re of this ship, Captain Cooke
remained on board, sending her captain and the rest of the prisoners to
the Duke and Duchess.

[Footnote 222: This particular action is related by Harris in the words
of Captain Cooke, who commanded the boat from the Duchess.--E.]

We now proceeded on our intended expedition against Guayaquil, sending
the _Beginning_ ahead to _Punta arena_, or Sandy Point, on the island of
Puna, to see if there was any force to oppose us; but she only found a
Spanish bark, quite empty, riding close under the point. She had been
sent to load salt, but her men had abandoned her on seeing us approach.
At five in the afternoon, our whole force intended for the attack upon
Guayaquil, being embarked in boats, rowed for that place; and at eleven
at night we could see a light in the town, on which we rowed as easy as
we could and in silence, for fear of being discovered; till we were
within a mile of the place. We then heard a sentinel call to another,
and after conversing for some time, bid him bring fire. Perceiving we
were now discovered, we rowed to the other side of the river, opposite
the town, whence we saw a fire lighted up at the place where the
centinels had talked, and soon after we could see lights all over the
town and at the water side, heard them ring the alarm bell, fire several
vollies, and saw a fire lighted on the hill where the beacon was kept,
all on purpose to give notice to the town and neighbourhood that we were
come into the river.

Our boats were now moored with grapplings, and so hot a dispute took
place among some of our officers, that they were heard on shore; but as
the Spaniards did not understand what they said, an English prisoner was
brought to the shore to interpret what they heard. By the time he came,
the dispute was over; but this Englishman afterwards joined us, and gave
us this account. We held a council in the stern sheets of one of our
boats, to consider whether we should land immediately or wait till
day-light; and, as the barks were not come up, in which were the
artillery and half of our men, and as we did not know the ground
sufficiently to act in the dark, it was agreed to wait till day, by
which time it was hoped the barks would join. We accordingly fell down
the river a short way, to meet our barks, hearing several musket shots
by the way. On the 23d April at day-break, we saw one of our barks at
anchor within a mile of the town, close under the shore, and the oth