e
again despatched to their old station, and our hopes were once more
indulged in as sanguine prepossessions as before; but in a week's time
our eagerness was greatly abated, and a general dejection and despondency
took place in its room. For we were persuaded that the enemy had by some
accident discovered our being upon the coast, and had therefore laid an
embargo on the galleon till the next year. And indeed this persuasion was
but too well founded; for we afterwards learned that our barge, when sent
on the discovery of the port of Acapulco, had been seen from the shore,
and that this circumstance (no embarkations but canoes ever frequenting
that coast) was to them a sufficient proof of the neighbourhood of our
squadron, on which they stopped the galleon till the succeeding year.

SHORT OF WATER.

When we had taken up the cutters, all the ships being joined, the
Commodore made a signal to speak with their commanders, and upon enquiry
into the stock of fresh water remaining on board the squadron, it was
found to be so very slender that we were under necessity of quitting our
station to procure a fresh supply. And consulting what place was the
properest for this purpose, it was agreed that the harbour of Seguataneo,
or Chequetan, being the nearest to us, was on that account the most
eligible, and it was therefore immediately resolved to make the best of
our way thither. By the 1st of April we were so far advanced towards
Seguataneo that we thought it expedient to send out two boats, that they
might range along the coast and discover the watering-place. They were
gone some days, and our water being now very short, it was a particular
felicity to us that we met with daily supplies of turtle; for had we been
entirely confined to salt provisions, we must have suffered extremely in
so warm a climate. Indeed, our present circumstances were sufficiently
alarming, and gave the most considerate amongst us as much concern as any
of the numerous perils we had hitherto encountered; for our boats, as we
conceived by their not returning, had not as yet discovered a place
proper to water at, and by the leakage of our casks and other accidents
we had not ten days' water on board the whole squadron; so that, from the
known difficulty of procuring water on this coast, and the little
reliance we had on the buccaneer writers (the only guides we had to trust
to), we were apprehensive of being soon exposed to a calamity, the most
terrible o