Dramatic account by a midshipman aboard the Wager, one of the ships commanded by George Anson on his expedition to the Pacific in search of Spanish treasure. The ship was wrecked on an island off the Chilean coast, and the survivors were tended by the Indians until discovered and taken prisoner by the Spanish authorities. Later freed, Byron rose to vice-admiral, and in 1765 took possession of the Falkland Islands for Britain, nearly provoking a war with Spain. The present narrative, immediately popular with the public, supplied the author's grandson, the poet Lord Byron, with many particulars for the shipwreck in Canto II of Don Juan.