I Was Constrained Suddenly To Halt, In Consequence Of Hearing A Gun
Fired From The Ship, Soon After Which Word Was Brought Me That She Was
Ashore.
I hurried off as fast as I could, carrying with us the
union-flag, which I had planted in
The church-yard; and, as we were
re-embarking, the enemy came running down the hill, hallooing after us.
When I got on board, I found the ship entirely afloat, but within her
own breadth of the rocks; and, as the water was quite smooth, we soon
warped her off again. We then returned to the town, whence the Spaniards
retired as peaceably as before. The remainder of the day was employed in
shipping off what plunder we could find, which consisted of hogs, brown
and white calavances, beans, Indian corn, wheat, flour, sugar, and as
many cocoa nuts[268] as we were able to stow away, together with pans
and other conveniences for preparing it, so that we were now amply
provided with excellent breakfast meat for the rest of our voyage, and
were, besides, full of other provisions.
[Footnote 268: Cacao, chocolate-nuts, are almost certainly here
meant. - E.]
At eight in the morning of the 23d, a messenger came in to know what
ransom I would take for the town and the ship, for which I demanded
10,000 dollars in twenty-four hours. At eight next morning, I had a
letter from the governor, signifying, that as I wrote in French, neither
he nor any one about him could understand its contents; but if I would
write in Latin or Spanish, I might depend on a satisfactory answer.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 750 of 825
Words from 203896 to 204173
of 224764
