e hold better than could have been done without
them, and at the same time added greatly to the security of the ship, for
they being seven or eight feet high, it would have been extremely
difficult for the Spaniards to have clambered up, and, still to augment
that difficulty, four swivel-guns loaded with musket bullets were planted
at the mouth of each funnel, and a sentinel with lighted match constantly
attended, prepared to fire into the hold amongst them in case of any
disturbance. Their officers, who amounted to seventeen or eighteen, were
all lodged in the first lieutenant's cabin, under a constant guard of six
men, and the General, as he was wounded, lay in the Commodore's cabin
with a sentinel always with him, and they were all informed that any
violence or disturbance would be punished with instant death; and that
the Centurion's people might be at all times prepared, if notwithstanding
these regulations any tumult should arise, the small arms were constantly
kept loaded in a proper place, whilst all the men went armed with
cutlasses and pistols, and no officer ever pulled off his clothes, and
when he slept had always his arms lying ready by him.

These measures were obviously necessary, considering the hazards to which
the Commodore and his people would have been exposed had they been less
careful. Indeed, the sufferings of the poor prisoners though impossible
to be alleviated, were much to be commiserated, for the weather was
extremely hot, the stench of the hold loathsome beyond all conception,
and their allowance of water but just sufficient to keep them alive, it
not being practicable to spare them more than at the rate of a pint a day
for each, the crew themselves having only an allowance of a pint and a
half. All this considered, it was wonderful that not a man of them died
during their long confinement, except three of the wounded, who died the
same night they were taken; though it must be confessed that the greatest
part of them were strangely metamorphosed by the heat of the hold, for
when they were first taken they were sightly, robust fellows, but when,
after above a month's imprisonment, they were discharged in the river of
Canton, they were reduced to mere skeletons, and their air and looks
corresponded much more to the conception formed of ghosts and spectres
than to the figure and appearance of real men.

Thus employed in securing the treasure and the prisoners, the Commodore,
as has been said, s