THE SHIPWRECK.
Doubling Cape Horn—A storm—Our Traveller Shipwrecked Taken up—Earthquake—Escape to the shore—Adventures on shore—Journey to Bonaventura—Safe Arrival.
Doubling Cape Horn—A storm—Our Traveller Shipwrecked Taken up—Earthquake—Escape to the shore—Adventures on shore—Journey to Bonaventura—Safe Arrival.
Here our friend Tom Starboard in his sailor style, gives an account of a remarkable shipwreck. But there is nothing better than to let him tell the story himself. The account is natural, though it may be a fiction.
“We did not go through the Straits of Magellan, as the passage is dangerous; but we passed them and doubled Cape Horn. We went merrily on, touching land, occasionally, to take in water, fruit, and live stock, now and then speaking a vessel, or finding some new kind of fish, or wonderful bird, till we neared the island of Juan Fernandez. Here the weather changed, and such a storm came down upon us as I never saw before or since.
“Before it reached its height, and while we were all in good spirits, a gust of wind blew my hat off, when Ned, to make me laugh, called out, ‘Tom, your hairwill be blown off too, if you don’t hold it on; my shoestrings have been whisked out this half-hour.’
“But the fury of the storm so increased, as to put all laughing and joking out of our thoughts. Night came on so rapidly that it seemed as if a mighty black cloud had fallen suddenly over us. The gallant vessel which had weathered so many storms, struck on a sunken rock, and went to pieces, as if she had been made of glass! I got entangled in some loose rigging, which had been snapped and unravelled like twine, and this circumstance, which I expected would be the cause of my death, saved my life. Part of the topmast was attached to the ropes which the furious blast twisted round me, as it swept off my shipmates in crowds, into the fierce waters: and away I went also, at the same moment, with my brave captain!—I never more saw a soul from the vessel, nor an atom of her stout planks.
“How long I floated in my net work of ropes, I cannot tell. I remember the wrath of the panting billows, as they were urged onwards by the furious hurricane. On they dashed over my defenceless head, throwing the shattered mast against my wounded limbs, and straining the cords till they cut into my flesh. I remember,too, that the storm seemed to subside as quickly as it had arisen. Then a noise as if a vessel toiling through the waves came over me, and a mixed feeling of fear and hope passed through my confused brain;—then a shout and a grappling with my coiling ropes;—then a sensation of the soft air, and of my mounting through it;—and then a buzz of voices, as I lay in quietness on a solid floor.
Person in rowboat
Sailing ship
“Alas! how wretched I felt, when I found that all the voices were strange, the language foreign, and the faces dark and unknown to me. A Portuguese merchant vessel, bound for the city and port of Guayaquil, had picked me up.
“I cannot describe to you the forlorn state of my feelings, after the terrible wreck. My own situation, however, and the altered mode of my existence, I did not consider till I was made to feel it severely, by the coarse treatment I met with from those who saved my life. I was made to work my way—that I expected, and could not complain of—but I felt sadly the difference in the manners of the captain and his crew, compared with those of the “Speedwell.”
“I thanked the captain for saving my life, and toldhim I intended to leave the ship. This, to my surprise, he said I should not do. I replied that he had no control over me; that I was an Englishman, and could not be compelled to serve in a foreign vessel. Then, said he, pay me for your passage from Juan Fernandez, and you may leave the ship. I told him this was impossible, as I had lost every thing in the fatal wreck. At this he only laughed in my face, and said; ‘That is not my look out; you shall pay me or stay where you are;’ and with an oath, turned on his heel, and left me to my own sad feelings.”
Tom determined, at once, to embrace the first opportunity to escape. But they had dropped anchor two or three miles from the shore, and how could he effect it? Besides he was closely watched. But the vessel was soon to sail on a long voyage, and being called to take his turn, one night in the watch, with two or three others, he determined to make the attempt.
“This night, or never—said I to myself, as I took my station. While I was walking the deck, one of my shipmates at the mast-head, and the other astern, the ship suddenly quivered, as if she were in an ague fit!—down slipped the fellow from on high, and fell flat onhis face; the other rushed forward, and kneeled beside him, both crossing themselves and saying prayers to their saints. I lost no time, but seizing a board, I hastily lashed it to my back with a rope (that when I became fatigued with swimming, I might turn and float,) and slipping astern, let myself down into the water. The noise of the splash I feared would betray me, and I gave up all for lost, though the next minute, I found they were all praying, and took courage and quietly struck off. I made but little headway, however, owing to the board on my back.
“As I continued my toilsome passage towards the shore, I heard the loud bellowing of the troubled earth, and felt the water jar me, as if it had been a solid substance. Suddenly a towering volcano, which I took to be Cotopaxi, at above one hundred miles distance, appeared illuminated like an immense light-house; the thundering increased, and shrieks and other fearful noises were borne to me over the water. At last, when nearly exhausted, I was thrown ashore, where I lay to recover breath and strength, but oh, the distress and confusion that then took place! Many of the inhabitants came crowding down to the water’s edge, forsafety; houses had been destroyed; the earth was rocking and heaving like an angry ocean; streams of water had gushed out of the ground where no water had ever been seen before; suffocating fumes of sulphur burst up under the feet of the terrified and flying sufferers; and when the morning dawned, the face of the country seemed changed. Still the town itself (Guayaquil) had sustained but little damage, and the inhabitants began to return to their dwellings and their business. They are so much accustomed to earthquakes all over Peru, that it is not surprising they should so soon lose their terrors.
“In the general distress, I met with but little compassion or assistance, which I then thought strange, but I had not yet learned that affliction often hardens the heart. No one relieved my hunger; so I ventured to steal a handful of nuts from a heap that had fallen out of a basket which had been thrown down during the night. These I beat between two stones, and mixed with a little water; and this was my food for that day.
“As I wandered about among the shipping, looking in vain for a vessel bound to Europe, I recollected that the bay of Guayaquil is famous for a small shell fish,about the size of a nut. It is calledturbine, and produces a purple dye, reckoned the best in the world. So I boldly seized a small boat that was lying at anchor, and pushing out into the bay, I caught a few of these valuable little fish, and returned to shore again, before the owner of the boat had missed it. I was now sure of a resource against starving, provided any one would buy my turbines. I was soon fortunate enough to find a purchaser, so I pursued the plan for several days, always taking the same boat, which no one appeared to claim. Perhaps the owner, poor fellow, had been destroyed by the earthquake.
“I slept every night in a hut close to the sea; and on the fifth morning, I found a French vessel in the harbor, which was proceeding on her voyage to Bonaventura and to Acapulco, in Mexico. I immediately went to the captain, and offered to work my way to the port of Bonaventura, if he would give me my passage. And after telling him my story, he kindly granted my request; and in due time we reached the port, where with feelings of very great gratitude to the captain, I left the vessel.”