Wager Mutiny - Midshipman Alexander Campbell's Overland Trek To Buenos Aires

Midshipman Alexander Campbell's Overland Trek To Buenos Aires

Had Campbell known just how hazardous the overland journey would prove, he may have considered his sulky avoidance of Cheap's company on the ship Lys a trifling reason to take the alternate route home. On 20 January 1745 Campbell and four Spanish naval officers set out across South America from Valparaiso to Buenos Aires. Using mules, the party trekked into the high Andes, where they faced precipitous mountains, severe cold and, at times, serious altitude sickness. First a mule slipped on an exposed path and was dashed onto rocks far below, then two mules froze to death on a particularly horrendous night of blizzards, and a further twenty died of thirst or starvation on the remaining journey. After seven weeks travelling the party eventually arrived in Buenos Aires.