Wcitling began his command by ordering the
observance of the Sabbath. " This day, the 9th
January," says Ringrose, "was the first Sunday that
ever we kept by command since the loss and death
of our valiant commander Captain Sawkins, who once
threw the dice overboard, finding them in use on the
said day."

The I ith, two boats were sent from the ship to a
distant part of the island to catch goats. On the
following morning the boats were seen returning in
great haste, and firing muskets to give alarm. When
arrived on board, they gave information that three
sail, which they believed to be Spanish ships of war,
were in sight of the island, and were making for the
anchorage. In half an hour after this notice the
strange ships were seen from the bay ; upon which
all the men employed on shore in watering, hunting,
and other occupations, were called on board with the
utmost speed, and, not to lose time, the cable was
slipped, and the ship put to sea. It happened in this
hurry of quitting the island that one of the Mosquito
Indians who had come with the buccaneers, and was
by them called William, was absent in the woods
hunting goats, and heard nothing of the alarm. No
time could be spared for search, and the ship sailed
without him. This it seems was not the first instance

Digitized by Microsoft®



130 BUCCANEERS OF AMERICA.
of a solitary individual being left to inhabit Juan
Fernandez. Their Spanish pilot affirmed to them
that "many years before a ship had been cast away
there, and only one man saved, who lived alone upon
the island five years, when another ship coming that
way took him off".
