25' W. Having exchanged signals, we stood so near each
other that a biscuit might have been chucked aboard, yet did not
exchange a word, as Clipperton had ordered his officers and ship's
company to take no notice of us: Yet was Captain Clipperton so sensible
of the difficulties and hazards we had to encounter in our design of
going for India, that he said the child just born would be grey-haired
before we should arrive there. We were now in a most miserable
situation, wandering upon an inhospitable coast in want of every thing,
and all the land we had seen was so wild and open to the sea, that it
would have been impossible for us to have landed any where, and nothing
could have urged us to make the attempt but the extreme want we were now
in.
On the 12th March, being off the port of Acapulco towards evening, we
saw a ship between us and the shore, which turned out to be the Success,
when Clipperton not only answered my private signal, but also that for
speaking with me. After his late inhumane behaviour, I would hardly have
trusted him, had we not been so near Acapulco, where I thought he meant
to cruize for the Manilla ships, and now wished to have our assistance,
wherefore I bore down alongside. He now sent his second lieutenant,
Captain Cooke, with a very obliging letter to me, stating that he was
cruizing for the homeward-bound Manilla ships, and desired me to assist
him in the enterprise, with which view he desired me to come on board
next morning, to consult on the best plan of attacking her, and proposed
an union of the two companies.
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