A voyage round the world in the years MDCCXL, I, II, III, IV

by Baron George Anson Anson

On this occasion I cannot but remark a singular circumstance of one of the pilots employed by us in this business. It seems (as we afterwards learnt) he had been taken by Captain Clipperton above twenty years before, and had been obliged to lead Clipperton and his people to the surprize of Truxillo, a town within land to the southward of Paita, where, however, he contrived to alarm his countrymen and to save them, though the place was carried and pillaged. Now that the only two attempts on shore, which were made at so long an interval from each other, should be guided by the same person, and he too a prisoner both times, and forced upon the employ contrary to his inclination, is an incident so very extraordinary that I could not help mentioning it. But to return to the matter in hand.

During our preparations, the ships themselves stood towards the port with all the sail they could make, being secure that we were yet at too great a distance to be seen. But about ten o'clock at night, the ships being then within five leagues of the place, Lieutenant Brett, with the boats under his command, put off, and arrived at the mouth of the bay without being discovered, though no sooner had he entered it than some of the people on board a vessel riding at anchor there perceived him, who instantly getting into their boat, rowed towards the fort, shouting and crying, "The English, the English dogs," etc., by which the whole town was suddenly alarmed, and our people soon observed several lights hurrying backwards and forwards in the fort, and other marks of the inhabitants being in great motion. Lieutenant Brett, on this, encouraged his men to pull briskly up, that they might give the enemy as little time as possible to prepare for their defence. However, before our boats could reach the shore, the people in the fort had got ready some of their cannon, and pointed them towards the landing-place; and though in the darkness of the night it might be well supposed that chance had a greater share than skill in their direction, yet the first shot passed extremely near one of the boats, whistling just over the heads of the crew. This made our people redouble their efforts, so that they had reached the shore and were in part disembarked by the time the second gun fired. As soon as our men landed, they were conducted by one of the Spanish pilots to the entrance of a narrow street, not above fifty yards distant from the beach, where they were covered from the fire of the fort; and being formed in the best manner the shortness of the time would allow, they immediately marched for the parade, which was a large square at the end of this street, the fort being one side of the square, and the governor's house another. In this march (though performed with tolerable regularity) the shouts and clamours of threescore sailors, who had been confined so long on shipboard, and were now for the first time on shore in an enemy's country, joyous as they always are when they land, and animated besides in the present case with the hopes of an immense pillage—the huzzas, I say, of this spirited detachment, joined with the noise of their drums, and favoured by the night, had augmented their numbers, in the opinion of the enemy, to at least three hundred, by which persuasion the inhabitants were so greatly intimidated that they were much more solicitous about the means of flight than of resistance: so that though upon entering the parade our people received a volley from the merchants who owned the treasure then in the town, and who, with a few others, had ranged themselves in a gallery that ran round the governor's house, yet that post was immediately abandoned upon the first fire made by our people, who were thereby left in quiet possession of the parade.

On this success Lieutenant Brett divided his men into two parties, ordering one of them to surround the governor's house, and, if possible, to secure the governor, whilst he himself at the head of the other marched to the fort, with an intent to force it. But, contrary to his expectation, he entered it without opposition; for the enemy, on his approach, abandoned it, and made their escape over the walls. By this means the whole place was mastered in less than a quarter of an hour's time from the first landing, and with no other loss than that of one man killed on the spot, and two wounded, one of which was the Spanish pilot of the Teresa, who received a slight bruise by a ball which grazed on his wrist. Indeed another of the company, the Honourable Mr. Kepple, son to the Earl of Albemarle, had a very narrow escape; for having on a jockey cap, one side of the peak was shaved off close to his temple by a ball, which, however, did him no other injury.

Lieutenant Brett, when he had thus far happily succeeded, placed a guard at the fort, and another at the governor's house, and appointed centinels at all the avenues of the town, both to prevent any surprize from the enemy, and to secure the effects in the place from being embezzled. This being done, his next care was to seize on the custom-house, where the treasure lay, and to examine if any of the inhabitants remained in the town, that he might know what further precautions it was necessary to take; but he soon found that the numbers left behind were no ways formidable, for the greatest part of them (being in bed when the place was surprized) had run away with so much precipitation that they had not given themselves time to put on their cloaths. In this general rout the governor was not the last to secure himself, for he fled betimes half naked, leaving his wife, a young lady of about seventeen years of age, to whom he had been married but three or four days, behind him, though she too was afterwards carried off in her shift by a couple of centinels, just as the detachment ordered to invest the house arrived before it. This escape of the governor was an unpleasing circumstance, as Mr. Anson had particularly recommended it to Lieutenant Brett to secure his person if possible, in hopes that by that means we might be able to treat for the ransom of the place: but it seems his alertness rendered the execution of these orders impracticable. The few inhabitants who remained were confined in one of the churches under a guard, except some stout negroes which were found in the town; these, instead of being shut up, were employed the remaining part of the night to assist in carrying the treasure from the custom-house and other places to the fort; however, there was care taken that they should be always attended by a file of musqueteers.

The transporting the treasure from the custom-house to the fort was the principal occupation of Mr. Brett's people after he had got possession of the place. But the sailors, while they were thus busied, could not be prevented from entering the houses which lay near them in search of private pillage: where the first things which occurred to them being the cloaths that the Spaniards in their flight had left behind them, and which, according to the custom of the country, were most of them either embroidered or laced, our people eagerly seized these glittering habits, and put them on over their own dirty trowsers and jackets, not forgetting, at the same time, the tye or bag-wig and laced hat which were generally found with the cloaths; and when this practice was once begun, there was no preventing the whole detachment from imitating it: but those who came latest into the fashion not finding men's cloaths sufficient to equip themselves, were obliged to take up with women's gowns and petticoats, which (provided there was finery enough) they made no scruple of putting on and blending with their own greasy dress. So that when a party of them thus ridiculously metamorphosed first appeared before Mr. Brett, he was extremely surprized at the grotesque sight, and could not immediately be satisfied they were his own people.

These were the transactions of our detachment on shore at Paita the first night: but to return to what was done on board the Centurion in that interval. I must observe that after the boats were gone off, we lay by till one o'clock in the morning, and then supposing our detachment to be near landing, we made an easy sail for the bay. About seven in the morning we began to open the bay, and soon after had a view of the town; and though we had no reason to doubt of the success of the enterprize, yet it was with great joy that we first discovered an infallible signal of the certainty of our hopes; this was by means of our perspectives, for through them we saw an English flag hoisted on the flagstaff of the fort, which to us was an incontestable proof that our people were in possession of the place. We plied into the bay with as much expedition as the wind, which then blew off shore, would permit us: and at eleven the Tryal's boat came on board us, loaden with dollars and church-plate, when the officer who commanded her informed us of the preceding night's transactions, such as we have already related them. About two in the afternoon we anchored in ten fathom and a half, at a mile and a half distance from the town, and were consequently near enough to have a more immediate intercourse with those on shore. And now we found that Mr. Brett had hitherto gone on in collecting and removing the treasure without interruption; but that the enemy had rendezvouzed from all parts of the country on a hill, at the back of the town, where they made no inconsiderable appearance: for amongst the rest of their force there were two hundred horse, seemingly very well armed and mounted, and, as we conceived, properly trained and regimented, being furnished with trumpets, drums, and standards. These troops paraded about the hill with great ostentation, sounding their military musick, and practising every art to intimidate us (as our numbers on shore were by this time not unknown to them), in hopes that we might be induced by our fears to abandon the place before the pillage was compleated. But we were not so ignorant as to believe that this body of horse, which seemed to be what the enemy principally depended on, would dare to venture in streets and amongst houses, even had their numbers been three times as large; and, therefore, notwithstanding their menaces, we went on calmly as long as the daylight lasted, in sending off the treasure, and in employing the boats to carry on board the refreshments, such as hogs, fowls, etc., which we found here in great abundance. However, at night, to prevent any surprize, the commodore sent on shore a reinforcement, who posted themselves in all the passages leading to the parade, and, for their further security, traversed the streets with barricadoes six feet high, but the enemy continuing quiet all night, we, at daybreak, returned again to our labour of loading the boats, and sending them off.

By this time we were convinced of what consequence it would have been to us had fortune seconded the prudent views of the commodore, by permitting us to have secured the governor. For as we found in the place many storehouses full of valuable effects, which were useless to us at present, and such as we could not find room for on board, had the governor been in our power, he would in all probability have treated for the ransom of this merchandise, which would have been extremely advantageous both to him and us; whereas, he being now at liberty, and having collected all the force of the country for many leagues round, and having even got a body of militia from Piura, which was fourteen leagues distant, he was so elated with his numbers, and so fond of his new military command, that he seemed not to trouble himself about the fate of his government. So that though Mr. Anson sent several messages to him by some of the inhabitants whom he had taken prisoners, offering to enter into a treaty for the ransom of the town and goods, giving him, at the same time, an intimation that we should be far from insisting on a rigorous equivalent, but perhaps might be satisfied with some live cattle, and a few necessaries for the use of the squadron, threatening, too, that if he would not condescend at least to treat, we would set fire to the town and all the warehouses. Yet the governor was so imprudent and arrogant that he despised all these reiterated overtures, and did not deign even to return the least answer to them.

On the second day of our being in possession of the place, several negro slaves deserted from the enemy on the hill, and coming into the town, voluntarily engaged in our service. One of these was well known to a gentleman on board who remembered him formerly at Panama. We now learnt that the Spaniards without the town were in extreme want of water, for many of their slaves crept into the place by stealth, and carried away several jars of water to their masters on the hill; and though some of them were seized by our men in the attempt, yet the thirst among the enemy was so pressing that they continued this practice till we left the place. On this second day we were assured, both by the deserters and by these prisoners we took, that the Spaniards on the hill, who were by this time encreased to a formidable number, had resolved to storm the town and fort the succeeding night; and that one Gordon, a Scots papist, and captain of a ship in those seas, was to have the command of this enterprize. However, we, notwithstanding, continued sending off our boats, and prosecuted our work without the least hurry or precipitation till the evening; when a reinforcement was again sent on shore by the commodore, and Lieutenant Brett doubled his guards at each of the barricadoes; and our posts being connected by the means of centinels placed within call of each other, and the whole being visited by frequent rounds, attended with a drum, these marks of our vigilance, which the enemy could not be ignorant of, as they could doubtless hear the drum, if not the calls of the centinels; these marks, I say, of our vigilance, and of our readiness to receive them, cooled their resolution, and made them forget the vaunts of the preceding day, so that we passed this second night with as little molestation as we had done the first.

We had finished sending the treasure on board the Centurion the evening before, so that the third morning, being the 15th of November, the boats were employed in carrying off the most valuable part of the effects that remained in the town. And the commodore intending to sail in the afternoon, he, about ten o'clock, pursuant to his promise, sent all his prisoners, amounting to eighty-eight, on shore, giving orders to Lieutenant Brett to secure them in one of the churches under a strict guard till the men were ready to be embarked. Mr. Brett was at the same time ordered to burn the whole town, except the two churches (which by good fortune stood at some distance from the houses), and then he was to abandon the place, and to return on board. These orders were punctually complied with, for Mr. Brett immediately set his men to work to distribute pitch, tar, and other combustibles (of which great quantities were found here) into houses situated in different streets of the town, so that the place being fired in many quarters at the same time, the destruction might be more violent and sudden, and the enemy, after our departure, might not be able to extinguish it. When these preparations were made, he, in the next place, commanded the cannon, which he found in the fort, to be nailed up; and then setting fire to those houses which were most to the windward, he collected his men and marched towards the beach, where the boats waited to carry them off. As that part of the beach whence he intended to embark was an open place without the town, the Spaniards on the hill perceiving he was retreating, resolved to try if they could not precipitate his departure, and thereby lay some foundation for their future boasting. To this end a small squadron of their horse, consisting of about sixty, picked out, as I suppose, for this service, marched down the hill with much seeming resolution, so that had we not entertained an adequate opinion of their prowess, we might have imagined that now we were on the open beach with no advantage of situation, they would certainly have charged us, but we presumed (and we were not mistaken) that this was mere ostentation. For, notwithstanding the pomp and parade they at first came on with, Mr. Brett had no sooner ordered his men to halt and face about, than the enemy stopped their career, and never dared to advance a step further.

When our people were arrived at their boats, and were ready to go on board, they were for some time retarded by missing one of their number; and being unable, on their mutual enquiries amongst each other, to inform themselves where he was left, or by what accident he was detained, they, after a considerable delay, resolved to get into their boats, and to depart without him. But when the last man was actually embarked, and the boats were just putting off, they heard him calling to them to take him in. The place was by this time so thoroughly on fire, and the smoke covered the beach so effectually, that they could scarcely discern him, though they heard his voice. However, the lieutenant instantly ordered one of the boats to his relief, who found him up to the chin in water, for he had waded as far as he durst, being extremely frightened with the apprehensions of falling into the hands of an enemy, enraged, as they doubtless were, at the pillage and destruction of their town. On enquiring into the cause of his staying behind, it was found that he had taken that morning too large a dose of brandy, which had thrown him into so sound a sleep that he did not awake till the fire came near enough to scorch him. He was strangely amazed at first opening his eyes to see the houses all in a blaze on one side, and several Spaniards and Indians not far from him on the other. The greatness and suddenness of his fright instantly reduced him to a state of sobriety, and gave him sufficient presence of mind to push through the thickest of the smoke, as the likeliest means to escape the enemy, and making the best of his way to the beach, he ran as far into the water as he durst (for he could not swim) before he ventured to look back.