in the hold of the
_Rosario_ "which we turned away loose into the sea," with the stuff
aboard her. One pig of the 700 was brought aboard the pirates "to make
bullets of." About two-thirds of it was "melted and squandered," but
some of it was left long afterwards, when the _Trinity_ touched at
Antigua. Here they gave what was left to "a Bristol man," probably in
exchange for a dram of rum. The Bristol man took it home to England "and
sold it there for L75 sterling." "Thus," said Ringrose, "we parted with
the richest booty we got in the whole voyage." Captain Bartholomew Sharp
was responsible for the turning adrift of all this silver. Some of the
pirates had asked leave to hoist it aboard the _Trinity_. But it chanced
that, aboard the _Rosario_, was a Spanish lady, "the beautifullest
Creature" that the "Eyes" of Captain Sharp ever beheld. The amorous
captain was so inflamed by this beauty that he paid no attention to
anything else.

In a very drunken and quarrelsome condition, the pirates worked the
_Trinity_ round the Horn, and so home to Barbadoes. They did not dare to
land there, for one of the King's frigates, H.M.S. _Richmond_, was lying
at Bridgetown, and the pirates "feared lest the said frigate should
seize us." They bore away to Antigua, where Ringrose, and "thirteen
more," shipped themselves for England. They landed at Dartmouth on the
26th of March 1682. A few more of the company went ashore at Antigua,
and scattered to different haunts. Sharp and a number of pirates landed
at Nevis, from whence they shipped for London. The ship the _Trinity_
was left to seven of the gang who had diced away all their money. What
became of her is not known.

Sharp and a number of his men were arrested in London, and tried for
piracy, but the Spanish Ambassador, who brought the charge, was without
evidence and could not obtain convictions. They pleaded that "the
Spaniards fired at us first," and that they had acted only in
self-defence, so they 'scaped hanging, though Sharp admits that they
"were very near it." Three more of the crew were laid by the heels at
Jamaica, and one of these was "wheedled into an open confession," and
condemned, and hanged. "The other two stood it out, and escaped for want
of witnesses."

Of the four men so often quoted in this narrative, only one, so far as
we know, died a violent death. This was Basil Ringrose, who was shot at
Santa Pecaque a few years later. It is not known how Dampier, Wafer, and