This vessel, the _Anna_ pink, was, as I have observed, the last that joined the commodore at Juan Fernandes. The remaining ships of the squadron were the _Severn_, the _Pearl_, and the _Wager_ store-ship. The _Severn_ and _Pearl_ parted company with the squadron off Cape Noir, and, as we afterwards learnt, put back to the Brazils, so that of all the ships which came into the South Seas, the _Wager_, Captain Cheap, was the only one that was missing. This ship had on board a few field-pieces mounted for land-service, together with some cohorn mortars, and several kinds of artillery stores and pioneers' tools intended for the operations on shore. Therefore, as the enterprise on Baldivia had been resolved on for the first undertaking of the squadron, Captain Cheap was extremely solicitous that these materials, which were in his custody, might be ready before Baldivia; that if the squadron should possibly rendezvous there (as he knew not the condition they were then reduced to), no delay nor disappointment might be imputed to him.
But whilst the _Wager_, with these views, was making the best of her way to her first rendezvous off the island of Socoro, whence (as there was little probability of meeting { 139} any of the squadron there) she proposed to steer directly for Baldivia, she made the land on the 14th of May, about the latitude of 47° south; and the captain exerting himself on this occasion, in order to get clear of it, he had the misfortune to fall down the after-ladder, and dislocated his shoulder, which rendered him incapable of acting. This accident, together with the crazy condition of the ship, which was little better than a wreck, prevented her from getting off to sea, and entangled her more and more with the land, insomuch that the next morning, at daybreak, she struck on a sunken rock, and soon after bilged and grounded between two small islands at about a musket-shot from the shore.
In this situation the ship continued entire a long time, so that all the crew had it in their power to get safe on shore; but a general confusion taking place, numbers of them, instead of consulting their safety, or reflecting on their calamitous condition, fell to pillaging the ship, arming themselves with the first weapons that came to hand, and threatening to murder all who should oppose them. This frenzy was greatly heightened by the liquors they found on board, with which they got so extremely drunk that some of them, falling down between decks, were drowned, as the water flowed into the wreck, being incapable of raising themselves up and retreating from it. The captain, therefore, having done his utmost to get the whole crew on shore, was at last obliged to leave the mutineers behind him, and to follow his officers, and such as he had been able to prevail on, but he did not fail 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 so 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 shot, which passed but just over it.