These orders being despatched, the Centurion parted from them
at eleven in the evening on the 27th of September, directing her course
to the southward, with a view of cruising for some days to the windward
of Valparaiso.
CHAPTER 17.
MORE CAPTURES--ALARM OF THE COAST--PAITA.
DISAPPOINTMENT.
Though, after leaving Captain Saunders, we were very expeditious in
regaining our station, where we got the 29th at noon, yet in plying on
and off till the 6th of October we had not the good fortune to discover a
sail of any sort, and then, having lost all hopes of making any advantage
by a longer stay, we made sail to the leeward of the port in order to
join our prizes; but when we arrived on the station appointed for them we
did not meet with them, though we continued there four or five days. We
supposed that some chase had occasioned their leaving the station, and
therefore we proceeded down the coast to the high land of Nasca, where
Captain Saunders was directed to join us. Here we arrived on the 21st,
and were in great expectation of meeting with some of the enemy's ships
on the coast, as both the accounts of former voyages and the information
of our prisoners assured us that all ships bound to Callao constantly
make this land, to prevent the danger of running to the leeward of the
port. But notwithstanding the advantages of this station we saw no sail
till the 2nd of November, when two ships appeared in sight together. We
immediately gave them chase, but soon perceived that they were the
Trial's and Centurion's prizes.
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