20 Deg.

30' S.[252] in hopes of obtaining every thing necessary for our passage into the South Sea, as, according to the account of it by Frezier, it abounds in all the necessaries of life, such especially as are requisite in long voyages.

We sailed therefore from Port Praya on the 20th of April, and had a very bad passage, as we were twenty-one days before we could pass the equinoctial. White between the two tradewinds, we had usually slight breezes, varying all round the compass, and sometimes heavy squalls of wind, with thunder, lightning, and rain. In short, the most variable weather that can be conceived, insomuch that we were fifty-five days between St Jago and St Catharines. On the 4th June we made Cape Frio, bearing W. seven leagues off our lat. by observation, 23 deg. 41' S.[253] On the 5th we met and spoke a ship, to which I sent Captain Hately to enquire the news on the coast, and gave him money to buy tobacco, as the Success had our stock on board. She was a Portuguese from Rio de Janeiro bound to Pernambuco, and had no tobacco; but Hately had laid out my money in unnecessary trifles, alleging they would sell for double the money at the next port.

[Footnote 252: This island is in 27 deg. 10' S.]

[Footnote 253: Cape Frio is in 22 deg. 33' S.]

[Captain Betagh gives a very different account of this matter, asserting that Shelvocke hoisted imperial colours and made the Portuguese ship bring to, on which Hately went aboard with a boat's crew well armed, and put the Portuguese captain in such a fright, that he not only sent all sorts of refreshments on board the Speedwell, but a dozen pieces of silk flowered with gold and silver, worth about three pounds a yard, several dozens of China plates and basons, a Japan cabinet, and three hundred moidores in gold; ninety-six of which were afterwards found on Hately, when made prisoner by the Spaniards, when he had nearly been put to death for piracy on their account.][254]

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