Anson George
A Voyage Round the World
Whilst the ships lay there, the merchants of Macao finished their purchase of the galeon, for which they refused to give more than 6000 dollars: this was greatly short of her value, but the impatience of the commodore to get to sea, to which the merchants were no strangers, prompted them to insist on these unequal terms. Mr. Anson had learnt enough from the English at Canton to conjecture that the war with Spain was still continued, and that probably the French might engage in the assistance of Spain before he could arrive in Great Britain; and therefore, knowing that no intelligence could come to Europe of the prize he had taken and the treasure he had on board till the return of the merchantmen from Canton, he was resolved to make all possible expedition in getting back, that he might be himself the first messenger of his own good fortune, and might thereby prevent the enemy from forming any projects to intercept him. For these reasons, he, to avoid all delay, accepted of the sum offered for the galeon, and she being delivered to the merchants the 15th of December 1743, the Centurion the same day got under sail on her return to England. On the 3d of January she came to anchor at Prince's Island in the Streights of Sunda, and continued there wooding and watering till the 8th, when she weighed and stood for the Cape of Good Hope, where, on the 11th of March, she anchored in Table Bay.
The Cape of Good Hope is situated in a temperate climate, where the excesses of heat and cold are rarely known, and the Dutch inhabitants, who are numerous, and who here retain their native industry, have stocked it with prodigious plenty of all sorts of fruits and provision, most of which, either from the equality of the seasons, or the peculiarity of the soil, are more delicious in their kind than can be met with elsewhere: so that by these, and by the excellent water which abounds there, this settlement is the best provided of any in the known world for the refreshment of seamen after long voyages. Here the commodore continued till the beginning of April, highly delighted with the place, which, by its extraordinary accommodations, the healthiness of its air, and the picturesque appearance of the country, the whole enlivened too by the addition of a civilized colony, was not disgraced on a comparison with the vallies of Juan Fernandes and lawns of Tinian. During his stay he entered about forty new men, and having, by the 3d of April 1744, compleated his water and provision, he, on that day, weighed and put to sea. The 19th of April they saw the island of St. Helena, which, however, they did not touch at, but stood on their way, and arriving in soundings about the beginning of June, they, on the 10th of that month, spoke with an English ship bound for Philadelphia, from whom they received the first intelligence of a French war. By the 12th of June they got sight of the Lizard, and the 15th, in the evening, to their infinite joy, they came safe to an anchor at Spithead. But that the signal perils which had so often threatned them in the preceding part of the enterprize might pursue them to the very last, Mr. Anson learnt on his arrival that there was a French fleet of considerable force cruising in the chops of the Channel, which, from the account of their position, he found the Centurion had ran through, and had been all the time concealed by a fog. Thus was this expedition finished, when it had lasted three years and nine months, after having, by its event, strongly evinced this important truth, that though prudence, intrepidity, and perseverance united are not exempted from the blows of adverse fortune, yet in a long series of transactions they usually rise superior to its power, and in the end rarely fail of proving successful.