Stolen Treasure | Page 6

his twenty mates reached the
Cape of Salmedina towards the fall of day. Arriving within view of the
harbor they discovered the plate fleet at anchor, with two men-of-war
and an armed galley riding as a guard at the mouth of the harbor, scarce
half a league distant from the other ships. Having spied the fleet in this
posture, the pirates presently pulled down their sails and rowed along
the coast, feigning to be a Spanish vessel from Nombre de Dios. So
hugging the shore, they came boldly within the harbor, upon the
opposite side of which you might see the fortress a considerable
distance away.
Being now come so near to the consummation of their adventure,
Captain Morgan required every man to make an oath to stand by him to
the last, whereunto our hero swore as heartily as any man aboard,
although his heart, I must needs confess, was beating at a great rate at
the approach of what was to happen. Having thus received the oaths of
all his followers, Captain Morgan commanded the surgeon of the
expedition that, when the order was given, he, the medico, was to bore
six holes in the boat, so that, it sinking under them, they might all be

compelled to push forward, with no chance of retreat. And such was the
ascendency of this man over his followers, and such was their awe of
him, that not one of them uttered even so much as a murmur, though
what he had commanded the surgeon to do pledged them either to
victory or to death, with no chance to choose between. Nor did the
surgeon question the orders he had received, much less did he dream of
disobeying them.
By now it had fallen pretty dusk, whereupon, spying two fishermen in a
canoe at a little distance, Captain Morgan demanded of them in Spanish
which vessel of those at anchor in the harbor was the vice-admiral, for
that he had despatches for the captain thereof. Whereupon the
fishermen, suspecting nothing, pointed to them a galleon of great size
riding at anchor not half a league distant.
Towards this vessel accordingly the pirates directed their course, and
when they had come pretty nigh, Captain Morgan called upon the
surgeon that now it was time for him to perform the duty that had been
laid upon him. Whereupon the other did as he was ordered, and that so
thoroughly that the water presently came gushing into the boat in great
streams, whereat all hands pulled for the galleon as though every next
moment was to be their last.
And what do you suppose were our hero's emotions at this time? Like
all in the boat, his awe of Captain Morgan was so great that I do believe
he would rather have gone to the bottom than have questioned his
command, even when it was to scuttle the boat. Nevertheless, when he
felt the cold water gushing about his feet (for he had taken off his shoes
and stockings) he became possessed with such a fear of being drowned
that even the Spanish galleon had no terrors for him if he could only
feel the solid planks thereof beneath his feet.
Indeed, all the crew appeared to be possessed of a like dismay, for they
pulled at the oars with such an incredible force that they were under the
quarter of the galleon before the boat was half filled with water.
Here, as they approached, it then being pretty dark and the moon not
yet having risen, the watch upon the deck hailed them, whereupon

Captain Morgan called out in Spanish that he was Captain Alvarez
Mendazo, and that he brought despatches for the vice-admiral.
But at that moment, the boat being now so full of water as to be logged,
it suddenly tilted upon one side as though to sink beneath them,
whereupon all hands, without further orders, went scrambling up the
side, as nimble as so many monkeys, each armed with a pistol in one
hand and a cutlass in the other, and so were upon deck before the watch
could collect his wits to utter any outcry or to give any other alarm than
to cry out, "Jesu bless us! who are these?" at which words somebody
knocked him down with the butt of a pistol, though who it was our hero
could not tell in the darkness and the hurry.
Before any of those upon deck could recover from their alarm or those
from below come up upon deck, a part of the pirates, under the
carpenter and the surgeon, had run to the gunroom and had taken
possession of the arms, while Captain Morgan, with Master Harry and
a Portuguese called Murillo Braziliano, had flown with the speed of the
wind