not ransomed
without delay. This seemed to make a great impression, and he promised
to return in three hours with the money. I then caused every thing to
be taken out of the town that could be of any use to us, after which I
ordered the town to be set on fire in several places; and, as the houses
were old and dry, it instantly became a bonfire.

In the midst of this conflagration, the people in the Speedwell made
many signals for me to come on board, and kept continually firing
towards the mouths of the harbour. As I could only guess the meaning of
all this, I went on board as soon as possible in a canoe, having only
three men along with me. Before I could reach the ship, I could
distinctly see a large ship, with a Spanish flag at her
fore-topmast-head, and her fore-topsail a-back. At this sight, two of my
three men were ready to faint, and if it had not been for my boatswain,
I doubt if I should have got on board; and if the Spanish admiral had
acted with vigour, he might have taken the ship long enough before I got
to her. It is bare justice to Mr Coldsea to say, that he fired so
smartly on the Spaniard as to induce him to act with great precaution,
which had been quite unnecessary if he had known our weakness. His
caution, however, gave me the opportunity of getting on board: and, in
the mean time, my officers were so unwilling to leave our guard-gun
ashore, that they spent a great while in getting it into the boat, so
that I was afraid the enemy would attack us before our people could get
on board. The Spaniard was, however, in no hurry, thinking, no doubt,
that we could not well escape him, yet was within pistol-shot of us
before the last of our men got on board, being about fifty in all. We
now cut our cable, but our ship fell round the wrong way, so that I had
just room enough to fall clear of the enemy. Being now close together,
the formidable appearance of the enemy struck an universal damp on the
spirits of my people; some of whom, in coming off from the shore, were
for jumping into the water and swimming on shore, which a few actually
did.

The enemy was a fine European-built ship, of 50 guns, and the
disproportion was so great between us, that there seemed no hopes of
escaping, as we were under his lee. I endeavoured to get into shoal
water, but he becalmed me with his sails, and confined us for the best
part of an hour, during which he handled us very roughly with his
cannon, making very little use of hi