1740.

THE SPANISH PRISONERS.

47

English, and expecting every aggravation of ill usage. It was the constant endeavour of Anson to assuage their apprehensions and deserve their gratitude; his courtesy and indulgence were conspicuous to all. The ladies especially were most carefully protected from insult, allowed to retain their own apartments, and treated with the same attention and respect as before their capture. Nay more, on leaving Paita, the prisoners of both sexes were restored to freedom, being sent on shore, and stationed for present security in the two churches, which by good fortune stood at some distance from the town, and were therefore exempted from its conflagration.* Not a few

of these Spaniards afterwards met in Chili the English captives of the Wager. "They all," says Mr. Byron, "spoke in the highest terms of the kind treatment they "had received, and some of them told us they were so happy on board the Centurion, that they would not "have been sorry if the Commodore had taken them with "him to England."†

When Anson set sail for Paita, he directed his little squadron to spread, in order to look out for the Gloucester. Nor was it long before that ship appeared in sight. It had meanwhile made two prizes, one of them a small vessel, the other an open barge. The people on board the last had pretended to be very poor, and to have no other loading but cotton; yet some suspicion was raised, on observing that their dinner by no means tallied with their declaration, for they were found eating pigeon pie in silver dishes; and, on a closer search, it appeared that their jars were only covered over with cotton at top, and held beneath a considerable quantity of dollars and doubloons to the value of 12,000l. With this accession, the squadron continued to steer to the northward, which had

* Compare in Anson's Voyage, pp. 249. 277. and 284.

† Byron's Narrative, p. 199. Captain Basil Hall informs us that "Lord Anson's proceedings are still traditionally known at Paita; "and it is curious to observe that the kindness with which that saga"cious officer invariably treated his Spanish prisoners, is, at the dis"tance of eighty years, better known and more dwelt upon by the in"habitants of Paita than the capture and wanton destruction of the "town." (South America, vol. ii. p. 101.) A strong proof of Spanish

been its general direction ever since it left Juan Fernandez. The design of the Commodore had been to touch near Panama, and from thence communicate across the Isthmus of Darien with Admiral Vernon, who he trusted might be already in possession of Porto Bello, and of the eastern coast. To obtain a reinforcement of men from the other side-to reduce the city of Panama itself—perhaps even to maintain the Isthmus, and there intercept all the treasures of Peru,—were the visions which his hopes suggested and his valour justified. But the report of the prisoners he had taken, had already dispelled these gorgeous dreams, by relating what had befallen Vernon and the British armament at Carthagena; and he therefore limited his views to an enterprise, far less indeed, yet still, as it seemed, an overmatch for his scanty numbers—to seek out and attack the great Manilla galleon.

Manilla, one of the most splendid cities ever founded by Europeans out of Europe, and perhaps the richest gem in the regal diadem of Spain, standing on the farthest confines of the immense Pacific, had costly merchandize to offer in exchange for Peruvian ore. The commerce between these two colonies had been guarded by the Council of the Indies with jealous care. Its station was

at first assigned to Callao, the port of Lima, but afterwards, in consideration of the trade winds, transferred to Acapulco, on the coast of Mexico. This port was allowed to receive one, or, at most, two annual ships, which sailed from Manilla about July, and arrived at Acapulco in the December or January following, and after disposing of their effects, began their homeward voyage in March. These galleons (for such they were termed) were of enormous size, as may be judged both by their crew and by their cargo: the former in the largest ship sometimes amounted to no less than twelve hundred men*; the latter seldom fell short in value of three millions of dollars. Of one article only-silk stockings- we are told that the number brought every year from Manilla in this ship was full fifty thousand pair.†

One of the earliest of these annual ships had been

* Lord Anson's Voyage, p. 330.

† Ibid. p. 327.

1740

THE MANILLA GALLEON.

49

captured by Sir Thomas Cavendish in 1586, an example which Anson and his men panted to follow. Being however only in the middle of November, they conceived that they should have sufficient time to water the squadron, of which it stood in great need, before the arrival of the galleon; and for this purpose they steered for the island of Quibo, a little beyond the bay of Panama. On leaving the coast of South America, they found the season greatly changed: the giant Cordilleras, which had hitherto afforded a cool and tempered clime, and whose snowy summits might often be discerned many leagues at sea apparently floating in air-the only clouds in that azure sky-were now left behind, and no shield remained against the close and sultry heat of the tropics. Beyond Quibo also the winds proved unfavourable, and the progress made was so small that the month of January, 1742, had nearly elapsed before the squadron neared Acapulco. The next object being to obtain intelligence, a barge was sent out by the Commodore, and after some days, succeeded in seizing three negro slaves in a canoe. From these it appeared, to Anson's great disappointment, that the galleon had arrived a month before; but his hopes revived, on hearing that it had delivered its cargo, was taking in water and provisions for its return, and was appointed to sail on the 3rd of March. During the whole of March, therefore, did Anson remain, with his squadron spread at some distance before Acapulco, so that nothing could pass through undiscovered. Yet still no galleon appeared, and it then became suspected, as was indeed the case, that the barge sent out for news

66

"The land, about twelve or thirteen leagues distant, made ex“ceeding high and uneven, and appeared quite white, what we saw "being doubtless a part of the Cordilleras, which are always covered "with snow." (Lord Anson's Voyage, p. 151.) A later and abler writer says, "It was only when the ship was at a considerable dis'tance from the shore that the higher Andes came in sight. . . . It "sometimes even happened that the lower ranges appeared sunk be"low the horizon, when the distant ridges were still distinctly in "sight, and more magnificent than ever. . . . We made observations 'on some which, though upwards of 130 miles off, were quite dis"tinctly visible. The pleasure which this constant view of the Andes "afforded is not to be described." (Capt. Hall's South America, vol. i. p. 199.)

66

had been seen from snore, and that the Spaniards, taking the alarm, had laid an embargo on the galleon till next year.

Thus a second time baffled of his prize, and finding himself under the necessity of quitting the station to procure fresh supplies of water and provision, Anson proceeded to the harbour of Chequetan, about thirty leagues to the north-west of Acapulco. At that place he resolved, on full deliberation, to destroy the Trial's prize, the Carmelo and the Carmen, and to reinforce the Gloucester with their crews; his whole number of men at this time not exceeding the complement of a fourth rate ship of war. The Spaniards near Chequetan did not attempt to molest the Commodore during this or his other proceedings, nor indeed ever appeared in sight; yet the English could discern the smoke of their fires, and thence determine that they were posted in a circular line surrounding them at a distance. One prisoner whom the Spaniards made-the Commodore's French cook-being sent to Mexico, and from thence to Europe, but making his escape at Lisbon, was the first person that brought to England an authentic account of the proceedings of the expedition.

Chequetan was Anson's last station in America. Postponing but not relinquishing his hopes of the galleon, he began his voyage across the wide Pacific - a protracted and to him disastrous navigation. The scurvy broke forth afresh, and raged with great fury amongst his crews. His ships also had become crazy and unsound; in a violent tempest that ensued both of them sprung leaks, and the Gloucester lost the greater part of two masts. When the storm abated, and the two ships could again communicate with each other, the Captain of the Gloucester informed the Commodore that besides being dismasted, his ship had no less than seven feet of water in the hold, although the officers and men had been kept constantly at the pumps for the last twenty-four hours, and that this water covered their casks, so that they could come at neither fresh water nor provisions. A reinforcement of men was, therefore, indispensable; yet this the Centurion, with a leak of its own, and so many sailors sick of the scurvy, was wholly unable to afford. There re

1740.

ISLAND OF TINIAN.

51

mained, therefore, no other resource (nor, indeed, was there much time for deliberation) than to take on board the Gloucester's crew, and as much of its stores as could be saved, and then suffer the hull to be destroyed. To execute this resolution employed the whole of two days. Yet so enfeebled were the men, that it was with the greatest difficulty that even the Gloucester's prize-money was secured; the prize goods were entirely lost; nor could any more provision be removed than five casks of flour, three of them spoiled by the salt water. Several of the sick expired even with the slight fatigue of being gently hoisted into the Centurion. By this time the Gloucester's hold was nearly full of water; yet, as the carpenters were of opinion that she might still swim some time if the calm should continue, and as it was possible that she might be drifted to an island in possession of the Spaniards, she was set on fire. During the whole night the conflagration did not cease, her guns firing successively as the flames reached them, until early in the morning of the 16th of August she blew up, her fate announced by a large black pillar of smoke which shot high into the air.

The Centurion, now the single remnant both of the squadron and the prizes, pursued her solitary voyage, the scurvy still gaining ground amongst her men, and several dying each day. It was, therefore, with inexpressible joy that the survivors at length beheld the Ladrones Islands, to which their course was tending, and singled out that of Tinian as their station for repose. Such was then their debility that they were full five hours in furling the sails; and all the hands they could muster capable of standing at a gun, and many of these too unfit for duty, were no more than seventy-one, gathered from the united crews which, when they sailed from England, consisted all together of near a thousand men! But Tinian with its herds of wild cattle and its delicious fruits-above all, that rare and especial gift of Nature to these islands the Bread Tree, ere long restored their exhausted strength. Their rapture at this favourite spot was probably heightened by the force of contrast; they describe it as "not resembling an unin"habited and uncultivated place; but much more with