AN ACCOUNT OF A VOYAGE round the WORLD, IN THE YEARS MDCCLXVI, MDCCLXVII, MDCCLXVIII, By PHILIP CARTERET, Esquire, Commander of his MAJESTY'S Sloop the SWALLOW. ΑΝ A CCOUNT OF A VOYAGE round the WORLD. 249 СНА Р. I. The Run from Plymouth to Madeira, and from thence through the Streight of Magellan. [The longitude in this voyage is reckoned from London westward to 180, and eastward afterwards.] OON after I returned from a voyage round the world with the Honourable Commodore Byron, I was appointed to the command of his Majesty's floop the Swallow, by a commiffion bearing date the ft of July 1766; the Swallow then lay at Chatham, and I was ordered to fit her out with all poffible expedition. She was an old fhip, having been in the fervice thirty years, and was in my opinion by no means fit for a long voyage, having only a flight thin fheathing upon her bottom, which was not even filled with nails to fupply the want of a covering that would more effectually keep out the worms. I had been given to understand that I was to go out with the Dolphin; but the disparity of the two fhips, and the difference in their equipment, made me think that they could not be intended for the fame duty; the Dolphin, which was fheathed with copper, being fupplied with every Auguft. Friday 22. thing that was requifite for a long and dangerous na❤ vigation; and the Swallow having only a fcanty fupply of common neceffaries. However, I ventured to apply for a forge, fome iron, a small skiff, and several other things which I knew by experience would be of the utmost importance, if it was intended that I should make another voyage round the world; but I was told that the veffel and her equipment were very fit for the service she was to perform, and none of the requifites for which I applied were allowed me. I was therefore confirmed in my opinion, that, if the Dolphin was to go round the world, it could never be intended that I should go farther than Falkland's Iflands, where the Jafon, a fine frigate, which was, like the Dolphin, heathed with copper, and amply equipped, would fupply my place. I was, however, deficient in junk, an article which is eflentially neceffary in every voyage, and for this I applied when I got to Plymouth; but I was told that a quantity fufficient for both the fhips had been put on board the Dolphin. On Friday the 22d of August, 1766, the ship's company having the evening before received two months pay, I weighed, and made fail from Plymouth Sound in company with the Dolphin, under the commmand of Captain Wallis, and the Prince Frederic ftore-ship, commanded by Lieutenant James Brine, We proceeded together without any remarkable inciSeptember. dent till the 7th of September, when we came to an anchor in Madeira road, Sunday 7. Tuefd. 9. While I lay at this place, not being yet acquainted with my deftination, I reprefented my want of junk, and the reply that had been made to my application for a fupply by the commiffioner at Plymouth, in a letter to Captain Wallis, who fent me five hundred weight. This quantity however was fo inadequate to my wants, that I was foon afterwards reduced to the difagreeable neceffity of cutting off fome of my cables to fave my rigging. On the 9th, very early in the morning, the Lieutenant acquainted me that, in the night, nine of my best men had fecretly fet off from the fhip to fwim on hore, having ftripped themselves naked and left all their clothes behind them, taking only their money, which they had fecured in a handkerchief that was tied round their waist; that they proceeded together till they came very near the furf, which breaks high upon the shore, and that one of them, being terrified at the found, had fwam back again to the fhip, and been taken on board, but that the rest had ventured through. As the lofs of these men would have been very severely felt, I immediately fat down to write a letter to the Conful, entreating his affistance to recover them; but, before I had finished it, he fent me word, that all of them having, to the great aftonishment of the natives, been found naked on the beach, they had been taken into cuftody, and would be delivered up to my order. The boat was dispatched immediately, and as foon as I heard they were on board, I went upon the deck. I was greatly pleased to see a contrition in their countenances, which at once fecretly determined me not to inflict the punishment by which they seemed most heartily willing to expiate their fault; but I asked them what could have induced them to quit the ship, and defert the fervice of their country, at the risk of being devoured by sharks, or dashed to pieces by the surf against the fhore? They answered, that though they had indeed at such risks ventured to fwim on fhore, they never had any intention of deferting the fhip, which they were determined to stand by as long as the could fwim; but that being well affured they were going a long voyage, and none being able to tell who might live, or who might die, they thought it hard not to have an opportunity of spending their own money, and therefore determined, as they faid, once more to get a skinful of liquor, and then swim back to the fhip, which they hoped to have done before they were miffed. As I had refolved to remit their punishment, I did not too feverely fcrutinize their apology, which the rest of the fhip's company, who stood round them, seemed very much to approve; but, obferving that with a skinful of liquor they would have been in a very unfit condition to fwim through the furf to the fhip, I told them that hoping they would for the future expofe their lives only upon more important occafions, and that their conduct would thenceforward give me no caufe of complaint, I would for this time be fatisfied with the shame and 1766. September. |