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

by Baron George Anson Anson

The withdrawing of this guard was a circumstance that gave us much pleasure, since it seemed to demonstrate not only that the enemy had not as yet discovered us, but likewise that they had now no farther apprehensions of our visiting their coast. Indeed the prisoners assured us that they had no knowledge of our being in those seas, and that they had therefore flattered themselves that, in the long interval from our taking of Paita, we had steered another course. But we did not consider the opinion of these negro prisoners as so authentick a proof of our being hitherto concealed, as the withdrawing of the guard from the harbour's mouth; for this being the action of the governor, was of all arguments the most convincing, as he might be supposed to have intelligence with which the rest of the inhabitants were unacquainted.

Satisfied therefore that we were undiscovered, and that the day was fixed for the departure of the galeon from Acapulco, we made all necessary preparations, and waited with the utmost impatience for the important moment. As it was the 19th of February when the barge returned and brought us our intelligence, and the galeon was not to sail till the 3d of March, the commodore resolved to continue the greatest part of the intermediate time on his present station, to the westward of Acapulco, conceiving that in this situation there would be less danger of his being seen from the shore, which was the only circumstance that could deprive us of the immense treasure on which we had at present so eagerly fixed our thoughts. During this interval we were employed in scrubbing and cleansing our ships bottoms, in bringing them into their most advantageous trim, and in regulating the orders, signals, and positions, to be observed, when we should arrive off Acapulco, and the time appointed for the departure of the galeon should draw nigh.

It was on the first of March we made the high lands, usually called the paps over Acapulco, and got with all possible expedition into the situation prescribed by the commodore's orders. The distribution of our squadron on this occasion, both for the intercepting the galeon, and for avoiding a discovery from the shore, was so very judicious that it well merits to be distinctly described. The order of it was thus: the Centurion brought the paps over the harbour to bear N.N.E. at fifteen leagues distance, which was a sufficient offing to prevent our being seen by the enemy. To the westward of the Centurion there was stationed the Carmelo, and to the eastward the Tryal's prize, the Gloucester, and the Carmin; these were all ranged in a circular line, and each ship was three leagues distant from the next, so that the Carmelo and the Carmin, which were the two extremes, were twelve leagues removed from each other, and as the galeon could, without doubt, be discerned at six leagues distance from either extremity, the whole sweep of our squadron, within which nothing could pass undiscovered, was at least twenty-four leagues in extent; and yet we were so connected by our signals as to be easily and speedily informed of what was seen in any part of the line. To render this disposition still more compleat, and to prevent even the possibility of the galeon's escaping us in the night, the two cutters belonging to the Centurion and the Gloucester were both manned and sent in shore, and commanded to lie all day at the distance of four or five leagues from the entrance of the port, where, by reason of their smallness, they could not possibly be discovered, but in the night they were directed to stand nearer to the harbour's mouth, and as the light of the morning approached to come back again to their day-posts. When the cutters should first discern the Manila ship, one of them was to return to the squadron, and to make a signal, whether the galeon stood to the eastward or to the westward; whilst the other was to follow the galeon at a distance, and if it grew dark, to direct the squadron in their chace, by shewing false fires.

Besides the care we had taken to prevent the galeon from passing by us unobserved, we had not been inattentive to the means of engaging her to advantage when we came up with her, for considering the thinness of our crews, and the vaunting accounts given by the Spaniards of her size, her guns, and her strength, this was a consideration not to be neglected. As we supposed that none of our ships but the Centurion and Gloucester were capable of lying alongside of her, we took on board the Centurion all the hands belonging to the Carmelo and Carmin, except what were just sufficient to navigate those ships; and Captain Saunders was ordered to send from the Tryal's prize ten Englishmen, and as many negroes, to reinforce the crew of the Gloucester. At the same time, for the encouragement of our negroes, of which we had a considerable number on board, we promised them that on their good behaviour they should have their freedom. As they had been almost every day trained to the management of the great guns for the two preceding months, they were very well qualified to be of service to us; and from their hopes of liberty, and in return for the kind usage they had met with amongst us, they seemed disposed to exert themselves to the utmost of their power, whenever we should have occasion for them.

Being thus prepared for the reception of the galeon, we expected, with the utmost impatience, the often mentioned 3d of March, the day fixed for her departure. No sooner did that day dawn than we were all of us most eagerly engaged in looking out towards Acapulco, from whence neither the casual duties on board nor the calls of hunger could easily divert our eyes; and we were so strangely prepossessed with the certainty of our intelligence, and with an assurance of her coming out of port, that some or other amongst us were constantly imagining that they discovered one of our cutters returning with a signal. But, to our extreme vexation, both this day and the succeeding night passed over without any news of the galeon. However, we did not yet despair, but were all heartily disposed to flatter ourselves that some unforeseen accident had intervened, which might have put off her departure for a few days; and suggestions of this kind occurred in plenty, as we knew that the time fixed by the viceroy for her sailing was often prolonged on the petition of the merchants of Mexico. Thus we kept up our hopes, and did not abate of our vigilance, and as the 7th of March was Sunday, the beginning of Passion week, which is observed by the Papists with great strictness, and a total cessation from all kinds of labour, so that no ship is permitted to stir out of port during the whole week, this quieted our apprehensions for some time, and disposed us not to expect the galeon till the week following. On the Friday in this week our cutters returned to us, and the officers on board them were very confident that the galeon was still in port, for that she could not possibly have come out but they must have seen her. The Monday morning following, that is, on the 15th of March, the cutters were again dispatched to their old station, and our hopes were once more indulged in as sanguine prepossessions as before; but in a week's time our eagerness was greatly abated, and a general dejection and despondency took place in its room. It is true, there were some few amongst us who still kept up their spirits, and were very ingenious in finding out reasons to satisfy themselves that the disappointment we had hitherto met with had only been occasioned by a casual delay of the galeon, which a few days would remove, and not by a total suspension of her departure for the whole season. But these speculations were not adopted by the generality of our people, for they were persuaded that the enemy had, by some accident, discovered our being upon the coast, and had therefore laid an embargo on the galeon till next year. And indeed this persuasion was but too well founded, for we afterwards learnt that our barge, when sent on the discovery of the port of Acapulco, had been seen from the shore, and that this circumstance (no embarkations but canoes ever frequenting that coast) was to them a sufficient proof of the neighbourhood of our squadron; on which they stopped the galeon till the succeeding year.

The commodore himself, though he declared not his opinion, was yet in his own thoughts apprehensive that we were discovered, and that the departure of the galeon was put off; and he had, in consequence of this opinion, formed a plan for possessing himself of Acapulco, because he had no doubt but the treasure as yet remained in the town, even though the orders for dispatching of the galeon were countermanded. Indeed the place was too well defended to be carried by an open attempt, since, besides the garrison and the crew of the galeon, there were in it at least a thousand men well armed, who had marched thither as guards to the treasure, when it was brought down from the city of Mexico, for the roads thereabouts are so much infested either by independent Indians or fugitives that the Spaniards never trust the silver without an armed force to protect it. Besides, had the strength of the place been less considerable, and such as might not have appeared superior to the efforts of our squadron, yet a declared attack would have prevented us receiving any advantages from its success, for upon the first discovery of our squadron, all the treasure would have been ordered into the country, and in a few hours would have been out of our reach, so that our conquest would have been only a desolate town, where we should have found nothing that could in the least have countervailed the fatigue and hazard of the undertaking.

For these reasons, the surprisal of the place was the only method that could at all answer our purpose; and therefore the manner in which Mr. Anson proposed to conduct this enterprize was, by setting sail with the squadron in the evening, time enough to arrive at the port in the night. As there is no danger on that coast, he would have stood boldly for the harbour's mouth, where he expected to arrive, and perhaps might have entered, before the Spaniards were acquainted with his designs. As soon as he had run into the harbour, he intended to have pushed two hundred of his men on shore in his boats, who were immediately to attempt the fort, whilst he, the commodore, with his ships, was employed in firing upon the town and the other batteries. And these different operations, which would have been executed with great regularity, could hardly have failed of succeeding against an enemy who would have been prevented by the suddenness of the attack, and by the want of daylight, from concerting any measures for their defence. So that it was extremely probable that we should have carried the fort by storm, and then the other batteries, being open behind, must have been soon abandoned, after which, the town and its inhabitants, and all the treasure, must necessarily have fallen into our hands. For the place is so cooped up with mountains that it is scarcely possible to escape out of it but by the great road which passes under the fort. This was the project which the commodore had thus far settled generally in his thoughts, but when he began to inquire into such circumstances as were necessary to be considered in order to regulate the particulars of its execution, he found there was a difficulty, which, being insuperable, occasioned the enterprize to be laid aside; as on examining the prisoners about the winds which prevail near the shore, he learnt (and it was afterwards confirmed by the officers of our cutters) that nearer in shore there was always a dead calm for the greatest part of the night, and that towards morning, when a gale sprung up, it constantly blew off the land, so that the setting sail from our present station in the evening, and arriving at Acapulco before daylight, was impossible.

This scheme, as hath been said, was formed by the commodore upon a supposition that the galeon was detained till the next year, but as this was a matter of opinion only, and not founded on intelligence, and there was a possibility that she might still put to sea in a short time, the commodore thought it prudent to continue cruising on his present station as long as the necessary attention to his stores of wood and water, and to the convenient season for his future passage to China, would give him leave. And therefore, as the cutters had been ordered to remain before Acapulco till the 23d of March, the squadron did not change its position till that day, when the cutters not appearing, we were in some pain for them, apprehending they might have suffered either from the enemy or the weather, but we were relieved from our concern the next morning, when we discovered them, though at a great distance and to the leeward of the squadron. We bore down to them and took them up, and were informed by them that, conformable to their orders, they had left their station the day before, without having seen anything of the galeon; and we found that the reason of their being so far to the leeward of us was a strong current which had driven the whole squadron to windward.

And here it is necessary to mention, that, by information which was afterwards received, it appeared that this prolongation of our cruise was a very prudent measure, and afforded us no contemptible chance of seizing the treasure on which we had so long fixed our thoughts. For after the embargo was laid on the galeon, as is before mentioned, the persons principally interested in the cargo dispatched several expresses to Mexico, to beg that she might still be permitted to depart. It seems they knew, by the accounts sent from Paita, that we had not more than three hundred men in all, whence they insisted that there was nothing to be feared, as the galeon, carrying above twice as many hands as our whole squadron, would be greatly an overmatch for us. And though the viceroy was inflexible, yet, on the account of their representation, she was kept ready for the sea near three weeks after the first order came to detain her.

When we had taken up the cutters, all the ships being joined, the commodore made a signal to speak with their commanders; and upon enquiry into the stock of fresh water remaining on board the squadron, it was found to be so very slender that we were under a necessity of quitting our station to procure a fresh supply. Consulting what place was the properest for this purpose, it was agreed that the harbour of Seguataneio or Chequetan being the nearest, was, on that account, the most eligible; so that it was immediately resolved to make the best of our way thither. But that, even while we were recruiting our water, we might not totally abandon our views upon the galeon, which, perhaps, from certain intelligence of our being employed at Chequetan, might venture to slip out to sea, our cutter, under the command of Mr. Hughes, the lieutenant of the Tryal's prize, was ordered to cruise off the port of Acapulco for twenty-four days, that if the galeon should set sail in that interval, we might be speedily informed of it. In pursuance of these resolutions we endeavoured to ply to the westward to gain our intended port, but were often interrupted in our progress by calms and adverse currents. At these intervals we employed ourselves in taking out the most valuable part of the cargoes of the Carmelo and Carmin prizes, which two ships we intended to destroy as soon as we had tolerably cleared them. By the 1st of April we were so far advanced towards Seguataneio that we thought it expedient to send out two boats that they might range along the coast to discover the watering-place. They were gone some days, and our water being now very short, it was a particular felicity to us that we met with daily supplies of turtle, for had we been entirely confined to salt provisions, we must have suffered extremely in so warm a climate. Indeed our present circumstances were sufficiently alarming, and gave the most considerate amongst us as much concern as any of the numerous perils we had hitherto encountered, for our boats, as we conceived by their not returning, had not as yet found a place proper to water at, and by the leakage of our casks, and other accidents, we had not ten days water on board the whole squadron, so that from the known difficulty of procuring water on this coast, and the little reliance we had on the buccaneer writers (the only guides we had to trust to), we were apprehensive of being soon exposed to a calamity the most terrible of any that occurs in the long disheartening catalogue of the distresses of a seafaring life.