ng detail of the
sufferings of the people he had rescued, and agreed that they should
be sent on shore in two days, and they would, by that time, be well
enough to be moved. After many compliments, he went on board, the
Governor having stated his intention to return his visit on the
following day, if the weather were not too rough. Fortunately, the
weather was rough for the next two days, and it was not until the
third that the Governor made his appearance. This was precisely what
the Commodore wished.

There is no disease, perhaps, so dreadful or so rapid in its effects
upon the human frame, and at the same time so instantaneously checked,
as the scurvy, if the remedy can be procured. A few days were
sufficient to restore those, who were not able to turn in their
hammocks, to their former vigour. In the course of the six days nearly
all the crew of the _Dort_ were convalescent and able to go on deck;
but still they were not cured. The Commodore waited for the arrival of
the Governor, received him with all due honours, and then, so soon
as he was in the cabin, told him very politely that he and all
his officers with him were prisoners. That the vessel was a Dutch
man-of-war, and that it was his own people, and not Spaniards, who had
been dying of the scurvy. He consoled him, however, by pointing out
that he had thought it preferable to obtain provisions by this _ruse_,
than to sacrifice lives on both sides by taking them by force, and
that his Excellency's captivity would endure no longer than until he
had received on board a sufficient number of live bullocks and fresh
vegetables to insure the recovery of the ship's company; and, in the
meantime, not the least insult would be offered to him. Whereupon the
Spanish Governor first looked at the Commodore and then at the file of
armed men at the cabin door, and then to his distance from the town;
and then called to mind the possibility of his being taken out to sea.
Weighing all these points in his mind, and the very moderate ransom
demanded (for bullocks were not worth a dollar apiece in that
country), he resolved, as he could not help himself, to comply with
the Commodore's terms. He called for pen and ink, and wrote an order
to send on board immediately all that was demanded. Before sunset the
bullocks and vegetables were brought off, and, so soon as they were
alongside, the Commodore, with many bows and many thanks, escorted the
Governor to the gangway, complimenting