201 
Chap. I. Captain George Shelvocke. 
to know what ffie was •, but with a ftridft Injunction to him 
not to go on board. About Noon, the Launch returned-, 
and the Lieutenant reported, that £he was the Ruby , for- 
merly one of our Men of War, but now one of Martinet' s 
Squadron, commanded by one M. la Jonquiere ; that his 
Officers and Seamen were, molt of them, French , to the 
Number of about 420 ; and that, tho’ fhe was actually in 
the Spanifh Service, yet they had not the leaft Defign to 
moieft us, having quitted the South Seas, upon a Report 
of a Rupture between France and Spain. I was very well 
pleafed with this Information ; but by no means fatisfied 
with the Manner in which it had been obtained, becaufe my 
Lieutenant had difobeyed my Orders, and had been on 
board the Stranger. It appeared, however, afterwards, that 
that M. la Jonquiere was a Man of ftricft Honour. The 
next Day, he fent me an Affurance of his good Intentions, 
with an Invitation to dine with him *, which I accepted, and 
was extremely well entertained. About this time I firft 
heard, that Hatley had plundered the Portuguefe Captain of 
100 Moidores, and had diftributed Part of them among his 
Boat’s Crew, in order to engage them to Secrecy. I exa- 
mined into this as ftricftly as poffible, with Intent, if he had 
been found guilty, to have delivered him up to the Cap- 
tain of the Portuguefe Hand ; but, not being able to ob- 
tain fuch Proof as was neceffary, all I could do was to pro- 
teft againft him which Proteft I gave to Captain Clipperton 
in the South Seas. The fame Man committed fo many 
vile Actions oh the Hand, that our People were in the 
utmoft Danger of their Lives, from the Refentment of the 
Portuguefe ; which ill Conduft of his I was neither able to 
prevent or punilh, becaufe he was now become the greateft 
Favourite with my mutinous Crew. On July 6 . the French 
Captain, with feveral of his Officers and Paffengers, came 
on board to dine with me. While they were in the Ship, 
my Boatfwain, whofe Name was Hudfon , raifed a Mutiny *, 
which, with the Affiftance of the French Gentlemen, was 
eafily quelled : And M. la Jonquiere , when things were 
quiet, made a very handfome Difcourfe to them on the 
Madnefs of their Behaviour which had fo good an Effect, 
that, the next Day, they appeared very fubmiffive, and laid 
all the Blame upon the Boatfwain ; who excufed himfelf, by 
alleging, that he was mad with Drink, befeeching me at 
the fame time, that he might have Leave to go home in the 
French Ship ; which I readily gave him, knowing him, by 
Experience, to be a very dangerous Fellow, and one who 
was continually incenfing the People againft their Officers, 
of whom, he pretended, there were too many; and was 
wont, upon all Occafions, to ftyle them the Bloodfuckers. 
On the 1 5th, we faw a large Ship lying in to the Harbour’s 
Mouth ; who, as foon as they difcovered us, turned out 
again: Which filled M. la Jonquiere with fuch Apprehen- 
fions of her being our Confort, that he refolved to be gone 
Immediately ; and accordingly, when Night came on, he 
weighed, and fell down the Harbour, and went to Sea the 
next Morning, and, at his Departure, faluted me with five 
Guns. Three Frenchmen belonging to me Went away with 
him ; but I had two Frenchmen , and one Morphew an Irifh- 
man , in lieu of them. On the Whole, I muft do M. la 
Jonquiere the Juftice to fay, that he behaved towards me, in 
every refpedt, as became a Gentleman, a good Officer, and 
a Man of Honour. On the 25th, the large Ship appeared 
again under French Colours. She was called the Wife Solo- 
mon of St. Malo , of forty Guns, and about 160 Men, 
commanded by M. Dumain Girard , and bound to the 
Coafts of Chili and Peru to trade, and the fame Ship we 
faw coming in before, and had fpoken with the Ruby at Sea. 
This Gentleman abufed M. la Jonquiere to me in the moft 
fcurrilous Manner, calling him Renegado, for having ferved 
under a foreign Crown againft his Own Countrymen ; for 
he being one of Martinet' s Squadron, their Bulinefs in the 
South Seas was, to fweep thofe Coafts clear of the French 
Interlopers: Which they did very effectually; for there 
were not above two or three, out of twelve or thirteen, 
that efcaped falling into Martinet' s Hands, who made them 
all legal Piizes. He likewife gave M. Frezier a very bad 
Character ; and afferted, that there were many grofs Mif- 
takes in his Book ; which,, however, I did not abfolutely 
believe, becaufe I was a little fufpicious of his having a fini- 
fter Defign of depriving me of the Lights this Book affords : 
Numb. 14. 
And indeed I found him, in every refpecft, a very fubtle 
mercenary Man, full of Conceit and Vanity. I made, how- 
ever, what Ufes of him I could, by purchafing Cheefe, 
Butter, Nails, and other Neceffaries ; which made me con- 
ceive myfelf in a pretty good Capacity for finifhing the 
Voyage, which was now upon my Hands. This Succefs 
abroad did not hinder our having great Storms at home ; 
for my Crew, being informed, that the People on board 
the Duke and Duchefs had been but indifferently tiled with 
refpeft to their Prize-money when they came home, refolved 
to fecure themfelves in time; and; by the Advice of one 
Matthew Stewart , who was chief Mate, drew up a Paper 
of Articles relating to Plunder, and fent me a Letter, figned 
by them, in which they infilled on its being made the Rule 
of our Voyage. I took fome time to confider of this, which 
did not pleafe them.; and therefore they drew up a Letter 
of Attorney to this Matthew Stewart , and fent him to fa- 
licit an Anfwer, or rather my Con fent, to their Demands ; 
which, finding my Officers equally cold in advifing or act- 
ing with me, I laboured to decline. But, after fome few, 
Days Murmuring and Uneafinefs amongft themfelves, and 
no Work going on, the Ship’s Company came all on the 
Quarter-deck to me in a mutinous Manner, defiring to 
know my final Refolution, faying, that I knew theirs, 
which was that they would Hand by ; telling me, that they 
knew how to provide for themfelves, without running fuch 
certain Hazards for uncertain Gain ; and clamoured, in a 
moft outrageous Manner, againft Mr. Godfrey , who was 
our principal Agent, and againft one of the chief of the 
Gentlemen Owners, faying. They had been well informed 
what a Pay-mafter he would make, if their Fortunes fhould 
fall into his Hands, with a thoufand fcurrilous Exprefiions ; 
which aftonifhed me. In Ihort, finding them deaf to any 
thing I could urge againft them, and fo perverfely obftinate 
in requiring me to comply with them, by figning their 
Articles ; and confidering the Profpecft I had of meeting 
Captain Clipperton in the South Seas, when they muft be 
again reduced, and made fubjecft, to their firft Articles, or, 
at leaft, under the fame Reftri£lion,with thofe under his 
Command ; and verily believing, that the Confequence of 
my Refufal, in this Particular, would be no lefs than their 
running away with my Ship, and following the old Gunner’s 
Scheme (It muft certainly have been fomething like ; for I 
could not think of any other way they could have of pro- 
viding for themfelves, as they called it) ; therefore, upon 
thefe Confiderations, both myfelf, and all my chief Officers, 
thought it more advifeable, for the general Good, to fign, 
rather than to fuffer them to proceed in fuch piratical Man- 
ner.. As foon as they had gained their Point, they expreffed 
a great Satisfaction ; and promifed me, that they would 
always be ready to hazard their Lives on any Undertaking, 
that I fhould think conducive to attain the Ends we were 
fitted out for. However, upon the Whole, tho’ it may 
be called a defperate Remedy, when one was not certain 
what might be the Confequence of it, it ought to be looked 
on as applied to a defperate Difeafe, and as the only Means 
left to prevail on them to go on quietly in our Expedition ; 
for the moft favourable Conjecture that could be made, in 
cafe of my not condefcending to their Requeft, was, that 
they would have certainly deferted, and have left me and a 
few others here, to have ended fo promifing an Undertake- 
ingin this Port. But to go on with our Voyage : Augufi 3. 
there came in the St. Francifco Xavier , a Portuguefe Man 
of War, of forty Guns, and 300 Men, from Lifbon^ bound 
to Macao in China , commanded by Captain Riviere , a 
Frenchman. I made no doubt, but that Captain Hatley's 
Affair would be report t pi to this Gentleman by fome of the 
Inhabitants ; and therefore told him, that I expected he 
would go and vindicate himfelf to the Portuguefe Captain, 
to prevent any Difturbances that might arife by the Account 
of his Mifmanagement on board the Portuguefe , which we 
met at Sea ; to which he readily replied, that he would. 
Therefore, to give him an Opportunity of doing it, I fent a 
Compliment by him to M. Riviere , to whom he acquitted 
himfelf fo well, as to give that Gentleman Satisfaction. On 
the 6th, three of my Men deferted; and, having Intelli- 
gence, that they had been feen at our Tents, I fent one of 
my Mates in the Pinnace after them, with Orders to go no 
farther than the Tents, but to return without Lofs of Time; 
i 
