This scheme, as hath been said, was formed by the commodore upon a supposition that the galeon was detained till the next year, but as this was a matter of opinion only, and not founded on intelligence, and there was a possibility that she might still put to sea in a short time, the commodore thought it prudent to continue cruising on his present station as long as the necessary attention to his stores of wood and water, and to the convenient season for his future passage to China, would give him leave. And therefore, as the cutters had been { 236} ordered to remain before Acapulco till the 23d of March, the squadron did not change its position till that day, when the cutters not appearing, we were in some pain for them, apprehending they might have suffered either from the enemy or the weather, but we were relieved from our concern the next morning, when we discovered them, though at a great distance and to the leeward of the squadron. We bore down to them and took them up, and were informed by them that, conformable to their orders, they had left their station the day before, without having seen anything of the galeon; and we found that the reason of their being so far to the leeward of us was a strong current which had driven the whole squadron to windward.
And here it is necessary to mention, that, by information which was afterwards received, it appeared that this prolongation of our cruise was a very prudent measure, and afforded us no contemptible chance of seizing the treasure on which we had so long fixed our thoughts. For after the embargo was laid on the galeon, as is before mentioned, the persons principally interested in the cargo dispatched several expresses to Mexico, to beg that she might still be permitted to depart. It seems they knew, by the accounts sent from Paita, that we had not more than three hundred men in all, whence they insisted that there was nothing to be feared, as the galeon, carrying above twice as many hands as our whole squadron, would be greatly an overmatch for us. And though the viceroy was inflexible, yet, on the account of their representation, she was kept ready for the sea near three weeks after the first order came to detain her.