This fort the Admiral, in those days of waiting, had
taken the precaution secretly to garrison and rearm. For the
purpose he had stripped the fort of Cojero, farther out on the
gulf, of its entire armament, which included some cannon-royal of
more than ordinary range and power.
With no suspicion of this, Captain Blood gave chase, accompanied
by the Infanta, which was manned now by a prize-crew under the
command of Yberville. The stern chasers of the Salvador
desultorily returned the punishing fire of the pursuers; but
such was the damage she, herself, sustained, that presently,
coming under the guns of the fort, she began to sink, and finally
settled down in the shallows with part of her hull above water.
Thence, some in boats and some by swimming, the Admiral got his
crew ashore on Palomas as best he could.
And then, just as Captain Blood accounted the victory won, and that
his way out of that trap to the open sea beyond lay clear, the fort
suddenly revealed its formidable and utterly unsuspected strength.
With a roar the cannons-royal proclaimed themselves, and the
Arabella staggered under a blow that smashed her bulwarks at the
waist and scattered death and confusion among the seamen gathered
there.
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