nd this brought the blacks like
flies round a honey-pot. The news of it caught Puerto Bello at a
moment when there was not a single Royal ship in the harbour.
The Governor lost his head and the priests likewise. Getting word
that Diaz was marching straight on the place, and not five leagues
distant, they fell to emptying the banks in a panic, stripping the
churches, and fetching up treasure from the vaults of the religious
houses. There happened to be a schooner lying in the harbour--the
_Rosaway_, built at Marblehead--lately taken by the Spaniards off
Campeachy, with her crew, that were under lock and key ashore,
waiting trial for cutting logwood without licence. The priests
commandeered this Vessel and piled her up with gold, the Governor
sending down a guard of soldiers to protect it; but in the middle
of the night, on an alarm that Diaz had come within a mile of the
gates, the dunderhead drew off half of this guard to strengthen the
garrison. On their way back to the citadel these soldiers were met
and passed in the dark by the _Rosaway's_ crew, that had managed to
break prison, and in the confusion had somehow picked up the
password. Sparke was the name of _Rosaway's_ skipper, a Marblehead
man; the mate, Griffiths, came from somewhere in Wales; the rest,
five in number, being likewise mixed English and Americans.
They picked up a shore-boat down by the harbour, rowed off to the
ship, got on board by means of the password, and within twenty
minutes had knocked all the Spaniards on the head, themselves losing
only one man. Thereupon, of course, they slipped cable and stood out
to sea. Next morning the _Rosaway_ hadn't been three hours out of
sight before two Spanish gun-ships came sailing in from Cartagena,
having been sent over in a hurry to protect the place; and one of
them started in chase. The _Rosaway_, being speedy, got away for the
time, and it was not till three weeks later that the Spaniards ran
down on her, snug and tight at anchor in a creek of this same island
of Mortallone. She was empty as a drum, and her crew ashore in a
pretty state of fever and mutiny. The Spaniards landed and took the
lot, all but the mate Griffiths, that was supposed to have been
knifed by Sparke, but two of the prisoners declared that he was alive
and hiding. They hanged four, saving only Sparke, keeping him to
show where the treasure was hidden. He led them halfway across the
island, lured them into a swamp, and ma