and a mixed crew of 500 buccaneers. On the way there they landed in
Cuba, although England was at peace with Spain, and marched forty miles
inland, to surprise and sack the town of Sancti Spiritus, from which they
took a rich booty.

Mansfield, "being resolved never to face the Governor of Jamaica until he
had done some service to the King," next made a very daring attack on the
Island of Old Providence, which the Spaniards had fortified and used as a
penal settlement. This was successful, and Mansfield, with great humanity,
landed all the prisoners on the mainland of America. For a long while it
had been Mansfield's dream to make this island a permanent home of the
buccaneers, as it was close to the Spanish Main, with the towns of Porto
Bello and Vera Cruz, and on the trade route of the Spanish galleons,
taking their rich cargoes to Spain.

Mansfield's next exploit was to ascend the San Juan River and to sack
Granada, the capital of Nicaragua. From there he coasted south along Costa
Rica, burning plantations, smashing the images in the churches,
ham-stringing cows and mules, and cutting down fruit-trees.

He returned in June, 1665, to Port Royal, with a rich booty. For this
inexcusable attack on a country at peace with England, Governor Modyford
mildly reproved him!

Mansfield, now an old man, died suddenly at the Island of Tortuga, off
Hispaniola, when on a visit to the French pirates there. Another account
says that he was captured by the Spaniards and taken by them to Porto
Bello, and there put to death.

MARTEEN, CAPTAIN DAVID. Buccaneer.

In 1665 he had his headquarters in Jamaica.

MARTEL, CAPTAIN JOHN.

An old Jamaican privateer. After the Peace of Utrecht, being out of
employment, he took to piracy. His career as a pirate was very successful
so long as it lasted. Cruising off Jamaica, Cuba, and other islands, he
continued taking ship after ship, with one particularly rich prize, a West
African ship containing gold-dust, elephants' teeth, and slaves. His
original command was a sloop of eight guns and a crew of eighty men, but
after a short while he commanded a small fleet consisting of two ships
(each armed with twenty guns), three sloops, and several armed prizes.
With these Martel entered a bay in a small island called Santa Cruz, near
Porto Rico, to careen and refit. This was in December, 1716, but news had
leaked out of the pirate's whereabouts, and soon there arrived on the
scene Captain Hume,