The People On Shore Had
Raised A Battery During The Sham Treaty About The Ransom Of The Marquis,
From Which They Fired On The Pinnace.
The pinnace now returned to
Clipperton, and reported that the only channel they could find lay
within pistol-shot of the shore; yet at six in the afternoon Clipperton
persisted to carry the Success into the harbour, making directly for the
ship that lay there at anchor.
The Spaniards carried her into
shoal-water,[244] where she was exposed to two fires, one from the new
battery on land, almost directly over head, and the other from the ship.
At nine she got foul of the rocks, when they had to cut away two of
their anchors, endeavouring to get her off, all the while the enemy
plying them warmly with shot and stones from the new battery on the
hill, so that they suffered severely in the hull and rigging of the
ship. They also had three men wounded, besides losing the first
lieutenant, Mr Davidson, an honest man and a good officer. Thus the
Success had to remain in a miserable situation, exposed during the whole
night to the continual fire of the enemy; and the surface of the water
being as smooth as a mill-pond, the ship was easily seen in the night,
while her unfortunate crew had no other mark to fire at but the flashes
of the enemy's guns.
[Footnote 244: This unexplained circumstance probably meant, that the
Success had at this time Spanish pilots, who betrayed her. - E.]
In this dangerous emergency, Captain Clipperton being overcome with
liquor, and quite unable to command, the officers came to the resolution
of running clear from the enemy as soon as they could get the ship
afloat, and signed a paper to indemnify Mr Cook if he would assume the
command. By four in the afternoon of the 29th they got the ship afloat,
and cut away their small bower anchor, but ran aground again in ten
minutes. At nine they carried out the kedge-anchor, but the hawser broke
in heaving. They now carried out another hawser, having a lower-deck gun
fixed to it, as they had now lost all their anchors, and were still
aground. At two in the morning of the 30th the enemy repeatedly called
upon them to surrender, or they might expect no quarter. At five they
carried out the main-top-mast shrowd hawser, with another gun, still
plying the enemy with their great guns and small-arms, though they were
able to do little harm; while the enemy never missed them, especially
directing their shot at the boats of the Success, whenever they saw them
in motion. At eleven in the forenoon of the 30th they carried out the
remains of their best bower-cable, with two lower-deck guns, which they
dropped right a-head in five fathoms water. They now cleared the hold,
ready to start their water to lighten the ship; got their upper and
lower-deck guns forwards, to bring her by the head as she hung abaft on
the rocks, and kept two guns constantly firing from the stern-ports at
the enemy's battery, but could not get them to bear. During the last
twenty-four hours they had fortunately only one man wounded; but the
ship was wretchedly injured between wind and water, and her rigging torn
to pieces.
At six in the afternoon of the 30th the ship floated, when they cut away
their yawl, having been sunk by a shot. They hove taught their cable,
and then cut it away, together with the two hawsers, and sent the
pinnace a-head to tow the ship off. Just as the ship got afloat, the
enemy fired with great briskness from their new battery, their shot
raking through the Success between wind and water, killed one of her
men, and wounded two others.
The Success had now remained fifty hours as a fair mark for the enemy to
fire at, during which they lost both their bower-anchors and cables,
with the stern and kedge-anchors, four hawsers, four lower-deck guns,
nineteen barrels of powder, two men killed and six wounded; and had they
not now got off, it was believed they must have been sunk before
morning. At ten in the forenoon of the 31st they hove to, and began to
splice their rigging, not a rope of which had escaped the shot of the
enemy. The masts and yards were all sore wounded; and the carpenters had
to work during the whole night, stopping-the shot-holes in the hull.
They stowed away most of their guns in the hold, barred up the ports,
hoisted in the launch and pinnace, and at noon steered away west under
an easy sail, hoping to save their passage before the western monsoon
set in; the carpenters being fully occupied in fishing the masts and
yards, and the rest of the crew in mending the rigging. At six in the
evening of the 31st May, 1721, the body of the island of Guam bore E.
seven leagues distant, and they then took their departure; being in 15 deg.
20' N. designing now for China.
The conduct of Captain Clipperton at Guam was certainly exceedingly
erroneous. He ought on no account to have permitted the marquis to go on
shore till he had received the money for his ransom, and all the
provisions of which he stood in need. The marquis had before behaved
very ill to him, and had no title to any favour; and if he had kept the
marquis, the governor of Guam would not have had any opportunity of
putting his schemes in execution. Clipperton committed also an egregious
error in pretending to attack the town, and the ship in the harbour.
Though drunkenness is rather an aggravation than an excuse for
misconduct, yet it is to be considered that Clipperton was a mere
sailor, who had not the benefit of a liberal education, and that he fell
into this sad vice from disappointment and despair.
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