It
was a full two weeks from the time that Bartholemy began his most
adventurous and difficult journey before he reached the little town
of Golpho Triste, where, as he had hoped, he found some of his buccaneer
friends. Now that his hardships and dangers were over, and when,
instead of roots and shellfish, he could sit down to good, plentiful
meals, and stretch himself upon a comfortable bed, it might have
been supposed that Bartholemy would have given himself a long rest,
but this hardy pirate had no desire for a vacation at this time.
Instead of being worn out and exhausted by his amazing exertions
and semi starvation, he arrived among his friends vigorous and energetic
and exceedingly anxious to recommence business as soon as possible.
He told them
of all that had happened to him, what wonderful good fortune
had come to him, and what terrible bad fortune had quickly
followed it, and when he had related his adventures and
his dangers he astonished even his piratical friends by
asking them to furnish him with a small vessel and about
twenty men, in order that he might go back and revenge himself,
not only for what had happened to him, but for what would
have happened if he had not taken his affairs into his own
hands.
To do daring and astounding deeds is part of the business
of a pirate, and although it was an uncommonly bold enterprise
that Bartholemy contemplated, he got his vessel and he got
his men, and away he sailed. After a voyage of about eight
days he came in sight of the little seaport town, and sailing
slowly along the coast, he waited until nightfall before
entering the harbor. Anchored at a considerable distance
from shore was the great Spanish ship on which he had been
a prisoner, and from which he would have been taken and
hung in the public square; the sight of the vessel filled
his soul with a savage fury known only to pirates and bull
dogs.
As the little vessel slowly approached the great ship, the
people on board the latter thought it was a trading vessel
from shore, and allowed it to come alongside, such small
craft seldom coming from the sea. But the moment Bartholemy
reached the ship he scrambled up its side almost as rapidly
as he had jumped down from it with his two wine jars a few
weeks before, and every one of his crew, leaving their own
vessel to take care of itself, scrambled up after him.
Nobody on board was prepared to defend the ship. It was
the same old story; resting quietly in a peaceful harbor,
what danger had they to expect? As usual the pirates had
everything their own way; they were ready to fight, and
the others were not, and they were led by a man who was
determined to take that ship without giving even a thought
to the ordinary alternative of dying in the attempt. The
affair was more of a massacre than a combat, and there were
people on board who did not know what was taking place until
the vessel had been captured.
As soon as Bartholemy was master of the great vessel he
gave orders to slip the cable and hoist the sails, for he
was anxious to get out of that harbor as quickly as possible.
The fight had apparently attracted no attention in the town,
but there were ships in the port whose company the bold
buccaneer did not at all desire, and as soon as possible
he got his grand prize under way and went sailing out of
the port.
Now, indeed, was Bartholemy triumphant; the ship he had
captured was a finer one and a richer one than that other
vessel which had been taken from him. It was loaded with
valuable merchandise, and we may here remark that for some
reason or other all Spanish vessels of that day, which were
so unfortunate as to be taken by pirates, seemed to be richly
laden.
If our bold pirate had sung wild pirate songs, as he passed
the flowing bowl while carousing with his crew in the cabin
of the Spanish vessel he had first captured, he now sang
wilder songs, and passed more flowing bowls, for this prize
was a much greater one than the first. If Bartholemy could
have communicated his great good fortune to the other buccaneers
in the West Indies, there would have been a boom in piracy
which would have threatened great danger to the honesty
and integrity of the seafaring men of that region.
But nobody, not even a pirate, has any way of finding out
what is going to happen next, and if Bartholemy had had
an idea of the fluctuations which were about to occur in
the market in which he had made his investments he would
have been in a great hurry to sell all his stock very much
below par. The fluctuations referred to occurred on the
ocean, near the island of Pinos, and came in the shape of
great storm waves, which blew the Spanish vessel with all
its rich cargo, and its triumphant pirate crew, high up
upon the cruel rocks, and wrecked it absolutely and utterly
Bartholemy and his men barely managed to get into a little
boat, and row themselves away. All the wealth and treasure
which had come to them with the capture of the Spanish vessel,
all the power which the possession of that vessel gave them,
and all the wild joy which came to them with riches and
power, were lost to them in as short a space of time as
it had taken to gain them.
In the way of well-defined and conspicuous ups and downs,
few lives surpassed that of Bartholemy Portuguez. But after
this he seems, in the language of the old English song,
"All in the downs." He had many adventures after the desperate
affair in the bay of Campeachy, but they must all have turned
out badly for him, and, consequently, very well, it is probable,
for divers and sundry Spanish vessels, and, for the rest
of his life, he bore the reputation of an unfortunate pirate.
He was one of those men whose success seemed to have depended
entirely upon his own exertions. If there happened to be
the least chance of his doing anything, he generally did
it; Spanish cannon, well armed Spanish crews, manacles,
imprisonment, the dangers of the ocean to a man who could
not swim, bloodhounds, alligators, wild beasts, awful forests
impenetrable to common men, all these were bravely met and
triumphed over by Bartholemy.
But when he came to ordinary good fortune, such as any pirate
might expect, Bartholemy the Portuguese found that he had
no chance at all. But he was not a common pirate, and was,
therefore, obliged to be content with his uncommon career.
He eventually settled in the island of Jamaica, but nobody
knows what became of him. If it so happened that he found
himself obliged to make his living by some simple industry,
such as the selling of fruit upon a street corner, it is
likely he never disposed of a banana or an orange unless
he jumped at the throat of a passer by and compelled him
to purchase. As for sitting still and waiting for customers
to come to him, such a man as Bartholemy would not be likely
to do anything so commonplace.
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