by C. H. Layman
In this melancholy state, the only thing that remained to be done was immediately to quit this unhappy place, and make one attempt more for Buenos Aires. We had no time to lose, but instantly set about tearing up the seal in small pieces, raw as it was, with which we filled our knapsacks, and their bladders we filled with water. Having furnished ourselves with as much provision as we could carry, we set forward on our journey with our sixteen dogs and two pigs, praying the Almighty to be our guide.
We kept close along the sea-coast as before, by which means we could not miss the mouth of the River Plate, designing, when we reached it, to travel along the side of that river until coming to some inhabited place; a scheme easy enough in imagination, but in practice attended, as we found, with insuperable difficulties. The whole sea-coast is a plain sandy beach. On the land side are here and there very high sand-hills, in the valleys of which we reposed ourselves at night. On the beach we sometimes found a few cockles which the sea had washed in, and these were a great dainty to us. We met with part of the wreck of a large ship which was drove upon the beach, particularly a man-of-war’s gang-board, and a piece of plank marked fifteen foot. In the valleys of the sand-hills was plenty of water which had ponded up after the rains, and we frequently discovered dead fish thrown in upon the beach, so that we had a variety of raw meat to feed upon. We also found a very large dead whale by the sea-side, which was a feast for our dogs and pigs, and at a little distance a parcel of fine whalebone.
At the end of ten days we made the cape of the river, having travelled very hard every day with tolerable weather, but there found a multitude of small streams and muddy swamps to obstruct us. We swam over several of them with our knapsacks across our shoulders; and when night came on we covered ourselves with the rushes, but were almost devoured by mosquitoes. Next day we made several attempts to proceed further, but found it was impossible to accomplish our journey: the farther we went, the greater the difficulties we met with. We were in danger of being suffocated several times, the bogs often sinking us to the shoulders, so that after many fruitless attempts to proceed we found that we had no remedy left but to tread back the melancholy path, and return to our old place of rendezvous. This we performed in less than ten days.
At our return we were afraid to ramble far abroad, having neither arms nor ammunition to defend ourselves from the wild beasts. Our two pigs maintained us near a fortnight, and afterwards we were obliged to live on some of our trusty dogs. But this raw way of feeding, which continued three months longer, brought us into an ill state of health. About a quarter of a mile from the hut we found a dead horse, of which we now and then took a morsel, by way of change; and could we have got fire to dress it the variety would have been agreeable enough. Notwithstanding our fears, necessity compelled us to go abroad in search of other kind of provisions; and sometimes we had the good fortune to bring home an armadillo.
One morning we found the trunk of a large tree, and imagined it was not impossible, with the help of the skins of seals and horses, to make a sort of boat with it, which might serve to convey us along shore to the River Plate. But we had no kind of tool to use. John Duck recollected that about eleven months before, at the end of our first attempt for Buenos Aires, he had thrown away his musket, it being a very indifferent one and not worth the trouble of carrying home, and we had enough besides. We proposed going in search of it, which if we could find might serve to make a hatchet. Accordingly, having furnished ourselves with some raw seal and water, we went and found the musket, though above sixty miles distant. On our return home we discovered several ostrich[3] eggs (though we never met with any of the birds themselves) about half-buried in the sand, and they proved a refreshing meal to us.
When we brought the musket home, we beat half the length of the barrel flat with stones, and whetted an edge to it against a rock; the other half served for the handle. And it made a tolerable hatchet, at least what would have served instead of one, if Providence had not soon after put an end to our design in the following manner.
Two days after we had finished our hatchet, it being my turn to stay in the hut, my three comrades went to a place which we called the Long Point in quest of provisions. Towards evening I walked out to see if they were returning when, to my astonishment, I discovered about a dozen horses galloping down the sandy bay towards our hut; and as they came nearer I plainly saw men on their backs, and that they were Indians. It was vain to fly. I imagined nothing but death approaching, and prepared to meet it with all the resolution I could muster up.
Chapter 14
Enslaved
Argentine Patagonia, February 1743. The four remaining survivors are captured by Indians, and bought and sold among them as slaves. They undergo a long journey of a thousand miles or so to the interior to meet the Indian chief, who claims them as his property, treats them humanely, and promises them each a Spanish slave-wife. Morris describes the habits of the Indians, and how they eventually managed to persuade the chief that they had English friends in Buenos Aires who would pay a handsome price for them. They set out for Buenos Aires, but John Duck, being dark-skinned, is left behind; the Indians would not part with him.
From Midshipman Morris’s account
I ran towards the Indians and fell on my knees, begging my life with all the signs of humility I could make, when I heard a voice saying, “Don’t be afraid, Isaac, we are all here.” This revived me.
The Indians alighted; and whilst some were intent on examining the hut, others stood with drawn knives ready to dispatch us in case we made any resistance. When they had satisfied their curiosity they gave three confused shouts, and immediately made us get behind them, carried us away a few miles in from the sea-shore to the south-west, where there were about a dozen more of their companions with upwards of four hundred horses which they had taken in hunting. They treated us with great humanity: killed a horse for us, kindled a fire, and roasted a part of it; which to us, who had for three months been eating raw flesh, was most delicious entertainment. They also gave each of us a piece of an old blanket to cover our nakedness.
I had been in great danger, it seems, of being left alone; for when the Indians met with my three comrades they were immediately hurrying them away to their place of rendezvous, till they were with difficulty made to understand by signs that there was one more belonging to them a little way off; and then my comrades guided them to the hut, where I had the happiness of being taken prisoner with them.
Next morning we decamped from this place, driving a troop of horses before us. We travelled nineteen days before we reached their next place of rendezvous, which I imagine was about two hundred miles from our hut to the south-west, in a valley between two very high mountains, where was fine pasture for their horses and several small rivers of fresh water, but with very little wood to be seen for many miles round. In this valley were about a dozen Indian huts built with poles and the skins of horses, inhabited by another party of Indians, with their wives and children, who gazed very earnestly on us as though they had never seen any white people before.
Here we were bought and sold four different times – for a pair of spurs, a brass pan, ostrich feathers, and suchlike trifles, which was the low price generally set on each of us; and sometimes we were played away at dice, so that we changed masters several times in a day. In this place we remained nearly a month, by which time the several parties of Indians had returned from their hunting and joined us, each party bringing the horses they had taken in hunting and mixing them in the common stock, which were examined and told over by one of the Indians, who seemed to be a sort of captain over the rest; and they amounted to the number of fifteen hundred and upwards, some of which were in no way inferior to the best of our European breed.
After one day’s grand feasting we set out in a body for their chief town, where the king or captain lived, with fifteen hundred string of horses in our cavalcade. We were four months in performing our journey, and by the method of our travelling I believe it must be a th
ousand miles from the sea-coast where our hut stood. In the daytime we travelled, and at night reposed ourselves in their movable huts, which sheltered us from the weather. Our constant food was horseflesh, which some chose to eat raw, and others broiled or roasted; and as for drink we never failed of water, for I found they were well acquainted with every small rivulet; of which there are numbers in the route they took, though a stranger would hardly have found them.
At length we arrived at the end of our journey in the chief town where their king lives. But our masters who had made the purchase of us were carrying us with them to their own home (which we learnt afterwards was about two hundred miles beyond the town where the king resided), and had actually conducted us some miles on the way when a party of horse came after us, and brought us back to the capital, the king claiming us as his property.
This town consists of about thirty huts, built in a low, irregular manner with poles and horse-skins, surrounded with palisades about three foot distant from each other. The inhabitants, men, women, and children, were about fourscore.
We were soon summoned to appear before His Majesty, who received us sitting on the ground in his hut, with a javelin on one side of him, and a bow and arrows on the other. A loose mantle was round his waist, a sort of turret of ostrich feathers on his head, and a long reed pipe in his mouth, smoking. After we had paid our obeisance to him, he began to ask several questions in Spanish, of which they can all speak a little, and which we soon let him know we understood a little of. He enquired what countrymen we were, and how we came hither. We told him we were Englishmen; that we were lost in an English man-of-war in the South Sea, as we were going to fight against our enemies, the Spaniards; that we were eight in number, who were left on a desolate part of the continent; and that one evening, on our return from procuring provisions, we found two of our companions murdered and two carried off, on the same spot of ground where we were taken, our hut pulled down and everything taken from us, which we supposed must have been done by some of his countrymen.
The king then called three or four of his men, and talked very earnestly to them in their own language. But it seems they knew nothing of the affair, as he told us, though he was pleased to assure us that strict inquiry should be made of the other parties which were out at the same time. For I found by him that he sends out different parties every spring from every different town under his government, who take different routes, and sometimes join one another accidentally on their return. But more of this hereafter. When he found that we were at war with the Spaniards he expressed a great deal of joy, and asked if we were great men in our own country. We told him “Yes”; and he said the Spaniards were great enemies to his people, had taken away their country from them, and drove them to the mountains.
When the king had done examining us he ordered a horse to be killed immediately and dressed for us, and lodged us in his own hut for that night, till we had one built for us, which was the next day. Here we stayed eight months and wintered, during which time we frequently had snow five or six feet deep. Our work was chiefly to fetch wood and water, and skin all the horses which they killed; and although we were their slaves we were treated very humanely, and they would suffer no one to use us ill. There were four Spanish women in the town, whom they had taken captive in a skirmish near Buenos Aires, and the king told us with a smile that he would give each of us a wife.[4]
The country where these Indians resided is very fruitful in pasture, as indeed is the whole coast of Patagonia. It abounds with great plenty of wild horses and has a few black cattle, which last are entirely neglected by the Indians, horse-flesh being preferred by them for eating before any other kind of flesh and what they constantly feed upon. The people, at least those in that part of the country where we resided, are tall and well made, being in general from five to six feet high, good-natured and obliging to one another, and never seeing each other want. Though they have what they call a king, yet he seems to be only a chief or captain of a party, as they have no settled abode but live scattered throughout that part of the world in little towns or parties, and each party seems to have a chief who presides over them like a petty king. I never could observe any rules of government among them, but at a drinking bout king and subjects are all alike. Their king is distinguished from the rest by being the biggest man, and by wearing a kind of sash around his waist. It is true he has a deference paid him by his subjects, and whatever he orders to be done is immediately performed, he being exempted from any kind of work. But I never saw any punishments inflicted by him, nor any quarrels among themselves, except when they get at a drinking feast, and then their wives always took care that no ill consequence should follow by putting every weapon out of their way, and especially taking care of their knives. For which reason, I imagine that they are always quarrelsome in liquor; one or two instances of that kind happened while we were among them.
Their method of feasting is this: they have in the summer a plenty of small sweet berries, growing like our whortleberries,[5] and when they have secured a sufficient quantity of them they dig a pit in the ground, about four feet square, the bottom and sides of which they line with horses’ hides. This cask, if I may so call it, they half fill with these berries and then fill it up with water, which they stir well with sticks and leave to ferment about forty-eight hours. They all sit round, smoking and drinking, for a whole night together, women as well as men, singing in their way, but more like shrieking cries, and when drunk frequently proceed to blows.
These Indians seldom live long in one place, for when their horses have eaten up the pasture in one place, they remove their town and all their goods a few miles, which is soon done; and this several times in a year, so that they have no settled abode. They have habitations scattered all over the country, and but a few huts together, and the town where the chief resides has three times the number of dwellings to any of the rest that I saw. They seem to have some notion of the devil, and at least are afraid of apparitions, for none of them will stir out of his hut when dark without company. And one night in particular we heard a great noise in the town like several drums beating, which next day we found had been some of the Indians beating the sides of their houses, which are made of horses’ skins, to frighten away the devil.
Each Indian has but one wife, and they live together in a very loving manner. A new-born child is wrapped up in a sheep’s skin, and instead of a bed or cradle is laid on a machine somewhat like our hand-barrow, the bottom of which is likewise covered with a sheep’s skin. This is hung up by the four corners, and the child swings backwards and forwards instead of being rocked in a cradle, its arms and legs being fastened to this engine by a lash of horse’s skin to prevent its falling over. Every morning they take all their children, young and old, and carry them to the next brook or rivulet and plunge them naked under water, even when the ground is covered with snow, by which means they are hardened to run about naked, even in the midst of winter.
And now their time for making the hunting voyage approaching, which they do every spring, and generally spend a whole summer in taking their wild horses, we made great intercession to go with them. But we were given to understand that we must be sent further into the country, to remain with other Indians till their return. But at last we prevailed, by assuring the chief that we had English friends at Buenos Aires, who would make him a very handsome satisfaction for us, and who would redeem us at any price he should put upon us. This seemed to please him, and he then consented.
We were at present about a thousand miles from Buenos Aires; and their route extends to the eastern coast of Patagonia, quite to the sea, about a hundred miles to the southward of Buenos Aires. When they set out, they carry with them everything belonging to them: women, children, houses, and all. These last are slung across the horses, and at night taken down for sheltering themselves from the weather. They take with them a few horses more than they ride, which serve for maintaining them till their hunting begins, which seldom happens before they have
travelled seven or eight days.
And now the wished-for time was come, when we all set out in a body, except John Duck, whose misfortune it was to be too near of a complexion with those Indians, for he was a mulatto born in London; for which reason he was sold by the chief to a master farther up the country, where I believe he will end his days, there being no prospect of his ever returning to England.
We had travelled ten or twelve days before we had seen any wild horses, but soon after several stragglers fell victim to their ingenuity. They have two different methods of taking them, each of which I have seen them perform with incredible dexterity. The first is with a lash made of horses’ skins, about fifty feet long and two inches broad, with a running noose at the end of it. This noose they hold in their right hand, and the other end in the left, till they come within a few yards of the beast, when they throw the noose over its head, even at full speed, and hold the other end fast in their left hand. The beast is soon stopped and taken.
The other method is with a narrow strap of horse skin, about twelve feet long, to each end of which is fastened a round ball of iron about two pounds weight. When within distance of their game they hurl one of the balls several times round their head, till they have got the proper swing, and then throw it at the horse’s legs, parting with the ball in their left hand at the same time, which seldom fails of entangling the legs and throwing the horse to the ground. Horses thus taken are secured by some of the company, whose business is chiefly to tie these horses together in a string, and guard them. In a few days they become very tame.
They are likewise very dextrous in killing birds with these balls, and will throw them to a prodigious height in the air. This is what they are trained up to in their infancy, and are very expert at even in their youth. These iron balls, fastened in the above manner, are likewise their chief warlike weapons, next to their bows and arrows.