The Spaniard was a good sailer, but our ship plainly gained upon her, and in the evening came almost up with her; when he saw the land, though at a great distance, he was loath to be seen chasing her from the shore; however, he followed, and night coming on, the Spaniard changed his course, thinking to get away, but as the moon was just rising, our men, who resolved to keep her in sight, if possible, perceived her, and stretched after her with all the canvass they could lay on.
This chase held till about midnight, when our ship coming up with her, took her after a little dispute. They pretended, at first, to have nothing on board but timber, which they were carrying, as they said, to some port for the building of ships; but our men had the secret to make the Spaniards confess their treasure, if they had any, so that after some hard words with the Spanish commander, he confessed he had some money on board, which, on our men's promise of good usage, he afterwards very honestly delivered, and which might amount to about sixteen thousand pieces of eight.
But he had what we were very glad of besides, viz., about two hundred great jars of very good wheat flour, a large quantity of oil, and some casks of sweetmeats, all which was to us very good prize.
But now our difficulty was, what we should do with the ship, and with the Spaniards; and this was so real a difficulty that I began to wish he had not taken her, lest her being suffered to go, she should alarm the country, or if detained, discover us all.
It was not above one day beyond his orders that we had the pleasure of seeing the captain of the Madagascar come into the road, with his prize in tow, and the flour and oil was a very good booty to us; but upon second and better thoughts, we brought the Spaniards to a fair treaty, and, which was more difficult, brought all our men to consent to it. The case was this. Knowing what I proposed to myself to do, namely, to trade all the way up the Spanish coast, and to pass for French ships, I knew the taking this Spanish ship would betray us all, unless I resolved to sink the ship and murder all the men; so I came to a resolution of talking with the Spanish captain, and making terms with him, which I soon made him very glad to accept of.
First, I pretended to be angry with the captain of the Madagascar ship, and ordered him to be put under confinement, for having made a prize of his catholic majesty's subjects, we being subjects to the king of France, who was in perfect peace with the king of Spain.
Then I told him that I would restore him his ship and all his money, and as to his flour and oil, which the men had fallen greedily upon, having a want of it, I would pay him the full value in money for it all, and for any other loss he had sustained, only that I would oblige him to lie in the road at the island where we were, till we returned from our voyage to Lima, whither we were going to trade, for which lying I also agreed to pay him demurrage for his ship, after the rate of eight hundred pieces of eight per month, and if I returned not in four months, he was to be at his liberty to go.
The captain, who thought himself a prisoner and undone, readily embraced this offer; and so we secured his ship till our return, and there we found him very honestly at an anchor, of which I shall give a farther account in its place.
We were now, as I have said, much about the middle of our voyage, at least as I had intended it; and having stored ourselves with every thing the place afforded, we got ready to proceed, for we had, as it were, dwelt here near a fortnight.
By this time the weather was good again, and we stood away to the south-east for the port of Baldivia, as above, and reached to the mouth, of the harbour in twelve days' sail.