“Yes,” replied his uncle. “Vasco da Gama had done so, and Drake and Magellan had gone through the Straits, but no buccaneer had ever attempted it and none had sailed from the Pacific around into the Atlantic. But the success of Sharp’s voyage and Ringrose’s experiences led the way for many a later buccaneer raid into the South Sea, as they called the Pacific. Buccaneering was no longer a safe profession in the Caribbean, for any buccaneers caught were tried and hanged as pirates, but the South Seas were out of England’s jurisdiction and offered a fine field. It is unnecessary to go into details of all the buccaneering, or perhaps I might say pirating, cruises that were made to the Pacific, but it is well to learn a little of the more noteworthy ones, especially as our old friends Dampier, Wafer and Ringrose took prominent parts in them. “The first buccaneers to sail for the ‘South Sea’ after Sharp’s exploits became known, set forth from Chesapeake Bay in August, 1683. Their ship was the Revenge, of eighteen guns and seventy men, in charge of Captain John Davis, who had won considerable fame as a pirate by sacking St. Augustine, Florida. With Davis went Cook, who had accompanied Sharp, as well as Wafer, the surgeon, who had received such unappreciated honors at the hands of the Darien Indians. Off the coast of Sierra Leone they seized a Danish ship of thirty-six guns and, finding her a much better vessel than their own, at once transferred their belongings to the prize and scuttled the Revenge. Then, renaming their new ship the Bachelors’ Delight, the corsairs headed for Cape Horn and reached Juan Fernandez without mishap. Here they fell in with another buccaneer ship, the Nicholas, and together the two cruised northward to the Gulf of Nicoya, taking many prizes and attacking, with considerable success, the smaller towns on the South America coast. In the Gulf of Nicoya Cook died and Davis was left as sole commander-in-chief. Those on the Nicholas, however, were bent on pirating through the East Indies and shortly after Cook’s death parted from the Bachelors’ Delight and set off on their own account, leaving a grewsome trail through the South Seas and along the African coast on their way to England. Davis and his company confined their activities to the American coast until they met the Cygnet at the Island of La Plata. The latter, which had been fitted out as a trader in London, had soon abandoned peaceable pursuits and had become a full-fledged pirate with our old friend Ringrose as navigator or pilot and Dampier, the naturalist-author, as quarter-master, with an old buccaneer named Swan in command. The two ships at once agreed to keep together and we may be sure there were wildly hilarious times when Dampier, Ringrose, Wafer and the others once more met, here in this out-of-the-world spot in the Pacific. Remembering the rich pickings they had had under Sharp, the veterans urged attacks on Paita, Guayaquil, Panama and other towns as