ample mention hereafter. -We waited fix days, from the departure
of our barge, without any news of her, fo that we began to
be uneafy for her fafety; but on thefeventh day, that is, on the
19th of February, Ihe returned : When the officers informed the
Commodore, that they had difcovered the harbour o f Acapulco,
which they efteemed to bear from us E. S. E, at leaft fifty leagues
diftant: That on the 17th, about two in the morning, they were
got within the Iiland that lies at the mouth of the harbour, and yet
neither the Spanijh pilot, nor the Indian, could give them any information
where they then were ; but that while they were lying
upon their oars in fupence what to do, being ignorant that they
were then at the very place they fought for, they difcerned a fmall
light near the furface of the water, on which they inftantly plied
their paddles, and moving as filently as poffible towards it, they
found it to be in a fiffiing canoe, which they furprized, with three
Negroes that belonged to it. It feems the Negroes at firft attempted
to jump overboard; and being fo near the fhore they would
eifily have fwam to land; but they were prevented by prefenting a
piece at them, on which they readily fubmitted, and were taken
into the barge. The officers further added, that they had immediately
turned the canoe adrift againft the face o f a rock, where it
would inevitably be daffied to pieces by the fury of the fea : This
they did to deceive thofe who perhaps might be fent from the
town to fearch after the canoe5 for upon feeing feveral remains of
a wreck, they wojuld immediately conclude that the people on board
her had been drowned, and would have no fufpicion of their having
fallen into our hands. When the crew o f the barge had taken
this precaution, they exerted their utmoft ftrength in pulling out
to fea, and by dawn of day had gained fuch an offing, as rendered
it impoffible for them to be feen from the coaft.
Having now gotten the three Negroes in our pofleffion, who
were not ignorant of the tranfadtions at Acapulco, we were foon fatif-
fied about the mod material points which had long kept us in fuf-
pence: On examining them we found, that we were indeed difappointed
pointed in our expc&ation of intercepting the galeon before her
arrival at Acapulco -, but we learnt other circumftanceS which ftill
revived our hopes, and which, we then conceived, would more
than balance the opportunity we had already loft : For tho’ bur Ne-
groe prifoners informed us that the galeon arrived at Acapulco on
our Qth of January, which was about twenty days before we fell in
with this coaft; yet they at the fame time told us, that the galeon
had delivered her cargoe, and was taking in water and provifions
in order to return, and that the Viceroy of Mexico had by proclamation,
fixed her departure from Acapulco, to the 14th o f March,
N S This laft News was moft joyfully. received by us ; fince. vve
had no doubt but (he muft certainly fall into bur hands, and it was
much more eligible to feizeher on her return, than-1 would have
been to have taken her before her arrival, as the fpecie for which
(he had fold her cargoe and which £he would now have on board,
would be prodigioufly more to be efteemed by us than the cargoe
itfelf • great part of which would have perifhed on our hands, and
none’ of it could have been difpofed of by us at fo advantageous a
mart as Acapulco. „ . .
Thus - we were a fecond time engaged in an eager expectation
of meeting with this Manila (hip, which, by the fame o f its wealth,
we had been taught to confider as the moft defirable capture that
was to be made on any part of the ocean. But fince all our future
proieas will be in fome fort regulated with a view to the poffef-
fion of this celebrated galeon, and fince the commerce which is
carried on by means of thefe veffels between the city of Manila and
the port of Acapulco is perhaps the moft valuable, in proportion to
its quantity, of any in the known world, I (halt endeavour, in the
enfuing chapter, to give as circumftantial an account as I can of all
the particulars relating thereto, both as it is a matter in which I
conceive the public to be in fome degree interefted, and' as I flatter
myfelf, that from the materials which have fallen into my hands,
I am enabled to defcribe it with more diftinftnefs than has hitherto
been done, at leaft in our language.
C H A P.