alarmed them unexpectedly with a broadside, when they flattered themselves they were got out of his reach. However, for some time after they still kept the same sail abroad, and it was not observed that this first salute had made any impression on them; but, just as the _Tryal_ was preparing to repeat her broadside, the Spaniards crept from their holes, lowered their sails, and submitted without any opposition. She was one of the largest merchantmen employed in those seas, being about six hundred tuns burthen, and was called the _Arranzazu_. She was bound from Callao to Valparaiso, and had much the same cargo with the _Carmelo_ we had taken before, except that her silver amounted only to about £5000 sterling. But to balance this success, we had the misfortune to find that the _Tryal_ had sprung her main-mast, and that her main top-mast had come by the board; and as we were all of us standing to the eastward the next morning, with a fresh gale at south, she had the additional ill-luck to spring her fore-mast: so that now she had not a mast left on which she could carry sail. These unhappy incidents were still aggravated by the impossibility we were just then under of assisting her; for the wind blew so hard, and raised such a hollow sea, that we could not venture to hoist out our boat, and consequently could have no communication with her; so that we were obliged to lie to for the greatest part of {162} forty-eight hours to attend her, as we could have no thought of leaving her to herself in her present unhappy situation. It was no small accumulation to these misfortunes that we were all the while driving to the leeward of our station, at the very time too, when, by our intelligence, we had reason to expect several of the enemy's ships would appear upon the coast, who would now gain the port of Valparaiso without obstruction. And I am verily persuaded that the embarrassment we received from the dismasting of the _Tryal_, and our absence from our intended station, occasioned thereby, deprived us of some very considerable captures.