the command of one Gordon, a Scots papist, and captain of a ship in these seas.  We continued, however, to prosecute our work, without hurry, loading and sending off the boats as long as we had light; and at night, a reinforcement was again sent on shore by the commodore, and Mr Brett doubled his guards at all the barricades, all his posts being connected, by means of centinels placed within call of each other, and the whole visited by frequent rounds, attended by a drum.  These marks of our vigilance and readiness to receive the enemy, which they could not be ignorant of, cooled their resolution, and made them forget the vaunts of the preceding day; so that we passed this second night with as little molestation as we had done the first.

We had finished sending the treasure on board the evening before, so that the third morning, being the 15th of November, the boats were employed in carrying off the most valuable part of the effects from the town.  As the commodore proposed to sail in the afternoon, he this day about ten o’clock, pursuant to his promise, sent all his prisoners on shore, to the number of eighty-eight, giving orders to Lieutenant Brett to have them secured in one of the churches under a strict guard, till he and his men were ready to embark.  Mr Brett was also ordered to set the whole town on fire, except the two churches, which fortunately stood at some distance from the houses, after which he was to abandon the place and return on board.  Mr Brett punctually complied with these orders, and immediately distributed pitch, tar, and other combustibles, of which there was great abundance to be had, into various houses in the several streets of the town, so that as the place was to be fired in many different quarters at the same time, the destruction might be the more violent and sudden, and the enemy might not be able to extinguish it after his departure.  All these preparations being made, Mr Brett made the cannon in the fort be spiked; and setting fire to the houses most to windward, he collected his men and marched them to the beach, where the boats waited to take them off.

As that part of the beach where he intended to embark was an open place without the town, near the churches, his retreat was perceived by the Spaniards on the hill, on which they resolved to endeavour to precipitate his departure, in order to have a pretext for future boasting.  For this purpose, a small squadron of their horse, consisting of about sixty, selected probably for this service, marched down the hill with much seeming resolution, as if they had proposed to have charged our men now on the open beach without any advantage or situation.  But no sooner did Mr Brett halt his men and face about, than they stopped their career, and did not venture to advance any farther.  On arriving at the boats, and being quite ready to embark, our people were detained some time by missing one of their number; and, after some considerable delay, being unable to learn where he was left, or by what