the hold was now almost full of water, yet, as the carpenters were of
opinion that she might still swim for some time, if the calm should
continue, and the water become smooth, she was set on fire; for we
knew not how near we might now be to the island of Guam, which was in
the possession of our enemies, and the wreck of such a ship would have
been to them no contemptible acquisition. When she was set on fire,
Captain Mitchel and his officers left her, and came on board the
Centurion: And we immediately stood from the wreck, not without some
apprehensions (as we had now only a light breeze) that if she blew
up soon, the concussion of the air might damage our rigging; but she
fortunately burnt, though very fiercely, the whole night, her guns
firing successively, as the flames reached them. And it was six in the
morning, when we were about four leagues distant, before she blew up;
the report she made upon this occasion was but a small one, but there
was an exceeding black pillar of smoke, which shot up into the air to
a very considerable height.

Thus perished his majesty's ship the Gloucester. And now it might have
been expected, that, being freed from, the embarrassments which her
frequent disasters had involved us in, we would proceed on our way
much brisker than, we had hitherto done, especially as we had received
some small addition to our strength, by the taking on board the
Gloucester's crew; but our anxieties were not yet to be relieved; for,
notwithstanding all that we had hitherto suffered, there remained much
greater distresses, which we were still to struggle with. For the late
storm, which had proved so fatal to the Gloucester, had driven us to
the northward of our intended course; and the current setting the same
way, after the weather abated, had forced us still a degree or two
farther, so that we were now in 17 deg. 1/4 of north latitude, instead of
being in 13 deg. 1/2, which was the parallel we proposed to keep, in order
to reach the island of Guam: And as it had been a perfect calm for
some days since the cessation of the storm, and we were ignorant how
near we were to the meridian of the Ladrones, and supposed ourselves
not to be far from it, we apprehended that we might be driven to the
leeward of them by the current, without discovering them: In this
case, the only land we could make would be some of the eastern parts
of Asia, where, if we could arrive, we should find the western monsoon
in its ful