led close upon a wind and crowded from theirs with all sail; and
standing across a rippling, where they hesitated to follow, he happily
escaped. He had made them out to be five Spanish ships of war, one of
which was so exceedingly like the Gloucester that he was under great
apprehension when chased now by the Gloucester. He thought they
consisted of two seventy-gun ships, two of fifty, and one of forty;
the whole of which squadron chased him all that day, but at night,
finding they could not get near, they gave over the chase and stood
away to the southward.

Had we not been under the necessity of refitting the Tryal, this
intelligence would have prevented our making any stay at St Julians;
but as it was impossible for that sloop to proceed round Cape Horn
in her present condition, some stay there became inevitable; and
therefore we came to an anchor again the same evening in twenty-five
fathoms, the bottom a mixture of mud and sand, a high hummock bearing
from us S.W. by W. Weighing at nine next morning, we sent the cutters
of the Centurion and Severn in shore to discover the harbour of St
Julian, while the ships kept standing along the coast about a league
from the land. At six in the evening we anchored in the bay of St
Julian, in nineteen fathoms, the bottom muddy ground with sand, the
northermost land in sight bearing N. by E. the S. 1/2 E. and the
high hummock, called Wood's Mount by Sir John Narborough, W.S.W. The
cutters returned soon after, having discovered the harbour, which did
not appear to us where we lay, the northermost point shutting in upon
the southermost, and closing the entrance in appearance.

Our principal object in coming to anchor in this bay was to refit the
Tryal, in which business the carpenters were immediately employed. Her
main-mast had been carried away about twelve feet below the cap, but
they contrived to make the remainder of the mast serve. The Wager
was directed to supply her with a spare main-top-mast, which
the carpenters converted into a new fore-mast. And I cannot help
observing, that this accident to the Tryal's masts, which gave us so
much uneasiness at the time on account of the delay it occasioned, was
the means, in all probability, of preserving this sloop and all her
crew. For her masts before this were much too lofty for the high
southern latitudes we were proceeding into, so that, if they had
weathered the preceding storm, it would have been impossible for them
to have