est, and some
gentlemen passengers. At last we espied a sail plying to windward;
and, having no doubt that she was either the Speedwell or the Success,
we stood towards her, while she also edged down towards us. About ten
in the morning we were near enough to make her out to be a ship of
war, but neither of these we wished for. The master of our prize had
before informed us, that he had fallen in with the _Brilliante_,
which was cruizing for our privateers, and we had till now entirely
disregarded his information. Upon this, Hately advised with me what
we ought to do in this emergency, when we agreed to endeavour to take
advantage of the information given us by the Spaniards; considering,
as the Brilliante had spoken so very lately with the Pink, that there
might not be many questions asked now. Accordingly, Hately and
I dressed ourselves like Spaniards, and hoisted Spanish colours,
confined all our prisoners in the great cabin, and allowed none but
Indians and negroes to appear on the deck, that the Pink might have
the same appearance as before. We had probably succeeded in this
contrivance, but for the obstinacy of John Sprake, one of our men,
whom we could not persuade to keep off the deck. As the Brilliante
came up, she fired a gun to leeward, on which we lowered our topsail,
going under easy sail till we got alongside. The first question asked
was, If we had seen the English privateer? We answered, No. The next
question was, How we had got no farther on our way to Lima? To
which we answered, By reason of the currents. To two or three other
questions, we answered satisfactorily in Spanish, and they were
getting their tacks aboard in order to leave us, when Sprake and two
or three more of our men appeared on the main deck. A Frenchman aboard
the Brilliante, who was on the mast-head, seeing their long trowsers,
called out, _Par Dieu, Monsieur, ils sont Anglois_, By Heaven, Sir,
they are English: Upon which they immediately fired a broad-side into
us with round and partridge shot, by one of which Hately was slightly
wounded in the leg.

As soon as we struck our flag, the enemy sent for all the English
on board their ships, and ordered two of their own officers into our
prize. The Brilliante then bore down on the Mercury, into which she
fired at least twenty-five shot, which bored her sides through and
through: Yet such was the construction of that extraordinary vessel,
that, though quite full of water, there was not w