And indeed, their success
was very near doing honour to their Ave Marias;* for altering their
course in the night and shutting up their windows to prevent any of their
lights from being seen, they had some chance of escaping. But a small
crevice in one of the shutters rendered all their invocations
ineffectual, for through this crevice the people on board the Trial
perceived a light, which they chased till they arrived within gun shot,
and then Captain Saunders alarmed them unexpectedly with a broadside when
they flattered themselves they were got out of his reach. However, for
some time after, they still kept the same sail abroad, and it was not
observed that this first salute had made any impression on them; but just
as the Trial was preparing to repeat her broadside, the Spaniards crept
from their holes, lowered their sails, and submitted without any
opposition. She was one of the largest merchantmen employed in those
seas, being about six hundred tons burthen, and was called the
"Arranzazu". She was bound from Callao to Valparaiso, and had much the
same cargo with the Carmelo we had taken before, except that her silver
amounted only to about 5000 pounds sterling.
(*Note. Ave Maria (Hail Mary!) are the opening words of a Roman Catholic
prayer to the Virgin Mary.)
THE TRIAL DISABLED.
But to balance this success we had the misfortune to find that the Trial
had sprung her mainmast, and that her maintopmast had come by the board;
and as we were all of us standing to the eastward the next morning, with
a fresh gale at south, she had the additional ill-luck to spring her
foremast; so that now she had not a mast left on which she could carry
sail.
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