Nevertheless, it was to Cartagena that they sailed
in the middle of March. Volunteers and negroes
had brought up the forces directly under M. de Rivarol
to twelve hundred men. With these he thought
he could keep the buccaneer contingent in order and
submissive.
They made up an imposing fleet, led by M. de Rivarol’s
flagship, the Victorieuse, a mighty vessel of eighty
guns. Each of the four other French ships was
at least as powerful as Blood’s Arabella, which
was of forty guns. Followed the lesser buccaneer
vessels, the Elizabeth, Lachesis, and Atropos, and
a dozen frigates laden with stores, besides canoes
and small craft in tow.
Narrowly they missed the Jamaica fleet with Colonel
Bishop, which sailed north for Tortuga two days after
the Baron de Rivarol’s southward passage.
CARTAGENA
Having crossed the Caribbean in the teeth of contrary
winds, it was not until the early days of April that
the French fleet hove in sight of Cartagena, and M.
de Rivarol summoned a council aboard his flagship
to determine the method of assault.
“It is of importance, messieurs,” he told
them, “that we take the city by surprise, not
only before it can put itself into a state of defence;
but before it can remove its treasures inland.
I propose to land a force sufficient to achieve this
to the north of the city to-night after dark.”
And he explained in detail the scheme upon which
his wits had laboured.
He was heard respectfully and approvingly by his officers,
scornfully by Captain Blood, and indifferently by
the other buccaneer captains present. For it
must be understood that Blood’s refusal to attend
councils had related only to those concerned with determining
the nature of the enterprise to be undertaken.
Captain Blood was the only one amongst them who knew
exactly what lay ahead. Two years ago he had
himself considered a raid upon the place, and he had
actually made a survey of it in circumstances which
he was presently to disclose.
The Baron’s proposal was one to be expected
from a commander whose knowledge of Cartagena was
only such as might be derived from maps.
Geographically and strategically considered, it is
a curious place. It stands almost four-square,
screened east and north by hills, and it may be said
to face south upon the inner of two harbours by which
it is normally approached. The entrance to the
outer harbour, which is in reality a lagoon some three
miles across, lies through a neck known as the Boca
Chica — or Little Mouth — and defended
by a fort. A long strip of densely wooded land
to westward acts here as a natural breakwater, and
as the inner harbour is approached, another strip
of land thrusts across at right angles from the first,
towards the mainland on the east. Just short
of this it ceases, leaving a deep but very narrow
channel, a veritable gateway, into the secure and
