The Company Answered,
That They Desired Rather To Wait God's Favour For A Wind, If He So
Pleased, And To
Submit to any hardships, rather than abandon the
intended voyage, considering that they had been here only for a short
Time, and were now only forty leagues from the South Sea; yet, though
grieved to return, they were ready to perform whatever he pleased to
command. So he concluded to leave the straits, and make sail for the
Cape of Good Hope.
When Sir Thomas Candish returned on board the Desire, from talking with
the company, Captain Davis requested he would consider the extremity of
our estate and condition, the slenderness of his provision, and the
weakness of his men, being in no case for undertaking that new
enterprise; as, if the other ships were as ill appointed as the Desire,
it would be impossible to perform his new design, having no more sails
then were then bent, no victuals, no ground tackle, no cordage save what
was already in use; and, of seventy-five persons in the Desire, the
master only had knowledge enough for managing the ship, and there were
only fourteen sailors besides, all the rest being gentlemen,
serving-men, or tradesmen. Captain Davis laid these persuasions before
both the general and Mr Cocke; and in fine, in consequence of a
petition, delivered in writing by all the chief persons of the whole
company, the general determined to depart from the Straits of Magellan,
and to return again for Santos in Brazil.
Accordingly, we set sail on the 15th of May, the general being now on
board the galleon, his own ship. The 18th we were free of the straits;
but on passing Cape Froward, we had the misfortune to have our boat sunk
at our stern in the night, by which she was split and sore injured, and
lost all her oars. The 20th of May, being athwart Port Desire, the
general altered his course during the night, as we suppose, by which we
lost him. In the evening he stood close by the wind to leewards, having
the wind at N.N.E. and we stood the same course, the wind not altering
during the night, and next day we could not see him. We were then
persuaded that the general was gone for Port Desire in quest of relief
or that he had sustained some mischance at sea, and was gone there to
seek a remedy. Our captain then called all hands together, the general's
men among the rest, asking their opinion what was to be done, when every
one said he thought the general was gone to Port Desire.
Our master, who was the general's man, and careful for his master's
service, and also a person of good judgment in sea affairs, represented
to the company how dangerous it was for us to go to Port Desire,
especially if we should there miss the general; as we had now no boat
wherewith to land, neither any anchors or cables which he could trust to
in such rapid streams. Yet as we all concluded that it was most probable
the general had gone there, we shaped our course for Port Desire, and on
our way met the Black pinnace by chance, which had also parted company
from the general, being in a miserable plight. So we both proceeded for
Port Desire, where we arrived on the 26th of May.
Sec. 2. Disastrous result of the Voyage to Sir Thomas Candish.[64]
Various accounts of the disappointments and misfortunes of Sir Thomas
Candish, in this disastrous voyage, are still preserved, but the most
copious is contained in his own narrative, addressed to Sir Tristram
Gorges, whom he constituted sole executor of his will. In this, Sir
Thomas attributes his miscarriage to the cowardice and defection of one
of his officers, in the following terms: - "The running away of the
villain Davis was the death of me, and the decay of the whole action,
and his treachery in deserting me the ruin of all."
[Footnote 64: This portion of the voyage is taken from the supplement in
the Collection of Harris, to the circumnavigation of Sir Thomas
Candish. - E.]
In this letter he complained also of mutinies, and that, by adverse
winds at S W. and W.S.W. he had been driven 400 leagues from the shore,
and from the latitude of 50 deg. to that of 40 deg. both S. He says also, that
he was surprised by winter in the straits, and sore vexed by storms,
having such frosts and snows in May as he had never before
witnessed,[65] so that forty of his men died, and seventy more of them
sickened, in the course of seven or eight days. Davis, as he says,
deserted him in the Desire, in lat. 47 deg. S. The Roebuck continued along
with him to lat. 36 deg. S. In consequence of transgressing his directions,
Captain Barker was slain on land with twenty-five men, and the boat
lost; and soon afterwards other twenty-five men met with a similar fate.
Ten others were forsaken at Spiritu Santo, by the cowardice of the
master of the Roebuck, who stole away, having six months provisions on
board for 120 men, and only forty-seven men in his ship. Another mutiny
happened at St Sebastians by the treachery of an Irishman, when Mr
Knivet and other six persons were left on shore.
[Footnote 65: Sir Thomas Candish seems not to have been aware, that the
month of May, in these high antarctic or southern latitudes, was
precisely analogous with November in the high latitudes of the north,
and therefore utterly unfit for navigation. - E.]
Intending again to have attempted passing through the straits, he was
tossed up and down in the tempestuous seas of the Southern Atlantic, and
came even at one time within two leagues of St Helena, but was unable to
reach that island. In his last letter, he declares that, rather than
return to England after so many disasters, he would willingly have gone
ashore in an island placed in lat.
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