Cate of the Lost Colony - Lisa Klein [101]
White had his second shock when he saw me in ordinary gentlemen’s clothing and heard the reason for my disguise. (I have had to bring Cooke into my confidence as well, but no others.) I do miss my pearl earring, which I am wont to dally with when I am thinking.
I anticipate a merry adventure once I overcome the customary seasickness.
I have not been disappointed. On the 5th of April, in the Canary Islands, we chased a flyboat and took her along with a cargo of wine, cinnamon, and other goods. Then we passed on to Dominica, where the savages rowed their canoes out to our ships and we traded with them. At the isle of St. John we took on water, then captured a 10-ton frigate laden with hides and ginger.
At the isle of Mona, on the 9th of May, one of the seamen ran away to the Spaniards, to whom he no doubt revealed our destination and its location. Hoping to root out the conspirators, we burned the Spaniards’ houses and chased them, but they hid from us in caves where we could not reach them without danger to ourselves. I don’t know if we killed the treacherous seaman.
On the 25th of May the Hopewell and John Evangelist came to Cape Tiburon, where we expected to meet the Santo Domingo fleet laden with riches for Spain. We rescued two Spanish castaways from a shore scattered with the bones of others who had perished there. Though we pressed them they had no knowledge of the fleet. The John Evangelist sighted a frigate and easily took her; she carries hides, ginger, copper pans, and cassava.
On the 2nd of July we made contact with the Moonlight and her escort ship. With the prizes taken, our fleet of ships now totals eight. The same day we sighted fourteen ships of the Santo Domingo fleet and gave chase, losing them in the darkness. In the morning, finding them near again, the Hopewell poured shot in the starboard side of the rearmost ship until its captain raised the flag of surrender. Newport, in the Little John, continued to chase the Spanish fleet.
With Cooke I boarded our prize, the 300-ton El Buen Jesus of Seville. Spent two days rummaging through her cargo and fitting her to sail with us. Sweet is the pride of such a conquest. How England is magnified when her enemy is brought low!
Returned to the Hopewell and John White’s demands that we sail at once for Roanoke. I reminded him our share of the profits and pirated goods would provide the means to relieve the colonists. I urged him not to anger Capt. Cooke, in whom I discerned a reluctance to abandon this lucrative business, despite his agreement to take us to Virginia.
Close upon our success with the El Buen Jesus, came misfortune as Capt. Newport lost 24 men and his own right arm in a desperate battle. The ship he captured was so damaged that it sank before it was unladen, taking with it thirteen casks of silver. Thus defeated, injured, and with a scant force of seamen, Newport and the Little John returned to England.
For six days we drifted, becalmed, the sun unbearably hot. The Spanish castaways pestered us to such an extreme that we left them on Cuba. A week later we sighted the cape of Florida to our west, and on the 30th of July bore out to sea to catch the swifter current for Virginia.
Now my mind is alive with anticipation of a prize soon to be my own. What good to me is a galleon stuffed with plunder? Let it sink to the bottom of the sea! The treasure I seek cannot be bought, sold, or bargained for.
Poem
To seek new worlds of gold, for glory
And for praise I once aspired;
But now my care is all love’s story
Her favor, the wealth that I desire.
And so I prove that love, though severed far,
Means more to me than a thousand ships of war.
I touch my ear, where now hangs a silver ring taken from a Spaniard. In my pocket is the handkerchief