those we heard of at Manta, who had come by land to the South Sea under
the command of Captain Peter Harris, nephew to the Captain Harris who
was slain before Panama. As the Cygnet was unfit for service, by reason
of her cargo, Captain Swan sold most of his goods on credit, and threw
the rest overboard, reserving only the fine commodities, and some iron
for ballast. Captains Davis and Swan now joined company; and Harris was
placed in command of a small bark. Our bark, which had been sent to
cruise three days before the arrival of the Cygnet, now returned with a
prize laden with timber, which they had taken in the Gulf of Guayaquil.
The commander of this prize informed us, that it was reported at
Guayaquil, that the viceroy was fitting out ten frigates to chase us
from these seas. This intelligence made us wish for Captain Eaton, and
we resolved to send out a small bark towards Lima, to invite him to
rejoin us. We also fitted up another small bark for a fire-ship, and set
sail for the island of _Lobos_ on the 20th October.

Being about six leagues off Payta on the 2d of November, we sent 110 men
in several canoes to attack that place. _Payta_ is a small sea-port town
belonging to the Spaniards, in lat. 5° 15' S. built on a sandy rock near
the sea-side, under a high hill. Although not containing more than
seventy-five or eighty low mean houses, like most of the other buildings
along the coast of Peru, it has two churches. The walls of these houses
are chiefly built of a kind of bricks, made of earth and straw, only
dried in the sun. These bricks are three feet long, two broad, and a
foot and a half thick. In some places, instead of roofs, they only lay a
few poles across the tops of the walls, covered with mats, though in
other places they have regularly-constructed roofs. The cause of this
mean kind of building is partly from the want of stones and timber, and
partly because it never rains on this coast, so that they are only
solicitious to keep out the sun; and these walls, notwithstanding the