tants escaped, and some were taken prisoners. But the former soon rallied, and by 10 o'clock fell upon the raiders,[1] whose commander, luckily for the town, was severely wounded, and several of his men were killed. Indeed, it would have gone hard with him had he not bound his prisoners arm to arm, and used them as a barricade, under cover of which to retreat to his boat.[2] He then boarded a Spanish vessel laden with goods and the king's tribute in silver, and took all the valuables, worth £5,000 to his ship. The marauders after that visited an Indian town, where they captured a quantity of logwood. They then departed; but were not long afterward overhauled by two Spanish armed ships, when one of their vessels, with a captain Hess and thirteen others, was taken, the captives being executed.
In 1597 a powerful British squadron made a descent on the island of Cozumel, and held it for a time, but, finding the Spaniards prepared for defence, it was obliged to withdraw.[3] A second attempt in 1606 and a third in 1601 failed. In 1602 a Spanish vessel was captured. No further attacks were made for several years.[4]
Before closing with Yucatan I will give briefly the history of the province during the second half of the sixteenth century. Under the present government was an area of about one hundred leagues from east
- ↑ It is claimed that there were 500 Spaniards in the place, and in two towns close by 8,000 Indians. Parker, in Haklvyt's Voy., iii. 602-3. The estimate of the former was doubtless an error, for the Spanish population was then small.
- ↑ The filibusters ungenerously told the Spaniards that their townsman, Juan Venturate, had been their guide. Without other evidence the nan was sentenced to death. One author says he was shot on the spot; another that he 'con tenazas encendias fué despedazado;' a third has it, 'á morir atenazado.' Cogolludo, Hist. Yuc., 420, 422; Calero, in Dicc. Univ., x. 790; Ancona, Hist. Yuc''., ii. 133; Yuc. Estad., 1853, 248-9.
- ↑ A party of English freebooters on the 4th of March, 1597, landed at Cape Catoche, and burned all the establishments and houses of the flourishing town of Chancenote, having first plundered it. Carrillo, Orígen de Belice, in Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin, 3a ép., iv. 258.
- ↑ By 1597 the coast of Campeche had become a general rendezvous and hiding-place for English and Dutch pirates. Ancona, Hist. Yuc., ii. 131-6.
