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Transcriber's note.
Many of the names in this book (even outside quoted passages) are
inconsistently spelt. I have chosen to retain the original spelling
treating these as author error rather than typographical carelessness.
THE PIRATES'
WHO'S WHO
_Giving Particulars of the Lives & Deaths of the Pirates & Buccaneers_
BY PHILIP GOSSE
ILLUSTRATED
BURT FRANKLIN: RESEARCH & SOURCE WORKS SERIES 119
Essays in History, Economics & Social Science 51
BURT FRANKLIN
NEW YORK
Published by BURT FRANKLIN
235 East 44th St., New York 10017
Originally Published: 1924
Printed in the U.S.A.
Library of Congress Catalog Card No.: 68-56594
Burt Franklin: Research & Source Works Series 119
Essays in History, Economics & Social Science 51
I DEDICATE THIS BOOK
TO
MY FELLOW-MEMBERS OF
THE FOUNTAIN CLUB
WITH THE EARNEST HOPE THAT NOTHING
IT CONTAINS MAY INCITE THEM TO
EMULATE ITS HEROES
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
TO FACE PAGE
A PAGE FROM THE LOG-BOOK OF CAPTAIN DAMPIER 98
PRESSING A PIRATE TO PLEAD 140
A PIRATE BEING HANGED AT EXECUTION DOCK, WAPPING 182
ANNE BONNY AND MARY READ, CONVICTED OF
PIRACY NOVEMBER 28TH, 1720, IN JAMAICA 256
CAPTAIN BARTHOLOMEW ROBERTS 262
PREFACE
Let it be made clear at the very outset of this Preface that the pages
which follow do not pretend to be a history of piracy, but are simply an
attempt to gather together, from various sources, particulars of those
redoubtable pirates and buccaneers whose names have been handed down to us
in a desultory way.
I do not deal here with the children of fancy; I believe that every man,
or woman too--since certain of the gentler sex cut no small figure at the
game--mentioned in this volume actually existed.
A time has come when every form of learning, however preposterous it may
seem, is made as unlaborious as possible for the would-be student.
Knowledge, which is after all but a string of facts, is being arranged,
sorted, distilled, and set down in compact form, ready for rapid
assimilation. There is little fear that the student who may wish in the
future to become master of any subject will have to delve into the
original sources in his search after facts and dates.
Surely pirates, taking them in their broadest sense, are as much entitled
to a biographical dictionary of their own as are clergymen, race-horses,
or artists in ferro-concrete, who all, I am assured, have their own "Who's
Who"? Have not the medical men their Directory, the lawyers their List,
the peers their Peerage? There are books which record the names and the
particulars of musicians, schoolmasters, stockbrokers, saints and
bookmakers, and I dare say there is an average adjuster's almanac. A peer,
a horse, dog, cat, and even a white mouse, if of blood sufficiently blue,
has his pedigree recorded somewhere. Above all, there is that astounding
and entertaining volume, "Who's Who," found in every club smoking-room,
and which grows more bulky year by year, stuffed with information about
the careers, the hobbies, and the marriages of all the most distinguished
persons in every profession, including very full details about the lives
and doings of all our journalists. But on the club table where these books
of ready reference stand with "Whitaker," "ABC," and "Ruff's Guide to the
Turf," there is just one gap that the compiler of this work has for a long
while felt sorely needed filling. There has been until now no work that
gives immediate and trustworthy information about the lives, and--so sadly
important in their cases--the deaths of our pirates and buccaneers.
In delving in the volumes of the "Dictionary of National Biography," it
has been a sad disappointment to the writer to find so little space
devoted to the careers of these picturesque if, I must admit, often
unseemly persons. There are, of course, to be found a few pirates with
household names such as Kidd, Teach, and Avery. A few, too, of the
buccaneers, headed by the great Sir Henry Morgan, come in for their share.
But I compare with indignation the meagre show of pirates in that
monumental work with the rich profusion of divines! Even during the years
when piracy was at its height--say from 1680 until 1730--the pirates are
utterly swamped by the theologians. Can it be that these two professions
flourished most vigorously side by side, and that when one began to
languish, the other also began to fade?
Even so there can be no excuse for the past and present neglect of these
sea-adventurers. But a change is beginning to show itself. Increasing
evidence is to be found that the more intelligent portions of the
population of this country, and even more so the enlightened of the great
United States of America, are beginning to show a proper interest in the
lives of the pirates and buccaneers. That this should be so amongst the
Americans is quite natural, when it is remembered what a close intimacy
existed between their Puritan forefathers of New England and the pirates,
both by blood relation and by trade, since the pirates had no more
obliging and ready customers for their spoils of gold dust, stolen slaves,
or church ornaments, than the early settlers of New York, Massachusetts,
and Carolina.
In beginning to compile such a list as is to be found in this volume, a
difficulty is met at once. My original intention was that only pirates and
buccaneers should be included. To admit privateers, corsairs, and other
sea-rovers would have meant the addition of a vast number of names, and
would have made the work unwieldy, and the very object of this volume as a
book of ready reference would not have been achieved. But the difficulty
has been to define the exact meaning of a pirate and of a buccaneer. In
the dictionary a pirate is defined as "a sea-robber, marauder, one who
infringes another's copyright"; while a buccaneer is described as "a
sea-robber, a pirate, especially of the Spanish-American coasts." This
seems explicit, but a pirate was not a pirate from the cradle to the
gallows. He usually began his life at sea as an honest mariner in the
merchant service. He perhaps mutinied with other of the ship's crew,
killed or otherwise disposed of the captain, seized the ship, elected a
new commander, and sailed off "on the account." Many an honest seaman was
captured with the rest of his ship's crew by a pirate, and either
voluntarily joined the freebooters by signing their articles, or, being a
good navigator or "sea-artist," was compelled by the pirates to lend them
his services. Others, again, were in privateer ships, which carried on a
legitimate warfare against the shipping of hostile countries, under a
commission or letter of marque.
Often the very commission or letter of marque carried about so jealously
by some shady privateer was not worth the paper it was written on, nor the
handful of dubloons paid for it. One buccaneer sailed about the South
Seas, plundering Spanish ships and sacking churches and burning towns,
under a commission issued to him, for a consideration, by the Governor of
a Danish West India island, himself an ex-pirate. This precious document,
adorned with florid scrolls and a big, impressive seal, was written in
Danish. Someone with a knowledge of that language had an opportunity and
the curiosity to translate it, when he found that all it entitled the
bearer to do was to hunt for goats and pigs on the Island of Hispaniola,
and nothing more.
When, at the conclusion of hostilities, peace was declared, the crew of a
privateer found it exceedingly irksome to give up the roving life, and
were liable to drift into piracy. Often it happened that, after a long
naval war, crews were disbanded, ships laid up, and navies reduced, thus
flooding the countryside with idle mariners, and filling the roads with
begging and starving seamen. These were driven to go to sea if they could
find a berth, often half starved and brutally treated, and always
underpaid, and so easily yielded to the temptation of joining some vessel
bound vaguely for the "South Sea," where no questions were asked and no
wages paid, but every hand on board had a share in the adventure.
The buccaneers were a great source of piracy also. When a war was on hand
the English Government was only too glad to have the help of these daring
and skilful seamen; but when peace was declared these allies began to lead
to international complications, and means had to be taken to abolish them,
and to try and turn them into honest settlers in the islands. But when a
man has for years lived the free life, sailed out from Jamaica a pauper,
to return in six weeks or less with, perhaps, a bag of gold worth two,
three, or four thousand pounds, which he has prided himself on spending in
the taverns and gambling-hells of Port Royal in a week, how can he settle
down to humdrum uneventful toil, with its small profits? Thus he goes back
"on the account" and sails to some prearranged rendezvous of the "brethren
of the coast."
To write a whole history of piracy would be a great undertaking, but a
very interesting one. Piracy must have begun in the far, dim ages, and
perhaps when some naked savage, paddling himself across a tropical river,
met with another adventurer on a better tree-trunk, or carrying a bigger
bunch of bananas, the first act of piracy was committed. Indeed, piracy
must surely be the third oldest profession in the world, if we give the
honour of the second place to the ancient craft of healing. If such a
history were to include the whole of piracy, it would have to refer to the
Phoenicians, to the Mediterranean sea-rovers of the days of Rome, who, had
they but known it, held the future destiny of the world in their grasp
when they, a handful of pirates, took prisoner the young Julius Cæsar, to
ransom him and afterwards to be caught and crucified by him. The Arabs in
the Red Sea were for many years past-masters of the art of piracy, as were
the Barbary corsairs of Algiers and Tunis, who made the Mediterranean a
place of danger for many generations of seamen. All this while the Chinese
and Malays were active pirates, while the Pirate coast of the Persian Gulf
was feared by all mariners. Then arose the great period, beginning in the
reign of Henry VIII., advancing with rapid strides during the adventurous
years of Queen Elizabeth, when many West of England squires were wont to
sell their estates and invest all in a ship in which to go cruising on
the Spanish Main, in the hope of taking a rich Spanish galleon homeward
bound from Cartagena and Porto Bello, deep laden with the riches of Peru
and Mexico.
Out of these semi-pirate adventurers developed the buccaneers, a
ruffianly, dare-devil lot, who feared neither God, man, nor death.
By the middle of the eighteenth century piracy was on the wane, and
practically had died out by the beginning of the nineteenth, the final
thrust that destroyed it being given by the American and English Navies in
the North Atlantic and West Indian Seas. But by this time piracy had
degenerated to mere sea-robbing, the days of gallant and ruthless
sea-battles had passed, and the pirate of those decadent days was
generally a Spanish-American half-breed, with no courage, a mere robber
and murderer.
The advent of the telegraph and of steam-driven ships settled for ever the
account of the pirates, except in China, when even to this day accounts
reach us, through the Press, of piratical enterprises; but never again
will the black, rakish-looking craft of the pirate, with the Jolly Roger
flying, be liable to pounce down upon the unsuspecting and harmless
merchantman.
The books devoted to the lives and exploits of buccaneers and pirates are
few. Indeed, but two stand out prominently, both masterpieces of their
kind. One, "The Bucaniers of America, or a True Account of the Most
Remarkable Assaults Committed of Late Years upon the Coasts of the West
Indies," etc., was written by a sea-surgeon to the buccaneers, A.O.
Exquemelin, a Dutchman, and was published at Amsterdam in 1679.
Many translations were made, the first one in English being published in
1684 by William Crooke, at the Green Dragon, without Temple Bar, in
London. The publication of this book was the cause of a libel action
brought by Sir Henry Morgan against the publisher; the buccaneer commander
won his case and was granted £200 damages and a public apology. In this
book Morgan was held up as a perfect monster for his cruel treatment to
his prisoners, but although Morgan resented this very much, the statement
that annoyed him much more was that which told the reader that Morgan came
of very humble stock and was sold by his parents when a boy, to serve as a
labourer in Barbadoes.
The greatest work on pirates was written in 1726 by Captain Charles
Johnson. The original edition, now exceedingly rare, is called "A General
History of the Pyrates, from Their First Rise and Settlement in the Island
of Providence, to the Present Time," and is illustrated by interesting
engravings.
Another edition, in 1734, is a handsome folio called "A General History of
the Lives and Adventures of the Most Famous Highwaymen," etc., "To which
is added a Genuine Account of the Voyages and Plunders of the Most
Notorious Pyrates," and contains many full-page copperplates by J. Basire
and others. The pirates are given only a share in the pages of this book,
but it has some very fine engravings of such famous pirates as Avery,
Roberts, Low, Lowther, and "Blackbeard."
The third edition of the "History of Pirates," of 1725, has a quaint
frontispiece, showing the two women pirates, Anne Bonny and Mary Read, in
action with their swords drawn, upon the deck of a ship. While the fourth
edition, published in 1726, in two volumes, contains the stories of the
less well-known South-Sea Rovers.
After studying the subject of piracy at all closely, one cannot but be
struck by the number of pirates who came from Wales. Welshmen figure not
only amongst the rank and file, but amongst the leaders. Morgan, of
course, stands head and shoulders above the rest. It is curious how
certain races show particular adaptability for certain callings. Up to two
hundred years ago the chief pirates were Welshmen; to-day most of our
haberdashers hail from the same land of the leek. It would be interesting
to try and fathom the reason why these two callings, at first sight so
dissimilar, should call forth the qualities in a particular race. Perhaps
some of our leading haberdashers and linen drapers will be willing to
supply the answer.
I sometimes wonder what happens to the modern pirates; I mean the men who,
had they lived 200 years ago, would have been pirates. What do they find
to exercise their undoubted, if unsocial, talents and energies to-day?
Many, I think, find openings of an adventurous financial kind in the City.
Politics, again, surely has its buccaneers. One can imagine, for example,
some leading modern politician--let us say a Welshman--who, like Morgan,
being a brilliant public speaker, is able by his eloquence to sway vast
crowds of listeners, whether buccaneers or electors, a man of quick and
subtle mind, able to recognize and seize upon the main chance, perfectly
ruthless in his methods when necessity requires, and one who, having
achieved the goal on which he had set his ambition, discards his party or
followers, as Morgan did his buccaneers after the sacking of Panama. Nor
is Europe to-day without a counterpart to the ruffian crews who arrogantly
"defied the world and declared war on all nations."
One great difficulty which the author of this work is met with is to
decide who was, and who was not, a pirate.
Certain friends who have taken a kindly, if somewhat frivolous, interest
in the compilation of this work have inquired if Sir Francis Drake was to
be included; and it must be admitted that the question is not an easy one
to answer. The most fervent patriot must admit that the early voyages of
Drake were, to put it mildly, of a buccaneering kind, although his late
voyages were more nearly akin to privateering cruises than piracy. But if,
during the reign of King Philip, a Spaniard had been asked if Drake was a
pirate, he would certainly have answered, "Yes," and that without any
hesitation whatever. So much depends upon the point of view.
In the 1814 edition of Johnson's "History of Highwaymen and Pirates," the
famous Paul Jones holds a prominent place as a pirate, and is described in
no half measures as a traitor; yet I doubt if in the schools of America
to-day the rising young citizens of "God's Own Country" are told any such
thing, but are probably, and quite naturally, taught to look upon Paul
Jones as a true patriot and a brave sailor. Again, there is Christopher
Columbus, the greatest of all explorers, about whom no breath of scandal
in the piratical way was ever breathed, who only escaped being a pirate by
the fact that his was the first ship to sail in the Caribbean Sea; for
there is little doubt that had the great navigator found an English ship
lying at anchor when he first arrived at the Island of San Salvador, an
act of piracy would have immediately taken place.
For the student who is interested there are other writers who have dealt
with the subject of piracy, such as the buccaneers Ringrose, Cooke,
Funnell, Dampier, and Cowley; Woodes Rogers, with his "Voyage to the South
Seas"; Wafer, who wrote an amusing little book in 1699 describing his
hardships and adventures on the Isthmus of Darien. Of modern writers may
be recommended Mr. John Masefield's "Spanish Main," "The Buccaneers in the
West Indies," by C.H. Haring, and the latest publication of the Marine
Research Society of Massachusetts, entitled "The Pirates of the New
England Coast," and last, but far from least, the works of Mr. A. Hyatt
Verrill.
The conditions of life on a pirate ship appear to have been much the same
in all vessels. On procuring a craft by stealing or by mutiny of the crew,
the first thing to do was to elect a commander. This was done by vote
amongst the crew, who elected whoever they considered the most daring
amongst them, and the best navigator. The next officer chosen was the
quartermaster. The captain and quartermaster once elected, the former
could appoint any junior officers he chose, and the shares in any plunder
they took was divided according to the rank of each pirate. The crew were
then searched for a pirate who could write, and, when found, this scholar
would be taken down to the great cabin, given pen, ink, and paper, and
after the articles had been discussed and decided upon, they were written
down, to be signed by each member of the crew. As an example, the articles
drawn up by the crew of Captain John Phillips on board the _Revenge_ are
given below in full:
1.
Every man shall obey civil Command; the Captain shall have one
full Share and a half in all Prizes; the Master, Carpenter,
Boatswain and Gunner shall have one Share and quarter.
2.
If any Man shall offer to run away, or keep any Secret from
the Company, he shall be marroon'd with one Bottle of Powder,
one Bottle of Water, one small Arm, and Shot.
3.
If any Man shall steal any Thing in the Company, or game, to
the value of a Piece of Eight, he shall be Marroon'd or shot.
4.
If at any Time we should meet another Marrooner (that is,
Pyrate,) that Man that shall sign his Articles without the
Consent of our Company, shall suffer such Punishment as the
Captain and Company shall think fit.
5.
That Man that shall strike another whilst these Articles are
in force, shall receive Moses's Law (that is 40 Stripes
lacking one) on the bare Back.
6.
That Man that shall snap his Arms, or smoak Tobacco in the
Hold, without a cap to his Pipe, or carry a Candle lighted
without a Lanthorn, shall suffer the same Punishment as in the
former Article.
7.
That Man that shall not keep his Arms clean, fit for an
Engagement, or neglect his Business, shall be cut off from his
Share, and suffer such other Punishment as the Captain and the
Company shall think fit.
8.
If any Man shall lose a Joint in time of an Engagement, shall
have 400 Pieces of Eight; if a limb, 800.
9.
If at any time you meet with a prudent Woman, that Man that
offers to meddle with her, without her Consent, shall suffer
present Death.
These formalities took time and much argument and the drinking of many
bowls of punch, and, when once settled, the next business was to make a
flag. The Jolly Roger, consisting of a human skull and two crossed
thigh-bones, was generally portrayed in black and white. Some crews
preferred a study in red and white. More enterprising captains with
imagination and taste, such as Captain Bartholomew Roberts, who was a
truly remarkable man and the greatest pirate who ever "declared war upon
all the world," aimed at something more elaborate. Roberts flew several
flags, all made to his own design.
On one was depicted a "human anatomy," holding a rummer, or glass, of
punch in one bony hand, and a flaming sword in the other. Another
favourite flag of Roberts had a huge portrait of himself, sword in hand,
and two skulls.
Another had a "skellington" standing with either foot firmly placed on a
skull, and under one skull were embroidered the letters A.B.H., under the
other A.M.H., which letters stood for a Barbadian's head and a
Martinican's head, to warn any inhabitant of either of these islands what
to expect if he was so unfortunate as to be taken prisoner by Bartholomew,
who never forgot nor forgave two occasions on which he was very roughly
handled by ships from Barbadoes and Martinique.
The weak point in all pirate ships was the lack of discipline. Time and
again some successful enterprise, almost completed, was thrown away by
lack of discipline. No captain could be certain of his command or crew. If
he did anything they disapproved of, the crew would throw him in chains
into the hold, or as likely overboard, and elect another. It is on record
that one ship had elected thirteen different commanders in a few months.
Some of the big men retained their commands, Roberts holding the record,
for a pirate, of four years, until his death; while Bartholomew Sharp
holds the record for a buccaneer.
Having procured a vessel, perhaps little more than a fishing-boat,
sometimes only an open row-boat, the embryo pirates would paddle along
some coast until they came across an unsuspecting craft, one not too big
for the desperadoes to attack. Hiding their arms, they would row
alongside, and then suddenly, with shouts and curses, board the vessel,
kill any who resisted, and start a cruise in their new ship, their number
being increased by volunteers or forced men from amongst the prize's crew.
Cruising thus, the pirates would gradually get together a small fleet of
the fastest and best sailing vessels among their prizes and increase their
crew as they went along.
Both the buccaneers and the pirates had their favourite haunts and places
of rendezvous. These had to be within easy sailing distance of one or more
regular trade routes, and at the same time had to be in some quiet spot
unlikely to be visited by strange craft, and, besides being sheltered
from storms, must have a suitable beach on which their vessels could be
careened and the hulls scraped of barnacles and weeds. The greatest
stronghold of the buccaneers was at Tortuga, or Turtle Island, a small
island lying off the west coast of Hispaniola. Here in their most piping
days flourished a buccaneer republic, where the seamen made their own laws
and cultivated the land for sugar-cane and yams. Occasionally the
Spaniards or the French, without any warning, would swoop down on the
settlement and break up the small republic, but sooner or later the
buccaneers would be back once again in possession.
The favourite and most flourishing headquarters of the West India pirates
was at New Providence Island in the Bahama Islands, occupied to-day by the
flourishing town of Nassau, now the headquarters of those worthy
descendants of the pirates, the bootleggers, who from the old port carry
on their exciting and profitable smuggling of whisky into the United
States.
The numerous bays and islands lying off the coast of South Carolina were
very popular with the free booters in the late seventeenth and early
eighteenth centuries; while Port Royal, in Jamaica, was noted from early
days as the port from which the most famous buccaneers sailed for the
Spanish Main, and to which they returned with their plunder.
The French filibusters and pirates mostly used the Virgin Islands, while
the Dutch patronized their own islands of Curaçao, Saba, and St.
Eustatius. But the buccaneers did not allow the chance of nationality to
divide them, for Frenchmen, Englishmen, and Dutchmen, all "brethren of the
coast," sailed together and plundered the Spaniard in open and equal
friendship.
An entirely different group of pirates arose in the South Seas, with their
headquarters in Madagascar. Here the pirates went farther towards forming
a permanent society than at any other time during their history, with the
exception of the Barbary corsairs, who had their strongly fortified
settlements for many years at Algiers, Tunis, and Sallee.
The origin of the buccaneers is interesting, and I cannot do better than
quote the opening chapter of Clark Russell's "Life of William Dampier," in
the English Men of Action Series, published by Messrs. Macmillan in 1889.
He writes:
"In or about the middle of the seventeenth century, the Island of San
Domingo, or Hispaniola as it was then called, was haunted and overrun by a
singular community of savage, surly, fierce, and filthy men. They were
chiefly composed of French colonists, whose ranks had from time to time
been enlarged by liberal contributions from the slums and alleys of more
than one European city and town. These people went dressed in shirts and
pantaloons of coarse linen cloth, which they steeped in the blood of the
animals they slaughtered. They wore round caps, boots of hogskin drawn
over their naked feet, and belts of raw hide, in which they stuck their
sabres and knives. They also armed themselves with firelocks, which threw
a couple of balls, each weighing two ounces. The places where they dried
and salted their meat were called _boucans_, and from this term they came
to be styled bucaniers, or buccaneers, as we spell it. They were hunters
by trade, and savages in their habits. They chased and slaughtered horned
cattle and trafficked with the flesh, and their favourite food was raw
marrow from the bones of the beasts which they shot. They ate and slept on
the ground, their table was a stone, their bolster the trunk of a tree,
and their roof the hot and sparkling heavens of the Antilles."
The Spaniards, who were jealous of any other nation than their own having
a foothold in America, determined to get rid of these wild but hitherto
harmless buccaneers. This they accomplished, and in time drove the
cattle-hunters out of Hispaniola; and to make sure that the unwelcome
visitors should not return, they exterminated all the wild cattle. This
was the worst mistake the Spaniards could have made, for these wild men
had to look for other means of supporting themselves, and they joined the
freebooters and thus began the great period of piracy which was the cause
of the ultimate breaking-up of the Spanish power in the West Indies.
Of the life on board buccaneer and pirate ships a somewhat hazy and
incomplete picture reaches us. The crews were usually large compared with
the number of men carried in other ships, and a state of crowded
discomfort must have been the result, especially in some crazy old vessel
cruising in the tropics or rounding the Horn in winter. Of the
relationship between the sea-rovers and the fair sex it would be best,
perhaps, to draw a discreet veil. The pirates and the buccaneers looked
upon women simply as the spoils of war, and were as profligate with these
as with the rest of their plunder. I do not know if I am disclosing a
secret when I mention that my friend Mr. Hyatt Verrill, who is an
authority on the subject of the lives of the pirates, is about to publish
a book devoted to the love affairs of these gentry. I confess to looking
forward with pleasure and a certain degree of trepidation to reading his
book and to seeing how he will deal with so delicate a subject.
We know that Sir Henry Morgan was married and provided for his widow in
his will.
Captain Kidd, wife, and child, resided in New York, in the utmost conjugal
happiness and respectability, but then Kidd was a martyr and no pirate.
Captain Rackam, the dashing "Calico Jack," ran away to sea with the woman
pirate, Mrs. Anne Bonny, and they lived together happily on board ship
and on land, as did Captain and Mrs. Cobham. The only other pirate I know
of who took a "wife" to sea with him was Captain Pease, who flourished in
a half-hearted way--half-hearted in the piratical, but not the matrimonial
sense--in the middle of the nineteenth century.
A certain settler in New Zealand in the "early days" describes a visit he
paid to Captain Pease and his family on board that pirate's handy little
schooner, lying at anchor in a quiet cove at that island.
On stepping aboard, the guest was warmly welcomed by a short, red-faced
man, bald of head and rotund in figure, of about fifty-five years of age.
His appearance suggested a successful grocer rather than a pirate. On the
deck were seated two ladies, one nearing middle age, the other young and
undoubtedly pretty. At the feet of these ladies sprawled several small
children. Captain Pease proceeded to introduce his guest to these as Mrs.
Pease No. 1 and Mrs. Pease No. 2. The ladies continued their sewing while
a conversation took place on various subjects. Presently, taking out his
watch, the pirate turned to the younger lady, observing that it was
nearing teatime. Mrs. Pease No. 2, laying down her sewing, went to the
cabin, from which the rattle of teacups and the hiss of a boiling kettle
were soon heard. Tea being announced as ready, the party entered the
cabin, Mrs. Pease senior taking the place at the head of the table and
pouring out the tea while the younger Mrs. Pease very prettily handed
round the cups and bread and butter, the guest particularly noticing with
what respect and thoughtfulness she looked after the wants of the elder
Mrs. Pease.
As a pirate Captain Pease was second or even third rate, confining his
daring to seizing small unarmed native craft, or robbing the stores of
lonely white traders on out-of-the-way atolls. But as a married man he
showed himself to be a master; matrimony was his strong suit, domesticity
his trump card. He gave one valuable hint to his guest, which was this:
"Never take more than two wives with you on a voyage, _and choose 'em with
care_."
One is apt to disassociate serious matrimony, and still less responsible
paternity, with the calling of piracy, but with Captain Pease this was far
from being the case. Every one of his wives--for he had others on
shore--contributed her mite, or two, to the growing family, and the
Captain really could not say which of his offspring he was most proud of.
It seems at first strange that a man of Captain Pease's appearance,
figure, and settled habits, almost humdrum, should have been such an
undoubted success with the ladies; but that he was a success there can be
no doubt. Perhaps his calling had a good deal to do with this attraction
he had for them.
Before bringing this Preface to a conclusion, there is one other aspect of
piracy upon which I will touch.
Death, portrayed by a skeleton, was the device on the flag beneath which
they fought; and a skeleton was for ever threatening to emerge from its
cupboard aboard every pirate vessel.
The end of most of the pirates and a large proportion of the buccaneers
was a sudden and violent one, and few of them died in their beds. Many
were killed in battle, numbers of them were drowned. Not a few drank
themselves to death with strong Jamaica rum, while many of the buccaneers
died of malaria and yellow fever contracted in the jungles of Central
America, and most of the pirates who survived these perils lived only to
be hanged.
It is recorded of a certain ex-prizefighter and pirate, Dennis McCarthy,
who was about to be hanged at New Providence Island in 1718, that, as he
stood on the gallows, all bedecked with coloured ribbons, as became a
boxer, he told his admiring audience that his friends had often, in joke,
told him he would die in his shoes; and so, to prove them liars, he kicked
off his shoes amongst the crowd, and so died without them.
The trial of a pirate was usually a rough and ready business, and the
culprit seldom received the benefit of any doubt that might exist.
If he made any defence at all, it was usually to plead that he had been
forced to join the pirates against his wish, and that he had long been
waiting for an opportunity to escape.
Once condemned to death, and the date of execution decided, the prisoner,
if at Newgate, was handed over to the good offices of the prison Ordinary;
or, if in New England, to such vigorous apostles of Christianity as the
Rev. Cotton or the Rev. Increase Mather. The former of these two famous
theologians was pastor of the North Church in Boston, and the author of a
very rare work published in 1695, called "An History of Some Criminals
Executed in This Land." Cotton Mather preached many a "hanging" sermon to
condemned pirates, a few of which can still be read. One of these,
preached in 1704, is called "A Brief Discourse occasioned by a Tragical
Spectacle of a Number of Miserables under Sentence of Death for Piracy."
The Reverend Doctor made a speciality of these "hanging" sermons, and was
a thorough master of his subject, as is shown by the following passage
taken from the above "Brief Discourse":
"The Privateering Stroke so easily degenerates into the Piratical; and the
Privateering Trade is usually carried on with an Unchristian Temper, and
proves an Inlet unto so much Debauchery and Iniquity."
On the Sunday previous to an execution the condemned pirates were taken to
church to listen to a sermon while they were "exhibited" to the crowded
and gaping congregation. On the day of the execution a procession was
formed, which marched from the gaol to the gallows.
At the head was carried a silver oar, the emblem from very early days of a
pirate execution. Arrived at the gibbet, the prisoner, who always dressed
himself in his, or someone else's, best clothes, would doff his hat and
make a speech.
Sometimes the bolder spirits would speak in a defiant and unrepentant way;
but most of them professed a deep repentance for their sins and warned
their listeners to guard against the temptation of drink and avarice.
After the prisoner's death the bodies of the more notorious pirates were
taken down and hanged in chains at some prominent spot where ships passed,
in order to be a warning to any mariners who had piratical leanings.
The number of pirates or buccaneers who died in their beds must have been
very small, particularly amongst the former; and I have been able to trace
but a single example of a tombstone marking the burial-place of a pirate.
This is, or was until recently, to be found in the graveyard at Dartmouth,
and records the resting-place of the late Captain Thomas Goldsmith, who
commanded the _Snap Dragon_, of Dartmouth, in which vessel he amassed much
riches during the reign of Queen Anne, and died, apparently not regretted,
in 1714. Engraved upon his headstone are the following lines:
Men that are virtuous serve the Lord;
And the Devil's by his friends ador'd;
And as they merit get a place
Amidst the bless'd or hellish race;
Pray then ye learned clergy show
Where can this brute, Tom Goldsmith, go?
Whose life was one continual evil
Striving to cheat God, Man and Devil.
THE PIRATES' WHO'S WHO
AISA. Barbary corsair.
A famous Mediterranean pirate, and one of Dragut's admirals in the
sixteenth century.
ALCANTRA, CAPTAIN MANSEL.
A Spaniard. Commanded a pirate brig, the _Macrinarian_. Committed many
outrages. Took the Liverpool packet _Topaz_, from Calcutta to Boston, in
1829, near St. Helena, murdering the whole crew. In the same year he took
the _Candace_, from Marblehead, and plundered her. The supercargo of the
_Candace_ was an amateur actor, and had on board a priest's black gown and
broad brimmed hat. These he put on and sat in his cabin pretending to tell
his beads. On the pirates coming to rob him, they all crossed themselves
and left him, so that he alone of the whole company was not robbed.
ALEXANDER, JOHN.
A Scotch buccaneer; one of Captain Sharp's crew. Drowned on May 9th, 1681.
Captain Sharp, with a party of twenty-four men, had landed on the Island
of Chiva, off the coast of Peru, and taken several prisoners, amongst whom
was a shipwright and his man, who were actually at work building two great
ships for the Spaniards. Sharp, thinking these men would be very useful to
him, took them away, with all their tools and a quantity of ironwork, in a
dory, to convey them off to his ship. But the dory, being overladen,
sank, and Alexander was drowned. On the evening of May 12th his body was
found; which they took up, and next day "threw him overboard, giving him
three French vollies for his customary ceremony."
ALI BASHA.
Of Algiers. Barbary corsair.
Conquered the Kingdom of Tunis in the sixteenth century, and captured many
Maltese galleys. He brought the development of organized piracy to its
greatest perfection.
In 1571 Ali Basha commanded a fleet of no fewer than 250 Moslem galleys in
the battle of Lepanto, when he was severely defeated, but escaped with his
life.
ALLESTON, CAPTAIN.
Commanded a vessel of eighteen tons, no guns, and a crew of twenty-four.
In March, 1679, sailed in company with eight other vessels, under command
of Captain Harris, to the Coast of Darien, and marched on foot across the
isthmus, on his way attacking and sacking Santa Maria.
AMAND or ANNAND, ALEXANDER.
Of Jamaica.
One of Major Stede Bonnet's crew in the _Royal James_. Hanged on November
8th, 1718, at White Point, Charleston, South Carolina, and buried in the
marsh below low-water mark.
AMEER, IBRAHIM.
An admiral of an Arabian fleet of Red Sea pirates. In 1816 he captured
four British merchant vessels on their way to Surat.
ANDRESON, CAPTAIN CORNELIUS.
A Dutch pirate. Sailed from Boston in 1674 with Captain Roderigo to
plunder English ships along the coast of Maine, in a vessel called the
_Penobscot Shallop_.
Tried at Cambridge, Massachusetts, sentenced to death, but later on
pardoned. Afterwards fought very bravely for the English colonists against
the Indians.
ANDROEAS, CAPTAIN.
A Chief or Captain of the Darien Indians, who in 1679 conducted the
buccaneers under Coxon and Harris across the isthmus to attack Santa Maria
and afterwards to make an attempt on Panama.
Captain Androeas had a great esteem for the English, partly because the
buccaneers were kind to the Indians, and partly because of the Indians'
fear and hatred of the Spaniards. He afterwards led back a party of
malcontents under Captain Coxon from the Pacific side of the isthmus.
ANGORA, Sultan of Timor.
Refusing to allow the East India Company to station garrisons on Timor, he
was driven out of the whole of his island except the chief town, also
called Angora.
Deciding to take revenge, he turned pirate and went to sea in command of a
small fleet of five well-armed prows and several galleys. His first prize
was a packet brig carrying despatches from Calcutta to the English General
before Angora. Captain Hastings, the commander, a near relation of Warren
Hastings, and a gallant officer, had thrown the despatches overboard, for
which he was hanged, while the crew were sent to prison at Angora and
afterwards poisoned. His next prize was an East Indian ship, the _Edward_,
Captain Harford, the crew of which were also poisoned. Cruising off Bombay
he defeated a vessel sent out by the Government to attack him. After
taking other English vessels, Angora met with a richly laden ship from
Burmah, a country whose sovereign he was on friendly terms with, but the
Sultan-pirate took this ship and drowned every soul on board except one
woman, who, owing to her great beauty, he kept for himself. His next
victim was a well-armed Malay praam, which he captured after a severe
fight. The crew he shackled and threw overboard, while he burnt the
vessel. Paying another visit to Bombay, he caught the garrison unprepared,
blew up the fort, and sailed off with some sheep, cows, and pigs. A few
days later the pirate seized an English packet, _St. George_, and after he
had tortured to death the captain, the terrified crew joined his service.
Returning to Timor with his plunder, he was surprised by the arrival off
the port of H.M.S. _Victorious_, seventy-four guns, which had been sent to
take him. Slipping out of harbour unobserved in the night in his fastest
sailing praam, he escaped to Trincomalee in Ceylon, where the East India
Company decided to allow him to remain undisturbed.
ANGRIA.
Brother of a famous pirate, Angora, Sultan of Timor. When the Sultan
retired from practice to the Island of Ceylon he gave his brother his
praam, a fast vessel armed with thirty-eight guns.
Angria's brother Angora had been dethroned from the Island of Timor by the
English Government, and this had prevented the former from all hope of
succeeding as Sultan. Owing to this, Angria, a very vindictive man,
nursed against the English Government a very real grievance. Declaring
himself Sultan of another smaller island, Little Timor, he sailed out to
look for spoil. His first victim was the _Elphinston_, which he took some
eighty miles off Bombay. Putting the crew of forty-seven men into an open
boat, without water, and with scarcely room to move, he left them. It was
in the hottest month of the year, and only twenty-eight of them reached
Bombay alive.
Angria, being broad-minded on the subject of his new profession, did not
limit himself to taking only English vessels, for meeting with two Chinese
junks, laden with spices and riches, he plundered them both, and tying the
crew back to back threw them into the sea to drown. One of the Chinamen,
while watching his companions being drowned, managed to get a hand free
from his ropes, and, taking his dagger, stabbed Angria, but, missing his
heart, only wounded him in the shoulder. To punish him the pirate had the
skin cut off his back and then had him beaten with canes. Then lashing him
firmly down to a raft he was thrown overboard. After drifting about for
three days and nights he was picked up, still alive, by a fishing-boat and
carried to Bombay, where, fully recovered, he lived the rest of his days.
Angria continued his activities for three years, during which space he was
said to have murdered in cold blood over 500 Englishmen. He was eventually
chased by Commander Jones in H.M.S. _Asia_, sixty-four guns, into Timor,
and after a close siege of the town for twelve months, Angria was shot by
one of the mob while haranguing them from a balcony.
After Commander Jones's death his widow built a tower at Shooter's Hill,
by Woolwich Common, to perpetuate the memory of her husband who had rid
the Indian Ocean of the tyrant Angria.
The following lines are from the pen of Robert Bloomfield, and allude to
this monument:
Yon far-famed monumental tower
Records the achievements of the brave,
And Angria's subjugated power,
Who plunder'd on the Eastern Wave.
ANSTIS, CAPTAIN THOMAS.
The first mention of the name of this notorious pirate occurs in the year
1718, when we hear of him shipping himself at Providence in a sloop called
the _Buck_ in company with five other rascals who were conspiring together
to seize the vessel and with her go "a-pyrating."
Of these five, one was Howel Davis, who was afterwards killed in an affair
at the Island of Princes; another, Denman Topping, who was killed in the
taking of a rich Portuguese ship on the coast of Brazil; a third, Walter
Kennedy, was eventually hanged at Execution Dock, while the two others,
who escaped the usual end of pirates--that is, by hanging, shooting, or
drowning in saltwater or rum--disappeared into respectable obscurity in
employment of some sort in the City of London.
This party of six conspirators was the nucleus of a very powerful
combination of pirates, which eventually came under the command of the
famous Captain Roberts.
Anstis's pirate career began as did most others. They cruised about
amongst the West India Islands, seizing and plundering all merchant ships
they chanced upon, and, if we are to believe some of the stories that were
circulated at the time of their treatment of their prisoners, they appear
to have been an even rougher lot of scoundrels than was usual.
Before long they seized a very stout ship, the _Morning Star_, bound from
Guinea to Carolina, and fitted her up with thirty-two cannons taken from
another prize; manned her with a crew of one hundred men, and put Captain
John Fenn in command. Anstis, as the elder officer, could have had command
of this newer and larger ship, but he was so in love with his own vessel,
the _Good Fortune_, which was an excellent sailer, that he preferred to
remain in her.
The party now had two stout ships, but, as so often happened, trouble
began to ferment amongst the crew. A large number of these had been more
or less forced to "go a-pyrating," and were anxious to avoid the
consequences, so they decided to send a round-robin--that is, a
petition--signed by all with their names in a circle so that no rogue
could be held to be more prominent than any other, to ask for the King's
pardon.
This round-robin was addressed to "his most sacred Majesty George, by the
Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the
Faith," etc.
This petition was sent to England by a merchant vessel then sailing from
Jamaica, while the crews hid their ships amongst the mangrove swamps of a
small uninhabited island off the coast of Cuba. Here they waited for nine
months for an answer to their petition to the King, living on turtle,
fish, rice, and, of course, rum _ad lib._ as long as it lasted.
To pass the time various diversions were instigated, particularly
dancing--a pastime in great favour amongst pirates. We have a most amusing
account left us of a mock court of justice held by them to try one another
of piracy, and he who was on one day tried as the prisoner would next day
take his turn at being Judge.
This shows a grim sense of humour, as most of those who took part in these
mock trials were certain to end their careers before a real trial unless
they came to a sudden and violent end beforehand.
Here is an account of one such mock-trial as given to Captain Johnson, the
historian of the pirates, by an eyewitness:
"The Court and Criminals being both appointed, as also Council to plead,
the Judge got up in a Tree, and had a dirty Taurpaulin hung over his
shoulder; this was done by Way of Robe, with a Thrum Cap on his Head, and
a large Pair of Spectacles upon his Nose. Thus equipp'd, he settled
himself in his Place; and abundance of Officers attending him below, with
Crows, Handspikes, etc., instead of Wands, Tipstaves, and such like....
The Criminals were brought out, making a thousand sour Faces; and one who
acted as Attorney-General opened the Charge against them; their Speeches
were very laconick, and their whole Proceedings concise. We shall give it
by Way of Dialogue.