The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-12-10

bNGIdIltEl6 NiS, cI NAiN Cliu pA ANPA II and the beginning of May, entirely dried up; but they saw seats made by them of stone and earth, and consid- erable number of broken jars scattered about and some whole of the kind in which Peruvian wine and liquors are preserved They also found daggers, nails and other implements. Captain Davis Porter of the Essex also visited the Galapagos Islands, likewise Santa Maria, and reported that he found goats and sheep there running wild. His visit must have been about one hundred and twenty-five years after the departure of the buccaneers.
 Other accounts state that the island of Santa Maria is surrounded by reef through which there are few passages. The surf breaks furiously on the reef and the breakers are suggestiVely swarming with sharks. This would be a good place to hide buccaneers from the world, and to serve as a sick bay for wounded sailors who had been in- valided If they made un their minds to occupy Santa Maria, the sea rovers must have fitted it up for their accom- | modation. They naturally erected HHNlNNlN llplu sun anu Idlii, anu III them placed from time to time. young women whom they captured in their raids, and whom they destined to be the partners of their revels. They would obviously have dug a cellar, in which they deposited their treasure. A general distribution took place once a year, A wine cellar was eXcavated in a cool spot. On the rises they planted fruits and vegetables, and set apart 8 piece of ground as a paddock for goats, pigs and fowls. The water surround ing the island swarmed with nutritious | fish and turtles.
 | The report was not as desirable as | the one which the buccaneers of the spanish main had supported for so l many years on Hispanola. Game was less abundant and French wines were | more difficult to obtain, but if all ac- counts are true, it cannot have been a bad place for prayer and meditation in heavy weather and if fortune was pro- pitious 1t may have been a gay resort. Its establishment must have reused the Spaniards to the necessity of doing | something to restore their prestige
 In May, 1864, the buccaneer fleet was | lS III S dl dItuOI HedI ltlC lSldnu H9C0G- ca, the northernmost of the Earl Is lands, off Panama, waiting for the treasure ship from Lima. When morn ing broke the Spanish fleet appeared in sight about three leagues distant from them to the west-northwest, and sail ing in the wrong direction The wind was light from the southward The buccaneer fleet was composed of ves- sells of different sizes, manned with nine hundred nd sixty men, nearly all | Europeans; but only two of their ves- sells, the Cygnet and the Bachelors De- l light, carried cannon. The flagship, which was sailed by Edward Davis, mounted thirty-six guns. and had a crew of one hundred and fifty-six men. mostly English; the Cygnet, which was commanded by Swan. had sixteen guns and one hundred and forty men. all English. The other eight ships were armed with small arms, with which the buccaneers were exceedingly expert. The French buccaneer, Grogniet had three hundred and eight men on board his vessel, all good marksmen.
 The Spanish fleet numbered fourteen sail, six of which were provided with | cannon, and six with small arms only 1 two being fireships According to the records of the buccaneers, the Span- | iards had one hundred and seventy four guns, which were distributed be- tween the vessels under the command of the admiral, vice-admiral and rear admiral Their force of men was 2,500 more than one half of whom were Indi- ans or slaves. It was evident that tine policy of the buccaneers was to close with the enemy and capture his ships 1 by boarding; accordingly at D. m. Da- wis hoisted the signal for close quar- | ters. His whole fleet was set in mo- ton, and prepared to swoop down upon the Spaniards
 It Is interesting to speculate on what would have happened if the buccaneer captains orders had been carried out as he intended. Davis said himself that he intended to sweep the Spaniards off the face of the earth. Unfortunately for his plans, the Frenchman, Grogniet refused to close, and the second in command of the English buccaneers shortened sail and dropped his ensign to signify that he also favored a post ponement of the combat. Thus the golden opportunity was lost and Davis drew off his ships. When night fell the Spanard played a successful trick | upon his enemy. He ordered all his lights to be put out except those on q single vessel, which he sent to leeward The buccaneers believed that he was l trying to escape. and followed in pur- suit of an imaginary enemy; thus wher day broke the Spaniards were dscov- cred in a compact body at their an. chorage, while the buccaneers were scattered, some to windward, some tC leeward. The Spaniards got under sai and bore down on the leeward ships | Dampier who was on Davis ship, says she was pressed by the whole Spanish force. He writes:
 "The Spanish admiral and the rest oi his squadron began to play at us. ant
 We at them, as fast as we could: ye
 they kept at distant cannonading They might have laid us aboard if they would, but they came not within smal arms shot. intending to maui us il pieces with their great guns"
 On the following morning the Span
 ish fleet was seen at anchor three leagues to leeward. Until ten o'clOcl
 there was not breath of wind. A
 that hour a faint breeze sprang up and the Spaniards, instead of takinl
 advantage of it as they might hay,
 done, having the weather gauge
 skI1Iled away to Panama Pluck told