VOYAGE TO THE SOUTH SEAS.
149
April 8.We recovered the fiſhing ground after having been driven off during four days, and found as great plenty of whales as when we left it. We now ſaw a ſhip in ſhore, who ſailed well, and was heavy mettled as we conjectured from the report of a gun. I diſcovered with the teleſcope that ſhe was French built, and from the intelligence communicated by the Spaniard we fell in with off the Gulf of Guatamala, on the Coaſt of Mexico, we had every reaſon to believe that ſhe was one of the French ſhips which he mentioned as being in theſe ſeas. We kept ſtanding in with the ſhore to reconnoitre her, having great confidence in the ſailing of our own veſſel. During the evening, night and morning, we had alternately heavy fogs, light winds and calms. At nine A. M. the weather became clear. I now ſtood towards the ſail, but the nearer I approached the more I ſuſpected her to be an enemy. I then ſtretched away to the Southward, when ſhe carried everything after us, and getting a ſtrong Northerly breeze, which ſhe brought up with her, over-reached us very faſt. 9.We made all the ſail we could from her, (our Latitude at noon 0° 19′ 52″ North) but I entertained little or no hope of eſcaping: we therefore cut down the ſtern, in order to get out two threepounders, which were all the great guns we had, and put
