was, If we had seen the English privateer? We answered, No. The next
question was, How we had got no farther on our way to Lima? To
which we answered, By reason of the currents. To two or three other
questions, we answered satisfactorily in Spanish, and they were
getting their tacks aboard in order to leave us, when Sprake and two
or three more of our men appeared on the main deck. A Frenchman aboard
the Brilliante, who was on the mast-head, seeing their long trowsers,
called out, _Par Dieu, Monsieur, ils sont Anglois_, By Heaven, Sir,
they are English: Upon which they immediately fired a broad-side into
us with round and partridge shot, by one of which Hately was slightly
wounded in the leg.

As soon as we struck our flag, the enemy sent for all the English
on board their ships, and ordered two of their own officers into our
prize. The Brilliante then bore down on the Mercury, into which she
fired at least twenty-five shot, which bored her sides through and
through: Yet such was the construction of that extraordinary vessel,
that, though quite full of water, there was not weight enough to sink
her, and our three men who were in her remained unhurt. Don Pedro
Midrando, the Spanish commander, ordered these three men into his
own ship, in which he intended to sail for Payta. As for me, he gave
directions that I should be sent forty miles up the country, to a
place called _Piura_, and was so kind as to leave Mr Pressick the
surgeon, and my serjeant Cobbs, to bear me company. Mr Hately and
the rest of our men were ordered to Lima by land, a journey of four
hundred miles.[2] Hately had the misfortune to be doubly under the
displeasure of the Spaniards: First, for returning into these seas
after having been long their prisoner, and being well used among them:
And, second, for having stripped the Portuguese captain at Cape Frio
of a good quantity of moidores, which were now found upon him. Don