ospect of spending the remainder
of their days on this island, and bidding adieu for ever to their
country, their friends, their families, and all their domestic
endearments.

Nor was this the worst they had to fear: For they had reason to
expect, that the governor of Guam, when he should be informed of their
situation, might send a force sufficient to overpower them, and to
remove them to that island; and then, the most favourable treatment
they could hope for would be to be detained prisoners for life; since,
from the known policy and cruelty of the Spaniards in their distant
settlements, it was rather to be expected, that the governor, if he
once had them in his power, would make their want of commissions (all
of them being on board the Centurion) a pretext for treating them, as
pirates, and for depriving them of their lives with infamy.

In the midst of these gloomy reflections, Mr Anson had his share of
disquietude; but he kept up his usual composure and steadiness: And
having soon projected a scheme for extricating himself and his men
from their present anxious situation, he first communicated it to some
of the most intelligent; and being satisfied that it was practicable,
he then endeavoured to animate his people to a speedy and vigorous
prosecution of it. With this view he represented to them, how little
foundation there was for their apprehensions of the Centurion's being
lost: That he should have hoped, they had been all of them better
acquainted with sea-affairs, than to give way to the impression of so
chimerical a fright; and that he doubted not, if they would seriously
consider what such a ship was capable of enduring, they would confess
that there was not the least probability of her having perished: That
he was not without hopes that she might return in a few days; but if
she did not, the worst that could be supposed was, that she was driven
so far to the leeward of the island that she could not regain it, and
that she would consequently be obliged to bear away for Macao on the
coast of China: That as it was necessary to be prepared against all
events, he had, in this case, considered of a method of carrying them
off the island, and joining their old ship the Centurion again at
Macao: That this method was to hale the Spanish bark on shore, to saw
her asunder, and to lengthen her twelve feet, which would enlarge her
to near forty tun burthen, and would enable her to carry them all to
China: That he had