_Our Cruise, from leaving Juan Fernandez, to the taking of Payta._
Although we left the bay on the 19th of September, yet, by the
irregularity and fluctuation of the wind in the offing, it was the 22d
of that month, in the evening, before we lost sight of Juan Fernandez;
after which we continued our course to the eastward, in order to join
the Tryal off Valparaiso. Next night the weather proved squally, and
we split our main top-sail, which we then handed; but got it repaired
and set again by 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 any suspicion of our being cruisers, while we made
ready for an engagement, and steered with all our canvass towards the
two ships we had descried. We soon perceived, that one of them, which
seemed a very stout ship, stood directly for us, while 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 lighted matches in their hands, only waiting orders to
fire. But, as the commodore knew that she could not now escape,
he ordered the master to hail the ship in Spanish; on which her
commanding officer, who happened to be Mr Hughes, lieutenant of the
Tryal, answered us in English, that she was a prize, taken by the
Tryal a few days before, and that the other vessel at a distance was
the Tryal, disabled in her masts.
We were soon after joined by the Tryal, when her commander, Captain
Saunders, came on board the Centurion. He acquainted the commodore,
that he had taken this ship on the 18th, being a prime sailor, which
had cost him thirty-six hours chase before he could get up with her,
and that for some time he gained so little upon her, that he almost
despaired of ever making up with the chase. The Spaniards were at
first alarmed, by seeing nothing but a cloud of sail in pursuit of
them, as the hull of the Tryal lay 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 last laid aside their fears,
and, recommending themselves to the protection of the blessed Virgin,
they began to think themselves quite secure. Indeed, their success was
near doing honour to their _Ave Marias_; for, altering their course
in the night, and shutting close their cabin windows to prevent any of
their lights from being seen, they had some chance of escaping: But a
small crevice in one of their shutters rendered all their invocations
of no avail; as the people of the Tryal perceived a light through this
crevice, which they chased till they got within gun-shot; and then
Captain Saunders alarmed them with a broadside, when they flattered
themselves they were beyond his reach. For some time, however, the
chase still kept the same sail abroad, and it was not observed that
this first salute had made any impression; but, just as the Tryal was
about to repeat her broadsides the Spaniards crept from their holes,
lowered their sails, and submitted without opposition. She was named
the _Arranzazu_, being one of the largest merchantmen employed in
these seas, of about 600 tons burden, bound from Calao to Valparaiso,
having much the same cargo with the Carmelo, our former prize, except
that her silver amounted only to about 5000l. sterling.
To balance this success, we found that the Tryal had sprung her
main-mast, and that her main-top-mast had come by the board; and next
morning, as we were all standing to the eastward in a fresh gale at S.
she had the additional misfortune to spring her fore-mast, so that now
she had not a mast left on which she could carry sail. These unhappy
circumstances were still further aggravated, by the impossibility
of our being then able to assist her, for the wind blew so hard, and
raised such a hollow sea, that we could not venture to hoist out a
boat, and consequently could not have any communication with her; so
that we were obliged to lie-to for the greatest part of forty-eight
hours to attend upon her, as we could not possibly leave her in such a
condition of distress. It was no small addition to our misfortunes,
on this occasion, that we were all the while driving to leeward of our
intended station, and at the very time, when, by our intelligence, we
had reason to expect several of the enemy's ships would appear on the
coast, and would now get into the port of Valparaiso unobstructed;
and, I am convinced, the embarrassment we suffered by the dismasting
of the Tryal and our consequent absence from our intended station,
deprived, us of some very considerable captures.
The weather proved somewhat more moderate on the 27th, when we sent
our boat for Captain Saunders, who came on board the Centurion, where
he produced an instrument, signed by himself and all his officers,
representing that the Tryal, besides being dismasted, was so very
leaky in her hull, that it was necessary to ply the pumps continually,
even in moderate weather, and that they were then scarcely able
to keep her free; insomuch that, in the late gale, though all the
officers even had been engaged in turns at the pumps, yet the water
had increased upon them; and that, on the whole, they apprehended her
present condition to be so defective, that they must all inevitably
perish if they met with much bad weather: For all which reasons,
he petitioned the commodore to take measures for their safety. The
refittal of the Tryal, and the repair of her defects, were utterly
beyond our power on the present conjuncture, for we had no masts to
spare, no stores to complete her rigging, and no port in which she
could be hove down, to examine and repair her bottom. Even had we
possessed a port, and proper requisites for the purpose it would yet
have been extremely imprudent, 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, but was
under the necessity of taking out her people and destroying her. Yet,
as he conceived it expedient to keep up the appearance of our force,
he appointed the Tryal's prize, which had often been employed by the
viceroy of Peru as a man-of-war, to be a frigate in his majesty's
service, manning her with the crew of the Tryal, and giving
commissions to the captain and all the inferior officers accordingly.
This new frigate, when in the Spanish service, had mounted thirty-two
guns; but she was now to have only twenty, which were the twelve that
belonged to the Tryal and eight that had been on board the Anna pink.
This affair being resolved on, the commodore gave orders to Captain
Saunders to carry it into execution, directing him to take all the
arms, stores, ammunition, and every thing else that could be of use
from the sloop, and then to scuttle and sink her. After all this was
done, Captain Saunders was to proceed with his new frigate, now
called the _Tryal's prize_, to cruise off the high-land of Valparaiso,
keeping it from him N.N.W. at the distance of twelve or fourteen
leagues: for, as all ships from Valparaiso bound to the northward,
steer that course, the commodore proposed, by this means, to stop any
intelligence that might be dispatched to Callao, of two of their ships
being amissing, which might give them apprehensions of the English
squadron being in their neighbourhood. The Tryal's prize was to
continue on this station for twenty-four days, and, if not joined by
the commodore before the expiration of that time, was then to proceed
along the coast to Pisco, or Nasca, where she would be certain to find
the Centurion. The commodore also ordered Lieutenant Saumarez,
who commanded the Centurion's prize, to keep company with Captain
Saunders, both to assist in unloading the Tryal, and that, by
spreading in their cruise off Valparaiso, there might be less danger
of any ships of the enemy slipping past unobserved. These orders being
dispatched, the Centurion parted from the other vessels at eleven at
night of the 27th September, directing her course towards Valparaiso,
with the view of cruising for some days to windward of that port. By
this distribution of our ships, we flattered ourselves that we had
taken all the advantages we possibly could of the enemy with our small
force, as our disposition was certainly the most prudent that could
be devised: For, as we might suppose the Gloucester to be now drawing
nigh the high-land of Payta, we were thus enabled, by our separate
stations, to intercept all vessels employed either between Peru and
Chili to the southward, or between Panama and Peru to the northward,
since the principal trade from Peru to Chili being carried on with the
port of Valparaiso, the Centurion, cruising to windward of that port,
would probably meet with them, as it is the constant practice of these
ships to fall in with land to windward of that place. The Gloucester,
also, would be in the way of all ships bound from Panama, or any other
place to the northward, to any port in Peru, since the highland, off
which she was ordered to cruise, is constantly made by every ship on
that voyage. While the Centurion and Gloucester were thus conveniently
situated for intercepting the trade of the enemy, the Tryal's prize,
and Centurion's prize, were as conveniently stationed for preventing
the communication of intelligence, by intercepting all vessels bound
from Valparaiso to the northward; as by such vessels it was to be
feared that some account of us might be transmitted to Peru.
But the most judicious dispositions only produce a probability of
success, and cannot command certainty; since those chances, which may
reasonably enough be overlooked in deliberation, are sometimes of most
powerful influence in execution. Thus, in the present instance, the
distress of the Tryal, and our necessary quitting our station to
assist her, which were events that no degree of prudence could either
foresee or obviate, gave an opportunity to all the ships bound for
Valparaiso to reach that port without molestation during this unlucky
interval: so that, after leaving Captain Saunders, we used every
expedition in regaining our station, which we reached on the 29th at
noon; yet, in plying on and off till the 6th of October, we had not
the good fortune to fall in with a sail of any sort. Having lost all
hope of meeting with any better fortune by longer stay, we then made
sail to leeward of the port, in order to rejoin our prizes; but when
we arrived off the high-land, where they were directed to cruise, we
did not find them, though we continued there three or four days. It
was supposed, therefore, that some chase had occasioned them to
quit their station, wherefore we proceeded to the northward to the
high-land of Nasca, in lat. 15° 20' S. being the second rendezvous
appointed for Captain Saunders to join us. We got there on the 21st of
October, and were in great expectation of falling in with some of
the enemy's vessels, as both the accounts of former voyagers, and
the information of our prisoners, assured us, that all ships bound to
Callao consequently make this land to prevent the danger of falling to
leeward of the port.
Notwithstanding the advantages of this station, we saw no sail
whatever till the 2d November, when two ships appeared together, to
which we immediately gave chase, and soon perceived that they were the
Tryal's and Centurion's prizes. As they were to windward, we brought
to and waited their coming up; when Captain Saunders came on board
the Centurion, and acquainted the commodore that he had cleared and
scuttled the Tryal according to his orders, and remained by her till
she sunk. It was, however, the 4th of October before this could be
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, for the greatest part of the time, it was impossible
for a boat to lie alongside of her; and, during this attendance on
the sloop, they were all driven so far to the N.W. that they were
afterwards obliged to stretch a long way to the westward, in order to
regain the ground they had lost, which was the reason we had not met
them on their station. They had met with no better fortune on their
cruise than ourselves, never having seen a single vessel since we left
them.
This want of success, and our certainty if any ships had been stirring
in these seas for some time past, that we must have fallen in with
them, made us believe that the enemy at Valparaiso, on missing the
two ships we had taken, had suspected us to be in these seas, and had
consequently laid an embargo on all trade in the southern parts. We
likewise apprehended they might, by this time, be fitting out the
ships of war at Callao; as we knew that it was not uncommon for an
express to reach Lima from Valparaiso in twenty-nine or thirty days,
and it was now more than fifty since we had taken the first prize.
These apprehensions of an embargo on the coast, and of the equipment
of the Spanish squadron at Callao, determined the commodore to hasten
down to the leeward of Callao, to join the Gloucester as soon as
possible off Payta, 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 that 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 ships of that country were commanded, under the severest
penalties, not to sail past the harbour of Callao without stopping: as
this order is always complied with, we should undoubtedly be known for
enemies if we were seen to act contrary to that regulation. In this
new navigation, being uncertain if we might not meet the Spanish
squadron on the way, the commodore took back a part of the crew of the
Centurion which had been for some time on board the Carmelo.
While standing to the northward, we had sight of the small island of
St Gallan[1] before night, bearing from us N.N.E. 1/2 E. about seven
leagues distant. This island lies in about the latitude of 14° S. and
about five miles to the northward of a high-land called Morro Viejo,
or the Old-man's Head, which island and high-land near it are here
more particularly mentioned, because between them is perhaps the most
eligible station on all this coast for cruising against the enemy, as
hereabouts all ships bound for Callao, whether from the northward or
southward, run well in with the land. By the 5th November, at 3 p.m.
we were within sight of the high-land of _Barranca_, in lat. 10° 36'
S. bearing from us N.E. by E. eight or nine leagues distant; and an
hour and a half afterwards we had the satisfaction, so long wished
for, of seeing a sail. She appeared to leeward, and we all immediately
gave chase; but the Centurion so much outsailed the two prizes that
we soon ran them both out of sight, and gained considerably upon the
chase. Night, however, came on before we could make up with her, and
about seven o'clock the darkness concealed her from our view, and
we were in some perplexity what course to steer; but our commodore
resolved, being then before the wind, to keep all his sails set and
not to change his course: For, although there was no doubt the chase
would alter her course in the night, as it was quite uncertain what
tack she might go upon, he thought it more prudent to continue the
same course, rather than change it on conjecture, as, should we
mistake, she would certainly get away. Continuing the chase about
an hour and a half after dark, one or other of our people constantly
believing they saw her sails right a-head of us, our second
lieutenant, Mr Brett, at length actually discovered her about four
points on the larboard bow, steering off to seawards, on which we
immediately clapped the helm a-weather, standing right towards her,
and came up with her in less than an hour, and, having fired fourteen
shots at her, she struck. Mr Dennis, our third lieutenant, was sent
in the boat with sixteen men to take possession of the prize, and to
shift the prisoners to our ship.
[Footnote 1: This island of San Gallan is in lat. 14° S. long. 76° W.
about twelve miles S.W. of Pisco.--E.]
This vessel was named the _Santa Teresa de Jesus_, built at Guayaquil,
of about 300 tons burden, commanded by Bartolome Urrunaga, a Biscayan.
She was bound from Guayaquil to Callao, her loading consisting of
timber, cocoa, cocoa-nuts, tobacco, hides, _Pito_ thread, (which is
made of a kind of grass and is very strong,) Quito cloth, wax,
and various other articles; but the specie on board was very
inconsiderable, being principally small silver coin, not exceeding
170l. sterling in value. Her cargo, indeed, was of great value, if
we could have sold it; but the Spaniards have strict orders never to
ransom their ships, so that all the goods we captured in the South
Seas, except what little we had occasion for ourselves, were of no
advantage to us; yet it was some satisfaction to consider, that it
was so much real loss to the enemy, and that despoiling them was no
contemptible part of the service in which we were employed, and was so
far beneficial to our country. Besides her crew of forty-five hands,
she had on board ten passengers, consisting of four men and three
women, who were natives of the country, but born of Spanish parents,
together with three negro slaves who attended them. The women were a
mother and two daughters, the elder about twenty-one, and the younger
about fourteen. It is not to be wondered that women of these years
should be excessively alarmed at falling into the hands of an enemy
whom they had been taught to consider as the most lawless and brutal
of all mankind, owing to the former excesses of the buccaneers, and
by the artful insinuations of their priests. In the present instance
these apprehensions were much augmented by the singular beauty of
the youngest of the women, and the riotous disposition they might
naturally enough 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 on the lieutenant
coming on board, and, when found out, it was with difficulty he could
persuade them to come to the light. But he soon satisfied them, by the
humanity of his conduct, and by his assurances of their future
safety and honourable treatment, that they had nothing to fear. The
commodore, also, being informed of their fears, sent directions that
they should continue in their own ship, with the use of the same
apartments and all other conveniences they had before enjoyed,
giving strict orders that they should experience no inquietude or
molestation; and, that they might be the more certain of having these
orders complied with, or having the means of complaining if they were
not, the commodore appointed the pilot, who is generally the second
person in Spanish ships, to remain with them as their guardian and
protector. He was particularly chosen on this occasion, as he seemed
extremely interested in all that concerned these women, and had
at first declared that he was married to the youngest; though it
afterwards appeared that he had asserted this merely with the view of
securing them from the insults they dreaded on falling into our hands.
By this compassionate and indulgent behaviour of the commodore, the
consternation of our female prisoners entirety subsided, and they
continued easy and cheerful during the time they were with us.
I have before mentioned that the Centurion ran her two consorts out
of sight at the commencement of this chase, on which account we lay to
for them all the night after we had taken the prize, firing guns and
shewing false fires every half hour, to prevent them from passing 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 day. When they had joined, we proceeded together to the
northward, being now four sail in company. We here found the sea
for many miles of a beautiful red colour, owing, as we found upon
examination, to an immense quantity of spawn floating on its surface:
For, taking some of the water in a glass, it soon changed from a dirty
aspect to be perfectly clear, with some red globules of a slimy nature
floating on the top. Having now a supply of timber in our new prize,
the commodore ordered all our boats to be repaired, and a swivel-stock
to be fitted in the bow of the barge and pinnace, in order to increase
their force, in case we should have occasion to use them in boarding
ships, or making any attempt on shore.
Continuing our course 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 should escape us.
During our voyage along this coast, we generally observed that a
current set us to the northward, at the rate of ten or twelve miles
every day. When in about the latitude of 8° S. we began to be attended
by vast numbers of flying fish and bonitos, which were the first we
had seen after leaving the coast of Brazil. It is remarkable that
these fish extend to a much higher latitude on the east side of
America than on the west, as we did not lose them on the coast of
Brazil till near the southern tropic. The reason, doubtless, of this
diversity, is owing to the different degrees of heat obtaining on
different sides of the continent in the same latitude; and, on this
occasion, I use the freedom to make a short digression on the heat and
cold of different climates, and on the variations which occur in the
same places at different times 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 idea has
been long established; but the particular comparison of the heat
and cold of these various climates have as yet been very imperfectly
considered. Enough is known, however, safely to determine this
position, that all the places within the tropics are far from being
the hottest on the globe, as many within the polar circle are far from
enduring that extreme degree of cold to which their situation seems 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 line.
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, which is nearly in the same latitude, but
where the severity of the winter is so great as scarcely to permit
the hardiest of our garden plants to live. If the comparison be made
between the coast of Brazil and the western shore of South America,
as, for example, between Bahia and Lima, the difference will be found
still more considerable; for, though the coast of Brazil is extremely
sultry, yet the coast of the South Sea, in the same latitude, is
perhaps as temperate and tolerable as any part of the globe; since we,
in ranging it along, did not once meet with such warm weather as is
frequently felt in a summer day in England, which was still the more
remarkable, as there never fell any rain to refresh and cool the air.
The causes of this lower temperature in the South Sea are not
difficult to be assigned, and shall be mentioned hereafter. I am now
only solicitous to establish the truth of this assertion, that the
latitude of a place alone is no rule by which 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 equator, the snow never melts the whole year round;
a criterion of cold stronger than is known to take place in many parts
far within the polar circle.
Hitherto I have 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 sensations. But if this matter be examined by means
of thermometers, which are doubtless the most unerring evidences in
respect to the absolute degrees of heat and cold, the result will be
indeed most wonderful; since it will 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. Even at London in the year 1746, there was a part of one day
considerably hotter than was at any time felt in one of the ships
of our squadron in the whole voyage out and home, though four times
passing under the equator; for, in the summer of that year, the
thermometer in London, graduated according to the scale of Fahrenheit,
stood at 78°, and the greatest observed heat, by a thermometer of the
same kind in the same ship, was 76°, which was at St Catharines in
the latter end of December, when the sun was within about 3° of the
vertex. At St Petersburgh, I find by the acts of the Academy, in the
year 1734, on the 20th and 25th of July, that the thermometer rose
to 98° in the shade, or 22° higher than it was found to be at
St Catharines; which extraordinary degree of heat, were it not
authenticated by the regularity and circumspection with which the
observations appear to have been conducted, would appear altogether
incredible.
If it should be asked, how it comes then to pass, 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, and even exceeded, in very high latitudes, not far
from the polar circle? I shall answer, That the estimation of heat,
in any particular place, ought not to be founded upon that particular
degree of it which may now and then obtain there; but is rather to be
deduced from the medium observed during 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
Catharines and St Petersburg, we shall suppose the summer heat at St
Catharines to be 76°, and the winter heat to be only 56°. I do not
make this last supposition upon sufficient authority, but am apt to
suspect the allowance is full large. Upon this supposition, therefore,
the medium heat all the year round will be 66°; and this perhaps by
night as well as by day, with no great variation. Now, those who have
attended to thermometrical observation will readily allow, that a
continuance of this degree of heat for a length of time, would be
found violent and suffocating by the generality of mankind. But at
Petersburg, though the heat, as measured by the thermometer, may
happen to be a few times in the year considerably higher than at St
Catharines, yet, at other times, the cold is intensely sharper, and
the medium for a year, or even for one season only, would be far
short of 60°. For I find, that the variation of the thermometer at
Petersburgh, is at least five times greater, from its highest to its
lowest point, than I have supposed it to be at St Catherines.[2]
[Footnote 2: On his own principles, the lowest heat of Petersburg
ought to be -2°, and the medium temperature of the year 48°; but the
data are loosely expressed and quite unsatisfactory, as indeed is the
whole reasoning on the subject.--E.]
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 farther augment the apparent heat of the warmer climates,
and diminish that of the colder, though I do not remember to have seen
it remarked by 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 would occasion,
supposing it pure and agitated. 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 also, 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 many of these being 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 by what they call a most intense and stifling
heat. Whereas, in the higher latitudes, these vapours are probably
raised in smaller quantities, and are frequently dispersed by the
irregularity and violence of the winds; so that the air, being in
general more pure and less stagnant, the same degree of absolute heat
is not attended by 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 are
very much interested, especially travellers of all sorts, that it were
more thoroughly and accurately examined, and that all ships bound
to the warmer climates were furnished with thermometers of a known
fabric, and would observe them daily, and register their observations.
For, considering the turn to philosophical enquiries which has
obtained in Europe since the beginning of the eighteenth century, it
is incredible how very rarely any thing of this kind has been
attended to. For my own part, I do not remember to have ever seen any
observations of the heat and cold, either in the East or West Indies,
which were made by marines or officers of vessels, excepting those
made by order of Commodore Anson on board the Centurion, and those by
Captain Legg on board the Severn, another ship of our squadron.
I have been in some measure drawn into this digression, by the
consideration of the fine weather we experienced on the coast of
Peru, even under the equinoctial, but I have not yet described the
particularities of this weather. I shall now therefore observe, that
every circumstance concurred, in this climate, that could render the
open air and the day-light 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 or gloomy aspect; for there is constantly a
cheerful gray sky, just sufficient to screen the sun, and to mitigate
the violence of its perpendicular rays, without obscuring the air, or
tinging the light of day with an unpleasant or melancholy hue. By this
means, all parts of the day are proper for labour or exercise in
the open air; nor is there wanting that refreshing and pleasing
refrigeration of the air which is sometimes produced by rains in
other climates; 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 mountains called the Andes,
which, running nearly parallel to the shore, and at a small distance
from it, and extending 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 be found at all seasons of the year.
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 by which they are always covered,
and thus spreading the influence 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 had advanced beyond the equinoctial to the north, where these
mountains left us, and had nothing to screen us to the eastward but
the high lands on the Isthmus of Darien, which are mere mole-hills
compared to the Andes, we then found that we had totally changed
our climate in a short run; passing, in two or three days, from the
temperate air of Peru, to the sultry and burning atmosphere of the
West Indies.
To return to our narration. On the 10th of November we were three
leagues south of the southern island, of _Lobos_, in lat. 6° 27'
S. This is called _Lobos de la Mar_; and another, which is to the
northward of it, and resembles it so much in shape and appearance as
to be often mistaken for it, is called _Lobos de Tierra_.[3] We
were now drawing near the station that had been appointed for the
Gloucester, and fearing to miss her, we went under easy sail all
night. At day-break next morning, we saw a ship in shore and to
windward, which had passed us unseen in the night, and soon perceiving
that she was not the Gloucester, we got our tacks on board and gave
her chase. But as there was very little wind, so that neither we
nor the chase had made much way, the commodore ordered his barge
and pinnace, with the pinnace of the Tryal's prize, to be manned
and armed, and to pursue and board the chase. Lieutenant Brett, who
commanded our barge, came up with her first about nine o'clock, a.m.
and, running alongside, fired a volley of small shot between her
masts, just over the heads of her people, and then instantly boarded
with the greatest part of his men. But the enemy made no resistance,
being sufficiently intimidated by the dazzling of the cutlasses, and
the volley they had just received. Lieutenant Brett now made the sails
of the prize be trimmed, and bore down towards the commodore, taking
up the other two boats in his way. When 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 of
communicating to the commodore as soon as possible. On his arrival, we
learnt that the prize was called _Nuestra Senora del Carmin_, of
about 270 tons burden, commanded by Marcos Moreno, a native of Venice,
having on board forty-three mariners. She was deeply laden with
steel, iron, wax, pepper, cedar plank, snuff, _rosarios_, European
bale-goods, powder-blue, cinnamon, papal indulgences, and other kinds
of merchandize; and, though this cargo was of little value to us, in
our present circumstances, it was the most considerable capture we
had made, in respect to the Spaniards, as it amounted to upwards of
400,000 dollars, prime cost at Panama. This ship was bound from Panama
to Callao, and had stopped at Payta on her way, to take on board a
recruit of water and provisions, and had not left that place above
twenty-four hours when she fell into our hands.
[Footnote 3: The Southern Lobos, or Lobos de la Mar, is in fact two
contiguous islands, N. and S. from each other, in lat. 6° 57' S. and
long. 80° 43' W. _Lobos de Tierra_, called also _Inner Lobos_, from
being nearer the land, lying in the same longitude, is in lat. 6° 28'
S. There is still a third, or Northern Lobos, in lat. 5° 10' S. long.
81° W.]
The important intelligence received by Mr Brett, which he was so
anxious to communicate to the commodore, he had learnt from one John
Williams, an Irishman, whom he found in the prize, and which was
confirmed by examination of the other prisoners. Williams was a
papist, who had worked his passage from Cadiz, and had travelled over
the whole of the kingdom of Mexico as a pedlar. He pretended that,
by this business, he had at one time cleared four or five thousand
dollars, but at length got entangled by the priests, who knew he had
money, and was stripped of every thing. At present he was all in rags,
having just got out of Payto gaol, where he had been confined for some
misdemeanour. He expressed great joy in thus meeting his countrymen,
and immediately informed them, that a vessel had come into Payta, only
a few days before, the master of which had informed the governor, that
he had been chased in the offing by a very large ship, which he was
persuaded, from her size and the colour of her sails, must be one of
the English squadron. This we conjectured to have been the Gloucester,
as we found afterwards was the case. On examining the master, and
being fully satisfied of his account, the governor sent off an express
with all expedition to the viceroy at Lima; and the royal officer
residing at Payta, apprehensive of a visit from the English, had been
busily employed, from his first hearing of this news, in removing the
king's treasure and his own to Piura, a town in the interior, about
fourteen leagues distant.[4] We learnt farther, from our prisoners,
that there was at this time a considerable sum of money in the
custom-house of Payta, belonging to some merchants of Lima, which
was intended to be shipped on board a vessel, then in the harbour of
Payta, and was preparing to sail for the bay of _Sansonnate_, on
the coast of Mexico, in order to purchase a part of the cargo of the
Manilla ship.
[Footnote 4: San Migual de Piura is about 50 English miles E. by S.
from Payta, and nearly the same distance from the mouth of the Piura
river.--E.]
As the vessel in which this money was to be shipped was reckoned
a prime sailer, 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, we had little reason to expect that our ship,
which had been nearly two years in the water, could have any chance
to get up with her, if she were once allowed to escape from the port.
Wherefore, and as we were now discovered, and the whole coast would
soon be alarmed, and as our continuing to cruise any longer in
these parts would now answer no purpose, the commodore determined
to endeavour to take Payta by surprise, having in the first place
informed himself minutely of its strength and condition, by examining
the prisoners, and being fully satisfied that there was little danger
of losing many of our men in the attempt.
This attack on Payta, besides the treasure it promised, and its being
the only enterprise in our power to undertake, had also several other
probable advantages. We might, in all probability, supply ourselves
with great quantities of live provisions, of which we were in great
want; and we should also have an opportunity of setting our prisoners
on shore, who were now very numerous, and made a greater consumption
of our food than our remaining stock was capable of furnishing much
longer. In all these lights, the attempt was most eligible, and
to which our situation, our necessities, and every prudential
consideration, strongly prompted. How it succeeded, and how far it
answered our expectations, shall be the subject, of the succeeding
section.