This was owing to their having let run their sheets and halyards
just as we fired at them, after which not a man amongst them had courage
enough to venture aloft (for there the shot had passed but just before)
to take them in.
As soon as the vessel came within hail of us, the Commodore ordered them
to bring to under his lee-quarter, and then hoisted out the boat and sent
Mr. Suamarez, his first lieutenant, to take possession of the prize, with
directions to send all the prisoners on board the Centurion, but first
the officers and passengers.
A TERRIFIED CREW.
When Mr. Suamarez came on board them, they received him at the side with
the strongest tokens of the most abject submission, for they were all of
them (especially the passengers, who were twenty-five in number),
extremely terrified and under the greatest apprehensions of meeting with
very severe and cruel usage. But the lieutenant endeavoured with great
courtesy to dissipate their fright, assuring them that their fears were
altogether groundless, and that they would find a generous enemy in the
Commodore, who was not less remarkable for his lenity and humanity than
for his resolution and courage. The passengers who were first sent on
board the Centurion informed us that our prize was called "Nuestra Senora
del Monte Carmelo", and was commanded by Don Manuel Zamorra. Her cargo
consisted chiefly of sugar, and great quantities of blue cloth made in
the province of Quito, somewhat resembling our English coarse
broad-cloths, but inferior to them.
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