fishing
canoe, which they surprised, with three negroes that belonged to it.
It seems the negroes at first attempted to jump overboard; and being
so near the land, they would easily have swam on shore; but they
were prevented by presenting a piece at them, on which they readily
submitted, and were taken into the barge. The officers further added,
that they had immediately turned the canoe adrift against the face of
a rock, where it would inevitably be dashed to pieces by the fury of
the sea: This they did to deceive those who perhaps might be sent from
the town to search after the canoe; for upon seeing several pieces of
a wreck, they would immediately conclude that the people on board her
had been drowned, and would have no suspicion of their having fallen
into our hands. When the crew of the barge had taken this precaution,
they exerted their utmost strength in pulling out to sea, and by dawn
of day had gained such an offing, as rendered it impossible for them
to be seen from the coast.

And now having got the three negroes in our possession, who were not
ignorant of the transactions at Acapulco, we were soon satisfied about
the most material points which had long kept us in suspense: And
on examination we found, that we were indeed disappointed in our
expectation of intercepting the galleon before her arrival at
Acapulco; but we learnt other circumstances which still revived our
hopes, and which, we then conceived, would more than balance the
opportunity we had already lost: For though our negro prisoners
informed us that the galleon arrived at Acapulco on our 9th of
January, which was about twenty days before we fell in with this
coast, yet they at the same time told us, that the galleon had
delivered her cargo, and was taking in water and provisions for her
return, and that the viceroy of Mexico had by proclamation fixed her
departure from Acapulco to the 14th of March, N.S. This last news
was most joyfully received by us, as we had no doubt but she must
certainly fall into our hands, and as it was much more eligible to
seize her on her return, than it would have been to have taken her
before her arrival, as the specie for which she had sold her cargo,
and which she would now have on board, was prodigiously more to be
esteemed by us than the cargo itself; great part of which would have
perished on our hands, and no part of it could have been disposed of
by us at so advantageous a mart as Acapulco.

Thus we were