voyage, to meet with the two best equipped and armed private ships at that time in the South Sea.  In this action we had not above twenty fire-arms that were of any use, owing to the improvidence of our people at Juan Fernandez; yet were they so impatient of this disappointment, that some of them were for immediately surrendering to the enemy.  To prevent this, I ordered four men whom I thought I could trust to take the charge of our two boats; but two of these went away with the best boat, and my first lieutenant and Morphew plotted to have gone away with the other, but were hindered by blowing weather, and so weak was my authority that I was forced to dissemble.

Next day we stood into the road of Pisco, where we saw a very fine ship, and resolved immediately to board her; and to our great satisfaction, the captain and his people met us with their hats off, beseeching us to give them quarter.  This was a good ship, of about 200 tons, called the Jesu Maria, almost laden with pitch, tar, copper, and plank, but nothing else.  The captain offered 16,000 dollars for her ransom, but I could not comply, as the Recovery was disabled in her masts in boarding, and also we had now a vessel in which we could at least enjoy cleanliness, which we had been entire strangers to ever since our departure from Juan Fernandez; wherefore we made all dispatch in getting every thing out of the bark.  The Spanish captain of the Jesu Maria informed me, that the Margaretta had arrived some time before at Calao, where she had given a full account of her rencounter with us; her captain and three men having been killed in the action, and a priest with several others wounded.  She was now ready to put to sea again to cruize for us, with the addition of ten guns and fifty men.  A frigate of twenty-eight guns, called the Flying-fish, was already out with the same intention; and advice had been sent respecting us along the coast, both to the north and south, with orders to equip what strength there was to catch us.  All night, the people of Pisco were on the alert, continually firing guns, to give us an earnest of what we were to expect if we attempted to land, but we had no such intention.

Having cleared our bark next morning, we gave her to the Spanish captain of the Jesu Maria; and as soon as the breeze sprung up, we weighed and stood to sea.  While going out, we met our own boat with the two men who had deserted us, and who now edged down upon us, imagining we had been Spaniards.  The two fellows were almost dead, having neither eat nor drank for three days, and had just been ashore on a small island near the harbour of Pisco, to kill some seals that they might drink their blood.  Their only excuse for leaving us was, that they had fallen asleep, during which the breeze had wafted our bark away from them.  We had only a transient view of Pisco, which seemed pleasantly situated among orchards and vineyards.  We proceeded along the coast very cautiously, knowing that we were almost in the mouths of our enemies, and that the least act of indiscretion might throw us into their hands.  We ventured, however, to look into the roads of Guanchaco, Malabriga, and Cheripe, where we saw no shipping, after which we passed through between the island of Lobos de Tierra and the continent.