here is a Fellow before you that is a sad Dog, a sad sad Dog; and I humbly
hope your Lordship will order him to be hang'd out of the Way
immediately.... He has committed Pyracy upon the High Seas, and we shall
prove, an't please your Lordship, that this Fellow, this sad Dog before
you, has escaped a thousand Storms, nay, has got safe ashore when the Ship
has been cast away, which was a certain Sign he was not born to be
drown'd; yet not having the Fear of hanging before his Eyes, he went on
robbing and ravishing Man, Woman and Child, plundering Ships Cargoes fore
and aft, burning and sinking Ship, Bark and Boat, as if the Devil had been
in him. But this is not all, my Lord, he has committed worse Villanies
than all these, for we shall prove, that he has been guilty of drinking
Small-Beer; and your Lordship knows, there never was a sober Fellow but
what was a Rogue. My Lord, I should have spoke much finer than I do now,
but that as your Lordship knows our Rum is all out, and how should a Man
speak good Law that has not drank a Dram.... However, I hope, your
Lordship will order the Fellow to be hang'd.'
"Judge: '... Hearkee me, Sirrah ... you lousy, pittiful, ill-look'd Dog;
what have you to say why you should not be tuck'd up immediately, and set
a Sun-drying like a Scare-crow?... Are you guilty, or not guilty?'
"Pris.: 'Not guilty, an't please your Worship.'
"Judge: 'Not guilty! say so again, Sirrah, and I'll have you hang'd
without any Tryal.'
"Pris.: 'An't please your Worship's Honour, my Lord, I am as honest a poor
Fellow as ever went between Stem and Stern of a Ship, and can hand, reef,
steer, and clap two Ends of a Rope together, as well as e'er a He that
ever cross'd salt Water; but I was taken by one George Bradley' (the Name
of him that sat as Judge,) 'a notorious Pyrate, a sad Rogue as ever was
unhang'd, and he forc'd me, an't please your Honour.'
"Judge: 'Answer me, Sirrah.... How will you be try'd?'
"Pris.: 'By G---- and my Country.'
"Judge: 'The Devil you will.... Why then, Gentlemen of the Jury, I think
we have nothing to do but to proceed to Judgement.'
"Attor. Gen.: 'Right, my Lord; for if the Fellow should be suffered to
speak, he may clear himself, and that's an Affront to the Court.'
"Pris.: 'Pray, my Lord, I hope your Lordship will consider ...'
"Judge: 'Consider!... How dare you talk of considering?... Sirrah, Sirrah,
I never consider'd in all my Life.... I'll make it Treason to consider.'
"Pris.: 'But, I hope, your Lordship will hear some reason.'
"Judge: 'D'ye hear how the Scoundrel prates?... What have we to do with
the Reason?... I'd have you to know, Raskal, we don't sit here to hear
Reason ... we go according to Law.... Is our Dinner ready?'
"Attor. Gen.: 'Yes, my Lord.'
"Judge: 'Then heark'ee you Raskal at the Bar; hear me, Sirrah, hear me....
You must suffer, for three reasons; first, because it is not fit I should
sit here as Judge, and no Body be hanged.... Secondly, you must be hanged,
because you have a damn'd hanging Look.... And thirdly, you must be
hanged, because I am hungry; for, know, Sirrah, that 'tis a Custom, that
whenever the Judge's Dinner is ready before the Tryal is over, the
Prisoner is to be hanged of Course.... There's Law for you, ye Dog.... So
take him away Gaoler.'"
In August, 1722, the pirates sailed out from their hiding-place and
waylaid the ship which was returning to Jamaica with the answer to the
petition, but to their disappointment heard that no notice had been taken
of their round-robin by the Government at home.
No time was lost in returning to their old ways, for the very next day
both pirate ships left their hiding-place and sailed out on the "grand
account."
But now their luck deserted them, for the _Morning Star_ was run aground
on a reef by gross neglect on the part of the officers and wrecked. Most
of the crew escaped on to an island, where Captain Anstis found them next
day, and no sooner had he taken aboard Captain Fenn, Phillips, the
carpenter, and a few others, than all of a sudden down upon them came two
men-of-war, the _Hector_ and the _Adventure_, so that Anstis had barely
time to cut his cables and get away to sea, hotly pursued by the
_Adventure_. The latter, in a stiff breeze, was slowly gaining on the
brigantine when all of a sudden the wind dropped, the pirates got out the
sweeps, and thus managed, for the time being, to escape. In the meantime
the _Hector_ took prisoner the forty pirates remaining on the island.
Anstis soon got to work again, and captured several prizes. He then sailed
to the Island of Tobago to clean and refit his ship. Just when all the
guns and stores had been landed and the ship heeled, as ill-luck would
have it, the _Winchester_, man-of-war, put into the bay; and the pirates
had barely time to set their ship on fire and to escape into the woods.
Anstis had by now lost all authority over his discontented crew, and one
night was shot while asleep in his hammock.
ANTONIO.
Captain of the Darien Indians and friend to the English buccaneers.
ARCHER, JOHN ROSE.
He learnt his art as a pirate in the excellent school of the notorious
Blackbeard.
In 1723 he was, for the time being, in honest employment in a Newfoundland
fishing-boat, which was captured by Phillips and his crew. As Phillips was
only a beginner at piracy, he was very glad to get the aid of such an old
hand at the game as John Archer, whom he promptly appointed to the office
of quartermaster in the pirate ship. This quick promotion caused some
murmuring amongst Phillips's original crew, the carpenter, Fern, being
particularly outspoken against it.
Archer ended his days on the gallows at Boston on June 2nd, 1724, and we
read that he "dy'd very penitent, with the assistance of two grave Divines
to attend him."
ARGALL.
Licensed and titled buccaneer.
Believed to have buried a rich treasure in the Isles of Shoals, off
Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in the seventeenth century.
ARMSTRONG.
Born in London. A deserter from the Royal Navy. One of Captain Roberts's
crew taken by H.M.S. _Swallow_, from which ship he had previously
deserted.
In an account of his execution on board H.M.S. _Weymouth_ we read: "Being
on board a Man of War there was no Body to press him to an Acknowledgement
of the Crime he died for, nor of sorrowing in particular for it, which
would have been exemplary, and made suitable Impressions on seamen; so
that his last Hour was spent in lamenting and bewailing his Sins in
general, exhorting the Spectators to an honest and good life, in which
alone they could find Satisfaction."
This painful scene ended by the condemned singing with the spectators a
few verses of the 140th Psalm: at the conclusion of which, at the firing
of a gun, "he was tric'd up at the Fore Yard."
Died at the age of 34.
ARNOLD, SION.
A Madagascar pirate, who was brought to New England by Captain Shelley in
1699.
ASHPLANT, VALENTINE.
Born in the Minories, London. He served with Captain Howell Davis, and
later with Bartholomew Roberts. He was one of the leading lights of
Roberts's crew, a member of the "House of Lords."
He took part in the capture and plundering of the _King Solomon_ at Cape
Apollonia, North-West Coast of Africa, in January, 1719, when the pirates,
in an open boat, attacked the ship while at anchor. Ashplant was taken
prisoner two years later by H.M.S. _Swallow_. Tried for piracy at Cape
Coast Castle and found guilty in March, 1722, and hanged in chains there
at the age of 32.
ATWELL.
A hand aboard the brig _Vineyard_ in 1830, he took part with Charles Gibbs
and others in a mutiny in which both the captain and mate was murdered.
AUGUR, CAPTAIN JOHN.
A pirate of New Providence, Bahama Islands. He accepted the royal pardon
in 1718, and impressed the Governor, Woodes Rogers, so favourably that he
was placed in command of a sloop to go and trade amongst the islands. A
few days out Augur met with two sloops, "the sight of which dispelled all
memory of their late good intention," and turning pirates once more, they
seized the two sloops and took out of them money and goods to the value of
£500.
The pirates now sailed for Hispaniola, but with bad luck, or owing to
retribution, a sudden hurricane arose which drove them back to the one
spot in the West Indies they must have been most anxious to avoid--that
is, the Bahama Islands. Here the sloop became a total wreck, but the crew
got ashore and for a while lay hidden in a wood. Rogers, hearing where
they were, sent an armed sloop to the island, and the captain by fair
promises induced the eleven marooned pirates to come aboard. Taking these
back to Providence, Rogers had them all tried before a court of lately
converted pirates, and they were condemned to be hanged. While standing
on the gallows platform the wretched culprits reproached the crowd of
spectators, so lately their fellow-brethren in piracy, for allowing their
old comrades to be hanged, and urging them to come to the rescue. But
virtue was still strong in these recent converts, and all the comfort the
criminals got was to be told "it was their Business to turn their Minds to
another World, and sincerely to repent of what Wickedness they had done in
this." "Yes," answered the now irritated and in no-wise abashed Augur, "I
_do_ heartily repent: I repent I have not done more Mischief, and that we
did not cut the Throats of them that took us, and I am extremely sorry
that you an't all hang'd as well as we."
AUSTIN, JAMES.
Captured with the rest of Captain John Quelch's crew in the brigantine
_Charles_. Escaped for a time, but was caught and secured in the gaol at
Piscataqua, and later on tried for piracy at the Star Tavern at Boston in
June, 1704.
AVERY, CAPTAIN JOHN, _alias_ HENRY EVERY, _alias_ CAPTAIN BRIDGEMAN.
Nicknamed "Long Ben," or the "Arch-Pirate."
In the year 1695, when at the height of his career, Avery caught the
public's fancy as no other pirate ever did, with the possible exception of
Captain Kidd. So much so that his achievements, or supposed achievements,
formed the plot of several popular novels and plays.
Charles Johnson wrote a play called "The Successful Pyrate," which work
ran into several editions, and was acted at the Theatre Royal in Drury
Lane.
The scene in this play was laid in the Island of Madagascar, and the hero
was modelled on Captain Avery.
This pirate was a Devonshire man, being born near Plymouth about the year
1665, and was bred to the sea. He sailed on several voyages as mate aboard
a merchantman. He was later appointed first officer in an armed privateer
_The Duke_, Commander Captain Gibson, which sailed from Bristol for Spain,
being hired by the Spaniards for service in the West Indies against the
French pirates.
Avery soon plotted a mutiny, which was carried out while _The Duke_ lay at
anchor in Cadiz Harbour; the ship was seized, and the captain put ashore.
Avery was elected captain, and he renamed the ship the _Charles the
Second_. For more than a year Avery sailed in this vessel, preying without
distinction upon persons of all nations and religions.
After leaving Spain he first sailed to the Isle of May, holding the
Portuguese governor for ransom till provisions were sent on board. He took
near here three English ships, then sailed to the coast of Guinea to
procure slaves. To catch these Avery would anchor off a village and hoist
English colours. The trusting negroes would then paddle off to the ship in
canoes, bringing gold to traffic with. At a given signal these natives
would be seized, clapped in irons, and thrown into the hold.
Avery next sailed to the Island of Princes, where he attacked two Danish
ships, and took them both. The next place the pirates touched at was
Madagascar, from there they sailed to the Red Sea to await the fleet
expected from Mocha. To pass the time and to earn an honest penny the
pirates called in at a town called Meat, there to sell to the natives some
of their stolen merchandise. But the cautious inhabitants refused to do
any business with these suspicious looking merchants, so in order to
punish them the pirates burnt down their town. They next visited Aden,
where they met two other English pirate ships, and were soon joined by
three others from America, all on the same enterprise.
Expecting the Mocha fleet to come along, they waited here, but the fleet
slipped past the pirates in the night. Avery was after them the next
morning, and catching them up, singled out the largest ship, fought her
for two hours, and took her. She proved to be the _Gunsway_, belonging to
the Great Mogul himself, and a very valuable prize, as out of her they
took 100,000 pieces of eight and a like number of chequins, as well as
several of the highest persons of the court who were passengers on a
pilgrimage to Mecca. It was rumoured that a daughter of the Great Mogul
was also on board. Accounts of this exploit eventually reached England,
and created great excitement, so that it soon became the talk of the town
that Captain Avery had taken the beautiful young princess to Madagascar,
where he had married her and was living in royal state, the proud father
of several small princes and princesses.
The Mogul was naturally infuriated at this outrage on his ship, and
threatened in retaliation to lay waste all the East India Company's
settlements.
Having got a vast booty, Avery and his friends sailed towards Madagascar,
and on the way there Avery, as admiral of the little fleet, signalled to
the captain of the other sloops to come aboard his vessel. When they
arrived Avery put before them the following ingenious scheme. He proposed
that the treasures in the two sloops should, for safety, be put into his
keeping till they all three arrived in Madagascar. This, being agreed to,
was done, but during the night, after Avery had explained matters to his
own men, he altered his course and left the sloops, and never saw them
again. He now sailed away with all the plunder to the West Indies,
arriving safely at New Providence Island in the Bahamas, where he offered
the Governor a bribe of twenty pieces of eight and two pieces of gold to
get him a pardon. Avery arrived in 1696 at Boston, where he appears to
have successfully bribed the Quaker Governor to let him and some of his
crew land with their spoils unmolested. But the pirate did not feel quite
safe, and also thought it would be wellnigh impossible to sell his
diamonds in the colony without being closely questioned as to how he came
by them. So, leaving America, he sailed to the North of Ireland, where he
sold the sloop. Here the crew finally dispersed, and Avery stopped some
time in Dublin, but was still unable to dispose of his stolen diamonds.
Thinking England would be a better place for this transaction, he went
there, and settled at Bideford in Devon. Here he lived very quietly under
a false name, and through a friend communicated with certain merchants in
Bristol. These came to see him, accepted his diamonds and some gold cups,
giving him a few pounds for his immediate wants, and took the valuables to
Bristol to sell, promising to send him the money procured for them. Time
dragged on, but nothing came from the Bristol merchants, and at last it
began to dawn on Avery that there were pirates on land as well as at sea.
His frequent letters to the merchants brought at the most but a few
occasional shillings, which were immediately swallowed up by the payment
of his debts for the bare necessities of life at Bideford. At length, when
matters were becoming desperate, Avery was taken ill and died "not being
worth as much as would buy him a coffin." Thus ended Avery, "the Grand
Pirate," whose name was known all over Europe, and who was supposed to be
reigning as a king in Madagascar when all the while he was hiding and
starving in a cottage at Bideford.
AYLETT, CAPTAIN.
This buccaneer was killed by an explosion of gunpowder on board the
_Oxford_ during a banquet of Morgan's captains off Hispaniola in 1669.
BAILY, JOB, or BAYLEY.
Of London.
One of Major Stede Bonnet's crew. Hanged at Charleston in 1718.
BAKER, CAPTAIN.
One of Gasparilla's gang up to 1822, when they were broken up by the
United States Navy. His favourite hunting-ground was the Gulf of Mexico.
BALL, ROGER.
One of Captain Bartholomew's crew in the _Royal Fortune_. Captured by
H.M.S. _Swallow_ off the West Coast of Africa. He had been terribly burnt
by an explosion of a barrel of gunpowder, and while seated "in a private
corner, with a look as sullen as winter," a surgeon of the king's ship
came up and asked him how he came to be blown up in that frightful manner.
"Why," says he, "John Morris fired a pistol into the powder, and if he had
not done it, I would." The surgeon, with great kindness, offered to dress
the prisoner's wounds, but Ball, although in terrible pain, refused to
allow them to be touched. He died the same night.
BALLET, JOHN. Buccaneer.
Third mate on board Woodes Rogers's ship, the _Duke_, but was by
profession a surgeon, in which latter capacity he had sailed on a previous
voyage with Dampier.
BALTIZAR, CAPTAIN.
A terror to all shipping in the Gulf of Mexico in the early part of the
nineteenth century. Brought to Boston as a prisoner in 1823, taken thence
to Kingston, Jamaica, and there hanged. For some extraordinary reason the
American juries seldom would condemn a pirate to death, so that whenever
possible the pirate prisoners were handed over to the English, who made
short shift with them.
BANNISTER, CAPTAIN.
Ran away from Port Royal, Jamaica, in June, 1684, on a "privateering"
venture in a ship of thirty guns. Caught and brought back by the frigate
_Ruby_, and put on trial by the Lieutenant-Governor Molesworth, who was at
that time very active in his efforts to stamp out piracy in the West
Indies.
Bannister entirely escaped punishment, capital or otherwise, as he was
released by the grand jury on a technical point, surely most rare good
fortune for the captain in days when the law was elastic enough to fit
most crimes, and was far from lenient on piracy. Six months later the
indefatigable captain again eluded the forts, and for two years succeeded
in dodging the frigates sent out by Governor Molesworth to capture him.
Finally, in January, 1687, Captain Spragge sailed victoriously into Port
Royal with Bannister and three other buccaneers hanging at the yard-arm,
"a spectacle of great satisfaction to all good people, and of terror to
the favourers of pirates."
BARBAROSSA, or "REDBEARD" (his real name was URUJ). Barbary Corsair.
Son of a Turkish renegade and a Christian mother. Born in the Island of
Lesbon in the Ægean Sea, a stronghold of the Mediterranean pirates.
In 1504 Barbarossa made his headquarters at Tunis, in return for which he
paid the Sultan one-fifth of all the booty he took. One of his first and
boldest exploits was the capture of two richly laden galleys belonging to
Pope Julius II., on their way from Genoa to Civita Vecchia. Next year he
captured a Spanish ship with 500 soldiers on board. In 1512 he was invited
by the Moors to assist them in an attempt to retake the town and port of
Bujeya from the Spaniards. After eight days of fighting, Barbarossa lost
an arm, and the siege was given up, but he took away with him a large
Genoese ship. In 1516 Barbarossa changed his headquarters to Jijil, and
took command of an army of 6,000 men and sixteen galliots, with which he
attacked and captured the Spanish fortress of Algiers, of which he became
Sultan. Barbarossa was by now vastly rich and powerful, his fleets
bringing in prizes from Genoa, Naples, Venice, and Spain.
Eventually Charles V. of Spain sent an army of 10,000 troops to North
Africa, defeated the corsairs, and Barbarossa was slain in battle.
BARBE, CAPTAIN NICHOLAS.
Master of a Breton ship, the _Mychell_, of St. Malo, owned by Hayman
Gillard. Captured by an English ship in 1532. Her crew was made up of nine
Bretons and five Scots.
BARNARD, CAPTAIN. Buccaneer.
In June, 1663, this buccaneer sailed from Port Royal to the Orinoco. He
took and plundered the town of Santo Tomas, and returned the following
March.
BARNES, CAPTAIN.
In 1677 several English privateers surprised and sacked the town of Santa
Marta in the Spanish Main. To save the town from being burnt, the
Governor and Bishop became hostages until a ransom had been paid. These
the pirates, under the command of Captains Barnes and Coxon, carried back
to Jamaica and delivered up to Lord Vaughan, the Governor of the island.
Vaughan treated the Bishop well, and hired a vessel specially to send him
back to Castagona, for which kindness "the good old man was exceedingly
pleased."
BARNES, HENRY.
Of Barbadoes.
Tried for piracy at Newport in 1723, but found to be not guilty.
BARROW, JAMES.
Taken by Captain Roberts out of the _Martha_ snow (Captain Lady). Turned
pirate and served in the _Ranger_ in 1721.
BELLAMY, CAPTAIN CHARLES. Pirate, Socialist, and orator. A famous West
Indian filibuster.
He began life as a wrecker in the West Indies, but this business being
uncertain in its profits, and Bellamy being an ambitious young man, he
decided with his partner, Paul Williams, to aim at higher things, and to
enter the profession of piracy. Bellamy had now chosen a calling that lent
itself to his undoubted talents, and his future career, while it lasted,
was a brilliant one.
Procuring a ship, he sailed up and down the coast of Carolina and New
England, taking and plundering numerous vessels; and when this
neighbourhood became too hot for him he would cruise for a while in the
cooler climate of Newfoundland.
Bellamy had considerable gifts for public speaking, and seldom missed an
opportunity of addressing the assembled officers and crews of the ships
he took, before liberating or otherwise disposing of them.
His views were distinctly Socialistic. On one occasion, in an address to a
Captain Beer, who had pleaded to have his sloop returned to him, Captain
Bellamy, after clearing his throat, began as follows: "I am sorry," he
said, "that you can't have your sloop again, for I scorn to do anyone any
mischief--when it is not to my advantage--though you are a sneaking puppy,
and so are all those who will submit to be governed by laws which rich men
have made for their own security, for the cowardly whelps have not the
courage otherwise to defend what they get by their knavery. But damn ye
altogether for a pack of crafty rascals, and you, who serve them, for a
parcel of hen-hearted numbskulls! They vilify us, the scoundrels do, when
there is the only difference that they rob the poor under cover of the
law, forsooth, and we plunder the rich under the protection of our own
courage. Had you not better make one of us than sneak after these villains
for employment?"
Bellamy's fall came at last at the hands of a whaler captain. At the time
he was in command of the _Whidaw_ and a small fleet of other pirate craft,
which was lying at anchor in the Bay of Placentia in Newfoundland. Sailing
from Placentia for Nantucket Shoals, he seized a whaling vessel, the _Mary
Anne_. As the skipper of the whaler knew the coast well, Bellamy made him
pilot of his small fleet. The cunning skipper one night ran his ship on to
a sand-bank near Eastman, Massachusetts, and the rest of the fleet
followed his stern light on to the rocks. Almost all the crews perished,
only seven of the pirates being saved. These were seized and brought to
trial, condemned, and hanged at Boston in 1726. The days spent between the
sentence and the hanging were not wasted, for we read in a contemporary
account that "by the indefatigable pains of a pious and learned divine,
who constantly attended them, they were at length, by the special grace of
God, made sensible of and truly penitent for the enormous crimes they had
been guilty of."
BELVIN, JAMES.
Bo'son to Captain Gow, the pirate. He had the reputation of being a good
sailor but a bloodthirsty fellow. Was hanged at Wapping in June, 1725.
BEME, FRANCIS.
In 1539 this Baltic pirate was cruising off Antwerp, waiting to waylay
English merchant vessels.
BENDALL, GEORGE, or BENDEALL.
A flourishing pirate, whose headquarters, in the early eighteenth century,
were in New Providence Island.
In the year 1717, King George offered a free pardon to all freebooters who
would come in and give themselves up. But the call of the brotherhood was
too strong for a few of the "old hands," and Bendall, amongst others, was
off once again to carry on piracy around the Bahama and Virgin Islands.
Within a few years these last "die-hards" were all killed, drowned,
caught, or hanged.
BENNETT, WILLIAM.
An English soldier, who deserted from Fort Loyal, Falmouth, Marne, in
1689, and joined the pirate Pounds. Was sent to prison at Boston, where he
died.
BILL, PHILIP.
Belonged to the Island of St. Thomas.
One of Captain Roberts's crew. Hanged at the age of 27.
BISHOP.
An Irishman. Chief mate to the pirate Captain Cobham.
BISHOP, CAPTAIN.
In 1613, Bishop and a few other English seamen set up as pirates at
Marmora on the Barbary Coast.
BISHOP, WILLIAM.
One of Avery's crew. Hanged at Execution Dock in 1691.
BLADS, WILLIAM.
Born in Rhode Island.