Boat with a Flag of Truce: I did the like, and the two Boats spoke to one another in about two Hours, when, to our infinite Joy, we found they were our Comrades who we left in the South Seas, and to whom we gave the Fregate at the Isle of Juan Fernando.
Nothing of this Kind could have happen’d more to our mutual Satisfaction, for tho’ we had long ago given them over either for Lost, or Lost to us; and we had no great Need of Company, yet we were overjoy’d at meeting, and so were they too.
They were in some Distress for Provisions, and we had Plenty; so we brought their Ship in for them, gave them a present Supply, and when we had help’d them to moor and secure the Ship in the Harbour, we made them lock all their Hatches and Cabins up, and come on Shore, and there we feasted them five or six Days, for we had a Plenty of all Sorts of Provisions, not to be exhausted; and if we had wanted an hundred Head of fat Bullocks, we could have had them for asking for of the Natives, who treated us all along with all possible Courtesy and Freedom in their Way.
The History of the Adventures and Success of these Men, from the Time we left them to the Time of their Arrival at our new Plantation, was our whole Entertainment for some Days. I cannot pretend to give the Particulars by my Memory; but as they came to us Thieves, they improv’d in their Calling to a great Degree, and, next to ourselves, had the greatest Success of any of the Buccaneers whose Story has ever been made publick.
I shall not take upon me to vouch the whole Account of their Actions, neither will this Letter contain a full History of their Adventures; but if the Account which they gave us was true, you may take it thus:
First, that having met with good Success after they left us, and having taken some extraordinary Purchase, as well in some Vessels they took at Sea, as in the Plunder of some Towns on the Shore near Guyaquil, as I have already told you, they got Information of a large Ship which was loading the King’s Money at Puna, and had Orders to sail with it to Lima, in order to its being carry’d from thence to Panama by the Fleet, under the Convoy of the Flotilla, or Squadron of Men of War, which the King’s Governor at Panama had sent to prevent their being insulted by the Pirates, which they had Intelligence were on the Coast; by which, we suppose, they meant us who were gone, for they could have no Notion of these Men then.
Upon this Intelligence they cruis’d off and on upon the Coast for near a Month, keeping always to the Southward of Lima, because they would not fall in the Way of the said Flotilla, and so be overpower’d and miss of their Prize: At last they met with what they look’d for, that is to say, they met with the great Ship abovenam’d: But to their great Misfortune and Disappointment, (as they first thought it to be) she had with her a Man of War for her Convoy, and two other Merchant Ships in her Company.
The Buccaneers had with them the Sloop which they first sent to us for our Intelligence, and which they made a little Fregate of, carrying
eight Guns, and some Patareroes: They had not long Time to consult, but in short they resolv’d to double man the Sloop, and let her attack the great Merchant-Ship, while the Fregate, which was the whole of their Fleet, held the Man of War in Play, or at least kept him from assisting her.
According to this Resolution, they put 50 Men on Board the Sloop, which was, in short, almost as many as would stand upon her Deck one by another; and with this Force they attack’d the great Merchant-Ship, which, besides its being well mann’d, had 16 good Guns, and about 30 Men on Board. While the Sloop thus began the unequal Fight, the Man of War bore down upon her to succour the Ship under her Convoy, but the Fregate thrusting in between, engag’d the Man of War, and began a very warm Fight with her, for the Man of War had both more Guns and more Men than the Fregate after she had parted with 50 Men on Board the Sloop: While the two Men of War, as we may now call them, were thus engag’d, the Sloop was in great Danger of being worsted by the Merchant-Ship, for the Force was too much for her, the Ship was great, and her Men fought a desperate and close Fight: Twice the Sloop-Men enter’d her, and were beaten off, and about nine of their Men kill’d, several other wounded, and an unlucky Shot taking the Sloop between Wind and Water, she was oblig’d to fall a-Stern, and heel her over to stop the Leek; during which the Spaniards steer’d away to assist the Man of War, and pour’d her Broadside in upon the Fregate, which tho’ but small, yet at a Time when she lay Yard-arm and Yard-arm close by the Side of the Spanish Man of War, was a great Extremity; however, the Fregate return’d