the whole a very extraordinary piece of deception; as in every jar there was a considerable quantity of double doubloons and dollars, artfully concealed among the cotton, to the amount in all of near 12,000l.  This treasure was going to Payta, and belonged to the same merchants who were proprietors of most of the money we had taken there; so that, if this boat had escaped the Gloucester, her cargo would probably have fallen into our hands.  Besides these two prizes, the Gloucester had been in sight of two or three other ships, which had escaped them; and one of them, from some of our intelligence, we had reason to believe was of immense value.

It was now resolved to stand to the northwards, and to make the best of our way either for Cape St Lucas, in California, or Cape Corientes on the coast of Mexico.  When at Juan Fernandez, the commodore had resolved to touch somewhere in the neighbourhood of Panama, to endeavour to get some correspondence overland with the fleet under Admiral Vernon.  For, on our departure from England, we left a fleet at Portsmouth intended for the West Indies, to be employed there in an expedition against some of the Spanish settlements.  Taking for granted, therefore, that this enterprise had succeeded, and that Portobello might then be garrisoned by British troops, the commodore conceived he might easily procure an intercourse with our countrymen, on the other side of the isthmus of Darien, either by means of the Indians, who are greatly disposed to favour us, or even by the Spaniards themselves; some of whom might be induced, by proper rewards, to carry on this correspondence; which, when once begun, might be continued with little difficulty.  By this means, Mr Anson flattered himself that he might procure a reinforcement of men from the other side, and that, by settling a prudent plan of co-operation with our commanders in the West Indies, he might even have taken Panama.  This would have given the British nation the command of the isthmus, by which we should in effect have become masters of all the wealth of Peru, and should have held an equivalent in our hands for any demand, however extraordinary, that might have been thought advisable to make on either branch of the Bourbon family.

Such were the magnificent projects which the commodore revolved in his mind, when at the island of Juan Fernandez, notwithstanding the feeble condition to which his force was then reduced; and, had the success of the expedition to the West Indies been answerable to the general expectation, these views had certainly been the most prudent that could have been devised.  But, on examining the papers found on board the Carmelo, our first prize, it was then learnt, though I deferred mentioning it till now, that the attempt on Carthagena had failed, and that there was no probability of our fleet in the West Indies engaging in any new enterprise that could at all facilitate this plan.  Mr Anson, therefore, had relinquished all hope of being reinforced