afer against all the casualties of winds and seas than the galleon;
and the securing the prisoners was a matter of still more consequence,
as not only the possession of the treasure, but the lives of the
captors, depended thereon. This was indeed an article which gave the
commodore much trouble and disquietude; for they were above double the
number of his own people; and some of them, when they were brought on
board the Centurion, and had observed how slenderly she was manned,
and the large proportion which the striplings bore to the rest, could
not help expressing themselves with great indignation to be thus
beaten by a handful of boys. The method, which was taken to hinder
them from rising, was by placing all but the officers and the
wounded in the hold, where, to give them as much air as possible, two
hatch-ways were left open; but then (to avoid all danger, whilst
the Centurion's people should be employed upon the deck) there was a
square partition of thick planks, made in the shape of a funnel,
which enclosed each hatch-way on the lower deck, and reached to
that directly over it on the upper deck; these funnels served to
communicate the air to the hold better than could have been done
without them; and, at the same time, added greatly to the security of
the ship; for they being seven or eight feet high, it would have been
extremely difficult for the Spaniards to have clambered up; and
still to augment that difficulty, four swivel-guns loaded with
musquet-bullets were planted at the mouth of each funnel, and a
centinel with lighted match constantly attended, prepared to fire into
the hold amongst them, in case of any disturbance. Their officers,
who amounted to seventeen or eighteen, were all lodged in the first
lieutenant's cabin, under a constant guard of six men; and the
general, as he was wounded, lay in the commodore's cabin with a
centinel always with him; and they were all informed, that any
violence or disturbance would be punished with instant death. And
that the Centurion's people might be at all times prepared, if,
notwithstanding these regulations, any tumult should arise, the small
arms were constantly kept loaded in a proper place, whilst all the men
went armed with cutlasses and pistols; and no officer ever pulled off
his cloaths, and when he slept had always his arms lying ready by him.

These measures were obviously necessary, considering the hazards to
which the commodore and his people would have