was then under the
impression that I had fallen into the hands of a fellow soldier. But
now that I find my captor to be merely a common pirate, it is not
consonant with my honour to afford you any further information."

"As you please, senor," answered George, in nowise ruffled by the Don's
reiteration of the term "pirate," which in those days carried nothing
like the opprobrious signification that it bears to-day. "It matters
not; for I shall cause your ship to be thoroughly searched from stem to
stern before I destroy her. But as you seem to be imbued with so very
strong an animus against me, I must put you in confinement while your
ship is being searched, lest you should feel tempted to do something
which you would afterwards be sorry for." So saying, young Saint Leger
threw open the door of a state-room in the lock of which he observed a
key and, signing to the Spaniard to enter, closed the door and locked
the man in, much to the haughty Don's undisguised disgust. Then, having
first called in a man from the deck to stand sentry over the door, he
went out on deck to see how matters were proceeding there.

He found that the task of separating the wounded from the dead and the
disposal of the former as comfortably as might be on board the ships to
which they respectively belonged, was upon the eve of completion,
whereupon, after giving Dyer certain further orders, George called to
Heard, the purser, and a couple of seamen, to accompany him, and again
entering the cabin of the prize, proceeded to subject it to a thorough
systematic search, beginning with the captain's own private state-room.
Here, as George quite expected, they found, in a locked desk, a large
number of documents, including bills of lading, official instructions,
and so on; and among the latter a paper authorising Don Pasquale to
deliver over to Don Martin Enriquez, the Viceroy of Mexico, at San Juan
de Ulua, the sum of one hundred thousand gold pezos, to be used for
payment of the troops and the expenses connected with the government of
the country. This was a prize indeed worth having, and George at once
proceeded to the cabin in which the Don was confined, and apprising him
of the discovery of the document, demanded to be informed where the
money was to be found. But the Don flatly refused to supply the
information, admitting indeed that the treasure was aboard the ship, but
assuring George that it was so carefully concealed that no one but