ting in, and
destroying them, on the long open rolls of savannah, so Sharp gave the
word, and the force shogged westward to the seashore, along which they
trudged to the boats. The beach to the south of Arica runs along the
coast, in a narrow strip, under cliffs and rocky ground, for several
miles. The sand is strewn with boulders, so that the horsemen, though
they followed the pirates, could make no concerted charge upon them.
Some of them rode ahead of them and got above them on the cliff tops,
from which they rolled down "great stones and whole rocks to destroy
us." None of these stones did any harm to the pirates, for the cliffs
were so rough and broken that the skipping boulders always flew wide of
the mark. But though the pirates "escaped their malice for that time,"
they were yet to run a terrible danger before getting clear away to sea.
The Spaniards had been examining, or torturing, the wounded pirates, and
the two drunken surgeons, left behind in the town. "These gave them our
signs that we had left to our boats [_i.e._ revealed the signals by
which the boats were to be called] so that they immediately blew up two
smokes, which were perceived by the canoas." Had the pirates "not come
at the instant" to the seaside, within hail of the boats, they would
have been gone. Indeed they were already under sail, and beating slowly
up to the northward, in answer to the signal. Thus, by a lucky chance,
the whole company escaped destruction. They lost no time in putting from
the shore, where they had met with "so very bad Entertainment." They
"got on board about ten a Clock at night; having been involved in a
continual and bloody fight ... all that day long." Of the ninety-two,
who had landed that morning, twenty-eight had been left ashore, either
dead, or as prisoners. Of the sixty-four who got to the canoas, eighteen
were desperately wounded, and barely able to walk. Most of the others
were slightly hurt, while all were too weary to do anything, save sleep
or drink. Of the men left behind in the hospital the Spaniards spared
the doctors only; "they being able to do them good service in that
country." "But as to the wounded men," says Ringrose, "they were all
knocked on the head," and so ended their roving, and came to port where
drunken doctors could torture them no longer. The Ylo men denied this;
and said that the seven pirates who did not die of their wounds were
kept as slaves. The Spanish loss is not known, but it wa