The Argosy, Vol. 75, No. 4 — page 163: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Cal SAILING WITH MORGAN. quarter-gallery and looked toward the spot where Morgan’s ship had lain the night before. There was a total blank, save for a mass of wreckage and a rift of white smoke that eddied and rippled along the surface of the sea. Presently voiccs in the fleet began to hail, and a score of boats were on the scene. The ship had simply dis- appeared, though the officers — there were about thirty of them seated in the cabin at the time of the explosion— were unhurt. But among the men the results were terrible. Over three hundred men were killed and wounded. For eight hours we hung around the spot. All that we got was the bodies of the dead. Morgan and the officers had miracu- lously escaped. It was said that the explosion was caused by the French prisoners who had been imprisoned in the hold, but it always remained a well- defined belief that the real cause lay in the amount of liquor that had been consumed on board of the Black Prince earlier in the evening. Daylight found another council gathered in the cabin of Morgan’s new flag-ship. No possible good could come now from any further delay; for not only had we failed to increase our numbers, but we had greatly weakened our strength. We must get north to Savona without delay, that our con- sorts could meet us, so that we would be strong enough to meet the Spaniard; so sunset that night found us pressing northward wnder all sail through the Windward Passage. The loss of our men was the first of a series of pieces of ill luck that be- fell us. No sooner had we dropped the Isle of Cows astern than we ran into bad weather. Head winds delayed us so that we were much longer than ever before in beating up through the pas- sage, and in rounding Inagua,which we did in a gale of wind, the Black Prince carried away her foretopgallantmast, which delayed us yet more. To make matters worse, the bou- cain that we had hastily prepared at _ 10 A | 865 Tortugas, spoiled, so that we were compelled to go upon short rations till the weather lifted and let us get more food from our consorts. Savona had a good harbor, and glad we were to drop our anchors in the bay. It was here that we had our most grievous disappointment, for we now realized for the first time how hope- less was our plan of attacking the plate- fleet. For a while I think that Morgan would not acknowledge even to himself that his plans had miscarried so badly, but when we found day after day pass- ing and still no sign from the vessels that were to have met us there, we could easily see that the plan must be given up. With only four hundred men we were simply not strong enough to ven- ture our seven vessels against the fleet that we had hoped to overcome. Moreover, it was very possible that the fleet had already passed in the same heavy weather that had at first de- layed and now held us in Savona. It was toward the end of the third week that word was passed for all the crews to gather ashore, so we came to- gether in a great crowd on the beach, our officers sitting on the bank above us and the men gathered below them, by crews. When all were come Mor- gan stepped forward and addressed us. “Well, men, our plans have miscar- ried. We cannot attack the plate fleet. ‘The attack on Porto Bello has alarmed the whole coast and their treasures will be hidden. I have another plan to offer you. Many of you may remember my old plan to attack Havana. The coun- try was raised against us, so it could not be carried out at that time. What do you say now to an attack on it from the west?” The men looked doubtful. He was wise enough not to press the point. It would have been impos- sible, of course, as he well knew, for he was shrewd enough, but it suited him for the time being to deceive us and it may be himself. COPNICGLOOOKS (C@)