llao consequently make this land to prevent the danger of falling to
leeward of the port.

Notwithstanding the advantages of this station, we saw no sail
whatever till the 2d November, when two ships appeared together, to
which we immediately gave chase, and soon perceived that they were the
Tryal's and Centurion's prizes. As they were to windward, we brought
to and waited their coming up; when Captain Saunders came on board
the Centurion, and acquainted the commodore that he had cleared and
scuttled the Tryal according to his orders, and remained by her till
she sunk. It was, however, the 4th of October before this could be
effected; for there ran so large and hollow a sea that the sloop,
having neither masts nor sails to steady her, rolled and pitched so
violently, that, for the greatest part of the time, it was impossible
for a boat to lie alongside of her; and, during this attendance on
the sloop, they were all driven so far to the N.W. that they were
afterwards obliged to stretch a long way to the westward, in order to
regain the ground they had lost, which was the reason we had not met
them on their station. They had met with no better fortune on their
cruise than ourselves, never having seen a single vessel since we left
them.

This want of success, and our certainty if any ships had been stirring
in these seas for some time past, that we must have fallen in with
them, made us believe that the enemy at Valparaiso, on missing the
two ships we had taken, had suspected us to be in these seas, and had
consequently laid an embargo on all trade in the southern parts. We
likewise apprehended they might, by this time, be fitting out the
ships of war at Callao; as we knew that it was not uncommon for an
express to reach Lima from Valparaiso in twenty-nine or thirty days,
and it was now more than fifty since we had taken the first prize.
These apprehensions of an embargo on the coast, and of the equipment
of the Spanish squadron at Callao, determined the commodore to hasten
down to the leeward of Callao, to join the Gloucester as soon as
possible off Payta, that, our strength being united, we might be
prepared to give the ships from Callao a warm reception, if they dared
to put to sea. With this view we bore away that same afternoon, taking
particular care to keep at such a distance from the shore that there
might be no danger of our being discovered from thence; for we knew
that all the ships of that country were comman