y wanted extremely.

The first prize they took was an English sloop, belonging to Pool,
Thomas Wise commander, bound from Newfoundland with fish for Cadiz. This
was a prize of no value to them, so they took out the master, Mr. Wise
and his men, who were but five in number, with their anchors, cables and
sails, and what else they found worth taking, and sunk the vessel. The
next prize they took was a Scotch vessel, bound from Glasgow with
herrings and salmon from thence to Genoa, and commanded by one Mr. John
Somerville, of Port Patrick. This vessel was likewise of little value to
them, except that they took as they had done from the other, their arms,
ammunition, clothes, provisions, sails, anchors, cables, etc., and
everything of value, and sunk her too as they had done the sloop. The
reason they gave for sinking these two vessels was to prevent their
being discovered, for as they were now cruising on the coast of
Portugal, had they let their ships have gone with several of their men
on board, they would presently have stood in for shore, and have given
the alarm, and the men-of-war, of which there were several, as well
Dutch as English, in the river of Lisbon, would immediately have put out
to sea in quest of them, and they were very unwilling to leave the coast
of Portugal until they had got a ship with wine, which they very much
wanted.

After this they cruised eight or ten days without seeing so much as one
vessel upon the seas, and were just resolving to stand more to the to
the coast of Galicia, when they descried a sail to the southward, being
a ship about as big as their own, though they could not perceive what
force she had. However they gave chase, and the vessel perceiving it,
crowded from them with all the sail they could make, hoisting up French
colours, and standing away to the southward. They continued the chase
three days and nights, and though they did not gain much upon her, the
Frenchman sailing very well, yet they kept her in sight all the while
and for the most part within gunshot. But the third night, the weather
proving a little hazy, the Frenchman changed her course in the night,
and so got clear of them, and good reason they had to bless themselves
in the escape they had made, if they had but known what a dreadful crew
of rogues they had fallen among if they had been taken.

They were now gotten a long way to the southward and being greatly
disappointed, and in want of water as well as wine,