with so much violence that it was impossible for a boat to land; that at the end of their run they could just discover two paps at a very great distance to the eastward, which from their appearance and their latitude they concluded to be those in the neighbourhood of Acapulco, but that, not having a sufficient quantity of fresh water and provision for their passage thither and back again, they were obliged to return to the Commodore to acquaint him with their disappointment.  On this intelligence we all made sail to the eastward, in order to get into the neighbourhood of that port, the Commodore resolving to send the barge a second time upon the same enterprise when we were arrived within a moderate distance.  And the next day, which was the 12th of February, we being by that time considerably advanced, the barge was again despatched, and particular instructions given to the officers to preserve themselves from being seen from the shore.  On the 19th of February she returned, and we found that we were indeed disappointed in our expectation of intercepting the galleon before her arrival at Acapulco; but we learned other circumstances which still revived our hopes, and which, we then conceived, would more than balance the opportunity we had already lost.  For though our negro prisoners* informed us that the galleon arrived at Acapulco on our 9th of January, which was about twenty days before we fell in with this coast, yet they at the same time told us that the galleon had delivered her cargo and was taking in water and provisions for her return, and that the Viceroy of Mexico had by proclamation fixed her departure from Acapulco to the 14th of March, New Style.

(Note.  Three negroes in a fishing canoe had been captured by the Centurion’s barge off Acapulco harbour.)

This last news was most joyfully received by us, as we had no doubt but she must certainly fall into our hands, and as it was much more eligible to seize her on her return than it would have been to have taken her before her arrival, as the specie for which she had sold her cargo, and which she would now have on board, would be prodigiously more to be esteemed by us than the cargo itself, great part of which would have perished on our hands, and no part of it could have been disposed of by us at so advantageous a mart as Acapulco.

Thus we were a second time engaged in an eager expectation of meeting with this Manila ship, which, by the fame of its wealth, we had been taught to consider as the most desirable prize that was to be met with in any part of the globe.

CHAPTER 22.  THE Manila* TRADE.

(Note.  The capital of Luzon, the chief island of the Philippine group.  The Philippines were discovered in 1521 by Magellan, who was killed there by the natives.  They were annexed by Spain in 1571 and were ceded to the United States of America in 1898, together with Cuba, after the brave but futile attempt of the Spaniards to preserve what were almost the last relics of their colonial dominions.)