follow that, noticing the divergences from it in (_b_), and will take
no account of (_c_) and (_d_). Johnson begins: “None of the bold
adventurers on the Seas were ever so much talk’d of for a while as
Avery. He was represented in Europe as one that had rais’d himself
to the Dignity of a King, and was likely to be the Founder of a new
Monarchy; having, as it was said, taken immense Riches, and married
the Great Mogul’s Daughter, who was taken in an Indian Ship which fell
into his Hands; by whom he had many Children, living in great Royalty
and State: That he had built Forts, elected Magistrates, and was Master
of a stout Squadron of Ships, mann’d with able and desperate Fellows
of all Nations. That he gave Commissions out in his own Name to the
Captains of his Ships, and to the Commanders of the Forts, and was
acknowledg’d by them as their Prince. A Play was writ upon him,
call’d _The Successful Pyrate_;[17] and these Accounts obtained such
Belief that several Schemes were offer’d to the Council for sending
out a Squadron to take him; while others were for offering him and his
Companions an Act of Grace and inviting them to England with all their
Treasure, lest his growing Greatness might hinder the Trade of Europe
to the East Indies.
[Illustration: _Willm. Jeit delin. W. Pritchard sculpt._
_CAP^/T/. AVERY and his Crew taking one of the
GREAT MOGUL’S Ships_]
“Yet all these were no more than false Rumours, improv’d by the
Credulity of some, and the Humour of others who love to tell strange
Things; for, while it was said he was aspiring at a Crown, he wanted a
Shilling; and at the same Time it was given out he was in Possession of
such prodigious Wealth in Madagascar he was starving in England.”
John Avery was a native of Plymouth; according to (_b_) he was born in
1653. His father had served under Admiral Blake, then left the navy for
the merchant service, but died whilst John was still young, and to his
sixth year was brought up by his aunt, Mrs. Norris. The story in (_c_)
is that his mother kept the tavern with the “Sign of the Defiance,” and
because one night she refused to receive a drunken party of sailors,
in revenge they carried off her son and took him on board their ship,
where the captain, taking a liking to him, carried him with him to
Carolina. After three years he returned to Plymouth and was placed
under the guardianship of a Mr. Lightfoot. At the age of forty-four he
entered on board the _Duke_, a merchant vessel, Captain Gibson.
At this time, by the Peace of Ryswick, 1697, there was an alliance
betwixt Spain, England, and Holland against France; previous to this
the French had carried on a smuggling trade with the Spaniards in Peru,
which was against the law that reserved the trade with the Spanish
possessions in the New World to Spaniards alone. Accordingly a fleet
was ever kept at sea to guard the coast and seize as prizes any foreign
vessels that approached within a certain number of leagues. But as this
fleet was very inefficient, the French smugglers became vastly daring.
Accordingly, the Spanish Government, after the conclusion of the peace,
hired three large vessels, built at Bristol, to serve as preventive
ships on the South American coast. The merchants of Bristol at once
fitted out two of thirty guns each, and one hundred and twenty hands
apiece, for service under the Spanish Government, and one of them was
the _Duke_; and in it as mate sailed our hero, John Avery. These two
vessels were ordered to sail for Corunna, thence to take some Spanish
officers on board. Before sailing Avery, as first mate, got into close
communication with both crews and persuaded them to mutiny so soon as
they got to sea, and instead of serving the Spanish Government, to
sweep the Indian Sea as pirates. Captain Gibson was nightly addicted
to punch, and spent most of his time on land in drinking and getting
drunk. The day of sailing, however, he did not go ashore, but tippled
in his cabin. The men who were not privy to the design, as well as he,
turned into their hammocks, leaving none on deck but the conspirators.
At the time agreed upon, ten o’clock at night, the long-boat of the
consort, called the _Duchess_, approached. Avery hailed, and was
answered by the men, “Is your drunken boatswain on board?” which
was the watchword agreed upon between them. Avery replied in the
affirmative, and sixteen men from the boat came on board, joined the
company, and proceeded to secure the hatches. They did not slip the
anchor, but weighed it leisurely, and so put to sea without disorder,
though there were several ships lying around.
The captain awoke, roused by the motion of the vessel and the noise of
working the tackle, and rang his bell. Thereupon Avery and two others
went to him. He, half asleep, shouted out, “What is the matter?” To
which Avery replied coolly, “Nothing.” The captain retorted, “Something
is the matter. Does she drive? What is the weather?” “No, no,” said
Avery, “we are at sea with a fair wind.” “At sea!” exclaimed Captain
Gibson, “how can that be?” “Don’t be alarmed,” said Avery; “put on your
clothes, and I’ll let you into a secret. You must know that now I am
captain of the ship, and that henceforth this is my cabin, so please to
walk out of it. I am bound for Madagascar to seek my fortune, and that
of the brave fellows who have joined with me.”
The captain was now thoroughly roused, and in a great fright. Avery
bade him not fear. If he chose to throw in his lot with them, he would
be received, but must remain sober and mind his own business, and if
he conducted himself properly would be made lieutenant. If he refused
he might have the long-boat and go ashore in it. The captain preferred
the latter alternative; he was accordingly put into the boat along with
such seamen, five or six in all, who would not throw in their lot with
the mutineers. The two ships proceeded to Madagascar, and came across
a couple of sloops at anchor on the north-east of the island. These
were manned by mutineers as well, and both parties speedily came to
an agreement to hunt together, and they now sailed for India. Off the
mouth of the Indus they espied a large vessel flying the Great Mogul’s
colours. Avery opened fire, and the sloops ran close to her, one on
the bow, the other on the quarter, and boarded her. She at once struck
her colours. She was a vessel of the Great Mogul, bound with a load of
pilgrims for Arabia to make the annual pilgrimage to Mecca. On board
were also a lady with her retinue, whom they took to be a daughter of
the Mogul. The vessel was laden with treasure.
At this time much trouble and vexation to the East India Company was
caused by the interlopers. The Company had obtained their charter,
granting them exclusive rights to trade between India and England,
and they had certain determined ports where they had their factories.
But the trade was so profitable that companies of merchants and
private adventurers embarked on the trade in defiance of the rights
of the Company. They put into ports within the limits of the Company
concessions, but to which the ships of the latter did not resort, by
this means undermining and invading the rights of the Company. It
was more than that, it was a direct attack on the legal exercise of
the privileges of the Company. In 1695 the British Court informed
Sir John Gayer and the Presidency of Surat that the expedients which
had been adopted for suppressing the interlopers had failed at home
and abroad by their not being excluded from foreign markets, and the
Company’s servants were required to obstruct their sales in foreign
markets, and further to take measures against their entering the Indian
ports. In 1675-6, the interlopers being disappointed in the sales of
their cargoes and in the purchase of Indian produce, determined not
to return to Europe without realizing gains for themselves and their
employers, and they turned pirates and seized vessels belonging to the
native princes, and left the Company’s servants exposed to suspicion
and imprisonment and their property to seizure and confiscation. It
was precisely at this conjuncture that Avery’s little piratical fleet
made its capture. The vessel, the _Gunswek_, was bound from Bombay
for Daman. Avery cleared it of all its treasure, and only released
the pilgrims on payment of a heavy indemnity, and left the ship to be
steered back to Bombay by the native crew. As to the ladies on board,
Avery took to himself that one whom he supposed to be the daughter of
the Great Mogul, and let his crew toss up for the rest as partners.
John Bruce in his _Annals of the East India Company_ says nothing
of the retention of the ladies, nor of the capture of the Mogul’s
daughter. It is likely enough that some women were taken and retained,
but certainly no lady of so high a rank as the grand-daughter of
Aurungzebe.
This outrage produced very unpleasant effects. Already in September,
1695, an interloping vessel turned pirate, and, bearing English
colours, had plundered a ship belonging to Abdul Gopher, a merchant
of Surat, and the governor of the place had been obliged to set a
guard on the house of the Company to prevent its being wrecked by the
enraged natives, and the servants of the Company from being massacred.
News now arrived that the same pirate had attacked a ship belonging
to the Mogul, conveying pilgrims to Mecca. If the first injury to an
individual merchant was resented, this which was deemed a sacrilege
roused fanatical resentment to fury, and obliged the Governor to put
the President and all the English in irons to prevent their being torn
to pieces by the inhabitants.
The Governor desired French, Dutch, and English to send vessels
in search of the pirate, that by her capture the fact might be
ascertained as to who really was responsible. The French and Dutch
hesitated to comply, and the readiness of the English to go on this
service served somewhat to abate the hostility entertained against them.
Sir John Gayer, as General of the Company’s affairs, wrote to the
Mogul to assure him that the Company were not only ignorant of the
existence of such a pirate, but were ready to employ two of their ships
completely armed to convey the pilgrims to Jedda, if he would grant
that all the English but the Company should be debarred from trading in
his dominions. The Mogul answered “that the English, French, and Dutch
must go to sea in search of the thieves, but that the embargo he had
placed on all trade must continue till the innocence or guilt of the
English Company was proved.”
Mr. Bruce does not name John Avery as the pirate, but this must be the
case spoken of in his Life. It will be noticed that the dates do not
accord. The capture of the pilgrim vessel took place in the winter of
1693-4, and, according to Johnson, it was not till after the Peace of
Ryswick, 10 September, 1697, that Avery made the capture, and it was in
consequence of this treaty that he was able to get hold of the vessels.
From the date 1693 the pilgrims were annually conveyed to Jedda by
ships of the Company, so that Avery could not have captured one of them
after that date. Charles Johnson must have blundered in his facts.
The sum demanded by Avery for the release of the pilgrims was three
hundred thousand pounds, and he got it.
He had already established himself at Perim, and levied toll on all
vessels passing in and out of the Red Sea, but after this affair,
when large rewards were offered by the Company and by the British
Government for his capture, he deemed it advisable to change his
quarters and establish himself in Madagascar.
As the four vessels were steering their course, he sent on board each
of the sloops, desiring the captains to come to his vessel and meet in
council. They did so, and he told them that he had a proposal to make.
The treasure of which they were possessed would not be sufficient for
all; they might be separated by bad weather, in which case the sloops,
if either of them should fall in with any large armed vessels would be
taken or sunk, and the treasure on board lost as well. As for himself,
he and the _Duchess_, his consort, were strong enough to hold their
own against any ship they were likely to meet on the high seas, and
he proposed, therefore, that all the spoil should be put on board his
ship, each chest sealed with three seals, whereof each was to keep
one, and to appoint a rendezvous in case of separation. This proposal
seemed reasonable and was agreed to, and the treasure was conveyed on
board Avery’s vessel, and the chests sealed. They kept company that
day and the next, the weather being fine; and during this time Avery
tampered with his men. “What should hinder us,” said he, “from going
to some strange country where we are not known, and living on shore
all the rest of our days in plenty?” They understood his design, and
all agreed to bilk their new allies in the sloops and other vessel.
Accordingly they took advantage of the night, changed their course,
and next morning the sloops and _Duchess_ found themselves deserted in
mid-ocean. Avery and his men resolved to make the best of their way to
America, and there change their names, and purchase settlements, and
spend the rest of their days at ease.
The first land they made was the island of Providence, then quite
recently settled, and there they disposed of their vessel, under the
pretence that the _Duke_ had been fitted out as a privateer, but that
having met with no success, Avery said that he had received orders from
the owners to dispose of her to the best advantage. He soon met with a
purchaser, and immediately bought a sloop. In this vessel he and his
mates embarked. They touched at several ports, where no one suspected
them, and some of the crew went on shore and dispersed about the
country, and with the dividends given them by Avery, settled there.
At length he arrived at Boston, in New England, and there again some
of the crew left to establish themselves, and no doubt founded there
some of the Bostonian families now flourishing. Avery advised those who
remained to sail for Ireland. He had concealed and kept for himself a
great store of diamonds that had been secured in the ship of the Mogul,
and which his present comrades had not known how to value. These he
could not dispose of in New England, but hoped to realize in Ireland.
On their voyage they avoided St. George’s Channel, and sailing north,
put into one of the northern ports. There they disposed of the sloop
and separated; some went to Dublin, others to Cork. Some afterwards
obtained their pardon from King William.
Avery was afraid to dispose of his diamonds in Ireland, lest inquiry
should be made as to how he had come by them. He therefore crossed
over to England, to Bideford; and knowing of a man in Bristol who was
an old acquaintance, and whom he thought he could trust, he sent to
appoint a meeting in Bideford. The man came, and after consultation the
friend advised that the jewels should be entrusted to certain Bristol
merchants, who being men of wealth and credit, no suspicion would be
aroused if they disposed of them. No better plan could be devised,
Avery consented, the merchants were communicated with and came to
Bideford, where they received the diamonds, undertook to sell them and
remit the money to Avery, reserving to themselves a commission; and to
this he consented. He now changed his name and took up his residence
at Bideford, attracting no notice, but communicating with some of his
relations. After a while his money was spent, and not a word reached
him from the merchants. He wrote to them, and they sent him a supply of
money--not much, doled out from time to time. At last he could endure
this no longer, and went to Bristol to see the merchants, who coolly
told him that if he troubled them any further they would disclose to
the authorities who he was; “so that our merchants were as good pirates
on land as he was at sea.”
Whether alarmed at their threats, or that he fancied he had been seen
and recognized by some old comrades in Bristol, is not known; but he
crossed into Ireland, where he remained till destitute. Then in despair
he worked his way over before the mast in a trading vessel to Plymouth,
and thence made his way on foot to Bideford, where a few days later he
fell ill and died without so much money in his pocket as would buy him
a coffin.
In the meantime, the companions in the _Duchess_ and the two sloops
when deserted by Avery, finding that they were running short of
provisions, made their way to Madagascar. On their course they fell in
with a privateer sloop, commanded by Captain Tew, who had just captured
a large vessel bound from India to Arabia, with three hundred soldiers
on board besides seamen. By this prize his men shared £3000 apiece. Tew
and the crew of the _Duchess_ and the sloops agreed together to form
a settlement in Madagascar. According to (_b_) the pirates established
themselves on the east coast, lat. 15° 30′, where there was a bay and
an island before it.
Probably Antongil Bay is meant. They built a fort, finding the natives
divided up into clans under their several chiefs, who were incessantly
at war with one another--“So,” says Johnson, “they sometimes joyned one
sometimes another; but wheresoever they sided, they were sure to be
victorious; for the Negroes here had no Fire arms; so that at length
these Pirates became so terrible to the Negroes, that if two or three
of them were only seen on one Side, when they were going to engage, the
opposite Side would fly without striking a Blow. By this means they
not only became feared, but powerful; all the Prisoners of War they
took to be their slaves; they married the most beautiful of the Negro
women, not one or two only but as many as they liked. Their Slaves
they employ’d in planting Rice, in Fishing, Hunting, etc. Besides
which, they had abundance of others, who lived, as it were, under their
protection. Now they began to divide from one another, each living with
his own Wives, Slaves and Dependants, like a separate Prince; and, as
Power and Plenty naturally beget Contention, they sometimes quarrelled
with one another, and attacked each other at the Head of their several
Armies. But an Accident happened, which oblig’d them to unite again
for their common Safety. They grew wanton in Cruelty, and nothing was
more Common than, upon the slightest Displeasure, to cause one of their
Dependants to be tied to a tree, and shot thro’ the Heart.[18] This
occasioned the Negroes to conspire together, to rid themselves of
these Destroyers, all in one Night; and as they lived separately, the
Thing might easily have been done, had not a Woman, who had been the
Wife or Concubine of one of them, run nearly twenty Miles, in three
Hours, to discover the Matter to them. Immediately upon the Alarm, they
ran together as fast as they could; so that when the Negroes approached
them, they found them up in Arms, and retired without making any
Attempt. This Escape made them very cautious from that Time.”
Thenceforth they fortified their dwellings and converted them into
citadels.
“Thus Tyrant-like they lived, fearing and feared by all; and in this
situation they were found by Captain Woods Rogers when he went to
Madagascar in the _Delicia_, a ship of forty guns, with a Design of
buying Slaves in order to sell them to the Dutch at Batavia or New
Holland. He happened to touch upon a part of the Island where no Ship
had been seen for seven or eight Years before; here he met with some of
the Pyrates, when they had been upon the Island above 25 Years, having
a large motly Generation of Children and Grandchildren descended from
them, there being, at that Time, eleven of them remaining alive....
Thus he left them as he found them, in a great Deal of dirty State and
Royalty, but with fewer Subjects than they had. One of these great
Princes had formerly been a Waterman upon the Thames, where having
committed a Murder, he fled to the West Indies, and was of the number
of those who run away with the Sloops; the rest had been all foremast
men, nor was there a Man amongst them, who could either read or write.”
Such is Captain Charles Johnson’s account. There are several
difficulties about accepting his narrative about Avery. From whom
could he have obtained the story? Possibly a part of it from the
pirates who obtained their pardon from William III, but not as to the
end of John Avery.
The story as told in (_c_) is quite different. According to Adrian van
Broeck, Avery did not desert the _Consort_, the _Duchess_, nor the
sloops, but all together went to Madagascar and settled there. In that
settlement, his wife, the daughter of the Mogul, bore him a son, and
died of a broken heart.
The second in command was a M. de Sales, who after a while, impatient
at being second, organized a revolt among the Frenchmen who were there,
captives from a French vessel taken by the pirates. As soon as the
watch-bell sounded they were to seize the principal fort, and not spare
any man, woman, or child. One of de Sales’ crew, named Picard, betrayed
the plot to a Cornishman named Richardson, who told it to Avery, and
precautions were taken to surround the French on parade, and make all
prisoners. Avery had every man impaled who had been engaged in the
conspiracy.
Avery was anxious to obtain his pardon, and wrote a letter to Captain
Pitt, Governor of Fort St. George, near Madras, which he was to
transmit to England, but the East India Company would not present it to
the Government.
Avery next attacked and destroyed Fort Ste. Marie of the French East
India Company on the north of Madagascar.
Adrian van Broeck managed to make his escape from the settlement
on board an East India Company vessel; and with that the narrative
abruptly terminates.
The two narratives are irreconcilable, and where the truth lies is
impossible to determine. It is conceivable that after van Broeck’s
visit--if it ever took place--Avery may have made his way to England
to dispose of his jewels, but we have no dates in the Dutchman’s
narrative, and no dates, and no authority quoted by Johnson for his
account of the last days of Avery. No reliance whatever can be placed
on Defoe’s _Life and Adventures of Captain John Avery_, “the King” in
Madagascar, 1720. Consequently the end of Avery remains, and probably
will remain, a mystery unsolved. Andrew Brice in his _Geographical
Dictionary_, published in 1759, under the heading of “Madagascar,”
says: “Pirates have had stations in these Harbours, among whom was
Avery, so much talked of 40 or 50 years ago.” Had Avery died at
Bideford, Brice as a Devonshire man would most likely have heard of it.
Salmon, in his _Universal Traveller_, 1759, says: “What became of Avery
himself I could never learn; but it is probable he is dead, or remains
concealed in the Island of Madagascar to this time; for he can expect
no Mercy from any of the Powers of Europe, if he should fall into their
hands, but as to being in such circumstances, as to lay the Foundation
of a New State or Kingdom in this Island, this report possibly deserves
little Credit. We should have heard more of him after so many years
elapsed, if he had made any figure there.”
According to Captain Johnson’s account, as we have seen, a Captain Wood
Rogers of the _Delicia_, a ship of forty guns, touched at Madagascar
with a design of purchasing slaves, and came on the settlement of the
crews of the two other vessels, but did not meet with Avery himself.
JOANNA SOUTHCOTT
The life of this impostor or self-deluded woman is not pleasant to
write or to read, and it is only because in such a collection including
Devonshire oddities and unworthies she could not be excluded that her
story is here given.
Joanna was a native of Gittisham, the daughter of William and Hannah
Southcott, respectable people, the father a very small farmer. She
was baptized at Ottery St. Mary, on 6 June, 1750. There was nothing
remarkable in her during the first forty years of her life. She was
in domestic service, and then moved to Exeter, where she entered the
household of an upholsterer, in 1790.