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 { 195} 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.