THE VOYAGE WITH WOODES ROGERS [24]
Dampier probably obtained the next berth1 we find him filling through the influence of Woodes Rogers. There is no doubt that it was owing to Dampier's influence and representations that the expedition under Rogers was equipped and despatched. Harris tells us that he addressed himself to the merchants of Bristol, who listened to his proposals with patience and interest. At all events his experience would enable him to submit to them that his own, and indeed the failures of others, were owing, not to the voyage being a dangerous or difficult one, not to the courage nor to the superior strength of the enemy, not to any lack of the right kind of qualities amongst the crews, but simply to those undertakings2 having been badly organised at the start, unwisely [Pg 139] officered, and injudiciously conducted. The Bristol merchants fully4 agreed with him, and illustrated6 the spirit of their concurrence7 by fitting out two ships and refusing him any post of command. He and Rogers had long been acquainted, as may be gathered from several passages in his voyages. There is little question that it was Dampier's reputation which procured9 him his appointment as pilot to his friend; but I take it that Rogers warmly supported Dampier's solicitations, and that the advocacy of the chief commander proved powerful enough to neutralise, or at least to qualify, the prejudice which our hero's misfortunes as a freebooter and his half-heartedness as an explorer had excited against him.
As a pilot there was no man then living better qualified10. He had spent long months of his life in the South Seas, and his knowledge of Indian and Pacific waters was varied11 and extensive. His name was also formidable to the Spaniards, a detail of considerable moment in the catalogue of privateering merits. His dignity could suffer nothing by his acceptance of the post of pilot to the expedition. Many sea-words have changed their old signification, and when we now talk of a pilot we think of a man whose business it is to navigate12 ships through short spaces of dangerous waters. There were of course pilots of this kind in Dampier's day. But in addition there were mariners15 selected for their knowledge of distant parts to accompany ships in voyages round the world, or to the ports of remote nations. The post was an honourable16 one; the pilot stood alone; he had not indeed the captain's general powers, but his duties were attended with many privileges, and he was looked up to as a person of authority and distinction. It was [Pg 140] such a position then as Dampier would have been willing to accept even though he had earned the value of an estate by his last voyage.
The expedition was promoted, as has already been said, by a number of Bristol merchants. Twenty-two names are given as representing only a portion of this very large committee of adventurers. The chief command was entrusted17 to Captain Woodes Rogers, a man who had suffered much from the French, and who was eager to repair as well as to avenge18 his injuries by reprisals19. He had long been known as an intelligent officer and an excellent seaman20. He had also a name as a disciplinarian, and he was further remarkable21 for the swiftness and sagacity of his decisions in moments of difficulty and peril22. In point of literary merit his book is worthy23 to rank with Shelvocke's narrative24, though the form and spirit of both are manifestly inspired by Dampier's volumes. The captain next in command was Stephen Courtney, who was also a member of the committee and the holder25 of a considerable share in the speculation26. Rogers's second captain, or chief mate as he would now be called, was Thomas Dover, a physician by profession, who in his old age wrote a work called Dr. Dover's Last Legacy27 to his Country, in which he so effectually recommended the use of quicksilver that “ladies as well as gentlemen of rank and fortune bespangled the floors and carpets with this metal, and scattered28 their diamonds wherever they went to dance or to play.” [25] It is strange to hear of a doctor of medicine going as lieutenant29 of a buccaneering craft; [Pg 141] but it is stranger yet to read that Dover's bad temper was the cause of his being chosen. Yet his chief recommendation lay in his violent tongue, which, it was argued, would effectually prevent him from winning adherents30, so that there was no chance of his weakening the expedition by heading or creating a party! [26] The captain under Courtney was Edward Cooke, a person of talent and observation and of no small literary ability, whose hatred31 of the French was only equalled by Rogers.
The venture was thoroughly32 matured before it was launched. Stringent34 rules and regulations serving as articles of war were drawn35 up and signed by the promoters, who called the document “The Constitution.” The experiences as well as the advice of Dampier may be traced in these rules. It was required that in case of death, sickness, or desertion, a council should be called of all the officers of the ships, that the person selected should be the unanimous choice, and that all attacks by sea or land should first be generally debated by the whole body of officers. In case of the votes for and against being equal, Captain Dover, as President of the Council, was to have the “double-voice.” The manifest object of these articles was to stop the bickerings which commonly attended the undertakings of the privateers, and which were often the cause of their failures and defeats, by importing the general voice into every decision. The ships were the Duke, of three hundred tons, thirty guns, and one hundred and seventy men, with Rogers and Dover as first and second captains; and the Dutchess, of [Pg 142] two hundred and seventy tons, twenty-six guns, and one hundred and fifty-one men, whose first and second in command were Courtney and Cooke. Both vessels38 were commissioned by Prince George of Denmark to cruise on the coasts of Peru and Mexico against the Queen's enemies, the French and Spaniards.
Dampier was on board Woodes Rogers: the story of the expedition, therefore, must be followed to its conclusion, though, unfortunately, our hero has no longer an individuality. His name indeed occasionally occurs, but he vanishes as a figure, and we are merely conscious as we follow the narrative that we are in his company, and that though he is lost to view he is sharing in the exploits and dangers, in the hopes and fears, of the crowd of resolute41 men whom he pilots.
The two ships set sail from Bristol, or rather from Kingroad, at the mouth of the river Avon, on Monday, August 1st, 1708, and arrived at Cork42 on the 9th in company with several other ships which had sailed under the convoy43 of a man-of-war called the Hastings. Until the 27th they were busy in thoroughly preparing the ships for the voyage. Here also they received a number of men to take the place of others who had been brought from Bristol, but who, even in the short trip across the St. George's Channel, had proved themselves worthless as sailors. When they weighed on the morning of the 28th their crews were unusually strong. Rogers says that he doubled the number of officers as a provision against mutinies, and also that there might be plenty of qualified persons to take command in case of death. The Duke indeed was so full of men that she was obliged to leave a portion of the boatswain's stores behind to [Pg 143] make room for the people. The proverbial qualities of the sailor show humorously at the outset of this voyage. All hands knew that they were to sail immediately, yet we read that “they were continually marrying whilst we staid at Cork.” An instance is given of a Dane whom a Roman Catholic priest had united in holy wedlock44 to an Irishwoman. Neither understood the other's tongue, and they were forced to hire an interpreter before they could tell each other how fond they were. The inconvenience of unintelligibility45, however, did not cool their fervour; on the contrary, it was noticed that this Dane and his Irish wife were more affected46 by their parting than any of the other couples, “And,” says the narrative, “the Fellow continued melancholy47 for several Days after we were at Sea. The rest understanding each other, drank their Cans of Flip49 till the last Minute, concluded with a Health to our good Voyages and their happy Meeting, and then parted unconcerned.” The number of sailors in both ships when they weighed was three hundred and thirty-three, one-third of whom were foreigners. Many of them were by trade tinkers, tailors, haymakers, pedlars, and fiddlers; there were also a negro and ten boys.
Rogers was glad at the start to sail under convoy of a man-of-war. The holds of both the Duke and the Dutchess were flush to the hatches with provisions; the 'tween-decks were crowded with cables, with bags of bread, and casks of water; so that it would have been impossible to engage an enemy without throwing a large quantity of the stores overboard. There were one hundred and eighty-two men aboard the Duke and one hundred and fifty-one aboard the Dutchess, and the crowding, when the tonnage of the ships is thought of side by side [Pg 144] with their choked holds and 'tween-decks, must have rendered life at the start intolerable to the privateersmen. Despite their condition, however, they agreed to the proposal of the captain of the man-of-war that they should cruise a few days off Cape50 Finisterre; the crews of the vessels were thereupon mustered51, and the nature and intention of the expedition explained to them, in order that such of the men as should show themselves discontented might be sent home as mutineers in the Hastings. All professed53 themselves satisfied with the exception of “one poor Fellow,” says Rogers, “who was to have been Tything-man that year, and was apprehensive54 his Wife would be obliged to pay 40 Shillings for his Default. But when he saw everybody else easy, and strong hopes of plunder55, he likewise grew quiet by degrees, and drank as heartily56 as anybody to the good Success of the Voyage.” Yet, despite the assurances of the men, a mutiny happened whilst Rogers was on board a Swedish vessel39 he had chased, whose papers exempted57 her. The ringleaders were the boatswain and three of the inferior officers. Ten of the men were put in irons, and a sailor seized to the “jeers” (as the tackles were called which hoisted58 and lowered the fore33 and main yards) and punished by the usual process of whipping and pickling. The outbreak was so serious that all the officers went armed, not knowing what was next to happen. After some further trouble and much anxiety the mutiny was quelled59, but it needed all Rogers's valuable qualities as a commander to deal with it.
I do not doubt, had Dampier been in charge, that the disturbance60 would have ended in the ruin of the voyage. Of the unruliness of the crews of that day, hundreds of [Pg 145] examples may be gathered from the contemporary records. The seaman of Dampier's age was undeniably a lion-hearted man, incomparably intrepid61 in his conflicts whether with the elements or with the enemies of his country; but it is equally true that most of his characteristics were those of the savage62. He was a ruffian in his behaviour, he was a brute63 in his tastes, he conversed64 in a dialect that was almost wholly formed of oaths, and he pursued his calling in a skin soaked with the liquor that was served out to him by the gallon at the time. The average merchant-sailor of the last century has been sketched65 by Fielding in his Voyage to Lisbon. “It is difficult,” he says, “I think, to assign a satisfactory reason why sailors in general should of all others think themselves entirely66 discharged from the common bands of humanity, and should seem to glory in the language and behaviour of savages67! They see more of the world, and have most of them a more erudite education, than is the portion of landmen of their degree.... Is it that they think true courage (for they are the bravest fellows upon earth) inconsistent with all the gentleness of a humane68 carriage, and that the contempt of civil order springs up in minds but little cultivated at the same time, and from the same principles, with the contempt of danger and death? Is it——? In short, it is so.” Happily we may now say it was so! But the reason is not hard to find. Roderick Random69 is a full and satisfying reply to Fielding's interrogatory. The sailor of that day was a brute because his life was that of a brute. He was for long months at a time absent from every possible refining influence. He was fed on provisions such as a dog would recoil70 from. His sea-parlour was a black, wet [Pg 146] hole, filled with vermin and loathsome71 with bad smells. His punishments were beyond expression inhuman72; he was whipped until his back became a bloody73 mass, into which brine was rubbed that his sufferings might be rendered more exquisite74. He was hoisted to a yard-arm, then dropped suddenly into the water and hauled violently under the ship's keel, and this was repeated until he was nearly drowned. He was lashed75 half-naked to the mast, and so left to stand for a period often running into days, insulted by his shipmates, and exposed to the scorching76 heat or the frosty sting of the parallels in which the ship happened to be; he was loaded with irons and immured77 for weeks in a dark and poisonous forepeak, whose only tenants78 besides himself were the huge rats of the vessel's hold. It was not, then, that the sailor regarded himself discharged, as Fielding suggests, from the common bands of humanity; he knew nothing of humanity, whether during his brief and roaring orgies ashore79 or during his long and bitter servitude upon the high seas. The traditions of those days still linger, and the sailor of our own times suffers to a certain extent from prejudices which were excited and perpetuated80 by the bold and reckless savages of the age of Dampier and, later on, of Fielding. But I am speaking of the average merchantman; it is readily conceivable that the buccaneer or privateersman should have gone far beyond him. He recognised no restrictions81 save those which were absolutely essential to his safety at sea; his profession of piracy82 rendered him insensible to cruelty by familiarising him with many of the most violent forms of it; he slept like a wild animal upon the hard deck, with a rug for his cover and nothing [Pg 147] else between him and the stars. Dampier grimly says in his chapter on the winds: “'Tis usual with Seamen83 in those parts to sleep on the Deck, especially for Privateers; among whom I made these Observations. In Privateers, especially when we are at an Anchor, the Deck is spread with Mats to lye on each Night. Every Man has one, some two; and this, with a Pillow for the Head and a Rug for a Covering, is all the Bedding that is necessary for Men of that Employ.” For one day the freebooter might feast on the fifty delicacies84 of a plundered85 ship, and for weeks his food would be so coarse and innutritious as to fill his eyes with the fires of famine and pale his cheek to the haggardness of the corpse87. It needed exceptional and extraordinary powers of command to control such wretches89. The qualities of the men in charge of Rogers and Courtney are significantly expressed by their early mutiny. Many of them were seasoned buccaneers—ruffians whom not even the common hope could keep straight. Fortunately for his employers, Rogers knew how to handle them.
On the 18th the two vessels captured a small Spanish ship which they carried to Teneriffe. There were some male and female passengers on board, and she was laden90 with what would now be called a general cargo91. The English merchants, to whom possibly a portion of this cargo was consigned92, objected to the capture, and represented that they would be in danger if the bark were not restored. The agent of the privateers, a man named Vanbrugh, went ashore and was detained, and it came very near to Rogers and Courtney bombarding the town of Oratava. When the inhabitants saw the vessels standing48 in with tompions out and all hands at quarters, [Pg 148] they offered to satisfy the demands of the buccaneers, who thereupon sold the prize for four hundred and fifty dollars and then made haste to sail away, very glad of the chance to once more “mind their own concerns,” as Rogers puts it. On the last day of September they dropped anchor in the harbour of St. Vincent, one of the Cape de Verde Islands. Scarcely were they arrived when fresh disturbances93 arose amongst the men. The mutiny originated in altercations94 touching95 the distribution of plunder, and with the hope of terminating these incessant96 and perilous97 brawls98, the commanders went to work to frame such articles as they believed would inspire the seamen with confidence in the intentions of their superiors. The paper they drew up is preserved, and it is of interest as illustrating99 a form of marine14 life that for generations has been as extinct as the ships in which the privateersmen sailed. First of all it was settled that the plunder taken on board any prize by either ship should be equally divided between the companies of both ships. Any man concealing101 booty exceeding the value of a dollar during twenty-four hours after the capture of a prize was to be severely102 punished, and to lose his share of the plunder. Article the fourth provided that “If any prize be taken by boarding, then whatsoever103 is taken shall be every man's own as follows: viz. a Sailor 10 pounds, any Officer below a Carpenter 20 pounds, a Mate, Gunner, Boatswain, and Carpenter 40 pounds, a Lieutenant or Master 80 pounds, and the Captains 100 pounds each, above the gratuity104 promised by the owners to such as shall signalise themselves.” It was further agreed that twenty pieces of eight should be given to him who first saw a prize of good value. Another [Pg 149] article provided that every man on board, after the capture of a prize, should be searched by persons appointed for that purpose. This agreement was signed by the officers and men of both ships, and was perhaps the best, if indeed it was not the only, expedient105 that Rogers could have hit upon for silencing the constant mutinous106 growlings of the rapacious107 rogues108 under his command, unavailing as it subsequently proved.
They weighed on October 8th and steered109 for the coast of Brazil. In spite of thoughtfully-framed articles, handsome concessions111 on the part of the captains, and the taut112 discipline of the quarter-deck, the spirit of mutiny continued strong. The men were too numerous; the ship's work made demands upon only a portion of them at a time; the crew had therefore plenty of leisure, which they employed in haranguing113 one another into insubordination. As an example of the difficulty of dealing114 with these men, it is related that a fellow named Page, who was second mate of the Dutchess, was ordered on board the Duke to exchange posts with a man similarly rated. Captain Cooke was sent to fetch him; Page refused to come; a dispute followed, fists were doubled up and the men fell to blows. They managed at last to convey the mutinous mate to the Duke, but before they had time to charge him with his offence, he sprang into the sea and started to swim back to his ship. He was recaptured, lifted over the side and punished—probably spread-eagled and man-handled, after the old fashion. Disturbances of this kind were not calculated to gild116 the prospects117 of the sober-headed. In the Dutchess they had eight of the ringleaders of a party (who had proposed [Pg 150] to run away with the ship) under hatches in irons. There were repeated attempts to desert after the vessels had come to an anchor on November 18th off the coast of Brazil. Two sailors escaped into the woods, but were so terrified by the sight of a number of monkeys and baboons118 which they mistook for tigers, that they plunged119 into the water to the depth of their waists, and stood bawling120 for help until a boat was sent to fetch them aboard. One thinks of Dampier, hot-tempered and prone121 to despondency, talking with his friend Rogers about the troublesome posture122 of the crew, expressing many doubts as to the practicability of the voyage, and perhaps suggesting adventures remote from the prescription123 of the Bristol merchants. An incident peculiar124 to the old piratical life steals out in this part of the story. Early one morning the people who were on the look-out on the quarter-deck sighted a canoe gliding125 silently and shadow-like shorewards. It was hailed and ordered to come aboard; but no other answer was returned than the swifter plying126 of the oars86. The pinnace and yawl were manned and sent in pursuit, and on approaching the canoe one of them fired into it to bring it to. It held on bravely nevertheless, but was captured as its stem smote127 the beach. One of her people was a friar, who with quivering knees instantly owned to possessing a little store of gold, obtained, as the rough sailors surmised128, “by his trade of confessing the ignorant.” The father was very politely treated, but he did not seem to value the attention paid him by Captain Rogers. What he wanted was his gold, which there is no reason whatever to suppose he ever received. He talked of obtaining justice in Portugal or England, [Pg 151] and was answered by the hurricane shout to the forecastle to get the ship under-weigh.
The vessels were now fairly bound for the passage of the Horn. The crew, who in the torrid zone growled129 continuously and piratically in their gizzards, were no sooner in the high latitudes130 than they grew reasonable. It was the summer season in that hemisphere, but Dampier carried them so far south that all hands nearly perished of cold. At least a third of the people of both ships were down with sickness; and they barely escaped a languishing131 and miserable132 end by the good fortune of prosperous winds, which blew them swiftly northwards under more temperate133 heights. It was necessary to make land speedily for the sake of the men's health, and Juan Fernandez was fixed134 upon. They steered for the island, but the charts differed and they could not find it. Dampier was as much at a loss as the rest, and wondered at not being able to hit it, telling how often he had been there, and how he carried a most accurate map of the island about with him in his head. In order to find it they were forced to sail in sight of the coast of Chili135, so as to obtain “a departure,” and then stretch away west upon the parallel of it, or thereabouts. They fell in with it at last, but not until after much fruitless scouring136 of the seas.
The name of Dampier is intimately associated with the passage that now follows. There is nothing, perhaps, in what may be termed the romantic chapters of the maritime137 annals more picturesque138 and impressive than the discovery by the Duke and Dutchess of Alexander Selkirk on the island of Juan Fernandez. The accentuation the story obtained from the genius of Defoe makes [Pg 152] it immortal139. But even as a mere40 anecdote140, without better skill brought to bear upon it than is found in the plain relations of Rogers and Cooke, its interest is so remarkable, it is so brimful of fascinating inspiration, that of all sea-stories it bids fair to be the longest remembered. Indeed it must be said that a great number of people, otherwise pretty well informed, are familiar with the name of Dampier only in connection with the strange, surprising adventures of Mr. Alexander Selkirk. The narrative belongs peculiarly to Dampier's experiences. Selkirk was mate of the Cinque Ports when her captain, Stradling, was Dampier's consort141, and he was still that ship's mate when Stradling quarrelled with Dampier at King's Island in the Bay of Panama. The tale is related by Woodes Rogers and by Cooke, [27]—an old-world tale indeed, which every schoolboy has by heart; yet I cannot satisfy myself that its omission142 on the score of triteness143 only would be desirable in a volume that professes144 to recount the most striking passages in the naval145 career of William Dampier. Cooke's version is fuller than Rogers's—that is to say, he wrote two accounts of it, his reference to it in his first volume being deemed meagre and unsatisfactory by the public, who had been set agape by the wonderful yarn146; but Rogers's narrative is the better written; besides, as Dampier is aboard the Duke, it is proper to allow his captain to speak. The full story is much too long for quotation147 at large in these pages; I therefore select the following as [Pg 153] amongst the most striking passages. They were off the island on February 1st, 1709, and sent the pinnace ashore with Captain Dover in charge.
“As soon as it was dark, we saw a Light ashore. Our Boat was then about a League from the Island, and bore away for the Ships as soon as she saw the Lights: We put our Lights aboard for the Boat, tho' some were of Opinion the Lights we saw were our Boat's Lights: But as Night came on it appeared too large for that. We fired our Quarterdeck Gun and several Musquets, shewing Lights in our Mizen and Fore Shrouds149, that our Boat might find us whilst we were in the Lee of the Island: ... All this Stir and Apprehension150 arose, as we afterwards found, from one poor naked Man who passed in our Imagination, at present, for a Spanish Garrison151, a Body of Frenchmen, or a Crew of Pirates.”
Next day they sent their yawl ashore, and as this boat did not return, they despatched the pinnace to Seek her. Rogers then continues:
“Immediately our Pinnace returned from the Shore and brought abundance of Crayfish with a Man cloathed in Goat-skins, who looked wilder than the first Owners of them. He had been on the Island Four Years and Four Months, being left there by Captain Stradling in the Cinque Ports; his Name was Alexander Selkirk, a Scotsman who had been Master of the Cinque Ports, a Ship that came here last with Captain Dampier, who told me that this was the best man in her, and I immediately agreed with him to be a Mate on board our Ship: 'Twas he that made the Fire last Night when he saw our Ships, which he judged to be English.... The reason of his being left here was a Difference between him and [Pg 154] his Captain; which, together with the Ship's being leaky, made him willing rather to stay here, than go along with him at first; and when he was at last willing to go the Captain would not receive him.... He had with him his Cloaths and Bedding, with a Firelock, some Powder, Bullets, and Tobacco, a Hatchet152, a Knife, a Kettle, a Bible, some Practical Pieces, and his Mathematical Instruments and Books. He diverted and provided for himself as well as he could; but for the first eight Months had much ado to bear up against Melancholy and the Terror of being left alone in such a Place. He built two Huts with Pimento-trees, covered them with long Grass, and lined them with the Skins of Goats, which he killed with his Gun as he wanted, so long as his Powder lasted, which was but a Pound; and that being almost spent, he got Fire by rubbing two Sticks of Pimento Wood together upon his Knee. In the lesser153 Hut, at some Distance from the other, he dressed his Victuals154; and in the larger he slept, and employed himself in Reading, singing Psalms155, and Praying, so that he said he was a better Christian156 while in this Solitude157 than ever he was before, or than he was afraid he should ever be again. At first he never eat anything till Hunger constrained158 him, partly for Grief and partly for want of Bread and Salt: Nor did he go to Bed till he could watch no longer; the Pimento Wood, which burnt very clear, served him both for Fire and Candle, and refreshed him with its fragrant160 Smell.... By the Favour of Providence161 and Vigour162 of his Youth, being now but thirty Years old, he came at last to conquer all the Inconveniences of his Solitude and to be very easy. When his Cloaths were out he made himself a Coat and a Cap of Goat-skins, [Pg 155] which he stitched together with little Thongs163 of the same that he cut with his Knife. He had no other Needle but a Nail; and when his Knife was worn to the Back he made others as well as he could of some Iron Hoops164 that were left ashore, which he beat thin, and ground upon Stones. Having some Linen165 Cloth by him, he sewed him some Shirts with a Nail, and stitched them with the Worsted of his old Stockings, which he pulled out on purpose. He had his last Shirt on when we found him in the Island. At his first coming on board us he had so much forgot his Language for want of Use that we could scarce understand him; for he seemed to speak his Words by halves. We offered him a Dram; but he would not touch it, having drank nothing but Water since his being there; and it was some Time before he could relish166 our Victuals.”
It is easy to imagine the interest with which Dampier would listen to the recital167 of his old associate's strange adventures. Cooke tells us that Selkirk had conceived “irreconcilable aversion to an officer on board the Cinque Ports, who, he was informed, was on board the Duke, but not being a principal in command, he was prevailed upon to waive168 that circumstance and accompany Captain Dampier, for whom he had a friendship.” Whoever the person may have been, the Scotchman's dislike of him was bitter, and it was to Dampier's persuasions169 that Rogers owed the services of a man who proved of the utmost use to him whilst lying at the island by enabling him to supply the ships with fresh provisions and by facilitating the business of taking in wood and water. It is observable that Rogers styled Selkirk the governor of the island, a half-humorous and [Pg 156] half-pathetic fancy (when one thinks of the desperate loneliness of the unhappy man), which Defoe afterwards adopted when making Robinson Crusoe speak of his possessions and territories, his castles and his dependents.
The vessels arrived, as we have seen, on February 1st, and by the 3rd a smith's forge had been conveyed ashore, the coopers were hard at work, and there were tents, or “pavilions,” erected170 for the commanders and the sick. But it was their business not to lose time, for they had long before—that is to say, when they were at the Canaries—heard that five large French ships were coming to search for them in the South Sea; so that very quickly, all the sick men happily recovering rapidly with the exception of two who died, they had refitted their ships, taken in wood and water, and boiled down and stowed away about eighty gallons of sea-lions' oil to use for the lamps, that they might save the candles. This done they set sail, after holding a consultation171, which resulted in further regulations for the preservation172 of discipline; and on May 15th captured a little vessel of sixteen tons, whose master furnished them with the reassuring173 news that seven French ships, which had been cruising off this part of the coast for some time, had six months previously174 gone away for the Horn, and it was added they were not likely to return. There was other news besides of a kind to make their mouths water, particularly that the widow of the deceased Viceroy of Peru would shortly embark175 for Acapulco with her family and the whole of her fortune, and probably break her journey at Payta. They were also told that some months previously a ship had sailed from Payta for Acapulco with two hundred thousand pieces of eight on board, together with a [Pg 157] rich cargo of liquors and flour. More useful information was conveyed in the statement that a certain Se?or Morel was waiting in a stout176 ship filled with dry goods for a vessel expected from Panama richly laden, with a bishop177 aboard, and that both craft would put to sea together. The idea of a bishop was commonly associated in the buccaneering mind with visions of the sacred splendours of the altar and the fruits of long years dedicated178 to painful hoarding179. So it was straightway resolved by Rogers and his people to start for a cruise off Payta, meanwhile exercising all possible precaution against discovery lest larger designs should be spoilt.
A few days after they had come to this determination Captain Rogers and Captain Dover fell out. Rogers says that Dover charged him with insolence180; Captain Cooke, on the other hand, takes Dover's part in his story of this passage. Difficulties of this kind were incessantly181 occurring amongst the buccaneers, and on the eve, too, very often of the execution of big projects. The quarrel, however, is not dwelt upon at length; probably the disputants quickly saw the wisdom of calling a truce182 that they might attend to the serious business of what is grandiloquently183 termed “the conquest of Guayaquil.” The great undertaking3 was settled thus: Dover was to command a company of seventy marines, Rogers another company of seventy-one officers and sailors, Courtney a third company of seventy-three men, and Dampier was to have charge of the artillery184, with a reserve force of twenty-two seamen. Meanwhile Cooke was to command the Dutchess with forty-two men, and Captain Robert Fry the Duke with forty men; bringing up the whole force to a total of three hundred and twenty. In [Pg 158] addition there were blacks, Indians, and prisoners, to the number of two hundred and sixty-six; forming an army of five hundred and eighty-six people for the captains and officers to look after. The appetites of the buccaneers were shrewdly sharpened by the understanding that bedding, wearing apparel, gold rings, buttons, buckles185, gold or silver crucifixes, watches, liquors, and provisions, should be reckoned fair plunder to be equally divided; but money, women's earrings186, loose diamonds, pearls, and precious stones, were to be held as belonging to the merchants. On the 15th there was a smart engagement between the privateersmen's boats and a Spanish ship, in which Rogers lost his brother, who was second lieutenant on board the Duke. The vessel was captured, and proved to be the craft in which the bishop had sailed; but he had gone ashore at Point St. Helena, leaving the ship to carry his property to Lima. She had seventy blacks and a number of passengers on board. The lading consisted of bale goods, and a considerable quantity of pearls were found in her. Captain Cooke took charge, and the prisoners were divided between the Duke and Dutchess.
The little bark of sixteen tons which they had taken some time previously they named the Beginning, and on April 21st in the morning she was sent to cruise close inshore to see all clear for the landing of the men. The report she brought was that there was a vessel riding close under the point whose crew, on sighting the Beginning, had hurried ashore and vanished. On this the privateersmen rowed towards the town of Guayaquil. The night drew down dark; the men pulled stealthily with muffled187 oars; an hour before midnight [Pg 159] they saw a light suddenly spring up in the town, towards which they continued to row very softly until they were within a mile of it; when on a sudden they were brought to a halt by hearing a sentinel call to another and talk to him. Concluding they were discovered, the buccaneers pulled across the river, and lay still and very quiet, waiting and watching. In a few minutes the whole town flashed out into lights, the resonant188 notes of a great alarm-bell swang through the soft wind, several volleys of musketry were discharged, and a large fire was kindled190 on the hill to let the town know that the enemy was in the river. The officers in charge of the boats, confounded by this unexpected discovery of their presence, fell to a hot argument and grew so angry that their voices were heard ashore. The Spaniards, who could not understand them, sent post-haste for an Englishman who was then living in the town, and brought him, very secretly, close to the boats that he might interpret what was said. But before he arrived the privateersmen had concluded their arguments. [28] They remained all night in the river, and next day contented52 themselves with capturing a number of vessels, and receiving the governor under a flag of truce to treat with him about the ransom191 of the town and ships. But nothing came of the interview; and at four o'clock in the afternoon, on April 23d, the whole force of the buccaneers landed and attacked the place. The Spaniards fired a single volley and fled; the English pressed forward and seized the enemy's cannon192, from which every gunner had run saving one, an Irishman, [Pg 160] who gallantly193 stuck to his post until he dropped mortally wounded. The seamen marched through both towns—the Spaniards flying pell-mell before them firing the houses as they tramped forwards, and leaving gangs of men behind them to guard the churches. There was a thick wood on the right of the place, and all night long the enemy continued to fire from among the trees at the English sentries195, but without injuring a man. From time to time bodies of horse and foot showed themselves, but only to wheel about and fly to the first musket189 levelled at them. Meanwhile a party of twenty-two men went in the Dutchess's pinnace up the river, and sacked every house they came across. The enemy was easily kept at bay, and the buccaneers had no trouble in sending booty and provisions in quantities to their ships. In due course messengers, flourishing flags of truce, came to talk about ransoming196 the town, and after much discussion, the offer of thirty thousand dollars was accepted, of which twenty-five thousand were paid.
The depredations197 of the buccaneers had been indeed serious enough to threaten the townspeople with absolute ruin if the sacking was not speedily arrested. Scarcely had they withdrawn198 from Guayaquil when they took a ship full of meal, sugar, and other commodities, making the fourteenth prize they had captured in those seas! The town itself handsomely repaid the labour and danger of assaulting it; about twelve hundred pounds' worth of plate and jewellery, many bales of valuable dry goods, and a great store of merchandise of all kinds, exclusive of wines, waggon-loads of cocoa, several ships on the stocks, and two freshly-launched vessels of four hundred tons each, valued at eighty thousand crowns. But [Pg 161] for their approach having been discovered they might have found even a handsomer account than this in the capture of the place, for it afterwards came to their ears that the inhabitants in their flight carried away with them money, plate, and jewels to the value of two hundred thousand pieces of eight. Indeed the unhappy Spaniards seem to have been plundered on all sides, for in going the rounds the privateersmen took a number of negroes and Indians laden with goods, which they promptly199 confessed were stolen, “and we were afterwards informed that in the Hurry the Inhabitants had given Plate and Money to Blacks to carry out of the Town, and could never hear of it after.”
On May 11th we find Rogers, Dampier, and their companions running before a strong gale200 of wind for the Galapagos Islands. A number of the crew were prostrated201 with a malignant202 fever contracted at Guayaquil, where, about a month before the buccaneers' arrival, there had raged an epidemic204 disease of which ten or twelve persons perished every day; until the floors of the churches being filled with bodies, the people dug a great hole close to one of the structures where sailors had been stationed as guards. In this hole lay a pile of putrefied corpses205, and the seamen only quitted their posts to return to their ships poisoned. On the 18th they were off a couple of large islands, and sent boats to seek for fresh water. The errand was fruitless, though the searchers went three or four miles into the country in their hunt. Their business now was to go where fresh water was to be had, for of the two crews there were no less than one hundred and twenty men down with fever; Captain Courtney was dangerously ill, and Captain Dover was [Pg 162] devoting his leisure to prescribing for him. So they made sail for Gorgona, capturing a few vessels as they proceeded, and, anchoring on June 13th, at once distributed their sick amongst the prizes, and set to work to careen and repair the Duke and Dutchess. By the 28th they had restored their provisions and mounted their guns, having in fourteen days caulked206, rigged, discharged, and reloaded their ships; a smart piece of work that greatly astonished the Spanish prisoners, who said that their people usually took a couple of months to careen a vessel at ports where every necessary appliance for this business was to be had. The unhappy captives indeed, whilst watching or assisting the English, would scarcely marvel207 at their triumphs by land and sea when they observed their ceaseless and vigilant208 activity,—how, without regard to the climate, they worked from the break of day till darkness stopped their hands, and how, with swift and unerring judgment209, they devised expedients210 for the remedying of difficulties which in the eyes of their astonished prisoners appeared at the time to be insurmountable. “The Natives of Old Spain,” says Rogers, “are accounted but ordinary Mariners; but here they are much worse, all the Prizes we took being rather cobbled than fitted out for the Sea; so that had they such Weather as we often meet with in the European Seas in Winter, they could scarce ever reach a Port again as they are fitted; but they Sail here Hundreds of Leagues.” Admissions of this kind are as good as saying that seizures211 in the South Sea went, as achievements, but a very little way beyond the mere act of hailing a ship and bidding her strike. The boldness of the English buccaneers is not very conspicuous212 in such encounters. Most of the vessels they took were [Pg 163] navigated213 by crews of yellow, nervous men, utterly214 worthless as seamen, with neither heart nor muscle as combatants; whilst the cabins were crowded with priests, women, and sea-sick merchants, who increased the disorder215 caused by the appearance of a privateer by lamentations and tears, by wild appeals to the saints, and passionate216 adjurations to the shivering crew. The capture of such craft was as easy as catching217 flies. The qualities of the English South Seamen of those days must be sought in the records of their assaults on land, their boarding of tall and powerfully armed galleons218, their murderous resistance to the attacks of ships-of-state of great tonnage crowded with soldiers and sailors and carrying ten guns to the Rover's one.
Whilst Rogers and his people were at Gorgona they equipped one of their prizes named the Havre de Grace as a third ship to act with the Duke and Dutchess. She was called the Marquis, and Captain Cooke took command of her. The business of fitting her out as a war vessel occupied them from June 29th to July 9th, and when she was finished they made a holiday of it, sitting down to a hearty220 meal and drinking the Queen's health with loud huzzas, and then the health of the owners with more huzzas, and then their own healths until their eyes danced in their heads. Spite of the general joy, however, the Marquis proved something of a failure, for Cooke says that her masts were new and too heavy for her, and that being badly stowed she was exceedingly tender, by which is meant that she heeled or lay over unduly221 to light pressures, and scarcely made headway when on a wind, “so that the Duke and Dutchess were fain to spare a great deal of sail for me to [Pg 164] keep up with them.” Before lifting their anchors the commanders and officers of the ships met together to value the plunder in order to divide it. One kind of commodities they appraised222 at four hundred pounds; the silver-hilted swords, buckles, snuff-boxes, buttons, and silver plate at seven hundred and forty-three pounds fifteen shillings, taking the piece of eight at four shillings and sixpence. By this time there were upwards223 of eighty thousand pounds' worth of property and treasure on board destined224 for the owners. Dampier, we may well suppose, shared in the high hopes and good spirits of his shipmates. This was the only promising225 privateering expedition he had ever been engaged in, and if their luck continued he might reasonably flatter himself with the belief that he would even yet snatch an independency out of the reluctant maw of the sea. They had rid themselves of their prisoners by sending them away in some of the prizes. The female captives spoke226 well of the treatment they had received, and ingenuously227 confessed that they had met with far more courtesy and civility than their own countrymen would have extended to persons in their condition. The honourable and humane behaviour of the English buccaneers towards their female prisoners became a tradition, which was perpetuated and confirmed by the wise policy of Commodore Anson. [29]
They sailed on August 11th, and nothing noteworthy happened till September 6th, on which date we find Dampier dining with Captain Rogers on board the Duke in company with Cooke and Courtney. Cooke [Pg 165] complained bitterly of the crankness of his ship the Marquis, and objected to the evolutions of the other vessels which obliged him to tack36. They were bound to the Galapagos, and he affirmed that they could have made the islands without beating to windward. Dampier said, No; he knew where those islands were, and had described them in one of his voyages; and he asserted that they were now to the westward228 of them. The others agreed with Cooke, but Dampier was pilot, and was therefore suffered to have his way. They were right and he was wrong; but an error of a hundred miles or so was reckoned a very trifling229 blunder in those hearty, plodding230 times. A curious old sea-picture is suggested by this discussion in the cabin of the Duke. The rough bulkheads, the low upper deck, the quaint8 lanthorn swinging over the table from a beam, and indicating by its oscillations the ponderous231 rolling of the tall, squab, round-bowed fabric232; the privateersmen sitting round the table attired233 in the wild and picturesque apparel of the early South Seamen—these are features to bring the scene in clear outlines before the eye of the imagination. One beholds234 them poring upon their old-fashioned charts, pointing to the singular configurations235 of the mainland and islands with hairy hands, and disputing with little anxiety on a difference between easting and westing measuring as many leagues as the space from the Lizard236 to the Western Islands. Indeed the real flavour and charm of the buccaneer's life are not to be expressed by any mere method of historical treatment. The hand of the artist is wanted, with imagination vigorous and discerning enough to strictly237 correspond with the traditionary truth.
[Pg 166]
On their arrival at the Galapagos they took in a good supply of turtle, many of which were upwards of four hundred pounds in weight. Rogers writes of the turtle as if he had never seen it before. “I do not,” he says, “affect giving Relations of strange Creatures, so frequently done by others; but where an uncommon238 Creature falls in my Way I cannot omit it.” This is how the captain describes the “uncommon creature.”
“The Creatures are the ugliest in Nature; the Shell, not unlike the Top of an old Hackney-coach, as black as Jet; and so is the outside Skin, but shriveled and very rough. The Legs and Neck are long and about the Bigness of a Man's Wrist; and they have Clubbed Feet as big as one's Fist, shaped much like those of an Elephant, with five Nails on the Forefeet and but Four behind, and the Head little, and Visage small like Snakes; and look very old and black. When at first surprised they shrink their Head, Neck, and Legs, under their Shell.”
This is the kind of simplicity239 that makes the perusal240 of the old voyages wonderfully refreshing241 and delightful242. The old fellows looked at life with the eyes of a child but with the intelligence of a man; and so it happens that their representations combine a most perfect and fascinating simplicity with the highest possible qualities of acuteness and sagacity.
On October 1st the ships were off the Mexican coast. When the form of the land grew visible Dampier told Rogers that it was hereabouts he attacked the Manila ship in the St. George. He might have been right, but Rogers does not speak as if he thought so, for he says: “Captain Dampier indeed had been here, but [Pg 167] it was a long time ago, and therefore he seemed to know but little of the Matter; yet when he came to land in Places he recollected244 them very readily.” They suffered much from scarcity245 of fresh water, and sent the pinnace to explore some islands—the Tres Marias—lying off Cape Corrientes. On one of them they found a human skull246, which was supposed to have belonged to an Indian who, with another poor wretch88 of his own race, had been left there by Captain Swan some twenty-three years before. Dampier of course well remembered the circumstance; he had been with Swan in the Cygnet at the time, and could recollect243 that provisions being scarce they had left the unhappy Indians to make, as Rogers says, a miserable end on a desert Island. To judge, however, from the refreshments247 these uninhabited spots yielded, the Indians could not have perished from starvation. The buccaneers met with hares, turtle-doves, pigeons, and parrots, on all of which they fared sumptuously249. The sick thrived, and the general health of the crews was never better. On November 1st they were in view of the high coast of California. It was much about the date when Sir Thomas Candish had taken the Manila ship, and, strangely enough, their keels ploughed the very tract203 of water in which that remarkable feat37 had been achieved. The memory, aged115 to us, but lacking nothing of its old lustre250, was to those men comparatively recent, and the recollection was one to animate251 them with great hopes and stern resolves. They were indeed bent252 now on the adventure whose successful issue had loaded Candish's ship with treasure. They were on the look-out for the galleon219, and that nothing might be omitted to render fortune propitious253, [Pg 168] they again put in force the rules which had formerly254 been laid down for cruising, established fresh regulations, and made clear every dubious255 item in their programme of proceedings256 and plunder. It was this galleon that was to make their fortunes; she it was also that formed the grand hope of the Bristol committee of merchant adventurers; and the design of capturing her was the mainspring of the whole expedition. After a consultation it was agreed that they should dispose themselves thus: the Marquis was to keep off the land at a distance of from six to nine leagues at least; the Duke was to cruise at a range that would cover forty-five miles; and the Dutchess was to occupy the waters between her consorts257. There were, of course, false alarms; as, for instance, on the 28th the Marquis fired a gun, which was promptly answered by the Dutchess, on which the Duke hauled her wind for the coast. It then turned out that the Marquis had mistaken the Duke for the Manila ship, and fired as a signal for the Dutchess to chase. They had to wait a long time before the vessel they wanted hove in sight. It was now a month later than the usual time of her appearance in this part of the sea where she was being waited for, and the anxiety of the buccaneers was increased by their inability to obtain any intelligence of her. Provisions were again scarce, and even on short allowance there was barely bread enough to last for seventy days,—a serious matter in the face of the inevitable258 run later on to the Ladrone Islands, which promised to occupy fifty days at the very least. This most unfortunate dearth259 of stores, coupled with the growing dejection and mutinous sulkiness of the men, determined260 Rogers and his brother commanders to give themselves another week's chance, [Pg 169] and then, if the galleon did not appear, to sail away to the Indies.
In order to save time the Dutchess was despatched to a convenient bay to take in water and wood, etc., that as one ship obtained these stores another might take her place, thus always leaving two on the look-out. By the 4th she had taken in what was necessary, and the Marquis replaced her to refit. Until December 21st nothing happened; then on the morning of that day, when the Duke was in the act of shifting her helm for the place where the Marquis was refitting, the look-out man aloft hailing the deck, shouted that he saw a sail bearing west about twenty miles distant. The English ensign was immediately hoisted, and in a few minutes both the Duke and the Dutchess were standing towards the stranger; but on a sudden it fell stark261 calm, and as conjecture262 was hopeless and expectation insupportable, the pinnace was manned and sent to see what she could make of the distant ship. In reading Rogers's account, you find your sympathies curiously263 enlisted264 on behalf of those two stagnated265 buccaneering vessels, and witness with but little effort of imagination the crowds of weather-darkened, fiery-eyed men, some in the rigging, some at the masthead, some leaning in impetuous pose against the rail, staring their very hearts out under the sharp of their hands at the cotton-white outline, glimmering266 like the tip of a sea-bird's pinion148 on the edge of the distant gleaming horizon, whence the swell267 rolls in folds of oil to the wet and flashing sides of the ships; the officers on the quarter-deck peering their hardest through the lean and unsatisfying perspective-glasses of those days; Dampier and Rogers together rehearsing their [Pg 170] intentions and recalling their experiences in voices subdued268 by excitement; above all, the old, worn, but gallant194 Duke wearily dipping her faded, blistered269 bends to the swing of the breathless sea, making in anticipation270 of the withering271 roar of her ordnance272, now grinning mutely along her sides, a little thunder of her own with the beating of her dark and well-patched canvas against the huge tops and massive cross-trees of her swaying masts. “All the rest of the Day,” says Rogers, “we had very little Wind, so that we made no great Way; and the Boat not returning, kept us in a languishing Condition, not being able to determine whether the Sail was our Consort, the Marquis, or the Acapulco Ship. Our Pinnace was still in Sight, and we had nothing to do but to watch her Motions: We could see that she made towards the Dutchess's Pinnace, which rowed to meet her. They lay together some time, and then the Dutchess's Pinnace went back to their Ship which gave us great Hopes.” An officer was sent to the Dutchess to ascertain273 what the stranger was, and to concert measures, if she should prove an enemy, for engaging her. When he was gone Rogers hoisted the French colours and fired a gun; the strange vessel answered, which satisfied them that she was not the Marquis. It is manifest from this that these privateersmen had no private code of signals amongst them. Indeed detection seems to have been entirely a matter of the exhibition of the national bunting, in which there was just the same sort of deception274 then as there was in later years, and as there ever will be. Shortly after the ship had responded, the officer returned with the report that she was the Manila galleon. The statement fired the spirits of the crew; [Pg 171] they hove all their melancholy reflections on the shortness of their provisions overboard, and could think of nothing but the figures they would make when they arrived home with the vast treasure out yonder, stowed snugly275 away under their hatches. “Every moment,” says Rogers, “seemed an hour till we came up with her.” It was arranged that the two pinnaces should stick to her skirts all night and burn flares276, that their own and the position of the chase might be known; and it was further settled that if the Duke and Dutchess were so fortunate as to come up with her together they were to board her at once: a resolution which Dampier, recalling his experiences in the St. George, was pretty sure to strengthen by his advice.
At dawn the chase was upon the weather-bow of the Duke, about three miles away, and the Dutchess within a couple of miles to leeward277 of her. Rogers threw his sweeps over and rowed his ship for above an hour; a light breeze then sprang up and softly blew the vessel towards the enemy. There was no liquor in the ship, nothing to fortify278 the spirits in the shape of a dram; so a large kettle of chocolate was boiled and served out to the crew, who, when they had emptied their pannikins, went to prayers. But whilst they were in the midst of their devotions they were interrupted by a broadside from the Spaniards. It is not often that one reads of the English buccaneers going to prayers before falling to their business of slaughtering279 and plundering280. Perhaps they had learnt to despise this kind of ceremony from the behaviour of the French freebooters, who were wont281 to sing Te Deum and force captive priests to celebrate Mass in the cathedrals and churches which they [Pg 172] had despoiled282. If the Spaniards saw Rogers's privateersmen on their knees, something of irony283 might have been intended by their manner of cutting short their worship and supplications. The Don was fully prepared; his guns loaded, his little army of men at stations, and casks of gunpowder284 hanging at his yard-arms ready to fall and explode when the attempt should be made to board. The action began at eight o'clock, and the Duke for some time fought the galleon single-handed. The conflict was a brief one. The Spaniards had no stomach, and after Rogers had poured in a few broadsides the enemy “struck her colours two-thirds down.” His flag was thus flying when the Dutchess came up and fired five guns at the big ship along with a volley of small shot. It was mere waste of powder; the galleon had already submitted and was silent. The victory, it must be admitted, was cheaply earned, yet there is little doubt that such was the temper of the buccaneers they would have fought to the last man for this golden prize. She was a large vessel named Nostra Seniora de la Incarnacion Disenginao, mounting twenty guns and twenty swivels, and carrying one hundred and ninety-three men, of whom nine were killed and several wounded. The fight lasted three glasses, that is three hours. Rogers was shot through the left cheek; the bullet destroyed the greater part of his upper jaw285, and some of his teeth were found upon the deck where he fell. He was obliged to give his orders in writing to hinder the flow of blood, and to escape the agony of attempting to articulate. Only one man besides himself was wounded. Having repaired the trifling damage they had sustained, they steered for the harbour where the Marquis lay, and anchored. They found [Pg 173] their consort fully equipped and ready to sail, and her people in good spirits and eager for action. At night a consultation was held respecting the disposal of the hostages, and as a second Manila ship was daily expected, they debated plans for capturing her. After some talk it was agreed that the hostages should be set at liberty; but the discussion about the expected galleon ended in something like a quarrel. Rogers, speaking in the heat of the moment, had censured286 Courtney for not having shown the promptitude that was necessary in attacking the Nostra Seniora. This Courtney of course resented as a reflection upon his honour. When, then, Rogers proposed to cruise in the Dutchess for the coming Manila ship, Courtney insisted upon making the search in the Marquis. The question was put to the vote, Rogers's proposal overruled, and his people obliged, to their great mortification287, to remain in the harbour. This incident is related so obscurely both by Cooke and Rogers that I confess I do not fully understand it. The Duke was in good condition, and why the three instead of the two ships did not start on a cruise which, as the sequel proves, demanded even more than their united strength, is a riddle288 I am unable to solve.
On Christmas Day the Dutchess and the Marquis put to sea, and when they were gone Rogers posted two sentinels on the top of a hill that he might instantly be apprised289 of a third sail heaving in sight. Before twenty-four hours had elapsed the signal was made, and in hot haste Rogers started to the assistance of his consorts, though the stout-hearted sailor was in no condition for further adventures just then. He was indeed so weak from loss of blood that he could scarcely stand. His [Pg 174] head and throat were swollen290, and the effort to speak caused him excruciating pain; but he turned a deaf ear to the entreaties291 of the officers and surgeons that he would remain in harbour on board the prize. The galleon was in sight at daybreak, and by noon the Marquis had succeeded in bringing her to an engagement. The wind was light, and it was almost impossible to man?uvre the vessels; so that though the Dutchess and the Marquis continued at intervals292 to fire at the Manila ship until dusk, the Duke even at midnight was still at a considerable distance from the enemy. When the day broke the wind shifted, and Rogers was able to bring his guns to bear. The fighting was now severe, and continued so for four hours; the galleon was hotly defended, though her people lay so concealed293 in their close quarters that the privateersmen could scarcely make any use of their small arms. It was only when a head appeared or a port was opened that they found a mark for their muskets294. The eagerness of the buccaneers defeated their seamanship. Their vessels were repeatedly falling foul295 of one another and throwing the crews into disorder. The guns of the Marquis were so small that her firing was to little or no purpose. At last it came to Rogers signalling to Courtney and Cooke to come on board him with other officers; and then every man telling of the injuries his ship had sustained, and all admitting that it would jeopardise too many lives to board or attempt to board the lofty galleon, it was resolved to let her go—that is to say, they agreed to keep her company till night, and then in the darkness to lose her, and make the best of their way back to the prize they had already secured. In sober truth the [Pg 175] enemy had proved too many for them. The Duke's mainmast was so wounded that Rogers expected every moment to see it go by the board. Her rigging, too, was so shattered by shot that she had to sheer off in order to knot and splice296, being scarcely manageable. The Dutchess also had her foremast badly wounded, her sails were in rags, and the ends of her standing rigging were trailing overboard. Further, there were not above one hundred and twenty men in all three ships fit for boarding, “and those but weak,” says Rogers, “having been very short of Provisions;” and that nothing might be wanting to complete the list of the reasons of their failure, their ammunition297 was very nearly expended298. Rogers was again wounded, this time in his left foot. In the Dutchess they had twenty men killed and disabled. The Marquis, on the other hand, came off without the loss of a single person. The galleon was a handsome ship, very large, carrying the flag of the admiral of Manila. She was making the voyage for the first time. Her name was the Vigonia; she was pierced for sixty guns, forty of which were mounted, along with an equal number of brass299 swivels. Her crew numbered over four hundred and fifty men, and there were many passengers besides. It was supposed that she was worth ten millions of dollars; but it is doubtful whether, even if the buccaneers had succeeded in boarding, they would have taken her, for Rogers says: “After my Return into Europe I met in Holland with a Sailor who had been on board the large Ship when we engaged her; and he let us into the Secret that there was no taking her; for the Gunner kept constantly in the Powder-room, declaring that he had taken the Sacrament to blow the [Pg 176] Ship up if we boarded her; which made the Men, as may be supposed, exceedingly resolute in her defence. I was the more ready to credit what this Man told me because he gave as regular and circumstantial account of the Engagement as I could have done from my Journal.” [30]
On the first day of the new year, 1710, they were again in harbour alongside their great prize; and now being anxious to leave these seas, they put their prisoners on board one of the smaller captures with water and provisions enough to last them for a voyage to Acapulco, and then addressed themselves to the urgent business of repairing and making all ready for their departure. They renamed the galleon the Batchelor, and a quarrel arose touching the appointment of a commander for her, a post regarded by them all as of dignity and importance. Captain Dover, asserting his claims as a merchant adventurer, and representing the considerable sum of money he had risked in this expedition, demanded the berth. Rogers and others, among whom, no doubt, would be Dampier, objected that Dover knew nothing whatever of navigation, and voted for Cooke. Finally, at the cost of many high words and much strong feeling, it was decided300 at a full council that Captain Fry and Captain Stretton should have entire control of the navigation of the Batchelor under Captain Dover, Alexander Selkirk to be the master and Joseph Smith the chief mate. The island of Guam was then fixed upon as a rendezvous301, and on January 10th the buccaneers weighed for a run to the East Indies.
[Pg 177]
They were when they started in no very enviable condition. Their stores were scanty302; their live stock consisted of four hens; and of wine or spirits they had barely the contents of a dozen bottles. The rations100 were limited to a pound and a half of flour and a small piece of meat for a mess of five men, with three pints303 of water a man on twenty-four hours for drink and cooking. Rogers was ill with his wounds, and many of the crew were sick and weak and unfit to do the work of the ship. Hunger drove the men into robbery. A few days after they sailed some pieces of pork were missed. Fortunately, in the interests of justice, the thieves were discovered, and punished by every man of the watch giving them a stroke of the cat-o'-nine-tails.
What follows now is little more than a journal of the voyage, rendered for the most part tedious by description and by the introduction of incidents of little or no interest. Dampier's name seldom occurs; when it is mentioned it is always in reference to something that helps to accentuate304 characteristics noticeable in his own account of his adventures. For instance, in April, when they were off a point of land which they took to be the north-east point of Celebes, the vessel was proving very leaky; which, added to the general ignorance of the ship's situation, filled the crew with melancholy and irritation305. “Captain Dampier,” says Rogers, “discouraged us very much: He had been twice here, and therefore what he said among the Seamen passed without Dispute, and he laid it down as a thing certain that if we could not reach Ternate or find the Island of Tula it was impossible for us to get any Refreshment248, there being nothing to be met with on the Coast of New [Pg 178] Guiney.” It had been thus with Dampier whilst buccaneering off the New Holland shore; thus had it been with him too when hunting for water on the sand-hills of the Western Australian seaboard, his foot on the margin306 of a vast region of earth which he had neither temper nor heart to explore, though he had travelled many thousands of miles in a crazy ship and with a troublesome crew for no other purpose. This trick of discouraging the people he led, or was one of, is the secret of his failure as a commander and explorer. Rogers, a bolder and more hopeful, and certainly in many respects an equally sagacious man, was not likely to feel grateful for Dampier's melancholy shakes of the head, and his gloomy, prognosticating countenance307; but his own experiences left him nothing to say, for though the ships spent the best part of the month of May off the coast of New Guinea, all that Rogers could observe that seemed to him worth mentioning was, “It is most certain these Islands, which are scattered through the Streights, and few or none of which are peopled, would all of them bear Spice, and afford immense Riches to this Nation, if they were settled.”
They were in great distress308 whilst they were in these seas. The men mutinously309 resented the wise reduction in the quantity of the food served out to them; and to save serious disturbance Rogers was forced to return to the old scale. They sighted land, but did not know what it was, nor could Dampier help them. Having searched for Borou, an island of the Indian Archipelago, they resolved to steer110 to Batavia, touching at Bouton for provisions. Accordingly they stood away to the south-west before a strong [Pg 179] gale of wind at east. But their progress was obstructed310 by some small islands, into one of which they must have run in the dead of night had the weather not cleared suddenly and discovered it to them. It was not until Tuesday, June 17th, 1710, that they arrived at Batavia. At sight of the town the crews were so rejoiced that they could do nothing but hug and shake one another by the hand, and bless their stars and question if there was such a paradise in all the world; “And this,” says Rogers, “because they had Arrack for Eight Pence a Gallon, and Sugar at a Penny a Pound.”
The ships were in a deplorable condition, particularly the Marquis, which was so rotten with worms and wear that it became necessary to hire another craft to carry her lading. They sailed from Batavia on October 14th, and proceeded direct to the Cape of Good Hope, where they arrived without misadventure and without any incident occurring in the passage that is worth repeating. Shortly after they had entered Table Bay twelve sail of Dutch ships came in, which, with the English vessels then at anchor, made altogether twenty-three ships riding in the spacious311 and beautiful haven312. The picture is about one hundred and seventy years old, and it is difficult to realise that the ocean traffic of those dim times to the Indies by way of the Cape should have been considerable enough to crowd the spacious surface of the waters on whose margin stand the ivory-white structures of Cape Town. Retrospect313 is often corrective. We have a right to compliment ourselves upon what we have done and are doing; but it does not seem to me that our marine achievements can be compared as illustrations of human skill and determination with the examples of the adventurous314 genius of an age [Pg 180] when the greater portion of the antipodean world lay in darkness; when navigation was little better than guesswork; when the art of shipbuilding was crude, rude, and primitive315; when there was nothing but the heavens to consult for weather; when the tyranny of the winds was only to be dominated by a kind of perseverance316 that must be ranked among the lost qualities of human nature. Despite these conditions the early mariner13 crowded the oceans with fabrics317 laden with the produce of the known continents, and rolled stubbornly to his hundred ports, often in suffering and often in distress indeed; yet on the whole freer, in his valiant318 ignorance, from disaster than is the sailor of the current hour. There is no longer need for ships to halt and bait at Table Bay. The propeller319 thrashes them to their destination with the punctuality of the railway-train; or they are wafted320 by pyramids of canvas—the graceful321 and elegant result of centuries of experiment—on a journey to New Zealand or Japan, which they complete in less time than the old seafarer took to find his way from the English Channel to Madeira. But the very existence of the facilities of the engine-room, of the nimbleness of the clipper-moulded keel, of the capacity of the towering and exquisitely-calculated heights of cloths to snatch a desired power of propulsion from the teeth of the antagonistic322 gale, is, I take it, an admission of our own weakness when we contrast the ocean-machinery with which science has dowered us with the contrivances with which the early seamen triumphed over the forces of Nature and created new worlds as heritages for a self-complacent posterity323. Those twenty-three ships at anchor in Table Bay, surveyed by the eyes of Dampier [Pg 181] and his toil-worn comrades, make but a little part of a great marine pageant324; yet it is a detail to constrain159 the gaze. Fancy reconstructs them; they cease to be visionary; they float before us as substantial fabrics, brave with pennons and the glitter of brass guns and the gay raiment of their time. They illustrate5 the most strenuous325 of all the periods of the world's maritime life; for the infancy326 of navigation was over, and it had already put on the proportions of a youthful giant, the impulse of whose unripened vitality327 was urging it to extraordinary efforts.
Before the ships under Rogers sailed, six more vessels entered the bay, along with several English Indiamen and a large Portuguese328 carrack from Brazil; and when the hour of departure came the homeward-bound (in all, English and Dutch, numbering twenty-five) rolled stately under swelling329 canvas out of Table Bay,—a spectacle that, remote as it is, and visible only to the gaze of fancy, cannot but stir the imagination when one thinks of the floating castles, with their swelling sails and their brilliant streamers, as the van of the ever-growing procession that was in time to whiten the remotest seas, and crowd the harbours of countries of which some were then without the impress of a European foot.
The ships progressed merrily. They touched at St. Helena, and seven days later at Ascension, and after a passage of three months from the Cape of Good Hope dropped anchor in the Texel. Rogers and his brother commanders had now to act with much circumspection330; they were informed by letters from their owners that the English East India Company, jealous of their success, had appointed a secret committee to inspect their charter [Pg 182] as to privileges; they were also enjoined331 to exercise the utmost caution in respect of the Dutch East India Company, and strict orders were issued that no officer or sailor should on any pretence332 whatever be suffered to take any goods on shore, or purchase the least trifle from any stranger who visited the ships. They remained in Holland until September 30th, 1711, then sailed from the Texel under convoy of four of Her Britannic Majesty's ships, and on October 14th the Duke and Dutchess arrived off Erith, at which place the Batchelor had come to an anchor some short time before. Thus ended one of the most memorable333 of all the voyages ever undertaken by the English buccaneers. The cargo and treasure obtained by this expedition were valued at between three and four hundred thousand pounds, and Cooke tells us that, after allowing for all deductions334, such as cost of convoy, agency, lawsuits335, and thefts, the net profits amounted to one hundred and seventy thousand pounds.
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1
berth
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| n.卧铺，停泊地，锚位；v.使停泊 | |
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undertakings
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| 企业( undertaking的名词复数 )； 保证； 殡仪业； 任务 | |
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undertaking
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| n.保证，许诺，事业 | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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illustrate
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| v.举例说明，阐明；图解，加插图 | |
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illustrated
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| adj. 有插图的，列举的 动词illustrate的过去式和过去分词 | |
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concurrence
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| n.同意；并发 | |
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quaint
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| adj.古雅的，离奇有趣的，奇怪的 | |
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procured
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| v.（努力）取得， （设法）获得( procure的过去式和过去分词 )；拉皮条 | |
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qualified
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| adj.合格的，有资格的，胜任的，有限制的 | |
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varied
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| adj.多样的，多变化的 | |
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navigate
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| v.航行，飞行；导航，领航 | |
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mariner
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| n.水手号不载人航天探测器，海员，航海者 | |
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marine
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| adj.海的；海生的；航海的；海事的；n.水兵 | |
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mariners
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| 海员，水手（mariner的复数形式） | |
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16
honourable
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| adj.可敬的；荣誉的，光荣的 | |
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entrusted
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| v.委托，托付( entrust的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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18
avenge
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| v.为...复仇，为...报仇 | |
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19
reprisals
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| n.报复（行为）( reprisal的名词复数 ) | |
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seaman
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| n.海员，水手，水兵 | |
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21
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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peril
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| n.(严重的)危险；危险的事物 | |
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worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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narrative
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| n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的 | |
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holder
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| n.持有者，占有者；(台，架等)支持物 | |
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speculation
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| n.思索，沉思；猜测；投机 | |
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27
legacy
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| n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西 | |
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scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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lieutenant
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| n.陆军中尉，海军上尉；代理官员，副职官员 | |
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adherents
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| n.支持者，拥护者( adherent的名词复数 )；党羽；徒子徒孙 | |
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hatred
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| n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨 | |
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32
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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fore
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| adv.在前面；adj.先前的；在前部的；n.前部 | |
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stringent
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| adj.严厉的；令人信服的；银根紧的 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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tack
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| n.大头钉；假缝，粗缝 | |
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feat
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| n.功绩；武艺，技艺；adj.灵巧的，漂亮的，合适的 | |
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38
vessels
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| n.血管( vessel的名词复数 )；船；容器；（具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的）人 | |
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39
vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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40
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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41
resolute
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| adj.坚决的，果敢的 | |
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42
cork
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| n.软木，软木塞 | |
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43
convoy
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| vt.护送，护卫，护航；n.护送；护送队 | |
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44
wedlock
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| n.婚姻，已婚状态 | |
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45
unintelligibility
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| 不可懂度，不清晰性 | |
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46
affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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47
melancholy
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| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
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48
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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49
flip
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| vt.快速翻动；轻抛；轻拍；n.轻抛；adj.轻浮的 | |
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50
cape
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| n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风 | |
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51
mustered
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| v.集合，召集，集结（尤指部队）( muster的过去式和过去分词 )；（自他人处）搜集某事物；聚集；激发 | |
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52
contented
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| adj.满意的，安心的，知足的 | |
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53
professed
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| 公开声称的，伪称的，已立誓信教的 | |
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54
apprehensive
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| adj.担心的，恐惧的，善于领会的 | |
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55
plunder
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| vt.劫掠财物，掠夺；n.劫掠物，赃物；劫掠 | |
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56
heartily
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| adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很 | |
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57
exempted
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| 使免除[豁免]( exempt的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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58
hoisted
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| 把…吊起，升起( hoist的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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59
quelled
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| v.（用武力）制止，结束，镇压( quell的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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60
disturbance
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| n.动乱，骚动；打扰，干扰；(身心)失调 | |
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61
intrepid
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| adj.无畏的，刚毅的 | |
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62
savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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63
brute
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| n.野兽，兽性 | |
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64
conversed
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| v.交谈，谈话( converse的过去式 ) | |
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65
sketched
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| v.草拟（sketch的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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66
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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67
savages
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| 未开化的人，野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) | |
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68
humane
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| adj.人道的，富有同情心的 | |
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69
random
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| adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动 | |
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70
recoil
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| vi.退却，退缩，畏缩 | |
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71
loathsome
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| adj.讨厌的，令人厌恶的 | |
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72
inhuman
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| adj.残忍的，不人道的，无人性的 | |
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73
bloody
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| adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染 | |
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74
exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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75
lashed
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| adj.具睫毛的v.鞭打( lash的过去式和过去分词 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥 | |
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76
scorching
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| adj. 灼热的 | |
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77
immured
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| v.禁闭，监禁( immure的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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78
tenants
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| n.房客( tenant的名词复数 )；佃户；占用者；占有者 | |
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ashore
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| adv.在(向)岸上，上岸 | |
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perpetuated
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| vt.使永存（perpetuate的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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81
restrictions
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| 约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则） | |
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82
piracy
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| n.海盗行为，剽窃，著作权侵害 | |
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83
seamen
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| n.海员 | |
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84
delicacies
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| n.棘手( delicacy的名词复数 )；精致；精美的食物；周到 | |
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85
plundered
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| 掠夺，抢劫( plunder的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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86
oars
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| n.桨，橹( oar的名词复数 )；划手v.划（行）( oar的第三人称单数 ) | |
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corpse
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| n.尸体，死尸 | |
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88
wretch
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| n.可怜的人，不幸的人；卑鄙的人 | |
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89
wretches
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| n.不幸的人( wretch的名词复数 )；可怜的人；恶棍；坏蛋 | |
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90
laden
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| adj.装满了的；充满了的；负了重担的；苦恼的 | |
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91
cargo
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| n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物 | |
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92
consigned
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| v.把…置于（令人不快的境地）( consign的过去式和过去分词 )；把…托付给；把…托人代售；丟弃 | |
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93
disturbances
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| n.骚乱( disturbance的名词复数 )；打扰；困扰；障碍 | |
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94
altercations
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| n.争辩，争吵( altercation的名词复数 ) | |
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95
touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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96
incessant
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| adj.不停的，连续的 | |
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97
perilous
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| adj.危险的，冒险的 | |
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98
brawls
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| 吵架，打架( brawl的名词复数 ) | |
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99
illustrating
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| 给…加插图( illustrate的现在分词 )； 说明； 表明； （用示例、图画等）说明 | |
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100
rations
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| 定量( ration的名词复数 )； 配给量； 正常量； 合理的量 | |
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101
concealing
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，遮住( conceal的现在分词 ) | |
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102
severely
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| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
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103
whatsoever
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| adv.（用于否定句中以加强语气）任何；pron.无论什么 | |
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104
gratuity
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| n.赏钱，小费 | |
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105
expedient
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| adj.有用的，有利的；n.紧急的办法，权宜之计 | |
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106
mutinous
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| adj.叛变的，反抗的；adv.反抗地，叛变地；n.反抗，叛变 | |
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107
rapacious
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| adj.贪婪的，强夺的 | |
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108
rogues
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| n.流氓( rogue的名词复数 )；无赖；调皮捣蛋的人；离群的野兽 | |
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109
steered
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| v.驾驶( steer的过去式和过去分词 )；操纵；控制；引导 | |
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110
steer
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| vt.驾驶，为…操舵；引导；vi.驾驶 | |
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111
concessions
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| n.（尤指由政府或雇主给予的）特许权( concession的名词复数 )；承认；减价；（在某地的）特许经营权 | |
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112
taut
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| adj.拉紧的，绷紧的，紧张的 | |
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113
haranguing
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| v.高谈阔论( harangue的现在分词 ) | |
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114
dealing
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| n.经商方法，待人态度 | |
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115
aged
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| adj.年老的，陈年的 | |
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116
gild
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| vt.给…镀金，把…漆成金色，使呈金色 | |
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117
prospects
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| n.希望，前途(恒为复数) | |
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118
baboons
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| n.狒狒( baboon的名词复数 ) | |
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119
plunged
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| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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120
bawling
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| v.大叫，大喊( bawl的现在分词 )；放声大哭；大声叫出；叫卖（货物） | |
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121
prone
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| adj.(to)易于…的，很可能…的；俯卧的 | |
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122
posture
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| n.姿势，姿态，心态，态度；v.作出某种姿势 | |
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123
prescription
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| n.处方，开药；指示，规定 | |
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124
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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125
gliding
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| v. 滑翔 adj. 滑动的 | |
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126
plying
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| v.使用（工具）( ply的现在分词 )；经常供应（食物、饮料）；固定往来；经营生意 | |
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127
smote
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| v.猛打，重击，打击( smite的过去式 ) | |
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128
surmised
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| v.臆测，推断( surmise的过去式和过去分词 )；揣测；猜想 | |
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129
growled
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| v.（动物）发狺狺声， （雷）作隆隆声( growl的过去式和过去分词 )；低声咆哮着说 | |
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130
latitudes
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| 纬度 | |
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131
languishing
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| a. 衰弱下去的 | |
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132
miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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133
temperate
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| adj.温和的，温带的，自我克制的，不过分的 | |
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134
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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135
chili
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| n.辣椒 | |
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136
scouring
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| 擦[洗]净，冲刷，洗涤 | |
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137
maritime
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| adj.海的，海事的，航海的，近海的，沿海的 | |
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138
picturesque
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| adj.美丽如画的，（语言）生动的，绘声绘色的 | |
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139
immortal
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| adj.不朽的；永生的，不死的；神的 | |
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140
anecdote
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| n.轶事，趣闻，短故事 | |
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141
consort
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| v.相伴；结交 | |
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142
omission
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| n.省略，删节；遗漏或省略的事物，冗长 | |
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143
triteness
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| n.平凡，陈腐 | |
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144
professes
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| 声称( profess的第三人称单数 )； 宣称； 公开表明； 信奉 | |
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145
naval
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|
| adj.海军的，军舰的，船的 | |
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146
yarn
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| n.纱，纱线，纺线；奇闻漫谈，旅行轶事 | |
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147
quotation
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| n.引文，引语，语录；报价，牌价，行情 | |
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148
pinion
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| v.束缚；n.小齿轮 | |
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149
shrouds
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| n.裹尸布( shroud的名词复数 )；寿衣；遮蔽物；覆盖物v.隐瞒( shroud的第三人称单数 )；保密 | |
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150
apprehension
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| n.理解，领悟；逮捕，拘捕；忧虑 | |
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151
garrison
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| n.卫戍部队；驻地，卫戍区；vt.派(兵)驻防 | |
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152
hatchet
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| n.短柄小斧；v.扼杀 | |
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153
lesser
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| adj.次要的，较小的；adv.较小地，较少地 | |
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154
victuals
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| n.食物；食品 | |
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155
psalms
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| n.赞美诗( psalm的名词复数 )；圣诗；圣歌；(中的) | |
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156
Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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157
solitude
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| n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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158
constrained
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| adj.束缚的,节制的 | |
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159
constrain
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| vt.限制，约束；克制，抑制 | |
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160
fragrant
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| adj.芬香的，馥郁的，愉快的 | |
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161
providence
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| n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝 | |
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162
vigour
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| （=vigor）n.智力，体力，精力 | |
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163
thongs
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| 的东西 | |
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164
hoops
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| n.箍( hoop的名词复数 )；（篮球）篮圈；（旧时儿童玩的）大环子；（两端埋在地里的）小铁弓 | |
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165
linen
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| n.亚麻布，亚麻线，亚麻制品；adj.亚麻布制的，亚麻的 | |
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166
relish
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| n.滋味，享受，爱好，调味品；vt.加调味料，享受，品味；vi.有滋味 | |
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167
recital
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| n.朗诵，独奏会，独唱会 | |
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168
waive
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| vt.放弃，不坚持(规定、要求、权力等) | |
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169
persuasions
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| n.劝说，说服（力）( persuasion的名词复数 )；信仰 | |
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170
ERECTED
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| adj. 直立的，竖立的，笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立，建立 | |
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171
consultation
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| n.咨询；商量；商议；会议 | |
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172
preservation
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| n.保护，维护，保存，保留，保持 | |
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173
reassuring
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| a.使人消除恐惧和疑虑的，使人放心的 | |
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174
previously
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| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
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175
embark
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| vi.乘船，着手，从事，上飞机 | |
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177
bishop
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| n.主教，（国际象棋）象 | |
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178
dedicated
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| adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的 | |
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179
hoarding
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| n.贮藏；积蓄；临时围墙；囤积v.积蓄并储藏（某物）( hoard的现在分词 ) | |
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180
insolence
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| n.傲慢；无礼；厚颜；傲慢的态度 | |
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181
incessantly
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| ad.不停地 | |
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182
truce
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| n.休战，(争执，烦恼等的)缓和；v.以停战结束 | |
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183
grandiloquently
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184
artillery
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| n.(军)火炮，大炮；炮兵(部队) | |
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185
buckles
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| 搭扣，扣环( buckle的名词复数 ) | |
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186
earrings
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| n.耳环( earring的名词复数 )；耳坠子 | |
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187
muffled
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| adj.（声音）被隔的；听不太清的；（衣服）裹严的；蒙住的v.压抑，捂住( muffle的过去式和过去分词 )；用厚厚的衣帽包着（自己） | |
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188
resonant
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| adj.(声音)洪亮的，共鸣的 | |
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189
musket
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| n.滑膛枪 | |
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190
kindled
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| （使某物）燃烧，着火( kindle的过去式和过去分词 )； 激起（感情等）； 发亮，放光 | |
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191
ransom
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| n.赎金，赎身；v.赎回，解救 | |
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192
cannon
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| n.大炮，火炮；飞机上的机关炮 | |
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193
gallantly
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| adv. 漂亮地，勇敢地，献殷勤地 | |
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194
gallant
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| adj.英勇的，豪侠的；(向女人)献殷勤的 | |
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195
sentries
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| 哨兵，步兵( sentry的名词复数 ) | |
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196
ransoming
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| 付赎金救人，赎金( ransom的现在分词 ) | |
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197
depredations
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| n.劫掠，毁坏( depredation的名词复数 ) | |
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198
withdrawn
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| vt.收回；使退出；vi.撤退，退出 | |
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199
promptly
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| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
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200
gale
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| n.大风，强风，一阵闹声（尤指笑声等） | |
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201
prostrated
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| v.使俯伏，使拜倒( prostrate的过去式和过去分词 )；（指疾病、天气等）使某人无能为力 | |
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202
malignant
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|
| adj.恶性的，致命的；恶意的，恶毒的 | |
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203
tract
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| n.传单，小册子，大片(土地或森林) | |
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204
epidemic
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| n.流行病；盛行；adj.流行性的，流传极广的 | |
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205
corpses
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| n.死尸，尸体( corpse的名词复数 ) | |
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206
caulked
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| v.堵（船的）缝( caulk的过去式和过去分词 )；泥…的缝；填塞；使不漏水 | |
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207
marvel
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| vi.(at)惊叹vt.感到惊异；n.令人惊异的事 | |
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208
vigilant
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| adj.警觉的，警戒的，警惕的 | |
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209
judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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210
expedients
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| n.应急有效的，权宜之计的( expedient的名词复数 ) | |
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211
seizures
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| n.起获( seizure的名词复数 )；没收；充公；起获的赃物 | |
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212
conspicuous
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| adj.明眼的，惹人注目的；炫耀的，摆阔气的 | |
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213
navigated
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| v.给（船舶、飞机等）引航，导航( navigate的过去式和过去分词 )；（从海上、空中等）横越；横渡；飞跃 | |
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214
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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215
disorder
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| n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调 | |
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216
passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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217
catching
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| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
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218
galleons
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| n.大型帆船( galleon的名词复数 ) | |
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219
galleon
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| n.大帆船 | |
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220
hearty
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| adj.热情友好的；衷心的；尽情的，纵情的 | |
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221
unduly
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| adv.过度地，不适当地 | |
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222
appraised
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| v.估价( appraise的过去式和过去分词 )；估计；估量；评价 | |
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223
upwards
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| adv.向上，在更高处...以上 | |
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224
destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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225
promising
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| adj.有希望的，有前途的 | |
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226
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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227
ingenuously
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| adv.率直地，正直地 | |
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228
westward
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| n.西方，西部；adj.西方的，向西的；adv.向西 | |
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229
trifling
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| adj.微不足道的；没什么价值的 | |
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230
plodding
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| a.proceeding in a slow or dull way | |
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231
ponderous
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| adj.沉重的，笨重的，(文章)冗长的 | |
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232
fabric
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| n.织物，织品，布；构造，结构，组织 | |
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233
attired
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| adj.穿着整齐的v.使穿上衣服，使穿上盛装( attire的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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234
beholds
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| v.看，注视( behold的第三人称单数 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
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235
configurations
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| n.[化学]结构( configuration的名词复数 )；构造；（计算机的）配置；构形（原子在分子中的相对空间位置） | |
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236
lizard
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| n.蜥蜴，壁虎 | |
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237
strictly
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| adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地 | |
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238
uncommon
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| adj.罕见的，非凡的，不平常的 | |
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239
simplicity
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| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
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240
perusal
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| n.细读，熟读；目测 | |
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241
refreshing
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| adj.使精神振作的，使人清爽的，使人喜欢的 | |
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242
delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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243
recollect
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| v.回忆，想起，记起，忆起，记得 | |
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244
recollected
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| adj.冷静的；镇定的；被回忆起的；沉思默想的v.记起，想起( recollect的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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245
scarcity
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| n.缺乏，不足，萧条 | |
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246
skull
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| n.头骨；颅骨 | |
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247
refreshments
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| n.点心,便餐;(会议后的)简单茶点招 待 | |
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248
refreshment
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| n.恢复，精神爽快，提神之事物；（复数）refreshments:点心，茶点 | |
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249
sumptuously
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| 奢侈地，豪华地 | |
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250
lustre
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| n.光亮，光泽；荣誉 | |
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251
animate
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| v.赋于生命，鼓励；adj.有生命的，有生气的 | |
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252
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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253
propitious
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| adj.吉利的；顺利的 | |
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254
formerly
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| adv.从前，以前 | |
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255
dubious
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| adj.怀疑的，无把握的；有问题的，靠不住的 | |
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256
proceedings
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| n.进程，过程，议程；诉讼(程序)；公报 | |
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257
consorts
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| n.配偶( consort的名词复数 )；（演奏古典音乐的）一组乐师；一组古典乐器；一起v.结伴( consort的第三人称单数 )；交往；相称；调和 | |
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258
inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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259
dearth
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| n.缺乏，粮食不足，饥谨 | |
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260
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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261
stark
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| adj.荒凉的；严酷的；完全的；adv.完全地 | |
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262
conjecture
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| n./v.推测，猜测 | |
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263
curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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264
enlisted
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| adj.应募入伍的v.（使）入伍， （使）参军( enlist的过去式和过去分词 )；获得（帮助或支持） | |
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265
stagnated
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| v.停滞，不流动，不发展( stagnate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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266
glimmering
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|
| n.微光，隐约的一瞥adj.薄弱地发光的v.发闪光，发微光( glimmer的现在分词 ) | |
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267
swell
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| vi.膨胀，肿胀；增长，增强 | |
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268
subdued
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| adj. 屈服的，柔和的，减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词 | |
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269
blistered
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| adj.水疮状的，泡状的v.（使）起水泡( blister的过去式和过去分词 )；（使表皮等）涨破，爆裂 | |
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270
anticipation
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| n.预期，预料，期望 | |
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271
withering
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| 使人畏缩的，使人害羞的，使人难堪的 | |
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272
ordnance
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| n.大炮，军械 | |
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273
ascertain
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| vt.发现，确定，查明，弄清 | |
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274
deception
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| n.欺骗，欺诈；骗局，诡计 | |
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275
snugly
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| adv.紧贴地；贴身地；暖和舒适地；安适地 | |
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276
flares
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| n.喇叭裤v.（使）闪耀( flare的第三人称单数 )；（使）（船舷）外倾；（使）鼻孔张大；（使）（衣裙、酒杯等）呈喇叭形展开 | |
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277
leeward
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| adj.背风的；下风的 | |
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278
fortify
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| v.强化防御，为…设防；加强，强化 | |
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279
slaughtering
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| v.屠杀，杀戮，屠宰( slaughter的现在分词 ) | |
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280
plundering
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| 掠夺，抢劫( plunder的现在分词 ) | |
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281
wont
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|
| adj.习惯于；v.习惯；n.习惯 | |
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282
despoiled
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| v.掠夺，抢劫( despoil的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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283
irony
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| n.反语，冷嘲；具有讽刺意味的事，嘲弄 | |
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284
gunpowder
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| n.火药 | |
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285
jaw
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| n.颚，颌，说教，流言蜚语；v.喋喋不休，教训 | |
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286
censured
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| v.指责，非难，谴责( censure的过去式 ) | |
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287
mortification
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| n.耻辱，屈辱 | |
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288
riddle
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| n.谜，谜语，粗筛；vt.解谜，给…出谜，筛，检查，鉴定，非难，充满于；vi.出谜 | |
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289
apprised
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| v.告知，通知( apprise的过去式和过去分词 )；评价 | |
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290
swollen
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| adj.肿大的，水涨的；v.使变大，肿胀 | |
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291
entreaties
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| n.恳求，乞求( entreaty的名词复数 ) | |
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292
intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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293
concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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294
muskets
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| n.火枪，（尤指）滑膛枪( musket的名词复数 ) | |
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295
foul
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| adj.污秽的；邪恶的；v.弄脏；妨害；犯规；n.犯规 | |
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296
splice
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| v.接合，衔接；n.胶接处，粘接处 | |
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297
ammunition
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| n.军火，弹药 | |
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298
expended
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| v.花费( expend的过去式和过去分词 )；使用（钱等）做某事；用光；耗尽 | |
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299
brass
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| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
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300
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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301
rendezvous
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| n.约会，约会地点，汇合点；vi.汇合，集合；vt.使汇合，使在汇合地点相遇 | |
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302
scanty
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| adj.缺乏的，仅有的，节省的，狭小的，不够的 | |
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303
pints
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| n.品脱( pint的名词复数 )；一品脱啤酒 | |
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304
accentuate
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| v.着重，强调 | |
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305
irritation
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| n.激怒，恼怒，生气 | |
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306
margin
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| n.页边空白；差额；余地，余裕；边，边缘 | |
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307
countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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308
distress
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| n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛 | |
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309
mutinously
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| adv.反抗地，叛变地 | |
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310
obstructed
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| 阻塞( obstruct的过去式和过去分词 )； 堵塞； 阻碍； 阻止 | |
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311
spacious
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| adj.广阔的，宽敞的 | |
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312
haven
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| n.安全的地方，避难所，庇护所 | |
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313
retrospect
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| n.回顾，追溯；v.回顾，回想，追溯 | |
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314
adventurous
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| adj.爱冒险的；惊心动魄的，惊险的，刺激的 | |
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315
primitive
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| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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316
perseverance
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| n.坚持不懈，不屈不挠 | |
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317
fabrics
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| 织物( fabric的名词复数 )； 布； 构造； （建筑物的）结构（如墙、地面、屋顶）：质地 | |
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318
valiant
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| adj.勇敢的，英勇的；n.勇士，勇敢的人 | |
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319
propeller
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| n.螺旋桨，推进器 | |
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320
wafted
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| v.吹送，飘送，（使）浮动( waft的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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321
graceful
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| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
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322
antagonistic
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| adj.敌对的 | |
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323
posterity
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| n.后裔，子孙，后代 | |
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324
pageant
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| n.壮观的游行；露天历史剧 | |
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325
strenuous
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| adj.奋发的，使劲的；紧张的；热烈的，狂热的 | |
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326
infancy
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| n.婴儿期；幼年期；初期 | |
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327
vitality
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| n.活力，生命力，效力 | |
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328
Portuguese
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| n.葡萄牙人；葡萄牙语 | |
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329
swelling
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| n.肿胀 | |
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330
circumspection
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| n.细心，慎重 | |
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331
enjoined
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| v.命令( enjoin的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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332
pretence
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| n.假装，作假；借口，口实；虚伪；虚饰 | |
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333
memorable
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| adj.值得回忆的，难忘的，特别的，显著的 | |
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334
deductions
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| 扣除( deduction的名词复数 )； 结论； 扣除的量； 推演 | |
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335
lawsuits
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| n.诉讼( lawsuit的名词复数 ) | |
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