COCOS— THE ISLE OF PIRATES 237 



ever, that sort of Liquor had so chill'd and be- 

 numb'd their Nerves, that they could neither go 

 nor stand: Nor could they return on board the 

 Ship, without the Help of those who had not been 

 Partakers in the Frolick: Nor did they recover 

 from it under four or five Days time." 



Clipperton was the next famous person to visit 

 Cocos. He was there in December, 1720, and 

 January, 1721, and the record of the voyage is 

 quoted from a book by one William Betagh, cap- 

 tain of Marines with Clipperton's expedition, which 

 was "chiefly to cruise on the Spaniards in the Great 

 South Ocean." This book seems to have been writ- 

 ten for the special purpose of confounding Cap- 

 tain Shelvocke, who was in command of the Speed- 

 well, under Clipperton on the Success. Betagh is 

 full of grievances which burst out on every page, 

 the very first being that Shelvocke did not appear 

 at the rendezvous at the Canaries, so that Clipper- 

 ton had to sail without any of the stores of wine 

 and brandy which he had expected to tranship from 

 Shelvocke's supply. "And I own it was very hard 

 to be forc'd on a long voyage to the southward, 

 when the sun was in his northern course, without 

 either of those chearful supports of nature." 



In January, 1720, Clipperton scrubbed ship at 

 James Island, and a fortnight later captured a ship 

 which carried the Marquis de Villa Roche, Presi- 

 dent of Panama, his wife and child. The Marquis 

 was an old acquaintance of Clipperton, as the lat- 

 ter, captured in former years in these waters, had 

 been taken before the Spanish dignitary. Now, 



