medio refrescando; y sospechando que los prisioneros se querian alzar
con el navio mataron a uno y castigaron a otro; y de alli a Payta en
donde hecharon dos canoas a tierra con treynte y dos hombres armados
con animo de ganar a Payta, y hallando resistencia se bolvieron al
navio; de alli Tiraron al estrecho de Magallanes; pero no passaron por
el, sino al redidor de la ysla del fuego que estava como seys a ocho
dias apartada del estrecho de Magallanes, este estrecho del fuego
tardaron en pasarle hasta entrar en el mar del Norte cosa de nuebe
Dias. Llegaron a Barbadas donde por haver encontrado un navio del Rey
de Inglatierra no se atrevieron a entrar.
En el camino dividieron la presa y toco a quatrocientos pesos a cada
uno de sesenta y quatro personas.
De Barbadas fueron a Antica donde fueron recividos sin hacerles
molestia, antes buen acostimiento y de alli se dividieron unas a
Niebes en una balandra, otras como diez y ocho de ellos a londres en
el navio cuyo Capitan se llamaba Portin, otros ocho que erran los
principales se uieron en el Navio llamado la _Comadressa Blanca_ o cui
Wihte, su Capitan Charles Howard, dos de ellos que eran los
principales cabos se llaman el Capitan Sharp, y el otro Gilbert Dike,
y a este declarante le dexaron en Plymuth.
Los demas testigos dicen tambien haver oydo que estos Piratas andan
comprando aora un Nabio para bolver a hacer el mismo viage o continuar
esta pirateria.
_Translation._
Relation of the South Sea Men
Simon Calderon, native of Santiago de Chile, mariner, going from
Callao to Panama in the ship called the _Rosario_ laden with wine,
brandy, pigs of tin,[2] and artichokes, with 24 passengers and all,
they met off Cabo Pasado, about halfway in their voyage, a ship, the
_Trinidad_, and supposed it to be Spanish, but when they perceived
that it was a ship of pirates, they tried to obtain the weather-gauge,
but the pirates obtained it, and then they began to fire musket-shots,
and with the first three shots they killed the captain of the
_Rosario_, who was called Juan Lopez, and fired other shots, and
captured the ship, and took out with the hooks [?] all that they
deemed necessary of the wine and brandy, and all the silver and other
things that had value, and tortured two Spaniards in order to learn
whether there was more silver, and cut down the sails and rigging,
except the mainsail, and turned the ship adrift with the men,
excepting five or six whom they took with them, and among others the
deponent.
[Footnote 2: See document 45, above, note 80.]
Thence they went to the Isla de la Plata, where they remained three
days and a half refreshing themselves, and suspecting that the
prisoners were planning to rise and take the ship they killed one and
flogged another; and thence they went to Payta, where they sent two
canoes ashore with 32 armed men, with design to capture Payta, but
meeting with resistance they returned to the ship. Thence they sailed
away to the Strait of Magellan, but did not go through it, but around
the Isla del Fuego, which was some six or eight days' distance from
the Strait of Magellan. In making this passage of Fuego, to enter into
the North Sea, they were delayed some nine days. They came to
Barbados, where, because of finding there a ship of the King of
England, they did not venture to enter.
On the voyage they divided the booty and obtained 400 dollars apiece,
for each one of 74 persons.
From Barbados they went to Antigua, where they were received without
injury, but rather with good treatment, and from there they divided,
some going to Nevis in a bilander,[3] others, some 18 of them, to
London in the ship whose captain was called Portin,[4] and eight
others that were the principal ones fled in the ship called the
_Comadressa Blanca_ (_White Gossip_),[5] Captain Charles Howard. Two
of them, that were the principal chiefs, were called, [the one]
Captain Sharp, and the other Gilbert Dike; and this deponent was left
at Plymouth.
[Footnote 3: A bilander was a small two-master, with the mainsail of
lateen form.]
[Footnote 4: The _Lisbon Merchant_, Captain Porteen. Ringrose, p.
212.]
[Footnote 5: Or perhaps _Ermine_.]
Other witnesses say, however, that they have heard that these pirates
are now proceeding to buy a ship to return and make the same voyage or
continue this piracy.
THE _SALAMANDER_.
_48. Petition of Paul Sharrett and Claes Pietersen. August 2,
1681._[1]
[Footnote 1: Suffolk Court Files, no. 2031, paper 1. The story of the
_Salamander_ is curiously interwoven with the early history of the
Prussian navy, on which something has been said in note 1 to document
43. The facts may be made out by a comparison of documents 48 and 49
with data found in R. Schueck, _Brandenburg-Preussens Kolonial-Politik_
(Leipzig, 1889), I. 113-118, and in a monograph on "Brandenburg-Preussen
auf der Westkueste von Afrika, 1681 bis 1721", in Heft 6 of the
_Kriegsgeschichtliche Einzelschriften_ of the German General Staff
(Berlin, 1885), pp. 102-105. In the First Brandenburg-Prussian fleet
that ever sailed out of the Baltic (August, 1680), one of the six
frigates was the _Churprintz_ (Kurprinz, Electoral Prince), 32 guns,
Capt. Cornelius Reers, and there was a fire-ship, the _Salamander_, 2
guns, Capt. Marsilius (or Marcellus) Cock; the captains were probably
all Dutch. The chief exploit of the squadron was to capture, in time
of peace, a ship of the Spanish royal navy, which thus became the
first of the elector's ships actually owned by him. Then Reers and a
squadron of four frigates and the _Salamander_ sailed to the West
Indies, and spent the winter of 1680-1681 in cruising against Spanish
shipping, though with little success. If Samuel Button's story is true
(document 48), it would seem that the original _Salamander_ must have
been lost, and the _William and Anne_ substituted in its place and
renamed. The squadron got back to Prussia in May, 1681.]
To the Honnorable Simon Bradstreet Esq. Governor, Thomas Danforth Esqr
Dept. Governor, and the Rest of the Honnorable Assistants to sitt in
Boston on the 4th of this Instant August 1681 as A Court of Admiraltie
or Assistants
The humble petition Libell and Complaint of Paul Sherrot Lift.[2] and
Cloyse petterson, Mate or Pilot of the Ship or prize called the
_Salamander_, now belonging to the great prince the Duke of
Brandenburge, Burden one hundred Tonns or thereaboute, Loaden with
Brandy and wynes--
[Footnote 2: Lieutenant.]
Humbly Sheweth
That your Petitioner entering into the Duke of Brandenburgs service
and pay this 14 of April 1680 or thereaboute, on A ship of warr called
_Coure Prince_ belonging to the Said Duke, Cornelyus Reise Capt. and
Comander,[3] and sayling then from Quinborough[4] to the West Indies
and at St. Martins in the West Indies tooke the above mentioned ship
_Salamander_, Loaden as above, And put in Marcellus Cock Comander of
said Ship _Salamander_, and Paul Sherrot Leift. and Cloys Peterson
Mate or Pylot of said ship, to Carry the Said Ship home to Quinborough
to the said Duke, But the said Marcellus Cock, under pretence of want
of Proviscions and Leakenes of said Ship, brought her into Piscatuqua
and there stayed about 3 months whiling away the time, and Repayring
the ship, And while there so cruelly beate twelve of the ships
Company, at the Capston and otherwise, As made them weary of their
Lives, that they could not stay but gott on shoar And left him,
Loosing all their wages, except one, that the Capt. turned a shoare,
as he said for a Rogue, But the Governor of Piscataqua made the master
pay him his wages, And now after 16 monethes and a halfe soar service,
ventering and hazarding their lives, After the Authoritie at
Piscatuqua tooke notice of the said Capt. Cocks Long Stay, and
Conceiveing he Intended to sell the said Ship and deceive the Duke,
ordering him to pay the said Sherret and Peterson our wages,[5] fell
to threatening us first by turning the Pilot out of the Cabbin from
his mess; and then swearing he would Pistoll the Leiften't and him if
they came on board.
[Footnote 3: Cornelius Reers, vice-commander of the squadron mentioned
in note 1, appears later as governor of Arguin on the west coast of
Africa, 1685-1690. Schueck, I. 347, 350.]
[Footnote 4: So the English then called Koenigsberg, capital of the
duchy of Prussia.]
[Footnote 5: The petitioners are following closely the language of the
vote of the council of New Hampshire, by which it was ordered that the
ship should be taken to Boston for trial, and the mariners paid. _N.H.
State Papers_, XIX. 677; July 11, 1681. "Governor of Piscataqua",
_i.e._, of New Hampshire, there was none at this time; they probably
mean Maj. Richard Waldron, president of the council.]
The premises Considered wee humbly Intreat your honours to make such
due order And provision that the Duke be not Deceived of his the sayd
prize and that wee may have our full wages so dearly yearned and be
freed as wee are and have been, from his the said Cocks Tiranicall
service; And yo'r Petition'rs shall forever pray etc.
PAUL SHARRETT.
CLAES PIETERSEN.
This libell I Rec'd this 2d of August, 1681.
EDW'D RAWSON, Secret.
_49. Deposition of Samuel Button. August 11, 1681._[1]
[Footnote 1: Suffolk Court Files, no. 2031, paper 8.]
Samuel Button of Boston declareth concerning the Ship now called the
_Salamander_ in this harbour, Marcellus Cock commander. That in April
last was twelve-months' hee was Shipped Carpenter of sd Ship at London
then called the _Wm. and Anne_, Anthony Thorne of London Commander,
mr. George Trumbal of London being their Owner of sd. Ship. wee Sailed
with sd Ship from London to Bilboa where wee cleered our foremast men
and Ship't Biscayers in their steed and from thence Sailed to the
Canary's, where wee loaded brandy and wines, and our sd master there
left the Ship and our Mate mr. Christopher Johnson was put in master,
all the English men being cleered from her but myselfe, wee being
bound for Carthagene,[2] from thence back to Canary's, so to
Carthagene again and from thence to Canary's and from Canary's to
London and proceeding on our voyage wee put in to Sta. Marke in the
west Indies[3] to water; where the Governour forced our Stay to convoy
a Galliote bound to Carthagene, and after wee had been two or three
dayes in the Road, wee espied five Ships lying off and on by the space
of two or three dayes. at length they sent in their pinace with Dutch
colours to the Gov'r to get liberty to wood and water, pretending to
be Dutchmen come to cleer the coast of privateers; upon which the
Gov'r granted them liberty to come in and the same day they came and
anchored by us; they goeing ashore to the Gov'r acquainted him they
were of Middleborough,[4] Flushing, and Amsterdam (as I was informed)
and rode with dutch colours abroad; after they had been there four or
five dayes wee coming to saile in the night, all being buisy, they
laid us on board. wee demanding what they were they answered they were
Frenchmen; wee bad them keepe off, but they entring the Ship, the Ltt.
asked me if I was the Carpenter. I answered "yes," hee said "that's
good, you bee an Englishman. that doth no harme," comanding me to
keepe upon deck, declaring himselfe Capt. of the Ship, and when they
tooke us they shewed no Colours but told me the next day they would
shew me such Colours as I never saw, and then spread their
Brandenburgh Colours, putting our Supra Cargo and all the prisoners
ashore at St. Marke, onely Christopher Johnson a Dutchman our then
Ma[ste]r and myselfe, whom they carried with them to Jamaica. not
being Suffered to Land any of their goods there, Sailed thence with
this Ship in Comp'y of our English Fleete, pretending they were bound
with her to the East Country,[5] putting our Master and myselfe on
shore at Jamaica.
[Footnote 2: Cartagena on the Spanish Main is meant; see below.]
[Footnote 3: St. Marc on the west coast of Haiti, then French.]
[Footnote 4: Middelburg in Zeeland.]
[Footnote 5: Baltic lands.]
Samuel Button deposed in Court that what is above written is the truth
and whole truth to his best knowledge. 11th of August 1681.
EDW RAWSON, Secret.
THE _CAMELION_.
_50. Agreement to Commit Piracy. June 30, 1683._[1]
[Footnote 1: This very curious document (for one does not expect to
find pirates agreeing in writing to pursue a course of piracy) is
found embedded in one of the indictments in the case of the
_Camelion_, in vol. I. of the wills in the office of the surrogate,
New York City, pp. 312-313 of the modern copy. Its presence among
wills requires a word of explanation. The governor of a royal colony
was usually chancellor, ordinary, and vice-admiral, and as such might
preside in the courts of chancery, probate, and admiralty--courts
whose common bond was that their jurisprudence was derived from the
civil (or Roman) law, and not from the common law. Most of his
judicial action was in testamentary cases. It was therefore not
unnatural that the few admiralty cases and cases of piracy tried in
these early days should be recorded in the same volume as the wills,
though distinguished by the simple process of turning the book end for
end and recording them at the back. In this case the record begins
with our document 51; but the present document, copied into one of the
indictments, is earlier in date. The substance of another pirates'
agreement (Roberts's company, 1720, see doc. no. 117) is given in
Charles Johnson, _General History of the Pyrates_, second ed., pp.
230-232; another (Phillips's company, 1727, see doc. no. 120 and note
10), _ibid._, verbatim, pp. 397-398.]
_June the 30th day, 1683._ Articles of Agreement between us abord of
the _Camillion_,[2] Nich. Clough Comander, that wee are to dispose of
all the goods thatt are abord amongst us, every man are to have his
full due and right share only the Commander is to have two shares and
a half a share for the Ship and home[3] the Captain please to take for
the Master under him is to have a share and a half. Now Gentlemen
these are to satisfy you, as for the Doctor a Share and half, and
these are our Articles that wee do all stand to as well as on[4] and
all.
[Footnote 2: The _Camelion_ had in 1682 sailed for the Royal African
Company to the slave-mart of Old Calabar on the west coast of Africa,
thence with a cargo of negroes to Barbados, thence to Montserrat and
Nevis, thence in June, 1683, to London with a cargo. Off Nevis, June
29, the crew took possession of the ship, then made this agreement on
the 30th, sold part of the cargo at the Dutch island of Curacao, and
brought the vessel to Sandy Hook. For their trial, see the next
document.]
[Footnote 3: Whom.]
[Footnote 4: One. The larger shares for captain, master, and doctor
were in accordance with custom. Clough, the master, was forced to join
the mutineers.]
These are to satisfy you thatt our intent is to trade with the
Spaniards, medling nor make no resistances with no nation that wee do
fall with all upon the Sea. Now Gentlemen these are to give you notice
that if any one do make any Resistances against us one any factery[5]
hereafter shall bee severely punish according to the fact that hee
hath comitted and as you are all here at present you have taken your
corporall oath upon the holy Evangelists to stand one by the other as
long as life shall last.
[Footnote 5: _Sic._ They probably mean, on any pretext, or, on any
occasion.]
JOHN HALLAMORE. HENERY MICHELSON.
the mark [Yt] of THOMAS ALBERT LASEN.
DICKSON. the mark [SW.] of SYMON
ROBERT COCKRAM. WEBSON.
the marke of [X] JO. DARVELL. WILLIAM STROTHER.
the marke of [X] ARTHUR DAVIS. EDWA. DOVE.
the marke of [X] JNO. MORRINE. JOHN WATKINS.
JOHN RENALS EDWARD STARKEY.
the mark of [R] ROBERT DOUSIN. the mark of [/V] GEORGE PADDISSON.
JOHN COPPING.[6]
NICHO. CLOUGH. the mark of [_HL_] HENRY
SAMLL. HAYNSWORTH. LEWIN.
DANIELL KELLY.
WILLIAM HEATH.
JOHN GRIFFIN.
[Footnote 6: Copping, it was testified, was the writer of this
remarkable agreement.]
_51. Court for the Trial of Piracy: Commission. September 15, 20,
1683._[1]
[Footnote 1: Vol. I. of wills in surrogate's office, New York City,
pp. 306-307.]
_Memorandum._ That Thursday the twenty day of September, in the five
and thirtieth yeare of the Reigne of our Soveraigne Lord Charles the
second, by the grace of God of England, Scottland, France, and Ireland
King, Defender of the Faith, etc., at the Citty Hall of New Yorke in
America, A speciall Court of Oyer and Terminer was holden by Vertue of
this following Commission, Viz.
Thomas Dongan Lieutt. and Governour, and Vice Admirall under his
Royall Highnesse of New Yorke and Dependences in America.
_Whereas_ his Royall Highnesse James Duke of Yorke and Albany, Earle
of Ulster, etc., Lord high Admirall of Scottland and Ireland, and the
Dominions and Islands thereof, As also Lord high Admirall of the
Dominions of New England and Virginia, Barbados, St. Christophers,
Antego, New Yorke in America, etc., hath by his Commission dated at
St. James the third day of October in the yeare of our Lord 1682 and
in the 34th yeare of his Ma'ties Reigne constituted and made mee his
Vice Admirall of New Yorke, and the Maritime ports and Islands
belonging to the same, and hath authorized and impowered mee to
appoint a Judge, Register, and Marshall of a Court of Admiralty
there;[2] I do therefore hereby make and appoint You Lucas Santen
Esq., Judge of the said Court, and William Beekman, Deputy Mayor, John
Lawrence and James Graham, Aldermen of the Citty of New Yorke, Mr.
Cornelis Stenwyck, Mr. Nicholas Bayard, Mr. William Pinhorne, and Mr.
Jacob Leysler, and you or any six of you, to hear and determine of any
or all Treasons, Felonys, Robberys, Piracys, Murders, Manslaughters,
Confederacys, breaches of trust, Imbezleing goods, or other
Transgressions, contempts, Misprissions and Spoyles whatsoever, done
or committed within the Maritime Jurisdiction aforesaid, on board the
Ship _Camelion_ of London, Nicholas Clough commander, and I do also
appoint Will. Nicolls to bee Register, and John Collier to bee
Marshall of the said Court, and this Commission to bee of Force during
the time of this Tryall only. Given under my hand and seale this 15th
day of September, 1683, and in the thirty fifth yeare of the Reigne of
our Soveraigne Lord Charles the second, by the Grace of God, of
England, Scottland, etc. King, Defender of the Faith, etc.
THO. DONGAN.
[Footnote 2: Governor Dongan's commission of vice-admiralty "in the
usual forme", October 3, 1682, is recorded in the Public Record
Office, London, C.O. 5:1182, p. 40. James, duke of York, was Lord High
Admiral from 1660 to 1673; he was proprietor of the province of New
York from 1664 till he became king in 1685. As Lord High Admiral, he
issued commissions to the colonial governors appointing them as his
vice-admirals. That which he issued, January 26, 1667, to Lord
Willoughby, governor of Barbados, is printed in the _Publications_ of
the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, II. 187-198. That to Dongan,
issued by James in 1682, when, though excluded from office in England,
he was still Lord High Admiral of the crown's dominions, was no doubt
similar. At this early period the governor himself sometimes acted as
judge; see document 46, note 1. Strictly speaking, what was here
appointed was not a court of admiralty but a commission for the trial
of piracy and other felonies. By the statute 28 Henry VIII. c. 15
(1536), it was provided that cases of piracy should be tried within
the realm, not by the High Court of Admiralty, but before commissions
specially appointed for the purpose, and with the aid of a jury. But
this statute did not extend to the plantations, and until the passage
of the act of 11 and 12 William III. c. 7 (1700), commissioners for
the trial of piracy in the colonies were usually appointed by
governors in their capacity as vice-admirals, and proceeded under the
civil (Roman) law, not the statute. Another commission, for the trial
of piracy (to Governor Bellomont and others, Nov. 23, 1701) is printed
in E.C. Benedict, _The American Admiralty_, third ed., pp. 73-79,
fourth ed., pp. 70-76; another (1716) is doc. no. 106, below; another
(to Governor Woodes Rogers, Bahamas, Dec. 5, 1718), is in Johnson's
_History of the Pyrates_, II. (1726) 337-340; a fourth (1728) is in
_N.J. Archives_, first series, V. 196. See also doc. no. 201, note 1,
and Chalmers, _Opinions_ (ed. 1858), pp. 511-515.]
To
Lucas Santen Esqr.,[3] Cornelius Stenwyck,
William Beakman,[4] Nicholas Bayard,
Jno. Lawrence, Willm. Pinhorne,
James Graham, Jacob Leisler.
[Footnote 3: Collector of the port.]
[Footnote 4: Acting mayor. Lawrence, Graham, Steenwyk, and Bayard were
aldermen, Pinhorne became an alderman two months later. Leisler was
the celebrated revolutionary. The accused men were found guilty. Eight
of them were sentenced to receive twenty lashes and to be imprisoned
for a year and a day. Clough was sent to London to give an account of
his stewardship to the Royal African Company. _Calendar of Council
Minutes, N.Y._, p. 34.]
CASE OF WILLIAM COWARD.
_52. William Coward's Plea. 1690._[1]
[Footnote 1: Suffolk Court Files, no. 2540, paper 6. The case is
reported in _Records of the Court of Assistants of Massachusetts Bay_,
I. 319-322. Coward (a sailor of H.M.S. _Rose_) and others were
indicted for a piratical attack on the ketch _Elinor_ in Nantasket
Roads, November 21, 1689. They were tried in January, 1690, and
condemned, but reprieved. See _Andros Tracts_, II. 54. The trial
occurred in the interregnum between the deposition of Governor Andros
in 1689, and the arrival of Governor Phips and inauguration of the new
charter in 1692. Therefore Coward pleads to the jurisdiction, Andros's
commission as vice-admiral being void.]
And the said Wm. Coward for plea saith that he ought not nor by Law is
obliged to make any further or other answar or plea to the Indictments
now preferred against him in this Court: for that he saith that the
Crimes for which he stands Indicted be:--The same is for Pyracy,
felony and [so forth] by him supposed to be done And Committed upon
the high seas without this Jurisdictions and not within the body of
any County within the same from Whence any Jury Cann be Lawfully
brought to have tryall thereof, That before the Statute of the 28th of
King Henry the 8th, Chapt. the 15th, all Pyraceys Felonys, etc.,
Committed upon the high seas was noe Felony whereof the Common Law
tooke any knowledg, for that it could not be tryed, being out of all
towns and Countes, but was only Punishable by the Civill Law before
the Admira[l], etc., but by the said Statute the offence is not
altered and made felony, but Left as it was before the said Statute,
vizt. felony only by the Civill Law, but giveth a mean of tryal by the
Common Law in this maner, Viz: All Treasons, felonys, Robberys,
murders and Confederacies Committed in or upon the sea or in any other
haven, rivar, creek, or place where the Admirall hath or pretends to
have power, Authority, or Jurisdiction shall be Enquired, tryed,
heard, determined, and Judged in such shires and places in the Relm as
shall be Limitted by the kings Commistion under the great Seale, in
Like forme and Condition as If any such offenses had been Committed
upon the land, to be directed to the Lord Admirall or to his Leiut.,
Deputy, or Deputys, and to three or foure such other substantiall
persons as shall be named by the Lord Chancellor of England for the
time being, etc., as [by] the said statute appeareth--
That the Crimes and offences afforesaid must ether be Considered in
the Condition they were in before or since the making of the said
statute. If as before then they are only to be Judged and Detarmined
before the Admirall, etc., after the Course of the Civill Laws, which
this Court hath not Jurysdiction off--
That the Crimes and offences in the said Indictments supposed to be
done [and] commited by the said Wm Coward, If any such there were,
[were] done and Committed in or upon the sea or in some haven, river,
Creek, or place where the Admiralty hath or pretends to have power,
Authority, or Jurisdiction, etc. not within the Jurisdiction of this
Court--