Page:Vol 2 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/766

746 they burned, after capturing a bark from Sonsonate, laden with cacao and indigo. On the 29th Cavendish anchored off Huatulco and landed in person. A raid of several miles into the interior also proved profitable to the pirate, and on August 2d he set sail, holding his course northward along the coast.

But the prudent filibuster was satisfied to attack the less defended places on the coast, and would not trust himself into the harbor of Acapulco, having been informed by Michael Sancius that this was the rendezvous of the Philippine fleet. Though not difficult to clear the narrow entrance to the harbor, it might be a more serious matter to retreat in case of a failure to take the town. It therefore appeared to Master Cavendish much like a dangerous rat-trap, which he wisely concluded to evade.

The next field of his depredations was Navidad, near the present Manzanillo, where he landed August 24th, and captured a mulatto who had been sent along the coast with letters to give the alarm. The town and two large ships on the stocks were burned. From August 26th to September 2d Cavendish was in the port of Santiago, obtaining water from the river; and on the next day, from a port called Malaca, a little farther west, the pirates went two leagues inland, and 'defaced' the Indian village of Acatlan. A similar raid was made at Chacala, where a party of men were held until ransomed by their wives with plantains and other fruits, one carpenter and a