pply this defect, by pressing many of the inhabitants of Buenos
Ayres, and putting on board all the English prisoners then in their
custody, together with a number of Portuguese smugglers they had taken
at different times, and some of the Indians of the country. Among
these last there was a chief and ten of his followers, who had been
surprised by a party of Spanish soldiers about three months before.
The name of this chief was Orellana, and he belonged to a very
powerful tribe, which had committed great ravages in the neighbourhood
of Buenos Ayres. With this motley crew, all of them except the
European sailors averse from the voyage, Pizarro set sail from Monte
Video about the beginning of November 1745: and the native Spaniards,
being no strangers to the dissatisfaction of their forced men, treated
them, the English prisoners and the Indians, with great insolence and
barbarity, particularly the Indians; for it was common in the meanest
officers in the ship to beat them cruelly on the slightest pretence,
and often merely to shew their superiority.

Orellana and his followers, though in appearance sufficiently patient
and submissive, meditated a severe revenge for all these inhumanities.
As these Indians have great intercourse with Buenos Ayres in time of
peace, Orellana understood Spanish, and affected to converse with such
of the English prisoners as could speak that language, seeming very
desirous of being informed how many Englishmen there were on board,
and of having them pointed out to him. As he knew the English were as
much enemies to the Spaniards as he was, he had doubtless an intention
of disclosing his purposes to them, and making them partners in the
scheme he had projected for revenging his wrongs and recovering his
liberty; but, having sounded them at a distance, and not finding them
so precipitate and vindictive as he expected, he proceeded no farther
with them, but resolved to trust alone to the resolution of his ten
faithful followers, who readily engaged to observe his directions and
to execute his commands. Having agreed on the measures to be pursued,
they contrived to provide themselves with Dutch knives, sharp at the
point, which, being the common knives used in the ship, they procured
without difficulty. They also employed their leisure in secretly
cutting thongs from raw hides, of which there were great numbers on
board, and in fixing to each end of these thongs the double-headed
shot of the smal