f their company. Sharp, as we have seen, had gone with his
company to the Pearl Islands. The remaining 117 men were probably
becalmed, in their barques and canoas, some miles from the vanguard.

When the buccaneers caught sight of Panama, they were probably between
that city and the islands of Perico and Tobagilla. They were in great
disorder, and the men were utterly weary with the long night of rowing
in the rain, with the wind ahead. They were strung out over several
miles of sea, with five light canoas, containing six or seven men
apiece, a mile or two in advance. After these came two lumbering
periaguas, with sixteen men in each. King Golden Cap was in one of these
latter. Dampier and Wafer were probably not engaged in this action.
Ringrose was in the vanguard, in a small canoa.

A few minutes after they had sighted the roofs of Panama, they made out
the ships at anchor off the Isle of Perico. There were "five great ships
and three pretty big barks," manned, as we have said, by soldiers,
negroes, and citizens. The men aboard this fleet were in the rigging of
their ships, keeping a strict lookout. As they caught sight of the
pirates the three barques "instantly weighed anchor," and bore down to
engage, under all the sail they could crowd. The great ships had not
sufficient men to fight their guns. They remained at anchor; but their
crews went aboard the barques, so that the decks of the three men-of-war
must have been inconveniently crowded. The Spaniards were dead to
windwind of the pirates, so that they merely squared their yards, and
ran down the wind "designedly to show their valour." They had intended
to run down the canoas, and to sail over them, for their captains had
orders to give no quarter to the pirates, but to kill them, every man.
"Such bloody commands as these," adds Ringrose piously, "do seldom or
never prosper."

It was now a little after sunrise. The wind was light but steady; the
sea calm. As the Spaniards drew within range, the pirates rowed up into
the wind's eye, and got to windward of them. Their pistols and muskets
had not been wetted in the rain, for each buccaneer had provided himself
with an oiled cover for his firearms, the mouth of which he stopped with
wax whenever it rained. The Spanish ships ran past the three leading
canoas, exchanging volleys at long range. They were formed in line of
battle ahead, with a ship manned by mulattoes, or "Tawnymores," in the
van. This ship ran between