Captains "Thomas Tew, John Ireland, Thomas Wake, and William Maze, or
Mace, and other subjects, natives or inhabitants of New York and
elsewhere in our plantations in America, who have associated with
others, wicked and ill-disposed persons, and do, against the laws of
nations, commit many and great piracies, robberies, and depredations on
the seas, upon the parts of America and in other parts, to the great
danger of our loving subjects, our allies, and all others navigating the
seas upon their lawful occasions," he steered from New York on his way
to the Guinea coast, where his hunt was to begin. By the terms of his
commission he was to take the aforenamed pirates by force if necessary,
with all the pirates, freebooters, and rovers associated with them,
wherever they were found. He was to bring them into port, with all such
merchandise, money, goods, and wares as should be discovered on board.
But he was strictly charged and commanded, "As you will answer the
contrary at your peril, that you do not in any manner offend or molest
our friends or allies, their ships or subjects, by whom or pretence of
these presents or the authority thereby granted."
Kidd had another commission, called Letters of Marque and Reprisal, to
empower him to act against the French, with whom the English and their
colonies were then at war, and under cover of these he captured a
French merchantman off Fire Island on his way westward.
Upon arriving at New York he began to request more assistance from his
owners, complained of the size of his ship and his few guns, and, as he
"proposed to deal with a desperate enemy," asked permission to increase
his complement. This was granted, after some hesitation, and he finally
sailed from New York with a ship's company of one hundred and fifty-five
men.
He made first for Madeira, thence to one of the Cape Verde Islands, and
thence to St. Jago, in order to lay in salt provisions and other
necessaries. He then rounded the Cape and bent his course towards
Madagascar, whose waters were the known rendezvous of swarms of pirates.
On the way he fell in with three English men-of-war, to whose commodore
he imparted his errand with much pomp and circumstance. He dined aboard
the flag-ship, and left behind him the same reputation for dare-devil
recklessness and determination that his valiant speech had obtained for
him elsewhere.
He parted with these ships after a few days, and arrived at Madagascar
in February, 1697, after a voyage of nine months.
At this time most of the pirate ships were out in search of prey, so,
having spent some time in watering his ship and taking aboard
provisions, Kidd tried the coast of Malabar, where he was equally
unsuccessful in finding his quarry. He touched at Mohila and at Johanna,
both famous resorts for pirates, but he did not succeed even in getting
news of those whom he sought. The reason seemed obvious--the pirate of
those days was a dangerous man to tackle. He had guns, and he knew how
to use them; he fought with a halter round his neck, and was game to the
last gasp. He was in the habit of beating the King's ships sent to take
him, and he had a bending plank through the lee gangway for their
captured officers. A fat, rich merchantman was an easier victim. Why not
sound the crew to see if they would agree to a change of policy?
Some such thoughts must have been passing through Kidd's mind at this
time, for with the gift of a brass farthing he could have purchased
from the most guileless and affectionate native of Mohila or Johanna his
entire confidence as to the whereabouts of his friends the sea-rovers,
and yet after a cruise of many months in this infested neighborhood Kidd
had no tidings of a single pirate craft.
But however disposed towards acts of violence, he had not yet the
courage to put his wishes into execution. On his second voyage past the
island of Mohila he passed several Indian ships, richly laden and too
weak to offer him resistance, but he contented himself with casting
envious eyes upon them and suffered them to go.
The first outrage that he committed was at Mabbee, in the Red Sea,
where, after careening his ship, he took some corn from the natives by
force. After this he sailed to Babs Key, near the Strait of
Bab-el-Mandeb, where he first began to open himself to the ship's
company, and to disclose to them his change of policy. But instead of
coming out like a man and saying that he intended to turn to piracy, he
hinted and insinuated and beat about the bush. "Unlucky have we been
hitherto; but courage, my lads, we'll make our fortunes out of the Mocha
fleet." This was the closest his pygmy heart could come to broaching the
subject that occupied his mind. But his mariners met him more than
half-way, and he found himself committed to buccaneering before he knew
it. By the advice of his quartermaster (the first mate or executive
officer of those days) he sent a boat to go upon the coast and make
discoveries, while he himself kept men in the tops of the _Adventure_ to
look out for the Mocha fleet.
The boat returned in a few days, bringing word that fifteen or a score
of ships were about ready to sail, and that they were well laden and
rich.
Four days after this the fleet appeared; the eager lookouts reported
them, and the men rushed to the sheets and halyards, guns and
ammunition-lockers.
Now was Kidd's opportunity to dash in, seize a valuable prize, and get
off with her; but he hung off and on, perplexed between timidity and
cupidity, until by the time he had made up his mind to put his fortune
to the touch his prey became alarmed and began to scatter. He then bore
down on the nearest; but by this time he had been sighted by the two
men-of-war of the convoy, and the sight of their black hulls speeding
towards him, straight and steady and business-like through the flying
merchantmen, was enough for Kidd. He fired a feeble shot or two, squared
his yards, and made off before the wind for dear life, while the crew
silently handled their tackle, and indulged in I know not what
contemptuous thoughts of their commander.
But by the act of firing upon a friendly flag Kidd had determined his
status; there was nothing for him now but to go on with his pirating.
Soon he had an opportunity to show that desperate courage of which, by
his own account, he was possessed. Off the coast of Malabar he met a
small Moorish coasting-vessel. Having discovered that she was
short-handed and unarmed, he became terrible indeed. He seized her and
forced her Captain and quartermaster to take on with him as pilot and
interpreter, the Captain being an Englishman, and the other, Don
Antonio, a Portuguese. The men he used cruelly, hoisting them up by the
arms, drubbing them with a bare cutlass, and putting them to other
tortures to force them to disclose the whereabouts of their treasure;
but all he got from them was a parcel of coffee and a bale of pepper.
He then touched at Malabar, but finding himself an object of suspicion
he quickly went away.
The coast was alarmed by this time, however, and a Portuguese man-of-war
was sent out after him. Kidd fought her for a while in a half-hearted
way, but, though she was his inferior in men and metal, he soon had
enough of honest combat, and got off by his superior speed.
He next ran down to Porca, where he took on board a number of hogs and
other livestock for provisions, and paid for them in good British
silver. He also watered his ship and otherwise provided for his ship's
company.
He then stood to sea again, and came up with a Moorish craft, the master
of which, a Dutchman named Schipper Mitchell, hoisted French colors, as
Kidd chased under that flag. The pirates hailed in French, and were
answered in the same tongue by a Frenchman who was one of Mitchell's
passengers. Kidd then ordered the Dutchman to send a boat on board, and
when it arrived at his gangway he asked the Frenchman if he had a pass
for himself. The passenger replied that he had, whereupon Kidd told him
to pass for the Captain, "For, by Heaven, you are the Captain, and if
you say you're not I'll hang you!"
The Frenchman of course dared not refuse to do as he was ordered.
The object of the manoeuvre is apparent. Kidd had not the pluck to go
on openly with his high-sea robbery, but fancied that if he seized the
ship as a prize, pretending that she belonged to French subjects, he
would get into no trouble on account of her. He did not seem to take
into account the fact that his previous conduct had already stamped him
as a criminal, but appeared to think that as long as he did not openly
hoist the black flag he might do as he liked with impunity. Indeed, his
whole career as a sea-robber consisted of similar acts of fatuous and
ostrich-like stupidity.
He landed on one of the Malabar islands for wood and water, and as his
cooper was murdered by the natives he plundered and burned their
village. He took one of the islanders and had him tied to a tree and
shot, after which he again put to sea in quest of prizes. After being at
sea less than a week he fell in with and captured the greatest prize
that ever fell into his hands, the Moorish bark _Quedah Merchant_, of
four hundred tons. From this vessel he got a cargo which he sold for
more than ten thousand pounds.
[Illustration: HE PLUNDERED AND BURNED]
The Indians came on board of him and trafficked, and he performed his
bargains punctually for a time, until he was ready to sail; and then he
took their goods and set them on shore with no payment, which was quite
in accord with his despicable character. The Indians had been accustomed
to deal with pirates, and had found them, as a rule, men of honor in the
way of trade, so it was easy for Kidd to impose upon them.
The pirate put some men aboard of the _Quedah Merchant_, and in her
company sailed for Madagascar. He had no sooner arrived there than off
came a canoe in which were several old acquaintances of his who had long
been "upon the account," as they called buccaneering. They belonged to a
ship called the _Resolution_, which was commanded by one Culliford, a
notorious sea-robber. When they met Kidd they told him that they were
informed he had come to hang them, which they would take very unkind in
such an old friend. Kidd dissipated their fears by telling them that he
was in every respect their brother, and as bad as they, and in token of
amity drank their health in a bowl of grog.
Kidd then went aboard, Culliford promising his friendship and
assistance; and Culliford in turn boarded Kidd, and the two worthies
made a merry night of it in the cabin of the _Adventure_, spinning
their yarns of the deep seas and laughing at their enemies; and as
Culliford was in need of some necessaries, Kidd fitted him out from his
spare tackle.
The _Adventure_ was now so leaky that Kidd transferred her guns and
stores to the _Quedah Merchant_ and got to sea again, but not before
more than half of his disgusted crew had left him.
He touched at Amboyan, and there learned that the news of his conduct
had reached England and that he was outlawed. Indeed, the reports of his
misdeeds were so exaggerated that the English merchants became greatly
alarmed, and had Kidd, with one Captain Avery, excepted in a general
pardon of freebooters which had just been promulgated. Kidd knew nothing
of this, but relying on some French passes which he had found on one or
two of his prizes, and deeming his brazen assurance enough to carry him
through any peril from the law, he made for New York. Here, by the
orders of Lord Bellamont, he was promptly seized, with all of his
effects, and was sent to England to be tried.
Here his conduct was such as to destroy the last shreds of respect that
one might have had for his character. Instead of meeting his fate like a
man, he begged and implored and whined and promised, but all to no
avail.
He insisted much upon his own innocence and the villainy of his men. He
went out upon a laudable employment, he said, and had no occasion to go
pirating, but the men mutinied against him and did as they pleased. As
to the friendship shown to that notorious villain Culliford, Kidd denied
it, and said that he would have taken him, but his own men, being a
parcel of rogues, refused to stand by him, and several of them even ran
from his ship to join the wicked pirate.
But the evidence was too strong against him, and he was condemned.
When asked what he had to say why sentence should not be pronounced upon
him, he replied that he had nothing to say except that he had been sworn
against by wicked people; and when sentence was pronounced he said: "My
lord, it is a very hard sentence. For my part, I am the most innocent
person of them all, only I have been sworn against by perjured persons."
And so, in 1701, whining and protesting miserably, he was led away to
the scaffold, and there paid the penalty of his crimes.
X
HOWARD THE BUCCANEER
A Captain of Many Ships
In the days when high-sterned galleons sailed the Spanish Main, keelless
and lofty, and helpless in the wind's eye; when all the sailors wore
their tarry queues and ear-rings; when "Down along the coast of the high
Barbaree" there was no law but that of the Moorish buccaneer, a young
man in the peaceful British hamlet of Barwich reached the age of
twenty-one.
Thomas Howard was a youth of promise and capacity. He was handsome,
burly, popular, and generous, and always ready for any adventure. His
father, a gentleman of rank and estate, was dead, but his doting mother
lavished upon him an affection as blind as it was deep, supplied him
with an excess of pocket-money, and left no wish of his ungratified. The
result is readily imagined. His old amiability deserted him, and he sank
into a savage discontent that found expression in numerous acts of
roguery and violence.
As he grew worse and worse, an old friend of his father's persuaded him
to seek employment upon the seas, and purchased him a berth as
midshipman on a trading-craft bound from Liverpool to the West Indies.
A few months of sea discipline shattered young Howard's patience, and
upon his arrival at Jamaica he promptly deserted his ship.
He had still a few pounds left of his fortune, and with these he
purchased admittance to the society of a gang of ruffians who frequented
the beaches. One night, with some of these, he stole a canoe and went to
the Grand Camanas to join a party of others of their ilk who lurked
thereabouts with the design of going "on the account."
They soon fell in with those whom they sought, and, as the party now
numbered twenty, they deemed themselves strong enough to set to their
work, and accordingly began their preparations. At a council held the
night when this decision was reached, the question of the election of
officers came up; the men seemed about evenly divided in their choice of
a captain between Howard and a tall islander named James. The latter was
finally elected by a vote of ten to eight, while Howard was chosen
quartermaster.
Their first need was a boat; in the offing at anchor lay a turtle-sloop
with two small swivels mounted fore and aft. She was the very craft for
their purpose, but how were they to get her?
Close inshore on the other side of an estuary a mile wide Howard
remembered seeing a large canoe moored in the light of a patrol's
camp-fire. He and two others swam over to her, cut her line with their
sheath-knives, and brought her away without discovery.
The robbers then boarded her, and, with two men forward and two aft
handling the paddles, the rest concealed behind the high bulwarks,
stole out silently towards the turtle-vessel. The nature of their craft
was not perceived until they were alongside their victim, when, with a
yell, they burst from their concealment and made their capture without
losing a man. They then started out for booty, but for a long time their
only prizes were turtlers, which supplied them with men without
increasing their wealth. After about two weeks they met an Irish
brigantine with provisions and servants for the Governor of Jamaica.
They laid her aboard, captured her without resistance, forced her men,
and made off with her, leaving her master the old turtle-sloop and five
men to bring him to port. Not long after this they surprised a sloop of
six guns, and finding her larger, faster, and sounder than the
brigantine, they shifted to her with their belongings. This was the
third time within two months that they had changed their vessel, but
still the game of "Progressive Piracy" went on. Off the coast of
Virginia they fell in with a large New England brigantine laden with
provisions and bound for Barbadoes. They made a prize of her, and
shifting their own guns aboard of her, found themselves in a fine vessel
of ten guns well equipped for a long voyage.
While on the coast of Virginia in this ship they took several English
vessels, from which they got men, arms, provisions, clothes, and other
necessaries. As most of these ships had on board felons for the Virginia
colonies, they took from them a number of volunteers besides their
forced men, and they soon acquired so large a complement that they had
no hesitation in ranging up to and boarding a Virginia galley of
superior size and twenty-four guns. They got a number of convict
volunteers from her, transferred their stores to her, and set out to
sweep the seas in earnest. They steered for the Guinea coast, that Mecca
of pirates, and made many captures, which not only enriched them but
increased their complement. After they had been for some months on this
ground they spied a large Portuguese ship from Brazil, whose thirty-six
guns did not frighten them from the attack.
As they hoisted the black flag the Brazilian Captain became overpowered
with fear, commanded the quartermaster to strike, and sought safety for
himself in the hold. His mate, however, a New-Englander, refused to
surrender, and kept off the pirates for the better part of the
afternoon. His resistance was strong and well sustained, but the
Portuguese finally fled from the deck, leaving him with only thirty
men--English, French, and Dutch--and he was obliged to ask for quarter.
The pirates then went down the coast in their newly acquired ship and
made several prizes, some of which they burned and some of which they
sank. As they now mustered nearly two hundred men, the only ones that
they forced from captured crews were carpenters, calkers, and surgeons,
whose services they needed greatly.
Off the Cape of Good Hope they took two Spanish brigantines, in whose
company they proceeded, until they ran the _Alexander_ ashore on a small
island north of Madagascar, where she stuck fast.
The Captain being sick in bed, the men went ashore on the island and
carried off provisions and water to lighten the ship, on board of which
none but the Captain, the quartermaster (Howard), and all others were
left.
This was too good a chance for the exercise of Howard's love of
treachery. He brought the faster of the two brigantines alongside,
tumbled all the treasure into her, scuttled the other, and made off with
twenty men and two hundred thousand pounds, leaving the rest of his
shipmates to shake their impotent fists and roar maledictions after his
diminishing sail.
After rounding the Cape, Howard and his fellows went into a fine harbor
on the east side of Madagascar hardly known to European vessels. Here
they buried most of the treasure, and for a short time enjoyed the
luxury of shore life. Wood and water were abundant, game plentiful, and
the waters swarmed with edible fish.
It was pleasant to the pirate, after his long trick afloat, to lie on
the yellow sands under the shade of palm and mango and tamarind trees
and see the slow surf breaking gently on the beach. In his nostrils was
the odor of orange and spice; golden sunbirds and crimson cockatoos
nested above him, gaudy butterflies floated about him, and in the
shallow waters of the still lagoons were long-legged curlew, busy
kingfishers, and wild duck with tenderly shaded plumes. Behind him the
tropical jungles blazed gloriously with trees of blooming scarlet and
flaring yellow, about which twined gorgeous creepers of dark purple, and
from whose leafy depths came the chattering of monkeys and the
twittering of innumerable birds. Far off he could hear the smothered
thunder of lofty falls, near at hand the plashing of rivulets, and
seaward the deep voice of the Indian Ocean. The Malagasy women brought
him cooling fruits from the mountains, the hunters came back laden with
the flesh of wild cattle and pigs and great, feathery bunches of
waterfowl, and the native king sent down to him rice and bananas, maize
and manioc, from the rich store of his harvest.
After but a month of this happy shore life they set sail, and running
down the coast of Africa met the English ship _Prosperous_, which they
captured by a night attack. The _Prosperous_ was a large, well-found
ship of sixteen guns, and well suited to Howard's purpose, so he
transferred his crew and stores to her and sailed to Maritan. They found
there a number of shipwrecked pirates, who, with some of the
_Prosperous's_ crew, took on with them, and increased their complement
to seventy men.
They next steered for St. Mary's, where they wooded, watered, and
shipped more hands. Here they had an invitation from one Ort van Tyle, a
sturdy Dutch trader of social ambition, to attend the christening of two
of his children. He received them with hospitality and civility, but
they had no sooner entered his house than they began to plunder it, and
Van Tyle protesting, they took him prisoner, and designed to hang him,
but one of the pirates aided him to escape and he took to the woods.
Here he met some of his black; he armed them, and formed an ambush on a
scrubby island where the river channel was narrow. The pirates came
down in their canoe and Howard's pinnace, laughing and shouting,
bringing with them the booty of the looted house and some captives, whom
they set at the paddles. The canoe was overturned in the rapids just as
they came abreast of the ambush, and the captives swam ashore and
escaped, while the pirates clung to the sides of Howard's boat. As they
drifted by, Van Tyle let drive at them, and in a shower of musket-balls,
arrows, and assagais the helpless pirates were swept back to their
ships, dismally howling with rage and mortification. In this affair two
of Howard's men were killed, while he was shot through the arm, and two
others were seriously wounded.
[Illustration: THE HELPLESS PIRATES WERE SWEPT BACK]
He then sailed to Mathelage, where he designed to victual for a
West-Indian cruise, but he found there a large Dutch merchantman of
forty guns, whose captain curtly told Howard to get out or he'd fall
foul of him. Howard's recent experience with Dutchmen had been
unpleasant, so, as his vessel was not strong enough to cope with the
Amsterdamer, he made sail for Mayotta, and passed down the bay amid a
volley of gibes, jeers, and ingenious Dutch profanity. On his way to
Mayotta he fell in with Captain Bowen, of the pirate ship _Speedy
Return_, of thirty guns, and communicated to him the contumely to which
a "Gentleman of the Seas" had been subjected. Bowen promised to avenge
the insult to their honorable craft, and accordingly anchored in the
dusk of the next evening within hail of the irascible burgher. The
_Speedy Return_ was a small ship for her armament and crew, and this,
with her suspicious appearance, determined the Dutchman once more to
exhibit the bold front that he could assume when there seemed to be no
danger in it. Accordingly he went to the rail and bawled over the quiet
waters, "Vot sheep is dot, and vy for you don'd git oud to onced?"
"This is his Majesty's cruiser _Haystack_," came the unruffled response,
in Bowen's clear voice. "She has three decks and no bottom, and sails
four miles to leeward and one ahead. Want to race?"
"Vot sheep is dot, and none of your tomfoolishness?" roared the Teuton,
purple with rage.
"This is the _Flying Dutchman_, Captain Vanderdecken, and the crew's all
ghosts," replied the pirate, in high glee. "Come aboard and cheer up our
spirits."
This was too much. The Dutchman mounted the rail and shrieked, hoarsely,
"I now asks you der last time for, vot sheep you is, vere you vrom, and
vot you to do goin' about to be?"
"This is the ship _Speedy Return_," sang out Bowen, "_from the seas_,
and I'm goin' to fire a salute."
The pirate then gave the word, and his ship roared out a broadside that
shivered the Dutchman's rail, smashed his boats, and carried away his
spanker-boom. The merchantman waited no longer, but slipped his cable
and made off to sea, leaving the greater part of his cargo ashore, where
it was promptly gathered in by the thrifty buccaneers.