mercantile transactions that he was able to send over money sufficient
to purchase a small property in Dorsetshire. He was about to return
home and take possession of it, when he was persuaded to engage in a
voyage to the Mosquito shore. On the way the vessel fell in with a
squadron of three noted pirates, Coxon, Sawkins, and Sharp. The whole
of the crew of the merchantman joining them, Dampier was compelled to go
with them also.

Soon afterwards Porto Bello was sacked by two hundred of the pirates,
each of whom obtained as his share one hundred and sixty pieces of
eight. After this the buccaneers marched across the Isthmus of Panama,
three hundred and thirty strong, under the command of Captain Sharp,
accompanied by a band of Mosquito Indians. On their way they attacked
the town of Santa Maria, where the Indians put many of the inhabitants
to death. They then embarked in a fleet of canoes and boats, and,
having deposed Sharp, chose Captain Coxon for their commander.

Shortly afterwards they separated, Dampier accompanying Sharp. Again
uniting preparatory to an attack on Panama, they encountered three
Spanish ships, and, after a severe action, in which many on both sides
fell, they captured them. Sawkins was now raised to the command, but
was killed while leading on his men in an attack on Puebla Nueva.

The pirates at length repaired to the island of Juan Fernandez to refit,
and William, one of the Mosquito Indians, was left behind.

Captain Watling, who had been elected chief, was shortly afterwards
killed in an attempt to capture Arica, and Sharp was once more placed at
the head of the band. He managed, in one of the vessels he had
captured, to double Cape Horn, and return in safety to England, where he
narrowly escaped being hung as a pirate. Dampier, meantime, with a
minority of the party, consisting of forty-four Europeans, two Mosquito
men, and a Spanish Indian, after undergoing great hardships and perils,
crossed the isthmus to the mouth of the river Concepcion, where they
obtained canoes, in which they proceeded to one of the Samballas
Islands. Here they found a French privateer, commanded by Captain
Tristan, whom they joined. Having captured a large Spanish ship, with
twelve guns and forty men, laden with sugar, tobacco, and marmalade, the
cargo was offered to the Dutch Governor of Curacoa, who was too cautious
to purchase it himself, but recommended them to go to Saint Thomas's,
which belonge