sed
to be merely sea-robbers, who fell upon ships after they had left their
ports, but who now set out to capture not only ships at sea but towns on
land.

L'Olonnois had too much sense to run his ships close under the guns of
the fortress, against which he could expect to do nothing, for the
buccaneers relied but little upon their cannon, and so they paid no
more attention to the ordinary harbor than if it had not been there, but
sailed into a fresh-water lake at some distance from the town, and out
of sight of the tower. There L'Olonnois landed his men, and, advancing
upon the fort from the rear, easily crossed over to the little island
and marched upon the fort. It was very early in the morning. The
garrison was utterly amazed by this attack from land, and although they
fought bravely for three hours, they were obliged to give up the defence
of the walls, and as many of them as could do so got out of the fort and
escaped to the mainland and the town.

L'Olonnois now took possession of the fort, and then, with the greater
part of his men, he returned to his ships, brought them around to the
entrance of the bay, and then boldly sailed with his whole fleet under
the very noses of the cannon and anchored in the harbor in front of the
town.

When the citizens of Maracaibo heard from the escaping garrison that the
fort had been taken, they were filled with horror and dismay, for they
had no further means of defence. They knew that the pirates had come
there for no other object than to rob, pillage, and cruelly treat them,
and consequently as many as possible hurried away into the woods and the
surrounding country with as many of their valuables as they could carry.
They resembled the citizens of a town attacked by the cholera or the
plague, and in fact, they would have preferred a most terrible
pestilence to this terrible scourge of piracy from which they were about
to suffer.

As soon as L'Olonnois and his wild pirates had landed in the city they
devoted themselves entirely to eating and drinking and making themselves
merry. They had been on short commons during the latter part of their
voyage, and they had a royal time with the abundance of food and wine
which they found in the houses of the town. The next day, however, they
set about attending to the business which had brought them there, and
parties of pirates were sent out into the surrounding country to find
the people who had run away and to take from them the