and (the principal reason) because of the tyranny exercised by the
rulers toward their subjects--came to these islands with an immense
fleet, as will be related hereafter, with the intention of working them
harm. This pirate was born in the city of Trucheo in the province of
Cuytan, called by the Portuguese Catim. He was the son of parents in
moderate circumstances, who, while he was a child, reared him in the
midst of vice and license. On this account, and by his own nature,
he was quarrelsome and evilly disposed. He would learn no trade,
except to commit robberies along the highway, in which he became so
proficient, that very soon he had a large following--more than two
thousand--of whom he was the acknowledged chief, and came to be feared
throughout the whole province where he committed his depredations.

When the king and his council learned of this, the former ordered
the viceroy of the province where the pirate was, to assemble all the
garrisons of his frontiers, and to try to capture him, and carry or
send him alive to the city of Taybin, or if that were impossible, to
secure his head. The viceroy ordered the necessary forces to assemble
for this pursuit, with all haste. When the pirate Limahon was aware
of this this--seeing that he was not sufficiently strong with the men
at his command to defend himself against the forces coming against
him, and that he was in great danger if he waited--he collected his
companions, and led them to a seaport a few leagues from that place,
going thither with so great rapidity and so secretly, that before the
inhabitants of this place, accustomed to live quite without fear of
such assaults, were aware of it, he was master of the port and all its
vessels. In these vessels he and all his men embarked immediately,
weighed anchor, and made for the open sea, thinking (and with good
reason) themselves safer there than on land.