ed, and the
rest pardoned. On the 17th, they took a fishing-boat with a considerable
quantity of well-cured and salt fish. On the 1st November they went into
the Bay of Conception, on the coast of Chili, in lat. 36 deg. 35' S. in
chace of a vessel which outsailed them and escaped; whence they bore
away for Coquimbo, in lat. 29 deg. 50' S. and took a ship laden with sugar,
tobacco, and cloth, on their passage between these two places. On the
6th in the afternoon, on opening the harbour of Coquimbo, they saw three
men-of-war at anchor with their topsails loose, which immediately
slipped their cables and stood after them. The Success hauled close upon
a wind, as the prize did likewise, on which the best sailing Spanish
man-of-war gave chase to the prize, which she soon came up with and
took. The two other ships crowded all sail after the Success, till
afternoon, when the biggest carried away her mizen-mast, on which she
fired a gun and stood in for the shore, which favoured the escape of the
Success.

In the re-captured prize, they lost their third lieutenant, Mr James
Milne, with twelve men. The captain of the Spanish man-of-war which took
him, was the famous Don Blas de Lesso, who was governor of Carthagena
when that place was attacked by Admiral Vernon. At first Don Blas
treated Mr Milne very roughly, being enraged at having missed taking the
English privateer, and had only retaken a Spanish prize, and in the
first transport of his passion struck Mr Milne over the head with the
flat of his sword. But on coming to himself he sent for Mr Milne, and
generously asked his pardon, and finding he had been stripped by the
soldiers, ordered him a new suit of clothes, and kept him some time in
his own ship. He afterwards procured his liberty at Lima, paid his
passage to Panama, giving him a jar of wine and another of brandy for
his sea-store, and put 200 dollars in his pocket to carry him to
England. This unlucky accident of losing the prize revived the
ill-humour among the crew of the Success, who did not indeed enter into
any new plot, but became much dejected.

On the 16th they gave chase to another ship, which, after exchanging a
few shots, bore away and left them. This was a fortunate escape, as she
was a ship of force commanded by one Fitzgerald, which had been fitted
out on purpose to take Captain Shelvocke; but knowing this not to be the
ship he was in search of, and doubting her strength, had no great
stomach to engage