CHAPTER V

OUR CRUISE FROM THE TIME OF OUR LEAVING JUAN FERNANDES TO THE TAKING THE TOWN OF PAITA

Although the _Centurion_, with her prize, the _Carmelo_, weighed from the bay of Juan Fernandes on the 19th of September, leaving the _Gloucester_ at anchor behind her, yet, by the irregularity and fluctuation of the winds in the offing, it was the 22d of the same month, in the evening, before we lost sight of the island: after which we continued our course to the eastward, in order to reach our station, and to join the _Tryal_ off Valparaiso. The next night the weather proved squally, and we split our main top-sail, which we handed for the present, but got it repaired, and set it again the next morning. In the evening, a little before sunset, we saw two sail to the eastward; on which our prize stood directly from us, to avoid giving any suspicion of our being cruisers, whilst we, in the meantime, made ourselves ready for an engagement, and steered with all our canvas towards the two ships we had discovered. We soon perceived that one of these, which had the appearance of being a very stout ship, made directly for us, whilst the other kept at a great distance. By seven o'clock we were within pistol-shot of the nearest, and had a broadside ready to pour into her, the gunners having their matches in their hands, and only waiting for orders to fire; but, as we knew it was now impossible for her to escape us, Mr. Anson, before he permitted us to fire, ordered the master to hale the ship in Spanish; on which the commanding officer on board her, who proved to be Mr. Hughes, lieutenant of the _Tryal_, answered us in English, and informed us that she was a prize taken by the _Tryal_ a few days before, and that the other sail at a distance was the _Tryal_ herself disabled in her masts. We were soon after joined by the _Tryal_, and Captain Saunders, her commander, came on board the _Centurion_. He acquainted the commodore that he had taken this ship the 18th instant; that she was a prime sailor, and had cost him thirty-six hours' {161} chace before he could come up with her; that for some time he gained so little upon her that he began to despair of taking her; and the Spaniards, though alarmed at first with seeing nothing but a cloud of sail in pursuit of them, the _Tryal's_ hull being so low in the water that no part of it appeared, yet knowing the goodness of their ship, and finding how little the _Tryal_ neared them, they at length laid aside their fears, and recommending themselves to the blessed Virgin for protection, began to think themselves secure. Indeed their success was very near doing honour to their Ave Marias, for, altering their course in the night, and shutting up their windows to prevent any of their lights from being seen, they had some chance of escaping; but a small crevice in one of the shutters rendered all their invocations ineffectual, for through this crevice the people on board the _Tryal_ perceived a light, which they chased till they arrived within gunshot, and then Captain Saunders alarmed them unexpectedly with a broadside, when they flattered themselves they were got out of his reach. However, for some time after they still kept the same sail abroad, and it was not observed that this first salute had made any impression on them; but, just as the _Tryal_ was preparing to repeat her broadside, the Spaniards crept from their holes, lowered their sails, and submitted without any opposition. She was one of the largest merchantmen employed in those seas, being about six hundred tuns burthen, and was called the _Arranzazu_. She was bound from Callao to Valparaiso, and had much the same cargo with the _Carmelo_ we had taken before, except that her silver amounted only to about £5000 sterling.

But to balance this success, we had the misfortune to find that the _Tryal_ had sprung her main-mast, and that her main top-mast had come by the board; and as we were all of us standing to the eastward the next morning, with a fresh gale at south, she had the additional ill-luck to spring her fore-mast: so that now she had not a mast left on which she could carry sail. These unhappy incidents were still aggravated by the impossibility we were just then under of assisting her; for the wind blew so hard, and raised such a hollow sea, that we could not venture to hoist out our boat, and consequently could have no communication with her; so that we were obliged to lie to for the greatest part of {162} forty-eight hours to attend her, as we could have no thought of leaving her to herself in her present unhappy situation. It was no small accumulation to these misfortunes that we were all the while driving to the leeward of our station, at the very time too, when, by our intelligence, we had reason to expect several of the enemy's ships would appear upon the coast, who would now gain the port of Valparaiso without obstruction. And I am verily persuaded that the embarrassment we received from the dismasting of the _Tryal_, and our absence from our intended station, occasioned thereby, deprived us of some very considerable captures.

The weather proving somewhat more moderate on the 27th, we sent our boat for the captain of the _Tryal_, who, when he came on board us, produced an instrument, signed by himself and all his officers, representing that the sloop, besides being dismasted, was so very leaky in her hull that even in moderate weather it was necessary to ply the pumps constantly, and that they were then scarcely sufficient to keep her free; so that in the late gale, though they had all been engaged at the pumps by turns, yet the water had increased upon them; and, upon the whole, they apprehended her at present to be so very defective, that if they met with much bad weather they must all inevitably perish; and therefore they petitioned the commodore to take some measures for their future safety. But the refitting of the _Tryal_, and the repairing of her defects, was an undertaking that in the present conjuncture greatly exceeded our power; for we had no masts to spare her, we had no stores to complete her rigging, nor had we any port where she might be hove down and her bottom examined: besides, had a port and proper requisites for this purpose been in our possession, yet it would have been extreme imprudence, in so critical a conjuncture, to have loitered away so much time as would have been necessary for these operations. The commodore therefore had no choice left him, but was under a necessity of taking out her people and destroying her. However, as he conceived it expedient to keep up the appearance of our force, he appointed the _Tryal's_ prize (which had been often employed by the Viceroy of Peru as a man-of-war) to be a frigate in his Majesty's service, manning her with the _Tryal's_ crew, and giving commissions to the captain and all the inferior officers accordingly. This new frigate, when in the {163} Spanish service, had mounted thirty-two guns; but she was now to have only twenty, which were the twelve that were on board the _Tryal_, and eight that had belonged to the _Anna_ pink. When this affair was thus resolved on, Mr. Anson gave orders to Captain Saunders to put it in execution, directing him to take out of the sloop the arms, stores, ammunition, and everything that could be of any use to the other ships, and then to scuttle her and sink her. After Captain Saunders had seen her destroyed, he was to proceed with his new frigate (to be called the _Tryal's_ prize) and to cruise off the highland of Valparaiso, keeping it from him N.N.W. at the distance of twelve or fourteen leagues: for as all ships bound from Valparaiso to the northward steer that course, Mr. Anson proposed by this means to stop any intelligence that might be dispatched to Callao of two of their ships being missing, which might give them apprehensions of the English squadron being in their neighbourhood. The _Tryal's_ prize was to continue on this station twenty-four days, and, if not joined by the commodore at the expiration of that term, she was then to proceed down the coast to Pisco or Nasca, where she would be certain to meet with Mr. Anson. The commodore likewise ordered Lieutenant Saumarez, who commanded the _Centurion's_ prize, to keep company with Captain Saunders, both to assist him in unloading the sloop, and also that by spreading in their cruise there might be less danger of any of the enemy's ships slipping by unobserved. These orders being dispatched, the _Centurion_ parted from the other vessels at eleven in the evening, on the 27th of September, directing her course to the southward, with a view of cruising for some days to the windward of Valparaiso.

And now by this distribution of our ships we flattered ourselves that we had taken all the advantages of the enemy that we possibly could with our small force, since our disposition was doubtless the most prudent that could be projected. For, as we might suppose the _Gloucester_ by this time to be drawing near the highland of Paita, we were enabled, by our separate stations, to intercept all vessels employed either betwixt Peru and Chili to the southward, or betwixt Panama and Peru to the northward: since the principal trade from Peru to Chili being carried on to the port of Valparaiso, the _Centurion_ cruising to the windward {164} of Valparaiso would, in all probability, meet with them, as it is the constant practice of those ships to fall in with the coast to the windward of that port. The _Gloucester_ would, in like manner, be in the way of the trade bound from Panama or to the northward, to any part of Peru, since the highland off which she was stationed is constantly made by every ship in that voyage. And whilst the _Centurion_ and _Gloucester_ were thus situated for interrupting the enemy's trade, the _Tryal's_ prize and _Centurion's_ prize were as conveniently posted for preventing all intelligence, by intercepting all ships bound from Valparaiso to the northward; for it was on board these vessels that it was to be feared some account of us might possibly be sent to Peru.

But the most prudent dispositions carry with them only a probability of success, and can never ensure its certainty, since those chances which it was reasonable to overlook in deliberation are sometimes of most powerful influence in execution. Thus in the present case, the distress of the _Tryal_, and our quitting our station to assist her (events which no degree of prudence could either foresee or obviate), gave an opportunity to all the ships bound to Valparaiso to reach that port without molestation during this unlucky interval. So that though, after leaving Captain Saunders, we were very expeditious in regaining our station, where we got the 29th at noon, yet in plying on and off till the 6th of October we had not the good fortune to discover a sail of any sort: and then having lost all hopes of meeting with better fortune by a longer stay, we made sail to the leeward of the port, in order to join our prizes; but when we arrived off the highland where they were directed to cruise, we did not find them, though we continued there four or five days. We supposed that some chace had occasioned their leaving their station, and therefore we proceeded down the coast to the highland of Nasca, which was the second rendezvous, where Captain Saunders was directed to join us. Here we got on the 21st, and were in great expectation of falling in with some of the enemy's vessels, as both the accounts of former voyages and the information of our prisoners assured us that all ships bound to Callao constantly make this land, to prevent the danger of running to the leeward of the port. But notwithstanding the advantages of this station, we saw no sail till the 2d of November, when two ships appeared in sight {165} together; we immediately gave them chace, and soon perceived that they were the _Tryal's_ and _Centurion's_ prizes. As they had the wind of us, we brought to and waited their coming up, when Captain Saunders came on board us, and acquainted the commodore that he had cleared the _Tryal_ pursuant to his orders, and having scuttled her, he remained by her till she sunk, but that it was the 4th of October before this was effected; for there ran so large and hollow a sea, that the sloop, having neither masts nor sails to steady her, rolled and pitched so violently, that it was impossible for a boat to lay alongside of her for the greatest part of the time: and during this attendance on the sloop, they were all driven so far to the north-west that they were afterwards obliged to stretch a long way to the westward to regain the ground they had lost; which was the reason that we had not met with them on their station, as we expected. We found they had not been more fortunate in their cruise than we were, for they had seen no vessel since they separated from us. The little success we all had, and our certainty that had any ships been stirring in these seas for some time past we must have met with them, made us believe that the enemy at Valparaiso, on the missing of the two ships we had taken, had suspected us to be in the neighbourhood, and had consequently laid an embargo on all the trade in the southern parts. We likewise apprehended that they might by this time be fitting out the men-of-war at Callao, as we knew that it was no uncommon thing for an express from Valparaiso to reach Lima in twenty-nine or thirty days, and it was now more than fifty since we had taken our first prize. These apprehensions of an embargo along the coast, and of the equipment of the Spanish squadron at Callao, determined the commodore to hasten down to the leeward of Callao, and to join Captain Michel (who was stationed off Paita) as soon as possible, that our strength being united we might be prepared to give the ships from Callao a warm reception, if they dared to put to sea. With this view we bore away the same afternoon, taking particular care to keep at such a distance from the shore that there might be no danger of our being discovered from thence; for we knew that all the country ships were commanded, under the severest penalty, not to sail by the port of Callao without stopping; and as this order was constantly complied with, we should {166} undoubtedly be known for enemies if we were seen to act contrary to it. In this new navigation, not being certain whether we might not meet the Spanish squadron in our route, the commodore took on board the _Centurion_ part of his crew with which he had formerly manned the _Carmelo_. And now standing to the northward, we, before night came on, had a view of the small island called St. Gallen, which bore from us N.N.E.½E., about seven leagues distant. This island lies in the latitude of about fourteen degrees south, and about five miles to the northward of a highland called Morro Veijo, or the old man's head. I mention this island and the highland near it more particularly because between them is the most eligible station on that coast for cruising upon the enemy, as hereabouts all ships bound to Callao, whether from the northward or the southward, run well in with the land. By the 5th of November, at three in the afternoon, we were advanced within view of the highland of Barranca, lying in the latitude of 10° 36' south, bearing from us N.E. by E., distant eight or nine leagues; and an hour and an half afterwards we had the satisfaction so long wished for, of seeing a sail. She first appeared to leeward, and we all immediately gave her chace; but the _Centurion_ so much outsailed the two prizes, that we soon ran them out of sight, and gained considerably on the chace. However, night coming on before we came up with her, we, about seven o'clock, lost sight of her, and were in some perplexity what course to steer; but at last Mr. Anson resolved, as we were then before the wind, to keep all his sails set, and not to change his course: for though we had no doubt but the chace would alter her course in the night, yet, as it was uncertain what tack she would go upon, it was thought prudent to keep on our course, as we must by this means unavoidably come near her, rather than to change it on conjecture, when, if we should mistake, we must infallibly lose her. Thus then we continued the chace about an hour and an half in the dark, some one or other on board us constantly imagining they discerned her sails right ahead of us; but at length Mr. Brett, our second lieutenant, did really discover her about four points on the larboard-bow, steering off to the seaward. We immediately clapped the helm a-weather, and stood for her, and in less than an hour came up with her, and having fired fourteen shot at her, she struck. Our third lieutenant, {167} Mr. Dennis, was sent in the boat with sixteen men to take possession of the prize, and to return the prisoners to our ship. This vessel was named the _Santa Teresa de Jesus_, built at Guaiaquil, of about three hundred tuns burthen, and was commanded by Bartolome Urrunaga, a Biscayer. She was bound from Guaiaquil to Callao; her loading consisted of timber, cocao, coconuts, tobacco, hides, Pito thread (which is very strong, and is made of a species of grass), Quito cloth, wax, etc. The specie on board her was inconsiderable, being principally small silver money, and not amounting to more than £170 sterling. It is true her cargoe was of great value, could we have disposed of it: but the Spaniards having strict orders never to ransom their ships, all the goods that we took in these seas, except what little we had occasion for ourselves, were of no advantage to us. Indeed, though we could make no profit thereby ourselves, it was some satisfaction to us to consider that it was so much really lost to the enemy, and that the despoiling them was no contemptible branch of that service in which we were now employed by our country.

Besides our prize's crew, which amounted to forty-five hands, there were on board her ten passengers, consisting of four men and three women, who were natives of the country, born of Spanish parents, together with three black slaves that attended them. The women were a mother and her two daughters, the eldest about twenty-one, and the youngest about fourteen. It is not to be wondered at that women of these years should be excessively alarmed at the falling into the hands of an enemy, whom, from the former outrages of the buccaneers, and by the artful insinuations of their priests, they had been taught to consider as the most terrible and brutal of all mankind. These apprehensions too were in the present instance exaggerated by the singular beauty of the youngest of the women, and the riotous disposition which they might well expect to find in a set of sailors who had not seen a woman for near a twelvemonth. Full of these terrors, the women all hid themselves upon our officer's coming on board, and when they were found out, it was with great difficulty that he could persuade them to approach the light. However, he soon satisfied them, by the humanity of his conduct, and by his assurances of their future security and honourable treatment, that they had nothing to fear. Nor were these assurances of the officer invalidated in the {168} sequel: for the commodore being informed of the matter, sent directions that they should be continued on board their own ship, with the use of the same apartments, and with all the other conveniencies they had enjoyed before, giving strict orders that they should receive no kind of inquietude or molestation whatever: and that they might be the more certain of having these orders complied with, or have the means of complaining, if they were not, the commodore permitted the pilot, who in Spanish ships is generally the second person on board, to stay with them, as their guardian and protector. The pilot was particularly chosen for this purpose by Mr. Anson, as he seemed to be extremely interested in all that concerned the women, and had at first declared that he was married to the youngest of them, though it afterwards appeared, both from the information of the rest of the prisoners, and other circumstances, that he asserted this with a view the better to secure them from the insults they expected on their first falling into our hands. By this compassionate and indulgent behaviour of the commodore, the consternation of our female prisoners entirely subsided, and they continued easy and cheerful during the whole time they were with us, as I shall have occasion to mention more particularly hereafter.

I have before observed, that at the beginning of this chace the _Centurion_ ran her two consorts out of sight, on which account we lay by all the night, after we had taken the prize, for Captain Saunders and Lieutenant Saumarez to join us, firing guns and making false fires every half-hour, to prevent their passing by us unobserved; but they were so far astern that they neither heard nor saw any of our signals, and were not able to come up with us till broad daylight. When they had joined us, we proceeded together to the northward, being now four sail in company. We here found the sea, for many miles round us, of a beautiful red colour. This, upon examination, we imputed to an immense quantity of spawn spread upon its surface; for, taking up some of the water in a wine glass, it soon changed from a dirty aspect to a clear crystal, with only some red globules of a slimy nature floating on the top. At present having a supply of timber on board our new prize, the commodore ordered our boats to be repaired, and a swivel gun-stock to be fixed in the bow both of the barge and pinnace, in order {169} to encrease their force, in case we should be obliged to have recourse to them for boarding ships, or for any attempts on shore.

As we stood from hence to the northward, nothing remarkable occurred for two or three days, though we spread our ships in such a manner that it was not probable any vessel of the enemy could escape us. In our run along this coast we generally observed that there was a current which set us to the northward at the rate of ten or twelve miles each day. And now, being in about eight degrees of south latitude, we began to be attended with vast numbers of flying fish and bonitos, which were the first we saw after our departure from the coast of Brazil. But it is remarkable that on the east side of South America they extended to a much higher latitude than they do on the west side, for we did not lose them on the coast of Brazil till we approached the southern tropic. The reason for this diversity is doubtless the different degrees of heat obtaining in the same latitude on different sides of that continent. And on this occasion, I must beg leave to make a short digression on the heat and cold of different climates, and on the varieties which occur in the same place in different parts of the year, and in different places in the same degree of latitude.

The ancients conceived that of the five zones into which they divided the surface of the globe, two only were habitable, supposing that the heat between the tropics, and the cold within the polar circles, were too intense to be supported by mankind. The falsehood of this reasoning has been long evinced; but the particular comparisons of the heat and cold of these various climates has as yet been very imperfectly considered. However, enough is known safely to determine this position, that all places between the tropics are far from being the hottest on the globe, as many of those within the polar circles are far from enduring that extreme degree of cold to which their situation should seem to subject them: that is to say, that the temperature of a place depends much more upon other circumstances than upon its distance from the pole, or its proximity to the equinoctial.

This proposition relates to the general temperature of places, taking the whole year round; and in this sense it cannot be denied that the city of London, for instance, enjoys much warmer seasons than the bottom of Hudson's Bay, {170} which is nearly in the same latitude with it, but where the severity of the winter is so great that it will scarcely permit the hardiest of our garden plants to live. And if the comparison be made between the coast of Brazil and the western shore of South America, as, for example, betwixt Bahia and Lima, the difference will be still more considerable; for though the coast of Brazil is extremely sultry, yet the coast of the South Seas in the same latitude is perhaps as temperate and tolerable as any part of the globe, since in ranging along it we did not once meet with so warm weather as is frequent in a summer's day in England: which was still the more remarkable as there never fell any rains to refresh and cool the air.

The causes of this temperature in the South Seas are not difficult to be assigned, and shall be hereafter mentioned. I am now only solicitous to establish the truth of this assertion, that the latitude of a place alone is no rule whereby to judge of the degree of heat and cold which obtains there. Perhaps this position might be more briefly confirmed by observing, that on the tops of the Andes, though under the equinoctial, the snow never melts the whole year round: a criterion of cold stronger than what is known to take place in many parts far removed within the polar circle.

I have hitherto considered the temperature of the air all the year through, and the gross estimations of heat and cold which every one makes from his own sensation. If this matter be examined by means of thermometers, which in respect to the absolute degree of heat and cold are doubtless the most unerring evidences--if this be done, the result will be indeed most wonderful, since it will hence appear that the heat in very high latitudes, as at Petersburgh, for instance, is at particular times much greater than any that has been hitherto observed between the tropics; and that even at London, in the year 1746, there was the part of one day considerably hotter than what was at any time felt by a ship of Mr. Anson's squadron in running from hence to Cape Horn and back again, and passing twice under the sun; for in the summer of that year, the thermometer in London (being one of those graduated according to the method of Farenheit) stood once at 78°; and the greatest height at which a thermometer of the same kind stood in the foregoing ship I find to be 76°: this was at St. Catherine's, in the latter end of {171} December, when the sun was within about three degrees of the vertex. And as to Petersburgh, I find, by the acts of the academy established there, that in the year 1734, on the 20th and 25th of July, the thermometer rose to 98° in the shade, that is, it was twenty-two divisions higher than it was found to be at St. Catherine's; which is a degree of heat that, were it not authorised by the regularity and circumspection with which the observations seem to have been made, would appear altogether incredible.

If it should be asked how it comes to pass, then, that the heat in many places between the tropics is esteemed so violent and insufferable, when it appears, by these instances, that it is sometimes rivalled or exceeded in very high latitudes not far from the polar circle? I should answer that the estimation of heat in any particular place ought not to be founded upon that degree of heat which may now and then obtain there, but is rather to be deduced from the medium observed in a whole season, or perhaps in a whole year; and in this light it will easily appear how much more intense the same degree of heat may prove by being long continued without remarkable variation. For instance, in comparing together St. Catherine's and Petersburgh, we will suppose the summer heat at St. Catherine's to be 76°, and the winter heat to be twenty divisions short of it. I do not make use of this last conjecture upon sufficient observation, but I am apt to suspect that the allowance is full large. Upon this supposition, then, the medium heat all the year round will be 66°, and this perhaps by night as well as day, with no great variation. Now those who have attended to thermometers will readily own that a continuation of this degree of heat for a length of time would, by the generality of mankind, be stiled violent and suffocating; but at Petersburgh, though a few times in the year the heat by the thermometer may be considerably greater than at St. Catherine's, yet, as at other times the cold is immensely sharper, the medium for a year, or even for one season only, would be far short of 66°. For I find that the thermometer at Petersburgh is at least five times greater, from its highest to its lowest point, than what I have supposed to take place at St. Catherine's.

Besides this estimation of the heat of a place, by taking the medium for a considerable time together, there is another circumstance which will still augment the apparent heat of {172} the warmer climates, and diminish that of the colder, though I do not remember to have seen it remarked in any author. To explain myself more distinctly upon this head, I must observe that the measure of absolute heat marked by the thermometer is not the certain criterion of the sensation of heat with which human bodies are affected: for as the presence and perpetual succession of fresh air is necessary to our respiration, so there is a species of tainted or stagnated air often produced by the continuance of great heats, which, being less proper for respiration, never fails to excite in us an idea of sultriness and suffocating warmth much beyond what the heat of the air alone, supposing it pure and agitated, would occasion. Hence it follows, that the mere inspection of the thermometer will never determine the heat which the human body feels from this cause; and hence it follows, too, that the heat in most places between the tropics must be much more troublesome and uneasy than the same degree of absolute heat in a high latitude: for the equability and duration of the tropical heat contribute to impregnate the air with a multitude of steams and vapours from the soil and water, and these being, many of them, of an impure and noxious kind, and being not easily removed, by reason of the regularity of the winds in those parts, which only shift the exhalations from place to place without dispersing them, the atmosphere is by this means rendered less capable of supporting the animal functions, and mankind are consequently affected with what they stile a most intense and stifling heat: whereas in the higher latitudes these vapours are probably raised in smaller quantities, and the irregularity and violence of the winds frequently disperse them, so that, the air being in general pure and less stagnant, the same degree of absolute heat is not attended with that uneasy and suffocating sensation. This may suffice in general with respect to the present speculation; but I cannot help wishing, as it is a subject in which mankind, especially travellers of all sorts, are very much interested, that it were more thoroughly and accurately examined, and that all ships bound to the warmer climates would furnish themselves with thermometers of a known fabric, and would observe them daily, and register their observations; for considering the turn to philosophical inquiries which has obtained in Europe for the last fourscore years, it is incredible how very rarely anything of this kind {173} hath been attended to. As to my own part, I do not recollect that I have ever seen any observations of the heat and cold, either in the East or West Indies, which were made by mariners or officers of vessels, except those made by Mr. Anson's order on board the _Centurion_, and by Captain Legg on board the _Severn_, which was another ship of our squadron.

This digression I have been in some measure drawn into by the consideration of the fine weather we met with on the coast of Peru, even under the equinoctial itself, but the particularities of this weather I have not yet described: I shall now therefore add, that in this climate every circumstance concurred that could make the open air and the daylight desirable. For in other countries the scorching heat of the sun in summer renders the greater part of the day unapt either for labour or amusement; and the frequent rains are not less troublesome in the more temperate parts of the year. But in this happy climate the sun rarely appears. Not that the heavens have at any time a dark and gloomy look; for there is constantly a chearful grey sky, just sufficient to screen the sun, and to mitigate the violence of its perpendicular rays, without obscuring the air, or tinging the daylight with an unpleasant or melancholy hue. By this means all parts of the day are proper for labour or exercise abroad, nor is there wanting that refreshment and pleasing refrigeration of the air which is sometimes produced in other climates by rains; for here the same effect is brought about by the fresh breezes from the cooler regions to the southward. It is reasonable to suppose that this fortunate complexion of the heavens is principally owing to the neighbourhood of those vast hills called the Andes, which, running nearly parallel to the shore, and at a small distance from it, and extending themselves immensely higher than any other mountains upon the globe, form upon their sides and declivities a prodigious tract of country, where, according to the different approaches to the summit, all kinds of climates may at all seasons of the year be found. These mountains, by intercepting great part of the eastern winds which generally blow over the continent of South America, and by cooling that part of the air which forces its way over their tops, and by keeping besides a large portion of the atmosphere perpetually cool, from its contiguity to the snows with which they are covered--these hills, thus spreading the influence {174} of their frozen crests to the neighbouring coasts and seas of Peru, are doubtless the cause of the temperature and equability which constantly prevail there. For when we were advanced beyond the equinoctial, where these mountains left us, and had nothing to screen us to the eastward but the highlands on the isthmus of Panama, which are but mole-hills to the Andes, we then soon found that in a short run we had totally changed our climate, passing in two or three days from the temperate air of Peru to the sultry burning atmosphere of the West Indies. But it is time to return to our narration.

On the 10th of November we were three leagues south of the southermost island of Lobos, lying in the latitude of 6° 27' south. There are two islands of this name: this called Lobos de la Mar, and another, which is situated to the northward of it, very much resembling it in shape and appearance, and often mistaken for it, called Lobos de Tierra. We were now drawing near to the station appointed to the _Gloucester_, for which reason, fearing to miss her, we made an easy sail all night. The next morning, at daybreak, we saw a ship in shore, and to windward, plying up the coast. She had passed by us with the favour of the night, and we soon perceiving her not to be the _Gloucester_, got our tacks on board and gave her chace; but it proving very little wind, so that neither of us could make much way, the commodore ordered the barge, his pinnace, and the _Tryal's_ pinnace to be manned and armed, and to pursue the chace and board her. Lieutenant Brett, who commanded the barge, came up with her first, about nine o'clock, and running alongside of her, he fired a volley of small shot between the masts, just over the heads of the people on board, and then instantly entered with the greatest part of his men; but the enemy made no resistance, being sufficiently frighted by the dazzling of the cutlasses, and the volley they had just received. Lieutenant Brett ordered the sails to be trimmed, and bore down to the commodore, taking up in his way the two pinnaces. When he was got within about four miles of us, he put off in the barge, bringing with him a number of the prisoners, who had given him some material intelligence, which he was desirous the commodore should be acquainted with as soon as possible. On his arrival we learnt that the prize was called _Nuestra Senora del Carmin_, of about two hundred and seventy tuns burthen; she was commanded by Marcos Morena, a native of Venice, and had on {175} board forty-three mariners. She was deep laden with steel, iron, wax, pepper, cedar, plank, snuff, rosarios, European bale goods, powder-blue, cinnamon, Romish indulgencies, and other species of merchandize; and though this cargo, in our present circumstances, was but of little value to us, yet with respect to the Spaniards it was the most considerable capture we made in this part of the world, for it amounted to upwards of 400,000 dollars prime cost at Panama. This ship was bound to Callao, and had stopped at Paita in her passage, to take in a recruit of water and provisions, having left that place not above twenty-four hours before she fell into our hands.

I have mentioned that Mr. Brett had received some important intelligence, which he endeavoured to let the commodore know immediately. The first person he learnt it from (though upon further examination it was confirmed by the other prisoners) was one John Williams, an Irishman, whom he found on board the Spanish vessel. Williams was a Papist, who worked his passage from Cadiz, and had travelled over all the kingdom of Mexico as a pedlar. He pretended that by this business he had once got 4000 or 5000 dollars, but that he was embarrassed by the priests, who knew he had money, and was at last stript of everything he had. He was indeed at present all in rags, being but just got out of Paita gaol, where he had been confined for some misdemeanor; he expressed great joy upon seeing his countrymen, and immediately told them that, a few days before, a vessel came into Paita, where the master of her informed the governor that he had been chased in the offing by a very large ship, which, from her size and the colour of her sails, he was persuaded must be one of the English squadron. This we then conjectured to have been the _Gloucester_, as we afterwards found it was. The governor, upon examining the master, was fully satisfied of his relation, and immediately sent away an express to Lima to acquaint the viceroy therewith; and the royal officer residing at Paita, apprehensive of a visit from the English, had, from his first hearing of this news, been busily employed in removing the king's treasure and his own to Piura, a town within land about fourteen leagues distant. We further learnt from our prisoners that there was a very considerable sum of money belonging to some merchants of Lima that was now lodged in the custom-house {176} at Paita, and that this was intended to be shipped on board a vessel, which was then in the port of Paita, and was preparing to sail with the utmost expedition, being bound for the bay of Sonsonnate, on the coast of Mexico, in order to purchase a part of the cargo of the Manila ship. As the vessel on which the money was to be shipped was esteemed a prime sailor, and had just received a new coat of tallow on her bottom, and might, in the opinion of the prisoners, be able to sail the succeeding morning, the character they gave of her left us little reason to believe that our ship, which had been in the water near two years, could have any chance of coming up with her if we once suffered her to escape out of the port. Therefore, as we were now discovered, and the coast would be soon alarmed, and as our cruising in these parts any longer would answer no purpose, the commodore resolved to endeavour to surprize the place, having first minutely informed himself of its strength and condition, and being fully satisfied that there was little danger of losing many of our men in the attempt. This attack on Paita, besides the treasure it promised us, and its being the only enterprize it was in our power to undertake, had these other advantages attending it, that we should in all probability supply ourselves with great quantities of live provision, of which we were at this time in want: and that we should likewise have an opportunity of setting our prisoners on shore, who were now very numerous, and made a greater consumption of our food than our stock that remained was capable of furnishing long. In all these lights the attempt was a most eligible one, and what our necessities, our situation, and every prudential consideration prompted us to. How it succeeded, and how far it answered our expectations, shall be the subject of the following chapter.

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