But he made a mistake this time; he had run into the lion's jaw, and the lion had closed his teeth upon him.
When the pirate captain and his companions were brought before the Governor, he made no pretence of putting them to trial.

Buccaneers were outlawed by the Spanish, and were considered as wild beasts to be killed without mercy wherever caught.

Consequently Roc and his men were thrown into a dungeon and condemned to be executed.

If, however, the Spanish Governor had known what was good for himself, he would have had them killed that night.
During the time that preparations were going on for making examples of these impertinent pirates, who had dared to enter the port of Campeachy, Roc was racking his brains to find some method of getting out of the terrible scrape into which he had fallen.

This was a branch of the business in which a capable pirate was obliged to be proficient; if he could not get himself out of scrapes, he could not expect to be successful.