nto
prison. What happened to my mates I never knowed, but I never saw any
of 'em again. But as for me, if you'll believe me, sir, the five years
that I've been in the hands of the Spaniards I've been in hell! They
wanted to convert me, so they said; and the way that they went about it,
was to make my life a burden to me. They put me to work in chains on
the roads; they sent me into the country, away from the coast, to work
in their mines; they even tortured me! If you'll believe me, Cap'n
Bowen," and I saw the poor fellow's eyes grow wild, and begin to blaze
as he spoke of his sufferings, "for four years I never had the chains
off my hands and legs, except when I was bein' tortured!

"But there," he continued, pulling himself together, "I didn't come down
into this cabin to tell you about my sufferin's; but I will tell you,
sir, that by God's mercy those same sufferin's did convert me, not the
sort of conversion that the Spaniards wanted to bring about, but the
conversion that, I humbly trust, has caused me to see and repent of my
former wicked life. Not but what the old Adam is strong in me yet at
times, sir, I won't deny it, and he's never stronger than when I think
of the wrongs and the sufferin's that I've endured at the Spaniards'
hands. And it was just that, and nothin' else, that's kept my lips
closed all this while about the galleon. We are told, sir, that we must
forgive our enemies, and return good for evil; and that's exactly what
I've been trying to do, ever since I set foot aboard of this schooner.
As soon as ever I came to myself, and was able to understand that I'd
escaped from my enemies, and was once more safe under the flag of dear
old England, the devil comes to me, and says:--

"`Now's your time, Isaac, to be revenged upon your enemies, and to pay
'em off for a little of the misery that they've been makin' you suffer
all them five years that they had you in their power. You know that
they're goin' to send away this galleon, hopin' that by keepin' well to
the south'ard she'll escape capture. You know, too, that her cargo's to
be a rich one, and that, over and above her cargo she's to ship an
astonishin' quantity of gold and precious stones, brought down to the
coast from Peru; and of course you know that Cap'n Bowen and his lads
'ud lay wait for her, and maybe get her, if you was to tell 'em about
her. And if they was to get her, only think what a blow the loss of her
'd be to the Spaniard