Anson George
A Voyage Round the World
On the second day of our being in possession of the place, several negro slaves deserted from the enemy on the hill, and coming into the town, voluntarily engaged in our service. One of these was well known to a gentleman on board who remembered him formerly at Panama. We now learnt that the Spaniards without the town were in extreme want of water, for many of their slaves crept into the place by stealth, and carried away several jars of water to their masters on the hill; and though some of them were seized by our men in the attempt, yet the thirst among the enemy was so pressing that they continued this practice till we left the place. On this second day we were assured, both by the deserters and by these prisoners we took, that the Spaniards on the hill, who were by this time encreased to a formidable number, had resolved to storm the town and fort the succeeding night; and that one Gordon, a Scots papist, and captain of a ship in those seas, was to have the command of this enterprize. However, we, notwithstanding, continued sending off our boats, and prosecuted our work without the least hurry or precipitation till the evening; when a reinforcement was again sent on shore by the commodore, and Lieutenant Brett doubled his guards at each of the barricadoes; and our posts being connected by the means of centinels placed within call of each other, and the whole being visited by frequent rounds, attended with a drum, these marks of our vigilance, which the enemy could not be ignorant of, as they could doubtless hear the drum, if not the calls of the centinels; these marks, I say, of our vigilance, and of our readiness to receive them, cooled their resolution, and made them forget the vaunts of the preceding day, so that we passed this second night with as little molestation as we had done the first.
We had finished sending the treasure on board the Centurion the evening before, so that the third morning, being the 15th of November, the boats were employed in carrying off the most valuable part of the effects that remained in the town. And the commodore intending to sail in the afternoon, he, about ten o'clock, pursuant to his promise, sent all his prisoners, amounting to eighty-eight, on shore, giving orders to Lieutenant Brett to secure them in one of the churches under a strict guard till the men were ready to be embarked. Mr. Brett was at the same time ordered to burn the whole town, except the two churches (which by good fortune stood at some distance from the houses), and then he was to abandon the place, and to return on board. These orders were punctually complied with, for Mr. Brett immediately set his men to work to distribute pitch, tar, and other combustibles (of which great quantities were found here) into houses situated in different streets of the town, so that the place being fired in many quarters at the same time, the destruction might be more violent and sudden, and the enemy, after our departure, might not be able to extinguish it. When these preparations were made, he, in the next place, commanded the cannon, which he found in the fort, to be nailed up; and then setting fire to those houses which were most to the windward, he collected his men and marched towards the beach, where the boats waited to carry them off. As that part of the beach whence he intended to embark was an open place without the town, the Spaniards on the hill perceiving he was retreating, resolved to try if they could not precipitate his departure, and thereby lay some foundation for their future boasting. To this end a small squadron of their horse, consisting of about sixty, picked out, as I suppose, for this service, marched down the hill with much seeming resolution, so that had we not entertained an adequate opinion of their prowess, we might have imagined that now we were on the open beach with no advantage of situation, they would certainly have charged us, but we presumed (and we were not mistaken) that this was mere ostentation. For, notwithstanding the pomp and parade they at first came on with, Mr. Brett had no sooner ordered his men to halt and face about, than the enemy stopped their career, and never dared to advance a step further.
When our people were arrived at their boats, and were ready to go on board, they were for some time retarded by missing one of their number; and being unable, on their mutual enquiries amongst each other, to inform themselves where he was left, or by what accident he was detained, they, after a considerable delay, resolved to get into their boats, and to depart without him. But when the last man was actually embarked, and the boats were just putting off, they heard him calling to them to take him in. The place was by this time so thoroughly on fire, and the smoke covered the beach so effectually, that they could scarcely discern him, though they heard his voice. However, the lieutenant instantly ordered one of the boats to his relief, who found him up to the chin in water, for he had waded as far as he durst, being extremely frightened with the apprehensions of falling into the hands of an enemy, enraged, as they doubtless were, at the pillage and destruction of their town. On enquiring into the cause of his staying behind, it was found that he had taken that morning too large a dose of brandy, which had thrown him into so sound a sleep that he did not awake till the fire came near enough to scorch him. He was strangely amazed at first opening his eyes to see the houses all in a blaze on one side, and several Spaniards and Indians not far from him on the other. The greatness and suddenness of his fright instantly reduced him to a state of sobriety, and gave him sufficient presence of mind to push through the thickest of the smoke, as the likeliest means to escape the enemy, and making the best of his way to the beach, he ran as far into the water as he durst (for he could not swim) before he ventured to look back.
I cannot but observe here, to the honour of our people, that though there were great quantities of wine and spirituous liquors found in the place, yet this man was the only one who was known to have so far neglected his duty as to get drunk. Indeed, their whole behaviour while they were ashore was much more regular than could well have been expected from sailors who had been so long confined to a ship, and though part of this prudent demeanour must doubtless be imputed to the diligence of their officers, and to the excellent discipline to which they had been constantly inured on board by the commodore, yet it was doubtless no small reputation to the men, that they should generally refrain from indulging themselves in those intoxicating liquors which they found ready to their hands at almost every warehouse.
Having mentioned this single instance of drunkenness, I cannot pass by another oversight, which was likewise the only one of its kind, and which was attended with very particular circumstances. There was an Englishman, who had formerly wrought as a ship-carpenter in the yard at Portsmouth, but leaving his country, had afterwards entered into the Spanish service, and was employed by them at the port of Guaiaquil; and it being well known to his friends in England that he was then in that part of the world, they put letters on board the Centurion, directed to him. This man being then by accident amongst the Spaniards, who were retired to the hill at Paita, he was ambitious (as it should seem) of acquiring some reputation amongst his new masters. With this view he came down unarmed to a centinel of ours, placed at some distance from the fort towards the enemy, to whom he pretended that he was desirous of surrendering himself, and of entering into our service. Our centinel had a cocked pistol in his hand, but being deceived by the other's fair speeches, he was so imprudent as to let him approach much nearer than he ought, so that the shipwright, watching his opportunity, rushed on the centinel, and seizing his pistol, wrenched it out of his hand, and instantly ran away with it up the hill. By this time two of our people, who, seeing the fellow advance, had suspected his intention, were making towards him, and were thereby prepared to pursue him, but he got to the top of the hill before they could reach him, and then turning about, fired the pistol, whereupon his pursuers immediately returned the fire, and though he was at a great distance, and the crest of the hill hid him as soon as they had fired, so that they took it for granted they had missed him, yet we afterwards learnt that he was shot through the body, and had fallen down dead the very next step he took after he was out of sight. The centinel, too, who had been thus grossly imposed upon, did not escape unpunished, since he was ordered to be severely whipt for being thus shamefully surprized upon his post, and having thereby given an example of carelessness which, if followed in other instances, might prove fatal to us all. But to return.
By the time our people had helped their comrade out of the water, and were making the best of their way to the squadron, the flames had taken possession of every part of the town, and had got such hold, both by means of the combustibles that had been distributed for that purpose, and by the slightness of the materials of which the houses were composed, and their aptitude to take fire, that it was sufficiently apparent no efforts of the enemy (though they flocked down in great numbers) could possibly put a stop to it, or prevent the entire destruction of the place and all the merchandize contained therein. A whole town on fire at once, especially where the buildings burnt with such facility and violence, being a very singular spectacle, Mr. Brett had the curiosity to delineate its appearance, together with that of the ships in the harbour.
Our detachment under Lieutenant Brett having safely joined the squadron, the commodore prepared to leave the place the same evening. He found when he first came into the bay, six vessels of the enemy at anchor; one whereof was the ship, which, according to our intelligence, was to have sailed with the treasure to the coast of Mexico, and which, as we were persuaded she was a good sailor, we resolved to take with us. The others were two snows, a bark, and two row gallies of thirty-six oars a-piece. These last, as we were afterwards informed, with many others of the same kind built at divers ports, were intended to prevent our landing in the neighbourhood of Callao, for the Spaniards, on the first intelligence of our squadron and its force, expected that we would attempt the city of Lima. The commodore, having no occasion for these other vessels, had ordered the masts of all five of them to be cut away at his first arrival, and on his leaving the place they were towed out of the harbour and scuttled and sunk; and the command of the remaining ship, called the Solidad, being given to Mr. Hughes, the lieutenant of the Tryal, who had with him a crew of ten men to navigate her, the squadron, towards midnight, weighed anchor and sailed out of the bay, being at present augmented to six sail, that is, the Centurion, and the Tryal's prize, together with the Carmelo, the Teresa, the Carmin, and our last acquired vessel the Solidad.
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 sustained. I have before observed that there were great quantities of valuable effects in the town, but as most of them were what we could neither dispose of nor carry away, the total amount of this merchandize can only be rudely guessed at. The Spaniards, in their representations sent to the Court of Madrid (as we were afterwards assured) estimated their whole loss at a million and a half of dollars, and when it is considered that no small part of the goods we burnt there were of the richest and most expensive species, as broad cloths, silks, cambricks, velvets, etc., I cannot but think their valuation sufficiently moderate. 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, and jewels, whose intrinsic value we could not then determine; and over and above all this, the plunder which became the property of the immediate captors was very great, so that upon the whole it was by much the most important booty we met with upon that coast.
There remains still another matter to be related, which on account of the signal honour which our national character in those parts has thence received, and the reputation which our commodore in particular has thereby acquired, merits a distinct and circumstantial discussion. It has been already observed that all the prisoners taken by us in our preceding prizes were here put on shore and discharged, amongst whom there were some persons of considerable distinction, especially a youth of about seventeen years of age, son of the vice-president of the Council of Chili. As the barbarity of the buccaneers, and the artful use the ecclesiasticks had made of it, had filled the natives of those countries with the most terrible ideas of the English cruelty, we always found our prisoners, at their first coming on board us, to be extremely dejected, and under great horror and anxiety. Particularly this youth whom I last mentioned, having never been from home before, lamented his captivity in the most moving manner, regretting, in very plaintive terms, his parents, his brothers, his sisters, and his native country, of all which he was fully persuaded he had taken his last farewel, believing that he was now devoted for the remaining part of his life to an abject and cruel servitude. Indeed his companions on board, and all the Spaniards that came into our power, had the same desponding opinion of their situation. Mr. Anson constantly exerted his utmost endeavours to efface these terrifying impressions they had received of us, always taking care that as many of the principal people among them as there was room for should dine at his table by turns, and giving the strictest orders, too, that they should at all times, and in every circumstance, be treated with the utmost decency and humanity. But notwithstanding this precaution, it was generally observed that the first day or two they did not quit their fear, suspecting the gentleness of their usage to be only preparatory to some unthought-of calamity. However, being at length convinced of our sincerity, they grew perfectly easy in their situation, and remarkably chearful, so that it was often disputable whether or no they considered their being detained by us as a misfortune. For the youth I have above mentioned, who was near two months on board us, had at last so far conquered his melancholy surmises, and had taken such an affection to Mr. Anson, and seemed so much pleased with the manner of life, totally different from all he had ever seen before, that it is doubtful to me whether, if his own opinion had been asked, he would not have preferred a voyage to England in the Centurion to the being set on shore at Paita, where he was at liberty to return to his country and friends.
This conduct of the commodore to his prisoners, which was continued without interruption or deviation, gave them all the highest idea of his humanity and benevolence, and induced them likewise (as mankind are fond of forming general opinions) to entertain very favourable thoughts of the whole English nation. But whatever they might be disposed to think of Mr. Anson before the capture of the Teresa, their veneration for him was prodigiously increased by his conduct towards those women whom (as I have already mentioned) he took in that vessel: for the leaving them in the possession of their apartments, the strict orders given to prevent all his people on board from approaching them, and the permitting the pilot to stay with them as their guardian, were measures that seemed so different from what might be expected from an enemy and an heretick, that the Spaniards on board, though they had themselves experienced his beneficence, were surprized at this new instance of it, and the more so as all this was done without his ever seeing the women, though the two daughters were both esteemed handsome, and the youngest was celebrated for her uncommon beauty. The women themselves, too, were so sensible of the obligations they owed him for the care and attention with which he had protected them, that they absolutely refused to go on shore at Paita till they had been permitted to wait on him on board the Centurion, to return him thanks in person. Indeed, all the prisoners left us with the strongest assurances of their grateful remembrance of his uncommon treatment. A Jesuit in particular, whom the commodore had taken, and who was an ecclesiastick of some distinction, could not help expressing himself with great thankfulness for the civilities he and his countrymen had found on board, declaring that he should consider it as his duty to do Mr. Anson justice at all times; adding that his usage of the men prisoners was such as could never be forgot, and such as he could never fail to acknowledge and recite upon all occasions: but that his behaviour to the women was so extraordinary, and so extremely honourable, that he doubted all the regard due to his own ecclesiastical character would be scarcely sufficient to render it credible. Indeed we were afterwards informed that he and the rest of our prisoners had not been silent on this head, but had, both at Lima and at other places, given the greatest encomiums to our commodore; the Jesuit in particular, as we were told, having on his account interpreted in a lax and hypothetical sense that article of his church which asserts the impossibility of hereticks being saved.
Nor let it be imagined that the impressions which the Spaniards hence received to our advantage is a matter of small import; for, not to mention several of our countrymen who have already felt the good effects of these prepossessions, the Spaniards are a nation whose good opinion of us is doubtless of more consequence than that of all the world besides, not only as the commerce we had formerly carried on with them, and perhaps may again hereafter, is so extremely valuable, but also as the transacting it does so immediately depend on the honour and good faith of those who are intrusted with its management. However, had no national conveniences attended it, the commodore's equity and good temper would not less have deterred him from all tyranny and cruelty to those whom the fortune of war had put into his hands. I shall only add, that by his constant attachment to these humane and prudent maxims he has acquired a distinguished reputation amongst the Creolian Spaniards, which is not confined merely to the coast of the South Seas, but is extended through all the Spanish settlements in America; so that his name is frequently to be met with in the mouths of most of the Spanish inhabitants of that prodigious empire.
CHAPTER VII
FROM OUR DEPARTURE FROM PAITA TO OUR ARRIVAL
AT QUIBO
When we got under sail from the coast of Paita (which, as I have already observed, was about midnight on the 16th of November) we stood to the westward, and in the morning the commodore gave orders that the whole squadron should spread themselves to look out for the Gloucester. For we then drew near the station where Captain Mitchel had been directed to cruise, and we hourly expected to get sight of him; but the whole day passed without seeing him.
And now a jealousy, which had taken its rise at Paita, between those who had been commanded on shore for the attack, and those who had continued on board, grew to such a height that the commodore, being made acquainted with it, thought it necessary to interpose his authority to appease it. The ground of this animosity was the plunder gotten at Paita, which those who had acted on shore had appropriated to themselves, considering it as a reward for the risques they had run, and the resolution they had shown in that service. But those who had remained on board looked on this as a very partial and unjust procedure, urging that had it been left to their choice, they should have preferred the action on shore to the continuing on board; that their duty, while their comrades were on shore, was extremely fatiguing; for besides the labour of the day, they were constantly under arms all night to secure the prisoners, whose numbers exceeded their own, and of whom it was then necessary to be extremely watchful, to prevent any attempts they might have formed in that critical conjuncture: that upon the whole it could not be denied but that the presence of a sufficient force on board was as necessary to the success of the enterprize as the action of the others on shore, and therefore those who had continued on board maintained that they could not be deprived of their share of the plunder without manifest injustice. These were the contests amongst our men, which were carried on with great heat on both sides: and though the plunder in question was a very trifle in comparison of the treasure taken in the place (in which there was no doubt but those on board had an equal right), yet as the obstinacy of sailors is not always regulated by the importance of the matter in dispute, the commodore thought it necessary to put a stop to this ferment betimes. Accordingly, the morning after our leaving Paita, he ordered all hands upon the quarter-deck, where, addressing himself to those who had been detached on shore, he commended their behaviour, and thanked them for their services on that occasion: but then representing to them the reasons urged by those who had continued on board, for an equal distribution of the plunder, he told them that he thought these reasons very conclusive, and that the expectations of their comrades were justly founded; and therefore he insisted, that not only the men, but all the officers likewise, who had been employed in taking the place, should produce the whole of their plunder immediately upon the quarter-deck, and that it should be impartially divided among the whole crew, in proportion to each man's rank and commission: and to prevent those who had been in possession of the plunder from murmuring at this diminution of their share, the commodore added, that as an encouragement to others who might be hereafter employed on like services, he would give his entire share to be distributed amongst those who had been detached for the attack of the place. Thus this troublesome affair, which, if permitted to have gone on, might perhaps have been attended with mischievous consequences, was by the commodore's prudence soon appeased, to the general satisfaction of the ship's company: not but there were some few whose selfish dispositions were uninfluenced by the justice of this procedure, and who were incapable of discerning the force of equity, however glaring, when it tended to deprive them of any part of what they had once got into their hands.
This important business employed the best part of the day after we came from Paita. And now, at night, having no sight of the Gloucester, the commodore ordered the squadron to bring to, that we might not pass her in the dark. The next morning we again looked out for her, and at ten we saw a sail, to which we gave chace; and at two in the afternoon we came near enough to discover her to be the Gloucester, with a small vessel in tow. About an hour after we were joined by them; and then we learnt that Captain Mitchel, in the whole time of his cruise, had only taken two prizes; one of them being a small snow, whose cargoe consisted chiefly of wine, brandy, and olives in jars, with about £7000 in specie; and the other a large boat or launch, which the Gloucester's barge came up with near the shore. The prisoners on board this last vessel alledged that they were very poor, and that their loading consisted only of cotton, though the circumstances in which the barge surprized them seemed to insinuate that they were more opulent than they pretended to be, for the Gloucester's people found them at dinner upon pigeon-pye, served up in silver dishes. However, the officer who commanded the barge having opened several of the jars on board, to satisfy his curiosity, and finding nothing in them but cotton, he was inclined to believe the account the prisoners gave him: but the cargoe being taken into the Gloucester, and there examined more strictly, they were agreeably surprized to find that the whole was a very extraordinary piece of false package, and that there was concealed among the cotton, in every jar, a considerable quantity of double doubloons and dollars, to the amount on the whole of near £12,000. This treasure was going to Paita, and belonged to the same merchants who were the proprietors of the greatest part of the money we had taken there; so that had this boat escaped the Gloucester, it is probable her cargoe would have fallen into our hands. Besides these two prizes which we have mentioned, the Gloucester's people told us that they had been in sight of two or three other ships of the enemy, which had escaped them; and one of them we had reason to believe, from some of our intelligence, was of immense value.
Being now joined by the Gloucester and her prize, it was resolved that we should stand to the northward, and make the best of our way either to Cape St. Lucas on California, or to Cape Corientes on the coast of Mexico. Indeed the commodore, when at Juan Fernandes, had determined with himself to touch in the neighbourhood of Panama, and to endeavour to get some correspondence overland with the fleet under the command of Admiral Vernon. For when we departed from England, we left a large force at Portsmouth which was intended to be sent to the West Indies, there to be employed in an expedition against some of the Spanish settlements. And Mr. Anson taking it for granted that this enterprize had succeeded, and that Porto Bello perhaps might be then garrisoned by British troops, he hoped that on his arrival at the isthmus he should easily procure an intercourse with our countrymen on the other side, either by the Indians, who were greatly disposed in our favour, or even by the Spaniards themselves, some of whom, for proper rewards, might be induced to carry on this intelligence, which, after it was once begun, might be continued with very little difficulty; so that Mr. Anson flattered himself that he might by this means have received a reinforcement of men from the other side, and that by settling a prudent plan of operations with our commanders in the West Indies, he might have taken even Panama itself, which would have given to the British nation the possession of that isthmus, whereby we should have been in effect masters of all the treasures of Peru, and should have had in our hands an equivalent for any demands, however extraordinary, which we might have been induced to have made on either of the branches of the House of Bourbon.
Such were the projects which the commodore revolved in his thoughts at the island of Juan Fernandes, notwithstanding the feeble condition to which he was then reduced. And indeed, had the success of our force in the West Indies been answerable to the general expectation, it cannot be denied but these views would have been the most prudent that could have been thought of. But in examining the papers which were found on board the Carmelo, the first prize we took, we learnt (though I then omitted to mention it) that our attempt against Carthagena had failed, and that there was no probability that our fleet in that part of the world would engage in any new enterprize that would at all facilitate this plan. Mr. Anson therefore gave over all hopes of being reinforced across the isthmus, and consequently had no inducement at present to proceed to Panama, as he was incapable of attacking the place; and there was great reason to believe that by this time there was a general embargo on all the coast.
The only feasible measure then which was left us was to steer as soon as possible to the southern parts of California, or to the adjacent coast of Mexico, there to cruise for the Manila galeon, which we knew was now at sea, bound to the port of Acapulco. And we doubted not to get on that station time enough to intercept her; for this ship does not usually arrive at Acapulco till towards the middle of January, and we were now but in the middle of November, and did not conceive that our passage thither would cost us above a month or five weeks; so that we imagined we had near twice as much time as was necessary for our purpose. Indeed there was a business which we foresaw would occasion some delay, but we flattered ourselves that it would be dispatched in four or five days, and therefore could not interrupt our project. This was the recruiting of our water; for the number of prisoners we had entertained on board since our leaving the island of Fernandes had so far exhausted our stock, that it was impossible to think of venturing upon this passage to the coast of Mexico till we had procured a fresh supply, especially as at Paita, where we had some hopes of getting a quantity, we did not find enough for our consumption during our stay there. It was for some time a matter of deliberation where we should take in this necessary article; but by consulting the accounts of former navigators, and examining our prisoners, we at last resolved for the island of Quibo, situated at the mouth of the bay of Panama: nor was it but on good grounds that the commodore conceived this to be the properest place for watering the squadron. Indeed, there was a small island called Cocos, which was less out of our way than Quibo, where some of the buccaneers have pretended they found water: but none of our prisoners knew anything of it, and it was thought too dangerous to risque the safety of the squadron, by exposing ourselves to the hazard of not meeting with water when we came there, on the mere authority of these legendary writers, of whose misrepresentations and falsities we had almost daily experience. Besides, by going to Quibo we were not without hopes that some of the enemies ships bound to or from Panama might fall into our hands, particularly such of them as were put to sea before they had any intelligence of our squadron.