Marooned(13)
"[The] bullet struck away a great part of my upper jaw and several of my teeth, part of which dropt upon the deck, where I fell."
The musket ball, the size of a grape, lodged sharp as a thorn in his jaw. Days later he swallowed a piece of jawbone, but the musket ball stayed in place.
***
Rogers chose Selkirk to accompany him aboard the galleon—the Spanish name recorded by Rogers as Nostra Seniora de la Incarnacion Disenganio—to inspect the treasure ship's cargo.
Both men were astonished at what they found: chests of gold coins; silver plates and wine goblets; belts of pearls; necklaces of rubies and diamonds; statues of gold and jade; delicate porcelain vases; tapestries to hang on the cold stone walls of palaces; silk gowns and stockings; swords with handles studded with precious gems; rolls of silk; tons of spices; caskets of earrings, bracelets, uncut gems; and more.
The cargo would bring a fabulous price in London.
Rather than transfer the loot to the smaller ships, Rogers decided to sail the Incarnation—renamed the Batchelor—back to England. For the 19,000-mile voyage he named Selkirk the ship's pilot.
***
On January 11, 1710, the four ships—the Duke, Duchess, Marquiss, and Batchelor—left Port Segura and headed west across the Pacific. (Rogers gave the smaller Joseph and Increase to the Spanish prisoners to sail to Acapulco.) No one knew in those years just how long a passage across the world's broadest ocean would take. One hundred miles noon to noon, the pace of a steady walk, was considered a good day's sail.
The first landfall, on March 11, was Guam. After 6,000 miles, the food was "almost exhausted."
Guam was a Spanish island. To persuade the governor to sell food to English ships, Rogers ordered gun ports opened. Cannon muzzles showed that the visitor was not to be trifled with. Rogers then wrote a letter to the island's governor:
"We ... will not molest the settlement, provided you deal friendly by us. We will pay for whatever provisions and refreshments you have to spare.... But if after this civil request you deny us ... you may immediately expect such military treatment, as we are with ease able to give you."
The governor was pleased to cooperate with "all imaginable friendship and respect."
In four days the ships took aboard 8 cows and calves, 60 pigs, 99 chickens, baskets of corn and yams, sacks of rice, 800 coconuts, limes, oranges, and melons, but, as far as is known, no green vegetables.
Rogers paid "double the value of what we received of them." Even in the enemy's camp his tact and courtesy showed.
The food, however, didn't last. So starved were the men during the passage from Guam west that they trapped rats in the holds—one rat skinned and cooked sold for sixpence. Rogers observed the crew eating the rodents "very savourly."
The lack of fresh food again brought on the seamen's sickness, scurvy—bleeding gums oozing pus, swollen limbs, dark moods, men too weak to leave their hammocks.
By June 20, when the ships arrived at Batavia (now Jakarta) in the Dutch East Indies, seventy men on the four ships had died, mostly from the disease. Rogers sold the Marquiss for 575 Dutch dollars. Her bottom was "eat to a honey-comb by the worms." In places, only the thickness of a Spanish coin held the sea from entering the hull.
Still suffering his painful jaw wound, Rogers visited a Dutch doctor, who "cut a large musket-shot" out of his jaw, "which had been there near 6 months, ever since I was first wounded." A cup or two of rum to ease the pain was probably the only anesthesia he received.
For four months the crew recovered from the hardships of the Pacific crossing. Then the remaining three ships left the Dutch port. They sailed west across the Indian Ocean for the Cape of Good Hope on the southern tip of Africa.
On December 27 they anchored in Table Bay. Cape Town consisted of a church and 250 homes. Many showed fine gardens of flowers and grapevines. The Duke came sluggishly to rest. Water sloshed in her bottom. Pumps from the Duchess and Batchelor pumped her dry.
Three months later, on April 6, 1711, the Duke, Duchess, and Batchelor left Cape Town in a convoy of twenty-five Dutch merchant ships. The large fleet was a safety precaution against Spanish warships—England and Holland were still at war with Spain and France. The fleet arrived in the Dutch port of Texel on July 23.
For nearly three months the three privateers waited in Holland. Then four English warships arrived to bring them safely home.
Up the River Thames the Duke and Duchess, banners flying, escorted their valuable prize. They anchored two miles below London.
Rogers penned a final entry in his journal: "Octob. 14. This day at 11 of the clock, we and our consort and prize got up to Erith where we came to an anchor, which ends our long and fatiguing voyage."