United States or Guinea ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Now, as we returned to the great square, this bloody work being over, the throng pressed upon us so closely that for some few moments we were unable to move, and while we stood there waiting for what would happen next, there came to our side Captain Manuel Nunez, his evil eyes mocking and sneering at us. "So, Master Salkeld," said he, "it would seem that you have not altogether escaped.
"Here's a man Jim Galloway won't thank me for rounding up," he told himself. "And we are going to see if his arm is long enough to keep Nuñez out of the penitentiary."
The Spaniards, furious and desperate, were massed together in a solid body, keeping back the Englishmen by sheer skill. Already between the gangways and the bulwarks lay a great heap of dead and dying. High above the combatants on the poop stood Nunez, his pale face set and drawn, watching the progress of the fight with gleaming eyes and compressed lips.
"The first thing I want to do is to pump that black fellow a little more." "A good idea," said Nunez, "and we'll go and do it." Poor Inkspot was pumped for nearly an hour, but not much was got out of him.
He would show these people once and for all what sight would do for a man. They would seek him, but not find him. "You move not, Bogota," said the voice. He laughed noiselessly, and made two stealthy steps aside from the path. "Trample not on the grass, Bogota; that is not allowed." Nunez had scarcely heard the sound he made himself. He stopped amazed.
Vasco Nuñez, who feared to be deposed from his command on the arrival of Nicuesa, treated those who still believed that the latter lived, as foolish. Moreover, even were the fact proven, they had no need of him, for did they not possess as good a title as Nicuesa?
"That remains to be calculated," replied Cardatas. Then the two went to work to calculate, and spent an hour or two at it. When they parted, Nunez had not made up his mind that the plan of Cardatas was a good one, but he told him to go ahead and see what could be done about getting the Arato and a reliable crew, and that he would talk further to him about the matter.
Nunez then showed Cardatas the note he had made, and remarked that, of course, it could not refer to the present voyage of the brig, for it could not take her five months to come from Acapulco to this port. "No," said the other, musing, "it oughtn't to, but, on the other hand, it is not likely she is on her second voyage to Rio, and both times in ballast. That's all stuff about ballast.
Tales came across the wide ocean of rackings and tormentings and burnings, of men given over to slavery, wearing their San-benitos for many a weary year, and perhaps dying of torture in the end. We would do something to escape a fate like that, God helping us! Late that night Captain Nunez stood by my side on deck.
It was the eighteenth of January, 1546, when Blasco Nunez marched out at the head of his array, from the ancient city of Quito. He had proceeded but a mile,22 when he came in view of the enemy, formed along the crest of some high lands, which, by a gentle swell, rose gradually from the plains of Anaquito.
Word Of The Day