Page:A Mainsail Haul - Masefield - 1913.djvu/156

144 make Coxon their Admiral in his stead; which was promptly done, "Coxon seeming to be well satisfied." Then they embarked in "canoas and periagoes" and rowed away west for Panama. On St. George's Day (1680) the canoas of Sawkins and Coxon fought and defeated a Spanish squadron near the island of Perico. The battle was well-contested and abominably bloody; and the laurels were won by Richard Sawkins, who captured the Spanish admiral. This was a sore blow to Coxon, who now determined to return to his ship. Some of Sawkins's men "stickled not to defame or brand him with the note of cowardice," crying out that he had been backward in the battle, and that he wasn't half the Admiral he gave out. At this, Coxon took leave of the fleet, with some seventy hands. He took with him a ship and a periagua, which, as Sharp, his shipmate, says, "will not much Redound to his Honour." He recrossed the Isthmus without trouble; rejoined his ship at Golden Island; and again went cruising along the Main.

Shortly after his return to the North Sea, he decided to row far up the Gulf of Darien to get