Soon after they were taken the narrator went on board Captain Peralta’s vessel to see what condition they were in, and a miserable sight it was; for there was not a man that was not either killed, desperately wounded, or horribly burnt with powder. Their dark skins were frequently turned white, the powder having torn it from their flesh and bones. On the admiral’s ship there were but twenty-five men alive out of eighty-six. Of these twenty-five men only eight were able to bear arms, all the rest being desperately wounded and by their wounds totally disabled to make any resistance, or defend themselves. Their blood ran down the decks in whole streams, and scarce one place in the ship was found that was free from blood.
Having possessed themselves of these two vessels, Captain Sawkins asked the prisoners how many men there were on board the greatest ship, lying in the harbour of the island of Perico, as also on the others that were something smaller. Captain Peralta hearing these questions, dissuaded him as much as he could, saying that in the biggest alone there were three hundred and fifty men, and that he would find the rest too well provided for defence against his small number. But one of the men who lay dying upon the deck contradicted Peralta as he was speaking, and told Captain Sawkins there was not one man on board those ships that were in view, for they had all been taken out of them to fight the pirates, in the three vessels just taken. These words were credited as proceeding from a dying man; and steering their course to the island they went on board them, and found, as he had said, not one person there. The largest of the ships, which was called La [pg 54]Santissima Trinidad, they had set on fire. They had also made a hole in her, and loosened her fore-sail. But they quenched the fire with all speed, and stopped the leak. This being done they put their wounded men on board her, and made her for the present their hospital.
Having surveyed their own loss, they found eighteen of their men had been killed in the fight, and twenty-two wounded. The three captains against whom they had fought had been esteemed by the Spaniards the bravest in all the “South Seas”; neither was their reputation undeserved, as may easily be inferred from the narrative given of the engagement. As the third ship was running away from the fight, she met with two more coming out to their assistance; but gave them so little encouragement that they turned back and dared not engage the pirates. The fight began about half an hour after sunrise, and by noon the battle was finished. Captain Peralta, while he was their prisoner, would often break out into admiration of their valour, and say that surely “Englishmen were the most valiant men in the whole world, who endeavoured always to fight openly, whilst all other nations invented all the ways imaginable to barricade themselves, and fight as close as they could.”
Other vessels were shortly afterwards taken. But in spite of their successes, there was dissatisfaction among some of the pirates, and Captain Coxon was openly branded as a coward by some of them, for the small part he had taken in the engagement. He immediately deserted with seventy of the men. Soon afterwards other pirates, however, joined the forces.
Eight days after their arrival at Tavoga (now called Toboga), they took a ship that was coming from Truxillo, and bound for Panama. In this vessel they found two thousand jars of wine, fifty jars of gunpowder, and fifty-one thousand pieces of eight. This money had been sent from that city to pay the soldiers belonging to the garrison of Panama. From the prize they had information that there was another ship coming from Lima with one hundred thousand pieces of eight more, which vessel was to sail ten or twelve days after them, and which, they said, could not be long before she arrived at Panama. Within two days after this intelligence they took another ship laden with flour from Truxillo, and the men on this prize confirmed what the first had told them, and said that the rich vessel might be expected there in the space of eight or ten days.
While they lay at Tavoga the President or Governor of Panama sent a message by some merchants to them to know what they came for. To this message Captain Sawkins made answer that “he came to assist the King of Darien, who was the true lord of Panama and all the country thereabouts, and that since he had come so far it was reasonable that they should have some satisfaction. So that if he pleased to send five hundred pieces of eight for each man and one thousand for each commander, and would not any further annoy the Indians, but suffer them to use their own power and liberty, as became the true and natural lords of the country, that then they would desist from further hostilities, and go away peaceably; otherwise, that he should stay there, and get what he could, causing the Spaniards what damage was possible.” From the Panama merchants they learned there lived there as Bishop of Panama, one who had formerly been Bishop of Santa Martha, and who had been prisoner to Captain Sawkins when he took [pg 55]the place about four or five years before. The captain having received this intelligence sent two loaves of sugar to the bishop as a present. The next day the merchant who carried them, returning to Tavoga, brought the captain a gold ring, and a message to Captain Sawkins from the President above mentioned, to know farther of him, since they were Englishmen, “From whom they had their commission, and to whom he ought to complain for the damages they had already done them?” To this message Captain Sawkins sent back for an answer, “that as yet all his company were not come together, but that when they were come up, they would come and visit him at Panama, and bring their commissions on the muzzles of their guns; at which time he should read them as plain as the flame of gunpowder could make them.” But Sawkins’s bravado never came to anything, and he was shortly afterwards killed at Puebla Nueva.
But the impression made by the pirates’ deeds had spread far and wide. Some time afterwards, when Captain Sharp, who succeeded Sawkins, and had made several captures in the meantime, took a vessel of the Spanish armada on that coast (not the Great Armada, gentle reader; the word simply signifies “fleet”) the captain proved to them in a speech how the fame and fear of the pirates had pervaded the South Pacific, and what preparations had been made to resist them. He said, “Gentlemen, I am now your prisoner of war by the overruling providence of Fortune; and, moreover, am very well satisfied that no money whatsoever can procure my ransom, at least for the present, at your hands; hence I am persuaded it is not my interest to tell you a lie, which if I do, I desire you to punish me as severely as you think fit. We heard of your taking and destroying our armadilla and other ships at Panama, about six weeks after that engagement, by two several barks which arrived here from thence; but they could not inform us whether you designed to come any farther to the southward, but rather desired we would send them speedily all the help by sea that we possibly could; hereupon we sent the rumour of your being in these seas to Lima, desiring they would expedite what succour they could send to join with ours. We had at that time in our harbour two or three great ships, but all of them very unfit to sail; for this reason, at Lima, the Viceroy of Peru pressed three large merchant-ships, into the biggest of which he put fourteen brass guns, into the second ten, and in the other six. Unto these he added two barks, and put 750 men on board them all. Of this number of men they landed eight score at Point St. Helen, all the rest being carried down to Panama, with design to fight you there. Besides these forces two other men-of-war, bigger than the afore-mentioned, are still lying at Lima, and fitting out with all speed to follow and pursue you. One of these men-of-war is equipped with thirty-six brass guns, and the other with thirty; these ships, besides their complement of seamen, have 400 soldiers added to them by the viceroy. Another man-of-war belonging to this number, and lesser than the afore-mentioned, is called the Patache. This ship carries twenty-four guns, and was sent to Arica to fetch the king’s plate from thence; but the viceroy having received intelligence of your exploits at Panama, sent for this ship back from thence in such haste that they came away and left the money behind them. Hence the Patache now lies at the port of Callao, ready to sail on the first occasion, or news of your arrival thereabout; they having for this purpose sent to all parts very strict orders to keep a good look-out on all sides, and all places along [pg 56]the coast. Since this, from Manta, they sent us word that they had seen two ships at sea pass by that place; and from the Goat Key also we heard that the Indians had seen you, and that they were assured that one of your vessels was the ship called La Trinidad, which you had taken before Panama, as being a ship well known in these seas. From hence we concluded that your design was to ply and make your voyage thereabouts. Now this bark wherein you took us prisoners being bound for Panama, the Governor of Guayaquil sent us out before her departure, if possible, to discover you; which, if we did, we were to run the bark on shore and get away, or else to fight you with these soldiers and fire-arms that you see. As soon as we heard of your being in the seas we built two forts, the one of six guns, and the other of four, for the defence of the town. At the last muster taken, in the town of Guayaquil, we had there 850 men of all colours; but when we came out we left only 250 men that were actually under arms.” The story of Sharp and others of the pirates, after this, shows that the Spanish preparations had a very decided effect on the spoils they were able to acquire. Their gains were small; and apart from the dangers of the sea, a number barely escaped being massacred ashore at the Island of Plate. When they attempted to return by the Straits of Magellan, they were tempest-tossed and sorely tried. They could not find the entrance to the straits, and eventually rounded America by what is described as “an unknown way.” That unknown route was unmistakably viâ Cape Horn.
Among the notorious pirates probably no one is better known in England than Captain Robert Kidd, whose trial and execution formed the subject of many once popular ballads. He commenced life in the king’s service, and had so far distinguished himself, that we find him in the first month of 1695 receiving a commission from His Majesty William III. to command a “private” man-of-war to “apprehend, seize, and take” certain American pirates. The privateer was actually fitted out at the expense of Lord Bellamont, at one time Governor of Barbadoes, and others, who knew the wealth that the pirates had acquired; and they obtained the king’s commission, partly with the view of keeping the men under better command, and also to give their enterprise some sort of sanction of legality. Kidd sailed for New York, where he engaged more men, increasing his officers and crew to a total of 150. Each man was to have one share in any division of spoil, while he reserved for himself and owners forty shares. This vessel was the Adventure galley, of thirty guns.
After calling at Madeira and the De Verde Islands for provisions and necessaries, he set sail for Madagascar, then a rendezvous of the Indian Ocean pirates. After cruising on that and the Malabar coasts, where he was not at first successful in meeting with any of the pirate vessels, he touched at a place called Mabbee, on the Red Sea, where he helped himself to a quantity of the natives’ corn, without offering payment. Hitherto he had acted strictly in his capacity as a legalised privateer, but he now began to show his true colours. The Mocha fleet was expected shortly to pass that way, and when he proposed to his crew that they should attack it, one and all agreed. He thereupon sent a well-manned boat to reconnoitre, which returned in a few days with the news that there were fourteen or fifteen ships about to sail. It will be understood that the Mocha fleet had nothing to do with American pirates, but was a commercial fleet, in this case consisting of English, [pg 57]Dutch, and Moorish vessels, convoyed by a vessel or vessels of war, in the fashion of those days. The man at the masthead soon announced its approach, and Kidd, getting into the midst of the vessels, fired briskly at a Moorish ship. Two men-of-war, however, bore down upon him, and knowing he was not a match for them, Kidd reluctantly put on all sail, and ran away. Shortly afterwards he took a small vessel belonging to Moorish owners, the master being an Englishman, whom he forced into his service as pilot. He used the men brutally, having them hoisted by the arms and drubbed with a cutlass, to find out whether or no any valuables were on board. As there was next to nothing to be found, he seized some quantity of coffee and pepper, and let the vessel go. When he touched shortly afterwards at a Moorish port, he found that he was suspected, and soon after this he discovered that many places along the coast had become alarmed. A Portuguese man-of-war was despatched after him, and met him; he fought her gallantly for about six hours, when he again became convinced that prudence, in his case, was the better part of valour, and made good his escape.
Not long after this he encountered a Moorish vessel, having for master a Dutch “schipper.” Kidd chased her under French colours, and hailed her in the same language. A Frenchman on board answered, when he was told, “you are the captain,” meaning, “you must be.” Kidd’s reason for this was that he held, in addition to his commission against pirates, one called a “commission of reprisal” against French vessels. At this time he seems to have been almost doubtful as to his course of action, for while he took the cargo of the last-named ship, he refused to attack a Dutch vessel which he met some time afterwards. In this case there was almost a mutiny on board, a majority being in favour of attack. Many threatened even to man a boat and seize her, which Kidd prevented by swearing that if they did they would never come on board his ship again. His gunner shortly afterwards reproached him with this matter, and said that he had ruined them all. Kidd, whose career might have ended much sooner than it did, if the mutinous ones had been so disposed, was equal to the emergency. Politely calling his gunner “a dog,” he raised a bucket and broke it over the unfortunate man’s skull, who died a day after. A Portuguese prize of tolerable value, containing Indian goods, jars of butter, bags of rice, wax, &c., was taken shortly afterwards, and this put the crew in better humour, which was vastly increased when he fell in with the Quieda Merchant, a richly-laden Moorish ship of 400 tons, having for master an Englishman named Wright. Kidd chased her under French colours, and took her without a struggle. There were hardly any Europeans on board, but there were a number of Armenian merchants. The pirate at first proposed that they should pay a ransom, and that he would let them depart in peace. They offered a sum something under £3,000, at which he laughed, and seized the vessel, selling the cargo at various points, where he also left the crew. When the division of the spoil was made, each man netted about £200, while his forty shares amounted to a total of £8,000. In spite of these enormous gains he was not above cheating some poor natives shortly afterwards, who up to that time had been accustomed to look upon even pirates as fair dealers in petty matters.