[Illustration: VIEW OF THE HARBOR AND TOWN OF BOSTON IN 1723
From an engraving in the British Museum after a drawing by William
Burgis]
THE
PIRATES
OF THE
NEW ENGLAND
COAST
1630-1730
By
GEORGE FRANCIS DOW
Curator of the Society for the Preservation of
New England Antiquities
and
JOHN HENRY EDMONDS
Massachusetts State Archivist
INTRODUCTION BY
CAPT. ERNEST H. PENTECOST, R.N.R.
[Illustration]
MARINE RESEARCH SOCIETY
SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS
1923
PUBLICATION NUMBER TWO
OF THE
MARINE RESEARCH SOCIETY
SALEM, MASS.
COPYRIGHT, 1923, BY
THE MARINE RESEARCH SOCIETY
PRINTED IN
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
BY THE JORDAN & MORE PRESS
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS
THIS VOLUME
IS DEDICATED TO THE
MARINERS AND MERCHANTS OF
NEW ENGLAND WHO SUFFERED
LOSS OF LIFE OR PROPERTY
AT THE HANDS OF
PIRATES
PREFACE
There is scarcely a sandy beach on New England’s long and deeply
indented coastline that has not connected with it some traditionary
tale of the landing of pirates or their buried treasure. Many of these
half-forgotten tales may have had an origin in the operations of early
smugglers or in the evasion of the British Navigation Acts, but it
is undoubtedly true that pirates did frequent this coast, beginning
with the early days of its settlement, and during their periodical
appearances, robbed and destroyed shipping almost at will. In gathering
material relating to this subject no attempt has been made to include
the traditionary lore. The public records of the time supply an
astonishing amount of detailed information, but the principal source
for first-hand information on the operations of pirate vessels during
the first twenty-five years of the eighteenth century, the period
when piracy was most frequent and least controlled, is the “History
of the Pirates” by Capt. Charles Johnson. It has been claimed that
the author at one time sailed in a pirate ship and therefore wrote
from a personal knowledge of many of the events described. It seems
impossible that anyone could have obtained such a circumstantial
narrative of illicit life on the open sea unless he had lived in
intimate personal acquaintance with a number of those who took part in
the stirring actions recounted. Some of his tales are so extraordinary
that they seem improbable--impossible of belief. And yet, the portion
of his history relating to the North Atlantic coast has been verified
by original records and items of current news in the newspapers and
found to be a truthful relation in all essential details. With so
much corroborative evidence at hand it is only fair to concede the
probability that other portions of his “History,” not verified at this
time, are also based upon fact.
The account of piracy to be found in the following chapters is based
upon original documents in the Massachusetts State Archives, in the
records of the Vice-Admiralty Courts, the Courts of Assistants and the
Quarterly Courts. Printed accounts of trials have supplied valuable
information and many details that have greatly enriched the narrative
have been gleaned from newspapers published at the time. Intermingled
are personal anecdotes and details recorded by Captain Johnson, of
captures, murders and injuries inflicted upon the officers and crews of
plundered merchant vessels.
Many friends have aided in the preparation of this volume. Capt. Ernest
H. Pentecost, R.N.R., of Topsfield, has freely placed at our disposal
his collection of voyages and books on piracy and related subjects. He
also has critically examined the manuscript and given it the benefit
of his technical knowledge of things nautical. Mr. John W. Farwell
of Boston has generously permitted the reproduction of portions of
several rare maps in his fine collection of early charts and maps.
Mr. Julius H. Tuttle, Librarian of the Massachusetts Historical
Society, and Mr. George Parker Winship, Librarian of the Harry Elkins
Widener Collection, Harvard College Library, have kindly allowed the
reproduction of early engravings and title pages of rare books. Cordial
thanks also are due to Mr. Howard M. Chapin, Librarian of the George
L. Shepley Library, Providence; Mr. Charles H. Taylor, Mr. William W.
Cordingley, the Bostonian Society and the Society for the Preservation
of New England Antiquities, all of Boston; the Peabody Museum of Salem;
and to all others who in any way have furthered the production of this
volume.
CONTENTS
PREFACE v
TABLE OF CONTENTS vii
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ix
INTRODUCTION BY CAPT. ERNEST H. PENTECOST, R.N.R. xvii
I THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH PIRACY 1
II DIXEY BULL, THE FIRST PIRATE IN NEW ENGLAND WATERS
AND SOME OTHERS WHO FOLLOWED HIM 20
III JOHN RHODES, PILOT OF THE DUTCH PIRATES ON THE
COAST OF MAINE 44
IV THOMAS POUND, PILOT OF THE KING’S FRIGATE, WHO
BECAME A PIRATE AND DIED A GENTLEMAN 54
V WILLIAM KIDD, PRIVATEERSMAN AND REPUTED PIRATE 73
VI THOMAS TEW, WHO RETIRED AND LIVED AT NEWPORT 84
VII JOHN QUELCH AND HIS CREW, WHO WERE HANGED AT
BOSTON AND THEIR GOLD DISTRIBUTED 99
VIII SAMUEL BELLAMY, WHOSE SHIP WAS WRECKED AT
WELLFLEET AND 142 DROWNED 116
IX GEORGE LOWTHER, WHO CAPTURED THIRTY-THREE
VESSELS IN SEVENTEEN MONTHS 132
X NED LOW OF BOSTON AND HOW HE BECAME A PIRATE
CAPTAIN 141
XI CAPTAIN ROBERTS’ CURIOUS ACCOUNT OF WHAT HAPPENED
ON LOW’S SHIP 157
XII THE BRUTAL CAREER AND MISERABLE END OF NED LOW 200
XIII THE STRANGE ADVENTURES OF PHILIP ASHTON 218
XIV NICHOLAS MERRITT’S ACCOUNT OF HIS ESCAPE FROM
PIRATES 270
XV FRANCIS FARRINGTON SPRIGGS, THE COMPANION OF
NED LOW 277
XVI CHARLES HARRIS, WHO WAS HANGED AT NEWPORT WITH
TWENTY-FIVE OF HIS CREW 288
XVII JOHN PHILLIPS, WHOSE HEAD WAS CUT OFF AND
PICKLED 310
XVIII WILLIAM FLY, WHO WAS HANGED IN CHAINS ON
NIX’S MATE 328
XIX PIRATE HAUNTS AND CRUISING GROUNDS 338
XX PIRATE LIFE AND DEATH 353
APPENDIX
I CAPTAIN PLOUGHMAN’S COMMISSION 371
II CAPTAIN PLOUGHMAN’S INSTRUCTIONS 373
III DYING SPEECH OF CAPTAIN QUELCH 376
IV JOHN FILLMORE’S NARRATIVE 379
V AN “ACT OF GRACE” 381
INDEX 383
ILLUSTRATIONS
BOSTON HARBOR FROM THE SURVEY IN THE “ENGLISH
PILOT,” Part IV. London, 1707 _Front end-paper_
From an original in the Harvard College Library.
VIEW OF THE HARBOR AND TOWN OF BOSTON IN
1723 _Frontispiece_
From an engraving in the British Museum after a drawing
by William Burgis.
FAC-SIMILE OF THE TITLE-PAGE OF CAPT. CHARLES
JOHNSON’S “HISTORY OF THE PIRATES,” London, 1724 1
From an original in the library of the Massachusetts
Historical Society.
MAP OF THE WEST INDIES ABOUT 1720, SHOWING “THE
TRACTS OF THE SPANISH GALLIONS” 10
From Herman Moll’s “Atlas Minor,” London, 1732, in the
Harvard College Library.
CAPT. HENRY MORGAN, THE BUCCANEER, BEFORE PANAMA 14
From an engraving in Johnson’s “General History of the
Lives and Adventures of the Most Famous Highwaymen,
Murderers, Pyrates,” etc., London, 1734, in the Harry
Elkins Widener Collection, Harvard College Library.
FAC-SIMILE OF THE TITLE-PAGE OF REV. COTTON
MATHER’S “PILLARS OF SALT, AN HISTORY OF SOME
CRIMINALS EXECUTED IN THIS LAND,” Boston, 1699 26
From an original in the Harvard College Library.
RICHARD COOTE, EARL OF BELLOMONT, GOVERNOR OF
MASSACHUSETTS, 1699-1700 42
From a rare engraving in the Harvard College Library.
VIEW OF CASTLE WILLIAM, BOSTON HARBOR, ABOUT
1729, AND A MAN-OF-WAR OF THE PERIOD 54
From the only known copy of an engraving probably by
John Harris, after a drawing by William Burgis.
AN ARMED SLOOP NEAR BOSTON LIGHTHOUSE IN 1729 62
From the only known copy of a mezzotint by William
Burgis, published Aug. 11, 1729, and now in the
possession of the United States Lighthouse Board.
SAMUEL SEWALL, CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE SUPERIOR
COURT IN MASSACHUSETTS, 1718-1728 66
From an original painting in possession of the
Massachusetts Historical Society.
FAC-SIMILE OF THE TITLE-PAGE OF “A FULL ACCOUNT
OF THE PROCEEDINGS IN RELATION TO CAPT. KIDD,”
London, 1701 82
From an original in the library of the Massachusetts
Historical Society.
JOSEPH DUDLEY, GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS, WHO
PRESIDED AT THE TRIAL OF CAPTAIN QUELCH 102
From an original painting in possession of the
Massachusetts Historical Society.
FAC-SIMILE OF THE TITLE-PAGE OF “THE TRIAL OF
CAPT. JOHN QUELCH FOR PIRACY,” London, 1704 106
From an original in the library of the Massachusetts
Historical Society.
FAC-SIMILE OF THE TITLE-PAGE OF REV. COTTON
MATHER’S “FAITHFUL WARNINGS TO PREVENT FEARFUL
JUDGMENTS,” Boston, 1704 112
From an original in the library of the Massachusetts
Historical Society.
REV. COTTON MATHER, PASTOR OF THE SECOND (NORTH)
CHURCH, Boston, 1685-1728 114
From a mezzotint by Peter Pelham after a portrait
painted in 1728.
FAC-SIMILE OF THE TITLE-PAGE OF “THE TRIAL OF
EIGHT PERSONS INDITED FOR PIRACY,” Boston, 1717 116
From an original in the library of the Massachusetts
Historical Society.
SPANISH DOUBLOON 126
From the original gold coin, found on the beach at
Wellfleet, Mass., where Bellamy’s pirate ship was
wrecked in 1717 and now in the possession of Charles
H. Taylor.
SPANISH PIECE OF EIGHT 126
From the original eight real piece in the cabinet of
the Massachusetts Historical Society.
FAC-SIMILE OF THE TITLE-PAGE OF REV. COTTON
MATHER’S “INSTRUCTIONS TO THE LIVING FROM THE
CONDITION OF THE DEAD,” Boston, 1717 130
From an original in the library of the Massachusetts
Historical Society.
CAPT. GEORGE LOWTHER AT PORT MAYO 138
From an engraving in Johnson’s “General History of the
Lives and Adventures of the Most Famous Highwaymen,
Murderers, Pyrates,” etc., London, 1734, in the Harry
Elkins Widener Collection, Harvard College Library.
THE IDLE APPRENTICE SENT TO SEA 142
From an engraving by William Hogarth in the “Industry
and Idleness” series, published in 1747. The young
reprobate is being rowed past Cuckold’s Point on the
Thames where may be seen a pirate hanging from a gibbet.
A BARQUE IN THE WEST INDIES ABOUT 1720 146
From an engraving in Lobat’s “Nouveau Voyage,” Vol. II,
Paris, 1722, in the library of the Massachusetts
Historical Society.
A BRIGANTINE IN THE WEST INDIES ABOUT 1720 146
From an engraving in Lobat’s “Nouveau Voyage,” Vol. II,
Paris, 1722, in the library of the Massachusetts
Historical Society.
CAPT. EDWARD LOW IN A HURRICANE 152
From an engraving in Johnson’s “General History of the
Lives and Adventures of the Most Famous Highwaymen,
Murderers, Pyrates,” etc., London, 1734, in the Harry
Elkins Widener Collection, Harvard College Library.
ONE OF LOW’S CREW KILLING A WOUNDED SPANIARD 204
From an engraving in Johnson’s “Historie der Engelsche
Zee-roovers,” Amsterdam, 1725, in the Harvard College
Library.
FAC-SIMILE OF THE TITLE-PAGE OF “ASHTON’S MEMORIAL:
THE STRANGE ADVENTURES OF PHILIP ASHTON,”
Boston, 1725 222
From an original in the library of the Massachusetts
Historical Society.
PIRATES BOARDING A SPANISH VESSEL IN THE WEST INDIES 238
From an engraving in “The History and Lives of the most
Notorious Pirates,” by an old Seaman, London, n.d., in
possession of Capt. Ernest H. Pentecost, R.N.R.
MAP OF THE BAY OF HONDURAS SHOWING RATTAN
ISLAND AND PORT MAYO 242
From the map in “Voyages and Travels of Capt. Nathaniel
Uring,” London, 1726, in the library of the Massachusetts
Historical Society.
MAP SHOWING RUATAN ISLAND IN THE BAY OF HONDURAS
WHERE PHILIP ASHTON ESCAPED FROM PIRATES 256
From a map in the “American Atlas,” by Thomas Jefferys,
London, 1776, in the possession of John W. Farwell.
“SWEATING” ON CAPTAIN SPRIGG’S PIRATE VESSEL 278
From an engraving in “The History and Lives of the most
Notorious Pirates,” by an old Seaman, London, n.d., in
possession of Capt. Ernest H. Pentecost, R.N.R.
PIRATES KILLING A CAPTURED MAN 284
From an engraving in “The History and Lives of the Most
Notorious Pirates,” by an old Seaman, London, n.d., in
possession of Capt. Ernest H. Pentecost, R.N.R.
FIGHT ON A PIRATE SHIP 284
From an engraving in “The History and Lives of the Most
Notorious Pirates,” by an old Seaman, London, n.d., in
possession of Capt. Ernest H. Pentecost, R.N.R.
WILLIAM DUMMER, LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS,
WHO PRESIDED AT THE TRIAL OF CAPT.
CHARLES HARRIS FOR PIRACY 296
From the portrait by Robert Feke in possession of the
Trustees of Dummer Academy.
“VIEW OF NEWPORT, R. I., IN 1730,” SHOWING, AT THE
LEFT, GRAVELLY POINT, ON WHICH THE PIRATES WERE
HANGED IN 1723 308
The original painting really represents the town at a
somewhat later date. Reproduced from a lithograph copy
made in 1864, now in the George L. Shepley Library,
Providence, R. I.
FISHING SHIP AND STATION ON THE NEWFOUNDLAND
COAST ABOUT 1710 314
From an insert in Herman Moll’s “Map of North
America,” London [1710-1715], in the possession of
John W. Farwell.
FAC-SIMILE OF THE TITLE-PAGE OF REV. COTTON MATHER’S
“THE CONVERTED SINNER ... A SERMON PREACHED ... IN THE
HEARING AND AT THE DESIRE OF CERTAIN PIRATES, A LITTLE
BEFORE THEIR EXECUTION,” Boston, 1724 324
From an original in the library of the American
Antiquarian Society.
FAC-SIMILE OF THE TITLE-PAGE OF “THE TRYALS OF
SIXTEEN PERSONS FOR PIRACY,” Boston, 1726 328
From an original in the library of the Massachusetts
Historical Society.
FAC-SIMILE OF THE TITLE-PAGE OF REV. BENJAMIN
COLMAN’S “SERMON PREACHED TO SOME MISERABLE
PIRATES,” Boston, 1726 334
From an original in the library of the Massachusetts
Historical Society.
FAC-SIMILE OF THE TITLE-PAGE OF REV. COTTON
MATHER’S “VIAL POURED OUT UPON THE SEA,”
Boston, 1726 336
From an original in the library of the Massachusetts
Historical Society.
CAPT. BARTHOLOMEW ROBERTS 340
From an engraving in Johnson’s “General History of the
Pirates,” London, 1725, in the possession of George
Francis Dow.
CAPT. JOHN AVERY TAKING THE GREAT MOGUL’S SHIP 346
From an engraving in Johnson’s “General History of the
Lives and Adventures of the Most Famous Highwaymen,
Murderers, Pyrates,” etc., London, 1734, in the Harry
Elkins Widener Collection, Harvard College Library.
CAPT. EDWARD TEACH, COMMONLY CALLED “BLACK BEARD” 350
From an engraving in Johnson’s “General History of the
Lives and Adventures of the Most Famous Highwaymen,
Murderers, Pyrates,” etc., London, 1734, in the Harry
Elkins Widener Collection, Harvard College Library.
FAC-SIMILE OF THE TITLE-PAGE OF “THE TRIALS OF
FIVE PERSONS FOR PIRACY, FELONY AND ROBBERY,”
Boston, 1726 354
From an original in the library of the Massachusetts
Historical Society.
THE PIRATE SHIPS “ROYAL FORTUNE” AND “RANGER”
IN WHYDAH ROAD, JAN. 11, 1722 360
From an engraving in Johnson’s “General History of
the Pirates,” London, 1725, in possession of George
Francis Dow.
NIX’S MATE, BOSTON HARBOR, IN 1775, WHERE CAPTAIN
FLY WAS GIBBETTED IN 1726 368
From an engraving in the “Atlantic Neptune,” Part III,
London, 1781, in the library of the Massachusetts
Historical Society.
MONUMENT ON THE SHOAL, FORMERLY NIX’S MATE, IN
1637 AN ISLAND OF MORE THAN TEN ACRES 368
From a photograph made about 1900.
MAP OF CAPE COD IN 1717, SHOWING THE LOCATION OF
THE PIRATE WRECK _Back end-paper_
From a chart surveyed and published by Capt. Cyprian
Southack of Boston, now in possession of John W.
Farwell.
INTRODUCTION
Why did men go a-pirating, or “on the account” as the pirates called
it? The sailors said it was few ships and many men, hard work and
small pay, long voyages, bad food and cruel commanders. “Hard ships
make hard men.” “Many sailed but few returned.” “No kind words on deep
water.” “No law off soundings.” “We live hard and die hard and go to
Hell afterwards.” These are some of the sea sayings that have come down
to us from long ago, and they go to prove that the narrow channel of
sailor men was narrow indeed and full of rocks and shoals which could
only be cleared by very careful steering.
The sea was ever a hard calling, especially in the days of which this
work treats. The men before the mast were little better than slaves:
“Growl you may but go you must” was the saying. Small pay (which
they “earned like horses and spent like asses”), scanty food and
often stinking water with generally hard usage turned many an honest
sailorman into a desperate pirate.
Sea captains thought it good policy to keep their men as “busy as the
Devil in a gale of wind” to prevent them doing a job o’ work for that
Gentleman with the long tail, who, it was said, took especial interest
in the doings of “those who go down to the sea in ships.” “Six days
shalt thou labour as hard as thou art able, the seventh, holy-stone
the main deck and chip the chain cable.” Capt. Thomas Phillips wrote
in 1693, that “nothing grates upon the seamen more than pinching their
bellies, or treating them with cruel or reproachful words.”
One can easily imagine a group of hard-bitten men sheltering under the
lee of the long boat on a dirty night; wet, cold and tired; listening
with hungry interest to the yarns of an “old stander” who had been “on
the account,” telling of the time he sailed with Bart Sharp or “Long
Ben” Avery; picturing with many a brave oath, that other channel,
the broad one, straight, with smooth water, pieces-of-eight to port,
dollars and doubloons to starboard, snug harbors in tropic isles, dusky
maids, punch, tobacco and grub in plenty, laced coats and chains of
gold.
There is another side to the picture, not so pleasant, to be sure,
but easily dimmed by a noggin of rum or a swig or two of flip. ’Tis
naught, after all, but the yard-arm of a man-of-war with a man on the
end of a tricing line with his flippers seized to his sides; and on a
seashore, a wooden erection with a something hanging--something that
looks uncommonly like a sailorman, watching, with wry face, the ebbing
and flowing of the tide. But there’s nothing in the picture to make one
of the right sort go about ship. Better a short choking sensation than
a long starving in merchants’ employ or scurvy rotting for a pay ticket
on board a king’s ship.
Capt. Charles Johnson tells us in his book on pirates, that one “Mary
Read, a female pirate, being asked by her captain, before he knew
she was a woman, why she followed a life so full of danger and at
last to the certainty of being hanged, replied: as to the hanging she
thought it no great hardship, for were it not for that every cowardly
fellow would turn pirate and so infest the seas that men of courage
would starve. That if it was put to her choice she would not have the
punishment less than death, the fear of which kept dastardly rogues
honest; that many of those who were now cheating the widows and orphans
and oppressing their poor neighbors who had no money to obtain justice,
would then rob at sea and the ocean would be as crowded with rogues
as the land, so that no merchant would venture out and the trade in a
little time would not be worth following.”
There is an old saying that “Peace makes pirates.” The lawless
scamps--“sweepings of Hell and Hackney”--who manned the privateers were
especially prone to go a-pirateering in times of peace. They could
not or would not settle down to steady work and small pay or be bound
by laws and conventions. They loved roving and loot too well. Better
to hang a sun-drying than to live with “a southerly wind in the shot
locker.” It was but a step, after all, and that a short one, if half
be true that has been written of privateers by men of regular navies.
But perhaps they were a little prejudiced. Many rich prizes were taken
by the private ships of war, often robbing the regulars of the chance
of filling their pockets. Those who manned the King’s ships, like all
others that used the seas, suffered from loot hunger and to satisfy
the same would often sail very close to the wind, so close, in fact,
that several of the King’s captains were caught flat aback and made a
stern board towards the rocks. Some cleared by discharging their golden
ballast, others, by the wind of influence.
Coasters and fishermen were not so apt to turn pirates. Their work was
hard and risky; but fresh food, “full and plenty,” and shore influence
kept them steady. They were not as a rule of such an adventurous type
as deep-water seamen. Occasionally, however, some lusty young fisherman
or coaster would go a-roving. Perhaps some maid had been unkind or too
kind.
Some sailed under the “Jolly Roger” because they thought that he
who dared, toiled and ventured, deserved as great a percentage of
the profits as he who sat at home in personal safety and comfort
and handled the pen. It was their only chance of getting even with
the merchants and that chance a good one. Governments had little to
spend on pirate chasing; besides, who could better stand a little
cash-letting than the money-fat merchants. But well as they might
have been able to stand it they roared so during the operation that
governments were forced at last, Acts of Grace having failed, to
send men-of-war to cruise against “the gentlemen of fortune following
the sea.” They effected little. After one pirate-hunting squadron had
returned unsuccessful, sailors’ yarns floated around that told of the
commodore’s ship springing a leak out Madagascar way, and of great
store of powder, shot and rum being landed to lighten her. The leak
stopped as suddenly as it began and when the boats’ crews landed to
bring off the powder, shot and rum, all had disappeared. The yarns went
on to tell that when the commodore was taking a walk on shore, he found
several small kegs stowed under a palm tree down by the water’s edge,
and how heavy they were, and how carefully they were kept in the after
cabin of the Commodore’s ship, and that the officers said they had
nothing in ’em but honey; but Barney Brown, the boatswain’s mate, swore
his Bible oath that he heard the clink of coin when a-rolling them
along the deck.
There’s no doubt that many were worthy, but only Kidd was hanged.
The news of Captain Avery’s rich prize, the Mogul’s ship, with her
cargo of wealth and beautiful women, including, it was said, one of
the Great Mogul’s daughters, made many an old tarpaulin hitch up his
breeches and turn his quid. The fame of the beauty of the fair captives
was such that the mariners lost all their admiration for the Boston
Kates and Wapping Pegs of the ports where sea-faring men mostly took
their ease. “No! damme, no! Might as well ask a man to thirst for a sup
of sour beer when good rum’s to be had.” So off they’d go a-pirating,
hoping to capture something of the Miss Mogul sort with something to
keep her on.
The Peace of Ryswick forced hundreds of West India privateers or
buccaneers who had preyed on the Spaniards, to seek for purchase under
the black flag in all seas and from all nations.
Spain’s jealous policy regarding trade with her over-sea subjects, and
monopolies such as enjoyed by the East India Company, were resented
by all free merchants. Ships were fitted out and loaded with suitable
cargoes for the illegal trade. These interlopers were fast and well
manned and armed to enable them to wrong the _guarda costas_.
With a fair whack of luck great gains were made; but some failed to
get their whack; found shore officials suffering from honesty, a very
uncommon disorder among them in those days and easily cured by most
anything of value. But some of the patients required such enormous
doses, that rather than give the medicine and by so doing make a broken
voyage, the interlopers would throw the bones with Davy Jones. They
had the ship, they had the guns, and many a willing hand and if they
lacked black bunting there was store of black tarpaulin with artists of
sufficient skill to paint “the Skull and Bones.” Hurrah for the “Jolly
Roger”! A “gold chain or a wooden leg”! We’ll take what we can’t make!
When a prize was taken the pirate quartermaster would seek for recruits
from among the prisoners. Every lad of them of spirit, impressed by
the sight of such a bold swaggering crew rapping out their first-rate
oaths and well ballasted with punch, with their bravery of laced hats,
ribbons and pistols, was ready enough to square away for the broad
channel.
Although many were willing, few volunteered to sign the pirate
articles. The many wanted the plea of force, to let go, in case of
getting on a lee shore in a law storm. It was a very light anchor,
more like to drag than hold, but “better a kedge than nothing at all.”
Landsmen, the pirates despised, nor pricked they the halt, lame or
feeble.
The pirate wind was an ill wind, but it blew wonderful luck to those
merchants who loaded ships to their scuppers with fiery Jamaica,
red-hot brandy, gunpowder, small arms and cannon balls, and sent
them off to trade with some negro king, ’twas said. On the voyage
they would call at a lonely isle for wood and water and there they
would meet other ships manned by the most open-fisted merchants ever
known. No wrangling over a bale or two. Such bargains, the like of
which never could have been made even with the most unsophisticated of
dusky potentates. It was true, these merchants lacked the gravity of
their kind; tossed the bowl about a good deal; and swore,--well, like
pirates! And so home with a rich cargo.
With such a reputation for reckless daring, why, it may be asked,
were the pirates not more successful when engaging ships of war?
John Atkins, surgeon on board the “Swallow,” man-of-war, that took
three pirate ships on the Guinea coast in 1722, tells the reason.
“Discipline,” says the Doctor, “is an excellent path to victory; and
courage, like a trade, is gained by an apprenticeship, when strictly
kept up to rules and exercise. The pirates though singly fellows of
courage, yet wanting such a tie of order and some director to unite
that force, were a contemptible enemy. They neither killed or wounded a
man in the taking; which ever must be the fate of such rabble.”
From whatever source the pirates sprang, they were, taking them by and
large, brisk, courageous men, who were for making hasty estates at the
expense of the public and ever athirst for the juice of the sunny isle,
that magic fluid which helped them to forget that last pilot of many a
good pirate,--the Man with the Silver Oar.
ERNEST H. PENTECOST.
[Illustration:
A GENERAL
HISTORY
OF THE
_Robberies and Murders_
Of the most notorious
PYRATES,
AND ALSO
Their _Policies_, _Discipline_ and _Government_,
From their first RISE and SETTLEMENT in the Island
of _Providence_, in 1717, to the present Year 1724.
WITH
The remarkable ACTIONS and ADVENTURES of the two Female
Pyrates, _Mary Read_ and _Anne Bonny_.
To which is prefix’d
An ACCOUNT of the famous Captain _Avery_, and his Companions;
with the Manner of his Death in _England_.
The Whole digested into the following CHAPTERS;
Chap. I. Of Captain _Avery_.
II. The Rise of Pyrates.
III. Of Captain _Martel_.
IV. Of Captain _Bonnet_.
V. Of Captain _Thatch_.
VI. Of Captain _Vane_.
VII. Of Captain _Rackam_.
VIII. Of Captain _England_.
IX. Of Captain _Davis_.
X. Of Captain _Roberts_.
XI. Of Captain _Worley_.
XII. Of Captain _Lowther_.
XIII. Of Captain _Low_.
XIV. Of Captain _Evans_.
And their several Crews.
To which is added,
A short ABSTRACT of the Statute and Civil Law, in
Relation to PYRACY.
By Captain CHARLES JOHNSON.
_LONDON_, Printed for _Ch. Rivington_ at the _Bible_ and _Crown_ in St.
_Paul’s Church-Yard_, _J. Lacy_ at the _Ship_ near the _Temple-Gate_,
and _J. Stone_ next the _Crown_ Coffee-house the back of _Greys-Inn_,
1724.
]
CHAPTER I
THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH PIRACY
“As in all lands where there are many people, there are some theeves,
so in all Seas much frequented, there are some Pyrats.” So wrote Capt.
John Smith, the one-time Admiral of New England, when commenting in
1630 on the “bad life, qualities and conditions of Pyrats,”[1] and this
characterization remained true for many years after his day. Piracy
was as old as the art of transportation by water and until suppressed
by force in comparatively recent times it was a favorite trade among
seamen when times were hard or temptations great.
The reign of Queen Elizabeth (1558-1603) was characterized by a great
development of the maritime power of England. This was the time when
Drake and Hawkins and other great navigators fought with the ships
of Spain and brought fame and fortune to English seamen. Much of the
fighting at sea, however, was but little removed from freebooting and
it is now difficult to judge what was legalized warfare and what was
piratical capture. Notwithstanding the frequent opportunity for brave
men to attack rich Spanish ships common piracy flourished and in 1563
there were over four hundred known pirates sailing the four seas.[2]
When James I (1603-1625) came to the throne he resolved to live at
peace with all nations and so found little employment for a navy.
In the first year of his reign he recalled all “letters of marque,”
and two years later, by proclamation, forbade English seamen to seek
employment in foreign ships. In consequence many poverty-stricken
seamen became pirates, urged on by their necessities. “Some, because
they became sleighted of those for whom they had got much wealth; some,
for that they could not get their due; some, that had lived bravely,
would not abase themselves to poverty; some vainly, only to get a
name; others for revenge, covetousnesse, or as ill; and as they found
themselves more and more oppressed, their passions increasing with
discontent, made them turne Pirats.”[3]
By 1618, there were ten times as many pirates as there had been during
the whole reign of Queen Bess. About the only voyage open to an English
seaman at that time was the fishing venture of Newfoundland, which
was toilsome in the extreme and full of exposure and hardship. The
dirty carrying trade to Newcastle, for coals, while a good school for
seamen, was despised and thought beneath the ability of an active man,
and the long voyage to the East Indies was tedious and dangerous. As
for the navy--berths were few and the food poor, the pay was small
and the service a kind of slavery. Ordinary seamen received only ten
shillings a month, which was raised to fifteen shillings when Charles
I (1625-1649) became king. But even this small wage was subject to a
deduction of six pence for the Chatham Chest founded in 1590 for the
relief of injured and disabled seamen.
Peter Easton was one of the most notorious of the English pirates
during the reign of James I. In 1611 he had forty vessels under his
command. The next year he was on the Newfoundland coast with ten of
his ships where he trimmed and repaired, appropriated provisions and
munitions and took one hundred men to man his fleet.[4] On June 4,
1614, Henry Mainwaring, was at Newfoundland, with eight vessels in his
fleet. Mainwaring became even better known than Easton and a few years
later was pardoned and placed in command of a squadron and sent to
the Barbary coast in an unsuccessful attempt to drive out the pirates
located there. While he was on the Newfoundland coast he plundered the
fishing fleet of carpenters and marines and the provisions and stores
that he needed. Of every six seamen he took one. From a Portuguese
ship he looted a good store of wine and a French ship supplied him
with 10,000 fish. Some of the fishermen deserted their vessels and
voluntarily went with him. In all he took four hundred men, many of
whom were “perforstmen,”[5] and then sailed back across the Atlantic
to continue his impartial plundering of the ships of Spain and other
nations.
It was an easy matter for the English pirates to obtain bread, wine,
cider and fish and all the necessaries for shipping on the Newfoundland
coast as the fishermen were unarmed and moreover did not stand
together. Not many pirates went there, however, as the voyage across
the Atlantic was long and the prevailing winds apt to be westerly or
northwesterly during the summer months. Notwithstanding, the fishing
fleets suffered so much from these attacks that by 1622, men-of-war
were sent out to convoy and remain on the station during the fishing
season. In 1636, three hundred English fishing vessels were in the
fleet that sailed for home under convoy.
The Irish coast was another favorite resort where pirates went to
careen and obtain provisions from the country people. Broadhaven was
a favorite rendezvous. The Irish coast not only was a good place to
provision but also there “they had good store of English, Scottish and
Irish wenches which resort unto them, and these are strong attractions
to draw the common sort of them thither.”[6]
Mainwaring in his account of English piracy at this period, supplies an
interesting description of their methods of attack.
“In their working they usually do thus: a little before day they take
in all their sails, and lie a-hull, till they can make what ships are
about them; and accordingly direct their course so as they may seem
to such ships as they see to be Merchantmen bound upon their course.
If they be a fleet, then they disperse themselves a little before
day, some league or thereabouts asunder, and seeing no ships do most
commonly clap close by a wind to seem as Plyers.[7] If any ships stand
in after them, they heave out all the sail they can make, and hang out
drags to hinder their going, so that the other that stand with them
might imagine they were afraid and that they shall fetch them up. They
keep their tops continually manned, and have signs to each other when
to chase, when to give over, where to meet, and how to know each other,
if they see each other afar off.
“In chase they seldom use any ordnance, but desire as soon as they can,
to come a board and board; by which course he shall more dishearten
the Merchant and spare his own Men. They commonly show such colours as
are most proper to their ships, which are for the most part Flemish
bottoms, if they can get them, in regard that generally they go well,
are roomy ships, floaty[8] and of small charge.”
Mainwaring also comments on the ease with which successful pirates
might obtain a pardon and of this he spoke with personal knowledge of
how it was done, writing, “if they can get £1000 or two, they doubt
not but to find friends to get their Pardons for them. They have also
a conceit that there must needs be wars with Spain within a few years,
and then they think they shall have a general Pardon.”
Capt. John Smith in his “True Travels,” relates that the pirates
prospered exceedingly and became a serious menace to trade so that
“they grew hatefull to all Christian Princes.” Their increase in number
finally induced them to establish a rendezvous on the Barbary coast
in Northern Africa.[9] Ward, Bishop and Easton, all Englishmen, were
among the first to go there, and were soon joined by others,--Jennings,
Harris and Thompson and some who were hanged, at last, at Wapping
on the Thames. The Mediterranean was the center of a rich commerce
and these outlawed seamen banded together in small fleets, plundered
impartially the vessels of Genoa, Malta, England or Holland. Success
brought on indolence and the riotous, debauched life they led after
a time deprived them of leaders of spirit, so that the Moors began
to dominate their operations.[10] Some pirates were enslaved, others
became renegades and accepted the Mohammedan faith and all, at last,
became merged into the Barbary corsair and for nearly two centuries
sailed out of ports in Algiers and Tunis and were the terror of
mariners, not only about the Strait of Gibraltar but for some distance
up and down the Atlantic coast,--robbing, enslaving or exacting tribute
from all so unfortunate as to fall into their hands. Another group of
rovers made their home port at Sallee harbor, on the west coast of
Morocco. The “Salley rovers” were a great danger to vessels engaged in
the Guinea trade.
From this it will be seen that piracy in European waters, in the
early years of the seventeenth century, had its origin in a lack of
legitimate employment for seamen. This condition was brought about
by a period of peace and aggravated by an imperfectly developed
maritime commerce that could not be quickly increased in order to find
occupation for idle men. “I could wish Merchants, Gentlemen, and all
setters forth of ships,” concludes Captain Smith, “not to bee sparing
of a competent pay, nor true payment; for neither souldiers nor Sea-men
can live without meanes, but necessity will force them to steale; and
when they are once entered into that trade, they are hardly reclaimed.”
Another contributing factor, that later helped to supply suitable
material for piratical ventures, may be found in the character of
the shifting population of the American colonies. In all frontier
settlements, in all parts of the world and at all times, there exist
irresponsible and lawless elements sloughed off by more perfectly
controlled governments. This was true in the early days of the seaport
towns along the Atlantic coast. Prisoners of war, poor debtors,
criminals from the gaols and young men and boys kidnapped in the
streets of English towns, were shipped across the Atlantic and sold to
planters and tradesmen for a term of years under conditions closely
approaching servitude. It became a trade to furnish the plantations
with servile labor drawn from the off-scourings of the mother country.
Even the English government took a hand and in 1661 “a committee
was appointed to consider the best means of furnishing labor to the
plantations by authorizing contractors to transport criminals, beggars,
and vagrants. Runaway apprentices, faithless husbands and wives,
fugitive thieves and murderers were thus enabled to escape beyond the
reach of civil or criminal justice.”[11] Once landed in the colonies
and having tasted the hardships of forced labor, a roving disposition
was soon awakened and runaway servants were almost as common as
blackbirds. Numbers of these men joined marauding expeditions and
eventually became pirates of the usual type.
Undoubtedly privateering was the principal training school that
taught adventurous men to accept a roving commission not only
against Spaniards but against men of all nations. Like pirates, the
privateersmen lived on spoil and while legally restricted in their
attacks to the vessels of an enemy nation it was easy sometimes to
overlook the color of a flag if an honest living was not at hand and
one was far from home. In fact, it has been said that “privateers in
time of war are a nursery for pirates against a peace.” A stirring
description of an attack on a Spanish ship is given in the “Accidence
for all Young Seamen,” published in London in 1626, and written by
Capt. John Smith, the “Admiral of New England.” It may well serve as an
account of what took place at that time on nearly every privately armed
vessel attacking an enemy.
“A sail, how stands she, to windward or leeward, set him by the
Compass. He stands right a-head. Out with all your sails, a steady
man at the helm, sit close to keep her steady. He holds his own. Ho,
we gather on him. Out goeth his flag and pennants or streamers, also
his Colours, his waist-cloths and top armings, he furls and slings his
main sail, in goes his sprit sail and mizzen, he makes ready his close
fights fore and after. Well, we shall reach him by and by.
“Is all ready? Yea, yea. Every man to his charge. Dowse your top sail,
salute him for the sea. Hail him! Whence your ship? Of Spain. Whence
is yours? Of England. Are you Merchants or Men of War? We are of the
Sea. He waves us to leeward for the King of Spain, and keeps his luff.
Give him a chase piece, a broadside, and run a-head, make ready to tack
about. Give him your stern pieces. Be yare at helm, hail him with a
noise of Trumpets.
“We are shot through and through, and between wind and water. Try
the pump. Master, let us breathe and refresh a little. Sling a man
overboard to stop the leak. Done, done. Is all ready again? Yea, yea.
Bear up close with him. With all your great and small shot charge him.
Board him on his weather quarter. Lash fast your grapplins and shear
off, then run stem line the mid ships. Board and board, or thwart the
hawse. We are foul on each other.
“The ship’s on fire. Cut anything to get clear, and smother the fire
with wet cloths. We are clear, and the fire is out. God be thanked!
“The day is spent, let us consult. Surgeon look to the wounded. Wind up
the slain, with each a piece or bullet at his head and feet. Give three
pieces for their funeral.
“Swabber make clean the ship. Purser record their names. Watch be
vigilent to keep your berth to windward; and that we loose him not in
the night. Gunners sponge your Ordnances. Carpenters about your leaks.
Boatswain and the rest, repair the sails and shrouds. Cook see you
observe your directions about the morning watch. Boy. Hulloa, Master,
Hulloa. Is the kettle boiling. Yea, yea.
“Boatswain call up the men to Breakfast; Boy fetch my cellar of
Bottles. A health to you all fore and aft, courage my hearts for a
fresh charge. Master lay him aboard luff for luff. Midshipmen see the
tops and yards well manned with stones and brass balls, to enter them
in the shrouds. Sound Drums and Trumpets, and St. George for England.
“They hang out a flag of truce. Stand in with him, hail him amain,
abaft or take in his flag. Strike their sails and come aboard, with the
Captain, Purser, and Gunner, with your Commission, Cocket, or bills of
loading.
“Out goes their Boat. They are launched from the ship’s side. Entertain
them with a general cry, God save the Captain, and all the Company,
with the Trumpets sounding. Examine them in particular; and then
conclude your conditions with feasting, freedom, or punishment as you
find occasion.”
During the middle years of the seventeenth century the West India
waters were covered with privateers commissioned to prey upon Spanish
commerce. Not only did the home government issue these commissions but
every colonial governor as well, so that thousands of men were out of
employment when a peace was declared. Merchants then took advantage
of such conditions and poorly paid and poorly fed their seamen and
this bred discontent and made willing volunteers when the first pirate
vessel was encountered.
Not infrequently it was difficult to separate privateering from piracy.
John Quelch, who was hanged in Boston for piracy, in 1704, preyed upon
Portuguese commerce as he supposed in safety and not until he returned
to Marblehead did he learn of the treaty of peace that made him a
pirate. In 1653, Thomas Harding captured a rich prize sailing from
Barbadoes and in consequence was tried in Boston for piracy, but saved
his neck when he was able to prove that the vessel was Dutch and not
Spanish. In 1692, the Governor and Council of Connecticut were informed
that “a catch and 2 small sloops, with about 30 or 40 privateers or
rather pirates,” were anchored off East Hampton, Long Island, and had
sold a ketch to Mr. Hutchinson of Boston and bought a sloop of Captain
Hubbard, also of Boston.
Newport, R. I., sent out many privateers. In 1702 it was reported that
nearly all of the able-bodied men on the Island were away privateering.
The town also profited frequently from the visits of known pirates,
as in 1688, when Peterson, in a “barkalonga” of ten guns and seventy
men, refitted at Newport and no bill could be obtained against him from
the grand jury as they were neighbors and friends of many of the men
on board. Two Salem ketches also traded with him and a master of one
brought into “Martin’s Vineyard,” a prize that Peterson “the pirate,
had taken in the West Indies.”[12] Andrew Belcher, a well-known Boston
merchant and master of the ship “Swan,” paid Peterson £57, in money and
provisions, for hides and elephants’ teeth taken from his plunder.
The ill-defined connection between privateering and piracy was fully
recognized in those days and characterized publicly by the clergy. In
1704 when Rev. Cotton Mather preached his “Brief Discourse occasioned
by a Tragical Spectacle in a Number of Miserables under Sentence of
Death for Piracy,” he remarked that “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.”
The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, by which peace was made between England
and Spain, was signed in 1668, but the colonial authorities were
so little concerned by the depredations of the English privateers
on Spanish commerce in the West Indies that their commissions were
not revoked until 1672 and even then, for a time, the doings of the
adventurous, privately armed vessels were not scrutinized too closely.
The Peace of Ryswick in 1697 put an end to most of the privateering in
the West Indies and sixteen years later England’s wars with France,
over the Spanish succession, lasting for nearly a half-century,
ended with the treaty of peace signed at Utrecht. By its terms Great
Britain received Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, and the right to send
African slaves to America. While the notable battles of this war had
been fought on land yet, in many respects, it had been a conflict
between naval powers and the peace released a great many men who found
themselves unable to obtain employment in the merchant shipping. This
was particularly true in the West Indies where the colonial governors
had commissioned a large number of privateers. When adventurous spirits
have been privately employed under a commission to sail the seas and
plunder the ships of another nation, it is but a step forward to
continue that fine work without a commission after the war is over. To
the mind of the needy seaman there was very little distinction between
the lawfulness of one and the unlawfulness of the other.
[Illustration: MAP OF THE WEST INDIES ABOUT 1720, SHOWING “THE TRACTS
OF THE GALLIONS”
From Herman Moll’s “Atlas Minor,” London, 1732, in the Harvard College
Library]
Another training school for pirate ships also existed among the
buccaneers who flourished in the West Indies during the last half
of the seventeenth century. Spain at that time claimed sovereignty
over all the lands lying in or about the Caribbean Sea, a territory
which she looked upon as a great preserve over which to exercise
absolute control and from which to extract the wealth of the mines.
Manufactures were forbidden and commerce with other nations was not
permitted. Clothing and supplies of all kinds, wines, oil, and even
some kinds of provisions must be purchased from merchants in distant
Spain. No foreigner might land under pain of death and no foreign ship
was permitted to anchor in any of their harbors. Twice each year a
splendid fleet left Spain, bound for Mexico and the Isthmus of Panama,
laden with all kinds of merchandise required by Spanish-America. On
the arrival of the galleons a great fair was held where the traders
met and for forty days Porto Bello, the city of the deadly climate,
was thronged by the merchants of Peru, cargadores and sailors from the
ships, negroes and native Indians.
By the year 1630, small settlements had been established by the
English on the islands of Bermuda, St. Christopher, Tortuga and the
Barbadoes, and Frenchmen were on Hispaniola; but before many years St.
Christopher and Tortuga were ravaged by Spanish fleets, the women and
children murdered and all able-bodied men condemned to slavery in the
mines. The limitations of English navigation laws at this time were
crowding the home ports with unemployed seamen; some took to begging on
the high roads, but the more adventurous found their way to the West
Indies where twice each year journeyed the fleet of great ships laden
with gold and silver from the mines of Mexico and Peru, pearls from
Margarita and precious gems gathered from two continents. Here, too,
came the scum of Europe and on the island of Tortuga a settlement grew
that was frequented by lawless vagabonds coming from everywhere who
lived variously by hunting, planting and piracy.
The name “buccaneer,” afterwards applied to these rovers, was derived
from the hunters who smoked the flesh of the wild cattle that they
killed, over a “boucane” or wood fire. Two centuries and a half later,
the French half-breeds canoeing in the Canadian backlands spoke of “la
boucane” when they lighted their camp fires. The hunters went to the
mainland in large parties and killed the wild cattle for their hides.
“After the hunt was over” writes Esquemeling,[13] the historian of the
buccaneers, “they commonly sail to Tortuga to provide themselves with
guns, powder and shot, and necessaries for another expedition; the
rest of their gains they spend prodigally, giving themselves to all
manner of vice and debauchery, particularly to drunkenness, which they
practiced mostly with brandy.” The tavern keepers and the hangers-on
of both sexes, watched for the return of the buccaneers, “even as at
Amsterdam, they do for the arrival of the East India fleet.”
It was a Frenchman, known among his associates as “Peter the Great,”
who first played the uproarious game of piracy on the Spanish fleet.
With only twenty-eight men he cruised off the coast of Hispaniola in
an open boat at the time of year when the galleons passed on their
homeward voyage. On sighting the fleet he followed during the night
and notwithstanding the fact that the Vice-Admiral had been told of
the suspicious craft, so confident was he of the strength of his ship
that she was allowed to straggle from the convoy. When the boatload
of desperadoes ran alongside they scuttled their craft and boarded
the Spaniard yelling like demons. They were dressed in their usual
manner, in shirts soaked in the blood of wild cattle, leather breeches
and moccasins of rawhide, and the Vice-Admiral, sitting in his cabin
playing cards, may well have imagined, as in fact he cried out--“The
ship is invaded by devils.”
After the news of the rich capture reached Tortuga, many of the
buccaneers turned to piracy and in a few years the Spanish seas were
infested with small fleets of pirate vessels which obeyed fixed laws
and were governed by a single chief. Desperate men in every European
port came out to join them and in time many thousand men recognized
the command of the great captains of the “Brethren of the Coast,”
as they styled themselves. Before the end of the first year that
followed the capture of the Spanish galleon, twenty large vessels
had been taken, two great plate ships had been cut out of the harbor
of Campeachy and a trade in looted merchandize had sprung up between
Tortuga and Europe that soon made the piratical settlement one of the
richest in America.
The “Brethren of the Coast” established among themselves a code of laws
the larger number of which related to captured booty. All offences
against these laws were severely punished, the commonest penalty being
“marooning” which consisted of landing the offender on an uninhabited
key or island with only a small supply of food. The most desperate
might well shrink from such an end. The invariable practice required
that everything should be held in common and at the last be divided
into shares according to a fixed ratio. The captain drew the largest
number, of course, and the sailing master, carpenter and surgeon came
next. There was also a tariff by which to indemnify those who were
mutilated while fighting. For a right arm, six hundred Spanish pieces
of eight were awarded or a corresponding value in slaves. The left arm
was worth only five hundred pieces of eight, and a leg was of equal
value. An eye was worth one hundred and a finger the same. The booty
brought into the pirate rendezvous at Tortuga was enormous. Frequently
pirates would land bringing in five or six thousand pieces of eight
per man and a single vessel once brought in loot amounting to 260,000
pieces. Huge sums were gambled away in a single night and drunken
buccaneers would sometimes buy pipes of wine and force every passer-by
to drink or fight.
The success of the buccaneers before long paralyzed Spanish commerce
and fewer ships were sent to the American colonies so that the
“Brethren,” then numbering several thousands, began to plan attacks
upon land. The first Spanish settlement assaulted was Campeachy, on
the coast of Yucatan. An Englishman named Lewis Scot led this attack
which resulted in much loot and the almost entire destruction of the
city. Another Englishman named Davis took Nicaragua and plundered
the churches of vast quantities of plate and jewels. L’Olonnais, a
Frenchman, with eight vessels filled with men, fell upon Maracaibo and
after much hard fighting brought away 260,000 pieces of eight and a
great amount of jewels and plate. “But,” writes Esquemeling, “in three
weeks they had scarce any money left, having spent it all in things of
little value, or lost it at play. The taverns and stews, according to
the custom of the pirates, got the greatest part.”
Capt. Henry Morgan, the leader of the expedition against Panama,
achieved the greatest fame among all these lawless chieftains. Charles
II knighted him and made him governor of Jamaica, where he turned upon
his late companions and waged a bitter warfare. An early exploit of
Morgan was the taking of Puerto Velo, one of the strongest fortresses
in New Spain. Surprising the sentry at night he easily captured the
outer defences. The prisoners were placed in a room with several
barrels of gunpowder and as they were blown into the air the buccaneers
assaulted the citadel. The cloisters had been seized and the priests
and nuns were forced to climb the scaling ladders before the men, “the
religious men and women ceasing not to cry to the governor and beg him
to deliver the castle, and so save both his and their lives,” writes
Esquemeling. The castle surrendered at last, though “with great loss of
the said religious people.” The loot amounted to over 250,000 pieces
of eight and much other spoil which was soon squandered at Port Royal,
a pirate town in Jamaica that supplied almost unlimited resources for
debauchery.
[Illustration: SIR HENRY MORGAN, THE BUCCANEER, BEFORE PANAMA
From an engraving in Johnson’s “General History of the Lives and
Adventures of the Most Famous Highwaymen, Murderers, Pyrates,” etc.,
London, 1734, in the Harry Elkins Widener Collection, Harvard College
Library]
The capture of Panama took place in 1671. Morgan’s fleet sailed from
Jamaica and with only twelve hundred men he crossed the Isthmus. The
Spaniards learned of his coming and carried away or destroyed all food
stuffs along the route so that when the buccaneers came in sight of
the South Sea, after a nine days’ march, they were nearly famished and
in desperate straits. A few days’ rest put them in condition again and
with many revengeful oaths they fell upon the defences of the city with
irresistible fury. No quarter was given on either side. Soon Panama was
in flames. It was four weeks before the fires at last were extinguished
and over two hundred great warehouses, seven thousand houses, huge
stables that sheltered the horses and mules that transported the golden
ingots of the King of Spain, and many other buildings were entirely
destroyed. The plunder was immense. On the way back a dispute broke out
and when Morgan reached the ships he scuttled all but one and set sail
with only his chosen followers. Such treachery was unforgivable and he
never afterward led the “Brethren of the Coast.”
Morgan became governor of Jamaica with strict orders to enforce the
treaty concluded between England and Spain and relentlessly persecuted
those of his late associates who neglected to accept the royal pardon
which provided grants of lands to all buccaneers who would abandon the
sea and become planters. By proclamation all cruising against Spain
was forbidden under severe penalties. Many of the English filibusters
accepted the pardon while others became logwood cutters in the Bay of
Honduras or raised a black flag and preyed upon the ships of every
nation.
The pirate commonwealth at Port Royal was abandoned and such Englishmen
as continued to rove joined their French brethren who frequented the
island of Tortuga, or crossed the Isthmus and preyed upon the Spanish
towns in Peru and the shipping of the Great South Sea. They also
captured immense booty at Acapulco where the Spanish ships landed the
riches of the Philippines. The peace of Ryswick in 1697 settled the
disputes between France and Spain and also sounded the knell of the
French filibusters. Before long the buccaneers were absorbed in the
population of the various islands in the West Indies and the Spanish
galleons again sailed peacefully through the tropic seas.
Another strong influence that led to insecurity on the high seas
and eventually to outright piracy was the operation of the English
Navigation Acts. European nations were in agreement that the
possession of colonies meant the exclusive control of their trade and
manufactures. Lord Chatham wrote, “The British Colonists in North
America have no right to manufacture so much as a nail for a horse
shoe,” and Lord Sheffield went further and said, “The only use of
American Colonies, is the monopoly of their consumption, and the
carriage of their produce.”[14]
English merchants naturally wished to sell at high prices and to buy
colonial raw materials as low as possible and as they were unable to
supply a market for all that was produced, the colonies were at a
disadvantage in both buying and selling. By the Acts of Navigation
certain “enumerated articles” could be marketed only in England.
Lumber, salt provisions, grain, rum and other non-enumerated articles
might be sold within certain limits but must be transported in English
or plantation built vessels of which the owners and three-fourths of
the mariners were British subjects. Freight rates also advanced as
other nations, notably the Dutch, had previously enjoyed a good share
of the carrying trade.
The first Navigation Act was passed in 1647. It was renewed and its
provisions enlarged in 1651, 1660, 1663 and later. Before long it was
found that these attempts to monopolize the colonial markets resulted
in a natural resistance and smuggling began and also an extensive trade
with privateers and pirates who brought into all the smaller ports of
New England captured merchandise that was sold at prices below the
usual market values. Matters went from bad to worse and servants of the
Crown frequently combined with the colonists to evade the obnoxious
laws. Even the royal governors connived at what was going on. This
was particularly true in the colonies south of New England. Colonel
Fletcher, the governor of New York, commissioned numerous privateers
and received a fee, the equivalent of one hundred dollars per man.
These vessels when well away from local jurisdiction became pirates in
earnest and ravaged the Red Sea and brought home rich cargoes of East
India goods in which the members of the governor’s council obtained
their share. Hore, a famous privateer and pirate, was very successful
in this trade and Thomas Tew, another freebooter, divided his time
between New York, Newport and the Madagascar coast. He was on the
black list of the East India Company but Governor Fletcher entertained
him at his table and when the Lords of Trade remonstrated, the artful
governor replied that he wished to make Captain Tew a sober man and in
particular “to reclaime him from a vile habit of swearing,”[15] and as
for coming to his table, that was but a common hospitality.
In Rhode Island, the president and four assistants granted these
commissions with the condition that the colony was to share in any
captures. In 1649, Bluefield or Blauvelt, a Dutch privateersman,
brought a prize into Newport, which the governor found was taken during
a truce. But there was no man-of-war in the harbor to enforce the law
and as the townsfolk wanted to buy the cargo and the sailors wanted
the prize money, everybody was satisfied. At a later time Governor
Bellomont of New York complained of the Admiralty Court at Newport as
too “favourable” to piracies and in Queen Anne’s time, Connecticut and
Rhode Island were both complained of because “Her Majesty’s and ye Lord
High Admiral’s dues are sunk in condemning prizes.”[16]
At Stamford, Conn., a prominent citizen had a warehouse “close to the
Sound,” where he received illicit goods and afterwards shipped them to
Boston and other ports. The shore of eastern Long Island was haunted
by smugglers and pirates. Sometimes the wind lay in the other quarter
and a privateersman was adjudged a pirate and hanged. This happened in
Boston in 1704 to John Quelch who had captured Portuguese vessels. But
contemporaries say that officialdom was after a goodly share of the
gold dust that he had brought in. Usually, however, the enterprising
rover lived out his days in the character of a “rich privateer” and
died respected by friends and neighbors.
There were pirates and pirates. Some were letters-of-marque and
legitimate traders and enjoyed the protection of merchants and
officials on shore, while others were outlaws. In 1690, Governor
Bradstreet of the Massachusetts Colony was complaining of the great
damage done to shipping by “French Privateers and Pirates,” and
four years later, Frontenac, the governor of Canada, was asking for
a frigate to cruise about the St. Lawrence against the New England
“_corsaires et filibusters_.” There is no doubt these French privateers
were a considerable menace to New England shipping and that there was
need for privately armed vessels to protect the coast, a task not easy
or desirable; so why should one scrutinize too closely semi-piratical
captures made by so useful friends? In 1709, in mid-winter, a French
privateer appeared off Cape Cod and Governor Dudley ordered Capt.
Abraham Robinson of Gloucester, to man his sloop and sail in pursuit.
It was not an inviting enterprise, especially at that season of the
year, and when the drums went about the town beating up for volunteers,
enlistments languished and the expedition was finally given up. The
minister of the place afterwards wrote to the governor, making excuses
saying “it made them quake to think of turning out of their warm beds
and from good fires, and be thrust into a naked vessel, where they
must lie on the cold, hard ballast, instead of beds, and without fire,
excepting some few who might crowd into the cabin.”[17]
The agents sent over by the Lords of Trade and Plantations were unable
to make progress against the flagrant evasions of the Navigation Acts.
Randolph, who arrived in Boston in 1679, was the most active of these
agents, and when he seized several vessels for irregular trading,
the courts decided against him and “damages were given against his
Majesty.”[18] He afterwards complained of those privateers that were
fitting out for the Spanish West Indies and writes of Mr. Wharton of
Boston, as “a great undertaker for pyratts and promoter of irregular
trade.” “New England rogues and pitiful damned Scotch pedlars,” he
termed those who opposed him. The pirates or privateers were supplied
with provisions by vessels from the mainland and prize goods were taken
in payment. Vessels were often fitted out at Rhode Island and manned in
New York and Arabian gold was to be found in both colonies; “in fact,
’tis the most beneficiall trade, that to Madagascar with the pirates,
that was ever heard of, and I believe there’s more got that way than
by turning pirates and robbing.” So wrote the New York governor, and
later, he again wrote to the Lords at Whitehall: “The temptation is soe
great to the common seamen in that part of the world where the Moores
have so many rich ships and the seamen have a humour more now than ever
to turne pirates.”[19]
The profits of piracy and the irregular trade practiced at that time
were large, indeed, and twenty-nine hundred per cent profit in illicit
trade was not unusual, so there is little wonder that adventurous
men took chances and honest letters-of-marque sometimes seized upon
whatever crossed their course. The pirate, the privateer and the armed
merchantman often blended the one into the other.
FOOTNOTES
[1] _True Travels, Adventures and Observations of Captain John Smith_,
London, 1630.
[2] Oppenheim, _The Administration of the Royal Navy_, p. 177.
[3] _True Travels, Adventures and Observations of Captain John Smith_,
London, 1630.
[4] _Purchas, His Pilgrimage_, Vol. IV, p. 1882.
[5] Perforst, _i.e._, forced.
[6] Mainwaring, _The Beginnings, Practices and Suppression of Pirates,
ca. 1717_. MS. in British Museum.
[7] To ply: to beat up against a wind.
[8] Floaty, _i.e._, draw little water.
[9] As early as 1613, English pirates were established at Mamora, at
the mouth of the Sebu River on the Barbary Coast. That year about
thirty sail were using the port.
[10] By 1618 there were one hundred and fifty Turkish vessels to only
twenty English at Algiers.
[11] Doyle, _English Colonies in America_, Vol. I, p. 383.
[12] _Massachusetts Archives_, Vol. 35, folio 61.
[13] John Esquemeling, _The Buccaneers of America_, London, 1684.
[14] Viscount Bury, _Exodus of the Western Nations_, Vol. II, London,
1865.
[15] _New York Colonial Documents_, Vol. IV, p. 447.
[16] _New York Colonial Documents_, Vol. IV, p. 1116.
[17] Babson, _History of Gloucester_, p. 138.
[18] _Andros Tracts_, Vol. III, p. 5.
[19] _New York Colonial Documents_, Vol. IV, p. 521.