er to punish them
according to their deserts; but fearing the captain of the pirates
should make his escape (as he had formerly done, being their prisoner
once before) they judged it safer to leave him guarded on ship-board for
the present, while they erected a gibbet to hang him on the next day,
without any other process than to lead him from the ship to his
punishment; the rumour of which was presently brought to Bartholomew
Portugues, whereby he sought all possible means to escape that night:
with this design he took two earthen jars, wherein the Spaniards carry
wine from Spain to the West Indies, and stopped them very well,
intending to use them for swimming, as those unskilled in that art do
corks or empty bladders; having made this necessary preparation, he
waited when all should be asleep; but not being able to escape his
sentinel's vigilance, he stabbed him with a knife he had secretly
purchased, and then threw himself into the sea with the earthen jars
before-mentioned, by the help of which, though he never learned to swim,
he reached the shore, and immediately took to the woods, where he hid
himself for three days, not daring to appear, eating no other food than
wild herbs.

[Illustration: "'PORTUGUES MADE THE BEST OF HIS WAY TO DEL GOLPHO
TRISTE'"--_Page 46_]

Those of the city next day made diligent search for him in the woods,
where they concluded him to be. This strict inquiry Portugues saw from
the hollow of a tree, wherein he lay hid; and upon their return he made
the best of his way to del Golpho Triste, forty leagues from Campechy,
where he arrived within a fortnight after his escape: during which
time, as also afterwards, he endured extreme hunger and thirst, having
no other provision with him than a small calabaca with a little water:
besides the fears of falling again into the hands of the Spaniards. He
eat nothing but a few shell-fish, which he found among the rocks near
the seashore; and being obliged to pass some rivers, not knowing well
how to swim, he found at last an old board which the waves had driven
ashore, wherein were a few great nails; these he took, and with no small
labour whetted on a stone, till he had made them like knives, though not
so well; with these, and nothing else, he cut down some branches of
trees, which with twigs and osiers he joined together, and made as well
as he could a boat to waft him over the rivers: thus arriving at the
Cape of Golpho Triste, as was said, he f