steel, it was composed
only of a particular kind of glittering paper.

The Commodore, on the 12th of December, anchored before the town of
Macao. Whilst the ships lay here the merchants of Macao finished their
agreement for the galleon, for which they had offered 6,000 dollars; this
was much short of her value, but the impatience of the Commodore to get
to sea, to which the merchants were no strangers, prompted them to insist
on so unequal a bargain. Mr. Anson had learnt enough from the English at
Canton to conjecture that the war betwixt Great Britain and Spain was
still continued, and that probably the French might engage in the
assistance of Spain before he could arrive in Great Britain; and
therefore, knowing that no intelligence could get to Europe of the prize
he had taken, and the treasure he had on board, till the return of the
merchantmen from Canton, he was resolved to make all possible expedition
in getting back, that he might be himself the first messenger of his own
good fortune, and might thereby prevent the enemy from forming any
projects to intercept him. For these reasons he, to avoid all delay,
accepted the sum offered for the galleon, and she being delivered to the
merchants, the 15th of December 1743, the Centurion the same day got
under sail on her return to England. And on the 3rd of January she came
to an anchor at Prince's Island, in the Straits of Sunda, and continued
there wooding and watering till the 8th, when she weighed and stood for
the Cape of Good Hope, where on the 11th of March she anchored in Table
Bay.

Here the Commodore continued till the beginning of April, highly
delighted with the place, which by its extraordinary accommodations, the
healthiness of its air, and the picturesque appearance of the country,
all enlivened by the addition of a civilised colony, was not disgraced in
an imaginary comparison with the valleys of Juan Fernandez and the lawns
of Tinian. During his stay he entered about forty new men, and having by
the 3rd of April, 1744, completed his water and provision, he on that day
weighed and put to sea. The 19th of the same month they saw the island of
St. Helena, which, however, they did not touch at, but stood on their
way; and on the 10th of June, being then in soundings, they spoke with an
English ship from Amsterdam bound for Philadelphia, whence they received
the first intelligence of a French war. The 12th they got sight of the
Lizard, and the 15th, in the e