STEALING CHUKCH BELLS. 



291 



place, inhabited by a Spanish colony, he fought a pitched battle 

 with two hundred horsemen, driving those who were not slain 

 back to the mountains. At another spot farther north, the In- 

 dians brought him wood and water on their backs. In May he 

 captured two prizes, taking out of them twenty thousand pounds" 

 worth of sugar, molasses, calico, marmalade, and hens, and then 

 burning them to the water's edge. He seized upon the town 

 of Paita, which he ransacked and burned, carrying off a large 

 quantity of household goods and twenty-five pounds' weight of 

 pieces-of-eight, or Spanish dollars. Off the island of Puna he- 

 fell in with a ship of two hundred and fifty tons ; but, being dis- 

 appointed at finding her empty, he sank her out of sheer spite. 

 The inhabitants of Puna were Christians, having followed the 

 example of their cacique, who had married a Spanish woman and 

 had thereupon made a profession of her religion. They were rich 

 and industrious. Cavendish pillaged the island, burned the 

 church, and carried off its five bells. Being attacked by the 

 Spaniards and natives combined, he fought a long and bloody 

 battle, after which he ravaged the fields and orchards, burned 

 four ships on the stocks, and left the town of three hundred 

 houses a heap of rubbish. He took a coasting-ship, rifled and 

 scuttled her, and compelled her captain to become his pilot. 

 He continued this course of brigandage and piracy all along the 

 South American and Mexican coasts, destroying towns, pillaging 

 custom-houses, and burning vessels. 



Early in November, Cavendish, who had been told by the 

 pilot he had taken that a vessel from the Philippines was ex- 

 pected, richly laden, at Acapulco, lay in wait for her off the 

 headland of California. She was discovered on the 4th, bearing 

 in for the Cape. She was the Santa Anna, of seven hundred 

 tons, belonging to the King of Spain, and commanded by the 

 Admiral of the South Sea. Cavendish gave chase, and, after a 

 broadside and a volley of small-arms, boarded her. He was 

 repulsed, but renewed the action with his guns and musketry, 



