and as no part of them being disposed of on the coast,
the few that came home to England, when sold, did not produce above a
fourth part of the original cost. So true was the commodore's judgment
of the event of this project, which had been considered by many as
infallibly productive of immense gain.

We return to the transactions at Portsmouth. To supply the place
of the two hundred and forty invalids who had deserted, there were
ordered on board two hundred and ten marines, drafted from different
regiments. These were raw and undisciplined men, just raised, and had
scarcely any thing more of the soldier than their regimentals, none of
them having been so far trained as to be permitted to fire. The last
of these detachments came on board on the 8th August, and on the 10th
the squadron dropped down from Spithead to St Helen's, there to wait
for a wind to proceed on the expedition. The delays we had already
suffered had not yet spent all their influence; for we were now
advanced to that season of the year when the westerly winds are
usually very prevalent and violent; and it was thought proper that
we should put to sea in company with the fleet commanded by Admiral
Balchen, and the expedition under Lord Cathcart. As we now made up
in all twenty-one sail of men-of-war, and one hundred and twenty-four
sail of merchant ships and transports, we had no hopes of getting out
of the channel with so large a fleet, without the continuance of a
fair wind for a considerable time, and this was what we had every day
less and less reason to expect, as the time of the equinox drew near;
wherefore our golden dreams and ideal possession of the Peruvian
treasures grew every day more faint, and the difficulties and dangers
of the passage round Cape Horn, in the winter season, filled our
imaginations in their room. It was forty days from our arrival at St
Helens to our final departure from that place; and even then, having
orders to proceed without Lord Cathcart, we tided down the channel
with a contrary wind. But this interval of forty days was not free
from the displeasing fatigue of often setting sail, and being as often
obliged to return, nor exempt from dangers greater than have been
sometimes undergone in surrounding the globe. For the wind coming fair
for the first time on the 23d August, we got under sail, and Admiral
Balchen shewed himself truly solicitous to have proceeded to sea; but
the wind soon returned to its old quarter, and