But there were some who declared that they would rather die
than go home to Tortuga as poor as when they left it, and so remained
with L'Olonnois on the biggest ship of the fleet, which he commanded.
The smaller vessels now departed for Tortuga, and after some trouble
L'Olonnois succeeded in getting his vessel out of the harbor where it
had been anchored, and sailed for the islands of de las Pertas. Here he
had the misfortune to run his big vessel hopelessly aground.
When they found it absolutely impossible to get their great vessel off
the sand banks, the pirates set to work to break her up and build a boat
out of her planks. This was a serious undertaking, but it was all they
could do. They could not swim away, and their ship was of no use to them
as she was. But when they began to work they had no idea it would take
so long to build a boat. It was several months before the unwieldy craft
was finished, and they occupied part of the time in gardening, planting
French beans, which came to maturity in six weeks, and gave them some
fresh vegetables. They also had some stores and portable stoves on board
their dismantled ship, and made bread from some wheat which was among
their provisions, thus managing to live very well.
L'Olonnois was never intended by nature to be a boat-builder, or
anything else that was useful and honest, and when the boat was finished
it was discovered that it had been planned so badly that it would not
hold them all, so all they could do was to draw lots to see who should
embark in her, for one-half of them would have to stay until the others
came back to release them.
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