His hope had been that the ship
would be wrecked on her progress down the coast. He knew not that
the wild Irish were slaying all whom the sea spared, and that
ignorant as they were of the English tongue, he would undoubtedly
have shared the fate of his Spanish companions. He thought only
of the risk of being drowned, and would have preferred taking this
to the certainty of a captivity perhaps for life in the Spanish
prisons. The part that he had played since he had been picked up
off Gravelines could not be sustained indefinitely. He might as
well spend his life in prison, where at least there would be some
faint hope of being exchanged, as wander about Spain all his life
as an imbecile beggar.
As soon, therefore, as he saw that the perils of the coast of
Ireland were passed, and that the vessel was likely to reach Spain
in safety, he determined that he would on reaching a port disclose
his real identity. There were on board several Scotch and Irish
volunteers, and he decided to throw himself upon the pity of one of
these rather than on that of the Spaniards. He did not think that
in any case his life was in danger. Had he been detected when
first picked up, or during the early part of the voyage, he would
doubtless have been thrown overboard without mercy; but now that
the passions of the combatants had subsided, and that he had been
so long among them, and had, as he believed, won the goodwill of
many by the assistance he had rendered to the sick and wounded, he
thought that there was little fear of his life being taken in cold
blood.
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