Selkirk's Island by Diana Souhami (best color ebook reader txt) 📕

Next morning, in what at first seemed like effortless compensation, they took a Spanish merchant ship La Ritta as it left the harbour. Off-guard and unprepared, it put up no resistance. Its cargo was of snuff, lace, wool, silk, tar, tobacco, turtleshell, beeswax, soap, cinnamon, Jamaican pepper, wood and ‘a pretty good Sum of Money’.

This might have been a turning point, a success, a justification for the hardship and boredom of it all. But Dampier let the ship sail on. He off-loaded merchandise worth four thousand pounds, and took two of the forty black slaves on board, but he would not let the men rummage the ship, or keep it as a prize. He told the crew that too much plunder would ‘be a hindrance to his greater Designs’ and that he had no officer good enough to command such a large ship.

No one believed him. Resentment grew. Selkirk claimed he took a bribe from the Spanish commander to let the ship go free: ‘a private consideration to Dampier and Morgan for ransom’.

‘We were forced to be as well content as we could’ Funnell wrote in his journal. Then at dawn next day ‘not firing above three guns’ the men surprised and took another ship, the Santa Maria. It had a cargo of indigo and cochineal and according to Selkirk ‘Divers Chests of Silver to the value of £20,000’. Again Dampier would not allow the men to rummage or keep the ship. He took its boats – two launches and a bark – and again in return for a bribe released it. Morgan stowed the captain’s silver dinner service, worth £200, in his cabin.

Dampier when criticised threatened to blow out the complainant’s brains, or maroon him, or throw him overboard. He made airy promises of the gold they would get when they ransacked the town of Santa Maria, of increased dividends and shares for all. He was not believed. There was no trust left among these thieves.

They planned to invade Santa Maria at night by boat. It was across the bay from Panama. To prepare for this, they anchored at Gallo, an island that offered water, wood and a sandy beach. They fitted out the Spanish boats with pedreros – small guns that fired stones, nails, broken iron and shot.

For sport they shot large lizards and monkeys. And again they took an easy, unexpected prize – a Spanish bark, commanded by an unwitting Indian. He mistook them for Spaniards and approached them hoping to buy provisions. It was a costly mistake. He and his crew ‘lost both themselves, their Vessel and their Money’. On board was a man from Guernsey, taken prisoner by Spaniards while working as a logwood cutter in Campeachy Bay. He had spent two years in a Mexican gaol. He went through a masquerade of conversion to Catholicism to obtain his freedom. A condition of his release was that he stay in Mexico or sail only with Spanish coastal ships.

The privateers sank the bark and marooned its crew. They kept the Indian captain as their pilot. The man from Guernsey was overjoyed to meet his liberators.

1704 A Most Uncomfortable Night

BEFORE THE RAID on Santa Maria Dampier summoned his officers to a rare Council of War. ‘Now it is usual in a Council of War for the youngest Officer to give his Opinion first’ Midshipman John Welbe wrote:

But Capt Dampier would always give his own Opinion first: and then, if any of the Officers gave their Opinion contrary to his, he wld fly out in a Passion, and say, If you know better than I do, take you Charge of the Ship. He was always a Man so much self-conceited, that he would never hear any Reason.†

On 25 April the St George and Cinque Ports lay anchored at Point Garachina, south of the Gulf of Mexico. The Indian pilot was to guide Dampier, Stradling, Funnell, Selkirk and a hundred armed men up river to Santa Maria in the three captured Spanish boats. The rest of the men were to wait vigilantly in the two ships until the boats were back.

A strong ebb tide and a drenching storm hindered the journey up river. The men huddled in the open boats in the dark, ‘with much Thunder and Lightning’. They got very wet and ‘passed a most uncomfortable Night’. Dampier had a supply of brandy. Stradling asked him to share it with the men. ‘Capt Dampier answered: If we take the Town, they will get Brandy enough; but if we don’t take the Town, I shall want it my self.’

In the morning five Indians in a canoe paddled by. They were curious as to why a large number of rain-soaked foreigners were lurking in the reed banks. Prompted by Dampier, the captured pilot told them they were from Panama and – invited them on board. The Indians paddled off fast. The privateers then shot at them – according to Funnell on Dampier’s instruction. Dampier sent a launch after them, but they got away.

It was a serious bungle. The Indians were sure to report to the Spanish authorities that marauding Englishmen were firing nails and stones at innocent passers-by. Ambushes would be laid in Santa Maria and all valuables taken into the hills.

Dampier decided on immediate attack. He ordered Stradling to take the two launches and forty-four men up river to a small village called Schuchaderoes, near Santa Maria. He and the others would follow in the bark when the tide turned. From there they would storm Santa Maria under cover of night.

Stradling and his men could not find the village. Dampier’s charts located it on the north bank of the river. They ambushed three Indians in a canoe and forced them to be their guides. Stradling sent five armed men and two of the Indians in the canoe to search out the village. It got dark. The guides became unhelpful. Dogs barked on the south side of the river so the men headed there. As they neared the