Thirty-Four English, And A Little Negro Boy We Had
Taken From The Spaniards.
While we were employed in watering our bark,
the men on board the St George were busied in refitting
That ship as
well as they could; the carpenter stopping up the shot-holes in the
powder-room with tallow and charcoal, not daring, as he said, to drive a
nail, for fear of making it worse. The four great guns, which usually
stood between decks, were put down into the hold, there being sixteen
besides, which was more than they now had men to manage, as there only
remained twenty-eight men and boys with Captain Dampier, who were mostly
landsmen, a very insignificant force indeed with which to make war on a
whole nation.
SECTION II.
Sequel of the Voyage of William Funnell, after his Separation from
Captain Dampier.
We left the Gulf of Amapalla on the 1st February, 1705, where Captain
Dampier remained at anchor in the St George, having a fine gale of wind
at N.E. While in any of the harbours on the coast of Mexico, we were
seldom allowed any thing except flour, only that we used to go on shore,
and found on the rocks plenty of concks, oysters, muscles, and other
shell-fish, on which we made many a hearty meal. Being now bound, as we
hoped, for a land of plenty, we bore hunger and short commons with great
patience, of which we had much need, as our allowance was no more than
half a pound of coarse flour a day to each man, and two ounces of salt
meat every other day. Our vessel was a small bark of about seventy tons
with two masts, which we had taken from the Spaniards, which was so
eaten with worms while in the Gulf of Amapalla, that she already began
to grow very leaky. To add to our distress, we had no carpenter, neither
had we a doctor or any medicines, if any of us happened to fall sick,
and we had no boat to aid us if our vessel should fail. The carpenter,
doctor, and boat being all left with Captain Dampier. Yet, trusting to
God's providence, who had already delivered us out of so many dangers,
we proceeded on our voyage to India; and a bolder attempt was perhaps
never made by such a handful of men in so frail a bark, and nothing but
our anxious desire to revisit our native country could have supported us
under all the difficulties and dangers of this extensive voyage.
The prospect of our difficulties gave us spirit and resolution to
provide against them; and in a council, which we held on this occasion,
we determined on the course we were to pursue, and the allowance of
provisions during the course. We knew the wind we now had was merely a
land breeze, and that by running 100 leagues out to sea we should fall
in with the regular trade-wind, which blows always N.E. or E.N.E. our
first purpose was, therefore, to get into the latitude of 13 deg. N. which
is that of Guam, and then to bear away before the wind in that parallel.
This resolution was formed on the 2d February, all which day and most of
the ensuing night we had fine calm weather, and caught abundance of
yellow-tails, which swam about the vessel. This fish is about four
feet long, having twenty fins on its back; a middling one behind the
head, a large one on the middle of the back, and eighteen small ones
between that and the tail. It has a large fin on each side near the
gills, and thirteen under the belly, viz. a middling one under the
gills, a large one near the middle of the belly, which goes in with a
dent, and eleven small ones between that and the tail, which is yellow
and half-mooned. This fish has a very great head, with large eyes, and
is good eating, having no bones except the back-bone. It is all white,
except the tips of the fins and the tail, which, are yellow. These fish
were very acceptable to us, as we fed upon them for three days, saving
our other provisions. On the 3d February, five or six turtles came near
our bark, two of which we caught, which also served to save our scanty
store of provisions, which otherwise had not sufficed to keep us from
starving.
On the evening of the 3d February, having a brisk gale from the land at
N.E. we took our departure from Mount St Miguel in the Gulf of
Amapalla, steering S.W. and S.S.W. till we were in the lat. of 10 deg. N.
when falling in with the tradewind, we set our course W.N.W. we then
made studding-sails to our main and main-top sails, which we hoisted
every morning at day-break, and hauling down at sun-set, as it commonly
blew so fresh in the night that we had usually to furl our top-sail; but
the wind commonly abated at sun-rise. During our whole voyage we
steadily adhered to the rule of diet we had laid down, the slenderness
of which may be judged of by the following particulars.
From the 3d of February to the end of that month, we fed entirely on
plantains, making two meals a day, and allowing two plantains to each
man for a meal. We had then recourse to our flour, of which half a pound
was allowed daily to each man, and two ounces every other day of salt
beef or pork; but the meat had been so long in salt, that it shrunk one
half when boiled, wherefore we concluded it was better to eat it raw,
which we did as long as it lasted. By the beginning of April that began
to fail, so that we were reduced to flour alone, which was sore spoiled,
being full of maggots, spiders, and other vermin, so that nothing but
the extremity of want could have induced us to eat it.
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