es for their future safety.
But the refitting of the Trial and the repairing of her defects was an
undertaking that in the present conjuncture greatly exceeded his power;
and besides, it would have been extreme imprudence in so critical a
juncture to have loitered away so much time as would have been necessary
for these operations. The Commodore, therefore, had no choice left him
but that of taking out her people and destroying her; but at the same
time, as he conceived it necessary for His Majesty's Service to keep up
the appearance of our force, he appointed the Trial's prize (which had
been often employed by the Viceroy of Peru as a man-of-war) to be a
frigate in His Majesty's Service, manning her with the Trial's crew and
giving new commissions to the captain and all the inferior officers
accordingly. This new frigate, when in the Spanish service, had mounted
thirty-two guns, but she was now to have only twenty, which were the
twelve that were on board the Trial, and eight that had belonged to the
Anna pink. When this affair was thus far regulated, Mr. Anson gave orders
to Captain Saunders to put it in execution, directing him to take out of
the sloop the arms, stores, ammunition, and everything that could be of
any use to the other ships, and then to scuttle her and sink her. And
after Captain Saunders had seen her destroyed he was to proceed with his
new frigate (to be called the Trial's prize) and to cruise off the high
land of Valparaiso, keeping it from him north-north-west, at the distance
of twelve or fourteen leagues. For as all ships bound from Valparaiso to
the northward steer that course, Mr. Anson proposed by this means to stop
any intelligence that might be despatched to Callao of two of their ships
being missing, which might give them apprehensions of the English
squadron being in their neighbourhood. The Trial's prize was to continue
on this station twenty-four days and if not joined by the Commodore at
the expiration of that term, she was then to proceed down the coast to
Pisco, or Nasca, where she would be certain to meet with Mr. Anson. The
Commodore likewise ordered Lieutenant Suamarez who commanded the
Centurion's prize, to keep company with Captain Saunders both to assist
him in unloading the sloop, and also that, by spreading in their cruise,
there might be less danger of any of the enemy's ships slipping by
unobserved. These orders being despatched, the Centurion parted from them
at eleven in th