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
They continued several days at Taboga, waiting for a Lima treasure ship,
aboard which, the Spaniards told them, were L2500 in silver dollars.
While they waited for this ship the Governor at Panama wrote to ask them
why they had come into those seas. Captain Sawkins answered that they
had come to help King Golden Cap, the King of Darien, the true lord of
those lands, and that, since they had come so far, "there was no reason
but that they should have some satisfaction." If the Governor would send
them 500 pieces of eight for each man, and double that sum for each
captain, and, further, undertake "not any farther to annoy the Indians,"
why, then, the pirates would leave those seas, "and go away peaceably.
If the Governor would not agree to these terms, he might look to
suffer." A day or two later, Sawkins heard that the Bishop of Panama had
been Bishop at Santa Martha (a little city on the Main), some years
before, when he (Sawkins) helped to sack the place. He remembered the
cleric favourably, and sent him "two loaves of sugar," as a sort of
keepsake, or love-offering. "For a retaliation," the Bishop sent him a
gold ring; which was very Christian in the Bishop, who must have lost on
the exchange. The bearer of the gold ring, brought also an answer from
the Governor, who desired to know who had signed the pirates'
commissions. To this message Captain Sawkins sent back for answer: "That
as yet all his company were not come together, but that when they were
come up, we would come and visit him at Panama, and bring our
commissions on the muzzles of our guns, at which time he should read
them as plain as the flame of gunpowder could make them."
With this thrasonical challenge the pirates set sail for Otoque, another
of the islands in the bay; for Taboga, though it was "an exceeding
pleasant island," was by this time bare of meat. Before they left the
place a Frenchman deserted from them, and gave a detailed account of
their plans to the Spanish Governor. It blew very hard while they were
at sea, and two barques parted company in the storm. One of them drove
away to the eastward, and overtook John Coxon's company. The other was
taken by the Spaniards.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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