SECTION XXIII.
Account of Proceedings at Chequetan and on the adjacent Coast, till our setting sail for Asia.
The next morning, after our coming to an anchor in the harbour of Chequetan, we sent about ninety of our men well armed on shore, forty of whom were ordered to march into the country, as has been mentioned, and the remaining fifty were employed to cover the watering-place, and to prevent any interruption from the natives.
Here it was agreed, after mature consultation, to destroy the Tryal's prize, as well as the Carmelo and Carmin whose fate had been before resolved on. Indeed the ship was in good repair and fit for the sea; but as the whole numbers onboard our squadron did not amount to the complement of a fourth-rate man of war, we found it was impossible to divide them into three ships, without rendering them incapable of navigating in safety in the tempestuous weather we had reason to expect on the coast of China, where we supposed we should arrive about the time of the change of the monsoons.
During our stay here there happened an incident, which, as it proved the means of convincing our friends in England of our safety, which for some time they were in doubt about, I shall beg leave particularly to recite. I have observed, that from this harbour of Chequetan there was but one path-way which led through the woods into the country. This we found much beaten, and were thence convinced that it was well known to the inhabitants. As it passed by the spring-head, and was the only avenue by which the Spaniards could approach us, we, at some distance beyond the spring-head, felled several large trees, and laid them one upon the other across the path; and at this barricado we constantly kept a guard: And we besides ordered our men employed in watering to have their arms ready, and, in case of any alarm, to march instantly to this post. Though our principal intention was to prevent our being disturbed by any sudden attack of the enemy's horse, yet it answered another purpose, which was not in itself less important; this was to hinder our own people from straggling singly into the country, where we had reason to believe they would be surprised by the Spaniards, who would doubtless be extremely solicitous to pick up some of them, in hopes of getting intelligence of our future designs. To avoid this inconvenience, the strictest orders were given to the centinels, to let no person whatever pass beyond their post: But, notwithstanding this precaution, we missed one Lewis Leger, who was the commodore's cook; and as he was a Frenchman, and suspected to be a papist, it was by some imagined that he had deserted with a view of betraying all that he knew to the enemy; but this appeared by the event to be an ill-grounded surmise, for it was afterwards known that he had been taken by some Indians, who carried him prisoner to Acapulco, from whence he was transferred, to Mexico, and then to Vera Cruz, where he was shipped on board a vessel bound to Old Spain: And the vessel being obliged by some accident to put into Lisbon, Leger escaped on shore, and was by the British consul sent from thence to England; where he brought the first authentic account of the safety of the commodore, and of what he had done in the South Seas. The relation he gave of his own seizure was, that he had rambled into the woods at some distance from the barricade, where he had first attempted to pass, but had been stopped and threatened to be punished; that his principal view was to get a quantity of limes for his master's store; and that in this occupation he was surprised by four Indians, who stripped him naked, and carried him in that condition to Acapulco, exposed to the scorching heat of the sun, which at that time of the year shone with its greatest violence: And afterwards at Mexico his treatment in prison was sufficiently severe, and the whole course of his captivity was a continued instance of the hatred which the Spaniards bear to all those who endeavour to disturb them in the peaceable possession of the coasts of the South Seas. Indeed, Leger's fortune was upon the whole extremely singular; for after the hazards he had run in the commodore's squadron, and the severities he had suffered in his long confinement amongst the enemy, a more fatal disaster attended him on his return to England: For though, when he arrived in London, some of Mr Anson's friends interested themselves in relieving him from the poverty to which his captivity had reduced him, yet he did not long enjoy the benefit of their humanity, for he was killed in an insignificant night brawl, the cause of which could scarcely be discovered.
And here I must observe, that though the enemy never appeared in sight during our stay in this harbour; yet we perceived that there were large parties encamped in the woods about us; for we could see their smokes, and could thence determine that they were posted in a circular line surrounding us at a distance; and just before our coming away they seemed, by the increase of their fires, to have received a considerable reinforcement.
Towards the latter end of April, the unloading of our three prizes, our wooding and watering, and, in short, all our proposed employments at the harbour of Chequetan were completed: So that, on the 27th of April, the Tryal's prize, the Carmelo, and the Carmin, all which we intended to destroy, were towed on shore and scuttled, and a quantity of combustible materials were distributed in their upper works; and the next morning the Centurion and the Gloucester weighed anchor, but as there was but little wind, and that not in their favour, they were obliged to warp out of the harbour. When they had reached the offing, one of the boats was dispatched back again to set fire to our prize, which was accordingly executed. And a canoe was left fixed to a grapnel in the middle of the harbour, with a bottle in it well corked, inclosing a letter to Mr Hughes, who commanded the cutter, which was ordered to cruise before the port of Acapulco, when we came off that station. And on this occasion I must mention more particularly than I have yet done, the views of the commodore in leaving the cutter before that port.
When we were necessitated to make for Chequetan to take in our water, Mr Anson considered that our being in that harbour would soon be known at Acapulco; and therefore he hoped, that on the intelligence of our being employed in port, the galleon might put to sea, especially as Chequetan is so very remote from the course generally steered by the galleon: He therefore ordered the cutter to cruise twenty-four days off the port of Acapulco, and her commander was directed, on perceiving the galleon under sail, to make the best of his way to the commodore at Chequetan. As the Centurion was doubtless a much better sailer than the galleon, Mr Anson in this case resolved to have got to sea as soon as possible, and to have pursued the galleon across the Pacific Ocean: And supposing he should not have met with her in his passage, (which considering that he would have kept nearly the same parallel, was not very improbable,) yet he was certain of arriving off Cape Espiritu Santo, on the island of Samal, before her; and that being the first land she makes on her return to the Philippines, we could not have failed to have fallen in with her, by cruising a few days in that station. But the viceroy of Mexico ruined this project by keeping the galleon in the port of Acapulco all that year.
The letter left in the canoe for Mr Hughes, the commander of the cutter, the time of whose return was now considerably elapsed, directed him to go back immediately to his former station before Acapulco, where he would find Mr Anson, who resolved to cruise for him there for a certain number of days; after which it was added, that the commodore would return to the southward to join the rest of the squadron. This last article was inserted to deceive the Spaniards, if they got possession of the canoe, (as we afterwards learnt they did) but could not impose on Mr Hughes, who well knew that the commodore had no squadron to join, nor any intention of steering back to Peru.
Being now in the offing of Chequetan, bound cross the vast Pacific Ocean in our way to China, we were impatient to run off the coast as soon as possible; for as the stormy season was approaching apace, and as we had no further views in the American seas, we had hoped that nothing would have prevented us from standing to the westward, the moment we got out of the harbour of Chequetan: And it was no small mortification to us, that our necessary employment there had detained us so much longer than we expected; and now we were farther detained by the absence of the cutter, and the standing towards Acapulco in search of her. Indeed, as the time of her cruise had been expired near a fortnight, we suspected that she had been discovered from the shore; and that the governor of Acapulco had thereupon sent out a force to seize her, which, as she carried but six hands, was no very difficult enterprize. However, this being only conjecture, the commodore, as soon as we got clear of the harbour of Chequetan, stood along the coast to the eastward in search of her: And to prevent her from passing by us in the dark, we brought to every night; and the Gloucester, whose station was a league within us towards the shore, carried a light which the cutter could not but perceive if she kept along shore, as we supposed she would do; and as a farther security, the Centurion and the Gloucester alternately showed two false fires every half hour.