LOLONOIS DESERTED. 27 



for the present unable to advance. A second attack was made, the pirates' orders being 

 not to fire until very close to the enemy ; and in this they were successful, as every shot 

 told. The conflict continued raging till night, when the Spaniards hoisted the white flag 

 and desired to parley, the only conditions they required being that the pirates should give 

 the inhabitants quarter for two hours. This was a ruse to enable them to carry off and 

 hide their valuables. Granting this request, the pirates marched into the town, and 

 continued there the two hours without committing the least outrage ; but the time past, 

 Lolonois ordered that the inhabitants should be followed, robbed of all they had carried 

 away, and made prisoners. They had succeeded, however, knowing the country, in making 

 such good use of their time that the pirates could only capture a few sacks of indigo. 

 Having remained there a few days, committing all kinds of outrages and stealing all they 

 could, they returned to the coast, rejoining some of their companions, who had been engaged 

 in robbing the poor fishermen of the coast, and others who came from Guatemala. A 

 vessel from Spain was daily expected to arrive off this river, and they left two canoes 

 to attack her, whilst they went over to some islands on the other side of the gulf to careen 

 and cleanse their ships and obtain provisions, they knowing well that turtle abounded. They 

 also made a number of ropes and nets from the rind of the maeoa-tree, and obtained a 

 quantity of a kind of bitumen or pitch, useful on board ship. In short, these islands would 

 seem to supply nearly all that was required for the seaman's use. 



The pirates, having been in the gulf three months, received advice that the expected 

 Spanish ship had arrived, and hastened to the spot where she lay unloading her merchandise. 

 They had previously sent away some of the boats to seek for a smaller vessel, also expected, 

 richly laden with plate, indigo, and cochineal. Meanwhile the ship's crew, expecting an 

 attack, had prepared for a good defence. Her armanent consisted of forty-two guns, and 

 she had on board one hundred and thirty well-armed men. Lolonois simply laughed at 

 all this, and assaulted them with great courage. His own ship had but twenty-two guns. 

 The Spaniards behaved excellently, and forced the pirates to retire momentarily, but Lolonois 

 was still equal to the occasion. Taking advantage of the dense smoke caused by the bad powder 

 of those days, he again attacked the ship, boarded her from all sides, and forced the Spaniards 

 to surrender. They were considerably chagrined to find that their fight had been almost for 

 nothing piratically considered for they found on board little more than fifty bars of iron, 

 a small parcel of paper, and some earthen jars of wine. 



Lolonois now called a council of war, and stated that he was bound for Guatemala. A 

 division of opinion immediately arose, and he was especially opposed by some of the men who 

 were but " green hands " in the art of piracy, and who had expected long ere this to have 

 become wealthy, or, as the chronicler puts it, had expected " that pieces of eight were 

 .gathered as easy as pears from a tree.'" Many of these immediately seceded and left the 

 fleet, returning home as best they might. Another section averred that they would rather 

 starve than return without plenty of prize money. The major part did not approve of the 

 proposed voyage, and separated from Lolonois and his adherents. Their ring-leaders, Moses 

 Vanclein and Pierre le Picard, on the voyage home, pillaged a town in Costa Rica, but only 

 gained some seven or eight pounds of native gold. 



Lolonois, thus deserted by the larger number of his companions, remained alone in the 



