The Monarchs of the Main; Or, Adventures of the Buccaneers. Volume 1 (of 3)Thornbury, Walter
History
The Monarchs of the Main; Or, Adventures of the Buccaneers. Volume 1 (of 3)
Thornbury, Walter
Buccaneers; Pirates; Spanish Main
He was soon after captured and taken with his men before a Spanish
governor, who cast them into a dungeon, intending to hang them every
one. But fortune only hid her smiles for a moment, and had not deserted
him. Roc, as subtle as he was intrepid, had not yet exhausted his wiles.
He was at bay and the dogs were gathered round, but they had not yet got
him by the throat. He made friends with the slave who brought him food,
and promised to give him money to buy his freedom if he would aid his
scheme. He did not wish to compromise the slave: he only wished him to
be the bearer of a letter to the governor. The slave told the governor
that he had been put on shore in the bay by some Buccaneers and had been
ordered to deliver the letter. The letter was an angry threat, supposed
to be indited by the captain of a French vessel lying in the offing. It
advised the governor "to have a care how he used those persons he had in
his custody, for in case he should do them any harm, they did swear unto
him, they would never give quarter unto any person of the Spanish nation
that should fall into their hands." The governor, lifting up his eyes
and twisting his moustachios at the threat, was intimidated, and became
anxious to get rid as soon as possible of such dangerous prisoners, for
Campeachy had already been taken once by the adventurers, and he feared
what mischief the companions who visited Spanish towns might do. He
began now to treat his prisoners with greater kindness, and on the first
opportunity sent for them, and, exacting a simple oath that they would
abandon piracy, shipped them on board the galleon fleet bound for Spain.
Roc, with his usual versatility, soon made himself so much beloved that
the Spanish captain offered to take him as a sailor, and he accepted the
offer. During this single voyage to Spain he made a sum of no less than
500 crowns by selling the officers fish that he struck in the Indian
manner with arrows and harpoons from the main-chains. His comerades,
whom he never forgot, were treated with consideration on his account.
On his arrival in Spain, Roc, in spite of his oath, which had been
exacted by fear of death, and therefore absolvable by any priest, lost
no time in getting back to Jamaica, where he arrived without a vessel to
call his own, but in other respects in better circumstances than when he
left. He joined himself at once to two French adventurers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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