We did not expect to have any news of the buccaneers until we had
fetched past Orange Bay, but from thence onwards I knew that we
should have to search every inlet save those that had an anchorage
for large vessels; and our slow progress was the more vexing
because I feared that the buccaneers might get wind of Mr. Benbow's
return and sheer off. I hoped they would not do this, for I was
burning to justify the admiral's confidence in me by bringing the
pirate craft into harbor.
One morning, when we had been a week at sea, we sighted a wreck on
a small island off Blowing Point; the islet has since totally
disappeared in one of the volcanic disturbances that afflict those
latitudes. We drew in towards the derelict, and then spied a man on
deck waving his shirt very energetically to attract our notice. I
sent Fincham with a boat's crew to bring him off, and learned from
him when he came aboard that he was the sole survivor of the barque
Susan Maria, which was set upon a week before by a buccaneer vessel
and carried to this islet, where she had been plundered and burned,
many of her crew being killed, the rest taken away to be sold to
the Spanish planters in Hispaniola. The man had been left for dead
on the deck, but he had come out of his swoon, and had since
supported himself on some moldy cheese and biscuits which the
buccaneers had not deemed worth taking when they stripped the
vessel.
He told me that the buccaneer vessel was a light brig carrying six
guns and a crew of at least sixty men of all nations, her captain
being a Frenchman.
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