z; and in these stations they continued cruising
for us till the 6th of June, when, not seeing anything of us, and
conceiving it to be impossible that we could have kept the seas so long,
they quitted their cruise and returned to Callao, fully satisfied that we
had either perished or at least had been driven back. As the time of
their quitting their station was but a few days before our arrival at the
island of Fernandez, it is evident that had we made that island on our
first search for it on the 28th of May, when we first expected to see it,
and were in reality very near it, we had doubtless fallen in with some
part of the Spanish squadron; and in the distressed condition we were
then in the meeting with a healthy, well-provided enemy was an incident
that could not but have been perplexing and might perhaps have proved
fatal. I shall only add that these Spanish ships sent out to intercept us
had been greatly shattered by a storm during their cruise, and that,
after their arrival at Callao, they had been laid up. And our prisoners
assured us that whenever intelligence was received at Lima of our being
in these seas, it would be at least two months before this armament could
be again fitted out.

(*Note. La Concepcion in Chili, about 270 miles south of Valparaiso.)

The whole of this intelligence was as favourable as we in our reduced
circumstances could wish for; and now we were fully satisfied as to the
broken jars, ashes, and fish-bones which we had observed at our first
landing at Juan Fernandez, these things being doubtless the relics of the
cruisers stationed off that port. Having thus satisfied ourselves in the
material articles, and having got on board the Centurion most of the
prisoners and all the silver, we, at eight in the same evening, made sail
to the northward, in company with our prize, and at six the next morning
discovered the island of Juan Fernandez, where the next day both we and
our prize came to an anchor. And here I cannot omit one remarkable
incident which occurred when the prize and her crew came into the bay
where the rest of the squadron lay. The Spaniards in the Carmelo had been
sufficiently informed of the distresses we had gone through, and were
greatly surprised that we had ever surmounted them; but when they saw the
Trial sloop at anchor they were still more astonished, and it was with
great difficulty they were prevailed on to believe that she came from
England with the rest of the squa