force on board was as neceflary to the fuccefs of the enterprize, as
the adtion of the others on ftore, and therefore thofe who had
continued on board maintained, that they could not be deprived of
their ft are of the plunder, without manifeft injuftice. 'Thefe were
the oontefts among ft our men, which were carried >on with great
.heat on both fides : And though the plunder in queftion was a
very trifle, in companion o f the treafure taken in the place, (in
which there was no doubt but thofe on board had an equal right)
yet as the obftinacy of failors is not always regulated by the importance
of the matter in difpute, the Commodore thought.it ne-
ceff.uy to put a flop to this ferment betimes.- Accordingly, the
morning after our leaving Paita, he ordered all hands upon-the
quarter-deck; where, addrefling himfelf to thofe who had been
detached on ftore, he commended their behaviour, and thanked
- them for their fervices on that occafion : But then repfefenting to
them the reafons urged by thofe who had continued on board, for
an equal diftribution of the plunder, he told them, that he thought
thefe reafons very conclufive, and that the expectations o f their
•comrades were juftly founded; and therefore he infilled, that-not
only the men, but all the officers likewife, who had been employed
in taking the place, Ihould produce the whole of their plunder
immediately upon the quarter-deck; and that it Ihould be impartially
divided amongft the whole crew, in proportion to each man’s
rank and commiffion : And to prevent thofe who had been in pof-
feffion o f the plunder from murmuring at this diminution of their
fhare, the Commodore added, that as an encouragement to others
who might be hereafter employed on like fervices, he would give
his entire (hare to be diflributed amongft thofe who had been detached
for the attack o f the place. Thus this troublefome affair,
which, if permitted to have gone on, might perhaps have been
attended with mifchievous confequences, was by the Commodore’s
-prudence foon appeafed, to the general fatisfa&ion of the fhip’s
company : Not but there were fome few, whofe felfilh difpofitions
were uninfluenced by the juftice of this procedure, and who were
incapable
incapable of difcerning the force o f equity, however glaring,
when it tended to deprive them of any part of what they had once
got into their hands.
This important bufinefs employed the bed part of the day, after
we came from Paita. And now,, at night, having no fight of the
Gloucejier, the Commodore ordered the fquadron to bring too, that
we might not pafs. her in the dark. The. next morning we again
looked out for her, and at ten wefawafail, to which we gave chace ; .
and at two in the afternoon we came near enough to diftover her
to be the Gloucejier, with a fmall veffelin to.w. About an hour after
we were joined by them; and then we learnt that Captain NLitchel
in the whole time of his cruife, hadonly taken two prizes; one
of them being a fmall fnow, whofe cargoe confided chiefly of
wine, brandy, and olives in jars, with abxut 7000 /. in fpecie ;
and the other a large boat or launch, which the Glovcejler s barge
came up with near the ftore. The prifoners on board this lall
veffel alledged, that they were very poor, and that their loading
confided only of cotton; though the circumftances in which t lî|
barge furprized them, feemed to infinuate that they Were more
opulent than they pretended to be ; for th^Gloucejier s people found
them at dinner upon pigeon pye, ferved up in filver diftes. However,
the Officer who commanded the . barge having opened feve-
ral of the jars on board, to fatisfy bis curiofity, and.finding nothing
in them but cotton, he was inclined to believe the account the prifoners
gave him : But the cargoe being taken into, the Gloucejier,
and there examined more ftriftly, they were agreeably furprized to
find, that the whole was a very extraordinary piece of falfe package;
and that there was concealed amongft the cotton, in every
jar, a confiderable quantity of double doubloons and dollars, to the-
amounton the whole of .near 12,000/. This treafure was going
to Paita, and . belonged to the fame Merchants who were the proprietors
of the greateft part of the money we had taken there ; fo
that had this boat efcaped the Gloucejier, it is probable her cargoe
Would have fallen into.our hands, Befides theft two prizes which
E e we