A New Voyage Round the World by a Course Never Sailed Before
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should beset on shore, and their tents put up there, till I had settled matters alittle with them, having had an account how mutinous and fractious theyhad been; and I made them all stay there till I had fully adjustedeverything with them about their treasure, which, indeed, was so much,that they scarce knew how to govern themselves under the thought of it.
Here I proposed conditions to them at first, that all the gold should beshared before they went on board, and that it should be put on board theship, as goods for every man's single account; that I would give thembills of lading for it; and I offered to swear to them to deliver itinto every man's possession, separately, at the first port we shouldcome to an anchor at in England or France; and that, at that said port,they should every man have the 100_l._ I had promised them, as above,for the undertaking this journey, delivered to them in gold dust, tothat amount, and that they, alone, should have full liberty to go onshore with it, and go whither they would, no man whatever but themselvesbeing allowed to set foot on shore in the same place, distress excepted.This they insisted on, because they had done some things, they said,which, if I would, I might bring some of them to the gallows. However, Ipromised to forgive them, and to inquire no more after it.
In a word, there had been a scuffle among them, in which one of theircanoes was overset, as was said, and one of their number drowned, at thesame time when they lost a great part of their gold; and some werethought to have done it maliciously too.
But, as I had no occasion to trouble them on that score, not having beenupon the spot when it was done, so, having made this capitulation withthem, I performed it punctually, and set them all on shore, with theirwealth, in the river of Garonne, in France; their own gold, their100_l._'s worth reward for their journey, their wages, and their shareof pearl, and other advantages, made them very rich; for their cargo,when cast up on shore, amounted to about 400_l._ a man. How theydisposed of themselves, or their money, I never gave myself the troubleto inquire, and if I had, it is none of my business to give an accountof it here.
We dismissed also near fourscore more of our men afterwards, in a littlecreek, which was at their own request; for most of them having been ofthe Madagascar men, and, by consequence, pirates, they were willing tobe easy, and I was as willing to make them so, and therefore clearedwith as many of them as desired it. But I return to our ship.
Having thus made a long capitulation with our travellers, I took themall on board, and had leisure enough to have a long narration from themof their voyage; and from which account, I take the liberty to recommendthat part of America as the best and most advantageous part of the wholeglobe for an English colony, the climate, the soil, and, above all, theeasy communication with the mountains of Chili, recommending it beyondany place that I ever saw or read of, as I shall farther make appear byitself.
We had nothing now to do, but to make the best of our way for England;and setting sail from the mouth of the river Camerones, so the Spaniardscall it, the 18th of January, in which we had a more difficult andunpleasant voyage than in any other part of our way, chiefly because,being a rich ship, and not knowing how affairs stood in Europe, I keptto the northward as far as the banks of Newfoundland, steering thence tothe coast of Galicia, where we touched as above; after which, we wentthrough the Channel, and arrived safe in Dunkirk road the 12th of April;and from thence gave private notice of our good fortune to our merchantsand owners; two of whom came over to us, and received at our hands sucha treasure as gave them reason to be very well satisfied with theirengagement. But, to my great grief, my particular friend, the merchantwho put us upon this adventure, and who was the principal means of ourmaking the discoveries that have been here mentioned and described, wasdead before our return; which, if it had not happened, this new schemeof a trade round the world had, perhaps, not been made public till ithad been put in practice by a set of merchants designed to be concernedin it from the New Austrian Netherlands.
THE END OF THE NEW VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD.