Anson's Voyage Round the World eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 210 pages of information about Anson's Voyage Round the World.

Anson's Voyage Round the World eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 210 pages of information about Anson's Voyage Round the World.
up and retreating to other places where the water had not yet entered, and the captain, having done his utmost to get the whole crew on shore, was at last obliged to leave these mutineers behind him and to follow his officers and such as he had been able to prevail on; but he did not fail to send back the boats to persuade those who remained to have some regard to their preservation, though all his efforts were for some time without success.  However the weather next day proving stormy, and there being great danger of the ship’s parting, they began to be alarmed with the fears of perishing, and were desirous of getting to land; but it seems their madness had not yet left them, for the boat not appearing to fetch them off as soon as they expected, they at last pointed a four-pounder which was on the quarter-deck against the hut where they knew the captain resided on shore, and fired two shots, which passed but just over it.

From this specimen of the behaviour of part of the crew it will not be difficult to frame some conjecture of the disorder and anarchy which took place when they at last got all on shore.

There was another important point which set the greatest part of the people at variance with the captain:  this was their differing with him in opinion on the measures to be pursued in the present exigency, for the captain was determined, if possible, to fit up the boats in the best manner he could and to proceed with them to the northward; for having with him above a hundred men in health, and having got some firearms and ammunition from the wreck, he did not doubt that they could master any Spanish vessel they should meet with in those seas, and he thought he could not fail of meeting with one in the neighbourhood of Chiloe or Baldivia, in which, when he had taken her, he intended to proceed to the rendezvous at Juan Fernandez; and he further insisted, that should they meet with no prize by the way, yet the boats alone would easily carry them there.  But this was a scheme that, however prudent, was no ways relished by the generality of his people, for, being quite jaded with the distresses and dangers they had already run through, they could not think of prosecuting an enterprise further which had hitherto proved so disastrous, and, therefore, the common resolution was to lengthen the long-boat, and with that and the rest of the boats to steer to the southward, to pass through the Straits of Magellan, and to range along the east side of South America till they should arrive at Brazil, where they doubted not to be well received, and to procure a passage to Great Britain.  This project was at first sight infinitely more hazardous and tedious than what was proposed by the captain, but as it had the air of returning home, and flattered them with the hopes of bringing them once more to their native country, this circumstance alone rendered them inattentive to all its inconveniences, and made them adhere to it with insurmountable obstinacy, so that the captain himself,

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Anson's Voyage Round the World from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.