Mr Brett had hitherto gone on, collecting and removing the treasure, without interruption; but the enemy had now rendezvoused from all parts of the country, on a hill at the back of the town, where they made no inconsiderable appearance; as, among the rest of their force, there were two hundred horse, seemingly well armed and mounted, and, as we conceived, properly trained and regimented, as they were furnished with trumpets, drums, and standards. These troops paraded about the hill with much ostentation, sounding their military music; and, as our small force on shore was by this time known to them, practising every art to intimidate us, in hopes we might be induced, by our fears of them, to abandon the place before completing its pillage. We were not, however so ignorant as to believe that this body of horse, which seemed to be what they chiefly depended on, would dare to venture themselves among the streets and houses, even had they been three times more numerous; and we went on calmly, as long as day-light lasted, in sending off the treasure, and carrying on board refreshments, such as hogs, poultry, and the like, which we found in great abundance. At night, to prevent surprise, the commodore sent a reinforcement on shore, who were posted in all the avenues leading to the parade; and, for farther security, all the streets were traversed with barricades six feet high. But the enemy continued quiet all night, and at day-break we resumed our labour, in loading and sending off the boats.
We were now thoroughly convinced of what consequence it would have been, had fortune seconded the prudent views of the commodore, by enabling us to have secured the governor. For we found many warehouses full of valuable effects, which were quite useless to us in our present circumstances, as we could not find room for them on board. But, had the governor been in our power, he would have treated, in all probability, for the ransom of this merchandize, which would have been extremely advantageous, both for him and us. Whereas, he being at liberty, and having collected all the force of the country for many leagues around, and having even got a body of militia from Piura, he was so elated by his numbers, and so fond of his new military command, that he did not seem to care about the fate of his government. Insomuch that, although our commodore sent several messages to him, by some of the inhabitants who were made prisoners, offering to enter into treaty for the ransom of the town and goods, even giving an intimation that we should be far from insisting on a rigorous equivalent, and might perhaps be satisfied with some live cattle and other necessaries for the use of the squadron, yet the governor despised all these reiterated overtures, and did not deign to give the slightest answer, though repeatedly threatened, if he would not condescend to treat, that we would set the town and all the warehouses on fire.
On the second day of our possessing the place, several negro slaves deserted from the enemy on the hill, and voluntarily entered into our service, one of them being well known to a gentleman on board, who remembered to have seen him formerly at Panama. We now learnt that the Spaniards, without the town, were in extreme distress for water; for many of their slaves crept into town by stealth, and carried away several jars of water to their masters on the hill; and, though some of these were seized in the attempt, yet their thirst was so pressing, that they continued the practice as long as we remained in possession of the place. In the course of this second day, we were assured, both by deserters and prisoners, that the Spaniards were now increased to a formidable number, and had resolved to storm the town and fort next night, under the command of one Gordon, a Scots papist, and captain of a ship in these seas. We continued, however, to prosecute our work, without hurry, loading and sending off the boats as long as we had light; and at night, a reinforcement was again sent on shore by the commodore, and Mr Brett doubled his guards at all the barricades, all his posts being connected, by means of centinels placed within call of each other, and the whole visited by frequent rounds, attended by a drum. These marks of our vigilance and readiness to receive the enemy, which they could not be ignorant of, cooled their resolution, and made them forget the vaunts of the preceding day; so that we passed this second night with as little molestation as we had done the first.
We had finished sending the treasure on board the evening before, so that the third morning, being the 15th of November, the boats were employed in carrying off the most valuable part of the effects from the town. As the commodore proposed to sail in the afternoon, he this day about ten o'clock, pursuant to his promise, sent all his prisoners on shore, to the number of eighty-eight, giving orders to Lieutenant Brett to have them secured in one of the churches under a strict guard, till he and his men were ready to embark. Mr Brett was also ordered to set the whole town on fire, except the two churches, which fortunately stood at some distance from the houses, after which he was to abandon the place and return on board. Mr Brett punctually complied with these orders, and immediately distributed pitch, tar, and other combustibles, of which there was great abundance to be had, into various houses in the several streets of the town, so that as the place was to be fired in many different quarters at the same time, the destruction might be the more violent and sudden, and the enemy might not be able to extinguish it after his departure. All these preparations being made, Mr Brett made the cannon in the fort be spiked; and setting fire to the houses most to windward, he collected his men and marched them to the beach, where the boats waited to take them off.
As that part of the beach where he intended to embark was an open place without the town, near the churches, his retreat was perceived by the Spaniards on the hill, on which they resolved to endeavour to precipitate his departure, in order to have a pretext for future boasting. For this purpose, a small squadron of their horse, consisting of about sixty, selected probably for this service, marched down the hill with much seeming resolution, as if they had proposed to have charged our men now on the open beach without any advantage or situation. But no sooner did Mr Brett halt his men and face about, than they stopped their career, and did not venture to advance any farther. On arriving at the boats, and being quite ready to embark, our people were detained some time by missing one of their number; and, after some considerable delay, being unable to learn where he was left, or by what accident he was detained, they resolved to depart without him. Just when the last man was embarked, and the boats were going to shove off they heard him calling to be taken in; at which time the town was so thoroughly on fire, and the smoke so covered the beach, that they could hardly discern him, though he was quite well heard. Mr Brett, however, instantly ordered one of the boats to his relief, which found him up to the chin in the water, for he had waded as far as he durst, being extremely terrified at the idea of falling into the hands of the enemy, enraged as they doubtless were at the pillage and destruction of their town. On enquiring into the cause of his staying behind the rest, he acknowledged having taken too large a dose of brandy, which had thrown him into so profound a sleep that he did not wake till the fire began to scorch him. At first opening his eyes, he was amazed to see all the houses in a blaze on one side, and several Spaniards and Indians not far from him on the other. The great and sudden terror instantly restored him to sobriety, and gave him sufficient presence of mind to push through the thickest of the smoke, as the most likely means of escaping from the enemy; and, making the best of his way to the beach, he ran into the water as far as he durst, for he could not swim, before he ventured to look back.
It was certainly much to the honour of our people, that though there were great quantities of wine and spirits found in the town, yet this was the only one who was known to have so far neglected his duty as to get drunk: indeed, their whole behaviour, while on shore, was greatly more regular than could well have been expected, from sailors who had been so long confined on board ship; and, though much of this good conduct must doubtless be imputed to the diligence of the officers, and to the excellent discipline they had been constantly inured to under the commodore, it was certainly not a little to the reputation of the men, that they should so generally have refrained from indulging in these intoxicating liquors, which they found in abundance in every warehouse.
There was another singular incident occurred here which merits being recorded. An Englishman, who had formerly wrought as a ship-carpenter in Portsmouth yard, had left his country and entered into the Spanish service, and was at this time employed by them at the port of Guayaquil; and, as it was well known to his friends in England that he was in that part of the world, they had put letters for him on board the Centurion. This man happened at the present time to be among the Spaniards who had retired to the hill of Payta; and ambitious, as it would seem, of acquiring reputation among his new masters, he came down unarmed to one of our centinels, who was posted at some distance from the fort towards the enemy, pretending that he was desirous of surrendering himself and returning to the service of his country. Our centinel had a cocked pistol in his hand, but, deceived by the fair speeches of the carpenter, he allowed him very imprudently to come much too near him, so that, watching his opportunity, the carpenter wrenched the pistol from his hand, and ran away with it up the hill. By this time two others of our men, who had seen the carpenter advance, and suspected his intentions, were making towards him, and now pursued him, but he got up the hill before they could reach him, and then turned round and fired the pistol. His pursuers immediately returned the fire, though at a great distance, and the crest of the hill covered him as soon as they had fired, so that they took it for granted they had missed him: yet we afterwards learnt that he was shot through the body, and had fallen dead the very next step he took after firing his pistol and getting out of sight. The centinel, too, whom he had so grossly imposed upon, did not escape unpunished; as he was ordered to be severely whipt, for allowing himself to be so shamefully surprised on his post, and giving an example of carelessness, which, if followed in other instances, might have proved fatal to us all.
By the time our people had taken their comrade out of the water, and were making the best of their way to the squadron, the flames had got possession of every part of the town with so powerful a hold, by means of the combustibles laid for the purpose, and by the slightness of the materials of the houses, and their aptitude to take fire, that it was now quite apparent no efforts of the enemy, who now flocked down in great numbers, could possibly stop its ravages, or prevent the entire destruction of the place and all the merchandize it contained. Our detachment under Lieutenant Brett safely joined the squadron, and the commodore prepared to leave the bay that same evening. On our first arrival there were six vessels belonging to the enemy at anchor, one of which was the ship, that was to have sailed with the treasure to the coast of Mexico; and, as she was supposed to be a good sailer, the commodore resolved to take her along with us. The others were two snows, a bark, and two row gallies of thirty-six oars each. These last, as we afterwards learnt, with many others of the same kind built at different ports, were intended to prevent us from landing in the neighbourhood of Callao; as the Spaniards, on the first intelligence of our squadron being destined for the South seas, and learning its force, expected that we would attempt the city of Lima. Having no occasion for these five vessels, the commodore ordered all their masts to be cut by the board at our first arrival; and on leaving the place, they were all towed out into deep water, scuttled, and sunk. The command of the remaining ship, called the Solidad, was given to Mr Hughes, lieutenant of the Tryal, with a crew of ten men. Towards midnight the squadron weighed anchor and sailed out of the bay, now consisting of six ships, the Centurion, Tryal's prize, Carmelo, Teresa, Carmin, and Solidad.
Before proceeding to narrate our subsequent transactions, it may be proper to give a succinct account of the booty we acquired at Payta, and the losses there sustained by the Spaniards. It has been already observed, that there were great quantities of valuable effects at this place, but most of them were of a nature that we could neither dispose of nor carry away, and their value, therefore, can only be guessed at. In their representations to the court of Madrid, as we were afterward assured, the Spaniards estimated their loss at a million and a half of dollars; and as no small portion of the goods we there burnt were of the richest and most expensive kinds, as broad cloths, silks, cambrics, velvets, and the like, perhaps that valuation might be sufficiently moderate. The acquisition we made, though inconsiderable in comparison to what we destroyed, was yet far from despicable, as, in wrought plate, dollars, and other coin, there was to the value of more than 30,000l. sterling, besides several rings, bracelets, and other jewels, the value of which could not then be ascertained; and besides the very great plunder which became the property of the immediate captors.
It has been already observed, that all the prisoners we had taken in our preceding prizes were here discharged. Among these were some persons of considerable distinction, one of them a youth of seventeen, son to the vice-president of Chili. As the barbarity of the buccaneers, and the artful uses the Spanish ecclesiastics had made of that circumstance, had filled the natives of these countries with the most horrible notions of the English cruelty, we always found our prisoners, on first coming aboard, extremely dejected, and under great horror and anxiety. This youth particularly, having never been before from home, lamented his captivity in the most moving terms, regretting the loss of his parents, his brothers, his sisters, and his native country; all of which he believed he should never see more, conceiving that he was devoted for the remainder of his life to an abject and cruel servitude. Indeed, all the Spaniards who came into our power, seemed to entertain similarly desponding notions of their condition. The commodore constantly exerted his utmost endeavours to efface these terrifying impressions, always having as many of the principal people among them as there was room for to dine at his table; and giving strict charges that they should at all times, and in every circumstance, be treated with the utmost decency and humanity. In spite of this precaution, they hardly ever parted with their fears for the first few days, suspecting the gentleness of their usage to be only preparatory to some after calamity; but at length, convinced of our sincerity, they grew perfectly easy and cheerful, so that it was often doubtful whether they considered their captivity as a misfortune. The before-mentioned youth, who was near two months on board the Centurion, had at last so completely conquered his original melancholy surmises, and had taken such an affection for the commodore, and seemed so much pleased with the manner of life on board, so different from all he had ever seen before, that I much question, if it had been in his choice, if he would not have preferred a voyage to England in the Centurion to going on shore at Payta, though he had here liberty of returning to his friends and country.