him to the resolution of leaving the South Sea.  But they had no sooner clapped their helm a-weather for this purpose than they saw a sail standing towards them, which proved to be a Spanish man of war, which caught them, and spoilt their India voyage.  The English prisoners were very indifferently used; but Betagh, being a Roman Catholic, and of a nation which the Spaniards are very fond of,[267] was treated with much respect, and was even made an officer.

[Footnote 267:  He seems to have been a Fleming, taken on board at Ostend, when the voyage was originally intended to have proceeded under an imperial commission.—­E.]

In the morning of the 29th February, we saw a vessel at anchor in the road of Guanchaeo, and anchored alongside of her at eleven a.m.  She was called the Carmasita, of about 100 tons, having only two Indian men and a boy on board, and her only loading was a small quantity of timber from Guayaquil.  From these prisoners, I was informed of a rich ship being in the cove of Payta, having put in there to repair some damage she had sustained in a gale of wind.  On this information I put immediately to sea, but in purchasing our anchor, the cable parted, and we lost our anchor.  Our prize being new and likely to sail well, I took her with us, naming her the St David, designing to have made her a complete fire-ship as soon as we should be rejoined by the Mercury, in which there were materials for that purpose.  Next day we looked into Cheripe, whence we chased a small vessel, which ran on shore to avoid us.  Next morning, being near Lobos, our appointed rendezvous with the Mercury, I sent ashore my second lieutenant, Mr Randal, with two letters in separate bottles, directing Captain Hately to follow me to Payta, to which port I now made the best of my way, and arrived before it on the 18th of March, and sent Mr Randal to look into the cove, to bring me an account of what ships were there, that I might know what to think of the information we had received from our prisoners.

On the 21st, I steered directly in for the cove of Payta, which I entered under French colours about four in the afternoon.  We found only a small ship there, of which Mr Brooks took possession in the launch.  About seven p.m. we came to anchor within three quarters of a mile of the town.  The town seemed to be moderately large and populous, and there might probably be some land-forces for its defence, being the rendezvous of the ships which trade between Panama and Caloa; yet, as the taking of this place was treated in our instructions as a matter of importance, I consulted with my officers as to the best manner of making the attempt.  Leaving the charge of the ship with the master, Mr Coldsea, and a few hands, to look after the negroes we had on board, and with orders to bring the ship nearer to the town, for the more expeditiously embarking any plunder we might make; I landed with forty-six men, well armed, about two in the morning of the 22d, and marched directly up to the great church without the slightest opposition, for we found the town entirely deserted by the inhabitants.