The Messenger Returned In The Morning Of The 24th, Accompanied
By The Master Of The Ship We Had Taken, And On Hearing Of Their Arrival,
I Went On Shore To Know What They Had To Propose.
I understood from them
that the governor was determined not to ransom the town, and did not
care what become of it, provided the churches were not burnt.
Though I
never had any intention to destroy any place devoted to divine worship,
I answered that I should have no regard to the churches, or anything
else, when I set the town on fire; and I told the master of the vessel,
he might expect to see her in flames immediately, if not ransomed
without delay. This seemed to make a great impression, and he promised
to return in three hours with the money. I then caused every thing to
be taken out of the town that could be of any use to us, after which I
ordered the town to be set on fire in several places; and, as the houses
were old and dry, it instantly became a bonfire.
In the midst of this conflagration, the people in the Speedwell made
many signals for me to come on board, and kept continually firing
towards the mouths of the harbour. As I could only guess the meaning of
all this, I went on board as soon as possible in a canoe, having only
three men along with me. Before I could reach the ship, I could
distinctly see a large ship, with a Spanish flag at her
fore-topmast-head, and her fore-topsail a-back. At this sight, two of my
three men were ready to faint, and if it had not been for my boatswain,
I doubt if I should have got on board; and if the Spanish admiral had
acted with vigour, he might have taken the ship long enough before I got
to her. It is bare justice to Mr Coldsea to say, that he fired so
smartly on the Spaniard as to induce him to act with great precaution,
which had been quite unnecessary if he had known our weakness. His
caution, however, gave me the opportunity of getting on board: and, in
the mean time, my officers were so unwilling to leave our guard-gun
ashore, that they spent a great while in getting it into the boat, so
that I was afraid the enemy would attack us before our people could get
on board. The Spaniard was, however, in no hurry, thinking, no doubt,
that we could not well escape him, yet was within pistol-shot of us
before the last of our men got on board, being about fifty in all. We
now cut our cable, but our ship fell round the wrong way, so that I had
just room enough to fall clear of the enemy. Being now close together,
the formidable appearance of the enemy struck an universal damp on the
spirits of my people; some of whom, in coming off from the shore, were
for jumping into the water and swimming on shore, which a few actually
did.
The enemy was a fine European-built ship, of 50 guns, and the
disproportion was so great between us, that there seemed no hopes of
escaping, as we were under his lee. I endeavoured to get into shoal
water, but he becalmed me with his sails, and confined us for the best
part of an hour, during which he handled us very roughly with his
cannon, making very little use of his small-arms, never allowing us a
moment's ease, but as soon as his broadside was ready, he gave his ship
the starboard helm, bringing as many of his guns to bear as possible,
and at the same time kept me from the wind. We returned his fire as
briskly as we could; but, in our precipitate retreat from the town, most
of our small arms were wetted, so that it was long before they were of
any use. During this action, there was a strange contusion on shore,
where the people had flocked down from the hills to extinguish the fire
in Payta, in which some of them were busily employed, while others stood
on the shore, spectators of our engagement. I was long in despair of
getting away from the Spaniard, expecting nothing less than to be torn
in pieces by his superior fire, unless we could have an opportunity of
trying our heels with him while our masts remained standing. I expected
every minute that he would board us, and hearing a hallooing among them,
and seeing their forecastle full of men, I concluded that they had come
to this resolution; but soon saw that it proceeded from our ensign being
shot down, on which I made another be displayed in the mizen-shrouds, on
sight of which they lay snug as before, keeping close upon our quarter.
Intending at length to do our business at once, they clapped their helm
hard a-starboard, in order to bring their whole broadside to bear, but
their fire had little effect, and it muzzled themselves, which gave us
an opportunity to get away from them.
This certainly was a lucky escape, after an engagement of three glasses
with an enemy so much our superior; for he had 56 guns and 450 men,
while we had only 20 guns mounted and only 73 men, of whom 11 were
negroes and two Indians. He had farther the vast advantage over us of
being in perfect readiness, while we were in the utmost confusion; and
in the middle of the engagement, a third of my people, instead of
fighting, were hard at work in preparing for an obstinate resistance;
particularly the carpenter and his crew, who were busy in making
port-holes for stern-chase guns, which, as it happened, we made no use
of. Yet were we not unhurt, as the loss of my boat and anchor were
irreparable, and may be said to have been the cause of that scene of
trouble which fell upon us soon after; as we had now only one anchor
remaining, that lost at Payta being the third, and we had not now a boat
of any kind.
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