On the 24th of that month they took a prize
which had once been in their hands before, now laden with timber and
cocoa-nuts; and on the 11th August, anchored with their prize at the
island of Lobor de la Mar, in lat. 6 deg. 95' S. where they set up tents
on shore, scrubbed and cleaned their ship's bottom, and took whatever
seemed of any value out of the prize.
[Footnote 239: Perhaps the Isla del Cana, in lat. 8 deg. 46' N. is here
meant, or it may have been one of the islands in the Gulf of
Amapala. - E.]
While here, a plot was entered into by the crew, for seizing the captain
and officers, whom they proposed to leave on the island of Lobos, and
then to run away with the ship; but this was happily discovered on the
6th September, the two principal ringleaders severely punished, and the
rest pardoned. On the 17th, they took a fishing-boat with a considerable
quantity of well-cured and salt fish. On the 1st November they went into
the Bay of Conception, on the coast of Chili, in lat. 36 deg. 35' S. in
chace of a vessel which outsailed them and escaped; whence they bore
away for Coquimbo, in lat. 29 deg. 50' S. and took a ship laden with sugar,
tobacco, and cloth, on their passage between these two places. On the
6th in the afternoon, on opening the harbour of Coquimbo, they saw three
men-of-war at anchor with their topsails loose, which immediately
slipped their cables and stood after them. The Success hauled close upon
a wind, as the prize did likewise, on which the best sailing Spanish
man-of-war gave chase to the prize, which she soon came up with and
took. The two other ships crowded all sail after the Success, till
afternoon, when the biggest carried away her mizen-mast, on which she
fired a gun and stood in for the shore, which favoured the escape of the
Success.
In the re-captured prize, they lost their third lieutenant, Mr James
Milne, with twelve men. The captain of the Spanish man-of-war which took
him, was the famous Don Blas de Lesso, who was governor of Carthagena
when that place was attacked by Admiral Vernon. At first Don Blas
treated Mr Milne very roughly, being enraged at having missed taking the
English privateer, and had only retaken a Spanish prize, and in the
first transport of his passion struck Mr Milne over the head with the
flat of his sword. But on coming to himself he sent for Mr Milne, and
generously asked his pardon, and finding he had been stripped by the
soldiers, ordered him a new suit of clothes, and kept him some time in
his own ship. He afterwards procured his liberty at Lima, paid his
passage to Panama, giving him a jar of wine and another of brandy for
his sea-store, and put 200 dollars in his pocket to carry him to
England.
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