when we saw him come forward, but stretching ina little towards the Shore, we took Care to be so much to Starboard that hecould not escape us that Way; and when he was a little nearer, the Sloopplainly chac'd him, and in a little Time came up with him, and took him: Wehad little Goods in the Vessel, their chief Loading being Meal and Corn for_Panama_, but the Master happen'd to have 6000 Pieces of Eight in hisCabin, which was good Booty.
But that which was better than all this to us was, that the Master gave usan Account of two Ships which were behind, and were under Sail for _Lima_or _Panama_; the one having the Revenues of the Kingdom of _Chili_, and theother having a great Quantity of Silver, going from _Puna_ to _Lima_, to beforwarded from thence to _Panama_, and that they kept together, being Shipsof Force, to protect one another; how they did it we soon saw the Effectsof.
Upon this Intelligence we were very joyful, and assur'd the Master, that ifwe found it so, we would give him his Vessel again, and all his Goods,except his Money, as for That, we told him, such People as we neverreturn'd it any Body: However, the Man's Intelligence prov'd good, for thevery next Day, as we were standing South-West, our _Spanish_ Colours beingout, as above, we spy'd one of the Ships, and soon after the other; wefound they had discover'd us also, and that being doubtful what to make ofus, they tack'd and stood Eastward to get nearer the Land; we did the like,and as we found there was no letting them go that Way but that we should besure to lose them, we soon let them know that we were resolv'd to speakwith them.
The biggest Ship, which was three Leagues a-Stern of the other, crowded infor the Shore with all the Sail, she could make, and it was easy for us tosee that she would escape us; for as she was a great deal farther in withthe Land than the other when we first gave Chace, so in about three Hourswe saw the Land plain a-Head of us, and that the great Ship would get intoPort before we could reach her.
Upon this we stretch'd a-Head with all the Sail we could make, and theSloop, which crowded also very hard, and out-went us, engag'd the smallShip at least an Hour before we could come up: But she could make little ofit, for the _Spanish_ Ship having 12 Guns and 6 Patereroes, would have beentoo many for the Sloop if we had not come up: However, at length, ourbiggest Ship came up also, and, running up under her Quarter, gave her ourwhole Broadside; at which she struck immediately, and the _Spaniards_cry'd, _Quarter_, and _Miserecordia_; Upon this, our Sloop's Men enter'dher presently, and secur'd her.
In the Beginning oft his Action, it seems, our _Redhand_ Captain was soprovok'd at losing the greater Prize, which, as he thought, had all theMoney on Board, that he swore he would not spare one of the Dogs, (so hecall'd the _Spaniards_ in the other Ship) but he was prevented; and it wasvery happy for the _Spaniards_, that the first Shot the Ship made towardsus, just as we were running up to pour in our Broadside, I say, the firstShot took Captain _Redhand_ full on the Breast, and shot his Head and oneShoulder off, so that he never spoke more, nor did I find that any one Manin the Ship shew'd the least Concern for him; so certain it is, thatCruelty never recommends any Man among _Englishmen_; no, tho' they have noShare in the suffering under it; but one said, D--n him, let him go, he wasa butcherly Dog; another said, D--n him, he was a merciless Son of a B--ch;another said, he was a barbarous Dog, and the like.
But to return to the Prize, being now as certain of the smaller Prize asthat we had miss'd the great one, we began to examine what we had got; andit is not easy to give an exact Account of the prodigious Variety of Thingswe found: In the first Place, were 116 Chests of Pieces of Eight in Specie,72 Bars of Silver, 15 Bags of wrought Plate, which a Fryer that was onBoard would have perswaded us, for the Sake of the Blessed Virgin, to havereturn'd, being, as he said, consecrated Plate to the Honour of the holyChurch, the Virgin _Mary_, and St. _Martin_; but, as it happen'd, he couldnot perswade us to it; also we found about 60000 Ounces of Gold, some inlittle Wedges, some in Dust. We found several other Things of Value, butnot to be nam'd with the rest.
Being thus made surprisingly rich, we began to think what Course we shouldsteer next; for as the great Ship, which was escap'd, would certainly alarmthe Country, we might be sure we should meet with no more Purchase at Sea,and we were not very fond of landing, to attack any Town on Shore. In thisConsultation 'tis to be observ'd, that I was, by the unanimous Consent ofall the Crew, made Captain of the great Ship, and of the whole Crew; thewhole Voyage hither, and every Part of it, having, for some Time before,been chiefly manag'd by my Direction, or at least by my Advice.
The first Thing I propos'd to them all, was, seeing we had met with suchgood Luck, and that we could not expect much more, and if we stay'd longerin these Seas, should find it very hard to revictual our Ships, and mighthave our Retreat cut off by _Spanish_ Men of war; (five of which we heardwere sent out after the other Buccaneers) we should make the best of ourWay to the South, and get about into the North Seas, where we were out ofall Danger.
In Consequence of this Advice, which was generally approv'd, we stood awaydirectly South; and the Wind blowing pretty fair at N. N. E. a merry Gale,we stood directly for the Isle of _Juan Fernando_, carrying our rich Prizewith us.
We arriv'd here the Beginning of _June_, having been just six Months inthose Seas. We were surpriz'd, when coming to the Island, we found twoShips at an Anchor close under the Lee of the Rocks, and two littlePeriaguas farther in, near the Shore; but being resolv'd to see what theywere, we found, to our Satisfaction, they were the Buccaneers of whom Ihave spoken above: The Story is too long to enter upon here; but in short,without Guns, without Ship, and only coming over Land with their Fusees intheir Hands, they had rang'd these Seas, had taken several Prizes, and somepretty rich, and had got two pretty handsome Barks, one carry'd six Guns,and the other four; they had shar'd, as they told us, about 400 Pieces ofEight a Man, besides one Thing they had which we were willing to buy ofthem; they had about 100 Jarrs of Gunpowder, which they took out of a StoreShip going to _Lima_.
If we was glad to meet them, you may be sure they were glad to meet withus, and so we began to sort together as one Company, only they were loth togive over and return, as we were and which we had now resolv'd on.
We were so rich ourselves, and so fully satisfy'd with what we had taken,that we began to be bountiful to our Countrymen; and indeed they dealt sogenerously with us, that we could not but be inclin'd to do them some Good,for when we talk'd of buying their Gunpowder, they very frankly gave us 50Jarrs of it _gratis_.
I took this so kindly, that I call'd a little Council among ourselves, andpropos'd to send the poor Rogues 50 Barrels of our Beef, which we couldvery well spare; and our Company agreeing to it, we did so, which madetheir Hearts glad; for it was very good, and they had not tasted goodSalt-beef for a long Time; and with it we sent them two Hogsheads of Rum:This made them so hearty to us, that they sent two of their Company tocompliment us, to offer to enter themselves on Board us, and to go with usall the World over.
We did not so readily agree to this at first, because we had no newEnterprize in View; but however, as they sent us Word they had chosen me sounanimously for their Captain, I propos'd to our Men to remove ourselves,and all our Goods, into the great Ship and the Sloop, and so take thehonest Fellows into the Fregat, which now had no less than 22 Guns, andwould hold them all, and then they might sail with us, or go upon anyAdventures of their own, as we should agree.
Accordingly we did so, and gave them that Ship, with all her Guns andAmmunition, but made one of our own Men Captain, which they consented to,and so we became all one Body.
Here also we shar'd our Booty, which was great indeed to a Profusion; andas keeping such a Treasure in every Man's particular private Possession,would have occasion'd Gaming, Quarrelling, and perhaps Thieving andPilfering, I order'd that so many small Chests should be made as there wereMen in the Ship, and every Man's Treasure was nail'd up in these Chests,and the Chests all stow'd in the Hold, with every Man's Name upon hisChest, not to be touch'd but by general Order, and to prevent Gaming, Iprevail'd with them to make a Law or
Agreement, and everyone to set theirHands to it; by which they agreed, That if any Man play'd for any moreMoney than he had in his Keeping, the Winner should not be paid whateverthe Loser run in Debt, but the Chest containing every Man's Dividend,should be all his own, to be deliver'd whole to him; and the Offender,whenever he left the Ship, if he would pay any Gaming Debts afterward, thatwas another Case; but such Debts should never be paid while he continu'd inthat Company.
By this Means also we secur'd the Ship's Crew keeping together; for if anyMan left the Ship now, he was sure to leave about 6000 Pieces of Eightbehind him, to be shar'd among the rest of the Ship's Company, which few ofthem car'd to do.
As we were now all embark'd