Having Repaired The Ship's Pumps, And Fitted
Them To The Bark, The People Exclaimed That This Was Only A Poor
Dependence; But I Exhorted Them To Have Patience, And Continue Their
Assistance In Doing Every Thing That Could Be Thought Of For Her
Security.
The cooper also made a set of buckets, one for every man, to
serve to bale her, in case of necessity.
Next spring-tide, which was on
the 5th October, 1720, we put her again into the water, naming her the
Recovery, when she answered tolerably well, when we resolved to run
the hazard of going to sea in her, and made all possible dispatch in
getting our things on board. Yet, after all, a dozen of our people chose
to remain on shore, together with as many negroes and Indians.
Our sea-stock, besides the small quantity of beef and cassada flour
formerly mentioned, consisted of 2300 eels cured in smoke, weighing one
with another about a pound each, together with about sixty gallons of
seal-oil, in which to fry them. On our first landing, as the weather was
then too coarse for fishing, we had to live on seals, the entrails of
which are tolerable food; but the constant and prodigious slaughter we
made among them, frightened them from our side of the island. Some of
the people eat cats, which I could not bring myself to, and declared
they were sweet nourishing food. When the weather allowed us to fish, we
were delivered from these hardships; but some of our mischievous crew
set the boat a-drift, so that she was lost: after which we contrived
wicker boats, covered with sea-lions skins, which did well enough near
shore, but we durst not venture in them out into the bay, and
consequently were worse provided with fish than we might otherwise have
been. We fried our fish in seal-oil, and eat it without bread or salt,
or any other relish, except some wild sorrel. Our habitations were very
wretched, being only covered by boughs of trees, with the skins of seals
and sea-lions, which were often torn off in the night, by sudden flaws
of wind from the mountains.
The island of Juan Fernandez is in lat 33 deg. 40' S. and long. 79 deg. W. being
at the distance of about 150 marine leagues, or 7 deg. 30' from the coast
of Chili. It is about fifteen English miles long from E. to W. and five
miles at the broadest, from N to S. entirely composed of mountains and
valleys, so that there is no walking a quarter of a mile on a flat. The
anchoring place is on the north side of the island, and is distinguished
by a little mountain, with a high peak on each side. It is not safe to
anchor in less than forty fathoms, and even there, ships are very much
exposed to sharp gales from the north, which blow frequently. There
cannot well be a more unpleasant place to anchor in, as the bay is
surrounded by high mountains, and is subject to alternate dead calms and
sudden stormy gusts of wind.
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