WIDESPREAD FEAR OF THE PIRATES. 55 



the place about four or five years before. The captain having received this intelligence 

 sent two loaves of sugar to the bishop as a present. The next day the merchant who 

 carried them, returning to Tavoga, brought the captain a gold ring, and a message to 

 Captain Sawkins from the President above mentioned, to know farther of him, since they 

 were Englishmen, " From whom they had their commission, and to whom he ought to 

 complain for the damages they had already done them ? " To this message Captain 

 Sawkins sent back for an answer, " that as yet all his company were not come together, 

 l>ut that when they were come up, they would come and visit him at Panama, and bring 

 their commissions on the muzzles of their guns; at which time he should read them as 

 plain as the flame of gunpowder could make them." But Sawkins's bravado never came to 

 anything, and he was shortly afterwards killed at Puebla Nueva. 



But the impression made by the pirates' deeds had spread far and wide. Some time 

 afterwards, when Captain Sharp, who succeeded Sawkins, and had made several captures in the 

 meantime, took a vessel of the Spanish armada on that coast (not the Great Armada, gentle 

 reader ; the word simply signifies " fleet ") the captain proved to them in a speech how 

 the fame and fear of the pirates had pervaded the South Pacific, and what preparations 

 had been made to resist them. He said, " Gentlemen, I am now your prisoner of war 

 by the overruling providence of Fortune ; and, moreover, am very well satisfied that 

 no money whatsoever can procure my ransom, at least for the present, at your 

 hands ; hence I am persuaded it is not my interest to tell you a lie, which if I do, 

 I desire you to punish me as severely as you think fit. "We heard of your taking and 

 destroying our armadilla and other ships at Panama, about six weeks after that engage- 

 ment, by two several barks which arrived here from thence; but they could not inform 

 us whether you designed to come any farther to the southward, but rather desired we 

 would send them speedily all the help by sea that we possibly could; hereupon we 

 sent the rumour of your being in these seas to Lima, desiring they would expedite 

 what succour they could send to join with ours. We had at that time in our harbour 

 two or three great ships, but all of them very unfit to sail ; for this reason, at Lima, the 

 Viceroy of Peru pressed three large merchant-ships, into the biggest of which he put 

 fourteen brass guns, into the second ten, and in the other six. Unto these he added two 

 barks, and put 750 men on board them all. Of this number of men they landed eight 

 score at Point St. Helen, all the rest being carried down to Panama, with design to fight 

 you there. Besides these forces two other men-of-war, bigger than the afore-mentioned, 

 are still lying at Lima, and fitting out with all speed to follow and pursue you. One of 

 these men-of-war is equipped with thirty-six brass guns, and the other with thirty ; these 

 ships, besides their complement of seamen, have 400 soldiers added to them by the viceroy. 

 Another man-of-war belonging to this number, and lesser than the afore-mentioned, is 

 called the PatacJie. This ship carries twenty-four guns, and was sent to Arica to fetch 

 the king's plate from thence ; but the viceroy having received intelligence of your exploits 

 at Panama, sent for this ship back from thence in such haste that they came away and 

 left the money behind them. Hence the PatacJie now lies at the port of Callao, ready to 

 sail on the first occasion, or news of your arrival thereabout ; they having for this purpose 

 sent to all parts very strict orders to keep a good look-out on all sides, and all places along 



