They had, besides, several bales of a
coarser sort of cloth, of different colours, called by them Pannia da
Tierra, with a few bales of cotton and tobacco, which though strong was
not ill-flavoured. These were the principal goods on board her; but we
found, besides, what was to us much more valuable than the rest of the
cargo. This was some trunks of wrought plate, and twenty-three serons of
dollars, each weighing upwards of 200 pounds avoirdupois. The ship's
burthen was about 450 tons; she had fifty-three sailors on board, both
whites and blacks; she came from Callao, and had been twenty-seven days
at sea before she fell into our hands. She was bound to the port of
Valparaiso, in the kingdom of Chili, and proposed to have returned thence
loaded with corn and Chili wine, some gold, dried beef, and small
cordage, which at Callao they convert into larger rope. The prisoners
informed us that they left Callao in company with two other ships, which
they had parted with some days before, and that at first they conceived
us to be one of their company; and by the description we gave them of the
ship we had chased from Juan Fernandez, they assured us she was of their
number, but that the coming in sight of that island was directly
repugnant to the merchants' instructions, who had expressly forbid it, as
knowing that if any English squadron was in those seas, the island of
Fernandez was most probably the place of their rendezvous.
And now it is necessary that I should relate the important intelligence
which we met with on board her, partly from the information of the
prisoners, and partly from the letters and papers which fell into our
hands.
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