The Rogers expedition, after leaving Juan Fernandez on February 14, 1709, captures and loots a number of small vessels, and launches an attack on the town of Guayaquil, today located in Ecuador.

When Rogers attempts to negotiate with the governor, the townsfolk secrete their valuables.

Rogers is able to get a modest ransom for the town, but some crew members are so dissatisfied that they dig up the recently dead, hoping to find items of value.

This leads to sickness on board ship, of which six men die.

The expedition loses contact with one of the captured ships, which is under the command of Simon Hatley.

The other vessels search for Hatley's ship, but to no avail—Hatley and his men are captured by the Spanish. (On a subsequent voyage to the Pacific, Hatley will emulate Selkirk by becoming the center of an event that will be immortalized in literature.

His ship beset by storms, Hatley will shoot an albatross in the hope of better winds, an episode memorialized by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in The Rime of The Ancient Mariner.)