ong the killed being Captain Watling. After their return to the ship,
Sharp was again chosen captain, and remained as such until the end of
the voyage.

It seems that about the first of February, Ringrose was taken sick, and
that thereafter he was unable to keep a constant diary, so that our
accounts of the remainder of the voyage are brief and broken.

In March, sick and discouraged by the misfortunes they had met, the
buccaneers decided not to continue the voyage, but to land, abandon
their ship and return home across the continent. For one reason and
another, however, they delayed leaving the ship, and continued to work
their way north until about the middle of April. Forty-seven of the men
who had been discontented all along were then put ashore, while the rest
of the party decided to remain loyal to Captain Sharp, and to go home
around the southern part of the continent. Before the mutineers were put
ashore, the ship had come north almost to the equator, so that the
journey of the deserters was materially lessened. Two of the mutineers
reached the Isthmus, crossed it and subsequently published some brief
accounts of their experiences.

Sharp's vessel cruised about in the vicinity of the equator, raiding
small towns and capturing Spanish vessels, and piling up a large amount
of treasure, until the end of August, when the buccaneers turned south
with a determination to make the voyage home as quickly as possible.

About the twentieth of September they passed the Tropic of Capricorn,
and by the middle of October they were almost opposite the Straits of
Magellan. On this voyage they had kept most of the time far away from
the coast, and had landed only when necessary to re-stock their ship
with water and provisions.

In the wildest kind of weather they searched the rocky coast, trying to
find the opening into the Strait of Magellan, but were unable to do so.
Provisions ran low, and many times they feared actual starvation little
less than destruction by storms and hidden rocks. Most of them were
sick, and all were discouraged. At last they abandoned the idea of going
through the straits, and sailed south around Tierra del Fuego through
rain and fogs and frost.

About the middle of November they were able to turn their course to the
north, and from that time we find them working steadily forward, till,
on the twenty-eighth of January, they sighted the island of Barbados.
Here they were told that peace was declared