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For a few years the buccaneers continued to cruise the Caribbean, under the protection of such commissions as they could obtain through Morgan's influence, or from the Governor of Tortuga, or from Portuguse, Dutch or Danish officials, whoever happened to be at war at the time. But the thoughts of the buccaneers continued to dwell on the South Sea.
On 15th April 1680, 331 buccaneers landed on the isthmus of Darien. 'That which often spurs men on to the undertaking of the most difficult adventure is the sacred hunger of gold', and 'twas gold the bait that tempted back a pack of merry boys of us, being all soldiers of fortune, under command, by our election, of Captain John Coxon'. They were a remarkable crowd, no less than six of them wrote accounts of the expedition, Bart, Sharp, William Dampier, Lionel Wafer, Basil Ringrose, William Dick and John Cox.
They were divided into five companies, with Sharp leading the way, followed by the companies of Richard Sawkins, Peter Harris, John Coxon and Edmund Cook. Each man was provided with four cakes of bread, known as "doughboys", and armed with a fusil, a pistol and a hanger. They made a redezvous with the Mosquito Indians, making out to attack the fort of Santa Maria, which the Indians had reported was stocked with gold dust.
But the Spaniards had been warned of their approach and had sent all the gold away to Panama, so most of the buccaneers were in favour of setting out on the Pacific in the Indian's canoes. Coxon and his party were against the proposal, but he was persuaded to stay and keep command of the expedition. He was apparently a hot-tempered man and had already quarrelled with Sawkins and Harris, and he was soon to fall out again with his companions.
On 19th April the buccaneers paddled their canoes into the bay of Panama, where they soon captured a Spanish vessel of 30 tons, on board which 130 men were placed, and the next day another small barque was taken.
At dawn on 23 April, St George's Day, they came in sight of Panama. (This was a newly built city, four miles to the west of the ruins left by Henry Morgan ten years before). They were met by three Spanish warships, one of them under the command of a certain Captain Peralta who had previously fought against Morgan. The battle lasted most of the day, at the end two of the Spaniards had been taken by boarding and the third had been forced to flee. Eighteen buccaneers had been killed, and over thirty wounded. Peter Harris was among the wounded and died ten days later, but Coxon was thought to have been rather cowardly in the fighting.
After the battle the buccaneers sailed on toward Panama, and at anchor in the roads they found a number of vessels, including the Santissima Trinidad, a heavily armed ship of 400 tons, with a cargo of wine and sugar, together with a large sum of money. This was the same ship that had escaped capture by Morgan, and Sharp was put in charge of her. In other ships they found mostly flour and ammunition, and two of them were fitted out for cruising, the others, together with any stores that were not required, being destroyed. So in less than a week, the buccaneers had provided themselves with food, weapons and ammunition, and a small fleet with which they were able to blockade Panama.
After tow or three days however, Coxon and his men decided that they were not going to put up with the jeers of some of their companions over their alleged cowardice, and some 70 of them took canoes and returned across the isthmus. Coxon recovered his ship at Golden Island, and cruised the Caribbean for some years under official commission, before he died in 1689.
The buccaneer force in the Pacific now comprised three ships and two small barques, with about 240 men. Sawkins was elected to the leadership, 'a valiant and generous spirited man, and beloved above all others we had amongst us'. Bart, Sharp and Edmund Cook commanded the other ships. They lay ten days before Panama, unable to decide whether to land or not, and then they withdrew to the island of Taboga, where they could watch unseen for vessels approaching the port. They captured several ships, which yielded some 50,000 pieces of eight, as well as provisions and ammunition.
Sawkins led a party ashore at Pueblo Nuevo in search of fresh meat, but he and two others were killed at the first onset, and the rest withdrew in confusion. The buccaneers returned to their rendezvous at Quibo Island to elect a new leader, and the vote fell by a narrow majority to Sharp, but some 70 men who had remained only through loyalty to Sawkins decided that it was time they returned to the Caribbean.
This left Sharp with only 146 men and two ships, the third had been lost during the landing at Pueblo Nuevo, and the two small barques had been lost in a storm. Sharp put John Cox in charge of the second ship, which was christened the Mayflower, and with a promise of ú1000 for every man who would accompany him southward he sailed to the island of Gorgona to careen.
A month or two later however, the Mayflower was sailing very badly, and it was decided to abandon her and embark everybody in the Trinity. They held their course to the south, capturing a vessel with 3276 pieces of eight, but with their water supply rapidly running out, it is said that a pint of water was sold in the ship for 30 pieces of eight.
They took the town of Ilo, and held it to ransom, but were soon driven out by Spanish cavalry. The same trouble occurred at Coquimbo, and further south at La Serena. It was now Christmas time, and they decided to spend a few days at the lonely island of Juan Fernandez, but within a week on the island Sharp had been deposed and an old buccaneer John Watling had been elected in his place. Basil Ringrose wrote in his journal for 9 January 1681, 'this day was the first Sunday that we ever kept by command and common consent since the loss and death of our valiant commander, Captain Sawkins'.
But the new Captain brought no luck to the venture. First of all, slipping their cables and standing out to sea at the sight of three Spanish warships, the buccaneers left behind an Indian named William. He was the first of the Robinson Crusoes of Juan Fernandez island, and it was four years before he was rescued. Then Watling led them to attack the town of Arica. It was strongly defended, Watling himself was killed, and there were so many casualties that the men begged Sharp to take command on the battlefield, and lead them out of difficulty.
But again there were those who did not want to serve under Sharp, and a few weeks later a party of 47 men, under the command of John Cook and including Dampier and Wafer, set off in canoes for the isthmus and back to the Caribbean. This left about 75 men with Sharp and the Trinity, and they cruised for another six months with only moderate success. Sharp however, secured one prize that he shrewdly recognised to be of greater value to himself than any other plunder. On 19th July 1681 off Cape Francisco they took the Santa Rosario, 'in this prize wrote Sharp, I took a Spanish manuscript of Prodigious value, it describes all the ports, roads, harbours, bays, sands, rocks and rising of the land and instructions how to work the ship into any port or harbour, they were going to throw it overboard but by good luck I saved it, the Spaniards cried out when I got the book, farewell South Seas now'.
In August, 'all our hopes of doing any further good upon the coast of the South sea being now frustrated', they decided to return to the Caribbean. They rounded the Horn in November, and made their landfall in Barbados on 28 July 1682. But they were not allowed to land there, and had to sail on to Nevis. Here they split up, most of the men went to Jamacia, where they were once arrested by Morgan, who hung one of them as 'a bloody and notorious villain', but Sharp, Ringrose, Dick, Cox and
other officers took passage to England.
Sharp took his book of Spanish ports with him, and it was this that saved him and his companions when they were tried for piracy in London. In October 1682 the King was presented with a beautifully ornate English copy, and in 1683 Sharp bought an old boat, provisioned her by rounding up some cattle that he "espied" on Romney Marsh, and sailed back to the Caribbean. There he re joined Coxon as a privateer.
Meanwhile, John Cook's party had been struggling back across the isthmuss, the way being almost continuously through rivers and path less woods. Lionel Wafer was injured in an explosion, and was left behind in the hands of friendly Mosquito Indians, others were drowned in crossing rivers or died from disease. The survivors reached the coast to find a French buccaneer ship under Captain Tristian lying offshore.
This ship was one of a fleet of eight, four were commanded by Englishmen, one of whom was John Coxon, three were French, and one was Dutch, commanded by Captain Yankee. John Cook went as second in command aboard the Dutchman, and Dampier as navigator aboard a ship commanded by the Frenchman Archembeau. Then a prize was taken, and most of the Englishmen shipped aboard her, a few weeks later they found Lionel Wafer in a party of Indians, and shortly after they all sailed to Virginia.
Cook however had stayed with Yankee, and then transferred to Tristian's ship. After some months he Siezed the ship from Tristian and sailed to Virginia to pick up supplies for another voyage to the Pacific. In Virginia Cook found his old colleagues Wafer and Dampier, another buccaneer, named Edward Davis and a navigator who had taken the degree of Master of Arts at Cambridge, William Ambrosia Cowley. They named the ship Revenge, and with a compliment of about 70 they sailed southward on 23 April 1683. Cowley was told to shape a course to Hispaniola, and it was only when they were at sea that he was told he was on a
buccaneering voyage and the course was altered to the Cape Verde Islands. After watering and replenishing their stock of salt, the buccaneers sailed on to Sierra Leone, where they took a Danish ship of 40 tons, which they hoped would be sufficient for their enterprise.
They called her "The Batchelors Delight", and set out in mid November for Cape Horn, which they rounded in February. On 19 March 1684 they were overhauled by another ship off the coast of Chile, both ships ran out their guns in expectation of action, but the newcomer turned out to be the Nicholas, Captain John Eaton, also bound on a Buccaneering expedition. She brought news of another English ship, the Cygnet, which had been fitted out by Charles Swan (the buccaneer who had first had the idea of cruising the Pacific while at Panama with morgan 14 years before) in association with Basil Ringrose, their idea had been to trade lawfully with South America, but the Spanish opposition to foreign trade soon drove them back into their buccaneering habits.

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