BYRON'S NARRATIVE
OF THE LOSS OF
THE WAGER
WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE GREAT
DISTRESSES SUFFERED BY HIMSELF AND HIS COMPANIONS
ON THE COAST OF PATAGONIA FROM THE YEAR 1740 TILL
THEIR ARRIVAL IN ENGLAND 1746
LONDON
HENRY LEGGATT & CO 85 CORNHILL
MDCCCXXXII
LONDON:
PRINTED BY BRADBURY AND EVANS,
BOUVERIE STREET.
ADVERTISEMENT.
At a time when every thing connected withthe name of Byron is regarded with such generalinterest, it is a subject of surprise and regretthat no popular edition should exist of theNarrative of Commodore Byron. Indeed, toprocure any copy at all of the work requiressome research and trouble. To supply thisdeficiency is the object of the present publishers.
To the admirers of the illustrious Poet, theNarrative of the sufferings of his grandfatherwill, on more than one account, be acceptable.In the Poems, it is often, whether humorouslyor pathetically, alluded to; for instance, inthe mournfully beautiful stanzas to his sister,[iv]written soon after he left England for the lasttime, he says,
"A strange doom is thy father's son's, and past
Recalling, as it lies beyond redress;
Reversed for him our grandsire's fate of yore,
Had no rest at sea, nor I on shore!"

Again, in a different mood, in Don Juan,after having carried his hero through the horrorsof a shipwreck, as disastrous and fatal in itselfand its consequences as his imagination couldconceive, he observes—
"——for none
Had suffered more—his hardships were comparative
To those related in my grand-dad's Narrative."
To which passage he appends the followingnote:—"Admiral Byron was remarkable fornever making a voyage without a tempest. Hewas known to the sailors by the facetious nameof 'foul-weather Jack.'" Indeed, to this narrativethe poet is indebted for many of the incidentsin that surpassing description of "thedangers of the sea." The awful "whispering"[v]in which, according to the Admiral, the mencommunicated their first horrid thoughts of puttingone of their number to death for the supportof the rest, is admirably preserved and amplifiedin Don Juan:
"At length one whispered his companion, who
Whispered another, and thus it went round,
And then into a hoarser murmur grew,
An ominous and wild, and desperate sound,
And then his comrade's thought each sufferer knew,
'Twas but his own, suppressed till now, he found:
And out they spoke of lots for flesh and blood,
And who should die to be his fellow's food."
The germ of the conception of the cave-scenes,so beautifully described in the poem, will alsobe found here; the fondness of Juan for hisfavourite dog, the voracity with which he devouredthe long-withheld food, and many otherincidents, were suggested by this Narrative.[1]
To those who would study the character of[vi]Lord Byron; discover what qualities of his                        
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