There is a beach of sand, which extends eighteen leagues from the harbour of Acapulco to the westward, against which the sea breaks with such violence that it is impossible to land in any part of it; but yet the ground is so clean, that ships, in the fair season, may anchor in great safety at the distance of a mile or two from the shore. The land adjacent to this beach is generally low, full of villages, and planted with a great number of trees; and on the tops of some small eminences there are several look-out towers, so that the face of the country affords a very agreeable prospect. flight one of their horses fell down and threw his rider; but whether he was wounded or not we could not learn, for both man and horse soon got up again and followed the rest into the wood. In the meantime the other two squadrons, who were drawn up at a great distance behind, out of the reach of our shot, were calm spectators of the rout of their comrades, for they had halted on our first approach, and never advanced afterwards. It was doubtless fortunate for our people that the enemy acted with so little prudence, and exerted so little spirit; for had they concealed themselves till our men had landed, it is scarcely possible but the whole boat's crew must have fallen into their hands, since the Spaniards were not much short of 200, and the whole number with Mr Brett only amounted to sixteen. However, the discovery of so consi derable a force collected in this Bay of Petaplan obliged us constantly to keep a boat or two before it; for we were apprehensive that the cutter, which we had left to cruise off Acapulco, might on her return be sur prised by the enemy, if she did not receive timely information of her danger. And on this occasion I cannot help mentioning another adventure which happened to some of our people in the Bay of Petaplan, as it may help to give the reader a just idea of the temper of the inhabitants of this part of the world. Some time after our arrival at Chequetan, Lieutenant Brett was sent by the Commodore, with two of our boats under his command, to examine the coast to the eastward, particularly to make observations on the bay and watering-place of Petaplan. As Mr Brett, with one of the boats, was preparing to go on shore towards the hill of Petaplan, he, accidentally looking across the bay, perceived on the opposite strand three small squadrons of horse parading upon the beach, and seeming to advance towards the place where he proposed to land. Ôn sight of this, he immediately put off the boat, though he had but sixteen men with him, and stood over the bay towards them; and he soon came near enough to perceive that they were mounted on very sightly horses, and were armed with carbines and lances. On seeing him make towards them, they formed upon the beach, and seemed resolved to dispute his landing, firing several distant shots at him as he drew near; till at last, the boat being arrived within a reasonable distance of the most advanced squadron, Mr Brett ordered his people to fire, upon which this resolute cavalry instantly ran in great confusion into the wood through a small opening. In this precipitate CHAPTER XIII. THE next morning after our coming to an anchor in the harbour of Chequetan, we sent about ninety of our men well armed on shore, forty of whom were ordered to march into the country, as has been mentioned, and the remaining fifty were employed to cover the watering-place and to prevent any interruption from the natives. Here we completed the unloading of the Carmelo and Carmen, which we had begun at sea-at least we took out of them the indigo, cacao, and cochineal, with some iron for ballast, which were all the goods we intended to preserve, though they did not amount to a tenth of their cargoes. Here, too, it was agreed after a mature consultation to destroy the Trial's prize, as well as 1742.] A FRENCHMAN SEIZED BY INDIANS. the Carmelo and Carmen, whose fate had been before resolved on. Indeed the ship was in good repair and fit for the sea; but as the whole numbers on board our squadron did not amount to the complement of a fourth-rate man-of-war, we found it was impossible to divide them into three ships without rendering them incapable of navigating in safety in the tempestuous weather we had reason to expect on the coast of China, where we supposed we should arrive about the time of the change of the monsoons. These considerations determined the Commodore to destroy the Trial prize, and to reinforce the Gloucester with the greatest part of her crew. And in consequence of this resolve, all the stores on board the Trial prize were removed into the other ships; and the prize herself, with the Carmelo and Carmen, were prepared for scuttling with all the expedition we were masters of. But the great difficulties we were under in laying in a store of water (which have been already touched on), together with the necessary repairs of our rigging and other unavoidable occupations, took us up so much time, and found us such unexpected employment, that it was near the end of April before we were in a condition to leave the place. During our stay here there happened an incident which, as it proved the means of convincing our friends in England of our safety, which for some time they had despaired of and were then in doubt about, I shall beg leave particularly to recite. I have observed in the preceding Chapter that from this harbour of Chequetan there was but one pathway, which led through the woods into the country. This we found much beaten, and were thence convinced that it was well known to the inhabitants. As it passed by the spring-head, and was the only avenue by which the Spaniards could approach us, we, at some distance beyond the spring-head, felled several large trees, and laid them one upon the other across the path; and at this barricade we constantly kept a guard; and we, besides, ordered our men em 423 ployed in watering to have their arms ready, and, in case of any alarm, to march instantly to this spot. And though our principal intention was to prevent our being disturbed by any sudden attack of the enemy's horse, yet it answered another purpose which was not in itself less important—this was to hinder our own people from straggling singly into the country, where we had reason to believe they would be surprised by the Spaniards, who would doubtless be extremely solicitous to pick up some of them in hopes of getting intelligence of our future designs. To avoid this inconvenience, the strictest orders were given to the sentinels to let no person whatever pass beyond their post. But, notwithstanding this precaution, we missed one Lewis Leger, who was the Commodore's cook; and as he was a Frenchman, and suspected to be a Papist, it was by some imagined that he had deserted with a view of betray. ing all that he knew to the enemy; but this appeared by the event to be an ill-grounded surmise, for it was afterwards known that he had been taken by some Indians, who carried him prisoner to Acapulco, whence he was transferred to Mexico, and then to Veru Cruz, where he was shipped on board a vessel bound to Old Spain. And the vessel being obliged by some accident to put into Lisbon, Leger escaped on shore, and was by the British Consul sent thence to England, where he brought the first authentic account of the safety of the Commodore, and of what he had done in the South Seas. The relation he gave of his own seizure was, that he had rambled into the woods at some distance from the barricade where he had first attempted to pass, but had been stopped and threatened to be punished-that his principal view was to get a quantity of limes for his master's store; and that in this occupation he was surprised unawares by four Indians, who stripped him naked, and carried him in that condition to Acapulco, exposed to the scorching heat of the sun, which at that time of the year shone with its greatest violence. And afterwards at Mexico, his treatment in prison was sufficiently severe, and the whole course of his captivity was a continued instance of the hatred which the Spaniards bear to all those who endeavour to disturb them in the peaceable possession of the coasts of the South Seas. Indeed, Leger's fortune was, upon the whole, extremely singular; for after the hazards he had run in the Commodore's squadron, and the severities he had suffered in his long confinement amongst the enemy, a more fatal disaster attended him on his return to England. For though, when he arrived in London, some of Mr Anson's friends interested themselves in relieving him from the poverty to which his captivity had reduced him, yet he did not long enjoy the benefit of their humanity, for he was killed in an insignificant night brawl, the cause of which could scarcely be discovered. And here I must observe that though the enemy never appeared in sight during our stay in this harbour, yet we perceived that there were large parties of them encamped in the woods about us; for we could see their smokes, and could thence determine that they were posted in a circular line surrounding us at a distance; and just before our coming away they seemed, by the increase of their fires, to have received a considerable reinforcement. Towards the latter end of April, the unloading of our three prizes, our wooding and watering, and, in short, all our proposed employments at the harbour of Chequetan were completed; so that on the 27th the Trial's prize, the Carmelo and the Carmen-all which we here intended to destroywere towed on shore and scuttled, and a quantity of combustible materials were distributed in their upper works; and next morning the Centurion and the Gloucester weighed anchor, but as there was but little wind, and that not in their favour, they were obliged to warp out of the harbour. When they had reached the offing, one of the boats was despatched back again to set fire to our prize, which was accordingly executed. And a canoe was left fixed to a grapnel in the middle of the harbour, with a bottle in it well corked, enclosing a letter to Mr Hughes, who commanded the cutter which was ordered to cruise before the port of Acapulco when we came off that station. And on this occasion I must mention more particularly than I have yet done the views of the Commodore in leaving the cutter be fore that port. When we were necessitated to make for Chequetan to take in our water, Mr Anson considered that our being in that harbour would soon be known at Acapulco; and therefore he hoped, that on the intelligence of our being employed in port, the galleon might put to sea, especially as Chequetan is so very remote from the course generally steered by the galleon. He therefore ordered the cutter to cruise twenty-four days off the port of Acapulco; and her commander was directed, on perceiving the galleon under sail, to make the best of his way to the Commodore at Chequetan. As the Centurion was doubtless a much better sailer than the galleon, Mr Anson, in this case, resolved to have got to sea as soon as possible, and to have pursued the galleon across the Pacific Ocean; and supposing he should not have met with her in his passage (which, considering that he would have kept nearly the same parallel, was not very improbable) yet he was certain of arriving off Cape Espiritu Santo, on the Island of Samal, before her; and that being the first land she makes on her return to the Philippines, we could not have failed to have fallen in with her by cruising a few days in that station. But the Viceroy of Mexico ruined this project by keeping the galleon in the port of Acapulco all that year. The letter left in the canoe for Mr Hughes, the commander of the cutter (the time of whose return was now considerably elapsed), directed him to go back immediately to his former station before Acapulco, where he would find Mr Anson, who resolved to cruise for him there for a certain number of days; after which it was 1742.] DISAPPEARANCE OF A CUTTER. added, that the Commodore would return to the southward to join the rest of the squadron. This last article was inserted to deceive the Spaniards, if they got possession of the canoe (as we afterwards learned they did), but could not impose on Mr Hughes, who well knew that the Commodore had no squadron to join, nor any intention of steering back to Peru. Being now in the offing of Chequetan, bound across the vast Pacific Ocean in our way to China, we were impatient to run off the coast as soon as possible; for as the stormy season was approaching apace, and as we had no further views in the American seas, we had hoped that nothing would have prevented us from standing to the westward the moment we got out of the harbour of Chequetan. And it was no small mortification to us that our necessary employment there had detained us so much longer than we expected; and now we were further detained by the absence of the cutter, and the standing towards Acapulco in search of her. Indeed, as the time of her cruise had been expired for near a fortnight, we suspected that she had been discovered from the shore, and that the Governor of Acapulco had thereupon sent out a force to seize her, which, as she carried but six hands, was no very difficult enterprise. However, this being only conjecture, the Commodore as soon as he was got clear of the harbour of Chequetan, stood along the coast to the eastward in search of her. And to prevent her from passing by us in the dark, we brought to every night, and the Gloucester, whose station was a league within us towards the shore, carried a light, which the cutter could not but perceive if she kept along shore, as we supposed she would do; and as a further security, the Centurion and the Gloucester alternately showed two false fires every half-hour. By Sunday, the 2d of May, we were advanced within three leagues of Acapulco; and having seen nothing of our boat, we gave her over for lost, 425 which, besides the compassionate concern for our shipmates, and for what it was apprehended they might have suffered, was in itself a misfortune which in our present scarcity of hands we were all greatly interested in. For the crew of the cutter, consisting of six men and the lieutenant, were the very flower of our people, purposely picked out for this service, and known to be, every one of them, of tried and approved resolution, and as skilful seamen as ever trod a deck. However, as it was the general belief among us that they were taken and carried into Acapulco, the Commodore's prudence suggested a project which we hoped would recover them. This was founded on our having many Spanish and Indian prisoners in our possession, and a number of sick Negroes, who could be of no service to us in the navigating of the ship. The Commodore therefore wrote a letter the same day to the Governor of Acapulco, telling him that he would release them all, provided the Governor returned the cutter's crew; and the letter was despatched the same afternoon by a Spanish officer, of whose honour we had a good opinion, and who was furnished with a launch belonging to one of our prizes, and a crew of six other prisoners, who all gave their parole for their return. The officer, too, besides the Commodore's letter, carried with him a joint petition signed by all the rest of the prisoners, beseeching his Excellency to acquiesce in the terms proposed for their liberty. From a consideration of the number of our prisoners, and the quality of some of them, we did not doubt but the Governor would readily comply with Mr Anson's proposal; and therefore we kept plying on and off the whole night, intending to keep well in with the land, that we might receive an answer at the limited time, which was the next day, being Monday. But both on the Monday and Tuesday we were driven so far off shore that we could not hope to receive any answer; and on the Wednesday morning we found ourselves fourteen leagues from the harbour of Acapulco; but, as the wind was now favourable, we pressed forwards with all our sail, and did not doubt of getting in with the land in a few hours. no other means left them to allay their thirst than sucking the blood of the turtle which they caught; and at last, giving up all hopes of relief, the heat of the climate, too, augmenting their necessities, and rendering their sufferings insupportable, they abandoned themselves to despair, fully persuaded that they should perish by the most terrible of all deaths. But they were soon after happily relieved by a most unexpected incident, for there fell so heavy a rain, that by spreading their sails horizontally, and by putting bullets in the centre of them to draw them to a point, they caught as much water as filled all their casks; immediately upon this fortunate supply, they stood to the westward in quest of the Commodore; and, being now luckily favoured by a strong current, they joined us in less than fifty hours from the time they stood to the westward, after having been absent from us full forty-three days. Those who have an idea of the inconsiderable size of a cutter belonging to a sixtygun ship (being only an open boat about twenty-two feet in length), and who will attend to the various acci dents to which she was exposed dur ing a six weeks' continuance alone in the open ocean, on so impracticable and dangerous a coast, will readily own that her return to us at last, after all the difficulties which she actually experienced, and the hazards to which she was each hour exposed, may be considered as little short of miraculous. I cannot finish the article of this cutter without remarking how little reliance navigators ought to have on the accounts of the Buccaneer writers. For though, in this run of hers eighty leagues to the eastward of Acapulco, she found no Whilst we were thus standing in, the man at the mast-head called out that he saw a boat under sail at a considerable distance to the southeastward. This we took for granted was the answer of the Governor to the Commodore's message, and we instantly edged towards it; but when we drew nearer we found to our unspeakable joy that it was our own cutter. While she was still at a distance, we imagined that she had been discharged out of the port of Acapulco by the Governor; but when she drew nearer, the wan and meagre countenances of the crew, the length of their beards, and the feeble and hollow tone of their voices, convinced us that they had suffered much greater hardships than could be expected from even the severities of a Spanish prison. They were obliged to be helped into the ship, and were immediately put to bed; and with rest, and nourishing diet, which they were plentifully supplied with from the Commodore's table, they recovered their health and vigour apace. And now we learned that they had kept the sea the whole time of their absence, which was above six weeks; that when they finished their cruise before Acapulco, and had just begun to ply to the westward in order to join the squadron, a strong adverse current had forced them down the coast to the eastward in spite of all their efforts; that at length, their water being all expended, they were obliged to search the coast farther on to the eastward, in quest of some convenient landing-place where it was possible for a boat place, where they might get a fresh to land, yet those writers have not been supply; that in this distress they ashamed to feign harbours and conran upwards of eighty leagues to lee- venient watering-places within these ward, and found everywhere so large limits, thereby exposing such as a surf, that there was not the least should confide in their relations to possibility of their landing; that they the risk of being destroyed by thirst. passed some days in this dreadful situation, without water, and having And now, having received our cutter, the sole object of our coming a |
