Volume Xi Part 20 (2/2)

Full of these terrors, the women all hid themselves on the lieutenant coming on board, and, when found out, it was with difficulty he could persuade them to come to the light. But he soon satisfied them, by the humanity of his conduct, and by his a.s.surances of their future safety and honourable treatment, that they had nothing to fear. The commodore, also, being informed of their fears, sent directions that they should continue in their own s.h.i.+p, with the use of the same apartments and all other conveniences they had before enjoyed, giving strict orders that they should experience no inquietude or molestation; and, that they might be the more certain of having these orders complied with, or having the means of complaining if they were not, the commodore appointed the pilot, who is generally the second person in Spanish s.h.i.+ps, to remain with them as their guardian and protector. He was particularly chosen on this occasion, as he seemed extremely interested in all that concerned these women, and had at first declared that he was married to the youngest; though it afterwards appeared that he had a.s.serted this merely with the view of securing them from the insults they dreaded on falling into our hands.

By this compa.s.sionate and indulgent behaviour of the commodore, the consternation of our female prisoners entirety subsided, and they continued easy and cheerful during the time they were with us.

I have before mentioned that the Centurion ran her two consorts out of sight at the commencement of this chase, on which account we lay to for them all the night after we had taken the prize, firing guns and shewing false fires every half hour, to prevent them from pa.s.sing us un.o.bserved. But they were so far astern, that they neither heard nor saw any of our signals, and were not able to come up with us till broad day. When they had joined, we proceeded together to the northward, being now four sail in company. We here found the sea for many miles of a beautiful red colour, owing, as we found upon examination, to an immense quant.i.ty of sp.a.w.n floating on its surface: For, taking some of the water in a gla.s.s, it soon changed from a dirty aspect to be perfectly clear, with some red globules of a slimy nature floating on the top. Having now a supply of timber in our new prize, the commodore ordered all our boats to be repaired, and a swivel-stock to be fitted in the bow of the barge and pinnace, in order to increase their force, in case we should have occasion to use them in boarding s.h.i.+ps, or making any attempt on sh.o.r.e.

Continuing our course to the northward, nothing remarkable occurred for two or three days, though we spread our s.h.i.+ps in such a manner that it was not probable any vessel of the enemy should escape us.

During our voyage along this coast, we generally observed that a current set us to the northward, at the rate of ten or twelve miles every day. When in about the lat.i.tude of 8 S. we began to be attended by vast numbers of flying fish and bonitos, which were the first we had seen after leaving the coast of Brazil. It is remarkable that these fish extend to a much higher lat.i.tude on the east side of America than on the west, as we did not lose them on the coast of Brazil till near the southern tropic. The reason, doubtless, of this diversity, is owing to the different degrees of heat obtaining on different sides of the continent in the same lat.i.tude; and, on this occasion, I use the freedom to make a short digression on the heat and cold of different climates, and on the variations which occur in the same places at different times of the year, and in different places in the same degree of lat.i.tude.

The ancients conceived that of the five zones into which they divided the surface of the globe, two only were habitable; supposing that the heat between the tropics, and the cold within the polar circles, were too intense to be supported by mankind. The falsehood of this idea has been long established; but the particular comparison of the heat and cold of these various climates have as yet been very imperfectly considered. Enough is known, however, safely to determine this position, that all the places within the tropics are far from being the hottest on the globe, as many within the polar circle are far from enduring that extreme degree of cold to which their situation seems to subject them; that is to say, that the temperature of a place depends much more upon other circ.u.mstances, than upon its distance from the pole, or its proximity to the equinoctial line.

This proposition relates to the general temperature of places taking the whole year round, and, in this sense, it cannot be denied that the city of London, for instance, enjoys much warmer seasons than the bottom of Hudson's Bay, which is nearly in the same lat.i.tude, but where the severity of the winter is so great as scarcely to permit the hardiest of our garden plants to live. If the comparison be made between the coast of Brazil and the western sh.o.r.e of South America, as, for example, between Bahia and Lima, the difference will be found still more considerable; for, though the coast of Brazil is extremely sultry, yet the coast of the South Sea, in the same lat.i.tude, is perhaps as temperate and tolerable as any part of the globe; since we, in ranging it along, did not once meet with such warm weather as is frequently felt in a summer day in England, which was still the more remarkable, as there never fell any rain to refresh and cool the air.

The causes of this lower temperature in the South Sea are not difficult to be a.s.signed, and shall be mentioned hereafter. I am now only solicitous to establish the truth of this a.s.sertion, that the lat.i.tude of a place alone is no rule by which to judge of the degree of heat and cold which obtains there. Perhaps this position might be more briefly confirmed by observing that on the tops of the Andes, though under the equator, the snow never melts the whole year round; a criterion of cold stronger than is known to take place in many parts far within the polar circle.

Hitherto I have considered the temperature of the air all the year through, and the gross estimations of heat and cold which every one makes from his own sensations. But if this matter be examined by means of thermometers, which are doubtless the most unerring evidences in respect to the absolute degrees of heat and cold, the result will be indeed most wonderful; since it will appear that the heat in very high lat.i.tudes, as at Petersburgh for instance, is, at particular times, much greater than any that has been hitherto observed between the tropics. Even at London in the year 1746, there was a part of one day considerably hotter than was at any time felt in one of the s.h.i.+ps of our squadron in the whole voyage out and home, though four times pa.s.sing under the equator; for, in the summer of that year, the thermometer in London, graduated according to the scale of Fahrenheit, stood at 78, and the greatest observed heat, by a thermometer of the same kind in the same s.h.i.+p, was 76, which was at St Catharines in the latter end of December, when the sun was within about 3 of the vertex. At St Petersburgh, I find by the acts of the Academy, in the year 1734, on the 20th and 25th of July, that the thermometer rose to 98 in the shade, or 22 higher than it was found to be at St Catharines; which extraordinary degree of heat, were it not authenticated by the regularity and circ.u.mspection with which the observations appear to have been conducted, would appear altogether incredible.

If it should be asked, how it comes then to pa.s.s, that the heat, in many places between the tropics, is esteemed so violent and insufferable, when it appears, by these instances, that it is sometimes rivalled, and even exceeded, in very high lat.i.tudes, not far from the polar circle? I shall answer, That the estimation of heat, in any particular place, ought not to be founded upon that particular degree of it which may now and then obtain there; but is rather to be deduced from the medium observed during a whole season, or perhaps in a whole year; and in this light, it will easily appear how much more intense the same degree of heat may prove, by being long continued without remarkable variation. For instance, in comparing together St Catharines and St Petersburg, we shall suppose the summer heat at St Catharines to be 76, and the winter heat to be only 56. I do not make this last supposition upon sufficient authority, but am apt to suspect the allowance is full large. Upon this supposition, therefore, the medium heat all the year round will be 66; and this perhaps by night as well as by day, with no great variation. Now, those who have attended to thermometrical observation will readily allow, that a continuance of this degree of heat for a length of time, would be found violent and suffocating by the generality of mankind. But at Petersburg, though the heat, as measured by the thermometer, may happen to be a few times in the year considerably higher than at St Catharines, yet, at other times, the cold is intensely sharper, and the medium for a year, or even for one season only, would be far short of 60. For I find, that the variation of the thermometer at Petersburgh, is at least five times greater, from its highest to its lowest point, than I have supposed it to be at St Catherines.[2]

[Footnote 2: On his own principles, the lowest heat of Petersburg ought to be -2, and the medium temperature of the year 48; but the data are loosely expressed and quite unsatisfactory, as indeed is the whole reasoning on the subject.--E.]

Besides this estimation of the heat of a place, by taking the medium for a considerable time together, there is another circ.u.mstance which will still farther augment the apparent heat of the warmer climates, and diminish that of the colder, though I do not remember to have seen it remarked by any author. To explain myself more distinctly upon this head, I must observe, that the measure of absolute heat, marked by the thermometer, is not the certain criterion of the sensation of heat with which human bodies are affected; for, as the presence and perpetual succession of fresh air is necessary to our respiration, so there is a species of tainted or stagnated air often produced by the continuance of great heats, which, being less proper for respiration, never fails to excite in us an idea of sultriness and suffocating warmth, much beyond what the heat of the air alone would occasion, supposing it pure and agitated. Hence it follows, that the mere inspection of the thermometer will never determine the heat which the human body feels from this cause; and hence also, the heat, in most places between the tropics, must be much more troublesome and uneasy, than the same degree of absolute heat in a high lat.i.tude. For the equability and duration of the tropical heat contribute to impregnate the air with a mult.i.tude of steams and vapours from the soil and water; and many of these being of an impure and noxious kind, and being not easily removed, by reason of the regularity of the winds in those parts, which only s.h.i.+ft the exhalations from place to place, without dispersing them, the atmosphere is by this means rendered less capable of supporting the animal functions, and mankind are consequently affected by what they call a most intense and stifling heat. Whereas, in the higher lat.i.tudes, these vapours are probably raised in smaller quant.i.ties, and are frequently dispersed by the irregularity and violence of the winds; so that the air, being in general more pure and less stagnant, the same degree of absolute heat is not attended by that uneasy and suffocating sensation.

This may suffice, in general, with respect to the present speculation; but I cannot help wis.h.i.+ng, as it is a subject in which mankind are very much interested, especially travellers of all sorts, that it were more thoroughly and accurately examined, and that all s.h.i.+ps bound to the warmer climates were furnished with thermometers of a known fabric, and would observe them daily, and register their observations.

For, considering the turn to philosophical enquiries which has obtained in Europe since the beginning of the eighteenth century, it is incredible how very rarely any thing of this kind has been attended to. For my own part, I do not remember to have ever seen any observations of the heat and cold, either in the East or West Indies, which were made by marines or officers of vessels, excepting those made by order of Commodore Anson on board the Centurion, and those by Captain Legg on board the Severn, another s.h.i.+p of our squadron.

I have been in some measure drawn into this digression, by the consideration of the fine weather we experienced on the coast of Peru, even under the equinoctial, but I have not yet described the particularities of this weather. I shall now therefore observe, that every circ.u.mstance concurred, in this climate, that could render the open air and the day-light desirable: For, in other countries, the scorching heat of the sun in summer renders the greater part of the day unapt either for labour or amus.e.m.e.nt, and the frequent rains are not less troublesome in the more temperate parts of the year: But, in this happy climate, the sun rarely appears. Not that the heavens have at any time a dark or gloomy aspect; for there is constantly a cheerful gray sky, just sufficient to screen the sun, and to mitigate the violence of its perpendicular rays, without obscuring the air, or tinging the light of day with an unpleasant or melancholy hue. By this means, all parts of the day are proper for labour or exercise in the open air; nor is there wanting that refres.h.i.+ng and pleasing refrigeration of the air which is sometimes produced by rains in other climates; for here the same effect is brought about by the fresh breezes from the cooler regions to the southward. It is reasonable to suppose, that this fortunate complexion of the heavens is princ.i.p.ally owing to the neighbourhood of those vast mountains called the Andes, which, running nearly parallel to the sh.o.r.e, and at a small distance from it, and extending immensely higher than any other mountains upon the globe, form upon their sides and declivities a prodigious tract of country, where, according to the different approaches to the summit, all kinds of climates may be found at all seasons of the year.

These mountains, by intercepting great part of the eastern winds, which generally blow over the continent of South America, and by cooling that part of the air which forces its way over their tops, and by keeping besides a large portion of the atmosphere perpetually cool, from its contiguity to the snows by which they are always covered, and thus spreading the influence of their frozen crests to the neighbouring coasts and seas of Peru, are doubtless the cause of the temperature and equability which constantly prevail there. For, when we had advanced beyond the equinoctial to the north, where these mountains left us, and had nothing to screen us to the eastward but the high lands on the Isthmus of Darien, which are mere mole-hills compared to the Andes, we then found that we had totally changed our climate in a short run; pa.s.sing, in two or three days, from the temperate air of Peru, to the sultry and burning atmosphere of the West Indies.

To return to our narration. On the 10th of November we were three leagues south of the southern island, of _Lobos_, in lat. 6 27'

S. This is called _Lobos de la Mar_; and another, which is to the northward of it, and resembles it so much in shape and appearance as to be often mistaken for it, is called _Lobos de Tierra_.[3] We were now drawing near the station that had been appointed for the Gloucester, and fearing to miss her, we went under easy sail all night. At day-break next morning, we saw a s.h.i.+p in sh.o.r.e and to windward, which had pa.s.sed us unseen in the night, and soon perceiving that she was not the Gloucester, we got our tacks on board and gave her chase. But as there was very little wind, so that neither we nor the chase had made much way, the commodore ordered his barge and pinnace, with the pinnace of the Tryal's prize, to be manned and armed, and to pursue and board the chase. Lieutenant Brett, who commanded our barge, came up with her first about nine o'clock, a.m.

and, running alongside, fired a volley of small shot between her masts, just over the heads of her people, and then instantly boarded with the greatest part of his men. But the enemy made no resistance, being sufficiently intimidated by the dazzling of the cutla.s.ses, and the volley they had just received. Lieutenant Brett now made the sails of the prize be trimmed, and bore down towards the commodore, taking up the other two boats in his way. When within about four miles of us, he put off in the barge, bringing with him a number of the prisoners, who had given him some material intelligence, which he was desirous of communicating to the commodore as soon as possible. On his arrival, we learnt that the prize was called _Nuestra Senora del Carmin_, of about 270 tons burden, commanded by Marcos Moreno, a native of Venice, having on board forty-three mariners. She was deeply laden with steel, iron, wax, pepper, cedar plank, snuff, _rosarios_, European bale-goods, powder-blue, cinnamon, papal indulgences, and other kinds of merchandize; and, though this cargo was of little value to us, in our present circ.u.mstances, it was the most considerable capture we had made, in respect to the Spaniards, as it amounted to upwards of 400,000 dollars, prime cost at Panama. This s.h.i.+p was bound from Panama to Callao, and had stopped at Payta on her way, to take on board a recruit of water and provisions, and had not left that place above twenty-four hours when she fell into our hands.

[Footnote 3: The Southern Lobos, or Lobos de la Mar, is in fact two contiguous islands, N. and S. from each other, in lat. 6 57' S. and long. 80 43' W. _Lobos de Tierra_, called also _Inner Lobos_, from being nearer the land, lying in the same longitude, is in lat. 6 28'

S. There is still a third, or Northern Lobos, in lat. 5 10' S. long.

81 W.]

The important intelligence received by Mr Brett, which he was so anxious to communicate to the commodore, he had learnt from one John Williams, an Irishman, whom he found in the prize, and which was confirmed by examination of the other prisoners. Williams was a papist, who had worked his pa.s.sage from Cadiz, and had travelled over the whole of the kingdom of Mexico as a pedlar. He pretended that, by this business, he had at one time cleared four or five thousand dollars, but at length got entangled by the priests, who knew he had money, and was stripped of every thing. At present he was all in rags, having just got out of Payto gaol, where he had been confined for some misdemeanour. He expressed great joy in thus meeting his countrymen, and immediately informed them, that a vessel had come into Payta, only a few days before, the master of which had informed the governor, that he had been chased in the offing by a very large s.h.i.+p, which he was persuaded, from her size and the colour of her sails, must be one of the English squadron. This we conjectured to have been the Gloucester, as we found afterwards was the case. On examining the master, and being fully satisfied of his account, the governor sent off an express with all expedition to the viceroy at Lima; and the royal officer residing at Payta, apprehensive of a visit from the English, had been busily employed, from his first hearing of this news, in removing the king's treasure and his own to Piura, a town in the interior, about fourteen leagues distant.[4] We learnt farther, from our prisoners, that there was at this time a considerable sum of money in the custom-house of Payta, belonging to some merchants of Lima, which was intended to be s.h.i.+pped on board a vessel, then in the harbour of Payta, and was preparing to sail for the bay of _Sansonnate_, on the coast of Mexico, in order to purchase a part of the cargo of the Manilla s.h.i.+p.

[Footnote 4: San Migual de Piura is about 50 English miles E. by S.

from Payta, and nearly the same distance from the mouth of the Piura river.--E.]

As the vessel in which this money was to be s.h.i.+pped was reckoned a prime sailer, and had just received a new coat of tallow on her bottom, and might, in the opinion of the prisoners, be able to sail the succeeding morning, we had little reason to expect that our s.h.i.+p, which had been nearly two years in the water, could have any chance to get up with her, if she were once allowed to escape from the port.

Wherefore, and as we were now discovered, and the whole coast would soon be alarmed, and as our continuing to cruise any longer in these parts would now answer no purpose, the commodore determined to endeavour to take Payta by surprise, having in the first place informed himself minutely of its strength and condition, by examining the prisoners, and being fully satisfied that there was little danger of losing many of our men in the attempt.

This attack on Payta, besides the treasure it promised, and its being the only enterprise in our power to undertake, had also several other probable advantages. We might, in all probability, supply ourselves with great quant.i.ties of live provisions, of which we were in great want; and we should also have an opportunity of setting our prisoners on sh.o.r.e, who were now very numerous, and made a greater consumption of our food than our remaining stock was capable of furnis.h.i.+ng much longer. In all these lights, the attempt was most eligible, and to which our situation, our necessities, and every prudential consideration, strongly prompted. How it succeeded, and how far it answered our expectations, shall be the subject, of the succeeding section.

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