CHAPTER V. 
KUN DOWN THE COAST OF CHILI AND FERU ; ARRIVE AT THE 
GALLAPAGOS ISLANDS. 
On the morning of the 25th, at day-light, discovered a sail 1© 
the N.E., to which we gave chace and soon came up with. She 
proved to be the American whale-ship Charles, capt. Gardner, 
belonging to Nantucket, and had been about four months from 
Lima, where she had been sent for adjudication by a privateer 
belonging to that port, and had been liberated after paying costs. 
Capt. Gardner informed me, that, two days before, he had been 
in company with the American whale-ships Walker and Barclay, 
near the port of Coquimbo; that he had been chaced and fired 
at by a Spanish and an English ship ; and that he saw them take 
possession of both the Walker and Barclay. I consequently 
crowded all sail, in company with the Charles, for Coquimbo, 
with an expectation of falling in with them, and at 8 o’clock 
descried a sail to the northward, to which I gave chace, and at 
meridian we were near enough to discover her to be a ship of 
war, disguised as a whaler, with whale-boats on her quarters. 
She shortly afterwards hoisted the Spanish flag, when we showed 
English colours, and fired a gun to leeward, which she shortly 
returned, and ran down for us. The Charles, agreeably to direc¬ 
tions I had previously given capt. Gardner, hoisted an English 
jack over the American ensign; the Spaniard, when at the dis¬ 
tance of a mile, fired a shot at us, which passed our bow. I im¬ 
mediately, from her appearance, and the description I had re¬ 
ceived of her, knew her to be one of the picaroons that had been 
for a long time harassing our commerce, and felt so, exasperated 
at his firing a shot, that I was almost tempted to pour a broad¬ 
side into him; but reflecting that we were under British colours, 
and that the insult was not intended for the American flag, I con¬ 
tented myself with firing a few shot over him to bring him down- 
