ship Santo Antonio, lying in the port of Saint Catherine's, 19th March 1776.—Your Excellency's most obedient and most humble servant,
To His Excellency The Marquis Viceroy.
No. 17.
Extracts from a Letter of Captain MacDonell to the Marquis do Lavradio.
Your Excellency,—I had the honour of addressing Your Excellency on the 20th, and since then have further to inform Your Excellency that, on the afternoon of the 28th, the frigate Pilar came in after sixty-two days of prize-hunting, having nothing to report, short of water, because her casks were in a very bad condition. I am now having them repaired. This frigate requires that a great deal be done to her to enable her to continue, as she ought, in the Royal Service; and, if it is not done, she will, in a short time, be completely disabled; but as, in the state in which she is, she can still serve if we can manage to repair the pintles of the helm, I am provisioning her for a period of three months, which will be until the end of June, so as to be ready for whatever may be required of her; and I am going to repair that which is most urgent, as far as time will allow. ········
