an Fernandez on our first landing;
these things having been doubtless the relics of the cruisers
stationed at that island. Having thus satisfied ourselves in the most
material articles of our enquiry, got all the silver on board the
Centurion, and most of the prisoners, we made sail to the northward
at eight that same evening, in company with our prize. We got sight of
Juan Fernandez at six next morning, and the day following both we and
our prize got safe there to anchor. When the prize and her crew came
into the bay, in which the rest of our squadron lay, the Spaniards,
who had been sufficiently informed of the distresses we had gone
through, and were astonished we had been able to surmount them, were
still more surprised when they saw the Tryal sloop, that, after all
our fatigues, we should have had the industry to complete such a
vessel in so short a time, besides refitting our other ships, as they
concluded we had certainly built her there; nor was it without great
difficulty they could be brought to believe that she came from England
with the rest of the squadron; for they long insisted, that it was
impossible for such a bauble as she was to have passed round Cape
Horn, when the best ships of Spain were forced to put back.

By the time of our arrival at Juan Fernandez, the letters found on
board our prize were more minutely examined, and it appeared from
them, and from the examination of our prisoners, that several other
merchant-ships were bound from Callao to Valparaiso. Whereupon, the
commodore dispatched the Tryal sloop, the very next morning, to cruise
off the port of Valparaiso, reinforcing her crew with ten men from the
Centurion. The commodore resolved also, on the above intelligence,
to employ the ships under his command in separate cruises, as by this
means he might increase the chance of taking prizes, and should run
less risk of being discovered, and alarming the coast. The spirits of
our people were now greatly raised, and their despondency dissipated,
by this earnest of success, so that they forgot all their past
distresses, resumed their wonted alacrity, and laboured incessantly in
completing our water, receiving our lumber, and preparing to leave the
island.

These necessary occupations took us up four or five days, with all our
industry and exertions; and in this interval, the commodore
directed the guns of the Anna pink, being four six-pounders and four
four-pounders, with two swivels, to be mo