As Rowland acted almost invariably on the principle that dead men tell
no tales, he caused all the passengers to be put to death, in detail,
until it came the turn of Herrera. As he was about to be cast into the
sea, his daughter sprang wildly forward, and kneeling before the cruel
pirate captain, she beseeched him in such earnest and pathetic tones to
spare her father's life, or let her die in his stead, that Rowland,
fired by the voluptuousness of her extreme beauty, and perhaps touched
by her tears, promised to spare her father on condition that she would
become his wife. Such were the dread alternatives. Death for her father
and herself on one hand, and the sacrifice forever of her happiness and
peace of mind on the other. In the extremity of her terror, Clarice,
(for that was her name,) chose the latter, and that very same night she
was united to Rowland, by her own priest and confessor who was compelled
to officiate in the ceremony, and her father was compelled to will all
of his vast riches in the event of his death to his murderous
son-in-law. After having taken to himself a wife in the above strange
and summary manner, Rowland repaired to the West Indies, where his
father-in-law died soon after his arrival, leaving to the pirate, a vast
amount of money and other property, which enabled him to establish
himself at Havana, in a most splendid and magnificent manner. His
inordinate desire for wealth however still remained unsatiated, and
although he left off all open communication with his former associates,
(the bucaniers,) still he secretly patronized them, and in return was
made acquainted with the result of all their efforts and received a
goodly share of their plunder.

Three years had passed away, and Clarice in the interim had presented
her husband a boy, but by this time the Spanish authorities had got wind
of the manner in which Rowland had obtained his riches, and he was