On The 20th We Could Not
See The Success; And This Storm So Terrified The Greatest Part Of The
Crew, That Seventy Of Them Were Resolved To Bear Away For England,
Alleging That The Ship Was So Very Crank She Would Never Be Able To
Carry Us To The South Sea.
But by the resolution of the officers they
were brought back to their duty.
As the Canaries were the first place of rendezvous, we continued our
course for these islands, where we arrived on the 17th March, and
cruised there the time appointed by our instructions.[249] We next
sailed for the Cape de Verde Islands, and arrived at Maio on the 14th
April.[250] A little before arriving here, Turner Stevens[251] the
gunner very gravely proposed to me and the rest of the officers to
cruize in the Red Sea; as there could be no harm in robbing the
Mahometans, whereas the Spaniards were good Christians, and it was a sin
to injure them. I ordered him immediately into confinement, after which
he became outrageous, threatening to blow up the ship. Wherefore I
discharged him at his own request, and left also here on shore my chief
mate, who had challenged and fought with Mr Brooks, my first lieutenant.
[Footnote 249: Clipperton arrived there on the 5th, and sailed thence on
the 15th of March. - E.]
[Footnote 250: Clipperton came to St Vincent on the 24th March, and
cruized in that neighbourhood for ten days, so that he must have sailed
about the 31st, at least a fortnight before the arrival of
Shelvocke. - E.]
[Footnote 251: Called Charles Turner by Betagh. - E.]
On the 18th, we went to Port Praya, in the island of St Jago, but
finding nothing here but fair promises, I resolved to proceed to the
island of St Catharine on the coast of Brazil, in lat. 20 deg. 30' S.[252]
in hopes of obtaining every thing necessary for our passage into the
South Sea, as, according to the account of it by Frezier, it abounds in
all the necessaries of life, such especially as are requisite in long
voyages. We sailed therefore from Port Praya on the 20th of April, and
had a very bad passage, as we were twenty-one days before we could pass
the equinoctial. White between the two tradewinds, we had usually slight
breezes, varying all round the compass, and sometimes heavy squalls of
wind, with thunder, lightning, and rain. In short, the most variable
weather that can be conceived, insomuch that we were fifty-five days
between St Jago and St Catharines. On the 4th June we made Cape Frio,
bearing W. seven leagues off our lat. by observation, 23 deg. 41' S.[253] On
the 5th we met and spoke a ship, to which I sent Captain Hately to
enquire the news on the coast, and gave him money to buy tobacco, as the
Success had our stock on board. She was a Portuguese from Rio de Janeiro
bound to Pernambuco, and had no tobacco; but Hately had laid out my
money in unnecessary trifles, alleging they would sell for double the
money at the next port.
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