Statistical accounts of the Viceroyalty of Peru, which during a succession of years were printed annually at the end of the Lima Almanack, notice the towns of Santa Maria de la Perilla, Guasca, Santiago de Miraflores, Cañete, Pisco, Huara, and Guayaquil, being sacked and in part destroyed by pirates, in the years 1685, 1686, and 1687.
At Juan Fernandez. Davis and Knight having made much booty (Lussan says so much that the share of each man amounted to 5000 pieces of eight), they went to the Island Juan Fernandez to refit, intending to sail thence for the West Indies: but before they had recruited and prepared the ships for the voyage round the South of America, Fortune made a new distribution of their plunder. Many lost all their money at play, and they could not endure, after so much peril, to quit the South Sea empty handed, but resolved to revisit the coast of Peru. Knight quits the South Sea. The more fortunate party embarked with Knight for the West Indies.
Davis returns to the Coast of Peru. The luckless residue, consisting of sixty Englishmen, and twenty Frenchmen, with Edward Davis at their head, remained with the Batchelor's Delight to begin their work afresh. They sailed from Juan Fernandez for the American coast, which they
made as far South as the Island Mocha. By traffic with the inhabitants, they procured among other provisions, a number of the Llama or Peruvian sheep. Bezoar Stones. Wafer relates, that out of the stomach of one of these sheep he took thirteen Bezoar stones of several forms, 'some resembling coral, some round, and all green when first taken out; but by long keeping they turned of an ash colour.'
Marine Productions found on Mountains. In latitude 26° S, wanting fresh water, they made search for the River Copiapo. They landed and ascended the hills in hopes of discovering it. According to Wafer's computation they went eight miles within the coast, ascending mountain beyond mountain till they were a full mile in perpendicular height above the level of the sea. They found the ground there covered with sand and sea-shells, 'which,' says Wafer, 'I the more wondered at, because there were no shell-fish, nor could I ever find any shells, on any part of the sea-coast hereabouts, though I have looked for them in many places.' They did not discover the river they were in search of; but shortly afterwards, they landed at Arica, which they plundered; and at the River Ylo, where they took in fresh water. At Arica was a house full of Jesuits' bark. Vermejo. Wafer relates, 'We also put ashore at Vermejo, in 10° S latitude. I was one of those who landed to see for water. We marched about four miles up a sandy bay, which we found covered with the bodies of men, women, and children. These bodies to appearance, seemed as if they had not been above a week dead; but if touched, they proved dry and light as a sponge or piece of cork. We were told by an old Spanish Indian whom we met, that in his father's time, the soil there, which now yielded nothing, was well cultivated and fruitful: that the city of Wormia had been so numerously inhabited with Indians, that they could have handed a fish from hand to hand until it had come to the Inca's hand. But that
when the Spaniards came and laid siege to their city, the Indians, rather than yield to their mercy, dug holes in the sand and buried themselves alive. The men as they now lie, have by them their broken bows; and the women their spinning-wheels and distaffs with cotton yarn upon them. Of these dead bodies I brought on board a boy of about ten years of age with an intent to bring him to England; but was frustrated of my purpose by the sailors, who had a foolish conceit that the compass would not traverse right whilst there was a dead body on board, so they threw him overboard to my great vexation[58].'
April. Near this part of the coast of Peru, in April 1687, Davis had a severe action with a Spanish frigate, named the Katalina, in which the drunkenness of his crew gave opportunity to the Spanish Commander, who had made a stout defence, to run his ship ashore upon the coast. They fell in with many other Spanish vessels, which, after plundering, they dismissed.
Shortly after the engagement with the Spanish frigate Katalina, Davis made a descent at Payta, to seek refreshments for his wounded men, and surprised there a courier with dispatches from the Spanish Commander at Guayaquil to the Viceroy at Lima, by which he learnt that a large body of English and French Buccaneers had attacked, and were then in possession of, the town of Guayaquil. May. The Governor had been taken prisoner by the Buccaneers, and the Deputy or next in authority, made pressing instances for speedy succour, in his letter to the Viceroy, which, according to Lussan, contained the following passage: 'The time has expired some days which was appointed for the ransom of our prisoners. I amuse the enemy with the hopes of some thousands of pieces of eight, and they have sent me the heads of four of our prisoners: but if they
send me fifty, I should esteem it less prejudicial than our suffering these ruffians to live. If your Excellency will hasten the armament to our assistance, here will be a fair opportunity to rid ourselves of them.'
Davis joins other Buccaneers at Guayaquil. Upon this news, and the farther intelligence that Spanish ships of war had been dispatched from Callao to the relief of Guayaquil, Davis sailed for that place, and, on May the 14th, arrived in the Bay of Guayaquil, where he found many of his old confederates; for these were the French Buccaneers who had separated from him under Grogniet, and the English who had gone with Townley. Those two leaders had been overtaken by the perils of their vocation, and were no more. But whilst in their mortal career, and after their separation from Davis, though they had at one time been adverse almost to hostility against each other, they had met, been reconciled, and had associated together. Townley died first, of a wound he received in battle, and was succeeded in the command of the English by a Buccaneer named George Hout or Hutt. At the attack of Guayaquil, Grogniet was mortally wounded; and Le Picard was chosen by the French to succeed him in the command. Guayaquil was taken on the 20th of April; the plunder and a number of prisoners had been conveyed by the Buccaneers to their ships, which were at anchor by the Island Puna, when their unwearied good fortune brought Davis to join them.