Page:An account of the natives of the Tonga Islands.djvu/87

Rh, which had been taken by the two ships in company, were equally divided between them.

On Sunday, the 3d of November, having parted company with the Lucy, the Port au Prince gave chase to one of three ships which appeared in sight, and coming up, found her to be the American ship Neutrality, Captain Foulger; the other two were the Britannia and British Tar, of London. The American had been in Paita since the engagement with the Astræa, and from her account it appeared that the frigate was commanded by a Frenchman, and had on board several of the deserters from the Port au Prince. She had received orders from the viceroy of Peru to run aground, if she were hard pressed by an enemy. In the late engagement she was much damaged in the hull; her fore-top-mast was shot away, forty hands killed, and one hundred and twenty wounded. She would in all probability have struck, had she not heard from the deserters that the Port au Prince was very deficient in men and shot.

The ship had now arrived on her whaling ground, and kept therefore a good look-out for whales, according to her instructions. Till the latter end of January, 1806, she kept her cruize between the latitudes 1. 10. S. and 00. 20. N. but, owing to the scarcity of whales, had very little success. On the 22d of this month, by