orks; and
the next morning the Centurion and the Gloucester weighed anchor, but
as there was but little wind, and that not in their favour, they were
obliged to warp out of the harbour. When they had reached the offing,
one of the boats was dispatched back again to set fire to our prize,
which was accordingly executed. And a canoe was left fixed to a
grapnel in the middle of the harbour, with a bottle in it well corked,
inclosing a letter to Mr Hughes, who commanded the cutter, which was
ordered to cruise before the port of Acapulco, when we came off that
station. And on this occasion I must mention more particularly than I
have yet done, the views of the commodore in leaving the cutter before
that port.

When we were necessitated to make for Chequetan to take in our water,
Mr Anson considered that our being in that harbour would soon be known
at Acapulco; and therefore he hoped, that on the intelligence of our
being employed in port, the galleon might put to sea, especially as
Chequetan is so very remote from the course generally steered by the
galleon: He therefore ordered the cutter to cruise twenty-four
days off the port of Acapulco, and her commander was directed, on
perceiving the galleon under sail, to make the best of his way to the
commodore at Chequetan. As the Centurion was doubtless a much better
sailer than the galleon, Mr Anson in this case resolved to have got
to sea as soon as possible, and to have pursued the galleon across the
Pacific Ocean: And supposing he should not have met with her in his
passage, (which considering that he would have kept nearly the same
parallel, was not very improbable,) yet he was certain of arriving
off Cape Espiritu Santo, on the island of Samal, before her; and that
being the first land she makes on her return to the Philippines, we
could not have failed to have fallen in with her, by cruising a few
days in that station. But the viceroy of Mexico ruined this project by
keeping the galleon in the port of Acapulco all that year.

The letter left in the canoe for Mr Hughes, the commander of the
cutter, the time of whose return was now considerably elapsed,
directed him to go back immediately to his former station before
Acapulco, where he would find Mr Anson, who resolved to cruise for him
there for a certain number of days; after which it was added, that
the commodore would return to the southward to join the rest of the
squadron. This last article was inserted to deceive t