AN

ACCOUNT

OF A

Voyage round the World,

IN THE YEARS

MDCCLXVI, MDCCLXVII, MDCCLXVIII, and MDCCLXIX.

By PHILIP CARTERET, Efq;

Commander of his Majefty's Sloop the SWALLOW.

COL.COLL.

LIBRARY

XYORK.

VOL. II.

B

CHA P. I.

The Run from Plymouth to Madeira, and from thence through the Streight of Magellan.

[The longitude of this voyage is reckoned from London weftward to 180, and eastward afterwards.]

SOON after I returned from a voyage round

the world with the Honourable Commodore Byron, I was appointed to the command of his Majefty's floop the Swallow, by a commiffion bearing date the firft 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 worm. I had been given to underftand that I was to go out with the Dolphin; but the difparity of the two fhips, and the difference in their

B 2

1766.

Auguft.

1766. Auguft.

Friday 22.

their equipment, made me think that they could not be intended for the fame duty; the Dolphin, which was fheathed with copper, being supplied with every thing that was requifite for a long and dangerous navigation; and the Swallow. having only a fcanty supply of common neceffaries. However, I ventured to apply for a forge, fome iron, a fmall 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 fervice fhe 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 fhould go farther than Falkland's Inlands, where the Jafon, a fine frigate, which was, like the Dolphin, fheathed with copper, and amply equipped, would supply my place. I was however deficient in junk, an article which is effentially 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 Auguft, 1766, the ship's company having the evening before received two months pay, I weighed, and made

1766.

September.

fail from Plymouth Sound in company with the Dolphin, under the command of Captain Wallis, and the Prince Frederick store-fhip, commanded Friday 22. by Lieutenant James Brine. We proceeded together without any remarkable incident till the

7th of September, when we came to an anchor in Sunday 7. Madeira road.

While I lay at this place, not being yet acquainted with my destination, I represented 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 disagreeable neceffity of cutting off fome of my cables to fave my rigging.

On the 9th, very early in the morning, the Tuesday 9. lieutenant acquainted me that, in the night, nine of my best men had fecretly fet off from the ship to swim on fhore, having stripped themfelves naked and left all their clothes behind them, taking only their money, which they had fecured in a handkerchief that was tied round their waift; that they proceeded together till they came very near the furf, which breaks high upon the fhore, and that one of them, being then terrified at the found, had fwum back again to the ship, and been taken on board, but that the rest had ventured through. As the lofs of