gether
that it was impossible to miss them. On their first appearance the
Ladrones gave a general shout, supposing them to be mandarine vessels on
fire, but were very soon convinced of their mistake. They came very
regularly into the center of the fleet, two and two, burning furiously;
one of them came alongside of the vessel I was in, but they succeeded in
booming her off. She appeared to be a vessel of about thirty tons; her
hold was filled with straw and wood, and there were a few small boxes of
combustibles on her deck, which exploded alongside of us without doing
any damage. The Ladrones, however, towed them all on shore, extinguished
the fire, and broke them up for fire-wood. The Portuguese claim the
credit of constructing these destructive machines, and actually sent a
dispatch to the Governor of Macao, saying they had destroyed at least
one-third of the Ladrones' fleet, and hoped soon to effect their purpose
by totally annihilating them!

On the 29th of November, the Ladrones being all ready for sea, they
weighed and stood boldly out, bidding defiance to the invincible
squadron and imperial fleet, consisting of ninety-three war-junks, six
Portuguese ships, a brig, and a schooner. Immediately the Ladrones
weighed, they made all sail. The Ladrones chased them two or three
hours, keeping up a constant fire; finding they did not come up with
them, they hauled their wind and stood to the eastward.

Thus terminated the boasted blockade, which lasted nine days, during
which time the Ladrones completed all their repairs. In this action not
a single Ladrone vessel was destroyed, and their loss about thirty or
forty men. An American was also killed, one of three that remained out
of eight taken in a schooner. I had two very narrow escapes: the first,
a twelve-pounder shot fell within three or four feet of me; another took
a piece out of a small brass-swivel on which I was standing. The chief's
wife frequently sprinkled me with garlic-water, which they consider an
effectual charm against shot. The fleet continued under sail all night,
steering towards the eastward. In the morning they anchored in a large
bay surrounded by lofty and barren mountains.

On the 2nd of December I received a letter from Lieutenant Maughn,
commander of the Honorable Company's cruiser _Antelope_, saying that he
had the ransom on board, and had been three days cruising after us, and
wished me to settle with the chief on the securest method of del