Consequently L'Olonnois gave orders to drop anchor near the city, and
then he sent some messengers ashore to inform the already half-ruined
citizens that unless they sent him thirty thousand pieces of eight he
would enter their town again, carry away everything they had left, and
burn the place to the ground. The poor citizens sent a committee to
confer with the pirates, and while the negotiations were going on some
of the conscienceless buccaneers went on shore and carried off from one
of the great churches its images, pictures, and even its bells. It was
at last arranged that the citizens should pay twenty thousand pieces of
eight, which was the utmost sum they could possibly raise, and, in
addition to this, five hundred head of beef-cattle, and the pirates
promised that if this were done they would depart and molest the town no
more. The money was paid, the cattle were put on board the ships, and to
the unspeakable relief of the citizens, the pirate fleet sailed away
from the harbor.
But it would be difficult to express the horror and dismay of those same
citizens when, three days afterward, those pirate ships all came back
again. Black despair now fell upon the town; there was nothing more to
be stolen, and these wretches must have repented that they had left the
town standing, and had returned to burn it down.
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