He, in the November
of the succeeding year that is, in November, 1742, sailed from the River
of Plate for the South Seas and arrived safe on the coast of Chile where
his Commodore, Pizarro, passing overland from Buenos Ayres met him. There
were great animosities and contests between these two gentlemen at their
meeting occasioned principally by the claim of Pizarro to command the
Esperanza, which Mindinuetta had brought round, for Mindinuetta refused
to deliver her up to him, insisting that as he came into the South Seas
alone, and under no superior, it was not now in the power of Pizarro to
resume that authority which he had once parted with. However the
President of Chile interposing, and declaring for Pizarro, Mindinuetta
after a long and obstinate struggle, was obliged to submit.
But Pizarro had not yet completed the series of his adventures, for when
he and Mindinuetta came back by land from Chile to Buenos Ayres in the
year 1745 they found at Monte Video the Asia, which near three years
before they had left there. This ship they resolved, if possible, to
carry to Europe, and with this view they refitted her in the best manner
they could; but their great difficulty was to procure a sufficient number
of hands to navigate her, for all the remaining sailors of the squadron
to be met with in the neighbourhood of Buenos Ayres did not amount to a
hundred men. They endeavoured to supply this defect by pressing many of
the inhabitants of Buenos Ayres, and putting on board besides all the
English prisoners then in their custody, together with a number of
Portuguese smugglers whom they had taken at different times, and some of
the Indians of the country.
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