THE RUN FROM THE COAST OF MEXICO TO THE LADRONES OR MARIAN ISLANDS
When, on the 6th of May 1642, we left the coast of America, we stood to the S.W. with a view of meeting the N.E. tradewind, which the accounts of former writers taught us to expect at seventy or eighty leagues from the land. We had besides another reason for standing to the southward, which was the getting into the latitude of 13° or 14° north, that being the parallel where the Pacific Ocean is most usually crossed, and consequently where the navigation is esteemed the safest: this last purpose we had soon answered, being in a day or two sufficiently advanced to the south. But though we were at the same time more distant from the shore than we had presumed was necessary for the falling in with the trade-wind, yet in this particular we were most grievously disappointed, the wind still continuing to the westward, or at best variable. As the getting into the N.E. trade was to us a matter of the last consequence, we stood yet more to the southward, and made many experiments to meet with it; but all our efforts were for a long time unsuccessful; so that it was seven weeks from our leaving the coast before we got into the true trade-wind. This was an interval in which we had at first believed we should well-nigh have reached the eastermost parts of Asia; but we were so baffled with the contrary and variable winds, which for all that time perplexed us, that we were not as yet advanced above a fourth of the way. The delay alone would have been a sufficient mortification; but there were other circumstances attending it which rendered this situation not less terrible, and our apprehensions perhaps still greater, than in any of our past calamities. For our two ships were by this time extremely crazy; and many days had not passed before we { 268} discovered a spring in the fore-mast of the _Centurion_, which rounded about twenty-six inches of its circumference, and which was judged to be at least four inches deep. And no sooner had the carpenters secured this mast with fishing it, than the _Gloucester_ made a signal of distress to inform us that she had a spring in her main-mast, twelve feet below the trussel trees; which appeared so dangerous that she could not carry any sail upon it. Our carpenters on a strict examination of this mast found it excessively rotten and decayed; and it being judged necessary to cut it down as low as it was defective, it was by this means reduced to nothing but a stump, which served only as a step to the top-mast. These accidents augmented our delay, and being added to our other distresses occasioned us great anxiety about our future safety. For though after our departure from Juan Fernandes we had enjoyed a most uninterrupted state of health, till our leaving the coast of Mexico, yet the scurvy now began to make fresh havock amongst our people: and we too well knew the effects of this disease by our former fatal experience to suppose that anything except a speedy passage could secure the greater part of our crew from being destroyed thereby. But as, after being seven weeks at sea, there did not appear any reasons that could persuade us we were nearer the trade-wind than when we set out, there was no ground for us to imagine that our passage would not prove at least three times as long as we at first expected; and consequently we had the melancholy prospect either of dying by the scurvy or of perishing with the ship for want of hands to navigate her. Indeed, several amongst us were willing to believe that in this warm climate, so different from what we felt in passing round Cape Horn, the violence of this disease, and its fatality, might be in some degree mitigated; as it had not been unusual to suppose that its particular virulence during that passage was in a great measure owing to the severity of the weather: but the ravage of the distemper, in our present circumstances, soon convinced us of the falsity of this speculation; as it likewise exploded certain other opinions which usually pass current about the cause and nature of this disease.