. Meanwhile
four boats, well manned and armed, had gone ashore and captured some
warehouses about a mile from the town. From these we obtained a great
quantity of wine and some pigs of copper. Finding that the town was too
well defended to be taken, we ransomed our prisoners, and Captain Duck
having presented Don Mario with a cheese, in token of the good temper he
had shown under his misfortune, we set sail again.

"It would take too long to tell of all that befel us during the next ten
weeks or so, except that we harried every Spanish settlement along the
coast, fired at every fort we saw, and took many prizes. As we were
too shorthanded to man these, we took out all their stores, arms, and
powder, and sank them right under the guns of a Spanish frigate at
Arica, firing at her meanwhile with much merriment. While we were thus
engaged a boat came alongside with six Englishmen in her. She belonged
to the _Minerva_, a London South Seaman, bound to Port Jackson, and
those in her were Captain Obed Cottle, his first and second mates, and
three seamen. The remainder of the _Minerva's_ crew, they stated, had
mutinied, and after some bloodshed had permitted these six to leave in
one of the boats. When they left the _Minerva_ the mutineers ran up
a black flag and announced their intention of turning the ship into a
pirate. Captain Duck made them welcome, and they proved useful additions
to our ship's company.

"On the 20th of September we fell in with our looked-for consort the
_Lucy_, privateer of London, Captain Ferguson, belonging to the same
owner as did the _Port-au-Prince_, and this gentleman and our good
captain agreed to go shares in such plunder as the ships got in company.
The following day, therefore, we anchored off Chinca and took that
place, but were but poorly rewarded, as there were only two hundred
dollars in the Governor's house. However, there was some excellent wine,
of which we took twenty hogsheads on board, and we told the Governor to
keep his money.

"And now comes the story of our fight with a very big ship, of which I
have so often told you, Mr. Denison. On the 6th of October, the _Lucy_
being-ahead (and both our ships off Paita), she took a king's tender
laden with provisions, so the prisoners told Captain Ferguson, for the
Spanish frigate _Astraea_ then lying at anchor in Paita Roads. It had
been our intent to capture the town, but the frigate's presence there
put that out of the question for the t