speeches of the carpenter, he allowed him very imprudently to come much too near him, so that, watching his opportunity, the carpenter wrenched the pistol from his hand, and ran away with it up the hill.  By this time two others of our men, who had seen the carpenter advance, and suspected his intentions, were making towards him, and now pursued him, but he got up the hill before they could reach him, and then turned round and fired the pistol.  His pursuers immediately returned the fire, though at a great distance, and the crest of the hill covered him as soon as they had fired, so that they took it for granted they had missed him:  yet we afterwards learnt that he was shot through the body, and had fallen dead the very next step he took after firing his pistol and getting out of sight.  The centinel, too, whom he had so grossly imposed upon, did not escape unpunished; as he was ordered to be severely whipt, for allowing himself to be so shamefully surprised on his post, and giving an example of carelessness, which, if followed in other instances, might have proved fatal to us all.

By the time our people had taken their comrade out of the water, and were making the best of their way to the squadron, the flames had got possession of every part of the town with so powerful a hold, by means of the combustibles laid for the purpose, and by the slightness of the materials of the houses, and their aptitude to take fire, that it was now quite apparent no efforts of the enemy, who now flocked down in great numbers, could possibly stop its ravages, or prevent the entire destruction of the place and all the merchandize it contained.  Our detachment under Lieutenant Brett safely joined the squadron, and the commodore prepared to leave the bay that same evening.  On our first arrival there were six vessels belonging to the enemy at anchor, one of which was the ship, that was to have sailed with the treasure to the coast of Mexico; and, as she was supposed to be a good sailer, the commodore resolved to take her along with us.  The others were two snows, a bark, and two row gallies of thirty-six oars each.  These last, as we afterwards learnt, with many others of the same kind built at different ports, were intended to prevent us from landing in the neighbourhood of Callao; as the Spaniards, on the first intelligence of our squadron being destined for the South seas, and learning its force, expected that we would attempt the city of Lima.  Having no occasion for these five vessels, the commodore ordered all their masts to be cut by the board at our first arrival; and on leaving the place, they were all towed out into deep water, scuttled, and sunk.  The command of the remaining ship, called the Solidad, was given to Mr Hughes, lieutenant of the Tryal, with a crew of ten men.  Towards midnight the squadron weighed anchor and sailed out of the bay, now consisting of six ships, the Centurion, Tryal’s prize, Carmelo, Teresa, Carmin, and Solidad.