Our men landed about day-break, a mile and a half from the village, but the inhabitants took the alarm, and got all away, except two old women, from whom we learnt that the viceroy, on receiving intelligence of enemies having come across the isthmus of Darien into the South Sea, had ordered all their ships to be set on fire, all the goats in the isle of Plata to be destroyed, and that the inhabitants on the coast should keep no more provisions than were necessary for their present use.

We returned to our ship at Plata, where we remained for some time unresolved what course to pursue.  On the 2d of October, the Cygnet of London, Captain Swan, came to anchor in the same road.  This was a richly-loaded ship, designed for trading on this coast, but being disappointed in his hopes of trade, his men had forced Captain Swan to take on board a company of buccaneers he fell in with at Nicoya, being those we heard of at Manta, who had come by land to the South Sea under the command of Captain Peter Harris, nephew to the Captain Harris who was slain before Panama.  As the Cygnet was unfit for service, by reason of her cargo, Captain Swan sold most of his goods on credit, and threw the rest overboard, reserving only the fine commodities, and some iron for ballast.  Captains Davis and Swan now joined company; and Harris was placed in command of a small bark.  Our bark, which had been sent to cruise three days before the arrival of the Cygnet, now returned with a prize laden with timber, which they had taken in the Gulf of Guayaquil.  The commander of this prize informed us, that it was reported at Guayaquil, that the viceroy was fitting out ten frigates to chase us from these seas.  This intelligence made us wish for Captain Eaton, and we resolved to send out a small bark towards Lima, to invite him to rejoin us.  We also fitted up another small bark for a fire-ship, and set sail for the island of Lobos on the 20th October.

Being about six leagues off Payta on the 2d of November, we sent 110 men in several canoes to attack that place. Payta is a small sea-port town belonging to the Spaniards, in lat. 5 deg. 15’ S. built on a sandy rock near the sea-side, under a high hill.  Although not containing more than seventy-five or eighty low mean houses, like most of the other buildings along the coast of Peru, it has two churches.  The walls of these houses are chiefly built of a kind of bricks, made of earth and straw, only dried in the sun.  These bricks are three feet long, two broad, and a foot and a half thick.  In some places, instead of roofs, they only lay a few poles across the tops of the walls, covered with mats, though in other places they have regularly-constructed roofs.  The cause of this mean kind of building is partly from the want of stones and timber, and partly because it never rains on this coast, so that they are only solicitious to keep out the sun; and these walls, notwithstanding the slight nature of their materials, continue good