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RETURN TO ENGLAND.
275
fort. I now made him a little present, which,
as it came quite unexpected, made him very
happy.
CHAPTER XIII.
About the 20th of December, 1744, we em¬
barked on board the Lys frigate, belonging
to St. Malo. She was a ship of four hundred
and twenty tons, sixteen guns, and sixty
men. She had several passengers on board;
and amongst the rest, Don George Juan, a man
of very superior abilities, (and since that time
well known in England,) who, with Don An¬
tonio Ulloa, had been several years in Peru,
upon a design of measuring some degrees of
the meridian near the equator. We were now
bound to Conception, in order to join three
other French ships that were likewise bound
home. As this was a time of the year when
the southerly winds prevail upon this coast,
we stood off a long way to the westward,
making the island of Juan Fernandez. We