length of the run, the
vessel was scarcely able to contain the number that first put to sea in
her; and their stock of provisions (being only what they had saved out of
the ship) was extremely slender; and the cutter, the only boat they had
with them, soon broke away from the stern and was staved to pieces; so
that when their provision and their water failed them, they had
frequently no means of getting on shore to search for a fresh supply.

When the long-boat and cutter were gone, the captain and those who were
left with him proposed to pass to the northward in the barge and yawl;
but the weather was so bad, and the difficulty of subsisting so great,
that it was two months after the departure of the long-boat before he was
able to put to sea. It seems the place where the Wager was cast away was
not a part of the continent, as was first imagined, but an island at some
distance from the main, which afforded no other sorts of provision but
shellfish and a few herbs; and as the greatest part of what they had got
from the ship was carried off in the long-boat, the captain and his
people were often in great necessity, especially as they chose to
preserve what little sea-provisions remained for their store when they
should go to the northwards.

Upon the 14th of December the captain and his people embarked in the
barge and the yawl in order to proceed to the northward, taking on board
with them all the provisions they could amass from the wreck of a ship;
but they had scarcely been an hour at sea when the wind began to blow
hard, and the sea ran so high that they were obliged to throw the
greatest part of their provisions overboard to avoid immediate
destruction.

STRUGGLING WITH DISASTER.

This was a terrible misfortune in a part of the world where food is so
difficult to be got; however, they still persisted in their design,
putting on shore as often as they could to seek subsistence. But, about a
fortnight after, another dreadful accident befell them, for the yawl sank
at an anchor, and one of the men in her was drowned; and as the barge was
incapable of carrying the whole company, they were now reduced to the
hard necessity of leaving four marines behind them on that desolate
shore. But they still kept on their course to the northward, struggling
with their disasters, and greatly delayed by the perverseness of the
winds and frequent interruptions which their search after food
occasioned; till at last, about the end o