et that in the long run the
power of the Spaniards must prevail, and that nothing short of
extermination awaited them; therefore he urged the strictest
adherence to the treaty, and at the same time a preparedness for
the recommencement of hostilities.

Some months passed without incident, and the relations between the
little community in the mountains and the Spaniards became more
pacific. The latter found that the natives, if left alone, did them
no damage. Bad masters learned that a course of ill treatment of
their slaves was certain to be followed by their flight, and upon
the bad treatment being proved, these found shelter among the
mountains. Upon the other hand, the owners who treated their slaves
with kindness and forbearance found that, if these took to the
mountains in a fit of restlessness, a shelter there was refused
them. Upon the edge of the forest, patches of plantation ground
made their appearance; and the treaty was, upon the whole, well
observed on both sides.

It was about a year after they had taken to the hills that news
reached the boys that an English ship had come into those waters.
It was brought them across at an island?? by some Simeroons who had
been where the English ship anchored. They said that it was
commanded by Master John Oxenford. The boys knew him, as he had
been on board Captain Francis Drake's ship during the last
expedition, and they determined to make an effort to join him. He
had, however, left the island before the natives started with the
news; and they made an arrangement with them, to convey them across
to that place, when it should be learned that the vessel was
returning, or was again there.

It was not long before they were filled with grief at the news that
reached them, although they felt not a little thankful that they
had not been able to join Captain Oxenford, when he first reached
the islands. This adventurous seaman had, after the return to
England of Captain Francis Drake's expedition, waited for some time
on shore; and then, fretting under forced inactivity--for Captain
Drake had, for the time, abandoned any project which he had
entertained of a return to the Spanish seas, and had engaged in a
war in Ireland--determined to equip an expedition of his own, with
the assistance of several of those who had sailed in the last
voyage with him, and of some Devonshire gentlemen who thought that
a large booty might be made out of the venture.

He equipped a sloop of