204 A VOYAGE TO Book VIII. 



held in that city, our longer ftay only hindered the 

 conclufion of our grand defign, and was of no fur- 

 ther ufe here, efpecially as it was then certainly 

 known that the enemy's fquadron had failed for 

 Manta, the coafts of which, though in the jurifdic- 

 tion of Guayaquil, are nearly twenty-eight leagues 

 N. of that city, and confequently to leeward of it. 

 It was alfo known that the fleet intended to proceed 

 from Manta to Acapulco. Impatient at the lofs of 

 time we applied to the fame council of war, who 

 were pleafed to grant leave for one of us to re- 

 turn to Qiiito, in order to complete the oblervations 

 flill remaining, that on any fubfequent exigency we 

 might be the more difengaged ; but at the fame time 

 thought it neceffary that one of us fhould continue 

 on the fpot to a6l on any fudden emergency. The 

 matter was foon agreed on between Don George 

 Juan and myfelf, namely, that he fhould remain as 

 commandant of Guayaquil, while I returned to con- 

 tinue the ohfervations at Quito. But before I pro- 

 ceed, it will not be amifs to give an account of the 

 tranfadions of the enemy's fquadron in thofe feas, 

 according to the depofitions of fome prifoners whom 

 they fet afhore at Manta. 



This fquadron, at its entrance into the South~fea, 

 beiides being difperfed, was in a very fhattered con- 

 dition ; but arrived fucceffively at the ifland of Juan 

 Fernandes, to the number of four fhips, from fifty 

 to fixty guns, the Centurion and the Gloucefter, a 

 frigate between thirty-fix and forty guns, and a 

 viclualler. Thefe fhips came to an anchor clofe to 

 the fhore, their crews being very much diminifhed, 

 and thofe which remained very fickly. Tents were 

 pitched, a kind of village built with an hofpital for 

 the recovery of their men. They arrived at this ifland 

 in the month of June, and the commander was fo 

 quick in his profccution of hoftilities, that as foon as a 

 number of faiiors fyfficient to man the frigate were re- 



, covered. 



