intention was to prevent our being disturbed by any
sudden attack of the enemy’s horse, yet it answered
another purpose, which was not in itself less important;
this was to hinder our own people from straggling
singly into the country, where we had reason to believe
they would be surprised by the Spaniards, who would
doubtless be extremely solicitous to pick up some
of them, in hopes of getting intelligence of our future
designs. To avoid this inconvenience, the strictest
orders were given to the centinels, to let no person
whatever pass beyond their post: But, notwithstanding
this precaution, we missed one Lewis Leger, who was
the commodore’s cook; and as he was a Frenchman,
and suspected to be a papist, it was by some imagined
that he had deserted with a view of betraying all
that he knew to the enemy; but this appeared by the
event to be an ill-grounded surmise, for it was afterwards
known that he had been taken by some Indians, who
carried him prisoner to Acapulco, from whence he was
transferred, to Mexico, and then to Vera Cruz, where
he was shipped on board a vessel bound to Old Spain:
And the vessel being obliged by some accident to put
into Lisbon, Leger escaped on shore, and was by the
British consul sent from thence to England; where
he brought the first authentic account of the safety
of the commodore, and of what he had done in the South
Seas. The relation he gave of his own seizure
was, that he had rambled into the woods at some distance
from the barricade, where he had first attempted to
pass, but had been stopped and threatened to be punished;
that his principal view was to get a quantity of limes
for his master’s store; and that in this occupation
he was surprised by four Indians, who stripped him
naked, and carried him in that condition to Acapulco,
exposed to the scorching heat of the sun, which at
that time of the year shone with its greatest violence:
And afterwards at Mexico his treatment in prison was
sufficiently severe, and the whole course of his captivity
was a continued instance of the hatred which the Spaniards
bear to all those who endeavour to disturb them in
the peaceable possession of the coasts of the South
Seas. Indeed, Leger’s fortune was upon
the whole extremely singular; for after the hazards
he had run in the commodore’s squadron, and the
severities he had suffered in his long confinement
amongst the enemy, a more fatal disaster attended
him on his return to England: For though, when
he arrived in London, some of Mr Anson’s friends
interested themselves in relieving him from the poverty
to which his captivity had reduced him, yet he did
not long enjoy the benefit of their humanity, for he
was killed in an insignificant night brawl, the cause
of which could scarcely be discovered.
And here I must observe, that though the enemy never appeared in sight during our stay in this harbour; yet we perceived that there were large parties encamped in the woods about us; for we could see their smokes, and could thence determine that they were posted in a circular line surrounding us at a distance; and just before our coming away they seemed, by the increase of their fires, to have received a considerable reinforcement.