d give no
information to their brutal inquisitors, and others died without telling
what they had done with their valuables. When the town had been
thoroughly searched and sifted, the pirates sent men out into the little
villages and plantations in the country, and even hunters and small
farmers were captured and made to give up everything they possessed
which was worth taking.

For nearly three weeks these outrageous proceedings continued, and to
prove that they were lower than the brute beasts they allowed the
greater number of the prisoners collected in the church, to perish of
hunger. There were not provisions enough in the town for the pirates'
own uses and for these miserable creatures also, and so, with the
exception of a small quantity of mule flesh, which many of the prisoners
could not eat, they got nothing whatever, and slowly starved.

When L'Olonnois and his friends had been in possession of Gibraltar for
about a month, they thought it was time to leave, but their greedy souls
were not satisfied with the booty they had already obtained, and they
therefore sent messages to the Spaniards who were still concealed in the
forests, that unless in the course of two days a ransom of ten thousand
pieces of eight were paid to them, they would burn the town to the
ground. No matter what they thought of this heartless demand, it was
not easy for the scattered citizens to collect such a sum as this, and
the two days passed without the payment of the ransom, and the
relentless pirates promptly carried out their threat and set the town on
fire in various places. When the poor Spaniards saw this and perceived
that they were about to lose even their homes, they sent to the town and
promised that if the pirates would put out the fires they would pay the
money. In the hope of more money, and not in the least moved by any
feeling of kindness, L'Olonnois ordered his men to help put out the
fires, but they were not extinguished until a quarter of the town was
entirely burned and a fine church reduced to ashes.

When the buccaneers found they could squeeze nothing more out of the
town, they went on board their ships, carrying with them all the plunder
and booty they had collected, and among their spoils were about five
hundred slaves, of all ages and both sexes, who had been offered an
opportunity to ransom themselves, but who, of course, had no money with
which to buy their freedom, and who were now condemned to a captivity
wo