aracter before the capture of the Teresa,
their veneration for him was prodigiously increased by his conduct
towards the women who were taken in that vessel, as formerly
mentioned. For the circumstance of leaving them in possession of their
own apartments, the strict orders he issued to prevent any of our
people from approaching them, and his permitting the pilot to remain
with them as their guardian, were measures that seemed so different
from what they expected in an enemy and a heretic, that, although the
Spanish prisoners had themselves experienced his beneficence, they
were astonished at this particular instance; and the more so, that all
this was done without his ever having seen the women, though the two
daughters were both reckoned handsome, and the youngest was celebrated
for her uncommon beauty. The women were themselves so sensible of the
obligations they owed him for the attention and delicacy with which
he had protected them, that they refused to go on shore at Payta
till permitted to wait upon him, that they might in person return him
thanks. Indeed all the prisoners left us with the strongest assurances
of their grateful remembrance of his uncommon kindness. A Jesuit,
in particular, of some distinction, expressed himself with great
thankfulness for the civilities he and his countrymen had experienced
while on board, declaring that he should consider it his duty to do
Mr Anson justice at all times; adding, that his usage of the men
prisoners was such as could never be forgotten, and merited the
highest acknowledgments; but his behaviour to the women was so
extraordinary and honourable, that he doubted all the regard due to
his own ecclesiastical character would be scarcely sufficient to make
it believed. Indeed, we were afterwards informed that he and the rest
of the prisoners had not been silent on this topic, but had given the
highest commendations of our commodore, both at Lima and other places;
and the Jesuit, as we were told, had interpreted in his favour, in a
lax and hypothetical sense, that article of his church which asserts
the impossibility of heretics being saved.

Let it not be imagined, that the impression received by the Spaniards
to our advantage on the present occasion was a matter of slight
import; for, not to mention several of our countrymen who had already
felt the good effects of these prepossessions, it may be observed,
that the good opinion of this nation is certainly of more conseq