V 



BETAt3H*S ACCOUNT OF PERU. 



-''• all biir brefad, ami other dry provifions. •It was then time for us to get aboard the prize; 

 which we did, fending three hands to take care of the Mercury. 



We flood ofF-and-on the faid cape feven or eight days, expelling to meet the Speed- 

 well J and there we fet aihore the Spanifti captain, the padre, and fome gentlemen 

 paflengers : at lafl we fpied a fail plying to windward. Not doubting it was the Spec t - 

 well, or the Succefs, we ftood towards her, whilfl (he edging towards us, about teii la 

 the morning, we were got near enough to difcover fhe was a (hip of war, as (he proved, 

 though neither of thefe we wi(hed for. The mafter of our prize had before informed 

 us, that he met the Brilliant cruifmg for our privateers, which till now, we entirely 

 difregarded. Upon this Captain Hatley advifmg with me what to do, we concluded, 

 that fome advantage might be made of the information given us by the Spaniaid' : 

 that, as the Brilliant had fpoken fo lately with the Pink, probably there would not be 

 many queftions^ aiked now : upon which Hatley and I drelfed ourfelves like Spaniards, 

 and hoifted Spanifh colours ; we confined our prifoners in the great cabin, fuffering 

 none of them but the Indians and negrees to appear upon deck, that the Pink might 

 look as (he did before : in which contrivance we had fucceeded, but for the obflinacy 

 - of John Sprake, whom we could not keep off the deck. As the admiral came up, he 

 fired a gun to leeward : hereupon we lowered our top -fail, making eafy fail till we got 

 alongfide of him : their firfl queftion was, if we had heard any thing of the Englifh 

 privateer ? We anfwered, no: the next was, how it happened we were got no farther 

 in our way to Lima? We anfwered, by reafon of the currents: they alked two or 

 three more queflions, which we (till anfwered in Spanifh. They feemed thoroughly 

 fatisfied, and were getting their tacks aboard in order to leave us, when Sprake, and 

 two or three more of our men appeared on the main-deck ; a Frenchman aboard the 



* admiral, looking out at the malt-head, cried out, feeing their long trowfers. Par Dieu^ 

 7nonJieur, Us font Anglois ; they are Englilhmen : upon this they immediately fired a 

 broadfide into us, with round and partridge fliot, by one of which Hatley was (lightly 

 wounded in the leg. 



As foon as we (truck our flag, the enemy fent for all the Englifh on board, and 



• ordered two of their own officers into the prize. The Spanifh admiral then bore 

 dire£tly down upon the Mercury, and fired into her five and twenty guns at lea ft, 

 which bored her fides through and through ; but fuch was the conftrudtion of thru 

 extraordinary vefTel, that though full of water, there was not weight enough to fink her, 

 and the three men who were in her efcaped unhurt. Don Pedro Midranda, the 

 Spanifh commander, ordered thefe three men into his own fhip, in which he intended 

 to fail to Payta : as for me, he gave direftions that I fliould be fent forty miles up the 

 country, to a place call Piura ; and was fo kind as to leave Mr. Preflich, the furgeon,, 

 and my Serjeant Cobbs, to keep me company : as for Captain Hatley, and the reft, 

 they were ordered to Lima by land, which was a journey of four hundred miles ; for 

 that poor gentleman had the misfortune to be doubly under their difpleafure ; firft for 

 returning into thofe feas after having been prifoner fo long, and being fo well jff d 

 amongfl them; and next, for the Cape Frio bufinefs, I mean the flripping theP. rtu. 

 guefe captain, a good quandty of whofe moidores were found about him. The defig n of 

 the admiral, in this, was, to have that affair fearched to the bottom, and thegiiity 

 feverely punifhed, without expofing the innocent to any danger. Here, therefoi ,% I 

 (hall take my leave of Captain Hatley for the prefent, and proceed to the obfervations I 

 made on the road, as the admiral was fo good as to fend me up into the country til; his 

 return from his cruize to Payta, when, as I (hall inform the reader in its proper place, 

 1 again joined him. 



JO As 



