n to the ship; when he came back to the boat, he found that a guard
had been put on board in his absence, but he absolutely refused to
return till the soldier was removed: The officer then proceeded to
enforce the viceroy's orders; he seized all the boat's crew, and sent
them under an armed force to prison, putting Mr Hicks at the same time
into one of their own boats, and sending him under a guard back to the
ship. As soon as he had reported these particulars, I wrote again to the
viceroy, demanding my boat and crew, and in my letter inclosed the
memorial which he had refused to receive from Mr Hicks: These papers I
sent by a petty officer, that I might wave the dispute about a guard,
against which I had never objected except when there was a commissioned
officer on board the boat. The petty officer was permitted to go on
shore with his guard, and, having delivered his letter, was told that an
answer would be sent the next day.

About eight o'clock this evening it began to blow very hard in sudden
gusts from the south, and our long-boat coming on board just at this
time with four pipes of rum, the rope which was thrown to her from the
ship, and which, was taken hold of by the people on board, unfortunately
broke, and the boat, which had come to the ship before the wind, went
adrift to windward of her, with a small skiff of Mr Banks's that was
fastened to her stern. This was a great misfortune, as, the pinnace
being detained on shore, we had no boat on board but a four-oared yawl:
The yawl, however, was immediately manned and sent to her assistance;
but, notwithstanding the utmost effort of the people in both boats, they
were very soon out of sight: Far indeed we could not see at that time in
the evening, but the distance was enough to convince us that they were
not under command, which gave us great uneasiness, as we knew they must
drive directly upon a reef of rocks which ran out just to leeward of
where we lay: After waiting some hours in the utmost anxiety, we gave
them over for lost, but about three o'clock the next morning had the
satisfaction to see all the people come on board in the yawl. From them
we learnt, that the long-boat having filled with water, they had brought
her to a grappling and left her; and that, having fallen in with the
reef of rocks in their return to the ship, they had been obliged to cut
Mr Banks's little boat adrift. As the loss of our long-boat, which we
had now too much reason to apprehen