Behind The Town, And Directly To The South, A
Good Way Inland, There Is A Very High Mountain Rising Up Into The
Clouds, Like A Sugar-Loaf; Which Serves As An Excellent Sea-Mark, There
Being No Other Like It On All This Coast.
[161]
[Footnote 161: The great Chimborazo is probably here meant, about 135
English miles inland from Manta, and almost due east, instead of south,
as in the test. - E]
Our men landed about day-break, a mile and a half from the village, but
the inhabitants took the alarm, and got all away, except two old women,
from whom we learnt that the viceroy, on receiving intelligence of
enemies having come across the isthmus of Darien into the South Sea, had
ordered all their ships to be set on fire, all the goats in the isle of
Plata to be destroyed, and that the inhabitants on the coast should keep
no more provisions than were necessary for their present use.
We returned to our ship at Plata, where we remained for some time
unresolved what course to pursue. On the 2d of October, the Cygnet of
London, Captain Swan, came to anchor in the same road. This was a
richly-loaded ship, designed for trading on this coast, but being
disappointed in his hopes of trade, his men had forced Captain Swan to
take on board a company of buccaneers he fell in with at Nicoya, being
those we heard of at Manta, who had come by land to the South Sea under
the command of Captain Peter Harris, nephew to the Captain Harris who
was slain before Panama. As the Cygnet was unfit for service, by reason
of her cargo, Captain Swan sold most of his goods on credit, and threw
the rest overboard, reserving only the fine commodities, and some iron
for ballast. Captains Davis and Swan now joined company; and Harris was
placed in command of a small bark. Our bark, which had been sent to
cruise three days before the arrival of the Cygnet, now returned with a
prize laden with timber, which they had taken in the Gulf of Guayaquil.
The commander of this prize informed us, that it was reported at
Guayaquil, that the viceroy was fitting out ten frigates to chase us
from these seas. This intelligence made us wish for Captain Eaton, and
we resolved to send out a small bark towards Lima, to invite him to
rejoin us. We also fitted up another small bark for a fire-ship, and set
sail for the island of Lobos on the 20th October.
Being about six leagues off Payta on the 2d of November, we sent 110 men
in several canoes to attack that place. Payta is a small sea-port town
belonging to the Spaniards, in lat. 5 deg. 15' S. built on a sandy rock near
the sea-side, under a high hill. Although not containing more than
seventy-five or eighty low mean houses, like most of the other buildings
along the coast of Peru, it has two churches.
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