f any in the long, disheartening catalogue of the distresses of
a seafaring life.

But these gloomy suggestions were soon happily ended, for our boats
returned on the 5th of April, having discovered a place proper for our
purpose about seven miles to the westward of the rocks of Seguataneo,
which by the description they gave of it, appeared to be the port called
by Dampier* the harbour of Chequetan. On the 7th we stood in, and that
evening came to an anchor in eleven fathoms. Thus, after a four months'
continuance at sea from the leaving of Quibo, and having but six days'
water on board, we arrived in the harbour of Chequetan.

(*Note. Dampier (1652 to 1715), the son of a tenant farmer, near Yeovil,
played many parts in his time. He was a buccaneer, a pirate, a
circumnavigator, an author, a captain in the navy and an hydrographer.
His 'Voyage Round the World', published in 1697, procured him a command
in the navy; but though an excellent seaman, he proved an incapable
commander, as his buccaneer comrades had doubtless foreseen, for he had
never been entrusted with any command among them.)

CHAPTER 24.
THE PRIZES SCUTTLED--NEWS OF THE SQUADRON REACHES ENGLAND--BOUND FOR CHINA.

The next morning after our coming to an anchor in the harbour of
Chequetan, we sent about ninety of our men well armed on shore, forty of
whom were ordered to march into the country, and the remaining fifty were
employed to cover the watering-place and to prevent any interruption from
the natives. Here it was agreed after a mature consultation to destroy
the Trial's prize, as well as the Carmelo and Carmen, whose fate had been
before resolved on. Indeed, the ship was in good repair and fit for the
sea; but as the whole number on board our squadron did not amount to the
complement of a fourth-rate man-of-war, we found it was impossible to
divide them into three ships without rendering them incapable of
navigating in safety in the tempestuous weather we had reason to expect
on the coast of China, where we supposed we should arrive about the time
of the change of the monsoons. These considerations determined the
Commodore to destroy the Trial's prize and to reinforce the Gloucester
with the greatest part of her crew. And in consequence of this resolve,
all the stores on board the Trial's prize were removed into the other
ships, and the prize herself, with the Carmelo and Carmen, were prepared
for scuttling with all the expedition we were masters