moorings, with boats ahead,
sounding out a channel for the ship. They did not neglect to keep the
day holy, for "we gave in the morning early three vollies of shot for
solemnization of that great festival." At dusk they anchored "in a
stately bay that we found there," a bay of intensely blue water, through
which the whiskered seals swam. The pirates filled fresh water, and
killed a number of goats, with which the island swarmed. They also
captured many goats alive, and tethered them about the decks of the
_Trinity_, to the annoyance of all hands, a day or two later, when some
flurries of wind drove them to sea, to search out a new anchorage.

Shortly after New Year's Day 1681, "our unhappy Divisions, which had
been long on Foot, began now to come to an Head to some Purpose." The
men had been working at the caulking of their ship, with design to take
her through the Straits of Magellan, and so home to the Indies. Many of
the men wished to cruise the South Seas a little longer, while nearly
all were averse to plying caulking irons, under a burning sun, for
several hours a day. There was also a good deal of bitterness against
Captain Sharp, who had made but a poor successor to brave Richard
Sawkins. He had brought them none of the gold and silver he had promised
them, and few of the men were "satisfied, either with his Courage or
Behaviour." On the 6th January a gang of pirates "got privately ashoar
together," and held a fo'c's'le council under the greenwood. They "held
a Consult," says Sharp, "about turning me presently out, and put another
in my Room." John Cox, the "true-hearted dissembling New-England Man,"
whom Sharp "meerly for old Acquaintance-sake" had promoted to be
captain, was "the Main Promoter of their Design." When the consult was
over, the pirates came on board, clapped Mr Sharp in irons, put him down
on the ballast, and voted an old pirate named John Watling, "a stout
seaman," to be captain in his stead. One buccaneer says that "the true
occasion of the grudge against Sharp was, that he had got by these
adventures almost a thousand pounds, whereas many of our men were not
worth a groat," having "lost all their money to their fellow Buccaneers
at dice."

Captain Edmund Cook, who had been turned out of his ship by his men, was
this day put in irons on the confession of a shameless servant. The
curious will find the details of the case on page 121, of the 1684
edition of Ringrose's journal.

John Watling b