However, on their return they had the good luck to meet { 145} with several pieces of beef, which had been washed out of the wreck and were swimming in the sea. This was a most seasonable relief to them after the hardships they had endured: and to compleat their good fortune, there came, in a short time, two canoes of Indians, amongst which was a native of Chiloe, who spoke a little Spanish; and the surgeon, who was with Captain Cheap, understanding that language, he made a bargain with the Indian, that if he would carry the captain and his people to Chiloe in the barge, he should have her and all that belonged to her for his pains. Accordingly, on the 6th of March, the eleven persons to which the company was now reduced embarked in the barge on this new expedition; but after having proceeded for a few days, the captain and four of his principal officers being on shore, the six, who together with an Indian remained in the barge, put off with her to sea, and did not return again.
By this means there were left on shore Captain Cheap, Mr. Hamilton, lieutenant of marines, the Honourable Mr. Byron and Mr. Campbell, midshipmen, and Mr. Elliot the surgeon. One would have thought that their distresses had long before this time been incapable of augmentation; but they found, on reflection, that their present situation was much more dismaying than anything they had yet gone through, being left on a desolate coast without any provision, or the means of procuring any; for their arms, ammunition, and every conveniency they were masters of, except the tattered habits they had on, were all carried away in the barge.
But when they had sufficiently revolved in their own minds the various circumstances of this unexpected calamity, and were persuaded that they had no relief to hope for, they perceived a canoe at a distance, which proved to be that of the Indian who had undertaken to carry them to Chiloe, he and all his family being then on board it. He made no difficulty of coming to them; for it seems he had left Captain Cheap and his people a little before to go a-fishing, and had in the meantime committed them to the care of the other Indian, whom the sailors had carried to sea in the barge. When he came on shore, and found the barge gone and his companion missing, he was extremely concerned, and could with difficulty be persuaded that the other Indian was not { 146} murdered; yet being at last satisfied with the account that was given him, he still undertook to carry them to the Spanish settlements, and (as the Indians are well skilled in fishing and fowling) to procure them provisions by the way.