Saint Barthélemy is an island in the West Indies with a barren land and a dry climate. The islands cannot grow sugar cane and tobacco, and the great powers do not look down on them. Now occupying the island of Saint-Barthélemy is a rabble led by a hospitaliser from Malta, with little defense and, of course, no money.

The island was not far from where the pirates were now, and a few hours later four ships sailed into the well-protected harbor of Saint-Barthélemy. It wasn't until they bypassed the island that they discovered that the Resolve had left them with a big surprise.

In this desolate anchorage of a narrow bay, there are traces of battle everywhere. The waves crashed against the charred remains of a brig, apparently once burned below the waterline. On the other side was a large sloop sunk at the bottom of the sea, its hull scarred and full of signs of shelling.

The initiator of all this, through the bright red Burgundy cross depicted on the sails and the long hunting flag fluttering on the mast, declares a powerful presence to all. It was the enemy ship that the pirates had tried to avoid as they passed through Puerto Rico, the Spanish Navy's 30-gun cruiser Rafael. It's just that this proud Habsburg black double-headed eagle looks like an eagle's beak is pecking at the land.

Looking from the bow, the Raphael lowered its sails and dropped anchor. On the island, a group of ragged men used dilapidated ship materials and sand to build two improvised batteries in the palm grove outside the range of the Spanish guns, and fought the Spanish soldiers who landed with the cannons that were probably removed from the ship.

The Spanish maritime infantry, armed with cuirasses, heavy arquebuses and spears, advanced and retreated, and although they could not reach the improvised artillery forts in the woods for a while, they were not impatient. Slowly eating away at the strength of the defender step by step.

A solid bullet was fired from the fort, and when it hit the soft beach, it could not form a ricochet at all, and the lethality was greatly reduced.

The smoke cleared, revealing two crowned skull flags decorated with irises.

"It's Captain Marmont." I didn't expect to meet an acquaintance on the island of Saint-Barthélemy.

The French captain Marmont was also a member of the Bahamian Pirate Captains' Conference, but it is not known how he was blocked in the bay by Spanish warships.

William aboard the Mary shouted, "Grover, we have to save Marmont, I don't think he will last long, we have to be fast." ”

Grover, of course, knew that Marmont was not far from finished, and that the Spaniards were hoisting the ship's cannons onto the longboat, and that Marmont was about to be terminated when the cannons came ashore.

If it were in the open sea, the Raphael would have a very big chance of winning against Grover's small fleet. His lower heavy cannon could easily tear through the planks of the other three ships except the Banshee. Although the Banshee was thicker, it would certainly not be able to withstand a few more rounds of shelling. But in this immobile bay, the Raphael is just waiting to be killed by the gang.

If the Spaniards are complete, the gang will have to pay a great sacrifice. But now the Spaniards' most elite sea infantry and part of the sailors were ashore and Marmont's men were being consumed, and it was impossible to return to the ship for a short time.

There was no time to put down the longboat, and Grover ordered, "Full speed ahead, all guns pay attention, only one shot when you get close to the enemy ship, and beat everyone to the gang!" ”

William Marie was the first to fire four empty cannons, announcing the arrival of the pirates to both sides of the battle.

The four ships, with their sails full, rushed towards the Raphael.

The arrival of reinforcements greatly boosted the morale of the pirates on the island, and the Spaniards were never merciful when they caught pirates. Whites were all hanged, and all colored people were sold into slavery. If it weren't for the fact that there was no way out, the pirates simply wouldn't have lasted long.

Marmont mustered up his courage and let the remaining pirates save no more ammunition and fired at the Spanish soldiers on the beach.

The Spaniards watched in amazement as the four pirate ships managed to survive the Raphael's much sparser than usual fire, and then more than 200 pirates poured onto the Raphael.

The sailors who remained on board had no chance, and soon the head of the navigator was hung from the bow mast by a terrible one-eyed pirate.

The Spanish captain was directing a siege of the pirates on land, and he saw that the ship had been taken but could not do anything. He had already hanged a dozen captured pirates, and it was impossible to surrender. The captain then took more than a hundred soldiers on the shore, dropped the two light guns that had been dragged ashore and retreated to the depths of the island.

The pirates had no intention of pursuing, and had achieved their goal of retrieving Marmont and the remnants of more than sixty of his men, and had found another bay to anchor on the island of Saint-Barthélemy. The dry climate of Saint-Barthélemy Island makes it worthwhile to develop a plantation industry, but it is also of great benefit to pirates. There are no horrible mangrove swamps full of viruses and bacteria, only pleasant palm groves, and white sand beaches where you can anchor and rest.

The officers gathered in Grover's captain's room, where Grover handed Marmont a bottle of Chilean wine.

"Thank you." Marmont was covered in dust and smoke, "I'm glad I met you. ”

William asked him, "How did you end up stuck in the bay by West Bank?" ”

Marmont smiled wryly, "I caught a beautiful brig in the Windward Strait, and I was delayed for some time, leaving a few days later than you. Probably you scared the merchant ships away in front, and I didn't get anything worth mentioning along the way. So I went ashore in Puerto Rico and ransacked a sugar cane plantation. ”

"And then you're being targeted by the battleships of West Bank?"

"I didn't know until I had robbed it, and the estate belonged to the senior judge of the Puerto Rico Maritime Court, and then he was chased all the way by the Rafael." The captured brig probably hadn't been cleaned for a long time, and the slow speed couldn't get rid of the Raphael. Until yesterday, I did not see the Raphael in my binoculars, and I thought that after entering the territory of the British and Dutch, the Spaniards did not dare to pursue it further, so they docked on the island of Saint-Barthélemy, intending to use the original ship to help clear the bottom of the brig. ”

"And it got blocked?"

"yes. I had just moved the brig's guns and cargo to the shore, pulled up the bottom of the ship on one side, and was about to start work, when the Raphael appeared and blocked the mouth of the bay. This time it was unlucky, and it was impossible to run, and there was no hope for a naval battle. “

"So you're going to burn the ship and fight the Spaniards to the death on shore?"

Marmont smiled, "Although there is no boat, it is also cool to kill West Bank on the shore." They hanged a dozen of my wounded and captured brothers, and I had to make them pay twice as much. ”

Marmont was a little embarrassed at the thought of the ship that had been forced to burn, and he had a question, "I wonder how the Spaniards and you all found here." ”

"The Resolve of England strangely gave us the name of the island of St. Barthélemy, and it happened to be not far away, so we stopped by to have a look."

"Damn, my location must have been given to West Bank by the English as well, and this neighborhood is their territory! It's too insidious. “

Considering that most of the Banshees were English, and the Frenchman continued to scold everyone's face badly, William hurriedly interrupted Marmont, "I remember that you have more than a hundred people, and there are cannons on the shore, even if it is a simple artillery barrier, the Spaniards usually do not go ashore desperately, burn your two ships and they can return to the sea." Did you rob something special? ”

Marmont couldn't get around, so he had to tell the truth, "Ah, at the sugar cane plantation in Puerto Rico, I had a good conversation with a noble lady and invited her to my ship." ”

William looked at Marmont helplessly, "The judge's daughter is still a wife. ”

"Wife, but she's very young."

William wanted to curse, and the Bahamian pirates, as a rule, never robbed people, except slaves, especially women of good families.

"What about people now?"

"It was returned to the captain of the Raphael before the battle began, and now it should have been taken away by him when he retreated."

Marmont was an old friend of William's and his biggest supporter in the Captains' Council. The Peliaga had been given to him at the meeting at Marmont's suggestion. Originally, William's most suitable choice was to hunt with Marmont, but he didn't want to owe Marmont too much favor, so he joined Grover's team, originally thinking that he would return the money to Marmont after grabbing it. If he had been with Marmont, maybe his losses would not have been so great. This relationship is there, and William can only hold back his anger and stop talking.

Marmont drank the entire glass of wine, "William, you have to thank me. If it weren't for my sacrifice, you wouldn't have captured the Raphael in its entirety, which is a 30-gun cruiser. ”

This is also true, as a three-masted full-sail cruiser like the Raphael with all the cannons costs £3,000 in Europe. For the pirates of the New World, there is even more money and no place to buy it. It wasn't that Marmont stumbled by mistake, the pirates really couldn't grab it.