are in the honour and rewards.

And yet it is but justice, even to this ungovernable herd, to explain, that
though, as I have said above, they appeared in the light of mutineers, they
were not actually such in the eye of the law; for, till a subsequent act,
made indeed on this occasion, the pay of a ship's crew ceased immediately
upon her wreck, and consequently the officers' authority and command.

Having explained the foregoing particulars, I hope I may flatter myself,
there are few things in the following sheets which will not be readily
understood by the greatest part of my readers; therefore I will not detain
them any longer.[115]

[115] Bulkeley's narrative above referred to, and which certainly deserves
to be better known than it now is, will be found in this Appendix, No.
2. The impartial reader, it is believed, will hesitate to join with
Byron in opinion as to the motives which occasioned its publication;
nor is it unimportant for him to recollect, that Byron himself at one
time sanctioned the chief measures and sentiments which Bulkeley and
his associates adopted.--E.

CHAPTER I.

Account of the Wager and her Equipment.--Captain Kid's Death.--Succeeded by
Captain Cheap.--Our Disasters commence with our Voyage.--We lose Sight of
our Squadron in a Gale of Wind.--Dreadful Storm.--Ship strikes.

The equipment and destination of the squadron fitted out in the year 1740,
of which Commodore Anson had the command, being sufficiently known from the
ample and well-penned relation of it under his direction, I shall recite no
particulars that are to be found in that work. But it may be necessary, for
the better understanding the disastrous fate of the Wager, the subject of
the following sheets, to repeat the remark, that a strange infatuation
seemed to prevail in the whole conduct of this embarkation: For though it
was unaccountably detained till the season for its sailing was past, no
proper use was made of that time, which should have been employed in
providing a suitable force of sailors and soldiery; nor was there a due
attention given to other requisites for so peculiar and extensive a
destination.

This neglect not only rendered the expedition abortive in its principal
object, but most materially affected the condition of each particular ship,
and none so fatally as the Wager, who being an old Indiaman, bought into
the service upon this occasion, was now fitted out as a man