Page:A Mainsail Haul - Masefield - 1913.djvu/121
THE VOYAGE OF THE CYGNET 109
to Panama. We were resolved to fight them before we had reached this strength, and had laui in wait 6 months for them, but now we hear that they are at sea, and ex- pect them every day. If we have success against them we sliall make a desperate alarm all Europe over. I have some money which I wish were with you, for my wife. I shall, with God's help, do things which (were it with my Prince's leave) would make her a lady; but now I cannot tell but it may bring me to a halter. But if it doth my comfort is that I shall die for that I cannot help. Pray present my faithful love to my dear wife, and assure her she is never out of my mind.
��After failing in his attempt upon the treasure fleet, Captain Davis, the Buccaneer Commodore, took his squadron towards Rio Lejo, on the western coast of Mexico, where, "about 8 leagues from the shore," at eight in the forenoon, 520 buc- caneers, mostly English, went down the sides of their ships into their boats. There were thirty-one canoas for their accommodation, some of them of nearly forty feet in length, and five or six feet broad. They were "dug-outs" of the most prim- itive type, but the buccaneers were not particular as to the build of their crafts. They settled upon their thwarts ; one of them piped a song, " and the
�� �
