EMPLOYMENT AT TINIAN TILL THE FINAL DEPARTURE OF THE "CENTURION" FROM THENCE; WITH A DESCRIPTION OF THE LADRONES
When the commodore came on board the _Centurion_ after her return to Tinian, he resolved to stay no longer at the island than was absolutely necessary to compleat our stock of water, a work which we immediately set ourselves about. But the loss of our long-boat, which was staved against our poop before we were driven out to sea, put us to great inconveniences in getting our water on board, for we were obliged to raft off all our cask, and the tide ran so strong, that besides the frequent delays and difficulties it occasioned, we more than once lost the whole raft. Nor was this our only misfortune; for on the 14th of October, being but the third day after our arrival, a sudden gust of wind brought home our anchor, forced us off the bank, and drove the ship out to sea a second time. The commodore, it is true, and the principal officers were now on board; but we had near seventy men on shore, who had been employed in filling our water and procuring provisions. These had with them our two cutters: but as they were too many for the cutters to bring off at once, we sent the eighteen-oared barge to assist them, and at the same time made a signal for all that could to embark. The two cutters soon came off to us full of men; but forty of the company, who were busied in killing cattle in the woods, and in bringing them down to the landing-place, remained behind; and though the eighteen-oared barge was left for their conveyance, yet as the ship soon drove to a considerable distance, it was not in their power to join us. However, as the weather was favourable, and our crew was now stronger than when we were first driven out, we in about five days' time returned again to an anchor at Tinian, and relieved those we had left behind us from their second fears of being deserted by their ship.
On our arrival, we found that the Spanish bark, the old object of their hopes, had undergone a new metamorphosis: for those on shore despairing of our return, and conceiving that the lengthening the bark, as formerly proposed, was both a toilsome and unnecessary measure, considering the small number they consisted of, they had resolved to join her again and to restore her to her first state; and in this scheme they had made some progress, for they had brought the two parts together, and would have soon compleated her, had not our coming back put a period to their labours and disquietudes.