It was the 26th of August, 1742, in the morning, when we lost sight of the island of Anatacan, dreading that it was the last land we should ever fix our eyes on. But the next morning we discovered three other islands to the eastward, which were between ten and fourteen leagues distant from us. These were, as we afterwards learnt, the island of Saypan, Tinian, and Aguigan. We immediately steered towards Tinian, which was the middlemost of the three; but we had so much of calms and light airs, that though we were helped forwards by the currents, yet on the morrow, at daybreak, we had not advanced nearer than within five leagues of it. However, we kept on our course, and about ten o'clock we perceived a proa under sail to the southward between Tinian and Aguigan. As we imagined from hence that these islands were inhabited, and knew that the Spaniards had always a force at Guam, we took the necessary precautions for our own security: and endeavoured to prevent the enemy as much as possible from making an advantage of our present wretched circumstances, of which we feared they would be sufficiently informed by the manner of our working the ship. We therefore mustered all our hands who were capable of standing to their arms, and loaded our upper and quarter-deck guns with grape shot; and that we might the more readily procure some intelligence of the state of these islands, we showed Spanish colours, and hoisted a red flag at the fore top-mast-head, hoping thereby to give our ship the appearance of the Manila galeon, and to decoy some of the inhabitants on board us. Thus preparing ourselves, and standing towards the land, we were near enough, at three in the afternoon, to send the cutter on shore to find out a proper birth for the ship; and we soon perceived that {280} a proa put off from the island to meet the cutter, fully persuaded, as we afterwards found, that we were the Manila ship. As we saw the cutter returning with the proa in tow, we instantly sent the pinnace to receive the proa and the prisoners, and to bring them on board, that the cutter might proceed on her errand. The pinnace came back with a Spaniard and four Indians, which were the people taken in the proa: and the Spaniard being immediately examined as to the produce and circumstances of this island of Tinian, his account of it surpassed even our most sanguine hopes. For he informed us that though it was uninhabited (which in itself, considering our present defenceless condition, was a convenience not to be despised), yet it wanted but few of the accommodations that could be expected in the most cultivated country. In particular, he assured us that there was plenty of very good water; that there were an incredible number of cattle, hogs, and poultry running wild on the island, all of them excellent in their kind; that the woods afforded sweet and sour oranges, limes, lemons, and coconuts in great abundance, besides a fruit peculiar to these