..tic manifestations on the body, diseased bones, swelled legs, and putrid gums, there is an extraordinary la.s.situde and weakness, which degenerate into a p.r.o.neness to swoon, and even die, on the least exertion of strength, and a dejection of spirits which leads the invalid to take alarm at the most trifling accident. Let the reader imagine what all this meant on closely-packed ships, tempest-tossed off the dreaded Horn. When at length the _Centurion_ reached the famed Crusoe Island, Juan Fernandez, the lieutenant "could muster no more than two quartermasters, and six fore-mast hands capable of working." Without the a.s.sistance of the officers, servants, and boys, they might never have been able to reach the island after sighting it, and with such aid they were _two hours_ in tr.i.m.m.i.n.g the sails. When their sloop, the _Tryal_, followed them to this haven of refuge, only the captain, lieutenant, and three men were able to stand by the sails. When, ten days later on, the _Gloucester_ was seen in the offing, and Anson had sent off a boat laden with fresh water, fish, and vegetables for the crew, it was found that they had already thrown overboard two-thirds of their complement. It took them, with some a.s.sistance sent by Anson, a month before they could fetch the bay, contrary winds and currents, but more their utterly exhausted condition, being the causes. They were now reduced to eighty out of an original crew of three hundred men. Severe as have been the sufferings from scurvy endured on many of the Arctic expeditions, there is no case on record as painful as this. The three ships which reached Juan Fernandez had on board when they left England 961 men; before the ravages of the disease were stopped the number was reduced to 335, scarcely sufficient to man the _Centurion_ alone. And it must be remembered that all this time they were uncertain of the movements of Pizarro and his fleet, which might appear among them at any moment. The refreshment obtained at the island, fresh water, vegetables, fruit, fish in abundance, a little goat"s flesh, and seal-meat, proved of great value to those of the crew whose const.i.tutions were not thoroughly undermined by the fell disease; but it was as much as they could do to effect the many repairs required on the vessels, to the extent even of removing and replacing masts.
Of the beauty of many parts of Juan Fernandez the chaplain speaks in enthusiastic terms. "Some particular spots occurred in these valleys, where the shade and fragrance of the contiguous woods, the loftiness of the overhanging rocks, and the transparency and frequent falls of the neighbouring streams, presented scenes of such elegance and dignity, as would with difficulty be rivalled in any other part of the globe.... I shall finish this article with a short account of the spot where the commodore pitched his tent, and which he made choice of for his own residence, though I despair of conveying an adequate idea of its beauty.
The piece of ground which he chose was a small lawn, that lay on a little ascent, at the distance of about half a mile from the sea. In the front of his tent there was a large avenue cut through the woods to the seaside, which, sloping to the water with a gentle descent, opened a prospect of the bay and the ships at anchor. This lawn was screened behind by a tall wood of myrtle sweeping round it, in the form of a theatre; the slope on which the wood stood rising with a much sharper ascent than the lawn itself, though not so much but that the hills and precipices within-land towered up considerably above the tops of the trees, and added to the grandeur of the view. There were besides two streams of crystal water, which ran on the right and left of the tent within a hundred yards"
distance, and were shaded by the trees which skirted the lawn on either side, and completed the symmetry of the whole."
Meantime, the other vessels of the squadron did not put in an appearance.
That two of them, the _Pearl_ and _Severn_, were not to be expected, we have already learned; but what had become of the _Wager_? It was learned afterwards that while making the pa.s.sage to the island of Socoro, one of the rendezvous of the squadron, she had become entangled among the rocks and grounded, soon becoming an utter wreck. The Honourable John Byron, afterwards a commodore in his Majesty"s service, but then a youngster on board, has left an account of the disaster in his well-known work.(15) "In the morning, about four o"clock," says he, "the ship struck. The shock we received upon this occasion, though very great, being not unlike a blow of a heavy sea, such as in the series of preceding storms we had often experienced, was taken for the same; but we were soon undeceived by her striking again more violently than before, which laid her upon her beam-ends, the sea making a fair breach over her. Every person that now could stir was presently upon the quarter-deck; and many of those were alert upon this occasion that had not showed their faces upon deck for above two months before; several poor wretches, who were in the last stage of the scurvy, and who could not get out of their hammocks, were immediately drowned." Some seemed bereaved of their senses; one man was seen stalking about the deck flourishing a cutla.s.s over his head, calling himself king of the country, and striking everybody he came near, till he was knocked down by some of those he had a.s.saulted. "Some, reduced before by long sickness and the scurvy, became on this occasion as it were petrified and bereaved of all sense, like inanimate logs, and were bandied to and fro by the jerks and rolls of the ship, without exerting any efforts to help themselves.... The man at the helm, though both rudder and tiller were gone, kept his station; and being asked by one of the officers if the ship would steer or not, first took his time to make trial by the wheel, and then answered with as much respect and coolness as if the ship had been in the greatest safety; and immediately after applied himself with his usual serenity to his duty, persuaded it did not become him to desert it as long as the ship kept together." The captain, who had dislocated his shoulder by a fall the day before, was coolness itself, and one of the mates did all in his power to inspire them with the belief that they would not be lost so near land. This wrought a change in many who but a few minutes before had been in despair, praying on their knees for mercy. It was another ill.u.s.tration of-