George Anson - A Voyage Round the World

He mentions that he separated from the Hermiona and the Esperanza in a fog on the 6th of March, being then, as I suppose, to the S.E. of Staten-land, and plying to the westward; that in the night after it blew a furious storm at N.W. which, at half an hour after ten, split his main-sail, and obliged him to bear away with his fore-sail; that the ship went ten knots an hour with a prodigious sea, and often run her gangway under water; that he likewise sprung his mainmast; and the ship made so much water, that with four pumps and bailing he could not free her. That on the 9th it was calm, but the sea continued so high that the ship in rolling opened all her upper works and seams, and started the butt ends of her planking, and the greatest part of her top timbers, the bolts being drawn by the violence of her roll: that in this condition, with other additional disasters to the hull and rigging, they continued beating to the westward till the 12th: that they were then in sixty degrees of south latitude, in great want of provisions, numbers every day perishing by the fatigue of pumping, and those who survived being quite dispirited by labour, hunger, and the severity of the weather, they having two spans of snow upon the decks: that then finding the wind fixed in the western quarter, and blowing strong, and consequently their passage to the westward impossible, they resolved to bear away for the river of Plate: that on the 22d they were obliged to throw overboard all the upper-deck guns and an anchor, and to take six turns of the cable round the ship to prevent her opening: that on the 4th of April, it being calm, but a very high sea, the ship rolled so much that the main-mast came by the board, and in a few hours after she lost, in like manner, her fore-mast and her mizen-mast: and that, to accumulate their misfortunes, they were soon obliged to cut away their bowsprit, to diminish, if possible, the leakage at her head; that by this time he had lost two hundred and fifty men by hunger and fatigue; for those who were capable of working at the pumps (at which every officer without exception took his turn) were allowed only an ounce and half of biscuit per diem; and those who were so sick or so weak that they could not assist in this necessary labour, had no more than an ounce of wheat; so that it was common for the men to fall down dead at the pumps: that, including the officers, they could only muster from eighty to a hundred persons capable of duty: that the south-west winds blew so fresh after they had lost their masts, that they could not immediately set up jury-masts, but were obliged to drive like a wreck, between the latitudes of 32 and 28, till the 24th of April, when they made the coast of Brazil at Rio de Patas, ten leagues to the southward of the island of St. Catherine's; that here they came to an anchor, and that the captain was very desirous of proceeding to St. Catherine's, if possible, in order to save the hull of the ship, and the guns and stores on board her; but the crew instantly left off pumping, and being enraged at the hardships they had suffered, and the numbers they had lost (there being at that time no less than thirty dead bodies lying on the deck), they all with one voice cried out, "On shore, on shore!" and obliged the captain to run the ship in directly for the land, where, the 5th day after, she sunk with her stores and all her furniture on board her; but the remainder of the crew, whom hunger and fatigue had spared, to the number of four hundred, got safe on shore.

From this account of the adventures and catastrophe of the Guipuscoa we may form some conjecture of the manner in which the Hermiona was lost, and of the distresses endured by the three remaining ships of the squadron, which got into the river of Plate. These last being in great want of masts, yards, rigging, and all kinds of naval stores, and having no supply at Buenos Ayres, nor in any of their neighbouring settlements, Pizarro dispatched an advice-boat with a letter of credit to Rio Janeiro, to purchase what was wanting from the Portuguese. He, at the same time, sent an express across the continent to St. Jago in Chili, to be thence forwarded to the Viceroy of Peru, informing him of the disasters that had befallen his squadron, and desiring a remittance of 200,000 dollars from the royal chests at Lima, to enable him to victual and refit his remaining ships, that he might be again in a condition to attempt the passage to the South Seas, as soon as the season of the year should be more favourable. It is mentioned by the Spaniards as a most extraordinary circumstance that the Indian charged with this express (though it was then the depth of winter, when the Cordilleras are esteemed impassable on account of the snow) was only thirteen days in his journey from Buenos Ayres to St. Jago in Chili, though these places are distant three hundred Spanish leagues, near forty of which are amongst the snows and precipices of the Cordilleras.

The return to this dispatch of Pizarro's from the Viceroy of Peru was no ways favourable; instead of 200,000 dollars, the sum demanded, the viceroy remitted him only 100,000, telling him that it was with great difficulty he was able to procure him even that: though the inhabitants of Lima, who considered the presence of Pizarro as absolutely necessary to their security, were much discontented at this procedure, and did not fail to assert that it was not the want of money, but the interested views of some of the viceroy's confidents, that prevented Pizarro from having the whole sum he had asked for.

The advice-boat sent to Rio Janeiro also executed her commission but imperfectly; for though she brought back a considerable quantity of pitch, tar, and cordage, yet she could not procure either masts or yards: and, as an additional misfortune, Pizarro was disappointed of some masts he expected from Paragua; for a carpenter, whom he had entrusted with a large sum of money, and had sent there to cut masts, instead of prosecuting the business he was employed in, had married in the country, and refused to return. However, by removing the masts of the Esperanza into the Asia , and making use of what spare masts and yards they had on board, they made a shift to refit the Asia and the St. Estevan . And in the October following, Pizarro was preparing to put to sea with these two ships, in order to attempt the passage round Cape Horn a second time, but the St. Estevan , in coming down the river Plate, ran on a shoal, and beat off her rudder, on which and other damages she received she was condemned and broke up, and Pizarro in the Asia proceeded to sea without her. Having now the summer before him, and the winds favourable, no doubt was made of his having a fortunate and speedy passage; but being off Cape Horn, and going right before the wind in very moderate weather, though in a swelling sea, by some misconduct of the officer of the watch, the ship rolled away her masts, and was a second time obliged to put back to the river of Plate in great distress.

The Asia having considerably suffered in this second unfortunate expedition, the Esperanza , which had been left behind at Monte Vedio, was ordered to be refitted, and the command of her being given to Mindinuetta, who was captain of the Guipuscoa when she was lost; he, in the November of the succeeding year, that is, in November 1742, sailed from the river of Plate for the South Seas, and arrived safe on the coast of Chili, where his commodore, Pizarro, passing overland from Buenos Ayres, met him. There were great animosities and contests between these two gentlemen at their meeting, occasioned principally by the claim of Pizarro to command the Esperanza , which Mindinuetta had brought round; for Mindinuetta refused to deliver her up to him, insisting that, as he came into the South Seas alone and under no superior, it was not now in the power of Pizarro to resume that authority which he had once parted with. However, the President of Chili interposing, and declaring for Pizarro, Mindinuetta, after a long and obstinate struggle, was obliged to submit.