Shortly afterwards they separated, Dampier accompanying Sharp. Again uniting preparatory to an attack on Panama, they encountered three Spanish ships, and, after a severe action, in which many on both sides fell, they captured them. Sawkins was now raised to the command, but was killed while leading on his men in an attack on Puebla Nueva. The pirates at length repaired to the island of Juan Fernandez to refit, and William, one of the Mosquito Indians, was left behind. Captain Watling, who had been elected chief, was shortly afterwards killed in an attempt to capture Arica, and Sharp was once more placed at the head of the band. He managed, in one of the vessels he had captured, to double Cape Horn, and return in safety to England, where he narrowly escaped being hung as a pirate. Dampier, meantime, with a minority of the party, consisting of forty-four Europeans, two Mosquito men, and a Spanish Indian, after undergoing great hardships and perils, crossed the isthmus to the mouth of the river Concepcion, where they obtained canoes, in which they proceeded to one of the Samballas Islands. Here they found a French privateer, commanded by Captain Tristan, whom they joined. Having captured a large Spanish ship, with twelve guns and forty men, laden with sugar, tobacco, and marmalade, the cargo was offered to the Dutch Governor of Curacoa, who was too cautious to purchase it himself, but recommended them to go to Saint Thomas's, which belonged to the Danes, saying that he would send a sloop to take the sugar off their hands. Declining his suggestion, they sailed to another Dutch colony, where they easily disposed of their booty. Dampier some time after this found his way to Virginia, where he was residing with several of his former companions, when a ship, captured by a party of English buccaneers under Captain Cook, and named the _Revenge_, put into the harbour. As she carried eighteen guns, and was equipped for a long voyage--and it was necessary to get away from those seas as soon as possible, lest they should be treated as pirates--it was proposed that a voyage should be made to the South Seas. Besides Dampier, the ship's company consisted of Lionel Wafer, the surgeon, Ambrose Cowley, and many adventurers who had lately crossed the Isthmus of Panama. The ship being well stored, sailed from Achamack in Virginia on the 23rd of August, 1683.