Part 2

The next morning at day break, the caravan of carts set out from the magistrate’s in quest of the absent party, with orders to lose no time, but to proceed till they found them, and to bring them to his house forthwith. I now took up my abode at the house of Mr. J., where I remained during my stay in this place. During the forenoon of the following day, the carts returned with the wanderers. They were found in a miserable plight, near a swamp, from which they had just extricated themselves, covered with sweat and mud, and nearly exhausted from fatigue and hunger. They were kept partially guarded at the commandant’s house till an answer to his express should arrive from Buenos Ayres, to which place he had written, relating the strange manner of their falling into his hands. On the evening of the third day, the much expected letters arrived. The captain of the port had instructions to permit myself and crew to depart at pleasure, and the commandant had directions to pay every attention to the French officers, and to furnish means to conduct them to Buenos Ayres. Early the next morning, receiving a passport from the captain of the port, and a small basket of provisions, to which we added a jug of wine and keg of water, we started in our boat, (myself and the four seamen) for Buenos Ayres. We pulled away at the oars for about three miles, till we had doubled a point of land, when we hoisted a sail, and were able, with the wind, to make a stretch up the river. We kept wholly along shore, and in about five hours sail, discerned the merchantmen in the offing of Buenos Ayres, and passed the English frigate and native guard brig without molestation. After passing the small craft in the inner roads to windward, in a passage of six and a half hours, we landed at the Mole-Head. This is the only landing place, saving the custom house, of the port. There are no piers or wharves, and the shore, or river side, is wholly occupied by washer-women, who line the whole surface of the beach, and who, with their black limbs and snow-white clothes spread around, present a busy and singular appearance. I procured lodgings for the men at a house in the street near the beach, and then went in search of the captain, who I presumed was ashore, as we had seen the ship in the outer roads; but he had not yet landed. In the afternoon, however, I fell in with him near the Mole, having just landed. In the morning a pilot was procured and we went on board; and that day the ship, after losing her long boat, which filled and swamped while under way, and broke her fast, was brought in to an anchor in the inner roads.

On the twenty second of February, Washington’s birth day, a phenomenon took place at Buenos Ayres, which will ever be remembered by those who witnessed it, and which I believe has never been recorded. On the morning of that day, while lying off from the shore about three quarters of a mile—the men being employed, as usual, in washing the decks, being about half past seven, and the sun two hours high—‘Jack,’ says one of the men to his shipmate, after he had thrown his bucket of water, and was observing the weather, ‘what means that cloud of dust in the wake of the town, yonder?’ Before the question could be answered by his comrade, however, the uncommon appearance of this dense body of dust, and the wild appearance of the sky, had rivetted the eyes of all on board. ‘Stand by the cable tier!’ vociferated the chief mate; ‘jump down and be ready to pay out—bear a hand, my hearties, here’s a pampero coming, driving the world before him.’ The black cloud of dust now rising and expanding in awful grandeur, and extending over half the horizon, rapidly approached us, immediately followed by an immense shroud of impenetrable darkness, which rose beneath and followed it. As the ship lay broadside to the shore, I was proceeding from midships to the helm, in order to bring her head to wind; but I was arrested in my progress by total darkness and the tremendous blast, which at once, struck the ship and nearly capsized her, and had to secure myself by clenching the railing. This is indeed a phenomenon, I exclaimed to the chief mate; what comes next? but astonishment kept him and all others deprived, for the time, of speech. Here, for a few moments, was a grand and awfully sublime spectacle; on one side of us was a body of almost palpable darkness, and on the other, the fair light of heaven. Expecting momently to be blown to the other regions, we waited, breathlessly, the result of this wonder of nature for about twenty minutes, when the field of darkness passed through, and was driven beyond us to the other side, and in its vacancy the light slowly returned; thus we had repeatedly light on one side and darkness on the other. On discerning the features of each other, we were surprised at their ludicrous complexion; a sooty black dust had overspread our faces, and rendered our appearance like that of negroes. On recovering from our surprise, we found we had sustained no other damage than dragging our anchors a few cables length; but other vessels, near us before, we scarcely could recognise, they had drifted so far. The remainder of the day was boisterous and rainy, attended with heavy thunder and lightning. The sailors considered this event as a voice of Providence, and the carpenter piously believed it a judgment on the sinful inhabitants of the land. In the city, a greater degree of consternation prevailed. Many, at the time, were in the streets, going and returning from market; but the sudden absence of light compelled every one to remain as he was caught, with caravans of mules, droves of horses, &c., while milk boys, priests and begging friars, dropped on their knees and earnestly implored the protection of the saints.

In April, the ship having altered her destination, I obtained a release, not choosing to return home, and desirous of seeing more of the world. Soon after, meeting with an old acquaintance, a sea captain, he proposed to me a birth in a good ship, soon to sail to Valparaiso, in the Pacific, doubling Cape Horn, and from thence westwardly to Canton, and returning by the way of the Cape of Good Hope, thus completing the circumnavigation of the globe, or the sailing round the world. This was just what I wished, and which would occupy, probably, twenty or twenty four months. While making preparations, however, news arrived from the Pacific, detrimental to the sale of the cargo they were receiving on board, which was matte or yerba, (Paraguay tea) which they were obliged to discharge; and much to my mortification the voyage was altered. In the month of May, however, I entered as second officer on board of this ship, the Jane, Captain William Seaboth, bound to Brazil, with a cargo of hides. Our departure was sometime retarded by striking on the bar, in going out, which damaged our rudder and detained us nearly six weeks. Towards the middle of June, however, we again set sail, and after a pleasant passage of twenty days, came to anchor in the harbor of Rio Janeiro. Here we had to remain nearly two months, for freight. We succeeded at last in procuring it, consisting of nearly two hundred pipes of wine, several hundred barrels of flour, tobacco in baskets, crockery ware, dry goods, salmon and Irish butter in kegs, salchina, or salt pork, which is the side of a hog rolled up hard and put in a basket of the shape of a meal bag, &c. &c.; a very full cargo. We had on board five passengers, two of them Spaniards, a German, an Englishman and an American, as follows: Senior Monasteria, an eminent engineer, whose wife and four children were living in Buenos Ayres, of which he was a valuable citizen, aged about forty five; Senior Barras, a resident of Rio, of a weak constitution, who had undertaken this passage on account of his low state of health, and about twenty years of age. On the day of our departure from Rio, his father, an aged Spaniard, who resided there, came on board to see that every thing was prepared for his comfort, and to take a farewell of his only son. Mynheer Mann, a German gentleman, who had been for some years a resident of Rio Janeiro, and had before freighted vessels and taken passage in them from thence to Monte Video; he was a man of middle age, of prepossessing appearance, a gentleman and a scholar, and possessing the milk of human kindness in an eminent degree. Francis Summers, a North Briton, aged about thirty, who had likewise long resided in Buenos Ayres, Monte Video, and Rio Janeiro, and had many acquaintances in all those places; he was strong and athletic, of enterprising habits, and his loss was deeply lamented. Lastly, Mr. Tiernay, an American, (naturalized) who, I believe, was a native of France, the language of which he spoke with ease; he was a large and well proportioned man, of great information, and easy and sociable manners. He had left Baltimore about a year previous, with a freight, which he advantageously disposed of at Rio, and on the arrival of the Union, Captain P., of Boston, purchased about four hundred barrels of flour and put on board of our vessel, which would have brought a great price at Monte Video had our ship reached the port.

Our captain was by birth a Dane, a large and corpulent man, a perpetual smoker, a great eater, drank nothing but water, talked but little and played admirably upon the piano forte, having one in his state room. He was a man of a most phlegmatic and easy temper, upon which fair weather or foul, bad luck or good, could make no perceptible impression. The slaves were freshly imported, untamed sons of Angola; the seamen, (Swedes and Englishmen) much like all other sailors, careless, illiterate, rough and honest. We were plentifully stocked with provisions and liquors of all kinds, such as wine, oranges, poultry, pigs, two goats for milking, three monkies for mischief, a dog, a cat, and about twenty parrots and paraquitos. Thus comfortably provided, in the morning of the third of September, 1817, we were wafted out of the harbor by a cheering breeze from the land, in company with six or eight sail of large Portuguese Indiamen, two English ships for Lima, an English schooner for Monte Video, and an American ship (the Diomede, of Salem, Captain Page) for Buenos Ayres, and several coasting sumacos.

The view of this part of the Coast of Brazil, near the entrance of this harbor is, perhaps, no where surpassed in point of majestic grandeur and beauty. The cloud capp’t—but of this in another place. Nothing of consequence occurred during the passage, till within about fifty leagues of the mouth of the La Plata. About ten, A. M., on the fourteenth of September, a man at work aloft arrested the dull, monotonous sounds of the winds and waves, by the cry of sail ho! It was the first time we had heard that ever welcome exclamation, and we were eager now to approach and hail the supposed vessel. The helmsman was directed to keep in a direct course for the sail. With a stiff breeze and fair wind we rapidly neared it, when it began to assume a different appearance—the sails and masts were no longer visible. The hull, however, was still plainly seen, and looked like the wreck of some large vessel, and some, by the help of glasses, affirmed they could distinctly perceive her broken timbers. This was the general belief, nor were we undeceived till we were within hail of it, when the supposed hull of a foundered frigate, proved to be but the wreck of a prodigious South Atlantic whale! From his appearance, he had been dead a long while; he had opened, on the upper surface, his whole length, and presented an immense yawning breach, on each side of which, appeared his large ribs and bones. He lay in an inclined position, which prevented the swelling surge from entering and filling him, though it would dash in a foam around him; this gave him, even at a moderate distance, the appearance of a large wreck. A vast number of sea birds had alighted upon him, and with large shoals of various fish, were eagerly assisting to devour him.

The next day we fell in with and spoke the English brig Mary, from Liverpool, bound to Buenos Ayres, seventy three days out. It being about meridian, with fair weather and smooth sea, we gave the captain an invitation to dine with us, which he accepted; and, accordingly, we backed topsails and lay too, the brig doing the same, when we lowered the boat from the stern, conducted him on board of us, hoisted up the boat, filled the sails again and then bore away. This commander was dressed, as English captains frequently are at sea, in a check shirt, short jacket, leather cap, and tarry trowsers. A novice could not have distinguished him from one of his crew; he was, however, sociable and friendly, had brought a fine large Cheshire cheese with him, and took in return a half dozen of wine. The next day we lost sight of him, he being light and a faster sailer. The morning was rather hazy when we entered the river, which we knew we were in, by the changed color of the water. The land was soon plainly seen, stretching low from Cape St. Mary up the river, with the sandy beaches, trees, and hills. We passed Lobos, or Seal Island, about nine, A. M. These seals or sea wolves appeared at this time in greater numbers here, than I had ever seen them. We passed Moldonado, a small town, about eleven—continuing our course up the river with a light but fair wind, till towards sunset, when the fog still becoming more dense, the wind increasing and night approaching, it was determined to haul off shore for several miles, and thus gain an offing for anchorage during the night. We accordingly came to anchor about fifteen miles below Monte Video, our first destined port to the leeward of Flores, or Isle of Flowers—the wind now blowing fresh from the south east. At eight o’clock, the gale increasing very fast, we payed out a long scope of cable, and she seemed for the present to ride easy, and with much less straining. Between this time and nine o’clock, while supper was preparing below, and the crew in the forecastle, the captain and myself, with his inseparable solace, a cigar, were walking the quarter deck, balancing ourselves to the roll and plunges and lurches of the vessel; conversing upon the events of the passage, the character of our passengers, and on the happy prospects of breakfasting next morning in Monte Video. In concluding the conversation, Captain S., after looking around upon the portentous sky and troubled waves, made the following memorable observation. ‘But keep a good look out to-night, Mr. F., and tend well the cable, for if we drive ashore here, we are all lost.’ We then descended the cabin, giving charge to the watch, and sat down with light and still happy hearts, to supper. Happy were we all in the idea of being so near the end of our voyage—but how unconscious that the supper we partook of, was the last to be taken, and that six brief hours should end the voyage of life with all, save one. Little, for my own part, did I dream of or presage its sad reality. I had formed plans, which, on shore with my adventurers, were brilliant in prospective, and I indulged in pleasing reveries. After the removal of the cloth, wine was passed around, and the cabin at this time presented a group of happy and expecting mortals, who, after the dangers of the ocean, and almost in hail of their homes, were congratulating themselves upon the fair prospect of the pleasures before them.

I ascended on deck, to observe the weather before I turned in. The gale still continued to increase—the ship pitching very heavily, plunging bows under, and wet from fore to aft by the sea and the spray. After seeing all snug, and leaving the deck in charge of the officer of the watch, I descended, and turned into my hammock, stripping off only my outer great jacket. At twelve, midnight, after passing a sleepless and anxious watch below, with sensations as strange and uneasy as the laboring motions of the ship, I came upon deck to relieve the watch. I went forward and examined the cables at the hawse holes, to see if the canvas or service needed renewing from the chafing; and seeing all was well, I returned to the quarter deck, to the lead line. The watch which had been relieved, had retired and turned in, and myself, boatswain and four men, remained as the watch on deck. The ship was rolling and pitching most laborsome, as the weather current was very strong. ‘An uncomfortable night this, sir,’ said the boatswain, who was a great talker, ‘and infernal cold for a warm country—faith, I must button up my monkey, and secure my tarpaulin, if we are to stand this weather here on deck for four hours. Whew! this is a snorter; and we must keep well aft, or else a sea from over the bows there, will throw us off our legs, or a spray give us a drencher to freshen our eyelids. D—n her, how she jumps and pitches; well, for my part, give me a ship under sail, with the wind a-beam to steady her, instead of lying here at anchor, where she tumbles about like a chip in a frog pond.’ The moon was now about half an hour high. From the feeling of the lead, I was fearful that the ship had been, and was still fast drifting. The motion of the vessel and strong current, prevented my knowing this to a certainty—while at the line, I observed an unusual white foam to the leeward, and remarked it to the boatswain. He replied, he thought it no more than the curling tops of the waves. Not satisfied with this, I went aft into the yawl over the stern, and was soon convinced they were that dread of sailors, breakers, and not far from us. I quickly went below, and awoke the captain, who was in a secure and profound sleep! by violently shaking him; and with a loud cry of ‘breakers!’ aroused the passengers. I then went forward to get ready another anchor, and several men were clearing the cable tier below. The captain had just gained the deck, when, at quarter past twelve, the vessel struck. The shock sunk upon the hearts of those on board, like the summons for sudden death—and with reason. All knew that while the ship rode clear of the ground, they were in safety; but the moment she struck, their minutes were numbered, and death inevitable. Those below were directly alarmed by the shock, and hurried affrighted to the deck. Another blow soon followed—then another, and another, still more heavy. A heavy sea soon struck over the bows, and knocked down several seamen, and obliged them to retreat to the quarter deck. The seas began now to break over the whole weather side, and all were palsied with horror on looking around at the awful, prospect—the tremendous surge, and the fate which could not be shunned. The passengers and seamen had all reached the deck, excepting the carpenter, who lay sick in his hammock in the steerage—some, in nothing but their shirts, and all half dressed, or with some clothes in their hands. On seeing their perilous situation, the clothes were dropped, and they secured their hold to the rigging—the ship continually striking. The captain ordered the steward to secure some articles in the cabin; he descended, but soon came up with the dismal tidings that every thing was adrift and the cabin full of water. ‘Cut away the masts! cut away the masts!’ he then cried out. I went forward to the carpenter’s chest; I asked several for the axe. ‘We don’t know of any axe, sir,’ was the answer. ‘Lord have mercy upon us.’ The seas now forced all to secure their holds. Young Summers had gained the weather main shrouds, nearly naked and drenched by every sea. ‘Fracker, where are you,’ he exclaimed, in a voice of despair. ‘Here am I, Frank,’ I replied, holding on with the rest—‘God only can help us now.’ One sailor alone, delirious with horror that stupified others, was loud in his cries of despair. Irritated at such cowardice in one who had been a bullying, boisterous fellow, I told him hastily to stop his clamors, and not thus to discourage others; that if he wished to save himself, it must be by exertion, and not lamentation; and that the ship could, possibly, hold together till day-light. But the others stood inanimate; and despair and horror at their inevitable fate, deprived them of all motion, speech or sensation of danger. The seas at this time were making complete cataracts over every part of the ship, and perceiving I should soon have to commit myself to the waves, I threw off my pea jacket and hat into the sea. Most of the crew and passengers were holding firmly on the different parts of the quarter deck, and three or four naked, shivering wretches, had ventured partly up the shrouds, clinging with ghastly looks to the ropes, as their last hold, from which the merciless waves were tearing them in succession, and they were instantly overwhelmed and buried in their bosoms.

From the time she had first struck, the sea had so completely burst over us, that it rendered every effort of endeavoring to help ourselves, useless and dangerous—in our first intentions of cutting the cables, making some sail, or, at the worst, to cut away the masts, and driving as fast as possible on shore. Such, indeed, was its sudden violence, that nothing was soon thought of but to attempt to hold on as long as possible, and all other efforts were impracticable and abandoned. Ten or twelve of us, at this time, were holding on to the weather quarter rail; every sea, a solid body of water, to which at its approach we presented our bare heads, would immediately wash us off our legs horizontally, at arm’s length, and the comrade at my side, with several others, were torn from their grasp, and hurled and buried amid the wreck and water.