He would take a leaf out of the book
of Morgan and those other robbers of the sea, and make a punitive
raid upon an English settlement. Unfortunately for himself and for
many others, his brother the Admiral was not at hand to restrain
him when for this purpose he fitted out the Cinco Llagas at San Juan
de Porto Rico. He chose for his objective the island of Barbados,
whose natural strength was apt to render her defenders careless. He
chose it also because thither had the Pride of Devon been tracked by
his scouts, and he desired a measure of poetic justice to invest
his vengeance. And he chose a moment when there were no ships of
war at anchor in Carlisle Bay.
He had succeeded so well in his intentions that he had aroused no
suspicion until he saluted the fort at short range with a broadside
of twenty guns.
And now the four gaping watchers in the stockade on the headland
beheld the great ship creep forward under the rising cloud of smoke,
her mainsail unfurled to increase her steering way, and go about
close-hauled to bring her larboard guns to bear upon the unready fort.
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