The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 44, July 1940 - April, 1941 Page: 206

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Southwestern Historical Quarterly

followed us the whole night and at daybreak was a
hundred paces from us. Because he sailed four times
as well as we did and we saw that he could catch up
with us whenever he wanted to, we advised the Cap-
tain of our ship to strike his lower sail, and to wait
and see what the pirate would do. This was executed.
The pirate seeing this maneuver was doubtless intimi-
dated. He lowered his dory to offer his apologies for
having fired upon us without knowing who we were
and to tell us that he mistook us for English.
It seemed to me that the Captain of our ship should
have retained and imprisoned him. Nothing of the sort
happened. On the contrary, he invited this pirate to
come and dine on our ship, which he did, and during
the dinner the pirate captain proposed to our Captain
that he should lend him his crew to loot an island in the
neighborhood. He would have accepted if we had not
prevented him. When all these discussions were fin-
ished and the party was over we asked the pirate
whether we were still far away from the French
Cape. He said that we had passed it long ago and
that we were in the Old Channel.4 Everyone on board
our ship was very much surprised, especially the Cap-
tain and the Pilot, who thought we were well above
the wind. We passed, without knowing it, quite some
dangers, not counting the one we were in. It is very
dangerous to pass this place without previous expe-
rience and we would not have known how to sail
through it. We decided to ask this pirate if he did
not have one [pilot] to give to us. He denied it but
he had taken, a few days previously, a small Spanish
ship, which was commanded by a certain Clavi6 from
Bordeaux. This Clavi6 was on board his ship and he
thought him well experienced in this bad passage. We
sent immediately for this Clavi6. As soon as he reached
our ship we asked him if he would have the kindness
to pilot us through this channel and to stay with us.
He did not like it, but we could not do without him.
When the Captain of our ship saw that he was expe-
rienced in these places, he took leave of the pirate and
set sail, trusting his vessel into the hands of this
Clavi6 to the end of the channel.5 He was quite right
to do so, because soon we saw his experience. He
saved us from our dangerous situation, in spite of the
risks which are there. As soon as we had passed the
danger, the captain of our ship began to treat this
4Probably the Old Bahama Channel, north of Cuba. This shows how far
off its course the ship was.
5The Old Bahama Channel is about 300 miles long.

206

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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 44, July 1940 - April, 1941, periodical, 1941; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth146052/m1/226/ocr/: accessed March 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.

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