Page:Voyages in the Northern Pacific - 1896.djvu/155

Rh Argentina arrived in very great distress for provisions and water; she had buried about forty men; the ships were laid up, and most of the crews entered on board the Chilian fleet.

I now applied to Captain Bouchard for my pay and prize-money, and told him I was heartily sick of the service of the Independents, and that I intended to go to England in the first vessel that sailed for that country, the port being then embargoed on account of the expedition going against Peru; he replied that he could not pay me, unless I continued in the service and took the ship to Buenos Ayres; which I declined doing, and left her in charge of Mr. Woodburn, the first Lieutenant.

Lord Cochrane's squadron were wretchedly manned; they send parties of soldiers up the country and impress the countrymen and send them on board the fleet; half the complement of each ship is composed of Chileno's and blacks; their troops are chiefly black.

We do not find sufficient interest in the sequel of these adventures to render it advisable to give the details, and shall only add, that the writer of this journal, Mr. Corney, arrived in London on the 15th, of February, 1820, after an absence of nearly seven years, full of vicissitudes.