Even then, he went where he knew that Clipperton was not likely to be, sailing across to Arica, where he took a couple of small prizes, one of them "laden with cormorant's dung, which the Spaniards call _guano_, and is brought from the island of Iquique to cultivate the agi, or cod-pepper, in the Vale of Arica." It was not until more than one hundred years later that we began regularly to ship guano to England as manure; Richard Dana describes a voyage for that purpose, in "Two Years before the Mast," published in 1840; this was probably one of the earliest ventures, though the existence of these huge deposits had been known for many years previously. Then followed a plan for capturing the town of Payta--a matter which, Shelvocke says, had been considered in the scheme of the voyage as one of great importance. He landed there with forty-six men, to find the town almost deserted; but presently saw great bodies of men on the surrounding hills, who however, retreated before his forty-six. He demanded 10,000 pieces of eight as ransom for the town, and a small prize he had taken; the Spaniards temporised, because they could see from their look-outs that a Spanish Admiral's ship, carrying fifty guns, was just round the high bluff, and thought they had a nice rod in pickle for the English. Shelvocke threatened, failing immediate ransom, to burn the town; the Spaniards replied that he might do what he liked, as long as he spared the churches--an absurd stipulation, for fire, once started, is not discriminating as to sacred edifices--and eventually the town was set on fire in three places. No sooner, however, was Payta fairly in a blaze, than Shelvocke became aware that urgent signals for his return were being made from the _Speedwell_, whose guns were blazing away towards the harbour mouth. Ordering his crew on board, the captain preceded them in a canoe with three men, and, as he opened the point, became speedily aware of the significance of these doings; for there was a large ship, with the Spanish flag flying--a very much larger ship than the _Speedwell_. "At this prospect," he says, "two of my three people were ready to sink, and had it not been for my boatswain, I should not have been able to fetch the ship. When I looked back on the town, I could not forbear wishing that I had not been so hasty." The Spaniard did not, however, avail himself of his opportunities, being deterred by the bold tactics of Mr. Coldsea, master of the _Speedwell_, who, with only a dozen men on board, opened a hot fire.