2o8 A VOYAGE TO Book VIIL 



failed of reaching thefe feas, yet by perfeverance, and 

 a fecond effort, they might fucceed. 



Commodore Don Jofeph Pizarro, had alfo been dif- 

 appointed in getting into thefe feas this year, though 

 he had attempted it in a fmgle fnip called the Afia j 

 but was obliged to put back to Buenos Ayres with 

 the lofs of one of his mafts, and another was carried 

 awayjuft at the mouth of the Rio de la Plata. Thefe 

 difappointments rendered it the more neceffary for 

 the Vice-roy to provide for the defence of the coaft 

 of Chili, as all ihips muft pafs near it in their courfe to 

 Peru. 



CHAP III. 



Voyage to the IJland of Juan Fernandes ; 

 ^doith an Account of the Seas and Winds in that 

 Paffage. 



AMONG other precautions taken by the viligant 

 Vice-roy of Lima, for the defence of the fouth- 

 fea, he fitted out, as we have jufl: mentioned, two fri- 

 gates for cruizing on the coafl: of Chili ; and gave the 

 command of one, called Nueftra Senora de Beien, to 

 Don George Juan, and appointed me for the other, 

 called the Rofa : they had been both merchant (hips 

 employed ip thefe feas, all the king's fhips being fent 

 in the Panama fquadron. They were between fix and 

 feven hundreci tons, each carried thirty guns on one 

 deck, and three hundred and fifty men, ail picked and 

 expert failors. The fhips v/ere alfo prime failors : fo 

 that our force was in all refpeds fufficient for the fer- 

 vice on which it was employed ; and, with the affiil- 

 ance of providence, would doubtlefs have anfwered the 

 Vice-roy 's expedations. 



On 



