In order to render the ships stiffer, and to enable them to carry more sail abroad, and to prevent their labouring in hard gales of wind, each captain had orders given him to strike down some of their great guns into the hold.  These precautions being complied with, and each ship having taken in as much wood and water as there was room for, the whole squadron was ready for the sea; on which the tents on shore were struck, and all the sick were received on board.  And here we had a melancholy proof how much the healthiness of this place had been overrated by former writers, for we found that though the Centurion alone had buried no less than twenty-eight men since our arrival, yet the number of our sick was in the same interval increased from eighty to ninety-six.

And now our crews being embarked, and everything prepared for our departure, the Commodore made a signal for all captains, and delivered them their orders, containing the successive places of rendezvous from hence to the coast of China.  And then on the next day, being the 18th of January, 1741, the signal was made for weighing, and the squadron put to sea.

Chapter 4. 
The commodore’s instructions—­bad weather—­narrow escape of the
   Pearl—­st Julian.

The last amicable port.

In leaving St. Catherine’s, we left the last amicable port we proposed to touch at, and were now proceeding to a hostile, or at best a desert and inhospitable coast.  And as we were to expect a more boisterous climate to the southward than any we had yet experienced, not only our danger of separation would by this means be much greater than it had been hitherto, but other accidents of a more pernicious nature were likewise to be apprehended, and as much as possible to be provided against.  And therefore Mr. Anson, in appointing the various stations at which the ships of the squadron were to rendezvous, had considered that it was possible his own ship might be disabled from getting round Cape Horn, or might be lost; and had given proper directions that even in that case the expedition should not be abandoned.  For the orders delivered to the captains the day before we sailed for St. Catherine’s were that in case of separation—­which they were with the utmost care to endeavour to avoid—­the first place of rendezvous should be the Bay of Port St. Julian.  If after a stay there of ten days, they were not joined by the Commodore, they were then to proceed through Straits le Maire round Cape Horn into the South Seas, where the next place of rendezvous was to be the island of Nuestra Senora del Socoro.* They were to bring this island to bear east-north-east, and to cruise from five to twelve leagues’ distance from it, as long as their store of wood and water would permit, both which they were to expend with the utmost frugality.  And when they were under an absolute