8 THE SEA. 



admiral's ship of the Spanish fleet, near the C'ape of Tiburon, on the west side of Hispanioh 

 this he performed with only one boat and twenty-eight men. Until that time the 

 Spaniards had passed and re-passed with all security through the channel of Bahama ; so 

 that Pierre le Grand, setting out to sea by the Caycos, took this grand ship with all the 

 ea?e imaginable. The Spaniards found aboard were set ashore, and the vessel was sent to 

 France. "The manner how this undaunted spirit attempted and took this large ship/' 

 says the narrator, "I shall give you out of the journal of the author in his own words, 

 ' The boat/ says he, ' wherein Pierre le Grand was with his companions had been at sea 

 a long time without finding any prize worth his taking, and their provisions beginning to 



PIERRE LE GRAND TAKING THE SPANISH VESSEL. 



fail, they were in danger of starving. Being almost reduced to despair, they spied a great 

 ship of the Spanish flota separated from the rest ; this vessel they resolved to take, or die 

 in the attempt. Hereupon they sailed towards her to view her strength. And though 

 they judged tha vessel to be superior to theirs, yet their covetousness and the extremity 

 they were reduced to made them venture. Being come so near that they could not possibly 

 escape, they made an oath to their captain, Pierre le Grand, to stand by him to the last. 

 'Tis true, the pirates did believe they should find the ship unprovided to fight, and therefore 

 the sooner master her. It was in the dusk of the evening they began to attack ; but 

 before they engaged they ordered the surgeon of the boat to bore a hole in the sides 

 of it, that their own vessel sinking under them, they might be compelled to attack more 

 vigorously, and endeavour more hastily to board the ship. This was done accordingly ; and 

 without any other arms than a pistol in one hand and a sword in the other, they immediately 

 climbed up the sides of the ship, and ran altogether into the great cabin, where they found 

 the captain, with several of his companions, playing at cards. Here they set a pistol to 



