Page:Narrative of an Official Visit to Guatemala.djvu/457

CH. XXXII.] little sailor, who came in for the dregs of the can, and then went merrily about his duty.

We did not get out of the gulf till the 31st, having been sixteen days embarked from Belize, fourteen out of which we were liable hourly to be attacked by the pirates. The chief nests of these miscreants are in the Isle of Pines, to the of Cuba, all along the north coast of Yucatan and both sides of the whole length of the Gulf of Florida. The exertions of the North Americans to root out and destroy them cannot be sufficiently commended: they have effected much by means of small men-of-war steam-boats, whereby they have been enabled to follow them into the narrow creeks, whither they betake themselves for refuge, and to destroy many. The only other part where they have a secure lodgment is in the island of Puerto Rico; and from this, as well as the points above mentioned, they are constantly hovering about Belize and the Mosquito shores.