SOUTH SEA--A.D. 1740.

War with Spain--Original plan of expedition abandoned--The _Centurion_
and other ships ordered to form a squadron under Commodore Anson--
Miserable equipment--Ships overladen--Drop down Channel--Cross Atlantic,
and pass through the Straits of Le Maire--Bad weather comes on--Two of
the ships nearly wrecked--_Severn_ and _Pearl_ lost sight
of--_Centurion_ in fearful danger--Scurvy breaks out, and numbers die--
Anchors at Juan Fernandez--The sick landed--The _Trial_ joins her--Goats
found marked by Alexander Selkirk--The _Gloucester_ comes off the
island--Long time in getting in--The _Anna Pink_ appears--The
_Centurion_ goes in chase of a stranger--Takes a prize--Crew and stores
of the _Anna Pink_ transferred to _Centurion_--The _Trial_ takes a
prize, and crew and stores being removed into the prize, she is
destroyed--Females taken on board a prize courteously treated--Paita
attacked and captured--The seamen dress up in the Spaniards' clothes--
Booty taken--The town burnt--Spaniards acknowledge Anson's generous
treatment of his female prisoners--The squadron lays in wait for the
Manilla galleon--Negroes enter on board as seamen--Miss the galleon--
Preparations for crossing the Pacific--Prizes turned adrift--The
_Gloucester_ abandoned--Her crew taken on board _Centurion_--Scurvy
again breaks out--Fearful mortality--The Ladrones sighted--_Centurion_
brings up off Tinian--Sick landed--She is driven out to sea--Great
anxiety--A vessel commenced--The ship appears--Reaches Macao--Repaired--
Fresh men shipped--Sails to watch for the galleon--Her capture--The
_Centurion_ on fire--Anson's coolness--Sails with his prize for Canton--
Roguery of the Chinese--Anson and his men extinguish a fire at Canton--
Sails for England--Hears of the war with France--Narrow escape from a
French fleet.

War with Spain having been declared towards the end of 1739, it was
proposed to fit out two squadrons, one under the command of Captain
Cornwall, to sail round the Cape of Good Hope and attack Manilla, and
the other under Captain Anson, then commanding the _Centurion_, to sail
into the Pacific, round Cape Horn, to injure the settlements of the
Spaniards on the west coast of South America, and to destroy their
trade. The two squadrons were afterwards to meet to carry out together
whatever might be deemed advisable. The first part of the scheme was
soon abandoned, and Commodore Anson's squadron alone was ordered to
proceed in