ii PREFACE. 



this work may have to the notice of 

 the world, after thofe publications which 

 have preceded it. 



It is well known that the Wager, one 

 of lord Anfon's fquadron, was caft away 

 vipon a defolate ifland in the South- feas. 

 The fubjedl of this book is a relation of 

 the extraordinary difficulties and hard- 

 Clips through which, by the affiftance of 

 Divine Providence, a fmall part of her 

 crew efcaped to their native land ; and a 

 very fmall proportion of thofe made 

 their way in a new and unheard-of 

 manner, over a large and defert tradt of 

 land between the weftern mouth of the 

 Magellanic ftreight and the capital* of 

 'Chili; a country fcarce to be paral- 

 leled in any pare of the globe, in that it 

 affords neither fruits, grain, -nor even 

 roots proper for the fuftenance of man ; 

 and what is ft ill more rare, the very fea, 

 which yields a plentiful fupport to many 

 7 a barren 



