The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1899-05-24
THE FOUNDERED GALLEON.
By wEATHERBY OHEsNEY AND
ALI0k MUNRO
copyright, isss. by the Authors

Copyright 1SsS. by the Authors.1
"The don was ablaze with banner
and ancients [ensignsl and on the am
pie belly of her forecourse was depicted
the head Of st. Catherine, her patron
ess with all the gauds and embellish
ments Of the master painters art. Sh,
was replete with carvings and gildings
with high fore and after castles, with
close quarters and with all the Spanish
devices for naval fertilization. and IL
good sooth she was as brave q ship al
ever breasted Atlantic or lured honest
English buccaneer to plumber.
"Thus far had / writ before we came
within shot range. Our fellows. as ii
always their wont. had set q cask Of
strong ale abroach in the waist and
were feasting ard making merry, fol
fear lest the hap Of war should take
from them other opportunity Of doing
that same again. The don, seeing that
his heels were too dull to give US the
slip, triced boarding MEETINGS up to his
lower yardarms. opened his ports and
ran out the guns. and in fne made all
ready for action. He was willing enough
to run had chance been given him to do
&c. but now that he was cornered had
30 notion Of yielding his treasure with
out battle But as this fell out az we
had anticipated we were In nowise dis
mayed nor surprised, but cleared our
pipes with loud voiced drinking SONG,
worked round to windward Of him and
held on to within inusket range with
out throwing a shot.
1.-THE don had been burning powder
for good half hour before our culverins
and falconets hurtled back their mes
sage Indeed his great ordnance on both
broadsides had been splitting away at
one and the same time, so that we
guessed at the confusion that was rag
ing in his tween decks and took com
fort therefrom nightly. remembering
that one small ball driven home is
worth dozen score of heavy ones
which miss their bourne Owing to the
closeness Of our approach, the don's
gunners could not well depress the muz-
zIes Of their pieces, by reason Of the
narrowness Of the gun ports; so that
even the few shot whose direction was
true had too great elevation and whis-
tied harmlessly over our mastheads or
sang through the upper rigging, and
save for cheesehole punched in the
main topsail and lee fore topmast
backstay shot in twain we were not a
whit the worse for his pelting when at
length we began our own.
"Having run up into such short range
before gave the word to fire, we hacked
him through and through with our very
first broadside, and the groans and yells
from his tween decks told us that we
had made commendable slaughter. but
by this time the arquebusiers in his
roundtops had steadied down to their
work and were browning my gun crews
somewhat too cavalierly. So l babe my
fellows load up with bar and chain
shot, knock out some Of their quoins
and have at the don's rigging for all
their skins were worth, which salute
the gnlleon acknowledged by bowling to
us with his foremost head. which had
been twice hit by shot from my main
deck culverins. Roundtop and sharp
shooters, foreyard and the great belly
ing course with its gaudy painting
came down by the run; the galleon slid
up head to wind, in spite of her timo-
neer's every effort, and we had her at
our mercy,
"After this l ran ahead and in
series Of short tacks raked her with
alternate broadsides. to which she could
hardly reply with gum for her bow
ehasers were masked by the rattle Of
wreckage, and when any Of her people
sought to remove this they. too, were
mown down by our incessant fire.. And
had the fates permitted me to carry on
this game of long bowls, she must per.
force have yielded Internationally.
"But when another half dozen broad.
sides must nave reduced her word was
passed that the powder had run com.
pletely out, for we had come into action
with but poorly stocked magazine,
not having found opportunity to re.
plenish 1t Of late. Forgetful of this, we
had been burning the precious grains
with fevsrish haste, and the erinning
little powder monkey who brought me
the tidings declared that there was not
another tub left.
" TITS truly vezatious when en- hon
est buccaneer finds himself in strait
like this, but there was no help for it.
We could not get more powder by mere
and we could not fire shot
without it. We had naught therefore
bnt cold steel left to rely upon, but
cold steel has laid many Spaniard low
at my hands land will, please heaven,
10 the like to many more). So, trust
ing in that sang out, up helmr and
cried for boarders.
"We ran down alongside and threw
our grapple. The Spanish gunners
poured in fierce fire to our deserted
tween decks, but armed with pike,
hanger and boarding AK we scaled
their lofty upper works and hacked our
way through the MEETINGS inboard.
"Flushed with victory and nerved
with strength by thoughts Of the golden
hoard below, my fellows were not to be
'esisted, and save for a party headed
~ the Spanish COMMUNICATIVE re-