men and thirty women, all of whom, except the eighteen in question, had perished for want of provisions and clothing, which, with the severity of the climate, produced disease and death. Cavendish has been censured, and perhaps justly, for leaving the remnant of these poor creatures to perish like the others.

The ships anchored before the deserted town of San Felipe to take in fresh water and wood, the latter supplied by pulling to pieces the houses or huts of the town. The poor people for whom he did not wait would probably not long survive the fate of the rest. Cavendish changed the name of its ruins to that of Port Famine. In the strait they found plenty of penguins and muscles. On coming to the mouth of a river, the General went in a boat three miles up its stream; fell in with a number of the natives, who gave him the flesh of some animal, and a friendly intercourse took place. But Hernandez told the General they were a traitorous people, who had no other design than to decoy him into an ambuscade. The next time he went on shore, as the natives were approaching, he ordered muskets to be fired at them, by which some were killed. Thus it was that an Englishman forfeited all claim to humanity at the suggestion of a worthless Spaniard, as he turned out to be. On the 24th of February Cavendish entered the South Sea.

They called at the islands of Mocha and Santa

Maria; the inhabitants of the latter, mistaking them for Spaniards, supplied them with wheat, barley, and potato-roots; they also brought them hogs, fowls, dried fish, and maize. Cavendish, in return, entertained some of the chief people on board his ship, "and made them merry with wine." On the 18th he proceeded along the coast, intending to call at Valparaiso, but missed it, and anchored in the bay of Quintero. A shepherd, awaking from his sleep, and seeing three vessels come in, caught a horse grazing near him, mounted it, and galloped off; and in a little while three. armed horsemen approached the General, who had landed with thirty of his men. He sent Hernandez with two others to meet them. The horsemen made signs for one only to come; and Hernandez, having promised to be true and faithful, and never forsake the General, was selected. On his return he said he had made his countrymen believe that they were Spaniards, and that they should be supplied with as much provisions as they could desire.

Hernandez was sent to them a second time, with an Englishman to accompany him, but they sent away the latter; and the English party observed Hernandez to jump up behind one of the horsemen, who all rode off at full gallop, leaving the English to repent of having trusted a fellow who had thus deceived them, after "all his deep and damnable

oaths, that he would never forsake them;" they had only to blame their own credulity. The next morning fifty or sixty of the English landed, and marched seven or eight miles through a fine country, without seeing either town or village, or meeting a single individual. The third day, when watering their boats at a pit a quarter of a mile from the shore, they were suddenly surprised by a body of about two hundred horsemen, who cut off twelve of their party, some of whom were killed and the rest taken prisoners. The captured Englishmen were carried to the city of Santiago, treated as pirates, and six of them hanged. After this barbarous act Cavendish may claim some excuse for the atrocities he committed against the Spaniards along the whole coast.

When near Arica, a vessel was taken with a cargo of Spanish wine, and also a small bark, which the General manned and called the Gorges. Cavendish gave up all intention of landing here, the Spaniards appearing to be well prepared. He, however, sent in a flag of truce, to know if the Spaniards would redeem their vessels; the answer was, "No ransom; their accounts should be balanced in a different way." Cavendish, therefore, before taking leave, set fire to his prizes. On his way to the northward, a small bark was taken with despatches from Chili to Lima, to give notice of an enemy being on the coast; the despatches had been

thrown overboard, but the knowledge of them was extorted "by causing some of the people to be tormented with their thumbs in a winch."*

The little squadron now separated, but in seven or eight days all met again, bringing with them three prizes which had been taken separately. One was released; the cargoes of the other two, consisting of leather, wheat, sugar, marmalade, and other provisions, being distributed in the squadron, the ships were burnt. The next place they came to was Paita, a town many years afterwards celebrated by the hostile visit of another circumnavigator, Commodore Anson: then the governor was the first to run away; now the whole population did the same; and Cavendish, landing with sixty or seventy men, had the cruelty to burn a town, which is described as "well-built and marvellous clean kept in every street, with a town-house in the midst, and had at the least two hundred houses in it."-They not only burnt this neat town to the ground, but all the storehouses, with their valuable merchandise. A ship in the road they also burnt, and with what plunder they could scrape together proceeded on their buccaneering voyage, for it could be called by no other name, even though, in point of fact, war being declared, it was legitimate.

They next came to the island of Puna, and there sunk a Spanish ship of 250 tons. The governor of * Hakluyt.

this place was a cacique or native chief, married to a Spanish woman. He had a splendid house and well-filled storehouses, all of which he left behind, and fled at the approach of the English; and so did all his people, except two or three who were made prisoners. Here Cavendish allowed his crew to go on shore, and to ramble about for sheep, goats, and fowls. A body of Spanish soldiers fell upon one of the parties unexpectedly; and of twenty, who were in or near the town, eight only made good their retreat, seven being killed on the spot, two drowned, and three made prisoners. But Cavendish was not disheartened; he landed himself on the same day with a party of seventy men, attacked the Spaniards, who were driven from the town, which he burnt to the ground, and set fire to four vessels which were building on the stocks.

On leaving this place the General ordered the Hugh Gallant to be sunk, and her crew to be distributed among the remaining ships. On the 27th of July they entered the port of Guatulco; to which town, with the church and custom-house, they set fire. The town of Acapulco they passed by mistake, and thus it escaped the same fate. As they proceeded northerly, such was the system of destruction, that neither village nor house upon the coast was left untouched. At the bay of Compostella, * where a marauding party landed, they seized a

* This seems to be at present San Blas.-Burney.