Most of the prisoners were at once removed on board the _Centurion_, and judicious arrangements were made for keeping them from rising, which, as they far outnumbered the crew of the _Centurion_, they might easily have done; indeed, when they saw the men by whom they had been captured, they expressed themselves with great indignation, to be thus beaten by a handful of boys. All the seamen, with the exception of the wounded, were placed in the hold, and that they might have air, the two hatchways were left open, these hatchways being fitted with a square partition of thick planks, made in the shape of a funnel, which enclosed each hatchway on the lower deck, and reached to that directly over it on the upper deck, rising seven or eight feet above it. It would thus have been extremely difficult for the Spaniards to clamber up. To increase that difficulty four swivels were planted at the mouth of each funnel, and a sentry with a lighted match stood ready to fire into the hold, should they attempt to escape. The officers, amounting to seventeen or eighteen, were lodged in the first lieutenant's cabin, under a guard of six men, while their general, who was wounded, lay in the commodore's cabin, with a sentinel placed over him. As there was a scarcity of water, only a pint a day could be supplied to each prisoner. Of this they could not complain, as the ship's company had but a pint and a half. Still, they suffered greatly. All arrangements being made, the _Centurion_ and her prize sailed for Canton. Captain Anson now heard that the Manilla ship, for which he had watched at Acapulco the preceding year, had set sail sooner than the others, and had probably got into the port of Manilla before the _Centurion_ arrived off Cape Espirito Santo. He had thus to regret his long delay at Macao. On her arrival in the river of Canton, a boat, with a mandarin, immediately came off to the _Centurion_ from the forts of Boca Tigris, to inquire what she was and where she came from. Captain Anson, in reply, gave him an exact account of the ship. The officer, on hearing of the number of guns and the amount of ammunition she had on board, declared that he could not venture to make such a statement to his superiors, who would instantly become alarmed.