ade no attempt. In the mean time, the pinnace belonging
to the Duchess, in which was Lieutenant Connely and twenty-two men, went
up the river, landed at every house near its banks, and brought away all
the plate and other articles of value they could find. In this service,
they had some skirmishing with the enemy, in which one of our men was
wounded.

On the 25th the enemy appeared numerous in the woods, whence they
sometimes came out and skirmished with our guards, in which one of our
men was wounded. We spent the afternoon in sending off provisions from
the town to our ships, and in disposing all things in readiness in case
of being attacked in the night, as the enemy appeared numerous about
the outskirts. For this reason, all the captains concentrated our whole
force at the main guard, where we had our cannon in readiness.
Messengers arrived with a flag of truce in the morning of the 26th, to
treat for ransoming the town, but could not agree; but in the afternoon
it was at length agreed to pay 30,000 dollars for its ransom, giving
three hostages, and we were to remain at Puna till they had time to
raise the sum, as the inhabitants had carried away their money, and
being so dispersed that it was impossible to collect the money while we
were there, even the inhabitants of the adjacent country having carried
off their valuable effects into the interior.

In the morning of the 27th, the hostages for the ransom were sent on
board one of our barks, together with a boatload of brandy; and, as
agreed upon with the Spaniards, we took down our union jack, hoisted a
flag of truce, and fired a signal gun, that the Spaniards might come
freely into the town, and that no hostilities should take place on
either side during the time we had agreed to wait for the money. The
purpose of admitting the Spanish inhabitants was to prevent the Indians
and Negroes from robbing; and I am apt to believe they had already
robbed as much as we had plundered, for we had taken many of them loaded
with goods, while going our rounds, which they confessed to have stolen;
and we were afterwards informed, that the inhabitants, in their hurry,
had given much plate and money to Negroes to carry out of town, which
they could never hear of afterwards.

The 29th in the morning we took a small Spanish bark, coming from
Cheripe to Guayaquil, on board of which were 330 bags of meal, and 140
arobas or hundred-weights of sugar, with some onions, quinces, and
po