The Sea: Its Stirring Story of Adventure, Peril, & Heroism. Volume 3Whymper, Frederick
History
The Sea: Its Stirring Story of Adventure, Peril, & Heroism. Volume 3
Whymper, Frederick
Adventure and adventurers; Arctic regions; Ocean; Voyages around the world
conditions they required being that the pirates should give the
inhabitants quarter for two hours. This was a _ruse_ to enable them to
carry off and hide their valuables. Granting this request, the pirates
marched into the town, and continued there the two hours without
committing the least outrage; but the time past, Lolonois ordered that the
inhabitants should be followed, robbed of all they had carried away, and
made prisoners. They had succeeded, however, knowing the country, in
making such good use of their time that the pirates could only capture a
few sacks of indigo. Having remained there a few days, committing all
kinds of outrages and stealing all they could, they returned to the coast,
rejoining some of their companions, who had been engaged in robbing the
poor fishermen of the coast, and others who came from Guatemala. A vessel
from Spain was daily expected to arrive off this river, and they left two
canoes to attack her, whilst they went over to some islands on the other
side of the gulf to careen and cleanse their ships and obtain provisions,
they knowing well that turtle abounded. They also made a number of ropes
and nets from the rind of the macoa-tree, and obtained a quantity of a
kind of bitumen or pitch, useful on board ship. In short, these islands
would seem to supply nearly all that was required for the seaman’s use.
The pirates, having been in the gulf three months, received advice that
the expected Spanish ship had arrived, and hastened to the spot where she
lay unloading her merchandise. They had previously sent away some of the
boats to seek for a smaller vessel, also expected, richly laden with
plate, indigo, and cochineal. Meanwhile the ship’s crew, expecting an
attack, had prepared for a good defence. Her armament consisted of
forty-two guns, and she had on board one hundred and thirty well-armed
men. Lolonois simply laughed at all this, and assaulted them with great
courage. His own ship had but twenty-two guns. The Spaniards behaved
excellently, and forced the pirates to retire momentarily, but Lolonois
was still equal to the occasion. Taking advantage of the dense smoke
caused by the bad powder of those days, he again attacked the ship,
boarded her from all sides, and forced the Spaniards to surrender. They
were considerably chagrined to find that their fight had been almost for
nothing—piratically considered—for they found on board little more than
fifty bars of iron, a small parcel of paper, and some earthen jars of
wine.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account