During this Stay we sent the Sloop out to Cruise, but she came back without seeing any Vessel; after which we order’d her out again more to the North, but she was scarce gone a League, when she made a Signal that she saw a Sail, and that we should come out to help them; accordingly the Frigat put to Sea after them, but making no Signal for us to follow, we lay still, and work’d hard at cleaning our Ship, shifting some of the Rigging, and the like.
We heard no more of them in three Days, which made us repent sorely that we had not gone all three together; but the third Day they came back, tho’ without any Prize, as we thought, but gave us an Account that they had chac’d a great Ship and a Bark all Night, and the next Day;
that they took the Bark the Evening before, but found little in her of Value; that the great Ship ran on Shore among some Rocks, where they durst not go in after her, but that manning out their Boats, they got on Shore so soon, that the Men belonging to her durst not land; that then they threaten’d to burn the Ship as she lay, and burn them all in her, if they did not come on Shore and surrender: They offer’d to surrender, giving them their Liberty, which our Men would not promise at first; but after some Parly, and arguing on both Sides, our Men agreed thus far, that they should remain Prisoners for so long as we were in those Seas, but that as soon as we came to the Height of Panama, or if we resolv’d to return sooner, then they should be set at Liberty; and to these hard Conditions they yielded.
Our Men found in the Ship 6 Brass Guns, 200 Sacks of Meal, some Fruit, and the Value of 160000 Pieces of Eight in Gold of Chili, as good as any in the World: It was a glittering Sight, and enough to dazzle the Eyes of those that look’d on it, to see such a Quantity of Gold laid all of a Heap together, and we began to embrace one another in Congratulation of our good Fortune.
We brought the Prisoners all to the Island Fernando, where we used them very well, built little Houses for them, gave them Bread, and Meat, and every Thing they wanted; and gave them Powder and Ball to kill Goats with, which they were fully satisfy’d with, and kill’d a great many for us too.
We continu’d to Cruise [Feb. 2] hereabout, but without finding any other Prize for near three Weeks more; so we resolv’d to go up as high as
Puna, the Place where I had been so lucky before; and we assur’d our Prisoners, that in about two Months we would return, and relieve them; but they chose rather to be on Board us, so we took them all in again, and kept on with an easy Sail, at a proper Distance from Land, that we might not be known, and the Alarm given; for as to the Ship which we had taken, and which was stranded among the Rocks, as we had taken all the Men out of her, the People on the Shore, when they should find her, could think no other than that she was driven on Shore by a Storm, and that all the People were drown’d, or all escap’d and gone; and there was no Doubt but that the Ship would beat to Pieces in a very few Days.
We kept, I say, at a Distance from the Shore, to prevent giving the Alarm; but it was a needless Caution, for the Country was all alarm’d on another Account, viz. about an 130 bold Buccaneers had made their Way over Land, not at the Isthmus of Darien, as usual, but from Granada, on the Lake of Nicaragua to the North of Panama, by which, tho’ the Way was longer, and the Country not so practicable as at the ordinary Passage, yet they were unmolested, for they surpriz’d the Country; and whereas the Spaniards, looking for them at the old Passage, had drawn Entrenchments, planted Guns, and posted Men at the Passages of the Mountains, to intercept them and cut them off, here they met with no Spaniards, nor any other Obstruction in their Way, but coming to the South Sea had Time, undiscover’d, to build themselves Canoes and Periaguas, and did a great deal of Mischief upon the Shore, having been follow’d, among the rest, by 80 Men more, commanded by one Guilotte, a Frenchman, an old Buccaneer; so that they were
now 210 Men; and they were not long at Sea before they took two Spanish Barks going from Guatimala to Panama, loaden with Meal, Coco, and other Provisions; so that now they were a Fleet of two Barks, with several Canoes, and Periaguas, but no Guns, nor any more Ammunition than every one carry’d at first at their Backs.
However, this Troop of Desperadoes had alarm’d all the Coast, and Expresses both by Sea and Land were dispatch’d, to warn the Towns on the Coast to be upon their Guard, all the way from Panama to Lima; but as they were represented to be only such Freebooters as I have said, Ships of Strength did not desist their Voyages, as they found Occasion, as we shall observe presently: We were now gotten into the Latitude of 10, 11, and 12 Degrees and a Half; but, in our overmuch Caution, had kept out so far to Sea, that we miss’d every Thing which would otherwise have fallen into our Hands; but we were better inform’d quickly, as you shall hear.