fortunate people into the woods, for they well understood what they
wanted when they asked for a truce, and robbed them of nearly everything
they had taken away.

But the capture of this town was not of much service to L'Olonnois, who
did not find provisions enough to feed his men. Their supplies ran very
low, and it was not long before they were in danger of starvation.
Consequently they made their way by the most direct course to the coast,
where they hoped to be able to get something to eat. If they could find
nothing else, they might at least catch fish. On their way every rascal
of them prepared himself a net, made out of the fibres of a certain
plant, which grew in abundance in those regions, in order that he might
catch himself a supper when he reached the sea.

After a time the buccaneers got back to their fleet and remained on the
coast about three months, waiting for some expected Spanish ships, which
they hoped to capture. They eventually met with one, and after a great
deal of ordinary fighting and stratagem they boarded and took her, but
found her not a very valuable prize.

Now L'Olonnois proposed to his men that they should sail for Guatemala,
but he met with an unexpected obstacle; the buccaneers who had enlisted
under him had expected to make great fortunes in this expedition, but
their high hopes had not been realized. They had had very little booty
and very little food, they were hungry and disappointed and wanted to go
home, and the great majority of them declined to follow L'Olonnois any
farther. But there were some who declared that they would rather die
than go home to Tortuga as poor as when they left it, and so remained
with L'Olonnois on the biggest ship of the fleet, which he commanded.
The smaller vessels now departed for Tortuga, and after some trouble
L'Olonnois succeeded in getting his vessel out of the harbor where it
had been anchored, and sailed for the islands of de las Pertas. Here he
had the misfortune to run his big vessel hopelessly aground.

When they found it absolutely impossible to get their great vessel off
the sand banks, the pirates set to work to break her up and build a boat
out of her planks. This was a serious undertaking, but it was all they
could do. They could not swim away, and their ship was of no use to them
as she was. But when they began to work they had no idea it would take
so long to build a boat. It was several months before the unwieldy craft
was finished