ason;
it must surely appear a very malicious, as well as an ignorant charge,
after a man has been driven among the enemy, to call him a traitor
because he has been kindly used, and for accepting his passage back
again; and, because I was not murdered in Peru, I ought to be
executed at home. This is Shelvocke's great Christian charity and good
conscience![1]

[Footnote 1: After all, had the Flying-fish been captured by a British
cruizer, Betagh would have run great risk of being found guilty of
treason for _keeping his watches_.--E.]

On my arrival at Cadiz, captain John Evers of the Britannia kindly
gave me my passage to London, and entertained me at his own table. On
my return to London, and representing the hardships I had undergone,
nine honourable persons made me a present of ten guineas each; which
afforded me the satisfaction of seeing, that such as were the best
judges, had a proper idea of the miseries I had suffered, and approved
the manner in which I had behaved, the only consolation I could
receive in the circumstances in which I was left by that unfortunate
voyage. The fair account I have given of facts, and the detail of my
proceedings in the Spanish West Indies, together with the account of
what I observed worthy of notice during my stay in these parts,
will acquit me, I hope, in the opinion of every candid and impartial
person, from the aspersions thrown upon me by Shelvocke, in the
account he has published of his voyage.

* * * * *

_Note._

"Betagh has fully shewn, that the navigation round Cape Horn is no
such dangerous or wonderful voyage. If twenty ships from St Malo could
perform it in one year, and not a single vessel either shipwrecked or
forced to put back, what shall hinder an English ship or an English
fleet from doing the same? We see from the foregoing account, with how
much ease the French carried on a prodigious trade to the South Seas,
at a time when the appearance of an English ship there was esteemed
a prodigy. We certainly can send our frigates there, as well as the
French can their ships from St Malo; and it might be well worth the
while of our merchants to send out ships to the coasts of Chili and
Peru, laden with proper goods for that country."--_Harris._

In the present day, this trade to the coasts of Chili and Peru has
been resumed by the citizens of the United States; but the subjects
of Britain are debarred from even attempting to take a sh