When the marine ſtores, &c. were brought by the way of Europe and Vera Cruz, a diſtance of eighteen hundred miles, on the backs of mules, Acapulco was the grand dock-yard; but ſince theſe ſupplies for the navy have been procured at a far cheaper rate by the way of China and Manilla, the naval arſenal has been removed to Saint Blas; before I left that place, the Viceroy of Mexico was ſo alarmed, leaſt the Court of Great-Britain ſhould revenge the inſult offered her by the capture of my veſſels, that, fearful of truſting to his flat-floored veſſels, &c. &c. he had ordered two heavy frigates of a ſharp conſtruction, to be built in the valley of Banderra, which is ſituated a few leagues to the Eaſt of Cape Corientes, for the better protection of the arſenal.
As I conceived it would be an act of the greateſt imprudence to anchor even near a Spaniſh port, I determined to return to the Iſle Socoro, in order to recover the health of the crew. Nov. 12.We made the iſle on the twelfth day of November, and by the evening got weſt up with the North end; the Iſle Santo Berto being only eight leagues diſtance, and my not having had opportunity to aſcertain whether it afforded a better anchoring place than Socoro, determined me to examine it. We lay too all night for day-break, to make ſail, and by noon, got within three or four miles of the South end of