Captain Cooke sent me word that he had nearly fired away all his powder and shot, but had escaped well in masts, rigging, and men; wherefore I sent him three barrels of powder and a proportion of shot; and I also sent Lieutenant Fry to consult with our consorts how we might best engage the enemy next morning. All this day and the ensuing night the chase made signals to us in the Duke, thinking us her consort, which we had already taken; and after dark she edged down towards us, otherwise I should not have been up with her next day, having very little wind and that against us. In the morning of the 28th, as soon as it was day, the wind veered at once, on which we put our ship about, and the chase fired first upon the Duchess, which was nearest her in consequence of the change of wind. The Duchess returned the fire briskly; and we in the Duke stood as near as we possibly could, firing our guns as we could bring them to bear upon the enemy. At this time the Duchess was athwart her hawse, firing very fast, and such of her shot as missed the enemy flew over us and between our masts, so that we ran the risk of receiving more harm from the Duchess than the enemy, if we had lain on her quarter and across her stern, which was my intention. We therefore took our station close along side, board and board, where we kept plying her with round shot only, using neither barshot nor grape, as her sides were too thick for these, and no men appeared in sight.

She lay driving, as we did also close aboard of her, the enemy keeping to their close quarters, so that we never fired our small arms unless when we saw a man appear, or a port open, and then we fired as quick as possible. We continued thus for four glasses, about which time we received a shot in our main-mast which much disabled it. Soon after this, the Duchess and we, still both firing, came back close under the enemy, and had like to have fallen on board of her, so that we could make little use of our guns. We then fell astern in our birth alongside, and at this time the enemy threw a fire-ball into the Duke from one of her tops, which blew up a chest of loaded arms and cartouch-boxes on our quarter-deck, and several cartridges in our steerage, by which Mr Vanburgh, the agent of our owners, and a Dutchman, were very much burnt; and it might have done us much more damage if it had not been soon extinguished. After getting clear, the Duchess stood in for the shore, where she lay braced to, mending her rigging. The Marquis fired several shots, but to little purpose, as her guns were small. We continued close aboard for some time after the Duchess drew off; till at last we received a second shot in our main-mast, not far from the other, which rent it miserably; insomuch that the mast settled towards the wound, and threatened to come by the board. Our rigging also being much shattered, we sheered off and brought to, making a signal to our consorts for a consultation; and in the interim got ordinary fishes up to support our main-mast as well as we could.

Captains Courtney and Cooke, with other officers, came aboard the Duke, in obedience to the signal, when we took the condition of our three ships into consideration. Their masts and rigging were much damaged, and we had no means of procuring any repairs. If we again engaged the enemy, we could not propose to do any more than we had done already, which evidently had not done her much harm, as we could perceive that few of our shots penetrated her sides to any purpose, and our small arms availed still less, as not one of their men were to be seen above board. Our main-mast was so badly wounded that the least additional injury would bring it down, and the fore-mast of the Duchess was in as bad a state. The fall of these masts might bring down others, and we should then lie perfect butts for the enemy to batter at, and his heavy guns might easily sink us. If we should attempt to carry her by boarding, we must necessarily run the risk of losing many of our men, with little prospect of success, as they had above treble our number to oppose us, not having now in all our three ships above 120 men fit for boarding, and these weak, as we had been long short of provisions. If, therefore, we attempted to board and were beaten off, leaving any of our men behind, the enemy would learn our strength, or weakness rather, and might go to the harbour and retake our prize, in spite of every thing we could do to hinder. Our ammunition also was now very short, and we had only, enough to engage for a few glasses longer. All these circumstances being duly considered, together with the difficulty of procuring masts, and the time and provisions we must spend before we could get them fitted we resolved to desist from any farther attempt upon the enemy, since our battering her signified little, and we had not sufficient strength to carry her by boarding. We determined therefore to keep her company till night, and then to lose her, after which to make the best of our way to the harbour where we had left our prize, to secure her.

We had engaged this ship first and last about seven glasses, during which we in the Duke had eleven men wounded, three of whom were scorched with gun-powder. I was again unfortunately wounded by a splinter in my left foot, just before the arms chest was blown up on the quarter-deck; and so severely that I had to lie on my back in great pain, being unable to stand. Part of my heel-bone was struck out, and all the foot just under the ankle cut above half through, my wound bleeding very much before it could be stopped and dressed, by which I was much weakened. In the Duchess above twenty men were killed and wounded, one of the slain and three of the wounded belonging to my ship, which had been lent when I was left in the harbour. The Marquis had none killed or wounded, but two of her men were scorched by gun-powder. The enemy was the Vigoniae, a brave and lofty new ship, admiral of Manilla, and this her first voyage. She was calculated to carry 60 guns, and had above 40 mounted, with as many pattereroes, all brass, and, as we were informed, had a complement of 450 men, of whom 150 were Europeans, besides passengers. We were told also that several of her crew had formerly been pirates, who had all their wealth on board, and were resolved to defend it to the last extremity. The gunner was said to be a very expert man, and had provided extraordinarily for defence, which enabled them to make a desperate resistance; and they had filled all her sides between the guns with bales of soft goods, to secure the men.

During the whole action she kept the Spanish flag flying at her mast-head. We could observe that we had shattered her sails and rigging very much, and had slain two men in her tops, besides bringing down her mizen-yard; but this was all the visible damage we had done them, though we certainly placed 500 round shot in her hull, which were six-pounders. These large ships are built at Manilla of excellent timber, which does not splinter, and their sides are much thicker and stronger than those of the ships built in Europe. Thus ended our attempt on the biggest Manilla ship, which I have heard related in so many ways at home, that I have thought it necessary to give a very particular account of the action, as I find it set down in my journal. Generally speaking, the ships from Manilla are much richer than the prize we had taken; for she had waited a long time for the Chinese junks to bring silks, which not arriving, she came away with her cargo made out by means of abundance of coarse goods. Several of the prisoners assured me that a Manilla ship was commonly worth ten millions of dollars; so that, if it had not been for the accidental non-arrival of the junks from China that season, we had gotten an extraordinarily rich prize. After my return to Europe, I met a sailor in Holland who had been in the large ship when we engaged her, and who communicated to me a reason why we could not have taken her at all events. Her gunner kept constantly in the powder-room, and declared that he had taken the sacrament to blow up the ship if we had boarded her, which accordingly made the men exceedingly resolute in her defence. I the more readily gave credit to what this man told me, as he gave a regular and circumstantial account of the engagement, conformable to what I have given from my journal.

It is hardly to be doubted that we might have set this great ship on fire, by converting one of our ships into a fireship for that purpose: But this was objected to by all our officers, because we had goods of value on board all our ships. The enemy on this occasion was the better provided for us, having heard at Manilla, through our British settlements in India, that two small ships had been fitted out at Bristol for an expedition into the South Sea, and of which Captain Dampier was pilot. On this account it was that they had so many Europeans on board the great ship, most of whom had all their wealth along with them, for which they would fight to the utmost; and it having been agreed to pay no freight on the gun-decks, they had filled up all the spaces between the guns with bales of goods, to secure the men. The two ships were to have joined at Cape Lucas, expecting to meet us off Cape Corientes or Navidad.

We returned again into our port on the coast of California on the 1st January, 1710, and being resolved to make as quick dispatch as possible for our passage to the East Indies, we immediately parted with our prisoners, giving them the bark with a sufficiency of water and provisions to carry them to Acapulco. We then occupied ourselves to the 7th in refitting and laying in a stock of wood and water; and had much satisfaction in finding as much bread in our prize as might serve for our long run to Guam, with the aid of the scanty remains of our old stock. After a long disputatious negotiation, it was settled that Mr Fry and Mr Stratton were to take charge of our prize, which we named the Bachelor, though under Captain Dover, but they were not to be contradicted by him in the business, as his business was to see that nothing was done in her contrary to the interest of our owners and ships companies, he being in the nature of agent, only with the title of chief captain. At the same time, we put on board of this ship 35 men from the Duke, 25 from the Duchess, and 13 from the Marquis, making in all 73 men, which, with 36 Manilla Indians, called Las-Cars, and some other prisoners we still had remaining, made up her complement to 115 men.

SECTION III

Sequel of the Voyage, from California, by Way of the East Indies, to England.

WE weighed anchor on the 10th January, 1710, from Porta Leguro, on the coast of California, but were becalmed under the shore till the afternoon of the 12th, when a breeze sprang up which soon carried us out of sight of land. Being very slenderly provided, we were forced to allow only a pound and a half of flour, and one small piece of beef, to five men in a mess, together with three pints of water a man, for twenty-four hours, to serve both as drink and for dressing their victuals. We also lowered ten of our guns into the hold, to ease our ship. On the 16th the Bachelor made a signal that she could spare us some additional bread, having discovered a considerable store of bread and sweet-meats, though very little flesh meat. Accordingly, we in the Duke had a thousand weight of bread for our share, the Duchess had as much, and the Marquis five hundred weight; and in return we sent them two casks of flour, one of English beef; and one of pork, as they had only left forty-five days provisions of flesh. We now agreed to proceed in a W.S.W. course till we reached the latitude of 13° N. and to keep in that parallel till we should make the island of Guam, being informed by our Spanish pilot that the parallel of 14° was dangerous, by reason of certain islands and shoals, on which a Spanish ship had been lost some time ago.