“‘We next returned to Jamaica, and were received with public rejoicings by the people. We were made heroes of, and the excesses of the pirates, in drinking, gambling, and worse, were so great that their gold was nearly all squandered in a few weeks or a month. Morgan thought it time then to plan some other expedition.
“‘Tortuga was at this time a hot-bed of pirates.
“‘Morgan went to Isle de la Vaca, on the southern-most shore of Hispaniola, and was speedily refitted and remanned.
“‘By-and-by there came from Tortuga a big Frenchman who had no less than three-and-thirty guns. Trade was bad, however, and the crew wanted to turn their talents to buccaneering. Morgan had his eye on that ship, and asked them to join his next expedition. The officers, however, would have none of him. Little did they know the craft and cunning of this immortal pirate. He had found out that they had taken provisions from an English ship at sea, paying only in paper money. This was enough. He invited the captain and officers on board to a carousal, and charging them with piracy, when they were still drinking, Morgan clapped them in irons and seized their ship.
“‘There was a fleet of merchant ships (Spaniards) expected every day off Saona Island, near to San Domingo, and thither they determined to sail. A terrible carousal followed on board the captured Frenchman. The drunken men were actually staggering about firing volley after volley by way of rejoicing.
“‘Suddenly the magazine in the fore part of the ship blew up with terrible force.
“‘Although those carousing in the cabin escaped with their lives, all forward perished, and this was the terrible end of the captured ship.
“‘But Morgan had still fifteen ships and nearly a thousand men, and recruiting their provisions from an English ship, they pressed on to Ocoa, on the south shore of the great island of Hispaniola.
“‘Seven of his ships had not come up when Morgan and I reached Ocoa, so we determined to wait for them.
“‘Here we ran a risk of being starved; for the Spaniards, although unable to attack, drove away all the cattle. Here, too, a band of fifty men sent on shore to hunt were surrounded by the Spaniards and almost decimated.