at the same time added greatly to the security of the ship, for they being seven or eight feet high, it would have been extremely difficult for the Spaniards to have clambered up, and, still to augment that difficulty, four swivel-guns loaded with musket bullets were planted at the mouth of each funnel, and a sentinel with lighted match constantly attended, prepared to fire into the hold amongst them in case of any disturbance.  Their officers, who amounted to seventeen or eighteen, were all lodged in the first lieutenant’s cabin, under a constant guard of six men, and the General, as he was wounded, lay in the Commodore’s cabin with a sentinel always with him, and they were all informed that any violence or disturbance would be punished with instant death; and that the Centurion’s people might be at all times prepared, if notwithstanding these regulations any tumult should arise, the small arms were constantly kept loaded in a proper place, whilst all the men went armed with cutlasses and pistols, and no officer ever pulled off his clothes, and when he slept had always his arms lying ready by him.

These measures were obviously necessary, considering the hazards to which the Commodore and his people would have been exposed had they been less careful.  Indeed, the sufferings of the poor prisoners though impossible to be alleviated, were much to be commiserated, for the weather was extremely hot, the stench of the hold loathsome beyond all conception, and their allowance of water but just sufficient to keep them alive, it not being practicable to spare them more than at the rate of a pint a day for each, the crew themselves having only an allowance of a pint and a half.  All this considered, it was wonderful that not a man of them died during their long confinement, except three of the wounded, who died the same night they were taken; though it must be confessed that the greatest part of them were strangely metamorphosed by the heat of the hold, for when they were first taken they were sightly, robust fellows, but when, after above a month’s imprisonment, they were discharged in the river of Canton, they were reduced to mere skeletons, and their air and looks corresponded much more to the conception formed of ghosts and spectres than to the figure and appearance of real men.

Thus employed in securing the treasure and the prisoners, the Commodore, as has been said, stood for the river of Canton, and on the 30th of June, at six in the evening, got sight of Cape Delangano, which then bore west ten leagues distant, and the next day he made the Bashee Islands, and the wind being so far to the northward that it was difficult to weather them, it was resolved to stand through between Grafton and Monmouth Islands, where the passage seemed to be clear; but in getting through the sea had a very dangerous aspect, for it rippled and foamed as if it had been full of breakers, which was still more terrible as it was then night.  But the ships got through very safe, the prize always keeping ahead, and it was found that the appearance which had alarmed them had been occasioned only by a strong tide, and on the 11th of July, having taken on board two Chinese pilots, one for the Centurion and the other for the prize, they came to an anchor off the city of Macao.