On the Spanish Main; Or, Some English forays on the Isthmus of DarienMasefield, John
History
On the Spanish Main; Or, Some English forays on the Isthmus of Darien
Masefield, John
Buccaneers; Spanish Main
The buccaneers knocked off
their butcher's work to see the fight. As the poor Frenchman turned his
back to make him ready, his adversary stabbed him from behind, running
him quite through, so that "he suddenly fell dead upon the place."
Instantly the beach was in an uproar. The Frenchmen pressed upon the
English to attack the murderer and to avenge the death of their fellow.
There had been bad blood between the parties ever since they mustered at
the quays before the raid began. The quarrel now raging was an excuse to
both sides. Morgan walked between the angry groups, telling them to put
up their swords. At a word from him, the murderer was seized, set in
irons, and sent aboard an English ship. Morgan then seems to have made a
little speech to pacify the rioters, telling the French that the man
should be hanged ("hanged immediately," as they said of Admiral Byng) as
soon as the ships had anchored in Port Royal bay. To the English, he
said that the criminal was worthy of punishment, "for although it was
permitted him to challenge his adversary, yet it was not lawful to kill
him treacherously, as he did." After a good deal of muttering, the
mutineers returned aboard their ships, carrying with them the last of
the newly salted beef. The hostages were freed, a gun was fired from the
admiral's ship, and the fleet hove up their anchors, and sailed away
from Cuba, to some small sandy quay with a spring of water in it, where
the division of the plunder could be made. The plunder was heaped
together in a single pile. It was valued by the captains, who knew by
long experience what such goods would fetch in the Jamaican towns.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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