en on board the Spanish ship, stripped of everything
they possessed, even their clothes, and shut up in the hold. A crew from
the Spanish ships was sent to man the vessel which had been captured,
and then the little fleet set sail for San Francisco in Campeachy.

An hour had worked a very great change in the fortunes of Bartholemy and
his men; in the fine cabin of their grand prize they had feasted and
sung, and had gloried over their wonderful success, and now, in the
vessel of their captor, they were shut up in the dark, to be enslaved or
perhaps executed.

But it is not likely that any one of them either despaired or repented;
these are sentiments very little in use by pirates.

Chapter VII

The Pirate who could not Swim

When the little fleet of Spanish vessels, including the one which had
been captured by Bartholemy Portuguez and his men, were on their way to
Campeachy, they met with very stormy weather so that they were
separated, and the ship which contained Bartholemy and his companions
arrived first at the port for which they were bound.

The captain, who had Bartholemy and the others in charge, did not know
what an important capture he had made; he supposed that these pirates
were ordinary buccaneers, and it appears that it was his intention to
keep them as his own private prisoners, for, as they were all very
able-bodied men, they would be extremely useful on a ship. But when his
vessel was safely moored, and it became known in the town that he had a
company of pirates on board, a great many people came from shore to see
these savage men, who were probably looked upon very much as if they
were a menagerie of wild beasts brought from foreign lands.

Among the sightseers who came to the ship was a merchant of the town who
had seen Bartholemy before, and who had heard of his various exploits.
He therefore went to the captain of the vessel and informed him that he
had on board one of the very worst pirates in the whole world, whose
wicked deeds were well known in various parts of the West Indies, and
who ought immediately to be delivered up to the civil authorities. This
proposal, however, met with no favor from the Spanish captain, who had
found Bartholemy a very quiet man, and could see that he was a very
strong one, and he did not at all desire to give up such a valuable
addition to his crew. But the merchant grew very angry, for he knew that
Bartholemy had inflicted great injury on Spanish comm