oa to the Main they were able to
take it easy till a ship came by from one of the Spanish ports. If she
seemed a reasonable prey, without too many guns, and not too high
charged, or high built, the privateers would load their muskets, and row
down to engage her. The best shots were sent into the bows, and excused
from rowing, lest the exercise should cause their hands to tremble. A
clever man was put to the steering oar, and the musketeers were bidden
to sing out whenever the enemy yawed, so as to fire her guns. It was in
action, and in action only, that the captain had command over his men.
The steersman endeavoured to keep the masts of the quarry in a line,
and to approach her from astern. The marksmen from the bows kept up a
continual fire at the vessel's helmsmen, if they could be seen, and at
any gun-ports which happened to be open. If the helmsmen could not be
seen from the sea, the canoas aimed to row in upon the vessel's
quarters, where they could wedge up the rudder with wooden chocks or
wedges. They then laid her aboard over the quarter, or by the after
chains, and carried her with their knives and pistols. The first man to
get aboard received some gift of money at the division of the spoil.

[Footnote 15: Dampier and Exquemeling.]

When the prize was taken, the prisoners were questioned, and despoiled.
Often, indeed, they were stripped stark naked, and granted the privilege
of seeing their finery on a pirate's back. Each buccaneer had the right
to take a shift of clothes out of each prize captured. The cargo was
then rummaged, and the state of the ship looked to, with an eye to using
her as a cruiser. As a rule, the prisoners were put ashore on the first
opportunity, but some buccaneers had a way of selling their captives
into slavery. If the ship were old, leaky, valueless, in ballast, or
with a cargo useless to the rovers, she was either robbed of her guns,
and turned adrift with her crew, or run ashore in some snug cove, where
she could be burnt for the sake of the iron-work. If the cargo were of
value, and, as a rule, the ships they took had some rich thing aboard
them, they sailed her to one of the Dutch, French, or English
settlements, where they sold her freight for what they could get--some
tenth or twentieth of its value. If the ship were a good one, in good
condition, well found, swift, and not of too great draught (for they
preferred to sail in small ships), they took her for their cruiser as
soon