ii PREFACE. 



this v^ork may have to the notice of 

 the world, after thofe publications which 

 have preceded it. 



It is well known that the V/ager, one 

 of lord Anfon's fquadron, was caft away 

 upon a defolate ifland in the South-feas. 

 The fubjedl of this book is a relation of 

 the extraordinary difficulties and hard- 

 Ihips 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 v/ay in a new and unheard-of 

 manner, over a large and defert tract of 

 land between the weftern mouth of the 

 Magellanic ftreight and the capital^ of 

 Chili; a country fcarce to be paral- 

 leled in any part of the globe, in that it 

 affords neither fruits, g-rain, nor even 

 roots proper for the fuftenance of man j ' 

 and what is ftill more rare, the very fea, 

 which yields a plentiful fupport to many 

 7 a barren 



DSI 



