obliged to observe _une grande circonspection_ in his dealings with the
pirates who came and went as they pleased. Bernardin de St. Pierre, who
visited Bourbon nearly fifty years later, repeats a tradition, how La Buze
sat at table between the Viceroy and the Governor, and in an access of
generosity remitted the Viceroy's ransom. He further tells us that La Buze
eventually settled down in the island, and was hung some years later.

Taylor, continuing his cruise in the _Cassandra_, took a fine Ostend ship,
and carried her to St. Mary's. While most of the pirates were on shore,
the prisoners overpowered the few left to guard them, and carried off the
ship. We get a last glimpse of the _Cassandra_ in a private letter written
to the Directors in May, 1723, from Jamaica, in which it is stated that
the _Cassandra_ was lying at Portobello, while Taylor was engaged in
negotiating with the captain of an English man-of-war for a pardon. The
negotiations apparently fell through, as Taylor was eventually given a
commission by the Spaniards. The letter relates how the crew boasted that
they had, each man, twelve hundred pounds in gold and silver, besides a
great store of diamonds and many rich goods. Of the sharing of these
diamonds, Johnson tells a story how one man, being given for his share one
big diamond instead of a number of small ones, broke it up with a hammer,
so that he might have as many 'sparks' as the others.

Macrae's defence of the _Cassandra_, and the boldness and ability he
displayed in his dealings with the pirates, brought him into prominent
notice. The son of a poor Ayrshire cottager, he had worked himself up,
from before the mast, to the command of a ship. Soon after his return to
England, the Directors appointed him to be their supervisor on the west
coast of Sumatra, and, before he sailed, a provisional commission was
given him to succeed to the Presidentship of Madras, on a vacancy
occurring. Eighteen months later, he took his seat as Governor at Fort St.