Captain Wilmot (for so we are now to call him) being thus possessed of a
ship, and in the manner as you have heard, it may be easily concluded
he had nothing to do to stay in the port, or to wait either the attempts
that might be made from the shore, or any change that might happen among
his men. On the contrary, we weighed anchor the same tide, and stood out
to sea, steering away for the Canaries. Our ship had twenty-two guns,
but was able to carry thirty; and besides, as she was fitted out for
a merchant-ship only, she was not furnished either with ammunition or
small-arms sufficient for our design, or for the occasion we might have
in case of a fight. So we put into Cadiz, that is to say, we came to an
anchor in the bay; and the captain, and one whom we called young Captain
Kidd, who was the gunner, [landed,] and some of the men who could best
be trusted, among whom was my comrade Harris, who was made second mate,
and myself, who was made a lieutenant. Some bales of English goods were
proposed to be carried on shore with us for sale, but my comrade, who
was a complete fellow at his business, proposed a better way for it;
and having been in the town before, told us, in short, that he would buy
what powder and bullet, small-arms, or anything else we wanted, on his
own word, to be paid for when they came on board, in such English goods
as we had there. This was much the best way, and accordingly he and the
captain went on shore by themselves, and having made such a bargain
as they found for their turn, came away again in two hours' time, and
bringing only a butt of wine and five casks of brandy with them, we all
went on board again.
The next morning two _barcos longos_ came off to us, deeply laden, with
five Spaniards on board them, for traffic. Our captain sold them good
pennyworths, and they delivered us sixteen barrels of powder, twelve
small rundlets of fine powder for our small-arms, sixty muskets, and
twelve fuzees for the officers; seventeen ton of cannon-ball, fifteen
barrels of musket-bullets, with some swords and twenty good pair of
pistols. Besides this, they brought thirteen butts of wine (for we, that
were now all become gentlemen, scorned to drink the ship's beer), also
sixteen puncheons of brandy, with twelve barrels of raisins and twenty
chests of lemons; all which we paid for in English goods; and, over and
above, the captain received six hundred pieces of eight in money. They
would have come again, but we would stay no longer.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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