By removing the masts of the Esperanza into the Asia, and making use of what spare masts and yards they had on board, they made a shift to refit the Asia and the St. Estevan, and in the October following Pizarro was preparing to put to sea with these two ships in order to attempt the passage round Cape Horn a second time, but the St. Estevan, in coming down the River of Plate, ran on a shoal and beat off her rudder, on which, and other damages she received, she was condemned and broke up, and Pizarro in the Asia proceeded to sea without her.  Having now the summer before him and the winds favourable, no doubt was made of his having a fortunate and speedy passage; but being off Cape Horn and going right before the wind in very moderate weather, though in a swelling sea by some misconduct of the officer of the watch the ship rolled away her masts and was a second time obliged to put back to the River of Plate in great distress.

The Asia having considerably suffered in this second unfortunate expedition the Esperanza which had been left behind at Monte Video, was ordered to be refitted, the command of her being given to Mindinuetta, who was captain of the Guipuscoa when she was lost.  He, in the November of the succeeding year that is, in November, 1742, sailed from the River of Plate for the South Seas and arrived safe on the coast of Chile where his Commodore, Pizarro, passing overland from Buenos Ayres met him.  There were great animosities and contests between these two gentlemen at their meeting occasioned principally by the claim of Pizarro to command the Esperanza, which Mindinuetta had brought round, for Mindinuetta refused to deliver her up to him, insisting that as he came into the South Seas alone, and under no superior, it was not now in the power of Pizarro to resume that authority which he had once parted with.  However the President of Chile interposing, and declaring for Pizarro, Mindinuetta after a long and obstinate struggle, was obliged to submit.

But Pizarro had not yet completed the series of his adventures, for when he and Mindinuetta came back by land from Chile to Buenos Ayres in the year 1745 they found at Monte Video the Asia, which near three years before they had left there.  This ship they resolved, if possible, to carry to Europe, and with this view they refitted her in the best manner they could; but their great difficulty was to procure a sufficient number of hands to navigate her, for all the remaining sailors of the squadron to be met with in the neighbourhood of Buenos Ayres did not amount to a hundred men.  They endeavoured to supply this defect by pressing many of the inhabitants of Buenos Ayres, and putting on board besides all the English prisoners then in their custody, together with a number of Portuguese smugglers whom they had taken at different times, and some of the Indians of the country.  Among these last there was a chief and ten of his followers who had been surprised by a party