On September the 18th they sight "Pico Teneriff, and at 5 next morning spy'd a sail under their lee bow, which proved a prize, a Spanish bark about 25 tuns belonging to Oratava in Teneriff, and bound to Forteventura with about 45 passengers; who rejoiced when they found us English, because they feared we were Turks. Amongst the prisoners were four Fryars, one of them the Padre Guardian for the Island of Forteventura, a good honest fellow whom we made heartily merry drinking King Charles the _Thirds_ health, but the rest were of the _wrong sort_." FOOTNOTES: [2] Writing of Bristol in 1808, Pinkerton says that "in the late wars with France they built here a sort of galleys, called runners, which being well armed and manned, and furnished with letters of marque, overtook and mastered several prizes of that nation. Many of these _ships_ were then also carriers for the London merchants, who ordered their goods to be landed here, and sent to Gloucester by water, thence by land to Lechlade, and thence _down_ the Thames to London; the carriage being so reasonable that it was more than paid for by the difference of the insurance and risque between this port and London." [3] "Flipp, a liquor much used in ships, made by mixing beer with spirits and sugar."--JOHNSON, 1760. [4] "Snow." A vessel which would now be called a brig. The largest two masted craft of that time, and then distinguished from a brig by having a square mainsail below her maintopsail; a fore and aft sail being also carried upon a small spar fitted to, and just abaft the mainmast. In the original brigs this fore and aft sail was set upon the mainmast itself, and was the mainsail, in the Snow it became the spanker. [5] Forty or fifty years ago the crews of South Sea whalers were very smart sea-boatmen, and their captains thought nothing of lowering a boat in a double reefed topsail breeze, to take a cup of tea or glass of grog with the captain of a ship in company. Great simplicity was the main feature of boat lowering gear on board these ships; but constant practice made communication between them so easy, that it took place often under difficulties which now would be sufficient to entitle the officer in charge of the boat to a gold watch and chain. [Illustration] CHAPTER II. AMONGST THE CANARY ISLES. [Sidenote: 1708 _Sept._] Considering that Captain Rogers' main object in cruising among the Grand Canaries was to lay in a store of liquor for his voyage "about Cape Horn," this small Spanish bark, with a cargo of two butts of wine, and a hogshead of brandy, was a lucky windfall. [Sidenote: _A letter from Port Oratava._]