The Book of Pirates

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THE BOOK OF PIRATES BY

ARTHUR L. HAYWARD Author of “The Book of Explorera”, etc.

With 8 Half-tone Plate» by CHARLES CROMBIE

CASSELL AND CO LTD London

CASSELL & CO LTD 37/38 St. Andrew’s Hill, Queen Victoria Street London, E.C.4

and at 210 Queen Street, Melbourne 26/30 Clarence. Street, Sydney Hatton Hall, City Road, Aukland, N.Z. 1068 Broadview Avenue, Toronto 6 122 East 55th Street, New York 22 Avenida 9 de Julho 1138, Sio Paulo Galeria Güemee, Escritorio 518/520 Florida 105, Buenos Aires Haroon Chambers, South Napier Road, Karachi 16 Graham Road, Ballard Estate, Bombay 1 17 Central Avenue P.O. Dharamtala, Caloutta P.O. Box 275, Cape Town P.O. Box 1386, Salisbury, S. Rhodesia P.O. Box 959, Accra, Gold Coast Calcada Do Carma 55—2°, Lisbon 25 rue Henri BarbusBe, Paris 5e Islands Brygge 5, Copenhagen

First published 1929 Revised edition 1953

All rights reserved

Printed in Great Britain

The pirates began dashing up and down the decks at full gallop.

FOREWORD This book needs but a word or two by way of intro­

duction. A good many pirate yams are yarns, pure and simple; but every story told in the following pages is true, and by the time the reader has come to the end of the book I am sure he will agree with that hack­ neyed old saw that says “Truth is stranger than fiction.” The fact of the matter is, I have taken these stories from old books and records—often jotted down from the pirates’ own words—in which their adventures are recounted with a certain grim matter-of-factness and bald detail that say more than all the fine writing in the world could describe. There has been no question of embroidering these histories of pirates, in order to make them picturesque; on the contrary, the original narratives are often too lurid to bear actual repetition. It must never be imagined for one moment that pirates were heroes; they were all, without exception, rogues of a particularly deep dye. The only thing that can be said in their favour is that they did their evil deeds openly, and flaunted their black flag boldly; they were not sneak-thieves, pickpockets or mean hounds as were their brother scoundrels the highwaymen. To fly the Jolly Roger and make war against all nations, trusting their luck to the ocean winds and waves, was, maybe, some sort of extenuation of their villainy. But villains they were, first, last, and all the time—hostes humani generis, as the old legal Latin phrase called them, “enemies of the human race.”

SEA-GOING CRAFT IN PIRATE DAYS Brigantine A two-masted merchant vessel, square-rigged on the foremast and fore-and-aft rigged on the mainmast. See page 89. Fly-boat A large, flat-bottomed, high-sterned vessel, usually Dutch. Fugate A naval craft, very fast-sailing, and usually carrying 28 to 30 guns. Frigate-built ships had the quarter­ deck and fo’castle raised from the waist. Gali.eon or A large vessel with three or four decks, almost invari­ Galleass ably Spanish built. See page 7. A large, broad-built boat, flush the whole length of the Galley stem, carrying two lateen-rigged masts, and also worked, on occasion, by oars. Sometimes the galley, or the small type called a galleot, was foreand-aft, or square-rigged. See page 63. Hag-Boat A frigate-built ship, with a deep waist and a narrow stern; usually employed for carrying heavy cargoes. A two-masted vessel, rigged sometimes fore-and-aft on Ketch both masts, but in earlier days occasionally squarerigged on the mainmast, which was considerably shorter than the foremast. A two- or three-masted vessel, sometimes lateen-rigged, Pink with a high and pointed stern. See page 195. There were various kinds of sloop, and the term was Sloop used rather vaguely. The actual sloop was a onemasted vessel, fore-and-aft rigged, with a gaff-main­ sail and jib. Pirate sloops, however, were more like eloops-of-war, often with two or three masts, and square-rigged. See page 89. The largest type of two-masted vessel. Mainmast and Snow fore-mast were square-rigged, and just abaft the mainmast was a small mast with its foot fixed in a block of wood on the quarter-deck, and its head attached to the maintop. This mast had a trysail. See page 133. Tall Ship This phrase was employed to describe English-built craft which were usually short-hulled and tall-masted, in distinction to the large hulls and small spars of the Spanish boats. A small ship's boat, often fitted with a mast. Yawl

CONTENTS CHATTBB

PAQ1

1. The Roques of Tortuga

.

.

1

.

18

3. Captain Aveby and the Red Sea Trade .

34

4. Pirate Ways and Pirate Lays ...

46

.

.

2. Sib Harry Morgan, King or Buccaneers

5. Captain Edward Teach, the Redoubtable

Black-beard

......

6. The Pirates of New England .

59

.78

.

7. Captain George Lowther—“To Sink all Ships I”.......................................................................... 93 8. Ned Low of the “ Black Heart ”

.

.

109

9. The Doings of Captain Spriggs and Captain Bellamy........................................................................ 123 10. Captain England and his Crew

.

.

140

11. Two Choice Rogues—Charles Vane and Calico Jack ......

155

12. The Tragedy of Captain Kidd .

.

.

172

13. Captain Davis and his Men

.

.

186

.

14. The Adventures of Captain Roberts 15. The Barbary Corsairs

.

203

....

221

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS The pirates began dashing up and down the decks at full gallop .... Frontispiece IACLNG PAG1

A terrific fire was opened from the canoes

.

10

At break of day Morgan ran his fireship alongside the Spaniard’s . . . . .26

The hideous face of Black-beard loomed up through the smoke ......

74

" Stap my vitals!” he bellowed. “Are you Cap’n Macra?” .....

144

The rogues went to sea, leaving King marooned on Green Turtle Key . . . .158 “ By Hercules! ” he said. “ Gladsby shall not die; hang me if he shall!” ....

214

Overboard they leaped, through ports and down the chains ......

238

Map showing the principal pirate haunts in the West Indies ......

48

Maps of Africa, showing the pirates’ favourite haunts on the Guinea Coast . . .146

To

ROGER

THE BOOK OF PIRATES CHAPTER I THE HOGUES OV TORTUGA

IX miles to the north of Hispaniola, roasting beneath the blaze of the tropic sun, lies a little rocky island, whose rugged shores afford no anchorage for even the smallest craft save on the southern side, where a good harbour can be reached through a couple of narrow channels. In this shelter great ships can lie in safety, hidden from too curious eyes and easily protected by a few guns plaoed to cover the channels of access. Away across the dancing waters are the green and blue mountains of Hispaniola. From the highest peak down to the very water’s edge the island is covered with trees of all sorts; candle­ trees, whose wood serves for torches to light the fisher­ men, out with their nets by night; giant gum-trees, enormous aloes, and graceful palmettos that sway with every passing breeze. Deep in the recesses of the woods a man can lie in hiding for months, feeding on wild pigeons and an occasional boar, sleeping in a hut of palmetto leaves, safe from discovery. Such is Tortuga del Mar, the Island of the Great Sea-Tortoise, or Turtle, where pirates of all nations used to put in from their cruises, to refit and rest before hoisting the black flag once again. Situated as the island is at the outlet of the old Bahama Channel, in the very centre of the main route of travel between the Spanish western world and Europe,

S

I

The Book of Pirates Tortuga was an ideal nesting place for the sea-rovers called Buccaneers, who, throughout the 17th century, ravaged the shipping of the West Indies. In 1630 they seized Tortuga; in the depths of its woods they built seoret storehouses for their smuggled or stolen goods, while their vessels lay safely at anchor in its harbour. At first the Buccaneers were not the redoubtable pirates they afterwards became. They started as little more than intrepid smugglers, who drove a thriving trade in getting contraband goods from England, Erance and Holland into the Spanish colonies, where the authorities excluded rigidly everything not Spanish. Obliged to live by stealth, and to provision their ships as best they could, these smugglers used to call in at the almost deserted island of Hispaniola—Haiti, or Santo Domingo, as it is now called—which was overrun with vast herds of cattle. There they learned to boucan or bucan meat, which was a Carib way of preserving it by cutting the flesh into long strips that were smoked and dried on a sort of wooden grid-iron, called by the Indians a bucan. Thus it was that Hispaniola became the lair of these Boucaneers, or Buccaneers. Needless to say, the Spaniards were furious at such wholesale flouting of their authority. They tried to drive the Buccaneers from their haunts, but failed signally. At last, in 1639, they took advantage of a moment when many of their foes were across the water in Hispaniola, to raid the smugglers’ headquarters in Tortuga, and attacking the place in force, they seized it and massacred every man they found on the island. Of course, this meant open war. Sometimes in alliance with the French, at others carrying on the campaign by themselves, or occasionally—as when they helped the Commonwealth navy to capture Jamaica—assisting the English, the Buccaneers turned all their energy and hatred against Spain. They soon recaptured Tortuga, and for the next fifty years and more waged unending war against the Don. From smugglers the Buccaneers 2

The Rogues of Tortuga had become pirates, and a terror to the shipping of Spain. Half legendary are many of those sea-rogues now. Most of them are clean forgotten, yet the adventures of a few are still remembered and their deeds inscribed in the annals of the sea. Such a one was Pierre le Grand, a Frenchman from Dieppe, who went a-pirating up and down the Caribbean in a long-boat manned by twenty-eight fellow rogues. Sometimes the luck was in, sometimes it was out. They had been enduring a spell of very hard times off the coast of Hispaniola and among the Bahamas, and food had run low, when in the dusk of one evening as they were bowling before a gentle breeze, with the Caicos Islands far away to the starboard, they spied a great ship of the Spanish flotilla, homeward bound and deeply laden with merchandise. She was all unsuspecting of danger, for the Bahama Channel had long been as safe as the Puerta del Sol, in far-away Madrid, and beyond the man at the helm there was hardly a soul on deck. As they approached this galleon Pierre and his men gazed up at her vast bulk and then looked at one another in some doubt. Could they possibly board her ? Would she not run them down like some elephant trampling on a toy? But the lockers were empty, they had met no prey for weeks, and here—with one accord the men stretched out their grimy hands to Pierre and swore a wild oath that, come life or death, they would stand by him to the last man, if he would lead them on the adventure. Silently, as the black tropic night fell on the sea, the long-boat crept up to the Spanish galleon. As she shot forward, one of the men went below with a great auger and bored large holes in the side of the little craft, through which the green water began to pour in amain. It was a desperate ruse, for it left every man with no choice but to board the enemy or go to the bottom with his own boat. 3

The Book of Pirates By this time it was so dark that not a soul aboard the galleon had so much as seen the little skiff approach. They ran her alongside, and grasping cutlasses in their teeth and gripping ready-cocked pistols in their hands, they swarmed up the great vessel’s side and suddenly sprang on deck. Knocking down the few men they met, the gang of pirates dashed aft to the captain’s great cabin, where he sat all unsuspecting, playing cards with some of his officers. Crash! The door was burst open, tables and chairs tossed to one side, and before the worthy Don could rub his eyes to see if he were dreaming or not, he found the fierce-eyed pirate captain facing him, with a couple of pistols pointed at his breast. “Deliver up the ship!” commanded Pierre. “The ship and all on board her!” There was nothing for it but to obey. Even as they were talking came the sound of shots from the gun­ room, where a couple of Pierre’s men had seized the arms and shot the master-gunner. All resistance was useless. Before the night was up the pirates were com­ plete masters of the vessel. The captain was put in irons and set ashore with most of his men, while those who wanted to do so joined up with Pierre le Grand, who waited no longer in those waters, but set out for his native France. Another bold buccaneer was Portuguese Bartholomew, who went out a-cruising from Jamaica in a boat of thirty men, armed with four small guns, resolved to prey upon the rich Spanish galleons that carried merchandise from New Spain and Campeche to Havana and the Old World. Sailing north-west from Jamaica, past the Isle of Pines, Portuguese Bartholomew had just sighted Cape Corrientes, on the western coast of Cuba, when he observed a great ship coming up out of the west from Maracaibo and Cartagena, bound for Havana. Her tall poop rose high, gleaming with gilt and red in the morning sun, and the great white sails bellied out 4

The Rogues of Tortuga in a fair wind. As they drew nearer the Portuguese saw that she carried twenty great guns, and that her decks swarmed with men. Nothing daunted, the pirate made for his prey, training his little guns against her, but keeping bis fire until they should be at close enough quarters to make it effectual. But the commander of the great galleon was determined to hold him off at all costs. His gunners were ordered to stand by their pieces, where they waited with lighted matches until the ship could be manoeuvred broadside on. Then, with a thunderous roar, they let fly at the approaching 6hip. But, as Spain had learned to her cost a century before, when the Great Armada was harried by the little craft of England, it is not always big guns and high poops that bring victory. As the smoke from his broadside was borne away by the breeze, the commander saw the pirate crew dashing up to the galleon’s side, and already 60 near that the cuns could not be deflected enough to rake them. With a shout and a yell the pirates bumped against the Spaniard, cast grappling irons into her chains, and within a few minutes of the start of the battle, were masters of their prey. Ten of their men were drifting away on the tide, tingeing the blue waters red with their life blood; twice that number of Spaniards lay lifeless on the decks. The wind being contrary for a return to Jamaica, Portuguese Bartholomew made a course in his prize to Cape St. Anthony, the westernmost extremity of Cuba, where he meant to take in fresh water and set his prisoners ashore. But just as he was shortening sail, the look-out man at the mast-head cried out that three tall ships were coming up from the south. In all haste the Portuguese put about, hoping to be able to run before the wind; for he knew that in his crippled state, with only half a crew and encumbered by a shipload of prisoners, he would stand no chance in a fight. But the great ships B

5

The Book of Pirates were too much for him. They drove him so close to the shore that he had to choose between shipwreck and surrender, and ere the evening was out he and his men were captured and made prisoners in the very prize they had taken so shortly before. The commander of the vessel who captured him knew Portuguese Bartholomew well by repute, and clapping him safely in irons, took him eventually to Campeche, where the magistrates, learning he was aboard, immediately erected a gibbet on the shore as a preliminary to his trial. Bartholomew knew well what his fate was likely to be. Some of the men aboard ship jeeringly told him of the rope dangling ready on the foreshore, others asked what he would give them to set him free. Maybe he induced someone to help him, it was never found out; but late that night, when the ship was wrapped in darkness, the pirate contrived to drag himself through a hatch, lugging with him a couple of large earthenware jars, such as wine is carried in, which he had corked up tightly. Only the sentry was awake; he strode forward at hearing a rustle in the darkness. With a swift move­ ment the Portuguese buried a stiletto in his breast, and as the poor wretch fell back with a groan, leaped over­ board with his two jars, and, though he could not swim a stroke, succeeded in making the shore. As soon as he felt ground beneath his feet, Bartholomew scrambled through the surf and ran up the beach into the woods, where he lay hidden for three long days, with nothing to eat but a few berries and wild herbs. The Spaniards searched diligently for him, and on one occasion he was actually concealed in a hollow tree when they went by; but they did not find him. When the hue and cry died down he crept from his hiding-place and made the best of his way to Golfo Triste, over a hundred miles from Campeche. To reach there he had to cross several rivers, and being unable to swim, would never have been able to 6

The Rogues of Tortuga reach his destination had he not found an old plank studded with nails. These he drew out and whetted on stones until they were moderately sharp knives, with which he chopped down a few branches of trees and constructed a rude canoe. This he carried on his back and employed to cross the streams that he encountered. Where he could find a ford he flung stones to scare away the alligators, and then dashed through before they

A Spanish Galleon

could scurry back for their prey. At one part of his journey he had to travel for miles swinging by his arms from one bough to another through a dense mangrove swamp, never once touching the ground. The journey took him a fortnight to accomplish. At Golfo Triste, Portuguese Bartholomew found some Jamaica pirates, with whom he returned to Campeche 7

The Book of Pirates and had his revenge, after which he went a-cruising up the coast and is lost to history. The ravages of the buccaneers on all their shipping made the Spanish merchants increasingly chary of trusting their fortune to the sea. Instead of dispatching vessels whenever there was a cargo for them, the authorities bade the shippers and merchants keep back their goods until a fleet could be got together and given an escort sufficient to ensure its safety from any roving robber. They imagined that by thus taking away the pirates’ prey, they would rid themselves for ever of these rogues. Little did they know their men! Finding few ships at sea, the marauders began to gather into com­ panies and make armed raids ashore, pillaging, burning and carrying away as much as they could. The first pirate to seek his fortune on land was a certain Lewis Scot, who sacked the city of Campeche, and having extorted an enormous ransom from its wealthy merchants, marched away in triumph. After him came Mansfield, who invaded Granada and captured the fortified island of St. Catherine. Another early buccaneer land-warrior was an English­ man named John Davis, a native of Jamaica, who had driven a thriving trade at piracy in the Gulf of Pocatauro, preying on vessels that traded to and from Nicaragua. Enraged at the decrease in shipping, he determined to carry the war on land and sack Nicaragua. Leaving his vessel hidden in a cove known to few but himself, and with ten men to protect her, he mar­ shalled the remainder of his crew, to the number of eighty, divided them equally into three canoes, and in the dead of night started paddling up the San Juan to the city of Nicaragua, now known as Rivas. When daylight came they ran into the shore and hid under the long overhanging branches of the trees, which drooped down and trailed their leaves in the stream. On the third night they reached the city. The sentinel, walking to and fro along the waterside, thought 8

The Rogues of Tortuga that the three canoes belonged to fishermen, and was quite satisfied when he hailed them in Spanish and got a reply in the same tongue, which most of the pirates spoke. In one of the boats was a runaway Indian. Slipping into the water like an eel, this fellow swam softly ashore, and creeping up behind the unsuspecting sentry, dealt him a single blow that silenced him for ever. The three canoes then softly grounded on the beach and the men disembarked. The buccaneers crept up to the first few houses in the town, and knocked gently at the doors. The inmates, thinking that some of their friends had come to pay a late visit, pushed back the bolts and peeped forth, whereupon the armed men rushed in, gagged, bound or killed all they encountered, and bundled the valuables into sacks. Still in silence, they then hurried to the churches, broke them open and ransacked them for their plate and costly vestments. They were emerging, on the search for further booty, when some of those they had bound succeeded in making an escape and raising the alarm. In a few moments the whole city was in an uproar; bells began jangling, watchmen shouting, while pistols were fired off at random. Davis gave the order to retreat to the boats, and without further ado they hurried to the shore, laden with sacks of booty. Thus they got to their ship and with all speed put out to sea, having lost not a man, and being the richer by four thousand pieces-of-eight1 and a great store of plate and jewels, in all to the value of £12,500, with which hand­ some booty they made their way back to Jamaica. In the forefront of these warrior buccaneers was 1 The piece-of-eight was worth about five shillings of modern money. It was the Spanish hard dollar (peso duro) and took its name from the figure 8—for eight reals—with which it was stamped. This is rather interesting as this coin gave its origin to the present American dollar sign $ which is simply an 8 with two vertical strokes to represent the Pillars of Hercules, the symbol Btamped on old Spanish coinage. 9

The Book of Pirates Francis L’Ollonais, whose real name was said to be Jacques Jean David Nau. When little more than a boy he had been transported from France to the West Indies, on account of some particularly dreadful crime; but escaping from all control, he soon joined up with the buccaneers, where he found himself in congenial company. Among all the ruffians of the West Indies, L’Ollonais distinguished himself by the inveterate hatred he showed towards the Spaniards and the horrible cruelties he practised upon such as fell into his hands. It was after a temporary reverse of fortune, when his ship was cast away off Campeche and he almost lost his life from the men of the town, that L’Ollonais set out for Tortuga—“the common refuge of all sorts of wickedness, and the school of pirates and thieves”— with a ship and twenty-one men, intending to land at the little village of Los Cayos, on the south of Cuba, and seize a large booty of tobacco and sugar, commodities which were produced there in abundance. The sea off Los Cayos is so shallow and the channel so intricate, winding among a multitude of small islands, that no ship can approach, and L’Ollonais was obliged to put his men into two canoes in order to reach the village. But some fishermen had noticed the suspiciouslooking ruffians and hurried with the news to Havana, beseeching the governor of that city to send assistance at once. At first that worthy would not believe the story, for he had been told definitely that the pirate had been killed at Campeche; but more messengers arriving with urgent demands for assistance, he dispatched a 10-gun vessel with ninety men, telling them “not to return to his presence without having totally destroyed those pirates.” To add point to his orders, he included in the company a negro hangman, with instructions to do his duty by all the villains save L’Ollonais, who was to be brought in chains to Havana. It took a couple of days for the vessel to get round to Los Cayos; but L’Ollonais did not wait for her arrival io

A terrific fire was opened from the canoes.

The Rogues of Tortuga —he went to meet her. Los Cayos being inaccessible, the commander of the warship ran his vessel into the mouth of a stream called the Estera, meaning to start off on land the next morning. Meanwhile, thinking that the pirate and his men were far away, the whole company turned in, save a solitary sentinel, who leaned over the vessel’s side, gazing into the darkness of the night. It was about two o’clock when he saw a couple of boats drifting by. Thinking them fishermen, he hailed and asked if any pirates had been seen thereabouts. But the man who answered professed to know nothing of pirates or the like; he was a peaceable man, he said, and worried about nothing save his nets. As they were talking the two canoes drew nearer the warship. Sud­ denly, as the drowsy sentry was thinking he might, after all, turn in and have a snooze before daylight appeared, a terrific fire was opened from the canoes on either side, and with wild shouts the buccaneers began to clamber aboard. But, taken unaware as they had been, the Dons were not the men to give in without a fight. They dashed out with swords and guns and made a gallant stand against their foes; keeping them off at the point of the sword until far into the morning. But inch by inch the pirates forced them back until they were all below hatches. L’Ollonais then gave orders that they should be brought up one by one, and as each man came on deck the buccaneer chief beheaded him with his own hands. Among the rest came the negro executioner who complained bitterly that he, who had been sent to hang pirates, should suffer at their hands instead.- But L’Ollonais was adamant, and every man of those sent to take him was thus put to death, except one, who was dispatched to the governor of Havana with an account of what had taken place, and an impudent message from the Frenchman. Thus furnished with a good ship, L’Ollonais set sail ii

The Book of Pirates for the gulf of Maracaibo in Venezuela, where he sur­ prised a vessel laden with plate and merchandise, being outward bound to buy coco-nuts. With this prize he sped back to Tortuga, where he began to organize a fleet with which to pillage the seaboard towns and villages, and capture Maracaibo itself. At news of L’Ollonais’s plans buccaneers flocked to him from all parts of the West Indies, such an army of rascals as has seldom been seen gathered together on this earth before or since. On the last day of July, 1654, they set sail, six hundred and sixty men in eight vessels; and making an easterly course past Hispaniola, the fleet was passing Cape Espada when a ship was sighted from Porto Rico, bound for Mexico, with a cargo of coco-nuts. Giving orders to the rest of his squadron to lie by off the Island of Saona, while he tackled this prize himself, L’Ollonais set all his canvas and went to the attack, though it was not until the battle had lasted three hours that the Porto Rican struck her colours. This was a prize worth taking. She was a large ship, mounting sixteen guns and carrying a complement of fifty fighting men. But what interested the pirates even more was her huge cargo of coco-nuts and a treasure of specie and jewels amounting to 50,000 pieces-ofeight, a good £12,000 of our money! L’Ollonais sent her off with a prize crew, to be unloaded at Tortuga, giving orders that as soon as she had been unladen she was to return to Saona, where he would wait for her. Meanwhile the rest of the fleet had the luck to capture another Spanish vessel, heavy with a cargo of ammunition and firearms, and a little fortune of 12,000 pieces-ofeight. Thus encouraged, in due time they set off for Maracaibo in earnest. This Venezuelan port lies in a deep, almost landlocked bay, the entrance to which is protected by a couple of islands with a narrow channel between them—the only access to the harbour. The town at that time contained some eight hundred souls. 12

The Rogues of Tortuga At the head of the huge lagoon was another town, called Gibraltar, almost twice as large as Maracaibo, and a place of considerable trade with the interior. So L’Ollonais arrived with his fleet off the Gulf of Maracaibo, and after a few hours’ stiff fighting captured the forts of the two islands that commanded the channel. Meanwhile, some of the soldiers had fled to the town to give the alarm; whereupon the inhabitants simply abandoned all they had and fled along the lake to Gibraltar, or took refuge in the neighbouring forests. But L’Ollonais knew nothing of this, for the attack on the forts had occupied all his attention and he had not perceived the flight of the people of Maracaibo. So when he approached the city next day he bombarded the place with his great guns and expended quite a lot of heavy shot before he realized that the town was empty. At last, seeing no vestige of life, he marched his men into the deserted streets, where they found nearly all the houses open, and in some cases tables actually spread for a meal. Of food there were great quantities—flour, bread, pork, brandy, wines and poultry; and the pirates, who had had their fill of sea fare, fell on the dainties of Maracaibo with lusty appetites. In a very short time they rifled all the houses in the place, and established comfortable bivouacs for the night. Next morning L’Ollonais sent out a party of men to scour the woods and bring in any of the in­ habitants they could find hiding there, and that evening his men returned with several mules laden with furniture and treasure to the value of 20,000 pieces-of-eight, as well as a few terror-stricken wretches whom the bucca­ neers put to the torture, to find out where more money was hidden. After a fortnight’s resting and rioting in Maracaibo, the marauders decided to push further down the bay to Gibraltar. The inhabitants had anticipated this and had appealed for help to the governor of Merida, a large town just across the mountains. Now the governor 13

The Book of Pirates of Merida was a valiant soldier who had seen service in Flanders; so, at the head of four hundred men, he marched into Gibraltar, established batteries to defend the place against an attack by sea, blocked the only path by which the pirates could attack by land, and at the same time made a decoy road leading into the woods and swamps at the back of the town. These preparations had scarcely been completed when L’Ollonais and his fleet were sighted. When they saw the yellow flag of Spain flying, the pirates knew that they were going to meet with opposition; but L’Ollonais called a general council of war, and told his men that boundless wealth was to be had for the fighting in the town before them. When the cheering aroused by his words had subsided he concluded with the ominous remark: “The first man that shows any fear I will pistol with my own hands!” The buccaneer fleet cast anchor before Gibraltar, a mile or so from the shore, and waited for darkness, under cover of which they landed three hundred and eighty men, armed with pistols and cutlasses. As they stood upon the beach, a group of sinister shadows, they shook hands with one another, and L’Ollonais gave the command to advance, whispering: “Courage, mes camarades ; follow me and fear nothing!” In silence they marched along the road that had been described to them, under torture, by one of the prisoners. It was the one that had been blocked up, but it led into the decoy path that had purposely been made through a swamp, where the mud and low bushes kept the whole party constantly floundering and stumbling. While they were in the midst of this the Spaniards opened fire with their batteries, and kept up such a terrific barrage that neither side could see or hear for noise and smoke. But the buccaneers were quite undaunted by this bombardment, and pushed forward until suddenly they found themselves faoe to face with a battery of six pieces. 14

The Rogues of Tortuga Before L’Ollonais had time to order a retreat, the gunners put their matches to the touch-holes, whereupon a hurricane of bullets and scraps of jagged iron tore through the ranks of the invaders, leaving lanes of wounded and dead. For a time it seemed as though they would have to retire to their boats. Indeed, in a very loud voice, L’Ollonais did give the order and led his men off towards the sea at the double. It was an old ruse, but the Spaniards were completely taken in. Seeing the pirates beating a retreat, they charged out of the town, past their own batteries, and down to the shore, where the guns could give them no support. This was just what L’Ollonais had intended. When the moment was ripe, he wheeled his men about, made a furious onslaught upon the pursuers, and before they had well recovered their surprise at this sudden turning of the tables, the buccaneer had cut them to pieces, killing above two hundred men in a very few minutes. Then, wasting no further time, the victors dashed back, seized the batteries, and before long were masters of the town. Five hundred Spaniards had been killed in this battle, though the pirate losses were hardly a hundred. Quantities of plate and a great number of slaves also fell into L’Ollonais’s hands, and he threatened to bum Gibraltar to the ground unless a ransom of 10,000 piecesof-eight was paid within two days. Having collected this money, and laden with vast stores of plate and other wealth, the buccaneers then made their way back to the sea, passing Maracaibo again, and giving the in­ habitants, who, by this time, had returned, the alternative of paying a ransom of 20,000 pieces-of-eight and five hundred cows, or having their town sacked again and burned. And so, after two months of constant rapine and pillage, L’Ollonais set sail from the coasts of Venezuela and made his way back to Hispaniola, where the fleet put in at Vacca Island, on the south-west coast, and made a careful division of the booty among the entire crew. 15

The Book of Pirates In specie they had 260,000 pieces-of-eight (£52,000); the jewels, silk, linen and plate were assessed at various values, and in the end it turned out that every man in the expedition came back the richer by £50 or more. Having made this division of their plunder, the pirates set sail for Tortuga, where their appearance was the signal for high revels and wild carousals, all of which ended in the usual result, and a very few months were past ere the pirates were as poor as the day they left for Venezuela. Some time about 1666, L’Ollonais determined to carry the war into Nicaragua. Collecting some of his old army together, seven hundred men strong, he set sail in six ships, making a course for Cape Gracias & Dios. But contrary winds and tides drove him into the Bay of Honduras, where he landed at Puerto Cavallo, put the inhabitants to the rack and other horrible tortures not to be mentioned, and pillaged the town and all the neighbourhood. L’Ollonais now changed his plans and decided to make Guatemala the scene of his campaign. But his men, who seemed to think that pieces-of-eight were to be gathered as easy as pears from a tree, and had lost the relish for fighting, decided to return to Tortuga, leaving L’Ollonais with the crew of the biggest ship in the Bay of Honduras. When his plans were ready and he was making for the open sea, the ship ran aground near Cape Gracias 4 Dios, and try as they would the crew could not get her afloat again. Everything was thrown overboard, guns, boxes of money, water-casks, until at last there was nothing left to do but to break the vessel up and build a smaller boat from her timber. This was the work of months, and when the task was completed it was found that the long-boat would only carry half the crew of the wrecked vessel. So they cast lots as to who should embark with L’Ollonais, and the pirate promised to return with other vessels as soon as possible and fetch those who were left. 16

The Rogues of Tqrtuga A few days after sailing, the long-boat arrived at the mouth of the San Juan River, in Nicaragua, where they were unexpectedly attacked by the Spaniards, and lost three-fourths of their number. L’Ollonais was, indeed, barely able to get back to the boats with his few remaining men, but they managed to push off just in time to save their skins. Coasting down the mainland, at last they reached the shores of the Darien peninsula, land of the wildest and fiercest Indians of Central America. Thinking to subdue them with his usual brutality, L’Ollonais led his handful of men inland. What happened then is not very clear, but the bloodthirsty rogue had not been ashore many days ere he was seized by the Indians, torn limb from limb and at last cast into a huge fire. The same fate was meted out to the rest of his crew, one solitary man alone managing to escape and make his way back to Tortuga with the story of the appropriate end of the cruellest and wickedest of the buccaneers.

17

CHAPTER II

Sir Harry Morgan, King of Buccaneers ENRY MORGAN, most famous of all the buccan­ eers,was bom at Llanrhymny, in Glamorganshire, some time about the year 1635. How he got out to the West Indies is not known with any certainty, but he was probably kidnapped as a lad, when on a visit to Bristol, shipped aboard a West Indian boat, and sold as a servant on reaching Barbados. There was nothing very unusual about this; it was a common thing for a man desiring to settle in the New World to bind himself to the captain of some ship, who, in exchange for a free passage, had the right to sell him to a planter for a certain number of years—usually seven or ten. As boys were scarce they were not infrequently kidnapped, as young Morgan is said to have been, and sold on the other side. Be that as it may, Harry Morgan found himself in the West Indies, and after serving his time at Barbados, got to Jamaica, where he entered the ranks of the buccaneers, and by his wild courage and masterful manner soon got command of a ship of his own. With this vessel he set sail from Jamaica for a cruise off the coasts of Campeche, where he made a name for success­ ful piracy. On his return to Jamaica he met a wild old buccaneer named Edward Mansfield, who had been commissioned by Sir Thomas Modyford to attack the Dutch in their island of Curasao. Lest this should appear strange, it may be explained that Modyford, governor of Jamaica, made use of the buccaneers on several occasions, and, as we were at war with the Dutch 18

H

Sir Harry Morgan at the time, employed Mansfield and other freebooters to harry the enemy’s shipping and coasts for the sake of what they could get. Morgan’s reputation had spread over the Caribbean Sea by this time. As soon as Mansfield saw him return into port he let off his guns in welcome, and immediately appointed him vice-admiral of the fleet he had collected. When the expedition eventually started, however, with its fifteen ships and five hundred men, all the plans were changed and they made for Costa Rica, coasting southwards, pillaging and destroying towns and villages on the way. Finally they seized the island of St. Catherine and founded a sort of buccaneer settlement there. This was in 1665. Leaving their men in St. Catherine, Mansfield and Morgan sailed back to Jamaica to recruit more for their little colony, but before they could manage this Mansfield died, and very soon after­ wards the Spaniards landed on the island in force and took prisoners all the buccaneers who had been left there. By common consent Harry Morgan was now the chief captain among the buccaneers, and in 1668 Modyford commissioned him to make a raid on the Spaniards and find out from such prisoners as he took whether they had any intentions against Jamaica. Nothing could have pleased the buccaneers more than this com­ mission. Morgan sent messengers to all the sea rogues in the neighbouring islands, bidding them meet him on the coast of Cuba, and soon set sail thither himself, to join his friends at the rendezvous at the San Pedro River. At sight of the first vessel dropping anchor off their river the inhabitants fled inland hurriedly, spreading the rumour of the enemy’s approach ; but most men thought that the sea marauders had only put in to water or rest, so, though the governor of Havana was informed of what was going on, he was not unduly perturbed. When some twelve sail and seven hundred fighting men, English and French, had joined Morgan, the leaders 19

The Book of Pirates of the expedition began to put their heads together and decide what to do next. Havana was too big a nut to crack, so after much deliberation they determined to attack Puerto del Principe, or Camaguey, which, as it lay inland, had never been attacked by pirates or enemies of any kind, and was certainly full of treasure. So, weighing anchor from the San Pedro the fleet made for Puerto de Santa Maria, and feeling their w ay in after nightfall, cast anchor a short distance from the shore without being seen by the people of the town. So far all had gone according to plan, but that night, when the ships were all silent and the crews sleeping heavily, a Spaniard who had been taken prisoner further along the coast slipped overboard and swam ashore. Running up the beach he roused the inhabitants of Puerto de Santa Maria and hurried on to Puerto del Principe, to warn them of the approach of the buccaneers, for the men had freely discussed all their plans before him, not thinking that he understood English. On hearing of what was afoot the governor beat the alarm, roused the men of the town, slaves and freemen alike, and led out a detachment to a spot on the road along which he reckoned the invaders must march. There he made a barricade of fallen trees, and placed guns in commanding positions. But Morgan was too old a hand at that sort of work to be hindered by such precautions. Dividing his men into small parties, he left the main road and took to the woods, where, flounder­ ing through marshes and forcing their way among dense undergrowth, they eventually debouched on the plain immediately outside the town, having escaped all the governor’s batteries and ambuscades. With drums beating and colours flying the buccaneers now advanced boldly against Puerto del Principe, routed a squadron of horsemen who charged out to meet them, and. after a fierce battle lasting four hours, in which the governor and many of his men were killed, entered the town and began to pillage it systematically. They 20

Sir Harry Morgan shut up all the inhabitants in the various churches and left them there without food, for days on end, while they themselves spent the time in one continuous round of rioting and carousing; nor did they trouble in the least about their unhappy prisoners except to drag some poor wretch out, and put him to the torture to make him reveal where his money was hidden. At last, having eaten and drunk the town empty, and extorted all that the rack and other implements could wring from their victims, Morgan led his men away to the boats and sailed for a small island, where they made a division of the booty, amounting in all to the value of 50,000 pieces-of-eight (£10,000)—a disappointingly small sum when divided up among so large a crew, and not enough, even, to pay their debts in Jamaica. Morgan now proposed to carry the war farther afield and make a landing elsewhere; but the Frenchmen in his party demurred, and after a long confabulation among the buccaneer captains it was decided that they should part company, Morgan and his Englishmen alone being resolved to seek their fortunes at the point of the sword. With nine sail and four hundred and sixty men, Morgan mustered his company on the beach and asked if they were ready to follow him blindly, and not so much as ask among themselves whither he was taking them. Without hesitation they all answered: “Yes!” “Then get back to your ships,” said Morgan, “and follow me; when the time comes I will let you into my plans! ’ ’ It was early in June, 1668, that Morgan and his fleet set sail from their rendezvous and made an easterly course. During the afternoon of the following day the coast of Costa Rica was sighted, and upon this Morgan signalled the squadron to draw near, and, summoning the captains aboard his flagship, told them of his plans, which were to land under cover of darkness and capture Porto Bello on the Isthmus of Panama, one of the strongest and wealthiest Spanish towns in the West Indies. “If c 21

The Book of Pirates our number is small our hearts are great,” said he to those who wondered whether their strength was enough to take this well-fortified place; “the fewer we are the better our shares in the spoil!” This cogent argument was sufficient to silence all further criticism. Morgan knew Porto Bello well; and, as not a soul even among his own crew had been aware of his plans, he felt sure that nobody m the town could have the least suspicion of what was in the wind. In the dusk of the evening he sailed to Puerto de Naos, some thirty miles west of Porto Bello, and running into a creek, embarked his men into small canoes, leaving only enough crews in the ships to take them round to the harbour on the following day. Thus sure was he of the success of his enterprise! About midnight they set out, and paddled along the shore to a place called Estera longa Lemos where they landed and, forming into companies, marched silently through the darkness towards the town, led by an Englishman who had formerly been a prisoner there and knew the ins and outs of the place. Presently this leader gave a sign with his hand to halt, and, accompanied by a friend or two, disappeared into the night. Those who were waiting could hear the measured tramp of a sentry, pacing up and down a few yards away. Suddenly the footsteps ceased, there was the sound of a slight scuffle, and a moment later the guide and his friends returned, bringing with them the sentinel, who had been seized from behind and gagged before he had a chance of raising the alarm. Terrifying the man with the most hideous threats, they forced him to reveal all he knew as to the strength of the place, how the defences were manned and where they were situated. The whole army now advanced on the city in silence until they reached the first of the forts that defended it. In obedience to a few whispered commands from Morgan, the walls were surrounded, and then the captured 22

Sir Harry Morgan sentinel was commanded to summon those within to surrender. All unprepared as they were, the only reply the gallant Spanish garrison deigned to make was a burst of fire, which not only drove the invaders back a little, but at the same time gave warning to the town that untoward events were afoot. Hastily collecting his men, Morgan led them in a wild assault upon the fortress—a charge that carried all before it—and ere the defenders could open up with another volley they found themselves prisoners. Resolved to make an example that should terrify the whole neighbourhood, Morgan forced all the defeiiders of this captured stronghold to crowd into one room, and then, applying a torch to a train in the powder magazine, he blew the whole fortress with its occupants into the air. Nothing now lay between the buccaneers and Porto Bello, for the remaining forts were on the farther side of the town. So with a flourish of drums and trumpets the triumphant invaders now advanced on the city. Needless to say, the utmost confusion reigned within its streets. Men and women were rushing hither and thither, shrieking and praying for deliverance from the rogues who had fallen upon them; this terror swelled into a perfect panic when the blast of the first fort’s explosion made every house in the city rock on its foundations. Many of the inhabitants threw their jewels and money into wells and cisterns, or hastily buried their goods in the cellars; and most of them followed the governor to the shelter of the remaining forts, whose guns now began to boom out, adding their roar to the deafening pandemonium of wailing women, jangling church bells, and yelling buccaneers. Thus the fight, rapine and bombardment went on from daybreak until noon of that 27th June. Morgan then detailed some snipers to cover the guns in the other forts, and whenever the gunners ran forward to load their pieces or swab out the reeking tubes, buccaneer sharpshooters took their toll. 23

The Book of Pirates But the battle was far from won, and many among the assailants began to think it time they retreated to the shore; for they had lost many men and seemed no nearer to silencing the forts. Various expedients had been resorted to, but in vain. At one time Morgan had caused his men to hurl fire-balls at the doors, hoping to burn them down and thus gain admission, but the Spaniards had driven the grenadiers away with volleys of stones and huge bombs made of earthen jars filled with powder and shot. Desperate, but determined to win, Morgan now ordered his men to make ten or a dozen ladders as quickly as they could. When these were ready, he collected all the monks and nuns who had been captured in the town and forced them to carry the ladders forward and plant them against the walls of the fortresses. His idea in doing this, of course, was that the Spaniards would hesitate to fire against their own people, especially those of a religious calling; but he was mistaken, for the governor was as fierce and determined a man as Morgan, and notwithstanding that the poor wretches, staggering under the ladders, besought him at the top of their voices to spare their lives by delivering up the fortress, he opened fire and killed a number of them as they stumbled forward. But Morgan forced others to the task, and at last rushed his men up the ladders, carrying fire-balls, grenades and huge bombs, which they hurled down among the Spaniards from the height of the walls and then leaped among them. This broke down all resistance, and the garrison threw up their hands in surrender. All, that is, save the governor, who with his own hands killed not only several pirates but some of his own men who had refused to fight any longer. Morgan wanted to take him prisoner, but he refused to be captured alive, and so met his end like the gallant hidalgo he was. For the next fortnight Porto Bello was given up to rapine and plunder,- Every house was ransacked. Walls 24

Sir Harry Morgan were often pulled down to find hiding-places for money, bedding was torn and scattered to the winds, floors pulled up, and furniture broken. Men and women were put to the most excruciating torture to make them confess where wealth was hidden, and when, at last, Morgan gave orders to re-embark, he collected all his prisoners and told them that unless they paid a ransom of 100,000 pieces-of-eight (£20,000) he would bum the city to the ground and blow up the fortresses with them inside. So two prisoners were sent off post-haste to the governor of Panama with the buccaneer’s demands. After a few boastful remarks that he would not tolerate such a thing in his district that worthy came to the conclusion that the right policy was to leave his poor countrymen to make the best bargain they could. So raking up contributions from all their friends, and raising every penny their credit was worth, the unhappy inhabitants of Porto Bello at last raised the ransom demanded of them and handed the money over to Morgan. At the same time the governor of Panama sent a trusty messenger to Morgan, expressing his amazement at so small a party of men having captured a fortified town, and asking for a specimen of the cannon with which he had been able to take so strong a city. Morgan received the messenger with exaggerated civility and gave him a pistol and a few small bullets to take back to his master, bidding him tell the governor that these were the pieces with which he had taken Porto Bello, and that if he would keep them for a twelvemonth, he promised to come to Panama to fetch them away. The governor sent back a message that he was not to trouble himself. Taking away the best of the guns from the fortresses and spiking the rest, Morgan set sail from Porto Bello and made for his haunt on Cuba, where the plunder was reckoned up—a vast supply of cloth, linen, silk, 25

The Book of Pirates and other merchandise, and 250,000 pieces-of-eight (£50,000) in solid cash. With this they sailed off very happily to Jamaica. The governor of Jamaica, Sir Thomas Modyford, was so pleased at Morgan’s success that he gave him another commission to wage war on the Spaniards, and actually presented him with a brand-new ship, the Oxford, mounting thirty-six guns, just out from England. Thus equipped, the buccaneer set sail for the isle of Saona, off the south-east corner of Hispaniola, there to wait for and waylay a great flotilla that was due to arrive from Spain. While they were waiting, spending the time in carousing and quarrelling, it chanced that Morgan was entertaining his captains in the great cabin of the Oxford while the rest of the crew were dancing and shouting for’ard. How it happened will never be known, but suddenly there was a blinding flash, a terrific detonation that reverberated back from the shore, and when those on the other vessels, who rushed to see what had happened, could peer through the smoke, there was nothing to be seen of the Oxford but a mass of wreckage and a few men clinging to spars and broken bits of woodwork. The great ship and all her crew had been blown to atoms—all her crew except, by a sinister whim of Fate, Morgan and his cronies in the great cabin, who were the only ones to escape with their lives. It is typical of this master-rogue that, having himself escaped, he sent search parties to pick up the corpses of his lost fellow-seamen, not out of any wish to give them decent burial, but that the rings and other finery should be stripped from their bodies! Impatient to be in action again, Morgan now set sail with eight ships and five hundred men. Aboard one of his vessels was a Frenchman who had sailed with L'Ollonais in the expedition against Maracaibo, and, fired with his stories, Morgan decided to lead his forces against that place. Under the guidance of this old 26

At break of day Morgan ran his fireship alongside the Spaniards.

Sir Harry Morgan buccaneer they met with no difficulty in capturing the city, and the scenes that had taken place with L’Ollonais at Maracaibo and Gibraltar were now repeated under Morgan, though the Welshman outshone the Frenchman in cunning cruelty as sunlight outshines the light of a candle. For three weeks the rack and the boot, the stake and cauldrons of boiling oil, were working day and night, and it was said that not a single inhabitant of Maracaibo or Gibraltar, man, woman or child, escaped the hideous attentions of Morgan and his ruffians. While these affairs were going on ashore, the Spaniards hastened up with a fleet to the entrance to the Gulf of Maracaibo. They had got Morgan in a trap out of which, short of a miracle, he could not escape! But the English buccaneer had no intention of letting himself be taken. He converted one of his largest boats into a fire-ship, loading her with tar, powder, wax and other inflammable material. On her decks he placed dummy guns of wood, and figures dressed up as men were propped on the decks, so that to all appearance she was an ordinary sea-going ship. On April 30, 1669, they found the Spanish fleet riding at anchor in the middle of the only channel through which there was any passage to the sea. At break of day Morgan made a dash to escape, and ran his fire-ship alongside the Spanish flag-ship. In a few minutes the flames burst out, and before the Spaniards could ungrapple, their own boat was a blazing mass. In the confusion caused by this unexpected development the buccaneers rapidly made themselves masters of the other craft, and the end of it all was that Morgan sailed away from Maracaibo with his treasure and vast stores of silk and jewels, slaves and cattle, and made his way back to the pirate lairs of Cuba and Tortuga. Once again his patron, Modyford, sent him out a-roving against the Spaniards. Organizing all the buccaneers into distinct bands, he appointed them to meet him at Tortuga by October 24, 1670, and there, 27

The Book of Pirates on the appointed date, a great sea-rogues’ parliament was held. After some discussion and much noisy quarrelling it was decided to make an expedition against the town of Panama. On December 16, 1670, the fleet weighed from Cape Tiburon, the western extremity of Hispaniola, and four days later sighted the island of St. Catherine, now occupied by the Spaniards, whom Morgan summoned to surrender. The governor held out for some time, but at last he sent a white flag and two messengers who demanded to speak with Morgan in private. When they were alone with the great buccaneer they told him that the governor and council of the island had resolved to give it up to him, through lack of strength to resist; but at the same time they asked Morgan to spare the reputation of the officers by a ruse. Morgan was to draw nearer the fort and land some men. As though by mistake, the governor would allow these men to take him prisoner and apparently force him to deliver up the fortress. While this was going on both English and Spanish batteries should keep up a furious cannonade, though, as it would be of blank charges, no one would be a penny the worse. It all worked out according to plan, and thus, after what was the first and only sham fight in his life, Morgan became master of the island of St. Catherine. In the town and fort were great supplies of ammunition and guns, and with this welcome addition to his equipment the buccaneer admiral set sail for the mainland of Panama. As a preliminary to the campaign, Morgan dispatched four ships under the command of a trusted follower, Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Bradley, to take the castle of Chagre, which commanded the entrance to the river of that name, and would have to be held by anyone undertaking the enterprise on Panama. But for all his courage and the resolute attack he put up, Bradley was only able to take the place after very severe fighting, 28

Sir Harry Morgan in which he lost a hundred and seventy of his men, killed and wounded. But at last the Cross of St. George of England was hoisted on the castle walls, and when Morgan sailed in, a few days later, he was received by the captured fort with great acclamation. On January 9, 1671, the buccaneer army began its march from Chagre to Panama. Morgan had twelve hundred men, in five boats and thirty-five canoes, and so crowded were the latter that after every few miles the men had to land and stretch their legs. There was nothing to eat, either, for the country folk had fled at sight of the marauders, carrying away or destroying all their food, so most of the men had to content themselves with a pipe of tobacco for dinner and supper. Landing on the third day, Morgan left a party of a hundred and sixty men with the boats and pushed on, though by now they were all so hungry and weak for lack of food that it was impossible to cover much ground. The following day, indeed, when they came upon a village which the Spaniards had evacuated but a short time before, leaving behind some leathern bags, the famished buccaneers seized the bags and tore them into pieces, which they ate ravenously. All the next day they marched on, and still there was never a sign of food, and happy indeed was the man who had saved a bit of leather, which he could sup on ere night drew in. The method of preparing this un­ palatable food was to soften it by pounding between stones, and then roast or fry it over the fire. By the end of the sixth day’s march many of the buccaneers were utterly exhausted, and only able to drag themselves along a few yards at a time, eagerly plucking at any leaves or grass that they happened on. On the seventh day they were straggling when a village appeared at a distance, with smoke drifting from the chimneys. This inspired the feeblest with courage, “for,” they said, “there is smoke coming out of every house; they are making good fires to roast and boil our 29

The Book of Pirates dinners for us.” At length, when the famished men arrived, hot and panting, they found the little town deserted and foodless, while the smoke that had raised such high hopes merely arose from incendiary fires the Spaniards had started in their houses before taking to flight. The buccaneers were now eight miles from Panama, and coming to a hill, from the top of it they saw, to their delight, the blue waters of the Pacific and, shortly after­ wards, the steeples of the town itself. Down in the valley they now traversed were great herds of cattle. At last the long famine was at an end. As soon as his men were refreshed, Morgan marched forward against Panama, which soon began to fire its great guns at them, though with little effect. Mean­ while, a company of some two hundred Spaniards came galloping up, sounding their trumpets and shouting: “ Perros! nos verremos t " (Dogs! We shall meet!) Some of the old buccaneers in his army had been in Panama before, and these men now told Morgan of a little known road into the city, which the Spaniards had not thought of defending; so—with drums beating and colours flying—the buccaneer army marched in full panoply against the city by this path. They were divided into three companies, covered by a company of two hundred sharpshooters whom Morgan had sent on as advance guard. As they crossed the plain a party of Spanish horsemen rode out to meet them, but they were repulsed and soon thrown into confusion. In addition to this cavalry the Spaniards brought out a great herd of wild bulls, which they liberated and drove right into the buccaneer army. Now it was that the sharpshooters came into action, for they shot many of the mad beasts as they came careering towards them, and so frightened the others that they turned and dashed back into the ranks of the Spaniards, ripping and goring as they went. So the fight raged on for a couple of hours, when the 30

Sir Harry Morgan Spaniards, beaten and discouraged, threw down their arms and fled, leaving six hundred dead on the field, and the town of Panama at the mercy of the marauders. There were, it is true, a few gunners in the city who stood by their pieces and wrought much damage among the ranks of the assailants, but nothing they could do was sufficient to keep the enemy at bay, and before nightfall Morgan was master of Panama. The next day fire broke out in the city, no one ever knew how it was caused, and buccaneers and Spaniards joined forces to extinguish the flames, which, despite their utmost endeavours, gained such a hold that the city was badly damaged. Partly in the confusion caused by the fire, and amid the usual carouse that set in when a city was taken, the buccaneers let slip a rich galleon, on board of which the wealthiest men of Panama had placed their goods. She was full of gold, pearls and jewels, contained all the King of Spain’s plate and a great quantity of church silver and gold. While the pirates were digging in the cellars of Panama and torturing prisoners to discover the hiding-places of paltry bags of silver, this vast treasure galleon escaped them and got to sea. For three weeks the city was giveii up to the horrors of a buccaneer occupation. Not a stone was left un­ turned, scarce a man left untortured in the mad hunt for gold, and when, on February 24, Morgan marched his men out of Panama, they were accompanied by a hundred and seventy-five mules laden with gold, silver and jewels, and six hundred prisoners, men, women, children and slaves. The living booty were crowded together into a great throng, surrounded by pirates, who punched and prodded them with their swords, driving them like cattle and utterly deaf to their shrieks and cries for mercy. And so this extraordinary army marched on, half of it shouting and roaring with boisterous brutal mirth, the other half bewailing their lot and raising cries and moans that could be heard a couple of miles away. 3i

The Book of Pirates When this strange multitude reached the town of Santa Cruz on the Chagre, Morgan had all his prisoners brought in a great herd before him and, with brutal jests and cruel cynicism, told them that he gave eaoh one three days in which to pay his ransom, failing which he would take the delinquents as slaves to Jamaica. A lucky few were able to pay their ransom within the allotted time, the rest were dragged along to Chagre. There Morgan packed them in a ship and sent them to Porto Bello, where the authorities raised the money needed to purchase their liberty. Morgan now overhauled, so to speak, his own army. Two men were appointed out of each company to search their fellows narrowly, so that none might conceal any private loot, that the whole store of what had been pillaged should thus be made common. When this had been done, he divided out the booty of the expedition to all his men, not, it should be noticed, according to any equitable ration, but just as it suited his whim. And such was the terror this rogue inspired even among his own choice ruffians, that not a man of that blood­ thirsty crew dared complain openly, or so much as hint that the captain had reserved all the best jewels for himself, as well as a vast proportion of the gold and silver. After all the countless wealth they had acquired, and wrung, as it were, out of the very ground itself, Morgan allotted to each man a beggarly two hundred pieces-of-eight—barely £40—a miserable reward for the danger they had gone through, the hard fighting, the weary, hungry marches, the perils by land and sea. But the captain was deaf to all suggestions, and a single scowl from those fierce eyes of his was enough to silence whole companies of discontents. Nevertheless, he knew that his popularity among the buccaneers had gone for ever; and with a callous disregard for those who had laboured to get his wealth, he slipped secretly aboard his own ship, without so much as a word to his choicest companions, and put to 32

Sir Harry Morgan ■ea before any knew what he had a mind to do. As for those he left behind, many of them were hard put to it to get away from the place and make their way back to Jamaica. This was the end of Henry Morgan’s buccaneering. While he had been away on the Panama expedition peace had been signed between England and Spain, and the sack of Panama was discovered by the Government. Morgan was arrested and sent home on board the Welcome frigate to England, whither his patron Modyford, also in disgrace, had preceded him. But King Charles II was too acute a statesman not to realize the value of a rogue like Morgan. By the summer of 1674, the buccaneer was high in the royal favour and was actually knighted and sent back to Jamaica as governor. There he spent the rest of his life, enjoying the immense for­ tune he had won through so much blood and infamy. But the king’s choice was justified. Morgan made a model governor, and when he died, in 1688, the year of the Revolution, he was much lamented. But how many had he not caused to be lamented in his time.

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CHAPTER m Captain Avery and the Red Sea Trade

WO Bristol ships, the Duke and the Duchess, lay in Corunna harbour, where they had dropped anchor but a few days previously. They were stout built ships, of thirty guns apiece, carrying crews of some hundred and twenty men, and had been hired by the Spanish Government to go out to the West Indies and protect their colonies from the ravages of French smugglers and privateers. For it was the year 1695, and England, Spain and Holland were allied against the power of France. The Duke was lying somewhat nearer the shore than her consort, for Captain Gibson, the commander, was a pleasure-loving man, and when in port liked to spend most of hiB time on shore, treating and being treated at the waterside taverns. In his absence he knew that John Avery, the first mate, would take charge of the vessel and see that she was kept ship-shape and Bristol fashion. It was ten o’clock one sultry evening, and the cap­ tain was down in his cabin, where he had turned in after an evening spent in close company with several large bowls of punch. A few of the crew were snoring in their hammocks, but most of the men were on deck, standing silently in the darkness of the shadows, or whispering furtively among themselves. Standing on the poop was the mate, Avery, who every now and again would lean over the rail, peering anxiously into the darkness. Presently the splash of oars was heard, drawing nearer across the dark water of the harbour. Raising

T

34

Captain Avery and Red Sea Trade his hands to cup his mouth, Avery softly hailed the long-boat that soon ran alongside. “Is your drunken bos’un aboard?” came back an answering shout. “Aye, he is!” replied Avery, and with a soft laugh he threw out a line, which one of the men in the boat laid hold of. In a few moments the visitors were clambering aboard, sixteen stout fellows from the Duchess, armed to the teeth and barely able to suppress their boisterous mirth at the watchwords that had been exchanged. All was now silent bustle aboard the Duke. Those who had been waiting in the shadows of the mast and rigging hurried forward as Avery issued his orders, and clapped on the hatches, securing them safely without so much as wakening one of the sleeping men below. All hands now ran to their appointed places, some to man the capstan and begin heaving the anchor, others to the tackles, hoisting the sails and trimming the yards. Going aft Avery gave the steersman his orders and then, as the vessel began to gather weigh, carefully conned her out of the harbour. Men keeping watch on other vessels in Corunna saw the Duke putting to sea, but thinking that she was acting on orders, paid little heed, save to wonder what the skipper’s plan could be in starting a voyage at night time. The creaking of the tackle, the yo-hoing of the men at the capstan and the roll of the ship as she got under weigh, at last combined to penetrate Captain Gibson’s punch-lulled slumber. Dimly wondering what was hap­ pening, he reached a hand out from his bunk and vehemently jangled the bell by his side. This was what Avery had been expecting ever since the anchor had been weighed. Accompanied by two of the men he went below and entered the captain’s cabin. Half asleep and wholly uneasy, Captain Gibson stared with surprise at seeing his first mate and two more men enter. 35

The Book of Pirates “What’s amissV* he asked, heavily. “Nothing,” was Avery’s cool answer. “Something’s the matter with the ship,” insisted the oaptain. “Does she drive? What weather is it?” For into his befuddled brain had entered some dim idea that a storm had arisen and that the Duke was driving from her anchors. “No,” answered Avery, “she is not driving. We are at sea, with a fair wind and good weather!” “Atsea? ” oried Captain Gibson. “How can that be?” “Come,” said Avery, firmly, shaking him by the shoulder. “Don’t be frightened! Put your clothes on, and I’ll let you into a secret. I am captain of this ship, now! This is my cabin, and you must walk out of it! I am bound for Madagascar, where I am going to make my fortune, as well as that of all the brave fellows who are sailing with me.” At last the true meaning of what had happened began to penetrate the captain’s understanding, and he got more scared than ever. But Avery, who knew his man and rather pitied him than otherwise, clapped him heartily on the back and bade him take courage, “for,” cried he, “ if you have a mind to make one of us you shall be welcome; and if you will turn sober, and do what you are told, maybe in time I may make you one of my officers. If not, there is a boat alongside, and you shall be set ashore.” Captain Gibson was not long in making up his mind. Better to be put ashore and run the risk of a courtmartial than go to sea with these hotheads and end his days drying in the sun at Execution Dock. He shook his head vigorously at Avery’s proposal and demanded to be set ashore. Five or six of the men below hatches elected to go with him, so they were all bundled over­ board into the boat and cut adrift, to reach the shore as best they could, while Avery and the others gave three lusty cheers and put the Duke's head for Madagascar and the Red Sea Trade. 36

Captain Avery and Red Sea Trade The Red Sea Trade and On the Account, it should be observed, were fine-sounding phrases used by all those rogues of the sea, and in plain English meant to go a-pirating. The voyage to Madagascar passed without incident. Few ships were sighted and none were attacked. Avery— or Long Ben, as he was called—made no attempt to land until they had run up the east coast of the island and reached what is now Diego Suarez. There they found two sloops at anchor, whose crews, on sight of the Duke, slipped their cables and ran the boats ashore, when all the men leaped out and dashed for shelter into the woods. At sight of this hurried retreat Avery broke into a roar of laughter. It did not need much to enable him to guess that they were two sloops’ crews who bad run away with their craft from the West Indies. Evidently they imagined the Duke to be a frigate sent to take them. So he ordered a party of men ashore, waving a white flag of truce, and though the men in the woods were chary of trusting themselves and suspicious of a trap, they recovered from their fright after a time and some of them came aboard the Duke. When they found that the new-comers were On the Account, needless to say they were highly delighted, for with their own two little sloops they had been unable to take any considerable prize. Now, as they said, they could hope to fly at higher game. Avery professed himself equally pleased to enlist them in his company, though, as he said, it would mean that any prize money would have to be shared by so many the more. However, Captain John had his own solution to that difficulty, as will be seen in due course. After watering and cleaning his ship, Avery set sail in a day or two’s time, with the two sloops in attendance, and made a course for the Karachi coast. The wind was fair, and the passage a good one. One morning Avery was down in his great cabin working out certain plans that he had in his head, when the man at the d 37

The Book of Pirates masthead hailed those below and shouted that he spied a sail. In an instant Avery came bounding to the deck, shouting out orders and signalling to the two sloops to follow the Duke. As soon as possible all canvas was set, and as the long day wore on the three pirate craft gradually gained on their prey. At first the strange vessel had been hull down, but as they crept nearer, Avery, who had climbed to the masthead himself, judged her to be a Dutch East Indiaman, homeward bound, and when he descended to the waiting men below, he made their mouths water with stories of the wealth they might find in her holds. But luck was even more in the pirates’ favour than they had dared to hope for. As the Duke gained on the strange ship, who by now had guessed the nature of her pursuers and had clapped every stitch of canvas upon her yards, Avery saw that the men running hither and thither were Indians. This put him in somewhat of a quandary, for he could make nothing of her. So when they got within range he fired a shot across her bows. Immediately the stranger hoisted the colours of tho Great Mogul, and answered with a round that raised a fountain of water just by the Duke’s side. This was followed up by one or two other shots, and, not relishing this speedy reply to his message, Avery stood off, to the surprise and disgust of some who began to suspect that he was not quite the fire-eating hero he had announced himself to be. Be that as it may, while the Duke was standing off from the Mogul ship, the two sloops crowded on all sail and made for their prey like terriers at a rat. Before the Indian captain could fend them off they were along­ side, one against the bow, the other on the quarter, and with a wild shout and brandishing their cutlasses the pirates clambered up the sides and dashed along his deck. In face of this furious assault the Indians’ courage 38

Captain Avery and Red Sea Trade evaporated. Raising his scimitar, with one stroke the captain shore through the halliards of his flag, and the next moment the Great Mogul’s colours fluttered to the deck. Bringing the Duke as near as was safe, Avery now went aboard the prize, and was staggered at the extent of his fortune. The Great Mogul Aurungzeb, Emperor of Delhi and monarch of the richest part of India, had

dispatched this vessel, with his own daughter and a number of his most exalted courtiers on board, to make the pilgrimage to Mecca and the Moslem holy places. Furnished lavishly by the wealthiest and most splendid monarch in the world, the vessel was a floating mine of untold wealth and magnificence. Gold, silk, jewels were there in limitless profusion. The very slaves were apparelled in silk ; the men before the mast wore gold 39

The Book of Pirates bangles and anklets. As for the grandees of the Mogul’s court, they were surrounded with a sumptuous splendour that to Avery and his seamen was truly fabulous; the very basins and ewers for their toilet were solid gold. In addition to all this personal grandeur, the Mogul was sending by this ship gifts of enormous value for the shrine of Mohammed. For several days on end the pirate crews worked from sunrise to sunset, carrying the contents of the prize aboard their own ships, and with each fresh boat­ load Avery and his men marvelled at the luck that had fallen their way. When at last the task was done, and the last bale of silk thrust down into the hold of one of the sloops, the rogues were masters of wealth such as no pirate before or since has ever captured at one stroke. How much, it could never be reckoned, but it has been estimated that the value of the Mogul’s treasure was close on half a million pounds sterling. Having gutted the Great Mogul’s ship of all they either wanted or liked, the pirates now let her go; and having neither the heart nor the means to proceed with his voyage, the Indian captain turned about and sailed home to Karachi, whence he was summoned to the court of his imperial master to answer for the disaster that had befallen him. When he heard of the insult offered to his flag Aurungzeb breathed fire and thunder. He would march down with drawn sword and extirpate every Englishman in India! He would drive the English from east to west, from north to south, until they learned to weep at the name of Aurungzeb! But the East India Company’s agents found means to pacify this irate monarch, and, making vast promises to capture and hang the pirate who had robbed and insulted him, lulled him once again into a sort of sullen peace. Caring nothing for the victims of their robbery, Long Ben Avery and his merry men put their helms about and made for Madagascar, where, as all hands imagined, they would have a great squaring of accounts and build 4°

Captain Avery and Red Sea Trade storehouses for the precious silks and fineries that would have to be carried to a distant market for their value to be turned into solid gold. But Captain John Avery had his own views as to what should be done, and convoked no council of state to consider them. Summoning the skippers from the two sloops, he set out before them the bald facts of the case and the dangers they were running by carrying any portion of the Great Mogul’s treasure in their own small vessels. Heavily laden as they were, a spell of bad weather might well bring either or both of them to the straits of having to jettison their cargo; or, again, should they be chased by a king’s ship, of which there were several in those waters, what chance would they stand in a fight? The simplest and, indeed, the only solution of these difficulties, said Avery, was to place all the treasure on board the Duke, each of the skippers affixing his seal to the chests. Then, when they came to a safe port in Madagascar, they could get everything on shore and divide it up as was equitable. Avery’s smooth tongue, augmented by several bowls of punch, was well able to persuade the skippers that he was right. They went back to their ships full of praises for the admiral and soon persuaded their crews that all was for the best, and that Avery’s plan was sound to the core. All that day the long-boat and skiffs were crossing to and fro between the Duke and her consorts; when evening fell, the sloops were riding high and empty, and the Duke was laden with untold wealth. As each bale or chest was brought aboard, Avery and the two skippers solemnly affixed their seals before it was slung down into the hold; and with jest and song the men toiled at their labour, spending in anticipation the fruits of it. That day and the next the three vessels kept company, but in the dark of the following night Avery called his crew together in solemn council. There was enough 4i

The Book of Pirates treasure on board, he said, to make every man of them wealthy for life. Why not sail to some distant port, where no one would know them, and settle down to an existence of affluence and happiness ashore? The astute captain committed himself no further than that, but he was not mistaken in his men. Though he had not so much as mentioned the scheme in his mind the hearers knew full well what he meant, and the man at the tiller needed but a nudge from the bos’un to put his helm over. Through the hours of the tropic night they kept on their new course, and when day dawned there was no sign of either sloop upon the horizon! Having thus successfully bilked their partners, Avery and his men discussed plans and finally decided to rim for America, where not a soul knew them. Once they could get ashore, it would be the simplest thing in the world to purchase estates or plantations and live at ease. So they sailed down round the Cape and away across the South Atlantic, eventually making the Bahamas, where pirates and buccaneers were too well known for the townsmen of Nassau to ask any awkward questions. It was here that Avery put the Duke up for auction, for he feared that the sight of so big a ship putting in at any North American port would arouse official curiosity, and the story of his exploit at Corunna would certainly have got across the Atlantic. So they sold the Duke to a Bahama man and bought a sloop. In the West Indies they disposed of the greater part of their loot from the Great Mogul’s ship, and the magazines on the island of St. Thomas were so full of rich Indian goods that they were not emptied for twenty years to come, though the stuff was sold off at prices tar below the actual value. Among the booty was a great number of Arabian gold coins, which for a long time circulated in the West Indies under the name of “sequins,” at the rate of about six shillings apiece. 4«

Captain Avery and Red Sea Trade As for spices—nutmegs, cloves, cinnamon and mace— these usually valuable commodities could be had for almost the asking, long after Long Ben and his piracies had been forgotten. At various ports along the mainland some of the men left the company, taking with them their share of the plunder—or rather what they thought to be their share of the plunder, for Avery had found means to keep in his own pockets the major portion of the diamonds which had been neglected by the men in their first plundering of the Mogul’s ship, as they thought them merely Indian gewgaws of glass. At length they put into Boston, where most of the remainder of the pirate crew left. But there was no rest for Avery himself. Nearly all his wealth lay in the diamonds he had secreted, and he knew well enough that if he began to flash precious stones about in Boston the hard-headed New England colonists would, like as not, first clap him into the town jail and then inquire how he came into possession of them. So, with his few remain­ ing men, he crossed the Atlantic and landed at a little seaport in the North of Ireland, it is not known exactly where. There the party split up for good and all; some went to Cork, others to Dublin, where eighteen of them applied for a royal pardon and duly obtained it. Avery, meanwhile, still carrying on his person gems to the value of a king’s ransom, was hard put to it for ready money to pay for food and lodging. He made his way across to England and down to his native Devonshire—for he was a Plymouth man—where he appointed an old friend from Bristol to meet him at Bideford. Having told this friend his whole story, he persuaded him to go back to Bristol and broach the matter to a few wealthy but not too scrupulous mer­ chants. These, in their turn, went to Bideford, to talk with Avery and examine his treasure. In the hands of the glib landsmen the pirate captain 43

The Book of Pirates was like a piece of wax. With many protestations of integrity and good faith they persuaded him to hand over his treasure of diamonds, as well as several valuable pieces of gold plate, and paid him a few pounds down for his present needs, merely as an instalment, it was dearly understood, of the princely sum that was to follow. Avery lodged in an obscure garret at Bideford until his little money was spent. On getting no reply to his appeals to the Bristol merchants, he went thither him­ self, but when he called at the office of his chief debtor that worthy man threatened to hand him over to justice as a pirate unless he made himself scarce, and bluntly told him that not a penny piece more was likely to find its way in his direction. Thus finding that business men can be even worse pirates than seamen, and terrified lest, after all his precautions, he might yet feel a rope round his neck, Avery betook himself to Ireland, until the danger should have blown over. Then, working his way back to Plymouth, as a common hand before the mast, he tramped to his old lodging in Bideford, where he fell sick and died, not being worth as much as would buy him a coffin, as an old writer puts it.

It can well be imagined what the men on the two sloops said when morning came and they found them­ selves alone in the vast expanse of ocean, with never a sign of the Duke. The fairness of the weather and the explicit understanding they had with Avery put all suspicion of accident out of the question. There was no shadow of doubt that Avery had left them in the lurch, in the midst of the Indian Ocean, not only taking away the booty which they had helped him to capture, but also leaving them in a parlous state for provisions and water. There was nothing for it but to make for Madagascar, where they could establish a settlement ashore, replenish 44

Captain Avery and Red Sea Trade their stores and make ready for another voyage on the Red Sea Trade. So to Madagascar they went, and seldom were men so pleased to see its heights from afar as were these crestfallen rogues when they put in from the Indian Ocean. But hardly had they landed and started off into the woods in search of game, than they met a party of white men, who somewhat roughly demanded who they were and what was their business. However, birds of a feather soon know one another. It transpired that the men ashore were the pirate crew from the ship of Captain Tew, who were tired of a seafaring life and had settled in Madagascar. The two gangs of pirates immediately became friendly—“thick as thieves, ” as the proverb aptly puts it—and soon put their settlement on a regular footing. Imposing themselves on the natives, who had no fire­ arms, and were therefore not only at the mercy of the pirates but also anxious to enlist their services in their own tribal wars, the white men became princes in the land, established large fortified dwellings and gathered around them crowds of slaves and dependents. When Captain Woodes Rogers put in at Madagascar, on board the Delicia, he was greatly surprised at receiving a sort of semi-state visit from some of these pirate monarchs, and could hardly believe that the strange looking men, in lions’ skins, and with long, flowing beards and hair, were really British seamen. But they were content with their somewhat dirty royalty, so there he left them as happy as such men can be, and a deal better off, probably, than if they had returned to civilization and the haltere that undoubtedly awaited them.

45

CHAPTER IV

Pirate Ways and Pirate Lays

UST as highwaymen used to choose the busy roads where they were fairly certain of meeting travellers worth the trouble and risk of a hold-up, so pirates kept to certain tracks where they stood a good chance of meeting merchant vessels coming out from Europe laden with specie or goods, or of intercepting them on their homeward voyage, full up to the hatches with the wealth of the tropics. In the stories told in this book of some of the most famous—or infamous might be the better word—pirates, a good idea will be gathered oi their principal hunting-grounds. During the winter the pirates of the American coasts used generally to cruise among the West Indian Islands, varied by occasional runs up to Carolina, where they were generally able to dispose of their booty without being asked too many questions. Having turned the winter’s loot into hard cash or its equivalent in food and gewgaws, the rogues would usually coast leisurely north­ wards to Long Island and on to Buzzard’s Bay, in Massachusetts. The waters of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket were practically certain to yield a rich harvest for a week or two, until news of the pirates’ presence got to Boston, whence a cruiser would be sent out immediately. Not that the cruisers often actually caught the pirates, for the sea-rovers, though usually poor at navigation, were masters of the art of making what their modem Yankee descendants would call “a clean get-away.” Indeed, the utter inefficiency of the navy in coping 46

J

Pirate Ways and Pirate Lays with the pirate difficulty would be amazing to anyone who did not know what a lot of red tape has always been used to tie up our ships. A couple of hundred years ago the best navigators and mathematicians were unable to calculate longitude with any great accuracy. The best way to sail a long voyage was to coast south or north to the latitude of the desired port, and then sail across. Thus, a ship wishing to make Charleston, on leaving the Scilly Islands would coast south to the latitude of Madeira, and then strike a due westerly course across the Atlantic. All this was, naturally, perfectly well known to the captains of the patrolling men-of-war, who, had they but patrolled these “west-ways,” would as certainly have found the pirates as the pirates found the merchant­ men. But not Admiralty orders were to patrol the shore-line; so up and down the coast the cruisers sailed, while the pirates gaily chased their prey on the acknow­ ledged western tracks. Not only that. The pirates knew as well where to look for the warships as where to find the traders, and so it was that some of them ranged the seas for years without a scrape from a cruiser’s guns. Lowther captured thirty-three ships in seventeen months—one a fortnight—without being challenged; Low took 140 vessels in twenty months, at the rate of two a week. As for Roberts, he made prizes of four hundred craft in three years, which works out at something like a ship every three days! Having taken their toll of shipping off the Northern coasts, the pirates usually made a run across the Atlantic to the Azores, or even the Cape Verd Islands, from which it was but a short trip to the Guinea Coast. There was generally a good picking to be had among the traders in ivory, gold and slaves, though the capture of Roberts and his crew off Cape Lopez put something of a damper on the activities of the merry robbers on the African main. From Cape Verd it was a straight run, more or 47

The Book of Pirates less, to the coast of Brazil, where one or two Portuguese traders were always to be had for the mere asking. Another profitable hunting-ground was the Indian Ocean, where, making Madagascar as a rallying point, the pirate craft could ravage the East Indian traders and sometimes even make a landing at some port and take toll of the inhabitants. Of all these resorts, the West Indies was the best from every point of view, for there the shipping was, as a rule, richer and the islands themselveB formed an ideal haunt for rogues who required snug and littleknown coves in which to lay up and clean their ships. On the tiny desert islands, too, there was always plenty of turtle to be had, whose eggs and flesh made excellent food and helped to store many a marauder before starting out to prey on ocean shipping. New Providence, in the Bahama Islands was, so to speak, the metropolis of Piratedom, just as Tortuga had, in its day, been the rallying point of the older buccaneers. Its popularity arose in the early years of the eighteenth century. In the year 1714 a fleet of Spanish vessels, laden with plate and homeward bound from Mexico, was wrecked in the Gulf of Florida, and the vast treasure on board sank beneath the waves. A couple of years later a few ships were sent out from Havana with a crew of divers and much tackle, for the express purpose of fishing up the bars of silver and the chests of specie that, in clear weather, might be seen on the sandy sea­ bed far below. They had pretty good success at this salvage work, and had taken up several million pieces-of-eight, and stored them in a little fort built for the purpose on the shore, when who should come along but a certain Captain Henry Jennings, with two ships and three sloops from Jamaica and Barbados. Without wasting time in discussion or argument Jennings sent a detachment ashore, easily captured the storehouse, and carried the casks of silver to his shipB; then sailing away, he improved 48

49

Map showing the principal Pirate Haunts in the West Indies

The Book of Pirates the occasion by stopping a Spanish ship laden with cochineal and 60,000 pieces-oi-eight, which all found their way into his holds. Jennings had now urgent need of some place where ha might deposit the plunder. His choice fell on New Providence, in the Bahamas, an English colony where the governor’s power was merely nominal. The success of the Plate Fleet pirates reviving the memory of the buccaneers, inspired others possessed of brazen courage and no morals to enter the trade, and, when Captain Woodes Rogers arrived as Governor of the Bahamas in 1717, he found quite a nest of these rogues settled in Providence. In Chapter X of this book some account is given of the discipline on pirate ships and the sort of articles the company signed. All powerful as he was when there was any fighting to be done, at other times the captain was very much the servant of his men, though some pirate skippers, like Bart Roberts, always held aloof and affected a sort of state. The captain was usually chosen for his daring and had to be “pistol-proof.” It was up to him to keep his job by adopting a fierce manner and overaweing his men into obedience, though without making them resent it. On many ships the captain who showed the most cruelty, and accomplished most destruction in the way of burning vessels and hanging men, was the most popular and the safest in his command. The captain of a pirate crew had the great cabin aft to himself, but any man on board had the right to go in at any time, take his drink out of the captain’s tankard of rum, swear at him, and even take his food if he felt so inclined. As a matter of fact, however, these privileges were rarely used, and in general the pirate captain was treated with a rough respect. When one of Ned Low’s victims was ordered on board the pirate ship, he was received by the gunner, bidden take his hat off, and made to wait outside the cabin door while the gunner went in to announce the visitor. When 50

Pirate Ways and Pirate Lays the trader Bkipper entered, Captain Low, who was lolling on a gun-carriage—though there were chairs in the cabin—did not condescend to rise, but in a lordly fashion waved his victim to a seat and rang a hand­ bell, at sound of which a steward brought in a beaker of rum. When a pirate captain had been chosen, he was usually put in office with some sort of ceremony. After the company had elected him, the quartermaster or some other of the men’s leaders would make a speech wishing him prosperity and good “governance.” He would then be led in state to the great cabin and requested to seat himself at the head of the table. There was only one other chair and that was at the farther end of the table; there the quartermaster would take his seat, as representative of the company. Unsheathing a sword, he would present this to the captain, with some such words as these: “This is the commission we give you to act and to lead us I May you bring us and yourself good luck!” The ceremony invariably concluded with a discharge of round shot from all the guns. The captain then asked the senior men pf the crew to dine with him, casks of rum were broached among the remainder, and in a few hours’ time there was scarce a man aboard who knew whether he was standing on his head or his heels, except the musicians—trumpeters, drummers, fiddlers and the like—who were usually forced men, and had to play until their masters were incapable of hearing them. When a ship had been captured and her cargo inspected and seized, the pirates usually proceeded to deal with the crew. Young men, likely to be active and good sailors, were interviewed by the captain or quarter­ master, and asked to sign the articles. To be thus entreated was more or less a matter of form, for, even if a man refused, he was usually “forced” to serve, and there was better feeling if he joined the captor crew 51

The Book of Pirates with a good grace. The only benefit of being “forced” was that if the ship were captured and the pirate crew put in irons, the “forced” men could claim their freedom as having been unwilling members of that crew. As for those who refused to serve and were not worth being “forced,” they were sometimes made to walk the plank, though the “best” pirates did not indulge in this wanton cruelty, but shot them out of hand, or sent them adrift in their boat. Walking the plank was a very simple diversion, in which the victim was blind­ folded and forced to walk on a board thrust out from the ship’s side. It was amusing sport, and offered a fine chance for laying wagers as to whether the victim would reach the end of the plank or miss his footing before that point. In either event, of course, he fell into the water and was drowned, or eaten by sharks. This diversion, by the way, had its origin in the far distant days of the Roman Empire. The Mediterranean had its pirates, and when they captured a ship it was their frequent custom to inquire if there were any Roman citizens on board. When such would come forward, proud of the distinction, the scoundrels received them with the utmost deference, falling on their knees, and asking pardon for the slight offered to them. So effusive were the rogues, and so apparently genuine in their regret, that as often as not the prisoners thought that there really had been a mistake, and that the ruffians were about to let them go on account of their distinction. When this point had been reached, the pirates led the prisoners forward to the ship’s side, where a ladder was dangling, though with no boat beneath it, and with overwhelming courtesy told the wretched men that they might leave the ship that way. As the unfortunate Roman citizens saw the trap they had been let into, the pirates burst into screams of laughter, and tossed them overboard, to meet the watery death that had been intended for them all along. It is not known which of the pirates or buccaneers 5«

Pirate Ways and Pirate Lays first hoisted the black flag, but it was soon in universal use by gentlemen On the Account. The favourite device was a black background with a white skull and cross-bones depicted on it, though this was occasionally replaced by a full skeleton, or “anatomy,” as it was called in those days. One or two rogues of a more artistic nature painted on their black flag a bleeding heart in scarlet, with streams of blood gushing from it. Captain Roberts was one of the first to call his jack the Jolly Roger. We see in the story of his adventures how he made a special standard with a picture of himself standing on two skulls, labelled respectively A.B.H. and A.M.H.—“A Barbadian’s Head” and “A Martinican’s Head.” When he took Whydah he had a black silk flag flying from the mizen peak, with a skeleton on it, bearing an hour-glass in one hand and cross-bones in the other, and standing on a heart dripping with blood. By this gruesome figure’s side was a man standing on two skulls, with a flaming sword in his hand. It may well be asked why so many men became pirates, with the chances of swinging at a man-of-war’s yard-arm or drying in the sun at Execution Dock; but it must be remembered that sea life in the days of which we are writing was very hard, and the men who followed it were but little given to reflection. Work, work, work—“Six days shalt thou labour as hard as thou art able, and the seventh day shalt thou holystone the main deck and chip the great cable,” was one of the command­ ments which every good skipper saw that his crew obeyed; and one may well imagine how sailors—or slaves, for they were little better—would listen greedily to any yarn of the brave life led by those who went On the Account, and long to taste the pleasure of a free life, with plenty of money, silk to dress in, rum galore to drink, and as gay an existence as was to be had—even if a short one. Besides, there was always the chance of making a fortune—and keeping it. The men-of-war were not B

53

The Book of Pirates very nimble in chasing pirates, and if rumours were true, as probably they were, more than one navy captain found it to his advantage to close his eyes when the black flag was sighted on the horizon. Stories tell of a certain commodore, out on the Madagascar coast, who was unfortunate enough to spring a leak which neces­ sitated landing his entire store of ammunition—powder, shot and guns—in order to get at the ship’s bottom to mend it. So the stuff was taken to the beach and piled up there, while all hands went back to see after the ship. Strange to say, when they went below to search for the leak, there was none to be found. So after some discussion they pulled off for the shore again, to re-embark the powder and shot dumped there. To their amazement, every atom of it had vanished! This was most mysterious. The commodore went ashore himsjlf to view the scene of this strange dis­ appearance ; and while prodding about, what should he discover but four or five small kegs, stowed away neatly under a bush. This was clearly a matter for his personal attention. The kegs were taken aboard and rolled along to his cabin, where the commodore and his officers opened them, and found in them, so they announced, nothing but—honey. Yet it was a curious sort of honey, said the men who had rolled the kegs to the cabin, for it was very heavy and it chinked! This was only one example of how pirates got the ammunition necessary to carry on their war against all flags. But just as there were profiteers in Britain during the Great War, men who waxed fat on selling goods to “Sweden” and “Denmark” which were really intended for enemy countries, so, when the pirates were ravaging the trade of England and France, did a few good, honest merchants of London find occasion to send out shiploads of rum, brandy, powder, pistols and cannon-balls for the use of the “King of the African Main.” It was a long voyage to the remote place where that monarch reigned, and the heavily laden ship was 54

Pirate Ways and Pirate Lays obliged to put into some deserted island to replenish water. There, amazing to say, the skipper would find a fine ship lying-to, flying a bla----- , oh, no, his eyes must be dazzled by the sun, it surely was a grey flag. The merriest and most generous crew of mariners that ever were came across from this vessel, and without more ado bought the whole ship’s cargo, at a much better price than ever the “King of the African Main” would have paid. So why trouble to make a long voyage? True, these mariners did not pay in money, and it was curious to imagine where they could have got such a miscellaneous cargo of silks, sugar, ivory, and odds and ends. One might almost think they had filled their holds from all sorts of different ships—yet, why think at all? Besides, there were pirates on land as well as at sea, ard when all was said and done, Ned Low, or Black­ beard himself, would have blushed to do some of the things that passed—and still pass—for “business” in the offices of London and New York. Nor did all pirates make their last port in Gallows Haven. For many a long year the story used to be told up and down the American coast, in the low inns of Providence and the rogues’ haunts of Topsail Inlet, of how a certain Thomas Pound got to England and set up as a gentleman on what he had made when sailing On the Account. When first heard of, Pound was a naval officer—pilot, he was called—on the frigate Rose, stationed off Rhode Island. Shortly before midnight on Thursday, August 8, 1689, Pound and a few friends put out in a small boat from Bulls Wharf, Boston—now known as Dewey Square—and sailed out of the harbour. They spoke with one or two fishermen outside, then ran in to Fal­ mouth, Maine, where they watered the ketch and per­ suaded some of the soldiers on garrison duty to desert. Sailing thence to Cape Cod, Pound had the good luck to capture the Good Speed sloop, into which he and his 55

The Book of Pirates men moved, sending the ketch back to Boston with a message to the Governor that if he sent anyone after them the pirates were determined to die, every man, before they would be taken. Pound was now a full-blown pirate. He flew a bloodred flag from his topmast, and harried shipping off Cape Cod and as far south as the coast of Virginia, making his headquarters in Tarpaulin Cove, near Buzzards Bay, among the maze of islands and coves near Martha’s Vineyard. One day, as the pirates were getting the sloop ready for a long voyage down to the Caribbean Sea and Curasao, a sloop appeared at the head of Tarpaulin Bay and stood in directly for them. This was the Mary, Captain Samuel Pease in command, who had been sent out expressly to capture the marauders. On sight of the Mary, Pound piled on his canvas and got off as fast as he could, with the Government sloop in hot pursuit. The rest of the story is best told by a man on the Mary, whose account of the day’s work may still be seen in the records of Suffolk County, Massachusetts: We made what sail we could and quickly came so near that we put up our King’s jack, and our sloop sailing so very well we quickly came within shot and our captain ordered a great gun to be fired athwart her fore foot. On that a man of theirs carried a red flag to the top of their mainmast and made it fast. Our captain then ordered a musket to be fired; he not striking we came up with him and our captain commanded us to fire on them, which we accordingly did, and also called them to strike to the King of England. Captain Pounds, standing on the quarterdeck with his naked sword in his hand, flourishing, said: “Come aboard, you dogs, and I will strike you.” His men standing by him with their guns in their hands upon the deck, he taking up his gun, they let fly a volley at us, and we again at him. 56

Pirate Ways and Pirate Lays At last we came to leeward of them. They perceiving this, gave several shouts, supposing that we would yield to them. We still fired at them, and they at us as fast as they could load and fire, and in little space we saw that Pounds was shot and gone off the deck. While we were thus in the fight two of our men met with a mischance by the blowing up of some gunpowder which they perceiving by the smoke gave several shouts and fired at us as fast as they could. We many times called to them, telling them if they would yield to us we would give them good quarter; they utterly refusing to have it, saying: “Ay, ye dogs, we will give you quarter by and by!” We still continued our fight, having two more of our men wounded. At last our captain was wounded, so that he went off the deck. The lieutenant quickly ordered us to get all ready to board them, which was readily done. We laid them on board at once, and at our entrance found such of them as were not much wounded very resolute; but discharging our guns at them, we forthwith went to club it with them and were forced to knock them down with the butt ends of our muskets. At last we quelled them, killing four and wounding twelve, two remaining pretty well. The weather coming on very bad and being desirous to get good doctors and surgeons for our wounded men, we shaped our course for Rhode Island, and the same night we secured our prisoners and got in between Pocasset and Rhode Island. The next day being Saturday we got a convenient house for our wounded men, got them ashore and sent away to Newport for doctors, who came quickly and dressed them. Our Captain being shot in the arm and in the side and in the thigh, lost much blood, and in the morning departed this life. Pound and his fellow prisoners lay in jail for some weeks before they were brought to trial; when their 57

The Book of Pirates case came on before old Governor Bradstreet and bis fellow magistrates, they were all found guilty and sentenced to death. Powerful influence was brought to bear on the governor, however, by various lawyers and others who felt that Pound and his men had scarcely had a fair trial, and somewhat reluctantly Bradstreet granted a reprieve. The document was so long in coming that one of them, named Hawkins, was actually on the gallows, with the rope round hiB neck, when the fateful piece of paper arrived. The only man of the company to be hanged was Tom Johnson, known as the “Limping Privateer.” Poor Hawkins, who had been so near death’s door, was actually killed a few months afterwards at sea, where he was serving on the Rose when she boarded and seized a French pirate. As for Thomas Pound, he was sent over to England for his case to be inquired into; but the inquiry must have been very cursory, for a few weeks after his arrival he was appointed captain of the frigate Sally Rose, and actually returned, as a naval commander, to the American waters where he had cruised as a pirate. He retired in 1699, a wealthy man, though there was little need to ask where the money came from, and settled down as a private gentleman at Isleworth, near Richmond, a pious churchman, and held in much esteem by his neighbours.

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CHAPTER V Captain Edward Teach, the Redoubtable Black-beard

APTAIN NED TEACH was a Bristol man. Some said his real name was Thatch, others claimed that it was neither one nor the other, but really Drummond. It really matters little, for up and down the high seas he was known by the far more terrible name of Black-beard, a name at which the hardiest seamen might well shudder in their shoes. How or when Ned Teach went to sea nobody knows, for the first to be heard of him was when he was sailing as a common hand before the mast on privateers that went out from Jamaica to harry French shipping, during the great wars of Queen Anne. A bold and bloodthirsty man he was then, according to all accounts, for the skippers with whom he sailed, rough men as they were and accustomed to handling the worst rogues afloat, were too frightened of him to promote him from the fo’castle; they knew that to give Teach an inch was to encourage him to snatch a yard with the blade of his ever-ready cutlass. So one after another the privateer­ ing skippers got rid of this terrible man, who at last made up his mind to go a-pirating. It was some time in 1716 that Ned Teach enlisted under Captain Benjamin Hornygold, one of the fiercest pirates that hived in the nest of villains established at Providence, in the Bahamas. Hornygold gave him a sloop that he had been the first to enter after a stiff bit of fighting, and, putting their heads together, these two worthies decided to take a run up the American coast and intercept the European ships on their way out to the West Indies.

C

59

The Book of Pirates So, early in 1717, Homygold and Teach slipped out of Providence, and favoured by a brisk southerly breeze sped northward for the main of America. On the way they captured a little craft from Havana, laden with 120 barrels of flour, as well as a sloop from Bermuda from which they took some barrels of rum and wine. A couple of days later they sighted the white sails of a ship making for Carolina, and clapping on all canvas, picked her up just as evening was falling. She showed no fight, however, for the sight of the black flag on the two sloops so terrified the master that he hove to at once, and lay by till morning, when Teach and Homygold rifled the boat of her cargo, which consisted of all sorts of European stuffs, wine and linen, which should have fetched a good price among the ladies and dandies of .Charleston. Not another sail was sighted for days, and presently Homygold gave the signal to run into Ocracoke Creek, on the coast of North Carolina, a favourite haunt of gentry On the Account, where he decided to clean the vessels. To tell the truth, Homygold was getting frightened of his new partner, while, for his part, Ned Teach was quite able to do all the ordering in any piece of villainy. Besides, Homygold had made a pretty good pile during some years of successful roguery, and he now felt that it would be better to give up the game and accept the free pardon that was being offered, in the name of King George I, by Captain Woodes Rogers, the new Governor of Providence, rather than risk his neck in the company of a man like Captain Teach. And so, mutually suspecting one another, as rogues ever do, but outwardly the best of friends, Hornvgold and Teach weighed anchor from Ocracoke and set their eourse back to the West Indies, with a man at the mast­ head to look out for prizes. It was down near latitude 24, somewhere off Rum Cay, that a large French Guineaman hove in sight, bound for Martinique. She had been driven out of 6o

Captain Edward Teach her course and the captain was clapping on all sail to get clear of these pirate-infested waters, when he saw the black flag run up on each of the sloops that were speeding towards him. Ere he could manoeuvre his own ship into position, the pirates had slipped one on each side of him, and before he had considered what was best to be done, they poured a broadside on to his decks that killed half his men and terrified the rest into throwing up their hands. The two broadsides hardly hurt the hull of the ship at all, and when Teach went aboard and calmly threw the remainder of the crew into the sea or pressed them into his service, he found a vessel that would serve his purpose excellently. So, with a curt farewell to Hornygold, who was only too glad to be rid of him, he hoisted his own black flag on the Guineaman, renamed her the Queen Anne’s Revenge, mounted forty guns, and sailed away, leaving Hornygold to slip into Providence, sur­ render himself up to Woodes Rogers, and duly receive the King’s pardon for all his past offences. Meanwhile Teach was stamping up and down the poop of the Queen Anne’s Revenge, roaring and bellowing at the men, bawling out wild songs, and shooting pistols off at random, indifferent as to who was hit or missed, and every now and again varying the joke by hurling a knife or marline-spike at anyone who happened to be near at hand. All of which was only Captain Ned Teach’s way of showing that he was pleased with life, and thoroughly happy. Wild as the crew of ruffians he commanded was, there were some, even among them, who wondered whether their skipper was a man at all, or some fiend that had got loose upon the high seas. For Black­ beard was a terrific man to look at. His face, hands, arms, and chest were covered with a vast quantity of hair—coarse, matted black hair that sprawled all over his chin and cheeks and grew up to his very eyes. “It frightened America more than any comet that has 61

The Book of Pirates appeared there for a long time,” Baid one who knew him. He was accustomed to twist this monstrous mane into little pigtails, tied up with different coloured ribbons. In time of action he wore bandoleers slung over his shoulders, bearing three brace of pistols instead of cartridges. Often enough he would take a handful of lighted slow-matches, that glowed and sputtered with a horrid stench of sulphur, and place them under his hat so that they stuck out on each side of his face; then, indeed, he really did look like some evil monster from the nether regions. He was always dressed in the most garish profusion of rich silks and coBtly velvets ; gold and silver chains hung round his neck, and every finger of his grimy hands glittered with jewelled rings. And all this gaudy splendour, tom from so many brave men now feeding the fishes beneath the blue Caribbean waters, seemed more terrify­ ingly monstrous as an adornment to the loathsome figure of the pirate, with his bushes of black hair and his staring, evil eyes. Such was the skipper who now sailed On the Account aboard the Queen Anne’s Revenge. Making south, he got as far as the Windward Islands before a sail hove in sight, but near St. Vincent the man at the mast-head roared out the glad news of a tall ship making westward. It was the Great Allen, Christopher Taylor commander; but rather than risk the danger of a fight with the pirate ship, Captain Taylor lowered his colours and put up no resistance whatsoever. In consideration of this obliging behaviour Teach magnanimously granted him and his crew their lives. He bade them take to the boats and land on St. Vincent; he then plundered the Great Allen of all she held, and then set her afire. As night fell the wretched crew, pulling for the shore through the darkness, were lit on their way by the flames from their vessel, while across the still waters under the tropic night came roars of songs and yells of laughter from the pirate crew. 62

Captain Edward Teach A few days later another large ship hove in wight But this time it was no fat merchantman, but a bluff man-of-war flying the Union Jack—the Scarborough, of 30 guns—sent out to waylay these very pirate craft that harried the West Indian waters. The Scarborough opened fire at long range, for most of the pirate ships, like true bullies, whether on land

A Galley with oari out

or sea, were only valiant at fighting those weaker than themselves, and usually surrendered, if they could not show a clean pair of heels, when one of His Majesty’s warships got on their track. But whatever his vices, Ned Teach was not the man to shirk a fight. He held his fire while the Scarborough drew nearer, and then let her have a broadside that tore great rents in her sails and carried away yards and cordage in a welter of ruin. The commander of the Scarborough was no poltroon, but when he saw that his foe was stronger than himself, 63

The Book of Pirates and, moreover, that her decks were swarming with far more men than he could possibly throw into a fight, he decided that discretion was the order of the day and wore off as best he could. As for Ned Teach, with a roar of laughter he let the King’s ship go on her way, for there was nothing aboard her that he hankered after, and so long as there was good merchant shipping to be had for the asking, he was not going to lose men and damage his boat in a bootless fight. So, with a final salute of guns, he made his way to the westward. It was some distance from the island of Turneffe, off the coast of Honduras, that his look-out sighted a pirate sloop of 10 guns, who came boldly up to the Queen Anne’s Revenge and demanded to know who commanded her. When Teach thrust his fierce, hairy face over the side, the sloop’s captain knew him at once, and after an exchange of sea courtesies, clambered aboard. The new-comer was Major Stede Bonnet, one of the strangest figures in the whole story of piracy. He had served with distinction as an officer in the Guards, and then went out to the West Indies, where he purchased a good estate in Barbados and was flourishing there when a mad impulse came into his head to throw up his fortune and go On the Account. He had no know­ ledge of seamanship whatever; no grudge against anyone, and no need of money; yet he cast in his lot with those fierce ruffians of the sea—in the end to meet the fate he asked for, and be duly hanged as a pirate on Charleston shore. This was the man who now clambered aboard Teach’s vessel and accompanied that swarthy rascal into the great state cabin, whence roars of laughter and great shouts were soon heard to emerge. What happened down there is not known, nor whether the officer and gentleman who had known the refinements of the Mall and St. James’s was bullied or persuaded by his bluster­ ing host; but the upshot was that a few days later Teach 64

Captain Edward Teach sent one of his men named Richards to take command of Bonnet’s sloop, while the major himself, who cheer­ fully confessed that he knew nothing whatever of a sea-life, became little more than a passenger on the Queen Anne’s Revenge. Soon after this they sighted Turneffe, and there they dropped anchor. One sunny morning some of the men were on shore filling the water-barrels, while others were lying about the decks, sleeping and smoking, when a fellow from the mast-head shouted the news that a sloop was coming in from the sea. In an instant all was bustle and confusion. Richards, in the Revenge, for so had Bonnet christened his sloop, was the readiest to put to sea. Shouting to those for’ard to slip the cable, he ran his boat out before the shore breeze and very soon was making for the new-comer, which proved to be the Adventure, from Jamaica. David Harriot master. But Harriot had more than a suspicion of what trap he had run into, so, on seeing the black flag flutter from Teach’s halliards, he made the best of a bad job, struck his sail, and came to under the stem of the pirate flagship. A rope was thrown over, and he was bidden climb up to interview his new master, who, ordering him below, pressed half the Adventure’s crew to serve on the flagship, while the remainder were ordered to man their own sloop, under Israel Hands, Teach’s chief mate, who was to take command of the new vessel on the piratical account. A gay and riotous week was now spent on the beach at Turneffe, carousing and quarrelling as the long sunny hours of the day crawled by, and when night drew on, sitting round the beach fires, roaring out bloodthirsty ballads and laying plans for further deeds of plunder. On April 9 they weighed from Turneffe, Teach as admiral in the Queen Anne’s Revenge, Richards on the Revenge, and Israel Hands as skipper of the Adventure, and made for the Bay of Honduras, where they found a ship and four sloops. The ship was a Boston vessel, 65

The Book of Pirates named the Protestant Caesar, Captain Wyar in command. At sight of Teach, who sailed boldly into the bay flying his black colours and flring a gun by way of introduction, Wyar and his men scuttled into the long-boat as fast as they could and pulled for the shore. Teach sent his quartermaster and eight men to take possession of the Protestant Caesar, while Richards and Hands captured the sloops, one of which they set Are to because the skipper ventured to raise a slight protest. Wyar’s ship was plundered of all her cargo, and then, because she came from Boston, where some pirates had recently been tried and hanged, Teach set fire to her and stood by until the flames had consumed her hull to the water’s edge. There seemed nothing more to be done in the Caribbean, so Teach now sailed northward with his little fleet, calling in at the Grand Cayman, Havana, and the Bahamas, and eventually making the coast of Carolina, where for five or six days he lay off the bar of Charleston, in full view of the town. This was a prime station, for Charleston was a busy port. The pirate fleet had not been there long before an inward­ bound ship, straight from England, fell into their hands. Captain Clark and his crew, as well as a number of wealthy passengers, were stripped and kept as hostages on board Teach’s flagship, while the ship was plundered and sent adrift. The next day three smaller vessels were seized. There were at the time eight ships in Charleston ready for sea, but they dared not put out, and the whole of the incoming trade was likewise brought to a stand­ still. It was the more maddening to the citizens, as not so many months had passed since the pirate Vane had stood off the harbour, in exactly the same way, and robbed them of thousands of pounds. This being the state of feeling, it can well be imagined with what misgiving the people on the sea-front saw, one morning, a boat from one of the pirate sloops pulling 66

Captain Edward Teach to the shore, while the great flagship stood closer in, to protect her with the big guns. When the skiff grated on the beach five men waded ashore: Richards, the skipper of the Revenge, three of his ruffians and Mr. Marks, one of the passengers captured from Captain Clark’s ship. Staggering up the street from the quay, flashing their gaudy finery and insolently pushing out of the path every person they encountered, the pirates made their way to the town hall, where Mr. Marks was sent in with an insolent message from Black-beard to the effect that he must be given a chest of medicines and bandages at once; adding a threat that if it were not sent without delay, or if one of his men were touched by so much as a hair, he, Black-beard, would chop off the heads of all his prisoners and send them in to the Governor, at the same time setting fire to every ship in the harbour. While poor Mr. Marks was telling his woeful story to the city council, Richards and his fellow rogues strutted about the streets, jeering at the indignant but powerless citizens. When they came back to the town hall and loudly demanded to know what the council had decided, Marks came out with news that they had agreed to his demand; and shortly afterwards they were given a chest, filled with medicines and drugs to the value of some three or four hundred pounds. On receiving this Teach was so eracious as to keep his word, and released the prisoners and ships after he had rifled them of provisions and taken out some £1,500 in gold. From Charleston Bar Teach now sailed to North Carolina, having augmented his fleet of three by a sloop that was to serve as tender. Having this far been robbing honest men, he now began to consider how best he could swindle his own rogues and get possession for himself and a few chosen friends of the plunder that belonged—so far as plunder can ever belong to any but its original owners—to his men. It took some thinking and planning, but Ned Teach 67

The Book of Pirates was as crafty as he was cruel. First of all he gave orders that the whole fleet should put in to clean at Topsail Inlet on the coast of North Carolina, ill-famed as the haunt of pirates and other rogues. So thither they sailed, but while tacking to enter the little harbour, Teach purposely ran the Queen Anne’s Revenge aground on the bar. As she crunched into the sand, and was pulled up short, her mainmast cracked and many of her timbers started. Teach roared out orders in his best style, hailed Israel Hands in the Adventure, and told him to warp the big ship off. Hands was in the know of what his admiral intended. With much bustle he threw a line across the Queen Anne—and ran his own sloop ashore! Teach had laid his plans carefully enough. The place where he had piled up the big ship and the sloop was such that there was no hope of getting them off; so promising to come back and rescue them, Teach left some of his men with the wrecks and went off with forty others in the remaining sloop. Seventeen of these he managed to maroon—no one knows how—on a deserted island where there was neither bird, beast nor plant for them to live on, and where they would certainly have perished had not Stede Bonnet, who had left Teach by that time and once again set up on his own as a rogue, taken them off a couple of days later. Meanwhile, having thus rid himself of ships and men alike—all but a favoured twenty or so—Teach, bold as brass, marched off overland to Bath-Town, on the Pamlico River, to visit Charles Eden, Governor of North Carolina. When he saw His Excellency, Black-beard impudently surrendered himself and his men as pirates who desired to claim the King’s free pardon. There were those who hinted that something more was behind this affair than mere effrontery on the part of Teach. Charles Eden was said to have a very good understanding with Captain Ned, and there were more barrels of rum and sugar in the Governor’s private ware68

Captain Edward Teach house than he ever paid hard oash for. Be that as it may, Governor Eden granted Black-beard the King’s free pardon, and with his tongue in his cheek the greatest ruffian on the Atlantic coast strode down through the streets of Bath-Town, a reformed man. His reformation lasted at least a couple of months, while he was laying new plans. In June, 1718, he put off to sea again on another adventure, and steered a course towards the Bermudas. On the way thither he met three English vessels, but contented himself with taking from them only such provisions and sea neces­ saries as he stood in need of. But just off Bermuda he fell in with two French ships bound for Martinique, one in ballast and the other laden with sugar and cocoa. Teach bade both vessels lie to, and then, having gone over to his capture, ordered the crew of the laden vessel to get aboard the empty one. He then sent some of his own men on the prize and took her safely back to the Albemarle River. As soon as he dropped anchor off Bath-Town, Teach hurried ashore, still in his role of reformed pirate, and demanded instant audience with Governor Eden. A most wonderful thing had occurred, he explained. Far out to sea he and his men had come across a French ship, laden to the thwarts with cocoa and sugar, and yet, strange to say, with never a soul on board! What did the Governor think ? It was clearly one of the mysteries of the sea. Governor Eden heartily agreed in this opinion. A prize court should be called, he would preside over it himself, and they would decide what was to be done with the valuable cargo Providence had thus thrust into the hands of that worthy seaman, Edward Teach. So the court sat, and confirmed Providence in its intention by handing over the ship and hor cargo to Captain Ned. Just to show that he had no suspicions of the gallant captain, Governor Eden accepted sixty hogsheads of sugar as a gift, while Mr. Knight, his secretary, took a modest twenty. F

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The Book of Pirates So far all had gone well with everybody concerned, but Teach was not the man to leave matters in any doubt. The French vessel which had been awarded to him by the court still lay in the river, and if someone who knew her, and was aware of what had really hap­ pened, were to chance to come into Bath-Town a very awkward situation might arise. So, once more posing as a reformed man who thought of nothing but the good of his fellow-creatures, Teach announced that, as the boat was unseaworthy and leaking so badly that she might at any time founder and thus block up the cove in which she lay, for the public good he was ready to give up the handsome profit he might make out of her. The Governor then gave permission to take her out into the width of the river and set her on fire; and there she burned to the water’s edge, until her hull sank, and with it all Black-beard’s fears of her ever rising in judgment against him. Captain Teach now spent three or four months in the Albemarle, sometimes lying at anchor in one or other of its coves, at other times sailing from inlet to inlet; when he was in a good humour, trading his plunder for necessities, or, if in a bad mood, taking just what he wanted, without so much as “Thank you” or “By your leave,” knowing full well that no one would ever venture to send him in a bill. At times, too, he and his men would go ashore and hold high revel with the planters, roaring out their songs and chanties until the simple negro slaves, crouching in their cabins, quaked with fear at the white master’s ferocious pranks and hideous laughter. As for Governor Eden, he had to pay dearly for his friendship, for Black-beard would often stamp into his house, shouting and bellowing at him as though he were a pirate himself, until the gravest and most respectable men of the council shook their heads at the unholy alliance of their Governor and this hairy ruffian, who braved it about in his stolen silks and jewels when he 70

Captain Edward Teach ought to have been swinging in the wind ’twixt the tidemarks on the foreshore. At last the trading captains of the river and the more reputable members of the colony, seeing that their own Governor would not, or could not, rid them of this horde of pirates, secretly sent a message to Mr. Spottswood, Governor of the neighbouring colony of Virginia, beseeching him to come to their aid and clap in jail or otherwise destroy this pirate who battened upon them. Spottswood was a capable man, only too glad to strike a blow against the ruffians who harried the coast of Virginia as sorely as they did that of the Carolinas. Lying in the James River were two men-of-war, the Pearl and the Lime, bo he consulted with the com­ manders, and after a lengthy discussion it was arranged that he should hire a couple of sloops, drawing but little depth, which the men-of-war should man, and place them under the command of Robert Maynard, first lieutenant of the Pearl, an experienced officer who had shown himself courageous and full of resource when tackling a difficult job. The sloops were well equipped and furnished with plenty of ammunition and small arms, but were mounted with no guns. At the same time Governor Spottswood issued a proclamation offering handsome rewards for the capture, dead or alive, of any pirate on the American coasts— £100 for Teach, £40 for any other pirate captain, £20 for a mate, quartermaster or carpenter and £10 for a man before the mast. Maynard left the James River on his mission on November 17, 1718, and a few days later, just as the sun was setting, sailed into Ocracoke Inlet, where he saw the masts of Teach’s boat. So far the whole expedition had been carried out with such secrecy that neither Teach nor even the people of Bath-Town had the least idea of what was in the wind. To prevent any news of his approach Maynard 71

The Book of Pirates held up all craft coining in from the sea and going up river, while at the same time he stopped all boats coming out and examined them closely aB to what Teach was doing and exactly how his craft were placed. But notwithstanding all this care, the secret did leak out, and from none other than Governor Eden and his secretary, Mr. Knight, who learned of Maynard’s mission through official sources. Ocracoke was some sixty miles from Bath-Town, so Knight sent four of the pirate crew, who happened to be ashore carousing, with a secret message to Black-beard, bidding him be on his guard. But Teach had been pestered with several false alarms of late, and when his men arrived with Knight’s letter he roared out in his usual style, tore the note to bits and tossed the scraps of paper overboard. Hardly had they drifted away on the tide when the masts of the war sloops were seen rounding the point, and the pirate realized that for once the newB was true. The evening was drawing in as Maynard entered the Inlet. The channel was a tricky one, full of shoals and unexpected banks, so he anchored at a safe distanoe from the pirate craft and waited for the morning. All this while Teach had been standing on the poop watching the slow approach of his enemy and bellowing out defiance. He had only twenty-five men aboard, though he loudly proclaimed that his crew numbered forty, and that when morning came he would eat Maynard and every man aboard his sloops. Still stamp­ ing and blustering he went below to his cabin, where a trading skipper had come to spend the evening with him, and together they roared and sang as the darkness of night sank down over the waters. They were a merry party—Teach, the trader, and some of the choicer spirits among the pirate crew. As the pipes and glasses went round, one of his men asked Teach what was to happen if they should all be killed in the battle next day. Who would get the treasure 72

Captain Edward Teach he must have amassed, and where was it hidden? “Nobody but the devil and I know where it is hid!” roared Teach, “and of the two of us, he who lives longest shall take it all!” And so the night passed, with Teach and his enemy but little more than a gun-shot apart; Maynard prepar­ ing his sloops for the ensuing battle, Teach roystering and carousing until the sunlight began to sweep in across the Atlantic. With the first glint of day Maynard weighed his anchor, and when the morning mists began to rise sent his skiffs out to sound the channel for the sloops to follow. Feeling their way in cautiously they presently came within gunshot, whereupon Teach, his bleared eyes shining amid the great maze of black hair like glowing coals, his favourite matches burning on each side of his face beneath his hat, opened the ball by pouring a broadside at the sloops. Upon this Maynard broke the King’s colours and stood directly towards the pirate with the best way that his sails and oars could make. Seeing how determined his enemy was, Black-beard cut his cables and endeavoured to make a running fight, keeping a constant fire at the enemy with his guns. Maynard had no guns to answer with, but he put up a steady volley of musket fire, while his men strained at the oars to bring them alongside the pirate ship. Shouting and spitting with rage, Black-beard was drawing off as best he could, when suddenly his boat ran aground. Unluckily Maynard’s sloop drew more water than Teach’s and he could get no nearer than half a gun-shot. “Over with the ballast,” shouted the lieutenant; “stave the water casks!” It was done; and yet they could not get clear enough to come to grips. “Hang you for villains, who are you?” yelled Black­ beard, from his poop. “You may see by our colours we are no pirates,” was Maynard’s rejoinder, as he raised his voice against the roar of the musketry. 73

The Book of Pirates ’‘Send your boat aboard, that I may see who you are,” shouted the pirate. “I can’t spare my boat,” replied Maynard. “But I’ll come aboard you righ: enough, as soon as I can!” Upon this Black-beard seized a great tankard of neat rum, bellowing out: “Ruin take me if I give you quarter or accept any from you!” By this time the pirate sloop was beginning to float on the rising tide, which also swung Maynard’s vessels towards her. It has been mentioned that they were small craft; at the waist they stood, indeed, but a foot from the water, and as they drew nearer the enemy they formed an easy target. “Fire!” roared Teach. At his words a terrific broadside was launched against the approaching boats. Twenty men were killed and wounded in Maynard’s own sloop, nine in the other. But nothing daunted, the lieutenant kept his men at the oars, for the wind had dropped, and he was deter­ mined that Black-beard should not escape. Scarcely had the smoke cleared away from the guns ere the pirate sloop fell broadside on to the shore, and Maynard, seeing that he would soon be down on her, ordered all his men to crouch in the hold of the sloop, for fear of another blast from Teach’s guns. The com­ mander himself was the only one to keep the deck, except the man at the helm. All the men were gathered in the hold, with pistols cocked and cutlasses drawn, and two ladders in the hatchway to expedite their reaching the deck. ‘ At last the fateful moment came. Maynard’s sloop bumped against the pirate’s sides. Teach had expected the boarding crew to leap up at once, and had prepared for them by handing out among his men a number of improvised bombs made of case-bottles, filled with powder, shot, and pieces of lead and iron, and ignited with quick matches trained into the centre. This was Teach’s own invention and had availed him well during 74

The hideous face of Blackbeard loomed up through the smoke.

Captain Edward Teach many an action at sea. But Maynard’s men lay snug below until the missiles had burst without doing harm. Seeing no one on board the King’s sloop Black-beard thought that his bombs had taken effect. “They are all knocked on the head,” he yelled. “Jump aboard and cut ’em to pieces!” The thick smoke of the bombs was still clinging to the decks when the pirates sprang aboard the sloop, and Maynard did not even see what was happening until the hideous face of Black-beard himself loomed up through the mist. With a shout he gave the signal to his men, who leaped to the deck, and the next instant were engaged in a fierce hand-to-hand fight with the pirates. Maynard and Black-beard tackled each other with fury. At the first shot the officer wounded his foe, but when they drew swords and fell to, Maynard’s blade snapped and the next moment the yelling monster was upon him. Luckily one of the men-of-warsmen was at hand, and raising his sword gave Black-beard such a blow on the neck that he reeled back stunned. Both crews were now hard at it, Maynard’s twelve against Teach’s fourteen. Maynard shot Teach in the stomach, yet the almost inhuman wretch fought un­ dauntedly, and seemingly none the worse, until he had received twenty-five wounds in his body. Then, just as he was cocking a pistol he had snatched from a dead man lying at his feet, he suddenly staggered back and fell to the deck, dead as a stone. Eight of his crew had shared his fate, the remainder jumped overboard and cried for quarter, which was granted them; though it was but a respite, for they were all surely hanged soon afterwards. Lucky it was for Maynard and his men that Teach boarded them first and not they Teach, for the pirate captain had posted a negro in the powder-hold, a lighted match in his hand, with orders to blow the ship up when Maynard and his men boarded her. When he saw how the battle was going, the black was about to 75

The Book of Pirates apply the match when he was dissuaded by two of Teach’s prisoners, who were in irons down in the hold. Such was the end of Ned Teach the Pirate! Maynard cut the hideous head off and hung it up at the bowsprit end, and thus adorned with the trophy of victory, sailed up to Bath-Town, where the pirate had vaunted it so long. When they reached the quay Maynard made so bold as to seize the Bixty hogsheads of sugar in the Governor’s store-houses—a full account of which he had read in Teach’s log—as well as honest Mr. Knight’s twenty. The latter gentleman was so terrified at what had happened—and still more at what was lilcely to hap­ pen—that before many days had passed he actually died of fright. When his wounded men had somewhat recovered, Maynard set sail from Bath-Town and made the James River, where the parent men-of-war were anchored. Black-beard’s head was still swinging from the bowsprit, and below there was a good batch of prisoners in chains, for more of the pirates had been rounded up in BathTown. One of these rogues was Israel Hands, who had been in the town when the fight was on, suffering from one of Black-beard’s jokes. A short time before the appear­ ance of Maynard, Teach, Hands, the pilot, and another man were carousing in the captain’s cabin when Black­ beard covertly drew two small pistols from his pocket. None of them noticed this except the odd man, who, without further ado, made an excuse for going on deck. Meanwhile, Hands and the pilot went on with their roar­ ing chorus until suddenly Teach blew out the solitary candle, crossed his hands, and let off both pistols. With a roar of laughter he then lit the candle again, to find that Hands was shot through the knee and lamed for life. The other pistol had done no damage. In some indignation the pilot asked what he meant by it. “Mean by it?” roared Black-beard. “If I don’t kill one of you now and then, you’ll forget who I am!” 76

Captain Edward Teach Thus it chanced that Israel Hands found himself in Bath-Town when Black-beard was attaoked and killed down at Ocracoke Inlet. But he was taken with the others and tried, and was aotually on the point of being hanged when a vessel arrived from England with an additional pardon from the King for captured pirates, by grace of which Hands was let off with his life. He drifted across to England and was last seen in London, begging his bread at a street comer. One wonders if he ever thought of the Carolinas, and Honduras, and the roar of battle among the palm-girt isles of the West Indies, of the men he had marooned, and the blue tropio waters he had reddened with blood. Another of Teach’s captured men—the only one among them who had the luck to be acquitted, was a certain Samuel Odell, who had only enlisted the night before the battle and could not, therefore, be convicted of any act of piracy. Poor Odell! He was unlucky at his first entering this new trade, for when the fight was over he was discovered in the scuppers with no fewer than seventy wounds upon him. But he was cured of them all and, it is to be hoped, cured likewise of any wish to sail On the Account. In the pirate sloops and ashore in a tent were found twenty-five hogsheads of sugar, 145 bags of cocoa, a barrel of indigo, and a bale of cotton. This treasure, together with the value of the sloop and the Govern­ ment reward for the capture of Teach and his men, amounted to £2,500, which sum was divided among the companies of the Lime and Pearl, though, being a Govern­ ment grant, not until four years after it had all happened. As for Ned Teach’s treasure; where was it hid—or rather, where is it hid ? For somewhere about the West Indies those boxes of gold must still be lying. It was a considerable pile, even nowadays it would mean a huge fortune. Where did he bury it? “No one but the devil and I know where it is hid,” said Teach, “and of the two of us, he who lives longest shall take all!” 77

CHAPTER VI The Pirates of New England

T was the early afternoon, misty and dull, of Tuesday, November 20, in the year 1689, when the ketch Elinor, inward bound from the West Indian island of Nevis, with a cargo of sugar and indigo, dropped anchor in Nantasket Roads, at the mouth of Boston harbour. She had had a rough voyage, and coming up from the warm breezes of the Gulf the crew had suffered keenly from the biting, frost-laden wind that had blown in their teeth off the New England shores. Many of them were stretched out in the fo’castle, too frostbitten in tdbs and fingers to be of use on deck. The wind was failing, the flood-tide was on the turn, and there were not enough able men on deck to get out the oars and pull her farther up the harbour, so Captain William Shortriggs dropped his anchor, and with the help of the mate and another man, lowered the boat and started for Boston, where he knew he could get help to bring the Elinor into harbour. The second mate, James Thomas, was left in charge of the ketch during the captain’s absence. The short November day had closed in and dank fog had descended by the time the Elinor's boat reached Boston. Captain Shortriggs hurried up the narrow streets of the little colonial town to the house of his owner, Mr. Thomas Cooper, and reported his arrival, at the same time asking him to have help sent out to Nantasket, as well as a good supply of provisions, of which the Elinor had run uncommonly short. Mr. Cooper invited the little party to stay in his house that night, as it was too late to send out a boat 78

I

The Pirates of New England to Nantasket, but early next morning he and Shortriggs repaired to the port authorities for permission to bring in the Elinor. Unhappily it chanced that the captain mentioned that he had had a case of small-pox on board some weeks ago, when they had been loading in the West Indies; on hearing this the port-master delayed his permission for the ketch to be brought right up to the quay, though he allowed Cooper to have her towed as far as the Castle. Shortriggs accordingly sent the mate and four men down the harbour in a row-boat, with orders to take the Elinor in tow and fetch her up. Early next morning he was aroused from his bed by the mate, who came to report the amazing news that he had been down to Nantasket Roads on the tide, but had found no vestige or sign of the Elinor, nor had one or two fishermen they had met seen the ketch during the last four-and-twenty hours. On the strange affair being reported to Mr. Cooper, he immediately sent out a hue and cry, and charted a small sloop to go out and search the neighbouring coasts for the missing boat. In a few hours the whole story was the talk of Boston. Meanwhile, what had really happened to the Elinor? After Captain Shortriggs had pulled off into the growing darkness of the afternoon Jim ThomaB went below for a spell, to get himself warm as best he could. Luckily there was still a noggin or two of rum on board, and the mate had already comforted himself with a glass or so of punch when he heard a curious scuffling noise on deck. It was about seven o’clock by this time, and the night so foggy and dark that Thomas could scarcely see his hand before his face when he stumbled up on to the deck. But through the gloom he could see enough to realize that something was sadly amiss, for dark figures were moving about, and he knew well that none of the crew on board was likely—or even able—to be out on deck at that time. 79

The Book of Pirates “Who’e there?” he cried, loudly. “Avast there!” was the angry answer. “If you make another sound you’re a dead man!” To enforce this order the speaker advanced quickly and gave Thomas a rap over the head with the butt end of his musket, that made the worthy mate see a galaxy of stare. The next moment he was roughly seized by two or three men, shoved down into the cabin, the scuttle closed down and a tarpaulin thrown over it. Four men and a boy had come aboard the Elinor in the darkness of the fog and night. As soon as they had silenced Thomas they set about taking possession of the ketch. The only two sound people on board were the mate and a boy; the rest of the crew—five men and two boys—were all sick and helpless. With a casual glance at them and a hideous threat of what he would do if anyone so much as dared to raise a voice, the leader of the boarding party shut them down in the fo’castle, and while two of his companions went aloft to cut the gaskets and shake loose the sails, he and another hurried forward to cut the cable. As though to favour the pirates, a breeze now sprang up, blew away the fog, and enabled the four men to bear out of Nantasket Road and make a course for Cape Cod. The ketch reached Cape Cod early the next morning, and a skiff ran out from the shore to meet them. The pirates then summoned Thomas on deck and asked him if he would sign on for a voyage to England, at the same time threatening to cut his throat if he refused. It was a nasty predicament for any man to be in, but the mate seems to have been a staunch fellow, for he turned his back, and would have nothing to do with them or their offer. So they clapped him below deck again for a spell, while they loaded the Elinor up with biscuits, rum, and one or two other sea-commodities; then hauling him up from the cabin, they clapped him in the skiff, which was by now empty, and set him adrift to make the shore as best he could. As for the Elinor, she disap80

The Pirates of New England peared and wag heard of no more from that day to this, though some who found a few spars and bits of wreckage near Cape Cod, a month or two later, averred that it was all that was left of her. There is nothing very remarkable about this story of a little ketch being seized by pirates, but it has been told here because the fact caused the keenest excitement in the colonies of New England. The dangers of the sea and the rocky coast, it seemed, were not sufficient, but that navigation to Boston and New York was now to be further imperilled by pirates. There was a general outcry and seething indignation among the traders of Massachusetts; and this worked itself up to perfect fever heat a little later when Joseph Bradish appeared on the scene. Bradish was a New England man, and went to sea before the mast when quite a youngster, gradually rising to be boatswain’s mate. This was the post he occupied on the hag-boat Adventure, outward bound to Borneo with a miscellaneous cargo and a few passengers, when she put in at one of the Maidive Islands. Glad of a ohance to stretch their legs after the long sea voyage, the captain, accompanied by his officers and passengers, went ashore while the barrels were being filled, leaving only some twenty-five men on board, in charge of Joe Bradish. Trouble must have been brewing for some time, though probably it had been confined to grumbling on the part of the common sailors, and certainly it cannot have reached the ears of the captain, or he would never have left the ship. Be that as it may, no sooner did Bradish see the boats safely beached on the island, and the captain and his friends strolling away into the woods, than he called aloud to those who remained on board, demanding if they were ready; on hearing their shout of “Aye!” he ordered the cable to be cut and all sail made. Before the astounded men on shore had bo much as a notion of what was afoot, the Adventure 81

The Book of Pirates was standing out to sea, and they never saw her again. Being the only man on board who knew so much as the rudiments of navigation, Joe Bradish was naturally chosen skipper, and sitting in council at which every man had an equal vote, they decided to sail for Mauritius and refit, after which they would make for the shores of New England. All went well according to pro­ gramme. After weathering the Cape of Good Hope and setting a course across the Atlantic, they overhauled the hag-boat, and divided up her cargo among all hands. They found a certain amount of ready cash, which worked out at about £40 a man, while the broadcloth, serge, and other lading came to about half as much. In due course the Adventure sighted the easternmost point of Long Island, but the wind being against making Gardiner’s Island, near by, Bradish landed in a small boat, with his own share of the booty, and gave orders that the hag-boat was to be taken on to Block Island. There the men aboard her encountered a fleet of fishing sloops, and after some haggling bought one of them and hired another. The old Adventure was emptied of her stores and wealth and finally scuttled in the open sea. As for the crew, they put ashore at various places, where they posed as discharged or shipwrecked mariners, and many thus dispersed themselves along the towns and seaports of New England. Bradish and ten of his men, however, were foolish enough to go straight to Massachusetts and start spend­ ing their money far more lavishly than was to be ex­ pected of poor sailormen. Enquiries were soon set afoot, and before long they found themselves in Boston jail. Matters might have gone hard for the pirates had it not chanced, by good luck, that the jailer was a cousin of Bradish. Caleb Ray was not the man to see his own kith and kin run the risk of swinging on the gallows. One night he was careless enough to forget to lock the prison door, with the result that when morning came he discovered the gate swinging open and Captain 82

The Pirates of New England Bradish and a certain one-eyed friend of his, named Wetherley, who had also been on the Adventure, missing from their cell. As soon as they were clear of Boston jail, Bradish and Wetherley determined to make for the coast a little further north, there to ship on some fishing sloop or other vessel likely to take them safely out of Massachu­ setts waters. Meanwhile, a reward of £50 was offered for the apprehension of Bradish, and half that sum for his friend, and every magistrate and governor in the neighbourhood was warned of the pirates’ escape. Bradish and Wetherley would have got free, without a doubt, had not the large reward tempted the cupidity of Essacambuit, a sachem of the Kennebeck Indians, who chanced to be in Boston at the time it was offered. Without delay he took up the trail. Needless to say, the two seamen, veritable fish out of water among the villages and woods of Massachusetts, were soon tracked down by the Redskin, who with his own hands brought them to Fort Saco and handed them over to the governor of the jail, who promptly clapped the two rogues in irons. Nothing daunted, the pirates made several bold attempts to escape, on one occasion squeezing through a gap in the planking of their cell, and another time filing through their irons. But the governor was determined that there should be no more prison-breaking, so he manacled them together, Bradish’s right hand to Wetherley’s left, and chained their ankles and waists together. There was no hope of getting away. Before long they were put in irons on board the man-of-war Advice and taken to London, where they were duly tried and hanged, much about the same time as the unfortunate Kidd, whose story is told in another chapter. Another famous pirate of Massachusetts, whose name was long remembered, was William Fly, an Englishman who had worked his way up before the mast to be a boatswain He shipped with Captain John Green, of 83

The Book of Pirates Bristol, in the Elizabeth, bound for the coast of Guinea to trade in slaves and ivory. Like all slaver skippers, Green was a hard man and by no means in the habit of treating his crew like schoolgirls. Perhaps he realized that hiB boatswain was a dangerous man, and one to be kept in his place; perhaps he merely gave him the rough ■ide of his tongue in the ordinary course of the day’s work. However it was, Fly became so enraged with his captain that he resolved to lead a mutiny and get the command of the snow for himself. At one o’clock on the morning of May 27, 1726, Fly came up on deck accompanied by a few choice spirits whom he had let into his schemes—Alexander Mitchell, Henry Hill, Sam Cole and Tom Winthrop were their names—and going aft to the man at the helm, a certain Maurice Cunden, presented a pistol at his head, muttering in his ear: “If you speak one word or stir hand or foot I’ll blow your brains out!” Then, tucking up his shirt-sleeves and spitting on his hands, Fly drew his cutlass, and accompanied by Mitchell stalked into Captain Green’s cabin and ordered him to get up and turn out at once. “What’s the matter?” asked the captain, half asleep. “Ask no impertinent questions,” retorted Fly. “If you do as you are ordered and get up at once you will eave us the trouble of cleaning your blood off the cabin walls; if you won’t, then no matter; a few buckets of water and a scraper will soon make all clean again, when we’ve heaved your carcase overboard!” Mitchell laughed loudly at Fly’s words, and added to them by telling Captain Green that the crew had chosen Captain Fly to command the vessel, “and hang you,” he concluded, “we will have none other; more­ over, we have not got bo much food on board that we can waste it on feeding useless men!” This was a sort of speech there waa no good arguing about, bo Captain Green got up, saying he would do .

84

The Pirates of New England whatever they wanted, though he besought them not to kill him outright. He would not say a word if they would clap him in irons and keep him until an oppor­ tunity arose of putting him ashore. “Ay, rot ye!” roared Fly, with a hideous oath. “Let ye live to hang us, if ever we are taken, eh? No, ,no, walk up and be burned to ye; that bite won’t taka; it has hanged many an honest fellow already!” Without further ado Mitchell and Fly thereupon seized the unhappy captain, dragged him from his bunk, and drove him along into the steerage, he all the while adjuring them not to kill him and promising on his sacred word of honour never to inform or appear as evidence against them. “Rot your blood,” interrupted Mitchell, “stop your preaching! On deck, you dog! We aren’t going to lose any more time on a hound like you!” And with this he prodded the wretched man with his sword and drove him up on deck. There Fly demanded whether he would rather take a leap like a brave fellow, or be tossed over like a sneaking rascal. Desperately Green turned to his persecutor. “Boat­ swain,” he cried, “for pity’s sake don’t throw me over­ board! At least give me an hour’s respite!” By now, however, the rogues were growing tired of their sport, and one of them seized the victim and flung him overboard. But with the strength and despair of a dying man Green caught the mainsheet as he fell, and clung to it frantically; whereupon Winthrop seized an axe, hewed the wretched fellow adrift, and the next moment he was in the water, never again to be seen of mortal man. The next victim was Thomas Jenkins, the mate, who was also dragged to the deck, bound and tossed into the sea. He contrived to swim awhile, however, and even shouted out to the doctor, whom he saw at a port­ hole, to throw him a rope; but the doctor, poor fellow, was himself lying trussed up in his bunk, and could not G 85

The Book of Pirates lift a finger to save his friend. Had it not been for his knowledge of surgery he would have undoubtedly suffered the same fate as the captain and mate, but the villains kept him alive to serve their own purposes. Fly was now declared captain and inducted into the cabin with much ceremony, which included the par­ taking of a great tankard of rum. While this was being quaffed Maurice Cunden, the carpenter, and a third man named Streaton, were hauled down to the cabin and brought before Fly, who rounded on them as rascals richly deserving to be sent after the captain and mate to feed the fishes. Ever inclined to mercy, however, said this blood-stained wretch, he and the crew were willing to keep them alive, though in chains, for the safety of the company. The vessel was now renamed the Fame's Revenge, and the council began to debate on where to sail next. They were weighing the pros and cons of the West Indies and Madagascar, when the look-out reported a sail, which, as they drew closer, turned out to be the Pompey, which had come out from Jamaica at the same time as the Elizabeth. Standing near to his old consort, the skipper of the Pompey hailed across and asked how Captain Green was, and if all went well. “He is well, I thank you,” shouted back Fly, and the wind luckily veering at the moment, he took the opportunity of edging off without further communication. The pirate company was not yet sufficiently organized to attack the Pompey, or they would certainly have inaugurated their campaign with her. Fly now set a course for the coast of North Carolina. Off Cape Hatteras they sighted a sloop at anchor inside the bar—the John and Hannah, commanded by Captain John Fulker, and bound for Boston. The coast there­ abouts is tricky, and thinking that the incoming snow might need a pilot, Fulker got into his boat with his mate, Samuel Walker, a lad, and two passengers, Captain Atkinson and Mr. Ruth. 86

The Pirates of New England When they came on board the Fame’s Revenge they were told that the snow was in cargo, from Jamaica; and the quartermaster asked them to step down into the cabin, where they would find the captain. Fly re­ ceived them with the utmost civility and ordered a bowl of punch. As soon as it was brought in, and Fly had given a steaming glassful to each of his guests, he said that he was no man to mince matters, that he and his comrades were gentlemen of fortune, and meant to see if Fulker’s sloop was a better sailer than their own craft, which had proved to be somewhat slow. If she was more suitable to their needs, then they would certainly take her. Shut down in the pirate’s cabin as they were, the three men were quite powerless. The snow was brought to, about a league off the sloop, and Fulker ordered to fetch the latter alongside. Unluckily for him, however, the wind was blowing dead contrary, and do what he might he could not bring the sloop up as he had been ordered to do. At last, with many misgivings, Fulker was pulled back to the pirate snow. As the unhappy man clambered on board Fly raged up and down the decks like a fury, and on sight of Fulker, flew at him with blazing eyes and snarling lips. “Hang ye,” he shrieked, “your hide shall pay for this roguery. If I can’t bring the sloop off I’ll burn her where she lies!” Neither reason nor arguments could prevail or serve to pacify this monster’s insensate rage. He ordered the captain to be lashed to the rigging, and had him whipped until the blood poured down his back. In the mean­ while the boat’s crew returned to the sloop and made another attempt to fetch her, but they only got her as far as the bar when she bilged and sank. The rogues did their best to set what remained of the John and Hannah on fire, but this they could not do. Fly now set sail from Hatteras with Fulker, Anderson, and the others on board. In vain did they request to 87

The Book of Pirates be set ashore; the utmost the pirates would promise waB that they might be put in the first vessel that was captured and let go. A day or two after thiB they left the coast of Carolina, and soon afterwards sighted the John and Betty, Captain Gale in command, bound from Barbados to Guinea. She was a fast sailer, and when Fly gave chase, began to show a clean pair of heels. Thinking to capture her by a ruse, the pirate hoisted a jack at the topmast head as a signal of distress; but Captain Gale was too old a bird to be caught by such chaff, and paid no heed to it. Fly refused to give up the chase, however, and sailing on all through the night, caught up the John and Betty, the wind having fallen somewhat early the following morning, hoisted his black flag and opened a brisk fire. Upon this Captain Gale struck hie colours, for he was unarmed, and stood by for the pirates to board him. The John and Betty was of little use to the pirates, and all they got out of her was some sail-cloth and a few small arms; but before sending her adrift they put aboard Captain Fulker, Mr. Ruth and Captain Green’s surgeon—who had never wavered in his refusal to throw in his lot with the pirate gang. Deaf to his most earnest entreaties Fly absolutely refused to allow Captain Atkinson to depart with the rest, for he was an experi­ enced mariner and, in his brigantine, Bonela, had sailed so often up and down the New England coast that he knew every inch of it intimately. “Look ye, Captain Atkinson,” roared Fly, when the unhappy man besought to be set free. “It is not that we care a fig for your company, rot ye—hang my soul, not a fig, and that’s the truth! But hang and rot and wither ye, if ye don’t act like an honest man, and if ye offer to play us any rogue’s tricks, sink me, but I’ll blow your brains out! Rot me, if I won’t! Now, Captain Atkinson, you may do as you please; you may be a rogue and pilot us wrong, which, sink ye, would be a rascally trick, because you would betray men that 88

The Pirates of New England trust ye, but by blazes, ye won’t never live to see us hanged I I don’t love many words, but if you have a mind to be well used you shall be; but if you will be a villain and betray your trust, strike me dead, and may I drink brimstone and fire, if I don’t kill ye with my own hands. So there needs be no more argument. I’ve told you my mind, and here’s all the ship’s crew

for witness, that if I do blow your brains out, you may blame nobody but yourself, blast ye!” In face of this determination it was useless to urge his case, so Captain Atkinson, though never agreeing to act as pilot, was kept on board. But Fly made him sling a hammock in the great cabin for fear he should be trying to tamper with any of the crew. They now cruised northwards, and off the coast of Delaware took the sloop Rachel, bound from New York to Pennsylvania, with a number of passengers aboard, 89

The Book of Pirates Having got little of any worth out of her, Fly let her go, and then told Atkinson to bear away for Martha’s Vineyard. This was certainly the captain’s opportunity; but whether he took it or if what followed was genuinely inadvertent on his part is not known. He set a course which carried the snow east of the Vineyard, and not until they found themselves outside Nantucket did Fly perceive what had happened. Raging aft, to where Atkinson stood by the helmsman, the pirate captain seized the unhappy pilot by the neck and shook him until his breath failed. “You obstinate villain,” he roared. “It is a piece of cruelty to let such a hound live! Your design is to hang us, rot ye, but ye shan’t live to see it!” and saying this he hurled the captain to the deck and ran down into his cabin to get a pistol. In vain Atkinson protested that he hardly knew the coast, and that what had happened had been a mistake pure and simple. Fly would believe none of it and would certainly have shot him had not Mitchell held him back. Seeing that there was nothing to be done by appeal­ ing to his captors, Atkinson now tried to ingratiate him­ self with them, and threw out a few hints that if treated better he might be induced to sign their articles. This pleased the crew immensely, for they were beginning to weary of Fly’s incessant rages and the overbearing manner he assumed towards all on board. If only they could get Atkinson to throw in his lot with them they felt that a time would come when they might depose Fly from his command. Something of this undoubtedly got to the pirate captain’s ears, for he increased in his severity against Atkinson, and continually threatened to throw him overboard as a mean, traitorous rogue; but each time the crew interposed and saved his life, at the same time giving out hints that Fly could not pretend to misunderstand. From Nantucket the Fame’s Revenge stood to the eastward, and oS Brown’s Bank met a fishing schooner from Marblehead, the James, George Girdler, skipper. 90

The Pirates of New England Fly began proceedings by firing a round across her bows and hoisting his black flag, at the same time shout­ ing across, with his usual volley of oaths, that if they did not strike at once he would sink them. Trembling with fright Girdler came aboard, and, after a little talk, let out that he had a consort likely to be met with at any moment. Indeed, shortly afterwards several other craft hove in sight, among them the schooner in question. Fly now determined on a bold venture. Sending six of his own crew on board the James, he dispatched them in pursuit of the fleet, while he himself remained on the Fame's Revenge with but three of his actual pirate crew, and about fifteen men who were only wait­ ing the chance of freeing themselves from his bondage. There were Captain Atkinson; Sam Walker, who had been Captain Fulker’s mate; a couple of his boys; Captain Green’s gunner and carpenter; half a dozen of Captain Gale’s men, and four fishermen who had been brought out of the James. But Fly was so confident in his own authority, and so sure that all on board trembled at the very sound of his voice, that it never entered his head that there might be any mischief afoot. Atkinson, Streaton and Walker had been waiting for some such opportunity as this to occur, though they had never dared to hope for so favourable a one. They now signalled each other furtively to be ready for any­ thing that might happen. Atkinson went for’ard and leaned over the bows. Presently he shouted aft, hailing Fly and telling him that he sighted several other ships away to the starboard. At first Fly was unwilling to leave the quarterdeck, but on Atkinson’s entreaty and insistence that his presence was urgently needed and that he should bring his telescope with him, he strode for’ard, leaving his cutlass and pistols by the binnacle. When he reached the bows he demanded, with many oaths, where the strange craft were. Never very clear in vision, after the plentiful jorums of rum that circulated freely in the 9i

The Book of Pirates great cabin, he shaded his hand and followed the direc­ tion pointed by Atkinson. Needless to say, he could see nothing. So he clambered on to the capstan and began to search the horizon with his glass. This was the moment the conspirators had been waiting for. Walker, and a man named Benbrooke, seized Fly round the waist, while Atkinson, who had slipped aft and secured the captain’s pistols, now pre­ sented one at him and threatened to shoot if he did not submit without further trouble. All was now simple and plain sailing. As soon as they saw the terrible Fly pinioned and helpless the rest of the pressed men gave a willing hand and secured the three actual pirates who were below. Atkinson and his men wasted no time off Nantucket, but put about for Boston at once, where they landed their cargo of rogues and had them clapped safely into jail. The trials came on at once and Fly, who was only twenty-seven years of age, was condemned to be hanged, as were his three fellow pirates, Mitchell, Win­ throp and Cole. When the day came for them to meet their fate a great concourse flocked down to Charlestown Ferry—North Park now occupies the site—where the gallows had been erected on the shore between the tide­ marks. Fly appeared with a very gay air and continu­ ally sniffed a nosegay someone had given him. He complained that the hangman was a bungler, and him­ self adjusted the noose round his neck. After his death the body was taken out to Nix’s Mate, a little island at the entrance of Boston harbour, where it was hanged in chains for many a long day and swung there as a warning and encouragement to mariners. Most of Nix’s Mate has now been swallowed up bv the sea, but a beacon still stands to mark the spot where William Fly dried in the sun.

CHAPTER VII Captain George Lowther—“To Sink All Ships!”

N the early spring of the year 1721 the Gambia Castle sailed out of the River Thames, outward bound for the Guinea Coast. She was a smallish ship, of 16 guns, and carried a crew of thirty, Captain Charles Russel being in command and a certain George Lowther sailing as second mate. In addition to her general cargo she carried a number of soldiers, under Captain John Massey, who were being sent out by the Royal African Company to garrison a fort which had been taken and partially destroyed by that redoubtable pirate Captain John Davis, of whom we shall speak later. The Royal African Company was, in West Africa, what the East India Company was in India, a vast con­ cern with a monopoly of trade and able to maintain a fleet and army of its own to protect its territories and keep foreigners out. The Gambia Castle came safe to port about the middle of May, and landed her troops at the fort of St. James, where the new Governor, Colonel Whitney, had arrived a day or two before, on another Bhip. Massey was to be his Captain, and between them they were to manage the little outpost and hold it against pirates or natives, as the case might be. This was all very well, and the title of Governor and Captain sounded fine and imposing, but Massey had hardly landed his men and marched into the ruined fort before he found, what a good many soldiers have found before and since, that though the merchants on shore were glad enough to call him their noble captain and give him all he wanted when the enemy was in 93

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The Book of Pirates sight, when there was nothing to fear they thought him rather a nuisance and grudged him the very rations necessary to feed his men. A week or so of this sort of thing was enough for Massey. Governor Whitney had been taken ill of a fever almost as soon as he arrived, so Massey was acting commander of the fort. One day he stalked up to the merchants’ offices—or factory, as it was called—and told them bluntly that he had not come out to Africa to be a Guinea slave; that he had promised his men good treatment and food fit for soldiers; and concluded with the ominous remark that if the merchants whom he had come out to protect grudged him and his men the very barest necessities, he would take whatever steps seemed suitable for getting what he needed. Just about this time Captain Russel had fallen out with his second mate, George Lowther, and taking advantage of some slight irregularity in the ship’s routine of which he had been guilty, ordered him to be put in irons. But on the voyage out Lowther had become a favourite with the crew. He used to go for’ard and smoke with the men, yarning about the West Indies, and how he had met the buccaneers in Jamaica, and more than once threw out a hint or two that there was more money to be made under the black flag than under that of the African Company. So now, when Captain Russel ordered a couple of men to take the second mate below and clap him in irons, the men flatly refused, and were backed by the whole crew, who flocked aft and said that the first man who laid hands on George Lowther would be knocked on the head and then chucked over­ board. That night Massey took advantage of Captain Russel’s absence on shore to go on board the Gambia Castle, and have a long confabulation with Lowther. Both of them were discontented and resolved to better themselves, though how this was to be done, when and where, were all matters that needed much discussion. Late into 94

Captain George Lowther the night the two sat smoking and talking, every now and then sending for the bo’sun or one of the crew, and ever keeping a sharp look-out for the return of Captain Russel. At last Massey slipped off in a small boat before the ship’s commander returned and made for the shore. Someone must have told Captain Russel of the visitor to his ship, for the next morning he decided to take the Gambia Castle out of the harbour and anchor her at some distance from the shore, where there could be none of this passing to and fro and laying plots. So he came on deck and shouted the order to stand by to heave the anchor. Lowther was down in his cabin, but most of the men were on deck. Not a man stirred at the captain’s voice, nor paid the slightest attention to him I “This is mutiny!” muttered Russel, turning on his heel, white with anger. But he was resolved not to court further insolence by saying a word, so he went below, to the accompaniment of an ominous growl from his men. An hour or so later he reappeared, to find Lowther standing on the quarterdeck, giving one of the hands a sealed letter, which the seaman thrust into the pocket of his breeches. “Can I go ashore, Mr. Lowther?” asked the captain sarcastically. “It would seem that you command on my own ship.” Lowther looked him squarely in the face. “If so, ’tie your own fault, Captain Russel,” he said. “You have but to give the order and there’s not a man on board who will refuse to put you ashore.” Even as he spoke, and as though in response to some cue in his own words, the skiff was pulled alongside and three or four men tumbled into her and took the oars. Without further ado Captain Russel went over the side, took his seat in the stern, and was soon being pulled to the land. No sooner had the boat been drawn up on the beach, 95

The Book of Pirates and Captain Russel hurried off to the factory, than one of the men, the same to whom Lowther had consigned the sealed letter, ran into the town and made his way to the fort, where he demanded to see Captain Massey without delay! The Captain must have been expecting some such letter, for he appeared at once, unfolded the paper and eagerly scanned the words scribbled on it: “Come on board at once; it is high time to put our plan into execution.—G. L.”

Massey’s sergeant was standing by, and at a nod from the captain he gave the order to fall in. When all the men were present Massey addressed them briefly but very much to the point. Food was bad, he said, and conditions were bad, and there was no prospect of either being bettered. “You that have a mind to go back to England,” he concluded, “step from the ranks. Now is your time!” The whole body of men stepped forward. Not a soldier wanted to be left behind. There was no time to be lost, so putting a couple of men on guard over the store room, he sent back the boat hurriedly to the Gambia Castle with the cryptic message that they should get ready the guns to salute the King of Marro (a native monarch in the neighbour­ hood) who would be coming on board shortly. Lowther was the only one who knew what the message meant. While the first mate was puzzling over it, he was clapped in irons and hustled below, the guns were loaded, and the yards and sails trimmed ready for sailing. By the time this was done Massey came out from the shore with his men, bringing with them all the provisions they could find in the fort. The Gambia Castle was lying moored by two anchors. One of these was weighed. Fearing to lose the tide and be caught by nightfall before he could get the other up, Lowther slipped the cable. But in doing this the ship got caught in an eddy of the outgoing tide and 96

Captain George Lowther before anything could be done to prevent it, ran aground on a spit of sand. Things might have gone badly with all on board had not Massey proved himself a better soldier than Lowther a sailor. Crowding sixteen of his men into the boat, Massey rowed back to the fort, marched into it, trained the guns against the little town, and stood guard all night to prevent the fort being recaptured or the stranded ship molested. When morning came, and the rising tide began to lift the vessel, he spiked all the guns in the fort, marched down to the shore again, took his men off to help get the ship afloat and then went on board. Before noon the Gambia Castle was standing well away to sea. It was now that Lowther showed his hand. When they had made a good offing he called all hands aft and put the case before them. It would be rank madness to return to England, where what they had done was in itself enough to string them all up at Tyburn Tree. Not all the money in the world could bring them in innocent. “As for me,” he concluded, “whatever you men have a mind to do, I am going to run no such risk. If you want to go back and be hanged, you must set me ashore first. Here we’ve got a good ship, and as fine a crew of men as ever I saw. Shame would it be on all of us if we starve or are made slaves or take a free ride to the gallows. If you have the pluck I think you have, and want to do what I mean to do, let’s seek our fortune on the high seas, and go out to sink all ships! ” His words were cheered to the skies. Not a man on board who did not cry “Huzza!” to the new captain’s words, and in imagination see himself wealthy beyond all dreams, rolling in gold and dressed in silks, a veritable king of the ocean. Every pirate ship being a republic in which each man is as good as his neighbour, they smashed down all the cabins save the captain’s, made the ship flush 97

The Book of Pirates fore and aft, and got ready a fine new black flag, with which to proclaim themselves to the world. To signify further their independence from all rule or authority whatsoever, they re-christened their ship the Happy Delivery, and gave three loud cheers when Lowther, a brimming beaker of rum in his hands, drank to their health and wished them all a long and prosperous voyage. That night—it was the 14th June—a table was placed by the mainmast, with a ship’s lantern upon it. At the head of the table stood Captain George Lowther, in one of Russel’s velvet suits, with a cocked hat on, and a pistol on the table before him. By the side of the pistol was an open Bible, and by the Bible a large sheet of paper, the top part of which was covered with close writing, and the whole lower half blank. When all the company was assembled Lowther took the paper and read it aloud. It was their articles of association, couched in much the same terms as the one already described in Chapter X. When he had finished reading it, Lowther signed his name with a flourish at the top of the blank portion, took the Bible in his hands, swore to hold by the articles, and kissed the Book. One by one the men came up and put their marks, for few were able to sign their names, and swore their loyalty. By morning the coast of Africa was far down over the horizon, and the Gambia Castle, now the Happy Delivery, was bowling before a good breeze, bound for the West Indies. About sixty miles short of Barbados they seized a Boston brigantine, called the Charles, then they made for Hispaniola, to clean the ship and fill the water­ barrels. Just as they were putting in at a suitable creek, near the western end of the island, they met a French sloop, outward bound, laden with brandy and wine. The Happy Delivery was showing no flag, so when Massey went across in the boat and clambered aboard the Frenchman, asking for her skipper, Monsieur 98

Captain George Lowther had no idea of his errand, but thought him the honest merchant he gave himself out to be. On hearing that his visitor wished to buy some of his cargo, the worthy man showed him the hold and brought up for inspection his bill of lading, just to show what he had got. “How much do you want for the whole cargo?” asked Massey presently. Monsieur shook his head and considered. “Are you prepared to buy it all?” he asked at last. “By no means,” said the other with a laugh. “I am not going to pay a penny, but I must have the whole of it, none the less!” It did not take the victim long to tumble to his visitor’s meaning. Reluctantly he ordered his crew to uncover the hatches, and stood by helpless when Lowther’s men came aboard and began their depreda­ tions. Thirty casks of brandy, five hogsheads of wine, several bales of chintz and silks, and some £70 in ready money, changed hands in a very short time; and so pleased were the pirates with the captain’s behaviour, that when his ship had been looted, they pressed him to accept £5 of his own money, as a token of their esteem! But although Massey had done so well in this and other piratical affairs, he was getting daily more dis­ contented; for he was, first and last, a soldier and not a sailor, and life at sea did not suit his tastes at all. He wanted to go on shore and carry on a lq.nd campaign, as Morgan and the old buccaneers had done. Lowther dissented, and refused to let him have the men and ammunition; so they quarrelled and were within an ace of coming to blows. The matter was put to the vote, and though a few hot-heads sided with Massey, most of the men preferred to stand their chances on board ship with Lowther. They were at the height of the dispute, and some of Massey’s soldiers were actually priming their muskets to add force to their arguments, when the man at the 99

The Book of Pirates mast-head shouted “A sail! A sail!” Instantly al] quarrels were laid aside and every scrap of canvas spread. The Happy Delivery came up with her victim four hours later, and found her a Jamaica sloop, bound for England, with a cargo of rum and molasses. She struck her colours at sight of Lowther’s black flag, and he did not even have to waste a shot on her; notwithstanding which he would have sunk the ship with all her crew and passengers had it not been for Massey’s intervention. This last capture, with its suggestion of Lowther’s cruelty, was the finishing touch so far as Massey’s dis­ content was concerned. With the few men who resolved to follow him, he went aboard the sloop, and bidding farewell to Lowther, put off for Jamaica, where he landed a few days later. The rest of Massey’s history is a story by itself, which hardly concerns us here. Sir Nicholas Laws, Governor of Jamaica, received him kindly, accepted his explanation that he had had no intention of going a-pirating when he left the Guinea coast, and sent him to London, with a strong letter of recommendation to the Directors of the African Company. Unhappily for the captain, however, Governor Whitney, Captain Russel and one or two others happened to be in London when he got there. On their information the African Com­ pany had him clapped into Newgate; and when he was tried for piracy, the above-named gentlemen gave such evidence against him that, within a few weeks of landing in England, he was hanged at Execution Dock. Meanwhile, Lowther, freed from the restraint of his old comrade, went forth a-cruising with greater zest than ever, leaving in his wake a train of blazing, gutted ships and marooned men that cried aloud to heaven for vengeance. He made his headquarters on a small deserted island near St. Kitts, and there they spent the Christmas of 1722, rioting and carousing in a mad frenzy of debauch that happily none were witness to but the birds and nodding palms. ioo

Captain George Lowther About New Year’s Day they set sail for the Bay of Honduras. But running into Grand Cayman for water, whom should they meet there but Ned Low, in a small vessel with thirteen hands, whose adventures are re­ counted in the next chapter. Low and Lowther soon recognized in each other kindred' spirits in the way of roguery, so, as Low and his men were few in number and ill-equipped, they decided to join forces, Low sign­ ing on as Lowther’s lieutenant, and sinking his own tiny sloop in the deep water off the Caymans. It was on the 10 th January that the pirates sailed gaily into the Bay of Honduras, and on that very day they met a large ship of 200 tons, the Greyhound, home­ ward bound for Boston. At sight of the black flag the skipper, Benjamin Edwards, ran out his guns and got ready for action, answering Lowther’s summons to bring to with a round shot that crashed through the Happy Delivery's rigging, though without doing any harm. Highly incensed at anyone daring to resist him, Lowther now edged his vessel down and poured a broadside into the Greyhound, who replied with as good as she got. The battle soon grew so hot that for an hour it swayed now on one side, now on the other; and at times it looked as though Lowther would be the first to strike his colours. But the dare-devil bloodthirstiness of the pirates, and their almost incredible ferocity, at last carried the day, and as his decks were getting littered with dead and wounded Captain Edwards hauled down his flag and demanded terms. When Low and Lowther came aboard, at the head of their men, it seemed as though so many fiends had broken loose. They struck right and left with cutlasses and clubbed muskets, broke everything they came across, and ran howling and roaring hither and thither like maniacs. Not a comer of the Greyhound escaped their ravenous claws, not a pennyworth did they leave untouched, and when they had done their worst, they tied the crew in droves, packed them on the Happy H

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The Book of Pirates Delivery, and then, having set fire to the Greyhound, turned her adrift to blaze her way across the horizon. Having got so many fresh hands on board, Lowther now gave them the opportunity of walking the plank or becoming pirates. It is scarcely to be held against most of the men that they chose the latter alternative. Some were of too heroic a turn to sign the Happy Delivery's articles, and were shot, hanged or drowned according to their captors’ whims. Notwithstanding this clearance, the pirates’ boat was now so overcrowded that Lowther added to his fleet by converting two of his captured sloops into armed con­ sorts. Ned Low, of course, went as Captain of one named the Ranger, and Harris, who had been second mate of the Greyhound, accepted command of the other. In addition to these three ships they had a small sloop to act as tender, carrying supplies of provisions and ammunition, and serving as a prison ship to some of the refractory crews they met. With this fleet Lowther now made for Port Mayo, in the Gulf of Amatique, where there was little chance of being disturbed, for it was his intention to careen the ships and make them fast and ready for sea-service. All the sails were carried ashore and rigged up as tents by the water-side, some being made marquees in which they could carouse and dance, some to hold their plunder, yet others for the ammunition and arms that make the pirates’ stock-in-trade. While this was being done, the ships were heaved down on to one side, scrubbed, and their underwater seams tallowed. Everything was going on as well as might be, and the three pirate captains were looking forward to pros­ perous times to come, when suddenly a bolt fell from the blue—or rather from the green of the forests behind them. For one day, as all hands were on shore resting from their labour on the Happy Delivery, which lay on her side as they had left her, there was a wild yell from the woods, a whistling cloud of arrows, and the next 102

Captain George Lowther moment a large body of natives swooped out on the un­ prepared men, and in one wild charge drove them to the water’s edge. Utterly unprepared for any such event, the pirates were not only surprised—they were unarmed! Several of them fell to the ground, howling and writhing with poisoned arrows embedded in their limbs, but the greater part reached the small boats that lay on the beach, and crowding into them pushed off for the Ranger, which had already been careened and was now afloat. Frightened and furious, they pulled across the bay, watching the natives as they tore down the tents, bore away the plunder and thus robbed them of what they themselves had stolen from so many. But their fury was turned into something like despair when they saw the brown figures of their enemies swarming all over the helpless Happy Delivery, and a little time later per­ ceived wisps of smoke rising from her decks. It was in vain that Lowther tried to run the sloop in and land men enough to extinguish the flames; they were driven off with showers of poisoned arrows that laid more than one of them low, and not a single man of the pirate crew was able to get ashore until the ship was a heap of glowing ruins, and the great booty they had collected with so much pains had been lost to them for ever amid the depths of the forest glades. Lowther now crowded all his men into the Ranger, she being the only sloop fit for sea, and with scarce enough to give each man a decent bite once in the day, and barely enough ammunition to fire a broadside, they set sail. Short commons and disappointment made them a pretty miserable ship’s company, and they had not been long at sea before they were all quarrelling and fighting like cats in a bag. Lowther did what he could to keep order, but as they were inclined to blame him for everything that happened amiss, he found it gener­ ally convenient to lie low and wait for something to turn up and put his men in a better frame of mind. 103

The Book of Pirates Towards May things began to look more promising, and one or two prizes full of wine and supplies of food put the pirates into a good humour once more. But there was one constant source of trouble, and that was Captain Edward Low, who, ever since he had joined forces with Lowther, had been inclined to fractiousness and jealousy. He openly said that Lowther was to blame for the misfortune at Port Mayo, and had not a brigantine turned up in time to divert the men’s minds, there is little doubt that he would have hatched a conspiracy to depose honest George from command of his own ship. It was off the island of Deseada that they captured a brigantine, bound from St. Kitts to Boston, Captain Smith, master, and Lowther put Low on board her, with as many men as wanted to go, forty-four in all. With about the same number he himself stayed on the Ranger, and with outward civility but much inward relief, he saw Low sail westward, while he himself made a course for the coast of North America. Off New York they took three or four fishing vessels —pretty small fry for a pirate—and on the 3rd June met a New England ship homeward bound from Barba­ dos, with a cargo of rum, sugar, pepper, negroes, and a small amount of ready money. After this they cruised southward, meeting with nothing worth their notice until they were off the coast of South Carolina, when they sighted a ship that had just come from Charleston. She was the Amy, homeward bound for England, and at sight of Lowther’s black flag her commander, Captain Gwatkins, without more ado fired a broadside that made the Ranger stagger. This was more than Lowther expected, and as his own sloop was in poor fighting trim after her long voyage, he decided to let the Amy go her way without further attempt at molestation. But Gwatkins was a bom fighter. The pirate craft lay between himself and the shore, and he decided to take the rogues prisoner. 104

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Captain George Lowther he closed in with his ship, hustling the Ranger in to the land, until Lowther was obliged to run her aground and put himself and his men on shore. Captain Gwatkins had now to look after his own ship, lest she should run aground likewise. The pirates had escaped, he saw to his chagrin, but their boat was at his mercy. He determined to set fire to the pirate sloop and thus destroy her, but unhappily, as he was being pulled across to her, one of Lowther’s men on shore took a careful aim with his musket, picked him off as he stood in the stern of his gig, and shot him through the head. The death of Captain Gwatkins was a loss to the A my that far exceeded any benefit she might get by the destruction of a pirate sloop. The first mate, who was in the gig with his captain, immediately ordered the men at the oars to put about, and hurrying back to the Amy, of which he was now in command, he hoisted all sail and made away from the fatal spot, leaving the pi rates to slink back to the battered hulk of their sloop, which was piled with the bodies of dead and wounded. The Ranger was scarce able to put to sea when Lowther and his survivors got aboard her. Her hull was riddled, the masts and rigging smashed and tangled, the sails shot away and burned. But derelict as she was, they managed to crawl along the coast until they reached one of the secluded little inlets with which that shore abounds; there they put in to rest and get the ship as seaworthy as possible. All that summer and winter they spent there, hidden from the few ships that passed up and down the coast, their presence unknown to a soul. The days were spent in killing wild hogs, black cattle or fowl; the nights were passed in the tattered tents they erected or, when very cold, in the poor shelter afforded by the sloop. At last spring came round again, the spring of 1723, and they got the Ranger to sea. It speaks well for their skill and industry through the winter that when she 105

The Book of Pirates put out into salt water once more, she was in as good sailing condition as the day she had first been launched. Making a northerly course they cruised up the main­ land as far as Newfoundland, where they took a schooner called the Swift, Captain John Hood, master. Luckily for them she was laden with provisions and other neces­ sities they very much wanted at the time; so they rum­ maged through her holds, stripped her of everything they wanted, took three of her men, and then sent her off to spread the news of their arrival. Summer passed, and they picked up little of worth on the Newfoundland banks, but with the approach of colder weather, Lowther sailed south, and soon found himself in the genial and ever-fruitful waters of the Caribbean. A vessel from Guinea, laden with slaves and sugar, fell into his hands, and soon afterwards a ship from Martinique, but otherwise the luck was out, and all on board grew rather discontented and despondent. So to vary the monotony and give the men something to do, Lowther put into a small cove on the north-western end of the Island of Blanquilla, intending to careen his ship there and give the company a rest. Blanquilla is a pleasant island lying off the main­ land of South America. It was at that time uninhabited, thogh its verdant forests and the number of turtles that resorted thither to deposit their eggs, made it a pleasant enough spot for sea-worn rovers to rest in. Great iguanas, or lizards, red and yellow, were to be had there, too, and very nice eating they made when roasted over a brisk fire. So there they went ashore, rigged up their tents of sails as they had done long ago at Port Mayo, emptied the ship of all she contained, and hove her down by the trees that grew to the water’s edge. So far as natives were concerned their minds were quite at rest, for, as has been said, Blanquilla was uninhabited. But Lowther’s luck had run out to the very last 106

Captain George Lowther grain. Just as he had unrigged the Ranger and had got her on the careen, the masts of a ship were seen coming round a bend in the shore, and immediately afterwards the vessel herself hove in sight. She was the Eagle, of Barbados, belonging to the South Sea Company, and was on her way to Cumana, a port on the mainland. When Captain Walter Moore, the commander, saw a ship lying up in a creek, unrigged and on the careen, he knew at once that she must be a pirate. No traders ever put into Blanquilla for such a purpose; they sought more populous places where the men might amuse them­ selves and rest. Only pirates preferred the seclusion of uninhabited islands. Moore opened proceedings by firing a gun, as a signal for the others to show their colours. Hoping to brazen it out, Lowther ran the St. George’s ensign to his top­ masthead. But Moore was too old a hand to be caught by that ruse. Convinced that he had to do with pirates and resolved to profit by his rare good fortune in finding them unprepared and practically at his mercy, he sailed further in and fired again. Lowther now realized that his only chance of safety lay in fighting. So he bade his men cut the cables which careened the vessel down, and as she rolled back on to her keel, he and his men hastened on board, deter­ mined to hold the ship as a fort and to sell their lives dearly. But the Eagle had a great advantage in her guns. Lowther’s pieces were all ashore, and he and his men had nothing but fire-arms and cutlasses with which to defend themselves. All the same, they put up a gallant fight, and not until Moore had smashed in the side and shivered the masts, did Lowther strike his colours and call for quarter. Even then the pirate himself was not to be caught, for while Moore and his men were pulling across to take possession, he and a dozen more slipped out of the Ranger's cabin port-hole, dropped into the water, and swam ashore. 107

The Book of Pirates Moore got the sloop afloat, and sent a party of men into the woods to find Lowther and his cut-throats, but after five days’ search they only picked up five of them, and with these they went back on board the Eagle and sailed to Cumana, where on hearing their news, the Spanish Governor sent a sloop to comb out Blanquilla for the others. Up and down the islands the Spanish marines roamed, in and out of the bushes and trees, but only four pirates were they able to take, and at last they sailed away, leaving behind them Lowther, three men and a little boy, who had all lain hidden under some leaves, while the searchers almost trod on them as they tramped through the bushes. As for the four men they captured, the Spaniards sent them to the galleys for life, and they spent the rest of their days toiling at the oar. The Eagle took the rest of the prisoners to St. Kitts, where all but five were hanged between high and low water marks. As for Lowther, no one can say exactly what happened to him and his four companions. None of the three men or the little boy was ever seen again, so it is sup­ posed that some passing ship picked them up and bore them away; but a long time later, when some men from a passing sloop came ashore and started routing through the weeds on the hunt for iguanas to roast for dinner, they came across the body of George Lowther, lying among the bushes, with a burst pistol by his side.

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CHAPTER VIII Ned Low of the “ Black Heart ”

F ever a man was bom to be a pirate it was surely Ned Low, the arrantest, cruellest rogue that ever put to sea under the black flag. He was a Londoner bom and bred, for he first saw light in the slums of Westminster, where his father lived in Sanctuary—in those days really sanctuary; for debtors and criminals of the worst type could live there unmolested by the law. Ned and his brother Tom were brought up in the gutters and soon achieved distinction among their fellow street-children by their ferocity and cruelty. From his early years Ned was a highwayman in his neighbourhood, and robbed many a smaller child of ha’pence or tops. As for Tom, he invented a new piece of roguery, which had quite a vogue in his day; for being very small he used to hide in a basket or box which his father, who was a porter, would put on his head, and then go out into the busiest part of the streets, or preferably mix in a crowd watching a mountebank or some street catastrophe. Being borne into the thickest of the throng, Tom would spy his chance, and reaching out of his box suddenly snatch the hat or wig—sometimes both—of some passer­ by. And so quick was he that though the astounded victim would look up to the sky and all round him in amazement, as though expecting to see some angel or the like, that had suddenly bereft him of his headgear, never once did anyone think of looking in the basket on the head of the porter, who, indeed, professed as much surprise as anybody else. Such genius was sure of its own reward, and in due time Tom Low found his

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The Book of Pirates way to Newgate and ended his days on Tyburn Tree, for burglary and murder. But to return to Ned. As soon as he was old enough, he went to sea and served his time before the mast in a brig that knocked about the western world. For a while, too, he worked in a rigging-maker’s yard in Boston, New England. But in time, growing weary of the mono­ tony of an honest living, he shipped on a sloop bound for Honduras, where there was always excitement to be found in cutting log-wood. Log-wood, it should be explained, is a kind of wood (Hcematoxylon campechianum, for those who like things to be called by their right names) so heavy that it will not float, and of a red colour that furnishes a valuable dye. The Spaniards had for­ bidden its export except by their own ships, but there was a brisk trade driven by the English, who used to send vessels to the coasts of Honduras and Campeche to cut the wood and load up with it, if possible, before they could be intercepted. When the sloop arrived in the Bay of Honduras, Ned Low was given command of the shore party, armed with axes and saws to cut down trees and get them ready for shipping on board. He had twenty men in all, well armed for fear of the Spaniards, and he would make four or five trips a day, bringing small supplies at a time, for the wood was exceedingly heavy to handle. One morning he ran alongside with a load just before dinner was ready. A pile of ready-cut logs had been left on the shore, waiting for the next trip, and when Low came aboard the sloop the captain bade him unload hurriedly and return to the shore before dinner for the next cargo, as he was in a hurry to weigh. He ordered an extra tot of rum to be served out to all the men, and told them to be off and to lose no time. At this Low flared up. The men were tired, he said, and wanted their dinners. There would be plenty of time to get the load on board as soon as they hud eaten. A murmur of assent arose from tho mon as ho finished. no

Ned Low of the “Black Heart” “Do you dare to disobey me?” roared the captain. “Yes,” cried Low, “and here’s to show what I think of you.” And with that he drew his pistol and fired. By sheer chance the shot missed the captain, but it struck another poor fellow in the head, and he fell to the deck a corpse. At this there was a general uproar among those of the crew who were not of Low’s party. However un­ popular the captain may have been, they were not going to stand by and see one of their mates shot, out of illtemper, by one of his fellows. There was an ominous murmur, a threatened rush on Low, and had his party not all been armed, there would ¿ave been ugly doings on the sloop. But Low and his men held the rest at bay, and after much arguing and mutual recrimination, they went back to their small boat, with dire threats of what they would do to the sloop and its captain and crew if ever they met again. Then hoisting the sail of their skiff, they put out to sea. The next day they captured a sloop, shot all the crew, concocted a black flag out of scraps of tarpaulin, and declared war against all the world. With a favouring breeze Low and his men sailed to the Grand Cayman, an island which lies between the mainland they had just left and the island of Cuba. There the ruffians meant to fit up their small vessel and prepare as well as they could to acquit themselves well in their new employment. But at Cayman they met George Lowther, as has already been told in the previous chapter, and for some time to come sailed under his flag. What happened in his company there is no need to repeat, so we will resume the adventures of Captain Edward Low, as he now styled himself, at the moment when he parted company in disgust from Lowther, and went aboard the brigantine with fortyfour men, on May 28, 1722. They were armed with two great guns, four smaller pieces called swivels, and had a fair supply of ammunition and provisions; and ill

The Book of Pirates their parting with Lowther was as much to their liking as to his. Low’s first adventure in the brigantine, after parting with his former consort, was on Sunday, June 3, when he met two sloops and made them stand and deliver. The first contained only provisions, so he emptied the boat of every barrel and keg and sent her on her way without doing further damage. As for the second, which was encountered off Rhode Island, whither she was bound, he first rifled her and then cut away her bow­ sprit and rigging, after which he burned her sails. To put a finish to his work he stabbed the captain, James Colquhoun, so badly that the poor man barely survived until his crippled vessel drifted into port. Low, meanwhile, stood away to the south-eastward, which was lucky for him; for the sloop, disabled as she was, yet managed to get into Block Island and send a message in a whale-boat to Rhode Island, giving the alarm of pirates. Upon this the Governor of the latter place bestirred himself gallantly, aroused the town by beat of drum, and before the day was out had dispatched two of the best sloops in the harbour to search for the robbers. So smart was he, indeed, that they actually caught sight of Low’s topsails on the horizon, just ae darkness was falling, and they would undoubtedly have overhauled him had not night come on, during which he gave them the slip and was seen no more. After this narrow escape, and thinking that maybe his pursuers would follow on the course they had seen him steering, Low doubled on his tracks and bore north­ ward, hoping to catch some of the shipping of Marble­ head, at the north of Boston Bay. It was one of the luckiest days of Low’s wild career, for when he sailed into the harbour, there were thirteen vessels at anchor there, undefended and as little suspicious of danger ae if they had been lying off London Bridge. Running up his black flag the pirate swept in among them, firing left and right and spreading terror at sea and on land. 112

Ned Low of the “Black Heart” As the brigantine passed the various ships, Low hailed them through a speaking-trumpet, roaring that unless they struck they should receive no quarter; and all the while his boats were being manned and every preparation made for boarding the prizes. Not a shot was fired in defence. Without the loss of a man, or so much as a scratch, the pirates captured the whole harbourful of ships, plundered them to their hearts’ content, and finally picked on one, an 80-ton schooner which they named the Fancy, as a suitable craft for their purpose. Low armed her with ten guns, put a crew of fifty men on board her, and raised his own flag, handing over the command of the brigantine to Charles Harris, who had been one of Lowther’s men, having been forced by him to become a pirate, though he had originally been an honest enough man, and second mate of the Greyhound. Among the crews of the thirteen prizes they found a few ready to sign their articles and go a-roving; others they forced into the service; and being thus ready for further adventures, they put out from Marblehead about the middle of July. There was little more to be got off the New England shores, for the whole coast was alarmed and any day they might expect to encounter one or more of the armed vessels sent out to capture them. So Low bade farewell to the scene of his triumphs, and made a course for the Leeward Islands, where he hoped to capture some of the wealthy prizes ever to be found in the pleasant waters of the West Indies. But Fortune had something in store for CaptaiD Edward Low that he had not bargained for. As he and his consort were making southward, somewhere about the latitude of 28° N., they were caught in a terrific hurricane, so furious and violent that not a man on board had ever seen the like. The seas ran mountains high, and bade fair to swamp the little brigantine alto­ gether, for she was heavy with her guns and the great amount of booty that had been captured in Marblehead. 113

The Book of Pirates Day and night the pumps were kept going, and all hands that could be spared from working at them were set to baling out, for her timbers were started and the water came pouring in faster than the pumps could keep it down. But even with every bucket in the ship being passed up from hand to hand, and every man working until he could scarce stand for fatigue, the water con­ tinued to gain on them steadily, until, as a last resource, the skipper ordered the guns to be thrown overboard, followed by every scrap of booty they had hoped was to make their fortune. It seemed as though the sea were satisfied to receive from the pirates what had been stolen so callously. Lightened as she was, the brigantine made less water, and when, after three days’ hard blowing, the wind dropped, they were able to hoist a scrap of canvas and run away to leeward. As for the schooner, she weathered the storm with no worse damage than a split mainsail, sprung bowsprit, and the loss of two anchors. This hurricane was one of the greatest known in the world’s history. It was felt worse, perhaps, at Jamaica, where such an enormous sea was driven against the harbour of Port Royal that the whole town was flooded to a depth of five feet, over four hundred people lost their lives, and forty ships were cast away in the harbour. The damage to Port Royal was so great, indeed, that it was decided to move the capital from there to Kingston. Amid so much destruction it was a curious irony of Providence that Low and his fellow rogues should ride the storm out in safety; but they did, and got to a lonely island in the Caribbean where they mended their rig­ ging and made the ships seaworthy again. The brigan­ tine was the first to be ready to put out, so she sailed away like some sea-jackal, to pick up what she could after the gale. As luck would have it, the pirates met a dismasted vessel making her crippled way to Antigua. 114

Ned Low of the “Black Heart” She had money and goods to the value of £1,000, but it changed hands in no time when Harris and his rogues got on board. Having rifled her of whatever else they wanted, these cold-blooded ruffians left her as helpless as they found her, to drift where and how the elements pleased. On returning to the little island, where the schooner still lay at anchor, though now ready to put to sea, a council was held and it was decided that, as men-of-war were out looking for them, it would be as well to leave that part of the world for a time and seek fresh fields and pastures new. So after much discussion they made up their minds to try their luck in the Azores—or the Western Islands as they were then called. It was some time on August 3, 1722, that Low’s sinister flag was first seen in the Azores, and great was the terror it inspired. Sailing into the road of St. Michael’s, the largest of the islands, he thundered out a broadside of warning to all and sundry in the harbour, and from ship to ship sent the message that he would torture and hang the entire crew of any vessel which did not instantly strike her colours. This mandate was backed by such blood-curdling threats that of all the seven ships lying at anchor in St. Michael’s there was not one that failed to obey instantly. After their trip across the Atlantic, Low and his consort were in dire need of water and provisions, so the pirate, having terrified all the ships in the harbour into submission, sent a party of men ashore with a letter to the Governor of the island, demanding liberal supplies of all he asked for, and threatening, if they were not sent to him at once, that he would set fire to every ship he had seized, and when that was done, do the same by the town. Alone and utterly undefended, the Governor had little option. He could not hope to save the town or the ships from the pirates if they once really set about destruction; so he answered very civilly, saying that he XI5

The Book of Pirates would do his best, and by the following day sent down such copious supplies to the shore, to be carried across to the pirate craft, that Low condescended to hand over to him six of the captured vessels—having first stripped them of anything that struck the fancy of himself or his men. The seventh, a boat called the Rose, which had formerly been a man-of-war, but had been sold into private service by the Admiralty, he kept for his own purposes, fitting her up for The Account. Her crew was pressed, much to the poor fellows’ dis­ gust; all save the cook, who, the pirates said, being a greasy fellow, would fry well if he were put on a fire. So they tied him to the mast of a small tender, for which they had no further use, and setting fire to it, burnt the poor wretch alive. This was sport that appealed to Captain Low. Cruelty in any form was the breath of life to him, and as a crew generally takes its tone from the skipper, so his men delighted in perpetrating the most unheard-of atrocities and villainies, which neither this nor any other page can nowadays be sullied by recounting. Having got what he could from St. Michael’s, Low now lay in the channel between that island and the neighbouring St. Mary’s, where one day he fell in with the Wright, Captain Carter in command, and fired across her bows to bid them bring to. Unhappily for himself, Captain Carter was something of a fire-eater, and at sight of Low’s black flag decided to put up a fight. He piped all hands on deck, and though his vessel was armed with but a single gun, of small calibre, he ran it out and fired a shot at the enemy’s stem. That anyone should presume to dispute his right to take a prize infuriated Low beyond all measure. Leading his men in the attack on Carter’s ship, he leaped forward with drawn cutlass in his hand, hewing and slashing about him as he went, and eventually driving the unfortunate captain into the sea. As for the crew of the unlucky Wright, the pirates slaughtered most of 116

Ned Low of the “Black Heart” them in cold blood, stringing up some friars whom they found aboard to the arm of the foreyard, and dipping them up and down into the sea until the wretched men were dead with fright and drowning. When the Wright had been plundered to their hearts’ content, and was running to the gunwales with blood, some of the pirates were for burning her; but in the end they cut her cables, masts, and rigging to pieces, and left her to float the seas, a derelict that appealed to sky and ocean in mute protest against the barbarity of these ruffians. To follow all Low’s adventures would be but to read a long catalogue of atrocities. Suffice it to say that he and his consort went across to Madeira, where, happily, a good party of them fell into the hands of the authori­ ties and ended their days in jail or upon the gallows; while the rest, to the number of about a hundred, sailed with Low in the Fancy schooner to the West Indies. There they attacked a Portuguese ship named the Nostra Signora de Victoria, homeward bound from Bahia, which they knew had a lot of money on board. But the cap­ tain had tied all this specie up in large sacks, which he hung out of his cabin window, and at the very moment that Low and his pirates boarded the vessel amidships and came rushing aft, screaming like so many furies, he whipped out his knife and cut the cords by which they were suspended, so that the ruffians actually saw the precious bags fall “plop” into the sea! The fate of that unhappy captain and the whole of his crew does not bear repeating. And so it went on, until the whole coast of the two Americas from Martha’s Vineyard to Bahia, trembled at the name of this bloodthirsty pirate, whose cruelties —often devised with a diabolical cunning—made certain death preferable to the chances of falling alive into his hands. On June 10, 1723, the Greyhound man-of-war, of 20 guns and 120 men, happened to be cruising off Rhode i 117

The Book of Pirates Island. Day had just broken, and the look-outs, who had been warned that pirates were likely to be in this vicinity, were scanning the horizon, when they sighted two vessels making for them under press of sail. There was little difficulty in guessing who they were, and Captain Solgard, in command of the Greyhound, sounded the call to quarters and got his guns ready, giving the pirates a chase of two hours till he had his decks cleared and everything prepared to give them the reception they deserved. When the pursuers were about a gun-shot off, Solgard tacked the Greyhound again, and stood towards the two sloops, which immediately hoisted their black colours and fired each a gun. The first of them was the Fancy, commanded by Low himself, and the other was the Ranger, with Harris as captain, who by then had earned for himself a name as vile as Low's. All this time the pirates had been under the im­ pression that their quarry was a merchantman, for in those days there was nothing in her build to distinguish a man-of-war from any other craft, especially when she was under press of canvas. But when Captain Solgard suddenly hauled up his mainsail, clapped close upon the wind, and then engaged, they found they had indeed encountered a Tartar. With a couple of broadsides he raked the two sloops fore and aft, and tore away 6ome of the Ranger’s rigging, but before he could get at them again the sloops edged away under his stem, where the broadside pieces could not reach them. For a couple of hours the fight went on, sometimes with bigger guns, sometimes with swivels and even the muskets and small-arms of both sides. At last, as the wind began to drop, Low ordered his men to take to the oars, for in those days most sailing craft carried great sweeps for use in calm weather; and by pulling heartily on these the two pirate sloops at last managed to draw away from the Greyhound. 118

Ned Low of the “Black Heart” At this, Solgard lost no further time with his guns, but ordered all hands to man his own oars. A hardrowed race now ensued, for the pirates were pulling for their lives, while the Greyhound was after them with all the precision and discipline of a man-of-war crew. For hours the men on all three boats sweated their hearts out at the oars; about three o’clock the Greyhound began to overhaul the others steadily, and it waB clear that ere long she would be upon them. Low now shouted to the Ranger that he was going to fight. Shipping his great oars, he hauled up on a wind to receive the enemy and opened a brisk fire, that was returned with interest by the Greyhound. The Ranger followed her consort’s lead and opened fire with her guns, but scarce had the smoke blown away from her first round, when a shot from the Greyhound went crashing into the mainmast, and the next moment the mainyard was splintered into three pieces and came clattering down on deck, amid a wreck of rigging and tom sail. At sight of this, Low, like the gallant pirate he was, hoisted every scrap of canvas he could and bore away, leaving his crippled consort to the mercy of the warship. Seeing how matters stood, and that he had little to hope for from his brother rogue, Harris struck his colours and cried out for quarter, surrendering to the man-ofwar all that remained of his crew, for the broadsides of the Greyhound had killed off pretty well half. As the evening was sinking over the mainland, its parting gleams lit up the faint speck of white upon the horizon that was Low, speeding away and leaving his consort to her fate. Next day Captain Solgard towed the crippled Ranger into Rhode Island, where the whole populace came down to meet him, and every gun was fired in a salute of victory. The captured pirates were taken ashore and clapped into a strong jail, whence they were trans­ it

The Book of Pirates ferred to Newport, on July 10, to be tried. There were thirty-five of them in all, and the average age was only twenty-three. Ten were sentenced to imprisonment or acquitted, and the remainder hanged in chains near Newport. As for Low and his men, with never a thought or care for the comrades they were leaving to their fate, they made all sail they could to get as far away as possible from the scene of their fight. They met several whalers from Nantucket, which they overhauled and treated with the utmost barbarity, wreaking on them their vengeance for having nothing worth the taking, and working off their spite at the misadventure they had encountered off Rhode Island. From the coast of New England Low now made a course for Newfoundland, and near Cape Breton took over forty French vessels, one of which he armed and turned into a consort. As for the unfortunate crews of these ships, they were all treated with unbelievable barbarity, the pirates making their agony so much a matter of mirth and jollity that they almost as often murdered a man out of sheer good-humour and a sense of the ridiculous, as from any ill-temper or cruelty, and their victims never knew which to fear most, their bad or their good temper. An instance of this was poor Captain Graves, master of a Virginia ship that fell into Low’s hands. When the vessel had been captured, and half his crew butchered, Low slipped his arm into that of Graves and with many friendly smiles and jests, drew him down into the great cabin. There the pirate caught up a brimming tankard of rum, and nodding to his guest, cried: “Captain Graves, I drink half this to you I” When he had quaffed his share, he passed the tankard to Graves, who, however, with the memory of his disaster and the death of some of his finest fellows fresh in his mind, begged to be excused, as he felt little like drinking 120

Ned Low of the “Black Heart” “What!” cried Low. “Not drink my toast!” and whipping out a cocked pistol he presented it at the wretched man’s heart with one hand, while he held out the tankard in the other. “Take your choice,” he thundered. “Rum or lead, it matters little to me which!” It mattered a lot to Captain Graves, however, so he took the tankard with a somewhat unsteady hand and gulped down the contents—about a quart of almost neat rum—though never did man feel less inclined to drink a toast. In the last days of July, 1723, Low took a large ship called the Merry Christmas, and having disposed of the crew as he best knew how, fitted her up as a pirate, with 34 guns. He made this his flagship, calling himself an admiral, and on her hoisted his flag—black as the soul of the man himself, with a skeleton painted on it in red. This he flew from the mainmast head, and having fitted everything up to his satisfaction, set a course across the Atlantic to his old hunting-ground off the Azores. There he carried on in his usual way, seizing ships of all nations, looting them and putting their crews to death. Thence he went on the Guinea Coast, where among his captures was an English vessel called the Delight, Captain Hunt commander. Her they captured, sending Hunt and his men adrift in small and leaky boats, and fitted her up for their own game, appointing as her commander Captain Spriggs, who had been Low’s quartermaster on the Merry Christmas. Spriggs, anxious to set up as a rogue on his own account, soon after this left Low and made for the West Indies, where he met with sundry adventures that deserve a chapter to them­ selves. As for Low, there is some little pleasure in being able to say that the fate he deserved overtook him. Why or when is not known, but his crew rose in mutiny against him very soon after the events we have already 121

The Book of Pirates related, and having forced him to carry them back across the Atlantic, they marooned the ruffian on the shores of the Bay of Honduras, where he would certainly have perished of hunger and exposure, had not a French boat come along, rescued him from this unhappy situation and taken him into Martinique, where they promptly hanged him without so much as a pretence at trial.

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CHAPTER IX

The Doings of Captain Spriggs and Captain Bellamy

F

rancis carrlngton spriggs was one of

Captain Low’s choicest spirits, in other words, as arrant a rascal as ever trod the quarter deck, which is saying a good deal. He started his pirating career with Lowther, in whose watch he had been on the old Gambia Castle when the mutiny broke out. After that worthy soul fell in with Low, as told in Chapter VIII, Spriggs left his old mate and joined the latter, feeling, no doubt, that he would have better scope for his peculiar brand of villainy under wicked Ned Low. But even bloodthirsty Ned sadly disappointed Francis Carrington Spriggs, for shortly after they had captured a ship called the Delight, off the Guinea Coast, he went aboard her with eighteen men, and in the dark of night gave Low the slip. The day after he committed this piece of treachery on his erstwhile friend and consort, Spriggs hoisted the Jolly Roger on his own account—and a very pretty flag it was, too, representing a white skeleton on the black background, holding in one hand an arrow upon which was skewered a bleeding heart, and in the other an hour-glass. This work of art having been hoisted to the masthead, the rogues fired every gun on the ship, as a salute to their gallant captain and his ensign, and set off for the West Indies to look of prey. They were pretty well in mid-Atlantic when a Portu­ guese bark was sighted, scudding before the wind and evidently suspicious of the Delight. Now, Portuguese ships were always particularly welcome to pirates— firstly, because the Portuguese did not love a fight and 123

The Book of Pirates usually struck their colours before they were even bid to do so, and secondly, because whether outward cr homeward bound, their galleons were almost always well worth the taking, being loaded to the hatches with silks, gold, or wine—all very acceptable commodities in pirate eyes. At sight of the quarry, Spriggs crowded on all sail and before very long overhauled the bark within gun­ shot, when, as he had anticipated, the worthy skipper struck his colours and hove to. It took little time for the pirates to tumble into their boats, pull across, and board the prize, which proved to be every whit as good a treasure as they had hoped for; and so delighted were Spriggs and his men at this very successful start off for their cruise On the Account, that they determined, in the lightness of their hearts, to have a little fun at the expense of the captain and his crew. Those who have read about Ned Low and his ways will have little difficulty in conjuring up a picture of the pirates’ notion of diversion. After buffeting the wretched fellows about, making them run up the shrouds by firing pistols at their feet as they went, and ordering one or two to walk the plank, they decided that it would do the rest good to be “sweated.” This was a sport after Spriggs’s own heart. A ring of lighted candles was placed in a circle round the mizzen­ mast, between decks, and at a radius of about a couple of yards from the mast. Outside this ring of candles the pirates formed another, as many as could crowd into the circle, each armed with a knife, dagger, pitch­ fork, pair of compasses, sword, or anything else likely to make a pricking wound. One by one the wretched victims were then stripped and hustled into the magic circle, the band struck up a gay tune, and for ten minutes or so the poor creature in the ring was driven round and round, each man prodding him into activity when fatigue, terror or loss of blood made him begin to relax. The jollity of the proceedings was greatly enhanced if 124

Captains Spriggs and Bellamy the subject being “sweated” fell in a faint, and had to be brought to with a cold steel restorative. But on no account did they strike deep enough to kill their man; for, after all, it was only a gamel Having “sweated” the wretched Portuguese sailors until the sport began to pall, the pirates now pushed them back into their bark, gave them a day’s provisions, and so left them, after taking the hendish precaution of setting the vessel on fire. Spriggs believed in the motto that dead men tell no tales. The pirates struck the West Indies at the island of St. Lucia, and immediately began their fell work. One vessel after another fell into Spriggs’s hands, and when­ ever his men rushed aboard a prize it was but the prelude to the same scene of insensate, wanton cruelty. Yet Spriggs had the impudence to tell a certain Captain De Haws, whom he captured off Barbados, that he had left Low “on account of the barbarity he used towards those he took!” Pushing into the Caribbean, late in March, 1724, they were cruising off Bonacca Island when they sighted a ship, the Jolly Batchelor, coming out of the Bay of Honduras, where she had been loading with log-wood. At sight of the pirate flag Captain Hawkins struck his own colours and hove to. He and his two mates were ordered to report themselves at once to Captain Spriggs, on the Delight, and while they were being bullied by that great man, the pirates fairly ran amok on the Jolly Batchelor, knocking down bulkheads, breaking cabin windows and portholes, cutting the cables into short lengths, slashing the sails into ribbons, and heaving overboard every scrap of cargo that they did not want. For a week they made the Jolly Batchelor lie to, a mere hull, and then, keeping on board with them the two mates Burridge and Stephens, they set Captain Hawkins back in his gutted vessel and bade him sail to blazes, or whatever other port he wished. Two days later the pirates seized the Rhode Island 125

The Book of Pirates sloop Endeavour, Captain Samuel Pike, commander; and being in need of men, Spriggs ordered him and all his crew to come on board and sign their articles. Needs must when the devil drives, and whether they hankered after being pirates or no, all agreed to do this, save the mate, Dixey Gross, a grave, sober man, who flatly refused to have anything whatsoever to do with the rogues or their articles. “Very well,” Baid Spriggs, in that soft, cruel voice he knew so well how to assume. “If you will not sign on board us, master mate, you shall e’en have your discharge. And what is more, it shall be written so you’ll never lose it while you live, and where all men may see it. It shall be engrossed upon your back!” He gave a sign to the boatswain, who caught the unfortunate Gross and triced him up to the capstan, where every man in the company went, one after the other, and gave ten lashes with all his might. It was probably the sight of Gross’s blood-streaming back that induced Burridge to make up his mind, for the very next day he voluntarily expressed a wish to sign the pirates’ articles. As he was a skilled navigator and a valuable acquisition, they gave him three hearty cheers and fired the guns to give him a rousing welcome. He was immediately appointed first mate and navigating officer. The remainder of that day was spent in a boisterous carouse, the whole company roaring and drinking healths, shambling about the decks in uncouth dances, and quarrelling and singing till the sun went down. Captain Pike had told them, as a piece of news he had heard in Jamaica (which happened to be false), that King George I was dead; and out of the loyalty of their hearts these worthy robbers drank the health of King George II with three times three, hoisted the Jolly Roger halfmast high, crying out that with a new king they had no doubt but what there would be a general amnesty and pardon for all delinquents, and if they were missed 126

Captains Spriggs and Bellamy out of it, hang them, but they would murder every Englishman that should chance to fall into their hands I And so the day wore on till night and slumber finally ended this ghastly carouse. Two or three days after, they sighted a sail, hull down, and all canvas was crowded on to catch her. The man at the masthead said he thought she looked like a Spaniard; Spriggs said she was more like a slaver. At last they overhauled the stranger close enough to give her a taste of the guns, whereupon the prize hoisted signals of distress and immediately hove to. Imagine the fury of the pirates when they boarded the boat, to find it was the poor old gutted Jolly Batchelor, with Hawkins on the poop, trembling with terror. With a snarl of fury some fifteen of the pirates dashed at him, cutlasses in their hands, tossed him to the deck and in another moment would have undoubtedly slaughtered the helpless man, had not his former mate, Burridge, rushed among them, and begged for his old skipper’s life. Mad with disappointment as they were, they were almost equally maudlin with rum, and at the sight of Burridge pleading so earnestly for his friend they relented bo far as to take the unlucky captain aboard their own boat and make a bonfire of the Jolly Batchelor, which soon drifted away into the night, a blazing mass. But pirates, like other men, must have their fun. This time it was Captain Hawkins to whom they looked for diversion. As he stood shivering with appre­ hension on the deck, he was courteously summoned to take supper with Spriggs and the others in the great cabin, and not daring to refuse, made his way thither wondering what next was to happen. Spriggs was at the head of the table, a huge tankard in his hand; down either side were his boon companions, uproarious rogues stinking of blood and fire. “Bring the captain his supper,” cried Spriggs in his soapy way. The next moment a great dish of thick, 127

The Book of Pirates greasy candles, made of tallow and ooarse mutton-fat was brought in. Hawkins would have been in little mood for the choicest banquet that ever Lucullus could have offered; the sight of this nauseating mass nearly turned him inside out. But Spriggs was not to be done out of his little piece of fun. “Eat, my dear captain,” he smirked. “It will do you all the good in the world.” As he spoke he gently pushed the nose of a pistol at the unhappy man’s breast, while one of the others prodded him from behind. With his appetite thus tempted, the trembling creature swallowed the revolting meal, amid a roar of laughter. “Help him for’ard! ” said Spriggs when he had finished; and at this the pirates all rose from their seats, and what with kicks and blows, finally tossed their victim to join his crew in the fo’c’stle. Two days after this Spriggs put in to Roatan, a tiny island in the Bay of Honduras, where he decided to maroon those on board who were beginning to get in his way. Foremost among them was Captain Hawkins, his boatswain,.an old man who had been sailing on the Jolly Batchelor as a passenger, Captain Pike, Dixey Gross, Simon Fulmore and James Nelley, the last being a pirate who had quarrelled with Spriggs. These seven unfortunates were given a rickety old musket and a few rounds of powder and shot; but destitute as they were, not a man among them, with the possible excep­ tion of Nelley, but was not heartily glad to see the pirates sail away and leave them. Hawkins and his friends spent nineteen days on the island, supplying themselves as best they could with fish and fowl. At the end of that time they were joined by a couple of other men who had been cast away on another deserted island near Bonacca, and a fortnight later the whole party were picked up by Captain Jones, in the sloop Merriam, who had seen from afar the smoke of the fires they had kept constantly burning to attract the attention of passing ships. Before they were T28

Captains Spriggs and Bellamy relieved, however, the old man who had been a passenger died of the shocks he had received and the hardships he had been forced to endure. Meanwhile the pirates sailed on to St. Kitts, where Spriggs had some idea of catching Captain Moore, of the Eagle, who had surprised Lowther on Blanquilla and been the cause of his death. But instead of Moore he ran into a French man-of-war, who on sight of him clapped on all her canvas and gave him chase. There is little doubt the Frenchman would have caught the rogues up had she not suddenly sprung her maintop­ mast, and been obliged to give up the pursuit. For some weeks Spriggs and his men cruised in and out among the islands, doing incredible damage to every ship that fell into their hands, “sweating” the men whenever they were in a good mood, or, if in a bad one, hanging them. One wretched sloop, Nicholas Trot, master, disappointed the rascals because her cargo was too small, so they tied ropes round the men’s waists, rove the ends through blocks, and amused them­ selves by hoisting the fellows up as high as the main and fore tops, and then letting them run down with a crash to the deck, until every bone in their bodies was broken. After this, Spriggs had the crippled wretches tossed back into their own boat, and bade them go home and tell the Governor all about it. A few days later they encountered a Bhip coming from Rhode Island, bound for St. Kitts with a cargo of provisions and horses. Here was sport, indeed, for these noble gentlemen of the sea. Unlashing the crea­ tures from the rails to which they had been hitched, the pirates mounted them and began dashing up and down the deck at full gallop, cursing, swearing, halloing and shrieking like madmen at Newmarket, till the wretched beasts went mad with terror, and ended by throwing their riderB. At this the pirates rounded on the crew, thrashed them soundly with whips and rope-ends, and said they deserved all they got for daring to supply 129

The Book of Pirates gentlemen of fortune with horses without furnishing riding-boots and spurs, for want of which they had been unable to ride them like the noblemen they were. And so the game went on, up and down the islands of the Caribbean, in and out of the Bahamas, off Cuba and down as far as the Venezuelan mainland. It was off Cuba that Spriggs and a Captain Shipton, who had joined him in a sloop, somewhere in the Bay of Honduras, fell in with the Diamond man-of-war, Captain Wyndham in command. Wyndham had been searching for the pirates for some weeks past, and on sight of the two suspicious vessels he clapped on all sail and gave chase. Neither Spriggs nor his consort was inclined to engage in open battle with the man-of-war, so they fled before the wind, towards the coast of Florida, where Shipton’s sloop ran aground near Cape Sable. Shipton and ten of his men escaped in the ship’s boat and eventually made Cuba; but the others met their fates in various ways, for the Indians killed and ate sixteen of them, while the Diamond picked up the remaining fifty-nine and carried them in to Havana, where the Spaniards knew well what to do with them. Luckier than hie consort, Spriggs got off with a whole ship and sailed to the Bay of Honduras, on his way picking up Shipton and his few survivors. Things were too hot for them by far among the Islands, so these ruffians now turned their attention to pillaging the log-wood cutters. Sixteen of their ships they took, burning one to the water’s edge in revenge for some small slight received by one of the pirates. One of Shipton’s prizes—for by this time the rogue had started again on his own account in a little row­ boat—was the Mary and John, of Boston. In her he left a prize crew consisting of three of his own pirates and a couple of forced men, named Simons and Barlow. On board, also, was Matthew Perry, the John and Mary's mate, lying in the forecastle with his hands lashed be­ hind him. As soon as Shipton had sailed off, giving 130

Captains Spriggs and Bellamy final instructions that the men were to sail to meet him at Roatan, the two forced men liberated Perry, and the three of them laid plans for overpowering the pirates and getting possession of the ship. There was no difficulty in finding arms. Perry, with a pistol in his hands, crept up behind one of the pirates who was ransacking the hold, and pulled the trigger. But the charge was damp or the flint defective; the pistol missed fire. The pirate, who had no fewer than four firearms slung about him, whirled round and aimed at Perry, but his pistol missed fire. At this moment Simons rushed forward crying: “In the name of God and His Majesty King George, let us go on with our design!” Saying which he shot the pirate dead, and threatened another of them—who hurried up at that moment—that he would be killed, likewise, if he offered any resistance. At this moment Barlow appeared, having finished off the third pirate. So these three intrepid men cleared the deck of its scum, and set sail on their own course, pluckily reaching Newport, Rhode Island, in due time, much to the admiration of all who heard their stories. Little more is known as to the eventual fate of Spriggs and Shipton. Several other vessels were captured and the crews put to diabolical tortures, but gradually their maraudings ceased to be reported, and the last probably authentic news of them was that they had both been marooned by their men on the Mosquito Coast.

Let us now speak of Captain Sam Bellamy, who started On the Account under that old king rogue, Captain Benjamin Homygold. What his origin was, or how, he drifted out from the VTest of England to the Caribbean, is not now known, nor ever will be, but he first appears in the annals of the sea as mate of Homygold’s sloop the Mary Anne. Sailing as consort was the French pirate, Oliver Lebous by name, who 131

The Book of Pirates had captured the sloop Postillion some time before, and was now cruising in her with a black flag and crossbones flaunting from the topmast. It was somewhere off the Virgin Islands that Bellamy and Homygold fell out, ostensibly over a strange qualm the older rogue felt that prevented him from attacking vessels flying the English flag. Bellamy had no such compunction, and when the matter was put before the crew, twenty-six of them stood by old Captain Ben, and sailed off with him in a Bloop they had captured a day or two before, while the remainder, to the number of ninety, remained in the Mary Anne, and elected Sam Bellamy as their captain. Captain Lebous stood by all the while, marvelling at the scruples of the English. When Homygold had departed, Bellamy and the Frenchman went off together, made a few inconsider­ able captures and at last, some time in December, 1716, overhauled and boarded a couple of largish ships, one of which, the Sultana, Captain Richards commander, was converted by Bellamy into a flagship for himself, while his mate, Paul Williams, was put in command of the Mary Anne sloop. They parted with Lebous a little later, down in the Windward Passage. The rogues had all grown tired of one another; so the Frenchman set a course for the Venezuelan mainland and thence over to the African coast, where he fell in with Davis, as recorded in Chapter XIII. The Windward Passage is a safe highway between the Islands of Porto Rico and Hispaniola. One Febru­ ary morning, as the Sultana was cruising before an easy breeze, a London-built galley was sighted, which on closer inspection proved to be the Whidaw, bound from Jamaica to London with a cargo of ivory, golddust, indigo and quinine, for she had been calling in at the West Indies after a long and successful slaving trip down to the Guinea Coast. When Captain Prince, her commander, saw two swift sailing craft beating up against him, he took to his heels and crowded on what 132

Captains Spriggs and Bellamy canvas he could, but there his oourage failed him, for at the first sign of a whiff of smoke from the pirate’s guns he lowered his flag in a panic, and let the boarding parties clamber up his sides without so much as a protest. The Whidaw had eighteen guns and a crew of fifty, so she was a craft eminently suited to the needs of Captain Sam Bellamy. Clapping Prince in irons on the

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Sultana, he put a prize crew on the Whidaw and took her in to Long Island, in the Bahamas, transferred all his stuff into her, mounted his own guns in addition to hers, picked out a dozen or more of her men to be forced into his company—the Whidaw’8 boatswain volun­ teered to turn pirate—and then handed over the Sultana to Prince. Indeed, so generous was Bellamy, and so pleased with his exchange, that he actually gave the captain £20 in gold and silver to soothe his feelings and go towards his losses 1 J

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The Book of Pirates And very good reason had Captain Sam to be pleased at his capture. In specie alone the pirates took over £10,000 in the Whidaw/ This huge sum was counted out on the great cabin table, the grimy ring of rogues hanging round and jostling one another as each piece was told over, every man’s share working out roughly at £50, which was put in a bag. The whole treasure was kept in a great iron-bound chest standing between decks. With this fortune and his new ship, Bellamy now shaped a course for the Capes of Virginia, on the way i hither taking three or four ships loaded with sugar, rum, and such-like cargoes, of which the pirates had as much as they wanted. It was off the Capes that they ran into a storm that was like to have finished for ever their piratical adven­ tures. The only thing that saved them was the fact that the gale came out of the north-east and so drove them off the coast, whence they scudded with only the goose wings of the foresail to steady them. The storm increased as the night came on, and blew with such fury that not only did the Whidaw have to stow all sail, but the very yards were lowered to the deck, and the only way they could keep the helm steady was by rigging up tackles to the tiller, with four men in the gun room and two at the wheel to keep her head to the sea, for had she broached to she would infallibly have gone to the bottom. “The heavens, in the meanwhile,” writes the old narrator of Bellamy’s adventures, “were covered with sheets of lightning, which the sea seemed to reflect and imitate. The darkness of the night was such as might be felt; the terrible roaring of the winds could only be equalled by the repeated, I may say incessant, claps of thunder, sufficient to strike dread of the Supreme Being in every heart. But among these wretches the effect was different, for they endeavoured by their blas­ phemies, oaths, and horrid imprecations, to drown the 134

Captains Spriggs and Bellamy uproar of the jarring elements. Bellamy swore that he was sorry he could not run out his guns to return the salute, meaning the thunder, and added that he fancied the gods had got drunk over their tipple and were gone together by the ears. “They continued scudding all that night under bare poles; the next morning the mainmast being sprung in the step they were forced to cut it away and at the same time the mizen came by the board. The wind, shifting round the compass, made so outrageous and short a sea that they had little hopes of safety. It broke down the poop, drove in the taffrail, and washed two men away from the wheel, who were saved in the netting. The wind, after four days and three nights, abated of its fury and fixed in the north-east point, hourly decreasing, and the weather clearing up, they spoke to the sloop and resolved for the coast of Carolina. “All this while the Whidaw's leak continued, and it was as much as the lee pump could do to keep the water from gaining, though it was kept continually going. Jury-masts were set up, and the carpenter, finding the leak to be in the bows, occasioned by the oakum coming out of a seam, the crew became very jovial again. The sloop received no other damage than the loss of the mainsail.” The course was changed from Carolina for Rhode Island, and on the way thither they took a Boston sloop, commanded by a Captain Beer, who besought to have his vessel returned to him when the pirates had taken what they wanted out of her; but the rogues would not hear of it, and having taken the skipper and his men aboard the Whidaw, sank the sloop, as being of no use to them. On the Whidaw, among the pirate crew, was a man who had been a strolling actor at home, and he kept his companions in constant roars of laughter. He made a play on board, called “The Royal Pirate,” and actually got a cast and coached its members to produoe it on 135

The Book of Pirates the quarter-deck. There was only one performance, however, owing to an unfortunate incident that might have had very tragic consequences. It happened thus: Alexander the Great, surrounded by his guards, was supposed to be examining a pirate who had been captured and brought before him. With stem and awful majesty Alexander sentenced the man to death in these terms: “Know’st thou that death attends thy mighty crimes And thou shalt hang to-morrow mom betimes?”

The gunner, who had spent an hour or two in com­ pany with the mm cask, took this to be spoken in earnest, and imagined that his messmate was actually in danger of being hung. Shoving his way through the crowd of spectators, he rushed below, where three of his cronies were sitting over a bowl of punch, and roared out to them: ‘‘They’re going to hang honest Jack Spinks! But, by blazes, they shan’t hang him, for I’ll clear the deck first!” Seizing a grenade, and lighting it at the candle, he rushed up on deck, followed by his drink-sodden mates, and hurled the blazing bomb among the actors. It exploded with a deafening roar and in an instant pande­ monium broke out. Every man drew his cutlass and began slashing wildly about him, poor Alexander the Great had his right arm sliced off, though he managed to kill his aggressor with the remaining limb before he fell to the deck. Honest Jack Spinks had a leg broken with the bursting grenade, and one of the spectators fell back with a broken head. When it all simmered down, the whole company roared with laughter at the mistake, shook hands and were friends again, but it was decided that there should be no more play-acting on the quarter-deck. Bellamy now took the Whidaw a cruise up and down the coasts of Newfoundland, and, off the island of St. 136

Captains Spriggs and Bellamy Paul, that lies to the north of Cape Breton, spied a sail making westwards towards the mouth of the St. Lawrence. Orders were given immediately to start in chase of her, but instead of taking to her heels, as was usual in such circumstances, the strange vessel brought to and lay by to wait for the Whidaw. She was a French boat, of 36 guns, taking soldiers to Quebec, at that time a French stronghold. Nothing daunted, Bellamy opened fire at once and for two hours a brisk engagement ensued, which so far turned in favour of the Frenchman that on two separate occasions they boarded the pirates, each time to be driven off with heavy losses, though the pirates did not come off scathe­ less. Among those who fell was our friend the actor, who was run through by a French officer. At last Bellamy thought it time to betake himself off, and accordingly broke loose and made to get away; but the Frenchman was none so eager to lose touch with the pirate. He kept alongside through the waning afternoon, and would certainly have taken him, had not night fallen, a night of intense darkness in which the Whidaw managed to get away, sadly damaged in her hull and rigging, but not so crippled but that she could make the coast of New England. Cruising southwards, off Nantucket Shoal, they sighted a Dublin pink, the Mary Anne, Captain Crumpsty in command, inward bound from Madeira with a cargo of wine, having called already at New York and being now on her way to Boston. However curious he may have been, Captain Crumpsty suspected no harm from the Whidaw as she drew nearer, for Bellamy was flying the St. George’s flag and a plain pennant. But when within gunshot he quickly ran up the black flag, and ordered the Mary Anne to bring to and strike her colours. Having no means whatever of defence, Crumpsty had no alternative but to comply, and a few minutes afterwards a boat pulled across from the pirate with seven fully armed men aboard, who took possession 137

The Book of Pirates of the pink and sent Crumpsty and five of his crew over to the Whidaw, keeping back the mate, Fitzgerald. Having made these arrangements Bellamy gave them orders to follow his fleet—which was now augmented by a Virginian sloop they had captured—on a northerly course. About four o’clock that afternoon a thick fog came up, enveloping the ships in impenetrable mist and blot­ ting out from each all sight of the rest. A perfect orgy set in on the Mary Anne, where the pirates broached the wine casks, and were soon hardly able to see, let alone look after the vessel. The fog got thick as the night wore on, and an on-shore breeze blew up from the east. Fitzgerald, the mate, was put at the helm, for the pirates were by now scarce able to stand, far less steer the ship, when suddenly there was a sickening crash; and amid a thunder of surf the boat smashed into the rocks at Slutts’ Bush, on the south side of Cape Cod. The force of the blow was so great that she seemed in danger of falling to pieces almost at once. Sobered by their peril, the pirates now crowded together in the hold and called on Fitzgerald, as the least sin-stained among those on board, to read the Burial of the Dead service, from the Book of Common Prayer. But their repentance was short-lived, for as the night wore on and the pink still held together, their hopes revived, and when morning light showed that they had only to jump off the larboard side to step directly on to the land, they crowded ashore, breakfasted on a chest of sweetmeats, and made their way inland. Luckily for justice, the cook of the Mary Anne— appropriately enough named Maconockie—gave a hint to Fitzgerald of what he was going to do, and as soon as they were landed Btole away secretly and gave in­ formation to Mr. Doane, the nearest justice of the peace, concerning the sailors who had just been shipwrecked. They had scarcely dried their clothes and begun to 138

Captains Spriggs and Bellamy discuss what was next to be done when Doane arrived with a posse of men and saved them any further delibera­ tion by taking the whole gang off to Barnstaple Jail, where in due time most of them were hanged. While all this had been going on aboard the Mary Anne, the Whidaw herself drove ashore some ten miles further north; but the justices were saved the trouble of making any arrests in her case, for she struck with such violence as to fall to pieces at once, and out of the company of a hundred and forty-six men on board only two managed to swim through the breakers and scramble high above the wash of the sea. These were Tom Davis, a Welshman who had been forced to serve with the pirates, and an Indian named Julian. Davis told the Admiralty Court that assembled in Boston to look into the matter that the Whidaw, new ship as she was, fell to pieces almost immediately she struck, and that one of the last persons he saw drowned was Captain Crumpsty, of the Mary Anne, who perished with sixteen other prisoners. Such was the end of Bellamy and the loss of the Whidaw on Wellfleet Beach, as the spot is now called. The vessel was loaded with the booty of a long cruise, and all her wealth lies somewhere in the sands or among the rocks of that remote comer of Cape Cod. In 1900 a couple of guns were found; probably a certain amount of her spoil was salvaged by the landsmen at the time, but no great amount of the treasure can ever have been discovered. She had about £20,000 in specie on board, and so large a sum could never have been appropriated by casual searchers on the beach without some hint of its leaking out. It is still there for the finding, though the sand of two hundred years and countless tides have washed it and hidden it so that no man shall ever profit from Captain Samuel Bellamy’s villainy.

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CHAPTER X Captain England and his Crew

T was eight o’clock in the morning of Tuesday, August

I

17, 1720, and there was great bustle on the decks of three vessels in the little bay of Johanna, the largest of the Comoro Islands, that lie between the north-western coast of Madagascar and the African mainland. One of the ships was an Ostender, the other two—the Greenwich and the Cassandra—were East Indiamen. All three were homeward bound and low in the water with merchandise and wealth from the Orient. Captain Mackra on the Cassandra, and Captain Kirby on the Greenwich, had decided to sail during the morning, and the crews were making ready to weigh the anchor. Suddenly one of the men on the main-top of the Cassandra shouted to the deck below that two ships were rounding the point and making for the harbour, and almost as he spoke the strangers were seen from the quarter-deck. The Union Jack was already flying from the East Indiamen’s peaks. As the two vessels drew nearer, and as though in challenge to the flag, they broke their own colours, and the next moment a black flag was flying on each of the incoming ships. “A pirate I” shouted Captain Mackra across to the Greenwich, which lay at anchor within hail. “Are your men ready to fight her?” “Aye, aye,” was Captain Kirby’s answer. “I’ll slip my cable and make for them at once!” In response to hie hurriedly shouted orders, officers and men ran to their posts, and the men hastily began manning the yards to make sail. Captain Mackra directed his crew to lash the 140

Captain England and His Crew anchor cable to a buoy and heave it overboard, for there was no time to weigh the anchor. Then he, too, got ready to go out and meet the pirates. As the two approaching ships drew closer several of the men on the Cassandra recognized the larger as the Royal James, commanded by Captain Ned England, who had already made a name for himself by the terrific toll he had taken of shipping in the Gulf of Guinea. His consort was the Victory, and together they had rounded the Cape and were now cruising round the shores of Madagascar in search of what they might find. To catch three homeward-bound East Indiamen in harbour was a stroke of luck England had never dared to hope for, and as he ran up the “woeful ensign” he laughed as he thought what terror it would spread. While Captain Mackra was getting the Cassandra under weigh, he looked somewhat anxiously at his con­ sort the Greenwich. She was better situated than him­ self, and, where she lay, caught the off-shore wind that swept down a valley on the island, and thus had better chance to put to sea than he had. He ordered a couple of boats out to tow the ship nearer the Greenwich, but even as they pulled across, with a message to Kirby asking him to help warp the Cassandra into position, the Greenwich and the Ostender both drew off and made sail steadily across the bay, paying no heed to the shouts and signals of Captain Mackra. England, meanwhile, made straight for the Cassandra, contenting himself with firing a few rounds at the other two vessels, which he reckoned he could overtake when he had made certain of the larger boat. Swinging round with the wind, he poured a broadside into the East Indiaman and then got ready to board. But Mackra had no intention of shirking a fight. He saw his companion Kirby, on the Greenwich, standing off and leaving him to his fate; the Ostender was doing likewise; and, abandoned by both these contemptible poltroons, he determined to sell his vessel dearly. 141

The Book of Pirates As England brought the Royal James round to de­ liver another broadside, Mackra shouted the order to his own gunners, and in her turn she emptied her port guns into the pirate. At the same time the captain had to keep his eyes on the Victory, which was working round to his starboard side, and every man on the ship was summoned to serve at the guns on one or the other side. But despite the steady defence put up by Mackra, the Victory bore nearer and nearer, until she was within thirty yards or so of the Cassandra. Then her skipper ordered his men to the oars—for those smaller craft often carried great Bweeps, which, when the wind dropped, or in an emergency such as the present, would be manned by all the crew. A critical moment had now arrived; for Mackra knew that if these rogues could row their boat alongside and grapple they would be aboard in no time. Himself training one of the larger guns, he put his best gunners at every piece that would command the Victory, and then, when all was ready, let fly a broadside in which each gun was aimed at an oar. When the smoke cleared away he saw that he had shattered practically every one of the enemy’s sweeps, and that she was drifting away on the breeze that had now sprung up. So the battle raged on throughout that long day. Sometimes one and sometimes the other of the pirate craft worked up, only to be driven off again by the daunt­ less Mackra’s broadsides. And all this while the Green­ wich and the Ostender waited at a safe distance, standing off and on, watching their companion fighting for his life, but never venturing within gunshot or putting their miserable lives in danger. Noon came and went, and the day was wearing towards evening. The quarterdeck of the Cassandra was like a shambles; many of the officers and men had been killed or wounded. Occasionally through the drifting smoke of the guns Captain Mackra caught a glimpse of the Greenwich, but he had given up all hope 142

Captain England and His Crew of her assistance, though had Kirby but sailed boldly in at this moment he might easily have carried the day. Mackra now determined to run his ship ashore, for the defence was weakening through loss of men and shortage of ammunition. But when she struck, the battle broke out worse than before, for the Royal James sent practically all her men in small boats to the attack, while the pirates on the Victory, who had suffered heavily from Mackra’s broadsides, leaped into their boats, re­ solved to board her now or never. It was at this moment that the Greenwich stood clear away to sea and finally left the Cassandra to her fate. There being now no possibility of further inter­ ference, the pirates made what they determined should be a final attack on the prey, and renewed their gunfire with such terrible effect that Mackra saw his force dimin­ ished every minute. So he ordered the few that re­ mained to crowd into the long-boat under cover of the smoke from the guns, and as the evening darkness closed in the survivors straggled ashore and took refuge in the woods. Exhausted and faint from loss of blood—for not a man survived who was not wounded in some part of his body: Mackra was badly hurt in the head by a musket-shot—the remains of the Cassandra's crew made their way to the native capital of the island in the darkness of the night and besought protection, which the King, who was a brave man and hated pirates and their ways, gladly promised. Early the following morning arrived a messenger from Captain Ned England. With much pomp and a scarcely veiled threat, he offered a reward of ten thousand dollars to whoever should take Captain Mackra alive and bring him on board the Royal James-, for the pirates were determined to put him to death as a revenge for the fierce battle he had put up against them—a battle which had cost them nearly a hundred men. 143

The Book of Pirates As soon as he heard what was in the wind, Mackra hid himself in a hut the King put at his disposal, and persuaded the old woman to whom the hut belonged to go out and spread abroad the news that he was dying of woundB he had received in battle. Scarcely had the King repeated this to England’s messenger before the old woman herself hurried up, with many screams and wailings, and when her tears were quieted gave the news that the white man was dead! Somewhat disap­ pointed that he had not had the killing of him, but satisfied that the news was true, the messenger returned to Captain England and repeated what he had heard. In celebration of the event, the Royal James and the Victory each fired a salvo. For ten days or so Mackra and his survivors re­ mained with the King in hiding, but at the end of that time they began to bethink themselves what was to be done. There was little chance of getting away from Johanna, for few Bhips put in there, and fewer still would come now that pirates had begun to infest the neighbouring seas. Once again Captain Mackra showed the stuff he was made of. One morning, as some of the pirates were on shore filling the water-barrels, they saw a ragged, dishevelled man approaching. His head was bandaged, he walked with a limp, his feet were bare, and his few clothes were in tatters; but one of the men recognized him and with a great shout announced: “Why, ’tie Captain Mackra!” “Aye,” he answered, with something of a wry smile, “or all that you’ve left of him. I want to speak with your captain.” “Speak with Ned England? So you shall, and that right now I ” and without furth r ado they quitted their water-casks, and, hustling Mackra between them, drew him down to the boat, and were soon pulling across to where the Royal James lay anchored, close to the shat­ tered remains of the Cassandra. 144

“ Stap my vitals ! ” he bellowed. “ Are you Cap’n Macra?

Captain England and His Crew Captain England and some of his boon companions were on the quarter-deck when the skiff came alongside. Three of the sailors pushed Mackra aboard and hauled him aft. As the pirates recognized their enemy there was a loud roar of anger, and a crowd rushed at him, brandishing knives, belaying-pins, or anything else that came to hand. But Mackra faced them all with a calm smile. “Captain England,” he said loudly, “I have come to speak with you. I can’t do it if I am a dead man.” “Avast there,” roared the pirate skipper. “Let the man speak first, and kill him afterwards, if you have a mind to.” With a sullen growl the men gave way, and Mackra advanced to the spot where the redoubtable Ned England was awaiting him, surrounded by as choice a group of ruffians as any man would ever desire to see. “What do you wish?” demanded England. “My ship!” replied Mackra. “She’s of no use to you, now you have got all you want out of her 1 ” “What!” cried the other. “Give you back your ship after all the trouble she’s given us—and you, too, after the men you’ve killed? Why, I have not made up my mind yet whether you shall swing from the yard­ arm or be chucked overboard to the sharks!” “Why?” asked Mackra calmly. “Would you not have fought for your ship had you been in my place? Come, Captain England,” he went on persuasively, “you have beaten me in fair fight; there let it end. Give me what I ask, or send me back ashore.” England looked round on his neighbours questioningly. For all his brag and villainy, he was a fairminded man, and when so many pirates had stained their names with foul deeds of cruelty, he had won a reputation for playing fair by his enemies, however ruthless he may have bei n in battle. His immediate associates were undecided, and looked from Mackra to each other, or scowled down at the deck. Gathered 145

The Book of Pirates around them was a muttering, surly ring of rogues, the scum of many a port, who knew nothing of honour, and lusted only for blood. “Well, Captain England,” said Mackra presently, his voice rising above the grumbling circle. “What do you say?” But before the pirate captain could answer there was a sudden roar, more like the bellowing of a bull than a human voice, a shout of “Avast there, rot ye!” and the ring of sailors was burst open to admit a figure that might well have made a brave man’s heart stand still. A short, squat fellow with a vast red beard and terrible eyebrows, a wooden leg, a black patch over one eye, the other darting with an angry green glare, and hanging all over the man a perfect armoury of pistols and daggers! “Stap my vitals!” he bellowed, stumping up to the prisoner and standing before him with a fierce glare. “Are you Cap’n Mackra?” “Aye,” said Mackra, convinced that this could be none other than the executioner. “Then rot ye, I’m glad to see ye,” was the answer, as the man clapped him on the back with a force that nearly sent the poor captain sprawling. “I am glad to see ye, and just show me that man as wishes ye any harm and he’ll have to fight it out with Jem Sample! Aye, ye’re an honest fellow, I know, because I’ve sailed with ye.” And linking his arm in the captain’s the fellow swung round on those standing near and fixed them with his one glaring, baleful eye. “Is there any man here as wants to hurt a hair of Cap’n Mackra’s head? If so, I’m his man!” With a laugh and a growl the crowd dispersed, and England advanced with outstretched hand. “If Jem Sample’s your champion, captain,” he said with a laugh, “1’11 wager you’re safe!” The danger was over, and, like a good many simple 146

Map of Africa, ihowing the pirate»’ favourite haunt» on the Guinea coast.

The Book of Pirates rogues, once they had decided to save their enemy’s life he ceased to be an enemy but became almost a friend. Battered as she was, the Cassandra was in better trim than the Royal James, so the pirates fitted her up for their own purpose and gave Mackra their old flag-ship, putting aboard her 129 bales of cloth and some odds and ends for which they had no need. The pirates sot sail from Johanna on September 3, and five days later Mackra made shift to do the like, having rigged up jury-masts and spread such bits of old canvas as the pirates had given him. Yet with this battered vessel and his little crew he managed to cross the Indian Ocean and reach Bombay, after nearly seven weeks’ voyage, almost naked and starved, having been becalmed for many weeks and reduced to a pint of water a day. When he sailed from Johanna, England intended to make for the coast of India, but there was grave discontent among the crew, who, on more mature re­ flection, thought the captain had done wrong in allowing Mackra to go with his life. They began to plot and scheme against the man who had betrayed them, as they said, and when somebody started a scare that the East India Company were going to take revenge for the loss of the Cassandra, and would probably send Mackra in command of a squadron against them, the malcontents seized control of the ship, rushed aft, clapped England and three of his mates in irons, and shortly afterwards marooned all four on the shores of Mauritius. There they would doubtless have perished had they not found a few pieces of plank that had been washed ashore, with which they contrived to make a sort of canoe and put to sea, eventually reaching the coast of Madagascar, where they found themselves in the good company of pirates already settled there. And that was the end of Captain Ned England. Having got rid of their captain and elected a man called Taylor in his place, the pirates now sailed for the 148

Captain England and His Crew coast of India. They had brought with them, as host­ ages, one of Mackra’s officers and two or three men, and when, one morning, a tall ship was sighted, this officer —whose name was Lasinby—was brought on deck and ordered to make some of the East India Company’s private signals to the stranger. It was in vain that Lasinby assured his captors that the private code was known only to the captain; and that he had no notion of what it was. The men only thundered threats at him the louder. They would have undoubtedly tor­ tured him to death had not the look-out announced that the ships were not East Indiamen but Moors, laden with Arab horses for India. No cargo could very well be of less use to seamen than horses, and the pirates were furious at what they considered a trick. The captain and officers of the Moor were dragged aboard and tortured to reveal where the treasure was, but having none to confess about, they were at last let go, and the pirates cast adrift their prize, having first thrown her sails overboard and cut down her mast, so that there was little chance of her reaching port in time to inform against them. The rogues now resolved to cruise down the coast of India and catch some of the homeward-bound mer­ chant vessels as they left port. They were sailing down, between Goa and Karwar, keenly on the look-out, but peaceably enough, when the roar of distant gunfire was heard. The ships were immediately hove to and a boat sent on ahead to find out what was afoot. She came back at two o’clock in the morning with news that a couple of craft lay in the harbour round the cape, and that they ought to make a good capture. In an instant all was bustle on board. The anchor was weighed and the pirates sailed on through the dark­ ness, until, with daybreak, they found themselves in sight of their prey, and likewise in sight of Anjidivia Castle, which immediately opened fire, and with a few well-aimed rounds drove the pirates out to sea again. K

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The Book of Pirates With adventures such as these, and quite a lot of pillaging as they went, Taylor and his men coasted ever further south, resolving to put in at the Dutch port of Cochin, where they were fairly sure of a welcome; for the Dutch looked favourably on anyone—rogue or otherwise—who harried the trade of their friends and neighbours the English. The pirates sailed into Cochin harbour with a fair breeze one afternoon, and, saluting the fort with eleven guns a ship, received a like salute and dropped their anchor, well satisfied at being received like honest men. Late that night a large boat ran alongside, laden to the gunwales with fresh provisions and kegs of liquor, all under charge of John Trumpet, the trusted servant of one of the merchants ashore, who was always friendly to pirates. John Trumpet had a message for Taylor, that he must weigh at once and get a few miles down the coast, for large stores had been sent there for them, and it would not look well for the pirates to lade their ships in full view of the port. So thither they repaired to the appointed spot, where the Governor himself had placed at their disposal a whole boatload of kegs of rum, in return for which the rogues gave him a hand­ some clock they had taken from Captain Mackra’s ship, as well as a large gold watch for his excellency’s daughter! Nor did they forget Mr. John Trumpet, for, having paid him handsomely for the goods he had supplied them with, to the tune of some £6,000, they gave him three cheers as he went down the side into his little boat, fired eleven guns in his honour, and threw ducatoons (5s. each) by handfuls into his boat, for the boat­ men to scramble after. The wind had dropped, so they did not sail that night. As day broke who should be running alongside but John Trumpet, with another boatful of rum, and also the town-clerk of Cochin, who had come out to do 150

Captain England and His Crew a little business of his own. There was a tall ship due in, so he told Taylor, that would be worth the taking. If they would chase her into Cochin he guaranteed that the fort would not fire on them, and when she was taken all he asked was the chance to buy her cheap. However, as luck would have it, the ship slipped in before they could catch her; so this honest gentleman’s plan came to naught. Having made such trade as there was on the coast of India, Taylor now set a course for Madagascar again, there to rest his men and refit the ships. But on the way thither, when they called at Reunion, with real rogues’ luck they found a Portuguese ship at anchor, which had put in there after having been battered in a terrific storm she had met in Lat. 13°S., when nearly all the guns had been thrown overboard and she had lost her masts. The crew, indeed, were busy repairing the boat and making her seaworthy when the Cassandra and Victory, flaunting their black flags, sailed into the bay, and without so much as a word of warning, boarded the boat and took possession of her. Here was a prize, indeed! On board was no less a person than the Comde de Ericeira, Viceroy of Goa, with his suite; and his baggage was a veritable mine of jewels, the diamonds alone amounting in value to between three and four millions of dollars. The Viceroy and other prisoners were set ashore after paying a ransom that beggared them; and the pirates, having made the Portuguese ship fit for sea, took her away with them, leaving their poor, wretched prisoners to await a chance of being picked up by some passing vessel. In due time Taylor and his fleet arrived in St. Augustin’s Bay, on the south-west coast of Madagascar, and there they divided the loot, which worked out, in diamonds alone, to 42 stones apiece, or, of course, fewer in the case of big stones. It was typical of the intelli­ gence of these sea-rogues that one man, whose share I5i

The Book of Pirates was paid in a single large and exceptionally fine diamond, thought he would better his fortune by increasing the number of stones, and so crushed the gem to pieces in a mortar, when he had done so swearing that he was better off than any of them, for he had beat it, he said, into forty-three sparks! Having now made port after so many wanderings, some of the pirates determined to stay there, pooling their shares of the plunder on the understanding that he who lived longest should take all. The others, who were not content to sit still, but anxious to be out on the high seas again, burned the Victory, as being no longer seaworthy, and put off under Taylor in the Cassandra and the Portuguese ship, which they had fitted up for the Red Sea trade. But they had scarcely been a day at sea when they heard, from a small canoe they captured, that four men-of-war were cruising in those waters in search of them. So Taylor put about and with his ships made for Delagoa Bay, where, after kicking their heels awhile, the company split up again, half of them taking the Portuguese ship back to their friends in Madagascar, while the rest sailed in the Cassandra round to the West Indies. There, before the Mermaid man-of-war could seize them, they made for Porto-Bello and surrendered to the Governor, who, partly out of fear and partly out of pleasure at being able to slight the power of the English Navy, granted them a free pardon for all their past offences, and allowed them to settle down and squander their wealth ashore. It is impossible to reckon up the harm wrought by Ned England and his successor, Taylor, during the time they roamed up and down the Indian Ocean, for, besides the prizes that were known and heard of, there were many craft they seized and sank out of sheer spite or wilful love of mischief. It may seem a little strange, perhaps, that during the course of this story Captain England should be so 152

Captain England and His Crew summarily deposed and marooned; but pirate discipline was a thing of itself. The pirate captain was in nearly all cases chosen by the crew to lead them against “the enemy.” His authority lasted only during the chase of a prize or the battle for her capture. At that time he was supreme, could knock men about, shoot them, and even kill them, without being called to account. But there his authority ended. They allowed him the use of the great cabin, and he ate his meals off silver plate, but whenever any man liked he could 6trut into the said cabin and help himself to a share of the captain’s dinner or his rum bottle. So long as he could outroar the others and outpistol them, the pirate captain was sure of his post— once he failed to do that, or lost their confidence, as happened in the case of Captain England, he was de­ posed and promptly marooned, or tossed overboard. The real monarch of the pirate ship was the quarter­ master, who was chosen by the crew and, except in time of chase or battle, was the supreme power aboard. He managed all the men, settled their disputes, presided over councils when they decided where they should sail, and saw to it that the captain took the boat thither. He was the first man aboard every prize, and divided the loot as he saw fit, so much to the captain,- so much to the men, occasionally so much to be returned to the rightful owners. Before putting out on a cruise every pirate crew signed articles of association, in which they swore to stand by one another, stipulated what the various rates of division should be and how discipline should be main­ tained. Here is a good specimen of how these precious documents were drafted: I. Every man has a vote in affairs of moment and an equal share in provisions and liquor. II. Every man to be called fairly in turn in boarding prizes. But if he is discovered cheating he shall be marooned. 153

The Book of Pirates III. No man to play for money at cards or dice. IV. All lights to be out by eight at night. If any of the crew wish to drink or smoke after then, it must be on the open deck. V. All cutlasses, pistols, etc., to be kept clean and ready for action. VI. To desert the ship or skulk from a battle to be punished with death or marooning. VII. No fighting on board. All quarrels to be fought out on shore. VIII. No man to talk of breaking up the company until each has a share of £1,000. IX. The Captain to receive two shares of a prize; the mate, boatswain and gunner, a share and a half; other officers, a share and a quarter. X. The musicians to rest on the Sabbath day, but the other six days and nights none, without special permission. So even rogues have their rules of conduct.

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CHAPTER XI Two Choice Rogues—Charles Vane and Calico Jack

HEN Captain Woodes Rogers sailed into the harbour of Providence, in the Bahama Islands, escorted by two men-of-war and furnished with the King’s pardon for repentant pirates, Charles Vane said that he would see the Governor—aye, and the King himself—further, before he crawled on his hands and knees to ask any man pardon for what he had done. With this he slipped his cable, set fire to a prize he had brought in a few days earlier, fired a round or two at the nearest man-of-war, and sailed proudly out of the harbour, black flag flying and drums beating. That is the sort of man Captain Charles Vane was —as arrogant as he was merciless as boastful as he was wicked. It was only pride that made him flout the Royal clemency, for all his brother villains in the West Indies flocked to Providence when Rogers arrived there, in 1718, as Governor for King George, and announced that he would extend the Royal pardon to all buccaneers and pirates who surrendered themselves before the 5th of September in that year, but would hang without reprieve all who were caught after that date. For piracy in the Western waters had reached such a pitch that trade was being killed and the fruitful West Indian colonies were in fair way to be ruined unless energetio measures were taken. A rare crowd of reformed sea-rogues they were, who tendered their submission—Teach and Hornygold, Martel, Cocklyn, Burgess, England—great swashbuckling villains who flocked to Rogers like so many penitent schoolboys;

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The Book of Pirates though nine out of ten of them went On the Account again before many months were passed, and not a man of them died in his bed. Homygold, Burgess and La Bouche were cast away and drowned; Teach and several others taken at sea and killed in action; James Fife, murdered by his own men as he stood at the tiller; Martel, marooned on a barren island; Cocklyn, Sample, and several others hanged ’twixt tide marks in various parts of the world; Winter and a couple of others caught by the Spaniards in Cuba and finished off only the Dons knew how. So they all surrendered, like good boys, to Governor Woodes Rogers—all save Charles Vane and his men, who, as has been said, slipped out to sea, and while their reformed colleagues were tossing up their hats and shouting “ Hurrah for King George,” seized a Barbados sloop and a little trading vessel named the John and Elizabeth, and ran in to Potters Key, an islet they knew of, to refit and enjoy themselves. Though Vane cared not one snap of the fingers for the men-of-war that would be sent out to search for him, he decided to seek his fortune further afield, where richer ships were to be found and there was less likeli­ hood of interference. So, some time about the middle of August, he and his merry men weighed anchor from their snug little nest in the Bahamas and made a northerly course for the coast of Carolina. It chanced that on the morning of August 30 three vessels came out of Charleston harbour, home­ ward-bound for London River—the Neptune, Captain John King; the Emperor, Captain Arnold Powers; and the Antamasia, Captain Durnford. These three ships had cleared the bar and had been a good two hours at sea, when four sails were sighted bearing down on them, cutting off any possible retreat back to Charleston. King and his consorts clapped on every stitch of canvas they could, but the strange vessels were fast sailers, and after a long race the leading brigantine, which by 156

Two Choice Rogues this time had broken her black flag, overhauled the Neptune near enough to fire a shot that went singing across her bows and carried away the bowsprit. Neither the Neptune nor the Emperor were armed, and when the brigantine bore up within hailing distance of the former, and a great fair-haired man standing in her bows roared across to Captain King that he was Charles Vane and that he must strike his colours or be blown to glory, the worthy captain made his choice without delay, hauled down the Union Jack and lay to, while a small boat rowed across from the brigantine. Whatever hope Captain King had indulged in that the pirates would help themselves to his cargo and then send him on his way, was speedily dashed to the ground when the little boat ran alongside and half a dozen swarthy rogues, in silks and velvets, clambered aboard, with knives in their belts and pistols slung across their shoulders. Vane’s orders were peremptory. King and four of his men were to go over to the brigantine at once, while the pirates who had rowed across were to take possession of the Neptune. Without further ado they seized the captain, dropped him over the side into their boat, hustled the mate and three others after him, and bade them row themselves across to Captain Vane, or they would answer for it with their lives. King and his men seized the oars and pulled with all their might, amid a roar of laughter from the pirates on both ships, who kept up a running fire of musket shot all about the unfortunate rowers on their woeful journey. When at last they clambered up the side of the pirate brigantine, Charles Vane rolled forward, seized King by the hand, said he was almost a fine enough fellow to string up at the yard-arm, and bore him down to the cabin, where he forced him to swallow nearly a pint of almost boiling rum. That afternoon a consultation of the pirates was held, in which it was decided to take the Neptune and the Emperor to Green Turtle Key, on Abaco Island, 157

The Book of Pirates while the Antamasia, being laden with nothing but pitch, was allowed to go on her way. So off they sailed southward, making Green Turtle Key on September 12th. A great tent was soon rigged up on the beach, and into it the pirateB now began to unload the stores from their own vessels, as well as the booty they had got from the two prizes. King, meanwhile, was put back into the Neptune and bidden help the pirates careen their ships. In the old days, before dry docks were known, and when every ship that put to sea was made of wood, the only way to clean her bottom—which soon got fouled and covered with barnacles—was to empty the ship and warp her over as far as she would go to one side, by means of another boat, or by passing ropes round trees upon the shore. When one side was thus hauled down till the bulwarks were almost flush with the water a large part of her bottom was exposed. After this had been scraped and cleaned the process was repeated on the other side. Although the keel itself was rarely reached in this way, by proper careening a boat could be kept clean and seaworthy. Constant careening was a professional duty for pirates, for when a boat’s bottom gets foul with barnacles or weed her speed is very greatly reduced; and speed in chase or flight was essential for pirate-craft. So for three weeks on Green Turtle Key Captain King and his men had to help the pirates careen their boats, and when all was done, and Vane had stripped both the Neptune and the Emperor of all he wanted— which was all that was worth taking—he bade Captain King and Powers a laughing farewell, and recommended them to get to Providence without delay “and give my humble respects to Governor Rogers!” It can be well imagined with what a sigh of relief the two captains saw the pirate fleet hoist their sails and put out from the island; but it is difficult to imagine their horror when, just as night was falling, they saw 158

The rogues went to sea, leaving King marooned on Green Turtle Key.

Two Choice Rogues hated brigantine bearing in again, with Vane on her poop, pointing across at them and stamping his feet with rage. No one will ever know exactly what had happened to make the pirates change their minds so suddenly. They came in like a crew of maniacs, anchored alongside the Neptune, on which King had left but a couple of men while he and his crew were ashore, and going aboard slashed away all her rigging, hewed down the masts, burned the sails, and, to cap it all, dragged across to her one of their guns, double-loaded with shot and jagged bits of iron, and fired it down into the hold, perforating her bottom like the lid of a pepper-pot. With that the rogues went to sea again, taking the Emperor with them, and leaving King and his men marooned on Green Turtle Key, without food or water. There they would have perished had not Benjamin Hornygold, one of the reformed pirates, put in a week or so later, and rescued them. Vane and his men now sailed north again for Carolina. With him was one of his old mates—a fellow named Yeats, whom he had put into a sloop they had captured, and who was a scoundrel even among that crew of scoundrels. For no sooner had Vane given him a com­ mand th.m he resolved to break company with his old capta n and buy his own safety by delivering him to justice. So one fine evening, as the two vessels lay off the coast of South Carolina, Yeats slipped his cable and got under sail, standing in to the shore. At this sudden move on the part of his fellow-rogues, Charles Vane swore a mighty oath and clapped all sail on his own brigantine; but the other had the start, and, with a parting broadside at his old skipper, Yeats made away northward and put in to the North Edisto River, some thirty miles from Charleston, whence he sent a message to the Governor, asking if he and his men might have the benefit of the King’s pardon if they surrendered 159 the

The Book of Pirates themselves and handed over their sloop, with a large cargo of African negroes whom they had captured on a slaver running in to Charleston from the Guinea coast. Meanwhile, Captain Vane was sailing up and down off Charleston bar, raging and fuming, and waiting to catch Yeats if he so much as dared to thrust his nose outside. This did not deter him from taking toll of all incoming ships, however, and dire was the havoc wrought on the Carolina trade during those few weeks he was waiting for Yeats. At last, finding that his old consort was too fright­ ened to risk a meeting, and knowing that the ship wanted cleaning, Vane bore northward to Topsail Inlet, a notorious haunt of pirates, where, sure enough, another vessel On the Account was overhauling her rigging. This craft was none other than the flagship of Ned Teach, who welcomed his brother captain with the proper pirate salute—a broadside of loaded guns fired into the air or wide of the mark. These civilities being duly exchanged, the two skippers met in Teach’s cabin and discussed the state of trade, while their crews fore­ gathered in the low taverns and ordinaries of Topsail Inlet, where they roared and caroused to their hearts’ content. About the end of October Vane heaved his anchor and sailed out again, turning northward and cruising up the coast of America as far as Long Island, where he lay off and on, waiting to intercept any traffic coming in from Old England for New England. But his luck was out that autumn. The best prize was a brigantine bound from Jamaica to Salem, and she had nothing aboard worth the powder and shot fired to bring her to. So, thoroughly disgruntled with a pirates’ life, and determined to make a haul before Christmas, the crew urged Vane to sail south again and take up a station off Cape Maisi, at the south-eastern end of Cuba, where most of the Spanish shipping would be bound to pass. It was early on the morning of Sunday, November

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Two Choice Rogues 28th, that a sail was spied away to the east, and Vane immediately gave orders to clap on all canvas to over­ haul her. Throughout the morning they crowded in pursuit of the ship, which, as they got nearer, looked like one of the large merchant vessels that were often to be met with trading between Europe and the New World. At last Vane’s brigantine came within range of her quarry, and with a laugh Vane hoisted the black flag, the mere sight of which usually was enough to bring a trader to. Up and down the high seas the sight of that ominous ensign had spared the pirates many a round of shot, and now, as its sinister colours unfolded them­ selves at the peak, the pirates got ready to board their prize. But scarcely had the Jolly Roger fluttered free, when the stranger was seen lowering the ports, and the next moment her guns flashed in a broadside that went rip­ ping and tearing through Vane’s rigging. When the smoke cleared away the astounded pirates saw the white flag of France fluttering from the vessel’s peak and realized that all unwittingly they had fallen foul of a French man-of-war! Now it by no means entered a pirate’s programme to engage a ship of war. If there were any shots to be fired it was Vane’s theory that he was the one who should fire them. So, when the French boat discharged another broadside, Captain Charles trimmed his sails and stood away. But Monsieur, having a mind to know who this black-flagged gentleman might be, set all his sails and crowded after him. When they saw the turn affairs were taking the pirates called a fo’csle council—in which every man had the right of speech—and debated what to do. “There’s no good risking our necks by putting up a fight,” said Vane. “She’s too strong for us in guns, though we are the better sailer and can show her a clean pair of heels.” 161

The Book of Pirates At this there was a low murmur of assent; but John Rackham, the quartermaster, thought otherwise. Push­ ing his way among the ring of seamen, he shouted out, “Are ye all cowards? She may have more guns and heavier, but for all that we can run aboard her, and then the best boys will carry the day I ” At this the greater part of the men gave a loud shout of approval, and some of them drew out knives and cutlasses and began to test them on their thumbs. But here it was that the mate, Robert Deal by name, broke in. He backed the captain, saying it would be rank madness to attack “Mounseer.” He would cut them all to bits with his guns before ever they got a chance of boarding. All eyes were turned to the pursuing Frenchman. “Put it to the vote,” cried Rackham. “They that get the most votes carry the day!” He was .safe in this, for he knew that the greater part of the crew were of his opinion and ready for a fight. “Aye, a vote!” they shouted. “A vote, and quick about it! ” But at this Vane stamped his foot, eyes flashing, his hands on his pistols. “By the terms of our bond,” he thundered, “I am captain, king, and emperor when it comes to engaging a prize. My word stands—and I say—we will not fight the Frenchman!” For a full minute there was dead silence in that ordinarily noisy crew. But lawless as they were, and ready to flout every law of God and man, they held their own rules in respect, and, after a few sullen words and thunderous glances at the captain, went ofi to their stations, trimmed the yards, and before long the nimble pirate brigantine had left the Frenchman hull down. For the rest of that day and throughout the night Vane’s crew gathered in groups, muttering and murmur­ ing together, and evidently hatching some mischief. As for Vane, he appeared little on deck but stayed in 162

Two Choice Rogues his great cabin with Deal and one or two others who had taken his part in the dispute about the Frenchman. About nine o’clock the next morning the boatswain’s pipe was heard, summoning all hands to a fo’c’stle council. When all but the man at the tiller, who could hear what was going on and put in his word if he wished, were assembled, Jack Rackham, the quartermaster, voiced the complaint of the ship’s company in a few terse words. Charles Vane had played the coward in not giving fight to “Mounseer”; there was no room for cowards in their ship; he was no longer worthy to be their captain; he and his friends must go. These words were greeted with such a loud growl of assent that Vane, who stood by with an air of non­ chalance, knew it would be of little use to protest. But none the less he demanded a vote, which was taken in due form, each man in turn lifting his hand and regis­ tering “Aye” or “No” for deposing Charles Vane from the command, and expelling him and his friends from the company. There were well over two-thirds in favour of the motion, and by noon Vane was ordered to collect his stuff from the great cabin, where John Rackham now took up his quarters as captain, and get into a small sloop that had been captured a while before. No great grief was shown at the parting. Vane stalked along the deck and lowered himself into his boat, along with the dozen or so men that had been expelled at the same time as himself, and without a salute or so much as a cheer they drew off from the brigantine, whose tall masts were lost sight of before nightfall. With his little crew Vane now made for Honduras, on the way thither capturing a sloop into which Robert Deal went as a master, hoisting the black flag as a con­ sort to Vane. Up and down the Bay of Honduras they cruised, and pretty fair luck they had, from the 16th of December, when they arrived, until the beginning of February, when Vane put out from Bonacca, where 163

The Book of Pirates he had been cleaning his ship, for a cruise to the north­ ward. But he had scarcely left the island a couple of days when a terrific tornado overtook him, separated his sloop from Deal’s, and drove him before it upon a small deserted rock in the Bay of Honduras, where the boat was staved to pieces and every man of her drowned save Vane himself, who was cast upon the shore more dead than alive, and had only just enough strength to drag himself beyond the reach of the waves to a place of safety. The luck was out, indeed! Ship and men all gone, the redoubtable pirate captain himself a mere cast­ away, starving and naked on a forsaken island! He who had fared on the best of land and sea was now reduced to picking up limpets and shellfish for bare food; he who, in his time, had tom the costly garments from many a better man, now had nothing but a few rags to shelter him from the broiling sun or tropical rains. One day, as he was searching the rocks for crabs, he saw a large sloop putting in to the island, and a little later her boat came racing over the waves to where he stood on the shore. The coxswain shouted out to know if he was shipwrecked, and could he tell them where to get water? Almost speechless with delight, Vane showed the men where to land, and when they had filled the casks gladly took an oar and helped to pull back to the vessel. What was his delight and surprise to see, as he scrambled up the sloop’s side, his old friend, Captain Holford, with whom he had sailed long ago a-buccaneering in the Caribbean, but who had since turned honest man. “Why, Charlie!” exclaimed Holford, when he recog­ nized the mass of rags and burned skin that represented his old pirate mate. “Is this your latest prize? I’ve heard of you up and down the seas these three years, and always expected a meeting, but never in this guise!” In a few words Vane explained his misfortune, and 164

Two Choice Rogues it never so much as occurred to him to ask his old friend to give him a passage on the sloop. Imagine his sur­ prise, then, when he heard the captain shout to the men who had finished getting the kegs of water aboard and were about to sling the boats on the davits: “Avast, there! Stand by to carry Captain Vane ashore!” “What d’ye mean?” exclaimed the pirate, taken aback. “Won’t you give me a passage to Jamaica, Holford?” Captain Holford smiled slyly. “Charles,” said he, “the only passage I’ll give you aboard my ship is in the hold, as a prisoner! Unless you are in irons, I know that as soon as we are at sea you’ll be caballing with my men and end by knocking me on the head and run­ ning away with the ship to go a-pirating.” “D’ye think I would treat a friend so?” demanded Vane with an injured air. “Aye, Charles, I not only think so, but I know it,” was the rejoinder. “And I tell you this: I am going down to the Bay, and shall be trading down there for about a month. I’ll look in here on my way home, and if you haven’t got away by then I’ll take you back to Jamaica and see you lawfully hanged!” At this Vane broke out a-swearing. “How can I get away ? ” he demanded. “The turtle fishermen’ll be here in a day or two,” said Holford. “Take one of their small boats when no one is looking.” “What!” cried Vane, in righteous indignation. “Would you force me to become a common thief?” At this the other broke into a peal of laughter. “So you make it a matter of conscience, do you?” he roared. “ Then stay here, Charles, and be hanged to you, if you’re so squeamish!” And with this he strode away and Vane was obliged to climb down into the boat and be rowed ashore. Scarcely had Holford left him alone when another ship put in for water, and on her Vane shipped as a L 165

The Book of Pirates common hand before the mast, no one on board know­ ing who or what he was. All now seemed safe, and the rascal was congratulating himself on his luck, when, as chance would have it, they met Holford’s sloop, and, as the two captains were friends, Holford was invited on board to dinner. No sooner had he set foot on the deck than he saw Vane at work in the hold. Without a word he went below to his friend and asked if he knew who the man he had picked up was. When the skipper was told that he had shipped the notorious Captain Vane, who was doubtless at that very moment plotting how to murder him and seize the ship, he very gladly agreed to the plan Holford suggested. Nothing was said to anybody at the time, but an hour or so later, just as night was falling, the mate and a couple of hands rowed across from Holford’s ship and, clambering up the sides of the other vessel, went straight to Vane, put a pistol to his breast, and made him their prisoner. Without further ado he was trans­ ferred to the other sloop, which thereupon set sail for Jamaica. In little more than a week’s time Charles Vane had been handed over to the authorities and was swinging at the gallows at Port Royal, not many yards from where his friend, Robert Deal, who had been cap­ tured a little earlier by a man-of-war, was likewise dry­ ing in the sun.

When Jack Rackham, or Calico Jack as he was called, because he always wore a jacket and breeches made of calico, left Vane on November 24th, 1718, disgusted at his refusal to engage the French man-ofwar, he cruised down among the Caribbean islands and round by Bermuda, picking up prizes as he went. Among them was a cargo of convicts, on their way out from England to the plantations of America. It may be well imagined what a welcome addition to his crew this gang of rogues would have made, had not an English man166

Two Choice Rogues of-war come along a couple of days later and forced Rackham to abandon his prize with its living booty. At last he arrived off Cuba, where he and his men put in to enjoy the fruits of their labour in a long carouse ashore, as was ever the way with gentlemen of fortune. Their vessel, sea-dirty and much the worse for several pretty tough engagements she had been in, was laid up in a little creek while the men were on land. One day they saw a Spanish Guarda del Costa, or coastguard ship, making in from the sea, escorting a smart little English sloop which she had found trying to smuggle goods into a neighbouring river. On sight of the pirate the Guarda del Costa opened fire at once, but as Rackham had laid his vessel under the lee of a small island the Don’s guns did little damage. Before nightfall the Spanish captain warped his ship into the channel, thus blocking all exit for the pirate ship, and decided that with the coming of morning he would start operations with his guns in earnest. But Calico Jack was not going to run any risks. He knew his own sea-worn boat would stand little chance in a fight, and absolutely none in a chase with the Spanish Guarda del Costa, so at midnight he embarked all his company in the long-boat and a skiff or two, and with muffled oars stole round the little island and into the channel by the other side, where he found the captured English sloop snugly moored and guarded by two or three Spaniards. In a few moments he and his men were aboard, the watchmen were safely triced up and told that if they moved so much as a hair they would be dead men, and when morning broke Calico Jack was out at sea in the sloop, with the hills of Cuba fading into a long blue line on the horizon. Knowing nothing of all this, with the first glint of daylight the Spanish captain ordered his guns to be trained on the pirate ship and opened a terrific cannon­ ade that splintered her spars and tore great rents in her Bide. When the smoke cleared the señor looked to 167

The Book of Pirates see if the black flag were still flying or whether the ruffian gang were making frantic signals for mercy. The flag was still there, though the mast was splintered, but there was no sign of pirates, penitent or otherwise. His first impression was that he had slain every man of them with that great blaze of gunfire. But he soon realized what had happened and learned with chagrin that Calico Jack, the vile Englishman, was more than a match for the Don. Shortly after this Rackham and his crew decided to become honest men for a time, and take the King’s pardon. Not that they had any real intention of amend­ ment, but they wanted new ships’ stores and other things that could not be got in the wild spots they were obliged to frequent when out a-pirating. So they sailed into Providence as bold as brass, duly white­ washed themselves, and brazenly spent the wealth they had won at sea in the taverns and gaming-houses of Nassau, the capital of the little island. Now there was a certain man named John Haman, who had driven a thriving trade under Government protection by waging a sort of unofficial war on the Spaniards, raiding the coast villages in Cuba and Hispaniola, and making occasional captures at sea. He had won such a reputation by daring exploits and the trick he had of showing a clean pair of heels when any vessel tried to catch him, that there was a sort of jing­ ling proverb current in the islands at the time:

“There goes John Haman, Just catch him if you can! ” It chanced that just as Rackham had come to the end of his money, and was looking about for a means to earn more, John Haman’s sloop, a trim vessel of some thirty or forty tons, came into Nassau and moored a short distance from the shore. No sooner had he seen her than Calico Jack determined that the little oraft should be his. 168

Two Choice Rogues One night, when he and the eight fellows in his con­ fidence had seen Haman go ashore, leaving the sloop in charge of a couple of men, they slipped out in a little boat, ran noiselessly alongside her and scrambled aboard. It was midnight, dark and raining. The two men below had turned in and were fast asleep. One of the pirates stole down, drawn sword in one hand, a pistol in the other; noiselessly entered the cabin where the two men lay a-snoring, and roused them with the point of his cutlass. As they started up he said that if they uttered a single sound it would be their last on earth. Meanwhile Rackham and the others were busy for’ard, heaving the anchor and trimming the sail yards. Before half an hour had elapsed they were silently creeping out to sea. The guardship that lay at the harbour mouth gave them a hail and demanded where they were off to, but Rackham was prepared for this, and shouted back that his anchor cable had parted and that he was drifting out on the tide; adding that he would be running in with the morning light. When they were well out Calico Jack had the two men up from below and asked if they would sign on with his crew. On their refusing, he bade them jump into the small gig and be done with it, telling them to row ashore as best they could, and give his compliments to Master John Haman, and say he should have his boat back as soon as they had done with it. A year after this, Calico Jack and his men were coasting round Jamaica when, as they weathered Negril Point, at the western extremity of the island, they spied a piragua (a flat-bottomed boat, something like a punt, and much used in those parts for fishing), which sped for the shore at sight of them, where the men scrambled out and ran to hide in the bushes. Uncertain of what this might portend, Rackham sailed in, flying a white flag, and, landing with a few of his men, shouted aloud that there was nothing to be frightened of, as he and his ship were English. “Come 169

The Book of Pirates aboard, and drink a bowl of punch,” he added, “let’s all be good friends.” At first the shy boatmen refused persistently, but presently they came out from the bushes, armed with guns and cutlasses, and consented to go on board Rackham’s sloop. They were nine in all, Englishmen who had hired the piragua to go a-turtling, if their account is to be believed, and before long they were rioting and shouting with the rest in Rackham’s cabin. There is little doubt, however, that they knew well enough who Rackham was, and the fact of their taking weapons on board showed that they were ready enough to sign on with him. Nevertheless, it was the worst day’s work they ever did in their lives. Scarcely had they laid down their weapons on the settle in Rackham’s great cabin, and taken up their pipes, when a man on deck shouted down the companion­ way that a sloop was bearing down on them, and that one of the men for’ard had recognized her as being com­ manded by Captain Barnett, commissioned by the Governor of Jamaica for the very purpose of seizing all pirate craft. In an instant all was confusion on Rackham’s ship. Men rushed forward to slip the anchor that had been dropped so short a while before, others ran to the guns, yet others clambered aloft to trim the sails and get under weigh without delay. But Captain Barnett had the advantage of a brisk breeze, and almost before the pirates knew what was happening he was near enough to open fire and sent a shot whistling through Rackham’s rigging. The odds were too heavy against Calico Jack. Even had he wanted to put up a fight he would have stood little chance against his enemy, who had the wind in his favour and was as ready for an engagement as the other was unprepared. Very few shots were exchanged before Rackham hauled down his black flag and yielded. Without more ado Captain Barnett clapped the 170

Two Choice Rogues whole gang into irons, placed a crew of his own on hoard the pirate Bloop, and with flags flying sailed round to Port Royal, where he was welcomed with a thunder­ ous salute. About a fortnight later, on November 16, 1720, a Court of Admiralty was held at St. Jago de la Vega, at that time the capital of the island, before which John Rackham and his men were arraigned for piracy on the high seas. They had little to say in their own favour, and the following day the whole gang were hanged, some at Gallows Point, Port Royal, others at Kingston. Calico Jack; George Fetherston, his mate; and Dick Corner, the quartermaster, were then left to swing in chains at Plumb Point, Bush Key, and Gun Key respectively. As for the nine fellows who had gone on board but an hour or so before Barnett came in eight, they pleaded their innocence most touchingly. But Sir Nicholas Laws, president of the court, had had a lot of experience with pirates and their ways, and turned but a deaf ear to their protestations of innocence. Moreover, un­ happily for them, down in Rackham’s hold at the time of the capture were two Frenchmen whom the pirates had taken out of their boat off Hispaniola a few days before, and these men deposed most emphatically that all nine helped Rackham as much as they could to get away from Barnett. By order of the Court the prisoners were taken from the bar and the chamber cleared, while the question of their complicity was gone into. When they were sum­ moned back, what was their horror to And that the President and Commissioners found them Guilty, and sentenced them all to death. A few days later they paid the penalty for that unlucky hour aboard Calico Jack’s boat, and were hanged at Gallows Point.

171

CHAPTER XII The Tragedy of Captain Kidd

F might were right and every man got his due, the most famous of all the pirates would probably have died in his bed an honoured old man, and a peer of the realm would certainly have swung in the wind at Execution Dock. But the world does not wag so. Two hundred years ago an honest man stood as little chance against a rich one as he does to-day; and thus it was that William Kidd was hanged and Lord Bellomont lived to be an old man. William Kidd was probably a Scotsman, though the story of his early years is wrapped in some mystery, but at the time of his death it was reported that he was a native of Greenock, on the Clyde, and there may be some truth in it. The first that is heard of him is in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1691, when the council of that town awarded him the sum of £150 for his services in quelling some of the troubles that arose during the excitement that occurred when news came to America of William of Orange’s landing in England, and the Revolution of 1688. With this money, and what he had already saved, Kidd seems to have bought a boat, for a year or so later he was commissioned to go out with his ship and chase or capture a French privateer that had been doing much damage up and down the coasts of New England. Some little time after this he was mentioned with honour as having served well in the West Indies, in the war against the French. Altogether, the name of Captain William Kidd was held in high esteem among the Puritan towns of the North American seaboard, which shows 172

I

The Tragedy of Captain Kidd that the gallant captain was a man of worth and respectability. In 1695 Captain Kidd came across the Atlantio in his own sloop, with merchandise for London port. He was already a responsible merchant skipper, and several Colonials (as residents in the American colonies of Eng­ land were then called) received him at their houses in London, and promised to help him in any way they could. One of these, Colonel Robert Livingstone, a well-known landowner in New York, was particularly zealous in his endeavours to push Kidd’s fortunes. Livingstone had heard of the captain’s doings in the West Indies; how he had harried the French and cap­ tured some of their most notorious privateers; how he possessed an intimate knowledge of all the pirate lairs in the islands, and had even been to Tortuga itself, dis­ guised, it was said, as a common hand. So, as the problem of the pirates was daily growing worse in the Islands, and bidding fair to ruin the whole of our trade there, Colonel Livingstone recommended Kidd to the new Governor of Massachusetts Bay (who was then in London, having been but recently appointed) as a suit­ able man to put down rogues in those waters and rid the Caribbean of its pests to sea-borne trade. For some unexplained reason Livingstone’s sugges­ tion was not taken notice of, but Lord Bellomont and one or two friends in high quarters, who knew well enough how great wealth had been gathered by the pirates, got hold of what seemed a really brilliant scheme. The Government would have nothing to do with appoint­ ing Kidd as a pirate-catcher, but His Lordship collected enough money among his friends to fit out a ship with guns and all that was necessary for the enterprise, and commissioned Captain Kidd to go out and capture as many pirates as he could, promising him a certain share in any treasure he managed to secure. To give the affair some semblance of legality, they obtained a comTnissinn from William III, directed to 173

The Book of Pirates Kidd, empowering him to proceed against Captains Thomas Tew, John Ireland, Thomas Wake and William Mace or Maze, or any other pirates or sea-rovers he could find, capture them, and bring them back to a legal trial. Nothing is said about Lord Bellomont in the commission, or the understanding he must have had with Kidd as to the disposal of the pirate’s treasure. If Kidd took all the danger at sea, we may be pretty sure that His Lordship was quite prepared to take all the profit at home. And so, in May, 1696, the Adventure sailed out from Plymouth. She was a well-found vessel of thirty guns, and carrying a crew of eighty. But this was not enough complement for Kidd. He knew of certain bright spirits in New York whose presence on the cruise would make for success; so he crossed the Atlantic, taking a French ship on the way, and in due time made New York, where he recruited among his friends and acquaintances for any likely lads to go out and make their fortunes fight­ ing the pirates. The terms of enlistment were, that every man should have a share of what was taken, after 40 per cent, had been set aside for the owners and Kidd himself. So a thousand-pound prize—and the meanest pirate might be expected to have something like that amount of booty on board—would mean six hundred pounds for division among the men. Not at all a bad bargain! It did not take Kidd long to collect the additional hands he was in need of, and when, after a month or two, he sailed for Madeira, it was with a company of a hundred and fifty-five men. Some time was spent in the islands off the coast of Africa. At Madeira the Adventure took in wine; at Bonavista, one of the Cape Verd Islands, she got a good supply of salt, and from thence sailed across to the neighbouring island of St. Jaga for a general stock of bread, dried flesh and live pigs. When all this food had been safely stowed, Kidd weighed anchor and made 174

The Tragedy of Captain Kidd for Madagascar, the well-known rendezvous of pirates and sea-rogues of all kinds. On the way thither the Adventure sighted the flag­ ship of Captain Warren, commodore of three English men-of-war cruising round Africa, to whom Kidd talked of his plans, which were highly approved of by the naval men. The vessels kept company for two or three days, and when at last Kidd bade them farewell, he re­ ceived a salute from Warren’s guns to which he replied with proper honours. Nine months after leaving Plymouth, in February, 1697, the coast of Madagascar hove in sight, and the Adventure was got ready for what might befall. The look-outs were doubled, and all on board were agog with anticipation. But as they coasted the island they found to their disappointment that all the pirates were out at sea, roving the Indian Ocean and elsewhere in search of booty; so in accordance with information received from one or two men encountered on land, when parties were sent ashore to get water or provisions, Kidd resolved to go and hunt for his prey along the coasts of Malabar, where gentlemen in the Red Sea Trade usually drove a brisk business. But even off Malabar the luck was out, and after cruising around for a month or more he made his way back to Johanna, one of the Comoro Islands, where he put the Adventure on the careen, and thoroughly over­ hauled her. All this time there was never any sugges­ tion of Kidd turning pirate. During his cruises he met various East Indiamen and other ships, which he spoke with and went aboard, without so much as a hint of offering any harm. What Kidd’s intentions were, indeed, or what his secret instructions from Lord Bellomont, it is impossible now to tell; but up to this moment the captain had been an honest enough man, and no one had so much as dared hint to the contrary. Like enough the noble lord had suggested, at their last private interview in London, 175

The Book of Pirates that bo long as the Adventure came back with a good store of wealth he would not inquire too closely—more­ over, would take steps to see that no one else inquired too closely—as to where it came from. One thing is pretty plain, and that is that Kidd’s first intention, when he found that it was none so easy a thing to catch pirates, was to levy a toll on the shipping of France, with whom we were then at war. When the Adventure was fit for sea, after her over­ hauling at Johanna, Kidd sailed northwards to Bab-elMandeb, at the entrance to the Red Sea, where there were generally Arab or other trading vessels to be met with. It was here that he first began to broach the question of booty to his company. As they lay broiling off Perim—in those days a mere sizzling waste of rock and sand—someone started talking about the Mocha fleet, a squadron of trading vessels that plied at certain seasons between the Red Sea ports and the coasts of India. “My lads!” exclaimed Kidd, “we have been un­ successful hitherto; the voyage has been a barren one, and we are all poorer than the day we set sail. But courage! Once let me sight the topsails of the Mocha fleet and we’ll make our fortunes!” His words were received with a cheer. Not a man on board the Adventure so much as thought of question­ ing the rights and wrongs of attacking a fleet of merchant­ men belonging to a nation with which we were at peace. Things looked different, somehow, down in the stewing furnace of Bab-el-Mandeb. That evening, just before sunset, Kidd sent a wellmanned boat to run up through the straits into the Red Sea and find out exactly when the fleet would sail, and of what ships it would consist. The long-boat was gone for two or three days, but early one morning she returned, having pushed a long stretch up the Arabian coast; so far, indeed, that they had seen the Mocha fleet at anchor. Fourteen or fifteen ships there 176

The Tragedy of Captain Kidd were in all, some flying English colours, some Dutch, others the green flag of the Moors. As soon as Kidd received this news he set the Adventure in full trim for the work before her. A watch was put at the masthead, and the vessel was kept plying off and on, ready to dart out on her prey at the first word of the fleet’s approach. About four days later, just as the sun was sinking over the African coast, the look-out shouted down the tidings that ships were in sight, and that as far as he could see they were escorted by two men-of-war, an Englishman and a Dutchman. Nothing daunted, Kidd trimmed his sails and made straight into the midst of the convoy, singling out a large Moorish galley that seemed to promise a good haul, if he could but seize her. But the two men-of-war, seeing a strange sail adding itself to their convoy, grew suspicious and bore down on the Adventure, which by this time was running along­ side the galley and training her guns upon her. Kidd fired a broadside, but it had little effect, and before he could reload his guns one of the men-of-war opened fire. There was nothing more to be done; there could be no question of a fight against such uneven odds, so Kidd had no alternative but to sheer off, with a parting shot, which tore a great hole in the galley’s side. This was Kidd’s first attempt at downright piracy, and, it must be confessed, a pretty poor one. It shows that he was by no means used to the trade; Teach, or one of the masters of the art, would never have attacked one vessel of a large fleet unless he was certain of being able to edge her away from the rest. Your true pirate has no liking for a battle with the odds any way but in his own favour. Kidd now stood away for India and, running down the Malabar coast, picked up his first real prize, a Moorish vessel from Aden, whose captain happened to be an Englishman of the name of Parker. The only other 177

The Book of Pirates European on board was a Portuguese gentleman named Don Antonio, and Kidd dragged these two over to the Adventure, Parker to serve as interpreter—for he had traded so long with Indian merchants that he spoke most of the languages along the western seaboard. As for the crew, the pirates vented on them the disappoint­ ments they had suffered so long, and hoisting them up on the yards, by ropes slung beneath their arms, lashed and beat them unmercifully to find out if there was any treasure concealed on board. As there was none, and the wretched men could produce nothing to pacify their tormentors, they were beaten almost to death before Kidd ordered their release, and sent them adrift in their boat. Kidd next made land at Karwar, just south of the Portuguese colony of Goa. Unluckily the crew of the Moorish vessel had been picked up and taken to this port, where they told hair-raising stories of the new pirate who had come to afflict the coasts, and of his cruelty. No sooner had Kidd put in than a boat came speeding out to him, with a couple of Englishmen on board, Harvey and Mason, who were representatives of the East India Company in that port, and men of some consequence. As soon as they had stepped on the deck of the Adventure and exchanged the usual compliments with Kidd, they asked downright if he had Captain Parker and Don Antonio on board, as they were ready to ransom them. But it suited Kidd’s purpose neither to hand over his two prisoners nor to own that he was a pirate; so he protested that he knew nothing of the men in ques­ tion (who were securely kept below hatches for the week or so they stayed in Karwar Roads) and nothing that the two visitors could urge to the contrary would move him to admit that he had any prisoners on board. But the whole coast was alarmed by now, and a Portuguese man-of-war hurried out from Goa to cruise in search of the pirate. They met, and Kidd fought her 178

The Tragedy of Captain Kidd for six long hours until, darkness coming on, and there being no hope of beating her, he made off under cover of night, leaving his enemy some days’ hard work to mend the rigging and patch her sides, after the drubbing the English had given her. And so the merry trade went on. Luck turned somewhat in his favour, so that he made one or two very handsome captures off the coast of Malabar. Some­ times his conscience gave an uneasy twinge or two, it would seem, for the crew of the Adventure were very near mutiny one day, when Kidd refused to board a likely Dutch vessel that they found close in to the shore. Some of the men were for taking out the long-boat and crossing to her in defiance of the captain’s orders; but Kidd told them sternly that if they once left the ship they would never set foot on her deck again. At this, John Moor, the gunner, rounded on the captain and blamed him for being a puling fool. Blazing with wrath, Kidd seized a bucket that happened to be lying near by, and smashed it with such force on the gunner’s head that he stove in the wretched man’s skull, and ere night was out his body was thrown to the sharks. A cruel act of temper, maybe, and one that he would rue in times to come, yet it saved the day so far as Kidd was concerned 1 But the captain’s conscience did not trouble him for long. A few days later he overtook a fleet of traders making for Cannanore, every ship of which he stopped and stripped until little more than the mere hulks were left. His headquarters, at this period, was a lonely island among the Laccadives, where he used to put in to water and clean his ship after long spells at sea. He was setting out from this island one still, clear morning, when the look-out sighted a sail far away on the starboard bow. Every scrap of canvas was hoisted to crowd after her, and about noon the Adventure came within gunshot of her prize, a large Moorish vessel of some four hundred tons, called the Quedda Merchant, 179

The Book of Pirates homeward bound, and heavily laden with goods of enormous value. The ship’s captain was an English­ man, Wright by name—for Indian and Moorish traders frequently employed English mariners to command their ships—and when he saw that a fast-sailing vessel was overhauling him he clapped on canvas and tried to show her a clean pair of heels. But Kidd was not to be shaken off so easily. Hoisting the French colours—for at no time did he ever sink so low as to fly the black flag—he closed up with the Quedda Merchant about two in the afternoon, and flring a gun across her bow, ordered Wright to come aboard the Adventure in his gig without delay. The captor’s terms were short and to the point. Wright would remain on board aB his prisoner, and the Armenian passengers on the prize, who were owners of the cargo, should have the opportunity of ransoming it at a fair price. Twenty thousand rupees, equivalent at that time to some £3,000 sterling, was the figure the merchants suggested, but when they quoted these figures Kidd broke into loud shouts of laughter. There seemed little chance of coming to any agree­ ment, and as time was pressing—for a pirate is ever on the move and anxious to get away from the scene of his prowess—Kidd cut all further negotiations short by cramming the passengers and crew of the Quedda Merchant into their own boats, and bade them row for their lives. Then he dropped down the coast to a certain spot where he knew there would be a ready market for his goods, and almost immediately sold only a portion of the cargo for over £10,000! By the time he had traded the whole of the Queddah Merchant's cargo he cleared enough to pay each man a share of £200, reserving for himself and owners a fortieth share, amounting to some £8,000 sterling! The prize herself was far too valuable a ship to be turned adrift or burned, so Kidd put some of his men on board, and the two vessels left the coast of India together 180

The Tragedy of Captain Kidd and set a course for Madagascar, where they intended to clean. The first port they put into was Diego Suarez, and scarcely had they dropped anchor when a canoe was seen putting dut from the shore, with a couple of English­ men on board, whom Kidd recognized, after a moment, as men who had sailed with him when he went pirate­ hunting in the West Indies. The canoe sped alongside, and a moment later the two fellows clambered on to the Adventure, with something of a hang-dog air, and walking aft to where Kidd was awaiting them, greeted him with a sort of sullen humility. “Well, Jack Rogers, you are welcome,” cried Kidd, advancing to meet them. “Why, man! why look ye so sour? Has the luck turned against ye?” “Ay, Captain, it is well for you to laugh,” said the man addressed. “But times have been bad since last we met, and ’tis no fault of ours if we’ve taken to the Red Sea Trade. We know you’ve come here with a commission to take all pirates, but it is rather hard that two old shipmates should swing from your yard-arms!” “What’s all this about swinging and yard-arms?” cried Kidd. “Think ye that I have come to take ye all prisoners ? Faith, man, I’m as honest a pirate as any on ye! Where’s your ship?” The others of the crew, crowding round the new-comers, soon reassured them as to the sort of company they had fallen into, and the two visitore were quickly made at home. They belonged to the company of Captain Culliford, a pirate whose ship, the Resolution, was hidden in a little bay further down the coaBt. They had heard of Kidd and his commission to rout out all pirates, but they knew nothing of his having set up for himself as a gentleman of fortune. The friendship was sealed next day when the pirate captains exchanged visits, and Kidd, to help a brother rover in distress, gave Culliford an anchor and various other things necessary to enable him to put to sea again. M

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The Book of Pirates Kidd’s own vessel, the Adventure, was by this time so old and leaky that they were forced to keep a couple of pumps going night and day to save her from foundering. She had been a good craft in her time, but hard wear up and down the Indian Ocean, and a bad battering off the coast of Malawan, had started many of her timbers, and made her so crank (as sailors used to term a seawom vessel) that she could be of little further use as a rover. So they shifted all the guns and tackle into the Quedda Merchant, and took the opportunity of dividing up odd scraps of booty that had been stored away down in the Adventure's hold. This was the opportunity, too, for many of the men who were anxious to leave the service. Some settled in the large pirate colony in Madagascar, where they rested after their labours and set up for themselves as kings; others signed on with Culliford and went out a-pirating once more; only forty remained with Captain Kidd. Considering that he had now fulfilled the task he had been set, Kidd made a course for home and, rounding the Cape of Good Hope, sailed for the West Indies, where he put in to rest and water at Hispaniola. What was his surprise, when he went ashore there, to learn that he had been proclaimed a pirate and that a warrant was out for his arrest. This was the result of an inquiry in Parliament, when the whole question of the commission given to Kidd was raised, and a good many awkward questions asked as to what Lord Bellomont was getting out of the affair. Needless to say, the Earl repudiated Kidd entirely, swore he had nothing to do with him, and uttered the most righteous sentiments about the wickedness of piracy. He cleared himself of all complicity, and in the end the Government issued a proclamation, promising a free pardon to all pirates who should voluntarily sur­ render themselves by the last day of April, 1699, but explicitly excepting Captain William Kidd and Captain John Avery from its benefits. X82

The Tragedy of Captain Kidd This news thoroughly alarmed the captain. But he thought that in the holds of the Quedda Merchant there was treasure enough to satisfy his patron the Earl of Bellomont. He had a seaman’s trust in the word of a gentleman, and firmly believed that the noble peer would see him clear of any accusations made against him. Besides, he felt pretty sure that nothing much could be brought up, for in his possession were one or two passes from French ships that he had captured, and these could be brought forward as evidence of his having confined his attention to the shipping of an enemy nation; moreover, he had never actually attacked or captured an English vessel; and though the East India Company had suffered from his piracies, they could not point to any one ship of theirs that he had stopped or robbed. Anyhow, there was always one great argument in his favour—chests overflowing with treasure! Until things were cleared up, however, Kidd had no intention of handing over this treasure to the law. So he bought a small sloop in Hispaniola, and leaving some trusty men on the Quedda Merchant, sailed up to Boston to find out exactly where he stood with the authorities, and to obtain an interview with Lord Bellomont. But when the sloop’s gig put off, with Kidd at the tiller, to set him ashore, the city marshal and his tipstaves were standing on the quay to welcome them, and not only Captain Kidd but his boatmen were arrested and hustled off to the guard-house. The next few days were spent in duels between Kidd and Lord Bellomont, whose real character the captain had by now begun to appreciate. The peer wanted to know where the Quedda Merchant had been left, and Kidd as resolutely refused to tell him, unless he and his men were absolutely cleared from all danger of trial and hanging. No half-promises or bribes would shake this resolution, and at last Bellomont gave the whole business up in 183

The Book of Pirates despair. At the very earliest opportunity offered by a vessel sailing for England, he sent the pirate captain in chains on board, and he was taken to London where, with others of his crew, he was tried at the Old Bailey, in May, 1701, for piracy, and robbery on the high seas. Three of the men arraigned were acquitted—Robert Lumley, William Jenkins, and Richard Barlicorn—as they were able to prove that they were only on the Adventure as apprentices. It was a lucky quibble for them. They had shared in the booty, and fought with the rest, but their counsel at the bar argued that it had all been done without their connivance, for as appren­ tices they were not free agents. One of the accused, Darby Mullins, argued in his own defence that he had only obeyed orders, in that he had signed on to serve Captain Kidd under his Majesty’s commission, and what the Captain told him to do he had to do, at the peril of being treated as mutinous. But the judges of the Admiralty, who sat at the Old Bailey, saw his behaviour in a different light, and Darby Mullins was found guilty with the rest. As to Captain Kidd, there was little he could say in his own defence, for Lord Bellomont’s interest at home was strong enough to quash any attempt at bringing him into the case. To the captain’s indictment was added a charge of murder—for the death, in fact, of the gunner Moore, whom he had hit on the head with a bucket. When Kidd was asked what he had to say why sentence should not be passed on him, he said that he had nothing to reply, save that he had been sworn against by perjured, wicked people. When sentence was pronounced he said: “My Lord, it is a very hard sentence.” About a week later, on May 23, 1701, a great crowd flocked down to Wapping, where the gaunt arms of Execution Dock stood bleak against the sky. Boys were shouting, men and women chattering and talking, and ballad-mongers chanting the long new ballad of Captain Kidd. 184

The Tragedy of Captain Kidd There were seven condemned men in all chained in a string and waiting to mount the hangman’s cart— Captain William Kidd; Nicholas Churchill, his mate; James How; Gabriel Loff; Hugh Parret; Abel Owen, and Darby Mullins. They were all executed together, as they had sailed and fought together, and for many a long day afterwards their bodies swung together in chains on the long flats by Wapping, where sailors on passing ships could see them and draw a lesson from the sight. It is some satisfaction to know that Lord Bellomont never touched the treasure for which he sent a man to the gallows. The Quedda Merchant was never heard of again, but portions of the vast wealth of some £70,000 were found, not so very long ago, on Gardiner’s Island, off the east end of Long Island, where it had been buried at the captain’s orders.

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CHAPTER XIII Captain Davis and his Men

OWEL DAVIS came from Milford Haven, where he went to sea at a very early age. He was a good sailor, for he workeu his way to be mate of the Cadogan, a snow that sailed out from Plymouth in the year 1718, bound for the coast of Guinea. There was trouble all the way out, for Captain Skinner, the master, had engaged a rascally crew, many of whom were itching to turn gentlemen of fortune, and perhaps the worst among them all was Davis. At last, affairs on the Cadogan got so bad that when they were off Sierra Leone, Captain Skinner signalled to a man-of-war lying at station there, sent across to her some of the ringleaders of his discontents, and not only left them in irons, but also refused to pay the wages which they claimed were due to them, but which he maintained had been forfeited by their mutinous behaviour. A month or two later, as the Cadogan was cruising down the Guinea Coast, who should sail up but Captain Ned England, flying the black flag and ordering Skinner to strike his colours or be sunk to the bottom. The Cadogan was unarmed, so there was nothing for it but to obey the pirate, and lie to. Entering his skiff, Skinner was pulled across to the pirate sloop. When he climbed up on deck, who should be the first man that he set eyes on but his old boatswain, one of those whom he had handed over to the man-of-war, and who, with his mates, bad managed to escape a day or two later and enlist with Captain England, the pirate. "Aha, Captain Skinner,” cried this man, with a frightful oath. “ Is it you ? Why, you’re the very man I 186

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Captain Davis and His Men have been waiting to see this long time past. I owe you a debt, and now I am going to settle the score!” At these words Skinner grew pale, and turned to his mate Davis, who had accompanied him on board. But there was little comfort to be had from that quarter. At the sight of his old friends Davis had become strangely excited, and gave unmistakable signs of longing to be with them. The boatswain’s words were greeted with a roar of laughter from the rest of Skinner’s old crew, who gathered around the wretched man, tied him securely to the capstan, and then, amid a volley of crude jests and threats, began their torture. Shouting down to the cabin, they had brought on deck a great basketful of empty bottles, relics of their last night’s carouse, and smashing the necks of these, to make jagged edges, made a cock-shy of the poor captain. When this ammunition was expended, they made a special cat-o’-nine-tails and whipped him about the deck until he fell down in utter exhaustion, and could not be made to move, for all the pirates’ kicks and prods with cutlasses. At last, as he had been such a good master to his men, the rogues said jeeringly, they determined to give him an easy death, and without further ado the boatswain seized a pistol and shot the unhappy man through the head. All this time Davis, the first mate, had been standing by, now joining in the laughter and now talking earnestly to Captain England, who was watching the sport from the poop. No one could hear what they said, what Davis proposed to Captain England or the other to him, but the upshot of it all was that very soon afterwards Davis rowed back to the Cadogan, bearing a mysterious letter from Captain England, signed with vast red splotches of wax and bearing a sprawling inscription saying that it was not to be opened until he reached a certain latitude and longitude in mid-Atlantic, when, at the peril of his life, Davis was to cut it open and obey the instructions it contained. 187

The Book of Pirates As soon as he reached his own vessel, Davis gave orders to trim the yards and be away, firing a salute to England as he went, which the pirate returned with exquisite sea courtesy. But some of the honest old hands aboard the Cadogan, who really knew little of what had happened to Captain Skinner, looked askance at their new commander, who seemed to have got such easy and rapid promotion. It was not usual for Ned England to send away his prizes intact, with billets-doux to the mate, especially when the captain had been murdered! What was behind it all ? What had Davis and England said to one another? There was much shaking of heads and pursing of lips in the fo’castle of the Cadogan as she bowled merrily before the breeze into the Atlantic. A couple of days later, Davis summoned all hands to watch him open Captain England’s letter and hear its contents. With great ceremony the curious missive was produced and shown to the crew, with its seals in­ tact. Davis then took his dagger and ripped it open. Whether he knew the contents or not it is impossible to say, but the rascal certainly affected the utmost surprise when he read England’s terms, which were couched in lordly phrases, as if emanating from some High Court of Admiralty, and calmly disposed of the Cadogan and all she contained as though she were his own undisputed property. England directed Davis to take her to Brazil and sell all her cargo, dividing the money obtained from the merchants in equitable shares between himself and the whole crew. As this would mean quite a nice little sum for every man on board, Davis looked round the ring of stolid faces, when he finished the perusal of the letter, in anti­ cipation of a cheer. But a grim silence ensued. “Well?” he demanded at last. “This is a real stroke of good fortune for every man of us! In ten days’ time we shall make Brazil, and then we’ll be rich for life!” At this the boatswain, a sturdy old sailor from the 188

Captain Davis and His Men Suffolk coast, threw his long clay pipe to the deck and smashed it to shivers. “I will not be rich except on what’s my own,” he thundered. “The cargo below hatches is not yours, nor does it belong to Captain Ned England, black-souled pirate that he is! It’s consigned to Barbados, and to Barbados it shall go! What say ye, mates? ” There was a chorus of assent to his words; and Davis dashed the letter to the ground, fuming with rage. “Dolts and blockheads!” he raged. “You are throwing away the chance of a lifetime. The cargo is lost to the right­ ful owners----- ” “Not so long as I’m aboard the Cadogan,” broke in the boatswain. “Not so long as I and my mates can haul on the sheets. It’s not to Brazil but to Execution Dock you’re heading, Cap’en Davis; and if you’re not careful you’ll strike land there before you know it!” So the Cadogan was taken into Barbados and the cargo handed over to its rightful owners, who were in­ formed of the unhappy fate that had overtaken Captain Skinner, of Davis’s more than doubtful behaviour, and of his proposals in mid-Atlantio. In consequence of what the owners told the authorities, Master Davis was clapped into jail; but as there was no specific charge of piracy that could actually be made against him he was liberated after a few weeks, and soon made his way to Providence, in the Bahamas, where he knew he would be sure to find lads of like tastes to his own. He arrived soon after Captain Woodes Rogers had published his pardon to all pirates who surrendered themselves, and in consequence the island was full of blood-stained wretches who were all whitewashed and professing amendment with a leering twinkle in their bloodshot eyes. Following the fashion of the moment, Davis gave himself the smug airs of an honest man, and engaged as mate on one of Rogers’s own sloops, the Buck, which was sailing with a valuable cargo of 189

The Book of Pirates European goods to be sold at various French and Spanish ports in the West Indies. The Buck and her consort, the Mumvil, put to sea in as bad a case as ever ships weighed anchor. The men were almost entirely recruits from the riff-raff of various pirate crews that had been disbanded in Providence —all of them prime rogues, only waiting for an opportunity to get back to their old trade. The first port of call was at the French colony of Martinique, and there, in the dead of night, Davis headed the company in a mutiny, secured both the craft, rifled the Buck and put her cargo aboard the Mumvil, and then set the former ship adrift. After this, he put out to sea, where a council of war was held, the men all seated in a ring on the deck round a huge keg of rum, into which each rogue dipped his mug as he saw fit. It did not take long for the mutineers to pick on Davis for their captain. Most of them had been but simple deck-hands, and few had any knowledge of navigation. So the worthy fellow was duly elected captain, and drew up articles of agreement, which they all swore to keep, and thus declared war on the world at large. As the sloop was badly in need of careening, they put into a little secluded creek at the eastern end of Cuba, known as Coxon’s Hole. There they cleaned the Mumvil and made her fit for her new profession. When, at last, they put to sea On the Account, they numbered but thirty-five hands all told—a small company to levy toll on the world and its shipping. None the less, they seized a boat off the north of Hispaniola, a French sloop into which Davis put twelve of his men, and then started off in pursuit of another ship, whose sails had been sighted far away to windward. She was a big ship, too, another Frenchman, of twenty-four guns and sixty men—a difficult prize to tackle with the Mumvil's depleted forces. But Davis had thought of a ruse to catch “Mounseer.” His own sloop was a much faster sailer than the French igo

Captain Davis and His Men vessel, so he soon overhauled her, while the recently captured prize, worked by the dozen men he had put on board, followed in his wake. As soon as he was within range, Davis hoisted his black colours and bade the Frenchman heave to. Astounded at his impudence, the captain replied with a roar of laughter, then bade him strike his piratical colours, or it would be the worse for him. At this the pirate answered that he was only waiting for his consort to come up, when he would eat the Frenchman alive, with which he let fly a broadside that was returned with interest. In the meantime, the prize drew near, and the handful of pirates aboard her forced their prisoners to come on deck, dressed up in some sort to resemble the fashions affected by sea-rogues, so that the larger ship should think her full of pirates. They also hoisted a dirty tarpaulin, as the best substitute for a black flag they could find, and fired a gun. At this formidable addition to his foes the French captain’s valour melted away. He struck his colours, and at Davis’s orders went across to the Mumvil with twenty of his men, who were immediately clapped in irons. Davis then sent four of his own men on board his consort, bidding them in a loud voice ask the captain to be so good as to “send some hands on to the prize, to see what she had got.” At the same time he gave them a note with secret instructions as to what they were really to do. In this note he bade them spike the guns in their own small sloop, put all the small arms into the boats, take all the ammunition with them, and get into the new prize—the whole lot of them. When this manœuvre was completed, he sent most of the captured crew of the large Frenchman into the consort, where they could do no harm, as the guns were spiked and the small arms and ammunition taken away. Very pleased with himself, and proud of his skilful management of affairs, Davis now sailed on with his fleet for a couple of days; but at the end of that time ' 191

The Book of Pirates the large French ship was found to be too slow a sailer to be of much use in the piratical service. So once again Davis had a general shift round, and having got his com­ pany into the small sloop again, sent the French captain back to his own ship, having first taken out of her all ammunition and anything else that struck his fancy or was needed by the ship or his men. This having been done, he bade the captain take his vessel to any port he liked—he had done with him! For the next few months Davis ranged the seas, seeking what he might devour; and a very good meal he picked up among merchant vessels. He changed his own sloop for a 26-gun vessel, which he re-christened the King James, crossed the Atlantic to the Azores, did a lot of damage there, and then passed on to the Cape Verd Islands, landing at St. Jago, and attacking the Portuguese fort. At last, having done all the harm he could, he set sail, with some seventy men, for the coast of Gambia, on the way thither thinking out a scheme for attacking the castle, which usually contained a lot of specie and goods to a great value. As soon as the masthead man sighted land, Davis ordered all men below decks who were not actually engaged in handling the ship, so that a cursory glance would have given anyone the impression that the King James was a harmless trading vessel. Thus dissembled, he ran right into harbour, close under the guns of the fort, and there dropped anchor, as unconcerned and inno­ cent a man as the simplest trader on the Guinea Coast. As was only right and proper, no sooner had the anchor splashed into the water than Captain Davis ordered out his gig, which was manned by half-a-dozen honestlooking seamen. Davis, his mate, and the ship’s doctor then got into her and were rowed ashore to the landing­ place, where a file of soldiers was awaiting them, to con­ duct them to the fort. There the Governor received them very civilly, asking who they were and whence they came. 192

Captain Davis and His Men Davis had his story all ready, and a very circum­ stantial one it was. They were outward bound from Liverpool to Senegal, to trade in gum and ivory, but a day or so before, as they were sailing peacefully down the coast, they had been attacked by two French men-of-war, and would most certainly have been taken had their vessel not been the faster sailer. Now that fortune had driven them into Gambia, Davis concluded, he meant to make the best of a bad job and buy a cargo of slaves. All this was so likely a story that the Governor had not the faintest suspicion that it might not be true. He asked what their cargo was, that might be traded for slaves. “Iron and plate,” said Davis, well knowing that those were two commodities that always commanded a good price in those parts. At these words the Governor pricked up his ears. Iron and plate! He would give the visitors the full value for the whole cargo in slaves; and, rubbing his hands at the idea of a good bargain, he insisted that the captain and his two friends should stay and dine with him, promising them a good feast of African dainties after their long voyage. At first Davis made a few difficulties, but eventually he said he would be delighted; that he would leave his two fellow officers with the Governor, while he himself was rowed back to the ship to satisfy himself that she was well moored, and to give a few necessary orders. What was of more general interest was that he promised to bring back with him a hamper of European wines that would delight the heart of the worthy Governor. All this time his quick eyes had been roving here and there, taking in every detail of the fort. He saw that there was a single sentry by the main entrance, and a guard-house near by, where the picket sat when off guard, their arms piled up in a comer. In the Governor’s pri­ vate room there were several pistols and guns slung against the walls. So he was pulled back to the King James, where he hastily summoned a fo’cstle council, and told the men 193

The Book of Pirates that the fort would be theirs if they would but obey his orders and remain sober; when they saw someone strike the flag above the fortress they were to send twenty hands ashore immediately. In the meantime, he sent a small boat across to a sloop that lay at anchor near by, and before anybody was aware of what was in the wind, secured her master and men, and shut them all safely down under their own hatches. Davis then prepared to return to the fort, where he was expected to dinner. Before starting out he made each of the men he was taking with him conceal a brace of pistols beneath his clothes, and told them they were to enter into conversation with the men in the guard­ house. When he fired a pistol out of the Governor’s window, they were to seize the arms and make themselves masters of the place. The little party landed, and a guard of honour was waiting on the quay to escort Davis to the Governor’s presence. Dinner was not yet ready, so the host, whose eyes began to glisten at sight of the bulky hamper one of the men was carrying after Davis, suggested that they might profitably fill in the time over a good jorum of The man who had borne in the hamper, and was now busying himself in helping the Governor’s servants lay the table and decant the liquor, was in reality the pirate coxswain. He took the opportunity of poking his nose into every comer of the fort, and spying out exactly how it was defended and by how many. At last the punch was ready, and the coxswain bore it in himself, in a great steaming bowl that scented the room with its fragrance. The Governor was alone with his three guests—Davis, the mate, and the doctor—and at Davis’s suggestion the coxswain waited on them. When all was ready this man gave a nod, as a pre-arranged signal to Davis, and at this the pirate captain advanced, glass in hand, to his host. “Master Governor, your health!” he said, raising 194

Captain Davis and His Men the beaker in his left hand, whilst his right was thrust behind his back. “And yours! ” replied the worthy fellow. Lifting his glass to his lips he was in the very act of draining it when he saw Davis’s right hand suddenly swing round and present a cocked pistol at his breast.

A Pink

“Say a word, or make a noise, and you’re a dead man,” muttered the pirate. Too amazed to do aught—well aware, indeed, that there was nothing he could do—the Governor nodded in acquiescence, and moved not a muscle while Davis’s three companions hastily took down the small-arms from the walls, loaded them, and prepared for a fight. When all was ready Davis fired his pistol through the window, as arranged. His men outside performed their 195

The Book of Pirates part of the plot like the dare-devils they were, getting between the soldiers and their arms, and eventually locking the red-coats up in their own guard-room. In the meantime, one of them struck the Union Jack that was flying from the mast over the fort, at which signal those on board the King James set out, as ordered. A very short time later the whole fort was in the hands of the pirates, without so much as a drop of blood having been shed. / As for the soldiers, Davis had them all paraded before him and gave them a lurid lecture on the advantages of a pirate’s life, with the result that a great number enlisted in his crew. The remainder he sent aboard the little sloop he had captured in the bay, and, to prevent them getting up to any mischief, ordered all her sails to be taken out, as well as all the cables and the rigging out to pieces. That day was spent in wild rejoicing, the castle firing guns to salute the ship, and the King James returning the salute with due formality. The walls of the fortress re-echoed to the roars of the pirates as they broached barrels of liquor and feasted on the Governor’s delicacies; and as their shouts and laughter were heard in the neighbouring little town, the merchants and their ser­ vants, the negroes and the Arabs, shuddered with fear at the ungodly uproar, and dreaded what would happen when those fiends came out to pillage. The long day wore on, and at last the brawling died down as the pirates fell into a heavy slumber. Then some of the inhabitants slipped away into the interior with what wealth they could carry, preferring to risk their lives and goods with the blacks to waiting for the certain fate that would befall them at the hands of their white fellow-countrymen. Yet when, shaking aside their slumber the next morning, the pirates set about their relished task of robbing and sacking the town, they still found Borne £2,000 in bar gold and a lot of costly mer­ chandise that the owners had been unable to smuggle 196

Captain Davis and His Men away. What they could take and what thev wanted was carried on board their vessel, after which they returned to the fort, spiked the guns, and demolished most of the earthen ramparts. After this they crowded on board their ship, and weighed. Scarcely had the anchor come up dripping out of the water when a ship was sighted, bearing down upon them under full sail. Davis immediately ordered all hands to their posts, had his guns trained on the oncoming boat, and the gunners standing by ready, with matches alight, to fire a broadside. But when the vessel came nearer and fired a gun, what was Davis’s surprise to see her break the black ensign at her peak! In an instant he hoisted his own piratical colours, and with mutual relief the two captains laid their vessels alongside one another and exchanged courtesies. The new-comer was a Frenchman, La Bousse by name, who was out a-pirating with a crew of sixty-four, half of them French and half escaped negro slaves. But his ship was so small that even that congenial company found themselves in uncomfortably small quarters. So, after passing the compliments of the trade, and con­ sulting together, Davis and La Bousse decided to sail down the coast in company, the former agreeing that the very first ship they should capture fit for the purpose should be handed over to his French friend, the better to carry out his profession. The first place they touched at was Sierra Leone, where they spied a tall ship at anchor. The King James was the faster sailer of the two pirates, and at once Davis crowded in to see who the stranger was. As she did not offer to make off, he suspected that she might be a ship of force, and his suspicions were confirmed when, as he ran alongside, the tall ship swung round and fired a whole broadside at him. At the same moment she hoisted her colours—the black flag! At sight of this Davis hoisted his own black ensign and fired a gun to leeward, whereupon the stranger N

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The Book of Pirates shouted to him to lie to. Soon afterwards the gig was seen approaching, and who should climb out of her but old Tom Cocklyn, as arrant a pirate as ever put out from Providence, who had thought the two incoming craft would prove to be handsome prizes! So here was a rare gathering of rogues 1 Such an event could not be allowed to pass uncelebrated by some mighty feat of villainy, so the three pirate crews united together to attack the fort of Sierra Leone. After a lusty defence on the part of the soldiers within, the place was subdued, and having driven away, shot, or impressed all they found, they settled down to clean their ships. Seven weeks were spent in riot and hard work getting ready for sea, and fitting for the use of La Bousse a large galley that had come into the road, all unsuspecting, while they lay there at anchor. Having called a council of war, they now agreed to sail down the coast together, and Davis was appointed Commodore of the fleet. But scarce a day passed before the rogues fell by the ears, as rogues ever will do; for as they were sitting over their pipes and rum in Davis’s cabin they quarrelled so violently as to where they should go and what their shares should be of any plunder that came in their way, that at last Davis broke up the meeting by saying: “Hark ye, Cocklyn and La Bousse! I find that by strengthening you I have put a rod into your hands with which you are ready to beat me! I am still able to deal with you both, together or singly; but since we met in love, let us part in love, for three of a trade oan never agree I ” Upon this, the other two captains swore that he was right, and with a parting cup and a fierce slap on the back they left him, each going to his own ship and sailing away on a different course. As for Davis, he cruised on down the Guinea Coast, past Cape Appollonia, where he plundered one Scotch and two English vessels, and so to Cape Three Points, where 198

Captain Davis and His Men he seized a Dutch ship, into which he moved some of his men, re-naming her the Rover. Having done as much damage as he could in that place, he now worked back to the mainland, and was off Anamabo, near Cape Coast Castle, when the man at the masthead spied a sail. It goes without saying that no ship ever carried a better look-out than was to be found on a pirate; and Davis, like many other captains On the Account, established the rule that the man who first spied a prize was entitled to the best pair of pistols to be found on board her, over and above his share of the loot. Apart from the pride these sea-rogues always had in their firearms, a good pair of pistols was usually worth a round sum of £30 or so. Immediately the ook-out shouted down his good news, all sail was clapped on and they gave chase. As they drew near it was seen that the quarry was a Dutchman, and, being between Davis and the shore, was making all the sail she could to reach the land, intending to run aground. These were tactics that often succeeded, for the pirate pursuers would think twice of running in too close to the shore, and at the same time it gave those on board a chance to escape with their lives, and possibly take some of their goods with them. Seeing their intention, Davis made an extra spurt and managed to pour a broad­ side into the Dutchman before she was beached, and so vigorous was his fire that the skipper struck his flag before another broadside could be discharged, and called for quarter. The prize proved to be one well worth having. Not only was the Governor of Accra on board, with all his effects and a large sum of money—for his term of office was up and he was going home to a wealthy retirement —but the vessel was loaded with some £15,000 in specie, and a great quantity of valuable merchandise. Delighted with this stroke of luck, the pirates now made for Prince’s Island, one of the Portuguese islands in the Bight of Biaffra, intending to lay up there and rest. 199

The Book of Pirates But the King James was sea-worn and leaked so badly that they had to abandon her off High Cameroon, and sailed into Prince’s Island in the Rover. As they drew closer in to the island the Portuguese Governor sent out a sloop to know who they were, for he viewed with suspicion this tall ship standing in so proudly; moreover, he had heard that a pirate vessel, somewhat of her build, was cruising up and down the Bight. But Davis announced that he was captain of an English man-of-war, out in quest of pirates; so, as he dropped anchor, the fort thundered out a salute in response to his own, and, hoisting out a pinnace, navy-fashion, he was rowed ashore by nine men and a coxswain. To do his visitor honour the Governor sent down a file of soldiers to welcome him, and when Davis entered his presence the worthy man professed himself greatly obliged to his English friend for coming to drive away the sea-rogues. Davis passed the matter off with some slight remarks, and then gave an extensive order for provisions to be sent on board his boat, airily promising that they would be paid for by the King of England! All unsuspecting, the Governor complied, and furnished him with whatever he wanted on no better security than this promise. While he was on shore Davis did not keep his eyes shut. He looked about him busily, seeing what was worth taking and how great the risks were that he would have to run. So, as soon as he was back on the Rover he called a council and laid his plans before the men, who cheered him to the sky. It was a plan after their own heart, and the man who proposed it was a hero 1 Davis’s scheme was to make the Governor a present of a dozen negro slaves, of which they had plenty on board, having taken some from every vessel they had plundered on that coast. In return for this civility his excellency could do no less than accept their invitation to go on board and dine with them, bringing with him the chief men of the islund. No sooner were all these 200

Captain Davis and His Men on board than they would be clapped in irons and kept there until a ransom of £40,000 sterling was paid for them by their friends. The whole plan was discussed openly, and there is no doubt whatever that it would have succeeded to per­ fection had not a negro who knew Portuguese slipped overboard during the night and swam ashore, making his way, breathless and dripping, to the Governor, to whom he related the whole plot. Keeping what he had heard a close secret, and locking up the negro for fear he should go babbling to others in the island, the Governor was as affable as ever next day, when a party of pirates came ashore with a gang of negroes and a civil letter from Davis asking the honour of the Governor’s company, with certain of his friends, at dinner that day. He accepted the present with evident gratitude, and assured them that nothing would give him greater pleasure than to partake of the English captain’s hospitality, though he would feel grateful if it might be postponed until the following day. On the morrow Davis came ashore himself to escort his guests to the ship, accompanied by some of his princi­ pal officers, who called themselves “lords,” it Bhould be observed, and claimed various privileges on the pirate ship which the commoner rogues were not permitted. So Davis and his “lords” stepped ashore to fetch hiB excellency, and were invited up to the castle to partake of a glass of sack before the whole party were pulled across to the Rover. With much swaggering and many loud oaths and protestations of friendship, these worthy gentlemen trooped up to the Governor’s house. On the way thither they had to pass through a passage which led into a little courtyard. They were all crowded into this, waiting for a door to be opened, when suddenly a party of men rushed out with levelled guns; there was a blaze of fire; the courtyard re-echoed to the rattle of musketry; and when the smoke cleared away the 201

The Book of Pirates whole gang of pirates, save one, lay dead or dying on the ground. Davis was shot through the body, and life rapidly ebbed from his veins. He made a gallant attempt to get away, but was too weak, and fell back. As he sank to the ground he pulled a pistol from his belt and bred it at his enemies, thus, like a game-cock, giving a dying blow that he might not be unrevenged. The one man who escaped fled down to the shore and was pulled out to the Rover, where, when the story was told of how the captain and “lords” had been shot, the vessel put to sea, and a solemn council held, the decision of which is told in the next chapter.

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CHAPTER XIV The Adventures of Captain Roberts

HE story of Bartholomew Roberts properly starts with the capture of the Princess, a London ship on which he was serving as second mate. The Princess was running down the Guinea Coast, trading in slaves— at that time a perfectly legitimate traffic—when, off Anamabo, she had the misfortune to encounter Captain Howel Davis, the redoubtable pirate whose adventures were told in the previous chapter. What arguments or pressure were used to induce Roberts to sign the pirates’ articles is not known, for Roberts was a good man at heart, and was ever averse from cruelty or bloodshed; but the fact remains that he did join Davis’s crew, and, being more or less skilful at navigation, was a considerable acquisition to that motley and ignorant gang of rascals. We have already seen how Davis met a sudden end at Prince’s Island, and how the Rover put out to sea. As soon as the ship was well under weigh, and safe from any chance of mishap from her enemies ashore, the re­ maining “lords” summoned a meeting to decide who was to take the dead captain’s place. Each of them had claims, which, he considered, entitled him to be given the office. Lord Sympson, Lord Ashplant, Lord Anstis, and Lord Dennis, all and every one felt himself quite capable of carrying the black flag to glory and profit; but, as often happens in a parliament of rogues, each was so jealous of the other that in the end they could not agree to give the command to anyone. After much wordy threshing of the subject Lord Dennis called for an extra large bowl of punch and stated the case thus:

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The Book of Pirates “It does not matter much who has the privilege of calling himself Captain; he will only be so as long as we choose to let him; and if, at any time, any captain should be so saucy as to exceed his powers, why, down with him, say I! It will be a warning to his successor of what fatal consequence any sort of assuming may lead to! Now, my lads, my advice is that while we’re sober we pitch upon a man of courage who is able to navigate the ship, and the man I name is Roberts—a fellow, I think, worthy of your esteem and favour.” This speech was loudly applauded by all except Lord Sympson, who had quite expected that the choice would fall upon himself. He now staggered to his feet, and with a mumbled oath or two strolled aft, muttering that he didn’t care who they chose so long as he wasn’t a papist, as his father had been hanged by King James II, after the Monmouth rebellion. So, although he had hardly been six weeks among them, and had no real taste for the game, Roberts was elected captain by the Lords and Commoners, observing, as he accepted the honour, that since he had dipped his hands in dirty water and must be a rogue, it was better to be a commander than a common hand. With which piece of pirate philosophy he moved his chest into the dead captain’s cabin, and announced his intention of avenging the death of his predecessor, the late lamented Captain Howel Davis. So the ship was put about and once more stood in to Prince’s Island. The work was done by a landing party under the command of Walter Kennedy, a fearless rogue whom we shall meet with again, who marched up to the fortress (from which the Portuguese fled as soon as they saw who was coming), pulled down its walls, threw the guns over the cliff into the sea, and then went back to the ship. As it was now night, and Roberts was anxious to be gone, they set fire to two Portuguese vessels that lay in the roadstead, and by the light these blazing ships afforded them, steered out of the harbour for the open sea. 204

The Adventures of Captain Roberts First, Roberts stood away to the southward and met with a Dutch Guineaman, which he made a prize of, also an English ship called the Experiment, whose crew joined the pirates to a man; so they burned the vessel, having taken out of her whatever they wanted, and then, at a general assembly of the whole company, resolved to cross the Atlantic and start “trade” off the coasts of Brazil. But business was slack in those waters, and after cruising up and down for nine weeks without so much as sighting a single sail, they decided to shift their station further north and see what was to be done in the West Indies. In those days navigation, at the best of times, was a somewhat uncertain problem, and Roberts stood in to the shore before setting his course northwards, to make exact observations. What was his surprise when, off the Bay of Los Todos Santos—better known to-day as Bahia—he sighted a fleet of forty-two Portuguese vessels, all laden for their homeward journey to Lisbon, and only waiting until the convoy of two Portuguese men-of-war, anchored near by, should be ready to put to sea. It was late afternoon when Roberts sighted the fleet, and putting about, he kept out of sight of the vessels until nightfall, when, under cover of darkness, he slipped into the bay. When morning broke he had mixed among the ships, of which there were so many that none noticed the presence of an interloper. Most of the men were kept below, for the ordinary merchant vessel had a very small crew compared with the large company carried by a pirate. Roberts chose his victim with care. She was one of the largest vessels in the fleet, and as she required more sea-room than the others, lay a little apart. Roberts edged up to her under pretence of a dragging anchor, and when he was alongside hailed the captain, bade him come on board at once and quietly, and threatened at the same time to give no quarter to a single soul on board if there was the slightest alarm given or noise made. 205

The Book of Pirates Ab the pirate captain was speaking, the amazed Portuguese skipper saw what seemed to him countless ruffians, in gaudy dresses but with shining cutlasses in their hands, swarming on the deck, though taking cover in the shelter of the gunwales or behind a litter of cordage and sail. In face of this he could do no less than accede to the other’s suggestion; so without further ado he got into his skiff and was pulled across the few yards that separated him from the pirate ship. Roberts met the man as he clambered aboard, and with the utmost courtesy in the world assured him that if he would do as he was told he should not lose a stiver nor have a hair of his head injured. But if, on the contrary, he proved refractory he, his ship, and his men would be sunk without a moment’s grace. All the pirates wanted their visitor to do was to indicate which was the richest ship in the fleet. If he told them true, so much the better for him; if not, let him beware! With something of a sigh of relief the captain hastily pointed out a large vessel of 40 guns, and stronger in every way than the Rover. But this in no way dis­ mayed the pirateB, for after all, as they said, the crew were only Portuguese, and the pirates were English! So they made for her without delay, all except those necessary to work the ship concealing themselves once again, and they were soon alongside their new quarry. The captain of the first boat, who was still aboard, was bidden hail the other and ask how the Senhor Captain was; and would he come aboard to dinner? There was some little delay in replying; at last a reply was shouted across that he would be pleased and honoured, and would row across in a moment or two. But from the bustle that ensued it was obvious that the large ship suspected there was trouble abroad. Perhaps they recognized that the first captain was not speaking from his own vessel; perhaps some inflection in his voice warned them of disaster. Whatever the cause, it was easy to see that they were getting ready 206

The Adventures of Captain Roberts for a fight, bo Roberts wasted do further time in subtleties, but pouring a broadside into her, boarded, and grappled her closely. The fight was short and sharp. Many of the Portuguese fell, though only two of the pirate crew were hit, and in a very few minutes the ship was theirs. Meanwhile the sound of the guns had alarmed the whole fleet, who signalled urgently to the men-of-war to hurry out to their assistance. But the worthy Portuguese navy was in no hurry to engage in a fight. One vessel was unable to get her anchor up, and the other thought it prudent to stand by and wait for her. So long, indeed, were they in getting ready to go after the marauder, that Roberts, who found his new prize a slow sailer, bade his prize crew take her off as best they could while he lay by to engage the men-of-war. Having waited until the prize was safely out to sea, and finding even then that the naval gentlemen were in no anxiety to give him fight, Roberts slowly put about and sailed out himself, without having received or fired a shot so far as the convoying warships were concerned. The prize they had taken made up for all the weary weeks of disappointment, for she was far richer than they had ever dared to hope. Besides great quantities of sugar, skins, and tobacco, there was a treasure of 40,000 moidores (£54,000) in specie and a great store of gold chains and trinkets of immense value. They found, in addition, a most wonderful cross set with diamonds, which was being sent to the King of Portugal himself. Delighted with their prize and resolved to spend some of their new treasure like the gentlemen of fortune they were, the pirates now headed northward and put in to Devil’s Island, off Guiana, since become famous as a French penal colony. At that time it was only a trading settlement, and the worthy merchants were pleased enough to see the pirate vessels put in, well knowing that, when treated well, these highwaymen of 207

The Book of Pirates the sea would spend well, and willingly pay ten times the actual value of anything they bought. So at Devil’s Island they were happy enough until one evening, as all were engaged in their favourite pas­ time of rummaging their prize in search of new treasure, which was to be found in all sorts of odd corners of the hold, a man at the masthead spied a brigantine in the offing. Without further ado Roberts ordered out a small sloop they had, and getting aboard her with forty of his men, put off at once in pursuit, never doubting but that he would be back in triumph ere nightfall. But contrary winds and currents not only carried him away from his prize, which eluded him and was seen no more, but also drove the sloop out to sea, and for eight days she was unable to make land. All this time her crew were starving, for in the hurry to put out after the brigantine they had forgotten that their own boat was unprovisioned for a voyage. At last they dropped anchor some sixty miles further down the coast, and being unable to beat up to their old quarters, sent off the small boat to fetch help. In the meanwhile, those on board were so parched with thirst that they were forced to tear up the floor of the cabin and contrive a sort of raft with which they could paddle ashore to fetch a few kegs of water. Three days elapsed before the boat was seen making for them. The news they brought was dismal enough, for Walter Kennedy, who had been left in command during Roberts’s absence, had gone off with the Rover and the prize as well, leaving his captain and party marooned and penniless! As an interlude we may as well finish the story of Kennedy’s adventures. As soon as he and the rest of the crew sailed off, they held a council at which the majority voted to break up the company at the first convenient spot, so that each man might go home with his booty and spend it as pleased him most. The Portuguese prize was given away to a man at Guiana 208

The Adventures of Captain Roberts who had served them well, and Kennedy, in the Rover, made for the Barbados, where after taking two or three prizes, a Boston sloop was seized, into which went all the hands who had voted for breaking up the company. Among them was Kennedy himself, though the men were so disgusted with him that when they found he was on their vessel they were for tossing him overboard, and only relented on condition that he would navigate them to the coast of Ireland, where they intended to abandon the sloop and make their way home in twos and threes. But Kennedy himself was so poor a sailor that instead of going to Ireland he took them to the north coast of Scotland, where, abandoning the vessel in a small and secluded bay, they went ashore and set off to walk to London, passing for shipwrecked sailors. But they made such a riot as they passed on their way—shrieking and roaring at such a rate that the simple Highland villagers shrunk into their cabins as the roistering rascals went by—that their fame preceded them, and some­ where short of Edinburgh they were arrested and clapped into jail. The magistrates would not have known what to do with them or what charge to make against them, had not two of the rogues informed on the rest; whereupon they were taken to the city and hanged, after a remarkably speedy trial. As for Kennedy, he drifted to Deptford, where, after a few months of roguery, he was recognized in the street by the mate of a vessel he had pillaged, was apprehended, and, after due trial, hung at Execution Dock, July 19, 1721. The rest of the pirates who had remained in the Rover, went out On the Account again, but what hap­ pened to them will never be known, for a month or two later their vessel was found adrift off the Island of St. Kitts, with only nine negroes aboard, and the black fellows were too frightened or too cautious to say what had happened to the cargo of ruffians. 209

The Book of Pirates We must now return to Captain Bartholomew Roberts who, with his forty men, was left raging and cursing on the coast of Guiana, threatening death and worse than death to their comrades if ever they fell into their hands again. Having exhausted their rage, they fell to re­ organizing themselves as a pirate company, from which were solemnly excluded all Irishmen, in memory of Kennedy’s defection. When they had provisioned the sloop as best they could, they put out to sea and made for the Windward Islands, where they captured one or two inconsiderable prizes and had a running fight with an armed galley, sent out on purpose to catch them. They then ran up to a sheltered lagoon on the Island of Carriacou, in the Grenadines, to clean the sloop and make her smart and seaworthy. Three hours after they had sailed from Carriacou, two armed sloops from Martinique arrived at the lagoon in search of them. Roberts knew nothing of this, however, but made a course for the Banks of Newfound­ land, sailing into Trepassi with his black colours flying, drums beating and trumpets sounding, and booming out his guns in warning to all who heard them. There were twenty-two vessels in Trepassi harbour that morning. The crew of every vessel fled ashore as the pirate sloop sailed in, and for three days Roberts and his men wearied themselves in pillaging the vessels and setting them on fire—all except a galley from Bristol, which they fitted up for their own use. With this new craft they went out cruising on the Banks and captured ten French vessels, burning the whole lot save one of 26 guns, which Roberts moved into himself, giving the Bristol galley to the Frenchmen. They christened the new boat the Fortune, and with her went a-roving in company with the sloop, taking among others the Richard of Bideford, the Willing Mind of Poole, and the Expectation of Topsham, most of whose crews joined the pirates. Roberts was, therefore, in full force when he met the 210

The Adventures of Captain Roberts Samuel of London, a rich ship commanded by Captain Cary. The Samuel was making for Boston, and had been driven somewhat out of her course by a gale, when the look-out man sighted a couple of vessels making all the canvas they could, with the evident intention of over­ hauling them. Captain Cary himself climbed up to the cross-trees to see what these craft might be, and shrewdly suspecting that it could be no honest errand that made them in such a hurry, set all the sail he was able, to show them a clean pair of heels if possible. But Roberts and his men were not to be shaken off so easily. Their craft were fast sailers, whereas the Samuel was slow and heavily laden with merchandise from England. Early in the afternoon the foremost of the pursuers broke his black colours and fired a shot that carried away the Samuel’s bowsprit, whereupon, lest resistance or flight should make matters worse for himself, Captain Cary lay to, and with a sinking heart watched the pirates pulhng across to board him. As the scoundrels clambered up the sides and rushed on deck it seemed as though a set of fiends had been let loose. They tore up the hatches and leapt into the holds like a parcel of furies, hacking and slashing with their axes and cutlasses, ripping open bales, cases and boxes, smashing down partitions, and driving the terri­ fied crew before them with yells and curses. As the cargo was brought on deck, anything that they did not want for themselves they tossed overboard, all the time shouting, shrieking and cursing in a pandemonium worthy of Bedlam. A few wretched passengers were caught and tortured to reveal where their personal treasures were hid. At last, as night was falling, the ruffians began to oarry away their booty to the pirate craft, taking sails, guns, powder, cordage and some £9,000 worth of mer­ chandise. As they went, one of them—the quarter­ master it was—told Captain Cary that if ever they met 211

The Book of Pirates a stronger boat than themselves, and were in any danger of being overpowered, they would set fire to their magazine with a pistol, and all go merrily to blazes together. As for the Samuel, they had just decided to burn her, when, luckily for Captain Cary, a sail was spied on the horizon, and the villains left him, to go in search of new prey. Working down to the West Indies again, Roberts and his men now decided that they could do with a change of scene, and accordingly resolved to take up their station on the Guinea Coast, where there was always good trade to be driven. On the way thither they captured a French ship from Martinique, which was more to their purpose than the Fortune. So they moved into her, fitted her up, hoisted their black flag, re-christening her the Royal Fortune. And here occurred an instance of the extraordinarily bad seamanship that was so often characteristic of the pirates; for meaning to put in and clean at Brava, one of the Cape Verd Islands, they bungled their observa­ tions and sailing so badly that they got far to leeward of their port, and so hopelessly out of their reckoning, that they could Bee nothing for it but to put about and return on the Trade Wind to the West Indies. Surinam was the port they now meant to make, but it was over two thousand miles distant, and there was but a single hogshead of water for the whole crew of 124 souls! Well as the Trade Wind bore them, it could not take them fast enough, for before long the whole company were rationed to a mouthful of water per head for the twenty-four hours. Some of the men drank sea-water, the saltness of which only increased their thirst, and ended by driving them mad; others fell into a fever; and the only ones who could survive their thirst were those who ate a bare mouthful of bread a day, just enough to keep them alive, though they got almost too weak to work the vessel. However, bad luck turns, even for pirates, and in 212

The Adventures of Captain Roberts due time the Royal Fortune dropped anchor off the Maroni River, on the coast of Surinam, in Dutch Guiana. Here they got the much-wanted water and were able to rest and get ready for sea again. It was some weeks before they were fit to put out, but in due time Roberts weighed anchor from the mainland, and while capturing a ship or two off St. Kitts, learned of the expedition that had been made against him by the Governor of Martinique. The idea of daring so much as to think of thwarting his purposes so enraged this worthy pirate that he ordered a new flag to be made, of the approved black material but adorned with a portrait of himself standing with each foot firmly planted on a skull, one of which was labelled “A.B.H.,” the other “A.M.H.,” signifying respectively, “A Barbadian’s Head,” and “A Martinican’s Head”! They now ran up to Hispaniola, and put in to Bonnet’s Key, in the Bay of Samana, to clean the Royal Fortune and a Rhode Island brigantine they had added as consort. While they were here a couple of sloops put in to pay Roberts a visit. The masters, whose names were Porter and Tuckerman, addressed the pirate much as the Queen of Sheba addressed King Solomon, saying that as they had heard tell of his wisdom and achieve­ ments they had come to learn something of the high art of piracy, being On the Account themselves. What secrets Roberts imparted to them is not known, but after three or four days and nights of merrymaking, he sent them away with the pious hope that “Heaven would prosper their handiwork!” Having got their stores on board the Royal Fortune, and being all ready to sail, a farewell week was spent in carousing at Bonnet’s Key. Rum was so plentiful that the man who remained sober was looked upon askance, as something of a traitor. To be sober was, indeed, to be a villain, as Harry Glasby found out to his cost. Glasby was a forced man, but owing to his knowledge of navigation had been made one of the mates o 213

The Book of Pirates of the Royal Fortune. He was a sober enough fellow and so heartily disliked his calling that one day, when the whole of the crew were asleep or dazed with rum, he and a couple more stole away into the woods, where they hoped to hide until the pirates had gone. Their presence was soon missed, however, for their very sobriety kept them under constant suspicion, and a great hunt was instituted. The three culprits were soon found and dragged back to the Royal Fortune, where they were put in irons while the court assembled to try them. The place appointed for the trial was the steerage, where a table was placed, loaded with pipes of tobacco and great jorums of rum, to assist in dispensing justice. The carpenter having been elected president of the court, he opened proceedings by recounting what the prisoners had done, and closed his speech by sentencing them all to death. One of the other judges, however, told him not to be in such a hurry, and suggested that everyone should smoke a pipe before passing sentence. This was done, and the president presently rose again, to repeat his sentence of death. Upon this, one of the judges, Valentine Ashplant by name, who had been a “lord” in the days of Howel Davis, rose from the barrel on which he had been seated and addressed the court. “By Hercules,” he said, taking the long pipe out of his mouth, “Glasby shall not die; hang me, if he shall!” After which learned speech he sat down and took another pull at his pipe. His brother judges not appearing convinced, Ash­ plant rose again. “Hang and quarter ye, gentlemen,” he roared. “I’m as good a man as the best of you! Sink me if ever I turned my back on any man in my life, or ever will, bum me! Glasby is an honest fellow, rot him, and if he must die, I’ll die along with him!” Saying which, he whisked out a couple of pistols and presented them at some of the judges, who, seeing Glasby’s case pleaded with such forceful arguments, at 214

“By Hercules !” he said, “Glasby shall not die; hang me if he shall !

The Adventures of Captain Roberts once acquitted him, though his companions were executed that very afternoon. Soon after this solemn event the pirates weighed anchor from Hispaniola, determined to reach the African coast, this time, without misadventure, exoept that the brigantine, commanded by “Lord” Anstis, left Roberts one night and put back to the West Indies. Undis­ mayed by this defection Roberts pushed on to the African mainland, making his landfall near the mouth of the River Senegal, where the sight of his Jolly Roger, with its skeletons and skulls, soon reduced the merchant skippers—mostly Frenchmen—to a state of abject terror. His first action, indeed, was to seize the two French men-of-war that patrolled those waters to protect the shipping. Taking them into Sierra Leone, he converted one into a consort, to which he gave the name of the Ranger, and turned the other into a supply tender. Sierra Leone was at that time a prime place for pirates, for the right bank of the river was indented with lots of little places where a vessel could be careened snugly and in secret, while the thirty Englishmen who lived thereabouts were mostly men of ill-repute, many of them having been pirates themselves in former days. The chief of these was an old buccaneer known as Crackers, who managed the affairs of the community and put the pirates up to any wickedness that might not have occurred to them—though, to do them justice, they had little enough need for his services in that respect. After six weeks’ stay in this little West African sink of evil, the pirates coasted down as far as Jaquin, plun­ dering every ship they met, and capturing, amongst others, a fine vessel called the Onslow, belonging to the Royal African Company, which they exchanged for their old French-built Royal Fortune, now beginning to show signs of her long voyages and pretty rough usage. So they handed over the old boat to Captain Gee, com­ mander of the Onslow, but kept the name Royal Fortune 215

The Book of Pirates for their new craft, which they mounted with forty guns and altered to fit their special business requirements. After Jaquin the pirates pushed along the coast to Old Calabar, and then made for the Slave Coast, hugging the shore past Axim, Cape Coast Castle, Accra and so on to Whydah, where they sailed gaily into the road with a St. George’s Ensign and a black silk flag at the mizen peak, and a black jack flying at the main. There were eleven sail in Whydah road when the pirate fleet put in—English, French and Portuguese— and most of their masters were on shore doing business with the merchants of the place. Their anger and chagrin can well be imagined as they saw Roberts capturing their vessels one after another, and calmly putting a prize crew aboard each. Some of them even rowed out to the Royal Fortune to see what could be done, but Roberts would listen to nothing less than the ransom of the boats, which was effected in most instances, the pirates giving a due and formal receipt, couched thus; This is to certify whom it may or doth concern that WE GENTLEMEN OF FORTUNE have received eight pounds of gold-dust for the ransom of the “ Hardy,” Captain Dittwitt, commander, so that we discharge the said ship. Witness our hands, Jan. 13, 1722. |®ABT ^5)BERT9’ I Harry Glasby.

The Portuguese captains, being less cognizant of the English language, had their certificates signed with all sorts of foolish names such as “Aaron Whifflingpin,” and “Sim. Tugmutton.” As for one of the English ships, the Porcupine, she had been partly loaded with slaves when the pirates appeared, and her captain refusing to pay the indemnity demanded by Roberts, the pirate sent a boatload of men to take the slaves off and set the ship on fire. When they boarded the Porcupine, the pirates were in such 216

The Adventures of Captain Roberts haste to start the work of destruction that they did not wait to liberate the wretched negroes, who lay in the hold chained two by two, but set fire to the boat im­ mediately. The negroes, to the number of eighty, were left with no alternative but to perish in the flames or throw themselves into the sea, where the sharks made as certain an end of some as the blazing vessel did of the rest. While these events were doing, two English men-otwar, the Swallow and the Weymouth, were cruising up and down the long strip of mainland allotted as their station, looking for pirates. Each ship they met had stories of the atrocities enacted at every port from Sierra Leone to Old Calabar. At daybreak on February 5th, the Swallow was beating down to Cape Lopez when the officer on watch was surprised to hear the report of a heavy gun, fired at no great distance. As the day brightened and the sun rose above the headland, they discovered three ships at anchor, the largest of which was flying the Union Jack at her main peak. Men on board, who had volunteered further up the coast and had but too good reason to recognize the vessels, informed Captain Chailoner Ogle, commander of the Swallow, that the largest boat was the flagship of Roberts the pirate. The man-of-war was to windward and the uncertain navigation of the bay obliged her to keep well out. Seeing this, and thinking the vessel to be a merchantman, Roberts righted the Ranger, which was then on the careen, and sent her out at once in pursuit. Captain Ogle was clever enough to sense what was in the pirates’ mind, and, to keep up the game, clapped on all the canvas he could, as though he were trying to make good his escape. The Ranger came on apace, never dreaming that anyone would dare to play a trick or attempt to take them by stratagem. When they came within gun­ shot the pirates hoisted the black flag and got their spritsail-yard alongside to be ready to board. None 217

The Book of Pirates of them had the least idea what the prize might be. Some thought she was a Portuguese trader, loaded with sugar; others swore she was a slaver. All doubts on the matter were dispelled, however, and immensely to their surprise, when, as they came within pistol shot, the Swallow suddenly brought to, hauled up her lower ports and let fly a broadside. Caught unawares, the pirates first of all struck their colours; then sheering off, started to fight again in a desultory fashion; but after a couple of hours they struck their colours again and allowed a boarding party from the Swallow to come aboard. When Captain Ogle took possession, he found that the Ranger was armed with 32 guns, and maimed with 77 Englishmen, 16 Frenchmen and 20 negroes. As he and his men clambered aboard, the pirates wrapped their black ensign round a couple of heavy cannon balls and threw it overboard, so that it migh^ not be brought up in evidence against them. Having taken over the ship Captain Ogle went back to the Swallow and sent a boat to transport the prisoners from their vessel to the man-of-war; but as they were pulling across to her the marines saw a whiff of smoke pour out of the pirate’s cabin window and heard a dull report. It seems that half a dozen of the most desperate ruffians, among whom was the captain of the Ranger, a rascal called James Skyrm, had dragged out their remaining barrel of powder and fired a pistol into it, with the intention of blowing the vessel and themselves into the air; but the amount of powder was too small to do more than bum and scorch them most terribly. One of those who tried to blow up the Ranger was a certain William Main. Seeing that this man had a whistle hanging on a cord round his neck, one of the Swallow’8 officers said: “I suppose you are the boatswain of this ship.” “Then you suppose wrong,” said Main. “I am boatswain of the Royal Fortune, Captain Roberts.” # 218

The Adventures of Captain Roberts “Then, Mr. Boatswain, you will be hanged, I believe,” replied the officer. “That is as your honour pleases,” said Main, and turned away. The prisoners were all securely ironed and stowed down in the Swallow’s hold, and then, after laying off and on for a couple of days, Captain Ogle sailed back to where he had left the Royal Fortune. On the morning of the 10th the Swallow rounded Cape Lopez and was sighted by the men of the Royal Fortune. Captain Roberts was down in his cabin, making a breakfast of a dish of salmagundy, a sort of cold meat salad, and strong beer, when a man hurried down to tell him that a strange vessel was coming in, and that one of the men recognized her as a man-of-war, called the Swallow. Roberts’s first notion was to sail out of the bay, giving and receiving a broadside from the Swallow as he did so. He came up on deck, a gallant figure enough, in a rich crimson damask waistooat and breeches, a red feather in his hat, gold chain round his neck, sword in hand and two pairs of pistols hanging from a silken sling round his neck. Running close up to the Swallow he hoisted his black flag, received the man-of-war’s broadside and returned it. Had he gone before the breeze he might well have got away, but through bad seamanship or a sudden shifting of the wind the Royal Fortune was taken aback and the Swallow crept up again, to deliver another broadside. With a thunderous roar grape-shot and cannon-balls whizzed across the pirate’s deck. A piece of metal struck Roberts in the throat and he sank back, without a word, on to the tackles of a gun. Seeing him fall, Stephenson, the man at the helm, ran forward to assist him; but the pirate captain was already dead. As the battle raged around, two or three of his crew hurried forward and catching him in their arms heaved the dead 219

The Book of Pirates pirate captain overboard, with his arms and ornaments all on him, as he had told them to do if ever he died in battle. Roberts was a tall, dark man, some forty years of age, and, until three years before his death, had been an honest sailor enough. Had he never been pressed into the service by Howel Davis he would probably have lived and died a worthy seaman. But chance and circum­ stances had been too much for him. With the death of Roberts the whole strength of the pirates’ defence flickered out, and before half an hour was up, the Royal Fortune struck her colours, and was being towed back to Cape Coast Castle, where on arrival the rogues were taken ashore and clapped into dungeons to await their trial. Harry Glasby, it may be of interest to know, was acquitted, but as for the rest, they were nearly all found guilty and hanged between tide-marks outside Cape Coast Castle, where they swung in the wind for many a long day under the hard, hot sun of the Gold Coast.

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CHAPTER XV The Barbary Corsairs

“Z^XUR ship was surprised in the grey of the morning by a Moorish rover of Sallee, who gave chase to us with all the sail she could make. We crowded also as much canvas as our yards would spread, or our masts carry, to have got clear; but finding the pirate gained upon us, and would certainly have come up with us in a few hours, we prepared to fight; our ship having twelve guns, and the rover eighteen. “About three in the afternoon he came up with us, and bringing to, by mistake, just athwart our quarter instead of athwart our stem, as he intended, we brought eight of our guns to bear on that side, and poured in a broadside upon him which made him sheer off again, after returning our fire and pouring in also his small shot from near two hundred men which he had on board. However, we had not a man touched, all our men keeping close. He prepared to attack us again, and we to defend ourselves, but laying us on board the next time upon our other quarter, he entered ninety men on our decks, who immediately fell to cutting and hacking the decks and rigging. We plied them with small-shot, half-pikes, powder-chests, and such like, and cleared our decks of them twice. However, to cut short this melancholy part of our story, our ship being disabled, and three of our men killed and eight wounded, we were obliged to yield; and were all carried prisoners to Sallee, a port belonging to the Moors.” 1 wonder how many of my readers recognize in the above a quotation from “Robinson Crusoe,” that most 221

The Book of Pirates glorious of all English stories, that is not read half so much nowadays as it ought to be. The Sallee rovers or Barbary Corsairs were, for three hundred years, a source of trouble and menace to Europe, and not until exactly a hundred years ago, in 1830, when the French occupied Algiers, were the waters of the Mediterranean safe for navigation. Need­ less to say, the story of this long reign of tyranny would take long in telling, so in this chapter I propose to give simply an outline of some of the things that happened in the days of those fierce, dark pirates, who took their toll of the ships that cruised in the blue waters of the Mediterranean and flooded the North African ports with the white slaves and merchandise they captured from them. One summer day, in the year of grace 1504, two huge galleys, with something like thirty banks of oars each, were leisurely rowing southwards past the Isle of Elba. One was some miles behind the other, for the great craft were unwieldy and needed a lot of sea room, but the sea was smooth, the sky serene, with scarcely a breath of wind—though that was of little consequence to a mariner when he had some two hundred slaves pulling at the oars and kept to their work by well-plied lashes. The galleys were loaded almost down to the gunwales with a vast treasure of merchandise being transported from Genoa to Civita Vecchia, whence it would be taken to Rome, the great centre of the civilized world. That was how it happened that from their mastheads fluttered the white flag and crossed keys of St. Peter, for the galleys belonged to Hi« Holiness Pope Julius II, a great and powerful temporal monarch, the splendour of whose court was renowned throughout Europe. Suddenly, from the concealment of a cove or sheltered bay on the coast of Elba, a small galleot—a craft but half the size of the papal galleys-royal, having but eighteen banks of oars—darted out like a hawk on its 222

The Barbary Corsairs prey, and made for the nearest galley. At first the papal captain watched the oncoming galleot with sur­ prise, for such a thing as piracy was unknown in the Mediterranean, and not in the memory of man had any vessel been molested, save, of course, by the ships of some country with which they chanced to be at war. But the Pope had been at peace with all the world for some time, and his ships had no foe to fear upon the sea. Nearer and nearer sped the little craft. Neither slackening nor increasing the stroke of her long oars the great galley swept on, in haughty indifference. Far away on the horizon could be seen the tapering masts of her consort, leisurely following on the southward track. Suddenly the little galleot lay back on her oars and waited for the advancing ship; almost at the same moment a man at the mast-head on the latter saw that the smaller boat was full of turbaned men, with scimitars Hashing in their hands. Something was evidently amiss! He shouted the news below and the next moment the great galley was a scene of confusion. Drums beat to arms, the slaves at the oars were lashed unmercifully to get more way on the boat, and the captain and his officers hurriedly consulted as to what had better be done. By this time the vessel was alongside, and all doubt as to the stranger’s intentions were dispersed by a volley of shot and cross­ bow bolts that swept the galley’s decks. A moment later, and, with a scream and yell, the Turks were clamber­ ing aboard. There was no chance of putting up a fight, even if His Holiness’s men had been in a position to do so. They were practically unarmed and had no alterna­ tive but to yield to their wild-eyed captors, who soon clapped them all under hatches. Not content with this rich prize, the Turkish captain declared that he would have her consort. Hastily stripping the Christian prisoners of their clothes, he and his men doffed their turbans and dressed up in the captives’ garments; then ordering the slaves at the oars 223

The Book of Pirates to row slowly, on peril of their lives, he gently dawdled along till the consort came up, full of interest to know why they were making so little speed. She soon received an answer, in the form of a hurricane of shot and bolts, and before very long was likewise made a prize. A few days later the Arab merchants and seamen in the Golletta of Tunis were amazed to see two huge galleysroyal, accompanied by a little galleot, come rowing into the harbour with all speed. At first they thought it was an armed invasion—for in those days wars were declared suddenly and blows struck speedily. But all fears were soon dispelled at sight of the Turks who manned the great ships, and amazement was turned to rejoicing when the anchors were dropped, and a small boat rowed to the shore bearing a familiar figure, at sight of whom they broke into cheer upon cheer that echoed across the harbour. The bold seaman who had done this deed, and thus opened the great campaign of the Barbary Corsairs which was to last for three hundred years, was Uruj Barbarossa, or Red-Beard, so called from his great red beard and shock of flaming hair. He was a native of the Isle of Lesbos, in the Greek Archipelago, and when a simple reis, or skipper of a galleot, had conceived the idea of lying in wait for some of the great galleons that plied between the ports of Italy and Spain and the wonderful New World that Columbus had recently discovered. The King of Tunis, to whom Uruj went with his plans, listened sympathetically, and offered his harbour as a safe retreat and base for the pirate captain’s expeditions, in return for a handsome share in the profits. As we have seen, it was not an argosy from the New World, but a couple of papal galleys that gave Uruj his first taste of the pleasures of plunder. The two great galleys-royal provided Barbarossa with more than mere treasure. Their Christian crews were as valuable to him as the silks and merchandise, 224

The Barbary Corsairs for they supplied him with a good band of stout oarsmen —slaves who would row his vessels out against other Christian craft, and leave the Turks free to do what they excelled at—fight and ravage. And so well did he carry out his programme that during the next few years he and his Corsair consorts wrought havoc upon the Spanish and other shipping that passed through the Straits of Gibraltar or traded between the Mediterranean ports. The first set-back the Corsairs received was in 1512, when Uruj, at the request of the King of Bougie, went thither to help him against the Spaniards. In the fight Uruj had his left arm blown off, and was obliged to hand over the command at Tunis to his brother Khair-ed-Din. Now Barbarossa had done much damage to the shipping of Genoa, and that city sent across her famous Admiral Andrea Doria to exact reparations from the Corsairs. He arrived off Tunis, sacked the fortress, took half of Barbarossa’s fleet captive and sailed back in triumph to Genoa, having, as he thought, for ever clipped the talons of this savage bird of prey. Covered with shame at this disgrace, Uruj and Khair-ed-Din sought a new nest, and finally settled on the little harbour of Jijelli, which afforded good anchorage and was at the same time so defended by rocks and mountains as to be almost impregnable. Uruj was now Sultan of Jijelli; but he had not been long on his new throne when an urgent summons came from Prince Salim of Algiers, beseeching his help to throw off the power of Spain. With six thousand men and sixteen galleots Uruj answered the call, landed at Algiers, began the assault on the Spanish fortresses— and soon proved himself a worse foe to the Moors than the Christians whom they had invited him to drive away! Salim was murdered in his bath—rumour said by Uruj himself—and in despair the Moors actually asked the Spaniards to help them drive out the foe they had themselves invited within their walls. But the 225

The Book of Pirates Spaniards were powerless, their soldiers were beaten by the Turks in open fighting, while a storm drove all their ships on shore. Before long the Corsairs were masters of Algiers, and by 1517, Uruj was the supreme monarch of practically the whole of North Africa. This was a state of affairs the King of Spain, after­ wards the famous Emperor Charles V, could not tolerate. He sent an army of ten thousand veterans, under the command of the Marquis de Comares, who marched on the Corsair Sultan, who chanced to be at Tlemcen at the time. Uruj’s forces were too weak to fight, so he ordered a retreat on Algiers; though Comares was close on his heels. At last they came to a river with steep banks, where, to delay Ids pursuers, Uruj scattered great quantities of gold and jewels, hoping that the notoriously greedy Spaniards would delay their march to pick up the treasure. But Comares was not that sort of man. He pushed his troops ruthlessly on, trampled the treasure into the dust, and reached the Turks just as half their force had crossed the river. The shouts of the rear-guard as the Christians attacked them brought Uruj to the scene of the fray. He engaged all his men and a terrific fight ensued, the Turks facing their foes until not a man was left. Staunch amongst his falling warriors stood the figure of Uruj, his flaming beard and hair acting as a beacon, his one arm sweeping round and round with a long, keen scimitar, defying the foe until he, too, fell— almost the last of his men. On the death of his brother, Khair-ed-Din held his breath. Surely this was to be the end of the Corsair kingdom 1 Comares had but to march on Algiers and the whole edifice of Uruj’s sovereignty would be swept away! But Comares was a Spaniard and considered mañana—or, why do to-day what can be put off till to-morrow ?—was as good a proverb in war as in peace. Leaving the conquest of Algiers to another day, he shipped his troops back to Spain, and gave Uruj’s brother 226

The Barbary Corsairs just the chance he wanted to collect his forces and pre­ pare for fresh deeds of violence. Khair-ed-Din, who took his dead brother’s name of Barbarossa, was an even greater man than Uruj, for not only was he a gallant warrior, but he was a statesman who looked further ahead than to the mere success of the day. He got his position recognized by the Sultan Selim in Constantinople, the Grand Signior as he was called, who appointed him Beglerbeg or Governor-general of Algiers, and with this title posed as guardian of the western outposts of the Moslem Empire. Khair-ed-Din now began a regular campaign of piracy. During the fair weather of the summer his galleots ravaged the Western Mediterranean, round the Balearic Islands, along the coasts of Spain and France, and even through the Straits to intercept the treasure laden galleons from the New World to Cadiz. He and his captains—Dragut, Salih Reis, Aydin Reis,whom the Span­ iards called Cacha-diablo or Drub-Devil—came to be known far and wide as the scourge of Christendom. He drove the Spaniards out of their fortresses overlooking Algiers, and razed the castle to the ground, using the stones to build the mole that still protects that harbour on the west. Christian slaves were employed for over two years on this work, slaves who had once been honest sailors, merchants and the like, on ships that Drub-Devil and his brother-rogues captured. At last the remarkable success Khair-ed-Din and his officers achieved in the Mediterranean aroused the curio­ sity and envy of the Grand Signior, who, after repeated invitations, at last persuaded the Beglerbeg of Algiers to visit Constantinople with hie fleet. So one fine day the Barbary navy sailed into the Golden Hom, where Khair-ed-Din and his captains went ashore to pay their respects to the Sultan. The divan was thronged as the Corsair and his eighteen captains entered. The Sultan and his Grand Vizier Ibrahim soon realized that these were the men—and the only men—to reorganize the 227

The Book of Pirates Turkish fleet, which had suffered as much at the hands of Andrea Doria and the Christian admirals as the Christians themselves had at the hands of Khair-ed-Din. So Barbarossa was made chief admiral, and proved his worth by utterly routing Andrea Doria at the battle of Prevesa, September 25, 1537. Khair-ed-Din was now an old man, though he was as vigorous and war-like as ever. The whole Mediter­ ranean quaked at his name, and so great was his repute that it was largely to secure his services that in 1543 Francis I made the unholy alliance between France and the Moslems against the Emperor Charles V. It must have been a curious sight, in the July of that year, when the Turkish fleet, a hundred and fifty ships strong, sailed into the Gulf of Lyons and dropped anchor in the harbour of Toulon. The great vessels were officered by turbaned Turks, it was true; but down below, seated at the oars, were thousands of Christian slaves, who, in a Christian port, were dying off like flies with fever and hardships. Their places were filled by poor wretches from the shore, taken by the Turkish press-gang that cleared the streets of Toulon at night, and carried off harmless men from the wine-shop or even from their own homes, to end their days as slaves at the oar. To such a depth had France descended. But even Francis I could not support the odium of having allied himself to the Turk against his brother Christians, and before very long made an opportunity of breaking off the treaty. After emptying his treasuries to pay the ravenous Corsairs, at last he got rid of Khaired-Din, loading him with wealth and handing over to him four hundred Moslem prisoners who had been galleyslaves, though the pirate captain himself refused to liberate a single one of the thousands of Christian captives he carried on his own boats! Two years later the old rover died at Constantinople, where his bones were long honoured as those of a saint. Such it is to be a successful rover! 228

The Barbary Corsairs Khair-ed-Din’s successor, as chief of the rovers, was Dragut, whose name had long been feared along the coasts of Italy and Sicily, where he had often harried the shipping and made successful landing parties; “nor dare any Christian vessel attempt to pass between Spain and Italy,” writes an old historian, “for if they offered it he infallibly snapped them up; and when he missed any of his prey at sea, he made himself amends by making descents along the coast, plundering villages and towns and dragging away multitudes of inhabitants into captivity.” Like most of us, Dragut had his ups and downs. In 1540 he chanced to fall into the hands of Andrea Doria, who sent him in chains to the oars. It happened that La Valette, one of Doria’s officers, who had himself served at the bench in Barbarossa’s ship, and knew Dragut, saw him bending over the oar. “Señor Dragut,” said he, “usanza de guerra”—fortune of war! The Corsair, who realized that the tables were turned, looked up from his toil with a laugh—“The luck has only changed!” he said. Three years later Barbarossa ran­ somed him for three thousand crowns and made him admiral of the fleet. And so the Corsairs went on, year after year, and generation after generation, one robber admiral succeeding another, and each and every one of them keeping the shipping in the Mediterranean in a state of dire terror. The old statesmen warriors such as Uruj Barbarossa, Khair-ed-Din and Dragut were never replaced; but the Barbary Corsairs developed into petty pirates pure and simple, taking no part in the world’s politics, but simply ravaging the merchant vessels of their prosperous European neighbours for the sake of what they could get. Some of their chief leaders were renegades—not even Turks, but Albanians, Hungarians and Italians. The old régime, in which the Beglerbeg, or governor, was himself the leader of the pirates, was now done away p 229

The Book of Pirates with; while that potentate stayed in Algiers and lived a life of sloth and pleasure, the danger was run and the profits on which he existed were won by the pirate captains. The Sallee Rovers, whom we mentioned at the open­ ing of this chapter, were simply a branch, so to speak, of the Corsairs who came from farther along the coast. The shores of Morocco are little adapted for shipping on a large scale, and the harbours are few and far between. Sallee itself, the only port where ships of any size ever called, was so poor a harbour that larger vessels had to anchor outside and land their goods in small boats. But this did not prevent any active trade being done by pirates in light craft which could dart hither and thither and, with inconceivable audacity, hold up large ships. They were banded together into a regular confed­ eracy, paid a recognized percentage of their “earnings” to the powers of the land, and were allowed a free market for their plunder. One of the greatest Barbary Corsairs of the seven­ teenth century, and one whose name deserves to be noted, was AH Pichinin, who, in 1638, set sail with a fleet of sixteen to harry the coast of Italy. He scoured the shores of Apulia, carrying off wealth and captives, and then made his way up the Adriatic, stopping and plundering every vessel he came across. In haste the Doge and Senate of Venice prepared to tackle the robber foe. A famous admiral, Marino Capello, was sent out to meet him, and so vigorously did he drive home his attack that AU and his fleet fled to the harbour of Valona, on the coast of Albania. Not content with this, Capello chased them right into the roadstead, and driving the Corsair crews ashore, towed their craft out to sea and left them stranded. This was a blow to AU Pichinin that took some time to recover from, but a couple of years later we find him with a fleet of at least Bixty-five vessels, and possessed of immense wealth and power. He had over six hundred 230

The Barbary Corsairs slaves, all Christians, whom he would not allow to turn Moslem (though he was a renegade himself) as thereby they would have been automatically delivered from bondage. “He actually cudgelled a Frenchman out of the name of Mustafa, which he assumed with a Turkish dress,” says Morgan, the chronicler of Algiers, “into taking the name of John, which he would fain have renounced.” All the same, Ali Pichinin refused to have anything done for him except by Christians, for he feared the Turks would poison him or play some of their pranks upon him. Ali once gave a great feast to the chief Corsair captains, in the garden of his estate, some two miles out of Algiers. All the food for the feast was prepared in the admiral’s kitchen and passed along from hand to hand by his Christian slaves up to the garden house “where as much of the victuals as got safely thither arrived smoking hot,” though it was mighty little that did get so far, for “the Christian slaves wore hooks on their fingers,” it was said, and appeared to enjoy the same dishes as Ali and his guests! This is the less to be wondered at when it is remembered that Ali gave his slaves no bread at any time, but told them that they were not worth the name of human beings if, in the hour or two before sunset when he let them loose, they could not pick up enough to keep them alive. The result of this was that Ali’s slaves became the greatest thieves in all Algiers, though when they were reported to their master he only blamed the losers of property for not being wider awake, and told his slaves that they were getting worth keeping I Throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the Corsairs carried on their brigandage of the Mediter­ ranean, and not until 1830, when the French took the matter energetically in hand, was it brought to an end by the subjugation of Algiers and the occupation of the city by French troops. The Corsair boats were very different from the ships

231

The Book of Pirates we have hitherto been accustomed to thinking of in connexion with the other pirates mentioned in this book. Instead of tall masts and a gallant spread of canvas, we must picture narrow craft, furnished with a mast, it is true, but generally progressing by means of oars. In the larger vessels—galleys, as they were called—each oar had as many as six men working at it, but in the smaller craft called galleots the more usual number was three. Bow and stem were fitted with decks for the navigators and boarders, and between them, in the ship’s waist, were the benches or banks for the rowers, who for hours on end had to work at the huge oars. Here are two descriptions—the first from a man who had served at the oar himself—that give a vivid picture of what a galley-slave’s life was like. It should be remembered that these words apply to slaves in Christian galleys—French or Italian. How much worse must have been their condition on the Moslem pirate craft? “Think of six men chained to a bench, naked as when they were bom, one foot on the stretcher, the other on the bench in front, holding an immensely heavy oar of some fifty feet long, bending forwards to the stem with arms at full reach to clear the backs of the rowers in front, who bend likewise; and then, having got forward, pushing the oar’s end to let the blade catch the water, then throwing their bodies back on to the groaning bench. A galley oar sometimes pulls thus for ten, twelve or even twenty hours without a moment’s rest. The boatswain or other sailor, at such times, places a piece of bread steeped in wine in the wretched rower’s mouth to keep him from fainting, and then the captain shouts the order to double the lash. If a slave falls exhausted upon his oar, as often happens, he is flogged till he is taken for dead, and then tossed carelessly into the sea.” This is what another says: “There are ranks and files of half-naked, half-starved, half-tanned, meagre wretches, chained to a plank from whence they remove 232

The Barbary Corsairs not for months together (commonly half a year), urged on even beyond human strength with cruel and repeated blows on their bare flesh to an incessant continuation of the most violent of all exercises; and this for whole days and nights successively, which often happens in a furious chase.” Nor was this a mere interlude in a man’s life. A captive might well work twenty years, or even his whole existence (for rarely did a merciful providence allow a galley-slave to live so long), without any change in his condition. They were chained so close together that what little sleep was to be had was in a cramped posture, for there was no room to lie at full stretch. For food, he had a drop of oil floating on some vinegar and water; sopped biscuit; and occasionally a little gruel or Bloppy soup, though this was not issued when there was any speed required, for a full man makes no good rower I Down the centre of the ship, between the two lines of these forlorn, hopeless creatures, ran the bridge, along which the two boatswains walked up and down, lash in hand, ready to lay it with dreadful severity across the back of any man who seemed to slack. Men were turned into mere animals—worse than animals, for some con­ sideration was shown to dumb brutes, whereas the slaves who toiled and laboured at the oar aroused no pity at all. No one seemed to think anything of it, and even a refined and noble lady like Madame de Sevignd could say that she “would like to see that sort of hell,” and the slaves “groaning day and night under the weight of their chains.” It might have amused her, it would certainly not have distressed her. The Algerine galleot usually had a crew of some two hundred slaves and a hundred fighting men, who received no pay except from what they captured at sea, and were given no food other than common biscuits and a certain allowance of oil and vinegar. These soldiers were allotted definite places in which to sit or stand, for the Corsairs understood the navigation of their 233

The Book of Pirates own craft well, and got the best out of their ships by trim­ ming them properly, and maintaining a strict discipline. When they were chasing, or being chased, no one was allowed to move more than was necessary, that the rhythm of the rowers should not be interrupted. In this style the Barbary Corsairs went out on their forays, well equipped, as their chronicler shows, with the ordinary commonsense of their trade: “While the Christians with their galleys are in repose, sounding their trumpets in the harbours, and very much at their ease regaling themselves, passing the day and night in banqueting, cards and dice, Corsairs at pleasure are traversing the east and west seas, without the least apprehension, as free and absolute sovereigns thereof. Nay, they roam them up and down no otherwise than do such as go in chase of hareB for their diversion. They here snap up a ship laden with gold and silver from India, and there another richly fraught from Flanders; now they make a prize of a vessel from England, then of another from Portugal. At other times carrying with them as guides renegadoes (of which there are in Algiers vast number of all Christian nations, nay, the generality of the Corsairs are no other than renegadoes, and all of them exceedingly well acquainted with the coasts of Christendom, and even within the land), they very deliberately, even at noon-day or indeed just when they please, leap ashore and walk on without the least dread, and advance into the country ten, twelve, or fifteen leagues or more, and the poor Christians, thinking themselves secure, are surprised unawares; many towns, villages and farms sacked, and the wretched inhabitants dragged away into a wretched captivity. With these miserable people, loaded with their own valuables, they retreat leisurely, their eyes full of laughter and content, to their vessels. In this manner they have utterly ruined and destroyed Sardinia, Corsica, Sicily, Calabria, all the Balearic Islands, and the whole coast of Spain. . . . “Before these Corsairs have been absent from their 234

The Barbary Corsairs homes twenty or thirty days they return home rich, with their vessels crowded with captives and ready to sink with wealth; in one instant, and without any trouble, reaping the fruits of all that the avaricious Mexican and greedy Peruvian have been digging from the bowels of the earth with such toil and sweat. Thus they have crammed most of the houses and all the shops of this Den of Thieves, Algiers, with gold, silver, pearls, amber, spices, rugs, silks, cloths, velvets, etc., whereby they have rendered this city the most opulent in the world.” When the fashion in galleys went out and sails came in, during the seventeenth century, it meant the delivery of a good many poor wretches from the toil of the rowing bank. But none the less there was slavery enough and to spare on shore for the captives taken by these pirates up and down the Mediterranean. In 1634, a priest reckoned that in Algiers alone there were twenty-five thousand Christian slaves. When a boatload of human booty was brought in by a Corsair galleot, the cargo of slaves was driven to market and sold like brute beasts, being marched up and down to show off their paces, and subjected to hideous indig­ nities by vendor and purchaser alike. The latter often bought slaves merely as a commodity to be sold again at a profit, and the prices of Christians on the market were quoted daily among the prices of com, meat, and oil. The best-looking slaves were soon snapped up, to be employed as personal servants or, if very young, taken into Corsair households where they were brought up as seamen or warriors. Those poor wretches who had neither youth nor good looks to enhance their value were put into great prisons—warehoused, in fact—until they should be wanted. These prisons contained cells into which, small as they were, fifteen or more slaves would be herded— priests, merchants, artisans, ladies, dairymaids, all higgledy-piggledy. Some had hopes of being ransomed by their friends or relatives, others could entertain no 235

The Book of Pirates such fancies, and had little alternative but to give them­ selves up to despair. One of such slaves was to acquire immortality after his ransom. Miguel Cervantes de Saavedra, later to be famous as the author of “Don Quixote,” was returning to Spain from the campaign he had fought in Naples, where he had lost his left arm at the battle of Lepanto, when his ship was taken by the Corsairs and, among the rest, he was landed as a slave at Algiers. For two years Cervantes languished in misery, accompanied by his brother Rodrigo, who had fallen upon the same fate. Their father, by pinching and scraping, managed to save enough to ransom one of them, and the Corsairs let Rodrigo go free; but not until five years had elapsed, five years of torture and misery, during which he made various futile attempts to escape, was Miguel ransomed by a pious priest for the sum of £100—an act of generosity for which the world has cause to be profoundly grateful. Occasionally the various governments voted small sums for the redemption of their subjects, and some­ times slaves managed to get free, somewhat after the fashion described by Defoe in “Robinson Crusoe.” On one occasion about seventy slaves, mostly from Majorca, conspired to get away in a brigantine that was ready to put to sea. Having appointed a rendezvous, at dead of night they all got down a sewer that emptied on to the beach, and as it was low tide made their way through in safety. Unfortunately some of the dogs, with which every Moslem town swarms, ran at them, barking. The men managed to kill some of the beasts with stones and drove the others away, but the noise had aroused the watchmen both on shore and on the ships, and immediately a cry arose: “Christians! Christians!” About forty of the slaves got into the boat, tossed those on board her into the sea, and so made their escape. The Dey was quite pathetic about it: “I believe,” he complained, “those Christians will come one day and take us out of our houses!” 336

The Barbary Corsairs It was the United States Government that first took drastic action against the Barbary Corsairs. By the year 1803 every nation of Europe, as well as the U.S.A., was paying the Dey of Algiers a yearly subsidy—or bribe— to keep his Corsairs away from their shipping. The Bey of Tripoli, not to be behindhand, even assumed a haughty tone when dealing with the American Government, and demanded 10,000 stands of arms and forty cannon! At last the Americans grew weary of this blackmail and sent a squadron against Tripoli and the North African rogues. But unhappily one of the boats—the Philadelphia—went ashore on the Tripoli coast, and fell into the Corsairs’ hands. With the story of how the Americans robbed the rogues of their captured vessel I will close this account of the Barbary pirates. When Commodore Preble learned of the loss of his fleet, he ordered one of his most trusted officers, Lieutenant Decatur, commander of the ketch Intrepid, to go into the port of Tripoli and destroy the captured ship. The Intrepid was at Syracuse at the time; accom­ panied by the store-ship Siren she put to sea on February 3, 1804, and, after meeting a heavy gale, hove in sight of Tripoli on the afternoon of the 16th. The Siren stood further out from land, but the Intrepid made slowly towards the harbour, as though she were an ordinary merchantman; and lest the wind should carry her in too quickly—for Decatur did not want to get in before dark—they retarded her sailing by means of drags made of buckets towed astern, which held her back. The majority of the crew were sent below, and those on deck were dressed as Maltese, to allay any suspicions. When Decatur sighted the Philadelphia, he saw that she lay a good mile within the entrance of the harbour, and full abreast of the town. The guns from two fortresses covered her, and three cruisers and twenty gunboats lay close at hand. Her foremast was gone, the main and mizen masts were housed, and the yards lay on the gunwales.

The Book of Pirates It was ten o’clock when the Intrepid drifted into the harbour before the breeze. A young moon shone clear in the dark blue of the southern sky, and the harbour was silent save for the slapping of the sea against the ship’s sides. Lieutenant Decatur and the pilot stood aft, conning the Intrepid, and making, as though inadvertently, towards the Philadelphia. As they drew alongside, a man from the Intrepid hailed the watch on the captured vessel and asked if they might tie up to her for the night, as they had lost their anchor in the late gale; and so specious was his tale that the others sent across a hawser which Decatur’s men caught. Lying on their backs, under the shadow of the gunwale, they hauled on the cable to such good purpose that the ketch was warped right alongside the Philadelphia before the Tripolitans had realized what was happening. But once they saw what was a-doing, the watch on the Philadelphia shouted with all their might, “Americanos! Americanos I” The cry was taken up on the ships in the harbour and shouted across to the forts, swelling in such a volume of alarm that the pasha himself was roused from his sleep and demanded what in the name of Mohammed had happened. Meanwhile, the crew of the Intrepid had lashed their vessel to the Philadelphia and, headed by Decatur, boarded her in one wild rush. The terrified Tripolitans tore away from the Americans as though from veritable fiends; overboard they leaped, through the ports and down the chains, and in a very few minutes Decatur was in possession of the ship, at the cost of only one man slightly wounded. Once on board the Philadelphia, every man knew exactly what he had to do, and set about doing it without delay. Piles of combustibles were placed at certain vital spots all over the ship, and by the time the last man had come up on deck the hatches were beginning to belch forth smoke. No time was now lost in cutting adrift 238

Overboard they leaped, through ports and down the chains.

The Barbary Corsairs the Intrepid, nor, indeed, was there any time to be lost, for just as they swung clear, the flames from the old Philadelphia roared up in a great blaze and scorched the little ketch’s yards and hull. Let Commodore Charles Morriss, who was a young man then, and the first to board the Philadelphia in that mad scramble that won her, give an account of how they got clear from the harbour: “Up to this time the ships and batteries of the enemy had remained silent, but they were now prepared to act; and when the crew of the ketch gave three cheers in exultation of their success, they received the return of a general discharge from the enemy. The confusion of the moment probably prevented much care in their direction, and, though under the fire of nearly a hundred pieces for half an hour, the only shot which struck the ketch was one through the top-gallant sail. We were in great danger from the Philadelphia, whose broadsides commanded the passage by which we were retreating, and whose guns were loaded, and discharged as they became heated. We escaped these also, and, while urging the ketch onwards with sweeps, the crew were com­ menting upon the beauty of the spray thrown up by the shot between us and the brilliant light of the ship, rather than calculating any danger that might be apprehended from the contact. “The appearance of the ship was, indeed, magnificent. The flames in the interior illuminated her ports, and, ascending her rigging and masts, formed columns of fire, which, meeting the tops, were reflected into beautiful capitals; whilst the occasional discharge of her guns gave an idea of some directing spirit within her. The walls of the city and its batteries, and the masts and rigging of cruisers at anchor, brilliantly illuminated and animated by the discharge of artillery, formed worthy adjuncts and an appropriate background to the picture. “Fanned by a light breeze, our exertions soon carried 239

The Book of Pirates us beyond the range of their shot, and at the entrance of the harbour we met the boats of the Siren, which had been intended to co-operate with us, and whose crew rejoiced at our success, whilst they grieved at not having been able to partake in it.” After this gallant deed the Americans blockaded the coast of Tripoli, but the incident closed in a manner typical of all Christian dealings with the Barbary Corsairs, for an agreement was signed by which the shipping of the U.S.A, should be ever free of the ravages of the Corsairs —on receipt of a sum of sixty thousand dollars! After all, pirates will be pirates, as those who have read this book will have realized long ago.

MADB AND PRINTBD TN GBBAT BRITAIN BY OB1YCUNN (tAYLOI QABNBTT BVANS & CO. LTD.), WATPOBD, HBBTB 153