Of one hundred and forty of the crew who escaped from the unfortunate vessel, scarcely a dozen survived the privations which they endured upon that inhospitable coast. It was in the year following their shipwreck that a miserable remnant of the wreck, consisting of Byron himself, Captain Cheap, and Mr. Hamilton, the surgeon, arrived, after many months of wanderings, at the town of Castro, a Spanish settlement on the eastern coast of South America. Hence in January, 1743, they were sent to Valparaiso, from which city they embarked in a French ship, and finally anchored in Brest roads on the 27th of October, 1745. England being then still at war with Spain, as well as with France, the three Englishmen were detained near Brest, on parole, for some months, when an order arrived from the court of Spain to permit them to return home by the first ship that offered. This proved to be a Dutch vessel at Morlaix, the commander of which agreed to land them at Dover. Having been paid beforehand, however, the brutal skipper refused to keep his promise, and actually carried them to the coast of France, where, fortunately, a British man-of-war having overhauled him, he gave up his passengers. The captain of the man-of-war then ordered them to be landed at Dover in one of his cutters.
Arrived safely at Dover, with a little money with which a kind-hearted Frenchman had provided them, they found no one to give them further help. During all the six years they had been absent, no news had reached England of these remnants of the unfortunate "Wager," and the recollection of her voyage had long passed away. The wanderers had nothing to do but to go on to London, and there make themselves known.
