But for a whole year he sought him vainly.

The circumstances in which eventually they met are very curious.
An intelligent observation of the facts of human existence will reveal to shallow-minded folk who sneer at the use of coincidence in the arts of fiction and drama that life itself is little more than a series of coincidences.

Open the history of the past at whatsoever page you will, and there you shall find coincidence at work bringing about events that the merest chance might have averted.

Indeed, coincidence may be defined as the very tool used by Fate to shape the destinies of men and nations.
Observe it now at work in the affairs of Captain Blood and of some others.
On the 15th September of the year 1688--a memorable year in the annals of England--three ships were afloat upon the Caribbean, which in their coming conjunctions were to work out the fortunes of several persons.
The first of these was Captain Blood's flagship the Arabella, which had been separated from the buccaneer fleet in a hurricane off the Lesser Antilles.

In somewhere about 17 deg.