But Having
Discoursed With Several Of The Prisoners, We Found The Island Of Malaga
An Unsafe Place For Our Ships,
And besides, they represented the river
as so narrow, that the Indians would be able to assail us with poisoned
Arrows, and the Spaniards might easily cut off our retreat, by felling
trees across from bank to bank. On this information, we held another
consultation, in which it was agreed to desist from this enterprize, and
we came accordingly back to Gorgona, in so very weak a condition that we
could hardly have defended ourselves, if attacked.
[Footnote 226: It is somewhat difficult to ascertain what island is here
meant. There are some islands at the mouth of the Rio de Mira, in lat.
1 deg. 38' N. on one of which is Punta de Mangles, or Cape Mangles,
resembling one of the names in the text; but from the context, the
island for which they were next bound appears to have been that now
called Del Gallo, in lat. 1 deg. 55' N. not above ten miles south from the
river they proposed to enter. - E.]
[Footnote 227: Barbacoas is one of the provinces of New Granada, having
a town of the same name in the Rio Telemli, which joins the Rio
Patia. - E.]
We arrived at Gorgona on the 13th June, where we anchored in forty
fathoms, and resolved to careen our two ships in succession, beginning
with the Duchess. Our sick men were removed into the galleon, and the
sick officers to the French-built ship. We landed tents for the
cooper's and armourer's crews, and cleared a place for tents to
accommodate the sick on shore. All this was performed with so much
diligence, that by the 28th both ships were careened, caulked, rigged,
and restored fit for sea. On the 29th, we set up tents ashore for the
sick, who were already much recovered, though the Spaniards had
represented this island as unhealthy; yet by walking about on shore they
soon gathered strength enough to return to their duty. We here fitted
out the French-built ship, with twenty guns, putting Captain Cooke into
her, with a crew taken from the other two ships, resolving to carry her
home with us, and to employ her as a third cruizer while in these seas;
and this great work employed us from the 29th June to the 9th July,
calling her the Marquis. She had thirty-five men from the Duke and
twenty-six from the Duchess, making a crew of sixty-one British, to
which were added twenty negroes.
Our next care was to get rid of our prisoners, who were a great burden
to us, and we resolved therefore to set them on shore, after trying
every possible method to engage them in a scheme for trading with us.
For this purpose I proposed going to Panama, to remain six days near
that place, till they should bring the money we could agree for, as the
price of our prize goods; and to this the two Morels and Don Antonio
agreed, provided we would take 60,000 dollars for the whole. I then
proposed to give them up the galleon and all the goods and negroes, if
they would give us 120,000 dollars for the whole. They told us that
trading in these seas with strangers, especially the English and Dutch,
was so rigidly prohibited, that they would have to give more than the
original cost in bribes, to procure licence to deal with us, and could
not therefore assure us of payment, unless we agreed to take a low
price. Finding it therefore not worth while to waste time, and knowing
we should run much risk in treating with them, we at length resolved to
set them all ashore, hoping the Morels and Don Antonio would get money
for us, to prevent us from burning the ships we could not conveniently
carry away. At parting, I made them sensible that we had treated them
like generous enemies, and said we would sell them good bargains for
what money they might be able to bring us in ten days, after which we
should burn or carry away all that was not then disposed of. We
accordingly landed seventy-two prisoners on the 10th July. On the 16th
the Morels came off with what money they had been able to procure, and
bought some of our goods, behaving with much honour, and putting great
confidence in us. On the 18th, a negro belonging to the Duchess was
bitten by a small brown speckled snake, and died in twelve hours. There
are many snakes in this island of Gorgona, and I saw one above three
yards long, and as thick as my leg. The same morning the Mr Morels went
off a second time in our bark for money; and this day one of the same
kind of snakes that killed our negro was found on the forecastle of the
Duke, having crawled up the cable, as we supposed, as they were often
seen in the water.
On the 2d of August we were like to have had a mutiny, for the steward
informed me that he understood many of the men had entered into a secret
agreement, and he had heard some ringleaders boasting that sixty men had
already signed the paper, but knew not the nature of their design. I
immediately convened the officers in the cabin, where we armed
ourselves, and soon secured four of the principal mutineers, putting the
fellow who wrote the paper in irons. By this time all the people were on
deck, and we had got their paper from those we had in custody; the
purport of it being to refuse accepting the intended distribution of
plunder, and not to move from this place, till they had what they termed
justice done them. Not knowing how far this mutiny might have been
concerted with the people of the other ships, we agreed to discharge
those in confinement, on asking pardon, and faithfully promising never
to be guilty of the like again.
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