advantage of the information given us by the Spaniards; considering, as the Brilliante had spoken so very lately with the Pink, that there might not be many questions asked now.  Accordingly, Hately and I dressed ourselves like Spaniards, and hoisted Spanish colours, confined all our prisoners in the great cabin, and allowed none but Indians and negroes to appear on the deck, that the Pink might have the same appearance as before.  We had probably succeeded in this contrivance, but for the obstinacy of John Sprake, one of our men, whom we could not persuade to keep off the deck.  As the Brilliante came up, she fired a gun to leeward, on which we lowered our topsail, going under easy sail till we got alongside.  The first question asked was, If we had seen the English privateer?  We answered, No.  The next question was, How we had got no farther on our way to Lima?  To which we answered, By reason of the currents.  To two or three other questions, we answered satisfactorily in Spanish, and they were getting their tacks aboard in order to leave us, when Sprake and two or three more of our men appeared on the main deck.  A Frenchman aboard the Brilliante, who was on the mast-head, seeing their long trowsers, called out, Par Dieu, Monsieur, ils sont Anglois, By Heaven, Sir, they are English:  Upon which they immediately fired a broad-side into us with round and partridge shot, by one of which Hately was slightly wounded in the leg.

As soon as we struck our flag, the enemy sent for all the English on board their ships, and ordered two of their own officers into our prize.  The Brilliante then bore down on the Mercury, into which she fired at least twenty-five shot, which bored her sides through and through:  Yet such was the construction of that extraordinary vessel, that, though quite full of water, there was not weight enough to sink her, and our three men who were in her remained unhurt.  Don Pedro Midrando, the Spanish commander, ordered these three men into his own ship, in which he intended to sail for Payta.  As for me, he gave directions that I should be sent forty miles up the country, to a place called Piura, and was so kind as to leave Mr Pressick the surgeon, and my serjeant Cobbs, to bear me company.  Mr Hately and the rest of our men were ordered to Lima by land, a journey of four hundred miles.[2] Hately had the misfortune to be doubly under the displeasure of the Spaniards:  First, for returning into these seas after having been long their prisoner, and being well used among them:  And, second, for having stripped the Portuguese captain at Cape Frio of a good quantity of moidores, which were now found upon him.  Don Pedro proposed to have this business searched to the bottom, and the guilty severely punished, without exposing the innocent to any danger.

[Footnote 2:  Lima is above six hundred miles from Cape Blanco, and Piura is about seventy-five miles from the same place.  Betagh gives no account of the place where he landed; but forty miles northwards from Piura would only carry him to the north side of the bay of Payta; and, as he makes no mention of passing any river, he was probably landed on the south side of the river Amatape or Chira.—­E.]