He had learned among the Indians how to shoot fish with bow and arrows,
and on this voyage across the Atlantic he occupied all his spare time in
sitting in the rigging and shooting the fish which disported themselves
about the vessel. These fish he sold to the officers, and we are told
that in this way he earned no less than five hundred crowns, perhaps
that many dollars. If this account is true, fish must have been very
costly in those days, but it showed plainly that if Roc had desired to
get into an honest business, he would have found fish-shooting a
profitable occupation. In every way Roc behaved so well that for his
sake all his men were treated kindly and allowed many privileges.
But when this party of reformed pirates reached Spain and were allowed
to go where they pleased, they thought no more of the oaths they had
taken to abandon piracy than they thought of the oaths which they had
been in the habit of throwing right and left when they had been
strolling about on the island of Jamaica. They had no ship, and not
enough money to buy one, but as soon as they could manage it they sailed
back to the West Indies, and eventually found themselves in Jamaica, as
bold and as bloody buccaneers as ever they had been.
Not only did Roc cast from him every thought of reformation and a
respectable life, but he determined to begin the business of piracy on a
grander scale than ever before.
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