"to a great
and very rich place called Tocamora," and that he had promised to come
to them "with more ships and men," in three months' time. The buccaneers
thought that Tocamora, apart from the beauty of the name, appeared to
promise gold, so they decided to go thither as soon as they had careened
and refitted. Boca del Toro, the anchorage in which they lay, was full
of "green tortoise" for ships short of food. There were handy creeks,
among the islands, for the ships to careen in, when their hulls were
foul. The pirates hauled their ships into the creeks, and there hove
them down, while their Moskito allies speared the tortoise, and the
manatee, along the coast, and afterwards salted the flesh for
sea-provision.

As soon as the squadron was ready, they mustered at Water Key, and set
sail for Golden Island, where they meant to hold a final council. On the
way to the eastward they put in at the Samballoes, or islands of San
Blas, to fill fresh water, and to buy fruit from the Indians. When the
anchors held, the Indians came aboard with fruit, venison, and native
cloth, to exchange for edged iron tools, and red and green beads. They
were tall men, smeared with black paint (the women used red, much as in
Europe), and each Indian's nose was hung with a plate of gold or silver.
Among the women were a few albinos, who were said to see better in the
dark than in the light. "These Indians misliked our design for
Tocamora," because the way thither was mountainous and barren and
certain to be uninhabited. A force going thither would be sure to starve
on the road, they said, but it would be an easy matter to march to
Panama, as Drake had marched. New Panama was already a rich city, so
that they would not "fail of making a good voyage by going thither."
This advice of the Indians impressed the buccaneers. They determined to
abandon the Tocamora project as too dangerous. Most of them were in
favour of going to sack Panama. But Captain Bournano, and Captain Row,
who commanded about a hundred Frenchmen between them, refused to take
their men on "a long march by land." Perhaps they remembered how Morgan
had treated the French buccaneers after his Panama raid, nine years
before. They therefore remained at anchor when the squadron parted
company. An Indian chief, Captain Andreas, came aboard the English
flagship. The bloody colours were hoisted, and a gun fired in farewell.
The English ships then loosed their top-sails and stood away fo