paps to be in the latitude of 17 deg.56',
whereas those over Acapulco are said to be in 17 deg. only; and we
afterwards found our suspicions of their skill to be well grounded:
However, they were very confident, and assured us, that the height of
the mountains was itself an infallible mark of the harbour; the
coast, as they pretended, (though falsely) being generally low to the
eastward and westward of it.

And now being in the track of the Manilla galleon, it was a great
doubt with us (as it was near the end of January,) whether she was or
was not arrived: But examining our prisoners about it, they assured
us, that she was sometimes known to come in after the middle of
February; and they endeavoured to persuade us, that the fire we
had seen on shore was a proof that she was as yet at sea, it being
customary, as they said, to make use of these fires as signals for
her direction, when she continued longer out than ordinary. On this
information, strengthened by our propensity to believe them in a
matter which so pleasingly flattered our wishes, we resolved to cruise
for her for some days; and we accordingly spread our ships at the
distance of twelve leagues from the coast, in such a manner, that it
was impossible she should pass us unobserved: However, not seeing her
soon, we were at intervals inclined to suspect that she had gained
her port already; and as we now began to want a harbour to refresh
our people, the uncertainty of our present situation gave us
great uneasiness, and we were very solicitous to get some positive
intelligence, which might either set us at liberty to consult our
necessities, if the galleon was arrived, or might animate us to
continue our present cruise with cheerfulness, if she was not.
With this view the commodore, after examining our prisoners very
particularly, resolved to send a boat, under night, into the harbour
of Acapulco, to see if the Manilla ship was there or not, one of the
Indians being very positive that this might be done without the
boat itself being discovered. To execute this project, the barge
was dispatched the 6th of February, with a sufficient crew and two
officers, who took with them a Spanish pilot, and the Indian who had
insisted on the practicability of this measure, and had undertaken to
conduct it. Our barge did not return to us again till the eleventh,
when the officers acquainted Mr Anson, that, agreeable to our
suspicion, there was nothing like a harbour in the pl