ence wi' the silly
fules and vowed he'd make 'em trade wi' us, whether they wanted to or
no; so we in the _Judith_ and another ship were sent round to a place
called La Hacha. When we arrived and made to enter, the forts opened
fire upon us! So we and t'other ship blockaded the place for five days,
sufferin' nothin' to go in or come out; and then along come the admiral
wi' the rest o' the ships, and we got to work in earnest. The shore-
artillery and two hunderd soldiers was landed, the batteries was
stormed, and we took the town, drivin' all the Spaniards out of it; and
be sure that Cap'n Drake and Mr Saint Leger was among the first to get
inside. That was enough for they Spanishers; a'ter that they was ready
enough to trade wi' us; and indeed that same night some of 'em comed
back, bringin' their goold and their pearls with 'em; and avore we left
the place we'd parted wi' no less than two hunderd blacks.

"And so things went on until we'd a sold every black that remained; and
by that time we'd got so much goold and so many pearls that the admiral
was afeard that if we tried to get more we mid lose all, and
accordin'ly, a'ter holdin' a council o' war, it was decided to make for
whoam, and we bore away up north to get into the Gulf Stream to help us
to beat up again' the easterly winds that do blow always in them parts.
But, as it turned out, we couldn't ha' done a worse thing. For we'd no
sooner weathered Cape Yucatan than there fell upon us two o' the most
awful gales that mortal man can pictur', pretty nigh all our canvas was
blowed clean out of the bolt-ropes, some o' the ships was dismasted, the
sea--well, I don't know what I can compare it to, unless 'tis to
mountains, it runned so high; and as for the poor little _Judith_, 'twas
only by the mercy o' God and Cap'n Drake's fine seamanship that she
didn't go straight to the bottom. By the time that them there
hurricanes was over the ships was not much better nor wrecks, and 'twas
useless to think o' makin' the v'yage home in 'em in that condition, so
our admiral made the signal to bear up and run for San Juan de Ulua.
And when we arrived there, if you'll believe me, madam and Mr Garge, we
found no less than twelve big galleons, loaded wi' goold an' silver,
waitin' for the rest o' the Plate fleet and its convoy to sail for Old
Spain! And the very next day the ships as was expected arrived off the
port and found us English in possession!

"Then there was a pre