During his stay he entered about forty new men, and having by
the 3rd of April, 1744, completed his water and provision, he on that day
weighed and put to sea. The 19th of the same month they saw the island of
St. Helena, which, however, they did not touch at, but stood on their
way; and on the 10th of June, being then in soundings, they spoke with an
English ship from Amsterdam bound for Philadelphia, whence they received
the first intelligence of a French war. The 12th they got sight of the
Lizard, and the 15th, in the evening, to their infinite joy, they came
safe to an anchor at Spithead. But that the signal perils which had so
often threatened them in the preceding part of the enterprise might
pursue them to the very last, Mr. Anson learned on his arrival that there
was a French fleet of considerable force cruising in the chops of the
Channel, which, by the account of their position, he found the Centurion
had run through and had been all the time concealed by a fog. Thus was
this expedition finished, when it had lasted three years and nine months,
after having, by its event, strongly evinced this important truth: That
though prudence, intrepidity, and perseverance united are not exempted
from the blows of adverse fortune, yet in a long series of transactions
they usually rise superior to its power, and in the end rarely fail of
proving successful.
GLOSSARY.
Anchors:
Bower anchors (the best bower and the small bower). The anchors carried
at the bows of a vessel.
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