“The following day they continued to Cruz de Juan Gallego, but, finding the river very low and choked by fallen trees, they were here compelled to forsake the boats and march overland, leaving one hundred and sixty men to guard the boats and their retreat. After a long march they reached a spot on the river where canoes could be used, and with infinite labor the company was transported up stream to Cedro Bueno. The buccaneers were by now on the verge of starvation, but there was nothing to do but keep on, and at noon on the fourth day they discovered a settlement. But not a soul was there and not a morsel to eat, save a few crumbs of bread and a number of leather bags. Famished, the buccaneers fell upon the leathern sacks and devoured them. For an account of this I can do no better than read you Esquemeling’s narrative. He says: ‘Thus they made a huge banquet of the bags of leather which doubtless would have been more grateful unto them if divers quarrels had not arisen concerning who should have the greatest share. They conjectured that five hundred Spaniards had been there, more or less, and these they were now infinitely desirous to meet, intending to devour some of them rather than perish. Whom they would certainly in that occasion have roasted or boiled had they been able to take them. Some persons who were never out of their mothers’ kitchens may ask how these pirates could eat, swallow and digest those pieces of leather so hard and dry. To whom I only answer: That could they once experiment with hunger, or rather famine, they would certainly find the manner, by their own necessity, as the pirates did. For these first took the leather and sliced it in pieces. Then did they beat it between stones and rub it, often dipping it in the water of the river to render it supple and tender. Lastly they scraped off the hair and roasted or broiled it over a fire. And thus being cooked they cut it in small morsels and eat it, helping it down with frequent gulps of water, which by good fortune they had near at hand.’ “And when night fell on the close of the fourth day and not a scrap of food had been found in any of the deserted settlements and camps, the pirate who had had the foresight to retain a small piece of leather was indeed a happy man, for the others went supperless to sleep.