To balance this success, we found that the Tryal had sprung her main-mast, and that her main-top-mast had come by the board; and next morning, as we were all standing to the eastward in a fresh gale at S. she had the additional misfortune to spring her fore-mast, so that now she had not a mast left on which she could carry sail. These unhappy circumstances were still further aggravated, by the impossibility of our being then able to assist her, for the wind blew so hard, and raised such a hollow sea, that we could not venture to hoist out a boat, and consequently could not have any communication with her; so that we were obliged to lie-to for the greatest part of forty-eight hours to attend upon her, as we could not possibly leave her in such a condition of distress. It was no small addition to our misfortunes, on this occasion, that we were all the while driving to leeward of our intended station, and at the very time, when, by our intelligence, we had reason to expect several of the enemy's ships would appear on the coast, and would now get into the port of Valparaiso unobstructed; and, I am convinced, the embarrassment we suffered by the dismasting of the Tryal and our consequent absence from our intended station, deprived, us of some very considerable captures.
The weather proved somewhat more moderate on the 27th, when we sent our boat for Captain Saunders, who came on board the Centurion, where he produced an instrument, signed by himself and all his officers, representing that the Tryal, besides being dismasted, was so very leaky in her hull, that it was necessary to ply the pumps continually, even in moderate weather, and that they were then scarcely able to keep her free; insomuch that, in the late gale, though all the officers even had been engaged in turns at the pumps, yet the water had increased upon them; and that, on the whole, they apprehended her present condition to be so defective, that they must all inevitably perish if they met with much bad weather: For all which reasons, he petitioned the commodore to take measures for their safety. The refittal of the Tryal, and the repair of her defects, were utterly beyond our power on the present conjuncture, for we had no masts to spare, no stores to complete her rigging, and no port in which she could be hove down, to examine and repair her bottom. Even had we possessed a port, and proper requisites for the purpose it would yet have been extremely imprudent, in so critical a conjuncture to have loitered away so much time as would have been necessary for these operations. The commodore, therefore, had no choice left, but was under the necessity of taking out her people and destroying her. Yet, as he conceived it expedient to keep up the appearance of our force, he appointed the Tryal's prize, which had often been employed by the viceroy of Peru as a man-of-war, to be a frigate in his majesty's service, manning her with the crew of the Tryal, and giving commissions to the captain and all the inferior officers accordingly. This new frigate, when in the Spanish service, had mounted thirty-two guns; but she was now to have only twenty, which were the twelve that belonged to the Tryal and eight that had been on board the Anna pink.
This affair being resolved on, the commodore gave orders to Captain Saunders to carry it into execution, directing him to take all the arms, stores, ammunition, and every thing else that could be of use from the sloop, and then to scuttle and sink her. After all this was done, Captain Saunders was to proceed with his new frigate, now called the Tryal's prize, to cruise off the high-land of Valparaiso, keeping it from him N.N.W. at the distance of twelve or fourteen leagues: for, as all ships from Valparaiso bound to the northward, steer that course, the commodore proposed, by this means, to stop any intelligence that might be dispatched to Callao, of two of their ships being amissing, which might give them apprehensions of the English squadron being in their neighbourhood. The Tryal's prize was to continue on this station for twenty-four days, and, if not joined by the commodore before the expiration of that time, was then to proceed along the coast to Pisco, or Nasca, where she would be certain to find the Centurion. The commodore also ordered Lieutenant Saumarez, who commanded the Centurion's prize, to keep company with Captain Saunders, both to assist in unloading the Tryal, and that, by spreading in their cruise off Valparaiso, there might be less danger of any ships of the enemy slipping past unobserved. These orders being dispatched, the Centurion parted from the other vessels at eleven at night of the 27th September, directing her course towards Valparaiso, with the view of cruising for some days to windward of that port. By this distribution of our ships, we flattered ourselves that we had taken all the advantages we possibly could of the enemy with our small force, as our disposition was certainly the most prudent that could be devised: For, as we might suppose the Gloucester to be now drawing nigh the high-land of Payta, we were thus enabled, by our separate stations, to intercept all vessels employed either between Peru and Chili to the southward, or between Panama and Peru to the northward, since the principal trade from Peru to Chili being carried on with the port of Valparaiso, the Centurion, cruising to windward of that port, would probably meet with them, as it is the constant practice of these ships to fall in with land to windward of that place. The Gloucester, also, would be in the way of all ships bound from Panama, or any other place to the northward, to any port in Peru, since the highland, off which she was ordered to cruise, is constantly made by every ship on that voyage. While the Centurion and Gloucester were thus conveniently situated for intercepting the trade of the enemy, the Tryal's prize, and Centurion's prize, were as conveniently stationed for preventing the communication of intelligence, by intercepting all vessels bound from Valparaiso to the northward; as by such vessels it was to be feared that some account of us might be transmitted to Peru.
But the most judicious dispositions only produce a probability of success, and cannot command certainty; since those chances, which may reasonably enough be overlooked in deliberation, are sometimes of most powerful influence in execution. Thus, in the present instance, the distress of the Tryal, and our necessary quitting our station to assist her, which were events that no degree of prudence could either foresee or obviate, gave an opportunity to all the ships bound for Valparaiso to reach that port without molestation during this unlucky interval: so that, after leaving Captain Saunders, we used every expedition in regaining our station, which we reached on the 29th at noon; yet, in plying on and off till the 6th of October, we had not the good fortune to fall in with a sail of any sort. Having lost all hope of meeting with any better fortune by longer stay, we then made sail to leeward of the port, in order to rejoin our prizes; but when we arrived off the high-land, where they were directed to cruise, we did not find them, though we continued there three or four days. It was supposed, therefore, that some chase had occasioned them to quit their station, wherefore we proceeded to the northward to the high-land of Nasca, in lat. 15° 20' S. being the second rendezvous appointed for Captain Saunders to join us. We got there on the 21st of October, and were in great expectation of falling in with some of the enemy's vessels, as both the accounts of former voyagers, and the information of our prisoners, assured us, that all ships bound to Callao consequently make this land to prevent the danger of falling to leeward of the port.
Notwithstanding the advantages of this station, we saw no sail whatever till the 2d November, when two ships appeared together, to which we immediately gave chase, and soon perceived that they were the Tryal's and Centurion's prizes. As they were to windward, we brought to and waited their coming up; when Captain Saunders came on board the Centurion, and acquainted the commodore that he had cleared and scuttled the Tryal according to his orders, and remained by her till she sunk. It was, however, the 4th of October before this could be effected; for there ran so large and hollow a sea that the sloop, having neither masts nor sails to steady her, rolled and pitched so violently, that, for the greatest part of the time, it was impossible for a boat to lie alongside of her; and, during this attendance on the sloop, they were all driven so far to the N.W. that they were afterwards obliged to stretch a long way to the westward, in order to regain the ground they had lost, which was the reason we had not met them on their station. They had met with no better fortune on their cruise than ourselves, never having seen a single vessel since we left them.
This want of success, and our certainty if any ships had been stirring in these seas for some time past, that we must have fallen in with them, made us believe that the enemy at Valparaiso, on missing the two ships we had taken, had suspected us to be in these seas, and had consequently laid an embargo on all trade in the southern parts. We likewise apprehended they might, by this time, be fitting out the ships of war at Callao; as we knew that it was not uncommon for an express to reach Lima from Valparaiso in twenty-nine or thirty days, and it was now more than fifty since we had taken the first prize. These apprehensions of an embargo on the coast, and of the equipment of the Spanish squadron at Callao, determined the commodore to hasten down to the leeward of Callao, to join the Gloucester as soon as possible off Payta, that, our strength being united, we might be prepared to give the ships from Callao a warm reception, if they dared to put to sea. With this view we bore away that same afternoon, taking particular care to keep at such a distance from the shore that there might be no danger of our being discovered from thence; for we knew that all the ships of that country were commanded, under the severest penalties, not to sail past the harbour of Callao without stopping: as this order is always complied with, we should undoubtedly be known for enemies if we were seen to act contrary to that regulation. In this new navigation, being uncertain if we might not meet the Spanish squadron on the way, the commodore took back a part of the crew of the Centurion which had been for some time on board the Carmelo.
While standing to the northward, we had sight of the small island of St Gallan[1] before night, bearing from us N. N.E. 1/2 E. about seven leagues distant. This island lies in about the latitude of 14° S. and about five miles to the northward of a high-land called Morro Viejo, or the Old-man's Head, which island and high-land near it are here more particularly mentioned, because between them is perhaps the most eligible station on all this coast for cruising against the enemy, as hereabouts all ships bound for Callao, whether from the northward or southward, run well in with the land. By the 5th November, at 3 p.m. we were within sight of the high-land of Barranca, in lat. 10° 36' S. bearing from us N.E. by E. eight or nine leagues distant; and an hour and a half afterwards we had the satisfaction, so long wished for, of seeing a sail. She appeared to leeward, and we all immediately gave chase; but the Centurion so much outsailed the two prizes that we soon ran them both out of sight, and gained considerably upon the chase. Night, however, came on before we could make up with her, and about seven o'clock the darkness concealed her from our view, and we were in some perplexity what course to steer; but our commodore resolved, being then before the wind, to keep all his sails set and not to change his course: For, although there was no doubt the chase would alter her course in the night, as it was quite uncertain what tack she might go upon, he thought it more prudent to continue the same course, rather than change it on conjecture, as, should we mistake, she would certainly get away. Continuing the chase about an hour and a half after dark, one or other of our people constantly believing they saw her sails right a-head of us, our second lieutenant, Mr Brett, at length actually discovered her about four points on the larboard bow, steering off to seawards, on which we immediately clapped the helm a-weather, standing right towards her, and came up with her in less than an hour, and, having fired fourteen shots at her, she struck. Mr Dennis, our third lieutenant, was sent in the boat with sixteen men to take possession of the prize, and to shift the prisoners to our ship.
This vessel was named the Santa Teresa de Jesus, built at Guayaquil, of about 300 tons burden, commanded by Bartolome Urrunaga, a Biscayan. She was bound from Guayaquil to Callao, her loading consisting of timber, cocoa, cocoa-nuts, tobacco, hides, Pito thread, (which is made of a kind of grass and is very strong,) Quito cloth, wax, and various other articles; but the specie on board was very inconsiderable, being principally small silver coin, not exceeding 170l. sterling in value. Her cargo, indeed, was of great value, if we could have sold it; but the Spaniards have strict orders never to ransom their ships, so that all the goods we captured in the South Seas, except what little we had occasion for ourselves, were of no advantage to us; yet it was some satisfaction to consider, that it was so much real loss to the enemy, and that despoiling them was no contemptible part of the service in which we were employed, and was so far beneficial to our country. Besides her crew of forty-five hands, she had on board ten passengers, consisting of four men and three women, who were natives of the country, but born of Spanish parents, together with three negro slaves who attended them. The women were a mother and two daughters, the elder about twenty-one, and the younger about fourteen. It is not to be wondered that women of these years should be excessively alarmed at falling into the hands of an enemy whom they had been taught to consider as the most lawless and brutal of all mankind, owing to the former excesses of the buccaneers, and by the artful insinuations of their priests. In the present instance these apprehensions were much augmented by the singular beauty of the youngest of the women, and the riotous disposition they might naturally enough expect to find in a set of sailors who had not seen a woman for near a twelvemonth.
Full of these terrors, the women all hid themselves on the lieutenant coming on board, and, when found out, it was with difficulty he could persuade them to come to the light. But he soon satisfied them, by the humanity of his conduct, and by his assurances of their future safety and honourable treatment, that they had nothing to fear. The commodore, also, being informed of their fears, sent directions that they should continue in their own ship, with the use of the same apartments and all other conveniences they had before enjoyed, giving strict orders that they should experience no inquietude or molestation; and, that they might be the more certain of having these orders complied with, or having the means of complaining if they were not, the commodore appointed the pilot, who is generally the second person in Spanish ships, to remain with them as their guardian and protector. He was particularly chosen on this occasion, as he seemed extremely interested in all that concerned these women, and had at first declared that he was married to the youngest; though it afterwards appeared that he had asserted this merely with the view of securing them from the insults they dreaded on falling into our hands. By this compassionate and indulgent behaviour of the commodore, the consternation of our female prisoners entirety subsided, and they continued easy and cheerful during the time they were with us.
I have before mentioned that the Centurion ran her two consorts out of sight at the commencement of this chase, on which account we lay to for them all the night after we had taken the prize, firing guns and shewing false fires every half hour, to prevent them from passing us unobserved. But they were so far astern, that they neither heard nor saw any of our signals, and were not able to come up with us till broad day. When they had joined, we proceeded together to the northward, being now four sail in company. We here found the sea for many miles of a beautiful red colour, owing, as we found upon examination, to an immense quantity of spawn floating on its surface: For, taking some of the water in a glass, it soon changed from a dirty aspect to be perfectly clear, with some red globules of a slimy nature floating on the top. Having now a supply of timber in our new prize, the commodore ordered all our boats to be repaired, and a swivel-stock to be fitted in the bow of the barge and pinnace, in order to increase their force, in case we should have occasion to use them in boarding ships, or making any attempt on shore.