George Anson - A Voyage Round the World

Whilst we stayed at this place, the commodore appointed the Honourable Captain Murray to succeed to the Pearl , and Captain Cheap to the Wager , and he promoted Mr. Charles Saunders, his first lieutenant, to the command of the Tryal sloop. But Captain Saunders lying dangerously ill of a fever on board the Centurion , and it being the opinion of the surgeons that the removing him on board his own ship in his present condition might tend to the hazard of his life, Mr. Anson gave an order to Mr. Saumarez, first lieutenant of the Centurion , to act as master and commander of the Tryal during the illness of Captain Saunders.

Here the commodore, too, in order to ease the expedition of all unnecessary expence, held a farther consultation with his captains about unloading and discharging the Anna pink; but they represented to him that they were so far from being in a condition of taking any part of her loading on board, that they had still great quantities of provisions in the way of their guns between decks, and that their ships were withal so very deep that they were not fit for action without being cleared. This put the commodore under a necessity of retaining the pink in the service; and as it was apprehended we should certainly meet with the Spanish squadron in passing the Cape, Mr. Anson thought it adviseable to give orders to the captains to put all their provisions which were in the way of their guns on board the Anna pink, and to remount such of their guns as had formerly, for the ease of their ships, been ordered into the hold.

This bay of St. Julian, where we are now at anchor, being a convenient rendezvous, in case of separation, for all cruizers bound to the southward, and the whole coast of Patagonia, from the river of Plate to the Streights of Magellan, lying nearly parallel to their usual route, a short account of the singularity of this country, with a particular description of port St. Julian, may, perhaps, be neither unacceptable to the curious, nor unworthy the attention of future navigators, as some of them, by unforeseen accidents, may be obliged to run in with the land, and to make some stay on this coast, in which case the knowledge of the country, its produce and inhabitants, cannot but be of the utmost consequence to them.

To begin then with the tract of country usually styled Patagonia. This is the name often given to the southermost part of South America, which is unpossessed by the Spaniards, extending from their settlements to the Streights of Magellan. This country on the east side is extremely remarkable for a peculiarity not to be paralleled in any other known part of the globe, for though the whole territory to the northward of the river of Plate is full of wood, and stored with immense quantities of large timber trees, yet to the southward of the river no trees of any kind are to be met with except a few peach trees, first planted and cultivated by the Spaniards in the neighbourhood of Buenos Ayres. So that on the whole eastern coast of Patagonia, extending near four hundred leagues in length, and reaching as far back as any discoveries have yet been made, no other wood has been found than a few insignificant shrubs. Sir John Narborough in particular, who was sent out by King Charles the Second expressly to examine this country and the Streights of Magellan, and who, in pursuance of his orders, wintered upon this coast in Port St. Julian and Port Desire, in the year 1670; Sir John Narborough, I say, tells us that he never saw a stick of wood in the country large enough to make the handle of an hatchet.

But though the country be so destitute of wood, it abounds with pasture. For the land appears in general to be made up of downs, of a light dry gravelly soil, and produces great quantities of long coarse grass, which grows in tufts, interspersed with large barren spots of gravel between them. This grass, in many places, feeds immense herds of cattle, for the Spaniards at Buenos Ayres having, soon after their first settling there, brought over a few black cattle from Europe, they have thriven prodigiously by the plenty of herbage which they everywhere met with, and are now increased to that degree, and are extended so far into different parts of Patagonia, that they are not considered as private property; but many thousands at a time are slaughtered every year by the hunters, only for their hides and tallow. The manner of killing these cattle, being a practice peculiar to that part of the world, merits a more circumstantial description. The hunters employed on this occasion, being all of them mounted on horseback (and both the Spaniards and Indians in that part of the world are usually most excellent horsemen), they arm themselves with a kind of a spear, which, at its end, instead of a blade fixed in the same line with the wood in the usual manner, has its blade fixed across. With this instrument they ride at a beast, and surround him, when the hunter that comes behind him hamstrings him, and as after this operation the beast soon tumbles, without being able to raise himself again, they leave him on the ground and pursue others, whom they serve in the same manner. Sometimes there is a second party, who attend the hunters to skin the cattle as they fall, but it is said that at other times the hunters chuse to let them languish in torment till the next day, from an opinion that the anguish, which the animal in the meantime endures, may burst the lymphaticks, and thereby facilitate the separation of the skin from the carcase; and though their priests have loudly condemned this most barbarous practice, and have gone so far, if my memory does not fail me, as to excommunicate those who follow it, yet all their efforts to put an entire stop to it have hitherto proved ineffectual.

Besides the numbers of cattle which are every year slaughtered for their hides and tallow, in the manner already described, it is often necessary for the uses of agriculture, and for other purposes, to take them alive without wounding them. This is performed with a most wonderful and almost incredible dexterity, and principally by the use of a machine which the English who have resided at Buenos Ayres generally denominate a lash. It is made of a thong of several fathoms in length, and very strong, with a running noose at one end of it. This the hunters (who in this case are also mounted on horseback) take in their right hands, it being first properly coiled up, and having its end opposite to the noose fastened to the saddle; and thus prepared they ride at a herd of cattle. When they arrive within a certain distance of a beast, they throw their thong at him with such exactness that they never fail of fixing the noose about his horns. The beast, when he finds himself entangled, generally runs, but the horse, being swifter, attends him, and prevents the thong from being too much strained, till a second hunter, who follows the game, throws another noose about one of its hind legs; and this being done, both horses (for they are trained to this practice) instantly turn different ways, in order to strain the two thongs in contrary directions, on which the beast, by their opposite pulls, is presently overthrown, and then the horses stop, keeping the thongs still upon the stretch. Being thus on the ground, and incapable of resistance (for he is extended between the two horses), the hunters alight, and secure him in such a manner that they afterwards easily convey him to whatever place they please. They in like manner noose horses, and, as it is said, even tigers; and however strange this last circumstance may appear, there are not wanting persons of credit who assert it. Indeed, it must be owned, that the address both of the Spaniards and Indians in that part of the world in the use of this lash or noose, and the certainty with which they throw it, and fix it on any intended part of the beast at a considerable distance, are matters only to be believed from the repeated and concurrent testimony of all who have frequented that country, and might reasonably be questioned, did it rely on a single report, or had it been ever contradicted or denied by any one who had resided at Buenos Ayres.