to be fired, and lights to be shown, as a signal to the
commodore of our distress; and in a short time after, it being then
about one o'clock, and the night excessively dark, a strong gust,
attended with rain and lightning, drove us off the bank, and forced us
out to sea, leaving behind us, on the island, Mr Anson, with many more
of our officers, and great part of our crew, amounting in the whole to
an hundred and thirteen persons. Thus were we all, both at sea and
on shore, reduced to the utmost despair by this catastrophe, those on
shore conceiving they had no means left them ever to leave the island,
and we on board utterly unprepared to struggle with the fury of the
seas and winds we were now exposed to, and expecting each moment, to
be our last.

SECTION XXVI.

_Transactions at Tinian after the Departure of the Centurion._

The storm, which drove the Centurion to sea, blew with too much
turbulence to permit either the commodore or any of the people on
shore bearing the guns, which she fired as signals of distress; and
the frequent glare of the lightning had prevented the explosions from
being observed: So that, when at day-break, it was perceived from the
shore that the ship was missing, there was the utmost consternation
amongst them: For much the greatest part of them immediately concluded
that she, was lost, and entreated the commodore that the boat might
be sent round the island to look for the wreck; and those who believed
her safe, had scarcely any expectation that she would ever be able to
make the island again: For the wind continued to blow strong at east,
and they knew how poorly she was manned and provided for struggling
with so tempestuous a gale. And if the Centurion was lost, or should
be incapable of returning, there appeared no possibility of their ever
getting off the island; For they were at least six hundred leagues
from Macao, which was their nearest port; and they were masters of no
other vessel than the small Spanish bark, of about fifteen tun, which
they seized at their first arrival, and which would not even hold a
fourth part of their number: And the chance of their being taken off
the island by the casual arrival of any ship was altogether desperate;
as perhaps no European ship had ever anchored here before, and it
were madness to expect that like incidents should send another in an
hundred ages to come: So that their desponding thoughts could only
suggest to them the melancholy pr