"You must know, Aubrey," said he, after telling me of their capture and forced embarkation on board the buccaneer's ship, "that this Pedro was in reality a Cornishman, and second in command to the renegade Captain Lewis, then lying under sentence of death at Port Royal. The whole of this bad business had been carefully planned by the villain, and easily we fell into the trap. Three days after we left the island the Sea Wolf, for such is the name of the buccaneer's ship, hove to in sight of Port Royal, and with the greatest audacity Pedro, or Red Peter, to give him the name he is generally known by, went ashore under a flag of truce, taking me with him as hostage. Would you believe it, he went straight to the castle and demanded to see the governor! Oddsfish! And his impudence took even the governor aback. 'I have on board,' quoth Red Peter, 'twenty-five officers and men of his Britannic Majesty's ship Gannet, not including this youngster (meaning me) and another; you have Captain Lewis and four other of our men. So, my lord, I think you'll see we hold a good balance in hand. Now, sink me! 'tis a fair exchange: give us the five and take your enterprising' (how he sneered when he said this) 'king's men unhurt, or else, for every man of ours who dances at the end of a rope, five of yours shall dangle from our yardarm. Come now, your answer?'
"What could the governor say? He gave way so easily that Red Peter spoke again. 'And, taking into consideration our great magnanimity, 'twould not be amiss to grant a free pardon to us all; then, for our part, we do agree to cease from plundering and fighting, and become honest men once more. Right glad would I be to see Falmouth once more other than with a hempen rope round my neck, or with gyves and manacles to prevent my full enjoyment of my native place. How say you, my lord?'
"After all, I verily believe the governor was content, for he had succeeded in ridding the Indies of these buccaneers, even as it was ordered, though the manner of the fulfilment thereof was hardly as he had wished. So he sent for his secretary, ordered him to write out a general pardon, which he sealed and delivered to Red Peter with an elaborate bow, whereat the rogue as courteously took his leave.
"The same day the Sea Wolf came into the harbour and landed our people, Lewis and his companions were released, and, after a general carouse on shore, the ship sailed to communicate the news to her consorts. All the same, the trick was neatly done, and little harm came of it."
Such was the tale that Greville told. Years later I learned that both Captain Lewis and Red Peter returned to England and were received by His Majesty, who, with the same generosity as he showed towards Captain Morgan, Colonel Blood, and other cutthroats of like nature, restored to Lewis his commission; while Red Peter, under his real name of Peter Tregaskis, became a red-hot Tory squire in his native Cornwall.
However, to resume my story, Captain Poynings rejoined the Gannet without delay, and after a year or so of comparatively uneventful sojourning in the Caribbean Sea, we received orders to proceed again to the Mediterranean.
[CHAPTER VIII--Of an Encounter with an Algerine Corsair]
The Gannet was bowling along under easy sail some fifty miles south of Majorca. Three years of seatime had made a great difference in her appearance. Her speed was retarded by the presence of a thick vegetable growth on her bottom, her sails had lost their pristine beauty, while her sides, though often repainted, bore signs of the effect of torrid heat and the buffeting of the waves. Her crew, too, had undergone considerable changes; wounds and disease had reduced the number of her gallant men, while those who were left were now well-seasoned and disciplined.
Of the ship's officers only three had gone to their last account--the master, who had fallen a victim to the dreaded "yellow jack", and two of the midshipmen. Thus, including myself, there were but five midshipmen on board, all of whom were as efficient as Captain Poynings could desire.
I was now nearly seventeen years of age--bronzed, hardy, and well-grown--and would easily have passed for twenty.