FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165  
166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   189   190   >>   >|  
. Meanwhile four boats, well manned and armed, had gone ashore and captured some warehouses about a mile from the town. From these we obtained a great quantity of wine and some pigs of copper. Finding that the town was too well defended to be taken, we ransomed our prisoners, and Captain Duck having presented Don Mario with a cheese, in token of the good temper he had shown under his misfortune, we set sail again. "It would take too long to tell of all that befel us during the next ten weeks or so, except that we harried every Spanish settlement along the coast, fired at every fort we saw, and took many prizes. As we were too shorthanded to man these, we took out all their stores, arms, and powder, and sank them right under the guns of a Spanish frigate at Arica, firing at her meanwhile with much merriment. While we were thus engaged a boat came alongside with six Englishmen in her. She belonged to the _Minerva_, a London South Seaman, bound to Port Jackson, and those in her were Captain Obed Cottle, his first and second mates, and three seamen. The remainder of the _Minerva's_ crew, they stated, had mutinied, and after some bloodshed had permitted these six to leave in one of the boats. When they left the _Minerva_ the mutineers ran up a black flag and announced their intention of turning the ship into a pirate. Captain Duck made them welcome, and they proved useful additions to our ship's company. "On the 20th of September we fell in with our looked-for consort the _Lucy_, privateer of London, Captain Ferguson, belonging to the same owner as did the _Port-au-Prince_, and this gentleman and our good captain agreed to go shares in such plunder as the ships got in company. The following day, therefore, we anchored off Chinca and took that place, but were but poorly rewarded, as there were only two hundred dollars in the Governor's house. However, there was some excellent wine, of which we took twenty hogsheads on board, and we told the Governor to keep his money. "And now comes the story of our fight with a very big ship, of which I have so often told you, Mr. Denison. On the 6th of October, the _Lucy_ being-ahead (and both our ships off Paita), she took a king's tender laden with provisions, so the prisoners told Captain Ferguson, for the Spanish frigate _Astraea_ then lying at anchor in Paita Roads. It had been our intent to capture the town, but the frigate's presence there put that out of the question for the t
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165  
166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   189   190   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Captain
 

Minerva

 

frigate

 

Spanish

 

Ferguson

 
London
 
Governor
 

company

 
prisoners
 

captain


gentleman

 

Prince

 
agreed
 

capture

 
plunder
 

intent

 
announced
 
shares
 

turning

 

intention


presence

 

question

 

consort

 

looked

 

additions

 

September

 

proved

 

belonging

 

privateer

 

pirate


provisions

 
October
 

tender

 

Denison

 

Astraea

 
anchor
 

poorly

 
rewarded
 

anchored

 
Chinca

twenty
 

hogsheads

 
excellent
 
However
 

hundred

 

dollars

 
misfortune
 

cheese

 
temper
 

harried