i 64 L O R D A N S O N ’ S V O Y A G E
diredlions to fend all the prifoners on board the Centurion, but
firft the officers and paflengers. When Mr. Saumare% came on
board them, they received him at the fide with the ftrong'eft tokens
o f the mod abjeft fubmiffion ; for they were all of them (efpe-
daily the paflengers, who were twenty-five in number) extremely
terrified, and under the greateft apprehenfions of meeting with
very fevereand cruel ufage ; but the Lieutenant endeavoured, with
great courtefy, to diflipate their fright; alluring them, that their
fears were altogether groundlefs; and that they would find a generous
enemy in the Commodore, who was not lefs remarkable
for his lenity and humanity, than for his refolution and courage.
The prifoners, who were firft fent on board the Centurion, informed
us, that our prize was called Nuejira Senora del Monte Car-
melo, and was commanded by Don Manuel Zamorra. Her cargo
confifted chiefly o f fugar, and great quantities o f blue cloth, made
in the province o f Quito, fomewhat refembling our Englijh coarfe
broad-cloaths, but inferior to them. They had, befides, feveral
bales of a coarfer fort of cloth, of different colours, fomewhat like
Cokhejer bays, called by them Pannia da Tierra, with a few bales
of cotton, and fome tobacco, which, though ftrong, was not ill-
flavoured. Thefe were the principal goods on board her; but
we found, befides, what was to us much more valuable than the
reft o f the cargoe : this was fome trunks of wrought plate, and
twenty-three ferons of dollars, each weighing upwards of zoo lb.
averdupois. The fhip’s burthen was about four hundred and
fifty tuns; fhe had fifty-three failors on board, both whites and
blacks; fhe came from Callao, and had been twenty-feven days at"
fia before fhe fell- into our hands. She was bound to the Port
of Valpar aifo, in the kingdom of C h ili; and propofed to have returned
from thence loaded with corn and Chili wine, fome gold,
dried beef, and fmall cordage, which, at Callao, they convert into
larger rope. Our prize had been built upwards of thirty years;
yet, as they lie in harbour all the winter-months, and the climate
is favourable, they efteemed i t . no very great age. Her rigging
was very indifferent, as were likewife her fails, which were made
5 of
R O U N D T H E WO R L D . 165
of cotton. She had only three four-pounders, which were altogether
unferviceable, their carriages being fcarcely able to fupport
them: and there were no fmall arms on board, except a few piftols
belonging to the paflengers. The prifoners informed us, that they
left Callao in company with two other {hips, whom they had
parted with fome days before ; and that, at firft, they conceived us
to be one o f their company : and, by the defcription we gave them
of the {hip we had chafed from Juan Fernandes, they allured us,
fhe was of their number j but that the coming in fight of that
Eland was direftly repugnant to the Merchant’s inftruflions, who
had exprefsly forbid it, as knowing, that, if any Englijh fquadron
was in thofe feas, the Eland of Fernandes was moil probably the
place of their rendezvous.
After this fhort account of the fhip and her cargo, it is necef-
fary that I fhould relate the important intelligence which we met
with on board her, partly from the information of the prifoners,
and partly from the letters and papers which fell into our hands.
We here firft learnt, with certainty, the force and deftinatioh o f
that fquadron, which cruifed off the Maderas at our arrival there,
and afterwards chafed the Pearl in our paflage to Port St. Julian.
This, we now knew, was a fquadron compofed of five large Spa-
nijh fhips, commanded by Admiral Pizarro, and purpofely fitted
out to traverfe ourdefigns, as hath been already more amply related
in the third chapter of the firft book. We had, at the fame time too,
the.- fatisfaftion to find, that Pizarro, after his utmoft endeavours to
gain his paflage into thefe feas, had been forced back again into the
river o f Plate, with the lofs of two of his largeft fhips: and, befides
this difappointment of Pizarro, which, confidering our great
debility, was no unacceptable intelligence, we farther learnt, that
though an embargo had been laid upon all {hipping in thefe feas by
the Viceroy of Peru, in the month of May preceding, on a fuppofi-
tion that about that time we might arrive upon the coaft, yet it
now no longer fubfifted : for, on the account fent over-land by
Pizarro of his own diftrefles, part of which they knew we muft
have encountered, as we were at fea during the fame time, and on
their