A New Voyage Round the World by a Course Never Sailed Before

by Daniel Defoe

south, which I supposeis the farthest southern latitude that any European ship ever saw inthose seas.

  That night it froze extremely hard, and the wind veering to thesouth-west, it was the severest cold that ever I felt in my life; abarrel or cask of water, which stood on the deck, froze entirely in onenight into one lump, and our cooper, knocking off the hoops from thecask, took it to pieces, and the barrel of ice stood by itself, in thetrue shape of the vessel it had been in. This wind was, however,favourable to our deliverance, for we stood away now north-east andnorth-east-by-north, making fresh way with a fair wind.

  We made no more land till we came into the latitude of 62 deg., when we sawsome islands at a great distance, on both sides of us; we believed themto be islands, because we saw many of them with large openings between.But we were all so willing to get into a warmer climate, that we did notincline to put in anywhere, till, having run thus fifteen days and thewind still holding southerly, with small alteration and clear weather,we could easily perceive the climate to change, and the weather growmilder. And here taking an observation, I found we were in the latitudeof 50 deg. 30', and that our meridian distance from the Ladrones west was87 deg., being almost one semi-diameter of the globe, so that we could notbe far from the coast of America, which was my next design, and indeedthe chief design of the whole voyage.

  On this expectation I changed my course a little, and went awaynorth-by-east, till by an observation I found myself in 47 deg. 7', and thenstanding away east for about eleven days more, we made the tops of theAndes, the great mountains of Chili, in South America, to our great joyand satisfaction, though at a very great distance.

  We found our distance from the shore not less than twenty leagues, themountains being so very high; and our next business was to consider whatpart of the Andes it must be, and to what port we should directourselves first. Upon the whole, we found we were too much to the southstill, and resolved to make directly for the river or port of Valdivia,or Baldivia, as it is sometimes called, in the latitude of 40 deg.; so westood away to the north. The next day the pacific, quiet sea, as it istermed, showed us a very frowning rough countenance, and proved the veryextreme of a contrary disposition; for it blew a storm of wind ateast-by-south, and drove us off the coast again, but it abated again fora day or two; and then for six days together it blew excessive hard,almost all at east, so that I found no possibility of getting into theshore; and besides, I found that the winds came off that mountainouscountry in squalls, and that the nearer we came to the hills the gustswere the more violent. So I resolved to run for the island of JuanFernandez, to refresh ourselves there until the weather was settled; andbesides, we wanted fresh water very much.

  The little that the wind stood southerly helped me in this run, and wecame in five days more, fair with the island, to our great joy, andbrought all our ships to an anchor as near the watering-place as isusual, where we rode easy, though, the wind continued to blow very hard;and being, I say, now about the middle of our voyage, I shall break offmy account here, as of the first part of my work, and begin again at ourdeparture from hence.

  It is true, we had got over much the greater run, as to length of way;but the most important part of our voyage was yet to come, and we had noinconsiderable length to run neither, for as we purposed to sail north,the height of Panama, in the latitude of 9 deg. north, and back again byCape Horn, in the latitude of, perhaps, 60 deg. south, and that we were nowin 40 deg. south; those three added to the run, from Cape Horn home toEngland made a prodigious length, as will be seen by this followingaccount, in which also the meridian distances are not all reckoned,though those also are very great.

  From Juan Fernandez to the Line 30

  From the Line to Panama 9

  From Panama to Cape Horn, including the distancewe take in going round 60

  From Cape Horn to the Line again in the North Seas 60

  From the Line to England 51 --- 210 Deg. ---

  N.B. There must be deducted from this account the distance from Lima toPanama, because we did not go up to Panama, as we intended to do.

  By this account we had almost 30 deg. to run more than a diameter of theglobe, besides our distance west, where we then were, from the meridianof England, whither we were to go; which, if exactly calculated, isabove 70 deg., take it from the island of Juan Fernandez.

  But to return a little to our stay in this place, for that belongs tothis part of my account, and of which I must make a few shortobservations.

  It was scarce possible to restrain Englishmen, after so long beating thesea, from going on shore when they came to such a place of refreshmentas this; nor indeed was it reasonable to restrain them, considering howwe all might be supposed to stand in need of refreshment, andconsidering that here was no length of ground for the men to wander in,no liquors to come at to distract them with their excess, and, which wasstill more, no women to disorder or debauch them. We all knew theirchief exercise would be hunting goats for their subsistence, and we knewalso, that, however they wanted the benefit of fresh provision, theymust work hard to catch it before they could taste the sweet of it. Uponthese considerations, I say, our ships being well moored, and ridingsafe, we restrained none of them, except a proper number to take care ofeach ship; and those were taken out by lot, and then had their turn alsoto go on shore some days afterwards, and in the mean time had both freshwater and fresh meat sent them immediately, and that in sufficientquantity to their satisfaction. As soon as we were on shore, and hadlooked about us, we began first with getting some fresh water, for wegreatly wanted it. Then carrying a small cask of arrack on shore, I madea quantity of it be put into a whole butt of water before I let our mendrink a drop; so correcting a little the chilness of the water, becauseI knew they would drink an immoderate quantity, and endanger theirhealths, and the effect answered my care; for, those who drank at thespring where they took in the water, before I got this butt filled, andbefore the arrack was put into it, fell into swoonings and faint sweats,having gorged themselves too much with the cool water; and two or threeI thought would have died, but our surgeons took such care of them, thatthey recovered.

  While this was doing, others cut down branches of trees and built us twolarge booths, and five or six smaller, and we made two tents with someold sails; and thus we encamped, as if we had been to take up ourdwelling, and intended to people the island.

  At the same time, others of our men began to look out for goats, for itmay be believed we all longed for a meal of fresh meat. They were alittle too hasty at their work at first, for firing among the firstgoats they came at, when there were but a few men together, theyfrighted all the creatures, and they ran all away into holes, and amongthe rocks and places where we could not find them; so that for that daythey made little of it. However, sending for more firemen, they made ashift to bring in seventeen goats the same day, whereof we sent five onboard the ships, and feasted with the rest on shore. But the next daythe men went to work in another manner, and with better conduct; for aswe had hands enough, and fire-arms enough, they spread themselves sofar, that they, as it were, surrounded the creatures; and so drivingthem out of their fastnesses and retreats, they had no occasion toshoot, for the goats could not get from them, and they took themeverywhere with their hands, except some of the old he-goats, which wereso surly, that they would stand at bay and rise at them, and would notbe taken; and these, as being old also, and as they thought, good fornothing, they let go.

  In short, so many of our men went on shore, and these dividedthemselves into so many little parties, and plyed their work so hard,and had such good luck, that I told them it looked as if they had made ageneral massacre of the goats, rather than a hunting.

  Our men also might be said not to refresh themselves, but t
o feastthemselves here with fresh provisions; for though we stayed but thirteendays, yet we killed three hundred and seventy goats, and our men whowere on board were very merrily employed, most assuredly, for they mightbe said to do very little but roast and stew, and broil and fry, frommorning to night. It was indeed an exceeding good supply to them, forthey had been extremely fatigued with the last part of their voyage, andhad tasted of no fresh provisions for six weeks before.

  This made them hunt the goats with the more eagerness, and indeed, theysurrounded them so dexterously, and followed them so nimbly, thatnotwithstanding the difficulties of the rocks, yet the goats couldhardly ever escape them. Here our men found also very good fish, andsome few tortoises, or turtles, as the seamen call them, but they valuedthem not, when they had such plenty of venison; also they found somevery good herbs in the island, which they boiled with the goats' flesh,and which made their broth very savoury and comfortable, and withal veryhealing, and good against the scurvy, which in