ould have got the better of my indolence
and reluctance to comply with the same requests, for the space of twenty
years.

I will employ these few introductory pages merely to shew what pretensions
this work may have to the notice of the world, after those publications
which have preceded it.

It is well known that the Wager, one of Lord Anson's squadron, was cast
away upon a desolate island in the South-seas. The subject of this book is
a relation of the extraordinary difficulties and hardships through which,
by the assistance of Divine Providence, a small part of her crew escaped to
their native land; and a very small proportion of those made their way, in
a new and unheard-of manner, over a large and desert tract of land, between
the western mouth of Magellanic Streight and the capital of Chili; a
country scarce to be paralleled in any part of the globe, in that it
affords neither fruits, grain, nor even roots proper for the sustenance of
man; and, what is still more rare, the very sea, which yields a plentiful
support to many a barren coast, on this tempestuous and inhospitable shore
is found to be almost as barren as the land; and it must be confessed, that
to those who cannot interest themselves with seeing human nature labouring,
from day to day, to preserve its existence under the continual want of such
real necessaries, as food and shelter from the most rigorous climate, the
following sheets will afford but little entertainment.

Yet, after all, it must be allowed there can be no other way of
ascertaining the geography and natural history of a country, which is
altogether morass and a rock, incapable of products or culture, than by
setting down every minute circumstance which was observed in traversing it.
The same may be said of the inhabitants, their manners, religion, and
language. What fruits could an European reap from a more intimate
acquaintance with them, than what he will find in the following accidental
observations? We saw the most unprofitable spot on the globe of the earth,
and such it is described and ascertained to be.

It is to be hoped, some little amends may be made by such an insight as is
given into the interior part of the Country; and I find what I have put
down has had the good fortune to be pleasing to some of my friends;
insomuch, that the only fault I have yet had laid to my papers is, that of
being too short in the article of the Spanish settlements. But here I must
say, I have been