“It is not necessary to relate in detail all that took place thereafter. They cruised along the coast, captured all the ships they saw and either sunk them or, cutting away all but one mast, filled them with their prisoners and set them adrift to sink or sail as the fates decreed. Sharp at times showed intense cruelty, and whenever priests were taken he ordered them butchered out of hand and often tossed them overboard while still living. Ringrose says, ‘Such cruelties, though I abhorred very much in my heart, yet here was I forced to hold my tongue as having no authority to oversway them.’ And they captured many a town, too. Arica, Hilo, Coquimbo, La Serena, were attacked, sacked and burned; but the buccaneers often came near to destruction also. Only by luck did they escape, and at La Serena the Dons, under cover of darkness, swam to the Trinity on inflated hides, placed combustibles and explosives between the rudder and the stern post of the ship and fired them. Just in time the buccaneers discovered the source of the blaze and prevented the loss of ship and all within her. Fearing their numerous prisoners would plot successfully against them, the buccaneers, after this, set all the Dons ashore and, finding it necessary to refit, sailed to Juan Fernandez island. “It was now December, and the buccaneers spent a wild and riotous Christmas upon the isle, firing salutes, building bonfires, singing and shouting, drinking and carousing; frightening the seals and the birds with their wild cries, startling the goats with their ribald laughter; gambling and making merry, for which we can scarcely blame them, for it was the first holiday they had had since leaving Coiba, five months before. “And here at Juan Fernandez dissensions among the men once more arose. Some were for going home at once; others wished to remain longer, while all declared they would sail no longer under Sharp for the reason—incredible as it may seem—that he had failed to observe the Sabbath! So here on Juan Fernandez the ungodly pirates deposed their commander because he was not sufficiently religious and in his stead elected a hoary old buccaneer named John Watling. Sharp, naturally resenting this, was quickly silenced by being cast, willynilly, into the hold, where he had ample chance to think over his wicked past and moralize on the psychology of men who would slit a friar’s throat one moment and clamor for prayers and divine services the next. “Under their new captain the Sabbath was rigorously observed, and Ringrose writes, speaking of the first Sunday under Watling’s command, ‘This day was the first Sunday that ever we kept by command and consent since the loss and death of our valiant commander, Captain Sawkins. Our generous-hearted commander threw the dice overboard, finding them in use on the said day.’