For though our negro prisoners* informed
us that the galleon arrived at Acapulco on our 9th of January, which was
about twenty days before we fell in with this coast, yet they at the same
time told us that the galleon had delivered her cargo and was taking in
water and provisions for her return, and that the Viceroy of Mexico had
by proclamation fixed her departure from Acapulco to the 14th of March,
New Style.
(*Note. Three negroes in a fishing canoe had been captured by the
Centurion's barge off Acapulco harbour.)
This last news was most joyfully received by us, as we had no doubt but
she must certainly fall into our hands, and as it was much more eligible
to seize her on her return than it would have been to have taken her
before her arrival, as the specie for which she had sold her cargo, and
which she would now have on board, would be prodigiously more to be
esteemed by us than the cargo itself, great part of which would have
perished on our hands, and no part of it could have been disposed of by
us at so advantageous a mart as Acapulco.
Thus we were a second time engaged in an eager expectation of meeting
with this Manila ship, which, by the fame of its wealth, we had been
taught to consider as the most desirable prize that was to be met with in
any part of the globe.
CHAPTER 22.
THE Manila* TRADE.
(*Note. The capital of Luzon, the chief island of the Philippine group.
The Philippines were discovered in 1521 by Magellan, who was killed there
by the natives.
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