n on board, who were all
sick and dying. It is impossible to represent the melancholy
circumstances wherein we were involved previous to our arrival
at these islands. We anchored at one called Tinian,
uninhabited, but abounding with wild cattle, hogs, fowls, and
fruits: we could not have fallen in with a better place. I am
convinced, had we stayed out ten days longer at sea, we should
have been obliged to take to our boats, our leak increasing so
fast, and our people being all infirm and disabled. We
immediately sent all our sick on shore, and began to hope for
better times, feeding plentifully on roast beef, when an
accident fell out, on the 22nd September 1742, which nearly
ruined us all.

"My post as first officer generally confined me on board the
Commodore, whilst most of the officers and men were on shore
for the recovery of their health, when a storm came on and
rose so mountainous a sea as none of us ever saw before. The
ship was in danger of being pooped as we lay at anchor; at last
we parted both our bower-cables and drove out to sea, with the
sheet-anchor hanging in the hawse, a whole cable and three
quarters of another out (excuse these barbarous sea terms), and
narrowly escaped driving on a ledge of rocks, that was near,
and leaving the Commodore and all the rest behind. The ship, by
her labouring in such a troubled sea, made so much water that I
was in doubt whether she would not have foundered; our ports
and the guns were but ill-secured, owing to the suddenness of
the storm, which also upset the long boat. Under these
circumstances we drove to sea with one hundred men and boys on
board, not knowing whether I should not at last be a captain in
spite of my teeth. In this manner I drove seventy leagues, and
was fifteen days before I recovered land, beating up against a
fresh trade and the current. The Commodore, you may imagine,
was overjoyed at my return, as were all the rest. They were
very busy in building a vessel to carry them all to China, as
they preferred venturing to sea in it to remaining in an
uninhabited island, or to be exposed to the cruelty of the
Spaniards who live in the neighbouring islands, the Commodore
concluding that either the ship was lost, or that I should
never be able to beat to windward. At