nch admiral that
if Smith was let to go on his boat he would revenge himself on the
French fisheries on the Banks.

For over two months, according to his narration, Smith was kept on board
the Frenchman, cruising about for prizes, "to manage their fight against
the Spaniards, and be in a prison when they took any English." One of
their prizes was a sugar caraval from Brazil; another was a West Indian
worth two hundred thousand crowns, which had on board fourteen coffers
of wedges of silver, eight thousand royals of eight, and six coffers of
the King of Spain's treasure, besides the pillage and rich coffers of
many rich passengers. The French captain, breaking his promise to put
Smith ashore at Fayal, at length sent him towards France on the sugar
caravel. When near the coast, in a night of terrible storm, Smith seized
a boat and escaped. It was a tempest that wrecked all the vessels on the
coast, and for twelve hours Smith was drifting about in his open boat,
in momentary expectation of sinking, until he was cast upon the oozy
isle of "Charowne," where the fowlers picked him up half dead with
water, cold, and hunger, and he got to Rochelle, where he made complaint
to the Judge of Admiralty. Here he learned that the rich prize had been
wrecked in the storm and the captain and half the crew drowned. But
from the wreck of this great prize thirty-six thousand crowns' worth of
jewels came ashore. For his share in this Smith put in his claim with
the English ambassador at Bordeaux. The Captain was hospitably treated
by the Frenchmen. He met there his old friend Master Crampton, and he
says: "I was more beholden to the Frenchmen that escaped drowning in
the man-of-war, Madam Chanoyes of Rotchell, and the lawyers of Burdeaux,
than all the rest of my countrymen I met in France." While he was
waiting there to get justice, he saw the "arrival of the King's great
marriage brought from Spain." This is all his reference to the arrival
of Anne of Austria, eldest daughter of Philip III., who had been
betrothed to Louis XIII. in 1612, one of the double Spanish marriages
which made such a commotion in France.

Leaving his business in France unsettled (forever), Smith returned to
Plymouth, to find his reputation covered with infamy and his clothes,
books, and arms divided among the mutineers of his boat. The chiefest
of these he "laid by the heels," as usual, and the others confessed and
told the singular tale we have outlined. It needs