THE CRUISES OF SAWKINS AND SHARP.
Land at Darien--March Overland--Take Santa Maria--Sail to
Panama--Ringrose is wrecked--Failure of Expedition--Driven off by
Spanish Fleet--Coxen accused of cowardice--Sharp elected
Commander--Plunder Hillo and take La Serena--Take Aries--Saved with
difficulty--Conspiracy of slaves--Land at Antigua--Return to
England--Sharp's trial--Seizes a French ship in the Downs, and
returns to Jamaica.
The cruises of Sawkins and Sharp are recorded in the travels of
Ringrose, who was present at all their exploits. At this time the
Buccaneers widened their field of operations, and passed from the South
into the North Pacific. The whole coast of South America, on either
side, met the fate of the West Indian islands. The gold mines of Peru
were the next object of their speculation.
A fleet which took Porto Bello a second time rendezvoused at Boca del
Toro. A new expedition was then formed to follow Captain Bournano, a
French commander, who had lately attacked Chepo, to Tocamora, a great
and very rich place, whither the Darien Indians had offered to conduct
him, in spite of a late treaty with the Spaniards.
The vessels first dispersed into coves and creeks to careen and salt
turtle, and then reunited at the Water key. The fleet consisted of nine
vessels, with a total of 22 guns and 458 men, in the following
order:--Captain Coxen, a ship of 80 tons, with 8 guns, and 197 men;
Captain Harris, 150 tons, 5 guns, and 107 men; Captain Bournano, 90
tons, 6 guns, and 86 men; Captain Sawkins, 16 tons, 1 gun, and 35 men;
Captain Sharp, 25 tons, 2 guns, and 40 men; Captain Cook, 35 tons, and
43 men; Captain Alleston, 18 tons, and 24 men; Captain Row, 20 tons,
and 25 men; Captain Macket, 14 tons, and 20 men.
The expedition sailed March 26, 1679. The first place to touch at was
the Zemblas Islands, where they traded with the friendly Indians, who
brought fruits and venison in exchange for beads, needles, knives, and
hatchets. These Indians were quite naked, but richly decorated with gold
and silver plates of a crescent form, and gold rings worn in the nose,
which they had to lift up when they drank. They were generally painted
with streaks of black and red, but were a handsome race, and frequently
as fair as Europeans. The sailors believed that they could see better by
night than by day.
The Indians dissuaded the captains from the march upon Tocamora, and
agreed to guide them to the vicinity of Panama. The way to Tocamora,
they declared, was mountainous and uninhabited, and ran through wild
places, where no provisions could be obtained. In this change of plan,
Row and Bournano, whose crews were all French, separated, being
unwilling to risk a long march by land, and remained at the Zemblas,
while Andraeas, an Indian chief, guided the remaining vessels to the
Golden Island, a little to the westward of the mouth of the great river
of Darien. There the seven remaining vessels rendezvoused April 3, 1680.
They here agreed to follow the Indians' advice, and attack the town of
Santa Maria, situated on the river of the same name, which runs into the
South Sea by the gulf of St. Miguel. It was garrisoned by 400 soldiers,
and from hence the gold gathered in the neighbouring mountains was
carried to Panama, on which they could march if they could not find
enough at Santa Maria.
On the 5th of April they landed 331 men, leaving Captains Alleston and
Macket to guard the ships in their absence. Each man carried with him
three or four "dough-boys" (cakes), trusting to the rivers for drink.
Captain Sharp, who went at their head, was still faint from a late
sickness. His company carried a red flag and a bunch of white and green
ribbons. The second division, led by Captain Richard Sawkins, had a red
flag, striped with yellow. Captain Peter Harris, with the third and
fourth divisions, had two green flags; Captain John Coxen, two red
flags; while Captain Edmund Cook bore red colours, striped with yellow,
with a hand and sword for the device. All the men carried fusees,
pistols, and hangers.
The Indian guides led them through a wood and over a bay two leagues up
a woody valley, along a good path, with here and there old plantations.
At a river, then nearly dry, they built huts to rest in. Another Indian
chief, a man "of great parts," and called Captain Antonio, now promised
to be their leader, as soon as his child, who was then sick, had died,
which he expected would be next day. This Indian warned them against
lying in the grass, which was full of large snakes.
The men, breaking some of the stones washed down from the mountains,
found them glitter like gold; but, in spite of this, several grew tired
and returned to the ships, leaving only 327 sailors and six Indian
guides.
The next day they ascended a very steep hill, and found at the foot of
it a river, on which Andraeas told them Santa Maria was built. About
noon they ascended another and higher mountain, by so perpendicular and
narrow a path that only one man could pass at a time. Having marched
eighteen miles, they halted that night on the banks of the same river,
much rain falling during both nights. The next day they crossed the
river, after wading sometimes up to the knee, sometimes to the middle,
in a steep current. At noon they reached the Indian village, near which
the king of Darien resided. The houses were neatly built of
cabbage-tree, with the roofs of wild canes, thatched with palmito royal,
and were surrounded by plantain walks; they had no upper storeys. The
king, queen, and family, came to visit them in royal robes. Like most
savages, he was all ornament and nakedness, gold and dirt. His crown was
made with woven white reeds, lined with red silk. In the middle was a
thin plate of gold, some beads, and several ostrich feathers; in each
ear a gold ring; and in his nose a half-moon of the same metal. His robe
was of thin white cotton, and in his hand he held a long bright lance,
sharp as a knife. The queen wore several red blankets, and her two
marriageable daughters and young child were loaded with coloured beads,
and covered with strips of rag. The women seemed "free, easy, and
brisk," but modest and afraid of their husbands. The king gave the
sailors each three plantains and some sugar-canes to suck, but, after
that regal munificence, did not disdain to sell his stores like his
subjects, who proved very cunning dealers in their purchases of knives,
pins, and needles. Resting here a day, Captain Sawkins was appointed to
lead the forlorn hope of eighty men. Their march still lay along the
river, and here and there they found a house. The Indians, standing at
the doors, would present each with a ripe plantain or cassave root, or
count them by dropping a grain of millet for each one that passed. They
rested at night at some native houses.
The next day Sharp, Coxen, and Cook, and ninety men, embarked in
fourteen canoes to try how far the stream was navigable, Captain
Andraeas being with them, and two Indians in each canoe serving as
guides. But the water proved more tedious than the land; for at the
distance of every stone's-cast, they were constrained to get out of the
boats and haul them over sands, rocks, or fallen trees, and sometimes
over spits of land. That night they built huts on the bank, being worn
out with fatigue.
The next day proved a repetition of the past; at night a tiger came near
them, but they dared not fire for fear of alarming the Spaniards. The
following day was worse than before, and their men grew mutinous and
suspicious of the Indians, who, they thought, had divided the troop in
order to betray them. The fourth day, resting on "a beachy point of
land," where another arm joined the river, they were joined by their
companions, whom they had sent their Indians to seek, and who had grown
alarmed at their continued absence. That night they prepared their arms
for action. On the morrow they re-embarked, in all sixty-eight canoes
and 327 Englishmen, with fifty Indian guides. They made themselves
paddles, threw away the Indian poles, and rowed with all speed, meeting
several boats laden with plantains. About midnight they arrived within
half-a-mile of Santa Maria, and landed. The mud was so deep that they
had to lay down their paddles and lift themselves up by the boughs of
the trees; then cutting a way through the woods, they took up their
lodging there for the night, hoping to surprise the Spaniards.
At daybreak, to their disappointment, they were awoke by the discharge
of a musket and the beating of a drum. The Spaniards had already
prepared some lead for their reception, and had sent away their gold to
Panama. Directly they emerged into the plain, the enemy ran into a large
palisaded fort, twelve feet high, and began to fire quick and close. The
vanguard, running up, pulled down part of the stockade and broke in and
took them prisoners, the whole 280 men. A few English were wounded, not
one being killed of the fifty men who led the attack. 200 other
Spaniards were in the mines conveying away the gold, the mines there
being the richest of the western world. Twenty-six Spaniards were
killed in the fort and sixteen wounded, but the governor, priest, and
chief men all escaped by flight. The town proved to be merely a few cane
houses, built to check the Indians, who frequently rebelled. Some days
before, three cwt. of gold had been sent in a bark to Panama, the same
quantity being despatched twice or thrice a-year.
During the fight the Indians, frightened at the whistling of the
bullets, had hid themselves in a hollow; when all was over they entered
the place, with great courage stabbing the prisoners with their lances,
and putting about twenty to death in the woods, till the Buccaneers
interfered. In the town the Indians found the eldest daughter of the
Darien king, whom one of the garrison had carried off, and who was then
with child by him. Rather than be left to the mercy of the Indians, this
man offered to lead them to Panama, where they hoped to capture all the
riches of Potosi and Peru. Sawkins in a canoe attempted in vain to
overtake the governor and his officers, and rather than return
empty-handed, resolved to go to Panama, to satisfy what Ringrose calls
"their hungry appetite of gold and riches."
Captain Coxen was chosen commander, and the booty and prisoners sent
back to the ships under a guard of twelve men. The Indians, being
rewarded with presents of needles and beads, also returned, all but the
king. Captain Andraeas, Captain Antonio, and the king's son, King Golden
Cap (bonete d'oro), as the Spaniards called him, resolved to go on,
desiring to see Panama sacked, and offering to aid them with a large
body of men. The Spanish guide declared he would not only lead them into
the town, but even to the very door of the governor of Panama's
bed-chamber, and that they should take him by the hand, and seize him
and the whole city, before they should be discovered by the Spaniards.
After remaining two days at Santa Maria, they departed April 17th, 1680,
for Panama.
They embarked in thirty-five canoes and a piragua which they had found
lying at anchor, rowing down the river to the gulf of Belona, where
they would enter the South Sea and work round to Panama. At the request
of the Indian king the fort, church, and town were all burnt. The
Spanish prisoners, afraid of being put to death by the savages if left
behind, collected some bark logs and leaky canoes, although the
Buccaneers could scarcely find boats for themselves, and went with them.
Ringrose and four other men were put in the heaviest and slowest canoe,
and, getting entangled between a shoal two miles long, and obliged to
wait for high water, the boat being too heavy to row against tide, were
soon left behind. At night, it being again low water, they stuck up an
oar in the river, and, in spite of a weltering rain, slept all night by
turns in the canoe. The next morning, rowing two leagues, they overtook
their companions filling water at an Indian hut, there being no more for
six days' journey. Hurrying to a pond a quarter of a mile distant with
their calabashes, they returned to their boats and found the rest again
gone and out of sight. "Such," moralises Ringrose, "is the procedure of
these wild men, that they care not in the least whom they lose of their
company or leave behind. We were now more troubled in our minds than
before, fearing lest we should fall into the same misfortune we had so
lately overcome."
They rowed after them as fast as possible, but in vain, and lost their
way among the innumerable islands of the river's mouth; but at last,
with much trouble and toil, hit the Bocca Chica, the desired passage.
But though they saw the door, they could not pass through, the "young
flood" running violently against them--although it was only a
stone's-cast off, and not a league broad. Here, then, in despair they
put ashore, fastening the rope to a tree, almost covered by a tide that
flowed four fathoms deep.
As soon as the tide turned, they rowed to an island about a
league-and-a-half from the river's mouth, in the gulf of St. Miguel, in
much danger from the waves, their boat being twenty feet long, but not
quite a foot-and-a-half broad. Here they rested for the night, wet
through with the continual and impetuous rain, without water to drink,
and unable to light a fire, "for the loss of our company, and the
dangers we were in," says Ringrose, "made it the sorrowfullest night
that, until then, I ever experimented." None slept that tedious night,
for a vast sea surrounded them on one side, and the mighty power of the
Spaniards on the other. They were all without shoes, and their clothes
were drenched through. They could see nothing but sea, mountain, and
rock.
At break of day they rowed past several islands to the Point St.
Laurence, one man incessantly employed in baling. As they passed one of
these islands, a huge sea overturned their boat, but they gained the
beach, swimming for life, and the canoe came tumbling beside them. The
arms fast lashed at the bottom of the boat, the locks cased and waxed
down like the cartouche boxes, and powder horns, escaped uninjured, but
the bread and fresh water were either spoiled or lost. While carefully
wiping and cleaning their arms, for a Buccaneer's musket was as his wife
and child to him, they saw another canoe tossed to shore, a little to
leeward. This proved to be six of the Spanish prisoners, who had escaped
in an old piragua which was split to pieces, the English boat, formed of
wood, six inches thick, having escaped unhurt. A common misfortune makes
all men friends, and the English and Spaniards sat down together and
broiled their meat amicably at the same fire. They then held a council,
discussing for two or three hours what course to take, and all the men
but Ringrose were for returning and living with the Indians, if they
could not reach the ships lying in the northern sea. With much ado,
Ringrose prevailed on them to persist for one day longer, and, just as
they were concluding their debate, the man on the look-out cried that he
saw Indians. Pursued into the woods by two Buccaneers, they found that
he was one of the expedition, and had arrived with seven others in a
great canoe. They were glad to see them, and declared, to their joy,
that, all in one canoe, they could overtake the boats in the course of a
day. On seeing the Spaniards (Wankers they called them), they would
have put them to death but for Ringrose's interposition, for his men
stood by indifferent. They then insisted on keeping one as a slave.
Ringrose, still fearing for their lives, gave the five Spaniards his own
canoe, and bade them shift for their lives. Now in a large canoe, with a
good sail, and a fresh and strong gale, they made brave way, with
infinite joy and comfort of heart, the smooth and easy passage, and the
pleasant, fresh ripple of the sea, filling them with hope and gladness;
but that very evening it grew very dark, and rained heavily. Suddenly
two fires were seen to blaze up from the opposite shore of the
continent, and the Indians, thinking they must indicate the encampment
of their people, shouted, "Captain Antonio, Captain Andraeas," and made
for the shore as fast as they could pull. The canoe, however, had hardly
got amongst the breakers, before sixty Spaniards, armed with clubs,
leaped from the woods; and, drawing the boat on land, made all the crew
their prisoners. Ringrose seized his gun, and prepared for resistance,
but was pulled down by four or five of the enemy. The Indians, leaping
overboard, escaped nimbly into the woods. Ringrose spoke to his captors
in French and English, without obtaining any answer. On addressing the
strangers in Latin, he discovered that they were the Spanish prisoners
from Santa Maria, who had been liberated, for fear they might escape
when nearer Panama, and inform the city of the Buccaneers' approach. The
Englishmen were presently taken with shouts of joy into a hut made of
boughs, and examined by the Spanish captain, who meditated retaliating
upon them the injuries inflicted on the town. At this critical juncture,
the Spaniards whom Ringrose had liberated came in, and explained how
they had been delivered from the Indians. On hearing this, the Spanish
captain rose, and, embracing Ringrose, said, "The English were good
people, and very friendly enemies, but the Indians very rogues, and a
treacherous nation." He then made him sit down and eat with him, and
consented, for the kindness he had shown his countrymen, to give him and
all his men, and even the Indians, if they could find them, their lives
and liberties, which otherwise would have been forfeited. Finally,
giving them a canoe, the noble-hearted enemy bade them go in God's name,
praying that they might be as fortunate as they had been generous. All
that night they skirted a dangerous and iron coast, without daring to
land.
The next morning, after sailing, paddling, and rowing for a few hours,
they saw a canoe suddenly making towards them. It was one of the English
boats, which had mistaken them for a Spanish piragua. They at once
conducted them to a deep bay, sheltered by rocks, where the rest lay at
anchor. They were all delighted to see Ringrose and his men, having
given them up as lost. They then made their way with all speed to a
hilly island, about seven leagues distant, and surprised an old man, who
was stationed there to watch. The road up to the hut was very steep, and
the Buccaneers surrounded the old man, who did not see them till they
had already entered his plantain walk. They were much encouraged by his
declaration, that no tidings of their arrival had yet reached Panama.
About dusk, two of their boats surprised a small bark that came and
anchored outside the island. The crew had been absent eight days from
the city, landing soldiers on the adjacent shore, to curb and drive back
the Indians. The crews of the smaller canoes now crowded into this
vessel to the number of 137 men, together with Captain Cook and Captain
Sharp, the latter of whom Ringrose calls "a sea artist, and valiant
commander."
Next morning, rowing all day over shallow water, they chased a bark,
which Captain Harris took after a sharp dispute, putting on board a
prize crew of thirty men. During this pursuit the vessels scattered, and
did not reunite till next day at the island of Chepillo, a preconcerted
rendezvous. They again chased a bark, but with less success, and Captain
Coxen's canoe missed the prize, owing to a breeze springing up, having
one man killed and another wounded, and, what was worst of all, the
vessel not only escaped, but spread the alarm at Panama. At Chepillo
they took fourteen negro and mulatto prisoners, and secured two fat
hogs, plenty of plantains, and some good water. Believing it useless now
to attack Panama, the Buccaneers resolved to hurry on to the town to at
least surprise some of the shipping. Their boats had the addition of
another piragua, which they found lying at Chepillo. Before starting,
the captains cruelly decided, for reasons which Ringrose could not
fathom, to allow the Indians to murder all the Spanish prisoners before
their eyes, the savages having long thirsted for their blood. But by a
singular coincidence the prisoners, though without arms, forced their
way by a sudden rush through all the Indian spears and arrows, and
escaped unhurt into the woods, to the chagrin of both white and black
savages.
Staying only a few hours at Chepillo, the boats started at four o'clock
in the evening, intending to reach Panama, which was only seven leagues
distant, before the next morning. The next day (St. George's day),
before sunrise they arrived at Panama, "a city," says Ringrose, "which
has a very pleasant prospect seaward." They could see all the ships of
the city lying at anchor at the island of Perico, two leagues distant,
where storehouses had been built. There now rode at anchor five great
ships and three smaller armadillas, (little men-of-war). This fleet,
which had been hastily manned to defend the city, as soon as they saw
the Buccaneers, weighed anchor, got under sail, and bore down at once
upon them, directly before the wind, and with such velocity as to
threaten to run them down. The Spanish admiral's vessel was manned by
ninety Biscayans, agile seamen and stout soldiers. They were all
volunteers, and had come out to show their valour under the command of
Don Jacinto de Barahona, high-admiral of those seas. In the second were
seventy-seven negroes, led by a brave old Andalusian, Don Francisco de
Peralta. In the third, making 228 men in all, were sixty-five mulattoes,
under Don Diego de Carabaxal. The Spaniards had strict orders given them
to grant no quarter.
To add to the disparity of numbers, only a few of the Buccaneers' boats
were able to arrive in time. The first five canoes that came up, leaving
the heavy piraguas still lagging behind, contained only thirty-seven
men, and these were tired with rowing in the wind's eye, and trying to
get close to the windward of the enemy. The lesser piragua coming up
with thirty-two more men, made a total force of sixty Buccaneers,
including the king of Darien, engaged in this daring resistance to an
overwhelming force.
Carabaxal's vessel, passing between Sawkins's and Ringrose's canoes,
fired at both, wounding four men in the former and one in the latter,
but being slow in tacking, the Spaniard paid dear for his passage, the
first return volley killing several men upon his decks. Almost before
they had time to reload, the admiral passed, but the Buccaneers' second
volley quite disabled their giant antagonist, killing the man at the
helm; and the ship ran into the wind and her sails lay aback. She fell
now like a lamed elephant at the mercy of the hunters; the canoes,
pulling under her stern, fired continually upon the deck, killing all
who dared to touch the helm, and cutting asunder the mainsheet and
mainbrace. Sawkins, whose canoe was disabled, went next into the piragua
to meet Peralta, leaving the four canoes to harass the admiral. Between
Sawkins and Peralta, lying alongside of each other, the fight was
desperate, each crew trying to board, and firing as quick as they could
load. In the mean time the first vessel tacked about and came to relieve
the admiral, but the canoes, seeing the danger of being beaten from the
admiral's stern and allowing him to rally, sent two of their number
(Springer and Ringrose) to meet Peralta. The admiral stood upon his
quarter-deck, waving his handkerchief as a signal for his captains to
come at once to his help. The canoes pursued Peralta, and would have
boarded him had he not given them the helm and made away.
Giving a loud shout, the remaining boats wedged up the admiral's rudder
and poured in a blinding volley, that killed the admiral and chief
pilot. Two-thirds of the Spaniards being now killed, many wounded, and
all disheartened at the bloody massacre of the Buccaneers' shot, cried
for quarter, which they had been already several times offered, and at
once surrendered. Captain Coxen then boarded the prize, taking with him
Captain Harris, who had been shot through both legs as he was heading a
boarding party. They put all their other wounded men on board, and,
manning two canoes, hurried off to aid Sawkins, who had already been
three times beaten off by Peralta.
Coming close under his side and giving him a full volley, they were
expecting a return, when suddenly a volcano of fire spouted up from the
deck, and all the Spaniards abaft the mast were blown into the air or
sea. While the brave captain, leaping overboard, was helping the
drowning men in spite of the rain of shot and the pain of his own burns,
another jar of powder blew up in the forecastle. Under cover of the
smoke and confusion, Sawkins boarded and took the ship, or at least all
that was left of it. Ringrose says it was a miserable sight, not a man
but was either killed or desperately wounded, blind, or horribly burnt
with the powder. In some cases the white wounds where the flesh had
peeled to the bone, showed through the blackening of the powder. The
admiral had but twenty-five men left out of eighty-six, and of these
twenty-five only eight were now able to bear arms.
The blood ran down the deck in streams, and every rope and plank was
smeared with gore.
Peralta, as prudent as he was brave, attempted by every possible
argument, forgetful of his own wounds and the death of his men, to
induce the Buccaneers not to attack the remaining vessels in the
harbour. In the biggest alone he said there were 350 men, and the rest
were well defended. But a dying sailor, lifting up his head from the
deck, contradicted him, and said that they had not a man on board, all
their crews being placed in the armadillas. Trusting to dying treason
rather than living fidelity, the Buccaneers instantly proceeded to the
island, and found the ships deserted. The largest, _La Santissima
Trinidada_, had been set on fire, the crew, loosing her foresail, having
pierced her bottom. The captains soon quenched the fire, and stopping
the leak turned their prize into a floating hospital-ship. They found
they had eighteen men killed and twenty-two wounded (only two of whom
died) in this desperate sea battle, which began an hour after sunrise
and ended at noon. The third vessel, it appeared, while running away had
met with two others, but even with this reinforcement refused to fight.
Their brave prisoner, Peralta, now that all was over, broke out into
repeated praises of their courage, which was so congenial to his own. He
said: "You Englishmen are the valiantest men in the whole world, always
desiring to fight open, while all other nations invent all the ways
imaginable to barricade themselves, and fight as close as possible."
"Notwithstanding all this," adds Ringrose, "we killed more of our
enemies than they of us." Two days after the battle the Buccaneers
buried Captain Harris, a brave Englishman of the county of Kent, whose
death was much lamented by the fleet.
The new city of Panama, built four miles more easterly than that which
Morgan burnt, had been three times destroyed by fire since that event. A
few people still lived round the cathedral in the old town. The new city
was bigger than the old one, and built chiefly of brick and stone, and
was defended by a garrison of 300 soldiers and 1,000 militiamen. They
afterwards learnt that the troops were then absent, and that if they had
landed instead of attacking the fleet, they might have taken the place,
all the best shots being on board the admiral's vessel.
In the five vessels taken at Perico there was much spoil. The
_Trinidada_ (400 tons) was laden with wine, sugar, sweetmeats, skins,
and soap. The second, of 300 tons, partly laden with bars of iron, one
of the richest commodities brought into the South Sea, was burnt by the
Buccaneers, because the Spaniards would not redeem it. The third, of 180
tons, laden with sugar, was given to Captain Cook; the fourth, an old
vessel (60 tons), laden with meal, was burnt as useless, with all her
cargo. The fifth, of 50 tons, with a piragua, fell to the lot of Captain
Coxen. The two armadillas, the rigging and sails being saved, and a bark
laden with poultry, were also burnt.
Captain Coxen, indignant at charges made against him of cowardice in the
late action, determined to rejoin the ships in the northern seas,
together with seventy men who had assisted in his election. The Indian
king, Don Andraeas, and Don Antonio, returned with him. The king left his
son and nephew in the care of Captain Sawkins, who was now
commander-in-chief, and desired him not to spare the Spaniards. A few
days after Captain Sharp returned from the King's islands, having taken
a Spanish vessel and burnt his own. Captain Harris's crew had also taken
a vessel, and, dismasting their own, turned their prisoners adrift in
the hulk, and soon after taking a poultry vessel, the meanest of the
Spaniards were treated in the same way.
Having remained now ten days at Panama, the fleet steered to the island
of Tavoga, where they found a village of 100 houses quite deserted, and
many of these were burnt by the carelessness of a drunken sailor. The
Panama merchants came here to sell the Buccaneers commodities and to
purchase the plunder from their own vessels, giving 200 pieces of eight
for every negro. Staying eight days, they captured a vessel from
Truxillo laden with money to pay the garrison of Panama, while in the
hold were 2,000 jars of wine and fifty jars of gunpowder. A flour vessel
from the same place informed them that a ship was coming in a few days
laden with 100,000 more pieces of eight.
To a message from the President, who sent by some merchants to ask why
they came into those parts, Captain Sawkins replied, that he came to
assist the King of Darien, the true lord of the country, and he required
a ransom of 500 pieces of eight for each sailor, and 1,000 for the
commander. He must also promise not to molest the Indians, who were the
natural owners of the soil. Hearing from the messengers that a certain
priest, now bishop of Panama, formerly of Santa Martha, lay in the
city, Sawkins, remembering that he had been his prisoner when he took
that city five years before, sent him two loaves of sugar as a present.
The next day the bishop replied by forwarding him a gold ring. The
President, at the same time, sent another letter, desiring to see his
commission, that he might know to what power to complain. Sawkins
replied, that as yet all his men were not come together, but when they
had met, they would come up to Panama, and bring their commissions on
the muzzles of their guns, at which time he should read them as plain as
the flame of gunpowder would let him.
The men growing now mutinous for fresh meat, Sawkins was compelled to
give up his hopes of capturing the rich vessel from Peru, and to sail to
the island of Otoque, to buy fowls and hogs, losing two barks, one with
seven, and the other with fifteen men. While lying off the pearl fishery
of Cayboa, Sawkins and Sharp made an unfortunate attack with sixty men
on the town of Puebla Nueva. They were piloted up the river in canoes
by a negro prisoner. A mile below the town, great trees had been laid
to block up the stream, and before the town three strong breastworks
were thrown up. Sawkins, running furiously up the sloping ramparts, was
shot dead, and his men driven back to their boats, two men being killed,
and three wounded, in the retreat, which was made in pretty good order.
They soon after, however, captured a vessel laden with indigo, and burnt
two others. This Captain Sawkins, Ringrose says, was as valiant and
courageous as any, and, next to Captain Sharp, the best beloved. His
death was much lamented, and occasioned another overland expedition.
Sharp, surrendering his last prize to Captain Cook, took his vessel and
gave it to the sixty-three men who wished to return home. They led with
them all the Indians to serve as guides overland.
Before they started, Sharp, in full council on board the _Trinidada_,
offered to insure to all who would carry out Sawkins's scheme, and go
home by the Straits of Magellan, a L1000 profit, but none would stay.
Ringrose himself acknowledges he should have left with them, but was
afraid of the Indians, and the long and dangerous journey in the rainy
season.
At Cayboa, the men took in water and cut wood, killing alligators, and
salting deer and turtle. Here two "remarkable events" happened to
Ringrose. In the first place, he ate an oyster so large that he found it
necessary to cut it into four large mouthfuls: secondly, as he was
washing himself in a pond, some drops fell on him from a mancanilla
tree, and these drops broke out into a red eruption that lasted a week.
Here Sharp burnt one of his prizes for the sake of the iron work, and
received Captain Cook, whose men had revolted, on board his own ship,
making John Cox, a New Englander, commander in his stead.
Sharp now determined to careen at the island of Gorgona, and then to
proceed to Guayaquil, where Captain Juan, the captain of the Tavoga
money ship, assured them they might throw away their silver and lade
with gold. They selected Gorgona, because, on account of the perpetual
rain, the Spaniards seldom touched there. The sailors, who had lost
their money at gambling, were impatient of these delays, and declared
that the Spaniards would now gain time, and the whole coast be alarmed,
and on the defensive. But the richer men, wanting rest, decided for
Gorgona.
In this island, they fished their mainmast, shot at whales, killed
monkeys, snakes, and turtle for food, being short of provision, caught a
large sloth, and killed a serpent, fourteen inches thick, and twelve
feet long. While moored here, Joseph Gabriel, the Chilian, who stole the
Indian king's daughter, died of a malignant calenture. He had been very
faithful, and discovered many plots and conspiracies among the prisoners
of intended escapes and murders.
Sharp now abandoned the design on Guayaquil, and resolved to attack
Arica, the depot of all the Potosi plate. An old man who had served much
with the Spaniards, promised them L2000 a-man.
After a fortnight's sail they arrived at the island of Plate, so called
from Drake dividing his plunder there among his men. The Spaniards had a
tradition, that he took twelve score tons of plate in the galleon
armada, and that each of his forty-five men had sixteen bowls full of
coined money--his ships being so full that they were obliged to throw
much of it overboard. In the adjoining bay of Manta, in Cromwell's time,
a Lima vessel, laden with thirty millions of dollars, on its way as a
present to Charles I., was lost by keeping too near the shore. While
catching goats on this island, on which the cross of the first Spanish
discoverer still stood, they were joined by Captain Cox, whom they had
lost a fortnight before, as they feared, irrecoverably. They killed and
salted on this island 100 goats in a day, and one man alone, in a few
hours, in one small bay turned seventeen turtle. Peralta congratulated
them on getting as far to windward in two weeks as the Spanish captains
did in three months, from their keeping boldly so far from the shore.
While passing Guayaquil, they espied a Spanish vessel and gave chase.
Being hailed in Spanish by an Indian prisoner, to lower their topsails,
the enemy replied they would pull down the Englishman's first, and
answered with their arquebuses to the Buccaneers' muskets, till, one
bullet killing the man at the helm and another cutting their maintop
halliards, they cried out for quarter. There were thirty-five men on
board, including twenty-four Spaniards and several persons of quality.
The captain's brother, since the death of Don Jacinto de Barahona at
Panama, was admiral of the armada. The Buccaneers' rigging was much cut
during the fight, and two men were wounded, besides a sailor who was
shot by an accident. The captain, it appears, had in a bravado sworn to
attack their fleet if he could meet it. The Spaniard, a very "civil and
meek gentleman," informed them that the governor of Lima, hearing of
their visit to Panama, had collected five ships and 750 sailors; while
two other vessels and 400 soldiers, furnished by the viceroy, were
preparing to start. A patache with twenty-four guns was also lying at
Callao, ready to remove the king's plate from Arica. At Guayaquil they
had built two forts, and mustered 850 men of all colours. The same day
the English unrigged their new prize and sank her.
Reckoning up the pillage, they found they had now 3,276 pieces of eight,
which were at once divided. The same day they punished a Spanish friar,
who was chaplain in the last prize, and, shooting him on the deck, flung
him overboard before he was dead. "Such cruelties," says Ringrose,
"though I abhorred very much in my heart, yet here I was forced to hold
my tongue and not contradict them, as having no authority to oversway
them." The prisoners now confessed they had killed a boat full of the
Buccaneers' men, lost near Cayboa, and had discovered from the only
survivor the plan on Guayaquil.
Captain Cox's vessel being so slow as to require towing, they sank it,
so there were now 140 men and boys and fifty-five prisoners in one and
the same bottom. While to the leeward of Tumbes, Peralta told them a
legend of a priest having once landed there in the face of 10,000
Indians, who stared at his uplifted cross. As he stepped out of his boat
on the shore, before the water could efface his footprints, two lions
and two tigers came out of the woods to meet him, but when he gently
laid the cross on their backs, they fell down and worshipped it, upon
which all the Indians came forward and were baptised.
The night they passed Paita they espied a sail and gave chase, following
it by the lights which it showed through negligence. Scantiness of
provisions made them more eager in the pursuit, and coming up the
Spaniard instantly lowered all her sails and surrendered. The Buccaneers
casting dice as to who should first board, the lot fell to the larboard
watch. The vessel contained fifty packs of cocoa, and a great deal of
raw silk and India cloth, besides many bales of thread stockings. The
prize being plundered and dismasted, the prisoners were turned adrift in
it, supplied with only a foresail, some water, and a little flour. The
chief prisoners, as Don Thomas de Argandona, commander of the Guayaquil
vessel, and his friends Don Christoval and Don Baltazar, gentlemen of
quality, Captain Peralta, Moreno, a pilot, and twelve slaves, to do the
drudgery, were still kept. The next day the sailor wounded in taking the
Guayaquil vessel, died, and was buried with ceremony, three French
volleys being fired as the body was let down into the deep.
Their next expedition was to attack Arica with 112 men, first sending
five boats to capture some fishermen at the river of Juan Diaz, whom
they might employ as spies.
To their great chagrin they found the landing impracticable, and the
whole coast in arms. Troops of horse covered the low hills round the
bay, and close beneath six ships rode at anchor. Abandoning this
project, these indefatigable marauders (more pirates than real
Buccaneers) despatched four canoes and fifty men, to plunder the town of
Hillo. On the shore the English were met by some horsemen, who fled
after a few volleys. Marching to the town, they forced their way through
a small breastwork of clay and sandbags, and took the town. Keeping good
watch for fear of surprise, a dying Indian, wounded in the skirmish,
told them that the townspeople had heard from Lima nine days before, and
expected their coming. In the town they found pitch, wine, oil, and
flour, and sixty of the ablest men were sent up the adjoining valley to
reconnoitre. They found it beautifully planted with fig, lemon, lime,
olive, and orange trees, and four miles up came to a sugar-mill, the
greater part of the sugar having been removed. The Spaniards, watching
them from the hills, rolled stones upon them, but hid themselves when a
musket-shot was fired in retaliation. Captain Cox and a Dutch
interpreter being despatched with a flag of truce to the Spaniards, they
agreed to give eighty beeves as a ransom for the mill, and a message was
despatched to Captain Sharp not to injure the drivers of the oxen when
they came. Hearing that sixteen beeves had already arrived at the port,
the men, contrary to Ringrose's opinion, returned to the ships laden
with sugar, and found the whole story of the oxen's arrival a mere _ruse
de guerre_. The Spaniards being appealed to promised the cattle should
arrive that night, but at last declared the wind was so high they could
not drive the herds. Enraged at this delay, the Buccaneers, who had now
taken in water, marched 100 men up the valley, and burned the house, the
mill, and the canes, carried off the sugar, broke the oil jars, and
cracked the copper wheels. Near the shore they were charged by a body of
300 horsemen, who took them by surprise, but not before they had thrown
down the sugar and taken up their arms.
Ringrose shall tell the rest: "We being in good rank and order," he
says, "fairly proffered them battle upon the bay; but as we advanced to
meet them, they retired and rid towards the mountains, to surround us,
and take the rocks from us, if possibly they could. Hereupon, perceiving
their intentions, we returned back and possessed ourselves of the said
rocks, and also of the lower town, as the Spaniards themselves did of
the upper town (at the distance of half-a-mile from the lower), the
hills and the woods adjoining thereunto. The horsemen being now in
possession of those quarters, we could perceive as far as we could see,
more and more men resort unto them, so that their forces increased
hourly to considerable numbers. We fired at one another as long as we
could see, and the day would permit. But in the mean time we observed
that several of them rid to the watch hill and looked out often to the
seaward. This gave us occasion to fear that they had more strength and
forces coming that way, which they expected every minute. Hereupon, lest
we should speed worse than we had done before, we resolved to embark
silently in the dark of the night." They carried off a great chest of
sugar (seven pounds and a-half to each man), thirty jars of oil, and
much fruit, wild and cultivated. From appearances next morning they
believed the enemy had also fled in the night, as only fifty men could
be seen. The prisoners, seeing a comet at dusk, told the Englishmen that
many such appearances had preceded the arrival of the Buccaneers in the
South Sea. Their brave prisoner, Captain Peralta, began at this time to
show signs of insanity, his mind being shaken by continued hardship and
despair at his long imprisonment.
The Buccaneers next landed 100 men, hoping to take by surprise the city
of La Serena. Here, too, they found the Spaniards vigilant, and had to
break through 100 horsemen to reach the town, killing three officers and
wounding four men. The town contained seven great churches and many rich
merchants' houses surrounded by gardens. The inhabitants had fled, and
either carried away or buried all their treasures, and a Chilian
prisoner said the Spaniards had killed most of their negro and even
their Chilian slaves, for fear of their revolting and joining the
Buccaneers. A party of forty men, with a Chilian guide, searched the
woods in vain to secure prisoners for guides. The Spaniards, sending a
flag of truce, agreed to pay 95,000 pieces of eight as ransom for the
town; but, not bringing it in, the place was set on fire. Taking
advantage of an earthquake, the Spaniards opened the sluices and
inundated the streets. Every house, Ringrose says, was separately fired
to render the conflagration complete. Two parties were then despatched
laden with booty to the ships, who on their way beat up an ambuscade of
250 Spanish horse. During their absence, a daring attempt was made to
burn their ship. The enemy hired a man who floated under the stern of
the ship on a horse's hide, blown out like a bladder. He then stuffed
oakum and brimstone between the keel and the stern-post, and set the
rudder on fire. The men, alarmed at the smoke, ran up and down, not
knowing where the fire could be, and believing the prisoners had done it
in order to escape. The source of the evil was at last discovered, and
the flames extinguished. The Buccaneers, before sailing, released all
their prisoners, not knowing what to do with them, and fearing that they
would revolt or perhaps try to burn the ship.
On reaching the island of Juan Fernandez, they solemnized the festival
of Christmas by discharging three volleys of shot, and killing sixty
goats in one day. The shore was covered so thick with seals that they
were obliged to shoot a few in order to land. They then filled 200
water-jars, and were nearly lost in a place called "False Wild Harbour,"
where they killed several sea-lions. Their beds they made of fern. It
was on this island, their pilot told them, a deserted sailor (Alexander
Selkirk) had lived five years.
The men now in the midst of storms and dangers, were all in a mutiny.
Some were for going back to England or the plantations, and returning by
the straits of Magellan; others for continuing longer in those seas. All
agreed to depose Captain Sharp and elect John Watling, an old privateer,
"and a stout seaman." The next Sunday was the first, says Ringrose, that
had been kept by common consent since the death of Sawkins, who would
throw the dice overboard if he found any in use on that day.
Juan Fernandez abounded in cabbage palms and building timber. The fish
swarmed in such quantities that they could be caught with the bare hook,
one sailor in a few hours capturing enough for the whole crew. Shoals a
mile long were seen in the bay. While busily employed in catching fish,
shooting goats, and cutting timber, the hunters suddenly gave the alarm
of three Spanish men-of-war approaching the island, and, slipping their
cables, the Buccaneers put out hurriedly to sea. In the confusion,
William, a Mosquito Indian, who could not be found at the time, was left
behind to endure the hardships that a few days before he may have heard
the pilot relate as experienced by the celebrated Alexander Selkirk (the
prototype of Robinson Crusoe).
The three Spanish vessels proved to be the _El Santo Christo_, of 800
tons, carrying twelve guns; the _San Francisco_, of 600 tons, with ten
guns; and a third of 350 tons. As soon as they came in sight, they hung
out "bloody flags;" and the Buccaneers, nothing daunted, did the same.
The English, keeping close under the wind, were very unwilling to fight,
as the Spaniards held together, and their new commander, Watling, showed
a faint heart. The trio eventually sheered off, glad to escape
uninjured.
Determining to pay a second visit to Arica, twenty-five men and two
canoes were despatched to obtain guides from the island of Yqueque. On
the shore of the mainland they found a hut built of whales' bones, a
cross, and some broken jars.
They brought away from the island, which they could not at first
discover, two old white men and two Indians. The people of Arica, they
found, came to this place to buy clay, and the natives were obliged to
fetch all the water they used from the mainland. The Indians wore no
clothes, and chewed leaves which dyed their teeth green. One of the old
prisoners being examined was shot to death by order of the commander,
who believed him to be lying, although, as it afterwards appeared, he
told nothing but the truth. Sharp was troubled and dissatisfied at this
cruel and rash order, and, taking water and washing his hands, he said,
"Gentlemen, I am clear of the blood of this old man, and will warrant
you a hot day for this piece of cruelty whenever we come to fight at
Arica." The other prisoner said that he was the superintendent of fifty
slaves belonging to the governor of the town. These slaves caught fish
and sold them when dried in the inland towns. There were then three
Chilian ships and a bark in the harbour, and a fortification of twelve
guns in the town. The people had already, he said, heard from Coquimbo
of their arrival, and removed and buried their treasure. There were
also, they heard, breast-works round the town, and barricades in every
street.
Disregarding these warnings, the Buccaneers embarked next day in a
launch and four canoes, rowing and sailing all night, in hopes of
surprising Arica. At daybreak they hid themselves under the cliffs for
fear of being seen, and at night began again to row. On Sunday (Jan.
30), 1680--"sacred to the memory of King Charles the Martyr"--they
landed among some rocks four miles to the south of the town, ninety-two
men going on shore, the rest staying to defend the boats. The signal
agreed on was, that at one smoke, they should come up to the harbour in
one canoe; but if there were two smokes, they should "bring all away,
leaving only fifteen men with the boats." Mounting a steep hill, they
could see no Spaniards, and hoped that the surprise was complete; but as
they were descending the other side, three horsemen on the look-out hill
rode down at full speed and alarmed the city. The forty men who attacked
the fort with hand grenades, seeing their companions overpowered, ran
down into the valley to join them. "Here the battle was very desperate,
and they killed and wounded two more of our men from their outworks
before we could gain upon them. But our rage increasing with our wounds,
we still advanced, and at last beat the enemy out of all, and filled
every street in the city with dead bodies. The enemy made several
retreats from one breast-work to another, but, we had not a sufficient
number of men to man all places taken. Insomuch, that we had no sooner
beat them out of one place but they came another way, and manned it
again with new forces and fresh men." So says Ringrose.
Imprudently overburdening themselves with prisoners, they found there
were in the place 400 soldiers from Lima, 200 armed townsmen, and 300
men garrisoning the fort. Being now nearly masters of the place, the
English sent to demand the surrender of the fort, and, receiving no
answer, advanced to the attack. Several times repulsed, the Buccaneers
at last mounted the top of a neighbouring house and fired down into the
castle; but, being again surrounded by the enemy, they were obliged to
desist. The number and vigour of the enemy increased hourly, and, almost
overpowered, the English were compelled to retreat to the hospital where
the surgeons were tending the wounded. Captain Watling and both
quartermasters were killed, and many were disabled. We will let Ringrose
tell the rest:--
"So that now, the enemy rallying against us, and beating us from place
to place, we were in a very distracted condition, and in more likelihood
to perish, every man, than escape the bloodshed of that day. Now we
found the words of Captain Sharp true, being all very sensible that we
had a day too hot for us, after that cruel heat in killing and
murdering in cold blood the old Mestizo Indian.
"Being surrounded with difficulties on all sides, and in great disorder,
having nobody to give orders, what was to be done? We were glad to have
our eyes upon our good old commander, Captain Bartholomew Sharp, and beg
of him very earnestly to commiserate our condition, and carry us off. It
was a great while before he would take any notice of our request, so
much was he displeased with the former mutiny of our people against him,
all which had been occasioned by the instigation of Mr. Cook.
"But Mr. Sharp is a man of an undaunted courage, and excellent conduct,
not fearing in the least to look an insulting enemy in the face, and a
person that knows both the theory and practice of navigation as well as
most do. Hereupon, at our earnest request and petition, he took upon him
the command in chief again, and began to distribute his orders for our
safety. He would have brought off our surgeons, but they, having been
drinking while we assaulted the fort, would not come with us when they
were called. They killed and took of our number twenty-eight men,
besides eighteen that we brought off, who were desperately wounded. At
that time we were all extremely faint for want of water and victuals,
whereof we had none all that day. We were likewise almost choked with
the dust of the town, being so much raised by the work that their guns
had made, that we could scarce see each other. They beat us out of the
town, then followed us into the savannahs, still charging as fast as
they could. But when they saw that we rallied, again resolving to die
one by another, they ran from us into the town, and sheltered themselves
under their breast-works. Thus we retreated in as good order as we
possibly could observe in that confusion. But their horsemen followed us
as we retired, and fired at us all the way, though they would not come
within reach of our guns, for theirs reached further than ours, and
outshot us above one-third. We took the sea-side for our greater
security, which when the enemy saw, they betook themselves to the
hills, rolling down great stones and whole rocks to destroy us.
Meanwhile, those of the town examined our surgeons, and other men whom
they had made prisoners. These gave them our signs that we had left to
our boats that were behind us, so that they immediately blew up two
fires, which were perceived by the canoes. This was the greatest of our
dangers; for had we not come at that instant that we did to the
sea-side, our boats had been gone, they being already under sail, and we
had inevitably perished every man. Thus we put off from the shore, and
got on board about ten at night, having been involved in a bloody fight
with the enemy all the day."
The Buccaneers, thus cruelly baffled, plied for some time outside the
port, hoping to be revenged on the three ships, but they did not venture
out. Arica Ringrose describes as a square place, with the castle at one
corner. The houses were only eleven feet high, and built of earth. It
was the place of embarkation for all minerals sent to Lima. Of the
English prisoners, only ten survived. The Spaniards lost more than
seventy men, three times as many being wounded, and of forty-five allies
from Hillo only two returned alive.
On dividing the plate, they found only thirty-seven pieces of eight fell
to each man. Landing at Guasco, they took in 500 jars of water, and
carried off 120 sheep, 80 goats, and 200 bushels of flour. At Hillo they
surprised the townsmen asleep, and heard a false report that 5000
Englishmen had taken Panama. They carried off eighteen jars of wine and
some new figs, and, ascending to the sugar-work they had before visited,
laded seven mules with molasses and sugar. The townsmen told them, that
the owner of the mill had brought an action against them for having done
him more injury than the Buccaneers.
A few days after this another mutiny broke out, and forty-seven men,
refusing to serve any longer under Captain Sharp, landed near the island
of Plate, with five Indian slaves to serve as guides. Near the island
of Chica they captured two Spanish vessels, one of them the very ship
they had captured before at Panama. They heard here that some of their
overland parties had taken a good ship at Porto Bello. Capturing some
Spanish shipwrights at this place, they employed them for a fortnight in
altering their vessel, and then set them at liberty, with some others of
their prisoners, giving them one of their prizes, and manning the other
with six men and two slaves.
They now agreed in council to bear up for Golfo Dolce, there to careen
their vessels, and then to cruise about under the equinoctial. They
landed in Golfo Dolce, and, treating kindly some Indians whom they took
prisoners, bought honey and plantains of them. Here they learned that
the Spaniards, having treacherously captured forty Darien chiefs, had
forced the natives into a peace. Having careened here, they soon after
captured a rich prize, the _San Pedro_, bound from Truxillo to Panama,
deeply laden with 37,000 pieces of eight, in chest and bags, besides
plate. This was the same vessel they had taken the year before, and it
was now their prize a second time in fourteen months. The crew consisted
of forty men, besides friars and merchants. Taking out part of her
lading of cocoa, they cut down her masts and turned her adrift with all
the old slaves, as "_a reward for good service_," taking new ones from
the prize. Francisco, a negro, who had attempted to escape by swimming
on shore in the Golfo Dolce, they retained as a prisoner, as a
punishment for his insubordination. From this prize each Buccaneer
received 234 pieces of eight, much being left for a future division.
They learnt from this vessel that a new Viceroy of Peru, arrived at
Panama, had not dared to venture to Lima in his ship of twenty-five
guns, but had waited for the armada as a convoy. A few days later, they
captured the packet that ran between Lima and Panama. A friar and five
negroes escaped on shore, but two white women were captured. Rummaging
the boat, they found nothing of value but a letter announcing the
departure of the viceroy with four ships. The prisoners and the boat
were then released. "That week," says Ringrose, "we stood out to sea
all night long, most of our men being fuddled."
The next day they captured a Spanish vessel that had at first frightened
them by its size. The volleys of the Buccaneers soon drove the Spaniards
into the hold and made them cry for quarter, having killed the captain
at the first fire, and wounded the boatswain. Captain Sharp and twelve
others were the first to board. She proved to be _El Santo Rosario_,
commanded by Don Diego Lopez, bound from Callao to Panama. The crew were
forty in number. She was deeply laden with plate and coined money, and
carried 620 jars of wine and brandy. At Cape Passao Sharp sank the bark
taken at Nicoya, preserving her rigging, and disabling the last prize
set the prisoners adrift in it, keeping only the one man, named
Francisco, who had described himself as the best pilot in those seas.
They then divided the booty, which came to ninety-four pieces of eight a
man. From these prisoners they learned that their men taken at Arica had
been kindly treated at Callao. Of the last party that one had been
captured, and the rest had had to fight their way overland through
Indians and Spaniards. Ten Buccaneers were also announced as about to
enter the South Sea. In August they landed again to kill goats on the
island of Plate, where Ringrose and James Chappel, a quartermaster,
fought a duel on shore, with what result we do not know. The same
evening a conspiracy of the slaves was detected, in which they had
plotted to slay all their masters when in drink, not sparing any. The
ringleader, San Jago, a prisoner from Yqueque, leaped overboard when the
plot was discovered, and was shot by the captain. The rest, being
terrified at his death, were forgiven, and the same night the usual
debauch took place in spite of the danger. From their pilot they heard
that a Lima vessel bound for Guayaquil had run ashore lately on Santa
Clara, losing 100,000 pieces of eight, that would have been their prize.
They heard also that the Viceroy of Peru had beheaded the great Admiral
Ponce for not destroying the Buccaneer fleet while at Gorgona.
They next made a descent on Paita, but found the place garrisoned by
three companies horse and foot, well armed, from Puira, twelve leagues
up the country. 150 musketeers and 400 lancers occupied a hill and a
breast-work, and fired upon the canoes. Had they suffered them to land
they might have killed them to a man. Finding the whole coast now
alarmed, they bore at once away for the Straits of Magellan. Touching at
some unknown islands, they were almost inclined to winter there. Here
they shot geese, made broth of limpets, and one of the boats captured an
Indian and shot another dead. The prisoner was clad in a seal's skin,
and carried a net to catch penguins. He was so strong as to be able to
open mussels with his fingers, and they kept him as a slave, and called
him Orson. They then proceeded to divide eight chests of money still
unallotted, and each man received 322 pieces of eight. On December 7th
Captain Sharp received intelligence of a conspiracy to shoot him during
the ensuing festivities of Christmas-day. The only precaution he took
was at once to divide all the wine in store, believing that no sober man
would attempt so dastardly an act. Each mess received three jars. The
cold grew now so intense that several of the negro slaves had their feet
mortify, and some died. Christmas-day was celebrated by killing a fat
sow, this being the first flesh the men had eaten since they left the
island of Plata. By January 16th the days grew very hot again, and the
nights cool and dewy. The men, weary of the voyage, offered a piece of
eight "each man" to him who first discovered land. The sight of birds
soon indicated this, and January 28th the look-out spied Barbadoes; but
hearing of peace they dared not put in for fear of being seized, and
therefore steered for Antigua, much afraid of frigates, and shunning
even a Bristol interloper that lay in the offing. Ringrose says: "Here I
cannot easily express the infinite joy we were possessed with all this
day, to see our own countrymen again." They then freed a negro
shoemaker, whom they had kept as a prisoner, and who had been very
serviceable during the voyage. To Captain Sharp the men gave a mulatto
boy as slave, for a token of the respect of his whole company to him for
having led them safely through so many dangerous adventures. They then
divided the last parcels of money, and received twenty-four pieces of
eight a man. A little Spanish shock dog, taken from a prize, was also
sold at the mast by public outcry, for forty pieces of eight, the owner
promising all he gained should be devoted to a general feast. Captain
Sharp bought the dog, saying he would eat it if they did not soon get
leave to land. 100 pieces of eight was also added to the store, the
boatswain, carpenter, and quartermaster having quarrelled about the last
dividend.
On reaching Antigua Sharp sent a canoe ashore to buy tobacco and other
necessaries, and to ask leave of the governor to land. The conclusion of
Ringrose's book tells the rest: "The gentry of the place and common
people were very willing and desirous to receive us, but on Wednesday,
February 1st, the governor flatly refused us entry, at which all the
gentry were much troubled, showing themselves very kind to us; hereupon
we agreed among ourselves to give the ship to those of our company who
had no money left them of all their purchase in this voyage, having lost
it at play, and then put ourselves on board two ships bound for England.
So I myself and thirteen more of our company went on board Captain
Robert Porteen's ship called the _Lisbon Merchant_, set sail from La
Antigua February 11th, and landed in England March 26th, anno 1682."
On his arrival in England Captain Sharp was tried for piracy and
acquitted. He at once resolved to return to the West Indies, but all the
merchant ships refused to carry him, afraid he would tempt their men to
revolt against their master, and run away with the ship for a privateer,
as he had done before. No promises or entreaties could avail, and he
seemed doomed to remain a prisoner in an island for which he entertained
no filial affection.
He therefore hit upon a desperate scheme, worthy of such a man.
Collecting a little money he bought an old, half-rotten boat, lying near
London-bridge, for L20, and embarked with sixteen desperadoes equally
fearless as himself, carrying a supply of butter and cheese, and two
dozen pieces of salt beef. He sailed down the river and reached the
Downs, and there he boarded and captured a French vessel and sank his
boat. By a foray on Romney Marsh he supplied himself with cattle, and
sailed away like a bold Buccaneer as he was, to die no one knows where.