- E.]

At eight in the morning of the 23d, a messenger came in to know what ransom I would take for the town and the ship, for which I demanded 10,000 dollars in twenty-four hours.

At eight next morning, I had a letter from the governor, signifying, that as I wrote in French, neither he nor any one about him could understand its contents; but if I would write in Latin or Spanish, I might depend on a satisfactory answer. In the afternoon, I sent for one of our quarter-deck guns on shore, which was mounted at our guard, and was fired at sun-set, midnight, and break of day. The messenger returned in the morning of the 24th, accompanied by the master of the ship we had taken, and on hearing of their arrival, I went on shore to know what they had to propose. I understood from them that the governor was determined not to ransom the town, and did not care what become of it, provided the churches were not burnt. Though I never had any intention to destroy any place devoted to divine worship, I answered that I should have no regard to the churches, or anything else, when I set the town on fire; and I told the master of the vessel, he might expect to see her in flames immediately, if not ransomed without delay. This seemed to make a great impression, and he promised to return in three hours with the money. I then caused every thing to be taken out of the town that could be of any use to us, after which I ordered the town to be set on fire in several places; and, as the houses were old and dry, it instantly became a bonfire.

In the midst of this conflagration, the people in the Speedwell made many signals for me to come on board, and kept continually firing towards the mouths of the harbour. As I could only guess the meaning of all this, I went on board as soon as possible in a canoe, having only three men along with me. Before I could reach the ship, I could distinctly see a large ship, with a Spanish flag at her fore-topmast-head, and her fore-topsail a-back. At this sight, two of my three men were ready to faint, and if it had not been for my boatswain, I doubt if I should have got on board; and if the Spanish admiral had acted with vigour, he might have taken the ship long enough before I got to her. It is bare justice to Mr Coldsea to say, that he fired so smartly on the Spaniard as to induce him to act with great precaution, which had been quite unnecessary if he had known our weakness. His caution, however, gave me the opportunity of getting on board: and, in the mean time, my officers were so unwilling to leave our guard-gun ashore, that they spent a great while in getting it into the boat, so that I was afraid the enemy would attack us before our people could get on board.

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