And on occasion of this surprizal of Leger, I must observe, that though the enemy never appeared in sight during our stay in the harbour, yet we perceived that large parties of them were encamped in the woods about us; for we could see their smokes, and could thence determine that they were posted in a circular line surrounding us at a distance; and just before our coming away they seemed, by the increase of their fires, to have received a considerable reinforcement. But to return.
Towards the latter end of April, the unloading of our three prizes, our wooding and watering, and in short, every one of our proposed employments at the harbour of Chequetan, were compleated: so that, on the 27th of April, the _Tryal's_ prize, the _Carmelo_, and the _Carmin_, all which we here intended to destroy, were towed on shore and scuttled, a quantity of combustible materials having been distributed in their upper works: and the next morning the _Centurion_ with the _Gloucester_ weighed anchor, though as there was but little { 251} wind, and that not in their favour, they were obliged to warp out of the harbour. When they had reached the offing, one of the boats was dispatched back again to set fire to our prizes, which was accordingly executed. After this a canoe was left fixed to a grapnel in the middle of the harbour, with a bottle in it well corked, inclosing a letter to Mr. Hughes, who commanded the cutter, which had been ordered to cruise before the port of Acapulco when we ourselves quitted that station. And on this occasion I must mention more particularly than I have yet done the views of the commodore in leaving the cutter before that port.
When we were necessitated to proceed for Chequetan to recruit our water, Mr. Anson considered that our arrival in that harbour would soon be known at Acapulco; and therefore he hoped that on the intelligence of our being employed in port, the galeon might put to sea, especially as Chequetan is so very remote from the course generally steered by the galeon. He therefore ordered the cutter to cruise twenty-four days off the port of Acapulco, and her commander was directed, on perceiving the galeon under sail, to make the best of his way to the commodore at Chequetan. As the _Centurion_ was doubtless a much better sailor than the galeon, Mr. Anson, in this case, resolved to have got to sea as soon as possible, and to have pursued the galeon across the Pacifick Ocean: where supposing he should not have met with her in his passage (which, considering that he would have kept nearly the same parallel, was very improbable), yet he was certain of arriving off Cape Espiritu Santo, on the island of Samal, before her; and that being the first land she makes on her return to the Philippines, we could not have failed to have fallen in with her by cruising a few days in that station. However, the Viceroy of Mexico ruined this project by keeping the galeon in the port of Acapulco all that year.