AT SEA AGAIN.
On the 6th of April the Centurion weighed from the Typa, and warped to
the southward, and by the 15th she was got into Macao road, completing
her water as she passed along, so that there remained now very few
articles more to attend to; and her whole business being finished by the
19th, she, at three in the afternoon of that day, weighed and made sail,
and stood to sea.
CHAPTER 33.
WAITING FOR THE Manila GALLEON.
The Commodore was now got to sea, with his ship very well refitted, his
stores replenished, and an additional stock of provisions on board. His
crew, too, was somewhat reinforced, for he had entered twenty-three men
during his stay at Macao, the greatest part of which were Lascars or
Indian sailors, and some few Dutch. He gave out at Macao that he was
bound to Batavia, and thence to England; and though the western monsoon
was now set in, when that passage is considered as impracticable, yet by
the confidence he had expressed in the strength of his ship and the
dexterity of his people he had persuaded not only his own crew, but the
people at Macao likewise, that he proposed to try this unusual
experiment; so that there were many letters put on board him by the
inhabitants of Canton and Macao for their friends at Batavia.
But his real design was of a very different nature, for he knew that
instead of one annual ship from Acapulco to Manila there would be this
year, in all probability, two, since by being before Acapulco he had
prevented one of them from putting to sea the preceding season.
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