which we met with on board her, partly from the information of the
prisoners, and partly from the letters and papers which fell into our
hands. We here first learned with certainty the force and destination of
that squadron which cruised off Madeira at our arrival there, and
afterwards chased the Pearl in our passage to Port St. Julian. And we
had, at the same time, the satisfaction to find that Pizarro, after his
utmost endeavours to gain his passage into these seas, had been forced
back again into the River of Plate, with the loss of two of his largest
ships; and besides this disappointment of Pizarro, which considering our
great debility, was no unacceptable intelligence, we further learned that
an embargo had been laid upon all shipping in these seas by the Viceroy
of Peru, in the month of May preceding, on a supposition that about that
time we might arrive upon the coast. But on the account sent overland by
Pizarro of his own distresses, part of which they knew we must have
encountered, as we were at sea during the same time, and on their having
no news of us in eight months after we were known to set sail from St.
Catherine's, they were fully persuaded that we were either shipwrecked,
or had perished at sea, or at least had been obliged to put back again;
for it was conceived impossible for any ships to continue at sea during
so long an interval, and, therefore, on the application of the merchants
and the firm persuasion of our having miscarried, the embargo had been
lately taken off.

A NARROW ESCAPE.

This last article made us flatter ourselves that, as the enemy was still
a stranger to our having got round Cape Horn, and the navigation of these
seas was restored, we might meet with some considerable captures, and
might thereby indemnify ourselves for the incapacity we were now under of
attempting any of their considerable settlements on shore. And thus much