were 400,000
dollars belonging to the king, which had been a fine prize for
Clipperton, who certainly would have found no greater difficulty in
taking this town than I did.

I was constrained suddenly to halt, in consequence of hearing a gun
fired from the ship, soon after which word was brought me that she was
ashore. I hurried off as fast as I could, carrying with us the
union-flag, which I had planted in the church-yard; and, as we were
re-embarking, the enemy came running down the hill, hallooing after us.
When I got on board, I found the ship entirely afloat, but within her
own breadth of the rocks; and, as the water was quite smooth, we soon
warped her off again. We then returned to the town, whence the Spaniards
retired as peaceably as before. The remainder of the day was employed in
shipping off what plunder we could find, which consisted of hogs, brown
and white _calavances_, beans, Indian corn, wheat, flour, sugar, and as
many _cocoa nuts_[268] as we were able to stow away, together with pans
and other conveniences for preparing it, so that we were now amply
provided with excellent breakfast meat for the rest of our voyage, and
were, besides, full of other provisions.

[Footnote 268: Cacao, chocolate-nuts, are almost certainly here
meant.--E.]

At eight in the morning of the 23d, a messenger came in to know what
ransom I would take for the town and the ship, for which I demanded
10,000 dollars in twenty-four hours. At eight next morning, I had a
letter from the governor, signifying, that as I wrote in French, neither
he nor any one about him could understand its contents; but if I would
write in Latin or Spanish, I might depend on a satisfactory answer. In
the afternoon, I sent for one of our quarter-deck guns on shore, which
was mounted at our guard, and was fired at sun-set, midnight, and break
of day. The messenger returned in the morning of the 24th, accompanied
by the master of the ship we had taken, and on hearing of their arrival,
I went on shore to know what they had to propose. I understood from them
that the governor was determined not to ransom the town, and did not
care what become of it, provided the churches were not burnt. Though I
never had any intention to destroy any place devoted to divine worship,
I answered that I should have no regard to the churches, or anything
else, when I set the town on fire; and I told the master of the vessel,
he might expect to see her in flames immediately, if