t of
Guayaquil; and, as it was well known to his friends in England that he
was in that part of the world, they had put letters for him on board
the Centurion. This man happened at the present time to be among the
Spaniards who had retired to the hill of Payta; and ambitious, as it
would seem, of acquiring reputation among his new masters, he came
down unarmed to one of our centinels, who was posted at some distance
from the fort towards the enemy, pretending that he was desirous of
surrendering himself and returning to the service of his country. Our
centinel had a cocked pistol in his hand, but, deceived by the fair
speeches of the carpenter, he allowed him very imprudently to come
much too near him, so that, watching his opportunity, the carpenter
wrenched the pistol from his hand, and ran away with it up the
hill. By this time two others of our men, who had seen the carpenter
advance, and suspected his intentions, were making towards him, and
now pursued him, but he got up the hill before they could reach him,
and then turned round and fired the pistol. His pursuers immediately
returned the fire, though at a great distance, and the crest of the
hill covered him as soon as they had fired, so that they took it for
granted they had missed him: yet we afterwards learnt that he was shot
through the body, and had fallen dead the very next step he took after
firing his pistol and getting out of sight. The centinel, too, whom
he had so grossly imposed upon, did not escape unpunished; as he was
ordered to be severely whipt, for allowing himself to be so shamefully
surprised on his post, and giving an example of carelessness, which,
if followed in other instances, might have proved fatal to us all.

By the time our people had taken their comrade out of the water, and
were making the best of their way to the squadron, the flames had got
possession of every part of the town with so powerful a hold, by means
of the combustibles laid for the purpose, and by the slightness of the
materials of the houses, and their aptitude to take fire, that it was
now quite apparent no efforts of the enemy, who now flocked down in
great numbers, could possibly stop its ravages, or prevent the entire
destruction of the place and all the merchandize it contained. Our
detachment under Lieutenant Brett safely joined the squadron, and the
commodore prepared to leave the bay that same evening. On our first
arrival there were six vessels belonging to th