Time pressed. They
must strike before Don Miguel de Espinosa received the reenforcement
of that fifth galleon, the Santo Nino, which was coming to join him
from La Guayra.
Their principal operations were on the larger of the two sloops
captured at Gibraltar; to which vessel was assigned the leading part
in Captain Blood's scheme. They began by tearing down all bulkheads,
until they had reduced her to the merest shell, and in her sides
they broke open so many ports that her gunwale was converted into
the semblance of a grating. Next they increased by a half-dozen the
scuttles in her deck, whilst into her hull they packed all the tar
and pitch and brimstone that they could find in the town, to which
they added six barrels of gunpowder, placed on end like guns at the
open ports on her larboard side. On the evening of the fourth day,
everything being now in readiness, all were got aboard, and the
empty, pleasant city of Maracaybo was at last abandoned. But they
did not weigh anchor until some two hours after midnight. Then,
at last, on the first of the ebb, they drifted silently down towards
the bar with all canvas furled save only their spiltsails, which,
so as to give them steering way, were spread to the faint breeze
that stirred through the purple darkness of the tropical night.
Pages:
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314