earthen wine jars and, having plugged their necks with the idea of using them as floats, he waited patiently for darkness. But the sentry, who hitherto had been a careless, sleepy fellow, was unusually alert, and seeing this, Portugues seized a knife which he had surreptitiously obtained and, to quote Esquemeling, ‘gave him such a mortal stab as suddenly deprived him of life and the possibility of making any noise.’ Then the buccaneer captain leaped into the sea and aided by his extemporized water-wings managed to gain the shore. But his troubles had only begun. At once the hue and cry of his escape was raised, and for three days Portugues concealed himself in a hollow tree without food while the Dons searched all about. At last, abandoning their hunt, the Spaniards returned to the town, and Portugues set out afoot for the Gulf of Triste, where he hoped to find other buccaneers to aid him in rescuing his comrades. “It is almost impossible to imagine what this meant or the seemingly insurmountable hardships the buccaneer captain deliberately faced, and it is also a most striking example of the faithfulness of the buccaneers to one another, which was one of the chief causes why they were so successful. Remember, Portugues was unarmed, for he had left the knife in the sentry’s back, he was without food, he had been half starved by his captors, and yet he calmly set out on a one hundred and fifty mile tramp through the jungle and along the jagged rocks of the seacoast; through a country infested by mosquitoes and stinging insects, by savage hostile Indians, and through swamps reeking with malaria. Every settlement and town had to be avoided, as they were all filled with his enemies, the Spaniards, and throughout that long and terrible journey the buccaneer subsisted entirely upon the few shellfish he found along the shore and upon the roots of forest herbs. “Moreover, several large and many small rivers crossed his route and not being able to swim his case seemed hopeless. But while searching about the banks of the first large stream, looking for a possible ford, he found an old plank with a few large spikes in it. After tremendous efforts he managed to withdraw these nails and with infinite patience whetted them against stones until he secured a sharp knifelike edge. Just think of that, boys, when you read of modern hardships endured by men left to their own resources in a forest. Imagine rubbing a ship’s spike back and forth upon a stone until it has been transformed into a knife!