Being now in the track of the Manila galeon, it was a great doubt with us, as it was near the end of January, whether she was or was not arrived; but examining our prisoners {212} about it, they assured us that she was sometimes known to come in after the middle of February, and they endeavoured to persuade us that the fire we had seen on shore was a proof that she was yet at sea, it being customary, as they said, to make use of these fires as signals for her direction when she continued longer out than ordinary. On this reasoning of our prisoners, strengthened by our propensity to believe them in a matter which so pleasingly flattered our wishes, we resolved to cruise for her some days, and we accordingly spread our ships at the distance of twelve leagues from the coast in such a manner that it was impossible she should pass us unobserved. However, not seeing her soon, we were at intervals inclined to suspect that she had gained her port already, and as we now began to want a harbour to refresh our people, the uncertainty of our present situation gave us great uneasiness, and we were very solicitous to get some positive intelligence, which might either set us at liberty to consult our necessities, if the galeon was arrived, or might animate us to continue our present cruise with chearfulness, if she was not. With this view, the commodore, after examining our prisoners very particularly, resolved to send a boat, under colour of the night, into the harbour of Acapulco, to see if the Manila ship was there or not, one of the Indians being very positive that this might be done without the boat itself being discovered. To execute this enterprize, the barge was dispatched the 6th of February, carrying a sufficient crew and two officers, as also a Spanish pilot, with the Indian who had insisted on the facility of this project, and had undertaken to conduct it. Our barge did not return to us again till the 11th, when the officers acquainted Mr. Anson that, agreeable to our suspicions, there was nothing like a harbour in the place where the Spanish pilots had at first asserted Acapulco to lie; that after they had satisfied themselves in this particular, they steered to the eastward, in hopes of discovering it, and had coasted along shore thirty-two leagues; that in this whole range they met chiefly with sandy beaches of a great length, over which the sea broke with so much violence that it was impossible for a boat to land; that at the end of their run they could just discover two paps at a very great distance to the eastward, which from their appearance and their latitude they concluded to be those in the neighbourhood of Acapulco; but that not having a sufficient {213} quantity of fresh water and provision for their passage thither and back again, they were obliged to return to the commodore, to acquaint him with their disappointment. On this intelligence we all made sail to the eastward, in order to get into the