Volume III Part 2 (1/2)
They, without any such persuasion as was employed to their forerunners, told us that the Bishop of Chokeaqua, a place far up the Country in the South Parts of Peru, was to have come from Panama in this vessel for Li near that place, we resolved to Watch narrowly, in order to catch his Lordshi+p
Now to the Norrard, and on the 10th of April ere off the Hu very Calm, we held a Court-Martial on one of our Midshi+pmen who had threatened to shoot one of ourto carry some Crows that he had shot The Court was held in Captain Blokes' Cabin, and consisted of the Commander, Self, First-Lieutenant, assisted in our deliberations by sundry Pipes of Tobacco and a great Jug of Punch Found Guilty
Sentenced to be Degraded before the Mast, to have his Grog stopped for a Fortnight, and to receive Four Dozen at the Gun (for he being a kind of Officer, we did not wish to Humiliate him on deck) Half of his Punish than ever I heard froh the Boatsas very tender with hied pardon, and so Captain Blokes remitted him the rest of his Punish; and so a Cushi+on being brought to Ease hih, he being before the end in high favour with the Coain
April 15th The Officers of all three shi+ps met on board the _Marquis_, and the Committee came to a Resolution to attack Guayaquil at once The Bark we had called the _Beginning_ by this ti, since its first prize, except a great Sea Lubber, soht and wanted to preserve in Rum, to make a Present of to the Royal Society e caood Liquor for so unworthy an end, and the Monster, s intolerably, was thrown overboard 'Twould have caused y, for he was a very unco at Cards
April 20th To our Boats off Guayaquil, a Great Company of Men and Officers all arhts, which we judged to be a place called Puna It blew fresh, with a s deep laden and crammed with men; some of us say they would rather be in a Stor Undertaking, we thought no Fatigue too hard At daybreaka Bark above us in the River; and, running down upon her, found it was a large Pinnace, full of thetowards Guayaquil Here were at least a dozen handso Woot sos Some of these Nicknacks were concealed about 'e very thinly dressed in Silk and Fine Linen, they could hide but little, and our Linguist was bidden to advise them to be Wise in Time, and surrender their Valuables, which they did And so civil were our Sailors to theot 'em aboard; which made us hope that the Fair sex would be kind to us e returned to England, for our discreet behaviour to these char the Attack on Guayaquil, which took place the next day, and continued for the three following ones, when the place Capitulated to our force, and a Treaty was signed between our Coidor of Guayaquil, sundry proceedings took place that would not very well have squared with the public ideas of what is due to the Fair sex just treated of; but I declare that I had neither Art nor Part in them, and that I aht cast on the Authors of Cruel Disturbances; for early in the Attack I was hit by a Musket-ball in the chest, and borne senseless to our Boats That I did h to say, and the whole shi+p's Company to ad time lay between Hawk and Buzzard; for a sundy wine after Sherris, and I was for awhile quite off ht and the Blacks, and Mauainst the Maroons, and so those fifteen years which I have chosen to leave a Blank in my life, and which I scorn to deny did--some of them--lie heavy on my Conscience All these were mixed up with the old Gentleman at Gnawbit's, and my Lord Lovat with his head off, and my Grandmother in Hanover Square; so that I doubt whether those who tended me knehat to make of me There was some difficulty too as to eon--that is to say, he had run away at Grande in the Brazils, to ee woman; and the Doctor of Physic he was all for Herbal Treathts-pound-wort, Cuckoo-point, Hulver-bush, with Alehoof, and other things not to be found in this part of the World And Captain Blokes said that he knew nothing half so good for a Gunshot Wound as cold Rum-and-Water; and between the two I had like to have died, but all were very kind tothe Ball with a Pair of Snuffers; and a great clu, I verily believe, part of a Door-hinge which these clumsy Spanish Brutes had broken off short to craone worse with me had it been a sht throughof soaree and Chicken Panada (for ere now very well provided with Live Stock), the Captain said to me: ”You ha'n'tup, that hteously spilt
”No offence, Brother Dangerous,” continued the Captain ”In our line of life we ar'n't particular It wouldn't take very dirty weather toPiracy and Privateering--they both begin with a P I thought you had so o' that sort on your ed”
”I have had a strange life,” I answered faintly
”No doubt about that,” says the Captain ”So have I, Brother, and not an over-good one: that's why I asked you If the old woone there to look for her daughter
But have you anything on yourthat Billy Blokes can do for you?”
I answered, very gratefully, that there was nothing I could think of
”'Cause why,” he resu out If you think you're like to slip your Cable and would like to say soot a Padre on board out of the last Prize, and he shall co about his lingo; but what odds is that? Spanish, or Thieves' Latin, or rightdown cockney,--it's all one when the word's given to pipe all hands”
I answered that I was no Papist, but a huland as by Law established
”Of course,” concluded the Captain ”So ae and the Protestant Succession, and confound the Pope, the Devil, and the Pretender! But any Port in a storm, you know; and a Padre's better than no Prayers at all I've done all I could for you, Brother I've read you on, likewise the Articles of War, and a lot of psalms out of Sternhold and Hopkins; and now, if you feel skeery about losing the number of your mess, I'llWigs of London Thereto you already for your share of Plunder; and no one shall say that Billy Blokes ever robbed a Messain I thanked this singular person, who, for all his Addictedness to Rum-and-Water, of which he drank vast quantities, was one of the acious men I have known But I told hi to me; that I did not even know the name of my Father and Mother; and that h forty years Finally, that if I made my Will, it would only be to the effect thatthe shi+p's Couineas to the _Hope_ and _Delight_ people to drink to my Memory
”Ay, and to a pleasant journey to Fiddler's Green,” cries out the Captain ”But cheer up, Heart; ye're not weighed for the Long Journey yet” Nor had I; for I presently recovered, and in less than a ain whole and fit for Duty And I have set this down in order to confute those nant men who have declared that all my Wounds were from Stripes between the Shoulders; whereas I can show the lish Grenadier's bayonet; 2, of a Frenchotten as honourably, and which it would be only braggadocio to tell the History of
_Itereat Thieves
The Mercenary Viceroys not being peridores as ain employ a third hand; so that shi+ps are constantly e Quicksilver, and all oods, to and fro their own Judges, they get vast Estates, and stop all complaints in Old Spain by Bribes But now and then comes out a Viceroy who is a Man of Honesty and Probity, and will have none of these Scoundrelly ways of Making Money (like Mr Henry Fielding arity, though his Life, as I have heard, was otherwise dissolute), and then he falls too and squeezes the Corregidores, in the same manner as Cardinal Richelieu, that was Lewis Thirteenth's Minister, ont to do with the Financiers ”You must treat 'em like Leeches,” said he; ”and when they are bloated with blood, put salt upon theid Systeidores, has oftti on their own account
Many of ournow fully disbursed by the authorities of Guayaquil, wepestiferous
We set sail with more than fiftylike Sheep with the Rot in the town, and all the Churches turned into Hospitals); but we hoped the Sea Air, for which we longed, would set us all healthy again So plying to ard, bearing for the Galligapos Islands, and on the 21st of May made the most Norrard of that Group Jan Serouder, a West Frieslander, and very good Sailor, thoughin his Hammock, for which he had reat want of Medicines aboard, and the Ru very low Sent a boat ashore to see for Water, Fish, and Turtle, which our ) had, by this time, condescended to eat Kept on our course; on the 27th the Easternues: and nothing more remarkable happened till the 6th of June, e spied a Sail, the _Hope_ being then about twoshe took her in a very courageous manner This was a Vessel of about 90 tons, bound from Panama to Guayaquil, called the _San Tomaso y San Deood thing in the way of Saints), Juan Navarro Navarret y Colza, Coro Slaves, but little in the way of European goods save soer of note on board, one Don Pantaleone and So to be Governor of Baldivia, and said he had been taken not long since in the North Sea by Jaona; and, on the 8th, got to an anchor in 30-fatho, and took a prize called the _Golden Sun_, belonging to a Creek on the Main,--a twopenny-halfpenny little thing, 35 tons; ten Spaniards and Indians, and a Negro that was chained down to the deck to a on the Guitar (a kind of Lute) However, we found a few ounces of Gold-dust aboard her, worth soave us uist, and 'twas a Word and a Blow in questioning theet the Word from 'em; but not more than two or three Spaniards were Expended),--after this tedious as over we held a Coa,[A] an Island which had a Road, and with our Boats tow up the River in quest of the rich Gold-mines of Barbacore, also called by the Spaniards San Juan But heavy Rains coain, building a Tent ashore for our Ar; on the 28th we got all aboard agen, rigged and stowed all ready for sea; the Spaniards ere our Prisoners, and who are very Dilatory Sailors (for they hearken more to their Saints than to the Boatswain's Pipe), wereus that they usually took Six Weeks or a Month to Careen one of their King's shi+ps at Lima, where they are well provided with all Necessaries, and account that Quick Expedition We allowed Liberty of Conscience on board our floating Co a Priest in each shi+p, they had the Great Cabin for their Mass, whilst we used the Church-of-England Service over them on the Quarter-deck So that the Papists here were the Low Church of July we freed our prisoners at fair Ransoe where we landed theive them some corned beef and biscuit for their subsistence until they could get up the Country, where there was a Town Saht_ was bit by a small brown speckled Snake, and died in a few hours
We had with us, too, a very good prize taken by the _Hope_, and continued unloading this and transferring the rich contents to our shi+ps, having promised to restore the Hull itself to the Spaniards, on her being handsomely Ransomed; and the Don that was to be Governor of Baldivia was appointed Agent for us, and suffered to go freely on his Parole to and fro to arrange Money-Matters with the Authorities up the Country
_Mest our Prisoners (taken on board the Panama shi+p) there was a Gentlewo wohteen, newly Married, and had her husband with her We assigned them the Great Cabin on board the Prize, and none were suffered to intrude ast them; yet the Husband (ere told) showed evident Marks of a Violent Jealousy, which is the Spaniard's Epidemic Disease
I hope he had not the least Reason for it, seeing that the Prize-Master (our Second Lieutenant) was above Fifty years of Age, and of a very Grave Countenance, appearing to be the most secure Guardian to fe Men (that were Officers) had hitherto appeared Modest beyond Exaht it improper to expose the superseded for so him Saucily, and Captain Blokes bade me take temporary command of the Prize and Prisoners, that I behaved ments for my civility to the Ladies We had notice that more than one of these Fair Creatures had concealed Treasure about 'ero who spoke English to overhaul 'em privately, and at the same tied to use Stripes or other Unhandsome Means to come to a Discovery