From a consideration of the number of our prisoners, and the quality of some of them, we did not doubt but the governor would readily comply, and therefore we kept plying on and off the whole night, intending to keep well in with the land, that we might receive an answer at the limited time, which was the next day, being Monday:  But both on the Monday and Tuesday we were driven so far off shore, that we could not hope to receive any answer; and on the Wednesday morning we found ourselves fourteen leagues from the harbour of Acapulco; but as the wind was now favourable, we pressed forwards with all our sail, and did not doubt of getting in with the land in a few hours.  Whilst we were thus standing in, the man at the mast-head called out that he saw a boat under sail at a considerable distance to the south-eastward:  This we took for granted was the answer of the governor to the commodore’s message, and we instantly edged towards it; but when we drew nearer, we found to our unspeakable joy that it was our own cutter.  While she was still at a distance, we imagined that she had been discharged out of the port of Acapulco by the governor; but when she drew nearer, the wan and meagre countenances of the crew, the length of their beards, and the feeble and hollow tone of their voices, convinced us that they had suffered much greater hardships than could be expected from even the severities of a Spanish prison.  They were obliged to be helped into the ship, and were immediately put to bed, and with rest, and nourishing diet, which they were plentifully supplied with, from the commodore’s table, they recovered their health and vigour apace.  We learnt that they had kept the sea the whole time of their absence; that when they finished their cruise before Acapulco, and had just begun to ply to the westward in order to join the squadron, a strong adverse current had forced them down the coast to the eastward in spite of all their efforts; that at length their water being all expended, they were obliged to search the coast farther on to the eastward, in quest of some convenient landing-place, where they might get a fresh supply; that in this distress they ran upwards of eighty leagues to leeward, and found every where so large a surf, that there was not the least possibility of their landing; that they passed some days in this dreadful situation without water, and having no other means left them to allay their thirst than sucking the blood of the turtle which they caught; and at last, giving up all hopes of relief, the heat of the climate augmenting their necessities, and rendering their sufferings insupportable, they abandoned themselves to despair, fully persuaded that they should perish by the most terrible of all deaths; but that they were soon after happily relieved by a most unexpected incident, for there fell so heavy a rain, that by spreading their sails horizontally, and by putting bullets in the centres of them to draw them to a point, they caught