Besides the care we had taken to prevent the galeon from passing by us unobserved, we had not been inattentive to the means of engaging her to advantage when we came up with her, for considering the thinness of our crews, and the vaunting accounts given by the Spaniards of her size, her guns, and her strength, this was a consideration not to be neglected. As we supposed that none of our ships but the _Centurion_ and _Gloucester_ were capable of lying alongside of her, we took on board the _Centurion_ all the hands belonging to the _Carmelo_ and _Carmin_, except what were just sufficient to navigate those ships; and Captain Saunders was ordered to send from the _Tryal's_ prize ten Englishmen, and as many negroes, to reinforce the crew of the _Gloucester_. At the same time, for the encouragement of our negroes, of which we had a considerable number on board, we promised them that on their good behaviour they should have their freedom. As they had been almost every day trained to the management of the great guns for the two preceding months, they were very well qualified to be of service to us; and from their hopes of liberty, and in return for the kind usage they had met with amongst us, they seemed disposed to exert themselves to the { 233} utmost of their power, whenever we should have occasion for them.
Being thus prepared for the reception of the galeon, we expected, with the utmost impatience, the often mentioned 3d of March, the day fixed for her departure. No sooner did that day dawn than we were all of us most eagerly engaged in looking out towards Acapulco, from whence neither the casual duties on board nor the calls of hunger could easily divert our eyes; and we were so strangely prepossessed with the certainty of our intelligence, and with an assurance of her coming out of port, that some or other amongst us were constantly imagining that they discovered one of our cutters returning with a signal. But, to our extreme vexation, both this day and the succeeding night passed over without any news of the galeon. However, we did not yet despair, but were all heartily disposed to flatter ourselves that some unforeseen accident had intervened, which might have put off her departure for a few days; and suggestions of this kind occurred in plenty, as we knew that the time fixed by the viceroy for her sailing was often prolonged on the petition of the merchants of Mexico. Thus we kept up our hopes, and did not abate of our vigilance, and as the 7th of March was Sunday, the beginning of Passion week, which is observed by the Papists with great strictness, and a total cessation from all kinds of labour, so that no ship is permitted to stir out of port during the whole week, this quieted our apprehensions for some time, and disposed us not to expect the galeon till the week following. On the Friday in this week our cutters returned to us, and the officers on board them were very confident that the galeon was still in port, for that she could not possibly have come out but they must have seen her. The Monday morning following, that is, on the 15th of March, the cutters were again dispatched to their old station, and our hopes were once more indulged in as sanguine prepossessions as before; but in a week's time our eagerness was greatly abated, and a general dejection and despondency took place in its room. It is true, there were some few amongst us who still kept up their spirits, and were very ingenious in finding out reasons to satisfy themselves that the disappointment we had hitherto met with had only been occasioned by a casual delay of the galeon, which a few days would remove, and not by a total suspension of her departure { 234} for the whole season. But these speculations were not adopted by the generality of our people, for they were persuaded that the enemy had, by some accident, discovered our being upon the coast, and had therefore laid an embargo on the galeon till next year. And indeed this persuasion was but too well founded, for we afterwards learnt that our barge, when sent on the discovery of the port of Acapulco, had been seen from the shore, and that this circumstance (no embarkations but canoes ever frequenting that coast) was to them a sufficient proof of the neighbourhood of our squadron; on which they stopped the galeon till the succeeding year.