.

THE MILAGROSA.
The affair at Maracaybo is to be considered as Captain Blood's buccaneering masterpiece.

Although there is scarcely one of the many actions that he fought--recorded in such particular detail by Jeremy Pitt--which does not afford some instance of his genius for naval tactics, yet in none is this more shiningly displayed than in those two engagements by which he won out of the trap which Don Miguel de Espinosa had sprung upon him.
The fame which he had enjoyed before this, great as it already was, is dwarfed into insignificance by the fame that followed.

It was a fame such as no buccaneer--not even Morgan--has ever boasted, before or since.
In Tortuga, during the months he spent there refitting the three ships he had captured from the fleet that had gone out to destroy him, he found himself almost an object of worship in the eyes of the wild Brethren of the Coast, all of whom now clamoured for the honour of serving under him.

It placed him in the rare position of being able to pick and choose the crews for his augmented fleet, and he chose fastidiously.