he died in the month of March, 1745, after a very fhort illness. His circumstances were not affluent, for he was liberal in his difpofition, and had fuch a number of rapacious dependants to gratify, that little was left for his own private occafions. THE THE LIFE OF GEORGE ANSON. THE HE ancestors of the late right honourable George lord Anfon, have been feated in Staffordthire for many generations, till William Anfon, efq; of Dunstan, having purchased the manor of Shugborough in that county, in the reign of king James I. made it, from that time, his chief refidence. His lordship was the fecond and youngest fon of William Anfon, efq; of Shuckborough (who died in 1720) by Elizabeth, fifter to the counrefs of Macclesfield, and aunt to the prefent earl. Mr. Anfon, having very early devoted himfelf to the fea fervice, was made captain of the Weazle floop in 1722; and, the year following, captain of the Scarborough man of war, On the breaking out of the late Spanish war, he was recommended to his late majefty for the command of a fquadron destined to annoy the enemy in the South Seas; and, by an unfre quented navigation, to attack them with vigour in their remoteft fettlements. A de fign which, had it not met with unaccount able delays, would have amply answered the intention; and might have given, perhaps, an an irretrievable blow to the Spanish American power. Mr. Anfon failed from St. Helens on the eighteenth of September, 1740, in the Centurion, of fixty guns, with the Gloucester and Severn, of fifty each, the Pearl, of forty, the Wager ftorefhip, and Tryal floop. His departure having been retarded fome months beyond the proper season, he did not arrive in the latitude of Cape Horn till about the middle of the vernal equinox, and in fuch tempeftuous weather, that it was with much difficulty that his own fhip, with the Glouceffer and the floop, could double that dangerous cape; and his ftrength was confiderably diminished by the putting back of the Severn and Pearl, and the lofs of the Wager ftorehip. Yet, notwithstanding this difappointment, and the havock that the fcurvy had made among the ships that were left, he ararrived at the fertile, though uninhabited ifland of Juan Fernandez. Having, at this ifland, repaired his damages and refreshed his men, with the above inconfiderable armament, he kept, for eight months, the whole coaft of Peru and Mexico in continual alarm, made feveral prizes; took and plundered the town of Peyta, and, by his humane behaviour to his prifoners, impreffed on their minds a lafting idea of British generofity. At length, with the Centurion only (the other two fhips having been condemned) he traversed the vaft extent of the Pacific Ocean, a three |