But the
watch gave a great cry and sprang upon them, and other
Spaniards came instantly. All but two were retaken. These
two, wrenching themselves free, sprang away into rough
water and dark night, and it is most likely that they drowned,
being a mile from shore. But the others were thrust back
and down under hatch which then was chained so that they
might not again lift it. But in the morning when the captain
of the _Juana_ went to look, all, all were dead, having
hanged themselves.
CHAPTER XLIII
WE left one of our ships in the Bethlehem and we
lost another upon this disastrous coast ere we got
clear for Jamaica.
We were sea specters. We had saved our men from the
_San Sebastian_ as from the _Margarita_. Now all were upon
the _Consolacion_ and the _Juana_. Fifty fewer were we than
when we had sailed from Cadiz, yet the two ships crept
over-full. And they were like creatures overcome with eld.
Beaten, crazed, falling apart.
On the Eve of Saint John we came to Jamaica.
The ships were riddled by the _teredo_. We could not keep
afloat to go to Hispaniola. At Santa Gloria we ran them
in quiet water side by side upon the sand. They partly
filled, they settled down, only forecastle and poop above the
blue mirror. We built shelters upon them and bridged the
space between. The ocean wanderers were turned into a
fort.
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