with the spoils of the enemy.  For, firmly relying on the assurances of the Commodore that they should certainly meet with the vessels, they were all of them too sanguine to doubt a moment of mastering them; so that they considered themselves as having them already in their possession.  And this confidence was so universally spread through the whole ship’s company that, the Commodore having taken some Chinese sheep to sea with him for his own provision, and one day enquiring of his butcher why for some time past he had seen no mutton at his table, asking him if all the sheep were killed, the butcher very seriously replied that there were indeed two sheep left, but that if his honour would give him leave, he proposed to keep those for the entertainment of the General of the galleons.

When the Centurion left the port of Macao she stood for some days to the westward, and on the 1st of May they saw part of the island of Formosa, and standing thence to the southward, they, on the 4th of May about seven in the evening, discovered from the masthead five small islands, which were judged to be the Bashees, and they had afterwards a sight of Botel Tobago Xima.  After getting a sight of the Bashee Islands, they stood between the south and south-west for Cape Espiritu Santo, and the 20th of May at noon they first discovered that cape, which about four o’clock they brought to bear south-south-west, about eleven leagues distant.  It appeared to be of a moderate height, with several round hummocks on it.  As it was known that there were sentinels placed upon this cape to make signals to the Acapulco ship when she first falls in with the land, the Commodore immediately tacked, and ordered the top-gallant sails to be taken in to prevent being discovered; and this being the station in which it was resolved to cruise for the galleons, they kept the cape between the south and west, and endeavoured to confine themselves between the latitude of 12 degrees 50 minutes and 13 degrees 5 minutes.

It was the last of May, by the foreign style, when they arrived off this cape; and the month of June, by the same style, being that in which the Manila ships are usually expected, the Centurion’s people were now waiting each hour with the utmost impatience for the happy crisis which was to balance the account of all their past calamities.  As from this time there was but small employment for the crew, the Commodore ordered them almost every day to be exercised in the management of the great guns and in the use of their small arms.  This had been his practice, more or less, at all convenient seasons during the whole course of his voyage, and the advantages which he received from it in his engagement with the galleon were an ample recompense for all his care and attention.  The men were taught the shortest method of loading with cartridges, and were constantly trained to fire at a mark, which was usually hung at the yard-arm, and some little reward was given to the most expert.  The whole crew, by this management, were rendered extremely skilful, quick in loading, all of them good marksmen, and some of them most extraordinary ones, so that I doubt not but, in the use of small arms, they were more than a match for double their number who had not been habituated to the same kind of exercise.