the Fleet again put into Rio de Janeiro with the prize (No. 26).
Ordered again to leave the port, they chased a large Spanish vessel, and again José de Mello and Arthur Phillip were to the front. The latter, owing to the small size of his vessel, was able to get very close without inspiring distrust, and poured in a broadside. All night the chase continued, and in the morning the Spanish vessel, finding herself surrounded by the Fleet, lowered her flag. She was the Santo Agostinho, a 70-gun ship. Again the Fleet returned to Rio de Janeiro, where the prisoners were landed, a fresh crew provided, and the captured vessel placed under the command of Capt. Phillip. The Fleet then sailed for manoeuvres, but nothing is known of what was done by it (No. 26).
When the preliminaries for the Treaty of Peace had been signed at Saint Ildefonso, on the ist October 1777, the captured vessels were returned, and, among them, the Santo Agostinho, On the 16th February 1778, the Viceroy, acting upon orders from home, broke up the Fleet, ordering MacDonell to haul down his flag and return to Lisbon in either a ship of war or a merchant vessel, as he might think best. In consequence, he handed over the ship of the line Santo Antonio and São José, which had been the Flag-ship, to Capt. Phillip, who, accompanying José de Mello, sailed in her with a Convoy to Europe in May 1778. The Viceroy's despatch (No. 30), addressed to the
