guns loaded with two round-shot for the first broadside, and after that with one round-shot and one grape, strictly charging him at the same time not to suffer a gun to be fired till he, the Commodore, should give orders, which he informed the Lieutenant would not be till we arrived within pistol-shot of the enemy.  In this constant and eager attention we continued all night, always presuming that another quarter of an hour would bring us up with this Manila ship, whose wealth, with that of her supposed consort, we now estimated by round millions.  But when the morning broke and daylight came on, we were most strangely and vexatiously disappointed by finding that the light which had occasioned all this bustle and expectancy was only a fire on the shore.  And yet I believe there was no person on board who doubted of its being a ship’s light, or of its being near at hand.  It was, indeed, upon a very high mountain, and continued burning for several days afterwards.  It was not a volcano, but, rather, as I suppose, stubble or heath set on fire for some purpose of agriculture.

At sun-rising, after this mortifying delusion, we found ourselves about nine leagues off the land.  On this land we observed two remarkable hummocks, such as are usually called paps; these a Spanish pilot and two Indians, who were the only persons amongst us that pretended to have traded in this part of the world, affirmed to be over the harbour of Acapulco.  Indeed, we very much doubted their knowledge of the coast, for we found these paps to be in the latitude of 17 degrees 56 minutes, whereas those over Acapulco are said to be in 17 degrees only, and we afterwards found our suspicions of their skill to be well grounded.

And now, being in the track of the Manila galleon, it was a great doubt with us (as it was near the end of January) whether she was or was not arrived.  And as we now began to want a harbour to refresh our people, the uncertainty of our present situation gave us great uneasiness, and we were very solicitous to get some positive intelligence, which might either set us at liberty to consult our necessities, if the galleon was arrived, or might animate us to continue on our present cruise with cheerfulness if she was not.  With this view the Commodore, after examining our prisoners very particularly, resolved to send a boat, under colour of the night, into the harbour of Acapulco to see if the Manila ship was there or not.  To execute this project, the barge was despatched the 6th of February.  She did not return to us again till the 11th, when the officers acquainted Mr. Anson, that, agreeable to our suspicion, there was nothing like a harbour in the place where the Spanish pilots had at first asserted Acapulco to lie; that, when they had satisfied themselves in this particular, they steered to the eastward in hopes of discovering it, and had coasted along shore thirty-two leagues; that in this whole range they met chiefly with sandy beaches of a great length, over which the sea broke