On the Spanish Main - Or, Some English forays on the Isthmus of Darien.

John Masefield

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• Publié par: kimiv
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 11
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 4 Mo

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The Project Gutenberg EBook of On the Spanish Main, by John Masefield This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org Title: On the Spanish Main Or, Some English forays on the Isthmus of Darien. Author: John Masefield Release Date: September 28, 2006 [EBook #19396] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ON THE SPANISH MAIN *** Produced by Frank van Drogen, Amy Cunningham and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) Transcriber's Notes Obvious printing errors were repaired and noted by the use of a dashed underline in the text. Scrolling the mouse over such text will display the change that was made. Variation in hyphenation is as in the original text. The List of Illustrations lists the original page numbers; however, for this etext the images have been moved to appropriate locations in the text. CAPTAIN WILLIAM DAMPIER ON THE SPANISH MAIN OR, SOME ENGLISH FORAYS ON THE ISTHMUS OF DARIEN. WITH A DESCRIPTION OF THE BUCCANEERS AND A SHORT ACCOUNT OF OLD-TIME SHIPS AND SAILORS BY JOHN MASEFIELD WITH TWENTY-TWO ILLUSTRATIONS AND A MAP METHUEN & CO. 36 ESSEX STREET W.C. LONDON First Published in 1906 THE RIVERSIDE PRESS LIMITED, EDINBURGH. TO JACK B. YEATS CONTENTS CHAPTER I P AGE [vii] DRAKE'S VOYAGE TO THE WEST INDIES His quarrel with the Spaniards—His preliminary raids—His landfall—The secret harbour 1 CHAPTER II THE ATTACK ON NOMBRE DE DIOS The treasure of the Indies—The Bastimentos—A Spanish herald 15 CHAPTER III THE CRUISE OFF THE MAIN The secret haven—The cruise of the pinnaces—Cartagena—Death of John Drake 26 CHAPTER IV THE ROAD TO PANAMA The Maroons—The native city—The great tree—Panama—The silver train —The failure—Venta Cruz 55 CHAPTER V BACK TO THE MAIN BODY The treasure train—The spoil—Captain Tetû hurt 74 CHAPTER VI THE ADVENTURE OF THE RAFT Drake's voyage to the Catives—Homeward bound—The interrupted sermon 88 CHAPTER VII JOHN OXENHAM The voyage—His pinnace—Into the South Sea—Disaster—His unhappy end 98 [viii] CHAPTER VIII THE SPANISH RULE IN HISPANIOLA Rise of the Buccaneers—The hunters of the wild bulls—Tortuga—Buccaneer politics—Buccaneer customs 106 CHAPTER IX BUCCANEER CUSTOMS Mansvelt and Morgan—Morgan's raid on Cuba—Puerto del Principe 129 CHAPTER X THE SACK OF PORTO BELLO The Gulf of Maracaibo—Morgan's escape from the Spaniards 148 CHAPTER XI MORGAN'S GREAT RAID Chagres castle—Across the isthmus—Sufferings of the Buccaneers—Venta Cruz—Old Panama 168 CHAPTER XII THE SACK OF PANAMA The burning of the city—Buccaneer excesses—An abortive mutiny—Home —Morgan's defection 197 CHAPTER XIII CAPTAIN DAMPIER Campeachy—Logwood cutting—The march to Santa Maria 218 CHAPTER XIV THE BATTLE OF PERICO Arica—The South Sea cruise 245 CHAPTER XV ACROSS THE ISTHMUS The way home—Sufferings and adventures 276 [ix] CHAPTER XVI SHIPS AND RIGS Pavesses—Top-arming—Banners—Boats 291 CHAPTER XVII GUNS AND GUNNERS Breech-loaders—Cartridges—Powder—The gunner's art 298 CHAPTER XVIII THE SHIP'S COMPANY Captain—Master—Lieutenant—Warrant officers—Duties and privileges 311 CHAPTER XIX THE CHOOSING OF WATCHES The petty tally—Food—Work—Punishments 322 CHAPTER XX IN ACTION INDEX 334 341 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS P AGE [xi] CAPTAIN WILLIAM DAMPIER NOMBRE DE DIOS CARTAGENA CARTAGENA IN 1586, SHOWING THE DOUBLE HARBOUR The ship in the foreground may be Drake's flagship, the Bonaventure AN ELIZABETHAN WARSHIP A pinnace beyond, to the left SHIP AND FLYING-FISH A BUCCANEER'S SLAVE, WITH HIS MASTER'S GUN A barbecue in right lower corner OLD PORT ROYAL PUERTO DEL PRINCIPE Frontispiece 12 26 40 49 95 114 132 142 150 164 PORTO BELLO, CIRCA 1740, SHOWING THE SITUATION AND DEFENCES OF THE CITY THE FIRESHIP DESTROYING THE "SPANISH ADMIRAL" Castle de la Barra in background CHAGRES (CIRCA 1739) THE ISTHMUS, SHOWING MORGAN'S LINE OF ADVANCE NEW PANAMA THE BATTLE OF PANAMA SIR HENRY MORGAN A DESCRIPTION OF ARICA A DESCRIPTION OF HILO AN ELIZABETHAN GALLEON AN ELIZABETHAN GALLEON A GALLIASSE THE "SOVEREIGN OF THE SEAS" MAP OF THE BUCCANEER CRUISING GROUNDS 173 180 195 200 210 266 274 293 297 310 323 340 [xii] ON THE SPANISH MAIN CHAPTER I DRAKE'S VOYAGE TO THE WEST INDIES His quarrel with the Spaniards—His preliminary raids—His landfall—The secret harbour Francis Drake, the first Englishman to make himself "redoubtable to the Spaniards" on the Spanish Main, was born near Tavistock about the year 1545. He was sent to sea, as a lad, aboard a Channel coaster engaged in trade with the eastern counties, France and Zeeland. When he was eighteen years of age he joined his cousin, John Hawkins, then a great and wealthy merchant, engaged in the slave trade. Four years later he sailed with Hawkins on a memorable trading voyage to the Spanish Main. On this occasion he commanded a small vessel of fifty tons. [1] The voyage was unfortunate from the beginning, for the Spaniards had orders from their King to refuse to trade with any foreigners. Before the English could get rid of their freight the ships of their squadron were severely battered by a hurricane, so that they were forced to put into San Juan d'Ulloa, the port of Vera Cruz, to refit. While they lay there a Spanish fleet arrived, carrying a vast quantity of gold and silver for transhipment to Spain. It was not to Hawkins' advantage to allow this Spanish force to enter the haven, for he feared that they would treat him as a pirate if they had an opportunity to do so. However, the Spaniards came to terms [2] with him, an agreement was signed by both parties, and the Spanish ships were allowed into the port. The next day the Spaniards treacherously attacked the English squadron, sank one of the ships at her moorings, killed many of the men, captured a number more, and drove the survivors to sea in Drake's ship the Judith, and a larger ship called the Minion. It was this treacherous attack (and, perhaps, some earlier treachery not recorded) which made Drake an implacable enemy of the Spaniards for the next twenty-eight years. After the disaster at San Juan d'Ulloa, Drake endeavoured to obtain some recompense for the losses he had sustained. But "finding that no recompence could be recovered out of Spain by any of his own means, or by her Majesties letters; he used such helpes as he might by two severall Voyages into the West Indies." In the first of these two voyages, in 1570, he had two ships, the Dragon and the Swan. In the second, in 1571, he sailed in the Swan without company. The Swan was a small vessel of only five and twenty tons, but she was a "lucky" ship, and an incomparable sailer. We know little of these two voyages, though a Spanish letter (quoted by Mr Corbett) tells us of a Spanish ship he took; and Thomas Moone, Drake's coxswain, speaks of them as having been "rich and gainfull." Probably Drake employed a good deal of his time in preparing for a future raid, for when he