best of his way to the port
of Cabite, which is the port to the city of Manila, and the constant
station for all the ships employed in this commerce to Acapulco.

(*Note. Samal or Samar is an island about the centre of the Philippines,
north of Mindanao.)

CHAPTER 23.
WAITING FOR THE GALLEON--DISAPPOINTMENT--CHEQUETAN.

On the 1st of March we made the highlands over Acapulco, and got with all
possible expedition into the situation prescribed by the Commodore's
orders.*

(*Note. The two men-of-war and the three prizes were arranged out of
sight of the land in "a circular line," the two extremities of which were
thirty-six miles apart. Within this line, and much nearer to the port,
especially at night, were two cutters, whose duty it was to watch the
mouth of the harbour and signal to the ships outside them.)

And now we expected with the utmost impatience the 3rd of March, the day
fixed for her departure. And on that day we were all of us most eagerly
engaged in looking out towards Acapulco; and we were so strangely
prepossessed with the certainty of our intelligence, and with an
assurance of her coming out of port, that some or other on board us were
constantly imagining that they discovered one of our cutters returning
with a signal. But to our extreme vexation, both this day and the
succeeding night passed over without any news of the galleon. However, we
did not yet despair, but were all heartily disposed to flatter ourselves
that some unforeseen accident had intervened which might have put off her
departure for a few days; and suggestions of this kind occurred in
plenty, as we knew that the time fixed by the Viceroy for her sailing was
often prolonged on the petition of the merchants of Mexico. Thus we kept
up our hopes, and did not abate of our vigilance; and as the 7th of March
was Sunday, the beginning of Passion Week, which is observed by the
Papists with great strictness and a total cessation from all kinds of
labour, so that no ship is permitted to stir out of port during the whole
week, this quieted our apprehensions for some days, and disposed us not
to expect the galleon till the week following. On the Friday in this week
our cutters returned to us, and the officers on board them were very
confident that the galleon was still in port, for that she could not
possibly have come out but they must have seen her. On the Monday morning
succeeding Passion Week--that is, on the 15th of March--the cutters wer