here I hoped
to find some Trading Vessel of heavier Burden to take me to
Constantinople. The Mediterranean Sea here very beautiful, and
delightful to see the Dolphins, Tunnies, and other Fish, that frequently
leapt out of the Water, and followed our Ship in great Numbers. Also a
Waterspout, which is a Phenomenon very well known to Seamen in the
Levant Trade, and reckoned very dangerous. It looked mighty Fierce and
Terrific; and our Sailors, to conjure it away, had recourse to the
Superstitious Devices of cutting the air with a Black-Handled Knife, and
reading the First Chapter of St. John's Gospel, accounted of great
Efficacy in dispersing these Spouts.

Woe is me! After Six Days' most pleasant Sailing, and after doubling
Cape Spada, and in very sight of Canea (which is the Port of Candia), a
strange Sail hove in Sight, gave Chase, came up to us an hour before
sundown, and without as much as, By your leave, or With your leave,
opened Fire upon us. A Couple of Swingeers from her Double-shotted Guns
were a Bellyful for our poor little Speronare, in which there were but
Ten Men and a Boy, Passengers included; and we were fain to submit. Oh,
the intolerable Shame and Disgrace! that Jack Dangerous, who had been
All Round the World with that Renowned Commander, Captain Blokes, and
had Chased, Taken, and Plundered many a good tall ship belonging to the
Spaniards,--ay, and had landed on their Main, Spoiled their Cities and
Settlements, Toasted their fine Ladies, and held their Chief Governors
to Ransom,--should be laid in the Bilboes by a Rascally African Pirate
Vessel mounting Nine Guns, and belonging to the most Heathenish,
Knavish, and Bloodthirsty Town of Algiers. My Gall works now to think of
it; but Force was against us, and the Disaster was not to be helped. I
was in such a Mad Rage as to be near Braining the Captain of the
Speronare with a Marline-Spike, and would have assuredly blown out the
Brains of the first Moor that boarded us, had not the Italian Captain
and his Mate seized each one of my arms, and by Main Force wrested my
Weapons from me. And in this (though hotly enraged with 'em at first,
and calling them all kinds of Abusive Epithets) I think they acted less
like Traitors than like Persons of Sense and Discretion; for what were
we Ten (and the Boy) against full Fifty powerful Devils, all armed to
the Teeth, and who would assuredly have cut all our Throats had we shown
the least Resistance?

So they had thei