"You must consider, Sirs, that my crew of mariners were men more rich in valour than in gold, and for my part I began to feel some doubts whether my liberality had quite pleased them, and although allowing the King Leopold to go away free was done by their consent, as well as my own, yet as the dispositions of all men are not the same, I suspected that they were not quite satisfied, and that it would not be easy to make them amends for the hundred thousand pieces of gold which Leopold offered for his ransom, and this moved me to speak to them thus; 'My good friends, do not allow yourselves to regret the recollection of the large treasure you have lost, which was offered to us by the king, for I would have you know that one ounce of honourable fame is worth more than a pound of pearls. And this you cannot feel until you have begun to taste the sweets of having won that renown which is gained by great and good deeds. The poor man, enriched by virtue, may become famous, whilst the rich one, if vicious, can never know anything but infamy. Generosity is one of the most pleasing virtues in him who aspires to renown; and so true is this, that you will never find an ill-conditioned person liberal; an avaricious or covetous man cannot be so.' I was proceeding thus in my discourse, seeing that they lent an attentive ear to me as their countenances showed, when I was interrupted by discovering a ship which was not far from our own--indeed hard a lee upon our course: we flew to arms, and gave chase with all the sails we could set. In a short time I ordered a shot to be fired as a signal to bring her to; we did so, and she slackened sail. On coming near, we beheld one of the strangest sights imaginable: hanging to the yards and the rigging were more than forty men strangled. I marvelled greatly at this; and going alongside, some of my men boarded her without meeting any opposition. They found the deck deluged with blood, and covered with the bodies of men dead and dying, some with their hands cut off, some with their heads cleft asunder, some bleeding, some just expiring; one man was sending forth the most dismal groans, another uttering shrieks of agony. All this death-scene seemed to have taken place after a repast, for divers articles of food swam amidst the blood, and mingled with these were drinking cups and bottles still half full of wine. But now, treading over the bodies of the dead and dying, my mariners passed on to the stern cabin, where they found a party of a dozen beautiful women: foremost amongst them stood one who seemed to be their captain, armed with a white corslet, so clear and polished that it might almost have served as a mirror; she wore a throat piece, but no armour on her arms or legs; on her head was a helmet of curiously twisted workmanship, ornamented with an infinite variety of differently coloured stones; she held a javelin in her hand, all studded over with golden nails, and a large knife of shining and sharp steel.