l
to send back the boats to persuade those who remained to have some regard
to their preservation, though all his efforts were for some time without
success. However the weather next day proving stormy, and there being
great danger of the ship's parting, they began to be alarmed with the
fears of perishing, and were desirous of getting to land; but it seems
their madness had not yet left them, for the boat not appearing to fetch
them off as soon as they expected, they at last pointed a four-pounder
which was on the quarter-deck against the hut where they knew the captain
resided on shore, and fired two shots, which passed but just over it.

From this specimen of the behaviour of part of the crew it will not be
difficult to frame some conjecture of the disorder and anarchy which took
place when they at last got all on shore.

There was another important point which set the greatest part of the
people at variance with the captain: this was their differing with him in
opinion on the measures to be pursued in the present exigency, for the
captain was determined, if possible, to fit up the boats in the best
manner he could and to proceed with them to the northward; for having
with him above a hundred men in health, and having got some firearms and
ammunition from the wreck, he did not doubt that they could master any
Spanish vessel they should meet with in those seas, and he thought he
could not fail of meeting with one in the neighbourhood of Chiloe or
Baldivia, in which, when he had taken her, he intended to proceed to the
rendezvous at Juan Fernandez; and he further insisted, that should they
meet with no prize by the way, yet the boats alone would easily carry
them there. But this was a scheme that, however prudent, was no ways
relished by the generality of his people, for, being quite jaded with the
distresses and dangers they had already run through, they could not think
of prosecuting an enterprise further which had hitherto proved so
disastrous, and, therefore, the common resolution was to lengthen the
long-boat, and with that and the rest of the boats to steer to the
southward, to pass through the Straits of Magellan, and to range along
the east side of South America till they should arrive at Brazil, where
they doubted not to be well received, and to procure a passage to Great
Britain. This project was at first sight infinitely more hazardous and
tedious than what was proposed by the captain, but as it had the air