at Conception to register the money shipped at that place, these passengers and missionaries put astonishing sums of money on board the Ruby.  They were thereby spared the trouble of a voyage to Panama or Acapulco, and travelling thence for Portobello or Vera Cruz, where they must have had their coffers visited, to see if the indulto of his majesty were fairly accounted for.  They therefore saved every shilling of that indulto, as the Ruby touched first in France, where no cognizance whatever was taken of this affair.  They also got clear of the other moiety payable in Spain, as they landed all their money in France.

Besides these rich passengers and their money, the Ruby had also on board a considerable sum arising to his catholic majesty from the confiscation of the thirteen captured interlopers, all of which, as I was informed, amounted to four millions of dollars in that ship.  What a fine booty we missed therefore by the obstinacy of Shelvocke!  For, when this ship, the Ruby, found us at the island of St Catharine, her company was so sickly that she had not above sixty sound men out of four hundred; so that La Jonquiere was actually afraid of us, and would not send his boat to the watering-place, where we kept guard, and our coopers and sail-makers were at work, till he had first obtained leave of our captain; neither is this strange, for he knew we had a consort, and was in Spain all the time he staid there, lest the Success should have joined us.

After Commodore Martinet had cleared the coast of Chili and Peru of his countrymen, he sent his brother-in-law, Monsieur de Grange, express with the news to Madrid, who went by way of Panama, Portobello, Jamaica, and London.  On delivering his message, the king of Spain asked what he could do for him, when he humbly requested his majesty would give him the command of a ship, and send him again round Cape Horn into the South Sea.  He accordingly got the Zelerin, of fifty guns.  He came first to Calais,[2] where the ship was getting ready, and was surprised to meet with a cold reception from the French merchants and other gentlemen of his acquaintance residing there; for, as there were merchants of various nations interested in the ships taken and confiscated in the South Sea, they universally considered him and all the French in that squadron as false brethren, for serving the crown of Spain to the prejudice of their own countrymen.  Thus, while he expected to have had a valuable cargo consigned to his care, no man would ship the value of a dollar with him.  Captain Fitzgerald, who was then at Cales, made him a considerable offer for the privilege of going out as his second officer, with liberty to take out what goods he might be able to procure, in his own name.  As de Grange was not a little embarrassed, he accepted this offer, and procured a commission for Fitzgerald as second captain.  They accordingly manned the Zelerin chiefly with French seamen, and some English, and got very well round Cape Horn.  At this time our two privateers, the Success and Speedwell, were known to be in the South Seas, and the Zelerin was one of the ships commissioned by the viceroy of Peru to cruize for us.  Fitzgerald sold all his goods to great advantage at Lima, where he continued to reside; while de Grange served as captain under Admiral Don Pedro Miranda, who took Hately and me prisoners.