I was constrained suddenly to halt, in consequence of hearing a gun fired from the ship, soon after which word was brought me that she was ashore. I hurried off as fast as I could, carrying with us the union-flag, which I had planted in the church-yard; and, as we were re-embarking, the enemy came running down the hill, hallooing after us. When I got on board, I found the ship entirely afloat, but within her own breadth of the rocks; and, as the water was quite smooth, we soon warped her off again. We then returned to the town, whence the Spaniards retired as peaceably as before. The remainder of the day was employed in shipping off what plunder we could find, which consisted of hogs, brown and white calavances, beans, Indian corn, wheat, flour, sugar, and as many cocoa nuts[268] as we were able to stow away, together with pans and other conveniences for preparing it, so that we were now amply provided with excellent breakfast meat for the rest of our voyage, and were, besides, full of other provisions.
[Footnote 268: Cacao, chocolate-nuts, are almost certainly here meant.--E.]
At eight in the morning of the 23d, a messenger came in to know what ransom I would take for the town and the ship, for which I demanded 10,000 dollars in twenty-four hours. At eight next morning, I had a letter from the governor, signifying, that as I wrote in French, neither he nor any one about him could understand its contents; but if I would write in Latin or Spanish, I might depend on a satisfactory answer. In the afternoon, I sent for one of our quarter-deck guns on shore, which was mounted at our guard, and was fired at sun-set, midnight, and break of day. The messenger returned in the morning of the 24th, accompanied by the master of the ship we had taken, and on hearing of their arrival, I went on shore to know what they had to propose. I understood from them that the governor was determined not to ransom the town, and did not care what become of it, provided the churches were not burnt. Though I never had any intention to destroy any place devoted to divine worship, I answered that I should have no regard to the churches, or anything else, when I set the town on fire; and I told the master of the vessel, he might expect to see her in flames immediately, if not ransomed without delay. This seemed to make a great impression, and he promised to return in three hours with the money. I then caused every thing to be taken out of the town that could be of any use to us, after which I ordered the town to be set on fire in several places; and, as the houses were old and dry, it instantly became a bonfire.
In the midst of this conflagration, the people in the Speedwell made many signals for me to come on board, and kept continually firing towards the mouths of the harbour. As I could only guess the meaning of all this, I went on board as soon as possible in a canoe, having only three men along with me. Before I could reach the ship, I could distinctly see a large ship, with a Spanish flag at her fore-topmast-head, and her fore-topsail a-back. At this sight, two of my three men were ready to faint, and if it had not been for my boatswain, I doubt if I should have got on board; and if the Spanish admiral had acted with vigour, he might have taken the ship long enough before I got to her. It is bare justice to Mr Coldsea to say, that he fired so smartly on the Spaniard as to induce him to act with great precaution, which had been quite unnecessary if he had known our weakness. His caution, however, gave me the opportunity of getting on board: and, in the mean time, my officers were so unwilling to leave our guard-gun ashore, that they spent a great while in getting it into the boat, so that I was afraid the enemy would attack us before our people could get on board. The Spaniard was, however, in no hurry, thinking, no doubt, that we could not well escape him, yet was within pistol-shot of us before the last of our men got on board, being about fifty in all. We now cut our cable, but our ship fell round the wrong way, so that I had just room enough to fall clear of the enemy. Being now close together, the formidable appearance of the enemy struck an universal damp on the spirits of my people; some of whom, in coming off from the shore, were for jumping into the water and swimming on shore, which a few actually did.
The enemy was a fine European-built ship, of 50 guns, and the disproportion was so great between us, that there seemed no hopes of escaping, as we were under his lee. I endeavoured to get into shoal water, but he becalmed me with his sails, and confined us for the best part of an hour, during which he handled us very roughly with his cannon, making very little use of his small-arms, never allowing us a moment's ease, but as soon as his broadside was ready, he gave his ship the starboard helm, bringing as many of his guns to bear as possible, and at the same time kept me from the wind. We returned his fire as briskly as we could; but, in our precipitate retreat from the town, most of our small arms were wetted, so that it was long before they were of any use. During this action, there was a strange contusion on shore, where the people had flocked down from the hills to extinguish the fire in Payta, in which some of them were busily employed, while others stood on the shore, spectators of our engagement. I was long in despair of getting away from the Spaniard, expecting nothing less than to be torn in pieces by his superior fire, unless we could have an opportunity of trying our heels with him while our masts remained standing. I expected every minute that he would board us, and hearing a hallooing among them, and seeing their forecastle full of men, I concluded that they had come to this resolution; but soon saw that it proceeded from our ensign being shot down, on which I made another be displayed in the mizen-shrouds, on sight of which they lay snug as before, keeping close upon our quarter. Intending at length to do our business at once, they clapped their helm hard a-starboard, in order to bring their whole broadside to bear, but their fire had little effect, and it muzzled themselves, which gave us an opportunity to get away from them.
This certainly was a lucky escape, after an engagement of three glasses with an enemy so much our superior; for he had 56 guns and 450 men, while we had only 20 guns mounted and only 73 men, of whom 11 were negroes and two Indians. He had farther the vast advantage over us of being in perfect readiness, while we were in the utmost confusion; and in the middle of the engagement, a third of my people, instead of fighting, were hard at work in preparing for an obstinate resistance; particularly the carpenter and his crew, who were busy in making port-holes for stern-chase guns, which, as it happened, we made no use of. Yet were we not unhurt, as the loss of my boat and anchor were irreparable, and may be said to have been the cause of that scene of trouble which fell upon us soon after; as we had now only one anchor remaining, that lost at Payta being the third, and we had not now a boat of any kind. I have since learnt that some of our shots in the engagement were well directed, and that we killed and wounded several of the enemy.
Having thus got away from the Peregrine, I slipped off in the evening with much ado from the Brilliant, her consort, on board of which Betagh now was, and even desired to be the first to board me. I was now in a very uncomfortable situation, not having the smallest hope of meeting with the Success; and I had learned at Payta, that the Spaniards had laid on an embargo for six months, so that we had nothing to expect in the way of prizes; and, having seen our prize taken, we had reason to expect that all our designs were discovered by the enemy. Having now only one anchor and no boat, it is not to be wondered that I gave up all idea of making an attempt on Guayaquil, which I at first proposed, having intelligence that there were several ships of considerable value in that river, in consequence of the embargo, which might have done me some service, if I had been better provided. In this situation, it was resolved, in a committee of my officers, to return to the southwards, or to windward, as the Spaniards must necessarily continue their trade with Chili, in spite of their embargo; after which we proposed to water at Juan Fernandez, and then to cruize on the coast of Conception, Valparaiso, and Coquimbo, for the coasting traders, among whom we might supply ourselves with anchors, cables, and boats, and a vessel to fit out as a fire-ship. I also proposed, before leaving the coast of Chili, to make an attempt on La Serena or Coquimbo. After all this, I proposed to proceed for the coast of Mexico, and thence to the Tres Marias and California, as the most likely means of meeting with the Success; besides which, the former of these places might be commodious for salting turtle, to serve as sea stores, and the latter for laying in a stock of wood and water; after which we might lie in the track of the Manilla ship. But if we could not succeed in that attempt, we might then satisfy ourselves with cruizing for the Peruvian ships, which bring silver to Acapulco for purchasing the Indian and Chinese commodities.
My plan being approved, we proceeded to windward, having secured our masts and bent a new set of sails on the 26th, after which we stood to the southward, expecting to make our passage in about five weeks. The carpenters were now set to work to build a new boat that we might have the means of watering our ship. On the 31st, while working the pumps, the water not only came in in greater quantity than usual, but was as black as ink, which made me suspect some water had got at our powder; and on going into the powder-room, I found the water rushing in like a little sluice, which had already spoiled the greatest part of our powder, only six barrels remaining uninjured, which I immediately had stowed away in the bread-room. It pleased God that we now had fair weather, as otherwise we might have had much difficulty to keep our ship afloat. We found the leak on the larboard side, under the lower cheek of the head, where a shot had lodged and afterwards dropt out, leaving room for a stream of water. We accordingly brought down our ship by the stern, and secured the leak effectually. At this time we had an abundant stock of provisions. Each man had a quart of chocolate and three ounces of rusk for breakfast; and had fresh meat or fresh fish every day for dinner, having plenty of the latter about the ship, so that we could almost always make our choice between dolphin and albicore.
On the 6th May we made the westermost of the islands of Juan Fernandez, otherwise called Mas a Fuero, distant twelve leagues N.E. by N. and the day after, our carpenters had completed our new boat, which could carry three hogsheads. On the 12th we saw the great island of Juan Fernandez, bearing E. 1/2 S. being in latitude, by observation, 33° 40' S. a joyful sight at the time, though so unfortunate to us in the sequel. We plied off and on till the 21st, but could not get as much water on board daily in that time as supplied our daily expenditure, owing to the smallness of our boat, which made it necessary for us to anchor in the roads till that purpose was accomplished, in order for which I prepared to raft twenty tons of casks on shore. We worked in and anchored in forty fathoms, carrying a warp on shore, which we fastened to the rocks, of three hawsers and a half in length, which both steadied the ship, and enabled us to haul our cask-raft ashore and aboard. By this means we were ready to go to sea again next morning, having filled all our water casks; but had no opportunity of so doing for four days, during which we continued to anchor in the same manner.
On the 25th May, a hard gale came upon us from seaward, bringing with it a great tumbling swell, by which at length our cable parted. This was a dismal accident, as we had no means whatever by which to avoid the prospect of immediate destruction. But Providence interposed in our behalf: For had we struck only a cable's length to the east or west of where we did, we must all have inevitably perished. When our ill-fated ship touched the rock, we had all to hold fast by some part of the ship or rigging, otherwise the violence of her shock in striking must have tossed us all into the sea. Our three masts went all away together by the board. In short, words are wanting to express the wretched condition in which we now were, or our astonishment at our unexpected and unfortunate shipwreck.