the heroic captain of the
second vessel, tried to dissuade Sawkins from attacking the Spanish
vessels at anchor, saying in the biggest one alone there were three
hundred and fifty men, and that all the other vessels would be found too
well provided for defense against the small number of the buccaneers.
One of the Spaniards, however, who lay dying on the deck, told Captain
Sawkins that there was not a single man on board any one of the great
ships in the harbor, for they had all been drawn away to fight on the
ships of the Little Fleet. Believing the dying man's story, we sailed
into the harbor and went on board the ships, finding, as we had been
told, not one person there. They had set on fire the biggest ship and
made a hole in her hull, but we put out the flames and stopped the leak.
All our wounded were then placed on this ship, which for a time became
our hospital.

Having counted up our own loss and damages, we found eighteen of our men
killed and twenty-two wounded.

The three captains against whom we fought were esteemed by the Spaniards
as the bravest in the South Seas, nor was this reputation undeserved by
them, as may easily be seen from the story of this bloody battle. We
began the fight about a half hour after sunrise, and by noon had
finished the battle. While Captain Peralta was our prisoner, he would
often break out and say: "Surely you Englishmen are the valiantest in
the whole world, and always design to fight in the open; while all other
nations have invented all kinds of ways to barricade themselves and
fight as close as possible"; and yet notwithstanding, we killed more of
the enemy than they have of us.

The journal of Basil Ringrose is a very interesting document, and we
should enjoy following it to the end if we had the space and if it were
not for the fact that he devotes so much space to information that is
valuable chiefly to a sailor. Accordingly it seems best to give a brief
summary of his journal in our own words:

Captain Peter Harris, whom Ringrose calls "a brave and stout soldier and
a valiant Englishman, born in the county of Kent," died of his wounds,
and they buried him with the usual honors of war--a volley from all
their guns.

The buccaneers captured the five ships that lay near the Island of
Perico and divided the spoils among themselves. Within the next two or
three days, however, dissensions arose among them, and Captain Coxon,
taking with him a large number of men togeth