Great Sea Stories | Page 6

lads, or the big one will have the wind of
us yet."
"So she will," said Amyas, who had overheard; but so great is the curiosity of all hands
that he has some trouble in getting the men to quarters again; indeed, they only go on
condition of parting among themselves with them the newcomers, each to tell his sad and
strange story. How after Captain Hawkins, constrained by famine, had put them ashore,
they wandered in misery till the Spaniards took them; how, instead of hanging them (as
they at first intended), the Dons fed and clothed them, and allotted them as servants to
various gentlemen about Mexico, where they throve, turned their hands (like true sailors)
to all manner of trades, and made much money; so that all went well, until the fatal year
1574, when, much against the minds of many of the Spaniards themselves, that cruel and
bloody Inquisition was established for the first time in the Indies; and how from that

moment their lives were one long tragedy; how they were all imprisoned for a year and a
half, racked again and again, and at last adjudged to receive publicly, on Good Friday,
1575, some three hundred, some one hundred stripes, and to serve in the galleys for six or
ten years each; while as the crowning atrocity of the Moloch sacrifice, three of them were
burnt alive in the market-place of Mexico.
The history of the party was not likely to improve the good feeling of the crew towards
the Spanish ship which was two miles to leeward of them, and which must be fought with,
or fled from, before a quarter of an hour was past. So, kneeling down upon the deck, as
many a brave crew in those days did in like case, they "gave God thanks devoutly for the
favor they had found," and then with one accord, at Jack's leading, sang one and all the
ninety-fourth Psalm:
"Oh, Lord, thou dost revenge all wrong; Vengeance belongs to thee," etc.
And then again to quarters; for half the day's work, or more than half, still remained to be
done; and hardly were the decks cleared afresh, and the damage repaired as best it could
be, when she came ranging up to leeward, as closehauled as she could.
She was, as I said, a long flushed-decked ship of full five hundred tons, more than double
the size, in fact, of he Rose, though not so lofty in proportion; and many a bold heart beat
loud, and no shame to them, as she began firing away merrily, determined, as all well
knew, to wipe out in English blood the disgrace of her late foil.
"Never mind, my merry masters," said Amyas, "she has quantity and we quality."
"That's true," said one, "for one honest man is worth two rogues."
"And one culverin three of their footy little ordnance," said another. "So when you will,
captain, and have at her."
"Let her come abreast of us, and don't burn powder. We have the wind, and can do what
we like with her. Serve the men out a horn of ale all round, steward, and all take your
time."
So they waited five minutes more, and then set to work quietly, after the fashion of
English mastiffs, though, like those mastiffs, they waxed right mad before three rounds
were fired, and the white splinters (sight beloved) began to crackle and fly.
Amyas, having, as he had said, the wind, and being able to go nearer it than the Spaniard,
kept his place at easy point-blank range for his two-eighteen-pounder culverins, which
Yeo and his mate worked with terrible effect.
"We are lacking her through and through every shot," said he. "Leave the small ordnance
alone yet awhile, and we shall sink her without them."
"Whing, whing," went the Spaniard's shot, like so many humming-tops, through the
rigging far above their heads; for the ill-constructed ports of those days prevented the

guns from hulling an enemy who was to windward, unless close alongside.
"Blow, jolly breeze," cried one, "and lay the Don over all thou canst.--What the murrain
is gone, aloft there?"
Alas! a crack, a flap, a rattle; and blank dismay! An unlucky shot had cut the foremast
(already wounded) in two, and all forward was a mass of dangling wreck.
"Forward, and cut away the wreck!" said Amyas, unmoved. "Small arm men, be ready.
He will be aboard of us in five minutes!"
It was true. The Rose, unmanageable from the loss of her head-sail, lay at the mercy of
the Spaniard; and the archers and musqueteers had hardly time to range themselves to
leeward, when the Madre Dolorosa's chains were grinding against the Rose's, and
grapples tossed on board from stem to stern.
"Don't cut