Having possessed themselves of these two vessels, Captain Sawkins asked the prisoners how many men there were on board the greatest ship, lying in the harbour of the island of Perico, as also on the others that were something smaller. Captain Peralta hearing these questions, dissuaded him as much as he could, saying that in the biggest alone there were three hundred and fifty men, and that he would find the rest too well provided for defence against his small number. But one of the men who lay dying upon the deck contradicted Peralta as he was speaking, and told Captain Sawkins there was not one man on board those ships that were in view, for they had all been taken out of them to fight the pirates, in the three vessels just taken. These words were credited as proceeding from a dying man; and steering their course to the island they went on board them, and found, as he had said, not one person there. The largest of the ships, which was called _La __Santissima Trinidad_, they had set on fire. They had also made a hole in her, and loosened her fore-sail. But they quenched the fire with all speed, and stopped the leak. This being done they put their wounded men on board her, and made her for the present their hospital. Having surveyed their own loss, they found eighteen of their men had been killed in the fight, and twenty-two wounded. The three captains against whom they had fought had been esteemed by the Spaniards the bravest in all the “South Seas”; neither was their reputation undeserved, as may easily be inferred from the narrative given of the engagement. As the third ship was running away from the fight, she met with two more coming out to their assistance; but gave them so little encouragement that they turned back and dared not engage the pirates. The fight began about half an hour after sunrise, and by noon the battle was finished. Captain Peralta, while he was their prisoner, would often break out into admiration of their valour, and say that surely “Englishmen were the most valiant men in the whole world, who endeavoured always to fight openly, whilst all other nations invented all the ways imaginable to barricade themselves, and fight as close as they could.” Other vessels were shortly afterwards taken. But in spite of their successes, there was dissatisfaction among some of the pirates, and Captain Coxon was openly branded as a coward by some of them, for the small part he had taken in the engagement. He immediately deserted with seventy of the men. Soon afterwards other pirates, however, joined the forces.