he Severn and Pearl parted company with the squadron
off Cape Noir and, as we afterwards learned, put back to the Brazils, so
that of all the ships which came into the South Seas the Wager, Captain
Cheap, was the only one that was missing. This ship had on board some
field-pieces mounted for land service, together with some Cohorn mortars,
and several kinds of artillery, stores, and tools, intended for the
operations on shore; and therefore, as the enterprise on Baldivia had
been resolved on for the first undertaking of the squadron, Captain Cheap
was extremely solicitous that these materials, which were in his custody,
might be ready before Baldivia, that if the squadron should possibly
rendezvous there, no delay nor disappointment might be imputed to him.

But whilst the Wager, with these views, was making the best of her way to
her first rendezvous off the island of Socoro, she made the land on the
14th of May, about the latitude of 47 degrees south, and the captain,
exerting himself on this occasion in order to get clear of it, he had the
misfortune to fall down the after-ladder, and thereby dislocated his
shoulder, which rendered him incapable of acting. This accident, together
with the crazy condition of the ship, which was little better than a
wreck, prevented her from getting off to sea, and entangled her more and
more with the land, so that the next morning at daybreak she struck on a
sunken rock, and soon after bilged and grounded between two small islands
at about a musket-shot from the shore.

DISORDER AND ANARCHY.

In this situation the ship continued entire a long time, so that all the
crew had it in their power to get safe on shore, but a general confusion
taking place, numbers of them, instead of consulting their safety or
reflecting on their calamitous condition, fell to pillaging the ship,
arming themselves with the first weapons that came to hand and
threatening to murder all who should oppose them. This frenzy was greatly
heightened by the liquors they found on board, with which they got so
extremely drunk that some of them, tumbling down between decks, were
drowned as the water flowed in, being incapable of getting up and
retreating to other places where the water had not yet entered, and the
captain, having done his utmost to get the whole crew on shore, was at
last obliged to leave these mutineers behind him and to follow his
officers and such as he had been able to prevail on; but he did not fai