o fight his
way through several canoes, filled with armed Indians, from whom he got
clear with the utmost difficulty, and had been under the necessity of
making his passage quite round the island, a course of not less than
seventy leagues.[258] This proceeded only from excess of terror, as they
only met one boat with unarmed Indians and a Spanish sergeant, who came
off to them without the least shew of violence, as some of them
afterwards confessed, but with this addition, that there were great
numbers of people on shore, who they were apprehensive would come off to
them. The only excuse the officer could allege was, that the tide had
hurried him away, and he forgot in his fright that he had a grappling in
the boat, with which he might have anchored till the tide turned.

[Footnote 258: The circuit of the island of Chiloe by sea, could hardly
be less than 350 English miles; an arduous navigation in an open boat
upon an utterly unknown coast.--E.]

By this strange mismanagement, I missed a favourable opportunity of
seizing the town of Chacao, which I might easily have done if I had
appeared before it within forty-eight hours after our arrival, when the
governor was totally unprovided for resistance. But now, having a whole
week allowed for mustering the force of the island, he had collected
near a thousand armed Spaniards, as I learnt from the Indian prisoners
in the pinnace. I therefore laid aside all thoughts of going to the
towns, in the hopes of furnishing ourselves from the Indian farms and
plantations, in which I kept one of our boats constantly employed. By
the 16th, our decks were full of live cattle, together with poultry and
hams in abundance, and such quantities of wheat, barley, potatoes, and
maize, that I was quite satisfied. On a moderate computation, we had
added four months provisions to the stock we brought from England, so
that I was well pleased with the effects of our stay at Chiloe, and
prepared to depart. I might certainly have done much more for my own
credit and the profit of my owners, had if not been for the
mismanagement of the officer in the pinnace.

_Chiloe_ is the first of the Spanish possessions on the coast of Chili,
reckoning from the south; and, though it produces neither gold nor
silver, is a fine island, and is considered as of great consequence;
insomuch that the Spaniards would be under great apprehensions when
strange ships enter its ports, did they not confide in the number of i