Anson George
A Voyage Round the World
This scheme, as hath been said, was formed by the commodore upon a supposition that the galeon was detained till the next year, but as this was a matter of opinion only, and not founded on intelligence, and there was a possibility that she might still put to sea in a short time, the commodore thought it prudent to continue cruising on his present station as long as the necessary attention to his stores of wood and water, and to the convenient season for his future passage to China, would give him leave. And therefore, as the cutters had been ordered to remain before Acapulco till the 23d of March, the squadron did not change its position till that day, when the cutters not appearing, we were in some pain for them, apprehending they might have suffered either from the enemy or the weather, but we were relieved from our concern the next morning, when we discovered them, though at a great distance and to the leeward of the squadron. We bore down to them and took them up, and were informed by them that, conformable to their orders, they had left their station the day before, without having seen anything of the galeon; and we found that the reason of their being so far to the leeward of us was a strong current which had driven the whole squadron to windward.
And here it is necessary to mention, that, by information which was afterwards received, it appeared that this prolongation of our cruise was a very prudent measure, and afforded us no contemptible chance of seizing the treasure on which we had so long fixed our thoughts. For after the embargo was laid on the galeon, as is before mentioned, the persons principally interested in the cargo dispatched several expresses to Mexico, to beg that she might still be permitted to depart. It seems they knew, by the accounts sent from Paita, that we had not more than three hundred men in all, whence they insisted that there was nothing to be feared, as the galeon, carrying above twice as many hands as our whole squadron, would be greatly an overmatch for us. And though the viceroy was inflexible, yet, on the account of their representation, she was kept ready for the sea near three weeks after the first order came to detain her.
When we had taken up the cutters, all the ships being joined, the commodore made a signal to speak with their commanders; and upon enquiry into the stock of fresh water remaining on board the squadron, it was found to be so very slender that we were under a necessity of quitting our station to procure a fresh supply. Consulting what place was the properest for this purpose, it was agreed that the harbour of Seguataneio or Chequetan being the nearest, was, on that account, the most eligible; so that it was immediately resolved to make the best of our way thither. But that, even while we were recruiting our water, we might not totally abandon our views upon the galeon, which, perhaps, from certain intelligence of our being employed at Chequetan, might venture to slip out to sea, our cutter, under the command of Mr. Hughes, the lieutenant of the Tryal's prize, was ordered to cruise off the port of Acapulco for twenty-four days, that if the galeon should set sail in that interval, we might be speedily informed of it. In pursuance of these resolutions we endeavoured to ply to the westward to gain our intended port, but were often interrupted in our progress by calms and adverse currents. At these intervals we employed ourselves in taking out the most valuable part of the cargoes of the Carmelo and Carmin prizes, which two ships we intended to destroy as soon as we had tolerably cleared them. By the 1st of April we were so far advanced towards Seguataneio that we thought it expedient to send out two boats that they might range along the coast to discover the watering-place. They were gone some days, and our water being now very short, it was a particular felicity to us that we met with daily supplies of turtle, for had we been entirely confined to salt provisions, we must have suffered extremely in so warm a climate. Indeed our present circumstances were sufficiently alarming, and gave the most considerate amongst us as much concern as any of the numerous perils we had hitherto encountered, for our boats, as we conceived by their not returning, had not as yet found a place proper to water at, and by the leakage of our casks, and other accidents, we had not ten days water on board the whole squadron, so that from the known difficulty of procuring water on this coast, and the little reliance we had on the buccaneer writers (the only guides we had to trust to), we were apprehensive of being soon exposed to a calamity the most terrible of any that occurs in the long disheartening catalogue of the distresses of a seafaring life.
But these gloomy suggestions were at length happily ended: for our boats returned on the 5th of April, having about seven miles to the westward of the rocks of Seguataneio met with a place fit for our purpose, and which, by the description they gave of it, appeared to be the port of Chequetan, mentioned by Dampier. The success of our boats was highly agreeable to us, and they were ordered out again the next day, to sound the harbour and its entrance, which they had represented as very narrow. At their return they reported the place to be free from any danger, so that on the 7th we stood for it, and that evening came to an anchor in eleven fathom. The Gloucester cast anchor at the same time with us, but the Carmelo and the Carmin having fallen to the leeward, the Tryal's prize was ordered to join them, and to bring them up, which in two or three days she effected.
Thus, after a four months' continuance at sea from the leaving of Quibo, and having but six days' water on board, we arrived in the harbour of Chequetan, the description of which, and of the adjacent coast, shall be the business of the ensuing chapter.
CHAPTER XII
DESCRIPTION OF THE HARBOUR OF CHEQUETAN, AND OF THE
ADJACENT COAST AND COUNTRY
The harbour of Chequetan, which we here propose to describe, lies in the latitude of 17° 36' north, and is about thirty leagues to the westward of Acapulco. It is easy to be discovered by any ship that will keep well in with the land, especially by such as range down the coast from Acapulco, and will attend to the following particulars.
There is a beach of sand, which extends eighteen leagues from the harbour of Acapulco to the westward, against which the sea breaks so violently that with our boats it would be impossible to land on any part of it, but yet the ground is so clean that during the fair season ships may anchor in great safety at the distance of a mile or two from the shore. The land adjacent to this beach is generally low, full of villages, and planted with a great number of trees, and on the tops of some small eminencies there are several lookout towers, so that the face of the country affords a very agreeable prospect: for the cultivated part, which is the part here described, extends some leagues back from the shore, where it seems to be bounded by a chain of mountains which stretch to a considerable distance on either side of Acapulco. It is a most remarkable particularity that in this whole extent, containing in appearance the most populous and best planted district of the whole coast, there should be neither canoes, boats, nor any other embarkations, either for fishing, coasting, or for pleasure. This cannot be imputed to the difficulty of landing, because in many parts of Africa and Asia, where the same inconvenience occurs, the inhabitants have provided against it by vessels of a peculiar fabric. I therefore conceive that the government, to prevent smuggling, have prohibited the use of all kinds of small craft in that district.
The beach here described is the surest guide to those who are desirous of finding the harbour of Chequetan, for five miles to the westward of the extremity of this beach there appears a hummock, which at first makes like an island, and is in shape not very unlike the hill of Petaplan, hereafter mentioned, though much smaller. Three miles to the westward of this hummock is a white rock near the shore which cannot easily be passed by unobserved. It is about two cables'-length from the land, and lies in a large bay, about nine leagues over. The west point of this bay is the hill of Petaplan, with the view of the islands of Quicara and Quibo. This hill of Petaplan, like the forementioned hummock, may be at first mistaken for an island, though it be in reality a peninsula, which is joined to the continent by a low and narrow isthmus, covered over with shrubs and small trees. The bay of Seguataneio extends from this hill a great way to the westward, and it appears by a plan of the bay of Petaplan, which is part of that of Seguataneio, that at a small distance from the hill, and opposite to the entrance of the bay, there is an assemblage of rocks which are white from the excrements of boobies and tropical birds. Four of these rocks are high and large, and together with several smaller ones, are, by the help of a little imagination, pretended to resemble the form of a cross, and are called the White Friars. These rocks, as appears by the plan, bear W. by N. from Petaplan, and about seven miles to the westward of them lies the harbour of Chequetan, which is still more minutely distinguished by a large and single rock that rises out of the water a mile and an half distant from the entrance, and bears S.½W. from the middle of it. To these directions I must add that the coast is no ways to be dreaded between the middle of October and the beginning of May, nor is there then any danger from the winds, though in the remaining part of the year there are frequent and violent tornadoes, heavy rains, and hard gales in all directions of the compass.
Such are the infallible marks by which the harbour of Chequetan may be known to those who keep well in with the land. But as to those who keep at any considerable distance from the coast, there is no other method to be taken for finding the place than that of making it by the latitude, for there are so many ranges of mountains rising one upon the back of another within land, that no drawings of the appearance of the coast can be at all depended on when off at sea, every little change of distance or variation of position bringing new mountains in view, and producing an infinity of different prospects, which render all attempts of delineating the aspect of the coast impossible.
Having discussed the methods of discovering the harbour of Chequetan, it is time to describe the harbour itself. Its entrance is but about half a mile broad; the two points which form it, and which are faced with rocks that are almost perpendicular, bear from each other S.E. and N.W. The harbour is invironed on all sides, except to the westward, with high mountains overspread with trees. The passage into it is very safe on either side of the rock that lies off the mouth of it, though we, both in coming in and going out, left it to the eastward. The ground without the harbour is gravel mixed with stones, but within it is a soft mud: and it must be remembered that in coming to an anchor a good allowance should be made for a large swell, which frequently causes a great send of the sea, as likewise for the ebbing and flowing of the tide, which we observed to be about five feet, and that it set nearly E. and W.
The watering-place is situated in that part of the harbour where there is fresh water. This, during the whole time of our stay, had the appearance of a large standing lake, without any visible outlet into the sea, from which it is separated by a part of the strand. The origin of this lake is a spring that bubbles out of the ground near half a mile within the country. We found the water a little brackish, but more considerably so towards the seaside; for the nearer we advanced towards the spring-head the softer and fresher it proved. This laid us under a necessity of filling all our casks from the furthest part of the lake, and occasioned us some trouble; and would have proved still more difficult had it not been for our particular management, which, on account of the conveniency of it, deserves to be recommended to all who shall hereafter water at this place. Our method consisted in making use of canoes which drew but little water; for, loading them with a number of small casks, they easily got up the lake to the spring-head, and the small casks being there filled, were in the same manner transported back again to the beach, where some of our hands always attended to start them into other casks of a larger size.
Though this lake, during our continuance there, appeared to have no outlet into the sea, yet there is reason to suppose that in the rainy season it overflows the strand, and communicates with the ocean; for Dampier, who was formerly here, speaks of it as a large river. Indeed it is necessary that a vast body of water should be amassed before the lake can rise high enough to overflow the strand, since the neighbouring lands are so low that great part of them must be covered with water before it can run out over the beach.
As the country hereabouts, particularly the tract of coast contiguous to Acapulco, appeared to be well peopled and cultivated, we hoped to have easily procured from thence some fresh provisions and other refreshments which we now stood greatly in need of. To facilitate these views, the commodore, the morning after we came to an anchor, ordered a party of forty men, well armed, to march into the country, and to endeavour to discover some town or village, where they were to attempt to set on foot a correspondence with the inhabitants; for when we had once begun this intercourse, we doubted not but that, by proper presents, we should allure them to bring down to us whatever fruits or fresh provisions were in their power, as our prizes abounded in various kinds of coarse merchandize, which were of little consequence to us, though to them they would be extremely valuable. Our people were directed on this occasion to proceed with the greatest circumspection, and to make as little ostentation of hostility as possible; for we were sensible we could find no wealth in these parts worth our notice, and what necessaries we really wanted, we expected would be better and more abundantly supplied by an open amicable traffic than by violence and force of arms. But this endeavour of opening a commerce with the inhabitants proved ineffectual; for towards evening, the party which had been ordered to march into the country returned greatly fatigued by their unusual exercise, and some of them so far spent that they had fainted on the road, and were obliged to be brought back upon the shoulders of their companions. They had penetrated, as they conceived, about ten miles into the country, along a beaten track, where they often saw the fresh dung of horses or mules. When they had got near five miles from the harbour, the road divided between the mountains into two branches, one running to the east and the other to the west. On deliberation concerning the course they should take, it was agreed to continue their march along the eastern road: this when they had followed it for some time led them at once into a large plain or savannah, on one side of which they discovered a centinel on horseback with a pistol in his hand. It was supposed that when they first saw him he was asleep; but his horse, startled at the glittering of their arms, and turning round suddenly, ran off with his master, who, though he was very near being unhorsed in the surprize, yet recovered his seat, and escaped with the loss only of his hat and his pistol, which he dropped on the ground. Our people pursued him in hopes of discovering the village or habitation which he would retreat to; but as he had the advantage of being on horseback, they soon lost sight of him. Notwithstanding his escape, they were unwilling to come back without making some discovery, and therefore still followed the track they were in, till the heat of the day increasing, and finding no water to quench their thirst, they were first obliged to halt, and then resolved to return; for as they saw no signs of plantations or cultivated land, they had no reason to believe that there was any village or settlement near them. However, to leave no means untried of procuring some intercourse with the people, the officers stuck up several poles in the road, to which were affixed declarations written in Spanish, encouraging the inhabitants to come down to the harbour to traffic with us, giving them the strongest assurances of a kind reception, and faithful payment for any provisions they should bring us. This was doubtless a very prudent measure, yet it produced no effect; for we never saw any of them during the whole time of our continuance at this port of Chequetan. Indeed it were to have been wished that our men, upon the division of the path, had taken the western road instead of the eastern; for then they would soon have been led to a village or town, which some Spanish manuscripts mention as being in the neighbourhood of this port, and which we afterwards learnt was not above two miles from that turning.
And on this occasion I cannot avoid mentioning another adventure which happened to some of our people in the bay of Petaplan, as it may greatly assist the reader in forming a just idea of the temper and resolution of the inhabitants of this part of the world. Some time after our arrival at Chequetan, Lieutenant Brett was sent by the commodore, with two of our boats under his command, to examine the coast to the eastward, particularly to make observations on the bay and watering-place of Petaplan. As Mr. Brett with one of the boats was preparing to go on shore towards the hill of Petaplan, he accidentally looking across the bay, perceived on the opposite strand three small squadrons of horse parading upon the beach, and seeming to advance towards the place where he proposed to land. On sight of this he immediately put off the boat, though he had but sixteen men with him, and stood over the bay towards them: and he soon came near enough to perceive that they were mounted on very sightly horses, and were armed with carbines and lances. On seeing him make towards them, they formed upon the beach, and seemed resolved to dispute his landing, firing several distant shot at him as he drew near, till at last the boat being arrived within a reasonable distance of the most advanced squadron, Mr. Brett ordered his people to fire, upon which this resolute cavalry instantly ran with great confusion into the wood through a small opening. In this precipitate flight one of their horses fell down and threw his rider; but whether he was wounded or not we could not discern, for both man and horse soon got up again, and followed the rest into the wood. In the meantime the other two squadrons were calm spectators of the rout of their comrades, for they were drawn up at a great distance behind, out of the reach of our shot, having halted on our first approach, and never advancing a step afterwards. It was doubtless fortunate for our people that the enemy acted with so little prudence, and exerted so little spirit, since had they concealed themselves till our men had landed, it is scarcely possible but all the boat's crew must have fallen into their hands, as the Spaniards were not much short of two hundred, and the whole number with Mr. Brett only amounted to sixteen. However, the discovery of so considerable a force collected in this bay of Petaplan obliged us constantly to keep a boat or two before it: for we were apprehensive that the cutter, which we had left to cruise off Acapulco, might on her return be surprized by the enemy, if she did not receive timely information of her danger. But now to proceed with the account of the harbour of Chequetan.
After our unsuccessful attempt to engage the people of the country to furnish us with the necessaries we wanted, we desisted from any more endeavours of the same nature, and were obliged to be contented with what we could procure for ourselves in the neighbourhood of the port. We caught fish here in tolerable quantities, especially when the smoothness of the water permitted us to hale the seyne. Amongst the rest, we got cavallies, breams, mullets, soles, fiddle-fish, sea-eggs, and lobsters: and we here, and in no other place, met with that extraordinary fish called the torpedo, or numbing-fish, which is in shape very like the fiddle-fish, and is not to be known from it but by a brown circular spot about the bigness of a crown piece near the centre of its back. Perhaps its figure will be better understood when I say it is a flat fish much resembling the thorn-back. This fish, the torpedo, is indeed of a most singular nature, productive of the strangest effects on the human body: for whoever handles it, or happens even to set his foot upon it, is presently seized with a numbness all over him, but which is more distinguishable in that limb which was in immediate contact with it. The same effect too will be in some degree produced by touching the fish with anything held in the hand, since I myself had a considerable degree of numbness conveyed to my right arm, through a walking cane, which I rested on the body of the fish for a short time only; and I make no doubt but I should have been much more sensibly affected had not the fish been near expiring when I made the experiment, as it is observable that this influence acts with most vigour upon the fish's being first taken out of the water, and entirely ceases as soon as it is dead, so that it may be then handled, or even eaten, without any inconvenience. I shall only add, that the numbness of my arm upon this occasion did not go off on a sudden, as the accounts of some naturalists gave me reason to expect, but diminished gradually, so that I had some sensation of it remaining till the next day.
To the account given of the fish we met with here I must add, that though turtle now grew scarce, and we found none in this harbour of Chequetan, yet our boats, which were stationed off Petaplan, often supplied us therewith; and though this was a food that we had been long as it were confined to (since it was the only fresh provisions which we had tasted during near six months), yet we were far from being cloyed with it, or from finding that the relish we had for it at all diminished.
The animals we met with on shore were principally guanos, with which the country abounds, and which are by some reckoned delicious food. We saw no beast of prey here, except we should esteem that amphibious animal, the alligator, as such, several of which our people discovered, but none of them very large. However, we were satisfied that there were great numbers of tygers in the woods, though none of them came in sight, for we every morning found the beach near the watering-place imprinted very thick with their footsteps: but we never apprehended any mischief from them, since they are by no means so fierce as the Asiatic or African tyger, and are rarely, if ever, known to attack mankind. Birds were here in sufficient plenty; for we had abundance of pheasants of different kinds, some of them of an uncommon size, but they were all very dry and tasteless eating. And besides these we had a variety of smaller birds, particularly parrots, which we often killed for food.
The fruits and vegetable refreshments at this place were neither plentiful nor of the best kinds. There were, it is true, a few bushes scattered about the woods, which supplied us with limes, but we scarcely could procure enough for our present use: and these, with a small plum of an agreeable acid, called in Jamaica the hog-plum, together with another fruit called a papah, were the only fruits to be found in the woods. Nor is there any other useful vegetable here worth mentioning, except brook lime. This indeed grew in great quantities near the fresh-water banks; and as it was esteemed an antiscorbutic, we fed upon it frequently, though its extreme bitterness made it very unpalatable.
These are the articles most worthy of notice in this harbour of Chequetan. I shall only mention a particular of the coast lying to the westward of it, that to the eastward having been already described. As Mr. Anson was always attentive to whatever might be of consequence to those who might frequent these seas hereafter, and as we had observed that there was a double land to the westward of Chequetan, which stretched out to a considerable distance, with a kind of opening that appeared not unlike the inlet to some harbour, the commodore, soon after we came to an anchor, sent a boat to discover it more accurately, and it was found on a nearer examination that the two hills which formed the double land were joined together by a valley, and that there was no harbour nor shelter between them.
By all that hath been said it will appear that the conveniences of this port of Chequetan, particularly in the articles of refreshment, are not altogether such as might be desired: but yet, upon the whole, it must be owned to be a place of considerable consequence, and that the knowledge of it may be of great import to future cruisers, for except Acapulco, which is in the hands of the enemy, it is the only secure harbour in a vast extent of coast. It lies at a proper distance from Acapulco for the convenience of such ships as may have any designs on the Manila galeon; and it is a place where wood and water may be procured with great security in despight of the efforts of the inhabitants of the adjacent district: for there is but one narrow path which leads through the woods into the country, and this is easily to be secured by a very small party against all the strength the Spaniards in that neighbourhood can muster. After this account of Chequetan, and the coast contiguous to it, we now return to the recital of our own proceedings.