They did not try it, however. Finding that they had the town to themselves, they took possession of such houses as they wanted. Unseen by them, we kept watch on their doings. They brought their ship into the bay, and put her on the beach, and cleaned her thoroughly, she being, as I afterwards heard, leaky and very foul with barnacles. But they never gave us a chance to cut any of them off, for they marched to and fro in compact bodies, well armed.
Meantime they played havoc with our valley. What houses they did not occupy they wantonly destroyed. They cut down the cocoa-nut trees to get the fruit. Whatever would burn they burnt.
At the end of a fortnight the ship was again afloat, and anchored in the bay. Now commenced excursions to the gold-mine, and heaps of stone began to accumulate on the beach. The wretched Quadrucos who had sided with Paul had to do the carrying of these loads, and dearly they must have repented of their conduct.
At night we heard screams from the women, and one by one they began to straggle into the bush whenever opportunity offered, and we found them wounded, beaten, and dying. When the pirates discovered that they were deserting, they chained them together, and drove them, so chained, backwards and forwards to the mine. But our opportunity had now come, and we hovered around, and not a day passed but what we killed or wounded one of them.
One day we captured one of the crew. He was away from the others, and out of their sight, examining some stones, when Zolca crept behind him and felled him to the ground. While still senseless he was carried away and secured in the camp. When he came to himself we found that he could speak my language slightly, from having served on board one of our ships. He was an Englishman, and when he found that we did not intend to kill or torture him, he became communicative.
The vessel, he said, was English—that is, so far as an outlawed pirate could be said to belong to any nation. Her crew comprised men of all countries, but mostly Englishmen, as were the captain and officers. Her name was The Bachelor’s Delight, and she had come from the West Indies, round the Cape of Good Hope, there being many armed vessels in chase of her, on account of the piracies committed. The captain’s name was Sharpe, and he thought they would not stay much longer, as the gold they found did not answer the expectations held out by Berghen; moreover, they were losing too many men by our never-ceasing attacks, which they could not guard against. In consequence of this there was a coolness between Captain Sharpe and Berghen. He told us about the stabbing of Wegelhoe, and also that the three other sailors had been drunk and useless ever since they had tasted spirits, after such a long period of enforced sobriety: that there were no Hollanders amongst the crew, and therefore they were not made very welcome.
I lay awake all that night, thinking over this information, and by the morning had decided on a course of action.
The Englishman seemed a cheerful, easy-tempered sort of fellow, without much real harm in him, in spite of his presence on the pirate ship, so I made up my mind to trust him. First, I took him to the gorge, and showed him the impregnability of our position. He laughed, and said Captain Sharpe was not such a fool as to expose his men for nothing. What could he gain by attacking us? Pirates fought for booty, not for the love of fighting.
I recognized this reasoning as sound, and now detailed my plan to him. I had my rude writing materials with me, and with the assistance of this sailor, who, strange to say, could both read and write, I composed a letter in English, addressed to Captain Sharpe. I told him that if he delivered up to us the sailors he had found on shore, who had done us great injury, and also allowed the Indians to go free, we would desist from our attacks upon his men, and let him stay and go in peace.
This the Englishman promised to deliver to him without the knowledge of Berghen, and return with the answer. Although I did not think fit to put it in the letter, I gave the messenger to understand that if my request was not complied with I would redouble my attacks on them, even if we sacrificed two men for one. I had no doubt, however, but what my terms would be accepted, for I saw that these men had no honour amongst them, and would at any time sacrifice each other.