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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