hat this might prove
one of our squadron; but she at length steered away to the eastward,
without hauling in for the island, on which we concluded that she must
be Spanish. Great differences of opinion now took place, as to the
possibility of her people having discovered our tents on shore; some
of us strongly insisting, that she certainly had been near enough to
have seen something that had given them a jealousy to an enemy, which
had occasioned her standing away to the eastwards. Leaving these
contests to be settled afterwards, it was resolved to pursue her; and,
as the Centurion was in the greatest forwardness, all her hands were
got immediately on board, her rigging set up, and her sails bent with
all possible expedition, and we got under sail by five in the evening.

At this time we had so very little wind, that all the boats were
employed to tow us out of the bay, and what wind there was lasted only
long enough to give us an offing of two or three leagues, when it
fell dead calm. As night came on we lost sight of the chase, and were
extremely impatient for the return of light, in hopes to find that she
had been becalmed, as well as we; yet her great distance from the land
was 3 reasonable ground for suspecting the contrary, as we actually
found in the morning, to our great mortification; for, though the
weather was then quite clear, we had no sight of the chase from the
mast-head. But, being now quite satisfied that she was an enemy, and
the first we had seen in these seas, we resolved not to give over the
chase lightly; and, on a small breeze springing up from the W.N.W. we
got up our top-gallant masts and yards, set all the sails, and steered
S.E. in hopes of retrieving the chase, which we imagined might be
bound for Valparaiso. We continued on this course all that day and the
next; and then, seeing nothing of the chase, gave over the pursuit,
believing that she had, in all probability, reached her port.

Resolving to return to Juan Fernandez, we hauled up to the S.W. having
very little wind till the 12th, at three a.m. when a gale sprung up at
W.S.W. which obliged us to tack and stand to the N.W. At day-break,
we were agreeably surprised by the appearance of a sail on our
weather-bow, between four and five leagues distant, on which we
crowded all sail and stood towards her, soon perceiving she was a
different vessel from that we had chased before. She at first bore
down towards us, shewing Spanish colours, and