xxxii 



PREFACE. 



pearance^ together with that of the ships in the har- 

 bour^ as may be seen in the twenty-fourth plate.^^^ 



Here now, is a modern Nero, calmly sitting down 

 to delineate the beautiful spectacle of a burning 

 town, and a whole community left without pro- 

 perty, or house, or home ! Chaplain Walter then 

 proceeds very coolly, and without a single remark 

 on the unnecessary barbarity of this conflagration, 

 to count up the money. 



And now, before I entirely quit the account of 

 our transactions at this place, it may not perhaps 

 be improper to give a succinct relation of the booty 

 we got here, and of the loss the Spaniards sus- 

 tained." He says the Spaniards estimated their 

 loss at a million and a half of dollars, and con- 

 tinues : " As to ourselves, the acquisition we made, 

 though inconsiderable in comparison of what we 

 destroyed, was yet far from despicable ; for the 

 wrought plate dollars, and other coin which fell 

 into our hands, amounted to upwards of £30,000 

 sterling, besides several rings, bracelets, jewels, ^c, 

 whose intrinsic value we could not determine." 

 " Upon the whole," says he, " it was by far the 

 most important booty we met with upon that 

 coast."t 



Such is the most brilliant feat performed by 

 Commodore Anson during the whole course of his 

 voyage. From their own admission as just quoted, 

 it will appear, that the town was surprised and ta- 

 ken in the night, without the loss of a man, the go- 

 vernor having ran away, and the soldiers deserting 

 the only fort it possessed ; that it was plundered, 

 and thejewels, bracelets, &c. of ladies, pilfered to put 

 into the general stock ; that it was afterwards set on 



* Anson's Voyage, Mentz and Frankfort edit. p. 237, 238, 241, 242. 

 f Anson's Voyage, p. 243. 



