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|i s a | | || J j jj382 L O R D A N S O N ’ S " V O Y A G E
l Commander in Chief, the larger number of her hands, and her
other advantages, was doubtlefs better provided againft all the cafual-
ties of winds and feas than the galeon : And the fecuring the pri-
foners was a matter of ftill more confequence, as not only the pof-
feffion of the treafure, but the lives of the captors depended thereon.
This was indeed’ an article, which gave the Commodore much
trouble and difquietude; for they were above double the number
o f his own people; and feme of them, when they were brought on
board the Centurion, and had obferved how llenderly fhe was manned,
and the large proportion which the ftriplings bore to the reft,
could not help exprefling themfelves with, great indignation to be
thus beaten by a handful of boys. The method, which was taken
to hinder them from riling, was by placing all but the officers and
the wounded in the hold, where to give them as much air as pofli-
ble, two hatch-ways were left open ; but then (to avoid any danger
that might happen, whilft the Centurion’s people lhould be employed
upon deck) there was a fquare partition of thick planks made
in the lhape of a funnel, which enclofed each hatch-way on the
lower deck, and reached to that diredtly over it on the upper deck j
thefe funnels ferved to communicate the air to the hold better than
could have been done without them; and, at the fame time, added
greatly to the fecurity of the fhip; for they being feven or eight
feet high, it would have been extremely difficult for the Spaniards
to have clambered u p; and ftill to augment that difficulty, four
lwivel-guns, loaded with mufquet-bullets, were planted at the
mouth of each funnel, and a centinel with lighted match was ported
there ready to fire into the hold amongft them, in cafe of any
difturbance. Their officers, who amounted to feventeen or eighteen,
were all lodged in the firft Lieutenant’s cabbin, under a guard
of fix men; and the General, as he was wounded, lay in the
Commodore’s cabbin with a centinel always with him; every pri-
foner too was fufficiently apprifed, that any violence or difturbance
would be punifhed with inftant death. And that the Centurions
people might be at, all times prepared, if, notwithftanding thefe
regulations, any tumult fhould arife; the fmall arms were conftantly
r o u n d t h e w o r l d . 383
ftantly kept loaded in a proper place, whilft all the men went
armed with cutlaffes and piftols ; and no officer ever pulled off
his cloaths when he flept, or, when he lay down, omitted to have
his arms ready by him.
Thefe meafures were obvioufly neceffary, confidering the hazards
to which the Commodore and his people, would have been
expofed, had they been lefs careful. Indeed, the fufferings of the
poor prifoners, though impoffible to be alleviated, were much to
be commiferated; for the weather was extremely hot, the flench
of the hold loathfome, beyond all conception, and their allowance
of water but juft fufficient to keep them alive ; it not being practicable
to fpare them more than at the rate of a pint a day for each,
the crew themfelves having only an allowance of a pint and a half.
All this confidered, it was wonderful that not a man of them died
during their long confinement, except three o f the wounded, who
expired the fame night they were taken ; though it muft be con-
feffed, that the greateft part of them were ftrangely metamor-
phofed by the heat o f the hold ; for when they were firft brought
on board they were fightly robuft fellows; but when, after above
a month’s imprifonment, they were difcharged in the river of Canton,
they were reduced to mere fkeletons ; and their air and looks
correfponded much more to the conception formed of ghofts- and
fpedtres, than to the figure and appearance of real men-
Thus employed in fecuring the treafure and the prifoners, the
Commodore, as hath been faid, flood for the river of Canton ; and;
on the 30th of June, at fix in the evening, got fight of Cape D e-
langano, which then bore Weft ten leagues diftant. The next
day he made the Bajhee IJlands, and the wind-being fo far. to the
northward, that it was difficult to weather them, it was refolved to
ftand through between Grafton and Monmouth IJlands, where the
paffage feemed to be clear; though in getting through, the fea
h a d a v e r y dangerous afpeft, for it ripled and foamed, with all the
appearances of being full of breakers, which, was: ftill more, terrible
as it was then night. But the Ihips got through, very fafe,,
’ (then