28 THE ISTHMUS OF PANAMA. 



all was gone, and their repining was altogether use- 

 less. 



Perseverance and incessant toil soon surrounded 

 them again with the comforts they had lost ; and the 

 security they felt in their new and now partially for- 

 tified home, made them forget their old one, when, 

 after a lapse of fifteen years, they were again af- 

 frighted with the intelligence that the freebooters 

 were in their vicinity, and, doubtless, would revisit 

 them. Spies were sent out, and returned giving an 

 account of a number of the ships of the freebooters 

 at anchor, about thirty leagues below, at a place 

 called the King's Islands. Hourly expecting an at- 

 tack, they prepared themselves (this time behind 

 their entrenchments) to receive the enemy warmly. 



The fleet of the buccaneers was composed of ten 

 vessels — two frigates, four ships, three barks, and a 

 brig. Out of the ten commanders, eight were Eng- 

 lish, one French, and the other Dutch — the last, call- 

 ed David, was their admiral. The total number of 

 men was eleven hundred. 



The greater part of these vessels had been captur- 

 ed by some Englishmen under David, and brought 

 through the Straits of Magellan to the Pacific. Their 

 principal object was not, however, to attack the new 

 city, but to lie in wait for the Spanish fleet, which at 

 that season of the year (April) was coming from Lima 

 to Panama. Still, to keep his men employed, rather 

 than have them gambling on board, in idleness, the 

 admiral had no objection to their doing a little land 

 service, where something could be gained, with little 



