l further aggravated, by the impossibility
of our being then able to assist her, for the wind blew so hard, and
raised such a hollow sea, that we could not venture to hoist out a
boat, and consequently could not have any communication with her; so
that we were obliged to lie-to for the greatest part of forty-eight
hours to attend upon her, as we could not possibly leave her in such a
condition of distress. It was no small addition to our misfortunes,
on this occasion, that we were all the while driving to leeward of our
intended station, and at the very time, when, by our intelligence, we
had reason to expect several of the enemy's ships would appear on the
coast, and would now get into the port of Valparaiso unobstructed;
and, I am convinced, the embarrassment we suffered by the dismasting
of the Tryal and our consequent absence from our intended station,
deprived, us of some very considerable captures.

The weather proved somewhat more moderate on the 27th, when we sent
our boat for Captain Saunders, who came on board the Centurion, where
he produced an instrument, signed by himself and all his officers,
representing that the Tryal, besides being dismasted, was so very
leaky in her hull, that it was necessary to ply the pumps continually,
even in moderate weather, and that they were then scarcely able
to keep her free; insomuch that, in the late gale, though all the
officers even had been engaged in turns at the pumps, yet the water
had increased upon them; and that, on the whole, they apprehended her
present condition to be so defective, that they must all inevitably
perish if they met with much bad weather: For all which reasons,
he petitioned the commodore to take measures for their safety. The
refittal of the Tryal, and the repair of her defects, were utterly
beyond our power on the present conjuncture, for we had no masts to
spare, no stores to complete her rigging, and no port in which she
could be hove down, to examine and repair her bottom. Even had we
possessed a port, and proper requisites for the purpose it would yet
have been extremely imprudent, in so critical a conjuncture to have
loitered away so much time as would have been necessary for these
operations. The commodore, therefore, had no choice left, but was
under the necessity of taking out her people and destroying her. Yet,
as he conceived it expedient to keep up the appearance of our force,
he appointed the Tryal's prize, which had often been emplo