the freedom, indulgence, and friendly assistance there given to the ships of all European nations in amity with the Crown of Portugal.

Our first care, after having moored our ships, was to send our sick men on shore. We sent about eighty sick from the Centurion, and the other ships I believe, sent nearly as many in proportion to the number of their hands. As soon as we had performed this necessary duty, we scraped our decks, and gave our ship a thorough cleansing; then smoked it between decks, and after all washed every part well with vinegar. Our next employment was wooding and watering our squadron, caulking our ships' sides and decks, overhauling our rigging, and securing our masts against the tempestuous weather we were, in all probability, to meet with in our passage round Cape Horn in so advanced and inconvenient a season.

In order to render the ships stiffer, and to enable them to carry more sail abroad, and to prevent their labouring in hard gales of wind, each captain had orders given him to strike down some of their great guns into the hold. These precautions being complied with, and each ship having taken in as much wood and water as there was room for, the whole squadron was ready for the sea; on which the tents on shore were struck, and all the sick were received on board. And here we had a melancholy proof how much the healthiness of this place had been overrated by former writers, for we found that though the Centurion alone had buried no less than twenty-eight men since our arrival, yet the number of our sick was in the same interval increased from eighty to ninety-six.

And now our crews being embarked, and everything prepared for our departure, the Commodore made a signal for all captains, and delivered them their orders, containing the successive places of rendezvous from hence to the coast of China. And then on the next day, being the 18th of January, 1741, the signal was made for weighing, and the squadron put to sea.

CHAPTER 4.
THE COMMODORE'S INSTRUCTIONS--BAD WEATHER--NARROW ESCAPE OF THE PEARL--ST JULIAN.

THE LAST AMICABLE PORT.

In leaving St. Catherine's, we left the last amicable port we proposed to touch at, and were now proceeding to a hostile, or at best a desert and inhospitable coast. And as we were to expect a more boisterous climate to the southward than any we had yet experienced, not only our danger of separation would by this means be much greater than it had been hitherto, but other accidents of a more pernicious nature were likewise to be apprehended, and as much as possible to be provided against. And therefore Mr. Anson, in appointing the various stations at which the ships of the squadron were to rendezvous, had considered that it was possible his own ship might be disabled from getting round Cape Horn, or might be lost; and had given proper directions that even in that case the expedition should not be abandoned. For the orders delivered to the captains the day before we sailed for St. Catherine's were that in case of separation--which they were with the utmost care to endeavour to avoid--the first place of rendezvous should be the Bay of Port St. Julian. If after a stay there of ten days, they were not joined by the Commodore, they were then to proceed through Straits le Maire round Cape Horn into the South Seas, where the next place of rendezvous was to be the island of Nuestra Senora del Socoro.* They were to bring this island to bear east-north-east, and to cruise from five to twelve leagues' distance from it, as long as their store of wood and water would permit, both which they were to expend with the utmost frugality. And when they were under an absolute necessity of a fresh supply, they were to stand in, and endeavour to find out an anchoring-place; and in case they could not, and the weather made it dangerous to supply their ships by standing off and on, they were then to make the best of their way to the island of Juan Fernandez. And as soon as they had recruited their wood and water, they were to continue cruising off the anchoring-place of that island for fifty-six days, in which time, if they were not joined by the Commodore, they might conclude that some accident had befallen him; and they were forthwith to put themselves under the command of the senior officer, who was to use his utmost endeavours to annoy the enemy both by sea and land. With these views their new Commodore was to continue in those seas as long as his provisions lasted, or as long as they were recruited by what he should take from the enemy, reserving only a sufficient quantity to carry him and the ships under his command to Macao at the entrance of the River Tigris, near Canton, on the coast of China, where, having supplied himself with a new stock of provisions he was thence without delay to make the best of his way to England.

(*Note. Nuestra Senora del Socoro is one of the smaller outer islands of the Chonos Archipelago on the western coast of Patagonia.)

The next day we had very squally weather, attended with rain, lightning, and thunder; but it soon became fair again, with light breezes, and continued thus till Wednesday evening, when it blew fresh again; and increasing all night, by eight the next morning it became a most violent storm, and we had with it so thick a fog that it was impossible to see at the distance of two ships' lengths, so that the whole squadron disappeared.* On this a signal was made by firing guns, to bring to with the larboard tacks, the wind being then due east. We ourselves lay to under a reefed mizzen till noon, when the fog dispersed; and we soon discovered all the ships of the squadron, except the Pearl, which did not join us till near a month afterwards. The Trial sloop was a great way to leeward, having lost her mainmast in this squall, and having been obliged, for fear of bilging, to cut away the wreck. We bore down with the squadron to her relief, and the Gloucester was ordered to take her in tow, for the weather did not entirely abate until the day after, and even then a great swell continued from the eastward in consequence of the preceding storm.

(*Note. i.e. from the sight of those on board the Centurion.)

A RUSE DE GUERRE.

On the 17th of February at five in the afternoon, we came to an anchor in the latitude of 48 degrees 58 minutes. Weighing again at five the next morning, we an hour afterwards discovered a sail upon which the Severn and Gloucester were both directed to give chase; but we soon perceived it to be the Pearl, which separated from us a few days after we left St. Catherine's; and on this we made a signal for the Severn to rejoin the squadron, leaving the Gloucester alone in the pursuit. And now we were surprised to see that, on the Gloucester's approach, the people on board the Pearl increased their sail and stood from her. However, the Gloucester came up with them, but found them with their hammocks in their nettings and everything ready for an engagement. At two in the afternoon the Pearl joined us, and running up under our stern, Lieutenant Salt hailed the Commodore, and acquainted him that Captain Kidd* died on the 31st of January. He likewise informed him that he had seen five large ships on the 10th instant, which he for some time imagined to be our squadron; that he suffered the commanding ship, which wore a red broad pennant exactly resembling that of the Commodore, at the main top-mast head, to come within gun-shot of him before he discovered his mistake; but then, finding it not to be the Centurion, he hauled close upon the wind, and crowded from them with all his sail, and standing across a rippling, where they hesitated to follow him, he happily escaped. He made them out to be five Spanish men-of-war, one of them exceedingly like the Gloucester, which was the occasion of his apprehensions when the Gloucester chased him. By their appearance he thought they consisted of two ships of 70 guns, two of 50, and one of 40 guns. The whole squadron continued in chase of him all