A New Voyage Round the World by a Course Never Sailed Before, Page 3

too many men, and being too full of goods.

  The Spanish captain, though surprised with the stratagem that hadbrought him thus into the hands of his enemies, and greatly enraged inhis mind at being circumvented, and trepanned out of his ship, yetshowed a great presence of mind under his misfortune; and, as I verilybelieve, he would have fought us very bravely, if we had let him knowfairly what we were, so he did not at all appear dejected at hisdisaster, but capitulated with us as if he had been taken sword in hand.And one time, when Captain Merlotte and he could not agree, and theSpanish captain was a little threatened, he grew warm; told the captainthat he might be ill used, being in his hands, but that he was notafraid to suffer whatever his ill fortune had prepared for him, and hewould not, for fear of ill usage, yield to base conditions; that he wasa man of honour, and if he was so too, he demanded to be put on boardhis own ship again, and he should see he knew how to behave himself.Captain Merlotte smiled at that, and told him, he was not afraid to puthim on board his own ship, and fight for her again, and that, if he didso, he was sure he could not escape him; the Spanish captain smiled too,and told him he should see, if he did, that he knew the way to heavenfrom the bottom of the sea as well as any other road, and that men ofcourage were never at a loss to conquer their enemy one way or other;intimating, that he would sink by his side rather than be taken, andthat he would take care to be but a very indifferent prize to him, if hewas conquered.

  However, we came to better terms with him afterwards. In short, havingtaken on board all the silver, which was about two hundred thousandpieces of eight, and whatever else we met with that was valuable, amongthe rest his ammunition, and six brass guns, we performed conditions,and sent him into the Rio de la Plata again with his ship, to let theother Spanish captains know what scouring they had escaped.

  Though we got a good booty, we were disappointed of a ship; however, wewere not so sensible of that disappointment now, as we were afterwards:for, as we depended upon going to the South Seas, we made no doubt ofmeeting with vessels enough for our purpose. Of what followed, thereader will soon be informed.

  We had done our work here, and had neither any occasion or any desire tolie any longer on this coast, where the climate was bad, and the weatherexceeding hot, and where our men began to be very uneasy, being crowdedtogether so close all in one ship; so we made the best of our way south.

  We met with some stormy weather in these seas, and particularly anorth-west blast, which carried us for eleven days a great way off tosea; but, as we had sea-room enough, and a stout strong-built ship underus, perfectly well prepared, tight and firm, we made light of the stormswe met with, and soon came into our right way again; so that, about the4th of May, we made land in the latitude of 45 deg. 12', south.

  We put in here for fresh water; and, finding nothing of the land markedin our charts, we had no knowledge of the place, but, coming to ananchor at about a league from the shore, our boat went in quest of agood watering-place; in pursuit of this, they went up a creek about twoleagues more, where they found good water, and filled some casks, and socame on board to make their report.

  The next day we came into the creek's mouth, where we found six to eightfathom water within a cable's length of the shore, and found fresh waterenough, but no people or cattle, though an excellent country for both.

  Of this country I made many observations, suitable to the design anddesire of our ingenious employer and owner; and those observations areone end of publishing this voyage. I shall mention only one observationhere, because I shall have occasion to speak of them hereafter morelargely. My observation here is as follows:--

  _An observation concerning the soil and climate of the continent of America, south of the river De la Plata; and how suitable to the genius, the constitution, and the manner of living of Englishmen, and consequently for an English colony._

  The particular spot which I observe upon, is that part of the continent of America which lies on the shore of the North Seas, as they are called, though erroneously, for they are more properly the East Seas, being extended along the east shores of South America. The land lies on the same east side of America, extended north and south from Coasta Deserta, in 42 deg., to Port St. Julian, in 491/2 deg., being almost five hundred miles in length, full of very good harbours, and some navigable rivers. The land is a plain for several scores of miles within the shore, with several little rising hills, but nowhere mountainous or stony; well adapted for enclosing, feeding, and grazing of cattle; also for corn, all sorts of which would certainly not only grow, but thrive very well here, especially wheat, rye, pease, and barley, things which would soon be improved by Englishmen, to the making the country rich and populous, the raising great quantities of grain of all sorts, and cattle in proportion. The trade which I propose for the consumption of all the produce, and the place whither to be carried, I refer to speak of by itself, in the farther progress of this work.

  I return now to the pursuit of our voyage. We put to sea again the 10thof May, with fair weather and a fair wind; though a season of the year,it is true, when we might have reason to expect some storms, being whatwe might call the depth of their winter. However, the winds heldnortherly, which, there, are to be esteemed the warm winds, and bringingmild weather; and so they did, till we came into the latitude of 50 deg.,when we had strong winds and squally weather, with much snow and cold,from the south-west and south-west by west, which, blowing very hard, weput back to Port St. Julian, where we were not able to stir for sometime.

  We weighed again the 29th, and stood south again past the mouth of theStraits of Magellan, a strait famous for many years, for being thoughtto be the only passage out of the North Seas into the South Seas, andtherefore I say famous some ages; not only in the discovery of it byMagellan, a Spanish captain, but of such significance, that, for manyyears, it was counted a great exploit to pass this strait, and few haveever done it of our nation, but that they have thought fit to tell theworld of it as an extraordinary business, fit to be made public as anhonour to their names. Nay, King Charles the Second thought it worthwhile to send Sir John Narborough, on purpose to pass and take an exactsurvey of this strait; and the map or plan of it has been published bySir John himself, at the public expense, as a useful thing.

  Such a mighty and valuable thing also was the passing this strait, thatSir Francis Drake's going through it gave birth to that famous oldwives' saying, viz., that Sir Francis Drake shot the gulf; a saying thatwas current in England for many years after Sir Francis Drake was gonehis long journey of all; as if there had been but one gulf in the world,and that passing it had been a wonder next to that of Hercules cleansingthe Augean stable.

  Of this famous place I could not but observe, on this occasion, that, asignorance gave it its first fame and made it for so many ages the mosteminent part of the globe, as it was the only passage by which the wholeworld could be surrounded, and that it was to every man's honour thathad passed it; so now it is come to the full end or period of its fame,and will in all probability never have the honour to have any ship,vessel, or boat, go through it more, while the world remains, unless,which is very improbable, that part of the world should come to be fullyinhabited.

  I know some are of opinion, that, before the full period of the earth'sexistence, all the remotest and most barren parts of it shall bepeopled; but I see no ground for such a notion, but many reasons whichwould make it appear to be impracticable, and indeed impossible; unlessit should please God to alter the situation of the globe as it respectsthe sun, and place it in a direct, as it now moves in an obliqueposition; or that a new species of mankind should be produced, who mightbe as well qualified to live in the frozen zone as we are in thetemperate, and upon whom the extremity of cold could have no power. Isay, as there are several parts of the globe where this would beimpracticable, I shall say no more than this, that I think it is agroundless suggestion.

  But to return to our voyage; we
passed by the mouth of this famousStrait of Magellan, and those others which were passed through by LeMaire the Dutch sailor afterwards; and keeping an offing of six or sevenleagues, went away south, till we came into the latitude of 58 deg., when wewould, as we had tried three days before, have stretched awaysouth-west, to have got into the South Seas, but a strong gale of windtook us at west-north-west, and though we could, lying near to it,stretch away to the southward, yet, as it over-blowed, we could make nowestward way; and though we had under us an excellent strong-builtvessel, that, we may say, valued not the waves, and made very good workof it, yet we went away to leeward in spite of all we could do, and lostground apace. We held it out, however, the weather being clear, butexcessive cold, till we found ourselves in the latitude of 64 deg..

  We called our council several times, to consider what we should do, forwe did but drive to leeward the longer we strove with it; the gale heldstill on, and, to our apprehensions, it was