instant, that she was a prime sailer, and had cost him thirty-six hours’ chase before he could come up with her; that for some time he gained so little upon her that he began to despair of taking her; and the Spaniards, though alarmed at first with seeing nothing but a cloud of sail in pursuit of them, the Trial’s hull being so low in the water that no part of it appeared, yet knowing the goodness of their ship, and finding how little the Trial neared them, they at length laid aside their fears, and recommending themselves to the blessed Virgin for protection, began to think themselves secure.  And indeed, their success was very near doing honour to their Ave Marias;* for altering their course in the night and shutting up their windows to prevent any of their lights from being seen, they had some chance of escaping.  But a small crevice in one of the shutters rendered all their invocations ineffectual, for through this crevice the people on board the Trial perceived a light, which they chased till they arrived within gun shot, and then Captain Saunders alarmed them unexpectedly with a broadside when they flattered themselves they were got out of his reach.  However, for some time after, they still kept the same sail abroad, and it was not observed that this first salute had made any impression on them; but just as the Trial was preparing to repeat her broadside, the Spaniards crept from their holes, lowered their sails, and submitted without any opposition.  She was one of the largest merchantmen employed in those seas, being about six hundred tons burthen, and was called the “Arranzazu”.  She was bound from Callao to Valparaiso, and had much the same cargo with the Carmelo we had taken before, except that her silver amounted only to about 5000 pounds sterling.

(Note.  Ave Maria (Hail Mary!) are the opening words of a Roman Catholic prayer to the Virgin Mary.)

THE TRIAL DISABLED.

But to balance this success we had the misfortune to find that the Trial had sprung her mainmast, and that her maintopmast had come by the board; and as we were all of us standing to the eastward the next morning, with a fresh gale at south, she had the additional ill-luck to spring her foremast; so that now she had not a mast left on which she could carry sail.  These unhappy incidents were still further aggravated by the impossibility we were just then under of assisting her; for the wind blew so hard, and raised such a hollow sea, that we could not venture to hoist out our boat, and consequently could have no communication with her; so that we were obliged to lie to for the greatest part of forty-eight hours to attend her.