saint that stood in a corner, mistaking him for one of their companions.  Missing them for a few days, I enquired at Bell what was become of them, when he told me they were all in the Inquisition; for the thing having taken air, he was obliged to go himself to complain of their behaviour, but he got them released a few days after, when they had time to repent and get sober in the dungeons of the holy office.  Bell said, if these men had remained heretics, their drunken exploit had not come within the verge of the ecclesiastical power; but as they were novices, they were the easier pardoned, their outrages on the saint being attributed to the liquor, and not to any designed affront to the catholic faith, or a relapse into heresy.

Some time afterwards, about a dozen of our men from the Success and Speedwell were sent to Calao, to assist in careening and fitting out the Flying-fish, designed for Europe.  They here entered into a plot to run away with the Margarita, a good sailing ship which lay in the harbour, meaning to have gone for themselves, in which of course they would have acted as pirates.  Not knowing what to do for ammunition and a compass, they applied to Mr Sergeantson, pretending they meant to steal away to Panama, where there was an English factory, and whence they had hopes of getting home.  They said they had got half a dozen firelocks, with which they might be able to kill wild hogs or other game, as they went along, and begged him to help them to some powder and shot, and a compass to steer their way through the woods.  By begging and making catholic signs to the people in Lima, they had collected some dollars, which they desired Sergeantson to lay out for them; and he, not mistrusting their plot, bought them what they wanted.  Thus furnished, one of them came to me at Lima, and told me their intention, and that Sprake was to have the command, as being the only one among them who knew any thing of navigation.  I answered, that it was a bold design; but as Captain Fitzgerald had engaged for my honour, I could not engage in it.  Their plot was discovered a few days after, their lodgings searched, their arms taken away, and they were committed to prison.  The government was much incensed against them, and had nearly determined upon their execution; but they were soon all released except Sprake, who was the ringleader, and was kept in irons for two or three months, and then set at liberty.

The dominions belonging to the Spaniards in America are so large and valuable, that, if well governed, they might render that monarchy exceedingly formidable.  In my long stay in Peru, I had the means of examining at leisure, and with attention, their manner of living, the form of their government, and many other circumstances little known in our part of the world, and had many opportunities of enquiring into things minutely, which did not fall under my immediate observation; and of which I propose to give as clear and accurate an account as I can, constantly distinguishing between what fell under my own immediate knowledge, and what I received from the information of others.