"We found here about 30,000l. besides jewels; there was much more, but the inhabitants carried it off. We sunk two galleys and two snows, and carried away with us the small ship that was to have carried the money. We departed hence on the 16th, and some days after joined the Gloucester, which had been ranging the coast, and intercepted some vessels, though not so valuable as ours. We then proceeded along shore, burning some of our prizes, which proved dull sailers, and arrived at the island of Quibo, 17th December 1741, a delightful uninhabited place, abounding with wild deer and other refreshments. Having watered here with all imaginable expedition, we sailed hence on the 19th December, with a design to cruise off Acapulco, on the coast of Mexico, for a rich ship that was expected from Manilla, on the island of Luconia, in the East Indies.
"There is a yearly ship whose cargo amounts to an immense sum, and could we but have had a favourable passage thither, she must indubitably have been ours; but we were disappointed, having been seventy-nine days in effecting a passage which has been performed in twenty, meeting with a long series of calms and uncertain weather. Hence we arrived five weeks too late, and therefore hoped to speak her on her return, which generally is in March; she would then have been laden with money to purchase another cargo. We cruized off this port and the coast of Mexico two months, at a distance not to be discovered from the shore, and having intelligence, by a boat we took, of the day of her sailing, we made no doubt of her being ours. We were five sail in all, with our prizes, and lay at three leagues distance from each other, and ten from the port. During this time we lived on turtle, which we caught daily in our boats. Our squadron described a half moon, our boats being at the same time three leagues from the shore within us to watch the port. The disposition was so just and regular, it was impossible she could have escaped. I was so curious as to calculate my share, which would have amounted to 10,000l.; but Providence ordained it otherwise.
"I should have told you that that ship mounted sixty guns. Having cruised till our water was almost all expended, and having an enemy's coast whereon to replenish, we were obliged to depart, but left a boat behind to watch her motions. After many searches, we found a convenient bay for watering called Chequetan, where Sir Francis Drake had refitted. We sunk and burnt all our prizes, in order to cross the great Southern Ocean, and, with the Gloucester in company, go to the East Indies. We learned afterwards that this rich ship was detained, having had information from the coast of Peru of our being on the coast. We left Acapulco on the 6th of May 1742; and here begins another series of misfortunes and mortality surpassing the first. We had a passage of three months and a half to the Ladrone Islands, which is generally made in two; yet it was a vulgar opinion amongst our people that we had sailed so far as to pass by all the land in the world! Length of time and badness of the weather rendered both our ships leaky; this, joined to our mortality, the scurvy raging amongst us as much as ever, obliged us to destroy the Gloucester, which ship was ready to founder, and receive the men on board, who were all sick and dying. It is impossible to represent the melancholy circumstances wherein we were involved previous to our arrival at these islands. We anchored at one called Tinian, uninhabited, but abounding with wild cattle, hogs, fowls, and fruits: we could not have fallen in with a better place. I am convinced, had we stayed out ten days longer at sea, we should have been obliged to take to our boats, our leak increasing so fast, and our people being all infirm and disabled. We immediately sent all our sick on shore, and began to hope for better times, feeding plentifully on roast beef, when an accident fell out, on the 22nd September 1742, which nearly ruined us all.
"My post as first officer generally confined me on board the Commodore, whilst most of the officers and men were on shore for the recovery of their health, when a storm came on and rose so mountainous a sea as none of us ever saw before. The ship was in danger of being pooped as we lay at anchor; at last we parted both our bower-cables and drove out to sea, with the sheet-anchor hanging in the hawse, a whole cable and three quarters of another out (excuse these barbarous sea terms), and narrowly escaped driving on a ledge of rocks, that was near, and leaving the Commodore and all the rest behind. The ship, by her labouring in such a troubled sea, made so much water that I was in doubt whether she would not have foundered; our ports and the guns were but ill-secured, owing to the suddenness of the storm, which also upset the long boat. Under these circumstances we drove to sea with one hundred men and boys on board, not knowing whether I should not at last be a captain in spite of my teeth. In this manner I drove seventy leagues, and was fifteen days before I recovered land, beating up against a fresh trade and the current. The Commodore, you may imagine, was overjoyed at my return, as were all the rest. They were very busy in building a vessel to carry them all to China, as they preferred venturing to sea in it to remaining in an uninhabited island, or to be exposed to the cruelty of the Spaniards who live in the neighbouring islands, the Commodore concluding that either the ship was lost, or that I should never be able to beat to windward. At last, after many hazards, we sailed on the 22nd of October 1742, and met with a tolerably good passage to the island of Macoa, a Portuguese settlement on the coast of China, where we arrived on the 11th November, having buried one hundred and sixty men since our leaving Acapulco, or four hundred and twenty since we left England, including Indians and negroes, whom we detained as prisoners."
Commodore Anson arrived at Macoa, and having careened and repaired the ship, and been reinforced by some Lascars or Indian sailors, and by some Dutchmen, he sailed from Macoa on the 1st May, giving out that he was bound to Batavia, Captain Saunders of the Gloucester having gone to England in a Swedish ship; but when fairly at sea he made known to his crew that he was going to cruise off Manilla for the purpose of intercepting the two galleons expected there, one of which he ultimately took on the 20th June, just a month after they arrived off the station, after a severe action, in which the galleon, which was called the Nostra Signora Cabadonga, commanded by General Don Jeronimo de Montivo, had sixty-seven killed and eighty-four wounded, while the Centurion had only two killed, and a lieutenant and sixteen men wounded. Lieut. Saumarez, who had highly distinguished himself in this action, was now made Post Captain of the prize, which he safely conducted to Canton. She had on board 400,000l. in specie, besides property estimated at 600,000l. which was destroyed; he had now therefore obtained his rank, and a considerable share of prize money.
On the 7th of December 1743, they sailed from Canton, and arrived in England, to be welcomed by their families and friends, on the 15th June 1744, after an absence of four years, wherein they had endured hardships of every description. Captain Saumarez went to Bath for the recovery of his health. He subsequently served in the Sandwich, York, and Yarmouth: in the York he encountered a heavy gale, in which his superior seamanship was severely put to the test. He was subsequently removed to the Nottingham, of sixty guns, and on the 11th October 1747 fell in with the Mars, a French sixty-four gun-ship, with five hundred men, commanded by M. de Colombe, being one of the ships that had separated from D'Anville's fleet in the storm off Newfoundland. She was returning to Brest. The Nottingham had sixty guns and four hundred men. After an engagement of two hours within pistol shot, in which the Mars had twenty-three killed and nineteen wounded, she struck. On board the Nottingham only three men were killed and nine wounded, which was attributed to the superior seamanship of the Captain, who obtained an advantageous position in the battle.
Captain Saumarez had been often heard to say that his highest ambition was to fall in with an enemy of equal force, and on this occasion his honourable feelings were completely gratified. He received congratulations from all his friends, and particularly from the Lords of the Admiralty, who expressed their highest approbation of the skill and courage he displayed on this occasion; but his mild, liberal, and generous treatment to a vanquished enemy was no less conspicuous in this instance than his bravery; it was indeed one of the strongest traits in his character. On this subject he received the following letter from the Secretary of the Admiralty:—
"The Chevalier de Crenay, late Captain of the Mars, having taken notice to the Lords of the Admiralty, in a letter their lordships received from him and his officers and company, I am commanded to let you know, that your civil treatment of them after they were taken, has been no less satisfactory to their lordships than your resolution and success in taking them.
"I am, sir, &c. &c.
"Thos. Corbett, Sec."