no friction among the crews. They were
getting hammered into shape, too, under Morgan's hard drilling, and it
was a vastly more dangerous body of men than the drunken gang who had
sailed away from Jamaica. Though not the equal of the former
buccaneering bands who had performed in their nefarious careers unheard
of prodigies of valor and courage, they were still not to be despised.
Had it been known on the Spanish Main that such a body was afloat there
would have been a thrill of terror throughout the South American
continent, for there were many who could remember with the vividness of
eye-witnesses and participants the career of crime and horror which the
old buccaneers had inaugurated.

Like a politic captain, Morgan had done his best to get the men whom he
had subdued by his intrepid courage and consummate address into good
humor. Rum and spirits were served liberally, work was light, in fact
none except the necessary seaman's duties were required of the men,
although an hour or two every day was employed in hard drill with
swords, small arms, and great guns. In martial exercises the veterans
were perfect, and they assiduously endeavored to impart their knowledge
to the rest.

It was Morgan's plan to run boldly into La Guayra under the Spanish
flag. No one could possibly take the _Almirante Recalde_ for anything
but a Spanish ship. There was no reason for suspecting the presence of
an enemy, for Spain had none in these seas. If there were other ships in
the roadstead, for the harbor of La Guayra was really nothing more than
an open road, the buccaneer could easily dispose of them in their
unprepared condition. Indeed, Morgan rather hoped that there might be
others, for, after he captured them, he would have a greater force of
guns to train upon the forts of the town, which he expected to take
without much difficulty, and then be governed in his manoeuvres toward
Caracas by circumstances as they arose.

Two days after the capture of the galleon, then, with the wind fresh
from the northeast, on a gray, threatening, stormy morning, she was
running to the westward along the shore. A few hours at their present
speed would bring them opposite La Guayra, whose location at the foot of
the mighty La Silla of Caracas was even then discernible. Morgan could
see that there were two or three other vessels opposite the town
straining at their anchors in the heavy sea. Every preparation for
action had been made in good time and