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
Early the next morning, "when the march began," "those lamentable cries
and shrieks were renewed, in so much as it would have caused compassion
in the hardest heart to hear them. But Captain Morgan, a man little
given to mercy, was not moved therewith in the least." They marched in
the same order as before, but on this day, we read, the Spaniards "were
punched and thrust in their backs and sides, with the blunt end of [the
pirates'] arms, to make them march the faster." The "beautiful and
virtuous lady" "was led prisoner by herself, between two Pirates," both
of whom, no doubt, wished the other dear charmer away. She, poor lady,
was crying out that she had asked two monks to fetch her ransom from a
certain hiding-place. They had taken the money, she cried, according to
her instruction, but they had used it to ransom certain "of their own
and particular friends." This evil deed "was discovered by a slave, who
brought a letter to the said lady." In time, her words were reported to
Captain Morgan, who held a court of inquiry there and then, to probe
into the truth of the matter. The monks made no denial of the fact,
"though under some frivolous excuses, of having diverted the money but
for a day or two, within which time they expected more sums to repay
it." The reply angered Morgan into releasing the poor woman, "detaining
the said religious men as prisoners in her place," and "using them
according to the deserts of their incompassionate intrigues." Probably
they were forced to run the gauntlet between two rows of pirates armed
with withes of bejuco.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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