Page:Royalnavyhistory01clow.djvu/583

 unfortunate, losing the pinnace and all on board, save three, in a squall. Parker steered for the Cape de Verde Islands, and, upon reaching them, threw a hundred men ashore at St. Vincent, captured the island, and pillaged and burnt the town. Thence he stretched across to the American continent, and attacked La Rancheria, in the small island of Cubagua. Although the Governor of Cumana, with a body of troops, was on the spot and gave the invaders a warm reception, the place was taken. Parker allowed the inhabitants to ransom it for five hundred pounds of pearl. Off Cape de la Vela he fell in with and captured a Portuguese ship of 250 tons, bound from Angola and Congo to Cartagena. Her also he accepted a ransom for.

At Cabecas he transferred a hundred and fifty of his men to the shallops and two small pinnaces, and, proceeding to the Bastimentos, engaged negro guides, with whose assistance he entered the harbour of Puerto Bello on the night of February 7th, 1602. It was moonlight; and the English were hailed by the sentries in the castle of St. Philip, a strong work, mounting thirty-five brass guns. They replied in Spanish, and were ordered to anchor. Parker obeyed, but, an hour later, leaving the pinnaces before the castle, he suddenly landed at Triana with the shallops and thirty men, set the place on fire, and entered Puerto Bello ere the people had fairly recovered from their first confusion. In front of the Royal Treasury he found a body of troops and two brass field-pieces drawn up to receive him. An obstinate fight resulted; and, if Fugars and Loriman, who had been left in the pinnaces, had not opportunely landed with a hundred and twenty fresh men, Parker's little force would have been annihilated. The timely assistance soon brought about the fall of the town, in which the victors found 10,000 ducats in specie, belonging to the King of Spain, and a considerable amount of other money, plate, and merchandise. This Parker divided among his men. Two small vessels which lay in the harbour were taken possession of and retained.

Parker's behaviour, judged by the standard of those rough times, was unusually generous. Because the town was well built, he abstained from burning it; and because he was pleased at having taken so important a place with so small a force, he dismissed all his prisoners, including the Governor, without exacting any ransom.