Capture of Payta, and Proceedings at that Place.
The town of Payta is in lat 50° 12' S. [long. 81° 15' W.] being situated in a most barren soil, composed only of sand and slate. It is of small extent, being about 275 yards in length along the shore of the bay, and 130 yards in breadth, containing less than two hundred families. The houses are only ground floors, their walls composed of split canes and mud, and the roofs thatched with leaves. Though thus extremely slight, these edifices are abundantly sufficient for a climate where rain is considered as a prodigy, and is not seen in many years: Insomuch that, a small quantity of rain falling in the year 1728, is said to have ruined a great number of buildings, which mouldered away, and melted as it were before it. The inhabitants are chiefly Indians and black slaves, or of mixed breed, the whites being very few. The port of Payta, though little more than a bay, is reckoned the best on this coast, and is indeed a very secure and commodious anchorage, and is frequented by all vessels coming from the north, as here only the ships from Acapulco, Sonsonnate, Realejo, and Panama, can touch and refresh in their passage to Callao; and the length of these voyages, the wind for the greatest part of the year being full against them, renders it indispensably necessary for them to call in here for a recruit of fresh water. Payta itself, however, is situated in so parched a spot, that it does not furnish a drop of fresh water, neither any kind of vegetables or other provisions, except fish and a few goats. But, from an Indian town named Colan, two or three leagues to the northward, water, maize, vegetables, fowls, and other provisions, are conveyed to Payta on balsas or floats, for the supply of ships which touch there; and cattle are sometimes brought from Piura, a town about thirty miles up the country. The water brought from Colan is whitish and of a disagreeable appearance, but is said to be very wholesome; for it is pretended by the inhabitants that it runs through large tracks overgrown with sarsaparilla, with which it is sensibly impregnated. Besides furnishing the trading ships bound from the north for Callao with water and other necessary refreshments this port of Payta is the usual place where passengers from Acapulco and Panama, bound to Lima, disembark; as the voyage from hence to Callao, the port of Lima, is two hundred leagues, and is extremely tedious and fatiguing, owing to the wind being almost always contrary; whereas there is a tolerably good road by land, running nearly parallel to the coast, with many stations and villages for the accommodation of travellers.
Payta is merely an open town, unprovided with any defence, except a small fort or redoubt near the shore of the bay. It was of much consequence to us to be well informed of the fabric and strength of this fort; which, we learnt from our prisoners, had eight pieces of cannon, but neither ditch nor outwork, being merely surrounded by a plain brick wall; and that the garrison consisted of one weak company, though the town might possibly be able to arm three hundred men. Having informed himself of the strength of the place, the commodore determined upon making an attempt for its capture that very night, the 12th November. We were then about twelve leagues from shore; a sufficient distance to prevent being discovered, yet not so far but that, by making all the sail we could carry; we might arrive in the bay long before day-break. The commodore considered, however, that this would be an improper manner of proceeding, as our ships, being large bodies, might easily be seen at a distance, even in the night, and might alarm the inhabitants, so as to give them an opportunity of removing their most valuable effects. He resolved therefore, as the strength of the place did not require the employment of our whole force, to make the attempt with the boats only, ordering our eighteen-oared barge, with our own and the Tryal's pinnaces, on this service. Fifty-eight men, well furnished with arms and ammunition, were picked out to man them, and the command of the expedition was entrusted to Lieutenant Brett, to whom the commodore gave the necessary orders and instructions.
The better to prevent the disappointment and confusion which might arise in the darkness of the night, and from the ignorance of our people of the streets and passages of the place, two of the Spanish pilots were appointed to attend Mr Brett, to conduct him to the most convenient landing-place, and afterwards to be his guides on shore. Likewise, that we might have the greater security for their fidelity on this occasion, the commodore publicly assured all our prisoners, that they should be set on shore and released at this place, provided the pilots acted faithfully: But, in case of any misconduct or treachery, the pilots were threatened with being instantly shot, and all the rest were assured of being carried prisoners to England. Thus the prisoners were themselves interested in our success, and we had no reason to suspect our guides of negligence or perfidy. It is worthy of remark, on this occasion, as a singular circumstance, that one of these pilots, as we afterwards learnt, had been taken by Captain Clipperton above twenty years before, and had then been obliged to guide Captain Clipperton and his people to the surprizal of Truxillo, a town to the southward of Payta; where, however, he contrived to alarm and save his countrymen, though the place was carried and pillaged. It is certainly an extraordinary incident, that the only two attempts on shore, and at so long an interval, should have been guided by the same person, a prisoner both times, and forced upon, the service contrary to his inclination.
During our preparation, the ships continued to stand for the port with all the sail they could carry, secure that we were still at too great a distance to be seen. About ten at night, being then within five leagues of Payta, Lieutenant Brett put off with the boats under his command, and arrived at the mouth of the bay undiscovered. He had no sooner entered the bay, than some of the people in a ship riding there at anchor perceived him, and getting instantly into their boat, rowed towards the fort, shouting and crying, The English! the English dogs! By this the whole town was suddenly alarmed, and our people soon observed several lights hurrying backwards and forwards in the fort, and other indications of the inhabitants being all in motion. On this, Mr Brett encouraged his men to pull briskly, that they might give the enemy as little time as possible to prepare for defence. Yet, before our boats could reach the shore, the people in the fort had got some of their cannons ready, and pointed them towards the landing-place; and though, in the darkness of the night, chance may be supposed to have had a greater share in their direction than skill, yet the first shot passed extremely near one of our boats, whistling just over the heads of the crew. This made our people redouble their efforts, so that they had reached the shore, and were in part landed, by the time the second shot was fired.
As soon as our men were landed, they were conducted by one of the pilots to the entrance of a narrow street, not above fifty yards from the beach, where they were covered from the fire of the fort; and being here formed as well as the shortness of the time would allow, they marched immediately for the parade, a large square at the other end of this street, on one side of which stood the fort, while the governor's house formed another side of the same square. In this march, though performed with tolerable regularity, the shouts and clamours of nearly threescore sailors, who had been so long confined on ship board, and who were now for the first time on shore of an enemy's country, joyous as seamen always are when they land, and animated on the present occasion with the hopes of immense pillage, joined with the noise of their drums, and favoured by the night, had augmented their numbers, in the opinion of the astonished enemy, to at least three hundred; by which estimation, the inhabitants were so greatly intimidated, that they were infinitely more solicitous about the means of flight than of resistance. Hence, though upon entering the parade, our people received a volley from the merchants to whom the treasure then in the town belonged, who were ranged in a gallery that went round the governor's house, yet that post was immediately abandoned on the first fire made by our people, who were thereby left in quiet possession of the parade.
Mr Brett now divided his men into two parties, ordering one of them to surround the governor's house, and if possible to secure the governor, while he went himself at the head of the other party, with the intention of forcing possession of the fort. But the enemy abandoned it on his approach, making their escape over the walls, and he entered it without opposition. Thus the place was mastered in less than a quarter of an hour after landing, and with no other loss on our side than one man killed and two wounded. One of these was the Spanish pilot of the Teresa, who received a slight bruise by a ball, which grazed his wrist. The honourable Mr Keppell, son to the Earl of Albemarle, had on this occasion a narrow escape. He wore a jockey-cap, one side of the peak of which was shaved off by a ball, close to his temple, yet did him no other injury.
Having thus far happily succeeded, Mr Brett placed a guard at the fort, and another in the governor's house, and fixed centinels at all the avenues of the town, both to prevent any surprise from the enemy, and to secure the effects in the place from being embezzled. His next care was to seize upon the custom-house, in which the treasure was lodged, and to examine if any of the inhabitants remained in the town, that he might know what farther precautions were necessary. He soon found that the numbers remaining were no ways formidable; for by far the greatest part of them, being in bed when the place was surprised, had run away with so much precipitation, that they had not taken time to put on their clothes. The governor was not the last to secure himself in this general rout; for he fled betimes half-naked, leaving his wife behind, a young lady of about seventeen, to whom he had only been married three or four days; yet she also was carried off half-naked, by a couple of centinels, just as our detachment, ordered to invest the house, arrived for that purpose. This escape of the governor was an unpleasant circumstance, as the commodore had particularly recommended to Mr Brett to secure him if possible, as by that means he might have treated for the ransom of the place; but his alacrity in flight rendered this impracticable. The few inhabitants who remained were confined in one of the churches under a guard, except some stout negroes, who were employed the remaining part of the night in carrying the treasure, from the custom-house and other places, to the fort, each party of them being attended by a file of musketeers. This transportation of the treasure was the chief employment of Mr Brett's people after getting possession of the place; yet the sailors, while thus busied, could not be prevented from entering the houses in their way, in search of private pillage; when the first things that occurred to them, were the clothes left by the Spaniards, and which were mostly embroidered or laced, according to the fashion of the country. Our people eagerly seized these glittering dresses, and put them on over their own dirty trowsers and jackets, not forgetting the tye or bag-wigs, and laced hats, which were generally found along with the clothes. When this had once begun, there was no possibility of preventing the whole detachment from imitating the example; but those who came latest into the fashion, not finding men's clothes sufficient to equip them, were forced to take up with women's gowns and petticoats, which, provided these were fine enough, they made no scruple of putting on and blending with their own greasy dress: So that, when a party of them first made they appearance in that guise before Mr Brett, he was extremely surprised at their grotesque exhibition, and could hardly believe they were his own men.
While these transactions were going on at Payta, we lay-to till one in the morning, from the time when our boats pushed off; and then, supposing the detachment to be near landing, we went on under easy sail for the bay. This we began to open about seven a.m. of the 13th, and soon after had a view of the town. Though we had no reason to doubt the success of the enterprise, yet we saw with much joy an infallible sign of its being effected, as, by means of our telescope, we could see the English flag hoisted on the flag-staff of the fort. We plied into the bay with as much expedition as the wind, which then blew from the shore, would, allow; and at eleven a.m. the Tryal's pinnace came on board us, laden with dollars and church plate, when the officer who commanded her gave an account of the transactions of the preceding night. About two p.m. we anchored in ten and a half fathoms, about a mile and half from the town, and were consequently near enough to have direct intercourse; with the shore.