The buccaneers in the same way would shoot down any other man who tried to get hold of the wheel, and so the vessel was unable to get under sail again. With the vessel stationary, it was very easy for the canoes to lie close in out of range of the big guns, and the superior marksmanship of the buccaneers, with their small arms, enabled them to keep down entirely small-arm fire from the Santa Maria. Here they lay all day, picking off any Spaniard who dared show himself. When evening came, the Spaniards surrendered. Ring Rose states that when he boarded the Santa Maria to accept the surrender, of the one hundred men of the crew who had commenced the fight, ninety-two had been shot down, and only eight were left standing. Everyone of these eight was, however, wounded.
I call it one of the most extraordinary naval battles of history, from the fact that sixty men in dugouts, armed only with small arms, were able in the open sea to capture this man-of-war and her tenders, having an armament of over twenty great guns, and crews of over one hundred and fifty men. And this was accomplished not by surprise or stealth, but in an open, stand-up fight. The Spaniards saw them coming for miles, and sailed out to meet them.
The Santa Maria had, under the pirates, a most extraordinary history for three years. She sailed up and down the west coast, bidding defiance to anything the Spaniards sent against her. She finally doubled the Horn, reached the Barbadoes, and was there sold by the pirates for a good round sum.
CHAPTER XIX
THE LEPER COLONY
Another sanitary precaution that the Health Department determined upon was the segregation of the lepers. The Republic of Panama required by law the segregation of these people, but the community had been so poor for so many years that it was unable to bear the expense of any careful enforcement of this law. Some twelve or thirteen lepers had been living in huts down on the bay for a number of years, supported by the charity of such individuals as, moved by pity, could afford it. This burden for a long time before our arrival had fallen entirely upon Mr. Espinosa, one of the leading citizens of Panama.
Knowing that we would have a certain number of lepers in the Zone, we made the same proposition to the Panaman Government with regard to lepers that we had made with regard to the insane; that is, that we would care for their lepers at the rate of seventy-five cents per day per capita.
We established a colony on a beautifully located peninsula running out into the bay of Panama, and almost as much isolated as if it were on an island. Here they could have their gardens, chickens, fruit-trees, etc. The location is naturally one of the prettiest on the bay.
We now have there some fifty lepers, who are living contented and happy. We have a white male trained nurse in general charge; a white female trained nurse in charge of the women, and some four or five other employees. We have a teacher for the children, and the lepers are always employed for any work of which they are capable, and are paid for this work so as to encourage them to seek it.
Dr. Henry R. Carter devoted a great deal of time and attention to the establishment of this colony, and it was due to his painstaking personal care that the matter turned out so successfully.
The history of the spread of leprosy is peculiar in that those who live with lepers in institutions and are constantly in contact with them do not as a general thing contract the disease. I refer to such people as doctors, nurses and attendants. On the other hand, people who have never known of any contact with a leper sometimes develop the disease. Such a case was that of the English Consul, about 1850, who found himself with symptoms of leprosy, without, as far as he knew, ever having come in personal contact with a sufferer from this disease.