fiO 1-HE SEA. 



and lumber; and as all is supposed to be fair in war, he determined to worry them at 

 once, and ordered the chase-guns to be fired into them. The galleon returned the fire 

 with two of her stern chase-guns ; " and the Centurion getting her sprit-sail-yard fore and 

 aft, that if necessary she might be ready for boarding, the Spaniards, in a bravado, 

 rigged their sprit-sail-yard fore and aft likewise. Soon after, the Centurion came abreast 

 of the enemy, within pistol-shot, keeping to the leeward of them, with a view of 

 preventing their putting before the wind, and gaining the port of Talapay, from which 

 they were about seven leagues distant. And now the engagement began in earnest, and 

 for the first half-hour Mr. Anson over-reached the galleon, and lay on her bow, where, 

 by the great wideness of his ports, he could traverse almost all his guns upon the enemy, 

 whilst the galleon could only bring a part of hers to bear. Immediately on the 

 commencement of the action, the mats with which the galleon had stuffed her netting 

 took fire, and burnt violently, blazing up half as high as the mizen-top. This accident, 

 supposed to be caused by the Centurion's wads, threw the enemy into the utmost terror, 

 and also alarmed the commodore, for he feared lest the galleon should be burnt, and lest 

 he himself might suffer by her driving on board him. However, the Spaniards at last 

 freed themselves from the fire by cutting away the netting, and tumbling the whole mass 

 which was in flames into the sea. All this interval, the Centurion kept her first 

 advantageous position, firing her cannon with great regularity and briskness ; whilst at 

 the same time the galleon's decks lay open to her top-men, who, having at their first 

 volley driven the Spaniards from their tops, made prodigious havoc with their small-arms, 

 killing or wounding every officer but one that appeared on the quarter-deck, and 

 wounding in particular the general of the galleon himself." 



Then for a little the Centurion lost the superiority of her original position; but still 

 her grape-shot raked the Spaniard's decks with such cruel precision that they were 

 covered with the dead and dying, encumbering the movements of those still fighting, 

 who kept up as brisk a fire as they could. But the general himself was pretty nearly 

 hors de combat, while the Spanish officers were rushing hither and thither, endeavouring 

 vainly to keep the now disheartened men at their posts. They made one last effort, 

 pointed and fired five or six guns with more precision than usual, and then yielded the 

 contest. The galleon's colours had been singed off the ensign-staff in the beginning of 

 the engagement, so she had to haul down the royal standard from her main-top-gallant-mast 

 head, " the person who was employed to perform this office having been in imminent 

 peril of being killed, had not the commodore, who perceived what he was about, given 

 express orders to his people to desist from firing/' And so the great Nostra Signora, de 

 Cabadonga became Anson's prize. 



And she was indeed a prize. She had on board 35,682 ounces of virgin silver, 

 1,313,843 pieces of eight, besides some cochineal and other trifles, which hardly counted 

 in comparison with the specie. She was a much larger vessel than the Centurion, and 

 had five hundred and fifty men, and thirty-six large guns, besides twenty-eight pedreroes 

 each carrying four-pound balls. During the action she had sixty-seven men killed, and 

 eighty-four wounded ; whilst the Centurion had only two killed, and seventeen wounded. 

 Shortly after the galleon had struck, an officer came quietly to Anson, and told him the 



