*66 L O R D A N S O N ’ S V O Y A G E
their having no news o f us in eight months after we were known
to fet fail from St. Catherine s, they were fully fatisfied that we
were either Ihipwrecked, or had perilhed at lea, or, at leaft, had
been obliged to put back again; as it was conceived impoffible for
any fhips to continue at fea during fo long an interval: and, therefore,
on the application o f the Merchants, ahd the firft perfuafion
o f our having mifcarried, the embargo had been lately taken off.
This lalk article made us flatter ourfelves, that, as the enemy was
ftill a ftranger to our having got round Cape Horn, and the navigation
o f thefe feas was reftored, we might meet with fome valuable
captures, and might thereby indemnify ourfelves for the
incapacity we were under o f attempting any o f their confiderable
fettlements on Ihore. And thus much we were certain of, front
the information of our prifoners, that, whatever our fuccefs might
be a« to the prizes we might light on, we had nothing to fear,
weak as we were, from the Spanijh force in this part of the world ;
though we difcovered, that we had been in moll imminent peril
from the enemy, when we leaft apprehended it, and when our
other diftrefies were at the greateft height; for we learnt, from
the letters on board, that Pizarro, in the exprefs he dilpatched to
the Viceroy o f Peru, after his return to the river of Plate, had intimated
to him, that it was poflible fome part, at leaft, o f the Eng-
lijh fquadron might get round; but that, as he was certain from
his own experience, that if they did arrive in thofe feas, it muft
be in a very weak and defencelefs condition, he advifed the Viceroy,
in order to be fecure at all events, to fend what Ihips o f war
he had to the lbuthward, where, in all probability, they would
intercept us lingly, before we had an opportunity of touching at
any port for refrelhment; in which cafe, he doubted not but we
Ihould prove an ealy conqueft. The Viceroy of Peru approved of
this adviee: and as he had already fitted out four Ihips o f force
from Callao, one o f fifty guns, two of forty guns, and one o f
twenty-four guns, which were intended to join Pizarro, when he
arrived on the coaft of Chili \ the Viceroy now ftationed three o f
thefe off the Port of Conception, and one o f them at the Ifland o f
Fernandes,
R O U N D T H E W O R L D . 167
Fernandes, where they continued cruifing for us till the 6th of
June-, and then, not feeing any thing of us, and conceiving it to-
be impoffible that we could have kept the feas fo long, they quitted
their cruife, and returned to Callao, fully perfuaded that we
had either perifhed, or, at leaft, had been driven back. Now, as
the time of their quitting their ftations was but a few days before
our arrival at the Ifland of Fernandes, it is evident, that,Jhad we
made that Ifland on our firft fearch for it, without haling-in for
the main to fecure our eafting (a circumftanee,. which at that time
we confidered as very unfortunate to us, on account of the numbers
which we loft by our longer continuance at fea) ; had we, I fay,
made the Ifland on the a8th of May', when we firft expefted' to fee
it and were in reality very near it, we had doubtlefs fallen-in with
fome part of the Spanß fquadron; and, in the diftrefled condition
we were then in, the meeting with a healthy well-provided
enemy was an incident that could not but have been perplexing,,
and might perhaps have proved fatal, not only to us, but to tbe-
Tryal, the Gloucester, and the Anna Pink, who feparately joined
us, and who were each o f them lefs capable than we were o f
making any confiderable refiftance. I lhalt only add, that thefe-
Spanß Ihips, fent out to intercept us, had been greatly Ihattered
by a ftorm, during their cruize; and that, after their arrival at
Callao, they had been laid up. And our prifoners allured us, that
whenever intelligence was received at Lima, of our being m thele
feas, it would be, at leaft, two months before this armament could
be again fitted out.
The whole of this intelligence was as favourable as we, in öur
reduced circumftances, could wilh for. And now we were no>
longer at a lofs as to the broken jars, allies, and filh-bones, which
we had obferved at our firft landing at Juan Fernandes, thefe-
things being doubtlefs the reli&s of the cruizer ftationed off that
Port. Having thus . fatisfied ourfelves in the material articles o f
our enquiry, and having gotten on board the Centurion moft o f the
prifoners, and all the lilver, we, at eight in the fame evening, made:
fail to the northward, in company with our prize j and at fix the
next