PIRATE HAUNTS AND CRUISING GROUNDS
The pirates who frequented the New England coast during the first
century after the settlement usually remained in the warm waters of
the West Indies during the winter months. With the coming of spring
they cruised northward along the coast capturing small vessels in the
hope of obtaining provisions and looting larger craft bound to and
from England or the Leeward Islands. During the seventeenth century
there was considerable piratical barter with the settlements along
the Carolina coast and when New England was reached, on the northerly
voyage, the eastern end of Long Island and the islands off the mouth of
Buzzard’s Bay were much frequented for fresh water and trade. The Sound
off Martha’s Vineyard was used by coasting vessels bound for New York
or Virginia and here the pirates could lie in wait with the certainty
of making some capture. But not for long as ill news traveled swiftly
even in those days and armed vessels from Boston were usually sent out
in pursuit, though seldom making a capture, for the pirate captain
skilled in his trade was constantly on the move and thereby eluded
successful attack by a stronger force.
The inefficiency of the men-of-war on the various stations in the
early days is commented upon by contemporary writers. Because of the
difficulty of reckoning longitude it was customary at that time for
vessels sailing from Europe bound for the West Indies or the American
coast, to steer into the latitude of the port for which they were
bound and then sail westward without altering their course. An early
example of this practice is the course of Winthrop’s fleet when sailing
westward to found the settlement in Massachusetts Bay. After leaving
the Scilly Isles they came down to the latitude of Agamenticus, on
the Maine coast, and then sailed westward until they reached the
Gulf Stream. It was this “west-way” that the pirates frequented and
a merchant ship eluding one might be taken by another. This custom
was well-known and if the stolid men-of-war captains had taken the
same track followed by the pirates, captures must have followed. Of a
certainty the pirates would have been driven to other less-frequented
hunting grounds or forced to take refuge in some of their lurking
holes among the many uninhabited islands in the West Indies, there to
be systematically hunted down and destroyed. It seems strange that a
few pirates could range the seas for years and be engaged but rarely
by men-of-war. Captain Lowther made thirty-three captures in seventeen
months; Captain Low took one hundred and forty vessels in twenty
months; Francis Farrington Spriggs took forty in twelve months; John
Phillips, thirty-four in eight months; and greatest of all, Captain
Bartholomew Roberts took four hundred vessels in three years.
To return to the islands off Buzzard’s Bay. From there the pirates
either steered southerly or sailed directly for Cape Sable then much
frequented by fishing vessels which often were sufferers at the hands
of Low, Lowther, Phillips, and others. From there a course was usually
made for Newfoundland which had long been good plundering ground. It
also was a good place at which to obtain recruits for pirate crews, for
the West Country fishing vessels each year brought over a considerable
number of poor fellows engaged at low wages, who, by their contracts,
must pay for the return passage. Fishing, splitting and drying fish was
hard labor and as the nights were chill, “black strap” was in great
demand. This was a villainous combination of rum, molasses and chowder
beer and before the season was over it usually caused many to “outrun
the Constable” and compelled them to agree to articles of servitude
that kept them on the Island during the winter. After the fishing
vessels returned home the masters in charge of the stations saw to it
that food and clothing supplied to the needy men were charged at high
prices so that the men would soon find themselves bound for the next
season’s labor and so the merry round continued. This made men willing
converts to the Articles signed on board pirate vessels or caused them
to run away with shallops and boats and begin piratical exploits on
their own account.
From Newfoundland, the pirate captains usually took advantage of the
westerly winds and made the long voyage to the Azores, which was good
plundering ground. Sometimes they sailed south to the Cape Verde
islands and then to Sierre Leone and the Guinea coast. The Sierre Leone
river has a large mouth with small bays on one side very convenient
for cleaning and watering vessels and for some years it was a favorite
resort for pirates especially as the English traders located there were
friendly to them. About 1720, when this coast was most frequented by
pirates, there were about thirty of these traders nearly all of whom
had at some time in their lives engaged in privateering, buccaneering,
or piracy. The river also was resorted to by Bristol ships trading for
slaves and elephants’ ivory, and the ships of the Royal African Company
sailed past here regularly, richly laden with merchandize, ivory and
gold dust.
There was a great clean-up of pirates on this coast in 1722 when
Bartholomew Roberts’ ships were taken by the “Swallow,” man-of-war,
and fifty-five pirates were hanged and twenty condemned for seven
years to work in chains in the gold mines. Some died in “the Hole,” at
Cape Coast and many more were sent to London for trial and exhibition
on gibbets at Cuckold’s Point, on the Thames. It was a fatal blow to
piracy on the Guinea Coast.
From the Cape Verde islands the pirate captains would sail westerly,
taking advantage of the trade winds, and after making the coast
of Brazil and taking toll of Portuguese shipping, would cruise
northerly until the West Indies were reached and here the winter months
would be spent.
[Illustration: CAPTAIN BARTHOLOMEW ROBERTS
From an engraving in Johnson’s “General History of the Pirates,”
London, 1725]
The West Indies possessed many advantages as a pirate stronghold and
were resorted to by freebooters of many nations. The small, uninhabited
islands and keys supplied harbors convenient for careening vessels and
many of them abounded with fish and game. Sea turtles in great numbers
furnished meat, and edible fruits of many kinds grew everywhere.
The turtles frequented the small, sandy keys and their eggs were a
common food not only among the pirates but on the larger inhabited
islands where turtling was a recognized industry. Moreover, it was
comparatively easy to escape from pursuit among the numerous small
inlets, lagoons and harbors.
Because of the growth of the sugar-cane plantations a considerable
commerce had developed and in the vicinity of the Trading islands the
pirates were certain to find vessels laden with provisions, clothing,
naval stores and money, large sums of which were sent home to Europe,
the returns of the Assiento and private slave trade. The rich mines on
the mainland also paid tribute.
Piracy frequently began in the West Indies when desperate men got to
the end of their rope in making an honest living. Then they would set
out in the long boat of a ship or even in a large sailing canoe and
exchange successive prizes, if successful, until after a time they
would be in possession of a large ship, often a former man-of-war,
and ready for foreign expeditions. The logwood cutters in the Bay of
Honduras and the vessels that went there to load with the dyewood,
supplied good material for piratical ventures. The cutters were
generally a rough, drunken crew, some of them having been pirates at
different times and most of them sailors. It was here that Capt. Ned
Low of Boston, began his career as a pirate.
“In the dry time of the year the Logwood Cutters search for a good
Number of Logwood Trees: and then build a Hut near them where they live
during the Time they are cutting. When they have cut down the Tree,
they Log it, and Chip it, which is cutting off the Bark and Sap, and
then lay it in Heaps, cutting away the Under-wood, and making Paths to
each Heap, so that when the Rains come on, which overflows the Ground,
it serves as so many Creeks or Channels, where they go with small
Canows or Dories and load ’em, which they bring to a Creek-side and
there lade their Canows, and carry it to the Barcadares, which they
sometime fetch Thirty Miles, from whence the People who buy it fetch
it.”[169]
Capt. Nathaniel Uring writes that he went into the Bay of Campeachy
in an English ship in July, 1712, to load logwood. When he arrived
he anchored off shore and “fired several Guns, to give Notice to the
Logwood Cutters (who were up in the Lagunes) of our arrival: and in a
Day or Two, several White Men came on board to us.... I sold Provisions
and Liquor to several of the Bay Men for Wood, which cost us about
Forty Shillings per Ton, prime cost, at Jamaica.... I remained here
more than a month before any Vessels arrived; during which Time my
People were fetching down the Logwood out of the Lagunes in Canows, and
went more than Thirty Miles for some of it.”
The rise or rather increase of piracy in the West Indies after the
Peace of Utrecht, can be laid at the door of the Spanish settlements,
the governors of which having gone there to make a fortune generally
countenanced any proceeding that brought in profit. It is fair to say,
however, that the Spanish governors were not the only ones accused of
such practices. They granted commissions to great numbers of _guarda
costas_, under pretence of preventing an interloping trade, with orders
to seize all vessels within five leagues of their coasts. English ships
could not well avoid coming within this limit when on their way to
Jamaica. If the captains of Spanish _guarda costas_ exceeded their
authority, the sufferers were allowed legal redress, but usually found
after long litigation that their vessels and cargoes had been condemned
among the crew, and the captain, the only one responsible, had nothing
on which to levy.
The frequent losses of the English merchants by these Spanish _guarda
costas_ was provocation enough to call forth reprisals and the
opportunity offering in 1716, the West India traders at once made use
of it. In 1714, several of the Spanish galleons of “the plate fleet,”
were cast away in the Gulf of Florida; and in 1716 several vessels from
Havana were at work with diving engines fishing up the silver. They
had recovered several millions of “pieces of eight” and carried them
to Havana and had taken up 350,000 pieces more, which were placed in
a storehouse on shore under guard of sixty soldiers, when an English
fleet from Jamaica and Barbadoes, consisting of two ships and three
sloops under Capt. Henry Jennings, came upon them. Jennings landed
three hundred men, drove away the guard and carried off the treasure to
Jamaica. On the way he met a Spanish ship laden with cochineal, indigo
and 60,000 “pieces of eight,” and his hand being in, she was plundered,
after which he sailed boldly back to Jamaica with the Spaniard
following him. The Governor at Havana soon sent a vessel to Jamaica to
demand restitution and punishment for Jennings. As it was in a time of
peace, Jennings and his men soon realized that they would not be left
unpunished let alone protected. Having disposed of their cargo to good
advantage and furnished themselves with ammunition, provisions, &c.,
they again put to sea, but this time as full-fledged pirates, robbing
not only Spaniards but Englishmen and any one else they could lay their
hands on.
About the same time three or four small “Spanish men of war” fell upon
the logwood cutters in the bays of Campeachy and Honduras, and also
took twenty-two vessels, about half of the number hailing from New
England, and most of the crews of these vessels, made desperate by
their misfortunes, took on with the pirates under Captain Jennings,
whom they met soon after. Captain Jennings and his consorts, augmented
by “the Bay men,” consulted together about some retreat where they
might store their wealth, clean and repair their ships and make
themselves a snug abode and fixed upon New Providence the largest of
the Bahama islands. The Bahamas for some years had been under English
control with a nominal governor, but were much resorted to by pirates
who were hand and glove with the principal traders. When Captain
Jennings arrived with his fleet it became a veritable pirate stronghold
and a breeding place for most of the pirate leaders who ranged the seas
during the next five or six years.
Complaints soon reached London and in such number that on Sept. 15,
1716, Capt. Woods Rogers was placed in command of a fleet of sixteen
men-of-war and tenders and ordered to proceed to New Providence and
receive the submission of the pirates or suppress them by force.
Captain Rogers not long before had made a voyage around the world in
the course of which he had taken a Spanish ship bound for Acapulco
laden with the wealth of the Philippines. Before he sailed for New
Providence, the King’s Proclamation for suppressing pirates, or “Act
of Grace,” as it was usually called, was sent ahead so that ample
opportunity might be had for consideration and submission. On its
arrival at the Island a general council of the pirate commonwealth
was called. What took place is described in Johnson’s “History of the
Pirates,” in the following language, viz:--
“There was so much Noise and Clamour, that nothing could be
agreed on; some were for fortifying the Island, to stand upon
their own Terms, and treating with the Government upon the
Foot of a Commonwealth; others were also for strengthening the
Island for their own Security, but were not strenuous for
these Punctillios, so that they might have a general Pardon,
without being obliged to make any Restitution, and to retire,
with all their Effects, to the neighbouring British Plantations.
“But Captain Jennings, who was their Commadore, and who
always bore a great Sway among them, being a Man of good
Understanding, and a good Estate, before this Whim took him
of going a Pyrating, resolved upon surrendering, without more
ado, to the Terms of the Proclamation, which so disconcerted
all their Measures, that the Congress broke up very abruptly
without doing any Thing; and presently Jennings, and by his
Example, about 150 more, came in to the Governor of Bermudas,
and had their Certificates, tho’ the greatest Part of them
returned again, like the Dog to the Vomit. The Commanders
who were then in the Island, besides Captain Jennings above
mentioned, I think were these, Benjamin Hornigold, Edward
Teach, John Martel, James Fife, Christopher Winter, Nicholas
Brown, Paul Williams, [consort to] Charles Bellamy [lost on
the back of Cape Cod, with 142 of his crew and prisoners, Apr.
26, 1717], Oliver la Bouche, Major Penner, Edward England, T.
Burgess, Thomas Cocklyn, R. Sample, Charles Vane, and two or
three others; Hornygold, William Burgess and LaBouche were
afterwards cast away; Teach and Penner killed, and their
Crews taken; James Fife killed by his own Men; Martel’s Crew
destroyed and forced on an unhabited Island; Cocklyn, Sample
and Vane hanged; Winter and Brown surrendered to the Spaniards
at Cuba, and England lives now [1724] at Madagascar.”
Captain Rogers arrived at New Providence in June, 1717, with two
men-of-war and found that all the pirates had surrendered to the
pardon, except Charles Vane and his crew, who slipped their cable,
set fire to a large prize and sailed out of the harbor firing at the
men-of-war as they went off.
In the latter part of the seventeenth century some of the richest
commerce in the world was on the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea. The
Orientals owned much shipping and the overland trade with Europe was
increasing rapidly. The English East India Company had established
a number of important factories or trading stations and Portuguese
merchants had been established for some time at Goa, on the Malabar
coast. Finding that the game in the West Indies promised smaller
returns than the commerce of the East, many of the pirate fraternity
established themselves for a time on the island of Perim at the
entrance to the Strait of Babelmandeb. Here there was an excellent
harbor and the advantageous location permitted the levying of toll on
all vessels passing in and out of the Red Sea. The great disadvantage
was a lack of fresh water. Slaves were employed to excavate the rocky
formation to a great depth, but without success, and at last the nest
was abandoned and the pirate settlement removed to Madagascar. This
is said to have taken place not long after Captain Avery captured a
daughter of the Great Mogul of India, in a richly laden ship.
Capt. John Avery, one of the greatest of the Madagascar pirates, was
the son of a tavern keeper of Plymouth, England, and was variously
known as Avery, Every and Bridgman, while his intimates spoke of him
as “Long Ben.” He was looting shipping on the Atlantic as early as
1693, when he took two heavily armed Danish vessels at Princess Island,
on the West Coast of Africa, and he is said to have been in the West
Indies before that time. During the winter of 1693-4, while in command
of the “Fanny,” of forty-six guns and one hundred and thirty men, he
made his most famous capture, a ship carrying a daughter of the Great
Mogul on a pilgrimage to Mecca. Other vessels in his pirate fleet
were the “Dolphin,” Captain Want, of Philadelphia; the “Portsmouth
Adventure,” Captain Faro, and the “Pearl,” Capt. William Mues, both
hailing from Newport, R. I.; and the ship “Amity,” of New York,
commanded by the notorious Capt. Thomas Tew,[170] who eventually
lost his life by a cannon ball while cruising in the Red Sea.
[Illustration: CAPTAIN JOHN AVERY TAKING THE GREAT MOGUL’S SHIP
From a rare engraving in the Harry Elkins Widener Collection, Harvard
College Library]
The booty on the Mogul’s ship was immense and consisted of diamonds,
pearls and valuable jewels and also great sums of money intended to
meet the cost of the pilgrimage, an amount said to have been over
£325,000. Not content with this, Avery ravished the young princess and
eventually took her in his ship to Madagascar where he had a child
by her. When the Great Mogul learned what had happened, it aroused
a fanatical resentment against the English factories that was only
appeased by the promise of the governor to send out two ships of the
East India Company to convey the pilgrims to Jedda.
Meanwhile, large rewards for his capture were offered by the British
Government and Avery abandoned the Perim rendezvous and effected a
settlement on Madagascar where he built a strong fortification and
organized a rude form of government that exacted a tenth of the value
of all captures and required tribute from the native princes on the
island. This tribute commonly took the form of their daughters and
other young girls who were added to the harems of the pirates. Many
slaves were employed in cultivating rice, fishing and hunting and for a
time a powerful settlement existed that was resorted to by pirates from
all parts of the world. When Capt. Woods Rogers went to Madagascar in
the “Delicia,” in 1722, to buy slaves to sell to the Dutch at Batavia,
he touched at a part of the island where he met some of the pirates
who had been living there for more than twenty-five years and were
surrounded by a motley collection of children and grandchildren.
Avery ruled his little kingdom for a time but at last wearying of it,
planned with some chosen spirits to make his way to America. While
cruising with other vessels, one night his ship steered another course
and in the morning the others were no longer in sight. The first land
they made was the island of Providence, one of the Bahamas, where the
ship was sold[171] and in a sloop they touched at several American
ports at each of which some of the company disappeared. Avery intended
to settle in Boston but finding that Puritan town no safe market for
the display or sale of his store of diamonds, he sailed for Ireland and
eventually reached Bideford in Devonshire, where he changed his name
and lived quietly.[172] Through a friend he delivered his ill-gotten
fortune to Bristol merchants to be converted into money. Needing funds
he applied for an accounting and was shocked to discover that there
were as good pirates on land as he had been at sea. He died June 10,
1714 not leaving money enough to buy a coffin.
While the founding of a pirate colony on the island of Madagascar is
generally credited to Avery and other pirate captains of his time it
is likely that at some earlier date a base had been established there
by buccaneers from the west coast of South America who, after looting
the wealth of Peru and Mexico, came in search of a hiding place at
which to enjoy their gains. The first rendezvous of the pirates was
in Masseledge Bay on the northwest coast of Madagascar, but later an
important settlement grew up on the island of St. Mary, or Nosy Boraha,
on the east coast, about three leagues from the mainland, which for
some time was the resort of Avery and Plantain, the celebrated Jamaica
pirate. Here came Burgess, Clayton, Taylor, Congdon, England and
other successful leaders. The island stronghold was established, it
is said, by Mission and Carracioli, who named it Libertatia. It was
fortified and from here marauding expeditions were fitted out on a
large scale. Pirates gorged with plunder settled on plantations where
they surrounded themselves with native “wives” and slaves. The native
tribes brought down their cattle from the interior and exchanged them
for European trinkets provided by the pirates, who also incited the
numerous chiefs to war with their neighbors and then bought their
prisoners of war to be sold to slavers and taken to the plantations in
the West Indies and America.
The pirate settlements on the Madagascar coast increased in population
and required various goods and supplies necessary not only for human
comfort but also to continue the trade of plundering,--powder and shot
and the like. This demand was supplied by vessels sailing at somewhat
regular intervals from New York, Newport and Philadelphia and furnished
with passes from Governor Fletcher of New York or some other person
in authority. It was said in London that in Philadelphia they “not
onlie wink att but Imbrace pirats, Shipps and men.”[173] In 1697 many
returned pirates were living in Philadelphia and Governor Basse of New
Jersey reported that colony to be a favorite resort for such gentry.
The daughter of William Penn’s agent in Pennsylvania is said to have
married one of these retired freebooters.[174] In 1699, Bellomont, the
new governor of New York, reported that over forty of these returned
pirates were in custody in New York, Pennsylvania and Connecticut.
But the ships continued to clear from the port of New York bound for
Madagascar. In the year 1699, four vessels were cleared at one time.
The merchandise brought back so glutted the markets that some kinds of
European and Oriental goods could be bought in the Colonies cheaper
than in London; and this was at a time when all European goods, by law,
must be imported through London. One of Captain Avery’s men testified
in Admiralty Court that “Captain Gough, who keeps a mercer’s shop at
Boston, made a good estate” dealing in piratical plunder.
Rev. John Higginson, the minister at Salem, Massachusetts, had a
son Thomas, who sailed for Arabia in a privateer before 1696 and
nothing was heard from him afterward. Another son was in command at
Fort George, in Madras, and in 1699 he wrote that Thomas’ “unhappy
miscarriage” had troubled him much. Although he had met several who had
been taken by pirates and afterwards escaped he could learn nothing of
the erring Thomas. Four men-of-war had recently arrived in India having
touched at Madagascar on the way out, but met no pirate vessels. The
Salem minister replied in October, 1699:--
“I am sorry to hear there is such a crew of pirates in your parts;
and do doubt not that what you intimate of New York, Providence, and
the West Indies is too true. Frederick Phillips of New York, it is
reported, has had a pirate trade to Madagascar for near twenty years,
and it is said has attained an estate of 100,000 pounds. But I assure
you the government of this place has always been severe with all such;
and, at this time, there are many now in our gaol for piracy; namely,
Captain Kidd, who went from England with a ship and commission to take
pirates, but turned pirate himself, and robbed many ships in the East
Indies, and thence came into the West Indies, and there disposed of
much of his wealth; and at last came into these parts with some of his
stolen goods; who was here seized, and some of his men, and goods,
who are in irons, and wait for a trial. And there was one Bradish, a
Cambridge man, who sailed in an interloper bound for India, who, in
some part of the East Indies, took an opportunity, when the Captain and
some of the officers were on shore, to run away with the ship, and came
upon our coast, and sunk their ship at Block Island, and brought much
wealth ashore with them; but Bradish, and many of his company, and what
of his wealth could be found, were seized and secured. But Bradish, and
one of his men, broke prison and run away amongst the Indians; but it
is supposed that he will be taken again.”[175]
[Illustration: CAPTAIN EDWARD TEACH, COMMONLY CALLED “BLACK BEARD”
From a rare engraving in the Harry Elkins Widener Collection, Harvard
College Library]
After a time the pirate colonies at Madagascar diminished in importance
and most of the men abandoned the sea and lived at ease on their
plantations. In 1716, one of the pirate settlements was visited by an
Englishman, Robert Drury,[176] who wrote as follows:--
“One of these men was a Dutchman, named John Pro, who spoke
good English. He was dressed in a short coat with broad, plate
buttons, and other things agreeable, but without shoes or
stockings. In his sash stuck a brace of pistols, and he had
one in his right hand. The other man was dressed in an English
manner, with two pistols in his sash and one in his hand, like
his companion.... John Pro lived in a very handsome manner. His
house was furnished with pewter dishes, &c., a standing bed
with curtains, and other things of that nature except chairs,
but a chest or two served for that purpose well enough. He
had one house on purpose for his cook-room and cook-slave’s
lodging, storehouse and summer-house; all these were enclosed
in a palisade, as the great men’s houses are in this country,
for he was rich, and had many castles and slaves. His wealth
had come principally while cruizing among the Moors, from whom
his ship had several times taken great riches, and used to
carry it to St. Mary’s. But their ship growing old and crazy,
they being also vastly rich, they removed to Madagascar, made
one Thomas Collins, a carpenter, their Governor, and built a
small fort, defending it with their ship’s guns. They had now
lived without pirating for nine years.”
In the summer of 1719 there were about twenty white pirates living
permanently on the island of St. Mary’s. Others continued to sail
out from the harbor but the vigilance of the English Admiralty and
the strength and watchfulness of the ships of the East India Company
served to discourage freebooting in those parts and in 1721 when France
granted an amnesty a number of them surrendered and became colonists
on the island of Bourbon. The last of the pirates on St. Mary’s were
routed out by men-of-war during the winter of 1722-23. Others lived
and died on the mainland of Madagascar and left behind them numerous
descendants, for in 1768 the Abbe Rochon visited that part of the
island north of St. Mary’s and observed many whites and half-breeds
living about the Bay of Antongil who claimed descent from the pirates
formerly settled there.
FOOTNOTES
[169] _Voyages and Travels of Capt. Nathaniel Uring_, London, 1726.
[170] _Calendar of State Papers, America and West Indies_, 1696-1697,
pp. 260, 262.
[171] “It was at the island of St. Thomas that the famous Captain
Avery, or some of his companions, disposed of the greatest part of the
rich goods taken in a ship belonging to the Mogul, about forty years
ago, when the magazines on the Island were so excessively crowded
with rich Indian goods that they were not entirely emptied in twenty
years after, though they generally sold them at low prices; and it
was by this accident that pieces of Arabian gold, which were properly
speaking Pagodas, were long current in the West Indies under the name
of Sequins, for they knew not what to call them, at the rate of about
six shillings. And nutmegs, cloves, sinnimon and mace were likewise
bought very cheap for many years after.”--John Harris, _Collection of
Voyages_, London, 1739.
[172] Some of Avery’s pirate crew were afterwards taken in England and
brought to trial on Oct. 19, 1696, but acquitted for lack of sufficient
evidence.
[173] _Calendar of State Papers, America and West Indies_, 1696-1697,
p. 636.
[174] Channing, _History of United States_, Vol. II, p. 266.
[175] _Massachusetts Hist. Society Colls._, 3d series, Vol. VII, p. 209.
[176] _Madagascar; or Robert Drury’s Journal_, London, 1729.