noon
We were in the hunting grounds , and men went not there to gather flowers . Day after day we watched for Spanish sails ; for the plate fleets went that way , and some galleass or caravel or galleon might stray aside . At last , in the clear green bay of a nameless island at which we stopped for water , we found two carracks come upon the same errand , took them , and with them some slight treasure in rich cloths and gems . A week later , in a strait between two islands like tinted clouds , we fought a very great galleon from sunrise to noon , pierced her hull through and through and silenced her ordnance , then boarded her and found a king 's ransom in gold and silver . When the fighting had ceased and the treasure was ours , then we four stood side by side on the deck of the slowly sinking galleon , in front of our prisoners , -- of the men who had fought well , of the ashen priests and the trembling women . Those whom we faced were in high good humor : they had gold with which to gamble , and wine to drink , and rich clothing with which to prank their villainous bodies , and prisoners with whom to make merry . When I ordered the Spaniards to lower their boats , and taking with them their priests and women row off to one of those two islands , the weather changed .