These measures were obviously necessary, considering the hazards to which
the Commodore and his people would have been exposed had they been less
careful. Indeed, the sufferings of the poor prisoners though impossible
to be alleviated, were much to be commiserated, for the weather was
extremely hot, the stench of the hold loathsome beyond all conception,
and their allowance of water but just sufficient to keep them alive, it
not being practicable to spare them more than at the rate of a pint a day
for each, the crew themselves having only an allowance of a pint and a
half. All this considered, it was wonderful that not a man of them died
during their long confinement, except three of the wounded, who died the
same night they were taken; though it must be confessed that the greatest
part of them were strangely metamorphosed by the heat of the hold, for
when they were first taken they were sightly, robust fellows, but when,
after above a month's imprisonment, they were discharged in the river of
Canton, they were reduced to mere skeletons, and their air and looks
corresponded much more to the conception formed of ghosts and spectres
than to the figure and appearance of real men.
Thus employed in securing the treasure and the prisoners, the Commodore,
as has been said, stood for the river of Canton, and on the 30th of June,
at six in the evening, got sight of Cape Delangano, which then bore west
ten leagues distant, and the next day he made the Bashee Islands, and the
wind being so far to the northward that it was difficult to weather them,
it was resolved to stand through between Grafton and Monmouth Islands,
where the passage seemed to be clear; but in getting through the sea had
a very dangerous aspect, for it rippled and foamed as if it had been full
of breakers, which was still more terrible as it was then night.
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