They lost also while at the Cape another important officer, in the person of Mr. Vanbrugh; who in the early part of the cruise, as the "Duke's" agent, more than once gave Rogers trouble in his negotiations about plunder, &c. [Sidenote: _My proposals to the other Capts. not comply'd with._] The expenses of ships in commission could not have been great in Rogers' time, or they would have entirely swallowed any profits, even of a privateering cruise, due to the owners, owing to the length of time the vessels lay idle at anchorages such as Batavia Roads and Table Bay. For though the "Duke" and her consorts arrived at the Cape on the 27th of December, 1710, it was April, 1711, before they sailed for England in company with sixteen Dutch East Indiamen and six English ships. Rogers was anxious himself not to have waited for the convoy of these ships. "Thinking we should loose too much time by staying for them, and the benefit of their convoy to Holland; which would not only be out of the way, but very tedious and chargeable, while having large quantities of decaying goods on board, the time lost in waiting for the Dutch at the Cape might be better spent in Brazil, where we could lie in little danger from an enemy and vend our goods at great rates; sailing thence to Bristol through the North channel with the summer before us. Keeping in the latitude of 55 or 56 degrees for two or three hundred leagues before getting the length" (_i.e._ longitude) "of the north of Ireland, and by that means avoiding the track of an enemy." But though Rogers earnestly press'd that if they would not agree to this, one of the privateers might take this run alone, and the other keep with the 'Batchelor' and Dutch fleet, the majority was against the thing, and thought it safer to go home altogether under convoy of the Dutch than run any risk of losing their rich prize by meeting an enemy between the Cape and home. Much of the officers' time during their long stay at the Cape was spent ashore holding sales of prize goods to the Dutch settlers; and among other things so disposed of, mention is particularly made of twelve negroes. Rogers also wrote to his owners from here telling them "of his safe arrival with the Acapulco ship, now called the 'Batchelor' frigate mounted with 20 great guns, and 200 brass patereroes, with 116 men; a firm ship; and that the 'Duke' and 'Dutchess,' being fitted with everything necessary, only waited for the fleet which was expected to sail about the end of March."