all the success of those who ventured abroad, the weather being still exceedingly bad, was to kill one sea-gull and pick some wild celery.

'We were in all about a hundred and forty who had got to shore; but some few remained still on board, detained either by drunkenness, or a view of pillaging the wreck. These were visited by an officer in the yawl, who was to endeavour to prevail upon them to join the rest; but, finding them in the greatest disorder, and disposed to mutiny, he was obliged to desist from his purpose, and return without them. The ensuing night proved exceedingly tempestuous; and, the sea running very high, threatened those on board with immediate destruction, by the parting of the wreck. They then were as solicitous to get ashore as they were before obstinate in refusing the assistance we sent them; and, when they found the boat did not come to their relief at the instant they expected it, without considering how impracticable a thing it was to send it them in such a sea, they fired one of the quarter-deck guns at the hut; the ball of which did but just pass over the covering of it, and was plainly heard by the captain and us who were within. Another attempt, therefore, was made to bring these madmen to land; which, however, proved ineffectual. This unavoidable delay made the people on board outrageous: yet one thing in this outrage they seemed particularly attentive to, which was, to provide themselves with arms and ammunition, in order to support them in putting their mutinous designs in execution, and asserting their claim to a lawless exemption from the authority of their officers, which they pretended must cease with the loss of the ship. But of these arms, which we stood in great need of, they were soon bereaved, upon coming ashore, by the resolution of Captain Cheap and Lieutenant Hamilton of the marines. Among these mutineers was the boatswain; who, instead of exerting the authority he had over the rest, to keep them within bounds as much as possible, was himself a ringleader in their riot. Him, without respect to the figure he then made (for he was in laced clothes), Captain Cheap, by a blow well laid on with his cane, felled to the ground. It was scarce possible to refrain from laughter at the whimsical appearance these fellows made, who, having rifled the chests of the officers' best suits, had put them on over their greasy trowsers and dirty checked shirts. They were soon stripped of their finery, as they had before been obliged to resign their arms.

'The incessant rains, and exceeding cold weather in this climate, made it necessary to fall upon some expedient, without delay, which

might serve the purpose of shelter. Accordingly the gunuer, carpenter, and some more, turning the cutter keel upwards, and fixing it upon props, made no despicable habitation. Having thus established some sort of settlement, we had the more leisure to look about us. We soon provided ourselves with some sea-fowl, and found limpets, muscles, and other shell-fish, in tolerable abundance; but this rummaging of the shore was now becoming extremely irksome to those who had any feeling, by the bodies of our drowned people thrown among the rocks, some of which were hideous spectacles, from the mangled condition they were in by the violent surf that drove in upon the coast. These horrors were overcome by the distresses of our people, who were even glad of the occasion of killing the gallinazo (the carrion crow of that country) while preying on these carcasses, in order to make a meal of them. But a provision by no means proportionable to the number of mouths to be fed could, by our utmost industry, be acquired from that part of the island we had hitherto traversed : therefore, till we were in a capacity of making more distant excursions, the wreck was to be applied to, as often as possible, for such supplies as could be got out of her. The difficulties we had to encounter in our visits to the wreck cannot be easily described; for no part of it being above water except the quarter-deck and part of the forecastle, we were usually obliged to come at such things as were within reach, by means of large hooks fastened to poles, in which business we were much incommoded by the dead bodies floating between decks.

In order to secure what we thus got, Captain Cheap ordered a storetent to be erected near his hut, from which nothing was to be dealt out but in the measure and proportion agreed upon by the officers; and though it was very hard upon us petty officers, who were fatigued with hunting all day in quest of food, to defend this tent from invasion by night, no other means could be devised for this purpose so effectual as the committing this charge to our care. Yet, notwithstanding our utmost vigilance and care, frequent robberies were committed upon our trust, the tent being accessible in more than one place. The allowance which might consistently be dispensed from thence was so little proportionable to our common exigencies, together with our daily and nightly task of roving after food, not in the least relaxed, that many at this time perished with hunger. A boy, when no other eatables could be found, having picked up the liver of one of the drowned men (whose carcass had been torn to pieces by the force with which the sea drove it among the rocks), was with difficulty withheld from

making a meal of it. It must be observed that on the 14th of May we were cast away, and it was not till the 25th of this month that provision was served regularly from the store-tent.

Whenever the weather permitted, which was now grown something drier, but exceeding cold, we employed ourselves about the wreck, from which we had, at sundry times, recovered several articles of provision and liquor: these were deposited in the store tent. I humour and discontent, from the difficulties we laboured under in procuring subsistence, and the little prospect there was of any amendment in our condition, was now breaking out apace. In some it showed itself by a separation of settlement and habitation; in others, by a resolution of leaving the captain entirely, and making a wild journey by themselves, without determining upon any plan whatever. For my own part, liking none of their parties, I built a little hut just big enough for myself and a poor Indian dog I found in the woods, who could shift for himself along shore at low water, by getting limpets. This creature grew so fond of me, and faithful, that he would suffer nobody to come near the hut without biting them.

Our number, which was at first one hundred and forty-five, was now reduced to one hundred, and chiefly by famine, which put the rest upon all shifts and devices to support themselves. One day, when I was at home in my hut with my Indian dog, a party came to my door, and told me their necessities were such, that they must eat the creature or starve. Though their plea was urgent, I could not help using some arguments to endeavour to dissuade them from killing him, as his faithful services and fondness deserved it at my hands; but, without weighing my arguments, they took him away by force, and killed him; upon which, thinking that I had at least as good a right to a share as the rest, I sat down with them, aud partook of their repast. Three weeks after that I was glad to make a meal of his paws and skin, which, upon recollecting the spot where they had killed him, I found thrown aside and rotten.'

The use which Lord Byron has made of this incident, in the second canto of Don Juan,' has exposed him to the charge of plagiarism by some learned Theban,' whose name we forget. We subjoin the passage:

So Juan's spaniel, spite of his entreating,
Was kill'd and portion'd out for present eating.

On the sixth day they fed upon his hide,

And Juan, who had still refused, because
The creature was his father's dog that died,
Now feeling all the vulture in his jaws,
With some remorse received (though first denied)
As a great favour one of the fore paws,
Which he divided with Pedrillo, who

Devour'd it, longing for the other too.'

After enduring hardships, the mere relation of which is frightful, the remnant of the ship's crew, reduced by various desertions to only five persons, were carried by some Indians to the island of Chiloe. Mr. Byron and Captain Cheap were of this party. The apprehensions which they had reasonably enough entertained of rough usage from the inhabitants of Chiloe turned out to be unfounded: they were treated with great humanity, and, for the first time since their shipwreck, had sufficient food to satisfy their hunger. From the island of Chiloe they were taken to Castro, where the Spanish corregidor of the town gave them to understand that they, being Englishmen, were prisoners to the government of Spain. Here, however, they were also kindly treated, and had a plentiful supply of food: but such an impression had their former privations made upon them, that their appetites seem to have increased to an ungovernable degree, and to have overcome all notions of decency and propriety, even in men whose education and habits had taught them to observe the customs of civilized life, Such a strange thing is human nature, and so nearly do its mere passions ally it to the brutes that perish! Mr. Byron says, speaking of the amazing quantity which he and his companions ate, 'It is amazing that our eating to that excess we had done, from the time we first got among these kind Indians, had not killed us; we were never satisfied, and used to take all opportunities for some months after of filling our pockets when we were not seen, that we might get up two or three times in the night to cram ourselves. Capt. Cheap used to declare that he was quite ashamed of himself. At Castro, Mr. Byron seems to have made an impression on the niece of a rich old priest, of whom she was the reputed heiress. This young lady,' he says, 'did me the honour to take more notice of me than I deserved; and proposed to her uncle to convert me, and afterwards begged his consent to marry me. As the old man doted upon her, he readily agreed to it; and, accordingly, on the next visit I made him, acquainted me with the young lady's proposal, and his approbation of it, taking me at the same time into a

room where there were several chests and boxes, which he unlocked; first showing me what a number of fine clothes his niece had, and then his own wardrobe, which he said should be mine at his death. Amongst other things, he produced a piece of linen, which he said should immediately be made up into shirts for me. I own this last article was a great temptation to me: however, I had the resolution to withstand it, and made the best excuses I could for not accepting of the honour they intended me; for by this time I could speak Spanish well enough to make myself understood.'

The confession which he makes of the difficulty he had to withstand the temptation of the shirts is a proof how far the love of clean linen will carry a man.

At length the prisoners, whom the death of two had reduced to Captain Cheap, Mr. Byron, and Mr. Hamilton, were taken to Chili in the beginning of 1743, where Mr. Byron was hospitably entertained for nearly two years in the house of Don Patricio Gedd, a physician of Scotch family, settled at that place. On the 20th of December, 1744, they were put on board the Lys, a French frigate belonging to St. Malo, and, after a voyage of twelve months, were landed in Brest harbour. They thence obtained a passage in a Dutch vessel; and, being boarded by the boat of an English ship, they were carried to Dover. The narrative concludes in the following manner:

Captain Masterson immediately sent one of the cutters he had with him to land us at Dover, where we arrived that afternoon, and directly set out for Canterbury upon post horses; but Captain Cheap was so tired by the time he got there that he could proceed no farther that night. The next morning he still found himself so much fatigued that he could ride no longer; therefore it was agreed that he and Mr. Hamilton should take a post-chaise, and that I should ride: but here an unlucky difficulty was started; for, upon sharing the little money we had, it was found to be not sufficient to pay the charges to London; and my proportion fell so short, that it was, by calculation, barely enough to pay for horses, without a farthing for eating a bit upon the road, or even for the very turnpikes. Those I was obliged to defraud, by riding as hard as I could through them all, not paying the least regard to the men, who called out to stop me. The want of refreshment I bore as well as I could. When I got to the Borough I took a coach and drove to Marlborough Street, where my friends had lived when I left England; but, when I came there, I found the house shut up. Having been absent so many years, and in all that time