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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/75256-0.txt b/75256-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1d82a30 --- /dev/null +++ b/75256-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7676 @@ + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75256 *** + + + + + +[Illustration: Mr. Dutchman was rowed ashore and left with a gun, some +powder and shot. FRONTISPIECE. _See page 97._] + + + + + PIRATE TALES + FROM THE LAW + + BY + ARTHUR M. HARRIS + + WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY + GEORGE AVISON + + [Illustration] + + BOSTON + LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY + 1923 + + + + + _Copyright, 1922, 1923_, + BY ARTHUR M. HARRIS. + + _All rights reserved_ + + Published August, 1923 + + + PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA + + + + + SHIP AHOY! + + +Heave to, Shipmate! + +Here’s a book,--a book about pirates, the grim old fellows of the +eighteenth century, who used to surge over the bulwarks of honest +merchantmen in a wave of cutlasses, pistols and general deviltry. + +Not all of them, Shipmate. Not Lewis, Rackham, Davis, Low and others, +but of those who were caught, or some of whose subordinate rascals were +caught, by the fierce messengers of His Most Gracious Majesty the King, +or taken in combat--dreadful combat--by the oaken-hearted stalwarts of +Authority, and brought to Justice and hanged up at old Execution Dock, +hard by Thames River, as it swirls muddily from London Bridge. + +That’s the point about this book, Shipmate. It’s the story of the +Old Game, the Grand Account, as those ruffians termed their wicked +trade, stripped of legend, excised of exaggeration and presented to +you as it was adduced in the courts of law by the sworn witnesses, the +probing counsel, the directing judges and the juries who cast their +capital verdicts. History, in other words; veritable history, but +recounted--well, as you shall see for yourself. + +Good luck, Shipmate! + + ARTHUR M. HARRIS. + + + + + CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + I SALT WATER MONEY _Captain Kidd_ 1 + + II BLACK FLAG FROM BOSTON _John Quelch_ 79 + + III SEA HORROR “_Blackbeard_” 111 + + IV BACK PAY _Henry Avery_ 159 + + V GROAN O’ THE GALLOWS _Tom Green_ 213 + + VI “WHO FIRES FIRST?” _John Gow_ 275 + + + + + ILLUSTRATIONS + + + Mr. Dutchman was rowed ashore and left with a gun, + some powder and shot _Frontispiece_ + + PAGE + + She went up to the coppery Indian sky in great festoons of smoke 38 + + He fought the lieutenant with the verve of an athlete + fresh for the field 156 + + “You white-livered coward!” bellowed Williams, + “Run away from a frog-eater!” 303 + + + + + CHAPTER ONE + + SALT WATER MONEY + + Captain Kidd + + + I + +Sometime in the autumn of the year 1695, Captain William Kidd, of New +York, arrived in the city of London. He came as master of a trading +sloop; he left in the following spring a commissioned officer of his +most gracious Majesty, King William III, on the quarter-deck of what +was really a man-of-war. + +This was not the first time, however, that Captain Kidd had been in +the public service. Said to be the son of a Scottish minister, he +became first definitely noticeable in the province of New York, where, +sometime before 1695, the grateful council of New York had voted him +a gratuity of one hundred and fifty pounds for valuable efforts in +suppressing local disturbances, ensuing the revolution of 1688. Not +only that, but during England’s interminable argument with France, +he had locked shrouds with the Frenchmen off the West Indies, thus +acquiring the repute of a “mighty man” against them. + +In fact, Captain Kidd when he thus stepped on to the docks of old +London was a substantial colonial, a householder and taxpayer of the +town of New York, where, we must suppose, his wife and daughter moved +in those delectable geometrical figures, the best circles. + +The royal commission of 1696, though, was a novel one in the captain’s +experience. + +It is important to notice the exact wording of this commission: + + “William III. By the grace of God, king of England, Scotland, + France and Ireland, defender of the faith, etc. To our trusty + and well-beloved captain William Kidd, commander of the ship + Adventure-galley, or to any other the commander for the time being. + Whereas we are informed That captain Thomas Too, John Ireland, + captain Thomas Wake, and Captain William Maze, or Mace, and other + our subjects, natives or inhabitants of New England, New York and + elsewhere in our plantations in America, have associated themselves + with divers other wicked and ill-disposed persons, and do, against + the law of nations, daily commit many and great piracies, robberies, + and depredations in the parts of America, and in other parts, to the + grave hindrance and discouragement of trade and navigation, and to + the danger and hurt of our loving subjects, our allies, and all others + navigating the seas upon their lawful occasions; Now know ye, That we + being desirous to prevent the aforesaid mischiefs, and, as far as in + us lies, to bring the said pirates, free-booters and sea-rovers to + justice, have thought fit, and do hereby give and grant unto you the + said William Kidd (to whom our commissioners for exercising the office + of our Lord High Admiral of England, have granted a commission as a + private man of war, bearing date the 11th day of December, 1695,) and + unto the commander of the said ship for the time being, and unto the + officers mariners and others, who shall be under your command, full + power and authority to apprehend, seize, and take into your custody, + as well the said Thomas Too, John Ireland, captain Thomas Wake, and + Captain William Maze or Mace, as all such pirates, free-booters and + sea-rovers, being our own subjects, or of any other nation associated + with them, which you shall meet upon the coast or seas of America, + or in any other seas or ports, with their ships and vessels, and + also such merchandizes, money, goods and wares, as shall be found on + board, or with them, in case they shall willingly yield themselves; + but if they will not submit without fighting, then you are by force + to compel them to yield. And we do also require you to bring, or + cause to be brought, such pirates, free-booters and sea-rovers as you + shall seize, to a legal trial; to the end that they may be proceeded + against according to law in such cases. And we do hereby charge and + command all our officers, ministers, and other our loving subjects + whatsoever, to be aiding and assisting you in the premises. And we do + hereby enjoin you to keep an exact journal of your proceeding in the + execution of the premises, and therein to set down the names of such + pirates and their officers and company, and the names of such ships + and vessels as you shall by virtue of these presents seize and take, + and the quantities of arms, ammunition, provision and loading of such + ships, and the true value of the same, as near as you can judge.... In + witness whereof we have caused the great seal of England to be affixed + to these presents. Given at our court at Kensington, the 26th. day of + January, 1695, and in the 7th. year of our reign.” + +Of all of which the sum is that Commander Kidd, in his private +man-of-war, is to catch Tom Too and the rest of them wherever he could +find them, bring them to justice and render a careful account of their +ships and cargoes. The ostensible aim is to protect the American +colonies; actually it is to exterminate piracy wherever discovered. + +English-speaking folk have been as much a part of the sea as the white +spume of the waves. Like their element, too, they have made for good +and ill. The by-product of England’s maritime effort was the sea-rover, +a creature often as skilled, unfearing and enterprising as his brother +who went up and down the highways of the ocean on more lawful occasions. + +Seventeenth-and eighteenth-century piracy gave to the world that +villainous, but picturesque, aggregation of maritime felons which +has so much fascination for people who never grow too old to enjoy +vicarious adventure: Too, Ireland, Wake, Low, Davis, Lewis, England, +Blackbeard, Avery, Gow, Quelch and other bold quarter-deck--usually the +other fellow’s quarter-deck--strutters, including, notably, the subject +of our present observations. + +These ungentlemen gleaned in three principal regions: Africa, the +East and West Indies, with an occasional flyer down Brazil way. Under +the black flag, we shall presently see something of all these places; +just now we are engaged with the East Indies. Coming and going, and +sometimes lingering, they bothered the “plantations” all the way from +Charleston to Boston, so that the total scope of piracy was sweeping +and widely embracing. + +India was pouring out richly its products of field and loom, plantation +and cottage, and was drawing hungrily in from Arabia, Europe, Africa, +everywhere, the things nature or economic circumstance denied her. +The carriers of this mighty movement of materials were usually rather +insignificant craft called grabs, pinks, galiots, sloops and what-not; +affairs of one mast, a couple of men, a boy and about sixteen ounces +of cargo. These were coasters; a larger vessel plied to the Gulf of +Aden and the Red Sea under charter of Moors, Armenians and other swart +merchants. + +Bumping these lesser fry out of the way, however, were the +comparatively impressive ships of the expanding European trading +companies--Dutch, Swedish, Austrian and so on--and preeminently the +English East India Company, destined to grow great enough eventually to +swallow India herself,--old John Company. + +The English company--taking it as illustrative--lined the Indian coast +with its forts or factories, and built its own vessels, the noted +“Indiamen”, at its home docks at Deptford; fought its rivals, fought +the natives, carried on perpetual war under the banner of trade. +Protected to the point of complete monopoly by royal and parliamentary +charters, it became practically a State itself, with the power of +minting money, maintaining forts and armies, negotiating treaties, +declaring war or making peace, and authorized to send its ships out +beneath the royal ensign, commanded by captains every one of whom was +the king’s commissioned officer. + +Although ships of many flags plied in the commerce of the East Indies, +if you were aboard a larger Moorish, Arabian or Armenian vessel, you +would often have heard the working of it directed by the bellowings of +a Devonian, a Londoner, or a burr-tongued Yorkshireman. And if from +the lookout there came the cry of “Pirate!” you could be just as sure +that that swiftly oncoming menace was driven by a man who called in +English to a crew which needed no interpreter. + +This varied coast and trans-oceanic sea traffic was almost without +police protection. At their settlement up Calicut way, the Portuguese +had a few ineffective tubs they called a navy. In India itself the +one-time vigorous rule of the Moguls was collapsing and anarchy was +slipping from beneath the lid. Yet even as government caved in, +commerce hardily struggled on, in spite of the fact that its voyages +began in fear and ended by good fortune, and its ships too often became +fat, unshepherded sheep for lean and unlawful shearers. + +And the shearers--Tom Too _et al._--came; came in hordes; came from +anywhere and everywhere, chiefly from across the Atlantic, New York, +New England and their historic nest, the West Indies. + +The lay of the land as well as of the water made against the merchant +and for the brigand. Once in the neighborhood, a thieving craft could +steal up a river and wait its opportunity, comfortably provided with +wood and water. Madagascar was the despair of the English Admiralty +and the bitter wail of merchants great and small. It was the prime way +station for pirates on their way to and from the Indies; it was a land +without law, governed by warring native chieftains, and with the Comoro +Islands close by, made one of the finest strategic bases imaginable for +piratical operations. There the pirates swarmed, careened their ships, +salted their provisions, established regular colonies, and exchanged +from one ship to another, leaving or signing-up quite after the manner +of legitimate ports. It was the West Indies of the Indian Ocean. + +To strike piracy down in Madagascar and India was to weaken its blow +both at the American colonies and the Spanish Main. To India Kidd knew +he must resort to enforce the terms of his commission. + +Richard Coote, the Irish earl Bellamont and a gentleman to whom the +historian Macaulay gives a very good character, was at that time +governor of the Province of New York. According to some accounts, he +was in London when Kidd arrived there in the autumn of 1695 and was +introduced to the sailor by a Colonel Livingston, one of New York’s +prominent citizens, then in England. Macaulay, however, says that +Bellamont was already in America when the acuteness of the problem +of piracy stirred him to action, and that there he was recommended +to William Kidd as a man competent on the sea and entirely familiar +with the practices of pirates. Bellamont’s appeals to the home +government for action being fruitless, he and Kidd evolved the notion +of outfitting a private man-of-war, Kidd to command, and sending it +forth to meet the situation in whatever stronghold piracy might then be +found. The venture would doubtless be profitable as well as patriotic. + +Bellamont promoted the scheme with eloquent letters to England and was +so persuasive that statesmen like Shrewsbury and Romney, Orford, First +Lord of the Admiralty, and John Somers between them subscribed several +thousand pounds, and obtained the commission, under the Great Seal, +which we have seen created Kidd in effect the sheriff of the far-off +Orient seas. + +With these funds a galley--not, however, the kind formerly propelled +by oars, but a sailing ship--called the _Adventure_ was purchased. +Her measurement was two hundred and seventy tons. You can see from +that what an imposing ship she must have been, especially when, in +imagination, placed beside a modern transatlantic liner, for which +she might possibly be big enough for a lifeboat. In those times the +last thought of a sailor seems to have been for the size of his ship. +Perhaps he was afraid a large ship would break in two. At any rate, he +threw himself in the most matter-of-fact way at the highest waves in +the world with what we would consider merely exaggerated rowboats. + +Kidd bristled the _Adventure_ with thirty cannon. They understood the +economy of space in those days, you may well imagine. Kidd must have +been a natural-born packer. Not only thirty guns did he get on board, +not only provisions for months, with small arms and ammunition as well, +but when he left New York on the first run of the cruise proper, he was +bedding and boarding some one hundred and sixty men! Whatever else he +may have been, the captain was a man who knew his business as a tailor +knows his needle. + +In order that he might be a stone for two birds, another commission was +laid upon Kidd to take and condemn French ships, as by law made and +provided, France and England being at war as usual. The thought was +that any leisure hour that could be spared from taking pirates might +be usefully employed in catching Frenchmen. The British Admiralty was +always a great hand at putting people to work. + +Of course, if he got a Frenchman, he was not entitled to the captive’s +goods, wares and merchandise. Enemy ships were to be brought into the +nearest British port and by the proper authorities condemned. He had a +blank check signed only on the sea-robbers’ banks. + +These things arranged, the trusty and well-beloved William Kidd, twice +commissioned, competed with the active press-gangs for eighty good and +faithful seamen among the taverns of Wapping and the wet alleys of +Blackwall. + + + II + +Spring’s early smile was broadening to a merry laugh amid the bushes +and hedgerows of old England when the _Adventure_ drew out of Plymouth +for the East Indies, by way of New York. Past the fishing boats, +the west coasters and an anchored man-of-war she slipped, on one of +the most unusual errands that had ever engaged a ship clearing from +that ancient port. It was probably a great morning on which to begin +a voyage, with a sparkle on the waters and an edge to the sea air +that must have sent the chanty rolling up from hardy throats and put +a snappiness in strong muscles that labored zestfully at rope and +windlass. + +Putting out to sea on a fine morning is one of the peculiar delights +of healthy folk. At such a time one does not reckon on never +returning--that might be the fate of the other man, not ours--yet of +the eighty men obeying Kidd as captain that morning many had set their +last foot on the soil of home. + +Like the new broom of adage, the _Adventure_ bowled across the Atlantic +to the western colony in seaman fashion in the quite creditable time of +a month. She was not, in fact, a sound ship. Long before the Indian +seas had been harvested her crew were calling her names, such as “Leaky +and crazy” and what not. It turned out that she had the qualities of +a good sponge, being absorbent at almost every seam and requiring +constantly to be squeezed dry with the pumps. + +So it was something to reach New York without misadventure. Off the +Banks they took in a small French fisherman unlucky enough to get in +their way. She was sent into New York for condemnation. This appears to +have been the first and last time that Kidd lawfully employed himself +under his two commissions. A trifling take it was, to be sure, but it +gave Kidd’s arrival in New York quite the air of officialism. + +Kidd purposed to recruit eighty more men at New York; evidently he +esteemed the colonial sailorman as much as him of the mother country. +To do this he caused to be printed and set up in various gossip spots +about town enticing handbills inviting adventurers. The meat of the +call was that there was plunder a-plenty to be taken from the East +Indian pirates, and lots of fun for a stalwart man in the taking. + +Men accepted would be placed upon a fair share basis, after deducting +twenty-five per cent of the profits for the ship. He had no trouble +attracting a crew. In fact so hearty was the response that there were +fears in the colony that its man power would be depleted. Strong arms +were needed against the Frenchman, Indians and whatever other perils +might befall an isolated community far from the protection of the +mother country in times such as those were. + +Contemporaries do not speak squeamishly about an element of Kidd’s +crew. Well, the captain asked no disingenuous questions and for +more than one fellow in a tight pinch it was a lucky way of escape. +Many others were no doubt decent, respectable men intrigued by the +prospect of vividly imagined gains. The less definite the harvest of +a speculation the more it seems will men greedily pursue it. So Kidd +finally herded some one hundred and sixty men all told on the deck for +watch divisions when the _Adventure_ was geared for sea. + +This outfit was rather more than merely master and men; they were +co-partners. Forty shares were to go to the ship and the remainder was +to be parceled out in lumps of average weight according to a scale +agreed upon by all. Bellamont and Company supplied arms and equipment +at a charge. + +The late winter ice still cluttered the Hudson River when the +_Adventure_ at length turned its prow toward the Indies, Madagascar and +Fortune. Kidd, according to the proprieties of the sea, kept himself +a cabin, the rest of them shifted in forecastle and hold as well as a +hundred and sixty men in a small ship might. With the best they could +do conditions of life must have become very serious and in a way +invited the heavy sickness that fell upon them when the hot regions of +the East were reached. + +At the Madeiras the voyage was broken briefly, then off again to India. +Summer was torrid on land and sea when the company finally “watered and +victualled” at Madagascar. And now for some months Kidd cruised up and +down the coast without any overt act under his commissions, cruised, +that is, with a ghastly plague aboard which tumbled four or five men +a day over the bulwarks and into the oily, turgid deep. When one +conjectures the sanitation of the _Adventure_ it is marvelous that any +one escaped the calamity. + +What could the captain have been thinking of as he loafed aimlessly +up and down the Indian coast? He did business with neither pirate +nor merchantman, just seems to have gone here and there as the wind +blew him. He may have been acquainting himself with the nature of the +commerce of those parts; it may have been a period of debate with +him as to whether to persist as a law officer or strike out in the +new line of law breaker. It is hard to think that Kidd arrived at +Madagascar with a formed pirate purpose; perhaps they may be right who +say that after carefully appraising the situation as a whole he chose +the plundering line. However that may have been, Kidd’s first major +operation in those parts was not against pirates, according to his +commission, nor the French, but against merchantmen in their peaceful +pursuits. + +At this point let us get the lay of the land, or sea, as it may +happen. The captain leaving New York shot across the Atlantic to +Madeira Islands, from which he right-angled down to the Cape of Good +Hope. Swinging around this broad pedestal of Table Mountain, he ran +up the coast of Africa, probably by way of the Mozambique Channel to +Madagascar. He stopped here long enough to refresh his stores, then +beat up toward India. + +Roughly, Madagascar, for Kidd’s purposes, may be thought of as the +apex of a sort of isosceles triangle, with the Red Sea for one angle +and Bombay for the other. Within these boundaries the captain had the +Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, and the Indian Ocean to navigate, with +Madagascar to run back to from time to time. + +Sea traffic, such as it was, around the cape was not attractive to the +pirates, at least so much as that which passed more quickly from India +through the Indian Ocean to the Red Sea and gulf countries. Compared +with Africa, India, of course, had an old and rich civilization and +it was for the products of that country that the mouths of pirates +watered; the costly silks, linens, spices and gold and silver treasures +which had become the traditions of sailors’ dockhead stories. + +As it happened, however, it was not a cargo going from India which +first enticed Captain Kidd, but cargoes going thence from the gulf +region, more particularly the fat freight of what was known as the +Mocca Fleet. + +“Men,” said Kidd, as he swung the _Adventure’s_ nose suddenly about at +the end of his dallying days in the Indian Ocean, “we are off to Bab’s +Key and the Mocca Fleet. We will ballast our good ship with gold and +silver from this Mocca Fleet.” + +Thus did Kidd treat his commission as a scrap of paper, to be quite +modern, and thus, with a roaring cheer, another terror was added to the +troubles of honest commerce. + + + III + +At this port of Bab’s Key, then, the Mocca Fleet was being stuffed as +the fox stole smoothly upon it from the Indian Ocean. About fourteen +ships made up the fleet, going in mass for safety, and chartered by the +usual polyglot crowd of Dutchmen, Arabians, Moors, Armenians and so on. + +While the coolies sweated and strained and hauled bundles and bales +aboard, certain odd-looking strangers sauntered about the docks, +marking closely the lading of the vessels. These were Kidd’s men, +spies he had sent ashore to warn him of the sailing of the fleet. +With desiring eyes these men watched the caravans pouring in from the +interior and emptying their freights into the various holds. Rich +merchandise lay spread all about,--loot that their doughty commander +was to appropriate without a thank-you and distribute among their tarry +palms. + +Not only that, but had you gone into the low, round hills that basined +the town, you would have seen lurkers there, watching keenly the work +on the fleet. More of the _Adventure’s_ men, sentineled all around by +the captain as a kind of double watch. Kidd, you notice, was a man +of method; it was not going to be any fault of his if Bellamont and +Company did not pay dividends. + +Whether the presence of the spies had disturbed the skippers of the +Mocca Fleet is conjectural, but when it did put to sea at length it was +under both Dutch and English convoy. And in spite of Kidd’s keenness it +got away without notice. + +Only when morning came above the swelling deep, after two or three +weeks of waiting, did the lookout cry the captain from his cabin that +the fleet was passing. True enough! There over the horizon the high +poops of the Mocca ships were awkwardly wagging away to safety. + +Orders immediately showered the decks like the great drops of a +thunderstorm. The anchor chain grated sharply against the bows while +the shrouds were all at once black with racing men. A few minutes and +the _Adventure_ began to take the water slowly; sail after sail bellied +out and quickly she leaped and ducked and flung herself upon the heels +of her prey. + +Fourteen ships convoyed by armed Dutch and English guards would seem +a large bone for so small a terrier as the pirate boat to grasp. +Something must take possession of the reason of English-speaking +sailormen when combat promises, for long odds challenge rather than +daunt them. Their maritime acts sparkle with just such feats as +this--absurd but in a way heroic--and had Kidd had the color of law +upon his work, the story of the Mocca Fleet would have echoed in +generations of English schoolrooms. + +Kidd certainly was grown on the tree that bore Grenville, Drake, +Frobisher, Hawkins and the rest, even though it might have been +advisable to prune him out. In quite the traditional spirit Kidd hurled +his little ship at the great Mocca Fleet as casually as a boy would +fling a stone into a flock of sparrows. + +It might stimulate the imagination to tell how this extraordinary +effort netted big gain, and how the _Adventure_ knocked the merchantmen +to left and right and plucked the fattest and richest of them from +their midst, from which the captain redeemed his tropical promise to +ballast his ship with gold and silver. But that would not be the fact. +The difficulties were too great. After a brief peppering on both sides +with round shot, the pirates were forced to drop back, and leave the +fleet, frightened, fluttering but safe, tumbling on for India. + +Well, it was a doughty but miscalculated start. The _Adventure_ rode +high upon the waves instead of bulwark-deep with goodly gain. The good +cheer aboard must have flagged. What, they asked one another, what if +the whole commerce of this country should be organized into fleets; +what would become of poor pirates? Here they were embarked in a trade +at great spending of money and effort, come all the way from New York, +only to find a great concentration of merchants against them,--surely +a monopoly in restraint of trade. If this sort of thing kept up, there +might be nothing for them left to do but to live up to the terms of the +captain’s commission and be content to sift the loot from gentlemen +of free enterprise who had been on the ground in happier and more +prosperous days. + +Grumbling doubtless began now, if not before, and was kept up until it +ended in a sad mischance to one Gunner Moore, which deplorable accident +will shortly be narrated. + +Kidd now began to net the gulf for anything he could catch. They hauled +in a little Moorish ship, which was but a poor sardine for the whale +that had escaped. She was too small to put up a fight and Kidd just +bullied her down. From her they took a few bales of coffee, some opium +and twenty pieces of Arabian gold. + +They also caught a “linguister.” It turns out that a “linguister” +is not an article of commerce, but nothing more nor less than an +interpreter, in this particular case a Portuguese person. Not a bad +word that,--linguister; language rather more expressive than the +scholastic interpreter. + +Now you cannot ballast even a two hundred-and-seventy-ton craft +with twenty pieces of Arabian gold and, refusing to believe that so +poverty-stricken a craft could be in these rich reputed waters, Kidd +improvised an inquisition. Some of the unfortunate captives were hung +up by the wrists and beaten with naked cutlasses by way of persuading +them to reveal the real treasures of their ship. Nothing so far as the +record shows came of this strenuous examination. So the pirates turned +them loose minus their coffee and opium and the contemptible pieces of +Arabian gold. + +Rough usage this, but not the ultimate of ferocity with which Kidd +has been charged. For all we know, this is as far as ever the captain +went in the treatment of captive crews. It may be said as well here +as anywhere that there is no walking the plank or other picturesque +punishments of fiction. Ships were looted and turned loose, in most +instances. Those of their crews who wished to might sign up with the +pirates; their officers, if not sent back to their ships, were carried +to the Indian coast and dumped there. + +All hands were then in no very sociable mood when the incidents of this +immediate time closed with the matter of the Portuguese man-of-war. + +It was on an evening soon after the taking of the Moorish ship that the +_Adventure_ saw and was seen by a cruising Portuguese war-vessel. Now +there was nothing in Kidd’s contract with Bellamont, Livingston and the +rest of them which even suggested that he should take any special risk, +and of course not a line thereof which could warrant him in lying-to +all night to risk the company’s property in a perfectly gratuitous +battle engagement with a ship of war. + +This, however, is just what the _Adventure_ did. Instead of taking the +hours of darkness for a discreet and quite justified withdrawal from +an embarrassing situation, Kidd and his merry men impatiently watched +for the first break of light in the east for a go with an enemy. After +all the _Adventure_ was well and poetically named. Conduct of this +kind makes us suppose that gain was less in the eye of these folk than +rip-roaring adventuring in lawless waters. + +Historically, the Portuguese opened fire first on Kidd. Evidently that +swart son of Lisbon had not heard from the Mocca Fleet that a wild +demon was loose on the sea. When you read that the Portuguese opened +first fire on Captain Kidd, you think at once of a foolish tramp +going out of his way to kick a sleeping bulldog. Mr. Portuguese got a +surprising rattle of shot on his bulwarks and sails. He had opened fire +on the one man in all the East Indies that with more exact information +he would have avoided. + +Kidd closed with him zestfully and for five hours they whanged away +at each other, and at noon, all concerned having had a brisk workout, +as the athletes would say, the two ships drew apart and went their +ways, flinging shot at each other till Neptune shouldered them beyond +range. Ten men of the _Adventure_ lay about the ship with broken +bodies, waiting the perhaps more dangerous ministry of ship’s surgeon +Bradinham. + +Save for the fun of fighting here were three or four weeks wasted. +A couple of these had been thrown away hanging around for the Mocca +Fleet and a couple more had brought forth only the meager pilfering +of a Moorish sloop. It is not unnatural then that when, after the +_tête-à-tête_ with the warship, the craft _Loyal Captain_ sighted and +seeming to promise worth-while gleaning, was allowed by Kidd to go by +scot-free, without a hand being raised, discontent began to threaten +discipline on board the _Adventure_. + + + IV + +In a gang of men with a grievance grumbling usually becomes vocal +in a sort of natural spokesman. The kind of people who manned the +_Adventure_ were probably hard to manage, especially after all hands +had committed themselves as lawbreakers. They were taking so many risks +that unless profit came in to justify them their complaints would +sharply flare up. + +They were in front of danger from disease, a demoralizing illustration +of which they had but recently seen in their own ship; the robbery of +ships was also dangerous, while most vivid of all, though farthest +removed geographically, was the picture of outraged authority waiting +them at home with the grim paraphernalia of Execution Dock. + +Such things make men peevish and if all be endured or braved it must +not be for a mere trifle. And, beyond the game with the Portuguese, +which all would admit was the one bright spot of the month, nothing by +way of a share had been passed around, for the quite apparent reason +that nothing had been taken to share. + +Why Kidd let the _Loyal Captain_ get away is known only to himself. +His men did not understand it. They knew he was not afraid; they +never doubted in that sort of thing. But there she went,--a good-sized +merchant ship, the very thing they were all out here risking their +necks for. + +Gunner Moore gave tongue to their troubles; Gunner Moore was not +afraid, not he; out with it and speak up like men. Why he himself +could have shown Captain Kidd a way to take the _Loyal Captain_ and +that without any risk. There is always a Gunner Moore. Always in all +undertakings, lawful as well as unlawful, there is an ever-ready +subordinate with better plans and methods than his superior’s. Such men +always talk and almost always fatally. Gunner Moore did. + +You notice the sting in the gunner’s phrase--“without risk.” That was +the heel by which to prick the demon up in the captain. The imputation +of fear so plainly false,--no wonder as Gunner Moore was grinding a +chisel on the deck, the hoarse voice of his commander growled in his +ear-- + +“Which way could you have put me in a way to take this ship (the _Loyal +Captain_) and been clear?” + +It was a hot minute for Gunner Moore. Now Mr. Moore, you who are so +smart, how would you have taken the _Loyal Captain_ without risk? One +may feel sorry for the gunner; he has angered the hardest man, in +some respects, on or off the coast of Malabar, in whose shelter the +_Adventure_ was then riding. + +The gunner did what almost everybody would have done in the same +stress; he tried to put out to sea in a lie. + +“Sir,” said he, “I never spoke such a word, nor ever thought such a +thing.” + +Gunner Moore was not naturally adapted for the piratical life. With +Kidd in that mood and menace before him there was no refuge for him in +words. The captain must have surmised that the gunner had been audible +to the crew as well as himself, and his particular game made an example +imperative. It was really all up with the gunner before a word was said. + +Everybody on board was looking on. The sail maker sat cross-legged with +his needle poised; men dozing on the blistering decks awoke to stare; +over the yardarms aloft the heads of the sailors working gazed fixedly +below them; it was that intense moment before tragedy. + +Captain Kidd pronounced sentence in a voice that everybody could hear: + +“You lousy dog!” + +Kidd was never short of picture words. He used few abstractions; +everything and everybody he painted in quick, certain colors. + +Perhaps, after all, there was a chance for the gunner. If he had meekly +bowed assent and driven along with his chisel-grinding it might have +been well for him. But it is to be taken that Gunner Moore had passed +himself for a man of some character among his fellows. He was a sort +of gang leader, apparently; had he not spoken up, had not his attitude +been, “Who’s afraid of Kidd?” He was, really, but had not imagination +enough to know it. And now he was tumbled low before all men with +these rough words. To swallow them was to creep about the ship forever +humble. He rallied, did the gunner, but instead of rallying with words +he should have resorted to the chisel in his hand or a marlin-spike. +No, he did not understand the piratical trade. He mistook it as a +calling in which one could still talk. + +“If I am a lousy dog,” he cried desperately, “you have made me so; you +have brought me to ruin and many more.” + +“And many more.” Notice that! It is an appeal to that gaping sailmaker, +those wide-eyed sleepers, those staring men in the rigging. Here am I, +it says, your spokesman, telling the captain now just what we have all +been saying about him and the way we all feel; stick by me; somebody up +there in the yards please drop a block on his head. + +Gangs, being untrained and undirected, are necessarily uncertain and do +not engage their opportunity. A brisk demonstration of sympathy might +have saved the gunner; the captain was only one man. + +The ship rocked, the wind blew sluggish from Malabar, a cord smacked +thinly against the spars and the moment passed. + +“Have I ruined you, ye dog?” replied his formidable opponent. “Take +that!” + +Kidd grabbed a heavy wooden bucket, bound with iron hoops, probably the +one holding the water with which the gunner wet his stone, and smote +Moore upon the head. + +Sails sank his needle back in the canvas, the sleepers turned over on +their sides, the men aloft looked a moment solemnly at each other, and +the wooden bucket, bound with iron hoops, rolled redly to the scuppers. + +There was an opening for a gunner aboard the ship _Adventure_. + +Malabar, that beautiful and fertile strip of the Indian coast which +fronts the Arabian Sea for some hundred and fifty miles, was a sort +of way station for Kidd as he worked the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, +the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean. He ran in and out of this region +according to his need of victualing or repairing the now unsatisfactory +_Adventure_. + +He was not what one would call exactly welcome there. His coming meant +a disturbance in the local villages and the liberation upon them of +an undisciplined and roguish company. His crew and the natives not +occasionally fell out. Very likely the sailors were the beginners of +the trouble,--so their general make-up of character would suggest. +Gunner Moore’s death was not the only violence of the _Adventure’s_ +hours at Malabar. + +There was, for instance, the matter of the ship’s cooper. That artisan +got among the natives and never came back to the ship. It was on him +the townsfolk avenged themselves in an undetermined quarrel with the +pirates of which the cooper’s death was an episode. Knowing Kidd as we +do, it is not astonishing that he visited his wrath upon the natives +in vindicating the life even of a ship’s cooper. He swarmed his men +ashore, burned down the dwellings of the people and, catching one of +the inhabitants, ordered him, with crude formality, shot. + +It is a wonder that he did not exterminate the town. Mere ruthlessness, +however, would not seem a part of his disposition. In this matter of +the cooper there cannot be much question that the final responsibility +must fall upon the captain, whose failure to keep order among his men +made their acts of provocation possible. + +With these two incidents of the gunner and the cooper to lend action to +his sojourn, Kidd lay about Malabar until November, 1697, was advanced. +He then pulled up his anchor and breezed out to the Arabian Sea seeking +what or whom he might devour. The lot fell on a Moorish ship, out from +Surat, under the command of a Dutch skipper. + +On sighting her, Kidd went to the flag locker where he had a bundle +of symbolic aliases and picked out the flag of France, and flung it +brightly from his topmast. The Moor was wallowing along without any +insignia of nationality, but before very long, the _Adventure’s_ men +saw her shake out the French flag. Whereupon everybody laughed in deep +chests and kept smoothly to the pursuit. + +After some hours of comfortable sailing the _Adventure_ pulled +alongside the Moor, and confronting her with a row of gleaming cannon +bade her stop. No doubt the agitated Dutchman in command supposed +that he had been intercepted by a French ship of war, and so, stowing +certain ship’s papers, doubtless prepared for just such earnest +moments, in his pocket he obeyed Kidd’s hoarse bellow to come aboard. +While his boat was coming over to the _Adventure_, Kidd was arranging a +reception for him of an artful kind. + +He called one of the crew, a Frenchman, aft and bade him represent +himself to be the captain of the _Adventure_ in the pending interview +with the Dutchman. Just why would soon be shown. + +Over the side came the Dutch skipper with a puffed, perturbed face. The +Frenchman met him and demanded his papers. With something of relief the +skipper must have pulled out the French passes, or clearance papers, +he had taken the precaution to bring on the voyage with him. He was +relieved because he found himself on an undoubted French ship and +happily with French shipping papers; he felt among friends. + +No sooner was the French pass spread out than Kidd, standing close +by, toying with the handle of his cutlass, roared out in frightening +English: + +“Ah ha, I have catched you, have I. You are a free prize to England.” + +This action shows that Kidd was not ready to avow himself a pirate. As +such, there would have been no need for the subterfuge of French colors +and a French captain; he had force enough to accomplish his intent +as it was. The truth of the thing most likely was that Kidd coolly +calculated that he could take ships under color of being Frenchmen, +or some other excuse, and that even the despoiled vessels would not +necessarily know his real status. He seems always to have had an eye to +an early return to his accustomed social position. This, if anything, +distinguishes Kidd from the typical pirate and so far denies the +traditional picture of fiction. + +Out of this small Moorish ship the haul was meager. Two horses, some +quilts and odds and ends of cargo. He kept the ship with him until his +next trip to Madagascar; probably, according to his custom, putting the +officers ashore at Malabar, and recruiting his forces with any of the +captives who wished to go along with him. + +December soon marked a change in the very ordinary luck which had so +far attended the _Adventure’s_ enterprise. A Moorish ketch in this +month fell to them, and, rather unusually, after a fight in which one +of the pirates was wounded. An inconsequential affair it was at that, +her capture being effected by a handful of men from the ship’s boat. +The captors ran her ashore and emptied out of her thirty tubs of butter +as the principal gain. The ketch was then turned adrift. + +All hands no doubt wished each other a happy and prosperous New Year as +1698 came over the horizon of time. But January was to step along quite +a little before even a trifle was scavenged from the sea. This was a +Portuguese, out from Bengal, and laden with butter, wax and East Indian +goods. She was taken in without any trouble, and a prize crew put on +her to keep her in company with the _Adventure_. + +And now a disturbing matter arose for the captain. He was pursued +by seven or eight Dutch ships, until he was obliged to call off his +prize crew and abandon the Portuguese ship. It was disturbing, not +because the captain was afraid of the seven or eight Dutch sail, but it +must have indicated to him that his unlawful operations had not been +disguised as well as he had wished. He saw then that word had got about +the Indian ports that he was a pirate. His suspicions were correct; +not only was the truth penetrating to India; it was also on its way to +England, where a great shock was to befall all those concerned with +King William’s trusty and well-beloved mariner. Not the least so +interested was to be that genteel nobleman, Earl Bellamont, Governor +of the Province of New York, whose political enemies, airing the +arrangement with Kidd, began to accuse him openly of having a good big +finger in the piratical pie. + +Thus far off all sorts of trouble were brewing for Captain Kidd as he +beat about the spicy coast of India. + + + V + +But a most momentous turn of fortune was impending. And it was high +time. The pirates were thoroughly fed with butter; out of almost every +capture they had taken butter, until it was butter, butter and nothing +but butter. The _Adventure_ promised to become a sort of floating +grocery store, specializing on butter, with coffee a strong second, +while, for those with a fancy for dreams, liberal quantities of opium +could be passed over the counter. + +Bellamont and Company had not gone to considerable expense just to +corner the butter market of the East Indies, nor to interfere seriously +with the dairy and grocery businesses of those regions. Had they been +in receipt of monthly reports from their peculiar partner away out +there, they would have been both surprised and disappointed and very +properly grieved. + +The butter era was about to end sharply. The _Quedagh Merchant_ did +that. + +A comparatively large ship she must have been when Kidd first saw her +lumbering along, loaded down to capacity. As soon as he spotted her, +out from the locker came the French flag again, and as a French ship +he drew quickly alongside. Probably the usual round shot across the +bows brought her up. If so that was the only demonstration of violence +which marked the taking of one of the richest ships that ever a pirate +gloated over. + +As soon as the _Merchant_ braced back, Kidd sent a boat from his ship +to her with orders to bring the captain to him. The boat came back with +an old Frenchman grumbling and puzzled in the stern. The skipper of the +_Merchant_ naturally thought a Frenchman should represent them to a +French ship of unknown but threatening attitude. This old man, however, +had not been long in talk with the pirate chief before he confessed +that he was not the master of the _Quedagh Merchant_, but her gunner. +Whereupon Kidd sent the boat off again for the real commander. + +One begins to see the value of the ruse of sailing under French +colors. Many of the ships on that particular beat evidently had French +clearance papers. British trade was probably almost entirely through +traffic around the Cape to England; the coastwise business was Moorish, +by which was generally meant Arabian, Dutch, French and Armenian. +Hence to approach the ordinary coaster, the French colors at his mast, +avoided the delay and difficulty of a protracted pursuit, as well as +served to disarm them when overtaken. + +Whenever they had French passes, instead of showing force to a +seemingly French ship, the easiest and most natural thing for them to +do was to expose their papers, and so proceed peacefully on their way. +Such a ship as this which Kidd was now taking could no doubt have put +up some measure of resistance had she been forewarned. Still again, +Kidd artfully induced them to show a French pass and then revealed +himself as an Englishman commissioned to take just that sort of craft, +and thus despoil many victims without discovering his real traffic. + +The French pass idea struck Kidd as so good that he worked it not only +in the waters of the Indies but in the courts of his outraged Majesty, +King William, as he entered the valley of death’s shadow. + +This time the boat came back carrying a swearing Englishman, one +Wright, indubitable skipper of the _Quedagh Merchant_. When he set foot +on the pirate’s deck Kidd brusquely informed him he was a prisoner +being off a French ship, as witness the embassage of the old French +gunner. While Wright, who had formerly been a tavern keeper at Surat, +bleated about the decks, Kidd sent a crew over to take possession of +the _Quedagh Merchant_. + +Here they found a couple of Dutchmen, probably the ship’s mates, a +Frenchman--the old gunner--and a crew of Moors. Another group of +considerable importance to the story was that of the charterers of the +ship--certain Armenians under the headship of one Cogi Baba. In a +little while Kidd joined his merry men. + +Here occurred a curious little comedy. So soon as Kidd came up the +side, the Armenians rushed toward him and with loud cries and prayers +besought him to return them their ship. They thrust at him the +respectable ransom of twenty thousand rupees. Kidd waved their offer +away, remarking that it was a very small parcel of money. He then +called his men and instructed them to go off on the forecastle and hold +a mimic conference together, wherein they were to pretend to vote upon +the fate of the captured craft. With solemn stupid faces they grouped +off by themselves, the while the plaints of the distracted Armenians +assailed their hairy ears. + +Then owlishly they returned to the quarterdeck where, with great +seriousness, they informed their commander that they had voted to +retain the _Quedagh Merchant_. Thereupon Kidd turned to the Armenians +with a shrug of the shoulder as much as to say, what would you; what +can you do with a crowd like that? + +Kidd was still playing his strange double game. He was acting the part +of an English officer taking in a suspect enemy ship. The farce of the +crew’s conference was a by-play to divert the Armenians’ clamor from +one to many heads, and perhaps to show the incorruptibility of these +patriotic British seamen. + +That done, they appraised their garnerings and shouted with joy when +it was discovered that they had found nearly ten thousand pounds’ worth +of valuables. In our money it is difficult to estimate just what the +amount would be now, but certainly an extraordinary fortune. + +Not only that but here was a good seaworthy, commodious ship of very +great value herself. All hands were called from the old _Adventure_; +pitch barrels were staved in and kicked about her decks, and she went +up to the coppery Indian sky in great festoons of smoke. + +The _Quedagh Merchant_ swung around, her decks now congested with +the whole crew of the destroyed _Adventure_ and into her compass box +peering the firm hard face of William Kidd, mariner, of London, trusty +and well-beloved. + +[Illustration: She went up to the coppery Indian sky in great festoons +of smoke.] + + + VI + +Now, the big question before the house was to dispose of the cargo of +the _Quedagh Merchant_ to the best profit. To get the officers of the +ship and the clamant Armenians out of the way Kidd put them ashore, +supposing that that was the last he would see of them. In this he was +mistaken. + +He stood away in the general direction of Madagascar. But on the way +there he touched at one port and another where he entered into vigorous +bargaining. He had in view the turning of the _Quedagh Merchant’s_ +cargo into coin, and seems to have managed this quite adroitly. There +being no telegraphs or cables the outraged charterers could not, of +course, catch up with him. Probably he was suspected but nobody cared +very much; there the goods were and sellers who were sharp but not too +close. + +Their merchanting was interrupted long enough to pick up a Portuguese +who got in their way, and once again there was a surplus of butter +aboard. At that the pick-up brought them some five hundred pounds,--not +too miserable a sum in those days or, for that matter, in any day. + +Thus keeping an eye to business in both directions, trade and theft, +they beat down to Madagascar, probably their principal market. + +In this place Kidd was to encounter a veritable pirate, the very chap +for whom the Admiralty had commissioned him to look. The story of this +contact is quaint. + +When the _Quedagh Merchant_ dropped anchor in the channel, a canoe was +seen putting out from the shore, manned by white men. As Kidd, leaning +over the side, watched this craft paddling swiftly over the blue, +languid waters, he thought some of the faces in it were not altogether +unfamiliar. He became certain of this when a motley gang tumbled up the +rope ladder and stood on the deck before him, awkwardly twisting their +hats in their hands, and saluting by a drag at their long, unkempt +forelocks. Why, to be sure, they were New Yorkers, old salts known to +Kidd in prior and more respectable years. Well, what did they want? + +“Cap’n,” began the spokesman, reluctantly stepping a little forward +from his fellows, “Cap’n, how d’ye do, sir? You remember us, Cap’n, +don’t ye; all good sailor-men from New York? Some of us fought the +French under ye, Cap’n, sir, in the West Indies.” + +Kidd nodded. + +“Well?” + +There was a heavy silence. The newcomers looked around them, and +somehow took a little heart from a something in the attitudes and +manner of the men under their old acquaintance’s command. Things just +didn’t look like a reputable king’s ship on the king’s business. + +“You be come to hang us all, Cap’n,” blurted the speaker. “We’ve heered +you got the king’s commission to take pirates. Maybe we’ve fell into +a loose step or two, but we aren’t regular robbers. Cap’n, give us a +chance, and we’ll uncover a nest of the kind you’re alooking for.” + +He pointed a long finger toward the wooded shore. + +“See that ship, Cap’n? That’s the _Resolution_, Culliford, skipper, and +one o’ the hardest ships in these parts.” + +Kidd turned and gave a long look at the rakish _Resolution_, from this +distance even, a vessel evidently of speed and unlawful purpose. + +“I’ll go back with you,” declared Kidd, briskly. + +They all returned to the canoe and set off for the _Resolution_. +The delegation must have been astonished at the audacity of Kidd’s +returning with them to a known pirate, with a commission in his pocket +to hang the crew of the _Resolution_ if necessary, and returning at +that with absolutely no protection. They had always known this man for +a queer one. + +Just as coolly as if he were mounting his own proper ship, Kidd stepped +on to the decks of the _Resolution_. The rowers joined their mates in +the waist of the vessel and pointed with thick thumbs as Kidd ascended +to the quarter-deck, where Captain Culliford, as much puzzled as any +one, shuffled forward in his slippers to do the honors. All about went +the whisper that the king’s man, with power of death, had come amid +them. + +Kidd and Culliford shook hands and presently sat down together under a +sail stretched as an awning against the beating sun. All hands breathed +just a wee bit easier. Pretty soon they heard Culliford crying to his +negro servant for the materials of “Bomboo.” The strain slackened +noticeably. Their captain was a match for the king’s man. If they had +got to “Bomboo” things might yet be well. + +Taking the sugar and limes and dark thick bottle the servant had +brought to him, Culliford himself, as a gracious host, prepared the +drinks. The crew from the forecastle and waist watched until both the +august noses were buried in the mugs and then knew that all would be +well. + +All was, indeed, very well. Up there on the quarter-deck the two +skippers were laughing loudly. Said Kidd, as the Bomboo moved within +him: + +“Harm you, Culliford! Why, man, I’d see my soul fry in ---- before I’d +harm you.” + +We have said the captain was a great hand at picture words--he +could use them even in a sociable way. One thing led to another, +the cordiality increased, and when at length Kidd walked a little +jiggingly to the canoe he was laden with a very considerable gift of +silks from the treasure chest of the _Resolution_. He sent back the +canoe with an equal present of shirting stuff, and more, much more than +that in view of his commission, the next day he supplied Culliford with +two guns. + +Now, that was the extreme of disloyalty. Not only not to apprehend the +piratical Culliford--that was inexcusable--but actually to make him +more efficient in his plundering work was simply intolerable. If by +some clairvoyance, his Britannic Majesty’s Admiralty could have seen +this horrid transaction, the very building itself must have tremored. + +It may be that Kidd here was acting according to a policy to which +the logic of circumstances had compelled him. As soon as the canoe +from the _Resolution_ came to him, he discovered that his arrival had +been a considerable shock to the sailing community of Madagascar. +Gossip flies about a port as quickly as about a street. Two things, +therefore, presented themselves for his choice; he must either engage +the pirates in action or reassure them by companioning with them. +Madagascar was to be the last big chance to clean up the balance of the +_Quedagh Merchant’s_ cargo, the final market. As a king’s man he could +not remain there indefinitely without expecting to be attacked by a +combination of lawless men, who saw in him only the king’s authority +and punitive power. Whether this thought particularly directed him +or not, his visit to Culliford, one of the leading pirate commanders +there, was undoubtedly in the way of appeasement, and not the mere +fraternizing of colleagues. + +This situation being smoothed out, Kidd went seriously to work to sell +his wares. According to the chronology of the record, this could not +have taken a very great while. + +And now the day for which they all had longed came. Outside of the +cabin which Kidd, commander-like, always reserved to himself, a long +queue was formed that ended in a jostling knot beneath the poop. Pay +day had come, and mirth bubbled without restraint. + +On the cabin table were piled over one hundred heaps of coin. Stowed +away in a locker were the forty shares for the ship. Kidd stood at the +table, a great pistol lying suggestively at hand in case of too much +excitement, and by the door his personal servant, Richard Barlicorn, +kept a kind of order. + +One by one the crew came in and each swept into his hat the share +allotted him, and with a grin and a duck of the head hastened out to +the sunshine, to watch with gleaming eyes the enchanting sparkle of the +greatest fortune that had ever come to him in the hard and sorrowful +farming of the sea. + +Everything was square and above board. Kidd had kept his florid +promise to ballast the ship with gold and silver, and the workman had +received his agreed hire. + +It must have been a great day for Bomboo. + + + VII + +While Kidd was fraternizing with pirates and turning the _Quedagh +Merchant’s_ cargo into gold at Madagascar, the solemn and serious +gentlemen of the British Admiralty heard with pained disappointment +how their trusty and well-beloved mariner was behaving himself in +the distant seas. They saw gloomily that another experiment in the +suppression of piracy had fizzled out, and that the private ship of +war was not an approved instrument of police work. That method having +been quite the opposite of successful, they ponderously planned another +which, in the event--though we will not be concerned to follow it--was +to prove if anything still less effective. + +Their plan might as well be set in their own peculiar language, and +showing that oddity of punctuation which made a state paper of this +sort three enormous, mountainous sentences: + + “By the king, a proclamation. + + William R. + + Whereas we being informed, by the frequent complaints of our good + subjects trading to the East Indies, of several wicked practises + committed on those seas, as well upon our own subjects as those + of our allies, have therefore thought fit (for the security of the + trade of those countries, by an utter extirpation of the pirates in + all parts eastward of the Cape of Good Hope, as well beyond Cape + Comorin as on this side of it, unless they shall forthwith surrender + themselves, as in hereinafter directed) to send out a squadron of + men-of-war, under the command of Captain Thomas Warren. + + Now we, to the intent that such who have been guilty of any acts of + piracy in those seas, may have notice of our most gracious intention, + of extending our royal mercy to such of them as shall surrender + themselves, and to cause the severest punishment according to law to + be inflicted upon those who shall continue obstinate, have thought + fit, by the advice of our privy council, to issue this proclamation; + hereby requiring and commanding all persons who have been guilty of + any act of piracy, or any ways aiding or assisting therein, in any + place eastward of the Cape of Good Hope, to surrender themselves + within the several respective times hereinafter limited, unto the said + Captain Thomas Warren, and the commander-in-chief of the squadron for + the time being, and to Israel Hayes, Peter Dellanoye, and Christopher + Pollard, esquires, commissioners appointed by us for the said + expedition, or to any three of them, or, in case of death, to the + major part of the survivors of them. + + And we do hereby declare, that we have been graciously pleased to + impower the said Captain Thomas Warren, and the commander-in-chief of + the said squadron for the time being, Israel Hayes, Peter Dellanoye, + and Christopher Pollard, esquires, commissioners aforesaid, or any + three of them, or in case of death, to the major part of the survivors + of them, to give assurance of our most gracious pardon unto all + such pirates in the East Indies, viz., all eastward of the Cape of + Good Hope, who shall surrender themselves for piracies or robberies + committed by them upon sea or land; except, nevertheless, such as + they shall commit in any place whatsoever after notice of our grace + and favor hereby declared; and also excepting all such piracies and + robberies as shall be committed from the Cape of Good Hope eastward, + to the longitude or meridian of Socatora, after the last day of April, + 1699, and in any place from the longitude or meridian of Socatora + eastward, to the longitude or meridian of Cape Comorin, after the + last day of June, 1699, and in any place whatsoever eastward of Cape + Comorin after the last day of July, 1699; and also excepting Henry + Every, alias Bridgman, and William Kidd. + + Given at our court at Kensington, the 8th day of December, 1698, in + the 10th year of our reign. God save the King.” + +Such was the confession of the impotency of the British authority to +clear the seas of the East Indies. + +William Kidd, it is to be noticed, is no longer the trusty and +well-beloved; he is quite in the outermost dark, coupled with Henry +Avery, or Every, for whom no royal mercy was to exert its gentle +and benign qualities. It would seem fair enough considering the +well-beloved’s flippant attitude toward the king’s commission. + +The proclamation is an exact document of specific effect. There is +nothing ambiguous in its terms. This definiteness became extremely +important to some of Kidd’s crew when they stood in the somber shadow +of the gallows. + +The meat of the matter was that all East Indian pirates who before +April, June or July, 1699, according to certain geographical +boundaries, should give themselves up to four particular persons, +Warren, Hayes, Dellanoye and Pollard, were to be admonished and +forgiven,--all, that is, except Avery and Kidd. + +With a bale of printed proclamations Captain Warren and the three +gentlemen commissioners departed for the Indies. It does look rather an +absurd mission from our point of view. Authority thus said in effect to +the outlaw folk: We can’t catch you so we will forgive you. Laughter +loud and long rose from piraty throats from Madagascar to the Gulf of +Aden when Captain Warren passed hither and thither, tacking up the +pretty sheets of paper. It was the ultimate good joke on government. + +Yet not all the lawless ones grinned and went on plundering. It would +seem that the jolly Culliford, he of the _Resolution_ and the artful +mixer of Bomboo, saw his chance to mend his ways and put himself in the +hands of the commissioners. By a sort of coincidence he who had lain at +Madagascar with Kidd, with Kidd later groaned in the cells of Newgate, +though he probably effected his discharge by virtue of the proclamation. + +Just where and when the proclamation came to the notice of Kidd’s +company is uncertain; that it did, however, will shortly appear. + + + VIII + +Pardon or no pardon, proclamation or no proclamation, Captain Kidd was +bound to go home. He had finished with piracy, at least in the East +Indies. + +His active operations had barely filled out six months. His bold attack +on the Mocca Fleet befell on the 14th of August, 1697; in January, +1698, he grabbed the _Quedagh Merchant_, loitered down the coast in +her, trading here and there, and about the opening of May of the same +year came to Madagascar, having picked up a wandering Portuguese on +the way. August, then, to January, really saw Kidd’s work, and it was +in that comparatively short time that he acquired an extraordinary and +permanent notoriety. + +Yet with the exception of the slaying of Gunner Moore he had +committed no act which to-day would be a capital offense; the matter +of the ship’s cooper and the native is all too modern in tone. +Undoubtedly, the notice which Kidd attracted was because of the +connection of Bellamont and certain other nobles with the inception +of the enterprise, their political enemies now making gain of their +predicament and flooding the town with pamphlets wherein, as part +of the game, Kidd took on the lineaments of a sea-monster. Beyond an +uncommon boldness, there was nothing in the crimes he committed to +foundation such a popular clamor as rose about his name in England. + +Those few months of effort, however, had been very profitable. +Contemporaries put the extreme value on the _Quedagh Merchant’s_ cargo +at twelve thousand pounds,--an exaggeration, the probable figure being +about nine thousand. Of this, on the forty-share basis together with +all he could deduct as charges for supplies and ammunition, Kidd must +have obtained some thirty per cent. Not only that, but it appears from +the remarks of one of his crew on the trial that the captain by some +device or other took back this man’s share, and if this man’s probably +others. + +There was a fat three thousand pounds out of this venture; in addition +there must be remembered the value of the smaller pick-ups he had +made, so that one way and other, with goods and money the captain must +have concluded his enterprise with a good five thousand pounds,--about +twenty thousand dollars, and in the values of the present day a very +decent fortune indeed. On top of all that he had the ship herself, +which was then valued at four hundred pounds, or two thousand dollars. + +To-day one could hardly get a good halibut boat for two thousand +dollars, so you can get an inkling of what the sum of his gains would +have meant in these times. On the other hand, some of the articles are +cheaper now than they were then, as for instance calico, of which he +made a good haul. This money is what makes up the bulk of the so-called +Captain Kidd’s treasure, which fancy has so vividly exaggerated. + +Robbing merchant ships as he was, all he obtained was mostly +merchandise, largely perishable and hence to be disposed of quickly. +To imagine these vessels as carrying unique articles of gold and +silverware or pearls and jewels of great price is to be away off the +road of historic fact. + +For instance, here is a general list of the property that fell into his +hands: Opium, sugar, raw silk, calico, muslin, rice, beeswax, butter, +iron, horses, quilts, sugar-candy, tobacco, and similar sundries. +Eatables such as butter and sugar and so on were shared among the +ship’s messes; the rest were sold wherever a buyer could be found. + +Fighting and taking ships were really incidental labors for these +pirates. There was a great amount of hard, plain stevedore work to be +done, shifting these cargoes from ship to ship and from ship to shore. +From August onward there was little loafing indulged in. What with +working the ship, sometimes two of them, sorting and arranging cargoes, +the sailors were at it constantly, while we must imagine the captain +enmeshed in the ardor of close bookkeeping long after the lantern had +been set up in the stern. + +In all of the record of the proceedings in the Old Bailey there is +nothing said of any one being killed in combat, either with the capture +of ships or the engagement with the Portuguese man-of-war, on either +side. + +And now the captain was content. Save for the complaint of Darby +Mullins that the captain took his share away from him, the crew also +seem to have been satisfied. After the division Kidd let it become +known that he was leaving the way of the law-breaker, and, according to +his own account, ninety-five men thereupon left him, almost in a body. +Incidental attrition later on took more of them, and when at last he +turned the nose of the _Quedagh Merchant_ homeward barely enough men +remained with him to work the ship. + + + IX + +Although Kidd arrived at Madagascar in May of 1698 it was not until +the turn of the next year, and probably well into that year before he +set sail on his stolen ship for home. It must have taken him quite a +time to be rid of his merchandise and to pay off his men. After that, +short-handed as he was, he seems to have attempted no recorded piracy. + +It is quite possible that while he still lay in the Mozambique Channel, +Warren and the three benign peace-bearing commissioners came around +the Cape and up the coast, and that before he left those waters he was +acquainted with the character of the royal proclamation. Or it may have +been that it was after his return to New York that Kidd first learned +that he was a marked man. + +In June of 1699, after an absence of a little more than two years, +Captain Kidd arrived in Delaware Bay. But not in the _Adventure_ and +not in the _Quedagh Merchant_. He came in a little sloop, with a crew +of about thirty-five men on her articles, named the _St. Antonio_. What +had become of the _Quedagh Merchant_? + +That ill-fortuned ship was snugly stowed and secreted away in a +solitary creek of the West Indies. There he had hidden her until such +time as he could return and bring her out; that means, until the storm +of which he must have felt the first blowings at the West Indies, if +not at Madagascar, had passed over. He brought back with him of the +old _Adventure’s_ personnel barely one-fourth, probably not more than +twenty-five or thirty men. One man, Hugh Parrot, who came in the _St. +Antonio_ we know from his own account was recruited in Madagascar and +replaced an original adventurer. So it must have been with others. + +Hugh Parrot’s brief autobiography as he gave it to the court may be +glanced here as typical of the sea folk who homed in Madagascar. He +said he “sailed out of Plymouth in the year 1695 in a merchantman, +bound for Cork, in Ireland, there to take in provisions; thence to the +Island of Barbados; and in sight of the island of Barbados I was taken +by a French privateer, and carried to Martinico; and thence coming in +a transport ship I was brought to Barbados; there I shipped myself +in a vessel bound for Newfoundland, and thence to Madeiras; and then +I went to Madagascar, and there I staid some short time after, and +came in company with Captain Kidd; and then the commander and I had a +falling out, and so I went ashore at that island. And understanding +that Captain Kidd had a commission from the king, I came aboard Captain +Kidd’s ship.” + +Romantic words--“I came aboard Captain Kidd’s ship.” How they quicken +the pulse of old, sober-sided fellows such as we are. Suppose we had +sauntered about old New York and had read his appeal for men to go off +to the Indies? Or been in Madagascar and had a “falling-out” with some +blockhead of an old merchant skipper, and seen Kidd and his bully boys +swagger by? Eh? + +Delaware Bay did not detain Kidd long. He slipped the little _St. +Antonio_ out of there and put in at Oyster Bay, from which he now began +the most difficult job of his life,--to rehabilitate himself and yet +come out of it all a rich man. + +He and the remnant of his crew flocked openly about the old town. +Governor Bellamont was off in Boston. And now Kidd began to get the +full blast of his unsought notoriety. He was told that the mother +country and the colonies, yea, even the seven seas were vibrant with +the name of Kidd; that, in the language of that day, he was everywhere +“published a pirate”, for whom there was no day of grace or pardon. + +Quite in the spirit of New York pirates, ancient and modern, he +sought out an adroit lawyer, one Emmott, a man then at the head of +his profession, as the saying is, though that did not mean, any more +than it does now, that he shone by the purity of his principles, the +breadth of his learning, or the transparent propriety of his manners. +Pirates can’t use that kind of lawyer. Seriously, we do not reflect +on Mr. Emmott individually; we know nothing of his morals, and he +was indisputably a leader of his bar, appearing in the most important +litigation of his time. Whatever his character, he engaged himself to +assist the projects of Captain Kidd. + + + X + +Boston was having a hot summer. The noble governor was taking the +air, such as there was, with his wig laid off for coolness, and his +decorated coat carelessly open. No doubt he gazed at the dusty road, +the blistered frame buildings and longed for the temperate downs of +Ireland and the fresh, green lawns of his ancestral mansion. How +afflicting that a noble earl should be subjected to heat and cold just +like a wretched porter! + +The entrance of a negro servitor to announce a visitor did not refresh +the excellency. Just then the last man he wanted to see was he whose +name had been brought in. The governor and lawyer Emmott did not get +along together very well. It is not hard to understand the tribulation +of a ruler whose technical knowledge of the art of government was +probably weak, at the hands of a turbulent, sharp and well-informed +colonial attorney,--the intelligent, persistent and irritating +mouthpiece of the perpetual discontent of the colony. + +Whether he would or no, it was Emmott who was without, soliciting +audience. He was ordered admitted. One simply can not turn the Emmotts +away, especially when one is a governor; somehow such fellows seem +to have an impish art of getting the gubernatorial attention whenever +their cheekiness suggests it to them. + +Imagination may perhaps reconstruct the interesting interview. + +Enters Lawyer Emmott, his bright eye appraising at once the mood of +the man in the seat of authority. But Emmott is not half-saucy now; in +this matter he is not backed by the sturdy burghers and supported by a +law whose exact application he thoroughly knows, while as thoroughly +knowing the glazed ignorance of his opponent. He is now after a private +fee in the service of a private client. His tune, therefore, is +somewhat different. + +With a bow and a most respectful attitude the lawyer carefully unwraps +a package which he has brought with him. From this he seems to take a +ball of snow, which, with a most insinuating smile, he shakes with a +twist of his hand and which before the astonished Bellamont, cascades +over the back of a chair as a shawl of the rarest workmanship and +material. + +“A present for Lady Bellamont,” says Emmott, with another obeisance. + +What can be the fellow’s game now? Bellamont rose and walking across +the room, allowed the shimmering texture to ripple through his fingers. + +“A present for Lady Bellamont--” It is a wonderful thing; Bellamont can +see that. + +Emmott steps up as close as politeness permits and glancing about, +artfully whispers, “From Captain Kidd,” and throws his head back with a +wide smile like a doting parent playing the rôle of Santa Claus. + +“Kidd!” cries the earl. “Kidd!” + +Yes, the old partner of Bellamont, Livingston and Company had turned +up. All sorts of notions chase themselves through the governor’s brain +like hare and hounds, and chiefly he is afraid; he fears this notorious +colleague of his has shown up to be the ruin of them all. Why on earth +didn’t the fellow stay out in the East Indies. To Emmott this is as +plain as the ripple on a smooth pool of water. + +He rubs his hands one over the knuckles of the other and looks all +sorts of meanings. + +“An incredibly prosperous voyage,” he murmurs, “incredibly. A mere +trifle--the captain wishes to send Lady Bellamont something really +worth while.” + +He almost sneers at the magnificent shawl. + +The governor sits down and gazes out over the harbor. Now, it is +probable that if the notorious partner had shown up with nothing but a +story of hard luck, the governor would not have sat down in just the +way he does; but a partner coming back, even with a sooty reputation, +but stuffed with treasure, well, one must think the matter out. There +was one’s original investment in the old _Adventure_ to be protected, +one must remember. + +Emmott continues: + +“The captain feels deeply chagrined to find this unjust hue and cry +made about him. It is a great mistake. He can explain all; and he +suggests that the governor see that this irritating matter of the +piracy charge is disposed of so that they can proceed to an accounting +as all good partners should. Really, he has been absurdly fortunate in +his East Indian enterprise.” + +They talk the thing over indecisively and without committal on either +side, and the outcome of it is that the governor decides that he will +see his errant and erstwhile partner in person. With this decision +Lawyer Emmott backs out of the room and hies back to New York. So far +so good. + + + XI + +Before going to Boston to see Bellamont, Kidd did that which has +somehow so caught the imagination of artists and fictionists; he ran +the sloop over to Gardiner’s Island, at the east end of Long Island +Sound and there buried a considerable portion of his money and finer +articles of plunder. Hence arose the great yarn of the pirate’s +buried treasure. Like all the rest of Kidd’s doings this is wildly +exaggerated. What was there was all practically recovered by the +colonial authorities. Yet the myth persisted for centuries. + +A writer who considered himself conservative speaks of Kidd bringing +home twelve thousand pounds. This is a modern computation, but it +does not agree with our figures. With all his scheming the captain’s +subordinates got more than half of the takings, and if Kidd got twelve +thousand pounds it would mean that in all thirty or forty thousand +pounds were gained by those few months’ work in the Indian seas. + +It is all way beyond the facts. Admittedly, the _Quedagh Merchant_ +was the one considerable haul and according to the valuation of the +government at that time, ship and cargo all told were not worth more +than five thousand pounds. A recent writer even represents the +_Quedagh Merchant_ alone as being of the value of thirty thousand +pounds! In the indictment upon which Kidd was tried, that ship is said +to be worth four hundred pounds, which is more like it. The captain did +very well, as we have said, if he came home with a good five thousand +pounds. + +As well as communicating with Bellamont, Kidd put himself in touch with +his other partner, Colonel Livingston, and the colonel became very much +excited over the prospect of cutting a pretty fine little melon. If the +_Quedagh Merchant_, a respectable and capacious cargo vessel, cost four +hundred pounds, the _Adventure_, a “crazy and leaky” craft, really not +fit for the patrol work intended for her, could not have run her owners +more than three hundred pounds. Arms and victuals dug deeply into the +original capital, but with it all, the enterprise had doubtless earned +several hundred per cent. + +And if, instead of four or five men sitting in at the division, two or +three, or better one or two shared the pot, why so much the better for +the lucky one or two. That notion occurred to Livingston, to Bellamont +and to Kidd. + +So the captain went on to Boston and some of his men with him. + +Bellamont, in the meantime, had been obliged to call the council +together to discuss the fact that a lawbreaker was at large and +unaccounted for. It was a formality the earl had to observe to +preserve the pure bloom of his own official reputation. With the power +that was then vested in governors, the council meeting need have been +no great difficulty in the way of an arrangement between friends. + +Just what happened in the interview between Kidd and Bellamont is not +recorded, but they began to dicker. All the pirates were quite at +liberty, making themselves thoroughly at home and with all the air of +honest sailors returned to spend their money and take a respite from +the arduous sea. + +Suddenly the wind changed. Why it so did we can only conjecture. But a +letter from Bellamont is preserved in which he remarks that at about +this time Livingston and Kidd were acting very “impertinently” about +the money and valuables that Kidd had brought home. + +Does “impertinently” mean that Bellamont suspected that his two +partners were conspiring to deprive him of his share? That might well +be. However, it is not fair to insinuate the governor was remiss in +discharging his duties as a magistrate on the skimpy chronicle which +has come down to us. We can say, however, that, so far as we can make +out, he did not act with that decision which the crimes charged against +Kidd would seem to require. This dallying about and questioning, +privately and before the council, permit implications that the governor +may or may not be actually responsible for. The whole affair does not +look regular. + +Then, again, Bellamont, who was sharp enough for most general affairs, +could plan something like this: throw Kidd into jail, thus clearing +himself of the talk of complicity which had been gathering since his +connection with the pirate had become known, send him home to England +for trial, and with him out of the way, attend to the matter of the +loot, against which he could make a claim by virtue of the original +commission to Kidd, supported by the political strength which he and +his noble friends at home could exert. + +Whatever might be the fact, the governor’s equivocal conduct stopped +with the discovery of Livingston and Kidd’s “impertinence” in the +affair of the spoils, and Kidd, with all of his crew who could be +grabbed, were stowed away in Boston jail. Before that happened a +number of his men had slipped across to the Province of Jersey and +surrendered to Colonel Bass, the governor, in the spirit of the +king’s proclamation, within the time therein provided, but to none of +the persons therein particularly named as empowered to receive such +surrenders. + +In December, 1699, the pirates were sent to England in the frigate +_Advice_, and on May 9, 1701, just about five years after leaving +Plymouth, they went to trial for their lives in the historic Old +Bailey. + + + XII + +Captain Kidd and nine of his men arrived in Newgate gaol from the +colony in February of 1700, and lay there for over a year until their +trial. These nine men were those who surrendered to Colonel Bass, +governor of what is now New Jersey. What disposition was made of the +rest of those who came in on the _St. Antonio_ does not appear. + +Kidd’s arrival brought to a focus a sharp and unsparing struggle +between the two great political factions of the day, and the Government +was rocked in its seat by the exposures which were made of Bellamont +and other friends of the administration’s connection with the pirate +who was talked of from Land’s End to John O’Groat’s. During 1700 Kidd +appeared several times before the House of Commons, and a contest was +waged in that forum over his reputed treasure. A measure was introduced +by the opposition providing that the commission to Kidd to take pirates +and keep their effects and plunder should be illegal as void, and was +lost by only a thin majority. + +From this it may be supposed that Bellamont and the partners got hold +of the swag. Not that it did the noble earl much good, for he died at +about this time. However, the commissioning of the _Adventure_ did not +prove such a gain to the opposition as it hoped, and the matter was +allowed to slide when the House recommended Kidd for common criminal +trial. + +Under modern circumstances, this trial would have been a very close, +keen struggle. The accused would have been able to engage the most +expert counsel, who might be expected to make the prosecution exert +itself in the matter of proving its charges; not an easy thing to do +from some angles. + +There were five trials upon six indictments,--one for the murder of +Gunner Moore and five for acts of piracy. Kidd was alone, of course, in +the trial for murder; on the charges of piracy, he was in the dock with +his nine seamen. + +The murder trial should be carefully noticed, in view of the modern +vogue for exonerating Kidd of all guilty acts in the Indies. Those who +attempt to show that Kidd was “judicially murdered,” as the result of +a political plot carried on by factions opposed to the noble gentlemen +who backed the Kidd enterprise, must prove this murder trial to have +been unfair, for if it were not, then Kidd was liable to the death +penalty regardless of the crimes of piracy. + +To clear himself, Kidd called three of his own men in an effort to +show that he slew Moore as Moore was in the act of leading a mutiny; +in other words, what we would call justifiable homicide. But his +own witnesses proved that the mutiny concerning the _Loyal Captain_ +occurred from two to four weeks before the death of the gunner--a fact +which in modern law would have sufficed to convict Kidd--there being no +“immediate” emergency, as our statutes would say. No modern court would +upset the verdict of the jury who tried Kidd for murder, on the ground +that it was not supported by the evidence. + +With the bewhiskered seafarers in the dock before him, the clerk of +arraignments of the Old Bailey arose and hurled eighty clauses at the +accused, eighty or more clauses, with no longer pause between them than +a semicolon. It may be submitted that this is no fair way to come at +a man whose method of combat is entirely different; who thrusts, for +instance, with a cutlass instead of a verb; hurls round-shot in place +of mere nouns, with a wooden bucket, say, for purposes of punctuation. +A fine fellow this clerk of arraignments with his wig and gown and fat, +subservient bailiffs about him! But put him on the tipsy decks of the +_Adventure_, and, mark’ee, that would be another story. So, perhaps, +the captain thought, as he stood up before this broadside of words. + +If English justice is swift in these days, it must have been greased +lightning in the days of William III. Half an hour after the grand jury +met and returned the indictments, Kidd went to trial before the petit +jury, and three days sufficed for all five indictments. + +A battery of prosecutors shelled the accused. The crown was represented +by Mr. Knapp, Dr. Newton, Advocate of the Admiralty; Sir John Hawles, +Sir Salathiel Lovell, Recorder; the Solicitor General and the Attorney +General. On the bench, sometimes ably assisting the prosecution, were +Baron Gould, Baron Hatsell; Justice Turton, Justice Powel and Chief +Baron Ward, who divided the job of presiding in groups of judges. + +Now, in those days one accused of crime was not allowed the assistance +of counsel on matters of fact. On a pure question of law he was +permitted to consult a lawyer. This was just the opposite of what, +according to a more enlightened jurisprudence, it should have been. +Perhaps the extraordinary importance of the real science of evidence +had not occurred to our forefathers. Great injustice was the result +of thus handicapping a defendant. Kidd and his nine colleagues had to +carry the big job of defense unadvised. + +The state used just two witnesses, Palmer and Bradinham, both old Kidd +men who were turned king’s evidence. Palmer had been a common seaman on +the _Adventure_ and was called by Kidd a “loggerhead”; Bradinham had +been surgeon aboard, and was accused by Kidd of being a lazy, thieving, +perjured rascal. Every man was running for his own neck then, and no +one could afford to be too particular as to how he saved it. + +All of the piracies we have set down, as well as the murder of Moore, +came from the evidence of Palmer and Bradinham, somewhat corroborated +by the expressions of the nine sailors who were not delicate to save +their commander in this pinch. + +No time was lost in getting a jury. When Kidd objected to being tried +by those who had convicted him of the murder of William Moore, on his +other trials for piracy, they were cleared out of the box and another +jury promptly put in. It all went at a gallop. The jury in the murder +case brought in their verdict while the first trial for piracy was +in process; it took half an hour each for the jury to render their +verdict on the piracy indictments. The lengthy speeches of the learned +gentlemen for the Crown took up as much time as anything, with the +summing-up by the judges a good second. + +It must have been a great day for Cogi Baba, the Armenian, and one of +the owners of the _Quedagh Merchant_, who appeared in London at this +time to push the punishment of his despoiler. Yet he was not used at +the trials,--a noteworthy omission. + +Palmer and Bradinham were subjected to no cross-examination save that +of Kidd. They were somewhat mixed up on their dates and the captain +made the most of this, but on the whole his questioning must be +regarded as quibbling. + +Things looked dark for Kidd and his defense did not cast very much +light upon the situation. + + + XIII + +Kidd’s defense may be pieced together from his own words as they +appeared, not as an orderly presentation of his position, but as +comments upon the answers of the witnesses and interjected explanations +during the proceedings. It was not without ingenuity. + +“I had a commission,” he said in effect, “to take the French and +pirates; and in order to do that I came up with two ships that had +French passes both of them. I called all the men a-deck to consult, and +a great many went aboard the _Quedagh Merchant_. I would have given +that ship to Cogi Baba again, but the men would not; they all voted +against it. They said, we will make a prize of her; we will carry her +to Madagascar. Palmer and Bradinham have heard me speak of the French +passes taken from the ships. The _Quedagh Merchant_ was under a French +commission. Her master was a tavern-keeper at Surat. I was not at the +sharing of the goods taken from her; I know nothing of it. + +“I did not take Culliford because a great many of my men went ashore; +the statement that I gave him guns and presents is only what these +witnesses say. I was not aboard Culliford’s ship. I have some papers, +but my lord Bellamont keeps them from me; that I can not bring them +before the court. I never designed to keep more company with Captain +Culliford than with Captain Warren. I have many papers for my defense +if I could have had them; my French passes which my lord Bellamont has. +I could not condemn the ships according to law because of the mutiny in +my ship. Bradinham is a rogue; he shared in the goods and robbed the +surgeon’s chest. He knows nothing of these things; he used to sleep +five or six months together in the hold. + +“The men took the goods of all the ships taken, and did what they +pleased with them. I was never near them. They lay in wait for me to +kill me. They took away what they pleased and went to the island; +and I, with about forty men, was left in the ship and we might go +whither we pleased. I will not ask the witness any more questions; so +long as he swears it our words or oaths can not be taken. Palmer is +a loggerhead. Ninety-five men deserted my ship, and went a-roguing +afterwards. + +“I was threatened to be shot in the cabin if I would not go along +with the villains. This was the reason I could not come home. They +tried to burn my ship. When they deserted, I was forced to stay by +myself and pick up here a man and there a man to carry her home. Mr. +Bradinham is promised his life to take away mine. It is hard that a +couple of rascals should take away the king’s subjects’ lives; they +are a couple of rogues and rascals. It signifies nothing for me to ask +them anything. They have perjured themselves in many things; about the +guns given to Culliford, that is one thing; he swore I gave them four +guns yesterday, now he says but two. Then he says the ship went from +Plymouth the beginning of May and before he said it was in April. I +have been sworn against by perjured and wicked people.” + +By way of defense to the murder charge, he alleged that there was a +mutiny on board, of which Moore was a leader, and the trouble ensued +from that fact. He is borne out in this to some extent by Hugh Parrot, +not a friendly witness, who averred that the seamen had taken up arms +against their captain in the _Loyal Captain_ crisis. + +He called a couple of old salts as character witnesses who had fought +by his side against the French and who testified that he had been a +doughty man. + +As for the nine common seamen, their geese were more quickly cooked. +They only defended by pleading that they had surrendered under the +king’s proclamation, to which the judges replied that inasmuch as +they had not given themselves up to Captain Warren, or any of the +three special commissioners, they were not within the terms of the +instrument, and could only hope their surrender might at this time +provoke the king’s clemency. Which was but dubious cheer. Three of +them showed they were on board as servants of particular persons and +not as sailors working the ship, and these were cleared. + +After very short absences the juries at each trial returned verdicts of +guilty as charged against all except the three servants. + +Thus the Captain Kidd of fiction disappears, but not so completely as +those who would have us believe that he was not guilty of piracy at +all. His defense suggests a state of things on board his ships which +is probably true, but the advantage he might have gained from such a +showing is weakened by several circumstances. + +The state could have conceded his claim that the ships he took were +under French commissions, and they had French passes which were then +in the possession of Earl Bellamont in New York. It might even have +granted that under the compulsion of his crew he was prevented from +bringing them in for condemnation, as required by his commission. +Still, the significant thing would remain that he made no attempt to +account for his share of the cargoes, which he did not unequivocally +deny receiving. + +His commission to take pirates required a careful and exact account of +every ship captured, her cargo, its value and all other details, to say +nothing of French ships, whose condemnation was lifted entirely out +of his hands. He did not attempt to explain all these irregularities. +We are considering strictly the matter adduced on his trial. When +we go beyond the record of that, and see, as we have, his conduct on +his return home, it is clear as daylight that he was exercising over +the property taken from the alleged French ships a private ownership +entirely incompatible with this defense. + +If the _Quedagh Merchant_ was under a French pass, as he asserted, +then that portion of her cargo which he brought to Oyster Bay in the +_St. Antonio_ was neither his nor Bellamont’s, nor Livingston’s, but +the Government’s. No, the thing doesn’t seem to hold water; nobody +concerned in the whole affair seems to have been straightforward. + +And so, within a week of his conviction, Captain William Kidd was +hanged at Execution Dock, on the margin of the Thames, where sailors +setting out for the far places of the earth thus received England’s +farewell admonition that honesty is the best policy. + + + + + CHAPTER TWO + + BLACK FLAG FROM BOSTON + + John Quelch + + + I + +Captain Plowman, of the brig _Charles_, was looking for men, not just +for beef at the end of a rope nor a stevedore’s back; for sailors, +certainly, but something more than sailors--sea-fighters. For a fact, +this sort of thing was a little outside the usual jobs of both Captain +Plowman and his smart little brig. The brig and her master worked +in coastwise trading with an occasional venture to the markets of +London. But a civic emergency occasioned by the depredations of French +and Spanish war vessels and privateers, long vexing the New England +provinces, put a commission instead of a charter party into the hands +of Captain Plowman and cutlasses, cannon and round shot in place of +goods, wares and merchandise into the hold and on the decks of the +_Charles_. + +For certain worthy merchants of Boston, indignant at the reprehensible +Frenchman and his obnoxious ally and impatient with the slow +incompetence of the Government, clubbed together and bought the +_Charles_ to refit her as a privateer to go against the enemy. It +was a recognized method of taking the law into one’s own hands. It +must not be thought that this was altogether a sacrifice, motived +by the pure principles of patriotism. There was a working chance of +shaking something worth while out of a captured Frenchman from which +at least current expenses might be paid; but in the main it was a +public-spirited thought and should properly have resulted in much +happier and more useful action than the peculiar and unforeseeable +circumstances which were to allow. + +Having the ship, the merchants then procured from Joseph Dudley, her +majesty’s captain general, governor and commander-in-chief of the +province, a lawful commission for Captain Plowman, under and by virtue +of which, as the saying was, he set about the business of recruiting +the crew. But Plowman was getting along in years and was at that time +a pretty sick man. So the business of beating up the sea birds was +for the most part done by the mates, or “lieutenants”, as they were +called, taking a sort of man-of-war nomenclature, namely John Quelch +and Anthony Holding. + +John Quelch was an eager, vigorous, adventurous and able young colonial +mariner with not a few of the superb qualities of those who were the +proper pride of a maritime province. Like the men of his type and +condition, he was quite unafraid of anything that could present itself +to one’s five senses. When at a later time he said he was not afraid +to die and feared only a great God and the hereafter, he was doubtless +telling the truth. What spoiled the life of John Quelch was that he did +not take these two factors of admitted fear into reckoning until the +evil was past mending. + +However that may be, the immediate weakness of Quelch was that his mind +was a rudder that any hand might steer. Anthony Holding, quite evil, +sly and contemptible, designed to be the helmsman who should drive John +Quelch on to the rocks of ruin. + +Holding and Quelch in due time gathered as ferocious and +villainous-looking a gang of ruffians as ever stood on the docks of +old Boston. Their subsequent conduct indicates that they must have +been about the toughest, hardest crew that an honest master ever +piped together for division into watches. If Plowman, gazing from the +quarter-deck upon that rabble, felt a premonition of trouble, the event +was to justify him. + +But those were not days in which the master of a privateer could be +squeamish about such matters and get his ship manned. The _Charles_ +would have rotted at her moorings while she waited for good burghers +or the sons of good burghers to come and take her to sea. Mostly the +driftwood of society, which instinctively dams up along a waterfront, +could be loaded on to such ships in such times. Anthony Holding, at +any rate, pulled at his long mustache and appraised the crowd with +satisfaction. + +Sea-fighters were all right if you could keep them fighting the other +ship. With a hostile craft in front of them there was no trouble +about putting the medley of privateersmen at work, and a ship which +could provide a good naval battle every morning before breakfast was +more likely to be a contented ship than one which loafed a long while +between engagements, thus allowing the free gentlemen time to hatch +for themselves a little essential excitement. Mutiny was accepted as a +passable substitute for battle. + +Perhaps Plowman felt more comfortable when he glanced at the rocky +features of Quelch and Holding; for if ever there were two men in the +right jobs such were they. With iron hands and iron nerves to drive +them they could meet any contingency the crowd of subordinates might +present. Perhaps Plowman was of the same sort, but he was a sick and +aging man. He was in the hands of his lieutenants. + +Englishmen of the first or second generation made up the list of +seamen; Cæsar-Pompey, Charlie and Mingo, first or second generation +Africans, were in command of the galley. Cæsar-Pompey and Charlie were +pressed into the service; they had not volunteered to handle the pots +and pans of the brig. + +They were the slaves of one Colonel Hobbey; and Quelch, finding them on +the street, ran them aboard the brig. You see he did not hesitate about +small matters. The ship would need cooks, of course, and here were two +black fellows who ought to know how to cook even if they did not, so +why not ship them? Why worry about the gallant colonel? Worry would be +his job when the _Charles_ was far at sea. + +Thus casually Cæsar-Pompey and Charlie found themselves dedicated to +a life on the ocean wave. They were to travel far and see much ere +they beheld the good Colonel Hobbey again. Quelch was by way of being +something of a crimp. + +Cooks and seamen being now on hand, in August, 1703, the brig spread +her square sails and drew away from the steaming wharves of Boston +toward the cool acres of the ocean. No doubt the worthy merchants and +a concourse of citizens cheered her departure; probably there were +speeches, and mayhap a town band was on the dock. Anthony Holding +especially must have enjoyed these marks of civic appreciation. + +According to orders they headed off for Newfoundland; but Plowman, who +was still sick, must have left the managing of the ship largely to +Quelch, his immediate subordinate. Everything went snappily as with +leather throats and fisted hands Quelch and Holding hustled the men +into quick, effective action. + +When they had been a week out from Boston it was easy to see that the +captain was in a bad way. Probably at his command they put in at a way +port to obtain medical help. The brig was anchored in the stream, and +Quelch went ashore in the boat. + +Now among the riffraff aboard there was a handful--a small handful--of +the more decent sort of seamen, of whom Pimer and Clifford were +representatives. These two began to get anxious about the captain as +the afternoon dragged on and no boat, Quelch or doctor returned from +the shore. The sick man was groaning all the time and in apparent +extremes. Nobody seemed to pay any heed to him; but all afternoon the +crew roared and shouted and quarreled over their cards and dice, while +aft by the cabin only Holding turned about and about on the deck, his +hands behind his back, preoccupied with his thoughts. + +It began to strike Pimer and Clifford as odd, to say the least; so +toward evening, as the August sun was turning red behind the hills, +Pimer and Clifford went to the cabin to give a little human help. As +they passed Holding, walking up and down the deck, he looked at them +queerly but said nothing. + +Clearly, things were not just as they ought to be. In the twilight, +startlingly, a rough tongue ordered them away from the cabin. A +sentinel was there; Peter Roach stood guard at the captain’s door, +armed with a drawn cutlass. Had the skipper directed this? + +Then they noticed that the cabin door was bolted from the outside with +a marlin-spike thrust through the bolt socket, the bolt itself having +long been lost. Obviously this was not the captain’s doing. + +Pimer and Clifford looked at each other as men do in peril. Something +very evil was moving about them. At dark Quelch came back in the boat, +and there was a whispering between him and Holding. The ship lights +were hung out; and the lantern revealed something of the knobbly, +stupid face of Peter Roach, still standing at his sinister watch. No +one moved toward the ill-fortuned cabin. + +Peter Roach, the sentinel, could not be said to have been a peculiarly +sensitive person. Some time later he was to die with as little feeling +for himself as he had had for poor Plowman. He was an automaton. + +And so this crowd of men lay all about the hot decks, waiting for the +captain to die. Those were hard hours for Clifford and Pimer and the +one or two other loyal men. + +A little before midnight the cries of the sufferer ebbed away, and +Peter Roach stolidly left his post and as stolidly grunted a few words +at Holding. He and Quelch, taking a lantern, entered the cabin and +found that nature had at last done their job for them: Captain Plowman +was dead. + +Captain Quelch, now, if you please, by the law and usage of the sea. + +Anthony Holding bobbed his tarry pigtail low in grimacing +courtesy--place was little to him, power everything. And he was the +power on this ship. He ordered the captain’s body thrown overboard like +so much rubbish. Then he called all hands together in the waist of the +brig and openly declared that which undoubtedly he had long secretly +prepared for,--piracy. The proposal was acclaimed with a unanimity +which indicated premeditation. + +It was no time for Pimer or Clifford to talk, though manfully they made +an effort at protest with no result but to endanger their own safety. +That they were not tossed over the side at once is a marvel. The only +question that agitated this bandit conference was where to pirate, one +suggesting this field and another that. Somebody, probably Holding, +persuaded them that Brazil, then a colony of Portugal, and the South +American coast gave the most promise of gain. + +This policy and its execution were really masterly. They must have +been the products of careful pondering based upon information more +or less exact. Consider it geographically. From Cape San Augustine, +where Brazil thrusts its elbow into the Atlantic Ocean, away down to +Rio de Janeiro is one long, continuous coast line, well populated +even in the early eighteenth century with numerous ports of small +and great importance. Starting then at the cape, a pirate need only +drop continually down the latitudes, pausing as occasion suggested to +pick up prizes, never staying in a vicinity or returning to it to be +captured. At Rio, where the cruise was to be finished, swing out far +from the coast and make a bee line for home. It was an able plan and +strong because so simple. + +Holding, or whoever the proponent of the South American cruise might +have been, had without question made a close study of the methods of +Captain Kidd, hanged some two years before in London. The parallel +between the Kidd and Quelch piracies is so exact as to be more than +coincidental. Both perverted the use of a commissioned ship; both +journeyed thousands of miles to their fields of operation; both +sought to make one quick, strong strike at fortune and return to +respectability. + +Neither Kidd nor Quelch had a notion of being conventional pirates, +that is, of infesting some given locality and preying on passing +traffic, spending their gains riotously and expecting not to leave the +business except perhaps unluckily by way of the king’s rope. Kidd had +made a fortune which was the talk of the colony; and the incident that +he was hanged for it only proved his subsequent mismanagement and did +not impugn his actual methods of pirating. + +Again, pirates of the type of Kidd and Quelch were attracted by a +combination of two favoring factors,--a good sea traffic and a weak +land government. In Kidd’s case the flourishing Indian commerce was +not completely protected by the decaying Mogul Government, while in +Quelch’s case the merchants of the east coast of South America were +considerably ahead of any authority which could guarantee them a +peaceful development. + +In the middle of November, or just a little more than three months +after leaving Boston, the _Charles_, having reeled off three thousand +miles of journeying, arrived in the seventh degree, south latitude, off +the bold beak of Cape St. Augustine, and hungrily searched the sea for +prey. + +Quelch was under English colors, and at the ports hereabouts where +he made his first stops he gave out that he was cruising against the +French and Spanish. That kind of talk kept things clear on shore. + +With Quelch was one John Twist, who was either recruited in the +neighborhood of St. Augustine or came originally from Boston. +John was the ship’s “linguister”, as the quaint old word was--the +interpreter--and he was what army men might call the officer of liaison +between the New Englanders and the Portuguese. He was also the pilot +in the Brazilian waters, but died before the _Charles_ went home, +though apparently not until he had brought her to her extreme southern +objective, Rio de Janeiro. + +On November fifteenth, after leaving the cape and working slowly +southward, a little Portuguese fishing boat was stopped by the pirates +as she was slipping into port, and her cargo of fish and salt was +quickly tossed over the bulwarks of the _Charles_. Fish and salt do not +make any great treasure; in fact, this particular fish and salt were +worth about three pounds to Quelch. But it was a little preliminary +workout. + +Three days later the brig was opposite Pernambuco, where she coolly +picked up a small Portuguese vessel of fifteen tons right from under +the eyes of the townsfolk. She was stuffed with sugar and molasses to +the value of one hundred and fifty pounds. In the modern worth of the +pound this would be about six hundred and seventy-five dollars; but it +must be noted, of course, that that amount of silver would buy a great +deal more in those times than in these. + +John Twist persuaded two white men and one negro of the crew of five to +sign up with the pirates. Quelch no doubt had the same experience that +Kidd had with his original crew; there was a continual attrition by +disease or desertion, and the man-power had to be kept up by recruiting +so far as possible from captured ships. + +Those who did not care to join up with the _Charles_ were returned +to their boats in most cases and permitted to pass on their way. It +was quite unnecessary for the pirates to kill such as refused to go +along with them, for by the time they got back to port and had a chase +organized, the _Charles_ would be well ahead of them to the south. + +The fifteen-ton brig with the sugar and molasses aboard was kept by +Quelch and made a “tender”, as he called it, of the _Charles_, and thus +created a sort of fleet, with the Boston brig as flagship and John +Quelch as admiral. + +Latitudes seven and eight degrees south had yielded two victims; +November twenty-fourth found them in latitude nine degrees south, and +tumbling well around the elbow of Brazil, but still in the vicinity of +Cape St. Augustine. + +Below the cape they took another Portuguese brig, this time of forty +tons. She was on her way from the plantations to Pernambuco, laden +with about eight hundred dollars’ worth of sugar and molasses. We are +vividly reminded of Kidd’s first catches, which so often consisted of +small sloops carrying butter, coffee and opium. + +A cool piece of work was the taking of this ship, impudently +accomplished well within sight of land. Quelch, with John Twist, the +linguister, at his side, led in the capture, which was made without +resistance on the part of the Portuguese. It took two or three days to +shift her cargo to the _Charles_, after which she was tossed away like +a squeezed lemon to get back to port as best she might. Through Twist +Quelch informed these Portuguese that the _Charles_ was a French ship +and that the Portuguese, as allies of the English, had fallen on the +sad mischances of war. Another trick out of Kidd’s bag. + +Isaac Johnson, a Dutchman, committed the chief crime on a pirate ship: +he talked too much. Somehow or other he told the Portuguese the truth +about Quelch. Gunner Moore had met his end at the hands of Captain Kidd +because of a fatal flexibility of the lips, and Ike Johnson likewise, +though not so severely, was made an example of by the decisive Quelch. + +All hands were piped on deck,--not with a boatswain’s whistle, however, +but by a trumpet loudly sounded by the kidnapped though apparently not +disconsolate Cæsar-Pompey, who to the job of cook added that of ship’s +trumpeter. Johnson was brought forward and tied by the wrists to a +grating; and Anthony Holding, with malice aforethought and continuous, +laid on Ike’s bare back with a rope’s end, and thus counseled him as to +the wisdom of silence. It was an approved sea fashion of admonition. + +December brought them to latitude thirteen degrees south and early +presented them with two jars of rum, a little linen and a trifle of +earthenware filched from a shallop. This was the smallest sprat that +came to their net during the cruise. She was taken by the tender, and, +being despoiled, was sent on her way. + +The same day the tender took another small Portuguese boat. Both of +these takings were right under the guns of Fort Mora, so close that +the flag flying over the fort was clearly discerned. Being a little too +close to the fort to run needless risk, Quelch staved in the captured +boat and let her gurgle and bubble down into the green Atlantic. Her +crew went aboard the _Charles_, perhaps as recruits. + +From her they took a quantity of vari-colored silk; and soon the crew +of the _Charles_ were gallant and picturesque in silk breeches and +shirts,--of homemade cut and tailoring, to be sure, but none the less +gratifying to the wearers. + +The next capture was in latitude thirteen degrees south and below Mora. +The busy little tender here grabbed a twenty-ton brig, from which an +inconsiderable amount of rice and a negro slave were taken. The negro’s +name was Joachim; but his captors dubbed him Cuffee and turned him over +to Cæsar-Pompey as a flunky. In addition to these there was a young man +on board with a canvas bag containing two hundred and fifty dollars in +gold coin. The young man was allowed to keep the canvas bag. + +After the fashion of the trade, the pirate crew were working on the +share basis; that is, after deducting for general expenses, a major +part went to Quelch--and of course Holding--and minor parts of the +plunder were distributed head for head. All cash taken was put in +the keeping of the quartermaster to accumulate for future division; +merchandise such as sugar and so on was probably marketed at way ports +and the proceeds put into the treasury, after the manner again of Kidd +in the East Indies. + +Cuffee, the flunky, not being divisible, was auctioned off at the mast +to the highest bidder, who happened to be one Ben Perkins. The price +was thrown into the common pot. Cuffee’s sale brought a hundred dollars +to the cash account. + + + II + +An uneventful run of ten degrees brought the _Charles_ and her tender +to the twenty-third degree of latitude and the Christmas season of +the year. Pretty far south they were by this time. Another of those +innumerable little Portuguese brigs here fell into their maw. Although +only twenty-five tons burden, her cargo was worth a couple of hundred +pounds. + +They were off Grande Island at the time, and beating along close to the +shore. Rounding the headland, they saw the settlement of Grande Island +before them, with a brig or two at anchor in the bay. Upon this Quelch +left his flagship and went over to the tender and imprudently struck +off for one of these moored brigs. + +As the tender got closer, those aboard saw a boat put hurriedly +off from the Portuguese brig and make for the town. Apparently the +natives had suspected the oncoming tender as promising them no good +fortune. Quelch and his men must have grinned at this easy capture, and +doubtless wondered why the deserting crew did not scuttle their ship +rather than leave her to fall into the hands of this unknown enemy. + +Quelch was drawing nigh to his prey when to his surprise a large, red, +stolid face rose, like an early sun, above the bulwarks. One man had +evidently remained as a reception committee, and he certainly not a +Portuguese. + +He claimed to be a Dutchman when the pirates had flocked over the side +of his ship and clustered about him, brilliant with their new silk +breeches and formidable with an assortment of cutlasses and pistols. + +This unconcerned Dutchman seems to have been far from temperamental, +and entirely unacquainted with nervousness. He casually spat over the +side and asked who they were that thus jumped a fellow’s ship. He had +no trouble finding folk among the pirates who could palaver enough +Dutch to get along with. He added that there was a pretty good gain in +the ship,--sugar to the value of one hundred and fifty pounds and gold +and silver and Portuguese coins worth about fifty more. It was not his +property. + +He lolled against the mast, watching with dull eye the transfer of +the sugar from the Portuguese to the _Charles_, drawn in closer for +that purpose. He noted without a flicker of expression the fine silk +breeches of these sailors, and gazed ponderingly down at his own +garments of canvas. Silk breeches, eh? He strolled slowly up and down +the deck in the hard labor of reflection. + +Silk breeches did it. With the last boatload of cargo went the +Dutchman. He was made to feel right at home, Quelch seeing his value as +a pilot, an interpreter and an extraordinarily cool hand. + +The _Charles_ and her tender put out to sea, leaving the little town +of Grande Island provender for ten years’ wonder. The Dutch recruit +had many talks with the men. And all the time he was thinking the new +situation through. + +He desired to come right down to a definite business basis. He +appraised carefully the accumulated plunder and learned of the money +holdings of the quartermaster. It would do very well; he too would +have a pair of silk breeches. He put in his claim for a full share of +everything, past, present and to come. + +This demand became the talk of the ships. It grew and grew until it +split the harmony of the floating community. At last in a deserted +inlet, where the woods ran darkly down to a silver beach, the whole +affair was threshed out. + +All hands were trumpeted up by him of the ponderous antique titles. +The Dutchman stolidly and unmistakably stated his terms. Some spoke in +favor of them, others against; and at last a vote for and against was +taken. The majority determined that the Dutchman was not entitled to a +full share. + +He turned a quid of tobacco about in his hairy cheek and gazed up at +the sky. He had a trump card to play, and a very firm nerve to cast it. +He said his conditions would be met or he would inform against them +all. Just whom he would inform is not apparent; nor is it clear what +damage an informer could do to people who robbed right under the guns +of forts, and took ships from their anchor within a stone’s throw of +town. + +This Dutchman was either excessively stupid or a man of extraordinary +courage. As a sailor he must have seen that the kind of folk he was +dealing with were neither timid nor tender; never in all his sea-going +years had he looked right in the eyes of just so hard an aggregation as +he did then. Yet he stands there quite alone and backs up his claim not +by prayer but by threat. It is one of the most curious incidents of the +sea. + +Of course, a chap like this must be put out of the way. Methods and +means were discussed at this same meeting, and once again a vote was +taken--this time as to what they should do with the Dutchman. The +majority decreed that he should be marooned then and here. + +Mr. Dutchman was ordered over the side and into the boat. He was rowed +ashore and left with a gun, some powder and shot. He gazed stolidly at +the departing boat, his hands deep in his canvas pockets, the twist +of tobacco turning around in his cheek. Fair enough; if they couldn’t +accept a business proposition, why, he couldn’t do business with them, +and that was all there was to it. + +Perhaps a lucky man at that. He didn’t get a pair of silk breeches, but +neither did he get a hemp necktie. + + + III + +Two miles offshore, a short time out of Spirito Sanctu, and making +good way for Rio de Janeiro, her destination, a Portuguese brigantine +of fair size and speed was destined to be the choicest prize a gang of +New England pirates were to pick up within a thousand-mile cruise. She +was to Quelch what the _Quedagh Merchant_ had been to Captain Kidd, the +crown and climax of his piratical career. + +Everything aboard that brigantine was as merry as a wedding bell, +as the old saying goes. Besides the crew she had two beautiful and +charming passengers, ladies of local importance journeying to Rio on +any one of the many errands which attract ladies to the neighboring +centers of fashion, whether in France, the East Indies or upon the +coast of Brazil. One may imagine how pleasantly the balmy evenings sped +away with song and music and the inevitable dance. + +And down those watery ways were drawing nigh a brig and tender manned +by foreigners, who, could they have visioned the contents of the +Portuguese treasure-chest, would have been beside themselves with +anticipation. + +It was all so easy. The boat of the _Charles_ with ten men pulled over +to the Portuguese when they had brought him to a stop. Probably the +Portuguese had no idea he was being pirated; he may even have tossed a +rope ladder over the bulwarks to assist his enemies aboard. + +Over the sides of the pirate ships lounged the New Englanders, casually +watching the progress of the robbery. They speculated that here was +probably another load of sugar and molasses and coffee. Another dreary +job of stevedoring was promised. After all, this pirate business was +pretty slow work; meanly paid drudgery it had been for the most part, +certainly not worth risking a fellow’s neck. + +Somebody wigwagged vehemently from the Portuguese. Quelch dropped into +the tender’s boat to investigate. There were no sounds of fighting; no +clamor of struggle; but something material was going on. + +He climbed the side of the Portuguese without meeting resistance, was +seen to walk about her deck in a deliberate way, then came back over +the side and got into his boat, carrying, however, two sacks heavy +enough to bring out the cords of his forearms. + +In each of those sacks were fifty pounds’ weight of gold dust! + +Frenzy flamed from the _Charles_ to the tender. Men leaped and danced +and shouted; and the round, thick rum jar passed merrily from hand to +hand. Their fortunes were made! + +Yo-ho-ho, for a pirate’s life! + +So good-natured were the sea bandits that they treated the two +Portuguese ladies with urbane consideration and the despoiled crew with +tolerance. They kept them all on the _Charles_ that night, and with the +coming of morning restored them to their ship and bade them be off. + +Three days later the quartermaster, the carpenter and the captain, +composing a committee on division of profits, ordered a pair of scales +set up on the quarter-deck, from which each man had weighed out to him +his share of the fascinating dust. Added to that was a neat little +bonus of good, hard-ringing Portuguese gold coins, forty-five hundred +dollars’ worth of which were gathered in from this very profitable find. + +Rich with the plucking of the gold bird, the _Charles_ and her tender +ran rapidly from the stage and stopped nowhere until they were abreast +the south end of the Brazilian coast and in the vicinity of Rio de +Janeiro. + +Quelch was about ready to call it a day. The big scoop had been made, +and by this time the coast must have been getting a little warm +for him. The alarm was certainly raised; for in the last ship he +attacked--a Portuguese two-hundred-tonner carrying hides and other +merchandise--he met with his first real fight. This ship did not stop +at Quelch’s summoning round shot but crowded on sail and made haste +to get away, thus showing that Captain Bastian, her master, had had +warning of the character of the New England brig and her tender. + +After chasing her for two days the pirates pulled up with her, and the +Portuguese, after a sharp trading of shot, gave in. When the pirates +gained her deck there was some altercation with Captain Bastian, who +was shot down and his body heaved overboard. In the reminiscence of +this incident there were several of the rascals who claimed the honor +of shooting Bastian, but after a quarrel which nearly came to fighting, +Cooper Scudamore--a minor ringleader, it seems--was conceded to be the +hero of that black job. + +The captors took off hides, tallow and beef and then left the +Portuguese. They were ready for home now, and the little tender which +had journeyed a thousand miles with them was dismantled and set adrift +to float upon some Brazilian beach. The _Charles_ swung round and drove +northward for Boston, home and--not mother. The end of February, 1704, +was when they struck off from the Rio Region, concluding just about +three months of active piracy, perhaps three and a half. + +It surely looked reckless for Quelch to come back to Boston with the +good merchants’ brig and with no trophies in his hold of England’s +enemies but shamefully of England’s ally, Portugal. It was as reckless +as it looked; but mere recklessness never bothered John Quelch. + +Perhaps the yarn that Anthony Holding and he had spun together gave him +a confidence that he would not otherwise have had. It was a plausible +thing. All hands were to say that Captain Plowman had died naturally, +true only in part; that thereafter while cruising for Frenchmen +according to Plowman’s commission, now executed by Quelch, they beat +down as far as Brazil way. + +Here they met with coast Indians who told them that a rich Portuguese +brig had been recently wrecked in those parts, from which the Indians +had obtained great treasure, of which the gold dust and doubloons on +the _Charles_ were a part, having been given to Quelch and his men +by the pleasant natives, who had little notion of the worth of those +things. + +There was more than a good chance that the gang could have got away +with this story. Nobody could have checked them up, and the incident in +itself was not so utterly improbable; a circumstance like that _might_ +happen in those far-off seas. + +The trouble for Quelch was that he carried informers with him all the +time and brought them back with him to Boston. Pimer and Clifford and +the one or two other loyal men were only waiting their time. And Quelch +knew it. + +Off the Bermudas, coming home, Quelch called for a journal Pimer was +known to be keeping and tore from it five or six leaves containing +a record of the various piracies from St. Augustine to Rio. Quelch +probably calculated that fear for their own safety would keep all +hands quiet when they reached Boston. + +He was wrong. The _Charles_ was not long docked after her far-flung +cruise when Quelch and a number of the seamen were arrested and the +ship appropriated. There can be little question that Pimer and Clifford +or one of them hurried to the governor and informed. + +The jig was up. Anthony Holding, the evil genius of the adventure, +shrewdly packed up his portion of the plunder and fled without waiting +for what he no doubt foresaw as inevitable and imminent, the approach +of the officers of the law. + +Not so with Quelch. No back-alley dodging for him. With all the +circumstances of a business man in lawful enterprise he went to the +shop of one of the leading jewelers of Boston and there melted down a +quantity of Portuguese gold and silver coins. May have been fooling +with the jeweler’s crucibles when the rough hand of the officer thumped +his shoulder. + +Captain Kidd was the last of the colonial pirates to be sent home +to England for trial. After that the Government authorized such +proceedings to be had in the colonies themselves, for the expense of +dragging the accused and the witnesses across the Atlantic was too +much. On June 13, 1704, Quelch and a group of his pirates were tried +for murder and piracy at a “Court of Admiralty held at Boston, in +her Majesty’s Province of the Massachusetts-Bay in New England, in +America.” + +Mr. Attorney General of the province, assisted by eminent queen’s +counselors, carried the prosecution; the defense was borne by the +accused themselves with the help of a Mr. Menzies, a lawyer appointed +by the court to assist them “in any matters of law.” It will be +remembered that in those times a defendant in a criminal action was not +allowed a lawyer for the purpose of ascertaining the facts of the case +but merely to advise on matters of legal practice, whose only job in +most cases was to assure the accused that what was being done to them +was all according to law. + +The indictment was on nine articles or counts, beginning with the death +of Captain Plowman and ending with the taking of the Bastian ship off +Rio. The death of Plowman was made the fact of the murder charge. + +Pimer, Clifford and a fellow named Parrot turned queen’s evidence. The +feeling of contempt which one seems to have for an informer can not be +extended to these men; for their action here was quite consistent with +their attitude from the beginning, which, as we have seen, had not been +hidden even from the pirates. They never approved the deeds done or +pretended they did. These are not your ordinary informers. + +We have to take off our hats to lawyer Menzies. He put up a fine fight. +He showed himself unafraid of court or council and stuck to his +clients when more politic lawyers would have eased off. Really he beat +the prosecution. + +It was this way. The commission to this court of admiralty was issued +under an act of parliament which provided that its proceedings should +be according to what was called the civil law, which was a different +procedure from that of ordinary criminal courts, being originally +from the old Roman law. Now, by the civil law, in a trial for piracy +an accomplice could not be a witness against the accused; and Pimer, +Clifford and Parrot were technically accomplices. Menzies had chapter +and book for it, too. + +Mr. Attorney General floundered back on an act of Henry the Eighth, but +if Menzies had had a modern court his point would have stuck. Not that +this is a modern principle of law; but a modern court under the same +rules as this old court would have held with Menzies. The president +of the council, the provincial council constituting this court of +admiralty, hemmed and hawed and fudged by. + +Menzies was both a lawyer and a man, but he really had no court to +try his case in. All the council could see was a case of piracy, and +away with technicalities. That would be all right, of course, if +technicalities did not exist for the protection of the innocent. Quelch +was guilty, no doubt, according to the gossip blowing about Boston, but +innocent so far as the court in its particular province was concerned. + +Quelch didn’t say much. If he had he would not have done himself much +good. It is fair to say on behalf of the court that though it erred in +admitting Pimer, Clifford and Parrot as witnesses, there was a fair +showing of other proof which went to help the State’s case, though that +does not exonerate the court from the use of improper procedure in the +particular which has been shown. + +“Guilty,” said the council. Cæsar-Pompey and the other negroes were +discharged along with the handful of men who showed they had sailed +under a sort of compulsion. + +Twenty men, including Quelch, were sentenced to die; and of these, +six were hanged on “Charles River, Boston side, June 30, 1704.” They +were John Quelch, John Lambert, Christopher Scudamore (the cooper who +boasted of shooting Captain Bastian), John Miller, Erasmus Peterson and +Peter Roach (the automaton). The record is silent as to the fate of the +remaining fourteen; possibly their sentences were commuted. + +The end of the matter is best told by one who saw it. + + “On Friday, the 30th of June, 1704, pursuant to orders in the death + warrant, the aforesaid pirates were guarded from the prison in Boston, + by forty musketeers, constables of the town, the provost-marshal and + his officers, with two ministers, who took great pains to prepare + them for the last article of their lives. Being allowed to walk on + foot through the town, to Scarlet’s wharf, where the silver oar being + carried before them, they went by water to the place of execution, + being crowded and thronged on all sides with multitudes of spectators. + + “At the place of execution, they then severally spoke as follows, + _viz._: + + “1. CAPTAIN JOHN QUELCH. The last words he spoke to one of the + ministers at his going up the stage, were, ‘I am not afraid of death; + I am not afraid of the gallows; but I am afraid of what follows; I am + afraid of a great God and a judgment to come.’ + + “But he afterwards seemed to brave it out too much against that fear; + also when on the stage, first he pulled off his hat, and bowed to + the spectators, and not concerned, nor behaving himself so much like + a dying man as some would have done. The ministers had, in the way + to his execution, much desired him to glorify God at his death, by + bearing a due testimony against the sins that had ruined him, and for + the ways of religion which he had much neglected. Yet now being called + upon to speak what he had to say, it was but thus much, ‘Gentlemen, + it is but little I have to speak; what I have to say is this, I + desire to be informed for what I am here; I am condemned only upon + circumstances; I forgive all the world, so the Lord be merciful to my + soul.’ + + “When Lambert was warning the spectators to beware of bad company + Quelch joining said, ‘They should also take care how they brought + money into New England, to be hanged for it.’ + + “2. JOHN LAMBERT. He appeared much hardened, and pleaded much on his + innocency; he desired all men to beware of bad company; he seemed + in great agony near his execution; he called much and frequently on + Christ for pardon of sin, that God Almighty would save his innocent + soul; he desired to forgive all the world; his last words were: ‘Lord + forgive my soul. Oh, receive me into eternity. Blessed name of Christ, + receive my soul!’ + + “3. CHRISTOPHER SCUDAMORE. He appeared very penitent since his + condemnation; was very diligent to improve his time going to and at + the place of execution. + + “4. JOHN MILLER. He seemed much concerned, and complained of a great + burden of sins to answer for; expressing often, ‘Lord, what shall I do + to be saved?’ + + “5. ERASMUS PETERSON. He cried of injustice done him, and said, ‘It is + very hard for so many men’s lives to be taken away for a little gold.’ + He often said, ‘His peace was made with God, and his soul would be + with God,’ yet extreme hard to forgive those he said had wronged him; + he told the executioner he was a strong man and prayed to be put out + of misery as soon as possible. + + “6. PETER ROACH (the automaton). He seemed little concerned, and said + but little or nothing at all. + + “FRANCIS KING was also brought to the place of execution, but + reprieved.” + +Many men have many minds. A little circumstance will bring a sense +of moral responsibility to one man; another would seem to awaken to +the fact of morality only by some such final catastrophe as the grim +gallows. + + + + + CHAPTER THREE + + SEA HORROR + + “Blackbeard” + + + I + +If you want to know a real pirate--a true terror of the seas--meet +Mr. Blackbeard; called, in what could scarcely have been an innocent +childhood, Edward Thatch, or Teach. Little Edward must have been +suckled on brass filings and have cut his teeth on iron nails, for he +grew up to be consistently and completely evil. Perhaps he fell when an +infant and injured his head, or more probably was born with a twist to +the bad; for no sane, normal man could have been so wild and wicked. + +He, not Kidd, is the fellow you have in mind when you think of a +pirate. He was the genuine, plank-walking, marooning, swashbuckling boy +of the seven seas; Bill Kidd and Jack Quelch, so far from being in his +class, would barely have been tolerated by him as ordinary seamen under +the “black flagg with a humane skelleton” which terrified the old-time +mariners. To win his yellow-fanged grin of approval one would have to +be absolutely, unreservedly inhuman. + +Blackbeard! Folks got along with him best who addressed him with that +pretty name. He had no use at all for “Mister Thatch.” Plain Blackbeard +to high and low, fore and aft; for his pride, his pleasure, his life +were in his beard; an enormous bush, unusually, weirdly, wonderfully +black; a huge mat of hair, really beginning at his ears, arching across +his nose, and ending with his knees,--a regular jungle from behind +which his veined and boozy eyes peeped like those of a beast spotting +its prey, the while the long, leathery lips slavered with the thirst +for blood. Nice-looking chap--very. + +He might not take time to wash his nose--the only island of skin in +that sea of hair--but no hour was too long or too tedious which was +spent in curling, preening, pulling and twisting that beard into the +most fantastic shapes and effects. One day he would swagger out on +deck with his chin the axle for a half-dozen spokes of tightly rolled +whiskers; another, it might be one great spike, thrust outward and +upward in a unicorn symbol. Practically he had a fashion for every +mood, especially for the belligerent. + +People had to keep out of his cabin when the skipper was trimming +up his beard for a fight. Really he was the first patentee of +frightfulness. That was his specialty. When action threatened, those +whiskers were wrought into an appearance of ferocity beyond depicting. + +Nor was that all; he had other artistic touches in the nightmare line. +For instance, there were those long, thin, slow-burning matches which +he stuck all around his head, beneath his hat--alight they looked as if +the inferno had vomited forth a demon; there were the three braces of +pistols over his shoulders; the two dirks in his brilliant Caribbean +sash, and the cutlass that never stammered. A gulp of raw Jamaica rum +and he was ready to eat ’em alive. + +How amiable an apparition to behold oozing up over your bulwarks some +fine morning! No wonder the Atlantic, where it slaps the West Indian +beaches on the one side and the shores of the Carolinas on the other, +whispered his name with fear. + +It was going to be a big job for the forces of law and order to snare +this bird. + + + II + +January, 1718, was the happy month for the Carolinas. Then it was that +Blackbeard, coming from the West Indies by way of New England and the +North Atlantic provinces, chose to make his hole at Ocracoke Inlet, on +Pamlico Sound, North Carolina. + +Not that Blackbeard came with his hat-matches lit and his beard +glorious for strife, and his cutlass speaking sudden, certain death. +Oh, my, no! Far indeed would this supposition be from the fact, for +Blackbeard had come to Carolina to turn over a new leaf; to leave the +wicked practices which had made him king of the wicked Indies; to +forswear the black flag; generally to amend his way; particularly to +take the Act. + +“Taking the Act” was a joke beloved by all the best pirates. It was +specially good after a profitable plunder cruise; useful, too, in a +way, for it gave one a chance to spend one’s salt-water money without +having to fight somebody every five minutes. To take the Act was the +only way a hard-working pirate could get a vacation. + +The thing worked something like this: George the First, of England, at +about this time was having trouble with the Swedes, and in consequence +the British fleet was all tucked away up in the Baltic; he was +troubled, too, by the merchants of London and the colonies, who were +getting rather pert about this matter of pirate depredations. + +Being completely at sea in more ways than one, the British Admiralty +fell back to the old pardon business that they had tried in Captain +Kidd’s time, and which had been so successful that less than twenty +years later the sorry scheme was dragged forth again. + +Taking the technical peelings off, the meat of the matter was that +if within a year from the date of the proclamation any pirate should +surrender himself to any one of the king’s colonial governors and swear +to renounce his criminal courses, all the past should be forgiven +and forgotten. The weakness of the plan, of course, was that a man +you could not catch would not care much about your pardon. And still +another,--that the word of a pirate could poorly compare with a bond. + +But the boys liked this Act of Grace as it was called, and some had +even been known to abide quite consistently with its terms. The leading +men of the business, of course, could not be expected to take it too +seriously. + +Blackbeard wanted a little lay-off from years of steady grind. Then, +too, it was January, with its season of new resolutions; why not start +the year right? + +They all talked it over, coming along the Virginia coast--near +where they had heard of the proclamation--and it rather appealed to +everybody. They grew solemn, serious, not a little drunk, and decided +to break up. Here was a chance to wipe the slate clean and start all +over again. + +They anchored in Ocracoke Inlet and marched off to take the Act. Let us +go with them. + +Lithe chaps, aren’t they? See how the muscles ripple and play under +those bright silk shirts; how column-like the brown necks groove into +the bulging shoulders; in the fine, perfect pink of condition every +one; strong, you can easily see; strong everywhere, that is, except in +the head. Weak, there, lamentably weak. + +In the heart, too, for they are really bad, capable of all evil, for +which their environment and early associations can extenuate but not +exculpate them. In truth, these are the creatures of a dark age; these +men believe in witches and fear to whistle aboard ship lest they blow +up a tempest. Most of these fellows are Englishmen, with some Spaniards +and Frenchmen, all caring little for international animosities, +enfranchised in the Commonwealth of Crime. You can hear the outlandish +burring of the Yorkshiremen, the hissing z’s of the West Englander, +the pitch, too, of what is to become the Cockney whine of a little +later day, tussling with a jargon made up of many languages, founded on +English. + +Notice, too, these negroes from Barbados and other islands of the +Indies, children of slaves brought but lately from Africa for the +plantations. These don’t rate as seamen on even the pirate ships, +but are menials whose big job is to keep continually at the pumps. +Still, it seems all a great lark to them; see how they laugh, joke, +leap around in unequalled vigor, till the great gold rings in their +ears, the gold chains about their necks and the heavy metal bangles +on their wrists jingle and rattle with their motions. This thing of +jewelry is affected by white and black alike; and how they like those +wide, many-hued sashes, and the silk stockings under their knee-length +breeches! + +So they roll, seaman fashion, singing and romping to the small frame +house where reigns the servant of the Proprietors and the master of +the colonists, his Excellency, Governor Eden. At their head goes that +strangest of all the strange creatures of the sea, that powerful, +ape-like figure swathed hideously in hair--to-day all curled in +hundreds of ringlets smeared with pomatum--looking like a thing from a +bad dream. + +They bulge unafraid into the mansion; full weaponed and together, they +fear nothing at sea or ashore. But nobody is of a mind to trifle with +them; the folk here are used to seeing everything that is grotesque +washed up by the sea; nay, these men have many acquaintances among the +inhabitants, for not a few have shipped from these parts. + +Governor Eden enters, portly in a London flowered-silk waistcoat, +stylish French shoes and peruke, high-pointed and white-powdered. He +gasps a little at the gang jammed into the room and glances sharply +over at Tobias Knight, Secretary of the Province, who a moment ago was +scratching with his quill pen an encouraging story of graft to the +Proprietors at home, but who now is nervously pulling his sword more +accessibly across his round fat knees. Neither he nor the governor had +even seen anything quite like that in old Pall Mall, you know. + +“Takin’ the Act, y’honor,” growled Blackbeard, leering at constituted +authority. + +“Aye,” chorus, froglike, his bully boys. + +The job is soon done. With upraised right hands one and all swear to +leave off piracy. They come in children of the rope; they depart free +and law-abiding men. It is very easy. + +All leave, that is, save Blackbeard. + +“I salvages ships, your honors,” thunders this gentleman, spreading +himself out on a chair so that his beard should flow in its glory like +a blanket over his person, while all its fancy little curly-cues, +ringlets and twists dance with every movement of his chin. “My real +trade, your honors--ship salvager. Mebbe I’ll have business here. Lost +ships is what I go for and lost ships I finds. + +“No need for a good ship to be lost while Blackbeard’s around to take +’em home again. No occasion to leave a lost ship to drift around till +them dirty seadogs of pirates mauls ’em over. Law says lost ships must +be reported to the governor, and now I abide the law.” + +“How d’ye mean, Captain?” says the governor. “D’ye pull ’em off the +rocks?” + +The audience chamber--if it may be so called--shakes with the visitor’s +laughing. + +“Ye don’t know rocks, your honor, beggin’ pardon; rocks don’t let +nothing go oncet they get aholt. Deserted ships I picks up; ships with +a little water in ’em don’t always go down as fast as the master fears. + +“There’s where I comes in. I get a ship like that; I comes in to +you. Says I, ‘Your honor, I have salvaged a ship.’ Says your honor, +‘Accordin’ to law, I declares you to have salvage of her.’ I sell her +for a good price. Says I to me, ‘The governor, his honor, works hard; +he ought to have his wages.’ Says I to you, ‘Your honor will perhaps +accept a little present.’ ‘Captain Blackbeard,’ says you, ‘have a jog +of rum.’ We all stands up and drinks the king’s ’ealth.” + +Governor Eden claps his hands smartly, and the black servitor jumps in. + +“Boy, bring the Madeira and glasses for three.” + + + III + +Governor Eden, in his corrupt connivance with Blackbeard, was not +representative of the public opinion of the Carolinas in 1718. The +proprietary provinces--for these things were shortly before the +revolution which placed them directly under the Crown--had become tired +of pirates. + +It’s a long story, but of powerful interest. The short of the matter +is that the Carolinas had fostered pirates for her own interest until +in time they became a menace. From the middle of the sixteen-hundreds +the Southern provinces had been the outfitting grounds of a shoal of +privateers who under royal commissions threshed the waters of the +Spanish Main for Monsieur le Roy, as the French were called, or the +Dons of Spain. + +These letters-of-marque lads really protected the baby colonies from +those two voracious wolves for quite a while, but naturally if business +in the legitimate line of their letters slacked up, they were prone to +mistake the ensign of St. George for that of the Fleur-de-lys, and thus +kept their hands in practice by despoiling friends as well as foes. +Far too often they crossed too easily the thin line which separated a +privateer from a pirate, so that in something less than half a century +Charles Town, which had trembled at the French and Spanish invasions, +now was equally fearful of the guns of the erstwhile protectors, the +pirates. + +English navigation laws, which had delivered the provinces, bound +hand and foot, into the hard fists of the English merchants, did not +a little to promote piracy, for the sea robbers came to town with +holds crammed full of all sorts of merchandise and peddled it to +the colonists less the duties and imposts, and so made one of the +cheapest markets in the world. Their customers all along the coast met +them gladly and made no bones of the traffic, until the black flag +threatened to monopolize the whole commerce, when the community awoke +to the circumstance that there was a price in the cheap bazaar after +all. + +Consider that Blackbeard, a month or so before he took the Act of +Grace, had “salvaged” no less than twenty-seven ships--nearly a ship +a day--and you have a measure of the situation; add, too, this, that +Blackbeard was but one of many, and you will understand why Jamaica, +for instance, wailed to the home Government that it was ruined. + +North and South Carolina had not formally divided at that time, though +the distinction of names was used; Governor Eden ruled wickedly in the +North; Governor Johnson ruled justly and wisely in the South. + + + IV + +The vicinity where Blackbeard made his establishment was well chosen +for his job. When one knew the channels between the low, sandy islands +which lay all about the inlet one could run in and careen the ship, lay +by and swagger alongshore, and when one got ready to abjure his oath +and swing off on the plundering account again, one could intercept two +lines of commerce,--the coastwise from New England to the West Indies +and the provinces, and that from the provinces to the north, to the +West Indies and to the mother country. Blackbeard knew his business. + +It should be explained that our whiskery hero was a sort of admiral, +for he commanded not only his own ship, but he was attended by three +auxiliary sloops, one of which--the _Revenge_--belonged to the peculiar +and picturesque Major Stede Bonnet. + +What did these ships look like? Well, the old British Navy had five +classes of men-of-war, rated on the number of guns; Blackbeard’s own +ship, the attorney general on a later occasion said, was equal to a +fifth-class man-of-war; that is, he mounted forty guns, ranged on two +decks, carrying a complement of some one hundred and forty or fifty +men when his articles were full. She was about twenty feet in the beam +and a little more than a hundred feet long; rigged with square sails +and capable of good speed. + +The sloops, a general term for a variety of small ships, fought +only ten guns, though the man-power was not proportionate, fifty or +sixty men sometimes being crowded aboard. Shipbuilding was to wait +generations for the start of the impetus which carried it to its +culmination in the early nineteenth century. + +Nobody knows just what turned Major Bonnet to pirating. Some say he had +so much domestic misery that he simply felt he would have to chaw up +something or somebody; others, that the works in his brains had slipped +a little out of gear. + +It could hardly have been money, for Bonnet was a well-to-do planter +of Barbados, where his civic spirit had been so keen that he had +earned the military title of major in service against the enemies of +that colony. Perhaps he had been reading the _Diamond Dick_ stories of +that era, and was so fired by them as to forget his middle years, his +decorous manners, his respectable standing, and craved for a taste of +real life. + +However that may have been, he bought a sloop, christened her +romantically the _Revenge_, and, under the usual pretense of going +privateering, picked up the right gang and put to sea in the late +summer of 1717. He knew nothing about the sea except that under +certain circumstances it would drown one. + +His crew were quick to see that their commander was no sailorman. His +pretense at seamanship provoked their great-mouthed grins and deriding +whispers and nods. He was driven to hide behind his mate, who really +worked the ship; and to the end of his career, which lasted just about +one year, he employed usually a sailing master. But his courage, his +hard temper, his resolution kept his feet on the quarter-deck and +forced a respect that his landlubberliness denied him. + +That is, he wrung a deference from all but old Blackbeard. Bonnet fell +in with him in August, 1717, and they made it up to sail together. + +The bearded bear, however, soon saw that his partner was no skipper, +and, growling and contemptuous, he summarily removed Bonnet from his +own deck and articled him in an inferior position on Blackbeard’s +craft, putting one Richards, a bad egg but a good sailor, in Bonnet’s +place. This was a collar that galled the neck of Bonnet. + +All the ships came in to Ocracoke about the same time; but Bonnet and a +large number of men disdained to palter with the Act of Grace, and lay +about the settlement waiting for Blackbeard to get over his whim and +down to business. + +The days ashore passed in debauch. Here the softer side of Blackbeard’s +character is shown in his affectionate devotion to fourteen wives,--as +he called them. With them he was most playful and kittenish. He loved +to make these ladies laugh by blowing out the candles with his pistols; +or sometimes, crossing his arms, a weapon in each hand, he would +fire promiscuously about the room, whereupon the most merry play of +hide-and-seek was enjoyed by all the company, wives and visitors alike, +when those who could not get under the table quickly enough would catch +bullets in the funniest places,--like behind the ear or just above the +heart. Everybody looked forward to these evenings. + + V + +Spring came on Ocracoke, and the adventure sap stirred in Blackbeard’s +veins. He stood it until the end of May, then tore his oath in two, +kicked the Act of Grace in the face, flung the skull and crossbones +to his masthead and sailed off for Charles Town, his minion sloops +dancing and bobbing on the waves beside him. He was going shopping, if +you please, for medical supplies, a great necessity by reason of his +fleet’s method of living and working. He was going to honor Charles +Town with his patronage. + +While this happy surprise for the little colonial seaport was coming +around the sea-washed bulk of Cape Fear, a Mr. Wragg and a Mr. Marks, +on board a merchantman, were slipping across the Charles Town bar, +bound for England. Both were prominent local gentlemen, Mr. Wragg being +nothing less than an assemblyman. There were several other passengers +on the list, while in the ship’s chest were seven thousand five hundred +dollars in broad gold coins and pieces-of-eight. + +Mr. Marks stood at the stern of the ship and looked a long time at the +old town as it dropped away behind them. + +“Neighbor Wragg,” said he with a gently melancholic sigh, “it will be +many a day before we tread the streets of Charles Town again.” + +Mr. Wragg squeezed his friend’s hand sympathetically. + +“Only a twelvemonth perhaps,” he suggested. “Take courage, Marks.” + +They were both poor guessers. Instead of twelve months it was less than +twelve days a good deal when Mr. Marks again looked his fellow citizens +in the eye and face-to-face. If somebody had told his fortune at cards +that night he might have truthfully said that a dark man was coming +across the water to see him. + +“Do you see what I see?” asked the captain of the mate next day, as the +gray light of morning was turning all the waters to the look of molten +slate. The mate gazed northward. + +“I count four of ’em,” he said slowly. “Looks like they’re coming right +for us.” + +They were. Very soon a shot whistled over the nightcap of Mr. Marks, +who had thrust his head from his cabin with that sense of something +amiss peculiar to shipboard. + +“Heave back the tops’ls,” growled the master. + +The sails flatted down, and the ship came to. She was quickly circled +by Blackbeard’s fleet. The skull grinned amiably at them as the black +flag stood out tautly in the wind. Somebody shouted something from the +pirate ships; and the merchant captain ordered the boat lowered, and +with two of the crew to row him set off for the marauding flagship. + +“I’ve been pirated in these waters twenty times,” grumbled the captain, +steering with an oar, “so I know what they want.” + +The pirates wanted everything. They put a prize crew over on the +captured brig. Mr. Marks was paged. + +“Mistah Blackbeard’s compliments, suh,” grinned a big black fellow, +looking coy in a hat made of a twisted red silk handkerchief, “and if +you be Mistah Marks, suh, will you be so ’bliging as to step over to +his ship.” + +Mr. Marks, with pallid face, looked pathetically at Mr. Wragg, whose +sympathy was again subjected to a heavy sight draft. + +“Why didn’t he send for you, Wragg?” he complained unheroically. +“You’re a councilor--you’ve got the precedence.” + +Mr. Wragg patted him on the shoulder encouragingly. + +“I’ll advise your family, Marks, if anything happens,” he said kindly; +“but I’m sure it won’t.” + +He felt pretty sure it would. + +All stood in for Charles Town. Mr. Wragg once or twice thought he saw +Mark’s hand waving at him from Blackbeard’s ship, where he and the +merchant captain were detained. Or was it poor Mark’s nightcap tossed +in a dreadful struggle with the villains? Who could tell? + +Captors and captives lay at the bar; and Blackbeard sent the longboat +off to town, carrying Mr. Marks under guard of Richards and half a +dozen nasty rascals. The astonishment of the town was unwordable when +it saw the respectable Marks in company so dreadful. + +But when they heard what Mr. Marks had to tell them their astonishment +turned to fighting wrath. For Blackbeard ordered four hundred pounds’ +worth of medical supplies delivered to Richards or, first, Mr. Marks +would be shot on the spot; second, Mr. Wragg’s head and those of all +the other passengers would arrive by the next boat; third, the pride of +the province, Charles Town itself, would be blown from its foundations. + +Governor Johnson was a strong man, and his council were strong men; but +here was a puzzle for them. Sixteen years before this they had beaten +off the French invaders with a courage that is notable in the history +of municipalities; but now the gun was right straight at them, and it +looked like hands up. + +Things were stirring about in Blackbeard’s fleet as well as in the +town. Especially when two days went by and no word came over to the bar +from Richards or Marks. On the evening of that day, Blackbeard, steeped +in rum, lined his hostages along the deck and raved and thrust his +awful beard into their faces and generally behaved in a most ungenteel +manner. + +“Shake your heads, my pretty landlubbers,” he bellowed; “shake ’em +while they’re on your necks, for if Richards don’t come back in the +mornin’ your heads will go to town at noon.” + +The wretched part of it was that the ruffian meant what he said. + +A messenger came from Richards, however, in the morning, and so +reprieved Mr. Wragg and his fellows for a few hours more. The messenger +stated that in going from the bar to town the boat in which Marks was +being taken capsized and there had been no end of trouble and delay in +getting ashore. Further that the provincial council had been called +together and were debating Blackbeard’s proposition. + +Another day or so of strain and another silence from the town. Again +Blackbeard stamped about and waved his cutlass and carried on as any +obstreperous and brutal drunk might be apt to do. Oh, for a king’s ship +to happen along as chucker-out! But king’s ships, like the night watch, +are generally anywhere but where they’re needed. + +Blackbeard filed the frightened hostages forth again. This time he +had the machinery of their destruction ready,--a huge black, his +great-muscled right arm bare to the shoulder, his hand hefting a bright +cutlass. Blackbeard, perched on a keg of powder, beckoned to his +captives in mocking solicitude. + +“Step up, pretties,” he leered, “and get your hair cut.” + +This was no opera, comic or otherwise. It was a situation to be met, +and immediately. One whom history does not remember spoke up. “Cap’n +Blackbeard,” said he, talking for his life, “we’ve decided if you’ll +be so good as to let us, to join with you if you’re going to take the +town. We’ll help you. They’ve betrayed us for a few pills and powders, +so we owe them nothing.” + +“Spoke like a man,” said Blackbeard. “You’re proper men; you’ll be real +cocks of the old game. Heave the anchor and shot the guns--the tide +will be right in an hour.” + +Perhaps this was not a heroic subterfuge; but let those judge who have +been hostages, helpless in the hands of such a desperado. It saved the +lives of a number of folk. For ere the tide lifted them over the bar +the longboat returned with Richards, the pirate boatmen and great piles +of all sorts of medicines. The town had capitulated. There would come +another day, it properly figured, and its wisdom was justified by the +event. + +Blackbeard left the merchant brig and its passengers rocking at the +bar, but by an unfortunate oversight he sailed off with the ship’s +chest containing the gold coins and the pieces-of-eight. + +Partnership was dissolved soon after leaving Charles Town. Blackbeard +had already apparently decided to abdicate the cocked hat of an +admiral and assume the subordinate rank of a captain. He planned to +concentrate his power in his one vessel. + +So without concern he returned the dissatisfied Bonnet to the _Revenge_ +and recalled Richards and the hardiest members of the _Revenge’s_ +personnel, leaving Bonnet with half a dozen hands of indifferent +expertness to work the sloop. + +That accounted for one of his three tenders. The second he resolved to +abandon at Topsail Inlet, on his way to Ocracoke. This he effected in +the regular Blackbeard fashion by ordering it driven ashore at Topsail +Inlet and wrecked. Her crew might make what escape they could from +the mess. They could not argue with the forty muzzles of his guns, so +crack went the sloop’s hull upon the rocks, while Blackbeard lay by and +laughed at the men struggling in the surf. + +These unfortunates at once went to work saving the sloop’s food and +powder, which hard labor was no sooner ended than Blackbeard stood in +and came ashore in the boat. He took all the salvaged stores and every +first-class seaman among the men and left, leaving nearly a score of +his late followers destitute and marooned on a wild and isolated beach. +In this way Blackbeard paid for faithfulness. + +The castaways had nothing to do but huddle about the sand and hope for +help. It did not occur to them to go back into the wilderness behind +them, perhaps because, as sailors, they would not trust themselves to +any but their wonted environment, perhaps also for the reason that the +unsettled interior promised them even scantier succor than the wide sea +before them, on which a coastwise ship might possibly be attracted by +their signals. So they lay around listening to the _creak-creak-creak_ +of the occasional sea gull, the thumping and swirling of the inrushing +waves and the cracking of the ship’s gear and planking. + +Before serious privation befell them, however, the hoped-for sail +fluttered out of the horizon. They took the shirts from their backs and +hopped vehemently up and down the beach and flew to the headlands in a +frenzy of inarticulate appeal. + +Joy unspeakable; they saw the topsails heaved back and the ship come +to! Saved! The men massed at the very edge of the water and stared hard +at the boat which now put off and came swinging in toward them. + +“If it ain’t Major Bonnet!” + +There was a kind of pleasure in the way they said this as the boat’s +crew could be identified. They had never expected that the commander +of the old _Revenge_ could ever have looked so good to them. A dozen +welcoming hands pulled at the bow of his boat when it grated on the +sand. + +“A dirty deal, boys,” said the major; “a dirty deal to leave ye all +like this--all governors of a maroon island.” + +That was a loved witticism of the major; marooning with him was always +to be invested with the dignity of governor of the maroon sand-spit. +He had quite a turn for pleasantry. He chuckled, and then got down to +business. + +“Getting to the point, my lads,” he continued, “let us leave this +outlaw life which has brought us nothing but grief. Come with me to St. +Thomas in the Indies, and we’ll get a privateering commission there +against the Spanish dogs, and show ’em the kind of metal that is in a +British cutlass.” + +He put a punch into his proposition by explaining, sympathetically but +firmly, that if they refused his offer he would be quite obliged to +sail away and leave them still in the governorship of Topsail Inlet. + +Nobody wanted that distinction, and the marooned left in boatloads for +Bonnet’s ship. As they came under her bows they marked that the name +_Revenge_ had been painted out, and in its place were the words, _Royal +James_, being the major’s compliment to the Pretender and a vivid +indication of the major’s politics. + +The tide crept in and washed the last heel mold out of the sands of +Topsail Inlet, where the gulls were left to peck speculatively at the +protruding nails and tangled cordage of the battered ship, the while +they wondered at the ways of that queer creature, Man. + +Commons were lean on the _Royal James_. When the rescued pirates found +that there was not very much to eat on the ship, the first gush of joy +at their deliverance sloughed off quickly. + +“Ye see, men,” Bonnet explained, “the pantry is pretty low. The first +job of a sailorman is to eat, so we may have to stop somebody on our +way to St. Thomas and beg a bite.” + +A very reasonable suggestion. + +“Somebody” appeared before the cruise was very old. He showed no +concern, however, to answer their hail but jammed up into the wind and +sped away. That was certainly no proper sea courtesy. + +To teach the rude fellows a lesson in manners, the _Royal James_ swung +behind and followed fast, and as pursuit was quite in her line she soon +pulled down the fleeing traveler and with a shot across his bow brought +him to with a bang. Bonnet shoved alongside and soon stuffed his hold +and his men with quarters of beef and barrels of rum. + +That was a fair start. All waist belts were comfortably tight; drooping +corners of lips went up and the old zest for piracy swelled and rippled +like a flood tide in the veins of the men of the _Royal James_. So when +with a grin the captain sped the black flag up the lines the general +contentment was not grievously shaken. + +Two Bermuda-bound ships were pulled in the day following the first +capture, and the day after that they picked up a fourth. The tally of +takes now began to run up smartly. Inside of a week five ships were +looted, from which a number of recruits were made, including negroes +who were delegated to the pumps and the menial jobs with the status of +slaves, and whose signs to the sloop’s articles were not invited. + +Here is a typical haul from one craft: Twenty-six hogsheads and +three barrels of rum, valued at fifteen hundred dollars; twenty-five +hogsheads of molasses, worth seven or eight hundred dollars; three +barrels of sugar, value one hundred and fifty dollars; cotton, indigo, +wire cable of varying values, a small amount of French and Spanish +coins, one pair of silver buckles and one silver watch. Thus, you see, +the boys cleaned up systematically from the hold to the captain’s +waistcoat pocket. + +They peddled their merchandise alongshore, where the business, though +more risky than in a happier day, was still keen. They grabbed vessels +on the high seas or at anchor in way ports. One captured in the latter +situation was the _Francis_, and here is her mate, Mr. Killing, who +is anxious to tell us himself just how it all happened. Proceed, Mr. +Killing. + + “The 31st of July (1718) between nine and ten of the clock, we came to + an anchor about fourteen fathom of water.... In about half an hour’s + time I perceived something like a canoo: So they came nearer. I said, + here is a canoo a-coming; I wish they be friends. I haled them and + asked them whence they came? They said captain Thomas Richards from + St. Thomas’s.... + + “They asked me from whence we came? I told them from Antegoa. They + said we were welcome.” (Pirates certainly loved their little joke!) “I + said they were welcome, as far as I knew.” (Which you observe was not + very far. A man of careful statement, this Mr. Killing.) “So I ordered + the men to hand down a rope to them. So soon as they came on board + they clapped their hands to their cutlasses; and I said we are taken. + So they cursed and swore for a light. I ordered our people to get a + light as soon as possible.... + + “When they came into the cabin the first thing they begun with was the + pineapples, which they cut down with their cutlasses. They asked me if + I would not come and eat along with them? I told them I had but little + stomach to eat. They asked me why I looked so melancholy? I told them + I looked as well as I could--” (Before we smile at the worthy mate let + us wonder a moment how we would have looked in the same fix.) + + “They asked me what liquor I had on board. I told them some rum + and sugar. So they made bowls of punch and went to drinking the + Pretender’s health, and hoped to see him king of the English nation--” + (This was doubtless the result of Major Bonnet’s treasonable + propaganda. Here was an incipient navy for the Pretender had he only + known it.) “They then sung a song or two. The next morning ... they + hoisted out several hogsheads of molasses and several hogsheads of + rum. In the after part of the day two of Bonnet’s men were ordered to + the mast to be whipt.... + + “Then Robert Tucker came to me, and told me I must go along with them. + I told him I was not fit for their turn, neither were my inclinations + that way. After that Major Bonnet himself came to me, and told me I + must either go on a maroon shore” (no doubt with his usual little jest + about the governorship) “or go along with them, for he designed to + take the sloop (_Francis_) with him. + + “That evening between eight and nine we were ordered to set sail, but + whither I knew not. So we sailed out that night, and I being weary + with fatigue, went to sleep; and whether it was with a design or not I + can not tell, but we fell to leeward of the _Revenge_ (_Royal James_); + and in the morning Major Bonnet took the speaking trumpet, and told + us if we did not keep closer he would fire in upon us and sink us. So + then we proceeded on our voyage till we came to Cape Fear.” + +Thank you, Mr. Mate; you have given us an interesting and living +picture of just how these wretches went about their dirty work. + + + VI + +Cape Fear! When a “naval historian” tells us that the battle at Cape +Fear was merely a matter of a few shots and a surrender, he not only +understates the fact, but beclouds the due glory of a company of heroic +men. Mr. S. C. Hughson, whose patient accuracy has given the complete +story to the world, not only describes a serious engagement but shows +that the result was so open a question that the pirates, during the +fight, beckoned with their hats to their opponents in mock invitation +to board and take them, in full confidence of victory. + +Cape Fear is on Smith Island, at the mouth of the Cape Fear River, on +the coast of North Carolina, and between Charleston and Ocracoke Inlet. +At New Inlet, where the river swims into the sea, it divides what are +now called Brunswick and Hanover Counties. Shoal waters and sandy +islets make the work of navigation here uncertain. + +Major Bonnet had made his sea-nest in this region, his knowledge of the +channels and depths protecting his comings and goings. In this place he +could repair and refit his ship as well as set up a sort of market for +the purveying to the local folk his varied plunder. For the coastwise +pirate, as distinguished from the pirate of the Kidd and Quelch school, +was simply a smuggler who stole his wares, and if you hyphenate him +thus, smuggler-pirate, you can separate him from the typical smuggler +who acquires his contraband lawfully in a cheaper market to run it past +the customs to a dearer market. + +It was to Cape Fear, then, that Bonnet came in the beginning of August +with his ship and two captive sloops, one of them being the _Francis_, +and it was here that toward the end of the next month Justice presented +her bill to him at the point of a cannon. + +Colonel Rhett, of Charlestown, was the agent of Justice in this +instance. Not long after Blackbeard had held up Charles Town for a +quantity of pills and plasters, as we have noticed, another rascal +tried the same trick but could not make it work. This fellow’s name was +Vane, sometimes called Vaughan, and quite a bad actor in his own way. + +Of all the citizens who sharply resented these piratical impertinences, +Colonel Rhett, a noted colonist, took it most to heart. On his own +initiative he fitted out as sloops-of-war two ships, the _Henry_, on +which he himself sailed, and the _Sea Nymph_, which he manned with many +“gentlemen of the town, animated with the same principle of zeal and +honor for our public safety, and the preservation of our trade.” + +Heartily seconded by Governor Johnson of South Carolina, who unlike +Governor Eden of North Carolina was a terror to pirates, Rhett’s +little fleet put out in pursuit of Vane; for Vane, seeing that his +plans had slipped, decided that he had better also slip. He slipped so +effectively that Rhett never came up with him. + +Since leaving Topsail Inlet with his recruits Bonnet had taken no less +than thirteen vessels, and word of this pirate had come to Charles +Town while Rhett was outfitting. Missing Vane, Rhett “and the rest of +the gentlemen were resolved not to return without doing some service +to their country, and therefore went in quest of a pirate they had +heard lay at Cape Fear.” There they certainly found their opportunity +of doing a public service and most commendably appropriated that +opportunity. + +At evening on September 26 the _Henry_ and the _Sea Nymph_ came to +Smith Island while daylight enough was left to show them the topmasts +of the pirate above a spit of land behind which the _Royal James_ lay. +They threw their anchors into the mud of the inlet and waited for +morning. At dusk three boatloads of armed men came out of the river and +coolly reconnoitered. Major Bonnet had spotted Colonel Rhett. + +All that night of late summer the Charles Town gentlemen could make out +the threats and persuasions of Bonnet and his officers driving on the +efforts of their crew in making ready for the morrow’s deadly debate, +which Bonnet, rather than surrendering, evidently chose to maintain. +The tide brimmed up the river from the Atlantic and was sucked back +again to those vast waters, yet it lulled no one to sleep on any of the +ships. + +All night the wind-blown torches and lanterns lit the work of the +pirates; all night the glare of them flickered and jumped beyond the +bump of land which separated the besiegers and the besieged. The +pirate sloop was like a warrior unbuckled and relaxing in his tent, +expecting no hostile surprise. Her deck was disorderly with bits of +cargo; barrels of rum, quarters of beef, hogsheads of molasses, all +to be cleared off for the free action of the guns. Her gear, too, was +probably at odds and ends in course of repair. + +The work of weeks had now to be punched up into the fleet hours of +one night, for when the dawn should come the _Royal James_ must be a +warrior harnessed and prepared. All night the men of the _Henry_ and +the _Sea Nymph_ lay at watch. + +Sun-up began the day of fate. Beyond the headlands which sheer above +the river, the east was bannered with yellow and purple and rose-pink; +a strong breeze blew directly from the land. The sails of the _Royal +James_ went up with the sun, the blocks and tackle creaking like a +flock of hungry gulls; the chains rattled with the hoisting of the +anchor. + +Bonnet had to fight two to one. His chance--and it was an approved +method of pirate strategy--was to get to open water and battle on the +run, broadsiding one or the other of his enemies but never permitting +both to get at him at once. + +The major had become quite a sailor now. He gathered all his men on +the _Royal James_ and left the two captured sloops with only Mr. +Killing and the other prisoners on board of them. The refusal of these +latter to aid him in his fight with Rhett was allowed to pass without +punishment. + +“Here they come!” + +Beyond the hummock the Charles Town men could see the masts of the +pirate, fully freighted with sail, running swiftly toward the point. +Bonnet was making a break for the sea. + +Rhett’s ships quivered with action. As the _Royal James_ thrust her +bowsprit into sight, the _Henry_ and the _Sea Nymph_ crowded down on +either of her quarters. + +They made it in time; Bonnet, dodging, was elbowed into the shore. If +the channel had been deep there, he might still have made it; but the +channel was shallow, and his ship thudded into the sandy bottom, and +there she lay, with her full suit of canvas tugging at the sticks until +they promised to snap. + +Rhett grinned and swung about, but he could not make it sharply enough, +and his satisfaction waned with the bump of his ship into the same +bottom that gripped his enemy. The _Sea Nymph_, also turning, likewise +found herself hard and fast ashore. + +Here then was the situation. The _Henry_ was grounded on the pirate’s +bow within pistol shot; the _Sea Nymph_ struck the sand out of range, +and there she stayed for the greater part of the fight, a spectator of +the struggle, unable to bear a part or give any help to the _Henry_. + +And Rhett’s flagship needed help. When she hit she slanted, but in +the same direction as the pirate had tilted, with the result, of +course, that she presented her unprotected deck squarely to Bonnet’s +broadsides, while the latter’s position offered more of his hull and +less of his deck to Rhett’s ordnance. + +For all of that, the South Carolinians gave the Barbados gentleman all +their ten guns at once with a smart peppering of small-arm fire. Bonnet +roared back with all of his pieces, smashing the _Henry’s_ deckwork and +reddening her scuppers. The Charles Town boys who stood by the guns on +that open, inclined deck of that Saturday morning, never letting the +fight flag for a moment, certainly passed the supreme physical test one +hundred per cent to the good. + +But there was to be another deciding element of the contest than +cannon balls, musketry or cutlasses. The tide, which was now turning +and flooding in, would award the victory. For whichever ship righted +herself first must have the critical advantage. + +The opponents must have known this from the first, and, of course, +the benefit of the tide being uncertain, each desperately strove to +finish the other and thus leave no chance to the arbitrament of Nature. +The mud flats disappeared beneath the oncoming waters; the lower +islands sank from sight; the battling ships jerked now and then with +the powerful tug of the stream at their hulls, and with the rising of +the river crammed more shot into the hot guns till the smoke burned +the eyelids of the fighters red, and ten good men lay in the shocked +attitudes of death on the _Henry’s_ decks, and eighteen wounded groaned +in her hold. Seven of Bonnet’s crew had signed on with the real +skull-and-bones flag. + +The tide came swirling in. High noon gave place to afternoon; the +moment of decision was at hand. One or other of the ships would gain +her keel in a few minutes. Which would it be? + +It was the _Henry_. Bonnet, who had fought supremely, saw with vehement +despair the yards of his enemy tilting up, while he himself lay in +the sand inert and helpless. He rushed with his pistol cocked to the +magazine of powder thus to make the grand finish, but his men threw +themselves upon him to restrain his rash and horrible act, while one of +them jumped in the shrouds and waved the white flag of the conquered. + +Rhett boarded and chained up some thirty men, including their leader, +and after repairing the _Henry_ set out for home. The public service +had been rendered--by the tide. + +Charles Town went wild with excitement, though not exactly in the way +they mean who keep this tired phrase in currency. When Rhett came in +laden with pirate prisoners and convoying the _Royal James_ and the two +sloops captured by that ship, the _Fortune_ and the _Francis_, he was +the hero of one faction in town and the villain of the other. + +Friends of piracy in general and the personal acquaintances of the +enchained pirates in particular shared a common indignation. They +must have been numerous, for they promised to liberate the prisoners +or burn the city to the foundation blocks. Bonnet, as was fitting +for a gentleman who happened to be a criminal, was locked up in the +residence of the marshal, while the baser fellows were thrown into the +watch-house, there being no jail in the town at that time. + +The fashion of the port went out to look at the ships. The _Henry_ +was all knocked about, while the _Royal James_--whose name had +been immediately changed back to _Revenge_ by a proper patriotic +gesture--had not much more than a chipped hull. + +If the ships had not grounded as they did Bonnet would have been +against overwhelming odds. The _Henry_ had eight guns and seventy men; +the _Sea Nymph_ had the same number of cannon and sixty men. Bonnet +fought with ten guns and about fifty men. + +But the sticking of the ships had made his chance more even, for in +that situation he commanded two more guns than did Rhett, and the +latter’s slight excess of men was more than canceled by the bad slant +of his deck, with its consequent openness to the enemy’s cannonade. + +Before the trouble in town could blaze into tumult, the pirates were +put to trial in the Vice-Admiralty Court, presided over by Judge Trott. +Bonnet, however, did not stand among them; by bribing with a free palm +he had escaped and was at that moment fleeing up the coast in a small +boat, to the great scandal of all lovers of good government. + +The trial was brief and characteristic of the times. The defendants, +without counsel as was usual, feebly pleaded that Bonnet had deceived +them at Topsail Inlet into sailing with him. Ignatius Pell, boatswain +of the _Royal James_, turned state’s evidence, and other witnesses were +Mr. Killing, whom we have quoted, and the captain of the _Francis_ and +the captain of the _Fortune_. + +There could not be a doubt of their guilt and in that age not a doubt +of their fate; they were sentenced to be hanged by a judge who preached +at and denounced them in the vigorous fashion of the Elizabethan +courts. In less than one week all but three or four who had proved +compulsory service were executed at old White Point, near the present +beautiful promenade. + +One cheerful ray lightened the black misery of their situation: Stede +Bonnet was recaptured. “He was the great ringleader of them,” said +the prosecuting attorney, “who had seduced many poor, ignorant men to +follow his course of living, and ruined many poor wretches; some of +whom lately suffered, who with their last breath expressed a great +satisfaction at the prisoner’s (Bonnet) being apprehended, and charged +the ruin of themselves and loss of their lives entirely upon him.” + +Colonel Rhett had again been the fate of Major Bonnet. After Bonnet’s +flight from the marshal’s home, Rhett went after him and ran him down +on a little island near the city. Heriot, sometime shipmaster for the +major, was shot in the short scrimmage, and his employer again brought +to Charles Town in manacles. + +They tried Stede Bonnet in the same court and the same fashion and +with the same evidence as they had his crew. He was tried on two +indictments, one for taking the _Francis_ and the other for taking the +_Fortune_. + +To both he pleaded not guilty and was first tried on the affair of the +_Francis_. He stood up for himself in good shape; but the facts, as +well as the court, crushed him. He claimed, as Captain Kidd had claimed +some years before in a similar fix, that a mutinous crew drove him +protesting into these criminal courses. He explained that the only +piracy he had ever been in was when with Captain Thatch. One wonders +how much the mutinous crew, as alleged, had to exert themselves to +persuade an old Blackbeard man to steal a fat ship or two. + +A curious little circumstance comes up in this trial. Pell, the +boatswain, in answer to a question, said Bonnet was in command of the +ship, “but the quartermaster had more power than he,” adding that the +quartermaster took charge of the loot and sometimes divided it. One +wonders if the crew did not have a great deal more to say about things +than would be supposed, tolerating Bonnet as a business manager. + +Bonnet might have come down as a somewhat romantic person, but the +nerve he had always shown, even in his trial, broke at the last; and +when on December 18 he was hanged in the same place as his followers +had been, he was almost senseless from fear. Thus in a miserable huddle +he left a stage on which he had not been too modest, on which he had +even swaggered. + +This is all the story of one summer. The blockade of Charles Town by +Blackbeard had happened in May of 1718, and December of the same year +saw the end of Stede Bonnet. And to Bonnet, as to his men, there came a +spark of joy before he went to the rope--and that was the news that his +old superior, Blackbeard, had died upon the cutlass on November 22. + + + VII + +Abdicating the high estate of admiral and breaking up his fleet, +leaving a part of it, as we have seen, to roll as wreckage on the tides +of Topsail Inlet, Blackbeard came back to Ocracoke and a lazy summer. + +Perhaps it was during these thoughtful, meditative days that he +persuaded a young lady to become his fourteenth wife for there is +record of a merry marriage at which Governor Eden himself condescended +to appear as a well-wishing guest and give the occasion the suitable +air to promote the new Mrs. Blackbeard’s social fortunes. At the feast +a good deal of somebody else’s rum, somebody else’s victuals and +somebody else’s money were laid under contribution. Governor Eden, +however, had a peculiarly happy detachment to the minor questions of +somebody else’s property. That phase of his disposition doubly endeared +him to his pirate friend. + +But the gold pieces that he sent spinning dwindled anon; little Toby +Knight began to bore him and even the Governor commenced to get on +his nerves. Respectable shore life was entirely too much for him, so +Blackbeard again yearned for the reeling decks and the roar of his +bully boys. With a laudable regard for the proprieties, he gave out +that he was putting to sea again on a “commercial venture,” and even +registered his ship at the local customs house. + +“Salvage,” he murmured, looking intently into little Toby’s honest +face; pressing the secretary’s round, fat hand in farewell. + +“Salvage,” grinned Toby, glad to get even the friendly grip of the sea +monster released, and instinctively rubbing his hand slyly on the tails +of his flaring coat. + +Still delicate, Blackbeard waited until the land faded into the sea +line behind him ere, with the feeling that he had had a pleasant +vacation and was glad to get back to work again, he threw out his +sinister ensign,--the flag of skull and bones. Blackbeard was himself +again. + +And now there happened that which many of the crew had often fearfully +predicted,--the Devil came aboard Blackbeard’s ship. + +The weather had been threatening for some time, and now, on a late +afternoon, the great ocean heaved murmurously beneath the bows. In +the rigging the wind fretted and complained, shrilly and more shrilly +as though the white-green tumult of the waters was disturbing it; in +the cabin below the dark horror of delirium tremens was falling upon +the bearded master. On the decks, the mate--doubtless the effective +Mr. Richards--stripped his ship for the approaching combat and drove +his men aloft into the swaying yards. Now and then Blackbeard, still +the sailor, reeled on his cabin threshold and blurted insane orders +to the gale. Whereat Mr. Richards, well accustomed to the storms of +wind and waves and delirious masters, slammed the door in his face and +laughingly went about his work. + +Palely the day expired in the west, and as though they had only been +waiting for the night, wind and water strengthened to the struggle and +now persuaded a third element, the rain, to join them in the conspiracy +of destruction. These three witches began to make the cauldron boil. + +Mr. Richards still laughed; his sails were in and he was with the +helmsman, sweating to keep the vessel from a fatal lurch. + +“What’s that sound?” gasped the steersman to his officer, leaning +full weight to his work. Forward they could see nothing but the black +void and a white wash of sea where their decks and bowsprit should +ordinarily be, nor could look in that direction long for the whips of +rain with which the screaming winds lashed them. + +“The wind,” hollered Richards, bending close to be heard. + +The steersman shook his head. “No--that!” he shouted. + +The gale paused in one of those lulls by which it seems to recover for +a effort of fresh fury. And in the second of quietness there rose and +fell a long, horrible scream of inhuman defiance. Richards grinned +and pointed with his finger below. Blackbeard was wrestling with the +principalities and powers of darkness. + +“Who’s that?” bellowed the steersman, his momentary reassurance flown. +His face was turned with a gaze of inexpressible fear at the gleaming, +plunging masts. “There--there--” + +Richards peered in the rain-whipped night; peered and shrank back, his +mouth open wide and his eyes protruding. He rallied, pulled out a heavy +wooden pin from the ship’s side and started forward. Within ten paces +of the main-mast he stopped, and gathering his strength, hurled the pin +with all his force crashingly against the mast. The pin fell into an +invading sea and was whirled overboard. But the Thing stood, dark and +sinister. + +Richards felt the ship getting beyond control of the cowering helmsman. +He rushed back in time to save them from ruin; the man had dropped to +the deck, a bundle of abject fright. While the mate was still calling +for help, the boatswain crawled up on hands and knees and turned an +ashen face to his superior. + +“There’s a strange man,” he shouted as loudly as a quavering voice +would permit, indicating with a backward jerk of his thumb. “Aloft--” + +The Thing was moving about the yards; there was a sort of solid +blackness to It that somehow made It visible even against its somber +background. + +Turning the helm over to the boatswain, the mate rushed below for his +pistol, but when he came back to the deck the Thing was gone. + +Richards laughed thinly. “The Devil’s signed on with us, boys!” + +“Then that’s the end o’ us,” groaned the boatswain. + +But the fact that a New Hand was on the ship if not on her articles was +not immediately disastrous. For very shortly after that vivid night, +Blackbeard, recovered now of his bout, met and took a very fine French +ship, which was in so excellent a condition that to call it “salvage” +was indeed the very subtlest of piratical jokes. + +And the joke was made good, too, when, taking her at once into +Ocracoke, His Excellency, with little hesitation, gave her captor a +certificate of salvage, accepting as his fee for the certificate some +sixty hogsheads of sugar. What the Governor did not use, Toby Knight +obligingly allowed to be stored in the Knight barn. + +This was the final straw that caused the proverbial fatal accident to +the camel. North Carolina, at the end of patience, now flared up, and, +ignoring her own corrupt authorities, appealed to the capable Alexander +Spotswood, Governor of Virginia, for the extermination of the pest of +Ocracoke Inlet. + +Virginia heard and responded and despatched Captain Brand and +Lieutenant Maynard, each in command of a small ship of war, to the +Carolina coast in quest of Blackbeard. + +Brand and Maynard appreciated the size of their job, so they gathered +into their crews picked men who were volunteering for the duty, and +who would be likely to keep the same zestful lookout for the oncoming +terror as does a whaler in fat and profitable fishing grounds for the +dark bulk which shall fill all his barrels with oil. + +They reached Pamlico Sound, of which Ocracoke Inlet is a part, toward +the evening of November 21, and with jumping pulses spotted the masts +of the black beast as he lay in wait for prey. Blackbeard was surprised +just as Bonnet had been, and like Bonnet spent the night in getting +ready for battle. + +The Virginians had to lie outside the inlet all night and wait for +the morning to light them through the risky channels. When next day +they sailed in, Blackbeard, knowing the soundings, was able to make +the running-fight pirate tactics prescribed for such emergencies, and +blasted Brand and Maynard with his broadsides; and though steeped to +the eyebrows in rum, he was at all times the adept and finished sailor. + +But the enemy were getting at him, too, and his decks were cluttered +with the slain. He was undermanned, having only some twenty men at the +time, so that his losses from the attackers’ fire left him but a sparse +crew to work his ship and man eight guns, as well as keep going an +effective musketry volleying. There was left but one resource, and that +was hand-to-hand conflict. + +He got within grappling distance of Maynard’s ship, and with his usual +ferocity of appearance and manner threw himself and his surviving men +into the Virginian’s rigging, and plunged, demoniacally fighting, to +the decks. For a second the pirates shook their enemy with the shock +of the impact, but not long; with that roaring vigor which gave the +English-speaking sailors their dominion of the oceans of the world, +Maynard’s men rallied and an indescribable butchering ensued. + +Blackbeard made for the commander, and Maynard met him with equal +courage and the added strength which the moral side of the matter +always lends a warrior’s arm. The arch-pirate’s body was open at more +than twenty places; but on those heaving, blood-wet decks he fought the +lieutenant with the verve of an athlete fresh for the field. A sudden +chance and he thrust a cocked pistol straight into his opponent’s +chest, but before the finger could pull the trigger back, Maynard laid +the cutlass squarely across the pirate’s throat. He sank to the deck +like a slaughtered bull. + +It was all over. Those pirates who could, leaped over the bulwarks and +swam to the shore, leaving a red trail in the water behind them. + +[Illustration: He fought the lieutenant with the verve of an athlete +fresh for the field.] + +Twilight came down on the sea. Beneath the shallow waters the +bodies of the slain quivered with the motion of the waves as if they +were still alive and still struggling, and among them was the headless +corpse of Blackbeard. + +For that terrible head was hung at the bowsprit of Maynard’s ship. All +the way back to Virginia the gruesome figurehead swung and dipped and +ducked with the movements of the vessel; the ocean pounded and played +with it and twisted that strange beard into more fantastic shapes +than Blackbeard had ever dreamed of, weaving into it the weeds and +slime-flora of the sea, and for a last touch washed from their sockets +the baleful eyes which glared in the fixed glassiness of death. + + + + + CHAPTER FOUR + + BACK PAY + + Henry Avery + + + I + +Just outside of Plymouth, in the English county of Devonshire, John +Avery kept a tavern, under the patronage for the most part of coastwise +and deep-sea sailormen. It was a comfortable place, was that inn of +good Master Avery, with its sanded floor, diamond-paned windows, clean +tankards, and the good ale and victuals that made the house synonymous +with home for the parched mariner off in Malabar or his brother +expectantly bumping homeward-bound around the bulk of Africa’s majestic +cape. + +A good place with a good landlord, but, alas for perfect pleasure, +with a landlady not so good. For while mine host endeavored to drink +as much as his customer, leaving the score an amicable affair between +gentlemen, mine hostess tallied every drink and clawed every broad +penny laid upon the table. And how incompatible boozing and bookkeeping +are, every one may be presumed to know. + +Jack and his wife had one child, a boy whom they called Harry. Perhaps +it was for the sake of her son that Mistress Avery was careful to +parsimoniousness, for the parents were resolved that Harry should +neither follow the sea nor pursue the occupation of a tavern keeper; +he was to be a scholar and a gentleman and thus raise the family at +least one higher rung on the social ladder. A straw, it is said by wise +people, may show which way the wind blows, and a circumstance which +occurred when Harry Avery was but six years old may perhaps suggest his +possible fulfillment of his parents’ hopes. + +For it was when Harry was of those tender years that the ship _Revenge_ +paid off at Plymouth, the boatswain of which, at the head of some +proper fellows, at once started for Avery’s tavern, to drink up a stout +wallet of extra allowance money. With Jack Avery’s company and Mrs. +Avery’s accounting they soon got through with ten pounds apiece. + +During the sailormen’s besotted sojourn at the tavern little Harry +gamboled impishly among them, swinging sea slang back and forth with +them, dancing a mimic hornpipe and convulsing them with the expert +manipulation of the most approved sea swearing. They prophesied that he +would make a good sailor. + +Unhappily all this cheeriness departed with their last groat. Mistress +Avery turned sour then and bade them begone or she would turn in a +riot call to the constable. Night was falling when the groggy seamen +piled out to the chilly street to seek the shelter of the gloomy +_Revenge_. + +But that ship, alas, was not in the harbor. They huddled together and +stared first at the vacant harbor and then at each other. Marooned, by +tar! + +They tacked back to Jack Avery’s, but that gentleman’s shrewish wife +met them at the door with the sharp refusal of even a poor night’s +lodging in the stable. Little Harry, in the prettiest way, interceded +for these interesting strangers, but in vain; they had to warm +themselves as best they might by stamping through the town the whole +night long. + +With the morning, however, the _Revenge_ came back, and the boatswain +led his now embittered flock to the waterside. On their way they were +met by little Harry Avery, nimble and frolicsome as ever. He followed +them to the boat which had put off from the ship to fetch them, and +wished loudly that he might go aboard and away with them. + +Whereupon the boatswain had a happy thought. Pushing back his +three-cornered hat, he scratched his mahogany forehead in deep +reflection. Why not take the boy aboard and thus get even with the +hard-hearted Mrs. Avery? Everybody roared with glee when this scheme of +revenge was broached. Harry was pulled by a great fist into the boat, +and his sea adventures were begun. + +Safely on their way to the American plantations and well out of sight +of land, the boatswain produced his kidnapped pal, who apparently +accounted the whole thing the very best joke in the world. For a moment +the captain glowered down on his peculiar passenger; but when Harry +showed how he could roll out two oaths to the boatswain’s one, his fare +was paid, and the captain looked upon him almost with affection. + +So bright a little blackguard was Harry that he stole more and more +into the grim captain’s heart and twined his wicked little fingers +still more firmly about the skipper’s starved emotions. A tiny hammock +was made for him close by the captain’s bunk; he was allowed the run of +the ship, and the cook was admonished to keep for him the least weevily +or oaken portions of the menu. It was a charming sight to see the small +chap, perched on a coil of rope, in blasphemous competition with the +admiring skipper. + +There is no telling how far this friendship might have gone, or whether +the captain of the _Revenge_ might not even have adopted him for his +own son, had not an incident, as they neared Carolina, severed the +comradeship sharply in two. Harry was caught in the act of putting a +lighted match to the powder magazine; just an inch more and the ship +would have been nothing but a few broken spars and gratings drifting +haphazardly upon the sands of the Carolina beach. + +The captain turned nasty right away. He banished his little pet into +the hold, down among the bilge and the rats, and kept him there +till they made port. Rather unkindly he gave the boy to a Carolina +planter,--unkindly, of course, not to the boy. + +It took the planter three years--for he was a man of monumental +patience--fully to realize the nature of the gift; and as he could not +wish Harry off on anybody in the colony, the boy’s talents being pretty +commonly known, he did the best thing he could and sent him back to +England. + +Old Jack Avery had died soon after the boy’s leaving England,--some +said of a broken heart. What contact Harry made with his mother is not +recorded, but it has become a matter of history that young Avery grew +up a rogue, and at length, finding the land too hot for him, sought the +cool and obscure promenades of his first element,--the sea. + +If he belonged anywhere it was to the sea. He even qualified as a +navigator with the rank of first mate. In the sixteen-hundred and +nineties, the Spanish Government made a bargain with some English +merchants to hire coast-guard ships for its troubled South American +colonies. Sir James Houblon and several others outfitted a couple of +brigs, the _Charles the Second_ and the _James_, for the Spaniard’s +business, and it was on the former that Avery was signed as first mate. + +Thereafter things came about which made a matter for the King’s court +of Old Bailey, sitting in admiralty. Among the persons involved was an +ancient mariner by the name of William May, who on his trial has left +us a story of the wickedness of Mr. Avery. Unfortunately Harry Avery +was not brought to account for his crime, nor, so far as we are aware, +for any piracy, but slips from the pages of history with these things +unrecorded, probably to end his life as one, not the least evil, among +the buccaneering hordes of the Caribbean. + + + II + +Look at the sad plight of me, old Bill May, for thirty-five years in +the service of my king and country! Here I lie in the hold of Newgate +Gaol, condemned for a pirate and a-tremble like a loose sail in a gale +of wind every time the sheriff comes in to read off the list of those +appointed for the day to die. + +My right forefinger and the top of my thumb I lost just thirty year +ago when Admiral Tiddiman fought the Dutch in the harbor of Bergen. On +the _Hector_, Captain John Cuttle’s ship, I was. We ran afoul a Dutch +broadside, and down we went like a tub with a grindstone in it. Only +a score of us came up again, and me, with my maimed hand, had to swim +more than an hour for my life. + +A man who has given his limbs for his country to be stretched at +Execution Dock with no more to do than if he were a common picklock! +Ah! what a port has old Bill May’s ship come to at last! + +It does not become a man who has fought for England to whine at the +king’s court. But charity begins at home; and from a kindness to the +respectable name of May I am taking a quill in my fist to set out in +order the things that brought me here--and shouldn’t have--which +things the lawyers confabulated me out of properly telling at my trial. + +The way the long-gowns[1] talked you would have thought they and not we +were the ones to be hanged. Begging everybody’s pardon, I ask who ought +to do the most talking--accuser or accused? + +[1] Lawyers. + +His Lordship, Judge Holt--who was master of the court--was pretty fair, +but those king’s counsel blasted the whole dozen or more judges with +words, words, words, till I looked to see them all blown through the +wall of Old Bailey--and the big bench with ’em. Half the time those +lawyers didn’t speak a man’s English, but yammered in a foreign tongue, +calling us names we knew not what. Some of it sounded to me like +Portugee.[2] Jack Sparkes[3] swore from keel to truck it was Irish. But +when we came to talk, how was it then? + +[2] Law-latin: “_Hostes humanis generis_”, etc. + +[3] A co-defendant. + +“Speak to the point, my man.” + +And, “What have you more to say?” + +If we had had anything to saw, how could we have said it with no lawyer +to pilot us over the law language and to throw outlandish words back at +our prosecutors? + +Nay, more. From jury to judges they were all land crabs. Asks Judge +Holt-- + +“What do you mean by ‘conning a ship?’” + +Begging their honors’ pardon, I ask, Could that be a fair trial for +sailormen? A baby at the breast ought to know that conning a ship is +a-steering of her. + +Did I have to ship on the _Charles the Second_? Was I pressed? Never +has the press-gang picked up old Bill May when he was sober. How often +have I led the gang myself! Who was it grabbed half a score knock-kneed +apprentices for the _Hector_ and other of the king’s ships under +Admiral Tiddiman? Only Bill May, the pirate. + +No, indeed. Captain Brake of the _Wave_, East Indiaman, was begging +me to voyage with him to Calicut, but I said, “No, here is Sir James +Houblon outfitting _costa-gardas_ for the Spanish South Americas; +here,” said I, “is where they need men who can keep an edge to a +cutlass, and where I am wanted there I always try to be.” + +I was wanted at Bergen against the Dutch thirty year ago, and there I +was--as witness my finger and thumb. + +Very well, then; here is the start of the affair. + +Mr. Don Spaniard could not keep a strong hand on the pirate people +himself over in South America, so he comes to England to hire ships +and men to go out and help clean his coasts of those pests. Sir +James Houblon and some other merchants strike a bargain with Mr. Don +Spaniard, and fit out the _Charles the Second_ and the _James_. + +I was lying alongshore getting my mind ready to sign with Master Brake +on the _Wave_ when I heard this Spanish affair talked about in the +“Pig’s Head”, Bristol. As I say, Bill May is never too old to fight on +a good side, so I made for the docks straightway and offered myself +to Mr. Gibson, master of the _Charles the Second_. An old Navy man he +was, and knew me in the past, so he gave me his hand and the rating of +quartermaster. + +Henry Every[4] was first mate under Captain Gibson, and Mr. Gravet was +second mate. A new man to me was Every, but a pleasant, merry one, +about forty years old. Not even, though, in his mind. Why he would +stand by me while I was at the whipstaff[5] and make me laugh like +to throttle myself at the quips that came from him as shot from a +well-greased ten-pounder. But a minute later he would be cursing the +sea, ships, sailormen and his own hard luck. Time and again he said to +me-- + +[4] Old spelling for Avery. + +[5] Helm. + +“I’m a man of fortune, and my fortune I’m going to make.” + +Queerlike, he spoke, and queerlike I took it. But I never dreamed he +was meaning to do a mischief to make his fortune. + +Born for the sea he was, and knew a ship like you know the palm of your +hand. Hard, too, he could be; I have seen him knock a man to the deck +and never leave off laughing. + +Strange laugh he had; up in the back of the nose, as it were, and +panting like--sort of a snorting. Between us, though, there was no +trouble; Henry Every always said I was the properest quartermaster he +ever shipped with. He couldn’t bear Gravet; they did not hitch, though +nothing outwardly passed from one to the other. + +Our orders were first for the Groyne[6] in Spain, there to get +instructions and supplies. The _Charles the Second_ and the _James_ +left England in the autumn of 1693, and about the new year following +we dropped our anchors in the Spanish port. Bad weather had made a job +of slow sailing and hard pumping all across the Bay of Biscay, but we +cheered ourselves with promises of ease when we should come to the +Groyne. + +[6] Old name for Corunna. + +All hands had four months’ wages due them when we came to port, but not +a mother’s son of us could get a penny piece from the commander. The +Spaniard is as sluggish in money matters as a waterlogged ship with a +broken mast. + +There grew to be a lot of hard feeling on both ships, and the two +captains, Gibson and Humphries, were much pestered to their faces and +much abused behind their backs. I could not see how they were to blame, +but they were the only ones the men could look to for their pay and so +they had to bear the siege. January came and went; February came and +went, March came and went, and April likewise; and not a smell did we +get of coin, either Spanish or English. + +The sailors at length quit going ashore to be jeered for their poverty +and taunted for their misfortune, but moped about the decks and fought +with one another, and altogether got to a mischievous turn of mind. +Every and Gravet gave plenty of way to each other, while as for my old +commander, Captain Gibson, he broke with the worry of it all and took +sick to his cabin. Little winds blow ships into strange ports; if the +Don had met us with our pay old Bill May’s neck would never have been +hauled upon like a mainsail. + + + III + +If the men had a friend among the officers, it was Mr. Every. I thought +to see him turn sour with this slow making of his fortune, but not he; +the farther into the doldrums we got, the higher he flew his topsails. +He praised and petted the crew, spent some money on them, went ashore +with them and even made chief cronies of a dozen or so, of whom I am +sorry to say that some of my fellows in this condemned hold were a part. + +He loitered, too, a good deal over on the _James_, which barnacled a +few lengths from us, and made as good friends there as he did on his +own ship. When the month of May began, there was always a confabulation +going forward, with Mr. Every in the middle of it and certain chosen +ones about him. And all the time my old commander lay grievously sick +in his bed. + +How could I have any idea Mr. Every was stewing a mutiny? Yet so he +was. On the 30th of May, in the year 1694, I was at evening in my +cabin, thinking of home and wishing I had my wages to send to my poor, +good wife at Bristol. At between ten and eleven of the night I felt the +ship move. + +“Ho!” thinks I. “What does this mean?” + +I rushed out in my shirt and stockings to the under deck and from there +up the hatchway. The wind hit me full in the face, and I could see the +lights of town dropping astern. + +I stuck my head up over the hatchway; there was Every conning the ship. + +“Breakers ahead!” thought I. “Yaw away, old Bill May, afore you strike.” + +Every saw me at that minute. + +“You, May,” he roared, nasty, “I believe you do not love this way; get +down to your cabin.” + +But see what the king’s evidence said about me. One Creagh, a dirty +wretch, and now a prisoner right in this gaol for treason with Captain +Vaughan, and one time aboard the _Charles the Second_, witnessed that +at this going-off of the ship, “I met with William May, the prisoner at +the bar. ‘What do you do here?’ says he. I made him no answer but went +down to my cabin, and May swore at me and said, ‘You deserve to be shot +through the head,’ and he held a pistol at my head.” + +Can you imagine a man who has fought for his king and country being a +party to the crime of stealing the ship of a fellow subject? Not only +that. The ship’s carpenter was a ringleader with Mr. Every in this +insurrection, and Creagh--may he be eaten alive with weevils--swore the +carpenter said in his hearing-- + +“Old May I can trust with anything; he is a true cock of the old game +and an old sportsman.” + +Was ever such a farrago told in a king’s court? + +Me, an old bird at the pirate game--me, an old sportsman--me, who +would not demean myself to wipe my boots on that carpenter’s neck! Sam +Parsons, who is now in Virginia, was standing by when Every drove me to +my cabin, and he would swear to my truth. + +But does the king call him? Nay. But such treasonable scandalizers +as Creagh--they get the run of the deck. Would the king, begging his +Majesty’s pardon, bring a witness from Virginia to save a poor sailor’s +life? Ask him! + +I could not stay down in the cabin for thinking of my old commander and +what might be happening to him. I almost cried for my old commander. +At the risk of my head I went to his cabin. Two men stood guard at the +door with naked cutlasses; I begged leave to go in, and at length they +allowed me. + +Oh, my poor old commander! He was red with fever, and the chirurgeon +was anointing his temples. He got out of bed and began to dress +himself, with me there to lend him a steadying hand. + +“Ah, faithful May--” he was saying, when in came Mr. Every, smelling of +grog, and with a most impudent look. + +“I am a man of fortune, Captain,” he said, making a bow, “and my +fortune I must seek.” + +“I am sorry this happens at this time,” said my poor old commander. + +“Come with us, Captain, and you shall still have the command,” replied +Mr. Every. + +Says Captain Gibson: + +“No. I never thought you would have served me so, who have been kind to +all of you; and to go on a design against my owner’s orders I will not +do it.” + +“Then,” said Mr. Every, “prepare to go ashore.” + +What honest sailorman would not be plowed in his feelings by his old +commander’s plight? Should I have been ashamed though my tears dropped +upon the captain’s trembling hand? He looked kindly upon me as I stood +there still in my shirt and stockings. + +“Go, faithful May,” he said at last. “Nothing will avail now.” + + + IV + +I went back to the deck to get my bearings. From one and another, so +far as the tumult which was on the ship permitted, I made out that the +taking of the _Charles the Second_ was in this wise: + +Mr. Every, using the common grief about the wages to serve his turn, +made fellow-plotters of some score of men, both in the _Charles the +Second_ and the _James_. The night having been picked out on the +calendar, it was agreed that at a given time by the clock one from the +_Charles the Second_ should go to the _James_ and say that the _Charles +the Second_ was being run off. The officers of the _James_, it was +expected, would order out the pinnace in pursuit, when the friends +of Mr. Every were to crowd forward, fill the boat, and make for the +_Charles the Second_, where instead of arresting her they would turn +to and haul together with their companion miscreants of the _Charles +the Second_, who in the meantime would have seized the ordnance and +ammunitions aboard our ship. The cables of the _Charles the Second_ +were to be cut, all but two of her boats turned adrift, and her sails +shaken out loose. + +Things went smoothly according to plan. At nine o’clock one went from +the _Charles the Second_ to the _James_. At the head of the gangway of +that ship he found Mr. Druit, mate, on watch. Says he to Mr. Druit-- + +“Have you seen the drunken boatswain of ours aboard your ship?” + +“No,” says Mr. Druit. “Isn’t he aboard of you?” + +“Nay,” said the villain conspirator; “he’s not aboard, but mischief is.” + +He leaned close to the mate and whispered-- + +“They’re running off with the _Charles the Second_.” + +At once Mr. Druit bellowed for the pinnace to be got out, which, of +course, merely gave the ruffians their cue. Twenty-six men, laden with +their hammocks and sea gear, immediately rushed forth and manned the +pinnace. + +“Here--here--” cries Mr. Druit, seeing a wicked game going; but the +rascals had their oars in the water and made off in the dark, swearing +and singing. + +Thereupon Captain Humphries, of the _James_, rushed to the rail and +shouted through his speaking-trumpet that his boat was being stolen, to +which Mr. Every, likewise through a trumpet, impertinently answered he +knew that well enough. So they came to our ship and knotted themselves +together with our rascals. + +No sooner had the runaways from the _James_ thrown their hammocks to +our deck than light sail was set, and we stood out of the harbor, this +being the motion which had first brought me a-running from my cabin. At +eleven o’clock the topsail was braced back, and we lay to. Mr. Every, +who now called himself captain, sent word about the ship that certain +ones were free to leave in the pinnace of the _James_ if so they chose. +Men of spirit, he said, would stay by the ship and collect their back +pay. And he laughed. + + + V + +Right here is the kernel of the case. Did Mr. Every pick the men who +should go ashore if they wanted, or was that liberty given to any one? +If Mr. Every picked out the people to go, then we who stayed were kept +against our wills, and are innocent; if we could have gone and did not, +then we are guilty. + +We had been acquitted on our first trial for piracy of the ship +_Gunsway_, and I am talking now about our second trial, of which the +theft of the _Charles the Second_ was made the charge. Hence the king +must prove that we were parties to this latter crime. All the king’s +evidence swore that any man might go who would,--except the doctor; all +of us prisoners at the bar stuck to it that none could leave but by Mr. +Every’s say-so. + +And whom did the king call? + +Creagh. This fellow was one who left the ship when the boat went away +for shore. Was he therefore a good, an upright, an honorable man? If +he had been, would he have associated himself afterward with Captain +Vaughan and gone over to the king’s enemies with Vaughan’s ship, for +which very crime he lies manacled with us? How truthful must he be! + +Gravet. He too went from our ship; but he was so busy at his going, +begging Mr. Every to let him take his sea coffer and his clothes, that +he had no means of marking much else that went on. How then did he find +time to know so much about my deportment? Says he-- + +“When we had liberty to go out of the ship, this man May took me by the +hand and wished me well home, and bid me remember him to his wife; and +was very merry and jocund, and knew whither they were going.” + +Merry and jocund, and a knowing accomplice! What proof had he that I +knew whither we were going? Who but Mr. Every and his ring knew that? + +Creagh and Gravet, these two are all that went to the matter of my part +in the plot, and Creagh may be discounted for a born liar, trying to +serve his ends in his pending treason trial by convicting honest men, +while Gravet--even if he told the fact concerning our parting--offered +no proof beyond his thin statement that I “knew whither they were +going.” Yet when you get down to the bone, I was convicted and handed +to the hangman on those five words. + +But, say some, how can you explain your being on a mutiny ship, stolen +and making off for sea? I claim that Sam Parsons can bear me out +touching Mr. Every and me, but Parsons is in Virginia; and there, for +all the king cares, he may stay. + +Alas! + +My poor old commander, Captain Gibson, was lifted into the pinnace, +where some seventeen or eighteen men were already gone, and who, when +we had tossed them a bailing bucket they cried for, shoved off for town. + +Let me ask any man of fair mind this question: How could a hundred men, +had they wanted, have gone off in a ship’s pinnace? + +When the boat had left we began the business of the ship and, hauling +into the wind, made haste to leave those parts. I was deposed from +quartermaster and a willing villain put at the whipstaff in my stead. +More than half of us knew nothing but that we must be upon unlawful +occasions. + +The ship thieves were not fifty men, all tallied; yet with their +control of our ordnance, fusees and small arms they could terrify the +remaining hundred people into obedience to their horrid designs. Less +than one in ten aboard could read and write, being for the more part +ignorant seamen, easily deceived and commanded. Not only did Mr. Every +and his wicked fellows steal a ship, but they kidnapped a crew. + + + VI + +When we sailed from the Groyne we had a deal of bread and a couple of +hundred pair of woolen stockings; but, wanting beef and more bread, +we stood for the Madeira Islands. The evil disposition of Mr. Every +quickly showed its true kind, for we were sent aboard three English +ships which lay at the islands and looted them under the pretense +of giving receipts for the things we took, with promises of future +payment. Mr. Every laughed a great deal at this. + +So too he laughed at our operations on the coast of Guinea, whither we +went from the Madeiras. We sailed into Guinea Gulf under English colors +solely to entice the poor, trusting negroes of the country aboard, who, +when they came supposing we were to trade with them, were despoiled of +their golden trinkets and thrown, chained together, into our hold. + +These captives we took from the mainland over to Prince’s Island, in +the gulf, and marketed them with Dutch settlers. When it came to bring +them up on deck we found the dead and the living sometimes chained +together. It was a very great horror. + +Being now a proper pirate, Mr. Every at this Prince’s Island fought +two Dane ships. We fair surprised them, not a few of their men being +alongshore. We ran to leeward of the larger one and, opening our ports, +bit into him with twenty guns, the blow of our shot shaking two Danes +out of the shrouds to their deck, like a couple of ripe plums from a +tree. With good spirit the merchantmen made what shift they might with +their half-dozen small pieces, but a musket shot killing the captain of +the one we first attacked, both ships gave in. + +Our brave show and talk so affected some of these Danes that a score +of them signed on with Mr. Every. Our one broadside so damaged the +Danish brig that Mr. Every set her afire, and we stood by, watching +the burning and cheering whenever a canister of powder blew up, Mr. +Every standing on our poop, the red of the flames glaring on his face, +nodding his head and laughing with himself. + +The smaller vessel we took with us, Mr. Every expecting to make himself +a great admiral at the head of a great pirate fleet, though for sure +it smirches the noble dignity of that honored title to give it to a +miscreant so black. + +Many folk--not a few of them of the highest fashion--have come to +Newgate Gaol to see the notorious Captain Every’s men, as if forsooth +our feet were cleft like a goat’s or horns were hid beneath our +forelocks. Some of these have said it was not ingenuous for us who +served by compulsion thus to engage in these villainous combats and +sinful traffickings with slaves. Why, say they, did you not flee from +Mr. Every at the first chance and return to England to make discovery +of his crimes? + +There was no first, middle or last chance. + +And what a ship it was! In place of discipline there was a disorder +very afflicting to an old king’s man. Each man counted himself the +equal of the other, and although Mr. Every was a hard man and quick to +strike, he was submitted to only because he was a navigator, and none +could take the ship so well as he. + +But he could make no general move without having first a consult in +which all hands took part until the confabulation sounded like a tree +full of crows. We called a vote on everything,--the next place for +depredation, the punishment of offenses aboard ship and the amount of +plunder each man should get. + +This last was a bone for the dogs to growl and bite about, I can tell +you. Newcomers like the Danes were for having as much from the bag as +the men who had stolen the ship at the Groyne. + +“Nay,” said these; “not so, for we brought you the ship, and you give +us nothing but your hands.” + +“Good,” quoth the recruits. “Then we can take ourselves off and you may +have your ship and be hanged.” + +Thus the tree forked and on its opposite branches bore fruit of bitter +will. + +The small Danish sloop we were taking with us from Prince’s Island made +early harvest of the animosity among us. Mr. Every would keep her as a +tender; others were for selling her so that they might paw some money. + +“If you sell her,” said certain ones, “what will be the shares of each?” + +Thereupon the quarrel flared up, and nothing could be agreed except +that Mr. Every should have two shares; that is, if the highest share +were one thousand pounds, Mr. Every should get two thousand pounds, but +as to the rest there was no concord; the argument being as sharp as if +the money for the sloop were already in the quartermaster’s coffer. The +Frenchmen recruited at the Madeiras were for the arbitrament of the +dirk, seeing which--and that it was time to act--Mr. Every ordered the +twenty-pounder shotted and trained on the sloop. He cut the towline and +said, “Give it her betwixt the wind and the water,” and thereupon old +José, the Spanish gunner, hit her so neatly beneath her lowest ports +that she was not atop the waves more than fifteen minutes. + +“Rather she sink than we,” said Mr. Every to the men, who now began to +see that if they could not agree better the whole enterprise would be +ruined. + + + VII + +We turned Cape Lopez, and stopping for water at Annibo,[7] ran onward +to the Cape of Good Hope, where we took a small coasting sloop, rifled +her and let her go. Thence we came to Madagascar, where we made some +stay. I had been here many times before in honest ships, and it was +with shame that I now came in with this unlawful company. + +[7] Anamaboe. + +Not that there was anybody there whose rebuke I feared, for Madagascar +was the wickedest place--outside the West Indies--in the ocean; but I +was not easy for thinking that I was now one among those whom I had +regarded in times past as malefactors. Three years had passed since my +last visit, and piracy had swelled so much as to become a very great +evil. + +I saw, too, so many more pirating fellows from the West Indies, for +the more part Englishmen hailing first from the American provinces, +but so outlandish looking a tribe one would never have known them for +our countrymen except by their speech, they affecting a Spanish style +with bright silk sashes, silk shirts, ruffled breeches; many wearing +earrings, and not a few with heavy gold chains about their necks, the +true fashion of Caribbean sea robbers. Verily this place had become +the very metropolis of rascality, the base for criminal cruises all the +way to the Gulf of Aden and the coast of India. + +Mr. Every could not come the Madeira game here but had to pay for the +provisions he bought and the cows he purchased to slaughter and salt +up, for none trafficked here save with a naked blade in one hand and +the price in the other. + +At Madagascar I took the sickness which even now afflicts me and has +reduced me to the poorest state of body and mind ever a man fell into. +I was too old for junketing about with pirates, being past sixty years +of age, for the long deprivations and exposures of my life at sea--the +inclement weather and the intolerable food I had had to endure--made me +fit rather for a cottage in my native Mendip Hills, in the parish of +Cheddar, rather than in so tan-chasing a fly-by-night company as cruel +circumstances had put me. + +The ship’s doctor found at Madagascar the chance to quit our way of +life and fled the ship, leaving me and a number of other sick men to +suffer in our cabins, helpless on the hands of people who were more +drunken than kindhearted. How often have I lain on my bed and watched +the cook, unstable with rum, tacking and yawing at my threshold, likely +on an instant to founder and cast the kid of hot meat upon my head! + +Just before we left this wicked and riotous island, one of the Caribbee +pirates--an Englishman first from Boston in New England--brought to +me the doctor of his ship; a sharp rascal who was sought in his own +country for many crimes. This fellow bled me in two ways: one for my +good with his lance, the other for his good with his pilfering fingers, +for in mauling about my body he slyly stole thirty gold guineas from my +belt. He said I ailed with the putrid fever and the dry bellyache. He +found me with two diseases; he left me with a third, a burning rancor +against the villain which can never be eased save by bleeding; and I +have long carried the leech which can suck deep of his venal blood. + +Mr. Every now made sail for Joanna.[8] + +[8] In the Comoro Islands, Mozambique Channel, off the Madagascar coast. + +“Here,” thought I when we anchored, “is a quiet place for old Bill May +to die, happy that his last breath should not be drawn on a ship stolen +from his king and country.” + +With some other sick ones I was put ashore on the beach at Joanna, +where they laid us out in a row under the trees, Mr. Every deputing a +few men to attend upon us. I was now quite helpless, remaining useless +of hands and feet and despairing of my life. In some peace we stayed +there all that night, but before noon of the next day three large ships +hove in sight--East Indiamen--and Mr. Every, in the greatest fright of +being surprised at the roadstead with half his crew ashore, ordered +all hands on board and to bring the water kegs and the sick with them. +They came with a great running and bustle to carry me away; but said I-- + +“Leave me here; I have no stomach to fight those three ships; I prefer +to lie here and trust myself to my fellow countrymen or to the mercy of +the island negroes.” + +There being no time to confabulate, the men rushed for their boats +without more ado, and soon the _Charles the Second_ was hauled to the +wind and off like a hare before the hounds. + +The Indiamen came to anchor and made a great business of bringing kegs +and barrels for water, boats plying between the shore and the ships. I +purposed to apply to them for a passage from this lonely beach and a +refuge from the wicked Mr. Every, and so made me a crutch, as is were, +from the bough of a tree and with it very painfully I crawled to where +the work was going forward. + +A fat man with a red face and very white hair was commanding, whose +name, a sailor told me, was Captain Edgcomb. To him I applied to be +taken aboard his ship, but he--on my confessing I was from the _Charles +the Second_--gave me scurrilous language, abusing me before all the +people, and vehemently swearing that he would give me passage to +Bombay--and there to the hangman. Thus the naughtiness on our ship had +become the talk of all the world. + +“Aye,” said I, “Captain Edgcomb, sir, rather would I go down with you +to Bombay and die according to the law of my country than perish here +at the hands of these heathen blackamoors, or among evil pirates.” + +He turned away to his work, rumbling in his throat like the end of a +thunderstorm. + +But others had compassion on me. As they came and went with their water +casks some humane men brought me one thing and another to refresh me, +encouraging me also with the promise that I should go away with them. +At evening the last load was taken. In that boat were the doctor and +the purser, both of whom said the captain would send for me to come +aboard. + +“I am quite ready at any time,” I told them, “for all I have in the +world is the clothing that hangs to my back.” + +So very hopefully I sat me down upon the sand and watched the sun go +down to his rest beyond the far sea line; but more I gazed at the masts +and yards of the three ships which stood out so bold and black against +the red sky. “They will come soon,” thought I, “for they are getting +ready to go,” the men being in the shrouds and out on the footropes. + +When it grew dark, lights jumped from porthole to porthole as the men +went about the decks setting out the lanterns. I should guess the time +to have been past midnight when the anchor chains rattled and the +capstan creaked and the chant of the people working it and the clatter +of their bars in the drumhead sockets came across the water. “They will +be here anon,” thinks I, and I got down as close to the water as I +could, that they should lose no effort when the boat came in for me. + +But it did not come. Perhaps it was one o’clock when the ship’s lights +began to move away--away and away until they went out altogether, and +only a long, thin lane of moonlight lay in the wide, empty waste. + +My feet felt wet; I looked down and found I was standing in water up to +my knees. + +How hard is the sea! + + + VIII + + +I crawled up the sand and lay stupidly all night, nor thought--nay +hardly wished--to see another morning dawn. The blackamoors that +rampaged in this island would surely finish me if disease did not, +though indeed some had been along the beach when we came in and did us +no harm. + +Toward noon as I sat under a tree feeling indeed that I was sinking to +my end, there came one of the negroes to me. He was a very tall man +with a sort of twisted face, the jib of his chin being thrust somewhat +to the side rather than in front, which did not make him look pretty. +But he wore breeches and a torn shirt, while in his belt was stuck a +sailor’s dirk, which was a great wonderment to me. If he were a vulture +he should find but bony carrion. + +“Hello, Jack!” + +I opened my eyes, sure now that the fever had got to my brain. + +“Who be you?” I asked, not believing that my ears heard English from a +native negro. + +He leaned back with his hands on his hips and laughed at my +astonishment. + +“You know Bednal Green,[9] Jack?” + +[9] Bethnal Green, now in the limits of London. + +Bednal Green? Aye, Green’s the name and green’s the word. Green! Oh, +for the leaves, the grass, the young buds of spring; just one handful +of those was worth more than all of those yellow sands, glaring waters +and banana skies! Bednal Green! The very word--the name--was like cold +water on a gritted tongue! Bednal Green! Aye, had I the choice between +the eating room of the “White Duck” Tavern and the palace of the Grand +Mogul across the water in India, there would be no bargaining. Did I +know Bednal Green! + +“Aye,” said I, “very well.” + +“You have ale at him White Duck?” + +Ale at the White Duck--the very place that was running in my mind! I +knew then that I was dreaming; that I was out of my head and that I +would surely soon die. Verily I had drunk ale in the White Duck; drunk +it often of winter mornings when Mistress Brown, in a clean apron, kept +the coal fire bright in the grate, and the carters from the country, +leaving their wains outside, came stamping in, blowing upon their +finger tips and shouting the gossip of the frozen roads. I lost myself +in a sort of swoon. + +When I came back to my senses I was lying in the old hut of a +fisherman, and the big black fellow was fanning my head with a bundle +of broad leaves. He must have carried me in from the beach; an easy +job, for I was all skin and bones, and he was a giant. + +When he saw me open my eyes he bade me fear nothing, that I was in his +house and the people of the place would do me no harm. He said that I +might call him Jim. + +Jim nursed me like I was a baby; he gave me food and drink; he tried to +keep me cool at noon and warm at night, and all without pay, for not +one penny piece of my few remaining coins would he take. His was just a +heart of good will. And in between whiles he told me the strange story +of his life. + +He had gone to England from Africa on a British ship a long time before +and had made his dwelling in London, particularly in this suburb +of Bednal Green, where he turned his hand to one thing and another +wherever there was need of a man of strength. At length, being of the +mind to go to sea again, he had left England in the ship _Rochester_--I +knew her very well--bound for the Indies. + +But off Guinea they fell into a sea fight with a Frenchman, and +were very hardly pressed, their enemy having more guns and men than +they. Resolving to make a struggle to the finish, the captain of the +_Rochester_--probably to keep his men from fleeing--ordered Jim to cut +the longboat adrift from the stern of the ship. Jim went beyond his +orders, for after cutting the rope he stayed in the boat and made off +with it under cover of the gun smoke. + +He had not got a mile away when with a great noise the _Rochester_ +blew up, her powder having exploded by accident. He made his way to +Guinea and from there, on one ship and another, he had slowly worked +his way to this place of Joanna, where he had a mind to settle himself +among the native people. + +“Why,” said I, “are you so kind to me?” + +To this he replied that he had a kindness for plain sailormen; that +they suffered much on their ships at the hands of hard masters, and +many had, out of their little, often supplied his wants. + +For eight weeks black Jim thus cared for me,--a poor, forlorn, marooned +seaman, and a sailor’s blessing rests upon him. I owe him my life. + +At the end of that time he came one day into the hut and said that a +ship was standing in. He had brought my strength up so that I could now +walk a little, and I went out into the sunshine and there, sure enough, +was a ship,--and it was the ship of Mr. Every. He had evidently come +again for water. + +Here then was a puzzle for me. Should I go back to him or stay with the +good Jim and his people? I am an Englishman and not an African; I would +be home again. Jim could not come down to the beach for fear of being +taken as a slave, but he and the natives fled back into the island. I +bade him good-by with all my heart,--the only friend I was to find in +thousands of watery miles. + +Mr. Every was down at the boats. + +“Hallo, old May,” he said. “We thought you must be dead by now; that +the sickness had taken you. You must have been born to be hanged!” + + + IX + +Getting out to sea strengthened me a little more, and I took heart, +though the evil associations of the _Charles the Second_ pained the +conscience. Very small scrapings had fallen to them since they had left +Joanna, and the mood of the crew was sour. + +However, they parliamented together and voted to go to the Gulf of Aden +to find Moorish ships, and perhaps waylay the rich fleet of Mocha, +whose movements they had learned of at Madagascar. + +“With that,” said Mr. Every, “we shall make our fortune”,--fortune +being a great word in his mouth. + +In those regions the sun is cruel. As we drew on to the gulf the heat +lay upon us like a smothering blanket; nay, like many blankets, so that +the very air one breathed seemed to sear the throat; we went about our +blistered decks nearly naked--to put your hand on one of the guns was +like laying it on a hot oven--and Mr. Every sprawled under an awning +that was rigged over the poop, drinking bomboo[10] and wishing he had +made his fortune and were living in a fine house with a fine wife in +England. Nor had we the comfort of looking toward cooler waters, but +every day drew farther and farther into the furnace. + +[10] Grog of limes, sugar, etc. + +At the mouth of the Red Sea--red is the color of flame--we fell in with +two ships that were on the same account as we, and the morning after +meeting them met three more ships of bad intent, some being Englishmen +from America--Captains May (no relative of mine) Farrel and Wake--until +you might have supposed a parliament of pirates was meeting. We were +all there for the Mocha fleet; but after riding together a night or two +and exchanging visits we separated, each captain having his own notion +of the place where the fleet we sought would pass. + +But wide is the sea and many are its paths, and the Mocha fleet slipped +by us all in the night of Saturday. Next morning the men held a general +consult as to whether we should follow them or not, and after a great +dispute as usual, a vote was taken which fell for pursuit, and so the +Sabbath was desecrated by a wicked chase. + +At sundown we came upon a lagging ship of the fleet and took her +without a fight, and with her something of gold and silver, but no +great sum. We put a prize crew aboard but soon called them off again +and left the ship to go her voyage. + +There was enough profit in this plunder to cheer our people, and they +became hungry for more. A few days thereafter we spied another sail +and, getting up our anchor, stood to her. Before we came up to her a +haze fell over the sea, which presently turned to a thick fog, thereby +favoring Mr. Every’s enterprise by allowing him to get close and make a +sort of surprise. + +When nigh enough we sent a shot across her bows; but she, fearing that +we were a lawless ship, refused to heave back but hauled to the wind +and made off. With the breeze on our starboard quarter, despite the fog +we kept her in sight; and, being the better sailer, we drew down upon +her, so near that we made her out to be the _Gunsway_, East Indiaman. + +Mr. Every now yawed his ship occasionally as he worked for the range; +but they opened first at us, giving us a load from their stern-chasers, +which split our larboard foreyard arm and might, had it been a little +cleaner break, put us out of the pursuit. Mr. Every replied with our +bow-chasers, which we learned afterward did them little hurt. + +Our captain, wishing to get the range for his broadside more quickly +and the _Gunsway_ beginning to show a chance of escape, we put our helm +down hard, and, coming athwart the bow, fell foul of the _Gunsway_, +so that our larboard cathead was abreast her starboard gangway. Here +we fought muzzle to muzzle--they with brass cannon, we with our iron +ones--as pretty a fight as ever I saw since the days of the old +_Hector_ and the battle of Bergen. + +If we had had to fight it out in this fashion the event might +have been uncertain, but Mr. Every--who as I have said was a fine +seaman--cunningly disengaged his ship and managed to back her clear of +the _Gunsway_ and then, bearing up under her stern, let go a broadside. + +That finished a fight which could not have been longer than an hour. +The Indiaman put out the white flag; nor could he do less, seeing his +hull and rigging were badly hit and ten of his men lay dead about his +guns. Half a dozen of the pirates were killed and not a few wounded. + +During the battle I hauled ammunition and dragged off the wounded to +the hold,--to shirk here would have been to buy a quick end to my life. + +Over the bulwarks of the _Gunsway_ our villains poured and ran greedily +about the ship, looking for loot. Presently a great shout went up, and +four men ran from the master’s cabin bearing brass-bound coffers,--the +ship’s treasure. + +Somebody with an ax smashed the fastenings, and over the decks there +spilled great piles of gold and silver coins; of pieces-of-eight, for +instance, we afterwards counted not less than one hundred thousand. Add +to this the same number of chequins[11] and you can see that Mr. Every +had made his fortune. + +[11] Sequins--worth about $2.25. + +The pirates went mad with delight; some danced upon the money, some +threw themselves on the deck and tossed and fingered the coins like +children playing on the sand; while as for Mr. Every, he stood leaning +upon his cutlass, looking down at the shining heaps and laughing. + +Nothing would do the men but to divide the spoil then and there, and +the average share was worth one thousand pounds apiece. Five hundred +pounds were given me, though I had been sick, useless and more of a +hindrance than help. + +Though this was the wrong sort of saltwater money, I perforce took +it, being in no mind to have myself marked among them. When they had +stripped the _Gunsway_ of everything that could be carried off, they +left her to go on to Surat with her sad tale of crime. + + + X + +With so notable a felony on their souls, all felt that the time had +come to leave those regions entirely. We set off for the Indian coast, +from which it was designed to go to the West Indies. A large body of +men, however, resolved to leave the ship at India; and twenty-five +Frenchmen, fourteen Danes and a company of Englishmen were there set +ashore at their desire. For they were afraid if they came to England +and were caught, they should be hanged, and they thought themselves +more secure among the pagans. + +Mr. Every set off for the West Indies with a light complement, and +attempted no piracy during all that long and wearisome way. We watered +at one or two places, including Ascension, but made no long stop until +we anchored at New Providence. + +As we came to this port we were at a loss to know the kind of welcome +that might wait us; so when we anchored we held a consult, and one who +was a clerk drafted a letter to the governor of this Providence Island, +setting out that we desired to come into the town, find anchorage and +have the liberties of the place, for which the men would present the +governor with twenty pieces-of-eight and two pieces of gold, all told, +and Mr. Every, because he had a double share, offered for himself forty +pieces-of-eight and four gold coins. + +One Adams was our ambassador, who with a few of our men to form a sort +of honor guard went ashore, while we lay by waiting the result. Our +messengers soon came back with a letter from the governor, saying that +we were welcome and could come and go again when we pleased. Thus for +sixty pieces of silver and six pieces of gold we bought the keys of the +town. + +Here the adventure so wickedly begun at the Groyne ended. Most of our +people scattered themselves about these West Indies, where they found +great hospitality for pirates, particularly at this New Providence, +which rivaled Madagascar for folk of this complexion. + +Mr. Every made a great friend of the island governor and gave all the +promise in the world of becoming one of the leading malefactors of this +region. Here he found the things he liked, for from these parts real +navies of buccaneers set out to harry the Main itself, the American +provinces,--everywhere, even, as I had seen, over to the far shores of +Africa and India. + +As for me, with the money I had from the _Gunsway_ I bought passage on +a ship going to the Virginia plantations. + +“Farewell, wicked ship and wicked men,” thought I as the Virginia +vessel passed by the _Charles the Second_ at her moorings. “Farewell,” +said I, gazing at the empty decks on which the sun lay white and hot; +“good riddance, and may you be quickly entombed in the deep waters.” + +Had I been a moral philosopher and not a mere sailorman I would have +profited by my reflections. + +Would that I had tarried in Virginia, where there is much to a man’s +liking! But no, I longed to be at home and out of the sun; I longed for +the cool vales of Somerset and the sweet evening air which from the +Mendips blows the blue peat smoke about the thatched roofs of simple +cottages; I longed for quietness and rest, and these honest longings +drove me afoul of the cruel courts of justice. + +I was still miserably weak when I crawled at length from the docks at +Bristol up into the town. I lay a week in bed at a tavern in the High +Street, afflicted with a return of the dry bellyache. + +I felt danger to be about me; for all England over there was little +talk but of the notorious Captain Every; no exaggeration of his crimes +being too great or untrue to go down the gullets of the staring people. +Behind it all was the East India Company, as well as the Mogul rulers, +who dinned continually at the British Government for the punishment and +extermination of pirates. + +All of this was to make bad weather for me, yet I was resolved to go +to my lords of the Admiralty and make a plain discovery of all the +things which had taken place. Scarcely able to pull my breeches over my +shrunken knees, I nevertheless paid my score and set out by coach for +London. + +The coach had not gone three leagues from town before she was hove to, +and, behold you, the king’s messengers were there, looking for old Bill +May. + +“You are one of Every’s men,” they said, hauling me out the gangway. +“We have a warrant to take you.” + +“You only anticipate me,” said I, “for I was on my way to London to +discover all.” + +They bore me off to Bath in a carriage of their own, and there before +his Grace the Duke of Devonshire I was examined touching my part in Mr. +Every’s enterprise. I made a clear account of all that I have here set +down; but despite that I was remitted to Newgate Gaol to be tried as a +felon. + +In this close I found when I came in my old shipmates Joseph Dawson, +Edward Forseith, William Bishop, James Lewis and John Sparkes, with +young Middleton and one Dan, who had crept home by one ship and +another, only to be snatched up as I was. One person and another, +recognizing us for Every’s men, had betrayed us. + +We went first to trial on an indictment of piracy of the _Gunsway_. +We were confronted by a bench of more than a dozen judges; we were +harried by a shoal of prosecutors; we were lied about by one witness +and another, yet in spite of all--in spite of all that Dan and +Middleton, a saucy lad aboard our ship, who were King’s evidence; in +spite of the thunderings and belching and blasts of the lawyers, the +jury--true men and good--returned us not guilty. + +That put the king’s counsel to be the laughingstock of the country, so +to save their faces they put us to another trial, this time for the +stealing of the _Charles the Second_ at the Groyne. For witnesses they +brought again young Middleton as well as Mr. Gravet, the old second +mate, and the liar Creagh. Not only did these tell of the matter at the +Groyne, but Middleton and one or two others went all over the Indies +and up to New Providence again,--which was a sly way of trying us twice +for one offense. + +How the judges and lawyers admonished the jury! + +“If you have the true English spirit, if you believe in the Christian +religion--I had almost said, ‘If you love your mother’--you must +convict these rascals at the bar.” + +How they belabored the jury which had acquitted us on the first trial; +you would have thought they were nothing other than Frenchmen in +disguise, and the veriest traitors, heretics and homicides. Aye, they +did for us: guilty. + +Last night the clerk of St. Sepulcher’s[12], as the custom is, came +under our windows with his bell and cried to those who might have to +die on the morrow to repent their sins. The doleful sound threw me into +a horror; I fear that my name will be in the morning’s death warrant. + +[12] The church that stood across from Newgate. + + + XI + +Mr. May’s premonition was justified by the event. On Wednesday, +November 26, 1696, at Execution Dock--which overlooks the Thames +at Blackwall, and was the usual place of punishment for Admiralty +felons--he and his fellow defendants were hanged. + +Reading his quaint story (which in substance was his evidence at his +trial) we get the idea that if he and his fellow accused were to be +convicted at all it should have been for the capture of the _Gunsway_ +and not for the theft of the _Charles the Second_. Mr. May is borne out +by the record when he says that he was convicted of the latter offense +by the five words of Mate Gravet: to wit, that May knew of the plot. + +But there was no proof to support Gravet’s statement other than the +word of one Creagh, to whom, as we have seen, Mr. May rather bitterly +alludes, and accuses of seeking to serve his own interest in a serious +scrape in which he had become involved. Creagh would seem quite +unreliable. He had been one of the men who had left the _Charles the +Second_ at the Groyne, on Henry Avery’s invitation to all who had not +spirit enough to go along with him and collect their back pay to +depart more or less in peace. Reaching England again, he fell in with +an adventurous young chap by the name of Vaughan, who was then signing +men on the _Loyal Clancarty_, a small sloop which Vaughan planned to, +and did, turn over to the service of the then exiled Stuart king, +James the Second, and in which Vaughan disturbed the shipping of the +government until he was run down and captured in the Channel, after a +fight in which the attackers had to wade to the _Clancarty_ through +the shallows, with their weapons over their heads to keep them dry. He +and his crew were taken first to Dover Castle, where the warden who +registered them remarked that most of them were drunk at the time, +to be removed later to Newgate, in which latter prison, by what was +certainly a very odd circumstance, Creagh again met old shipmates of +the _Charles the Second_ from whom he had parted at the Groyne. With +the terrible charge of high treason lying upon him, Creagh saw his +chance and, expecting thus to purchase clemency in his own affair, +eagerly proffered his testimony against the alleged pirates, and was +accepted. Thus there was a great premium upon the conviction of Mr. May +and the others. + +His character was brought out most damagingly at his own later trial on +the Vaughan business, during which his own brother was forced to take +the stand and brand him a liar and a rogue; a petty, sneaking rascal, +apparently, who did not hesitate to pilfer the poor resources of his +relatives. + +He might have been telling the truth about Mr. May, but surely not +beyond a doubt. + +If he is eliminated, then it was only a case of Gravet’s word against +Mr. May’s. There is nothing to be said against Gravet; he was under no +charge, no peculiar advantage would be his for furthering a conviction, +and his testimony was given in a pretty straightforward, manly sort +of way. But Mr. May argues that the situation at the Groyne itself +supports his own explanation of his conduct,--that the boat which Avery +allowed to leave with those who were unwilling to go could not possibly +hold the whole company of the brig and that he was one of those thus +forced to stay behind. + +It must be remembered, as Mr. May points out, that he and his +co-defendants had already been tried and acquitted of the piracy of the +_Gunsway_, where, although it is not reported, that trial must have +been more likely, in the nature of things, to result in a conviction, +for Mr. May admits that he was an accomplice in that crime, though +present under a sort of duress. That the government was shocked at +the verdict in that case is very plain from the words of the judges +and prosecutors in the second case, where as Mr. May indicates, +extraordinary pressure was brought to bear to keep the jury from +straying out of the way as did the former one. + +Somehow, Mr. May’s account lacks an ultimate convincingness, but it +may be said for him at this late day that, technically, there is a +very grave doubt of his guilt. His is the story of old dog Tray: +willingly or unwillingly, he was in bad company and to that unfortunate +circumstance he must lay a large portion of his misfortunes. + +And what befell the naughty Henry Avery? + +Mr. May’s narrative cannot give us that information because Mr. May +never saw his captain after they separated in the West Indies. At the +turn of the new century, we know he was still in the black books of +the British Admiralty, for an Act of Grace--that is a blanket pardon +to all pirates who should give up their wicked ways by such and such a +date--issued a few years after Mr. May’s demise, specifically excepts +from its clement scope, “William Kidd and Henry Every, alias Bridgman.” + +Now, a yarn is told of the end of Henry Avery, which may be summarized +for what it is worth--probably not very much--for it is outside of +judicial records and consequently corrupted by legend. The effect of it +is that Avery continued in the West Indies, pirating the Spanish Main, +even to the Carolinas, until, satisfied that he had finally earned +a competence and an honorable retirement and with something of that +longing for home which is not altogether absent, apparently, from even +a pirate’s tattooed bosom, he decided to turn him again home. + +He had an embarrassment of riches, if ever a man had. According to the +story, he had bags of diamonds taken from the _Gunsway_, of fabulous +value. Mr. May’s trial suggests that the loot of that ship was money, +and nobody says anything about diamonds, but the historian we are now, +with a caution, quoting says it was diamonds, and diamonds it shall be. + +In due time, he got back to Bristol, but now found that he could not +sell his diamonds without incurring suspicion as an evil-doer. He tried +Ireland, as a place where folks might be less shrewdly curious, but he +discovered that the Irish were as much struck as the English by the +incongruity, say, of an egg-sized diamond flashing and coruscating in +a scarred and pitchy palm,--a feeling not immediately dispelled by the +extraordinarily sinister face above them. + +Back to England--truly a millionaire tramp--where he foolishly resolved +to put his trust in merchants. Behind their aldermanic robes and +unimpeachable integrity, he expected to be able to put his unique +stock-in-trade on the market, which, indeed, he seems to have done, but +when he solicited his corpulent agents for an accounting he was met by +great round eyes and insulted mouths. + +“Diamonds? What are you talking about? Diamonds? Begone, you rogue, +what do we know of diamonds.” + +It sounds like some aspects of human nature, but whether it is history, +is not for us to vouch. + +So Henry stewed a trip or two in a coasting forecastle,--where, had he +a mind to, he could have told the simple seamen a thrilling story of +the sea,--and then curled up and died, “not worth a groat.” + +Morally, at any rate. + + + + + CHAPTER FIVE + + GROAN O’ THE GALLOWS + + Tom Green + + + I + +From the thickly forested heights of Cape Masoala one can, without +being one’s self observed, sweep, with an easy turning of the head, the +broad Indian Ocean that pounds perpetually upon the rocky beach at the +base of the Cape; the blue placidity of Antongil Bay up to its farthest +reaches; the huddle of huts which make the town of Mananara, on the +opposite shore, and the tiny island of St. Mary’s snuggling close to +the other portal of the bay. + +That is to suppose that you wish to see and not be seen,--a rather +uncommon circumstance in the lives of plain, honest men, but certainly +a great advantage to those who conceive that their particular and +peculiar interests require secrecy. Cape Masoala has known both sort +of folk. The peering botanist has explored it for his specimens; +the French surveyor has mapped every inch of it, and the olive-hued +Malagassy native has for centuries gone about the Cape on his innocent +occasions, all quite careless as to who did or did not observe them. +Certain other gentry, however, have from time to time made a use of +the ancient Cape not entirely commendable. Sad to relate, such persons +not infrequently came ashore from ships wickedly sailing beneath the +black bunting of piracy. These climbed the steep, wooded slopes not +for the purpose of feasting their souls on the beautiful; but for the +pernicious design of observing those worthy people who passed in and +out of Antongil Bay upon the lawful errands of commerce. In March, +1702, to take a notable instance of this reprehensible use of the Cape, +not many less than fifty men lay sprawled in the tropic undergrowth +of the headland watching with quick eyes the tardy evolutions of two +square-rigged, stumpily built ships working their way alongside the +rickety wharf of Mananara. + +At length the two ships were berthed, and up their riggings men, +looking like small boys at that distance, climbed and began to take in +the canvas. One of the watchers in the wood yawned, stretched his lean +arms high over his head and said, as he rattled the thick gold rings in +his ears, “We’ll soon be to sea again, Cap’n.” + +The man called captain nodded. A great bullock of a fellow he +stood, hands on hips, gazing frowningly down at the bay, apparently +constructing the strategy of an impending move. He had a flattish, +three-cornered hat--somewhat too small for his head--pushed forward +over his eyes; the breeches, stockings and buckled shoes of the period +had evidently had long and hard wear in contrast with the brilliant +sash about his waist from which protruded the handle of a dirk. One +great, sinewy hand dangled a belt to which was fastened a thick +cutlass. If he were captain, then all these fellows strewn about the +grass must be his subordinates. Honest men they no doubt accounted +themselves, but their looks belied them; no ordinary man would have +cared to picnic with that group in their present beautiful retreat. +Their complexions were as colorful as the sashes which almost all +of them affected: here was the blond Scandinavian, with his blue, +wistful, deep-sea eyes and tawny hair and beard: beside him would be +a swart Continental--French predominantly--chattering constantly and +continually winding his beard in ringlets about his forefinger, and +not a few men of the blackest ebon, the hue of the West Indian negro, +not the lighter tint of the native Sakalava. Whatever his color, +every man there was capable of committing any violence; that was his +qualification for companionship. A hard group, and how hard must the +leader of it be! Well, John Bowen, the brawny chieftain, was a hard man. + +Although maritime history has failed to spell his name with capital +letters, John Bowen was one of the most willing little workers in the +red trade of sea robbery. Where he came from and what his finish was +we do not certainly know, but while his keel danced its brief hour upon +the waters of the Indian Ocean, John Bowen displayed those qualities +of resolution, ruthlessness and rapidity which ordinarily earned one a +rapid promotion in piracy, and not infrequently a sequential elevation, +before an admiring and applauding populace, at the end of the king’s +rope. + +While, as we say, his origins are obscure, there is little doubt that +John Bowen came to this Cape Masoala, in the island of Madagascar, +directly or indirectly from the West Indies, which for generations was +the _alma mater_ of all the best pirates. A great school of maritime +crime was this West Indian group, having, at one time or another, on +its faculty such eminent masters as Blackbeard, lecturer on Violent +Deaths at Sea, and whose subsidiary course on Ship Scuttling was +deservedly popular. Then, too, many earnest young students from all +over the world were drawn thither by Morgan’s notable presentation of +the subject of the Assault, Capture and Loot of Municipalities. In +fact, the whole scheme of instruction was very thorough. Two prominent +practitioners of the art of piracy, captains Kidd and Avery, so +esteemed the advantages there offered that both, after distinguishing +themselves in the actual practice, resorted there for postgraduate +work. There was a finish, a fineness about John Bowen’s work which +clearly indicated the superiority of his academic training, and stamped +him as one of the most promising graduates. Everybody in the Caribbean +anticipated a great future for him, and, so far as we can follow his +career, these friendly prophecies were amply fulfilled. + +Evidently when he faced the world with his sheepskin in his hand and +the blush of collegiate honors still on his brow, John Bowen had +determined to set up business for himself in the East Indies, a fact +which indicated the clarity of his judgment and real appreciation of +opportunity, for in the East Indies of his day it was so easy for a +competent pirate to get rich as to make one feel that his abilities had +never been properly tested. But, of course, there were accidents and +unavoidable miscalculations, and John must be supposed to have run into +one of those inescapable setbacks to which even pure genius is liable, +from the fact that he is perched upon a headland of Madagascar with a +crew but without a ship. Of course, time and opportunity would correct +that state of affairs, for the matter of appropriating a ship was +just elementary freshman work in the university of piracy from which +he had graduated, _summa cum laude_. And now, as John gazed down on +these two ships below him, he realized with satisfaction that time and +opportunity were in happy concurrence. + +He selected four Englishmen--two, as it chanced, were from New +York--and, directing the rest to meet him at dark in the woods behind +Mananara, descended to the beach, where a broken-down native boat was +staked. The party crossed the bay and Bowen himself went down to the +water front to look at the newly arrived ships. It was now towards +evening, and from the cookhouse rose a thin, blue spear of smoke on +each ship where the supper was being prepared. Sailors were hanging +over the bulwarks, smoking long pipes, and laughing and joking in the +burring tongue of Scotland. They noticed the hulking white stranger +loafing about the wharf, but made no comment, for one does not long +knock about the waters of Madagascar without dulling the faculty of +surprise. Bowen marked the names of the two vessels, _Content_ and +_Speedy Return_. This latter name he thought unfortunate in view of all +the circumstances. _Speedy Return_? Not if Jack Bowen knew anything +about the matter. + +To get the full value out of this adventure, we have to know a little +something about these two doomed ships and why and how they happened to +be in this little port of Mananara at this particular time. If we lift +the fly-blown, time-stained pages of history we get a queerish kind +of a yarn in this connection. It only needs a momentary glance, and +when we have taken it, we shall the more appreciate the significance +of the sinister meddling of Jack Bowen, who, of course, knew nothing +of what we shall know and if he had known he would not have cared two +straws,--in fact, would have enjoyed his game all the more. + +In June, 1695, some half a dozen years before Jack Bowen comes on the +stage, a group of Scotch noblemen, with some other folk of lesser +influence, procured a statute from the English parliament and a +charter from the English Crown, authorizing them to incorporate an +African-Indian trading company. Their chief object was to found a +Scotch colony in the Isthmus of Panama, or Darien, as it was then +called. Everybody was going to get immensely rich out of the venture. +But the noblemen were not stingy about it; they decided to offer +the stock of their corporation to the public. They evidently had a +wonderful advertising manager, for an old writer tells us that when the +stock was put on the market “the nobility, the gentry, the merchants, +the people, the royal burghs without the exception of one, and most +of the other public bodies subscribed. Young women threw their little +fortunes into the stock; widows sold their jointures to get command of +money for the same purpose. Almost in an instant four hundred thousand +pounds were subscribed in Scotland, although it be now known that there +was not at that time above eight hundred thousand pounds of cash in the +kingdom.” + +That is what you may call promoting,--to get half the cash of the +kingdom. It was the last chance anybody ever had of that sort in +Scotland. + +Everything went so well that the English East India Company became +exceedingly jealous and not a little fearful that a powerful rival was +rising in the north to challenge its hold in the Far East. In politics, +in the financial world, in every way it possibly could, the English +company sought to thwart the Scotchmen and upon the whole succeeded +very satisfactorily in handicapping the latter. Being Scotchmen, +however, they went right ahead, “satisfied of the envy of the English +and of their consciousness of the advantages which were to flow to +Scotland” from the Darien colony. Six ships were built, each able to +carry two hundred emigrants, and on the twenty-sixth of July, 1698, +the whole city of Edinburgh streamed down upon Leith to see the Darien +voyagers depart, amidst the tears and praises and prayers of relations +and friends, and of their countrymen. Many seamen and soldiers, whose +services had been refused, because more offered themselves than were +needed, were found hid in the ships, and when ordered ashore, clung to +the ropes and timbers, imploring to go without reward. + +The colony, however, was a dismal and tragic failure. When the people +arrived at Darien, the Dutch East India Company--instigated it was +believed by agents of the English company--forbade the factors of +their forts in that region to give help of any sort to the Scotchmen. +Expecting to get supplies locally and being thus refused, “the +colonists fell into diseases from bad food and want of food” and almost +all of them faded and died. Eight months of horror lagged along and +then the colony broke up, only a handful surviving to stagger to the +ship for home. In the meanwhile, however, another crowd of thirteen +hundred colonists had left Scotland for Darien amid the same hurrah, +only to meet the same fate as had the first, and to send back as +survivors only a pitiful remnant of thirty. + +Scotland laid all the blame upon England in general and the East India +Company in particular and deeply smoldered the already traditional +hatred between the northern and southern peoples. + +Withal, the Scotch African-Indian trading company kept intact, but +took on the character of a more private commercial corporation. It +entered in the orthodox fashion on the East India trade wherever it +could circumvent the English monopoly, and to this end sent forth its +young but not unpromising fleet to Indian waters, and of this fleet the +_Content_ and the _Speedy Return_ were fair representatives. + +But see what an unhappy destiny pursues this Scotch company! Here it +is, trying to recuperate from the terrible disaster of Darien, just, +as they say of an invalid, getting about again, when wretched, wicked +and utterly reprehensible Jack Bowen is here, in far-off Madagascar, +lurking about in the woods ready to inflict upon the poor company +another terrible adversity! + +On May 26, 1701, the _Speedy Return_ and the _Content_ had sailed from +Glasgow for the East Indies. What great things they were to accomplish! +How they were to return soon--speedily, as the name would seem to +hope--laden with gold and gain! The name of John Bowen did not mean a +thing in Glasgow. Such is life. They lumbered, after the fashion of +the blunt ships of that age, first to Guinea, then to the Cape of Good +Hope--propitious name--and there, as well as at Guinea, they discovered +there was not a little profit to be had by postponing their arrival at +Malabar and the Indian trade proper and diverting themselves to the +slave business. In this traffic then they came over from the mainland +of Africa to the island of St. Mary’s, in Madagascar, where they loaded +their holds with the negroid Sakalaves sold to them by the Hovitas and +other superior tribes of the island. + +So cargoed, they went on from St. Mary’s, Madagascar, to Mauritius, +where they discharged their load of slaves and in March, 1702, were +back again in Madagascar, at a place they called Maritan, but which +has probably become Mananara, ready for another batch of blacks, and, +though naturally this was beyond their expectation, the thunderbolt of +as desperate a gang of pirates as ever cast dice with the hangman. + +Gradually Bowen’s shipless crew gathered in the woods back of the town +and impatiently waited for morning. When the tropic sun at length +surged up abruptly from beneath the far, thin, eastern line of the +Indian Ocean, they girded their belts about them, looked to their +weapons, hefting their cutlasses and attending to the priming of their +pistols, and waited the cheerful word of onslaught. Bowen called +together the four English-speaking men he had first selected the day +before, on the chance of being able to make immediate use of them, and +left with them for the very outskirts of the town, where they settled +themselves in the lush vegetation and watched their prey. Before +separating from the main group, Bowen, like a true general, addressed +his troops. “If it comes to trouble,” he said succinctly, “and ye find +ye against a man bigger than ye, take your tools quickly”--here he +tapped his cutlass, “and cut him down to your size.” + +The plan was for the four men and Bowen to board the ship _Speedy +Return_ by stratagem, when, if the chance was good, Bowen would sound +the bo’sun’s whistle which he carried for that purpose and the reserves +were to come up in full force. + +Early after breakfast the lurkers noticed what was evidently the +captain of the _Speedy Return_, accompanied by a group of men, come +ashore and set off through the woods to the neighboring villages, +evidently in the transaction of their traffic in human beings. The +day burned to high noon and high noon waned towards evening, and +still the cautious Bowen, not risking a fizzle in this his great and +long-sought opportunity, held his hounds in the leash. Quite late in +the afternoon, when it was reasonably certain the captain had gone for +a considerable time, and when the remnant of the crews of the two ships +were scattered, some about the town and others dozing on the hot decks, +John Bowen and his four aides stepped from the brush, strode past the +thatched native huts and out on the dock. They ran up the ladder and +were on the deck of the _Speedy Return_. + +“Ho, mate,” called Bowen, grinning genially to what was evidently the +ship’s cook, carrying a butcher knife in one hand and a leg of a sheep +in the other, “who’s the master of this ship?” + +“Cap’n Rab Drummond, frae Edinburgh,” burred the cook, “and who be ye, +mon?” + +“Oh, we’re nobody; just come aboard, looking to buy a bit of breadstuff +and tobacco, if ye’ve such to spare.” + +There were not more than a dozen men aboard, according to Bowen’s swift +calculation. Over on the _Content_, a few yards away, there appeared +still fewer. The hour had struck. Bowen drew a pistol from the arsenal +of his sash and thrust it against the full girth of the cook. “Go on +to your cookhouse, my lad,” he commanded. “You’re going to have a few +friends for supper.” Thus the chef received notice of the change of +management. He took it dully and obediently; anything may happen when +one goes so far from Glasgie. Sharp and shrill the signal whistle beat +echoingly from the cliffs of the Cape to the heights above the town, +and with a terrifying shout, the rest of Bowen’s men hurled themselves +over the bulwarks of both the _Speedy Return_ and the _Content_. The +gang that boarded the latter had a definitely prescribed job to do and +expeditiously they did it. First of all, they ran the gaping sailors +off her decks and on to those of the _Speedy Return_; then, hastening +back, they smeared the decks of the _Content_ with pitch, set a train +to the small powder magazine, and as the thick brown-black clouds of +smoke rolled sluggishly over the sides, they fled, whooping as demons +may be supposed to whoop at the mouth of the Inferno, for the _Speedy +Return_. Her sides they clutched even as she moved away in tow of the +ship’s boats, out into the bay, where she picked up a helping breeze; +where her hastily hoisted sails began to tauten and whence she began +quite prettily to glide out into the wide, the welcome ocean. John +Bowen was on a quarter-deck again; it mattered to him little who +claimed that same quarterdeck; he was on it and the quartermaster at +the whipstaff swung the helm to this side and that, in obedience to +his orders. He felt the wind of the free ocean upon his breast and +lifted up his great bellowing voice in song. Ha! ha! he! ho! in a jiffy +the tables had been turned; John Bowen had had the shore and no ship +and now Captain Robert Drummond, of Edinburgh, out of Glasgow, had all +the shore he cared to use and no ship. + +No stenographer was present to record what Captain Drummond said when +he came out of the woods and found the black embers of the _Content_ +knocking about the piling or bobbing far out on the bay, and of his +ship only the stupid, inarticulate remembrance of the gaping Malagassy +natives, but without doubt it was something pretty. Captain Stewart +was master of the _Content_ and probably had been absent with Drummond +of the _Speedy Return_--although he might have been on his own ship +and been captured with the rest of the crew; nobody has given us the +precise information--but if he came out of the woods at the same time +that Drummond did, there is no doubt the inhabitants beheld two of +the angriest Scotchmen they had ever seen or ever were likely to see. +We don’t know what happened to Stewart, but a man who spent fifteen +years in captivity among the Madagascans came home with the story that +Drummond found his way to Tullea, on the southwest coast of the island, +where, in an altercation with a Jamaican negro, who was of course one +of those far-faring West Indian pirates, he received a wallop from the +black rogue which deprived the Scotch African-Indian trading company +of a faithful servant and the rising British Merchant Marine of a +competent shipmaster. + +Now, Bowen, between the two appropriated vessels, very likely gathered +in some thirty men, all well-seasoned sailors. We know the names of +only two of these honest tars to whom this vivid change of circumstance +occurred; Israel Phippany and Peter Freeland. Some of these captives +accepted the fate of the sea and even counted themselves among the +pirates; others, naturally, found the situation not to their liking +and stood by for an opportunity to escape. It was all one to their +swaggering captors, whether a man liked it or not; a sailor he was and +sail that ship he should. None of that topmast business for the bold +pirate boys; in a jam they might lend a hand at working the vessel, +but ordinarily they insisted that fighting was their specialty and +avoided the rope and the tar bucket as quite beneath their dignity. But +they were fair in their way, for when it came to a fight they did not +call on the shellbacks for help; that too would have been essentially +undignified for a master pirate. This gang of Bowen stood in a rough +relation to the sailors aboard as the marines do to a war vessel. Many +ships, of course, were completely manned by confessed pirates, and +when that was so they had to do sailor work, but whenever they could +they were great little chaps for pressing men aboard especially to +do the ship’s chores. So the _Speedy Return_ being happily in their +possession, the pirates lay back under the awnings and drank copiously +of arrack, the universal intoxicant of the East Indies, the while their +bold chieftain drove his keel along for joyful fights and glorious +plunder. + +Swinging smartly around the northern nose of Madagascar, and shooting +westerly, Bowen set the course for the Comoro Islands, some three +hundred and fifty miles northwest of Madagascar and two hundred miles +east of the coast of Africa. Apparently John was going to lose no time +in his business, for the Comoros would be the nearest likely place +to pick up a prize; no waiting until he made the distant littoral of +India, you notice. His ultimate destination was Rajapore, way up in +what is now called the Bombay presidency, but he did not care to go as +the crow flies, but rather as the vulture does; pausing for anything +that might be carrion. + +The Comoros was a pretty good guess. At Mayotta, one of those islands, +they found a ship commanded by George Weoley, which was loading with +sugar, rum, cocoa oil and taking in fresh beef. The fact that Weoley’s +vessel was in harbor did not mean anything to John Bowen; if the island +itself had been navigable he would have put a crew on it and sailed +it away. The _Speedy Return_ shoved alongside their victim, and +casually, as men doing an easy job away below their real abilities, a +handful of fighters dropped to her decks. Nobody interfered with them +but the unimaginative first mate, and his protest was met with a crack +on the head which created an immediate promotion for the second mate. +A little more than a year after this misfortune Captain Weoley wrote +a plaintive letter to Mr. Pennyng, “Chief of the English East India +Company’s Factory at Calicut,” giving a full and detailed account of +the naughtiness of John Bowen, wherein he states that at Mayotta he +fell into Bowen’s hands and was “detained by him after they had slain +my chief mate and plundered what they pleased.” + +Poor Mr. Weoley and the rest of his people were taken into the +forecastle of the _Speedy Return_ and thus recruited that ship’s list +of able seamen. Whether Bowen burnt, scuttled or simply abandoned +Weoley’s craft the good captain does not inform us, but we may be sure +that when he headed off for India, he left that unfortunate vessel no +better for his visit. + +During the long and uneventful voyage--uneventful, that is, so far +as the piracy game went--Captain Bowen, alas! did not observe those +little amenities between brother captains which so pleasantly mitigate +the sternness of the sea. Doubtless Mr. Weoley had to do many things +aboard which drove a bitter iron into his soul. One day he might be +lending a hand with the art of navigation if the load of rum captured +at Mayotta should happen temporarily to incapacitate Captain Bowen; +next day he might pitiably have to fetch and carry water at the behest +of the sprawling villains, or again bend his elderly and stiffening +back at the eternal task of pumping, and pumping ship in the Indian +Ocean must have been--well, hot. He says himself that he received “many +hazards of life and abuses from those villains.” Not the least of his +grievances was that of listening through the long hours of a torrid +night to the liquored Bowen boasting of his wickedness. That remark of +Weoley’s places Bowen as the true, deliberate, almost romantic pirate +and approximates him to the traditional pirate of fiction. + +Off the coast of Malabar, Bowen nearly had to sober up, for he was +come to his proper fishing grounds. Up and down this roadstead passed +much of the commerce of the East Indies. Quite a medley it was, to be +sure. There were craft from the ten-ton sloop belonging to a petty +local merchant, up through increasing tonnage chartered by Moors, +Persians, Armenians, Hindoos, to the two-and three-decker so-called +East Indiaman, the ship of the august and imperial East India Company +itself. In disturbing this traffic captain William Kidd had found a +fortune in less than six months, and numerous pirates of many nations +had here easily enriched themselves. + +Captain Bowen, who must have been something of a joker as were so many +of his outlaw colleagues, doubtless enjoyed immensely taking a ship +with the name of _Prosperous_, which he did shortly after his entry +into Indian waters proper. With a chuckle he realized that he had made +the owners of the _Content_ discontented; he intended the _Speedy +Return_ should go home neither slowly nor speedily, and it is very +likely that he put the charterers of the _Prosperous_ into bankruptcy. +It might have been of a better omen in those days to name your ship the +very opposite to your hopes; say call the _Content_ the _Dissatisfied_; +the _Speedy Return_ the _Never Come Back_ and the _Prosperous_, _Hard +Times_,--in which case a marauding pirate would at least lose the +dramatic pleasure of surprise. + +Having bagged the _Prosperous_, Bowen put a crew on board and used +her for an auxiliary, and with this augmented command in a few +months, according to Weoley, he took “six sail of ship” and “hundreds +ruined.” The last of these six ships was one from Surat, evidently of +considerable size, for Bowen transferred all hands to her and then, +being as drunk as a fool, entertained the amazed city of Rajapore +with a grand nautical bonfire made up both of the _Prosperous_ and +the _Speedy Return_. How uneasily the stockholders of the Scotch +Indian-African trading company would have turned in their beds had +that lurid light gleamed against their far-off window panes! + +This man Bowen was an incorrigible ship burner, which proves that he +had not the heart of a true sailorman or the first instincts of a real +conqueror of the sea. + +On this captured Surat ship, when Bowen got over his pyrotechnic spree, +he counted up his men and found, so Weoley records, “70 Lascars (native +of India) and 146 fighting men (the Lascars being used as sailors) of +which part are 43 English, the better part of the company French, the +rest Negroes (our Jamaica friends), Dutch and other nations that cries +‘yaw’.” Quaint foible! Amid all his sufferings poor Captain Weoley +could still find a feeling of irritation for men that “cries ‘yaw’” +instead of “yes.” + +Bowen steered from Rajapore down along the Malabar coast until he came +to Cochin, a Portuguese settlement and where a miscalled Portuguese +war fleet made its anchorage. Those old sieves were the local maritime +joke, and a brisk pirate would think little of using them for mooring +buoys. This aggregation had once gone out after the formidable Captain +Kidd and much to its surprise and pain had found him. It had never +been known to attempt anything notable since. Certainly, they did not +trouble John Bowen. As Bowen dawdled along in these parts, touching at +this and that small port for frolic or land robbery or both, “about +three leagues to the northward of Cochin” Weoley states that “I got +clear of the pirates.” Thus ended the worst seven months in the life of +that worthy mariner. + +What became of Bowen after Weoley escaped from him we do not know, at +least so far as the authentic record we are consulting is concerned. +Probably he met the violent end of his ilk; one thing is sure, however; +he was never hanged for the piracy of the _Speedy Return_, but--and +this makes the dread, dark sequel of the crime--another man who knew +not Bowen, Robert Drummond or the ill-fated ship _Speedy Return_ +suffered by one of the most notable miscarriages of justice known to +the law as the murderer of Captain Drummond and the pirate of the +_Speedy Return_. + + + II + +On March 8, 1702, a ship called the _Worcester_ weighed anchor in the +Downs and so began the long voyage from England to India. Perhaps +on that very day, certainly within a very few days of that date, +the brigantine _Content_ was burning to the edge of the waters of a +Madagascar bay, and her consort from Scotland, the _Speedy Return_ was +romping toward the Comoro Islands beneath the stern and unlawful drive +of a sea brigand. + +The purpose of the _Worcester_ in the East Indies was to trade, though +she did not belong to the East India Company but appears to have been +owned by a small group of investors, probably retired sea captains for +the most part. To get a swift idea of what was meant by the East-India +trade you have only to recall the Hudson’s Bay Company in Canada, for +the methods of both these great trading corporations were practically +the same. Just as the Canadian company stalked across Canada from +fort to fort, so the India company ringed the coast of India with +forts, which, like the Canadians, they called “factories” and put in +charge of an officer termed a factor. Both companies held exclusive +monopolies in their respective regions by virtue of government grants; +both maintained fleets for the exportation of native products and the +importation of English wares and supplies. Each had to meet a certain +amount of competition in spite of its exclusive privileges. + +The East India Company was far more seriously challenged by rivals +than was the Hudson’s Bay Company, even in the devastating days of the +latter’s struggle with the Northwestern Fur Company. Not only England +but Holland and numerous other commercial nations of the continent +hungered for the loot of India, and between the traders representing +all these conflicting greeds an almost continuous state of warfare +prevailed, which more than once drew in the governments themselves. + +Not only foreign competitors harassed the English East India Company, +for among its annoyances was what was called the “interloper,” the +English trader who poached in their preserves, in defiance of law, +to such an extent that not a few considerable fortunes were thus +established. But the company did not always pursue these trespassers +with the severity which they might lawfully have used; local conditions +on the coast made another English ship, even an interloper, not +unwelcome, and at such times these gentry were tolerated and even +welcomed with a surprising friendliness. + +In addition to the continentals and the interlopers, the Scotch +African-Indian company had, as we have seen, following the wreck of the +Darien colony, begun to send its ships out for a share of the Indian +spoils, two of which ships, through the unwitting kindness of Captain +John Bowen, had just been prevented rather forcibly from troubling the +sleep of the English company. + +The status of the _Worcester_, then, was that of an interloper, but in +one of the more genial humors of the monopolizing company, and Captain +Thomas Green, her commander, had reason to believe that it would not +seriously molest him as he sought to pick up a couple of hundred tons +of more or less profitable cargo. + +An old, slow, lead-sheathed craft was the _Worcester_, formerly in +the whaling business. She was about a hundred feet in length and +twenty-two or so feet in breadth, and carried a crew of thirty-five +men. Tom Green, her master, was an honest old sea dog, thoroughly +loyal to his owners and to his vessel; the admirable sort of man who +does Britannia’s drudgery at sea, happy if at last he can step off +his quarterdeck with all the limbs he had when he first went up the +gangway as a ’prentice, and content to sink into a permanent armchair +on the sunny side of a cottage close to tidewater and the lanes of +sea trafficking. And but for John Bowen, it is reasonable to suppose +that Tom Green would at length have achieved his modest, commendable +ambition. + +Their objective was Malabar by way of Delagoa Bay. It took her five +months to get from the Downs to Delagoa. Here they stayed long enough +to build a sloop to be used in river work at Malabar, the materials +for which they had brought with them from home. On November 15, after +a voyage of a little more than eight months, she came to Anjango (now +Aniengo) at the tip of the Malabar coast, where Captain Green politely +put ashore to pay his respects to Mr. Brabourne, chief factor of the +English East India Company’s fort at that place, and incidentally to +make sure that the company was still in the generous notion of living +and letting live. One never knew when its policy might suddenly veer +like the weathercock on a church steeple. + +Happily, Mr. Brabourne and his gentlemen were as genial as a June day. +Madeira and compliments were enjoyed together and Green went back to +his ship, rejoicing in at least the tacit consent of Mr. Brabourne to +his trading operations. With that load off his mind, he sailed for the +Keilon River, a few leagues farther on, and there established contact +with Cogi Commodo. + +We have mentioned big rival corporations and interlopers, but the +coveted Indian trade produced another institution,--the petty +’longshore merchant, white or black, most generally a follower of the +Prophet from some of the far eastern Mahometan countries. After he had +prospered above the peddling stage, this gentleman usually established +a little warehouse at the mouth of some one of the sluggish rivers +emptying into the Arabian Sea, and there conducted a business which +was for the most part illegal. Briefly, he was a purveyor of stolen +goods brought to him by the pirates which infested those regions; a +“fence” as it is called, and without whom piracy would have been almost +impossible, for if a pirate could not dispose of the cargoes he took +of perishable or ordinary mercantile stuff, his activity would have +been immeasurably curtailed. For instance, before he made his lucky +strike, Kidd took tons of butter, cargoes of coffee, opium enough to +give his men a thousand years of delightful dreams, far more than could +be used aboard his ship and which would have been useless without the +obliging fence. This very same Cogi Commodo boasted to the crew of the +_Worcester_ that he was “merchant” for Kidd. The Cogi was suspected not +only of buying from the pirates but of informing them of the movements +of promising ships and even of assisting in their actual assault and +capture. Not that Green wanted any such service as this from Commodo; +he used him on the more legitimate side of trading, for the Cogi, +like the rest of his kind, continually gathered in native products +from under the noses of the English forts, for the prime purpose of +supplying interlopers. You can see the Cogi was quite an irregular +sort of gentleman on whichever side you took him. + +The _Worcester_ came to the Keilon River on November 21 by way of +Callequilon; December 22 she was back at Callequilon, then made a big +jump of a hundred or more miles up to Cochin, reaching there January +10, 1703, just about five years to a day after Kidd had made his big +capture of the _Quedagh Merchant_ in those very waters; and but a few +months after the unfortunate Captain Weoley had made his escape at that +place from the wicked John Bowen. Green’s northward trading seems to +have been hurried, for two weeks later he was at Calicut, a month after +that back at Cochin, and by March 8 was again anchored in the roadstead +of Callequilon. + +Life on a trading ship on the coast of Malabar in the morning of the +eighteenth century was not easy. Sickness kept a large number of the +crew helpless at all times. Doctor May, the ship’s surgeon--a young +sawbones of twenty-six years--had so many patients that he had to put +up a crude hospital ashore at Callequilon, where the sick were taken +from the ship and left while the vessel worked up and down the coast. + +Most of the time it was just a job of hard work, either in sailing or +in stevedoring the piles of cargo which would be collected at one place +and another by various Cogis to await the coming of the _Worcester_. +The busiest man aboard was then the supercargo, on whom fell the +burden of handling the cargo, keeping the accounts and looking after +the financial interests of the owners. The work and worry of it all +gave the prevalent fever when it struck him added force, and the +supercargo slipped through an open port in a weighted canvas shroud to +join the half-dozen or so of his companions who had already preceded +him to the muddy hammocks that swing eternally in the tides of the sea. + +But there was a lighter side. Even in Keilon a sailor could spend his +wages, or gape about at the elephants, the palanquins, the ladies +with rings in their noses or stare uncomprehendingly at the fantastic +ornamentation of the ancient temple of Shiva. Captain Green himself +found time for the social turn, and so ingratiated himself with a lady +of the country that she gave him a well-trained young black slave, +Antonio Francesco, to be his personal servant. Green thought a great +deal of the lady’s kindness, for he took Antonio aboard and to make +sure he would not lose him, chained him to a spike in the forecastle +floor, in something of the fashion that seamen are wont to bring home a +pet monkey. + +All of this was very well to be sure, but April was to prove a month of +hard luck for the _Worcester_. On the tenth of that month the sloop was +driven ashore in a gale and destroyed. In the same storm Green tried to +make Keilon, but was forced to anchor between that place and Anjango. +Here his cable parted and serious leaks were sprung in his hull. Amid +all that, however, he was mannerly enough to fire five rounds in +salute to the _Aureng-Zeb_, another trader which happened by and who, +as politely, returned the compliment. Green was so worried about the +condition of his ship that when the weather moderated he invited the +master and mate of the _Aureng-Zeb_ to come aboard and survey his ship. +Their unanimous judgment was that the _Worcester_ was then unseaworthy +for navigating to England. + +That finished the trading cruise. Adverse circumstances had curtailed +the enterprise, yet Green had made, on the whole, a profitable stay in +Malabar. He had operated in a maximum distance of about one hundred and +fifty miles; that is, from Anjango to Calicut, though his dodging back +and forth had added much to his mileage. In ordinary event he would +have been nearly ready for home. His most serious reverse was in the +wreck of his sloop, which his owners had hoped he would be able to sell +and convert into goods when he should have finished with her services. + +Mr. Brabourne, of the fort, again most obliging, advised Green to go to +Bengal for repairs, and on the fifth of May, 1703, the _Worcester_ set +forth to pump her way to the shipyards there. + +Captain Thomas Green might fairly claim a grudge against the elements. +They buffeted him in Malabar to the loss of his sloop, the damage of +his ship, the lessening of his trading, laid his keel up for a long +time in careen at Bengal, and now on his way home to England, after one +would suppose the weather had done its very worst for that voyage, it +met him off the coast of Scotland and in a seething fury of wind and +wave hurled him into the Scottish port of Leith, where he was fain to +run for shelter. Alas! he had fled the fierce wrath of nature to the +yet more terrifying wrath of man. + +Scotland, in 1704, when the _Worcester_ was thus blown into the port of +Leith, was again having her troubles, all of which were turning around +the hoodooed Scotch African-Indian company. That afflicted corporation +had already marked the _Content_ and the _Speedy Return_ off the +register as unaccountably missing, when behold a sister ship of these +two, the _Annandale_, imprudently venturing into the Thames, was seized +by the English East India Company in the assertion of its exclusive +rights in the Indies, one of the impudent things which so endeared that +company to the rest of the trading world. Now add that grievance to +the dreary Darien affair, already laid, as we have seen, at the door +of the English company, and you can understand why “Annandale” became +a slogan in Scotland and the focus of all its hate. Public opinion +whirled the Scottish authorities into action. These petitioned the +return of the _Annandale_, but in vain; the tenacity of the East India +Company, capable of holding a country of hundreds of millions of people +in its fist, regarded the Scotch protest as lightly as some folks do +their debts. To have and to hold was its motto, though all the kilted +Highlanders beyond the border skirled in a fury of revenge. The Scot, +however, is no baby; nay, he has considerable iron in his own system, +and a turn for definite action himself. “Verra guid, mon,” said the +north to the south, “verra guid; ther’s an English ship cam’ into +Leith; you keep the _Annandale_; we tak’ your Englishman.” + +Which they promptly did--none other than the _Worcester_. + +Captain Green was certainly now in a pickle. The Scotch government +seized his ship and now he had to stand around with his hands in his +pockets and wait the problematic issue of all this international +bickering. And the thousand pounds’ worth of patiently collected cargo, +the fruit of the peculiar industry of many Cogis--that, too, was sealed +by the authorities so that a man dare not take as much as enough for +a cup of coffee from the hold. If he had been an East Indian Company +ship he might have seen a little sense to it all; but what cared he for +either the Scotch or the English companies? Very little, indeed, and +yet--well, it was beyond words, even purple maritime words. He plumped +down in his cabin to wait. + +Now, hard by the docks in Leith there was a little parlor groggery +kept by a widow named Seaton, who with her nineteen-year-old daughter, +Anne, thus labored to make an honest livelihood. A widow, a lovely girl +and lots of good Scotch whiskey all under one roof,--why the situation +seemed just specially made for the advantage of George Haines, the +steward of the _Worcester_. What had looked at first like a long, +monotonous detention on a seized ship now suddenly brightened with the +most attractive promise. George accepted the opportunity so readily +that shortly he became almost a part of the Seaton home, and in an +admirably brief space of time nothing less than the accepted suitor of +the fair Anne herself. That meant, as any one could see with half an +eye, that eventually George Haines would be the proprietor of this neat +little business. No more stewing around the East Indies for him; that +was all in the past, or very soon would be. Well, truly, it is an ill +wind that blows nobody good. + +Of course, Mrs. Seaton had neighbors, and just as much of course she +talked to them about her business, her customers and her customers’ +business. One of these neighbors was a dear old lady by name Mrs. +Wilkie, also a widow. She was one of those sad folk who flit down to +the docks to see every ship come in and who speak to every sailor that +steps ashore, in the quest of loved ones long silent upon the far-off +seas. Every one knew Mrs. Wilkie’s story. She was the mother of a +bonnie lad by the name of Andrew, who some three years before this, had +gone as surgeon on the ship of Captain Drummond, the _Speedy Return_, +for a voyage to the Indies, and who, after one letter from Madagascar +by way of Mauritius, had not been heard from this long time; neither +he or his ship nor his captain. And now the old lady lived with her +other son, Jamie, a tailor, and whenever a ship came into port from the +East Indies, no matter what the hour of the day or night, the sailors +would see a little old gray lady waiting to ask them for news of the +_Speedy Return_. To Mrs. Wilkie, then, Mrs. Seaton made mention of the +_Worcester_ and of George Haines, its steward. + +Mrs. Wilkie and Jamie hastened together to the widow Seaton’s to +interview George. They found him in the parlor, comforting himself with +a big tumbler of grog. Jamie bought a drink and talked easily of the +voyage and hoped that George and all the others had fared well. This +seizure business,--that was bad, of course; but it would all come out +all right. George felt it was coming out all right for him as it was. +Jamie coughed, shifted a bit in his chair and at length came out with +the vital question: “Would you be meeting a ship in your travels, the +_Speedy Return_, captain Rab Drummond, out o’ Glasgie?” + +Mrs. Wilkie’s heart waited. The clock ticked loudly. The widow Seaton +paused with her potato-paring knife poised in midair. On the kitchen +threshold merry-faced Anne stopped and gazed as though she were +watching a stage play. + +“Sink me! What have I to do with Captain Drummond?” + +Bang came the tumbler on the table; the steward’s loose, foolish +jaw was shoved forward defiantly. Yet what was there about him? +Something--yes, the steward is in the grip of a great fear. Since +frequenting the widow’s shop, George had heard quite a lot about +this Captain Drummond, because the captain, young Andrew Wilkie, +and doubtless many others of his crew had belonged in this city of +Edinburgh, of which, as you know, Leith is the port and a suburb. Folk +were always asking him about this Drummond till he was fair sick of it. +He leaned over and stuck his fat lips against Jamie’s ear. “While we +was on the coast of Malabar,” he began with solemn, nautical preface, +“a Dutch ship told us that Captain Drummond, out o’ Scotland was +turned--a pirate!” He leaned back and gazed at Jamie’s astonished face. +Yes, he had achieved an effect; maybe he could get another. “Aye, sir, +so we manned our sloop, we did, putting guns and patereroes aboard, and +got ready to give the Scot a pound or two o’ lead.” Now the creeklet of +his imagination went dry. “He never came” he ended rather ineffectively. + +Jamie was beaten. He drew off his artillery and departed to allow a +light fire ship to come alongside. But all Anne got for her wiles and +her work was, as she put it, “He found they had a design to pump him; +but they should not be the wiser of him, though what he had said he +had said.” He was no ship to be pumped, was George; but you see the +implication that there was water in the hold. + +Among the patrons of the house was a jolly old gunner, Will Wood, who +used to come down from the fort in all his splendid regimentals to +drink toddy and tickle the chin of the laughing Anne. He got interested +in the “pumping” of George Haines, steward of the seized ship which lay +outside at the dock, and resolved to try the bluff, hearty, man-to-man +approach. He loaded George up with whiskey until he “fell into a +melancholy fit,” from the burnt-sienna depths of which he emitted this +frightful croak: “It is a wonder that since we did not sink at sea, +that God did not make the ground open and swallow us up when we are +come ashore, for the wickedness that has been committed during this +last voyage on board that old bitch _Bess_.” + +By the “old bitch Bess” he meant the _Worcester_, whose spars might be +seen through the parlor window dripping in the mournful rain. + +Will Wood slapped the steward’s knee. “Come, my lad, take a turn on the +links; you’ll feel better; what’s a bit of wet?” + +Dolefully George tottered out of the hot parlor. Behind him the genial +artilleryman turned and winked portently at the watching company. +“Now’s the time,” said the knowing wink; “we’ve almost got him.” + +The pair strolled out by the castle, they walked on the golf links; +they became intimate. Said jolly Will Wood at the right moment, “I +heard a friend of mine say that he knew a man who got it right from +a fellow that could swear to the truth of it, that the uncle of your +first-mate, Madder, was burned in oil for attempting to set fire to the +Dutch ships at Amsterdam.” + +George stopped in his walk. He raised a finger toward the sky--a +reeling, waving finger--in solemn affirmation. “If what Mr. Madder had +done during this last voyage,” he declared slowly, “were as well known, +he deserved as much as his uncle had met with.” + +Under all the circumstances, that remark could only mean one thing--the +_Worcester_ had been concerned in the piracy of the _Speedy Return_ +and the murder of her crew, who were then supposed to be all dead. +Incredible as it may seem, this drunken maundering of steward Haines, +coupled with the unintelligent suspicions of the Wilkies, the Seatons +and others, passed from the water front to the city until it reached +the officers of the law who--no more intelligent--made it the basis for +a charge of piracy and murder against Green and his crew, upon which +they were all arrested and marched off to the dark holes of the old +Tolbooth prison. The _Annandale_ was forgotten; the _Speedy Return_ +and Captain Drummond took its place, and all Scotland roared with one +voice for vengeance. + +Why did George Haines thus seek to link the _Worcester_ with the piracy +of the _Speedy Return_? The conversations above reported between the +steward and the Wilkies, the Seatons and Wood are exactly as given on +the subsequent trial of Captain Green. At that trial the lawyers for +Green and the rest of the crew accused with him of the piracy of the +_Speedy Return_ and the murder of Drummond, sought to explain Haines’ +motive by his love affair with Anne Seaton and his desire to become +proprietor of the little Seaton tavern. They also laid much of his +talk to the influence of liquor. There is something in both of these +arguments, but it is probable that a greater motive than these two +dominated him, and that was fear. With the state of the public mind +in Scotland in the condition it was about Darien, the _Annandale_, +the English and English East Indian traders, it is not unlikely that +a notion blew about the water front when the _Worcester_ came in to +Leith and was seized that perhaps this was one of the hated East India +Company ships, from which it was just a short step to the suspicion +that, as such, or at any rate as an Englishman trading in the East +Indies, the _Worcester_ _might_ have had a hand in the disappearance of +the long overdue _Speedy Return_. Evidently, reasoned the Scotchmen, +the _Speedy Return_ has come to harm; nobody would harm a Scotch ship +in the Far East but some Englishman; here was an Englishman from the +Indies; ergo, he probably had pirated the Scotchman. This thought, more +or less tangible, was all about the _Worcester’s_ men as they loafed +on the water front. In those times, such was the rigor of the criminal +law and the uncertainty of acquittal, innocent men would rush to turn +state’s evidence and take the lesser evil of imprisonment rather than +execution. That this was the condition of things would seem to be shown +by the fact that Doctor May, the _Worcester’s_ surgeon, became state’s +evidence, as did the slave Francesco and another black who had been +shipped at Malabar, and as many others made confessions as could hope +for leniency. This fear, then, working on the steward’s liquor-muddled +brain, together with his desire to ingratiate himself with the Seatons, +brought about the last act of a play opened by John Bowen in the Bay of +Antongil in Madagascar. + +With all of Scotland from north to south and east to west crying for +vengeance, very little time was lost in bringing Captain Green and +all the rest of his men, excluding the doctor and the two blacks, and +including George Haines, who somehow missed the privilege of becoming +queen’s evidence, to their trial in the old court in Parliament Square +in Edinburgh. + +On March 5, 1705, the men of the _Worcester_, with the sturdy and +indignant Green at their head, were marched between the bare bayonets +of the City Guards from the Tolbooth to the old courthouse in +Parliament Square, there to stand their arraignment and trial. George +Haines’ liquorous eloquence is about to prove the efficient cause of +many and tragic results. + +A great crowd clogged the court benches and galleries, so much so that +one could not have swung a thought, much less a cat, about one. The +plain attitude of these blue-bonneted folk was that the accused and the +troubles of Scotland were identical. It is fatal to become a symbol. + +Beneath the bench was the lawyers’ table, where now court servants +were putting quills and papers and books. Already the prosecution +is gathering about their end of the table,--a long string of grave +lawyers, under the leadership of Procurator Fiscal, Alexander Higgins. +And who will stand up for the poor sailormen? An astounding array, a +most impressive alignment of legal ability will. Sir David Cunningham +heads the defense, but he will soon drop out and be succeeded by Sir +David Thoirs, with whom will be Sir Walter Pringle, Mr. David Forbes, +Mr. George Alexander, Mr. John Spotswood and Mr. John Elphinstone. Why, +these are names of as much professional weight as are those who will +oppose them on behalf of the Crown. + +How inspiring to behold this important company of lawyers quick to the +defense of the forlorn strangers by the power of a pure love of justice +and a jealous wardenship of the bright honor of the Scottish Bar! For +how else could these sailors--worth not a penny between them, and with +their captain but little wealthier--call to their side these advocates +who had won even the dignities of knighthood in the contests of the +forum? + +For a distressingly cold matter of fact, however, there were several +other motives which conceivably prompted the efforts of the gentlemen +for the defense, and a way that you would never guess was the one +by which they entered the court as procurators (attorneys) for the +defense, and that was--but wait, let us not anticipate. + +Sir David Cunningham smiled at Sir David Thoirs and presented his +snuffbox; Sir David Cunningham bowed to the Procurator Fiscal and did +not offer snuff. Mr. Procurator Fiscal could afford to overlook a +little thing like that, for he felt this was to be his hour. + +Presently the macers came in and the people shuffled to their feet and +stood while the Judge of the High Court of Admiralty with his string +of “assessors,” or specially appointed assistant judges, all in their +scarlet-dappled gowns, solemnly embanked themselves on the seat of +authority. + +The judges sat; every one but the prisoners sat, and then Mr. +Procurator Fiscal, née Higgins, arose, conscious of the spotlight, and +with orotund voice emptied himself of two tremendous indictments, alike +in word and effect; one directed at one group of defendants and the +other shafted at another group. Canny fellow, this fiscal; he split the +defendants so that, if by mischance one section were cleared, he might +have better luck with the other. Evidently he was an impartial and +fair-minded prosecutor. + +If it were not that many men and perhaps some women have been hanged on +them, those old indictments would be the law’s best joke. Here is what +might be called the Fiscal’s charge proper: + +“That upon one or other of the days of the months of February, March, +April or May, in the year 1703,” the _Worcester_ “did encounter or meet +with another ship or vessel, sailed by its own men or crew, upon the +coast of Malabar, near Calicut, and the said vessel bearing a red flag, +and having English or Scots aboard, at least such as spoke the English +language”; which red-ensigned ship Captain Thomas Green and his crew +first attacked with their sloop, and afterwards with the _Worcester_; +that the defense was overcome, the defenders slain, their bodies cast +into the sea and their ship looted. + +Notice the fine explicitness of this indictment. On any one of the days +of four months, in a vaguely indicated region, the defendants attacked +a ship carrying a red flag and manned by English-speaking sailors. The +implication was to be gathered that the ship was the _Speedy Return_; +but the prosecution could not quite go so far as to paint a name on the +bows of the red-flagged ship. + +The job of defending against this blanket charge probably looked too +great to Sir David Cunningham, for he drops out at this point and the +load falls back on Sir David Thoirs and his colleagues. + +In addition to the charge, the indictments set out, through several +pages of close print, the entire evidence which the Crown expected to +prove. A great rigamarole, this, containing a particular recitation +of everything that George Haines had said to the widow Seaton, her +daughter Anne, Will Wood of the artillery, and Jamie Wilkie, with which +we are already acquainted. + +Incorporated with all this, was a long-winded yarn by the ship’s +doctor, May, who had been granted the comfort of turning state’s +evidence, and from which it appeared that the doctor himself and some +others (among whom was the second mate, Reynolds, according to the +oral admission of the Fiscal) being ashore and hearing the firing of +guns, came to the water’s edge and saw a captive ship riding at the +stern of the _Worcester_. The cannonading had ceased by that time, so +the surgeon went aboard, where he found the decks of the _Worcester_ +littered with goods. He asked the reason of it all of one of the +crew, whereupon John Madder, first mate, overhearing him, turned +angrily to the doctor “in a tarpaulin temper” as the doctor says, and +exclaimed, “D--n you! What have you to do to inquire? Meddle with your +plaister-box!” The surgeon then went down to his “chest” and called for +the wounded to dress them; three of whom, “Antonio Ferdinando, and one +Duncan McKay, now dead, and another” came for treatment. These refused +to tell him how they came by their wounds “whereupon the chirurgeon +refused to dress them if they would not tell him how they got their +wounds, and the said John Madder came to the chirurgeon in a passion, +and asked what his business was to ask so many questions, when he did +see the wounds so plain before him, calling him a blockhead for not +dressing them,” and winding up by ordering the doctor ashore. There +the surgeon met the ship’s interpreter, hired locally for the sojourn, +who told him that some of the crew of the _Worcester_ had brought the +captured ship into the Keilon River and sold it to Cogi Commodo. + +Such were the indictments, and they were so drawn because of the +peculiar nature of the jury’s verdict under the Scotch practice, which +did not find the fact of guilt “as charged,” but merely the truth of +each item of the evidence, leaving to the court to pronounce the legal +significance of those findings. It’s a jumbled-up thing and would +take a treatise to explain. Some historians charge that this form of +verdict was the child of political skullduggery and framed first to +catch covenanters and other radicals for whom juries were showing too +much sympathy and were acquitting on the general verdict; the idea +being that a jury would have to find as a fact that Dougal was meeting +in a bog with his confreres, while the judge could remove from the jury +the temptation of turning in “Not guilty” by reserving to himself the +declaration of the legal import of the finding of fact as to Dougal’s +actions. + +Next, after arraignment the indictment (we refer to it in the singular +as both documents were of the same effect) must be approved by the +judges; that is, the court must declare that if the evidential facts +set out in the indictment are proved, such facts will make a proper +charge and, if found by the jury, will be sufficient to convict. + +Obviously, then, the big battle of this campaign must be fought across +the indictment. Alec the Fiscal, with his army, will struggle to get it +approved; Davy Thoirs and his gallant legion are ready to break their +hearts in an effort to get it condemned. The actual trial will not be +important, for if the indictment be held good, the Fiscal’s witnesses +will simply recite what is already written in that indictment, and all +the jury will be able to say will be that sometime in February, March, +April or May, 1703, the _Worcester_ was off the coast of Malabar, that +the ship’s doctor heard but did not see firing, that he was told the +prize was sold to a Malabar merchant; that a drunken sot babbled in +a widow’s house, and the court will have already pledged itself to +declare those circumstances constitute piracy, robbery and murder. + +Three occasions, March 5, 7 and 13, mark the chronology of this high +forensic conflict. Its most lucent presentation requires that the time +element be disregarded here, and the arguments put together as a whole. +The debates were oral but we know what passed because, according to the +fashion of the time, what was said in court must afterwards be put in +writing by counsel and given to the clerk “to be entered upon the court +books.” + +Choosing our own time arrangement, then, first the defense attacked +the jurisdiction of the court to hear the case at all. It was argued +that the alleged crimes were committed on the coast of Malabar and by +Englishmen, therefore the accused should be sent to England for trial. +Alec the Fiscal countered that the crime charged being piracy, and +pirates subject to arrest anywhere, the place of arrest and not the +place of offense determined the court’s jurisdiction,--what you might +call the geographical boundaries of its power. What Alec the Fiscal is +thinking of is the indisputable principle that pirates actually in the +act of crime may be taken anywhere. That is not the same--and he must +have known it--as a presumably innocent ship being informed against +on suspicion. English admiralty practice was somewhat of a bar to the +Fiscal’s theory, so he kicked the English admiralty courts out of the +window, saying, “as for what may be the custom in England, it doth not +concern, nor can be any rule for us.” Looking at it that way, of course +the judges had little trouble finding themselves competent to arbitrate +the fight. Roars of delight from the Darien stockholders. + +Second, the gentlemen of the defense now threw their weight against the +indictment itself. They urged that it was too informal, too general, +too indefinite; that it did not specify day or place, and only by +far-drawn implication charged that the vessel pirated was the _Speedy +Return_. Here’s the exact language of their protest: + + That the libel (indictment) was irrelevant, as being general and + indefinite, not condescending (stating) upon the name, designation, + or any other sign or evidence by which the ship alleged to be seized + might be particularly distinguished, nor yet the persons’ names + alleged to have been murdered, or to whom the ship and goods robbed + did belong; which seem to be absolutely necessary in all such criminal + indictments, not only as a requisite in form, but in equity and + reason; without which, persons accused should be in great hazard + from general and indefinite libels, and precluded from their means of + defense, which otherways are obvious, when the accusation is certain, + special and pointed. + +Strong, sane, splendid words! Cutting through the fog of passion and +prejudice like a clear, pure beam of sun. Whatever may have brought +them into the case, Davy Thoirs and his men are here the mouthpieces of +the law in all its majestic wisdom. + +How did the Fiscal meet this smashing onslaught? He dodged. “He had +informed as definitely and closely as the thing would allow,” he +whined, “for what sense or reason is there, that the prosecutor should +be made to state positively on day and place, in crimes that are crimes +at all times and everywhere; unless it be for the very reason that +the defender, acknowledging the crime, offers to purge himself by the +exception of alibi?” + +Hardly credible, is it? A prosecutor should not specify the date and +place of a crime lest the defendant prove he was somewhere else at the +time. This is the atmosphere, surely, of Alice’s Wonderland. Why, a +defendant might actually have been somewhere else than at the place of +the crime, and what would a poor Fiscal do then? Sir Patrick Home at +the bar rolled a pathetic eye up at Sir John Home on the bench. What +will happen in Scotland if people are going to insist on such absurd +propositions as that advanced by the defense? Well-a-day and two Alacks! + +The judges would consider the matter. + +It did not do to make any false moves before Davy Thoirs, and this is +just what the Fiscal did when he admitted that John Reynolds, one of +the defendants, was ashore at the time of the attack. Swift, hard, +the defense hit this point. Under that practice one defendant in a +criminal action could not be a witness for a co-defendant until “so +purged from being _socius criminis_ (a fellow criminal)” as to be “put +in case to be a witness.” If Reynolds could be cleared of the crime he +could testify for his fellows. For a situation of that sort the law +provided that one defendant wishing to use another as his witness was +to “raise an exculpation” on behalf of that witness; that is, he would +offer to prove such and such facts concerning the desired witness, +upon which a trial was to be had, when, if the party were cleared or +“exculpated” he could then take the stand and return the compliment +to his erstwhile co-defendants. On behalf of the accused, the defense +now offered to exculpate and thus qualify John Reynolds, on the ground +that, as admitted by the Fiscal, he was on shore at the time of the +crime charged and therefore not _particeps criminis_. + +The Fiscal roared. “You can’t do this,” he yelled, and the noisier +he grew the vaguer his argument became; you have to positively offer +to prove Reynolds was somewhere else on some exact day or not on his +ship for four months together. My indictment may be vague, was what he +meant, but your alibi must be as specific as a bookkeeper’s accounts. +Why, that was why he had drawn his indictment so loosely,--just to head +off alibis. + +The judges would consider the matter. + +Why continue? It was all on that stripe. + +On the morning of the thirteenth, the judges announced the conclusion +of their deliberations. + +“The judges and assessors,” came the stiletto tones from the seat of +Justice, “having advised both the indictments pursued by Mr. Alexander +Higgins, Procurator-Fiscal of the High Court of Admiralty, against +captain Thomas Green” and the others, find, that “Reynolds being +libelled against as _socius criminis_, a fellow criminal, and there +being no specialty or particular ground of exculpation proponed, why he +should be previously tried repel” the offer of the defense to exculpate +him and “repel the objection against the generality of the indictments, +in regard to the nature of the crimes and find the crimes of piracy, +or robbery or murder, as libelled, being proven by clear and plain +evidence, relevant to infer the pains of death ... and remit the whole +to the knowledge of the assize (jury).” + +Captain Green’s snuffbox tinkled along the floor. Sir Patrick Home of +the prosecution glanced up gratefully at Sir John Home on the bench; +the audience breathed a collective Ah! The judges rose and passed out; +their gowns were more than dappled,--they now dripped with scarlet. + +March 14, and the thing could be quickly finished. The assize, or +jury, was impaneled, made up of fifteen members, whose verdict was +sufficient, if found by a plurality of votes. + +Mr. Fiscal first put on the stand Antonio Ferdinando, cook’s mate. He +testified through an interpreter, one captain Yeaman. After asserting +that he was twenty-four years of age, single, a Christian and the son +of Christian parents, he claimed that he saw the _Worcester_ attack +the unnamed ship “upon the coast of Malabar”, practically as set out +in the indictment, and that in the engagement he was wounded, in the +arm, “which wound he now shows to the view of all.” Sensation in the +courtroom! He said it was a running fight and lasted for three days, +and occurred between Tellicherry and Calicut. During his testifying it +was apparent that he was extremely sick, and from time to time he had +to stop and stretch at length on counsel’s table until he could recover +his strength to proceed. + +Next up was Doctor May, who said he was twenty-six years old, and who, +being white, enjoyed the presumption of being a Christian. He repeated +the statements which he had given for the indictment. He said he heard +the firing while he was at Callequilon. If Ferdinando truthfully told +that the attack was at Calicut, the doctor must have had unusual powers +of hearing, for that place and Callequilon are more than one hundred +miles apart. This was a little too much for even this tragic farce, so +towards the end the doctor brazenly switched his testimony and said +that the firing happened while he was on the ship “going up the coast +of Malabar.” + +Antonio Francesco, the slave, was the third to come on. He had been +chained to the forecastle floor during the firing, but was told by +Ferdinando that the sloop was attacking a ship. He added the highly +significant information that Ferdinando was only employed forty-eight +hours before the _Worcester_ left Anjango for Bengal and home! If +that were so, he was not on the ship at the time Doctor May was at +Callequilon, for that was long before the departure for Bengal. + +But then, one could amuse one’s self indefinitely picking out this kind +of discrepancy among the witnesses. + +James Wilkie, Will Wood and the whole Seaton circle, of course, washed +their faces and came trippingly to court to tell of the important +utterances of George Haines, and to impinge their little personalities +a moment upon the national retina. + +Under the custom of that day counsel for the criminal defendant +could not give his client much help on the facts, but Thoirs went as +far as the law would allow him. He disputed the qualifications of +the Antonios, claiming that they did not own ten pounds apiece, and +therefore could not be heard to testify in a Scottish court. This was +easy for the Fiscal. “Oh,” said he, “we calculate that each has wages +coming to him from the cruise, which will total more than ten pounds.” +And the court declared the witnesses qualified! If Sir David Cunningham +knew of this ruling he must have been glad he quit. + +Evening came on, yet the court sat through. The macers lit the candles, +making little pools of yellow light in the mid-March murk of the old +courtroom. + +Green essayed a feeble cross-examination but could make little headway +with a weapon which requires the finest skill of the most practiced +hand, and which, clumsily used, will certainly cut the examiner’s own +fingers. As to any affirmative defense, nothing could be advanced under +an indictment of the kind laid against him, for what was there that he +could specifically approach and rebut; all he could say was no. One +thing he did advance and which carried no weight with the assize, but +which is meaningful enough for us, and that was that there was indeed +firing upon the coast of Malabar and by the _Worcester’s_ guns, but it +was nothing more than the five salutes to the ship _Aureng-zeb_. + +The “probation” or taking of testimony ended. Sir David Dalrymple, +her majesty’s solicitor, rose to “speech the assize” on behalf of +the prosecution. “Forgive me,” he blandly began, after complimenting +them as persons “so discerning and faithful”, “if, after a _sederunt_ +(sitting) of twelve hours ... I detain you a little longer in +recapitulating what has passed, with some few observations, I hope not +improper, before ye enclose.” Those “few observations”, invariably the +preface of the complete bore! For two hours more this fellow rehashed +the evidence, in heads and subheads until a mathematician would have +endangered his reason keeping count thereof. What a point he made of +Captain Thomas Bowrey’s code, found on the seizing of the ship! A +regular devil’s document it was. As a matter of fact it was nothing +more than a meager little forerunner of the ordinary commercial code +of to-day. The whole matter, he asserted, was “as clear as sunshine.” +Rather as clear as mud. + +Midnight had chimed from the town clock when counsel for the defense +took the floor. The candles guttered in their sockets, making jumping +blotches of shadow upon the faces of the judges, heavily sunk in +their seats, fighting with sleep; in the blackness beneath the bench +the macer drooped forward in his chair; Dalrymple left the assize +in various postures of exhaustion, some with their heads thrown far +back, yawning at the ceiling, others dozing upon their knuckles +crooked perspiringly on walking sticks; the panels, or prisoners, +hung on doggedly to the bar rail, or squatted defiantly upon the +floor, their tropic-tanned faces seamed with the drear sojourn in the +Tolbooth,--snared sea birds cruelly caged. In the throng of spectators, +nature had triumphantly overcome the curiosity of many and had whisked +them away to the realms, somber or sparkling, of dreams; little +children lay prone on their mothers’ knees, their locks wet against +their fair foreheads, sweet and lovely flowers in this stagnant pool of +human passion. + +No record has been kept of the speech of the defense; we can easily +think, though, from the splendid fight they had maintained, that they +did not weaken in this last trench, this so hopeless and shattered +barricade. + +The trial ended. + +The assize was turned loose with orders to come back the next day but +one with their verdict, “under pain of three hundred marks.” After +wandering all over town for a couple of days, the fifteen good men and +true strolled back to court at the time appointed, and gave in the +following verdict: “They (the assize), by plurality of votes, find +that there is one clear witness as to the piracy, robbery and murder +libelled; and that there are accumulative and concurring presumptions +proven for the piracy and robbery so libelled; but find that John +Reynolds, second mate of the said ship, was ashore at the time +libelled.” + +So Reynolds would have been “exculpated” after all! What do their +honors think of that? + +Who could the “one clear witness” have been? + +And how shall we salute the anonymous minority who did not subscribe to +the verdict? + +The quietness which lasted while the verdict was formally sealed was +broken by the precise tones of David Forbes, one of the lawyers for the +defense. A last blow for his sailors? No. He is telling the court that +he is attorney for the Scotch African-Indian company and in their name +desires to enter protest against the setting over to the Crown of the +ship _Worcester_ and her cargo. Thus one of the little kittens of this +narrative jumps from the bag where she has so carefully been kept. + +The lawyers for the defense wholly or in part--at any rate +considerably--came into the case in the pay of the Scotch +African-Indian company! + +Strange, is it not? Here’s all Scotland, raw with the sore of Darien, +shouting for the healing ointment of English blood, and here is the +company, heir of all the grievances and privileges of the Darien +disaster, spending money to keep that relief from the angry sufferer. + +French folk say that in a mystery one must search for the woman. French +folk are too naïve. One should look for the dollar, beside which the +woman is but a key of putty with which to unlock the riddles of life. + +Here’s the thing: if the men of the _Worcester_ were convicted +of piracy, that ship, under the law, would escheat to the Crown; +otherwise, the Scotch African-Indian company was entitled to the +possession of it as reprisal for the seizure of their ship _Annandale_. +Thus thousands of pounds’ worth of ship and cargo would be lost to the +company if Green were convicted and his ship set over to the Crown. + +In this none too simple world of ours a good end is sometimes strangely +forwarded, not by those for whom it may be an advertised goal, but +by ones who, so far as they know or care, are serving the completely +selfish moment. This strife for the _Worcester_ put the ablest men +of the Scotch bar at the service of Green and his crew, and gave his +cause, and incidently that of justice in the abstract, the utmost help +the times and practices permitted to the defense in a criminal action. +These keen, adroit company lawyers wrung every drop of advantage they +could, and on the law, as law, utterly routed the prosecution and +luminously exposed the prejudice of the court. + +On Wednesday, March 21, the _coup-de-grâce_ was given. Captain +Green and all the rest, including George Haines--doubtless sober +now--received their sentences. It was decreed that one group of the +defendants should on Wednesday, April 4, another group on the Wednesday +following that, and the remainder on the third Wednesday, or April +18, “be taken to the sands of Leith, within the flood mark, betwixt +the hours of eleven o’clock in the forenoon and four o’clock in the +afternoon, and there be hanged upon a gibbet until they be dead.” + +And--that the ship _Worcester_, as the vessel of the pirates, should be +set over to her majesty the queen. + +Antonio Ferdinando, cook’s mate, lay fevered on his pallet in one of +the high attics of Edinburgh. There was a roaring in the street as of a +public celebration; the cries welled up from below, the people of the +house exulted on the stairs, and crowding into the sick room shouted, +“The pirates are to die.” Antonio shivered, moaned and expired. + + + III + +Gusts of rain were splashed by the spring winds round and about the +hilly streets of Edinburgh; the defeated sun lay like a large pale +yellow blot against the moist clouds. Yet very early in that morning +of April 4 throngs of folk were crowding to the prison gates and +scattering about the sands of Leith. For to-day Darien was to be +avenged. + +In the chambers of the Scottish Estates, in Parliament Square, the +privy council assembled, attended by the city magistrates, for a tumult +was clearly prophesied. + +“The idea!” puffed my lord chancellor, getting into his gown. “Such a +clamor about the prison! Would they intimidate us with their uproar. +Mr. Magistrate, go sweep them through the gutters to their kennels!” + +“My lord, I hae no broom big enow.” + +The clerk presented a petition, signed by many of the better +consciences of the town, praying a reprieve for the condemned pirates. +The council turned the matter about with grave, genteel speech. + +“What a file of names! They seem to urge that Reynolds should have had +opportunity of exculpation. Well, we discharged Reynolds, did we not?” + +“In view of the verdict, my lords, I am inclined to think--well, that +he might have been exculpated.” + +“And I.” + +“And I.” + +“The indictment was good, my Lord Chancellor, of course--did we not so +hold. But the fact of death--ordinarily, of course, it should be shown. +Ordinarily, I say. The other rule is a little dangerous, is it not? The +_corpus delicti_--it is a sound doctrine--usually.” + +“Oh, ordinarily--certainly. Macer, close the window--the noise from the +prison yard is getting intolerable.” + +“My lords, my lords, they’re under our windows! Oh, my lords, such a +press, and ilk has a stick or a stane ’n’s fist. + +“Mr. Magistrate, you will see to the protection of her majesty’s +council.” + +“Aye, my Lord Chancellor--or die wi’ ye.” + +“Tush! tush! Such blathering! Die? Who said die?” + +“Heavens! Who’s thumping on that door?” + +“My lords, the people cry that you are reprieving the pirates!” + +“I pray that no torch be set to the town. Shall I step forth and +promise the people, on the honor of a magistrate, there shall be no +reprieve?” + +“Reprieve, Mr. Magistrate! Who spoke of reprieve?” + +A gust of wind from the open door blew the petition fluttering to the +floor. None stooped to pick it up. + +The council adjourned. The chancellor got as far as the old Tron church +when some pudding-face in the crowd shouted the pirates were reprieved. +A wave of people beat against the chancellor’s coach, they smashed the +glass, crashed in the panels, and might have licked up the blood of +the worthy nobleman himself but for the onrushing bayonets of the city +guard, and, what was more effective,--a sudden, cyclonic roar from the +throng at the prison gate, announcing that Green, Madder and Simpson +were departing in the death wagon for the doomful sands of Leith. + +Dimmed, indeed, was the honor of Scottish lawyers when bench and bar +could thus go hand in hand to cast to the wild beast of public passion +the unprotected and the innocent. Even the defense--able, adroit, +complete--was not purely disinterested, yet amid all those mad scenes +one soul, at least, kept the noblest traditions of the law alive +within him and splendidly redeems his profession. For a young, obscure +lawyer sat attentively in court during the whole trial, and, on the +day of doom, clad himself in a suit of complete mourning and attended +at the sands of Leith, and, when Justice had completed its terrific +miscarriage, he, at the risk of his life, saw to the decent interment +of the poor victims. That young man was to be the future illustrious +Duncan Forbes! + +None of the other _Worcester_ men were executed. Between March 16 and +April 3, Thomas Linsteed, John Bruckley and George Haines made solemn +confession of their fictitious crimes before James Graham, the judge +admiral. But these confessions are dismissed by a contemporary writer +as worthless and purely self-serving; they merely elaborated the tale +already told and were obviously made to repair the weakness of the +State’s case, and as the prosecution’s apology for an act already +beginning to disturb many consciences. + +The public blood thirst was slaked. One reprieve followed another, and +eventually the whole crew drifted out of prison, out of the country and +out of the view of history. + +And a few days before the execution of the three ill-fated men, our old +friends Israel Phippany and Peter Freeland landed in England, but too +late to prevent the tragedy of Leith sands, and revealed the true fate +of the good ships _Content_ and _Speedy Return_! + +A moralist must find this tale provocative. Mark the factors of evil +in the case; the commercial greed which seized the _Annandale_, the +violent crime of Bowen in pirating the _Speedy Return_, the blind +national anger which perverted public opinion, and which in its +turn warped a timid and compliant court and council to its will, the +individual habits of a ship’s steward, and the fear for their personal +safety which made perjurers of the State’s witnesses. One’s speculation +is challenged. + +These tragic deaths were not entirely fruitless. Although not the +foundation of the principle, nevertheless this celebrated cause went +far to rivet unshakably into the foundations of English jurisprudence +the vital doctrine of the _corpus delicti_,--proof of the actual fact +of death before a charge of homicide will lie. + + + + + CHAPTER SIX + + “WHO FIRES FIRST?” + + John Gow + + + I + +“As we eat, so shall we work.” + +Almost immediately after leaving Amsterdam old Paterson had set up his +insistent croak; from his hammock under the poop when the roaring +officers called the shifting watches, on the sleety deck and aloft +in the wind-taut rigging, and the last thing at night in the great +cabin, even at the solemn moment of common prayer, when his captain +and master slowly read the form of evening supplication, this ancient +and discontented shellback continually muttered his plaint to wind and +waves and willing and unwilling ears, “As we work, so shall we eat.” + +If looks could kill, the poor cook of the _George_ would long since +have perished amid his pots and pans, for it was when, at the appointed +times, or as the emergencies of the ship demanded, old Paterson rolled +with his pannikin and mess-kid to the galley that his obsessing whine +became a shriek and his filmy eye burned upon the humble dispenser +of the victuals with a consuming hate. Not that the cook, in himself, +offended old Paterson, but because he became a symbol of oppressive +shipmasters and exacting shipowners who sought to pare another penny of +profit from the stringy stomachs of their ’foremasting slaves. + +Justice would indeed be blindfolded, nay, have no eyes at all, if she +could not see that old Paterson had some cause for complaint. Little +meat and less bread; rum thimbled out as reluctantly as a small boy +dividing his lollipops under compulsion; a menu, in fact, made up of +tepid water tinctured to the point of tantalizing with suggestions of +what might, under proper conditions, have been food, made meager fare +for men lashed into crying hunger by the snapping sea gales. + +And when still a long way from Santa Cruz, in the Azores, whither +the _George_ was bound, the twenty-four men of the crew were put on +“short allowance”, old Paterson, with his croak, became a soloist now +supported by a chorus. “Short allowance”--certainly, an artful misuse +of the comparative degree--had always been short, and in truth could +only be called shortest. + +At Santa Cruz they sluggishly laded the ship with beeswax, and although +the chandlers pressed importunately about the skipper, he gave no +orders for any considerable increase in the provisions for the homeward +voyage. Were they to make the journey back on that misnamed “short +allowance?” It rather looked as though they would. Cargo was stuffed +into the hold in plenty, but no fresh sides of beef came to cheer +the toiling seamen; no flour, no bread, nothing but a few bottles of +wine which, however, went into the great cabin and the custody of the +thrifty key. Perhaps provisions would come aboard when the loading was +done; at least the younger and less sophisticated men hoped, but old +Paterson shook his earrings and clubbed pigtail. He had followed the +sea long enough to know the character of his ship. + +Among the officers of the ship, the men had but one whom they could +look upon as a friend,--John Gow, the second mate, a youngish man +from the Orkney Islands. A capable sailor was John Gow, yet never too +busy to sympathize a moment with the miseries of his men, nor too +much the officer to spend a kindly word on an outcast crew. But what +could a second mate do? Was he not simply a block for his superiors to +kick with the expectancy that he would pass the compliment on to his +subordinates? Exactly. + +“As we eat, so shall we work.” John Gow heard the slogan spreading like +a kind of vocal slow match to the powder magazine of disaster and only +smiled. + +When the beeswax and other cargo was in, the unmistakable notice of +departure appeared in the formal reception by the captain of his +charterers. The gentlemen came aboard in their best clothes and were +escorted to the quarter-deck, where an awning had been spread against +the sun, and a cluster of wine bottles glowed with their purple +prophecy of comfort. From the waist and forward, eyes of envy and +dislike turned furtively on the pleasant company aft, merry now in the +exchange of compliments. + +“We’re starting,” cried a youth, plaintively, “and there’s no victuals +aboard.” + +Old Paterson was not going home on an empty belly. If he knew anything +in this world, he knew that much. Around him clumped a group of seamen, +and somehow, probably with little premeditation, they suddenly started +aft and shocked their captain by intruding on the sanctity of the +quarter-deck. The merchants leaned back from their bottles and looked +as though they thought the end of the world had come. Simply unheard of! + +Old Paterson bowed and scraped politely. “Cap’n,” he began, with the +habitually humble voice before authority, “we’re on short allowance. We +hope your honor ain’t agoin’ home without proper victuals aboard.” + +His supporters growled their amen. The captain, hardly holding himself +in from hurling a chair, a bottle, a tackle block or anything handy at +the presumptuous faces before him, rose up and frigidly replied that +there was a steward aboard who had the care of the provisions and all +complaints would be properly redressed. The tarry gang tumbled back to +their proper sphere, leaving the captain in a muddle of embarrassment +and suspicion,--embarrassment for his fractured dignity, suspicion +because the intrusion indicated a perhaps germinating rebellion. + +Old Paterson leered at his guard of honor. “As we eat, so shall we +work.” + +The merchants in polite course quitted the ship, and the captain, +without commenting on the incident of the afternoon, ordered the +anchor up and the sails shaken out. They were starting, and there +was not a square meal for one, let alone twenty-four men aboard. +Short--shorter--shortest allowance all the way home. + +The crew lagged at their work; particularly old Paterson, who crawled +into the shrouds so sluggardly that the captain marked him, and in +round sea terms demanded why he did not get to unfurling the sails more +seamanlike. Old Paterson turned like an aged rattlesnake. + +“As we eat, so shall we work.” + +The captain caught the mutter, and so did John Gow, the second mate. +The captain prudently did nothing about it; the second mate grinned and +gazed innocently out at the greenish sea. + + + II + +Apprehension--almost premonition--dropped heavily upon the skipper as +the day marched to a gray and windy evening. The complaining deputation +that had assaulted his quarter-deck in the early afternoon, the open +grumbling of old Paterson, and above all, no doubt, a something in the +demeanor of the men, which an experienced master might read like the +signs of the sky, foreboded the brewing of violence. + +He and his mate were standing on the quarter-deck, where, in the dusk, +two or three men passed and repassed them on the business of the ship. +The mate himself felt the coming of a worse storm than that of wind and +wave, and when the captain, bracing himself sufficiently to confess his +fears and suggest that small arms should be gathered and placed in his +cabin “in case anything should happen”, his chief officer, glad to air +his secret anxiety, at once set about the business. + +And the first thing he did was to call John Gow and order him to attend +to the cleaning of the ship’s muskets, pistols and cannon. + +“Aye, aye, sir,” responded Gow, and slipped briskly forward. + +Almost at the same time two of the men who had been fumbling with the +ropes on the quarter-deck sank down the companion ladder and met the +second mate in the forward gloom. The three spoke together closely, +with much tossing of indicative thumbs over their shoulders. + +The arming of the captain’s cabin went but tardily; little delays such +as lost keys and so forth kept the thing at pause until eight o’clock, +the daily hour of divine worship, not to be foregone for anything +but an irresistible typhoon. In the “great cabin,” as it was called +to distinguish it from the lesser cabins of the mate, surgeon and +supercargo, one half of the crew met while the other half kept on deck +and worked the ship, thus taking turn and turn about at prayers. The +captain stood under the lantern which jerked and bobbed and anon struck +its metal guards sharply against the ceiling with the tumbling of the +ship; the pigtailed crowd knelt in a shadowy motley about him, the +jumping light threw the blackness off the polished oaken wainscoting, +or gleamed an instant on the captain’s graying beard, and again +suddenly and sharply picked out a hairy, tattooed arm bracing some +worshipper against his lurching chapel. + +Against the cabin windows the seas slapped smartly and with a kind of +repetition as the movement of the ship turned one side and another +into the depths, the cabin door banged explosively with a quick +capriciousness of the wind; overhead, faintly, the cries of the +navigators could be heard; with it all, the reader pursued doggedly +the liturgy of that most sublime achievement of the English religious +genius, the book of Common Prayer. + +Did he, as his square thumbs turned the pages, light for a moment with +chill dread upon the Burial Service? + +The arrangement of the watches provided that those who attended the +service of prayer should go from there to their hammocks and rest until +it was time to relieve the next watch. + +“Who fires first?” + +A man fully dressed, but without his boots, gently punched one of the +bulging hammocks and whispered this strange question to the occupant +whose head bobbed up. If the man addressed knew who was to fire first, +he did not say so, for his only answer to the query was to roll deftly +out of his hammock and drop, with a scarcely audible pad of bare feet, +to the deck, tightening his belt about his waist and twisting his dirk +scabbard conveniently in front of him. + +“Who fires first?” + +From one hammock, selected from the swaying lines, to another the queer +question proceeded, always receiving the same reply,--tight lips and +a quick flop of feet on the deck. Six men had been asked in the gusty +darkness who was to fire first and now, cautiously fingering their way +along the deck works, and in single file, they crept toward the cabins +of the first mate, the doctor and the supercargo. + +The passageway connecting these small cabins was heavy with the smell +of old tobacco, drugs, wine and wet clothing and lighted by one small +lantern above the entrance. Softly, softly--a hand gently thrust +against a swinging door--a foot across the threshold--and death was +laid quickly at the throats of the sleepers. + +The mate, however, was a strong man. Clutching his gaping throat +convulsively with his two hands, he ran to the deck, only to meet a +conclusive volley of pistol balls. + +The captain, hearing the uproar, came up in his slippered feet, calling +out for the cause of it all, to which the boatswain answered that he +thought a couple of men had fallen overboard. The captain rushed to the +side and gazed into the black waters, and immediately was seized by +two men, who struggled to hoist him over the bulwark. Desperately, the +victim fought in their grasp, but scarcely had he twisted himself once +about, ere, in back and front, the dirk sank into his flesh. + +“As we eat, so shall we work,” grinned old Paterson, wiping his wet +blade on the poor remains. + + + III + +Amid an infernal hilarity, the officers’ cabins were now looted. The +little chests of personal belongings were smashed in and the contents +tumbled out to be grabbed by whoever could get to them first. Watches, +cheap trinkets of jewelry, silk handkerchiefs and what little money +could be found were divided with shouts of dispute. But two or three +boxes containing considerable coins and the property of the shipowners +were withdrawn for more decorous and equitable division. + +Everything in the way of liquor was rushed to the quarter-deck and +a night-long orgy ensued. The ship somehow wallowed along while its +masters reveled. With a bottle of wine in one hand, the greedily gulped +liquid streaming down his bushy beard, and a cutlass in the other, one +Williams, a proper rascal, smote his weapon ringingly against a cannon +and cried, “Captain Gow, you are welcome--welcome to your command.” + +In this way, informally but effectively, second mate John Gow accepted +his promotion to the office of captain. + +Captain Gow politely returned the kindness by saying, “Mr. Williams, +you shall be our lieutenant.” Thereupon the nominations were closed, +as parliamentarians say, and the elections unanimously carried. The +night went along in a roaring good humor till the placid eye of +morning, slowly opening in the watery east, was shocked to find the +decks red with an unholy stain. + +As a matter of fact, the whole affair had been carried by a group of +eight men, six of whom had been summoned from their hammocks by the +watchword “Who fires first?”, the remaining two being up on deck. From +the circumstance we have just seen, John Gow must have been a party to +the criminal enterprise, as he indeed was. + +Four men were over the side, eight were conspirators; thus there +remained twelve men of the crew more or less neutral. These men fled +for hiding to the shrouds, into the lazaret, or anywhere that might +shield them from the passionate tempest. + +A very similar circumstance has often engaged the interest of the +story-tellers. If this were a fictitious narration of the conventional +sort, this thrilling situation would be artfully resolved by the +wonderful recovery of the ship and the ultimate defeat of the mutineers +by the faithful and ingenious twelve. If it be permissible to point out +the deficiency of such enthralling yarns, as related to practical fact, +it would lie in the circumstance that by the time the ship had been +recaptured there would not be enough men left alive to work it, and, at +least according to the canny calculations of Lloyd’s, it would thereby +become an impossible risk. + +John Gow had a ship to man, and as no ship probably in all history +ever started out with too many hands, generally too few, the _George_ +must be supposed to have been no exception to the common rule; hence +while Gow might personally have liked to toss all opposition over the +bulwarks, he realized that to do so would have been tantamount to +wrecking his vessel, so another method of approach to the problem was +indicated. + +First, however, he had to get his lively eight in hand. As the morning +waves slapped foamingly across the slanting deck, the challenge to +orderly work was obvious. He therefore, in a regular quarter-deck talk +to the men, demanded their obedience and good conduct, concluding with +the announcement that alone ever assured harmony to a pirate ship,--an +equal division of the spoils to all, with a double share to the ship, +that is, the captain. + +Next he sent a deputation with drawn cutlasses to hunt out the +fugitives and bring them before him under the persuasion of peaceful +treatment. Out of their refuges came the frightened and tousled seamen, +doubtless full dubious of the efficacy of the promise of him whom they +now regarded as a monster. Lining them up, he thus addressed them: + +“Men, the inhumanity of the captain, of which you as well as we have +complained, produced the consequences of last night. We are now going +on a cruise. You may join with us, and if anything good comes to us you +shall have your equal share. All I require is obedience and good order. +You who have not been in this conspiracy have nothing to fear from us; +do your duty as seamen and you will be well paid.” + +Four of the twelve grinned and stepped over to the ranks of the +mutineers; eight stood dumb, answering never a word. It took a great +deal of moral courage to stand amid those eight, deprived of even their +dirks and utterly helpless in the hands of a crowd capable of the +horrors which the eight had witnessed. + +In the story of the sea, the bravery of naval battle, the courageous +deportment of men on sinking ships, the unselfish giving of one’s life +for another, all these have been properly remembered with all the +glowing artifice of rhetoric, and the heroes’ names treasured in the +marine annals of their country. Unhonored and unsung, for the most +part, are those obscure sailors who, without the incitement of martial +camaraderie, without the applause of onlookers, without expectation of +fame--in the most dejected and hopeless of situations--have manfully +stood by their notion of conscientious duty against their mutinous or +piratical fellows. Nevertheless, these unknown ones ascended the very +height of true heroism. + +Conduct of this kind brands as a lie the cynical saying that “every man +has his price”, for some men will not accept life itself in payment for +principle. + +Quelch, the Boston pirate, had his sturdy protestants; so too did Major +Bonnet, colleague of the infamous Blackbeard, and so did many other sea +rogues. In truth, almost every instance of the sort exhibits the moral +hardihood of an incorruptible minority. + +John Gow’s eight were delivered over to the rough abuse of Lieutenant +Williams, who flogged them at will, and set men to keep them at work +at the point of the cutlass. On them fell all the hard labor of the +ship and they became the drudges of whatever roistering rascal chose to +command them. + +At the same time, there is a final leniency about Gow’s treatment of +this minority which lifts him from the charge of entirely purposeless +ferocity. Purposeless ferocity is a tradition of piracy, but a curious +thing is that not one of the pirates, of the major type, whose crimes +were afterwards subjected to judicial examination, is particularly +marked with a simple lust of cruelty. Tales of brutality abound +concerning ruffians like Lafitte, England, Low, Lewis, Rackam and +the rest of the roguish gallery, which may or may not be true. The +same stories circulated about Kidd, Quelch, Avery and Gow, but when +compared with the judicial records, the source alone of this series of +pirate tales, of the activities of these last-named men, merely wanton +cruelty is notably missing. On the contrary, in not a few cases there +is a surprising magnanimity manifested by men of undoubtedly criminal +disposition. + +Lives were taken in the actual capture of ships, but when the pirates +gained possession there is no judicial record of plank-walking or other +inhuman treatment. More often than not, the pirate chief recruited new +hands from among the captives, though apparently without compulsion, +and those that refused to join the black flag were commonly allowed to +return to their ship and go their way. Plunder was the chief quest of +the pirates, and that obtained their interest in ships or men ceased. +If the pirate coveted the ship for his own use, he generally disposed +of its crew by signing on those who would and putting ashore those who +would not. Not that he was a tender chap--he could be very frightful +where he conceived his profit required violence--but merely sportive +torture was not a characteristic of those remembered in the only +authentic sources of the subject,--the printed trials of the pirates. +If this is true of those of whom we have definite information, it +follows that the sanguinary accounts of those who never came to trial +must be considerably thinned out by doubt. + +Gow in his method followed the invariable practice of piracy: he stole +his ship. They all began that way. In all the judicial reports of +piracy we have examined only Major Stede Bonnet bought and outfitted +a vessel for what was then called “the grand account.” In two cases +that we know of, the disaffection of the crews made possible their +corruption; Henry Avery, mate of the _Charles the Second_, capitalized +the discontent of the men at not receiving their pay from the Spanish +Government, and as Gow, in his quarter-deck speech declared, short +rations and harsh treatment combined to drive the crew of the _George_ +into mutiny. Probably the captains of neither the _Charles the Second_ +nor the _George_ were individually responsible for the condition; they +were themselves creatures of circumstance, but as representatives +of the owners or charterers they became the tangible objects of +undiscriminating violence. + +The men who managed mutinous plots such as these were much more shrewd +in their selection of conspirators than were the men who attempted +the great political plots of history, for the sea plotters seldom or +never had a betrayal. They never approached the entire crew, but picked +out a positive core, who would hold fast, seize ship and weapons and +dominate the situation. Perhaps this resolute conduct rose from the +personal sense of wrong under which the individual plotter suffered; +self-interest only could have produced so tight an adhesion to the +group. The first part of the game called for few rather than many men, +and apparently Gow could have persuaded four more men to come in with +him than he actually did. + +Properly, the matter was a mutiny but its development into piracy was +inevitable, foreseen and provided for. In their position, they might as +well hang for a sheep as a lamb. + +Another typically piratical trick followed; they painted out _George_ +and substituted for it the name _Revenge_, of all ship’s names the best +beloved of pirates. + +The sailmaker hemmed up a strip of black bunting and under the funereal +ensign they turned their prow to the affronted sea. + + + IV + +Living at the unregulated rate they were, the meager provisioning of +the ship was soon used up, and so, in search of food and wine rather +than diamonds and gold, they set for the coasts of Spain and Portugal, +hoping to intercept a local trader freighted with the desired goods. + +A small English ship, the _Sarah Snow_, of Bristol, was the first +honest craft to vividly discover that a robber was loose on the high +seas. What with surprise and the display of a number of guns which +Gow had brought up from below and thrust impressively through his +ports, the _Sarah Snow_ yielded without a fight, whereupon she was +systematically rifled from cargo to the crew’s few shillings, and, +leaving one volunteer to join the despoilers, she was permitted to +proceed on her voyage. + +The _Delight_, of Poole, next fell into their hands, in very similar +circumstances, was plundered and allowed to go. + +An Englishman, carrying fish from Newfoundland to Cadiz, was informally +and unexpectedly relieved of a large portion of his cargo without +dockage or stevedoring fees, but unfortunately without any receipt +being given him for the information of his owners. Not only that, +but somebody thoughtfully decided the owners might at least have the +advantage of the insurance, so he kicked a hole in the bottom and the +fish boat took a nose dive into the far green deeps. The captain and +her crew of four men were brought aboard the _Revenge_ as “prisoners.” +They were kept forward under guard, for what eventual disposition +nobody--least of all themselves--had the slightest notion. Lieutenant +Williams beguiled a boresome day by hanging them up by the thumbs, or +seeing which one could longest stand a rope’s end on his bare back. +Williams, doubtless, would have delighted in the plank-walking trick, +but public opinion was not entirely with him. In fact, he began to +sneer at Gow--behind his back--for a chicken-livered pirate, and even +secured a sort of following for his point of view. One of the four +captives, a man named Jack Belvin, avoided the Welsh lieutenant’s +flayings by signing on with the pirates; the others heroically endured +rather than become felons. Well, they must have been pretty good men +to begin with to take a boat requiring only a crew of five all the way +from Newfoundland to Cadiz. + +A Scotch ship, carrying pickled herrings to Italy, was the next in +line. The _Revenge_ already had a surplus of fish, but, taking off a +considerable quantity of the cargo, Gow amused the men and practiced +the gunner by bombarding her with his guns and thus amusingly sending +the pickled herring back to their original element. The Scotch crew +joined Williams’ victims forward. + +A pirate always overloaded on the products of the locality he haunted. +Kidd, off the Malabar coast procured butter enough to use as a +lubricant; Quelch, down Brazil way, acquired control of the coffee and +sugar trade; Blackbeard and Bonnet, off the Carolinas, specialized in +pineapples and Jamaica rum; Henry Avery, in the Gulf of Guinea, opened +his prize package and found it full of negro slaves, and now here is +John Gow seriously disturbing the market in salt and pickled fish. +Save for the exceptional chance, Kidd, Quelch and Avery would have +degenerated into petty peddlers of stolen groceries; their big hauls +just happened along. + +Everybody on board was now living on salmon, cod and pickled herrings, +with never a barrel of bread to go with the fish, and not a spoonful +of wine to wash the thirst-provoking diet down. They hesitated to +attack any new ships for fear another scaly cargo should mock them, +odoriferously from the hold; the thing got beyond a joke and the cook, +no doubt, kept his dirk handily under his apron as he passed out the +inevitable hunk of pickled horror. + +Gow had already seen vividly that the matter of something to eat +will upset a dynasty and junk a throne more quickly than any merely +political irritation, so, for the appeasement of his subjects and the +preservation of his dignities--to say nothing of his life--he resolved +to risk no more disappointing ships but to strike for a port and the +run of land stores. + +The place chosen for their custom was the little Portuguese settlement +of Porta Santa, in the Madeiras. With something of the feeling that +honester men have on the homeward heave, all hands pulled together +heartily, nor allowed any wallowing merchantmen to divert them until +the white walls and red roofs of their desired haven rose comfortingly +out of the sea. The _Revenge_ foamed smartly into the harbor and +rattled her anchor into the mud. + +A solemn council in the great cabin--now in all that queer +topsy-turveydom which betrays apparent but false authority, and where +there was no longer any cramping posture for evening prayers--decided +that here was a splendid opportunity to get rid of some of their fish. +Appropriately, they would bestow a quantity of it on the governor of +Porta Santa, as the embodiment of the State. + +Half a dozen ruffians washed their faces, clubbed their briny locks, +rubbed up their shoe buckles, pulled together, with long stitches, the +gaping holes in their stockings and set out in a boat jammed with dried +salmon and pickled herring. + +From his airy prison, the Scotch captain gazed pensively upon them. +“Mon,” he groaned to a captive Dane, “I cuid bear to ken the rabbers +sell ma fush--but to gie it awa’; gie it awa’ to these jabberin’ +jumping-jacks for never a bawbee! Mon, mon, these mock sailors air on +the road to ruin. And Gow a Scottishman--” John Gow’s departure from +the normal was simply inexplicable. + +The burly Dane grunted “Yah”, practically the extent of his linguistic +resources in Danish or any other tongue. He never did know what all +these doings meant, anyway. + +His Excellency was deeply touched when the load of preserved marine +fauna was dumped on the gubernatorial verandah. + +“It’s not so much the gift,” he reflected, turning over a stark salmon +with the toe of his shoe, “as the spirit of the giver.” + +He looked approvingly on the six honest visages before him and marveled +at the depths of their unselfishness. + +“Where are you bound?” he asked, in Portuguese. + +“Tell him Bristol, Bill,” prompted one of the emissaries to the +slow-footed chum who could parley the lingo sufficiently to interpret +the question to his fellows. So Bristol it was. + +With racial courtesy, the governor proposed to return to the ship with +them, to formally thank their captain. A group of local dignitaries was +quickly collected and all went down to the wharf. + +“The governor’s coming aboard,” shouted Gow, as the company appeared at +the water side. “Now, men, keep ’em on the quarter-deck and away from +the prisoners, and you yourselves try to look less like jailbirds and +more like sailormen!” + +The reception on the quarter-deck left nothing out; even the awning was +drawn across so that for a little while it seemed to some of the men +that the past few weeks were all a dream, good or bad as the individual +viewpoint dictated. + +The boat had had orders, after bringing out the governor’s party, to go +back to town and fetch provisions. Now, whether the idea was to pay for +the goods or to just take them with a thank-ye-marm is not a matter of +recorded history; historical it is, however, that the boat came back +empty, which Gow, out of the corner of his eye, noticed, and, excusing +his absence, stepped down the companion ladder in anxious questioning. +Somehow there was always drumming through his head old Paterson’s +ancient chant, “As we eat, so shall we work.” + +“They won’t give us the grub,” bellowed the boatswain, balancing +himself in the stern of the bobbing boat. + +Gow went back and lodged a courteous complaint with His Excellency. +Excellency called an attendant and battered him about the ears with +swift Portuguese. Attendant went back with the boat. + +Back came the boat in a little while, with the boatswain holding +aloft a sadly small meal bag in signals that needed no aid from the +boatswain’s disgusted expression. More complaints to the governor--and +complaints rather acrid; more rapid fire at the attendant; another +departure for shore--the boat’s crew were beginning to grumble at +their oars--another return. Nothing at all with them, this time. The +boatswain wigwagged Gow to do something violent with the governor. + +Which Gow proceeded to do. He unbuttoned his coat and revealed himself +attired to play “Arsenal” in a charade, with a belt full of sudden +death in several varieties. As calmly as if he were taking out a +toothpick, he drew a long, convincing pistol and laid it cozily--nose +on--into the deepest crease of the governor’s brocaded waistcoat. + +In this manner the _Revenge_ was amply provisioned at Porta Santa. + + + V + +The larder stuffed, the next question before the House was whither +now. “Before the House” is a calculated phrase, for, by approved +piratical procedure, equal franchise prevailed on the _Revenge_; a +majority decided all general propositions; only in the particular ones +of fighting, chasing or being chased was the captain’s power absolute. +With their odd turn for the comic, the jolly sea robbers would often +describe their conferences as sessions of the “House of Lords” or the +“House of Commons”, just as they enjoyed, when carousing ashore, under +the mangrove trees of the West Indies, holding mock courts for the +mimic trial of one of the number for piracy, when the “Judge” would +throw a tarpaulin around his shoulders for the judicial robes, and +a turban on his head for the ponderous judicial wig, and the whole +affair would be carried off in a quite striking parody of that judicial +process which many of their fellows had already suffered under, and for +most of whom the actual fact was but a question of time. Such jollities +revealed an intimate knowledge of forms and manner and curiously +reflected the contemporaneous severity of prosecutors and judges. + +The lawless business still had its laws; for instance, sea courtesy +between passing pirates required salutes with loaded guns, as against +the usual blanks, and in their burial rites the maritime rovers often +followed their own peculiar but very particular ritual. + +After the usual tumultuous debate, Cape St. Vincent, Spain, was the +place chosen for their happy efforts, there to intercept the lawful +merchants in those fairly crowded sea lanes. The selection looked +justified by an early capture. But, alas for the disappointments of +life, when the cargo was eagerly examined, it was found to be merely +a mass of negro slaves being rushed from the Gulf of Guinea to the +American plantations, by way of Lisbon, into which the slaver had had +to detour through the pressure of adverse circumstances. Little did +John Gow realize, as he looked down into that fetid hold, that he was +gazing upon one of the major elements of future history and the strife +of armed hosts. Probably would not have cared, at that. + +Slaves were less desirable even than salt fish; Gow wanted no more +mouths to feed. However, he could replenish his sail lockers from the +brig’s canvas, as well as obtain a bagful of watches, small coins and +personal knickknacks from the crew. Then, too, the gang decided that +here was a good chance to be rid of a number of their unprofitable +prisoners by a means not too violent. The disposition of prisoners of a +pirate was a constant problem throughout the history of the business, +because, contrary to the common idea, very few pirates could bring +themselves to an utter ferocity in the destruction of their victims +after the guns had ceased throbbing and the smoke had curled away from +the desecrated waters. The worst of them, Teach, England, Davis, Low, +Lewis, all had their hours of compunction, and marooning was not hit +upon as a method of wicked torture, but as a compromise to get men out +of the way whom they could not feed and who would not work with them, +yet without making the ship a shambles. This appears to be true, at +least, of English-speaking pirates; when you come to the swart Ladrone +villains, many of the Spanish, and the Chinese, there you will find the +uttermost of barbarity. + +So a group of the forlorn mariners was transferred from the _Revenge_ +to the slaver--not at the slaver’s request--and that vessel was then +allowed to proceed on its humane occasions. + +Lieutenant Williams could not get the point of all this solicitude for +mere prisoners. He rather favored the Chinese way. + +A French ship next splashed around the Cape and into captivity. A +neat find, being freighted with goodly store of oil and wine, even to +the solid value of five hundred golden English pounds. Captured, too, +like the rest of them, without a blow. As a matter of fact, a fight +was exceptional rather than usual, not because merchant masters were +cowardly, but because the pirate, often by a trick of false colors, +gained a confiding approach until within close range, when he would +suddenly bristle his line of muzzle-framing open ports with the +snarling demand of money or life. As the old West would have put it, +the pirate “got the drop” on his prey. + +The dour old Scotch captain, still lamenting the waste of his “fush”, +now met the wheel of fortune on one of its most whimsical turns. The +_Revenge_ was a little bored with the Scotch friend, and a quarter-deck +parliament hit on the artful idea of simply making an entire change of +prisoners by bodily shifting the present ones over to the Frenchman +and bringing all the Frenchmen to the _Revenge_. The pirates felt so +relieved with the newness of it all that they even gave the puzzled +Scot additional sails and some small articles of ship furniture,--only +Mr. Williams reserved the right to kick his departing victims down the +gangway. A really nasty person, was Williams. + +It would be mightily entertaining, no doubt, to know what the feelings +of the Scotch skipper were as he found himself thus on another man’s +quarter-deck, in another man’s cabin, going through another man’s +shipping papers and deeply mystified as to how he was going to explain +the extraordinary situation to another man’s owners. + +We wonder, too, what the French owners said when their ship finally +reported in the person of a master with an outlandish tongue and a +truly incredible yarn. + +The Scot bobbed away to the horizon, cogitating his own particular +problems, when another ship--but of the wrong sort--came smoothly down +upon the _Revenge_. + +A French warrior! Gow took her in with a long, slow glass. + +“Thirty-two guns,” he growled to his boatswain, “and by the looks of +her decks the whole French navy’s aboard!” + +Down fluttered the black flag; a young panic brewed in those honest +hearts, while in the prisoners’ quarters the Frenchmen could scarcely +breathe for hope and fear. + +Gow knocked his pipe pensively out on the capstan. His was the right +of decision to stay and fight or flee to fight another day. He ordered +flight. + +“You white-livered coward!” bellowed Williams, rather grogged up, “Run +away from a frog-eater!” + +[Illustration: “You white-livered coward!” bellowed Williams, “Run away +from a frog-eater!”] + +That meant only one thing--who would fire first? Out of his belt +Williams whipped his pistol and snapped it squarely at his captain. +The thing flared and fizzed and flashed feebly in the pan. Guns were +tragically unreliable in those days. Ere he could recover for another +shot, he went down with two balls piercing his body,--and one of them +was from the weapon of old Paterson. + +Gow simply commanded with a slight, contemptuous inclination of the +head; old Paterson and another grabbed the lieutenant for rough and +ready interment in the convenient deep, but when they had pantingly +hoisted the body to the height of the bulwark, it came back to vigorous +life, hit about with startling force and then bolted, pistol drawn and +still loaded, to the powder magazine, shouting that all hands should go +down--or rather up--together. Within but a second of the most dreadful +destruction, a couple of stalwarts fell heavily on the desperate +wretch and lugged him away to be chained in irons and cast among the +prisoners, there to be nursed, lovingly and tenderly, by those who, +like all previous captives, had endured his vile whims; nursed, that +is, by being used as a bench for tired Frenchmen to sit upon, and +as a football for those whose cramped limbs made wholesome exercise +imperative. + +Somehow the rogue lived,--lived until another ship was captured, or, +more probably, simply detained, for, after appropriating a few portable +valuables, Gow, with the consent of the crew of the _Revenge_, put +Lieutenant Williams aboard the stranger with sharp admonition to the +surprised skipper to keep him in close ward until the first English +man-of-war was met, to which he was to be delivered as a wicked pirate +for yard-arm bunting. + +Simply speechless with astonished rage, Mr. Williams was slung aboard. + +But he was only one of many who had to learn that, above all things, +pirates loved their little jokes, especially some delicate impertinence +like this to constituted authority. + + + VI + +The ship seemed awfully quiet after the roaring Williams had gone. +Something was missing, but what it was they did not just know. +Unsuspectingly, the grim jest of sending Williams home to the gallows +had removed the heart of the piratical enterprise. If the _Revenge_ +expected to keep on the grand account, fellows like Williams, who could +do the rough work, were essential, and without him the great affair +threatened to simmer back to the status of a mere mutiny. + +Then, too, the presence of the warship, with its promise of hundreds +of pounds of hot lead and forest of cutlasses, awakened unhappy +perturbation, and stirred even sluggish imaginations with pictures of +uncomfortable events. The lads pensively stared at their finger nails +and realized only one insistent fact,--that they must depart the region +forthwith. + +Some kind of retreat began to be openly proposed, but just whither; +that was the vexing thing. At this point John Gow forfeits a place in +the first rank of pirates for he shows that he did not know the fine +points of the game. He is now not far from the place where Henry Avery, +some years before, had stolen the _Charles the Second_, a ship on +which he was mate, and, with his exploiting of a discontented crew, was +in circumstances very similar to those now surrounding Gow. Avery, it +may be remembered, came first of all to the Madeiras, but the point of +separation between him and Gow is that Avery knew that the local coast +was not the most advantageous place for piracy, knew that the jeweled +Indies was, and set his unswerving prow resolutely thither. + +A moment’s thought concerning the conditions of piracy suggests Gow’s +difficulty. A pirate’s main resource was in merchant cargoes; only luck +threw him the fabled treasure ships. For all he could tell about, a +pirate might have to plug along in a quiet way of trade, hoping for the +time when a _Quedagh Merchant_ or a _Gunsway_ would reward his patient +application. But the successful raiding of merchant ships put the +pirate in the same situation that the honest shore trader was in,--to +make any profit at all he had to keep his stock turned over. Now, in +the Indies, while a pirate was waiting his big haul, a system of coast +“fences”, or buyers of stolen freight, made possible his continuance +in business. Kidd and Avery and all the rest of them used these folk +for the disposal of their plunder, for, as we have seen, one of these +gentlemen, Cogi Commodo, boasted to the steward of poor Captain Green’s +ill-fortuned ship that he had been “merchant” on the Malabar coast, to +the eminent Kidd. These illicit traffickers supplied the interlopers +and other competitors of the British East India Company, as well as +catering to the native markets. The arrangement suited everybody except +John Company. + +But in European waters the only possible opening for a pirate’s +wares--that is of the usual merchant sort--was in methods akin to +smuggling. That, however, was already a complicated and preëmpted +business, and in taking any ship it would always be questionable +whether her freight were dutiable and therefore worth-while contraband. +Smuggling could never flourish so haphazardly. + +Last of all, but sufficiently troublesome, was the stricter policing of +the European coasts. Without these guardians, of course, the customs +would have entirely collapsed and piracy rather than smuggling would +have prospered by maintaining a sort of cheap local bazaar, such as +Blackbeard did in the Carolinas. The lack of effective policing made +possible the brisk trip of John Quelch, the Boston boy, down the Brazil +coast, for a cargo taken in one latitude was auctioned off in another +and no “fence” was needed to aid in dodging a vigilant authority. + +The _Revenge_ thus was driven off the coasts of Spain and Portugal by +lack of a market and incidentally by the police patrol. + +Gow and his crew turned the matter over and over in a long debate, +which resulted in a determination to sail away to Gow’s native Orkney +Islands, a decision which can only be laid to the peculiar fatality +which seems to work the self-destruction of wickedness. The meeting +must have discussed the possibilities of the East and West Indies, +Madagascar, Africa and the Red Sea, not to mention a flyer in slaving +on the Guinea Coast; in other words, all the available opportunities +for a rising young pirate, but why, against these, were chosen the +lean and foggy Orkneys, where even the poor copper penny was worked to +death, is a puzzler. + +Could it be that pirates sometimes grew homesick? + +They hauled down the black flag and shoved it in the locker, whence +it was never withdrawn to flap its sinister warning in the winds, and +proceeded to give their gang of perplexed French prisoners a trip to +Scotland. It would not be surprising if those victims of sportive +destiny were beginning to get all turned around, as the saying is. + +Without “being chased or giving chase” they reached the northern +islands, and Gow, perhaps with a constricted throat and a wet eye, +looked once again upon his native land. As they drew into the bay, +Gow called his flock together and instructed them to retail to any +curious inhabitant the plausible fiction that the _Revenge_ was bound +from Cadiz to Stockholm, “but contrary winds driving them past the +Sound till it was filled with ice, they were under the necessity of +putting in to clean their ship, and that they would pay ready money +for such articles as they stood in need of.” Of course, they were to +leave undisturbed the assumption that they were the actual as well as +ostensible owners of the aforesaid “ready money.” + +One other craft was in the bay when the _Revenge_ put in, but to +Gow’s relief she turned out to be only a French smuggler, or rather +a smuggler belonging to the Isle of Man, laden with wine and brandy +from France, and which had come north about to “steer clear of the +custom-house cutters.” According to the amenities of the sea, Gow +exchanged presents with the smuggler, as he did also with a Swedish +ship which came in a couple of days later. The Swede and the Manxman +marveled greatly at the generous gifts of dried salmon and pickled +herring which this hospitable _Revenge_ almost thrust upon them. + + + VII + +His name might as well be put as Jemmy, for Jemmy has an honest sound +and this Jemmy was an honest lad. What his parish parson actually did +christen him is irrecoverably lost in some ancient parish record, +but somehow it seems as if he should have been named Jemmy, and we +will take the liberty of assuming that for once fact and fiction are +coincident. + +Jemmy, presumably again, was one of the stubborn eight who had refused, +at the time of the mutiny, to be traitors to their sailor’s duty; +at any rate, he had no stomach for a pirate’s perils and pleasures. +Also, he was a clear-minded youth, old enough, however, to see that +his company had now brought him within hailing distance of the king’s +gallows. Jemmy had no appetite for the ceremonial that that instrument +adorned, and so, in the late spring night, when the moon was dark +and the moment persuasive, Jemmy slid whitely off the stern of the +_Revenge_, without stopping to procure his honorable discharge as an +able seaman, and with no more of a flop than a frog would make turning +off a log. With his clothes tightly tarpaulined about him, he clove +the circling tides smoothly to the beach. As he pulled on his breeches +and stockings, he looked back, but all was quiet. One small yellow +light rose and fell out yonder in the watery blackness; to Jemmy the +eye of an evil beast of the sea from whose maw he panted in a buoyant +freedom. He listened; there was no chump of oars, no hoarse calling +afar off, only the wash of white waters among the pebbles at his feet, +and, behind him, voices of the shore,--the sweet, sane sounds of a life +which he had begun to think had never been. + +Dressed, he made for the village. In the middle of an unlighted +roadway, a strangely accented tongue told him there was no magistrate +there; to find His Honor one would have to push on to Kirkwall. + +And how far was Kirkwall? + +Kirkwall was a matter of four leagues. + +“I must get there to-night,” said Jemmy. “Which is the way?” + +“The nicht!” came back the buzzing bewilderment. “To the magistrate at +Kirkwa’ the nicht? Mon, what’s upon ye?” + +Jemmy wished the fellow would not talk so loud, though reason told him +lungs of brass would hardly reach the _Revenge_. Panic. + +“Do you know any one would show a man the way to Kirkwall for a bit of +money?” asked Jemmy, inspired. + +The void answered not. Then, ponderously, “It would take a muckle o’ +siller for a man wi’ bairns to go out the nicht.” + +“A half-guinea, supposin’.” + +Long pause. + +“Aye--supposin’ as ye say. Cam, lad.” + +Jemmy’s guide stopped a little while at a cottage to warn the guid +wife he would be out making an honest penny, and then they were off on +the shadowy leagues. Cicerone tried with rude probe to find out what +Jemmy’s business with the magistrate might be, a fact which, perhaps +as much as the coveted “siller”, had bought his services, but when +daylight and Kirkwall appeared together, he left his queer employer at +the house of the magistrate with all of his information unbroached. + +“This is a funny cock to be crowing in my parlor the morn,” thought the +magistrate as, with sleepy peevishness, he was compelled to journey to +Santa Cruz, to provision at Porta Santa, to double Cape St. Vincent and +what not by this boy with early manhood’s whiskers unshaven, drawn, +sallow face, uncurbed hair and clad in a striking symphony of old sea +clothes. “But sairtainly there has been an egg laid somewhere.” + +He sent for Mr. Honeyman, sheriff of the county, who dwelt between +Kirkwall and the sea. After due deliberation, consultation and +speculation, he issued his precepts to the constable and other peace +officers, to call together the people “to assist in bringing those +villains to justice.” Raised his posse, in plain Latin. + +While these matters transpired at Kirkwall, other things significant +for Gow were occurring on the _Revenge_, or, rather, off it, for the +defection of Jemmy was followed by a veritable landslide; ten men, no +less, seized the longboat and made off for the mainland, where they +coasted along till they came to Leith, the port of Edinburgh. Their +hard journey was rewarded by imprisonment in the Tolbooth at that place +as suspected pirates. A well-founded suspicion, if there ever was one. + +When John Gow took the next census of his crew only twenty-eight honest +fellows answered “here.” Although it was obviously time to move on to +uncropped pasturage, Gow first resolved to provision himself at the +expense of the home folks by the violent means of robbing the wealthier +residents alongshore. With that marked turn of his for a quaint joke, +the first place that he selected for despoiling was that of our Mr. +Honeyman, high sheriff. + +Ten men in charge of the bo’sun were detached for this job, and, +slinging upon their persons everything in the way of a weapon they +could struggle along with, they started off in the early evening. + +The high sheriff was flying about the country, compelling his posse, +and it was Mrs. Honeyman, candle in hand, who answered the gently +deceptive tapping on her front door. When she saw the bristling +aggregation on the front steps, she thought for an instant that it +was a party of neighbors stopping in on their way to a fancy-dress +ball to show her their diverting make-up. Or she may have mistaken +them for a part of her husband’s posse, and may have been about to +assure them laughingly that they had made the funniest mistake in the +world when one of the great beards cracked like a young earthquake +and a gale-conquering noise boomed through the ancestral halls of the +Honeymans. + +“Excuse us, marm, yer leddyship, but we’re the pirates and we’ve come +to rob the house. Gi’ us the stuff and there’ll be no trouble.” + +Nine walking arsenals clanked into the house, while one remained +on guard at the door. The good wife screamed and fled, but fled +methodically to the place where the family treasure was secreted, +and, throwing the money into an apron, she ran back and out past the +sentinel. He supposed she was merely running for her life, and he did +not blame her a bit, though that was as far as his interest went. + +But upstairs she left her greatest valuable,--a lovely daughter, just +blooming, as the romancers say, into beautiful womanhood. This young +person’s sleep was interrupted by an inexplicable clamor below. She +got out of bed, threw something about her and crept out on the stair +landing. Unfamiliar voices surged up, together with a cracking and +splintering that suggested an escaped menagerie. She inherited her +mother’s presence of mind. Dashing into father’s bedroom, she grabbed +the family papers, and with them in tight grasp, she leaped from her +bedroom window, to speed ghostily into the dark. + +The two female servants and Sandy, the groom, cowered in the kitchen. +The marauders found them there; politely they bowed to the ladies, but +demanded of Sandy whether he could play the bagpipes. Sandy admitted +his skill on that instrument of torture. So they lugged him out by the +ear and bade him pipe them down to their ship, while they followed +behind with all the Honeyman plate and linen bundled up in bed sheets +on their backs, and all the good Honeyman wine, accumulated through the +thrifty years, kicking a jig out of their ruffianly heels. + +Sandy’s wild night is doubtless still a story in Sandy’s generations. + +With the loot of the sheriff’s house on board, the _Revenge_ dropped +down the coast a way for another job of “provisioning.” They made a +fruitless attempt there, and then drew over to an island known as Calf +Sound, where was the home of a Mr. Fea, an old schoolmate of John Gow. +The pirate felt he could not leave those parts without saying how-do +to one who in the past had shared with him the same dominie’s birch. +In getting to the island, however, Gow dropped his anchor too close +inshore, so that when it came time to shift he would not be able to +avail himself of the wind. Too much wine from the Honeyman cellars +probably. + +So the pirate chief wrote a little friendly note to Mr. Fea, begging +the loan of a boat to assist in heaving off the ship by carrying out +an anchor, and promising solemnly that the favor would not be rewarded +with any violence to Mr. Fea’s boat or servants. This last clause +suggests that Gow knew the word of warning against him was spread +abroad over the land. + +The bewhiskered messenger who made the contact with Mr. Fea did +not notice Fea’s boat, which happened to have been drawn up on the +beach out of sight behind some rocks. Mr. Fea took advantage of the +messenger’s oversight and returned to his old chum Jack a very vague +answer, the purport of which was that Mr. Fea deplored his inability +to oblige. By that time evening was at hand, and Mr. Fea ordered his +servants to run the boat into the water, sink her in the shallows +whence she could be readily recovered and secrete her gear. + +Jock and Tam and Donald were hastily pulling out the mast and rolling +up the canvas and unshipping the rigging when they heard the grate of +a keel on the sharp pebbles, from which, by the passing of a scud of +thin cloud from before the moon, they saw five men slide quietly out, +not so quietly, however, that the variety of weapons on shoulders and +belts did not slightly jingle. The three servants peered breathlessly +over the rocks and marked the movements of the invaders as they set +off directly for Mr. Fea’s house. Quickly they threw the boat’s +trappings beneath a bowlder, thrust the boat itself nose down into the +water, where she quickly filled and settled, then turned and ran for +the house, where they arrived shortly before the pirates, who were +approaching, stumbling and swearing, through the unfamiliar dark. + +Mr. Fea ordered all of his servants out of the house, but to remain in +the vicinity, and if he should come out, one or two of them were to +follow him at a discreet distance. Alone, he prepared to answer the +thundering banging upon his front door. + +Calmly, quite without panic, Mr. Fea invited the delegation into the +hall. They came and peered cautiously about. There was no sight or +sound of any one but the master of the house; only the candles burned +in their long silver sticks, and a fire against the raw spring night +smoked on the wide hearth. + +“There is no one here, my friends,” said Mr. Fea. “May I ask--” + +“You may,” growled the bo’sun, thumping his musket butt on the polished +floor. “We want your boat to pull us off--we’ve got out of the wind, +d’ye mind? Cap’n says give us the boat and we’ll leave yer joolry.” + +“Jack Gow could have anything he wanted from an old schoolmate,” smiled +Mr. Fea, like one who, in a pinch, would not object to being a pirate +himself, “but Jack is asking a little too much, when you come to think +of it. Here is Jack--a good boy, too, even if he was a little rough at +school--come back to his old home only to be published a pirate; but, +says I when I heard this, ‘Little Johnny Gow a pirate?’ ‘Never in this +world,’ said I, and many on the Sound can bear me out on this. ‘But he +is,’ said they, and a bad, pillaging, plundering sea dog he is, to be +sure. ‘Well,’ said I, ‘you are welcome to the notion, but as for me, I +stand by little Johnny Gow.’ But, now, hark’ee, suppose I had a boat, +and suppose I said to Johnny Gow, ‘Here, heave off with this boat,’ +what d’ ye imagine would happen to me? Why, inside of no time at all, +I’d be fast in the Tolbooth at Edinburgh as an aider and abettor of +pirates. As men of the world, you know you can’t talk to some people +when a notion’s stuck in their heads, can ye now?” + +In this way Mr. Fea turned the edge of the tense minute. With one +pretext and another, he wooed the delegation down to the village +tavern, where he opened wide his purse and they opened still +more widely their mouths, into which that liquid flowed which is +authoritatively reputed to steal away the brains. The pirates mellowed, +got to slapping Mr. Fea jolting whacks on the shoulder and constantly +pledged him with their mugs. Opportunely, their host, so bland, so +hospitable and, although they did not realize it, so sober, excused +himself a second, and, stepping out, called Tam and Donald quickly +and bade them scamper to the beach and destroy the pirate’s boat. This +done, they were to come back to the tavern and send in some kind of +casual word which would give him excuse to leave his company a second +time. + +As Mr. Fea passed into the public room again, the keeper and his +wife met him with upraised hands and faces of silent consternation. +He smiled reassuringly, pushed open the door, upon which a roar of +strange sea songs came tumultuously from the inside accompanied with +the clanging of cutlasses marking time to the voices. Very coolly he +resumed his place at the presidency of the revels, where he directed +the increasing bubble of strong Scotch whiskey, varied with the husky +smuggled French brandy, until, to his obvious annoyance, he was again +interrupted by a call to the outside. + +Tam and Donald had done their task. Pulling them aside from the yellow +squares of light which shone from the boisterous inn, Mr. Fea now bade +them assemble six men, well armed, place them behind the hedges and +carefully remember to do one of two things: if Mr. Fea came from the +tavern accompanied only by the boatswain, the ambush was to seize the +boatswain; but if he came with the whole crew, he would walk a little +forward of the company, upon whom the watchers were then to open fire. + +After a considerable wait, the tavern door opened and Mr. Fea stepped +forth,--and with him was only the boatswain. The boatswain wanted to +take his host’s arm in the most friendly manner, but Mr. Fea adroitly +disentangled himself; it was no part of his plan to be thus cuddled. +Having no use for his rejected arm, the boatswain decided to carry +a pistol in each hand, remarking that after all they were his best +friends. Mr. Fea thought he was very careless in the way he swung the +weapons around, in gestures and for the purpose of punctuating his +vigorous conversation. + +At a dark and hedge-lined part of the road, the boatswain was just +indicating, with a very free gesticulation, how to repulse an enemy at +one’s bulwarks, when something--probably a heavenly meteor--struck him +suddenly from behind, and down he went on the flat of his back, the +pistols clattered from his hands, and the meteor, or whatever it was, +was poking a handkerchief a lot farther down his throat than he thought +necessary for the purpose of preventing speech. Before the fog from his +brain could lift, he was bound, hand and foot, until he was as inert as +an Egyptian mummy. + +The attackers left one man to guard their first capture and stole back +to the tavern for the big job. There were two doors to the room where +Gow’s men were having their little party, at each of which Mr. Fea +placed a group of men, who, at a signal, broke in on both sides and +covered the pirates with their muskets before the besieged could pull a +dirk or raise a cutlass. + +Law and order now had five out of twenty-eight men, but rather +disappointingly for our interest, the record thus concludes: + +“At length, by an equal exertion of courage and artifice, Mr. Fea +captured these dangerous men, twenty-eight in number, without a single +man being killed or wounded; and only with the aid of a few countrymen.” + +And among the captives was old schoolmate John Gow. + +Happily, for every Gow there is a Fea. + +The _Revenge_ was seized by the government, and the pirates sent to +Edinburgh under a military guard which came to Calf Sound for that +purpose. At Edinburgh they were ironed aboard the frigate, _Greyhound_, +which brought them down to London and the court of admiralty which was +waiting there to try them. + +Five of them were admitted king’s evidence, the rest were put to their +plea. Now, in the old law, the prisoner’s plea of guilty or not guilty +was necessary before the trial could proceed. Nowadays if the accused +refuses to make either plea, but stands mute, as the expression is, +the judge directs that a plea of not guilty be entered for him and the +proceedings go on. This simple means of meeting the difficulty did not +occur to our forefathers, so they decreed that if the prisoner stood +mute he was to be put under the press until he either pled or died. +In the latter event, he was not considered to have been tried, and +not having been tried, any estate which he might leave could not be +forfeited. History records some cases where extraordinary persons have +endured this dreadful torment to the end, and so saved their property +to their heirs, who, one would suppose, could certainly never be +sufficiently grateful. + +John Gow now chose to take the ordeal rather than be convicted as a +felon, for he had relatives whom he wished to inherit his ill-earned +gains rather than King George. The preparations for his pressing +daunted him. The process was that the person sentenced to be pressed +was stretched, or spread-eagled, upon his back, and a succession of +weights was gradually lowered upon his chest until he either squeaked +his plea or perished. The Press Yard of old Newgate jail indicates the +place of such pressings. + +Gow’s nerve gave way and he begged to be allowed to plead, which was +clemently allowed him. + +He and six others--presumably including old Paterson--were convicted +and received sentence of death, but the rest, showing that their +actions had been under a sort of compulsion, were acquitted. + +“They suffered,” says the old historian, “at Execution-Dock, August 11, +1729. Gow’s friends, anxious to put him out of pain, pulled his legs +so forcibly that the rope broke, and he fell, on which he was again +taken up to the gibbet, and when he was dead, was hung in chains on the +banks of the Thames.” + +As the ordinary, or prison chaplain, rode back to Newgate in the empty +cart from Execution Dock, a line from the ninety-second psalm persisted +in his mind. “All the workers of wickedness shall be destroyed.” + + +Transcriber’s Notes + +Perceived typographical errors have been silently corrected. + +Colloquial spelling in dialog has been retained as in the original. + +Inconsistencies in hyphenation and compound words have been retained as +printed. + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75256 *** diff --git a/75256-h/75256-h.htm b/75256-h/75256-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2b5b39f --- /dev/null +++ b/75256-h/75256-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,8424 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> +<head> + <meta charset="UTF-8"> + <title> + Pirate Tales From the Law | Project Gutenberg + </title> + <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover"> + <style> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + h1,h2,h3 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .51em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .49em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: 33.5%; + margin-right: 33.5%; + clear: both; +} + +hr.chap {width: 65%; margin-left: 17.5%; margin-right: 17.5%;} +@media print { hr.chap {display: none; visibility: hidden;} } + +div.chapter {page-break-before: always;} + +table { + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; +} + +table.autotable { border-collapse: collapse; } + +td {padding-left: 0.75em;} +.tdl {text-align: left;} +.tdc {text-align: center;} +.tdr {text-align: right;} + +.pagenum { + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: small; + text-align: right; + font-style: normal; + font-weight: normal; + font-variant: normal; + text-indent: 0; +} + + +.blockquot { + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.right {text-align: right;} + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + +.allsmcap {font-variant: small-caps; text-transform: lowercase;} + +.caption {font-weight: bold;} + +img { + max-width: 100%; + height: auto; +} +img.w100 {width: 100%;} + + +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; + page-break-inside: avoid; + max-width: 100%; +} + +.footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + +.footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + +.fnanchor { + vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: + none; +} + + +.transnote {background-color: #E6E6FA; + color: black; + font-size:small; + padding:0.5em; + margin-bottom:5em; + font-family:sans-serif, serif; +} + +.illowp10 {width: 10%;} +.illowp45 {width: 45%;} +.illowp50 {width: 50%;} +.x-ebookmaker .illowp50 {width: 100%;} +.illowp51 {width: 51%;} +.illowp61 {width: 61%;} + + </style> +</head> +<body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75256 ***</div> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp45" id="cover" style="max-width: 108em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/cover.jpg" alt=""> +</figure> + +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + + +<div class="chapter"> +<a id="Mr_Dutchman_was_rowed_ashore_and_left_with_a_gun_some_powder_and_shot"></a> +<a id="anchor_to_pg_97"></a> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp50" id="i000_frontis" style="max-width: 140.6875em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/i000_frontis.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption class="caption"><p>Mr. Dutchman was rowed ashore and left with a gun, some +powder and shot. <span class="allsmcap">FRONTISPIECE.</span> <i><a href="#Page_97">See page 97.</a></i></p></figcaption> +</figure> + +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + + +<h1>PIRATE TALES<br> +FROM THE LAW</h1> + +<p class="center">BY<br> +ARTHUR M. HARRIS</p> + +<p class="center">WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY<br> +GEORGE AVISON</p> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp10" id="i000_title" style="max-width: 27.75em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/i000_title.jpg" alt="Publisher's logo"> +</figure> + +<p class="center">BOSTON<br> +LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY<br> +1923 +</p> +</div> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + + +<p class="center"><i>Copyright, 1922, 1923</i>,<br> +<span class="smcap">By Arthur M. Harris</span>.</p> + +<p class="center"><i>All rights reserved</i></p> + +<p class="center">Published August, 1923</p> + + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Printed in the United States of America</span> +</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2> +SHIP AHOY! +</h2> + +<p>Heave to, Shipmate!</p> + +<p>Here’s a book,—a book about pirates, the grim old fellows of the +eighteenth century, who used to surge over the bulwarks of honest +merchantmen in a wave of cutlasses, pistols and general deviltry.</p> + +<p>Not all of them, Shipmate. Not Lewis, Rackham, Davis, Low and others, +but of those who were caught, or some of whose subordinate rascals were +caught, by the fierce messengers of His Most Gracious Majesty the King, +or taken in combat—dreadful combat—by the oaken-hearted stalwarts of +Authority, and brought to Justice and hanged up at old Execution Dock, +hard by Thames River, as it swirls muddily from London Bridge.</p> + +<p>That’s the point about this book, Shipmate. It’s the story of the +Old Game, the Grand Account, as those ruffians termed their wicked +trade, stripped of legend, excised of exaggeration and presented to +you as it was adduced in the courts of law by the sworn witnesses, the +probing counsel, the directing judges and the juries who cast their +capital verdicts. History, in other words; veritable history, but +recounted—well, as you shall see for yourself.</p> + +<p>Good luck, Shipmate!</p> + +<p class="right"> +<span class="smcap">Arthur M. Harris.</span><br> +</p> +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2> +CONTENTS</h2> + + +<table class="autotable"> +<tr> +<td class="tdc">CHAPTER</td> +<td class="tdl"></td> +<td class="tdr"></td> +<td class="tdr">PAGE</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">I</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_ONE">Salt Water Money</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr"><i>Captain Kidd</i></td> +<td class="tdr">1</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">II</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_TWO">Black Flag from Boston</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr"><i>John Quelch</i></td> +<td class="tdr">79</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">III</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_THREE">Sea Horror</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr">“<i>Blackbeard</i>”</td> +<td class="tdr">111</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">IV</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_FOUR">Back Pay</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr"><i>Henry Avery</i></td> +<td class="tdr">159</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">V</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_FIVE">Groan o’ the Gallows</a></span></td> +<td class="tdr"><i>Tom Green</i></td> +<td class="tdr">213</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">VI</td> +<td class="tdl">“<span class="smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_SIX">Who Fires First?</a></span>”</td> +<td class="tdr"><i>John Gow</i></td> +<td class="tdr">275</td> +</tr> +</table> + + +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2> +ILLUSTRATIONS +</h2> + + + +<table class="autotable"> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"><a href="#Mr_Dutchman_was_rowed_ashore_and_left_with_a_gun_some_powder_and_shot">Mr. Dutchman was rowed ashore and left with a gun, some powder and shot</a></td> +<td class="tdr"><i>Frontispiece</i></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"></td> +<td class="tdr">PAGE</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"><a href="#She_went_up_to_the_coppery_Indian_sky_in_great_festoons_of_smoke">She went up to the coppery Indian sky in great festoons of smoke</a></td> +<td class="tdr">38</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"><a href="#He_fought_the_lieutenant_with_the_verve_of_an_athlete_fresh_for_the_field">He fought the lieutenant with the verve of an athlete fresh for the field</a></td> +<td class="tdr">156</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"><a href="#You_white-livered_coward_bellowed_Williams_Run_away_from_a_frog-eater">“You white-livered coward!” bellowed Williams, “Run away from a frog-eater!”</a></td> +<td class="tdr">303</td> +</tr> +</table> + +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</span> + + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2> +<a id="CHAPTER_ONE"></a>CHAPTER ONE</h2> + +<p class="center"> +SALT WATER MONEY +</p> +<p class="center"> +Captain Kidd +</p> + + +<h3> +I</h3> + + + +<p>Sometime in the autumn of the year 1695, Captain William Kidd, of New +York, arrived in the city of London. He came as master of a trading +sloop; he left in the following spring a commissioned officer of his +most gracious Majesty, King William III, on the quarter-deck of what +was really a man-of-war.</p> + +<p>This was not the first time, however, that Captain Kidd had been in +the public service. Said to be the son of a Scottish minister, he +became first definitely noticeable in the province of New York, where, +sometime before 1695, the grateful council of New York had voted him +a gratuity of one hundred and fifty pounds for valuable efforts in +suppressing local disturbances, ensuing the revolution of 1688. Not +only that, but during<span class="pagenum" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</span> England’s interminable argument with France, +he had locked shrouds with the Frenchmen off the West Indies, thus +acquiring the repute of a “mighty man” against them.</p> + +<p>In fact, Captain Kidd when he thus stepped on to the docks of old +London was a substantial colonial, a householder and taxpayer of the +town of New York, where, we must suppose, his wife and daughter moved +in those delectable geometrical figures, the best circles.</p> + +<p>The royal commission of 1696, though, was a novel one in the captain’s +experience.</p> + +<p>It is important to notice the exact wording of this commission:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>“William III. By the grace of God, king of England, Scotland, +France and Ireland, defender of the faith, etc. To our trusty +and well-beloved captain William Kidd, commander of the ship +Adventure-galley, or to any other the commander for the time being. +Whereas we are informed That captain Thomas Too, John Ireland, +captain Thomas Wake, and Captain William Maze, or Mace, and other +our subjects, natives or inhabitants of New England, New York and +elsewhere in our plantations in America, have associated themselves +with divers other wicked and ill-disposed persons, and do, against +the law of nations, daily commit many and great piracies, robberies, +and depredations in the parts of America, and in other parts, to the +grave hindrance and discouragement of trade and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</span> navigation, and to +the danger and hurt of our loving subjects, our allies, and all others +navigating the seas upon their lawful occasions; Now know ye, That we +being desirous to prevent the aforesaid mischiefs, and, as far as in +us lies, to bring the said pirates, free-booters and sea-rovers to +justice, have thought fit, and do hereby give and grant unto you the +said William Kidd (to whom our commissioners for exercising the office +of our Lord High Admiral of England, have granted a commission as a +private man of war, bearing date the 11th day of December, 1695,) and +unto the commander of the said ship for the time being, and unto the +officers mariners and others, who shall be under your command, full +power and authority to apprehend, seize, and take into your custody, +as well the said Thomas Too, John Ireland, captain Thomas Wake, and +Captain William Maze or Mace, as all such pirates, free-booters and +sea-rovers, being our own subjects, or of any other nation associated +with them, which you shall meet upon the coast or seas of America, +or in any other seas or ports, with their ships and vessels, and +also such merchandizes, money, goods and wares, as shall be found on +board, or with them, in case they shall willingly yield themselves; +but if they will not submit without fighting, then you are by force +to compel them to yield. And we do also require you to bring, or +cause to be brought, such pirates, free-booters and sea-rovers as you +shall seize, to a legal trial; to the end that they may be proceeded +against according to law in such cases.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</span> And we do hereby charge and +command all our officers, ministers, and other our loving subjects +whatsoever, to be aiding and assisting you in the premises. And we do +hereby enjoin you to keep an exact journal of your proceeding in the +execution of the premises, and therein to set down the names of such +pirates and their officers and company, and the names of such ships +and vessels as you shall by virtue of these presents seize and take, +and the quantities of arms, ammunition, provision and loading of such +ships, and the true value of the same, as near as you can judge.... In +witness whereof we have caused the great seal of England to be affixed +to these presents. Given at our court at Kensington, the 26th. day of +January, 1695, and in the 7th. year of our reign.”</p> +</div> + +<p>Of all of which the sum is that Commander Kidd, in his private +man-of-war, is to catch Tom Too and the rest of them wherever he could +find them, bring them to justice and render a careful account of their +ships and cargoes. The ostensible aim is to protect the American +colonies; actually it is to exterminate piracy wherever discovered.</p> + +<p>English-speaking folk have been as much a part of the sea as the white +spume of the waves. Like their element, too, they have made for good +and ill. The by-product of England’s maritime effort was the sea-rover, +a creature often as skilled, unfearing and enterprising as his brother<span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</span> +who went up and down the highways of the ocean on more lawful occasions.</p> + +<p>Seventeenth-and eighteenth-century piracy gave to the world that +villainous, but picturesque, aggregation of maritime felons which +has so much fascination for people who never grow too old to enjoy +vicarious adventure: Too, Ireland, Wake, Low, Davis, Lewis, England, +Blackbeard, Avery, Gow, Quelch and other bold quarter-deck—usually the +other fellow’s quarter-deck—strutters, including, notably, the subject +of our present observations.</p> + +<p>These ungentlemen gleaned in three principal regions: Africa, the +East and West Indies, with an occasional flyer down Brazil way. Under +the black flag, we shall presently see something of all these places; +just now we are engaged with the East Indies. Coming and going, and +sometimes lingering, they bothered the “plantations” all the way from +Charleston to Boston, so that the total scope of piracy was sweeping +and widely embracing.</p> + +<p>India was pouring out richly its products of field and loom, plantation +and cottage, and was drawing hungrily in from Arabia, Europe, Africa, +everywhere, the things nature or economic circumstance denied her. +The carriers of this mighty movement of materials were usually rather +insignificant craft called grabs, pinks, galiots, sloops and what-not; +affairs of one mast, a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</span> couple of men, a boy and about sixteen ounces +of cargo. These were coasters; a larger vessel plied to the Gulf of +Aden and the Red Sea under charter of Moors, Armenians and other swart +merchants.</p> + +<p>Bumping these lesser fry out of the way, however, were the +comparatively impressive ships of the expanding European trading +companies—Dutch, Swedish, Austrian and so on—and preeminently the +English East India Company, destined to grow great enough eventually to +swallow India herself,—old John Company.</p> + +<p>The English company—taking it as illustrative—lined the Indian coast +with its forts or factories, and built its own vessels, the noted +“Indiamen”, at its home docks at Deptford; fought its rivals, fought +the natives, carried on perpetual war under the banner of trade. +Protected to the point of complete monopoly by royal and parliamentary +charters, it became practically a State itself, with the power of +minting money, maintaining forts and armies, negotiating treaties, +declaring war or making peace, and authorized to send its ships out +beneath the royal ensign, commanded by captains every one of whom was +the king’s commissioned officer.</p> + +<p>Although ships of many flags plied in the commerce of the East Indies, +if you were aboard a larger Moorish, Arabian or Armenian vessel, you +would often have heard the working of it directed by the bellowings of +a Devonian, a Londoner, or<span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</span> a burr-tongued Yorkshireman. And if from +the lookout there came the cry of “Pirate!” you could be just as sure +that that swiftly oncoming menace was driven by a man who called in +English to a crew which needed no interpreter.</p> + +<p>This varied coast and trans-oceanic sea traffic was almost without +police protection. At their settlement up Calicut way, the Portuguese +had a few ineffective tubs they called a navy. In India itself the +one-time vigorous rule of the Moguls was collapsing and anarchy was +slipping from beneath the lid. Yet even as government caved in, +commerce hardily struggled on, in spite of the fact that its voyages +began in fear and ended by good fortune, and its ships too often became +fat, unshepherded sheep for lean and unlawful shearers.</p> + +<p>And the shearers—Tom Too <i>et al.</i>—came; came in hordes; came +from anywhere and everywhere, chiefly from across the Atlantic, New +York, New England and their historic nest, the West Indies.</p> + +<p>The lay of the land as well as of the water made against the merchant +and for the brigand. Once in the neighborhood, a thieving craft could +steal up a river and wait its opportunity, comfortably provided with +wood and water. Madagascar was the despair of the English Admiralty +and the bitter wail of merchants great and small. It was the prime way +station for pirates on their way to and from the Indies; it was a land<span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</span> +without law, governed by warring native chieftains, and with the Comoro +Islands close by, made one of the finest strategic bases imaginable for +piratical operations. There the pirates swarmed, careened their ships, +salted their provisions, established regular colonies, and exchanged +from one ship to another, leaving or signing-up quite after the manner +of legitimate ports. It was the West Indies of the Indian Ocean.</p> + +<p>To strike piracy down in Madagascar and India was to weaken its blow +both at the American colonies and the Spanish Main. To India Kidd knew +he must resort to enforce the terms of his commission.</p> + +<p>Richard Coote, the Irish earl Bellamont and a gentleman to whom the +historian Macaulay gives a very good character, was at that time +governor of the Province of New York. According to some accounts, he +was in London when Kidd arrived there in the autumn of 1695 and was +introduced to the sailor by a Colonel Livingston, one of New York’s +prominent citizens, then in England. Macaulay, however, says that +Bellamont was already in America when the acuteness of the problem +of piracy stirred him to action, and that there he was recommended +to William Kidd as a man competent on the sea and entirely familiar +with the practices of pirates. Bellamont’s appeals to the home +government for action being fruitless, he and Kidd evolved the notion +of outfitting a private<span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</span> man-of-war, Kidd to command, and sending it +forth to meet the situation in whatever stronghold piracy might then be +found. The venture would doubtless be profitable as well as patriotic.</p> + +<p>Bellamont promoted the scheme with eloquent letters to England and was +so persuasive that statesmen like Shrewsbury and Romney, Orford, First +Lord of the Admiralty, and John Somers between them subscribed several +thousand pounds, and obtained the commission, under the Great Seal, +which we have seen created Kidd in effect the sheriff of the far-off +Orient seas.</p> + +<p>With these funds a galley—not, however, the kind formerly propelled by +oars, but a sailing ship—called the <i>Adventure</i> was purchased. +Her measurement was two hundred and seventy tons. You can see from +that what an imposing ship she must have been, especially when, in +imagination, placed beside a modern transatlantic liner, for which +she might possibly be big enough for a lifeboat. In those times the +last thought of a sailor seems to have been for the size of his ship. +Perhaps he was afraid a large ship would break in two. At any rate, he +threw himself in the most matter-of-fact way at the highest waves in +the world with what we would consider merely exaggerated rowboats.</p> + +<p>Kidd bristled the <i>Adventure</i> with thirty cannon. They understood +the economy of space in those days, you may well imagine. Kidd must +have been a natural-born packer. Not only<span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</span> thirty guns did he get on +board, not only provisions for months, with small arms and ammunition +as well, but when he left New York on the first run of the cruise +proper, he was bedding and boarding some one hundred and sixty men! +Whatever else he may have been, the captain was a man who knew his +business as a tailor knows his needle.</p> + +<p>In order that he might be a stone for two birds, another commission was +laid upon Kidd to take and condemn French ships, as by law made and +provided, France and England being at war as usual. The thought was +that any leisure hour that could be spared from taking pirates might +be usefully employed in catching Frenchmen. The British Admiralty was +always a great hand at putting people to work.</p> + +<p>Of course, if he got a Frenchman, he was not entitled to the captive’s +goods, wares and merchandise. Enemy ships were to be brought into the +nearest British port and by the proper authorities condemned. He had a +blank check signed only on the sea-robbers’ banks.</p> + +<p>These things arranged, the trusty and well-beloved William Kidd, twice +commissioned, competed with the active press-gangs for eighty good and +faithful seamen among the taverns of Wapping and the wet alleys of +Blackwall.</p> + +</div> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</span></p> + +<h3> +II +</h3> + +<p>Spring’s early smile was broadening to a merry laugh amid the bushes +and hedgerows of old England when the <i>Adventure</i> drew out of +Plymouth for the East Indies, by way of New York. Past the fishing +boats, the west coasters and an anchored man-of-war she slipped, on +one of the most unusual errands that had ever engaged a ship clearing +from that ancient port. It was probably a great morning on which to +begin a voyage, with a sparkle on the waters and an edge to the sea +air that must have sent the chanty rolling up from hardy throats and +put a snappiness in strong muscles that labored zestfully at rope and +windlass.</p> + +<p>Putting out to sea on a fine morning is one of the peculiar delights +of healthy folk. At such a time one does not reckon on never +returning—that might be the fate of the other man, not ours—yet of +the eighty men obeying Kidd as captain that morning many had set their +last foot on the soil of home.</p> + +<p>Like the new broom of adage, the <i>Adventure</i> bowled across +the Atlantic to the western colony in seaman fashion in the quite +creditable time of a month. She was not, in fact, a sound ship.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</span> Long +before the Indian seas had been harvested her crew were calling her +names, such as “Leaky and crazy” and what not. It turned out that she +had the qualities of a good sponge, being absorbent at almost every +seam and requiring constantly to be squeezed dry with the pumps.</p> + +<p>So it was something to reach New York without misadventure. Off the +Banks they took in a small French fisherman unlucky enough to get in +their way. She was sent into New York for condemnation. This appears to +have been the first and last time that Kidd lawfully employed himself +under his two commissions. A trifling take it was, to be sure, but it +gave Kidd’s arrival in New York quite the air of officialism.</p> + +<p>Kidd purposed to recruit eighty more men at New York; evidently he +esteemed the colonial sailorman as much as him of the mother country. +To do this he caused to be printed and set up in various gossip spots +about town enticing handbills inviting adventurers. The meat of the +call was that there was plunder a-plenty to be taken from the East +Indian pirates, and lots of fun for a stalwart man in the taking.</p> + +<p>Men accepted would be placed upon a fair share basis, after deducting +twenty-five per cent of the profits for the ship. He had no trouble +attracting a crew. In fact so hearty was the response that there were +fears in the colony that its man power would be depleted. Strong arms +were needed against the Frenchman, Indians and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</span> whatever other perils +might befall an isolated community far from the protection of the +mother country in times such as those were.</p> + +<p>Contemporaries do not speak squeamishly about an element of Kidd’s +crew. Well, the captain asked no disingenuous questions and for +more than one fellow in a tight pinch it was a lucky way of escape. +Many others were no doubt decent, respectable men intrigued by the +prospect of vividly imagined gains. The less definite the harvest of +a speculation the more it seems will men greedily pursue it. So Kidd +finally herded some one hundred and sixty men all told on the deck for +watch divisions when the <i>Adventure</i> was geared for sea.</p> + +<p>This outfit was rather more than merely master and men; they were +co-partners. Forty shares were to go to the ship and the remainder was +to be parceled out in lumps of average weight according to a scale +agreed upon by all. Bellamont and Company supplied arms and equipment +at a charge.</p> + +<p>The late winter ice still cluttered the Hudson River when the +<i>Adventure</i> at length turned its prow toward the Indies, +Madagascar and Fortune. Kidd, according to the proprieties of the sea, +kept himself a cabin, the rest of them shifted in forecastle and hold +as well as a hundred and sixty men in a small ship might. With the best +they could do conditions of life must have become<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</span> very serious and +in a way invited the heavy sickness that fell upon them when the hot +regions of the East were reached.</p> + +<p>At the Madeiras the voyage was broken briefly, then off again to India. +Summer was torrid on land and sea when the company finally “watered and +victualled” at Madagascar. And now for some months Kidd cruised up and +down the coast without any overt act under his commissions, cruised, +that is, with a ghastly plague aboard which tumbled four or five men +a day over the bulwarks and into the oily, turgid deep. When one +conjectures the sanitation of the <i>Adventure</i> it is marvelous that +any one escaped the calamity.</p> + +<p>What could the captain have been thinking of as he loafed aimlessly +up and down the Indian coast? He did business with neither pirate +nor merchantman, just seems to have gone here and there as the wind +blew him. He may have been acquainting himself with the nature of the +commerce of those parts; it may have been a period of debate with +him as to whether to persist as a law officer or strike out in the +new line of law breaker. It is hard to think that Kidd arrived at +Madagascar with a formed pirate purpose; perhaps they may be right who +say that after carefully appraising the situation as a whole he chose +the plundering line. However that may have been, Kidd’s first major +operation in those parts was not against pirates, according to his +commission,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</span> nor the French, but against merchantmen in their peaceful +pursuits.</p> + +<p>At this point let us get the lay of the land, or sea, as it may +happen. The captain leaving New York shot across the Atlantic to +Madeira Islands, from which he right-angled down to the Cape of Good +Hope. Swinging around this broad pedestal of Table Mountain, he ran +up the coast of Africa, probably by way of the Mozambique Channel to +Madagascar. He stopped here long enough to refresh his stores, then +beat up toward India.</p> + +<p>Roughly, Madagascar, for Kidd’s purposes, may be thought of as the +apex of a sort of isosceles triangle, with the Red Sea for one angle +and Bombay for the other. Within these boundaries the captain had the +Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, and the Indian Ocean to navigate, with +Madagascar to run back to from time to time.</p> + +<p>Sea traffic, such as it was, around the cape was not attractive to the +pirates, at least so much as that which passed more quickly from India +through the Indian Ocean to the Red Sea and gulf countries. Compared +with Africa, India, of course, had an old and rich civilization and +it was for the products of that country that the mouths of pirates +watered; the costly silks, linens, spices and gold and silver treasures +which had become the traditions of sailors’ dockhead stories.</p> + +<p>As it happened, however, it was not a cargo going from India which +first enticed Captain<span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</span> Kidd, but cargoes going thence from the gulf +region, more particularly the fat freight of what was known as the +Mocca Fleet.</p> + +<p>“Men,” said Kidd, as he swung the <i>Adventure’s</i> nose suddenly +about at the end of his dallying days in the Indian Ocean, “we are off +to Bab’s Key and the Mocca Fleet. We will ballast our good ship with +gold and silver from this Mocca Fleet.”</p> + +<p>Thus did Kidd treat his commission as a scrap of paper, to be quite +modern, and thus, with a roaring cheer, another terror was added to the +troubles of honest commerce.</p> + +</div> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</span></p> + +<h3> +III +</h3> + +<p>At this port of Bab’s Key, then, the Mocca Fleet was being stuffed as +the fox stole smoothly upon it from the Indian Ocean. About fourteen +ships made up the fleet, going in mass for safety, and chartered by the +usual polyglot crowd of Dutchmen, Arabians, Moors, Armenians and so on.</p> + +<p>While the coolies sweated and strained and hauled bundles and bales +aboard, certain odd-looking strangers sauntered about the docks, +marking closely the lading of the vessels. These were Kidd’s men, +spies he had sent ashore to warn him of the sailing of the fleet. +With desiring eyes these men watched the caravans pouring in from the +interior and emptying their freights into the various holds. Rich +merchandise lay spread all about,—loot that their doughty commander +was to appropriate without a thank-you and distribute among their tarry +palms.</p> + +<p>Not only that, but had you gone into the low, round hills that basined +the town, you would have seen lurkers there, watching keenly the work +on the fleet. More of the <i>Adventure’s</i> men, sentineled all around +by the captain as a kind of double watch. Kidd, you notice, was a man +of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</span> method; it was not going to be any fault of his if Bellamont and +Company did not pay dividends.</p> + +<p>Whether the presence of the spies had disturbed the skippers of the +Mocca Fleet is conjectural, but when it did put to sea at length it was +under both Dutch and English convoy. And in spite of Kidd’s keenness it +got away without notice.</p> + +<p>Only when morning came above the swelling deep, after two or three +weeks of waiting, did the lookout cry the captain from his cabin that +the fleet was passing. True enough! There over the horizon the high +poops of the Mocca ships were awkwardly wagging away to safety.</p> + +<p>Orders immediately showered the decks like the great drops of a +thunderstorm. The anchor chain grated sharply against the bows while +the shrouds were all at once black with racing men. A few minutes and +the <i>Adventure</i> began to take the water slowly; sail after sail +bellied out and quickly she leaped and ducked and flung herself upon +the heels of her prey.</p> + +<p>Fourteen ships convoyed by armed Dutch and English guards would seem +a large bone for so small a terrier as the pirate boat to grasp. +Something must take possession of the reason of English-speaking +sailormen when combat promises, for long odds challenge rather than +daunt them. Their maritime acts sparkle with just such feats as +this—absurd but in a way heroic—and had<span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</span> Kidd had the color of law +upon his work, the story of the Mocca Fleet would have echoed in +generations of English schoolrooms.</p> + +<p>Kidd certainly was grown on the tree that bore Grenville, Drake, +Frobisher, Hawkins and the rest, even though it might have been +advisable to prune him out. In quite the traditional spirit Kidd hurled +his little ship at the great Mocca Fleet as casually as a boy would +fling a stone into a flock of sparrows.</p> + +<p>It might stimulate the imagination to tell how this extraordinary +effort netted big gain, and how the <i>Adventure</i> knocked the +merchantmen to left and right and plucked the fattest and richest of +them from their midst, from which the captain redeemed his tropical +promise to ballast his ship with gold and silver. But that would not be +the fact. The difficulties were too great. After a brief peppering on +both sides with round shot, the pirates were forced to drop back, and +leave the fleet, frightened, fluttering but safe, tumbling on for India.</p> + +<p>Well, it was a doughty but miscalculated start. The <i>Adventure</i> +rode high upon the waves instead of bulwark-deep with goodly gain. The +good cheer aboard must have flagged. What, they asked one another, what +if the whole commerce of this country should be organized into fleets; +what would become of poor pirates? Here they were embarked in a trade +at great spending of money and effort, come all the way from New<span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</span> York, +only to find a great concentration of merchants against them,—surely +a monopoly in restraint of trade. If this sort of thing kept up, there +might be nothing for them left to do but to live up to the terms of the +captain’s commission and be content to sift the loot from gentlemen +of free enterprise who had been on the ground in happier and more +prosperous days.</p> + +<p>Grumbling doubtless began now, if not before, and was kept up until it +ended in a sad mischance to one Gunner Moore, which deplorable accident +will shortly be narrated.</p> + +<p>Kidd now began to net the gulf for anything he could catch. They hauled +in a little Moorish ship, which was but a poor sardine for the whale +that had escaped. She was too small to put up a fight and Kidd just +bullied her down. From her they took a few bales of coffee, some opium +and twenty pieces of Arabian gold.</p> + +<p>They also caught a “linguister.” It turns out that a “linguister” +is not an article of commerce, but nothing more nor less than an +interpreter, in this particular case a Portuguese person. Not a bad +word that,—linguister; language rather more expressive than the +scholastic interpreter.</p> + +<p>Now you cannot ballast even a two hundred-and-seventy-ton craft +with twenty pieces of Arabian gold and, refusing to believe that so +poverty-stricken a craft could be in these rich reputed waters, Kidd +improvised an inquisition. Some of the unfortunate captives were<span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</span> hung +up by the wrists and beaten with naked cutlasses by way of persuading +them to reveal the real treasures of their ship. Nothing so far as the +record shows came of this strenuous examination. So the pirates turned +them loose minus their coffee and opium and the contemptible pieces of +Arabian gold.</p> + +<p>Rough usage this, but not the ultimate of ferocity with which Kidd +has been charged. For all we know, this is as far as ever the captain +went in the treatment of captive crews. It may be said as well here +as anywhere that there is no walking the plank or other picturesque +punishments of fiction. Ships were looted and turned loose, in most +instances. Those of their crews who wished to might sign up with the +pirates; their officers, if not sent back to their ships, were carried +to the Indian coast and dumped there.</p> + +<p>All hands were then in no very sociable mood when the incidents of this +immediate time closed with the matter of the Portuguese man-of-war.</p> + +<p>It was on an evening soon after the taking of the Moorish ship that the +<i>Adventure</i> saw and was seen by a cruising Portuguese war-vessel. +Now there was nothing in Kidd’s contract with Bellamont, Livingston +and the rest of them which even suggested that he should take any +special risk, and of course not a line thereof which could warrant him +in lying-to all night to risk the company’s property in a perfectly +gratuitous battle engagement with a ship of war.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</span></p> + +<p>This, however, is just what the <i>Adventure</i> did. Instead of taking +the hours of darkness for a discreet and quite justified withdrawal +from an embarrassing situation, Kidd and his merry men impatiently +watched for the first break of light in the east for a go with an +enemy. After all the <i>Adventure</i> was well and poetically named. +Conduct of this kind makes us suppose that gain was less in the eye of +these folk than rip-roaring adventuring in lawless waters.</p> + +<p>Historically, the Portuguese opened fire first on Kidd. Evidently that +swart son of Lisbon had not heard from the Mocca Fleet that a wild +demon was loose on the sea. When you read that the Portuguese opened +first fire on Captain Kidd, you think at once of a foolish tramp +going out of his way to kick a sleeping bulldog. Mr. Portuguese got a +surprising rattle of shot on his bulwarks and sails. He had opened fire +on the one man in all the East Indies that with more exact information +he would have avoided.</p> + +<p>Kidd closed with him zestfully and for five hours they whanged away +at each other, and at noon, all concerned having had a brisk workout, +as the athletes would say, the two ships drew apart and went their +ways, flinging shot at each other till Neptune shouldered them beyond +range. Ten men of the <i>Adventure</i> lay about the ship with broken +bodies, waiting the perhaps more dangerous ministry of ship’s surgeon +Bradinham.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</span></p> + +<p>Save for the fun of fighting here were three or four weeks wasted. +A couple of these had been thrown away hanging around for the Mocca +Fleet and a couple more had brought forth only the meager pilfering +of a Moorish sloop. It is not unnatural then that when, after the +<i>tête-à-tête</i> with the warship, the craft <i>Loyal Captain</i> +sighted and seeming to promise worth-while gleaning, was allowed by +Kidd to go by scot-free, without a hand being raised, discontent began +to threaten discipline on board the <i>Adventure</i>.</p> + +</div> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</span></p> + +<h3> +IV +</h3> + +<p>In a gang of men with a grievance grumbling usually becomes vocal +in a sort of natural spokesman. The kind of people who manned the +<i>Adventure</i> were probably hard to manage, especially after all +hands had committed themselves as lawbreakers. They were taking so many +risks that unless profit came in to justify them their complaints would +sharply flare up.</p> + +<p>They were in front of danger from disease, a demoralizing illustration +of which they had but recently seen in their own ship; the robbery of +ships was also dangerous, while most vivid of all, though farthest +removed geographically, was the picture of outraged authority waiting +them at home with the grim paraphernalia of Execution Dock.</p> + +<p>Such things make men peevish and if all be endured or braved it must +not be for a mere trifle. And, beyond the game with the Portuguese, +which all would admit was the one bright spot of the month, nothing by +way of a share had been passed around, for the quite apparent reason +that nothing had been taken to share.</p> + +<p>Why Kidd let the <i>Loyal Captain</i> get away is known only to +himself. His men did not understand<span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</span> it. They knew he was not afraid; +they never doubted in that sort of thing. But there she went,—a +good-sized merchant ship, the very thing they were all out here risking +their necks for.</p> + +<p>Gunner Moore gave tongue to their troubles; Gunner Moore was not +afraid, not he; out with it and speak up like men. Why he himself +could have shown Captain Kidd a way to take the <i>Loyal Captain</i> +and that without any risk. There is always a Gunner Moore. Always in +all undertakings, lawful as well as unlawful, there is an ever-ready +subordinate with better plans and methods than his superior’s. Such men +always talk and almost always fatally. Gunner Moore did.</p> + +<p>You notice the sting in the gunner’s phrase—“without risk.” That was +the heel by which to prick the demon up in the captain. The imputation +of fear so plainly false,—no wonder as Gunner Moore was grinding a +chisel on the deck, the hoarse voice of his commander growled in his +ear—</p> + +<p>“Which way could you have put me in a way to take this ship (the +<i>Loyal Captain</i>) and been clear?”</p> + +<p>It was a hot minute for Gunner Moore. Now Mr. Moore, you who are so +smart, how would you have taken the <i>Loyal Captain</i> without risk? +One may feel sorry for the gunner; he has angered the hardest man, in +some respects, on or off the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</span> coast of Malabar, in whose shelter the +<i>Adventure</i> was then riding.</p> + +<p>The gunner did what almost everybody would have done in the same +stress; he tried to put out to sea in a lie.</p> + +<p>“Sir,” said he, “I never spoke such a word, nor ever thought such a +thing.”</p> + +<p>Gunner Moore was not naturally adapted for the piratical life. With +Kidd in that mood and menace before him there was no refuge for him in +words. The captain must have surmised that the gunner had been audible +to the crew as well as himself, and his particular game made an example +imperative. It was really all up with the gunner before a word was said.</p> + +<p>Everybody on board was looking on. The sail maker sat cross-legged with +his needle poised; men dozing on the blistering decks awoke to stare; +over the yardarms aloft the heads of the sailors working gazed fixedly +below them; it was that intense moment before tragedy.</p> + +<p>Captain Kidd pronounced sentence in a voice that everybody could hear:</p> + +<p>“You lousy dog!”</p> + +<p>Kidd was never short of picture words. He used few abstractions; +everything and everybody he painted in quick, certain colors.</p> + +<p>Perhaps, after all, there was a chance for the gunner. If he had meekly +bowed assent and driven along with his chisel-grinding it might have +been well for him. But it is to be taken that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</span> Gunner Moore had passed +himself for a man of some character among his fellows. He was a sort +of gang leader, apparently; had he not spoken up, had not his attitude +been, “Who’s afraid of Kidd?” He was, really, but had not imagination +enough to know it. And now he was tumbled low before all men with +these rough words. To swallow them was to creep about the ship forever +humble. He rallied, did the gunner, but instead of rallying with words +he should have resorted to the chisel in his hand or a marlin-spike. +No, he did not understand the piratical trade. He mistook it as a +calling in which one could still talk.</p> + +<p>“If I am a lousy dog,” he cried desperately, “you have made me so; you +have brought me to ruin and many more.”</p> + +<p>“And many more.” Notice that! It is an appeal to that gaping sailmaker, +those wide-eyed sleepers, those staring men in the rigging. Here am I, +it says, your spokesman, telling the captain now just what we have all +been saying about him and the way we all feel; stick by me; somebody up +there in the yards please drop a block on his head.</p> + +<p>Gangs, being untrained and undirected, are necessarily uncertain and do +not engage their opportunity. A brisk demonstration of sympathy might +have saved the gunner; the captain was only one man.</p> + +<p>The ship rocked, the wind blew sluggish from<span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</span> Malabar, a cord smacked +thinly against the spars and the moment passed.</p> + +<p>“Have I ruined you, ye dog?” replied his formidable opponent. “Take +that!”</p> + +<p>Kidd grabbed a heavy wooden bucket, bound with iron hoops, probably the +one holding the water with which the gunner wet his stone, and smote +Moore upon the head.</p> + +<p>Sails sank his needle back in the canvas, the sleepers turned over on +their sides, the men aloft looked a moment solemnly at each other, and +the wooden bucket, bound with iron hoops, rolled redly to the scuppers.</p> + +<p>There was an opening for a gunner aboard the ship <i>Adventure</i>.</p> + +<p>Malabar, that beautiful and fertile strip of the Indian coast which +fronts the Arabian Sea for some hundred and fifty miles, was a sort +of way station for Kidd as he worked the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, +the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean. He ran in and out of this region +according to his need of victualing or repairing the now unsatisfactory +<i>Adventure</i>.</p> + +<p>He was not what one would call exactly welcome there. His coming +meant a disturbance in the local villages and the liberation upon +them of an undisciplined and roguish company. His crew and the +natives not occasionally fell out. Very likely the sailors were the +beginners of the trouble,—so their general make-up of character +would suggest. Gunner Moore’s death was not<span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</span> the only violence of the +<i>Adventure’s</i> hours at Malabar.</p> + +<p>There was, for instance, the matter of the ship’s cooper. That artisan +got among the natives and never came back to the ship. It was on him +the townsfolk avenged themselves in an undetermined quarrel with the +pirates of which the cooper’s death was an episode. Knowing Kidd as we +do, it is not astonishing that he visited his wrath upon the natives +in vindicating the life even of a ship’s cooper. He swarmed his men +ashore, burned down the dwellings of the people and, catching one of +the inhabitants, ordered him, with crude formality, shot.</p> + +<p>It is a wonder that he did not exterminate the town. Mere ruthlessness, +however, would not seem a part of his disposition. In this matter of +the cooper there cannot be much question that the final responsibility +must fall upon the captain, whose failure to keep order among his men +made their acts of provocation possible.</p> + +<p>With these two incidents of the gunner and the cooper to lend action to +his sojourn, Kidd lay about Malabar until November, 1697, was advanced. +He then pulled up his anchor and breezed out to the Arabian Sea seeking +what or whom he might devour. The lot fell on a Moorish ship, out from +Surat, under the command of a Dutch skipper.</p> + +<p>On sighting her, Kidd went to the flag locker where he had a bundle +of symbolic aliases and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</span> picked out the flag of France, and flung it +brightly from his topmast. The Moor was wallowing along without any +insignia of nationality, but before very long, the <i>Adventure’s</i> +men saw her shake out the French flag. Whereupon everybody laughed in +deep chests and kept smoothly to the pursuit.</p> + +<p>After some hours of comfortable sailing the <i>Adventure</i> pulled +alongside the Moor, and confronting her with a row of gleaming cannon +bade her stop. No doubt the agitated Dutchman in command supposed +that he had been intercepted by a French ship of war, and so, stowing +certain ship’s papers, doubtless prepared for just such earnest +moments, in his pocket he obeyed Kidd’s hoarse bellow to come aboard. +While his boat was coming over to the <i>Adventure</i>, Kidd was +arranging a reception for him of an artful kind.</p> + +<p>He called one of the crew, a Frenchman, aft and bade him represent +himself to be the captain of the <i>Adventure</i> in the pending +interview with the Dutchman. Just why would soon be shown.</p> + +<p>Over the side came the Dutch skipper with a puffed, perturbed face. The +Frenchman met him and demanded his papers. With something of relief the +skipper must have pulled out the French passes, or clearance papers, +he had taken the precaution to bring on the voyage with him. He was +relieved because he found himself on an undoubted French ship and +happily with French shipping papers; he felt among friends.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</span></p> + +<p>No sooner was the French pass spread out than Kidd, standing close +by, toying with the handle of his cutlass, roared out in frightening +English:</p> + +<p>“Ah ha, I have catched you, have I. You are a free prize to England.”</p> + +<p>This action shows that Kidd was not ready to avow himself a pirate. As +such, there would have been no need for the subterfuge of French colors +and a French captain; he had force enough to accomplish his intent +as it was. The truth of the thing most likely was that Kidd coolly +calculated that he could take ships under color of being Frenchmen, +or some other excuse, and that even the despoiled vessels would not +necessarily know his real status. He seems always to have had an eye to +an early return to his accustomed social position. This, if anything, +distinguishes Kidd from the typical pirate and so far denies the +traditional picture of fiction.</p> + +<p>Out of this small Moorish ship the haul was meager. Two horses, some +quilts and odds and ends of cargo. He kept the ship with him until his +next trip to Madagascar; probably, according to his custom, putting the +officers ashore at Malabar, and recruiting his forces with any of the +captives who wished to go along with him.</p> + +<p>December soon marked a change in the very ordinary luck which had so +far attended the <i>Adventure’s</i> enterprise. A Moorish ketch in this +month fell to them, and, rather unusually,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</span> after a fight in which one +of the pirates was wounded. An inconsequential affair it was at that, +her capture being effected by a handful of men from the ship’s boat. +The captors ran her ashore and emptied out of her thirty tubs of butter +as the principal gain. The ketch was then turned adrift.</p> + +<p>All hands no doubt wished each other a happy and prosperous New Year as +1698 came over the horizon of time. But January was to step along quite +a little before even a trifle was scavenged from the sea. This was a +Portuguese, out from Bengal, and laden with butter, wax and East Indian +goods. She was taken in without any trouble, and a prize crew put on +her to keep her in company with the <i>Adventure</i>.</p> + +<p>And now a disturbing matter arose for the captain. He was pursued +by seven or eight Dutch ships, until he was obliged to call off his +prize crew and abandon the Portuguese ship. It was disturbing, not +because the captain was afraid of the seven or eight Dutch sail, but it +must have indicated to him that his unlawful operations had not been +disguised as well as he had wished. He saw then that word had got about +the Indian ports that he was a pirate. His suspicions were correct; +not only was the truth penetrating to India; it was also on its way to +England, where a great shock was to befall all those concerned with +King William’s trusty and well-beloved mariner. Not the least so<span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</span> +interested was to be that genteel nobleman, Earl Bellamont, Governor +of the Province of New York, whose political enemies, airing the +arrangement with Kidd, began to accuse him openly of having a good big +finger in the piratical pie.</p> + +<p>Thus far off all sorts of trouble were brewing for Captain Kidd as he +beat about the spicy coast of India.</p> + +</div> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</span></p> + +<h3> +V +</h3> + +<p>But a most momentous turn of fortune was impending. And it was high +time. The pirates were thoroughly fed with butter; out of almost every +capture they had taken butter, until it was butter, butter and nothing +but butter. The <i>Adventure</i> promised to become a sort of floating +grocery store, specializing on butter, with coffee a strong second, +while, for those with a fancy for dreams, liberal quantities of opium +could be passed over the counter.</p> + +<p>Bellamont and Company had not gone to considerable expense just to +corner the butter market of the East Indies, nor to interfere seriously +with the dairy and grocery businesses of those regions. Had they been +in receipt of monthly reports from their peculiar partner away out +there, they would have been both surprised and disappointed and very +properly grieved.</p> + +<p>The butter era was about to end sharply. The <i>Quedagh Merchant</i> +did that.</p> + +<p>A comparatively large ship she must have been when Kidd first saw her +lumbering along, loaded down to capacity. As soon as he spotted her, +out from the locker came the French flag again, and as a French ship +he drew quickly alongside.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</span> Probably the usual round shot across the +bows brought her up. If so that was the only demonstration of violence +which marked the taking of one of the richest ships that ever a pirate +gloated over.</p> + +<p>As soon as the <i>Merchant</i> braced back, Kidd sent a boat from his +ship to her with orders to bring the captain to him. The boat came back +with an old Frenchman grumbling and puzzled in the stern. The skipper +of the <i>Merchant</i> naturally thought a Frenchman should represent +them to a French ship of unknown but threatening attitude. This old +man, however, had not been long in talk with the pirate chief before he +confessed that he was not the master of the <i>Quedagh Merchant</i>, +but her gunner. Whereupon Kidd sent the boat off again for the real +commander.</p> + +<p>One begins to see the value of the ruse of sailing under French +colors. Many of the ships on that particular beat evidently had French +clearance papers. British trade was probably almost entirely through +traffic around the Cape to England; the coastwise business was Moorish, +by which was generally meant Arabian, Dutch, French and Armenian. +Hence to approach the ordinary coaster, the French colors at his mast, +avoided the delay and difficulty of a protracted pursuit, as well as +served to disarm them when overtaken.</p> + +<p>Whenever they had French passes, instead of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</span> showing force to a +seemingly French ship, the easiest and most natural thing for them to +do was to expose their papers, and so proceed peacefully on their way. +Such a ship as this which Kidd was now taking could no doubt have put +up some measure of resistance had she been forewarned. Still again, +Kidd artfully induced them to show a French pass and then revealed +himself as an Englishman commissioned to take just that sort of craft, +and thus despoil many victims without discovering his real traffic.</p> + +<p>The French pass idea struck Kidd as so good that he worked it not only +in the waters of the Indies but in the courts of his outraged Majesty, +King William, as he entered the valley of death’s shadow.</p> + +<p>This time the boat came back carrying a swearing Englishman, one +Wright, indubitable skipper of the <i>Quedagh Merchant</i>. When he set +foot on the pirate’s deck Kidd brusquely informed him he was a prisoner +being off a French ship, as witness the embassage of the old French +gunner. While Wright, who had formerly been a tavern keeper at Surat, +bleated about the decks, Kidd sent a crew over to take possession of +the <i>Quedagh Merchant</i>.</p> + +<p>Here they found a couple of Dutchmen, probably the ship’s mates, a +Frenchman—the old gunner—and a crew of Moors. Another group of +considerable importance to the story was that of the charterers of the +ship—certain Armenians<span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</span> under the headship of one Cogi Baba. In a +little while Kidd joined his merry men.</p> + +<p>Here occurred a curious little comedy. So soon as Kidd came up the +side, the Armenians rushed toward him and with loud cries and prayers +besought him to return them their ship. They thrust at him the +respectable ransom of twenty thousand rupees. Kidd waved their offer +away, remarking that it was a very small parcel of money. He then +called his men and instructed them to go off on the forecastle and hold +a mimic conference together, wherein they were to pretend to vote upon +the fate of the captured craft. With solemn stupid faces they grouped +off by themselves, the while the plaints of the distracted Armenians +assailed their hairy ears.</p> + +<p>Then owlishly they returned to the quarterdeck where, with great +seriousness, they informed their commander that they had voted to +retain the <i>Quedagh Merchant</i>. Thereupon Kidd turned to the +Armenians with a shrug of the shoulder as much as to say, what would +you; what can you do with a crowd like that?</p> + +<p>Kidd was still playing his strange double game. He was acting the part +of an English officer taking in a suspect enemy ship. The farce of the +crew’s conference was a by-play to divert the Armenians’ clamor from +one to many heads, and perhaps to show the incorruptibility of these +patriotic British seamen.</p> + +<p>That done, they appraised their garnerings<span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</span> and shouted with joy when +it was discovered that they had found nearly ten thousand pounds’ worth +of valuables. In our money it is difficult to estimate just what the +amount would be now, but certainly an extraordinary fortune.</p> + +<p>Not only that but here was a good seaworthy, commodious ship of +very great value herself. All hands were called from the old +<i>Adventure</i>; pitch barrels were staved in and kicked about her +decks, and she went up to the coppery Indian sky in great festoons of smoke.</p> + +<a id="She_went_up_to_the_coppery_Indian_sky_in_great_festoons_of_smoke"></a> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp51" id="i038" style="max-width: 142.375em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/i038.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption class="caption"><p>She went up to the coppery Indian sky in great festoons of smoke.</p></figcaption> +</figure> + +<p>The <i>Quedagh Merchant</i> swung around, her decks now congested with +the whole crew of the destroyed <i>Adventure</i> and into her compass +box peering the firm hard face of William Kidd, mariner, of London, +trusty and well-beloved.</p> + +</div> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</span></p> + + +<h3> +VI +</h3> + +<p>Now, the big question before the house was to dispose of the cargo of +the <i>Quedagh Merchant</i> to the best profit. To get the officers of +the ship and the clamant Armenians out of the way Kidd put them ashore, +supposing that that was the last he would see of them. In this he was +mistaken.</p> + +<p>He stood away in the general direction of Madagascar. But on the way +there he touched at one port and another where he entered into vigorous +bargaining. He had in view the turning of the <i>Quedagh Merchant’s</i> +cargo into coin, and seems to have managed this quite adroitly. There +being no telegraphs or cables the outraged charterers could not, of +course, catch up with him. Probably he was suspected but nobody cared +very much; there the goods were and sellers who were sharp but not too +close.</p> + +<p>Their merchanting was interrupted long enough to pick up a Portuguese +who got in their way, and once again there was a surplus of butter +aboard. At that the pick-up brought them some five hundred pounds,—not +too miserable a sum in those days or, for that matter, in any day.</p> + +<p>Thus keeping an eye to business in both directions,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</span> trade and theft, +they beat down to Madagascar, probably their principal market.</p> + +<p>In this place Kidd was to encounter a veritable pirate, the very chap +for whom the Admiralty had commissioned him to look. The story of this +contact is quaint.</p> + +<p>When the <i>Quedagh Merchant</i> dropped anchor in the channel, a +canoe was seen putting out from the shore, manned by white men. As +Kidd, leaning over the side, watched this craft paddling swiftly over +the blue, languid waters, he thought some of the faces in it were not +altogether unfamiliar. He became certain of this when a motley gang +tumbled up the rope ladder and stood on the deck before him, awkwardly +twisting their hats in their hands, and saluting by a drag at their +long, unkempt forelocks. Why, to be sure, they were New Yorkers, old +salts known to Kidd in prior and more respectable years. Well, what did +they want?</p> + +<p>“Cap’n,” began the spokesman, reluctantly stepping a little forward +from his fellows, “Cap’n, how d’ye do, sir? You remember us, Cap’n, +don’t ye; all good sailor-men from New York? Some of us fought the +French under ye, Cap’n, sir, in the West Indies.”</p> + +<p>Kidd nodded.</p> + +<p>“Well?”</p> + +<p>There was a heavy silence. The newcomers looked around them, and +somehow took a little heart from a something in the attitudes and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</span> +manner of the men under their old acquaintance’s command. Things just +didn’t look like a reputable king’s ship on the king’s business.</p> + +<p>“You be come to hang us all, Cap’n,” blurted the speaker. “We’ve heered +you got the king’s commission to take pirates. Maybe we’ve fell into +a loose step or two, but we aren’t regular robbers. Cap’n, give us a +chance, and we’ll uncover a nest of the kind you’re alooking for.”</p> + +<p>He pointed a long finger toward the wooded shore.</p> + +<p>“See that ship, Cap’n? That’s the <i>Resolution</i>, Culliford, +skipper, and one o’ the hardest ships in these parts.”</p> + +<p>Kidd turned and gave a long look at the rakish <i>Resolution</i>, from +this distance even, a vessel evidently of speed and unlawful purpose.</p> + +<p>“I’ll go back with you,” declared Kidd, briskly.</p> + +<p>They all returned to the canoe and set off for the <i>Resolution</i>. +The delegation must have been astonished at the audacity of Kidd’s +returning with them to a known pirate, with a commission in his pocket +to hang the crew of the <i>Resolution</i> if necessary, and returning +at that with absolutely no protection. They had always known this man +for a queer one.</p> + +<p>Just as coolly as if he were mounting his own proper ship, Kidd stepped +on to the decks of the <i>Resolution</i>. The rowers joined their mates +in the waist of the vessel and pointed with thick<span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</span> thumbs as Kidd +ascended to the quarter-deck, where Captain Culliford, as much puzzled +as any one, shuffled forward in his slippers to do the honors. All +about went the whisper that the king’s man, with power of death, had +come amid them.</p> + +<p>Kidd and Culliford shook hands and presently sat down together under a +sail stretched as an awning against the beating sun. All hands breathed +just a wee bit easier. Pretty soon they heard Culliford crying to his +negro servant for the materials of “Bomboo.” The strain slackened +noticeably. Their captain was a match for the king’s man. If they had +got to “Bomboo” things might yet be well.</p> + +<p>Taking the sugar and limes and dark thick bottle the servant had +brought to him, Culliford himself, as a gracious host, prepared the +drinks. The crew from the forecastle and waist watched until both the +august noses were buried in the mugs and then knew that all would be +well.</p> + +<p>All was, indeed, very well. Up there on the quarter-deck the two +skippers were laughing loudly. Said Kidd, as the Bomboo moved within +him:</p> + +<p>“Harm you, Culliford! Why, man, I’d see my soul fry in —— before I’d +harm you.”</p> + +<p>We have said the captain was a great hand at picture words—he +could use them even in a sociable way. One thing led to another, +the cordiality increased, and when at length Kidd<span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</span> walked a little +jiggingly to the canoe he was laden with a very considerable gift of +silks from the treasure chest of the <i>Resolution</i>. He sent back +the canoe with an equal present of shirting stuff, and more, much more +than that in view of his commission, the next day he supplied Culliford +with two guns.</p> + +<p>Now, that was the extreme of disloyalty. Not only not to apprehend the +piratical Culliford—that was inexcusable—but actually to make him +more efficient in his plundering work was simply intolerable. If by +some clairvoyance, his Britannic Majesty’s Admiralty could have seen +this horrid transaction, the very building itself must have tremored.</p> + +<p>It may be that Kidd here was acting according to a policy to which the +logic of circumstances had compelled him. As soon as the canoe from the +<i>Resolution</i> came to him, he discovered that his arrival had been +a considerable shock to the sailing community of Madagascar. Gossip +flies about a port as quickly as about a street. Two things, therefore, +presented themselves for his choice; he must either engage the pirates +in action or reassure them by companioning with them. Madagascar was +to be the last big chance to clean up the balance of the <i>Quedagh +Merchant’s</i> cargo, the final market. As a king’s man he could +not remain there indefinitely without expecting to be attacked by a +combination of lawless men, who saw in him only the king’s<span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</span> authority +and punitive power. Whether this thought particularly directed him +or not, his visit to Culliford, one of the leading pirate commanders +there, was undoubtedly in the way of appeasement, and not the mere +fraternizing of colleagues.</p> + +<p>This situation being smoothed out, Kidd went seriously to work to sell +his wares. According to the chronology of the record, this could not +have taken a very great while.</p> + +<p>And now the day for which they all had longed came. Outside of the +cabin which Kidd, commander-like, always reserved to himself, a long +queue was formed that ended in a jostling knot beneath the poop. Pay +day had come, and mirth bubbled without restraint.</p> + +<p>On the cabin table were piled over one hundred heaps of coin. Stowed +away in a locker were the forty shares for the ship. Kidd stood at the +table, a great pistol lying suggestively at hand in case of too much +excitement, and by the door his personal servant, Richard Barlicorn, +kept a kind of order.</p> + +<p>One by one the crew came in and each swept into his hat the share +allotted him, and with a grin and a duck of the head hastened out to +the sunshine, to watch with gleaming eyes the enchanting sparkle of the +greatest fortune that had ever come to him in the hard and sorrowful +farming of the sea.</p> + +<p>Everything was square and above board.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</span> Kidd had kept his florid +promise to ballast the ship with gold and silver, and the workman had +received his agreed hire.</p> + +<p>It must have been a great day for Bomboo.</p> + +</div> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</span></p> + +<h3> +VII +</h3> + +<p>While Kidd was fraternizing with pirates and turning the <i>Quedagh +Merchant’s</i> cargo into gold at Madagascar, the solemn and serious +gentlemen of the British Admiralty heard with pained disappointment +how their trusty and well-beloved mariner was behaving himself in +the distant seas. They saw gloomily that another experiment in the +suppression of piracy had fizzled out, and that the private ship of +war was not an approved instrument of police work. That method having +been quite the opposite of successful, they ponderously planned another +which, in the event—though we will not be concerned to follow it—was +to prove if anything still less effective.</p> + +<p>Their plan might as well be set in their own peculiar language, and +showing that oddity of punctuation which made a state paper of this +sort three enormous, mountainous sentences:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="center"> +“By the king, a proclamation. +</p> +<p> +William R.<br> +</p> +<p>Whereas we being informed, by the frequent complaints of our good +subjects trading to the East Indies, of several wicked practises +committed on those seas, as well upon our own subjects<span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</span> as those +of our allies, have therefore thought fit (for the security of the +trade of those countries, by an utter extirpation of the pirates in +all parts eastward of the Cape of Good Hope, as well beyond Cape +Comorin as on this side of it, unless they shall forthwith surrender +themselves, as in hereinafter directed) to send out a squadron of +men-of-war, under the command of Captain Thomas Warren.</p> + +<p>Now we, to the intent that such who have been guilty of any acts of +piracy in those seas, may have notice of our most gracious intention, +of extending our royal mercy to such of them as shall surrender +themselves, and to cause the severest punishment according to law to +be inflicted upon those who shall continue obstinate, have thought +fit, by the advice of our privy council, to issue this proclamation; +hereby requiring and commanding all persons who have been guilty of +any act of piracy, or any ways aiding or assisting therein, in any +place eastward of the Cape of Good Hope, to surrender themselves +within the several respective times hereinafter limited, unto the said +Captain Thomas Warren, and the commander-in-chief of the squadron for +the time being, and to Israel Hayes, Peter Dellanoye, and Christopher +Pollard, esquires, commissioners appointed by us for the said +expedition, or to any three of them, or, in case of death, to the +major part of the survivors of them.</p> + +<p>And we do hereby declare, that we have been graciously pleased to +impower the said Captain<span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</span> Thomas Warren, and the commander-in-chief of +the said squadron for the time being, Israel Hayes, Peter Dellanoye, +and Christopher Pollard, esquires, commissioners aforesaid, or any +three of them, or in case of death, to the major part of the survivors +of them, to give assurance of our most gracious pardon unto all +such pirates in the East Indies, viz., all eastward of the Cape of +Good Hope, who shall surrender themselves for piracies or robberies +committed by them upon sea or land; except, nevertheless, such as +they shall commit in any place whatsoever after notice of our grace +and favor hereby declared; and also excepting all such piracies and +robberies as shall be committed from the Cape of Good Hope eastward, +to the longitude or meridian of Socatora, after the last day of April, +1699, and in any place from the longitude or meridian of Socatora +eastward, to the longitude or meridian of Cape Comorin, after the +last day of June, 1699, and in any place whatsoever eastward of Cape +Comorin after the last day of July, 1699; and also excepting Henry +Every, alias Bridgman, and William Kidd.</p> + +<p>Given at our court at Kensington, the 8th day of December, 1698, in +the 10th year of our reign. God save the King.”</p> +</div> + +<p>Such was the confession of the impotency of the British authority to +clear the seas of the East Indies.</p> + +<p>William Kidd, it is to be noticed, is no longer the trusty and +well-beloved; he is quite in the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</span> outermost dark, coupled with Henry +Avery, or Every, for whom no royal mercy was to exert its gentle +and benign qualities. It would seem fair enough considering the +well-beloved’s flippant attitude toward the king’s commission.</p> + +<p>The proclamation is an exact document of specific effect. There is +nothing ambiguous in its terms. This definiteness became extremely +important to some of Kidd’s crew when they stood in the somber shadow +of the gallows.</p> + +<p>The meat of the matter was that all East Indian pirates who before +April, June or July, 1699, according to certain geographical +boundaries, should give themselves up to four particular persons, +Warren, Hayes, Dellanoye and Pollard, were to be admonished and +forgiven,—all, that is, except Avery and Kidd.</p> + +<p>With a bale of printed proclamations Captain Warren and the three +gentlemen commissioners departed for the Indies. It does look rather an +absurd mission from our point of view. Authority thus said in effect to +the outlaw folk: We can’t catch you so we will forgive you. Laughter +loud and long rose from piraty throats from Madagascar to the Gulf of +Aden when Captain Warren passed hither and thither, tacking up the +pretty sheets of paper. It was the ultimate good joke on government.</p> + +<p>Yet not all the lawless ones grinned and went on plundering. It would +seem that the jolly Culliford, he of the <i>Resolution</i> and the +artful<span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</span> mixer of Bomboo, saw his chance to mend his ways and put +himself in the hands of the commissioners. By a sort of coincidence he +who had lain at Madagascar with Kidd, with Kidd later groaned in the +cells of Newgate, though he probably effected his discharge by virtue +of the proclamation.</p> + +<p>Just where and when the proclamation came to the notice of Kidd’s +company is uncertain; that it did, however, will shortly appear.</p> + +</div> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</span></p> + +<h3> +VIII +</h3> + +<p>Pardon or no pardon, proclamation or no proclamation, Captain Kidd was +bound to go home. He had finished with piracy, at least in the East +Indies.</p> + +<p>His active operations had barely filled out six months. His bold attack +on the Mocca Fleet befell on the 14th of August, 1697; in January, +1698, he grabbed the <i>Quedagh Merchant</i>, loitered down the coast +in her, trading here and there, and about the opening of May of the +same year came to Madagascar, having picked up a wandering Portuguese +on the way. August, then, to January, really saw Kidd’s work, and it +was in that comparatively short time that he acquired an extraordinary +and permanent notoriety.</p> + +<p>Yet with the exception of the slaying of Gunner Moore he had +committed no act which to-day would be a capital offense; the matter +of the ship’s cooper and the native is all too modern in tone. +Undoubtedly, the notice which Kidd attracted was because of the +connection of Bellamont and certain other nobles with the inception +of the enterprise, their political enemies now making gain of their +predicament and flooding<span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</span> the town with pamphlets wherein, as part +of the game, Kidd took on the lineaments of a sea-monster. Beyond an +uncommon boldness, there was nothing in the crimes he committed to +foundation such a popular clamor as rose about his name in England.</p> + +<p>Those few months of effort, however, had been very profitable. +Contemporaries put the extreme value on the <i>Quedagh Merchant’s</i> +cargo at twelve thousand pounds,—an exaggeration, the probable figure +being about nine thousand. Of this, on the forty-share basis together +with all he could deduct as charges for supplies and ammunition, Kidd +must have obtained some thirty per cent. Not only that, but it appears +from the remarks of one of his crew on the trial that the captain by +some device or other took back this man’s share, and if this man’s +probably others.</p> + +<p>There was a fat three thousand pounds out of this venture; in addition +there must be remembered the value of the smaller pick-ups he had +made, so that one way and other, with goods and money the captain must +have concluded his enterprise with a good five thousand pounds,—about +twenty thousand dollars, and in the values of the present day a very +decent fortune indeed. On top of all that he had the ship herself, +which was then valued at four hundred pounds, or two thousand dollars.</p> + +<p>To-day one could hardly get a good halibut boat for two thousand +dollars, so you can get an<span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</span> inkling of what the sum of his gains would +have meant in these times. On the other hand, some of the articles are +cheaper now than they were then, as for instance calico, of which he +made a good haul. This money is what makes up the bulk of the so-called +Captain Kidd’s treasure, which fancy has so vividly exaggerated.</p> + +<p>Robbing merchant ships as he was, all he obtained was mostly +merchandise, largely perishable and hence to be disposed of quickly. +To imagine these vessels as carrying unique articles of gold and +silverware or pearls and jewels of great price is to be away off the +road of historic fact.</p> + +<p>For instance, here is a general list of the property that fell into his +hands: Opium, sugar, raw silk, calico, muslin, rice, beeswax, butter, +iron, horses, quilts, sugar-candy, tobacco, and similar sundries. +Eatables such as butter and sugar and so on were shared among the +ship’s messes; the rest were sold wherever a buyer could be found.</p> + +<p>Fighting and taking ships were really incidental labors for these +pirates. There was a great amount of hard, plain stevedore work to be +done, shifting these cargoes from ship to ship and from ship to shore. +From August onward there was little loafing indulged in. What with +working the ship, sometimes two of them, sorting and arranging cargoes, +the sailors were at it constantly, while we must imagine the captain +enmeshed<span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</span> in the ardor of close bookkeeping long after the lantern had +been set up in the stern.</p> + +<p>In all of the record of the proceedings in the Old Bailey there is +nothing said of any one being killed in combat, either with the capture +of ships or the engagement with the Portuguese man-of-war, on either +side.</p> + +<p>And now the captain was content. Save for the complaint of Darby +Mullins that the captain took his share away from him, the crew also +seem to have been satisfied. After the division Kidd let it become +known that he was leaving the way of the law-breaker, and, according to +his own account, ninety-five men thereupon left him, almost in a body. +Incidental attrition later on took more of them, and when at last he +turned the nose of the <i>Quedagh Merchant</i> homeward barely enough +men remained with him to work the ship.</p> + +</div> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</span></p> + +<h3> +IX +</h3> + +<p>Although Kidd arrived at Madagascar in May of 1698 it was not until +the turn of the next year, and probably well into that year before he +set sail on his stolen ship for home. It must have taken him quite a +time to be rid of his merchandise and to pay off his men. After that, +short-handed as he was, he seems to have attempted no recorded piracy.</p> + +<p>It is quite possible that while he still lay in the Mozambique Channel, +Warren and the three benign peace-bearing commissioners came around +the Cape and up the coast, and that before he left those waters he was +acquainted with the character of the royal proclamation. Or it may have +been that it was after his return to New York that Kidd first learned +that he was a marked man.</p> + +<p>In June of 1699, after an absence of a little more than two years, +Captain Kidd arrived in Delaware Bay. But not in the <i>Adventure</i> +and not in the <i>Quedagh Merchant</i>. He came in a little sloop, +with a crew of about thirty-five men on her articles, named the <i>St. +Antonio</i>. What had become of the <i>Quedagh Merchant</i>?</p> + +<p>That ill-fortuned ship was snugly stowed and secreted away in a +solitary creek of the West<span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</span> Indies. There he had hidden her until such +time as he could return and bring her out; that means, until the storm +of which he must have felt the first blowings at the West Indies, if +not at Madagascar, had passed over. He brought back with him of the old +<i>Adventure’s</i> personnel barely one-fourth, probably not more than +twenty-five or thirty men. One man, Hugh Parrot, who came in the <i>St. +Antonio</i> we know from his own account was recruited in Madagascar +and replaced an original adventurer. So it must have been with others.</p> + +<p>Hugh Parrot’s brief autobiography as he gave it to the court may be +glanced here as typical of the sea folk who homed in Madagascar. He +said he “sailed out of Plymouth in the year 1695 in a merchantman, +bound for Cork, in Ireland, there to take in provisions; thence to the +Island of Barbados; and in sight of the island of Barbados I was taken +by a French privateer, and carried to Martinico; and thence coming in +a transport ship I was brought to Barbados; there I shipped myself +in a vessel bound for Newfoundland, and thence to Madeiras; and then +I went to Madagascar, and there I staid some short time after, and +came in company with Captain Kidd; and then the commander and I had a +falling out, and so I went ashore at that island. And understanding +that Captain Kidd had a commission from the king, I came aboard Captain +Kidd’s ship.”</p> + +<p>Romantic words—“I came aboard Captain<span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</span> Kidd’s ship.” How they quicken +the pulse of old, sober-sided fellows such as we are. Suppose we had +sauntered about old New York and had read his appeal for men to go off +to the Indies? Or been in Madagascar and had a “falling-out” with some +blockhead of an old merchant skipper, and seen Kidd and his bully boys +swagger by? Eh?</p> + +<p>Delaware Bay did not detain Kidd long. He slipped the little <i>St. +Antonio</i> out of there and put in at Oyster Bay, from which he now +began the most difficult job of his life,—to rehabilitate himself and +yet come out of it all a rich man.</p> + +<p>He and the remnant of his crew flocked openly about the old town. +Governor Bellamont was off in Boston. And now Kidd began to get the +full blast of his unsought notoriety. He was told that the mother +country and the colonies, yea, even the seven seas were vibrant with +the name of Kidd; that, in the language of that day, he was everywhere +“published a pirate”, for whom there was no day of grace or pardon.</p> + +<p>Quite in the spirit of New York pirates, ancient and modern, he +sought out an adroit lawyer, one Emmott, a man then at the head of +his profession, as the saying is, though that did not mean, any more +than it does now, that he shone by the purity of his principles, the +breadth of his learning, or the transparent propriety of his manners. +Pirates can’t use that kind of lawyer. Seriously, we do not reflect +on Mr. Emmott<span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</span> individually; we know nothing of his morals, and he +was indisputably a leader of his bar, appearing in the most important +litigation of his time. Whatever his character, he engaged himself to +assist the projects of Captain Kidd.</p> + +</div> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</span></p> + +<h3> +X +</h3> + +<p>Boston was having a hot summer. The noble governor was taking the +air, such as there was, with his wig laid off for coolness, and his +decorated coat carelessly open. No doubt he gazed at the dusty road, +the blistered frame buildings and longed for the temperate downs of +Ireland and the fresh, green lawns of his ancestral mansion. How +afflicting that a noble earl should be subjected to heat and cold just +like a wretched porter!</p> + +<p>The entrance of a negro servitor to announce a visitor did not refresh +the excellency. Just then the last man he wanted to see was he whose +name had been brought in. The governor and lawyer Emmott did not get +along together very well. It is not hard to understand the tribulation +of a ruler whose technical knowledge of the art of government was +probably weak, at the hands of a turbulent, sharp and well-informed +colonial attorney,—the intelligent, persistent and irritating +mouthpiece of the perpetual discontent of the colony.</p> + +<p>Whether he would or no, it was Emmott who was without, soliciting +audience. He was ordered admitted. One simply can not turn the Emmotts +away, especially when one is a governor;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</span> somehow such fellows seem +to have an impish art of getting the gubernatorial attention whenever +their cheekiness suggests it to them.</p> + +<p>Imagination may perhaps reconstruct the interesting interview.</p> + +<p>Enters Lawyer Emmott, his bright eye appraising at once the mood of +the man in the seat of authority. But Emmott is not half-saucy now; in +this matter he is not backed by the sturdy burghers and supported by a +law whose exact application he thoroughly knows, while as thoroughly +knowing the glazed ignorance of his opponent. He is now after a private +fee in the service of a private client. His tune, therefore, is +somewhat different.</p> + +<p>With a bow and a most respectful attitude the lawyer carefully unwraps +a package which he has brought with him. From this he seems to take a +ball of snow, which, with a most insinuating smile, he shakes with a +twist of his hand and which before the astonished Bellamont, cascades +over the back of a chair as a shawl of the rarest workmanship and +material.</p> + +<p>“A present for Lady Bellamont,” says Emmott, with another obeisance.</p> + +<p>What can be the fellow’s game now? Bellamont rose and walking across +the room, allowed the shimmering texture to ripple through his fingers.</p> + +<p>“A present for Lady Bellamont—” It is a wonderful thing; Bellamont can +see that.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</span></p> + +<p>Emmott steps up as close as politeness permits and glancing about, +artfully whispers, “From Captain Kidd,” and throws his head back with a +wide smile like a doting parent playing the rôle of Santa Claus.</p> + +<p>“Kidd!” cries the earl. “Kidd!”</p> + +<p>Yes, the old partner of Bellamont, Livingston and Company had turned +up. All sorts of notions chase themselves through the governor’s brain +like hare and hounds, and chiefly he is afraid; he fears this notorious +colleague of his has shown up to be the ruin of them all. Why on earth +didn’t the fellow stay out in the East Indies. To Emmott this is as +plain as the ripple on a smooth pool of water.</p> + +<p>He rubs his hands one over the knuckles of the other and looks all +sorts of meanings.</p> + +<p>“An incredibly prosperous voyage,” he murmurs, “incredibly. A mere +trifle—the captain wishes to send Lady Bellamont something really +worth while.”</p> + +<p>He almost sneers at the magnificent shawl.</p> + +<p>The governor sits down and gazes out over the harbor. Now, it is +probable that if the notorious partner had shown up with nothing but a +story of hard luck, the governor would not have sat down in just the +way he does; but a partner coming back, even with a sooty reputation, +but stuffed with treasure, well, one must think the matter out. There +was one’s original investment in the old <i>Adventure</i> to be +protected, one must remember.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</span></p> + +<p>Emmott continues:</p> + +<p>“The captain feels deeply chagrined to find this unjust hue and cry +made about him. It is a great mistake. He can explain all; and he +suggests that the governor see that this irritating matter of the +piracy charge is disposed of so that they can proceed to an accounting +as all good partners should. Really, he has been absurdly fortunate in +his East Indian enterprise.”</p> + +<p>They talk the thing over indecisively and without committal on either +side, and the outcome of it is that the governor decides that he will +see his errant and erstwhile partner in person. With this decision +Lawyer Emmott backs out of the room and hies back to New York. So far +so good.</p> + +</div> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</span></p> + +<h3> +XI +</h3> + +<p>Before going to Boston to see Bellamont, Kidd did that which has +somehow so caught the imagination of artists and fictionists; he ran +the sloop over to Gardiner’s Island, at the east end of Long Island +Sound and there buried a considerable portion of his money and finer +articles of plunder. Hence arose the great yarn of the pirate’s +buried treasure. Like all the rest of Kidd’s doings this is wildly +exaggerated. What was there was all practically recovered by the +colonial authorities. Yet the myth persisted for centuries.</p> + +<p>A writer who considered himself conservative speaks of Kidd bringing +home twelve thousand pounds. This is a modern computation, but it +does not agree with our figures. With all his scheming the captain’s +subordinates got more than half of the takings, and if Kidd got twelve +thousand pounds it would mean that in all thirty or forty thousand +pounds were gained by those few months’ work in the Indian seas.</p> + +<p>It is all way beyond the facts. Admittedly, the <i>Quedagh Merchant</i> +was the one considerable haul and according to the valuation of the +government at that time, ship and cargo all told were not worth more +than five thousand pounds. A<span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</span> recent writer even represents the +<i>Quedagh Merchant</i> alone as being of the value of thirty thousand +pounds! In the indictment upon which Kidd was tried, that ship is said +to be worth four hundred pounds, which is more like it. The captain did +very well, as we have said, if he came home with a good five thousand +pounds.</p> + +<p>As well as communicating with Bellamont, Kidd put himself in touch with +his other partner, Colonel Livingston, and the colonel became very much +excited over the prospect of cutting a pretty fine little melon. If the +<i>Quedagh Merchant</i>, a respectable and capacious cargo vessel, cost +four hundred pounds, the <i>Adventure</i>, a “crazy and leaky” craft, +really not fit for the patrol work intended for her, could not have +run her owners more than three hundred pounds. Arms and victuals dug +deeply into the original capital, but with it all, the enterprise had +doubtless earned several hundred per cent.</p> + +<p>And if, instead of four or five men sitting in at the division, two or +three, or better one or two shared the pot, why so much the better for +the lucky one or two. That notion occurred to Livingston, to Bellamont +and to Kidd.</p> + +<p>So the captain went on to Boston and some of his men with him.</p> + +<p>Bellamont, in the meantime, had been obliged to call the council +together to discuss the fact that a lawbreaker was at large and +unaccounted for. It was a formality the earl had to observe to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</span> +preserve the pure bloom of his own official reputation. With the power +that was then vested in governors, the council meeting need have been +no great difficulty in the way of an arrangement between friends.</p> + +<p>Just what happened in the interview between Kidd and Bellamont is not +recorded, but they began to dicker. All the pirates were quite at +liberty, making themselves thoroughly at home and with all the air of +honest sailors returned to spend their money and take a respite from +the arduous sea.</p> + +<p>Suddenly the wind changed. Why it so did we can only conjecture. But a +letter from Bellamont is preserved in which he remarks that at about +this time Livingston and Kidd were acting very “impertinently” about +the money and valuables that Kidd had brought home.</p> + +<p>Does “impertinently” mean that Bellamont suspected that his two +partners were conspiring to deprive him of his share? That might well +be. However, it is not fair to insinuate the governor was remiss in +discharging his duties as a magistrate on the skimpy chronicle which +has come down to us. We can say, however, that, so far as we can make +out, he did not act with that decision which the crimes charged against +Kidd would seem to require. This dallying about and questioning, +privately and before the council, permit implications that the governor +may or<span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</span> may not be actually responsible for. The whole affair does not +look regular.</p> + +<p>Then, again, Bellamont, who was sharp enough for most general affairs, +could plan something like this: throw Kidd into jail, thus clearing +himself of the talk of complicity which had been gathering since his +connection with the pirate had become known, send him home to England +for trial, and with him out of the way, attend to the matter of the +loot, against which he could make a claim by virtue of the original +commission to Kidd, supported by the political strength which he and +his noble friends at home could exert.</p> + +<p>Whatever might be the fact, the governor’s equivocal conduct stopped +with the discovery of Livingston and Kidd’s “impertinence” in the +affair of the spoils, and Kidd, with all of his crew who could be +grabbed, were stowed away in Boston jail. Before that happened a +number of his men had slipped across to the Province of Jersey and +surrendered to Colonel Bass, the governor, in the spirit of the +king’s proclamation, within the time therein provided, but to none of +the persons therein particularly named as empowered to receive such +surrenders.</p> + +<p>In December, 1699, the pirates were sent to England in the frigate +<i>Advice</i>, and on May 9, 1701, just about five years after leaving +Plymouth, they went to trial for their lives in the historic Old +Bailey.</p> + +</div> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</span></p> + +<h3> +XII +</h3> + +<p>Captain Kidd and nine of his men arrived in Newgate gaol from the +colony in February of 1700, and lay there for over a year until their +trial. These nine men were those who surrendered to Colonel Bass, +governor of what is now New Jersey. What disposition was made of the +rest of those who came in on the <i>St. Antonio</i> does not appear.</p> + +<p>Kidd’s arrival brought to a focus a sharp and unsparing struggle +between the two great political factions of the day, and the Government +was rocked in its seat by the exposures which were made of Bellamont +and other friends of the administration’s connection with the pirate +who was talked of from Land’s End to John O’Groat’s. During 1700 Kidd +appeared several times before the House of Commons, and a contest was +waged in that forum over his reputed treasure. A measure was introduced +by the opposition providing that the commission to Kidd to take pirates +and keep their effects and plunder should be illegal as void, and was +lost by only a thin majority.</p> + +<p>From this it may be supposed that Bellamont and the partners got hold +of the swag. Not that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</span> it did the noble earl much good, for he died at +about this time. However, the commissioning of the <i>Adventure</i> did +not prove such a gain to the opposition as it hoped, and the matter was +allowed to slide when the House recommended Kidd for common criminal +trial.</p> + +<p>Under modern circumstances, this trial would have been a very close, +keen struggle. The accused would have been able to engage the most +expert counsel, who might be expected to make the prosecution exert +itself in the matter of proving its charges; not an easy thing to do +from some angles.</p> + +<p>There were five trials upon six indictments,—one for the murder of +Gunner Moore and five for acts of piracy. Kidd was alone, of course, in +the trial for murder; on the charges of piracy, he was in the dock with +his nine seamen.</p> + +<p>The murder trial should be carefully noticed, in view of the modern +vogue for exonerating Kidd of all guilty acts in the Indies. Those who +attempt to show that Kidd was “judicially murdered,” as the result of +a political plot carried on by factions opposed to the noble gentlemen +who backed the Kidd enterprise, must prove this murder trial to have +been unfair, for if it were not, then Kidd was liable to the death +penalty regardless of the crimes of piracy.</p> + +<p>To clear himself, Kidd called three of his own men in an effort to +show that he slew Moore as Moore was in the act of leading a mutiny; +in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</span> other words, what we would call justifiable homicide. But his own +witnesses proved that the mutiny concerning the <i>Loyal Captain</i> +occurred from two to four weeks before the death of the gunner—a fact +which in modern law would have sufficed to convict Kidd—there being no +“immediate” emergency, as our statutes would say. No modern court would +upset the verdict of the jury who tried Kidd for murder, on the ground +that it was not supported by the evidence.</p> + +<p>With the bewhiskered seafarers in the dock before him, the clerk of +arraignments of the Old Bailey arose and hurled eighty clauses at the +accused, eighty or more clauses, with no longer pause between them than +a semicolon. It may be submitted that this is no fair way to come at +a man whose method of combat is entirely different; who thrusts, for +instance, with a cutlass instead of a verb; hurls round-shot in place +of mere nouns, with a wooden bucket, say, for purposes of punctuation. +A fine fellow this clerk of arraignments with his wig and gown and +fat, subservient bailiffs about him! But put him on the tipsy decks of +the <i>Adventure</i>, and, mark’ee, that would be another story. So, +perhaps, the captain thought, as he stood up before this broadside of +words.</p> + +<p>If English justice is swift in these days, it must have been greased +lightning in the days of William III. Half an hour after the grand jury +met and returned the indictments, Kidd went to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</span> trial before the petit +jury, and three days sufficed for all five indictments.</p> + +<p>A battery of prosecutors shelled the accused. The crown was represented +by Mr. Knapp, Dr. Newton, Advocate of the Admiralty; Sir John Hawles, +Sir Salathiel Lovell, Recorder; the Solicitor General and the Attorney +General. On the bench, sometimes ably assisting the prosecution, were +Baron Gould, Baron Hatsell; Justice Turton, Justice Powel and Chief +Baron Ward, who divided the job of presiding in groups of judges.</p> + +<p>Now, in those days one accused of crime was not allowed the assistance +of counsel on matters of fact. On a pure question of law he was +permitted to consult a lawyer. This was just the opposite of what, +according to a more enlightened jurisprudence, it should have been. +Perhaps the extraordinary importance of the real science of evidence +had not occurred to our forefathers. Great injustice was the result +of thus handicapping a defendant. Kidd and his nine colleagues had to +carry the big job of defense unadvised.</p> + +<p>The state used just two witnesses, Palmer and Bradinham, both old Kidd +men who were turned king’s evidence. Palmer had been a common seaman on +the <i>Adventure</i> and was called by Kidd a “loggerhead”; Bradinham +had been surgeon aboard, and was accused by Kidd of being a lazy, +thieving, perjured rascal. Every man was running<span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</span> for his own neck +then, and no one could afford to be too particular as to how he saved +it.</p> + +<p>All of the piracies we have set down, as well as the murder of Moore, +came from the evidence of Palmer and Bradinham, somewhat corroborated +by the expressions of the nine sailors who were not delicate to save +their commander in this pinch.</p> + +<p>No time was lost in getting a jury. When Kidd objected to being tried +by those who had convicted him of the murder of William Moore, on his +other trials for piracy, they were cleared out of the box and another +jury promptly put in. It all went at a gallop. The jury in the murder +case brought in their verdict while the first trial for piracy was +in process; it took half an hour each for the jury to render their +verdict on the piracy indictments. The lengthy speeches of the learned +gentlemen for the Crown took up as much time as anything, with the +summing-up by the judges a good second.</p> + +<p>It must have been a great day for Cogi Baba, the Armenian, and one of +the owners of the <i>Quedagh Merchant</i>, who appeared in London at +this time to push the punishment of his despoiler. Yet he was not used +at the trials,—a noteworthy omission.</p> + +<p>Palmer and Bradinham were subjected to no cross-examination save that +of Kidd. They were somewhat mixed up on their dates and the captain<span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</span> +made the most of this, but on the whole his questioning must be +regarded as quibbling.</p> + +<p>Things looked dark for Kidd and his defense did not cast very much +light upon the situation.</p> + +</div> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</span></p> + +<h3> +XIII +</h3> + +<p>Kidd’s defense may be pieced together from his own words as they +appeared, not as an orderly presentation of his position, but as +comments upon the answers of the witnesses and interjected explanations +during the proceedings. It was not without ingenuity.</p> + +<p>“I had a commission,” he said in effect, “to take the French and +pirates; and in order to do that I came up with two ships that had +French passes both of them. I called all the men a-deck to consult, +and a great many went aboard the <i>Quedagh Merchant</i>. I would have +given that ship to Cogi Baba again, but the men would not; they all +voted against it. They said, we will make a prize of her; we will carry +her to Madagascar. Palmer and Bradinham have heard me speak of the +French passes taken from the ships. The <i>Quedagh Merchant</i> was +under a French commission. Her master was a tavern-keeper at Surat. I +was not at the sharing of the goods taken from her; I know nothing of +it.</p> + +<p>“I did not take Culliford because a great many of my men went ashore; +the statement that I gave him guns and presents is only what these +witnesses say. I was not aboard Culliford’s ship.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</span> I have some papers, +but my lord Bellamont keeps them from me; that I can not bring them +before the court. I never designed to keep more company with Captain +Culliford than with Captain Warren. I have many papers for my defense +if I could have had them; my French passes which my lord Bellamont has. +I could not condemn the ships according to law because of the mutiny in +my ship. Bradinham is a rogue; he shared in the goods and robbed the +surgeon’s chest. He knows nothing of these things; he used to sleep +five or six months together in the hold.</p> + +<p>“The men took the goods of all the ships taken, and did what they +pleased with them. I was never near them. They lay in wait for me to +kill me. They took away what they pleased and went to the island; +and I, with about forty men, was left in the ship and we might go +whither we pleased. I will not ask the witness any more questions; so +long as he swears it our words or oaths can not be taken. Palmer is +a loggerhead. Ninety-five men deserted my ship, and went a-roguing +afterwards.</p> + +<p>“I was threatened to be shot in the cabin if I would not go along +with the villains. This was the reason I could not come home. They +tried to burn my ship. When they deserted, I was forced to stay by +myself and pick up here a man and there a man to carry her home. Mr. +Bradinham is promised his life to take away mine. It is hard that a +couple of rascals should take away the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</span> king’s subjects’ lives; they +are a couple of rogues and rascals. It signifies nothing for me to ask +them anything. They have perjured themselves in many things; about the +guns given to Culliford, that is one thing; he swore I gave them four +guns yesterday, now he says but two. Then he says the ship went from +Plymouth the beginning of May and before he said it was in April. I +have been sworn against by perjured and wicked people.”</p> + +<p>By way of defense to the murder charge, he alleged that there was a +mutiny on board, of which Moore was a leader, and the trouble ensued +from that fact. He is borne out in this to some extent by Hugh Parrot, +not a friendly witness, who averred that the seamen had taken up arms +against their captain in the <i>Loyal Captain</i> crisis.</p> + +<p>He called a couple of old salts as character witnesses who had fought +by his side against the French and who testified that he had been a +doughty man.</p> + +<p>As for the nine common seamen, their geese were more quickly cooked. +They only defended by pleading that they had surrendered under the +king’s proclamation, to which the judges replied that inasmuch as +they had not given themselves up to Captain Warren, or any of the +three special commissioners, they were not within the terms of the +instrument, and could only hope their surrender might at this time +provoke the king’s clemency. Which was but dubious cheer. Three<span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</span> of +them showed they were on board as servants of particular persons and +not as sailors working the ship, and these were cleared.</p> + +<p>After very short absences the juries at each trial returned verdicts of +guilty as charged against all except the three servants.</p> + +<p>Thus the Captain Kidd of fiction disappears, but not so completely as +those who would have us believe that he was not guilty of piracy at +all. His defense suggests a state of things on board his ships which +is probably true, but the advantage he might have gained from such a +showing is weakened by several circumstances.</p> + +<p>The state could have conceded his claim that the ships he took were +under French commissions, and they had French passes which were then +in the possession of Earl Bellamont in New York. It might even have +granted that under the compulsion of his crew he was prevented from +bringing them in for condemnation, as required by his commission. +Still, the significant thing would remain that he made no attempt to +account for his share of the cargoes, which he did not unequivocally +deny receiving.</p> + +<p>His commission to take pirates required a careful and exact account of +every ship captured, her cargo, its value and all other details, to say +nothing of French ships, whose condemnation was lifted entirely out +of his hands. He did not attempt to explain all these irregularities. +We are considering strictly the matter adduced on his<span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</span> trial. When +we go beyond the record of that, and see, as we have, his conduct on +his return home, it is clear as daylight that he was exercising over +the property taken from the alleged French ships a private ownership +entirely incompatible with this defense.</p> + +<p>If the <i>Quedagh Merchant</i> was under a French pass, as he asserted, +then that portion of her cargo which he brought to Oyster Bay in the +<i>St. Antonio</i> was neither his nor Bellamont’s, nor Livingston’s, +but the Government’s. No, the thing doesn’t seem to hold water; nobody +concerned in the whole affair seems to have been straightforward.</p> + +<p>And so, within a week of his conviction, Captain William Kidd was +hanged at Execution Dock, on the margin of the Thames, where sailors +setting out for the far places of the earth thus received England’s +farewell admonition that honesty is the best policy.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</span></p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +</div> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</span></p> + +<h2> +<a id="CHAPTER_TWO"></a>CHAPTER TWO</h2> +<p class="center"> +BLACK FLAG FROM BOSTON</p> +<p class="center"> +John Quelch</p> +<h3> +I</h3> + + + +<p>Captain Plowman, of the brig <i>Charles</i>, was looking for men, not +just for beef at the end of a rope nor a stevedore’s back; for sailors, +certainly, but something more than sailors—sea-fighters. For a fact, +this sort of thing was a little outside the usual jobs of both Captain +Plowman and his smart little brig. The brig and her master worked +in coastwise trading with an occasional venture to the markets of +London. But a civic emergency occasioned by the depredations of French +and Spanish war vessels and privateers, long vexing the New England +provinces, put a commission instead of a charter party into the hands +of Captain Plowman and cutlasses, cannon and round shot in place of +goods, wares and merchandise into the hold and on the decks of the +<i>Charles</i>.</p> + +<p>For certain worthy merchants of Boston, indignant at the reprehensible +Frenchman and his obnoxious ally and impatient with the slow<span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</span> +incompetence of the Government, clubbed together and bought the +<i>Charles</i> to refit her as a privateer to go against the enemy. +It was a recognized method of taking the law into one’s own hands. +It must not be thought that this was altogether a sacrifice, motived +by the pure principles of patriotism. There was a working chance of +shaking something worth while out of a captured Frenchman from which +at least current expenses might be paid; but in the main it was a +public-spirited thought and should properly have resulted in much +happier and more useful action than the peculiar and unforeseeable +circumstances which were to allow.</p> + +<p>Having the ship, the merchants then procured from Joseph Dudley, her +majesty’s captain general, governor and commander-in-chief of the +province, a lawful commission for Captain Plowman, under and by virtue +of which, as the saying was, he set about the business of recruiting +the crew. But Plowman was getting along in years and was at that time +a pretty sick man. So the business of beating up the sea birds was +for the most part done by the mates, or “lieutenants”, as they were +called, taking a sort of man-of-war nomenclature, namely John Quelch +and Anthony Holding.</p> + +<p>John Quelch was an eager, vigorous, adventurous and able young colonial +mariner with not a few of the superb qualities of those who were the +proper pride of a maritime province. Like<span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</span> the men of his type and +condition, he was quite unafraid of anything that could present itself +to one’s five senses. When at a later time he said he was not afraid +to die and feared only a great God and the hereafter, he was doubtless +telling the truth. What spoiled the life of John Quelch was that he did +not take these two factors of admitted fear into reckoning until the +evil was past mending.</p> + +<p>However that may be, the immediate weakness of Quelch was that his mind +was a rudder that any hand might steer. Anthony Holding, quite evil, +sly and contemptible, designed to be the helmsman who should drive John +Quelch on to the rocks of ruin.</p> + +<p>Holding and Quelch in due time gathered as ferocious and +villainous-looking a gang of ruffians as ever stood on the docks of +old Boston. Their subsequent conduct indicates that they must have +been about the toughest, hardest crew that an honest master ever +piped together for division into watches. If Plowman, gazing from the +quarter-deck upon that rabble, felt a premonition of trouble, the event +was to justify him.</p> + +<p>But those were not days in which the master of a privateer could +be squeamish about such matters and get his ship manned. The +<i>Charles</i> would have rotted at her moorings while she waited for +good burghers or the sons of good burghers to come and take her to sea. +Mostly the driftwood of society, which instinctively dams<span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</span> up along a +waterfront, could be loaded on to such ships in such times. Anthony +Holding, at any rate, pulled at his long mustache and appraised the +crowd with satisfaction.</p> + +<p>Sea-fighters were all right if you could keep them fighting the other +ship. With a hostile craft in front of them there was no trouble +about putting the medley of privateersmen at work, and a ship which +could provide a good naval battle every morning before breakfast was +more likely to be a contented ship than one which loafed a long while +between engagements, thus allowing the free gentlemen time to hatch +for themselves a little essential excitement. Mutiny was accepted as a +passable substitute for battle.</p> + +<p>Perhaps Plowman felt more comfortable when he glanced at the rocky +features of Quelch and Holding; for if ever there were two men in the +right jobs such were they. With iron hands and iron nerves to drive +them they could meet any contingency the crowd of subordinates might +present. Perhaps Plowman was of the same sort, but he was a sick and +aging man. He was in the hands of his lieutenants.</p> + +<p>Englishmen of the first or second generation made up the list of +seamen; Cæsar-Pompey, Charlie and Mingo, first or second generation +Africans, were in command of the galley. Cæsar-Pompey and Charlie were +pressed into the service; they had not volunteered to handle the pots +and pans of the brig.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</span></p> + +<p>They were the slaves of one Colonel Hobbey; and Quelch, finding them on +the street, ran them aboard the brig. You see he did not hesitate about +small matters. The ship would need cooks, of course, and here were two +black fellows who ought to know how to cook even if they did not, so +why not ship them? Why worry about the gallant colonel? Worry would be +his job when the <i>Charles</i> was far at sea.</p> + +<p>Thus casually Cæsar-Pompey and Charlie found themselves dedicated to +a life on the ocean wave. They were to travel far and see much ere +they beheld the good Colonel Hobbey again. Quelch was by way of being +something of a crimp.</p> + +<p>Cooks and seamen being now on hand, in August, 1703, the brig spread +her square sails and drew away from the steaming wharves of Boston +toward the cool acres of the ocean. No doubt the worthy merchants and +a concourse of citizens cheered her departure; probably there were +speeches, and mayhap a town band was on the dock. Anthony Holding +especially must have enjoyed these marks of civic appreciation.</p> + +<p>According to orders they headed off for Newfoundland; but Plowman, who +was still sick, must have left the managing of the ship largely to +Quelch, his immediate subordinate. Everything went snappily as with +leather throats and fisted hands Quelch and Holding hustled the men +into quick, effective action.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</span></p> + +<p>When they had been a week out from Boston it was easy to see that the +captain was in a bad way. Probably at his command they put in at a way +port to obtain medical help. The brig was anchored in the stream, and +Quelch went ashore in the boat.</p> + +<p>Now among the riffraff aboard there was a handful—a small handful—of +the more decent sort of seamen, of whom Pimer and Clifford were +representatives. These two began to get anxious about the captain as +the afternoon dragged on and no boat, Quelch or doctor returned from +the shore. The sick man was groaning all the time and in apparent +extremes. Nobody seemed to pay any heed to him; but all afternoon the +crew roared and shouted and quarreled over their cards and dice, while +aft by the cabin only Holding turned about and about on the deck, his +hands behind his back, preoccupied with his thoughts.</p> + +<p>It began to strike Pimer and Clifford as odd, to say the least; so +toward evening, as the August sun was turning red behind the hills, +Pimer and Clifford went to the cabin to give a little human help. As +they passed Holding, walking up and down the deck, he looked at them +queerly but said nothing.</p> + +<p>Clearly, things were not just as they ought to be. In the twilight, +startlingly, a rough tongue ordered them away from the cabin. A +sentinel was there; Peter Roach stood guard at the captain’s<span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</span> door, +armed with a drawn cutlass. Had the skipper directed this?</p> + +<p>Then they noticed that the cabin door was bolted from the outside with +a marlin-spike thrust through the bolt socket, the bolt itself having +long been lost. Obviously this was not the captain’s doing.</p> + +<p>Pimer and Clifford looked at each other as men do in peril. Something +very evil was moving about them. At dark Quelch came back in the boat, +and there was a whispering between him and Holding. The ship lights +were hung out; and the lantern revealed something of the knobbly, +stupid face of Peter Roach, still standing at his sinister watch. No +one moved toward the ill-fortuned cabin.</p> + +<p>Peter Roach, the sentinel, could not be said to have been a peculiarly +sensitive person. Some time later he was to die with as little feeling +for himself as he had had for poor Plowman. He was an automaton.</p> + +<p>And so this crowd of men lay all about the hot decks, waiting for the +captain to die. Those were hard hours for Clifford and Pimer and the +one or two other loyal men.</p> + +<p>A little before midnight the cries of the sufferer ebbed away, and +Peter Roach stolidly left his post and as stolidly grunted a few words +at Holding. He and Quelch, taking a lantern, entered the cabin and +found that nature had at last<span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</span> done their job for them: Captain Plowman +was dead.</p> + +<p>Captain Quelch, now, if you please, by the law and usage of the sea.</p> + +<p>Anthony Holding bobbed his tarry pigtail low in grimacing +courtesy—place was little to him, power everything. And he was the +power on this ship. He ordered the captain’s body thrown overboard like +so much rubbish. Then he called all hands together in the waist of the +brig and openly declared that which undoubtedly he had long secretly +prepared for,—piracy. The proposal was acclaimed with a unanimity +which indicated premeditation.</p> + +<p>It was no time for Pimer or Clifford to talk, though manfully they made +an effort at protest with no result but to endanger their own safety. +That they were not tossed over the side at once is a marvel. The only +question that agitated this bandit conference was where to pirate, one +suggesting this field and another that. Somebody, probably Holding, +persuaded them that Brazil, then a colony of Portugal, and the South +American coast gave the most promise of gain.</p> + +<p>This policy and its execution were really masterly. They must have +been the products of careful pondering based upon information more +or less exact. Consider it geographically. From Cape San Augustine, +where Brazil thrusts its elbow into the Atlantic Ocean, away down to +Rio de Janeiro is one long, continuous coast line, well<span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</span> populated +even in the early eighteenth century with numerous ports of small +and great importance. Starting then at the cape, a pirate need only +drop continually down the latitudes, pausing as occasion suggested to +pick up prizes, never staying in a vicinity or returning to it to be +captured. At Rio, where the cruise was to be finished, swing out far +from the coast and make a bee line for home. It was an able plan and +strong because so simple.</p> + +<p>Holding, or whoever the proponent of the South American cruise might +have been, had without question made a close study of the methods of +Captain Kidd, hanged some two years before in London. The parallel +between the Kidd and Quelch piracies is so exact as to be more than +coincidental. Both perverted the use of a commissioned ship; both +journeyed thousands of miles to their fields of operation; both +sought to make one quick, strong strike at fortune and return to +respectability.</p> + +<p>Neither Kidd nor Quelch had a notion of being conventional pirates, +that is, of infesting some given locality and preying on passing +traffic, spending their gains riotously and expecting not to leave the +business except perhaps unluckily by way of the king’s rope. Kidd had +made a fortune which was the talk of the colony; and the incident that +he was hanged for it only proved his subsequent mismanagement and did +not impugn his actual methods of pirating.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</span></p> + +<p>Again, pirates of the type of Kidd and Quelch were attracted by a +combination of two favoring factors,—a good sea traffic and a weak +land government. In Kidd’s case the flourishing Indian commerce was +not completely protected by the decaying Mogul Government, while in +Quelch’s case the merchants of the east coast of South America were +considerably ahead of any authority which could guarantee them a +peaceful development.</p> + +<p>In the middle of November, or just a little more than three months +after leaving Boston, the <i>Charles</i>, having reeled off three +thousand miles of journeying, arrived in the seventh degree, south +latitude, off the bold beak of Cape St. Augustine, and hungrily +searched the sea for prey.</p> + +<p>Quelch was under English colors, and at the ports hereabouts where +he made his first stops he gave out that he was cruising against the +French and Spanish. That kind of talk kept things clear on shore.</p> + +<p>With Quelch was one John Twist, who was either recruited in the +neighborhood of St. Augustine or came originally from Boston. +John was the ship’s “linguister”, as the quaint old word was—the +interpreter—and he was what army men might call the officer of liaison +between the New Englanders and the Portuguese. He was also the pilot +in the Brazilian waters, but died before the <i>Charles</i> went home, +though apparently<span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</span> not until he had brought her to her extreme southern +objective, Rio de Janeiro.</p> + +<p>On November fifteenth, after leaving the cape and working slowly +southward, a little Portuguese fishing boat was stopped by the pirates +as she was slipping into port, and her cargo of fish and salt was +quickly tossed over the bulwarks of the <i>Charles</i>. Fish and salt +do not make any great treasure; in fact, this particular fish and +salt were worth about three pounds to Quelch. But it was a little +preliminary workout.</p> + +<p>Three days later the brig was opposite Pernambuco, where she coolly +picked up a small Portuguese vessel of fifteen tons right from under +the eyes of the townsfolk. She was stuffed with sugar and molasses to +the value of one hundred and fifty pounds. In the modern worth of the +pound this would be about six hundred and seventy-five dollars; but it +must be noted, of course, that that amount of silver would buy a great +deal more in those times than in these.</p> + +<p>John Twist persuaded two white men and one negro of the crew of five to +sign up with the pirates. Quelch no doubt had the same experience that +Kidd had with his original crew; there was a continual attrition by +disease or desertion, and the man-power had to be kept up by recruiting +so far as possible from captured ships.</p> + +<p>Those who did not care to join up with the <i>Charles</i> were returned +to their boats in most cases and permitted to pass on their way. It +was quite<span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</span> unnecessary for the pirates to kill such as refused to go +along with them, for by the time they got back to port and had a chase +organized, the <i>Charles</i> would be well ahead of them to the south.</p> + +<p>The fifteen-ton brig with the sugar and molasses aboard was kept by +Quelch and made a “tender”, as he called it, of the <i>Charles</i>, and +thus created a sort of fleet, with the Boston brig as flagship and John +Quelch as admiral.</p> + +<p>Latitudes seven and eight degrees south had yielded two victims; +November twenty-fourth found them in latitude nine degrees south, and +tumbling well around the elbow of Brazil, but still in the vicinity of +Cape St. Augustine.</p> + +<p>Below the cape they took another Portuguese brig, this time of forty +tons. She was on her way from the plantations to Pernambuco, laden +with about eight hundred dollars’ worth of sugar and molasses. We are +vividly reminded of Kidd’s first catches, which so often consisted of +small sloops carrying butter, coffee and opium.</p> + +<p>A cool piece of work was the taking of this ship, impudently +accomplished well within sight of land. Quelch, with John Twist, the +linguister, at his side, led in the capture, which was made without +resistance on the part of the Portuguese. It took two or three days to +shift her cargo to the <i>Charles</i>, after which she was tossed away +like a squeezed lemon to get back to port as best she might. Through +Twist Quelch informed these Portuguese that the <i>Charles</i> was a +French ship<span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</span> and that the Portuguese, as allies of the English, had +fallen on the sad mischances of war. Another trick out of Kidd’s bag.</p> + +<p>Isaac Johnson, a Dutchman, committed the chief crime on a pirate ship: +he talked too much. Somehow or other he told the Portuguese the truth +about Quelch. Gunner Moore had met his end at the hands of Captain Kidd +because of a fatal flexibility of the lips, and Ike Johnson likewise, +though not so severely, was made an example of by the decisive Quelch.</p> + +<p>All hands were piped on deck,—not with a boatswain’s whistle, however, +but by a trumpet loudly sounded by the kidnapped though apparently not +disconsolate Cæsar-Pompey, who to the job of cook added that of ship’s +trumpeter. Johnson was brought forward and tied by the wrists to a +grating; and Anthony Holding, with malice aforethought and continuous, +laid on Ike’s bare back with a rope’s end, and thus counseled him as to +the wisdom of silence. It was an approved sea fashion of admonition.</p> + +<p>December brought them to latitude thirteen degrees south and early +presented them with two jars of rum, a little linen and a trifle of +earthenware filched from a shallop. This was the smallest sprat that +came to their net during the cruise. She was taken by the tender, and, +being despoiled, was sent on her way.</p> + +<p>The same day the tender took another small Portuguese boat. Both of +these takings were<span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</span> right under the guns of Fort Mora, so close that +the flag flying over the fort was clearly discerned. Being a little too +close to the fort to run needless risk, Quelch staved in the captured +boat and let her gurgle and bubble down into the green Atlantic. Her +crew went aboard the <i>Charles</i>, perhaps as recruits.</p> + +<p>From her they took a quantity of vari-colored silk; and soon the crew +of the <i>Charles</i> were gallant and picturesque in silk breeches and +shirts,—of homemade cut and tailoring, to be sure, but none the less +gratifying to the wearers.</p> + +<p>The next capture was in latitude thirteen degrees south and below Mora. +The busy little tender here grabbed a twenty-ton brig, from which an +inconsiderable amount of rice and a negro slave were taken. The negro’s +name was Joachim; but his captors dubbed him Cuffee and turned him over +to Cæsar-Pompey as a flunky. In addition to these there was a young man +on board with a canvas bag containing two hundred and fifty dollars in +gold coin. The young man was allowed to keep the canvas bag.</p> + +<p>After the fashion of the trade, the pirate crew were working on the +share basis; that is, after deducting for general expenses, a major +part went to Quelch—and of course Holding—and minor parts of the +plunder were distributed head for head. All cash taken was put in +the keeping of the quartermaster to accumulate for future division; +merchandise such as sugar and so on<span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</span> was probably marketed at way ports +and the proceeds put into the treasury, after the manner again of Kidd +in the East Indies.</p> + +<p>Cuffee, the flunky, not being divisible, was auctioned off at the mast +to the highest bidder, who happened to be one Ben Perkins. The price +was thrown into the common pot. Cuffee’s sale brought a hundred dollars +to the cash account.</p> + +</div> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</span></p> + +<h3> +II</h3> + + +<p>An uneventful run of ten degrees brought the <i>Charles</i> and her +tender to the twenty-third degree of latitude and the Christmas season +of the year. Pretty far south they were by this time. Another of those +innumerable little Portuguese brigs here fell into their maw. Although +only twenty-five tons burden, her cargo was worth a couple of hundred +pounds.</p> + +<p>They were off Grande Island at the time, and beating along close to the +shore. Rounding the headland, they saw the settlement of Grande Island +before them, with a brig or two at anchor in the bay. Upon this Quelch +left his flagship and went over to the tender and imprudently struck +off for one of these moored brigs.</p> + +<p>As the tender got closer, those aboard saw a boat put hurriedly +off from the Portuguese brig and make for the town. Apparently the +natives had suspected the oncoming tender as promising them no good +fortune. Quelch and his men must have grinned at this easy capture, and +doubtless wondered why the deserting crew did not scuttle their ship +rather than leave her to fall into the hands of this unknown enemy.</p> + +<p>Quelch was drawing nigh to his prey when to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</span> his surprise a large, red, +stolid face rose, like an early sun, above the bulwarks. One man had +evidently remained as a reception committee, and he certainly not a +Portuguese.</p> + +<p>He claimed to be a Dutchman when the pirates had flocked over the side +of his ship and clustered about him, brilliant with their new silk +breeches and formidable with an assortment of cutlasses and pistols.</p> + +<p>This unconcerned Dutchman seems to have been far from temperamental, +and entirely unacquainted with nervousness. He casually spat over the +side and asked who they were that thus jumped a fellow’s ship. He had +no trouble finding folk among the pirates who could palaver enough +Dutch to get along with. He added that there was a pretty good gain in +the ship,—sugar to the value of one hundred and fifty pounds and gold +and silver and Portuguese coins worth about fifty more. It was not his +property.</p> + +<p>He lolled against the mast, watching with dull eye the transfer of +the sugar from the Portuguese to the <i>Charles</i>, drawn in closer +for that purpose. He noted without a flicker of expression the fine +silk breeches of these sailors, and gazed ponderingly down at his own +garments of canvas. Silk breeches, eh? He strolled slowly up and down +the deck in the hard labor of reflection.</p> + +<p>Silk breeches did it. With the last boatload of cargo went the +Dutchman. He was made to feel right at home, Quelch seeing his value as +a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</span> pilot, an interpreter and an extraordinarily cool hand.</p> + +<p>The <i>Charles</i> and her tender put out to sea, leaving the little +town of Grande Island provender for ten years’ wonder. The Dutch +recruit had many talks with the men. And all the time he was thinking +the new situation through.</p> + +<p>He desired to come right down to a definite business basis. He +appraised carefully the accumulated plunder and learned of the money +holdings of the quartermaster. It would do very well; he too would +have a pair of silk breeches. He put in his claim for a full share of +everything, past, present and to come.</p> + +<p>This demand became the talk of the ships. It grew and grew until it +split the harmony of the floating community. At last in a deserted +inlet, where the woods ran darkly down to a silver beach, the whole +affair was threshed out.</p> + +<p>All hands were trumpeted up by him of the ponderous antique titles. +The Dutchman stolidly and unmistakably stated his terms. Some spoke in +favor of them, others against; and at last a vote for and against was +taken. The majority determined that the Dutchman was not entitled to a +full share.</p> + +<p>He turned a quid of tobacco about in his hairy cheek and gazed up at +the sky. He had a trump card to play, and a very firm nerve to cast it. +He said his conditions would be met or he would inform against them +all. Just whom he would<span class="pagenum" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</span> inform is not apparent; nor is it clear what +damage an informer could do to people who robbed right under the guns +of forts, and took ships from their anchor within a stone’s throw of +town.</p> + +<p>This Dutchman was either excessively stupid or a man of extraordinary +courage. As a sailor he must have seen that the kind of folk he was +dealing with were neither timid nor tender; never in all his sea-going +years had he looked right in the eyes of just so hard an aggregation as +he did then. Yet he stands there quite alone and backs up his claim not +by prayer but by threat. It is one of the most curious incidents of the +sea.</p> + +<p>Of course, a chap like this must be put out of the way. Methods and +means were discussed at this same meeting, and once again a vote was +taken—this time as to what they should do with the Dutchman. The +majority decreed that he should be marooned then and here.</p> + +<p>Mr. Dutchman was ordered over the side and into the boat. <a href="#anchor_to_pg_97">He was rowed +ashore and left with a gun, some powder and shot.</a> He gazed stolidly at +the departing boat, his hands deep in his canvas pockets, the twist +of tobacco turning around in his cheek. Fair enough; if they couldn’t +accept a business proposition, why, he couldn’t do business with them, +and that was all there was to it.</p> + +<p>Perhaps a lucky man at that. He didn’t get a pair of silk breeches, but +neither did he get a hemp necktie.</p> + +</div> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</span></p> + +<h3> +III</h3> + + +<p>Two miles offshore, a short time out of Spirito Sanctu, and making good +way for Rio de Janeiro, her destination, a Portuguese brigantine of +fair size and speed was destined to be the choicest prize a gang of New +England pirates were to pick up within a thousand-mile cruise. She was +to Quelch what the <i>Quedagh Merchant</i> had been to Captain Kidd, +the crown and climax of his piratical career.</p> + +<p>Everything aboard that brigantine was as merry as a wedding bell, +as the old saying goes. Besides the crew she had two beautiful and +charming passengers, ladies of local importance journeying to Rio on +any one of the many errands which attract ladies to the neighboring +centers of fashion, whether in France, the East Indies or upon the +coast of Brazil. One may imagine how pleasantly the balmy evenings sped +away with song and music and the inevitable dance.</p> + +<p>And down those watery ways were drawing nigh a brig and tender manned +by foreigners, who, could they have visioned the contents of the +Portuguese treasure-chest, would have been beside themselves with +anticipation.</p> + +<p>It was all so easy. The boat of the <i>Charles</i><span class="pagenum" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</span> with ten men pulled +over to the Portuguese when they had brought him to a stop. Probably +the Portuguese had no idea he was being pirated; he may even have +tossed a rope ladder over the bulwarks to assist his enemies aboard.</p> + +<p>Over the sides of the pirate ships lounged the New Englanders, casually +watching the progress of the robbery. They speculated that here was +probably another load of sugar and molasses and coffee. Another dreary +job of stevedoring was promised. After all, this pirate business was +pretty slow work; meanly paid drudgery it had been for the most part, +certainly not worth risking a fellow’s neck.</p> + +<p>Somebody wigwagged vehemently from the Portuguese. Quelch dropped into +the tender’s boat to investigate. There were no sounds of fighting; no +clamor of struggle; but something material was going on.</p> + +<p>He climbed the side of the Portuguese without meeting resistance, was +seen to walk about her deck in a deliberate way, then came back over +the side and got into his boat, carrying, however, two sacks heavy +enough to bring out the cords of his forearms.</p> + +<p>In each of those sacks were fifty pounds’ weight of gold dust!</p> + +<p>Frenzy flamed from the <i>Charles</i> to the tender. Men leaped and +danced and shouted; and the round, thick rum jar passed merrily from +hand to hand. Their fortunes were made!</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</span></p> + +<p>Yo-ho-ho, for a pirate’s life!</p> + +<p>So good-natured were the sea bandits that they treated the two +Portuguese ladies with urbane consideration and the despoiled crew with +tolerance. They kept them all on the <i>Charles</i> that night, and +with the coming of morning restored them to their ship and bade them be +off.</p> + +<p>Three days later the quartermaster, the carpenter and the captain, +composing a committee on division of profits, ordered a pair of scales +set up on the quarter-deck, from which each man had weighed out to him +his share of the fascinating dust. Added to that was a neat little +bonus of good, hard-ringing Portuguese gold coins, forty-five hundred +dollars’ worth of which were gathered in from this very profitable find.</p> + +<p>Rich with the plucking of the gold bird, the <i>Charles</i> and her +tender ran rapidly from the stage and stopped nowhere until they were +abreast the south end of the Brazilian coast and in the vicinity of Rio +de Janeiro.</p> + +<p>Quelch was about ready to call it a day. The big scoop had been made, +and by this time the coast must have been getting a little warm +for him. The alarm was certainly raised; for in the last ship he +attacked—a Portuguese two-hundred-tonner carrying hides and other +merchandise—he met with his first real fight. This ship did not stop +at Quelch’s summoning round shot but crowded on sail and made haste +to get away, thus showing that Captain Bastian, her master,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</span> had had +warning of the character of the New England brig and her tender.</p> + +<p>After chasing her for two days the pirates pulled up with her, and the +Portuguese, after a sharp trading of shot, gave in. When the pirates +gained her deck there was some altercation with Captain Bastian, who +was shot down and his body heaved overboard. In the reminiscence of +this incident there were several of the rascals who claimed the honor +of shooting Bastian, but after a quarrel which nearly came to fighting, +Cooper Scudamore—a minor ringleader, it seems—was conceded to be the +hero of that black job.</p> + +<p>The captors took off hides, tallow and beef and then left the +Portuguese. They were ready for home now, and the little tender which +had journeyed a thousand miles with them was dismantled and set adrift +to float upon some Brazilian beach. The <i>Charles</i> swung round and +drove northward for Boston, home and—not mother. The end of February, +1704, was when they struck off from the Rio Region, concluding just +about three months of active piracy, perhaps three and a half.</p> + +<p>It surely looked reckless for Quelch to come back to Boston with the +good merchants’ brig and with no trophies in his hold of England’s +enemies but shamefully of England’s ally, Portugal. It was as reckless +as it looked; but mere recklessness never bothered John Quelch.</p> + +<p>Perhaps the yarn that Anthony Holding and he had spun together gave him +a confidence that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</span> he would not otherwise have had. It was a plausible +thing. All hands were to say that Captain Plowman had died naturally, +true only in part; that thereafter while cruising for Frenchmen +according to Plowman’s commission, now executed by Quelch, they beat +down as far as Brazil way.</p> + +<p>Here they met with coast Indians who told them that a rich Portuguese +brig had been recently wrecked in those parts, from which the Indians +had obtained great treasure, of which the gold dust and doubloons on +the <i>Charles</i> were a part, having been given to Quelch and his men +by the pleasant natives, who had little notion of the worth of those +things.</p> + +<p>There was more than a good chance that the gang could have got away +with this story. Nobody could have checked them up, and the incident +in itself was not so utterly improbable; a circumstance like that +<i>might</i> happen in those far-off seas.</p> + +<p>The trouble for Quelch was that he carried informers with him all the +time and brought them back with him to Boston. Pimer and Clifford and +the one or two other loyal men were only waiting their time. And Quelch +knew it.</p> + +<p>Off the Bermudas, coming home, Quelch called for a journal Pimer was +known to be keeping and tore from it five or six leaves containing +a record of the various piracies from St. Augustine to Rio. Quelch +probably calculated that fear<span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</span> for their own safety would keep all +hands quiet when they reached Boston.</p> + +<p>He was wrong. The <i>Charles</i> was not long docked after her +far-flung cruise when Quelch and a number of the seamen were arrested +and the ship appropriated. There can be little question that Pimer and +Clifford or one of them hurried to the governor and informed.</p> + +<p>The jig was up. Anthony Holding, the evil genius of the adventure, +shrewdly packed up his portion of the plunder and fled without waiting +for what he no doubt foresaw as inevitable and imminent, the approach +of the officers of the law.</p> + +<p>Not so with Quelch. No back-alley dodging for him. With all the +circumstances of a business man in lawful enterprise he went to the +shop of one of the leading jewelers of Boston and there melted down a +quantity of Portuguese gold and silver coins. May have been fooling +with the jeweler’s crucibles when the rough hand of the officer thumped +his shoulder.</p> + +<p>Captain Kidd was the last of the colonial pirates to be sent home +to England for trial. After that the Government authorized such +proceedings to be had in the colonies themselves, for the expense of +dragging the accused and the witnesses across the Atlantic was too +much. On June 13, 1704, Quelch and a group of his pirates were tried +for murder and piracy at a “Court of Admiralty held at Boston, in +her Majesty’s Province<span class="pagenum" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</span> of the Massachusetts-Bay in New England, in +America.”</p> + +<p>Mr. Attorney General of the province, assisted by eminent queen’s +counselors, carried the prosecution; the defense was borne by the +accused themselves with the help of a Mr. Menzies, a lawyer appointed +by the court to assist them “in any matters of law.” It will be +remembered that in those times a defendant in a criminal action was not +allowed a lawyer for the purpose of ascertaining the facts of the case +but merely to advise on matters of legal practice, whose only job in +most cases was to assure the accused that what was being done to them +was all according to law.</p> + +<p>The indictment was on nine articles or counts, beginning with the death +of Captain Plowman and ending with the taking of the Bastian ship off +Rio. The death of Plowman was made the fact of the murder charge.</p> + +<p>Pimer, Clifford and a fellow named Parrot turned queen’s evidence. The +feeling of contempt which one seems to have for an informer can not be +extended to these men; for their action here was quite consistent with +their attitude from the beginning, which, as we have seen, had not been +hidden even from the pirates. They never approved the deeds done or +pretended they did. These are not your ordinary informers.</p> + +<p>We have to take off our hats to lawyer Menzies. He put up a fine fight. +He showed himself unafraid of court or council and stuck to his<span class="pagenum" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</span> +clients when more politic lawyers would have eased off. Really he beat +the prosecution.</p> + +<p>It was this way. The commission to this court of admiralty was issued +under an act of parliament which provided that its proceedings should +be according to what was called the civil law, which was a different +procedure from that of ordinary criminal courts, being originally +from the old Roman law. Now, by the civil law, in a trial for piracy +an accomplice could not be a witness against the accused; and Pimer, +Clifford and Parrot were technically accomplices. Menzies had chapter +and book for it, too.</p> + +<p>Mr. Attorney General floundered back on an act of Henry the Eighth, but +if Menzies had had a modern court his point would have stuck. Not that +this is a modern principle of law; but a modern court under the same +rules as this old court would have held with Menzies. The president +of the council, the provincial council constituting this court of +admiralty, hemmed and hawed and fudged by.</p> + +<p>Menzies was both a lawyer and a man, but he really had no court to +try his case in. All the council could see was a case of piracy, and +away with technicalities. That would be all right, of course, if +technicalities did not exist for the protection of the innocent. Quelch +was guilty, no doubt, according to the gossip blowing about Boston, but +innocent so far as the court in its particular province was concerned.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</span></p> + +<p>Quelch didn’t say much. If he had he would not have done himself much +good. It is fair to say on behalf of the court that though it erred in +admitting Pimer, Clifford and Parrot as witnesses, there was a fair +showing of other proof which went to help the State’s case, though that +does not exonerate the court from the use of improper procedure in the +particular which has been shown.</p> + +<p>“Guilty,” said the council. Cæsar-Pompey and the other negroes were +discharged along with the handful of men who showed they had sailed +under a sort of compulsion.</p> + +<p>Twenty men, including Quelch, were sentenced to die; and of these, +six were hanged on “Charles River, Boston side, June 30, 1704.” They +were John Quelch, John Lambert, Christopher Scudamore (the cooper who +boasted of shooting Captain Bastian), John Miller, Erasmus Peterson and +Peter Roach (the automaton). The record is silent as to the fate of the +remaining fourteen; possibly their sentences were commuted.</p> + +<p>The end of the matter is best told by one who saw it.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>“On Friday, the 30th of June, 1704, pursuant to orders in the death +warrant, the aforesaid pirates were guarded from the prison in Boston, +by forty musketeers, constables of the town, the provost-marshal and +his officers, with two ministers,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</span> who took great pains to prepare +them for the last article of their lives. Being allowed to walk on +foot through the town, to Scarlet’s wharf, where the silver oar being +carried before them, they went by water to the place of execution, +being crowded and thronged on all sides with multitudes of spectators.</p> + +<p>“At the place of execution, they then severally spoke as follows, +<i>viz.</i>:</p> + +<p>“1. <span class="smcap">Captain John Quelch.</span> The last words he spoke to one +of the ministers at his going up the stage, were, ‘I am not afraid +of death; I am not afraid of the gallows; but I am afraid of what +follows; I am afraid of a great God and a judgment to come.’</p> + +<p>“But he afterwards seemed to brave it out too much against that fear; +also when on the stage, first he pulled off his hat, and bowed to +the spectators, and not concerned, nor behaving himself so much like +a dying man as some would have done. The ministers had, in the way +to his execution, much desired him to glorify God at his death, by +bearing a due testimony against the sins that had ruined him, and for +the ways of religion which he had much neglected. Yet now being called +upon to speak what he had to say, it was but thus much, ‘Gentlemen, +it is but little I have to speak; what I have to say is this, I +desire to be informed for what I am here; I am condemned only upon +circumstances; I forgive all the world, so the Lord be merciful to my +soul.’</p> + +<p>“When Lambert was warning the spectators to beware of bad company +Quelch joining said,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</span> ‘They should also take care how they brought +money into New England, to be hanged for it.’</p> + +<p>“2. <span class="smcap">John Lambert.</span> He appeared much hardened, and pleaded +much on his innocency; he desired all men to beware of bad company; +he seemed in great agony near his execution; he called much and +frequently on Christ for pardon of sin, that God Almighty would save +his innocent soul; he desired to forgive all the world; his last words +were: ‘Lord forgive my soul. Oh, receive me into eternity. Blessed +name of Christ, receive my soul!’</p> + +<p>“3. <span class="smcap">Christopher Scudamore.</span> He appeared very penitent since +his condemnation; was very diligent to improve his time going to and +at the place of execution.</p> + +<p>“4. <span class="smcap">John Miller.</span> He seemed much concerned, and complained of +a great burden of sins to answer for; expressing often, ‘Lord, what +shall I do to be saved?’</p> + +<p>“5. <span class="smcap">Erasmus Peterson.</span> He cried of injustice done him, and +said, ‘It is very hard for so many men’s lives to be taken away for +a little gold.’ He often said, ‘His peace was made with God, and his +soul would be with God,’ yet extreme hard to forgive those he said had +wronged him; he told the executioner he was a strong man and prayed to +be put out of misery as soon as possible.</p> + +<p>“6. <span class="smcap">Peter Roach</span> (the automaton). He seemed little concerned, +and said but little or nothing at all.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</span></p> + +<p>“<span class="smcap">Francis King</span> was also brought to the place of execution, but +reprieved.”</p> +</div> + +<p>Many men have many minds. A little circumstance will bring a sense +of moral responsibility to one man; another would seem to awaken to +the fact of morality only by some such final catastrophe as the grim +gallows.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</span></p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +</div> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</span></p> + +<h2> +<a id="CHAPTER_THREE"></a>CHAPTER THREE +</h2> +<p class="center"> +SEA HORROR +</p> +<p class="center"> +“Blackbeard”<br> +</p> +<h3> +I</h3> + + + +<p>If you want to know a real pirate—a true terror of the seas—meet +Mr. Blackbeard; called, in what could scarcely have been an innocent +childhood, Edward Thatch, or Teach. Little Edward must have been +suckled on brass filings and have cut his teeth on iron nails, for he +grew up to be consistently and completely evil. Perhaps he fell when an +infant and injured his head, or more probably was born with a twist to +the bad; for no sane, normal man could have been so wild and wicked.</p> + +<p>He, not Kidd, is the fellow you have in mind when you think of a +pirate. He was the genuine, plank-walking, marooning, swashbuckling boy +of the seven seas; Bill Kidd and Jack Quelch, so far from being in his +class, would barely have been tolerated by him as ordinary seamen under +the “black flagg with a humane skelleton” which terrified the old-time +mariners. To win his<span class="pagenum" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</span> yellow-fanged grin of approval one would have to +be absolutely, unreservedly inhuman.</p> + +<p>Blackbeard! Folks got along with him best who addressed him with that +pretty name. He had no use at all for “Mister Thatch.” Plain Blackbeard +to high and low, fore and aft; for his pride, his pleasure, his life +were in his beard; an enormous bush, unusually, weirdly, wonderfully +black; a huge mat of hair, really beginning at his ears, arching across +his nose, and ending with his knees,—a regular jungle from behind +which his veined and boozy eyes peeped like those of a beast spotting +its prey, the while the long, leathery lips slavered with the thirst +for blood. Nice-looking chap—very.</p> + +<p>He might not take time to wash his nose—the only island of skin in +that sea of hair—but no hour was too long or too tedious which was +spent in curling, preening, pulling and twisting that beard into the +most fantastic shapes and effects. One day he would swagger out on +deck with his chin the axle for a half-dozen spokes of tightly rolled +whiskers; another, it might be one great spike, thrust outward and +upward in a unicorn symbol. Practically he had a fashion for every +mood, especially for the belligerent.</p> + +<p>People had to keep out of his cabin when the skipper was trimming +up his beard for a fight. Really he was the first patentee of +frightfulness. That was his specialty. When action threatened,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</span> those +whiskers were wrought into an appearance of ferocity beyond depicting.</p> + +<p>Nor was that all; he had other artistic touches in the nightmare line. +For instance, there were those long, thin, slow-burning matches which +he stuck all around his head, beneath his hat—alight they looked as if +the inferno had vomited forth a demon; there were the three braces of +pistols over his shoulders; the two dirks in his brilliant Caribbean +sash, and the cutlass that never stammered. A gulp of raw Jamaica rum +and he was ready to eat ’em alive.</p> + +<p>How amiable an apparition to behold oozing up over your bulwarks some +fine morning! No wonder the Atlantic, where it slaps the West Indian +beaches on the one side and the shores of the Carolinas on the other, +whispered his name with fear.</p> + +<p>It was going to be a big job for the forces of law and order to snare +this bird.</p> + +</div> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</span></p> + +<h3> +II</h3> + + +<p>January, 1718, was the happy month for the Carolinas. Then it was that +Blackbeard, coming from the West Indies by way of New England and the +North Atlantic provinces, chose to make his hole at Ocracoke Inlet, on +Pamlico Sound, North Carolina.</p> + +<p>Not that Blackbeard came with his hat-matches lit and his beard +glorious for strife, and his cutlass speaking sudden, certain death. +Oh, my, no! Far indeed would this supposition be from the fact, for +Blackbeard had come to Carolina to turn over a new leaf; to leave the +wicked practices which had made him king of the wicked Indies; to +forswear the black flag; generally to amend his way; particularly to +take the Act.</p> + +<p>“Taking the Act” was a joke beloved by all the best pirates. It was +specially good after a profitable plunder cruise; useful, too, in a +way, for it gave one a chance to spend one’s salt-water money without +having to fight somebody every five minutes. To take the Act was the +only way a hard-working pirate could get a vacation.</p> + +<p>The thing worked something like this: George the First, of England, at +about this time was having trouble with the Swedes, and in consequence<span class="pagenum" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</span> +the British fleet was all tucked away up in the Baltic; he was +troubled, too, by the merchants of London and the colonies, who were +getting rather pert about this matter of pirate depredations.</p> + +<p>Being completely at sea in more ways than one, the British Admiralty +fell back to the old pardon business that they had tried in Captain +Kidd’s time, and which had been so successful that less than twenty +years later the sorry scheme was dragged forth again.</p> + +<p>Taking the technical peelings off, the meat of the matter was that +if within a year from the date of the proclamation any pirate should +surrender himself to any one of the king’s colonial governors and swear +to renounce his criminal courses, all the past should be forgiven +and forgotten. The weakness of the plan, of course, was that a man +you could not catch would not care much about your pardon. And still +another,—that the word of a pirate could poorly compare with a bond.</p> + +<p>But the boys liked this Act of Grace as it was called, and some had +even been known to abide quite consistently with its terms. The leading +men of the business, of course, could not be expected to take it too +seriously.</p> + +<p>Blackbeard wanted a little lay-off from years of steady grind. Then, +too, it was January, with its season of new resolutions; why not start +the year right?</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</span></p> + +<p>They all talked it over, coming along the Virginia coast—near +where they had heard of the proclamation—and it rather appealed to +everybody. They grew solemn, serious, not a little drunk, and decided +to break up. Here was a chance to wipe the slate clean and start all +over again.</p> + +<p>They anchored in Ocracoke Inlet and marched off to take the Act. Let us +go with them.</p> + +<p>Lithe chaps, aren’t they? See how the muscles ripple and play under +those bright silk shirts; how column-like the brown necks groove into +the bulging shoulders; in the fine, perfect pink of condition every +one; strong, you can easily see; strong everywhere, that is, except in +the head. Weak, there, lamentably weak.</p> + +<p>In the heart, too, for they are really bad, capable of all evil, for +which their environment and early associations can extenuate but not +exculpate them. In truth, these are the creatures of a dark age; these +men believe in witches and fear to whistle aboard ship lest they blow +up a tempest. Most of these fellows are Englishmen, with some Spaniards +and Frenchmen, all caring little for international animosities, +enfranchised in the Commonwealth of Crime. You can hear the outlandish +burring of the Yorkshiremen, the hissing z’s of the West Englander, +the pitch, too, of what is to become the Cockney whine of a little +later day, tussling with a jargon made up of many languages, founded on +English.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</span></p> + +<p>Notice, too, these negroes from Barbados and other islands of the +Indies, children of slaves brought but lately from Africa for the +plantations. These don’t rate as seamen on even the pirate ships, +but are menials whose big job is to keep continually at the pumps. +Still, it seems all a great lark to them; see how they laugh, joke, +leap around in unequalled vigor, till the great gold rings in their +ears, the gold chains about their necks and the heavy metal bangles +on their wrists jingle and rattle with their motions. This thing of +jewelry is affected by white and black alike; and how they like those +wide, many-hued sashes, and the silk stockings under their knee-length +breeches!</p> + +<p>So they roll, seaman fashion, singing and romping to the small frame +house where reigns the servant of the Proprietors and the master of +the colonists, his Excellency, Governor Eden. At their head goes that +strangest of all the strange creatures of the sea, that powerful, +ape-like figure swathed hideously in hair—to-day all curled in +hundreds of ringlets smeared with pomatum—looking like a thing from a +bad dream.</p> + +<p>They bulge unafraid into the mansion; full weaponed and together, they +fear nothing at sea or ashore. But nobody is of a mind to trifle with +them; the folk here are used to seeing everything that is grotesque +washed up by the sea; nay, these men have many acquaintances among the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</span> +inhabitants, for not a few have shipped from these parts.</p> + +<p>Governor Eden enters, portly in a London flowered-silk waistcoat, +stylish French shoes and peruke, high-pointed and white-powdered. He +gasps a little at the gang jammed into the room and glances sharply +over at Tobias Knight, Secretary of the Province, who a moment ago was +scratching with his quill pen an encouraging story of graft to the +Proprietors at home, but who now is nervously pulling his sword more +accessibly across his round fat knees. Neither he nor the governor had +even seen anything quite like that in old Pall Mall, you know.</p> + +<p>“Takin’ the Act, y’honor,” growled Blackbeard, leering at constituted +authority.</p> + +<p>“Aye,” chorus, froglike, his bully boys.</p> + +<p>The job is soon done. With upraised right hands one and all swear to +leave off piracy. They come in children of the rope; they depart free +and law-abiding men. It is very easy.</p> + +<p>All leave, that is, save Blackbeard.</p> + +<p>“I salvages ships, your honors,” thunders this gentleman, spreading +himself out on a chair so that his beard should flow in its glory like +a blanket over his person, while all its fancy little curly-cues, +ringlets and twists dance with every movement of his chin. “My real +trade, your honors—ship salvager. Mebbe I’ll have business here. Lost +ships is what I go for and lost ships I finds.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</span></p> + +<p>“No need for a good ship to be lost while Blackbeard’s around to take +’em home again. No occasion to leave a lost ship to drift around till +them dirty seadogs of pirates mauls ’em over. Law says lost ships must +be reported to the governor, and now I abide the law.”</p> + +<p>“How d’ye mean, Captain?” says the governor. “D’ye pull ’em off the +rocks?”</p> + +<p>The audience chamber—if it may be so called—shakes with the visitor’s +laughing.</p> + +<p>“Ye don’t know rocks, your honor, beggin’ pardon; rocks don’t let +nothing go oncet they get aholt. Deserted ships I picks up; ships with +a little water in ’em don’t always go down as fast as the master fears.</p> + +<p>“There’s where I comes in. I get a ship like that; I comes in to +you. Says I, ‘Your honor, I have salvaged a ship.’ Says your honor, +‘Accordin’ to law, I declares you to have salvage of her.’ I sell her +for a good price. Says I to me, ‘The governor, his honor, works hard; +he ought to have his wages.’ Says I to you, ‘Your honor will perhaps +accept a little present.’ ‘Captain Blackbeard,’ says you, ‘have a jog +of rum.’ We all stands up and drinks the king’s ’ealth.”</p> + +<p>Governor Eden claps his hands smartly, and the black servitor jumps in.</p> + +<p>“Boy, bring the Madeira and glasses for three.”</p> + +</div> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</span></p> + +<h3> +III</h3> + +<p>Governor Eden, in his corrupt connivance with Blackbeard, was not +representative of the public opinion of the Carolinas in 1718. The +proprietary provinces—for these things were shortly before the +revolution which placed them directly under the Crown—had become tired +of pirates.</p> + +<p>It’s a long story, but of powerful interest. The short of the matter +is that the Carolinas had fostered pirates for her own interest until +in time they became a menace. From the middle of the sixteen-hundreds +the Southern provinces had been the outfitting grounds of a shoal of +privateers who under royal commissions threshed the waters of the +Spanish Main for Monsieur le Roy, as the French were called, or the +Dons of Spain.</p> + +<p>These letters-of-marque lads really protected the baby colonies from +those two voracious wolves for quite a while, but naturally if business +in the legitimate line of their letters slacked up, they were prone to +mistake the ensign of St. George for that of the Fleur-de-lys, and thus +kept their hands in practice by despoiling friends as well as foes. +Far too often they crossed too easily the thin line which separated a +privateer<span class="pagenum" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</span> from a pirate, so that in something less than half a century +Charles Town, which had trembled at the French and Spanish invasions, +now was equally fearful of the guns of the erstwhile protectors, the +pirates.</p> + +<p>English navigation laws, which had delivered the provinces, bound +hand and foot, into the hard fists of the English merchants, did not +a little to promote piracy, for the sea robbers came to town with +holds crammed full of all sorts of merchandise and peddled it to +the colonists less the duties and imposts, and so made one of the +cheapest markets in the world. Their customers all along the coast met +them gladly and made no bones of the traffic, until the black flag +threatened to monopolize the whole commerce, when the community awoke +to the circumstance that there was a price in the cheap bazaar after +all.</p> + +<p>Consider that Blackbeard, a month or so before he took the Act of +Grace, had “salvaged” no less than twenty-seven ships—nearly a ship +a day—and you have a measure of the situation; add, too, this, that +Blackbeard was but one of many, and you will understand why Jamaica, +for instance, wailed to the home Government that it was ruined.</p> + +<p>North and South Carolina had not formally divided at that time, though +the distinction of names was used; Governor Eden ruled wickedly in the +North; Governor Johnson ruled justly and wisely in the South.</p> + +</div> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</span></p> + + +<h3> +IV</h3> + + +<p>The vicinity where Blackbeard made his establishment was well chosen +for his job. When one knew the channels between the low, sandy islands +which lay all about the inlet one could run in and careen the ship, lay +by and swagger alongshore, and when one got ready to abjure his oath +and swing off on the plundering account again, one could intercept two +lines of commerce,—the coastwise from New England to the West Indies +and the provinces, and that from the provinces to the north, to the +West Indies and to the mother country. Blackbeard knew his business.</p> + +<p>It should be explained that our whiskery hero was a sort of admiral, +for he commanded not only his own ship, but he was attended by three +auxiliary sloops, one of which—the <i>Revenge</i>—belonged to the +peculiar and picturesque Major Stede Bonnet.</p> + +<p>What did these ships look like? Well, the old British Navy had five +classes of men-of-war, rated on the number of guns; Blackbeard’s own +ship, the attorney general on a later occasion said, was equal to a +fifth-class man-of-war; that is, he mounted forty guns, ranged on two +decks, carrying a complement of some one hundred and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</span> forty or fifty +men when his articles were full. She was about twenty feet in the beam +and a little more than a hundred feet long; rigged with square sails +and capable of good speed.</p> + +<p>The sloops, a general term for a variety of small ships, fought +only ten guns, though the man-power was not proportionate, fifty or +sixty men sometimes being crowded aboard. Shipbuilding was to wait +generations for the start of the impetus which carried it to its +culmination in the early nineteenth century.</p> + +<p>Nobody knows just what turned Major Bonnet to pirating. Some say he had +so much domestic misery that he simply felt he would have to chaw up +something or somebody; others, that the works in his brains had slipped +a little out of gear.</p> + +<p>It could hardly have been money, for Bonnet was a well-to-do planter of +Barbados, where his civic spirit had been so keen that he had earned +the military title of major in service against the enemies of that +colony. Perhaps he had been reading the <i>Diamond Dick</i> stories of +that era, and was so fired by them as to forget his middle years, his +decorous manners, his respectable standing, and craved for a taste of +real life.</p> + +<p>However that may have been, he bought a sloop, christened her +romantically the <i>Revenge</i>, and, under the usual pretense of +going privateering, picked up the right gang and put to sea in the +late summer of 1717. He knew nothing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</span> about the sea except that under +certain circumstances it would drown one.</p> + +<p>His crew were quick to see that their commander was no sailorman. His +pretense at seamanship provoked their great-mouthed grins and deriding +whispers and nods. He was driven to hide behind his mate, who really +worked the ship; and to the end of his career, which lasted just about +one year, he employed usually a sailing master. But his courage, his +hard temper, his resolution kept his feet on the quarter-deck and +forced a respect that his landlubberliness denied him.</p> + +<p>That is, he wrung a deference from all but old Blackbeard. Bonnet fell +in with him in August, 1717, and they made it up to sail together.</p> + +<p>The bearded bear, however, soon saw that his partner was no skipper, +and, growling and contemptuous, he summarily removed Bonnet from his +own deck and articled him in an inferior position on Blackbeard’s +craft, putting one Richards, a bad egg but a good sailor, in Bonnet’s +place. This was a collar that galled the neck of Bonnet.</p> + +<p>All the ships came in to Ocracoke about the same time; but Bonnet and a +large number of men disdained to palter with the Act of Grace, and lay +about the settlement waiting for Blackbeard to get over his whim and +down to business.</p> + +<p>The days ashore passed in debauch. Here the softer side of Blackbeard’s +character is shown in his affectionate devotion to fourteen wives,—as<span class="pagenum" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</span> +he called them. With them he was most playful and kittenish. He loved +to make these ladies laugh by blowing out the candles with his pistols; +or sometimes, crossing his arms, a weapon in each hand, he would +fire promiscuously about the room, whereupon the most merry play of +hide-and-seek was enjoyed by all the company, wives and visitors alike, +when those who could not get under the table quickly enough would catch +bullets in the funniest places,—like behind the ear or just above the +heart. Everybody looked forward to these evenings.</p> + +</div> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</span></p> + +<h3> +V</h3> + + +<p>Spring came on Ocracoke, and the adventure sap stirred in Blackbeard’s +veins. He stood it until the end of May, then tore his oath in two, +kicked the Act of Grace in the face, flung the skull and crossbones +to his masthead and sailed off for Charles Town, his minion sloops +dancing and bobbing on the waves beside him. He was going shopping, if +you please, for medical supplies, a great necessity by reason of his +fleet’s method of living and working. He was going to honor Charles +Town with his patronage.</p> + +<p>While this happy surprise for the little colonial seaport was coming +around the sea-washed bulk of Cape Fear, a Mr. Wragg and a Mr. Marks, +on board a merchantman, were slipping across the Charles Town bar, +bound for England. Both were prominent local gentlemen, Mr. Wragg being +nothing less than an assemblyman. There were several other passengers +on the list, while in the ship’s chest were seven thousand five hundred +dollars in broad gold coins and pieces-of-eight.</p> + +<p>Mr. Marks stood at the stern of the ship and looked a long time at the +old town as it dropped away behind them.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</span></p> + +<p>“Neighbor Wragg,” said he with a gently melancholic sigh, “it will be +many a day before we tread the streets of Charles Town again.”</p> + +<p>Mr. Wragg squeezed his friend’s hand sympathetically.</p> + +<p>“Only a twelvemonth perhaps,” he suggested. “Take courage, Marks.”</p> + +<p>They were both poor guessers. Instead of twelve months it was less than +twelve days a good deal when Mr. Marks again looked his fellow citizens +in the eye and face-to-face. If somebody had told his fortune at cards +that night he might have truthfully said that a dark man was coming +across the water to see him.</p> + +<p>“Do you see what I see?” asked the captain of the mate next day, as the +gray light of morning was turning all the waters to the look of molten +slate. The mate gazed northward.</p> + +<p>“I count four of ’em,” he said slowly. “Looks like they’re coming right +for us.”</p> + +<p>They were. Very soon a shot whistled over the nightcap of Mr. Marks, +who had thrust his head from his cabin with that sense of something +amiss peculiar to shipboard.</p> + +<p>“Heave back the tops’ls,” growled the master.</p> + +<p>The sails flatted down, and the ship came to. She was quickly circled +by Blackbeard’s fleet. The skull grinned amiably at them as the black +flag stood out tautly in the wind. Somebody shouted something from the +pirate ships; and the merchant captain ordered the boat lowered, and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</span> +with two of the crew to row him set off for the marauding flagship.</p> + +<p>“I’ve been pirated in these waters twenty times,” grumbled the captain, +steering with an oar, “so I know what they want.”</p> + +<p>The pirates wanted everything. They put a prize crew over on the +captured brig. Mr. Marks was paged.</p> + +<p>“Mistah Blackbeard’s compliments, suh,” grinned a big black fellow, +looking coy in a hat made of a twisted red silk handkerchief, “and if +you be Mistah Marks, suh, will you be so ’bliging as to step over to +his ship.”</p> + +<p>Mr. Marks, with pallid face, looked pathetically at Mr. Wragg, whose +sympathy was again subjected to a heavy sight draft.</p> + +<p>“Why didn’t he send for you, Wragg?” he complained unheroically. +“You’re a councilor—you’ve got the precedence.”</p> + +<p>Mr. Wragg patted him on the shoulder encouragingly.</p> + +<p>“I’ll advise your family, Marks, if anything happens,” he said kindly; +“but I’m sure it won’t.”</p> + +<p>He felt pretty sure it would.</p> + +<p>All stood in for Charles Town. Mr. Wragg once or twice thought he saw +Mark’s hand waving at him from Blackbeard’s ship, where he and the +merchant captain were detained. Or was it poor Mark’s nightcap tossed +in a dreadful struggle with the villains? Who could tell?</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</span></p> + +<p>Captors and captives lay at the bar; and Blackbeard sent the longboat +off to town, carrying Mr. Marks under guard of Richards and half a +dozen nasty rascals. The astonishment of the town was unwordable when +it saw the respectable Marks in company so dreadful.</p> + +<p>But when they heard what Mr. Marks had to tell them their astonishment +turned to fighting wrath. For Blackbeard ordered four hundred pounds’ +worth of medical supplies delivered to Richards or, first, Mr. Marks +would be shot on the spot; second, Mr. Wragg’s head and those of all +the other passengers would arrive by the next boat; third, the pride of +the province, Charles Town itself, would be blown from its foundations.</p> + +<p>Governor Johnson was a strong man, and his council were strong men; but +here was a puzzle for them. Sixteen years before this they had beaten +off the French invaders with a courage that is notable in the history +of municipalities; but now the gun was right straight at them, and it +looked like hands up.</p> + +<p>Things were stirring about in Blackbeard’s fleet as well as in the +town. Especially when two days went by and no word came over to the bar +from Richards or Marks. On the evening of that day, Blackbeard, steeped +in rum, lined his hostages along the deck and raved and thrust his +awful beard into their faces and generally behaved in a most ungenteel +manner.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</span></p> + +<p>“Shake your heads, my pretty landlubbers,” he bellowed; “shake ’em +while they’re on your necks, for if Richards don’t come back in the +mornin’ your heads will go to town at noon.”</p> + +<p>The wretched part of it was that the ruffian meant what he said.</p> + +<p>A messenger came from Richards, however, in the morning, and so +reprieved Mr. Wragg and his fellows for a few hours more. The messenger +stated that in going from the bar to town the boat in which Marks was +being taken capsized and there had been no end of trouble and delay in +getting ashore. Further that the provincial council had been called +together and were debating Blackbeard’s proposition.</p> + +<p>Another day or so of strain and another silence from the town. Again +Blackbeard stamped about and waved his cutlass and carried on as any +obstreperous and brutal drunk might be apt to do. Oh, for a king’s ship +to happen along as chucker-out! But king’s ships, like the night watch, +are generally anywhere but where they’re needed.</p> + +<p>Blackbeard filed the frightened hostages forth again. This time he +had the machinery of their destruction ready,—a huge black, his +great-muscled right arm bare to the shoulder, his hand hefting a bright +cutlass. Blackbeard, perched on a keg of powder, beckoned to his +captives in mocking solicitude.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</span></p> + +<p>“Step up, pretties,” he leered, “and get your hair cut.”</p> + +<p>This was no opera, comic or otherwise. It was a situation to be met, +and immediately. One whom history does not remember spoke up. “Cap’n +Blackbeard,” said he, talking for his life, “we’ve decided if you’ll +be so good as to let us, to join with you if you’re going to take the +town. We’ll help you. They’ve betrayed us for a few pills and powders, +so we owe them nothing.”</p> + +<p>“Spoke like a man,” said Blackbeard. “You’re proper men; you’ll be real +cocks of the old game. Heave the anchor and shot the guns—the tide +will be right in an hour.”</p> + +<p>Perhaps this was not a heroic subterfuge; but let those judge who have +been hostages, helpless in the hands of such a desperado. It saved the +lives of a number of folk. For ere the tide lifted them over the bar +the longboat returned with Richards, the pirate boatmen and great piles +of all sorts of medicines. The town had capitulated. There would come +another day, it properly figured, and its wisdom was justified by the +event.</p> + +<p>Blackbeard left the merchant brig and its passengers rocking at the +bar, but by an unfortunate oversight he sailed off with the ship’s +chest containing the gold coins and the pieces-of-eight.</p> + +<p>Partnership was dissolved soon after leaving Charles Town. Blackbeard +had already apparently decided to abdicate the cocked hat of an<span class="pagenum" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</span> +admiral and assume the subordinate rank of a captain. He planned to +concentrate his power in his one vessel.</p> + +<p>So without concern he returned the dissatisfied Bonnet to the +<i>Revenge</i> and recalled Richards and the hardiest members of the +<i>Revenge’s</i> personnel, leaving Bonnet with half a dozen hands of +indifferent expertness to work the sloop.</p> + +<p>That accounted for one of his three tenders. The second he resolved to +abandon at Topsail Inlet, on his way to Ocracoke. This he effected in +the regular Blackbeard fashion by ordering it driven ashore at Topsail +Inlet and wrecked. Her crew might make what escape they could from +the mess. They could not argue with the forty muzzles of his guns, so +crack went the sloop’s hull upon the rocks, while Blackbeard lay by and +laughed at the men struggling in the surf.</p> + +<p>These unfortunates at once went to work saving the sloop’s food and +powder, which hard labor was no sooner ended than Blackbeard stood in +and came ashore in the boat. He took all the salvaged stores and every +first-class seaman among the men and left, leaving nearly a score of +his late followers destitute and marooned on a wild and isolated beach. +In this way Blackbeard paid for faithfulness.</p> + +<p>The castaways had nothing to do but huddle about the sand and hope for +help. It did not occur to them to go back into the wilderness behind +them, perhaps because, as sailors, they<span class="pagenum" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</span> would not trust themselves +to any but their wonted environment, perhaps also for the reason +that the unsettled interior promised them even scantier succor than +the wide sea before them, on which a coastwise ship might possibly +be attracted by their signals. So they lay around listening to the +<i>creak-creak-creak</i> of the occasional sea gull, the thumping and +swirling of the inrushing waves and the cracking of the ship’s gear and +planking.</p> + +<p>Before serious privation befell them, however, the hoped-for sail +fluttered out of the horizon. They took the shirts from their backs and +hopped vehemently up and down the beach and flew to the headlands in a +frenzy of inarticulate appeal.</p> + +<p>Joy unspeakable; they saw the topsails heaved back and the ship come +to! Saved! The men massed at the very edge of the water and stared hard +at the boat which now put off and came swinging in toward them.</p> + +<p>“If it ain’t Major Bonnet!”</p> + +<p>There was a kind of pleasure in the way they said this as the boat’s +crew could be identified. They had never expected that the commander of +the old <i>Revenge</i> could ever have looked so good to them. A dozen +welcoming hands pulled at the bow of his boat when it grated on the +sand.</p> + +<p>“A dirty deal, boys,” said the major; “a dirty deal to leave ye all +like this—all governors of a maroon island.”</p> + +<p>That was a loved witticism of the major;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</span> marooning with him was always +to be invested with the dignity of governor of the maroon sand-spit. +He had quite a turn for pleasantry. He chuckled, and then got down to +business.</p> + +<p>“Getting to the point, my lads,” he continued, “let us leave this +outlaw life which has brought us nothing but grief. Come with me to St. +Thomas in the Indies, and we’ll get a privateering commission there +against the Spanish dogs, and show ’em the kind of metal that is in a +British cutlass.”</p> + +<p>He put a punch into his proposition by explaining, sympathetically but +firmly, that if they refused his offer he would be quite obliged to +sail away and leave them still in the governorship of Topsail Inlet.</p> + +<p>Nobody wanted that distinction, and the marooned left in boatloads for +Bonnet’s ship. As they came under her bows they marked that the name +<i>Revenge</i> had been painted out, and in its place were the words, +<i>Royal James</i>, being the major’s compliment to the Pretender and a +vivid indication of the major’s politics.</p> + +<p>The tide crept in and washed the last heel mold out of the sands of +Topsail Inlet, where the gulls were left to peck speculatively at the +protruding nails and tangled cordage of the battered ship, the while +they wondered at the ways of that queer creature, Man.</p> + +<p>Commons were lean on the <i>Royal James</i>. When the rescued pirates +found that there was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</span> not very much to eat on the ship, the first gush +of joy at their deliverance sloughed off quickly.</p> + +<p>“Ye see, men,” Bonnet explained, “the pantry is pretty low. The first +job of a sailorman is to eat, so we may have to stop somebody on our +way to St. Thomas and beg a bite.”</p> + +<p>A very reasonable suggestion.</p> + +<p>“Somebody” appeared before the cruise was very old. He showed no +concern, however, to answer their hail but jammed up into the wind and +sped away. That was certainly no proper sea courtesy.</p> + +<p>To teach the rude fellows a lesson in manners, the <i>Royal James</i> +swung behind and followed fast, and as pursuit was quite in her line +she soon pulled down the fleeing traveler and with a shot across his +bow brought him to with a bang. Bonnet shoved alongside and soon +stuffed his hold and his men with quarters of beef and barrels of rum.</p> + +<p>That was a fair start. All waist belts were comfortably tight; drooping +corners of lips went up and the old zest for piracy swelled and rippled +like a flood tide in the veins of the men of the <i>Royal James</i>. +So when with a grin the captain sped the black flag up the lines the +general contentment was not grievously shaken.</p> + +<p>Two Bermuda-bound ships were pulled in the day following the first +capture, and the day after that they picked up a fourth. The tally of +takes now began to run up smartly. Inside of a week<span class="pagenum" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</span> five ships were +looted, from which a number of recruits were made, including negroes +who were delegated to the pumps and the menial jobs with the status of +slaves, and whose signs to the sloop’s articles were not invited.</p> + +<p>Here is a typical haul from one craft: Twenty-six hogsheads and +three barrels of rum, valued at fifteen hundred dollars; twenty-five +hogsheads of molasses, worth seven or eight hundred dollars; three +barrels of sugar, value one hundred and fifty dollars; cotton, indigo, +wire cable of varying values, a small amount of French and Spanish +coins, one pair of silver buckles and one silver watch. Thus, you see, +the boys cleaned up systematically from the hold to the captain’s +waistcoat pocket.</p> + +<p>They peddled their merchandise alongshore, where the business, though +more risky than in a happier day, was still keen. They grabbed vessels +on the high seas or at anchor in way ports. One captured in the latter +situation was the <i>Francis</i>, and here is her mate, Mr. Killing, +who is anxious to tell us himself just how it all happened. Proceed, +Mr. Killing.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>“The 31st of July (1718) between nine and ten of the clock, we came to +an anchor about fourteen fathom of water.... In about half an hour’s +time I perceived something like a canoo: So they came nearer. I said, +here is a canoo a-coming; I wish they be friends. I haled<span class="pagenum" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</span> them and +asked them whence they came? They said captain Thomas Richards from +St. Thomas’s....</p> + +<p>“They asked me from whence we came? I told them from Antegoa. They +said we were welcome.” (Pirates certainly loved their little joke!) “I +said they were welcome, as far as I knew.” (Which you observe was not +very far. A man of careful statement, this Mr. Killing.) “So I ordered +the men to hand down a rope to them. So soon as they came on board +they clapped their hands to their cutlasses; and I said we are taken. +So they cursed and swore for a light. I ordered our people to get a +light as soon as possible....</p> + +<p>“When they came into the cabin the first thing they begun with was the +pineapples, which they cut down with their cutlasses. They asked me if +I would not come and eat along with them? I told them I had but little +stomach to eat. They asked me why I looked so melancholy? I told them +I looked as well as I could—” (Before we smile at the worthy mate let +us wonder a moment how we would have looked in the same fix.)</p> + +<p>“They asked me what liquor I had on board. I told them some rum +and sugar. So they made bowls of punch and went to drinking the +Pretender’s health, and hoped to see him king of the English nation—” +(This was doubtless the result of Major Bonnet’s treasonable +propaganda. Here was an incipient navy for the Pretender had he only +known it.) “They then sung<span class="pagenum" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</span> a song or two. The next morning ... they +hoisted out several hogsheads of molasses and several hogsheads of +rum. In the after part of the day two of Bonnet’s men were ordered to +the mast to be whipt....</p> + +<p>“Then Robert Tucker came to me, and told me I must go along with them. +I told him I was not fit for their turn, neither were my inclinations +that way. After that Major Bonnet himself came to me, and told me I +must either go on a maroon shore” (no doubt with his usual little jest +about the governorship) “or go along with them, for he designed to +take the sloop (<i>Francis</i>) with him.</p> + +<p>“That evening between eight and nine we were ordered to set sail, but +whither I knew not. So we sailed out that night, and I being weary +with fatigue, went to sleep; and whether it was with a design or not I +can not tell, but we fell to leeward of the <i>Revenge</i> (<i>Royal +James</i>); and in the morning Major Bonnet took the speaking trumpet, +and told us if we did not keep closer he would fire in upon us and +sink us. So then we proceeded on our voyage till we came to Cape Fear.”</p> +</div> + +<p>Thank you, Mr. Mate; you have given us an interesting and living +picture of just how these wretches went about their dirty work.</p> + +</div> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</span></p> + + +<h3> +VI</h3> + + +<p>Cape Fear! When a “naval historian” tells us that the battle at Cape +Fear was merely a matter of a few shots and a surrender, he not only +understates the fact, but beclouds the due glory of a company of heroic +men. Mr. S. C. Hughson, whose patient accuracy has given the complete +story to the world, not only describes a serious engagement but shows +that the result was so open a question that the pirates, during the +fight, beckoned with their hats to their opponents in mock invitation +to board and take them, in full confidence of victory.</p> + +<p>Cape Fear is on Smith Island, at the mouth of the Cape Fear River, on +the coast of North Carolina, and between Charleston and Ocracoke Inlet. +At New Inlet, where the river swims into the sea, it divides what are +now called Brunswick and Hanover Counties. Shoal waters and sandy +islets make the work of navigation here uncertain.</p> + +<p>Major Bonnet had made his sea-nest in this region, his knowledge of the +channels and depths protecting his comings and goings. In this place he +could repair and refit his ship as well as set up a sort of market for +the purveying to the local<span class="pagenum" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</span> folk his varied plunder. For the coastwise +pirate, as distinguished from the pirate of the Kidd and Quelch school, +was simply a smuggler who stole his wares, and if you hyphenate him +thus, smuggler-pirate, you can separate him from the typical smuggler +who acquires his contraband lawfully in a cheaper market to run it past +the customs to a dearer market.</p> + +<p>It was to Cape Fear, then, that Bonnet came in the beginning of +August with his ship and two captive sloops, one of them being the +<i>Francis</i>, and it was here that toward the end of the next month +Justice presented her bill to him at the point of a cannon.</p> + +<p>Colonel Rhett, of Charlestown, was the agent of Justice in this +instance. Not long after Blackbeard had held up Charles Town for a +quantity of pills and plasters, as we have noticed, another rascal +tried the same trick but could not make it work. This fellow’s name was +Vane, sometimes called Vaughan, and quite a bad actor in his own way.</p> + +<p>Of all the citizens who sharply resented these piratical impertinences, +Colonel Rhett, a noted colonist, took it most to heart. On his own +initiative he fitted out as sloops-of-war two ships, the <i>Henry</i>, +on which he himself sailed, and the <i>Sea Nymph</i>, which he manned +with many “gentlemen of the town, animated with the same principle +of zeal and honor for our public safety, and the preservation of our +trade.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</span></p> + +<p>Heartily seconded by Governor Johnson of South Carolina, who unlike +Governor Eden of North Carolina was a terror to pirates, Rhett’s +little fleet put out in pursuit of Vane; for Vane, seeing that his +plans had slipped, decided that he had better also slip. He slipped so +effectively that Rhett never came up with him.</p> + +<p>Since leaving Topsail Inlet with his recruits Bonnet had taken no less +than thirteen vessels, and word of this pirate had come to Charles +Town while Rhett was outfitting. Missing Vane, Rhett “and the rest of +the gentlemen were resolved not to return without doing some service +to their country, and therefore went in quest of a pirate they had +heard lay at Cape Fear.” There they certainly found their opportunity +of doing a public service and most commendably appropriated that +opportunity.</p> + +<p>At evening on September 26 the <i>Henry</i> and the <i>Sea Nymph</i> +came to Smith Island while daylight enough was left to show them the +topmasts of the pirate above a spit of land behind which the <i>Royal +James</i> lay. They threw their anchors into the mud of the inlet and +waited for morning. At dusk three boatloads of armed men came out of +the river and coolly reconnoitered. Major Bonnet had spotted Colonel +Rhett.</p> + +<p>All that night of late summer the Charles Town gentlemen could make out +the threats and persuasions of Bonnet and his officers driving on the +efforts of their crew in making ready for the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</span> morrow’s deadly debate, +which Bonnet, rather than surrendering, evidently chose to maintain. +The tide brimmed up the river from the Atlantic and was sucked back +again to those vast waters, yet it lulled no one to sleep on any of the +ships.</p> + +<p>All night the wind-blown torches and lanterns lit the work of the +pirates; all night the glare of them flickered and jumped beyond the +bump of land which separated the besiegers and the besieged. The +pirate sloop was like a warrior unbuckled and relaxing in his tent, +expecting no hostile surprise. Her deck was disorderly with bits of +cargo; barrels of rum, quarters of beef, hogsheads of molasses, all +to be cleared off for the free action of the guns. Her gear, too, was +probably at odds and ends in course of repair.</p> + +<p>The work of weeks had now to be punched up into the fleet hours of one +night, for when the dawn should come the <i>Royal James</i> must be a +warrior harnessed and prepared. All night the men of the <i>Henry</i> +and the <i>Sea Nymph</i> lay at watch.</p> + +<p>Sun-up began the day of fate. Beyond the headlands which sheer above +the river, the east was bannered with yellow and purple and rose-pink; +a strong breeze blew directly from the land. The sails of the <i>Royal +James</i> went up with the sun, the blocks and tackle creaking like +a flock of hungry gulls; the chains rattled with the hoisting of the +anchor.</p> + +<p>Bonnet had to fight two to one. His chance—and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</span> it was an approved +method of pirate strategy—was to get to open water and battle on the +run, broadsiding one or the other of his enemies but never permitting +both to get at him at once.</p> + +<p>The major had become quite a sailor now. He gathered all his men on +the <i>Royal James</i> and left the two captured sloops with only Mr. +Killing and the other prisoners on board of them. The refusal of these +latter to aid him in his fight with Rhett was allowed to pass without +punishment.</p> + +<p>“Here they come!”</p> + +<p>Beyond the hummock the Charles Town men could see the masts of the +pirate, fully freighted with sail, running swiftly toward the point. +Bonnet was making a break for the sea.</p> + +<p>Rhett’s ships quivered with action. As the <i>Royal James</i> thrust +her bowsprit into sight, the <i>Henry</i> and the <i>Sea Nymph</i> +crowded down on either of her quarters.</p> + +<p>They made it in time; Bonnet, dodging, was elbowed into the shore. If +the channel had been deep there, he might still have made it; but the +channel was shallow, and his ship thudded into the sandy bottom, and +there she lay, with her full suit of canvas tugging at the sticks until +they promised to snap.</p> + +<p>Rhett grinned and swung about, but he could not make it sharply enough, +and his satisfaction waned with the bump of his ship into the same +bottom that gripped his enemy. The <i>Sea<span class="pagenum" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</span> Nymph</i>, also turning, +likewise found herself hard and fast ashore.</p> + +<p>Here then was the situation. The <i>Henry</i> was grounded on the +pirate’s bow within pistol shot; the <i>Sea Nymph</i> struck the sand +out of range, and there she stayed for the greater part of the fight, +a spectator of the struggle, unable to bear a part or give any help to +the <i>Henry</i>.</p> + +<p>And Rhett’s flagship needed help. When she hit she slanted, but in +the same direction as the pirate had tilted, with the result, of +course, that she presented her unprotected deck squarely to Bonnet’s +broadsides, while the latter’s position offered more of his hull and +less of his deck to Rhett’s ordnance.</p> + +<p>For all of that, the South Carolinians gave the Barbados gentleman +all their ten guns at once with a smart peppering of small-arm fire. +Bonnet roared back with all of his pieces, smashing the <i>Henry’s</i> +deckwork and reddening her scuppers. The Charles Town boys who stood by +the guns on that open, inclined deck of that Saturday morning, never +letting the fight flag for a moment, certainly passed the supreme +physical test one hundred per cent to the good.</p> + +<p>But there was to be another deciding element of the contest than +cannon balls, musketry or cutlasses. The tide, which was now turning +and flooding in, would award the victory. For whichever ship righted +herself first must have the critical advantage.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</span></p> + +<p>The opponents must have known this from the first, and, of course, +the benefit of the tide being uncertain, each desperately strove to +finish the other and thus leave no chance to the arbitrament of Nature. +The mud flats disappeared beneath the oncoming waters; the lower +islands sank from sight; the battling ships jerked now and then with +the powerful tug of the stream at their hulls, and with the rising of +the river crammed more shot into the hot guns till the smoke burned +the eyelids of the fighters red, and ten good men lay in the shocked +attitudes of death on the <i>Henry’s</i> decks, and eighteen wounded +groaned in her hold. Seven of Bonnet’s crew had signed on with the real +skull-and-bones flag.</p> + +<p>The tide came swirling in. High noon gave place to afternoon; the +moment of decision was at hand. One or other of the ships would gain +her keel in a few minutes. Which would it be?</p> + +<p>It was the <i>Henry</i>. Bonnet, who had fought supremely, saw with +vehement despair the yards of his enemy tilting up, while he himself +lay in the sand inert and helpless. He rushed with his pistol cocked to +the magazine of powder thus to make the grand finish, but his men threw +themselves upon him to restrain his rash and horrible act, while one of +them jumped in the shrouds and waved the white flag of the conquered.</p> + +<p>Rhett boarded and chained up some thirty men, including their leader, +and after repairing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</span> the <i>Henry</i> set out for home. The public +service had been rendered—by the tide.</p> + +<p>Charles Town went wild with excitement, though not exactly in the way +they mean who keep this tired phrase in currency. When Rhett came +in laden with pirate prisoners and convoying the <i>Royal James</i> +and the two sloops captured by that ship, the <i>Fortune</i> and the +<i>Francis</i>, he was the hero of one faction in town and the villain +of the other.</p> + +<p>Friends of piracy in general and the personal acquaintances of the +enchained pirates in particular shared a common indignation. They +must have been numerous, for they promised to liberate the prisoners +or burn the city to the foundation blocks. Bonnet, as was fitting +for a gentleman who happened to be a criminal, was locked up in the +residence of the marshal, while the baser fellows were thrown into the +watch-house, there being no jail in the town at that time.</p> + +<p>The fashion of the port went out to look at the ships. The <i>Henry</i> +was all knocked about, while the <i>Royal James</i>—whose name had +been immediately changed back to <i>Revenge</i> by a proper patriotic +gesture—had not much more than a chipped hull.</p> + +<p>If the ships had not grounded as they did Bonnet would have been +against overwhelming odds. The <i>Henry</i> had eight guns and seventy +men; the <i>Sea Nymph</i> had the same number of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</span> cannon and sixty men. +Bonnet fought with ten guns and about fifty men.</p> + +<p>But the sticking of the ships had made his chance more even, for in +that situation he commanded two more guns than did Rhett, and the +latter’s slight excess of men was more than canceled by the bad slant +of his deck, with its consequent openness to the enemy’s cannonade.</p> + +<p>Before the trouble in town could blaze into tumult, the pirates were +put to trial in the Vice-Admiralty Court, presided over by Judge Trott. +Bonnet, however, did not stand among them; by bribing with a free palm +he had escaped and was at that moment fleeing up the coast in a small +boat, to the great scandal of all lovers of good government.</p> + +<p>The trial was brief and characteristic of the times. The defendants, +without counsel as was usual, feebly pleaded that Bonnet had deceived +them at Topsail Inlet into sailing with him. Ignatius Pell, boatswain +of the <i>Royal James</i>, turned state’s evidence, and other witnesses +were Mr. Killing, whom we have quoted, and the captain of the +<i>Francis</i> and the captain of the <i>Fortune</i>.</p> + +<p>There could not be a doubt of their guilt and in that age not a doubt +of their fate; they were sentenced to be hanged by a judge who preached +at and denounced them in the vigorous fashion of the Elizabethan +courts. In less than one week all but three or four who had proved +compulsory<span class="pagenum" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</span> service were executed at old White Point, near the present +beautiful promenade.</p> + +<p>One cheerful ray lightened the black misery of their situation: Stede +Bonnet was recaptured. “He was the great ringleader of them,” said +the prosecuting attorney, “who had seduced many poor, ignorant men to +follow his course of living, and ruined many poor wretches; some of +whom lately suffered, who with their last breath expressed a great +satisfaction at the prisoner’s (Bonnet) being apprehended, and charged +the ruin of themselves and loss of their lives entirely upon him.”</p> + +<p>Colonel Rhett had again been the fate of Major Bonnet. After Bonnet’s +flight from the marshal’s home, Rhett went after him and ran him down +on a little island near the city. Heriot, sometime shipmaster for the +major, was shot in the short scrimmage, and his employer again brought +to Charles Town in manacles.</p> + +<p>They tried Stede Bonnet in the same court and the same fashion and +with the same evidence as they had his crew. He was tried on two +indictments, one for taking the <i>Francis</i> and the other for taking +the <i>Fortune</i>.</p> + +<p>To both he pleaded not guilty and was first tried on the affair of the +<i>Francis</i>. He stood up for himself in good shape; but the facts, +as well as the court, crushed him. He claimed, as Captain Kidd had +claimed some years before in a similar fix, that a mutinous crew drove +him<span class="pagenum" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</span> protesting into these criminal courses. He explained that the only +piracy he had ever been in was when with Captain Thatch. One wonders +how much the mutinous crew, as alleged, had to exert themselves to +persuade an old Blackbeard man to steal a fat ship or two.</p> + +<p>A curious little circumstance comes up in this trial. Pell, the +boatswain, in answer to a question, said Bonnet was in command of the +ship, “but the quartermaster had more power than he,” adding that the +quartermaster took charge of the loot and sometimes divided it. One +wonders if the crew did not have a great deal more to say about things +than would be supposed, tolerating Bonnet as a business manager.</p> + +<p>Bonnet might have come down as a somewhat romantic person, but the +nerve he had always shown, even in his trial, broke at the last; and +when on December 18 he was hanged in the same place as his followers +had been, he was almost senseless from fear. Thus in a miserable huddle +he left a stage on which he had not been too modest, on which he had +even swaggered.</p> + +<p>This is all the story of one summer. The blockade of Charles Town by +Blackbeard had happened in May of 1718, and December of the same year +saw the end of Stede Bonnet. And to Bonnet, as to his men, there came a +spark of joy before he went to the rope—and that was the news that his +old superior, Blackbeard, had died upon the cutlass on November 22.</p> + +</div> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</span></p> + + +<h3> +VII</h3> + + +<p>Abdicating the high estate of admiral and breaking up his fleet, +leaving a part of it, as we have seen, to roll as wreckage on the tides +of Topsail Inlet, Blackbeard came back to Ocracoke and a lazy summer.</p> + +<p>Perhaps it was during these thoughtful, meditative days that he +persuaded a young lady to become his fourteenth wife for there is +record of a merry marriage at which Governor Eden himself condescended +to appear as a well-wishing guest and give the occasion the suitable +air to promote the new Mrs. Blackbeard’s social fortunes. At the feast +a good deal of somebody else’s rum, somebody else’s victuals and +somebody else’s money were laid under contribution. Governor Eden, +however, had a peculiarly happy detachment to the minor questions of +somebody else’s property. That phase of his disposition doubly endeared +him to his pirate friend.</p> + +<p>But the gold pieces that he sent spinning dwindled anon; little Toby +Knight began to bore him and even the Governor commenced to get on +his nerves. Respectable shore life was entirely too much for him, so +Blackbeard again yearned for the reeling decks and the roar of his<span class="pagenum" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</span> +bully boys. With a laudable regard for the proprieties, he gave out +that he was putting to sea again on a “commercial venture,” and even +registered his ship at the local customs house.</p> + +<p>“Salvage,” he murmured, looking intently into little Toby’s honest +face; pressing the secretary’s round, fat hand in farewell.</p> + +<p>“Salvage,” grinned Toby, glad to get even the friendly grip of the sea +monster released, and instinctively rubbing his hand slyly on the tails +of his flaring coat.</p> + +<p>Still delicate, Blackbeard waited until the land faded into the sea +line behind him ere, with the feeling that he had had a pleasant +vacation and was glad to get back to work again, he threw out his +sinister ensign,—the flag of skull and bones. Blackbeard was himself +again.</p> + +<p>And now there happened that which many of the crew had often fearfully +predicted,—the Devil came aboard Blackbeard’s ship.</p> + +<p>The weather had been threatening for some time, and now, on a late +afternoon, the great ocean heaved murmurously beneath the bows. In +the rigging the wind fretted and complained, shrilly and more shrilly +as though the white-green tumult of the waters was disturbing it; in +the cabin below the dark horror of delirium tremens was falling upon +the bearded master. On the decks, the mate—doubtless the effective +Mr. Richards—stripped his ship for the approaching combat and drove +his men aloft into<span class="pagenum" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</span> the swaying yards. Now and then Blackbeard, still +the sailor, reeled on his cabin threshold and blurted insane orders +to the gale. Whereat Mr. Richards, well accustomed to the storms of +wind and waves and delirious masters, slammed the door in his face and +laughingly went about his work.</p> + +<p>Palely the day expired in the west, and as though they had only been +waiting for the night, wind and water strengthened to the struggle and +now persuaded a third element, the rain, to join them in the conspiracy +of destruction. These three witches began to make the cauldron boil.</p> + +<p>Mr. Richards still laughed; his sails were in and he was with the +helmsman, sweating to keep the vessel from a fatal lurch.</p> + +<p>“What’s that sound?” gasped the steersman to his officer, leaning +full weight to his work. Forward they could see nothing but the black +void and a white wash of sea where their decks and bowsprit should +ordinarily be, nor could look in that direction long for the whips of +rain with which the screaming winds lashed them.</p> + +<p>“The wind,” hollered Richards, bending close to be heard.</p> + +<p>The steersman shook his head. “No—that!” he shouted.</p> + +<p>The gale paused in one of those lulls by which it seems to recover for +a effort of fresh fury. And in the second of quietness there rose and +fell a long, horrible scream of inhuman defiance.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</span> Richards grinned +and pointed with his finger below. Blackbeard was wrestling with the +principalities and powers of darkness.</p> + +<p>“Who’s that?” bellowed the steersman, his momentary reassurance flown. +His face was turned with a gaze of inexpressible fear at the gleaming, +plunging masts. “There—there—”</p> + +<p>Richards peered in the rain-whipped night; peered and shrank back, his +mouth open wide and his eyes protruding. He rallied, pulled out a heavy +wooden pin from the ship’s side and started forward. Within ten paces +of the main-mast he stopped, and gathering his strength, hurled the pin +with all his force crashingly against the mast. The pin fell into an +invading sea and was whirled overboard. But the Thing stood, dark and +sinister.</p> + +<p>Richards felt the ship getting beyond control of the cowering helmsman. +He rushed back in time to save them from ruin; the man had dropped to +the deck, a bundle of abject fright. While the mate was still calling +for help, the boatswain crawled up on hands and knees and turned an +ashen face to his superior.</p> + +<p>“There’s a strange man,” he shouted as loudly as a quavering voice +would permit, indicating with a backward jerk of his thumb. “Aloft—”</p> + +<p>The Thing was moving about the yards; there was a sort of solid +blackness to It that somehow<span class="pagenum" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</span> made It visible even against its somber +background.</p> + +<p>Turning the helm over to the boatswain, the mate rushed below for his +pistol, but when he came back to the deck the Thing was gone.</p> + +<p>Richards laughed thinly. “The Devil’s signed on with us, boys!”</p> + +<p>“Then that’s the end o’ us,” groaned the boatswain.</p> + +<p>But the fact that a New Hand was on the ship if not on her articles was +not immediately disastrous. For very shortly after that vivid night, +Blackbeard, recovered now of his bout, met and took a very fine French +ship, which was in so excellent a condition that to call it “salvage” +was indeed the very subtlest of piratical jokes.</p> + +<p>And the joke was made good, too, when, taking her at once into +Ocracoke, His Excellency, with little hesitation, gave her captor a +certificate of salvage, accepting as his fee for the certificate some +sixty hogsheads of sugar. What the Governor did not use, Toby Knight +obligingly allowed to be stored in the Knight barn.</p> + +<p>This was the final straw that caused the proverbial fatal accident to +the camel. North Carolina, at the end of patience, now flared up, and, +ignoring her own corrupt authorities, appealed to the capable Alexander +Spotswood, Governor of Virginia, for the extermination of the pest of +Ocracoke Inlet.</p> + +<p>Virginia heard and responded and despatched<span class="pagenum" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</span> Captain Brand and +Lieutenant Maynard, each in command of a small ship of war, to the +Carolina coast in quest of Blackbeard.</p> + +<p>Brand and Maynard appreciated the size of their job, so they gathered +into their crews picked men who were volunteering for the duty, and +who would be likely to keep the same zestful lookout for the oncoming +terror as does a whaler in fat and profitable fishing grounds for the +dark bulk which shall fill all his barrels with oil.</p> + +<p>They reached Pamlico Sound, of which Ocracoke Inlet is a part, toward +the evening of November 21, and with jumping pulses spotted the masts +of the black beast as he lay in wait for prey. Blackbeard was surprised +just as Bonnet had been, and like Bonnet spent the night in getting +ready for battle.</p> + +<p>The Virginians had to lie outside the inlet all night and wait for +the morning to light them through the risky channels. When next day +they sailed in, Blackbeard, knowing the soundings, was able to make +the running-fight pirate tactics prescribed for such emergencies, and +blasted Brand and Maynard with his broadsides; and though steeped to +the eyebrows in rum, he was at all times the adept and finished sailor.</p> + +<p>But the enemy were getting at him, too, and his decks were cluttered +with the slain. He was undermanned, having only some twenty men at the +time, so that his losses from the attackers’ fire left him but a sparse +crew to work his ship<span class="pagenum" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</span> and man eight guns, as well as keep going an +effective musketry volleying. There was left but one resource, and that +was hand-to-hand conflict.</p> + +<p>He got within grappling distance of Maynard’s ship, and with his usual +ferocity of appearance and manner threw himself and his surviving men +into the Virginian’s rigging, and plunged, demoniacally fighting, to +the decks. For a second the pirates shook their enemy with the shock +of the impact, but not long; with that roaring vigor which gave the +English-speaking sailors their dominion of the oceans of the world, +Maynard’s men rallied and an indescribable butchering ensued.</p> + +<p>Blackbeard made for the commander, and Maynard met him with equal +courage and the added strength which the moral side of the matter +always lends a warrior’s arm. The arch-pirate’s body was open at more +than twenty places; but on those heaving, blood-wet decks he fought the +lieutenant with the verve of an athlete fresh for the field. A sudden +chance and he thrust a cocked pistol straight into his opponent’s +chest, but before the finger could pull the trigger back, Maynard laid +the cutlass squarely across the pirate’s throat. He sank to the deck +like a slaughtered bull.</p> + +<a id="He_fought_the_lieutenant_with_the_verve_of_an_athlete_fresh_for_the_field"></a> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp61" id="i156" style="max-width: 143.5em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/i156.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption class="caption"><p>He fought the lieutenant with the verve of an athlete +fresh for the field.</p></figcaption> +</figure> + +<p>It was all over. Those pirates who could, leaped over the bulwarks and +swam to the shore, leaving a red trail in the water behind them.</p> + +<p>Twilight came down on the sea. Beneath the <span class="pagenum" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</span>shallow +waters the bodies of the slain quivered with the motion of the waves as +if they were still alive and still struggling, and among them was the +headless corpse of Blackbeard.</p> + +<p>For that terrible head was hung at the bowsprit of Maynard’s ship. All +the way back to Virginia the gruesome figurehead swung and dipped and +ducked with the movements of the vessel; the ocean pounded and played +with it and twisted that strange beard into more fantastic shapes +than Blackbeard had ever dreamed of, weaving into it the weeds and +slime-flora of the sea, and for a last touch washed from their sockets +the baleful eyes which glared in the fixed glassiness of death.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</span></p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +</div> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</span></p> + +<h2> +<a id="CHAPTER_FOUR"></a>CHAPTER FOUR</h2> +<p class="center"> +BACK PAY +</p> +<p class="center"> +Henry Avery</p> +<h3> +I</h3> + + + +<p>Just outside of Plymouth, in the English county of Devonshire, John +Avery kept a tavern, under the patronage for the most part of coastwise +and deep-sea sailormen. It was a comfortable place, was that inn of +good Master Avery, with its sanded floor, diamond-paned windows, clean +tankards, and the good ale and victuals that made the house synonymous +with home for the parched mariner off in Malabar or his brother +expectantly bumping homeward-bound around the bulk of Africa’s majestic +cape.</p> + +<p>A good place with a good landlord, but, alas for perfect pleasure, +with a landlady not so good. For while mine host endeavored to drink +as much as his customer, leaving the score an amicable affair between +gentlemen, mine hostess tallied every drink and clawed every broad +penny laid upon the table. And how incompatible boozing and bookkeeping +are, every one may be presumed to know.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</span></p> + +<p>Jack and his wife had one child, a boy whom they called Harry. Perhaps +it was for the sake of her son that Mistress Avery was careful to +parsimoniousness, for the parents were resolved that Harry should +neither follow the sea nor pursue the occupation of a tavern keeper; +he was to be a scholar and a gentleman and thus raise the family at +least one higher rung on the social ladder. A straw, it is said by wise +people, may show which way the wind blows, and a circumstance which +occurred when Harry Avery was but six years old may perhaps suggest his +possible fulfillment of his parents’ hopes.</p> + +<p>For it was when Harry was of those tender years that the ship +<i>Revenge</i> paid off at Plymouth, the boatswain of which, at the +head of some proper fellows, at once started for Avery’s tavern, to +drink up a stout wallet of extra allowance money. With Jack Avery’s +company and Mrs. Avery’s accounting they soon got through with ten +pounds apiece.</p> + +<p>During the sailormen’s besotted sojourn at the tavern little Harry +gamboled impishly among them, swinging sea slang back and forth with +them, dancing a mimic hornpipe and convulsing them with the expert +manipulation of the most approved sea swearing. They prophesied that he +would make a good sailor.</p> + +<p>Unhappily all this cheeriness departed with their last groat. Mistress +Avery turned sour then and bade them begone or she would turn<span class="pagenum" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</span> in a +riot call to the constable. Night was falling when the groggy seamen +piled out to the chilly street to seek the shelter of the gloomy +<i>Revenge</i>.</p> + +<p>But that ship, alas, was not in the harbor. They huddled together and +stared first at the vacant harbor and then at each other. Marooned, by +tar!</p> + +<p>They tacked back to Jack Avery’s, but that gentleman’s shrewish wife +met them at the door with the sharp refusal of even a poor night’s +lodging in the stable. Little Harry, in the prettiest way, interceded +for these interesting strangers, but in vain; they had to warm +themselves as best they might by stamping through the town the whole +night long.</p> + +<p>With the morning, however, the <i>Revenge</i> came back, and the +boatswain led his now embittered flock to the waterside. On their way +they were met by little Harry Avery, nimble and frolicsome as ever. +He followed them to the boat which had put off from the ship to fetch +them, and wished loudly that he might go aboard and away with them.</p> + +<p>Whereupon the boatswain had a happy thought. Pushing back his +three-cornered hat, he scratched his mahogany forehead in deep +reflection. Why not take the boy aboard and thus get even with the +hard-hearted Mrs. Avery? Everybody roared with glee when this scheme of +revenge was broached. Harry was pulled by a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</span> great fist into the boat, +and his sea adventures were begun.</p> + +<p>Safely on their way to the American plantations and well out of sight +of land, the boatswain produced his kidnapped pal, who apparently +accounted the whole thing the very best joke in the world. For a moment +the captain glowered down on his peculiar passenger; but when Harry +showed how he could roll out two oaths to the boatswain’s one, his fare +was paid, and the captain looked upon him almost with affection.</p> + +<p>So bright a little blackguard was Harry that he stole more and more +into the grim captain’s heart and twined his wicked little fingers +still more firmly about the skipper’s starved emotions. A tiny hammock +was made for him close by the captain’s bunk; he was allowed the run of +the ship, and the cook was admonished to keep for him the least weevily +or oaken portions of the menu. It was a charming sight to see the small +chap, perched on a coil of rope, in blasphemous competition with the +admiring skipper.</p> + +<p>There is no telling how far this friendship might have gone, or whether +the captain of the <i>Revenge</i> might not even have adopted him for +his own son, had not an incident, as they neared Carolina, severed the +comradeship sharply in two. Harry was caught in the act of putting a +lighted match to the powder magazine; just an inch more and the ship +would have been nothing but a few broken spars and gratings drifting<span class="pagenum" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</span> +haphazardly upon the sands of the Carolina beach.</p> + +<p>The captain turned nasty right away. He banished his little pet into +the hold, down among the bilge and the rats, and kept him there +till they made port. Rather unkindly he gave the boy to a Carolina +planter,—unkindly, of course, not to the boy.</p> + +<p>It took the planter three years—for he was a man of monumental +patience—fully to realize the nature of the gift; and as he could not +wish Harry off on anybody in the colony, the boy’s talents being pretty +commonly known, he did the best thing he could and sent him back to +England.</p> + +<p>Old Jack Avery had died soon after the boy’s leaving England,—some +said of a broken heart. What contact Harry made with his mother is not +recorded, but it has become a matter of history that young Avery grew +up a rogue, and at length, finding the land too hot for him, sought the +cool and obscure promenades of his first element,—the sea.</p> + +<p>If he belonged anywhere it was to the sea. He even qualified as a +navigator with the rank of first mate. In the sixteen-hundred and +nineties, the Spanish Government made a bargain with some English +merchants to hire coast-guard ships for its troubled South American +colonies. Sir James Houblon and several others outfitted a couple of +brigs, the <i>Charles the Second</i> and the <i>James</i>, for<span class="pagenum" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</span> the +Spaniard’s business, and it was on the former that Avery was signed as +first mate.</p> + +<p>Thereafter things came about which made a matter for the King’s court +of Old Bailey, sitting in admiralty. Among the persons involved was an +ancient mariner by the name of William May, who on his trial has left +us a story of the wickedness of Mr. Avery. Unfortunately Harry Avery +was not brought to account for his crime, nor, so far as we are aware, +for any piracy, but slips from the pages of history with these things +unrecorded, probably to end his life as one, not the least evil, among +the buccaneering hordes of the Caribbean.</p> + +</div> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</span></p> + + +<h3> +II</h3> + +<p>Look at the sad plight of me, old Bill May, for thirty-five years in +the service of my king and country! Here I lie in the hold of Newgate +Gaol, condemned for a pirate and a-tremble like a loose sail in a gale +of wind every time the sheriff comes in to read off the list of those +appointed for the day to die.</p> + +<p>My right forefinger and the top of my thumb I lost just thirty year ago +when Admiral Tiddiman fought the Dutch in the harbor of Bergen. On the +<i>Hector</i>, Captain John Cuttle’s ship, I was. We ran afoul a Dutch +broadside, and down we went like a tub with a grindstone in it. Only +a score of us came up again, and me, with my maimed hand, had to swim +more than an hour for my life.</p> + +<p>A man who has given his limbs for his country to be stretched at +Execution Dock with no more to do than if he were a common picklock! +Ah! what a port has old Bill May’s ship come to at last!</p> + +<p>It does not become a man who has fought for England to whine at the +king’s court. But charity begins at home; and from a kindness to the +respectable name of May I am taking a quill in my fist to set out in +order the things that brought<span class="pagenum" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</span> me here—and shouldn’t have—which +things the lawyers confabulated me out of properly telling at my trial.</p> + +<p>The way the long-gowns<a id="FNanchor_1" href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> talked you would have thought they and not we +were the ones to be hanged. Begging everybody’s pardon, I ask who ought +to do the most talking—accuser or accused?</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_1" href="#FNanchor_1" class="label">[1]</a> Lawyers.</p> + +</div> + +<p>His Lordship, Judge Holt—who was master of the court—was pretty fair, +but those king’s counsel blasted the whole dozen or more judges with +words, words, words, till I looked to see them all blown through the +wall of Old Bailey—and the big bench with ’em. Half the time those +lawyers didn’t speak a man’s English, but yammered in a foreign tongue, +calling us names we knew not what. Some of it sounded to me like +Portugee.<a id="FNanchor_2" href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> Jack Sparkes<a id="FNanchor_3" href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> swore from keel to truck it was Irish. But +when we came to talk, how was it then?</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_2" href="#FNanchor_2" class="label">[2]</a> Law-latin: “<i>Hostes humanis generis</i>”, etc.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_3" href="#FNanchor_3" class="label">[3]</a> A co-defendant.</p> + +</div> + +<p>“Speak to the point, my man.”</p> + +<p>And, “What have you more to say?”</p> + +<p>If we had had anything to saw, how could we have said it with no lawyer +to pilot us over the law language and to throw outlandish words back at +our prosecutors?</p> + +<p>Nay, more. From jury to judges they were all land crabs. Asks Judge +Holt—</p> + +<p>“What do you mean by ‘conning a ship?’”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</span></p> + +<p>Begging their honors’ pardon, I ask, Could that be a fair trial for +sailormen? A baby at the breast ought to know that conning a ship is +a-steering of her.</p> + +<p>Did I have to ship on the <i>Charles the Second</i>? Was I pressed? +Never has the press-gang picked up old Bill May when he was sober. +How often have I led the gang myself! Who was it grabbed half a score +knock-kneed apprentices for the <i>Hector</i> and other of the king’s +ships under Admiral Tiddiman? Only Bill May, the pirate.</p> + +<p>No, indeed. Captain Brake of the <i>Wave</i>, East Indiaman, was +begging me to voyage with him to Calicut, but I said, “No, here is Sir +James Houblon outfitting <i>costa-gardas</i> for the Spanish South +Americas; here,” said I, “is where they need men who can keep an edge +to a cutlass, and where I am wanted there I always try to be.”</p> + +<p>I was wanted at Bergen against the Dutch thirty year ago, and there I +was—as witness my finger and thumb.</p> + +<p>Very well, then; here is the start of the affair.</p> + +<p>Mr. Don Spaniard could not keep a strong hand on the pirate people +himself over in South America, so he comes to England to hire ships +and men to go out and help clean his coasts of those pests. Sir +James Houblon and some other merchants strike a bargain with Mr. +Don Spaniard, and fit out the <i>Charles the Second</i> and the +<i>James</i>.</p> + +<p>I was lying alongshore getting my mind ready<span class="pagenum" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</span> to sign with Master Brake +on the <i>Wave</i> when I heard this Spanish affair talked about in the +“Pig’s Head”, Bristol. As I say, Bill May is never too old to fight on +a good side, so I made for the docks straightway and offered myself to +Mr. Gibson, master of the <i>Charles the Second</i>. An old Navy man he +was, and knew me in the past, so he gave me his hand and the rating of +quartermaster.</p> + +<p>Henry Every<a id="FNanchor_4" href="#Footnote_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> was first mate under Captain Gibson, and Mr. Gravet was +second mate. A new man to me was Every, but a pleasant, merry one, +about forty years old. Not even, though, in his mind. Why he would +stand by me while I was at the whipstaff<a id="FNanchor_5" href="#Footnote_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> and make me laugh like +to throttle myself at the quips that came from him as shot from a +well-greased ten-pounder. But a minute later he would be cursing the +sea, ships, sailormen and his own hard luck. Time and again he said to +me—</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_4" href="#FNanchor_4" class="label">[4]</a> Old spelling for Avery.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_5" href="#FNanchor_5" class="label">[5]</a> Helm.</p> + +</div> + +<p>“I’m a man of fortune, and my fortune I’m going to make.”</p> + +<p>Queerlike, he spoke, and queerlike I took it. But I never dreamed he +was meaning to do a mischief to make his fortune.</p> + +<p>Born for the sea he was, and knew a ship like you know the palm of your +hand. Hard, too, he could be; I have seen him knock a man to the deck +and never leave off laughing.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</span></p> + +<p>Strange laugh he had; up in the back of the nose, as it were, and +panting like—sort of a snorting. Between us, though, there was no +trouble; Henry Every always said I was the properest quartermaster he +ever shipped with. He couldn’t bear Gravet; they did not hitch, though +nothing outwardly passed from one to the other.</p> + +<p>Our orders were first for the Groyne<a id="FNanchor_6" href="#Footnote_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> in Spain, there to get +instructions and supplies. The <i>Charles the Second</i> and the +<i>James</i> left England in the autumn of 1693, and about the new +year following we dropped our anchors in the Spanish port. Bad weather +had made a job of slow sailing and hard pumping all across the Bay of +Biscay, but we cheered ourselves with promises of ease when we should +come to the Groyne.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_6" href="#FNanchor_6" class="label">[6]</a> Old name for Corunna.</p> + +</div> + +<p>All hands had four months’ wages due them when we came to port, but not +a mother’s son of us could get a penny piece from the commander. The +Spaniard is as sluggish in money matters as a waterlogged ship with a +broken mast.</p> + +<p>There grew to be a lot of hard feeling on both ships, and the two +captains, Gibson and Humphries, were much pestered to their faces and +much abused behind their backs. I could not see how they were to blame, +but they were the only ones the men could look to for their pay and so +they had to bear the siege. January came and went; February came and +went, March came<span class="pagenum" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</span> and went, and April likewise; and not a smell did we +get of coin, either Spanish or English.</p> + +<p>The sailors at length quit going ashore to be jeered for their poverty +and taunted for their misfortune, but moped about the decks and fought +with one another, and altogether got to a mischievous turn of mind. +Every and Gravet gave plenty of way to each other, while as for my old +commander, Captain Gibson, he broke with the worry of it all and took +sick to his cabin. Little winds blow ships into strange ports; if the +Don had met us with our pay old Bill May’s neck would never have been +hauled upon like a mainsail.</p> + +</div> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</span></p> + + +<h3> +III</h3> + + +<p>If the men had a friend among the officers, it was Mr. Every. I thought +to see him turn sour with this slow making of his fortune, but not he; +the farther into the doldrums we got, the higher he flew his topsails. +He praised and petted the crew, spent some money on them, went ashore +with them and even made chief cronies of a dozen or so, of whom I am +sorry to say that some of my fellows in this condemned hold were a part.</p> + +<p>He loitered, too, a good deal over on the <i>James</i>, which barnacled +a few lengths from us, and made as good friends there as he did on his +own ship. When the month of May began, there was always a confabulation +going forward, with Mr. Every in the middle of it and certain chosen +ones about him. And all the time my old commander lay grievously sick +in his bed.</p> + +<p>How could I have any idea Mr. Every was stewing a mutiny? Yet so he +was. On the 30th of May, in the year 1694, I was at evening in my +cabin, thinking of home and wishing I had my wages to send to my poor, +good wife at Bristol. At between ten and eleven of the night I felt the +ship move.</p> + +<p>“Ho!” thinks I. “What does this mean?”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</span></p> + +<p>I rushed out in my shirt and stockings to the under deck and from there +up the hatchway. The wind hit me full in the face, and I could see the +lights of town dropping astern.</p> + +<p>I stuck my head up over the hatchway; there was Every conning the ship.</p> + +<p>“Breakers ahead!” thought I. “Yaw away, old Bill May, afore you strike.”</p> + +<p>Every saw me at that minute.</p> + +<p>“You, May,” he roared, nasty, “I believe you do not love this way; get +down to your cabin.”</p> + +<p>But see what the king’s evidence said about me. One Creagh, a dirty +wretch, and now a prisoner right in this gaol for treason with Captain +Vaughan, and one time aboard the <i>Charles the Second</i>, witnessed +that at this going-off of the ship, “I met with William May, the +prisoner at the bar. ‘What do you do here?’ says he. I made him no +answer but went down to my cabin, and May swore at me and said, ‘You +deserve to be shot through the head,’ and he held a pistol at my head.”</p> + +<p>Can you imagine a man who has fought for his king and country being a +party to the crime of stealing the ship of a fellow subject? Not only +that. The ship’s carpenter was a ringleader with Mr. Every in this +insurrection, and Creagh—may he be eaten alive with weevils—swore the +carpenter said in his hearing—</p> + +<p>“Old May I can trust with anything; he is a true cock of the old game +and an old sportsman.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</span></p> + +<p>Was ever such a farrago told in a king’s court?</p> + +<p>Me, an old bird at the pirate game—me, an old sportsman—me, who +would not demean myself to wipe my boots on that carpenter’s neck! Sam +Parsons, who is now in Virginia, was standing by when Every drove me to +my cabin, and he would swear to my truth.</p> + +<p>But does the king call him? Nay. But such treasonable scandalizers +as Creagh—they get the run of the deck. Would the king, begging his +Majesty’s pardon, bring a witness from Virginia to save a poor sailor’s +life? Ask him!</p> + +<p>I could not stay down in the cabin for thinking of my old commander and +what might be happening to him. I almost cried for my old commander. +At the risk of my head I went to his cabin. Two men stood guard at the +door with naked cutlasses; I begged leave to go in, and at length they +allowed me.</p> + +<p>Oh, my poor old commander! He was red with fever, and the chirurgeon +was anointing his temples. He got out of bed and began to dress +himself, with me there to lend him a steadying hand.</p> + +<p>“Ah, faithful May—” he was saying, when in came Mr. Every, smelling of +grog, and with a most impudent look.</p> + +<p>“I am a man of fortune, Captain,” he said, making a bow, “and my +fortune I must seek.”</p> + +<p>“I am sorry this happens at this time,” said my poor old commander.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</span></p> + +<p>“Come with us, Captain, and you shall still have the command,” replied +Mr. Every.</p> + +<p>Says Captain Gibson:</p> + +<p>“No. I never thought you would have served me so, who have been kind to +all of you; and to go on a design against my owner’s orders I will not +do it.”</p> + +<p>“Then,” said Mr. Every, “prepare to go ashore.”</p> + +<p>What honest sailorman would not be plowed in his feelings by his old +commander’s plight? Should I have been ashamed though my tears dropped +upon the captain’s trembling hand? He looked kindly upon me as I stood +there still in my shirt and stockings.</p> + +<p>“Go, faithful May,” he said at last. “Nothing will avail now.”</p> + +</div> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</span></p> + + +<h3> +IV</h3> + + +<p>I went back to the deck to get my bearings. From one and another, so +far as the tumult which was on the ship permitted, I made out that the +taking of the <i>Charles the Second</i> was in this wise:</p> + +<p>Mr. Every, using the common grief about the wages to serve his turn, +made fellow-plotters of some score of men, both in the <i>Charles the +Second</i> and the <i>James</i>. The night having been picked out on +the calendar, it was agreed that at a given time by the clock one from +the <i>Charles the Second</i> should go to the <i>James</i> and say +that the <i>Charles the Second</i> was being run off. The officers +of the <i>James</i>, it was expected, would order out the pinnace in +pursuit, when the friends of Mr. Every were to crowd forward, fill the +boat, and make for the <i>Charles the Second</i>, where instead of +arresting her they would turn to and haul together with their companion +miscreants of the <i>Charles the Second</i>, who in the meantime would +have seized the ordnance and ammunitions aboard our ship. The cables of +the <i>Charles the Second</i> were to be cut, all but two of her boats +turned adrift, and her sails shaken out loose.</p> + +<p>Things went smoothly according to plan. At nine o’clock one went from +the <i>Charles the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</span> Second</i> to the <i>James</i>. At the head of the +gangway of that ship he found Mr. Druit, mate, on watch. Says he to Mr. +Druit—</p> + +<p>“Have you seen the drunken boatswain of ours aboard your ship?”</p> + +<p>“No,” says Mr. Druit. “Isn’t he aboard of you?”</p> + +<p>“Nay,” said the villain conspirator; “he’s not aboard, but mischief is.”</p> + +<p>He leaned close to the mate and whispered—</p> + +<p>“They’re running off with the <i>Charles the Second</i>.”</p> + +<p>At once Mr. Druit bellowed for the pinnace to be got out, which, of +course, merely gave the ruffians their cue. Twenty-six men, laden with +their hammocks and sea gear, immediately rushed forth and manned the +pinnace.</p> + +<p>“Here—here—” cries Mr. Druit, seeing a wicked game going; but the +rascals had their oars in the water and made off in the dark, swearing +and singing.</p> + +<p>Thereupon Captain Humphries, of the <i>James</i>, rushed to the rail +and shouted through his speaking-trumpet that his boat was being +stolen, to which Mr. Every, likewise through a trumpet, impertinently +answered he knew that well enough. So they came to our ship and knotted +themselves together with our rascals.</p> + +<p>No sooner had the runaways from the <i>James</i> thrown their hammocks +to our deck than light sail was set, and we stood out of the harbor, +this<span class="pagenum" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</span> being the motion which had first brought me a-running from my +cabin. At eleven o’clock the topsail was braced back, and we lay to. +Mr. Every, who now called himself captain, sent word about the ship +that certain ones were free to leave in the pinnace of the <i>James</i> +if so they chose. Men of spirit, he said, would stay by the ship and +collect their back pay. And he laughed.</p> + +</div> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</span></p> + + +<h3> +V</h3> + + +<p>Right here is the kernel of the case. Did Mr. Every pick the men who +should go ashore if they wanted, or was that liberty given to any one? +If Mr. Every picked out the people to go, then we who stayed were kept +against our wills, and are innocent; if we could have gone and did not, +then we are guilty.</p> + +<p>We had been acquitted on our first trial for piracy of the ship +<i>Gunsway</i>, and I am talking now about our second trial, of which +the theft of the <i>Charles the Second</i> was made the charge. Hence +the king must prove that we were parties to this latter crime. All the +king’s evidence swore that any man might go who would,—except the +doctor; all of us prisoners at the bar stuck to it that none could +leave but by Mr. Every’s say-so.</p> + +<p>And whom did the king call?</p> + +<p>Creagh. This fellow was one who left the ship when the boat went away +for shore. Was he therefore a good, an upright, an honorable man? If +he had been, would he have associated himself afterward with Captain +Vaughan and gone over to the king’s enemies with Vaughan’s ship, for +which very crime he lies manacled with us? How truthful must he be!</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</span></p> + +<p>Gravet. He too went from our ship; but he was so busy at his going, +begging Mr. Every to let him take his sea coffer and his clothes, that +he had no means of marking much else that went on. How then did he find +time to know so much about my deportment? Says he—</p> + +<p>“When we had liberty to go out of the ship, this man May took me by the +hand and wished me well home, and bid me remember him to his wife; and +was very merry and jocund, and knew whither they were going.”</p> + +<p>Merry and jocund, and a knowing accomplice! What proof had he that I +knew whither we were going? Who but Mr. Every and his ring knew that?</p> + +<p>Creagh and Gravet, these two are all that went to the matter of my part +in the plot, and Creagh may be discounted for a born liar, trying to +serve his ends in his pending treason trial by convicting honest men, +while Gravet—even if he told the fact concerning our parting—offered +no proof beyond his thin statement that I “knew whither they were +going.” Yet when you get down to the bone, I was convicted and handed +to the hangman on those five words.</p> + +<p>But, say some, how can you explain your being on a mutiny ship, stolen +and making off for sea? I claim that Sam Parsons can bear me out +touching Mr. Every and me, but Parsons is in Virginia; and there, for +all the king cares, he may stay.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</span></p> + +<p>Alas!</p> + +<p>My poor old commander, Captain Gibson, was lifted into the pinnace, +where some seventeen or eighteen men were already gone, and who, when +we had tossed them a bailing bucket they cried for, shoved off for town.</p> + +<p>Let me ask any man of fair mind this question: How could a hundred men, +had they wanted, have gone off in a ship’s pinnace?</p> + +<p>When the boat had left we began the business of the ship and, hauling +into the wind, made haste to leave those parts. I was deposed from +quartermaster and a willing villain put at the whipstaff in my stead. +More than half of us knew nothing but that we must be upon unlawful +occasions.</p> + +<p>The ship thieves were not fifty men, all tallied; yet with their +control of our ordnance, fusees and small arms they could terrify the +remaining hundred people into obedience to their horrid designs. Less +than one in ten aboard could read and write, being for the more part +ignorant seamen, easily deceived and commanded. Not only did Mr. Every +and his wicked fellows steal a ship, but they kidnapped a crew.</p> + +</div> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</span></p> + + +<h3> +VI</h3> + + +<p>When we sailed from the Groyne we had a deal of bread and a couple of +hundred pair of woolen stockings; but, wanting beef and more bread, +we stood for the Madeira Islands. The evil disposition of Mr. Every +quickly showed its true kind, for we were sent aboard three English +ships which lay at the islands and looted them under the pretense +of giving receipts for the things we took, with promises of future +payment. Mr. Every laughed a great deal at this.</p> + +<p>So too he laughed at our operations on the coast of Guinea, whither we +went from the Madeiras. We sailed into Guinea Gulf under English colors +solely to entice the poor, trusting negroes of the country aboard, who, +when they came supposing we were to trade with them, were despoiled of +their golden trinkets and thrown, chained together, into our hold.</p> + +<p>These captives we took from the mainland over to Prince’s Island, in +the gulf, and marketed them with Dutch settlers. When it came to bring +them up on deck we found the dead and the living sometimes chained +together. It was a very great horror.</p> + +<p>Being now a proper pirate, Mr. Every at this<span class="pagenum" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</span> Prince’s Island fought +two Dane ships. We fair surprised them, not a few of their men being +alongshore. We ran to leeward of the larger one and, opening our ports, +bit into him with twenty guns, the blow of our shot shaking two Danes +out of the shrouds to their deck, like a couple of ripe plums from a +tree. With good spirit the merchantmen made what shift they might with +their half-dozen small pieces, but a musket shot killing the captain of +the one we first attacked, both ships gave in.</p> + +<p>Our brave show and talk so affected some of these Danes that a score +of them signed on with Mr. Every. Our one broadside so damaged the +Danish brig that Mr. Every set her afire, and we stood by, watching +the burning and cheering whenever a canister of powder blew up, Mr. +Every standing on our poop, the red of the flames glaring on his face, +nodding his head and laughing with himself.</p> + +<p>The smaller vessel we took with us, Mr. Every expecting to make himself +a great admiral at the head of a great pirate fleet, though for sure +it smirches the noble dignity of that honored title to give it to a +miscreant so black.</p> + +<p>Many folk—not a few of them of the highest fashion—have come to +Newgate Gaol to see the notorious Captain Every’s men, as if forsooth +our feet were cleft like a goat’s or horns were hid beneath our +forelocks. Some of these have said it was not ingenuous for us who +served by<span class="pagenum" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</span> compulsion thus to engage in these villainous combats and +sinful traffickings with slaves. Why, say they, did you not flee from +Mr. Every at the first chance and return to England to make discovery +of his crimes?</p> + +<p>There was no first, middle or last chance.</p> + +<p>And what a ship it was! In place of discipline there was a disorder +very afflicting to an old king’s man. Each man counted himself the +equal of the other, and although Mr. Every was a hard man and quick to +strike, he was submitted to only because he was a navigator, and none +could take the ship so well as he.</p> + +<p>But he could make no general move without having first a consult in +which all hands took part until the confabulation sounded like a tree +full of crows. We called a vote on everything,—the next place for +depredation, the punishment of offenses aboard ship and the amount of +plunder each man should get.</p> + +<p>This last was a bone for the dogs to growl and bite about, I can tell +you. Newcomers like the Danes were for having as much from the bag as +the men who had stolen the ship at the Groyne.</p> + +<p>“Nay,” said these; “not so, for we brought you the ship, and you give +us nothing but your hands.”</p> + +<p>“Good,” quoth the recruits. “Then we can take ourselves off and you may +have your ship and be hanged.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</span></p> + +<p>Thus the tree forked and on its opposite branches bore fruit of bitter +will.</p> + +<p>The small Danish sloop we were taking with us from Prince’s Island made +early harvest of the animosity among us. Mr. Every would keep her as a +tender; others were for selling her so that they might paw some money.</p> + +<p>“If you sell her,” said certain ones, “what will be the shares of each?”</p> + +<p>Thereupon the quarrel flared up, and nothing could be agreed except +that Mr. Every should have two shares; that is, if the highest share +were one thousand pounds, Mr. Every should get two thousand pounds, but +as to the rest there was no concord; the argument being as sharp as if +the money for the sloop were already in the quartermaster’s coffer. The +Frenchmen recruited at the Madeiras were for the arbitrament of the +dirk, seeing which—and that it was time to act—Mr. Every ordered the +twenty-pounder shotted and trained on the sloop. He cut the towline and +said, “Give it her betwixt the wind and the water,” and thereupon old +José, the Spanish gunner, hit her so neatly beneath her lowest ports +that she was not atop the waves more than fifteen minutes.</p> + +<p>“Rather she sink than we,” said Mr. Every to the men, who now began to +see that if they could not agree better the whole enterprise would be +ruined.</p> + +</div> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</span></p> + + +<h3> +VII</h3> + + +<p>We turned Cape Lopez, and stopping for water at Annibo,<a id="FNanchor_7" href="#Footnote_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> ran onward +to the Cape of Good Hope, where we took a small coasting sloop, rifled +her and let her go. Thence we came to Madagascar, where we made some +stay. I had been here many times before in honest ships, and it was +with shame that I now came in with this unlawful company.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_7" href="#FNanchor_7" class="label">[7]</a> Anamaboe.</p> + +</div> + +<p>Not that there was anybody there whose rebuke I feared, for Madagascar +was the wickedest place—outside the West Indies—in the ocean; but I +was not easy for thinking that I was now one among those whom I had +regarded in times past as malefactors. Three years had passed since my +last visit, and piracy had swelled so much as to become a very great +evil.</p> + +<p>I saw, too, so many more pirating fellows from the West Indies, for +the more part Englishmen hailing first from the American provinces, +but so outlandish looking a tribe one would never have known them for +our countrymen except by their speech, they affecting a Spanish style +with bright silk sashes, silk shirts, ruffled breeches; many wearing +earrings, and not a few with heavy gold chains about their necks, the +true fashion of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</span> Caribbean sea robbers. Verily this place had become +the very metropolis of rascality, the base for criminal cruises all the +way to the Gulf of Aden and the coast of India.</p> + +<p>Mr. Every could not come the Madeira game here but had to pay for the +provisions he bought and the cows he purchased to slaughter and salt +up, for none trafficked here save with a naked blade in one hand and +the price in the other.</p> + +<p>At Madagascar I took the sickness which even now afflicts me and has +reduced me to the poorest state of body and mind ever a man fell into. +I was too old for junketing about with pirates, being past sixty years +of age, for the long deprivations and exposures of my life at sea—the +inclement weather and the intolerable food I had had to endure—made me +fit rather for a cottage in my native Mendip Hills, in the parish of +Cheddar, rather than in so tan-chasing a fly-by-night company as cruel +circumstances had put me.</p> + +<p>The ship’s doctor found at Madagascar the chance to quit our way of +life and fled the ship, leaving me and a number of other sick men to +suffer in our cabins, helpless on the hands of people who were more +drunken than kindhearted. How often have I lain on my bed and watched +the cook, unstable with rum, tacking and yawing at my threshold, likely +on an instant to founder and cast the kid of hot meat upon my head!</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</span></p> + +<p>Just before we left this wicked and riotous island, one of the Caribbee +pirates—an Englishman first from Boston in New England—brought to +me the doctor of his ship; a sharp rascal who was sought in his own +country for many crimes. This fellow bled me in two ways: one for my +good with his lance, the other for his good with his pilfering fingers, +for in mauling about my body he slyly stole thirty gold guineas from my +belt. He said I ailed with the putrid fever and the dry bellyache. He +found me with two diseases; he left me with a third, a burning rancor +against the villain which can never be eased save by bleeding; and I +have long carried the leech which can suck deep of his venal blood.</p> + +<p>Mr. Every now made sail for Joanna.<a id="FNanchor_8" href="#Footnote_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_8" href="#FNanchor_8" class="label">[8]</a> In the Comoro Islands, Mozambique Channel, off the +Madagascar coast.</p> + +</div> + +<p>“Here,” thought I when we anchored, “is a quiet place for old Bill May +to die, happy that his last breath should not be drawn on a ship stolen +from his king and country.”</p> + +<p>With some other sick ones I was put ashore on the beach at Joanna, +where they laid us out in a row under the trees, Mr. Every deputing a +few men to attend upon us. I was now quite helpless, remaining useless +of hands and feet and despairing of my life. In some peace we stayed +there all that night, but before noon of the next day three large ships +hove in sight—East Indiamen—and Mr. Every, in the greatest fright of +being<span class="pagenum" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</span> surprised at the roadstead with half his crew ashore, ordered +all hands on board and to bring the water kegs and the sick with them. +They came with a great running and bustle to carry me away; but said I—</p> + +<p>“Leave me here; I have no stomach to fight those three ships; I prefer +to lie here and trust myself to my fellow countrymen or to the mercy of +the island negroes.”</p> + +<p>There being no time to confabulate, the men rushed for their boats +without more ado, and soon the <i>Charles the Second</i> was hauled to +the wind and off like a hare before the hounds.</p> + +<p>The Indiamen came to anchor and made a great business of bringing kegs +and barrels for water, boats plying between the shore and the ships. I +purposed to apply to them for a passage from this lonely beach and a +refuge from the wicked Mr. Every, and so made me a crutch, as is were, +from the bough of a tree and with it very painfully I crawled to where +the work was going forward.</p> + +<p>A fat man with a red face and very white hair was commanding, whose +name, a sailor told me, was Captain Edgcomb. To him I applied to +be taken aboard his ship, but he—on my confessing I was from the +<i>Charles the Second</i>—gave me scurrilous language, abusing me +before all the people, and vehemently swearing that he would give me +passage to Bombay—and there to the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</span> hangman. Thus the naughtiness on +our ship had become the talk of all the world.</p> + +<p>“Aye,” said I, “Captain Edgcomb, sir, rather would I go down with you +to Bombay and die according to the law of my country than perish here +at the hands of these heathen blackamoors, or among evil pirates.”</p> + +<p>He turned away to his work, rumbling in his throat like the end of a +thunderstorm.</p> + +<p>But others had compassion on me. As they came and went with their water +casks some humane men brought me one thing and another to refresh me, +encouraging me also with the promise that I should go away with them. +At evening the last load was taken. In that boat were the doctor and +the purser, both of whom said the captain would send for me to come +aboard.</p> + +<p>“I am quite ready at any time,” I told them, “for all I have in the +world is the clothing that hangs to my back.”</p> + +<p>So very hopefully I sat me down upon the sand and watched the sun go +down to his rest beyond the far sea line; but more I gazed at the masts +and yards of the three ships which stood out so bold and black against +the red sky. “They will come soon,” thought I, “for they are getting +ready to go,” the men being in the shrouds and out on the footropes.</p> + +<p>When it grew dark, lights jumped from porthole to porthole as the men +went about the decks setting out the lanterns. I should guess the time<span class="pagenum" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</span> +to have been past midnight when the anchor chains rattled and the +capstan creaked and the chant of the people working it and the clatter +of their bars in the drumhead sockets came across the water. “They will +be here anon,” thinks I, and I got down as close to the water as I +could, that they should lose no effort when the boat came in for me.</p> + +<p>But it did not come. Perhaps it was one o’clock when the ship’s lights +began to move away—away and away until they went out altogether, and +only a long, thin lane of moonlight lay in the wide, empty waste.</p> + +<p>My feet felt wet; I looked down and found I was standing in water up to +my knees.</p> + +<p>How hard is the sea!</p> + +</div> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</span></p> + + +<h3> +VIII</h3> + + + +<p>I crawled up the sand and lay stupidly all night, nor thought—nay +hardly wished—to see another morning dawn. The blackamoors that +rampaged in this island would surely finish me if disease did not, +though indeed some had been along the beach when we came in and did us +no harm.</p> + +<p>Toward noon as I sat under a tree feeling indeed that I was sinking to +my end, there came one of the negroes to me. He was a very tall man +with a sort of twisted face, the jib of his chin being thrust somewhat +to the side rather than in front, which did not make him look pretty. +But he wore breeches and a torn shirt, while in his belt was stuck a +sailor’s dirk, which was a great wonderment to me. If he were a vulture +he should find but bony carrion.</p> + +<p>“Hello, Jack!”</p> + +<p>I opened my eyes, sure now that the fever had got to my brain.</p> + +<p>“Who be you?” I asked, not believing that my ears heard English from a +native negro.</p> + +<p>He leaned back with his hands on his hips and laughed at my +astonishment.</p> + +<p>“You know Bednal Green,<a id="FNanchor_9" href="#Footnote_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> Jack?”</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_9" href="#FNanchor_9" class="label">[9]</a> Bethnal Green, now in the limits of London.</p> + +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</span></p> + +<p>Bednal Green? Aye, Green’s the name and green’s the word. Green! Oh, +for the leaves, the grass, the young buds of spring; just one handful +of those was worth more than all of those yellow sands, glaring waters +and banana skies! Bednal Green! The very word—the name—was like cold +water on a gritted tongue! Bednal Green! Aye, had I the choice between +the eating room of the “White Duck” Tavern and the palace of the Grand +Mogul across the water in India, there would be no bargaining. Did I +know Bednal Green!</p> + +<p>“Aye,” said I, “very well.”</p> + +<p>“You have ale at him White Duck?”</p> + +<p>Ale at the White Duck—the very place that was running in my mind! I +knew then that I was dreaming; that I was out of my head and that I +would surely soon die. Verily I had drunk ale in the White Duck; drunk +it often of winter mornings when Mistress Brown, in a clean apron, kept +the coal fire bright in the grate, and the carters from the country, +leaving their wains outside, came stamping in, blowing upon their +finger tips and shouting the gossip of the frozen roads. I lost myself +in a sort of swoon.</p> + +<p>When I came back to my senses I was lying in the old hut of a +fisherman, and the big black fellow was fanning my head with a bundle +of broad leaves. He must have carried me in from the beach; an easy +job, for I was all skin and bones, and he was a giant.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</span></p> + +<p>When he saw me open my eyes he bade me fear nothing, that I was in his +house and the people of the place would do me no harm. He said that I +might call him Jim.</p> + +<p>Jim nursed me like I was a baby; he gave me food and drink; he tried to +keep me cool at noon and warm at night, and all without pay, for not +one penny piece of my few remaining coins would he take. His was just a +heart of good will. And in between whiles he told me the strange story +of his life.</p> + +<p>He had gone to England from Africa on a British ship a long time +before and had made his dwelling in London, particularly in this +suburb of Bednal Green, where he turned his hand to one thing and +another wherever there was need of a man of strength. At length, +being of the mind to go to sea again, he had left England in the ship +<i>Rochester</i>—I knew her very well—bound for the Indies.</p> + +<p>But off Guinea they fell into a sea fight with a Frenchman, and +were very hardly pressed, their enemy having more guns and men than +they. Resolving to make a struggle to the finish, the captain of the +<i>Rochester</i>—probably to keep his men from fleeing—ordered Jim to +cut the longboat adrift from the stern of the ship. Jim went beyond his +orders, for after cutting the rope he stayed in the boat and made off +with it under cover of the gun smoke.</p> + +<p>He had not got a mile away when with a great<span class="pagenum" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</span> noise the +<i>Rochester</i> blew up, her powder having exploded by accident. He +made his way to Guinea and from there, on one ship and another, he had +slowly worked his way to this place of Joanna, where he had a mind to +settle himself among the native people.</p> + +<p>“Why,” said I, “are you so kind to me?”</p> + +<p>To this he replied that he had a kindness for plain sailormen; that +they suffered much on their ships at the hands of hard masters, and +many had, out of their little, often supplied his wants.</p> + +<p>For eight weeks black Jim thus cared for me,—a poor, forlorn, marooned +seaman, and a sailor’s blessing rests upon him. I owe him my life.</p> + +<p>At the end of that time he came one day into the hut and said that a +ship was standing in. He had brought my strength up so that I could now +walk a little, and I went out into the sunshine and there, sure enough, +was a ship,—and it was the ship of Mr. Every. He had evidently come +again for water.</p> + +<p>Here then was a puzzle for me. Should I go back to him or stay with the +good Jim and his people? I am an Englishman and not an African; I would +be home again. Jim could not come down to the beach for fear of being +taken as a slave, but he and the natives fled back into the island. I +bade him good-by with all my heart,—the only friend I was to find in +thousands of watery miles.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</span></p> + +<p>Mr. Every was down at the boats.</p> + +<p>“Hallo, old May,” he said. “We thought you must be dead by now; that +the sickness had taken you. You must have been born to be hanged!”</p> + +</div> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</span></p> + + +<h3> +IX</h3> + +<p>Getting out to sea strengthened me a little more, and I took heart, +though the evil associations of the <i>Charles the Second</i> pained +the conscience. Very small scrapings had fallen to them since they had +left Joanna, and the mood of the crew was sour.</p> + +<p>However, they parliamented together and voted to go to the Gulf of Aden +to find Moorish ships, and perhaps waylay the rich fleet of Mocha, +whose movements they had learned of at Madagascar.</p> + +<p>“With that,” said Mr. Every, “we shall make our fortune”,—fortune +being a great word in his mouth.</p> + +<p>In those regions the sun is cruel. As we drew on to the gulf the heat +lay upon us like a smothering blanket; nay, like many blankets, so that +the very air one breathed seemed to sear the throat; we went about our +blistered decks nearly naked—to put your hand on one of the guns was +like laying it on a hot oven—and Mr. Every sprawled under an awning +that was rigged over the poop, drinking bomboo<a id="FNanchor_10" href="#Footnote_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> and wishing he had +made his fortune and were living in a fine house<span class="pagenum" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</span> with a fine wife in +England. Nor had we the comfort of looking toward cooler waters, but +every day drew farther and farther into the furnace.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_10" href="#FNanchor_10" class="label">[10]</a> Grog of limes, sugar, etc.</p> + +</div> + +<p>At the mouth of the Red Sea—red is the color of flame—we fell in with +two ships that were on the same account as we, and the morning after +meeting them met three more ships of bad intent, some being Englishmen +from America—Captains May (no relative of mine) Farrel and Wake—until +you might have supposed a parliament of pirates was meeting. We were +all there for the Mocha fleet; but after riding together a night or two +and exchanging visits we separated, each captain having his own notion +of the place where the fleet we sought would pass.</p> + +<p>But wide is the sea and many are its paths, and the Mocha fleet slipped +by us all in the night of Saturday. Next morning the men held a general +consult as to whether we should follow them or not, and after a great +dispute as usual, a vote was taken which fell for pursuit, and so the +Sabbath was desecrated by a wicked chase.</p> + +<p>At sundown we came upon a lagging ship of the fleet and took her +without a fight, and with her something of gold and silver, but no +great sum. We put a prize crew aboard but soon called them off again +and left the ship to go her voyage.</p> + +<p>There was enough profit in this plunder to cheer our people, and they +became hungry for more. A few days thereafter we spied another<span class="pagenum" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</span> sail +and, getting up our anchor, stood to her. Before we came up to her a +haze fell over the sea, which presently turned to a thick fog, thereby +favoring Mr. Every’s enterprise by allowing him to get close and make a +sort of surprise.</p> + +<p>When nigh enough we sent a shot across her bows; but she, fearing that +we were a lawless ship, refused to heave back but hauled to the wind +and made off. With the breeze on our starboard quarter, despite the +fog we kept her in sight; and, being the better sailer, we drew down +upon her, so near that we made her out to be the <i>Gunsway</i>, East +Indiaman.</p> + +<p>Mr. Every now yawed his ship occasionally as he worked for the range; +but they opened first at us, giving us a load from their stern-chasers, +which split our larboard foreyard arm and might, had it been a little +cleaner break, put us out of the pursuit. Mr. Every replied with our +bow-chasers, which we learned afterward did them little hurt.</p> + +<p>Our captain, wishing to get the range for his broadside more quickly +and the <i>Gunsway</i> beginning to show a chance of escape, we put +our helm down hard, and, coming athwart the bow, fell foul of the +<i>Gunsway</i>, so that our larboard cathead was abreast her starboard +gangway. Here we fought muzzle to muzzle—they with brass cannon, we +with our iron ones—as pretty a fight as ever I saw since the days of +the old <i>Hector</i> and the battle of Bergen.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</span></p> + +<p>If we had had to fight it out in this fashion the event might +have been uncertain, but Mr. Every—who as I have said was a fine +seaman—cunningly disengaged his ship and managed to back her clear +of the <i>Gunsway</i> and then, bearing up under her stern, let go a +broadside.</p> + +<p>That finished a fight which could not have been longer than an hour. +The Indiaman put out the white flag; nor could he do less, seeing his +hull and rigging were badly hit and ten of his men lay dead about his +guns. Half a dozen of the pirates were killed and not a few wounded.</p> + +<p>During the battle I hauled ammunition and dragged off the wounded to +the hold,—to shirk here would have been to buy a quick end to my life.</p> + +<p>Over the bulwarks of the <i>Gunsway</i> our villains poured and ran +greedily about the ship, looking for loot. Presently a great shout +went up, and four men ran from the master’s cabin bearing brass-bound +coffers,—the ship’s treasure.</p> + +<p>Somebody with an ax smashed the fastenings, and over the decks there +spilled great piles of gold and silver coins; of pieces-of-eight, for +instance, we afterwards counted not less than one hundred thousand. Add +to this the same number of chequins<a id="FNanchor_11" href="#Footnote_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> and you can see that Mr. Every +had made his fortune.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_11" href="#FNanchor_11" class="label">[11]</a> Sequins—worth about $2.25.</p> + +</div> + +<p>The pirates went mad with delight; some danced upon the money, some +threw themselves<span class="pagenum" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</span> on the deck and tossed and fingered the coins like +children playing on the sand; while as for Mr. Every, he stood leaning +upon his cutlass, looking down at the shining heaps and laughing.</p> + +<p>Nothing would do the men but to divide the spoil then and there, and +the average share was worth one thousand pounds apiece. Five hundred +pounds were given me, though I had been sick, useless and more of a +hindrance than help.</p> + +<p>Though this was the wrong sort of saltwater money, I perforce took +it, being in no mind to have myself marked among them. When they had +stripped the <i>Gunsway</i> of everything that could be carried off, +they left her to go on to Surat with her sad tale of crime.</p> + +</div> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</span></p> + + +<h3> +X</h3> + + +<p>With so notable a felony on their souls, all felt that the time had +come to leave those regions entirely. We set off for the Indian coast, +from which it was designed to go to the West Indies. A large body of +men, however, resolved to leave the ship at India; and twenty-five +Frenchmen, fourteen Danes and a company of Englishmen were there set +ashore at their desire. For they were afraid if they came to England +and were caught, they should be hanged, and they thought themselves +more secure among the pagans.</p> + +<p>Mr. Every set off for the West Indies with a light complement, and +attempted no piracy during all that long and wearisome way. We watered +at one or two places, including Ascension, but made no long stop until +we anchored at New Providence.</p> + +<p>As we came to this port we were at a loss to know the kind of welcome +that might wait us; so when we anchored we held a consult, and one who +was a clerk drafted a letter to the governor of this Providence Island, +setting out that we desired to come into the town, find anchorage and +have the liberties of the place, for which the men would present the +governor with twenty pieces-of-eight<span class="pagenum" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</span> and two pieces of gold, all told, +and Mr. Every, because he had a double share, offered for himself forty +pieces-of-eight and four gold coins.</p> + +<p>One Adams was our ambassador, who with a few of our men to form a sort +of honor guard went ashore, while we lay by waiting the result. Our +messengers soon came back with a letter from the governor, saying that +we were welcome and could come and go again when we pleased. Thus for +sixty pieces of silver and six pieces of gold we bought the keys of the +town.</p> + +<p>Here the adventure so wickedly begun at the Groyne ended. Most of our +people scattered themselves about these West Indies, where they found +great hospitality for pirates, particularly at this New Providence, +which rivaled Madagascar for folk of this complexion.</p> + +<p>Mr. Every made a great friend of the island governor and gave all the +promise in the world of becoming one of the leading malefactors of this +region. Here he found the things he liked, for from these parts real +navies of buccaneers set out to harry the Main itself, the American +provinces,—everywhere, even, as I had seen, over to the far shores of +Africa and India.</p> + +<p>As for me, with the money I had from the <i>Gunsway</i> I bought +passage on a ship going to the Virginia plantations.</p> + +<p>“Farewell, wicked ship and wicked men,” thought I as the Virginia +vessel passed by the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</span> <i>Charles the Second</i> at her moorings. +“Farewell,” said I, gazing at the empty decks on which the sun lay +white and hot; “good riddance, and may you be quickly entombed in the +deep waters.”</p> + +<p>Had I been a moral philosopher and not a mere sailorman I would have +profited by my reflections.</p> + +<p>Would that I had tarried in Virginia, where there is much to a man’s +liking! But no, I longed to be at home and out of the sun; I longed for +the cool vales of Somerset and the sweet evening air which from the +Mendips blows the blue peat smoke about the thatched roofs of simple +cottages; I longed for quietness and rest, and these honest longings +drove me afoul of the cruel courts of justice.</p> + +<p>I was still miserably weak when I crawled at length from the docks at +Bristol up into the town. I lay a week in bed at a tavern in the High +Street, afflicted with a return of the dry bellyache.</p> + +<p>I felt danger to be about me; for all England over there was little +talk but of the notorious Captain Every; no exaggeration of his crimes +being too great or untrue to go down the gullets of the staring people. +Behind it all was the East India Company, as well as the Mogul rulers, +who dinned continually at the British Government for the punishment and +extermination of pirates.</p> + +<p>All of this was to make bad weather for me, yet I was resolved to go +to my lords of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</span> Admiralty and make a plain discovery of all the +things which had taken place. Scarcely able to pull my breeches over my +shrunken knees, I nevertheless paid my score and set out by coach for +London.</p> + +<p>The coach had not gone three leagues from town before she was hove to, +and, behold you, the king’s messengers were there, looking for old Bill +May.</p> + +<p>“You are one of Every’s men,” they said, hauling me out the gangway. +“We have a warrant to take you.”</p> + +<p>“You only anticipate me,” said I, “for I was on my way to London to +discover all.”</p> + +<p>They bore me off to Bath in a carriage of their own, and there before +his Grace the Duke of Devonshire I was examined touching my part in Mr. +Every’s enterprise. I made a clear account of all that I have here set +down; but despite that I was remitted to Newgate Gaol to be tried as a +felon.</p> + +<p>In this close I found when I came in my old shipmates Joseph Dawson, +Edward Forseith, William Bishop, James Lewis and John Sparkes, with +young Middleton and one Dan, who had crept home by one ship and +another, only to be snatched up as I was. One person and another, +recognizing us for Every’s men, had betrayed us.</p> + +<p>We went first to trial on an indictment of piracy of the +<i>Gunsway</i>. We were confronted by<span class="pagenum" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</span> a bench of more than a dozen +judges; we were harried by a shoal of prosecutors; we were lied about +by one witness and another, yet in spite of all—in spite of all +that Dan and Middleton, a saucy lad aboard our ship, who were King’s +evidence; in spite of the thunderings and belching and blasts of the +lawyers, the jury—true men and good—returned us not guilty.</p> + +<p>That put the king’s counsel to be the laughingstock of the country, so +to save their faces they put us to another trial, this time for the +stealing of the <i>Charles the Second</i> at the Groyne. For witnesses +they brought again young Middleton as well as Mr. Gravet, the old +second mate, and the liar Creagh. Not only did these tell of the matter +at the Groyne, but Middleton and one or two others went all over the +Indies and up to New Providence again,—which was a sly way of trying +us twice for one offense.</p> + +<p>How the judges and lawyers admonished the jury!</p> + +<p>“If you have the true English spirit, if you believe in the Christian +religion—I had almost said, ‘If you love your mother’—you must +convict these rascals at the bar.”</p> + +<p>How they belabored the jury which had acquitted us on the first trial; +you would have thought they were nothing other than Frenchmen in +disguise, and the veriest traitors, heretics and homicides. Aye, they +did for us: guilty.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</span></p> + +<p>Last night the clerk of St. Sepulcher’s<a id="FNanchor_12" href="#Footnote_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a>, as the custom is, came +under our windows with his bell and cried to those who might have to +die on the morrow to repent their sins. The doleful sound threw me into +a horror; I fear that my name will be in the morning’s death warrant.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_12" href="#FNanchor_12" class="label">[12]</a>The church that stood across from Newgate.</p> + +</div> + +</div> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</span></p> + + +<h3> +XI</h3> + + +<p>Mr. May’s premonition was justified by the event. On Wednesday, +November 26, 1696, at Execution Dock—which overlooks the Thames +at Blackwall, and was the usual place of punishment for Admiralty +felons—he and his fellow defendants were hanged.</p> + +<p>Reading his quaint story (which in substance was his evidence at +his trial) we get the idea that if he and his fellow accused were +to be convicted at all it should have been for the capture of the +<i>Gunsway</i> and not for the theft of the <i>Charles the Second</i>. +Mr. May is borne out by the record when he says that he was convicted +of the latter offense by the five words of Mate Gravet: to wit, that +May knew of the plot.</p> + +<p>But there was no proof to support Gravet’s statement other than the +word of one Creagh, to whom, as we have seen, Mr. May rather bitterly +alludes, and accuses of seeking to serve his own interest in a serious +scrape in which he had become involved. Creagh would seem quite +unreliable. He had been one of the men who had left the <i>Charles the +Second</i> at the Groyne, on Henry Avery’s invitation to all who had +not spirit enough to go along with him and collect<span class="pagenum" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</span> their back pay to +depart more or less in peace. Reaching England again, he fell in with +an adventurous young chap by the name of Vaughan, who was then signing +men on the <i>Loyal Clancarty</i>, a small sloop which Vaughan planned +to, and did, turn over to the service of the then exiled Stuart king, +James the Second, and in which Vaughan disturbed the shipping of the +government until he was run down and captured in the Channel, after +a fight in which the attackers had to wade to the <i>Clancarty</i> +through the shallows, with their weapons over their heads to keep them +dry. He and his crew were taken first to Dover Castle, where the warden +who registered them remarked that most of them were drunk at the time, +to be removed later to Newgate, in which latter prison, by what was +certainly a very odd circumstance, Creagh again met old shipmates of +the <i>Charles the Second</i> from whom he had parted at the Groyne. +With the terrible charge of high treason lying upon him, Creagh saw +his chance and, expecting thus to purchase clemency in his own affair, +eagerly proffered his testimony against the alleged pirates, and was +accepted. Thus there was a great premium upon the conviction of Mr. May +and the others.</p> + +<p>His character was brought out most damagingly at his own later trial on +the Vaughan business, during which his own brother was forced to take +the stand and brand him a liar and a rogue; a petty, sneaking rascal, +apparently, who<span class="pagenum" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</span> did not hesitate to pilfer the poor resources of his +relatives.</p> + +<p>He might have been telling the truth about Mr. May, but surely not +beyond a doubt.</p> + +<p>If he is eliminated, then it was only a case of Gravet’s word against +Mr. May’s. There is nothing to be said against Gravet; he was under no +charge, no peculiar advantage would be his for furthering a conviction, +and his testimony was given in a pretty straightforward, manly sort +of way. But Mr. May argues that the situation at the Groyne itself +supports his own explanation of his conduct,—that the boat which Avery +allowed to leave with those who were unwilling to go could not possibly +hold the whole company of the brig and that he was one of those thus +forced to stay behind.</p> + +<p>It must be remembered, as Mr. May points out, that he and his +co-defendants had already been tried and acquitted of the piracy of +the <i>Gunsway</i>, where, although it is not reported, that trial +must have been more likely, in the nature of things, to result in +a conviction, for Mr. May admits that he was an accomplice in that +crime, though present under a sort of duress. That the government was +shocked at the verdict in that case is very plain from the words of the +judges and prosecutors in the second case, where as Mr. May indicates, +extraordinary pressure was brought to bear to keep the jury from +straying out of the way as did the former one.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</span></p> + +<p>Somehow, Mr. May’s account lacks an ultimate convincingness, but it +may be said for him at this late day that, technically, there is a +very grave doubt of his guilt. His is the story of old dog Tray: +willingly or unwillingly, he was in bad company and to that unfortunate +circumstance he must lay a large portion of his misfortunes.</p> + +<p>And what befell the naughty Henry Avery?</p> + +<p>Mr. May’s narrative cannot give us that information because Mr. May +never saw his captain after they separated in the West Indies. At the +turn of the new century, we know he was still in the black books of +the British Admiralty, for an Act of Grace—that is a blanket pardon +to all pirates who should give up their wicked ways by such and such a +date—issued a few years after Mr. May’s demise, specifically excepts +from its clement scope, “William Kidd and Henry Every, alias Bridgman.”</p> + +<p>Now, a yarn is told of the end of Henry Avery, which may be summarized +for what it is worth—probably not very much—for it is outside of +judicial records and consequently corrupted by legend. The effect of it +is that Avery continued in the West Indies, pirating the Spanish Main, +even to the Carolinas, until, satisfied that he had finally earned +a competence and an honorable retirement and with something of that +longing for home which is not altogether absent, apparently,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</span> from even +a pirate’s tattooed bosom, he decided to turn him again home.</p> + +<p>He had an embarrassment of riches, if ever a man had. According to +the story, he had bags of diamonds taken from the <i>Gunsway</i>, of +fabulous value. Mr. May’s trial suggests that the loot of that ship was +money, and nobody says anything about diamonds, but the historian we +are now, with a caution, quoting says it was diamonds, and diamonds it +shall be.</p> + +<p>In due time, he got back to Bristol, but now found that he could not +sell his diamonds without incurring suspicion as an evil-doer. He tried +Ireland, as a place where folks might be less shrewdly curious, but he +discovered that the Irish were as much struck as the English by the +incongruity, say, of an egg-sized diamond flashing and coruscating in +a scarred and pitchy palm,—a feeling not immediately dispelled by the +extraordinarily sinister face above them.</p> + +<p>Back to England—truly a millionaire tramp—where he foolishly resolved +to put his trust in merchants. Behind their aldermanic robes and +unimpeachable integrity, he expected to be able to put his unique +stock-in-trade on the market, which, indeed, he seems to have done, but +when he solicited his corpulent agents for an accounting he was met by +great round eyes and insulted mouths.</p> + +<p>“Diamonds? What are you talking about?<span class="pagenum" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</span> Diamonds? Begone, you rogue, +what do we know of diamonds.”</p> + +<p>It sounds like some aspects of human nature, but whether it is history, +is not for us to vouch.</p> + +<p>So Henry stewed a trip or two in a coasting forecastle,—where, had he +a mind to, he could have told the simple seamen a thrilling story of +the sea,—and then curled up and died, “not worth a groat.”</p> + +<p>Morally, at any rate.</p> + + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +</div> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</span></p> + +<h2> +<a id="CHAPTER_FIVE"></a>CHAPTER FIVE</h2> +<p class="center"> +GROAN O’ THE GALLOWS +</p> + +<p class="center"> +Tom Green</p> +<h3> +I</h3> + + + +<p>From the thickly forested heights of Cape Masoala one can, without +being one’s self observed, sweep, with an easy turning of the head, the +broad Indian Ocean that pounds perpetually upon the rocky beach at the +base of the Cape; the blue placidity of Antongil Bay up to its farthest +reaches; the huddle of huts which make the town of Mananara, on the +opposite shore, and the tiny island of St. Mary’s snuggling close to +the other portal of the bay.</p> + +<p>That is to suppose that you wish to see and not be seen,—a rather +uncommon circumstance in the lives of plain, honest men, but certainly +a great advantage to those who conceive that their particular and +peculiar interests require secrecy. Cape Masoala has known both sort +of folk. The peering botanist has explored it for his specimens; +the French surveyor has mapped every inch of it, and the olive-hued +Malagassy native<span class="pagenum" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</span> has for centuries gone about the Cape on his innocent +occasions, all quite careless as to who did or did not observe them. +Certain other gentry, however, have from time to time made a use of +the ancient Cape not entirely commendable. Sad to relate, such persons +not infrequently came ashore from ships wickedly sailing beneath the +black bunting of piracy. These climbed the steep, wooded slopes not +for the purpose of feasting their souls on the beautiful; but for the +pernicious design of observing those worthy people who passed in and +out of Antongil Bay upon the lawful errands of commerce. In March, +1702, to take a notable instance of this reprehensible use of the Cape, +not many less than fifty men lay sprawled in the tropic undergrowth +of the headland watching with quick eyes the tardy evolutions of two +square-rigged, stumpily built ships working their way alongside the +rickety wharf of Mananara.</p> + +<p>At length the two ships were berthed, and up their riggings men, +looking like small boys at that distance, climbed and began to take in +the canvas. One of the watchers in the wood yawned, stretched his lean +arms high over his head and said, as he rattled the thick gold rings in +his ears, “We’ll soon be to sea again, Cap’n.”</p> + +<p>The man called captain nodded. A great bullock of a fellow he +stood, hands on hips, gazing frowningly down at the bay, apparently +constructing the strategy of an impending move.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</span> He had a flattish, +three-cornered hat—somewhat too small for his head—pushed forward +over his eyes; the breeches, stockings and buckled shoes of the period +had evidently had long and hard wear in contrast with the brilliant +sash about his waist from which protruded the handle of a dirk. One +great, sinewy hand dangled a belt to which was fastened a thick +cutlass. If he were captain, then all these fellows strewn about the +grass must be his subordinates. Honest men they no doubt accounted +themselves, but their looks belied them; no ordinary man would have +cared to picnic with that group in their present beautiful retreat. +Their complexions were as colorful as the sashes which almost all +of them affected: here was the blond Scandinavian, with his blue, +wistful, deep-sea eyes and tawny hair and beard: beside him would be +a swart Continental—French predominantly—chattering constantly and +continually winding his beard in ringlets about his forefinger, and +not a few men of the blackest ebon, the hue of the West Indian negro, +not the lighter tint of the native Sakalava. Whatever his color, +every man there was capable of committing any violence; that was his +qualification for companionship. A hard group, and how hard must the +leader of it be! Well, John Bowen, the brawny chieftain, was a hard man.</p> + +<p>Although maritime history has failed to spell his name with capital +letters, John Bowen was one of the most willing little workers in the +red<span class="pagenum" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</span> trade of sea robbery. Where he came from and what his finish was +we do not certainly know, but while his keel danced its brief hour upon +the waters of the Indian Ocean, John Bowen displayed those qualities +of resolution, ruthlessness and rapidity which ordinarily earned one a +rapid promotion in piracy, and not infrequently a sequential elevation, +before an admiring and applauding populace, at the end of the king’s +rope.</p> + +<p>While, as we say, his origins are obscure, there is little doubt that +John Bowen came to this Cape Masoala, in the island of Madagascar, +directly or indirectly from the West Indies, which for generations +was the <i>alma mater</i> of all the best pirates. A great school of +maritime crime was this West Indian group, having, at one time or +another, on its faculty such eminent masters as Blackbeard, lecturer on +Violent Deaths at Sea, and whose subsidiary course on Ship Scuttling +was deservedly popular. Then, too, many earnest young students from +all over the world were drawn thither by Morgan’s notable presentation +of the subject of the Assault, Capture and Loot of Municipalities. In +fact, the whole scheme of instruction was very thorough. Two prominent +practitioners of the art of piracy, captains Kidd and Avery, so +esteemed the advantages there offered that both, after distinguishing +themselves in the actual practice, resorted there for postgraduate +work. There was a finish, a fineness about John Bowen’s work<span class="pagenum" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</span> which +clearly indicated the superiority of his academic training, and stamped +him as one of the most promising graduates. Everybody in the Caribbean +anticipated a great future for him, and, so far as we can follow his +career, these friendly prophecies were amply fulfilled.</p> + +<p>Evidently when he faced the world with his sheepskin in his hand and +the blush of collegiate honors still on his brow, John Bowen had +determined to set up business for himself in the East Indies, a fact +which indicated the clarity of his judgment and real appreciation of +opportunity, for in the East Indies of his day it was so easy for a +competent pirate to get rich as to make one feel that his abilities had +never been properly tested. But, of course, there were accidents and +unavoidable miscalculations, and John must be supposed to have run into +one of those inescapable setbacks to which even pure genius is liable, +from the fact that he is perched upon a headland of Madagascar with a +crew but without a ship. Of course, time and opportunity would correct +that state of affairs, for the matter of appropriating a ship was just +elementary freshman work in the university of piracy from which he +had graduated, <i>summa cum laude</i>. And now, as John gazed down on +these two ships below him, he realized with satisfaction that time and +opportunity were in happy concurrence.</p> + +<p>He selected four Englishmen—two, as it chanced, were from New +York—and, directing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</span> the rest to meet him at dark in the woods behind +Mananara, descended to the beach, where a broken-down native boat was +staked. The party crossed the bay and Bowen himself went down to the +water front to look at the newly arrived ships. It was now towards +evening, and from the cookhouse rose a thin, blue spear of smoke on +each ship where the supper was being prepared. Sailors were hanging +over the bulwarks, smoking long pipes, and laughing and joking in the +burring tongue of Scotland. They noticed the hulking white stranger +loafing about the wharf, but made no comment, for one does not long +knock about the waters of Madagascar without dulling the faculty of +surprise. Bowen marked the names of the two vessels, <i>Content</i> and +<i>Speedy Return</i>. This latter name he thought unfortunate in view +of all the circumstances. <i>Speedy Return</i>? Not if Jack Bowen knew +anything about the matter.</p> + +<p>To get the full value out of this adventure, we have to know a little +something about these two doomed ships and why and how they happened to +be in this little port of Mananara at this particular time. If we lift +the fly-blown, time-stained pages of history we get a queerish kind +of a yarn in this connection. It only needs a momentary glance, and +when we have taken it, we shall the more appreciate the significance +of the sinister meddling of Jack Bowen, who, of course, knew nothing +of what we shall know and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</span> if he had known he would not have cared two +straws,—in fact, would have enjoyed his game all the more.</p> + +<p>In June, 1695, some half a dozen years before Jack Bowen comes on the +stage, a group of Scotch noblemen, with some other folk of lesser +influence, procured a statute from the English parliament and a +charter from the English Crown, authorizing them to incorporate an +African-Indian trading company. Their chief object was to found a +Scotch colony in the Isthmus of Panama, or Darien, as it was then +called. Everybody was going to get immensely rich out of the venture. +But the noblemen were not stingy about it; they decided to offer +the stock of their corporation to the public. They evidently had a +wonderful advertising manager, for an old writer tells us that when the +stock was put on the market “the nobility, the gentry, the merchants, +the people, the royal burghs without the exception of one, and most +of the other public bodies subscribed. Young women threw their little +fortunes into the stock; widows sold their jointures to get command of +money for the same purpose. Almost in an instant four hundred thousand +pounds were subscribed in Scotland, although it be now known that there +was not at that time above eight hundred thousand pounds of cash in the +kingdom.”</p> + +<p>That is what you may call promoting,—to get<span class="pagenum" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</span> half the cash of the +kingdom. It was the last chance anybody ever had of that sort in +Scotland.</p> + +<p>Everything went so well that the English East India Company became +exceedingly jealous and not a little fearful that a powerful rival was +rising in the north to challenge its hold in the Far East. In politics, +in the financial world, in every way it possibly could, the English +company sought to thwart the Scotchmen and upon the whole succeeded +very satisfactorily in handicapping the latter. Being Scotchmen, +however, they went right ahead, “satisfied of the envy of the English +and of their consciousness of the advantages which were to flow to +Scotland” from the Darien colony. Six ships were built, each able to +carry two hundred emigrants, and on the twenty-sixth of July, 1698, +the whole city of Edinburgh streamed down upon Leith to see the Darien +voyagers depart, amidst the tears and praises and prayers of relations +and friends, and of their countrymen. Many seamen and soldiers, whose +services had been refused, because more offered themselves than were +needed, were found hid in the ships, and when ordered ashore, clung to +the ropes and timbers, imploring to go without reward.</p> + +<p>The colony, however, was a dismal and tragic failure. When the people +arrived at Darien, the Dutch East India Company—instigated it was +believed by agents of the English company—forbade the factors of +their forts in that region to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</span> give help of any sort to the Scotchmen. +Expecting to get supplies locally and being thus refused, “the +colonists fell into diseases from bad food and want of food” and almost +all of them faded and died. Eight months of horror lagged along and +then the colony broke up, only a handful surviving to stagger to the +ship for home. In the meanwhile, however, another crowd of thirteen +hundred colonists had left Scotland for Darien amid the same hurrah, +only to meet the same fate as had the first, and to send back as +survivors only a pitiful remnant of thirty.</p> + +<p>Scotland laid all the blame upon England in general and the East India +Company in particular and deeply smoldered the already traditional +hatred between the northern and southern peoples.</p> + +<p>Withal, the Scotch African-Indian trading company kept intact, but +took on the character of a more private commercial corporation. It +entered in the orthodox fashion on the East India trade wherever it +could circumvent the English monopoly, and to this end sent forth its +young but not unpromising fleet to Indian waters, and of this fleet the +<i>Content</i> and the <i>Speedy Return</i> were fair representatives.</p> + +<p>But see what an unhappy destiny pursues this Scotch company! Here it +is, trying to recuperate from the terrible disaster of Darien, just, +as they say of an invalid, getting about again, when wretched, wicked +and utterly reprehensible Jack<span class="pagenum" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</span> Bowen is here, in far-off Madagascar, +lurking about in the woods ready to inflict upon the poor company +another terrible adversity!</p> + +<p>On May 26, 1701, the <i>Speedy Return</i> and the <i>Content</i> had +sailed from Glasgow for the East Indies. What great things they were to +accomplish! How they were to return soon—speedily, as the name would +seem to hope—laden with gold and gain! The name of John Bowen did not +mean a thing in Glasgow. Such is life. They lumbered, after the fashion +of the blunt ships of that age, first to Guinea, then to the Cape of +Good Hope—propitious name—and there, as well as at Guinea, they +discovered there was not a little profit to be had by postponing their +arrival at Malabar and the Indian trade proper and diverting themselves +to the slave business. In this traffic then they came over from the +mainland of Africa to the island of St. Mary’s, in Madagascar, where +they loaded their holds with the negroid Sakalaves sold to them by the +Hovitas and other superior tribes of the island.</p> + +<p>So cargoed, they went on from St. Mary’s, Madagascar, to Mauritius, +where they discharged their load of slaves and in March, 1702, were +back again in Madagascar, at a place they called Maritan, but which +has probably become Mananara, ready for another batch of blacks, and, +though naturally this was beyond their expectation, the thunderbolt of +as desperate a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</span> gang of pirates as ever cast dice with the hangman.</p> + +<p>Gradually Bowen’s shipless crew gathered in the woods back of the town +and impatiently waited for morning. When the tropic sun at length +surged up abruptly from beneath the far, thin, eastern line of the +Indian Ocean, they girded their belts about them, looked to their +weapons, hefting their cutlasses and attending to the priming of their +pistols, and waited the cheerful word of onslaught. Bowen called +together the four English-speaking men he had first selected the day +before, on the chance of being able to make immediate use of them, and +left with them for the very outskirts of the town, where they settled +themselves in the lush vegetation and watched their prey. Before +separating from the main group, Bowen, like a true general, addressed +his troops. “If it comes to trouble,” he said succinctly, “and ye find +ye against a man bigger than ye, take your tools quickly”—here he +tapped his cutlass, “and cut him down to your size.”</p> + +<p>The plan was for the four men and Bowen to board the ship <i>Speedy +Return</i> by stratagem, when, if the chance was good, Bowen would +sound the bo’sun’s whistle which he carried for that purpose and the +reserves were to come up in full force.</p> + +<p>Early after breakfast the lurkers noticed what was evidently the +captain of the <i>Speedy Return</i>,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</span> accompanied by a group of men, +come ashore and set off through the woods to the neighboring villages, +evidently in the transaction of their traffic in human beings. The +day burned to high noon and high noon waned towards evening, and +still the cautious Bowen, not risking a fizzle in this his great and +long-sought opportunity, held his hounds in the leash. Quite late in +the afternoon, when it was reasonably certain the captain had gone for +a considerable time, and when the remnant of the crews of the two ships +were scattered, some about the town and others dozing on the hot decks, +John Bowen and his four aides stepped from the brush, strode past the +thatched native huts and out on the dock. They ran up the ladder and +were on the deck of the <i>Speedy Return</i>.</p> + +<p>“Ho, mate,” called Bowen, grinning genially to what was evidently the +ship’s cook, carrying a butcher knife in one hand and a leg of a sheep +in the other, “who’s the master of this ship?”</p> + +<p>“Cap’n Rab Drummond, frae Edinburgh,” burred the cook, “and who be ye, +mon?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, we’re nobody; just come aboard, looking to buy a bit of breadstuff +and tobacco, if ye’ve such to spare.”</p> + +<p>There were not more than a dozen men aboard, according to Bowen’s +swift calculation. Over on the <i>Content</i>, a few yards away, there +appeared still fewer. The hour had struck. Bowen drew a pistol from +the arsenal of his sash and thrust<span class="pagenum" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</span> it against the full girth of the +cook. “Go on to your cookhouse, my lad,” he commanded. “You’re going to +have a few friends for supper.” Thus the chef received notice of the +change of management. He took it dully and obediently; anything may +happen when one goes so far from Glasgie. Sharp and shrill the signal +whistle beat echoingly from the cliffs of the Cape to the heights above +the town, and with a terrifying shout, the rest of Bowen’s men hurled +themselves over the bulwarks of both the <i>Speedy Return</i> and the +<i>Content</i>. The gang that boarded the latter had a definitely +prescribed job to do and expeditiously they did it. First of all, they +ran the gaping sailors off her decks and on to those of the <i>Speedy +Return</i>; then, hastening back, they smeared the decks of the +<i>Content</i> with pitch, set a train to the small powder magazine, +and as the thick brown-black clouds of smoke rolled sluggishly over +the sides, they fled, whooping as demons may be supposed to whoop at +the mouth of the Inferno, for the <i>Speedy Return</i>. Her sides +they clutched even as she moved away in tow of the ship’s boats, out +into the bay, where she picked up a helping breeze; where her hastily +hoisted sails began to tauten and whence she began quite prettily +to glide out into the wide, the welcome ocean. John Bowen was on a +quarter-deck again; it mattered to him little who claimed that same +quarterdeck; he was on it and the quartermaster at the whipstaff swung +the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</span> helm to this side and that, in obedience to his orders. He felt +the wind of the free ocean upon his breast and lifted up his great +bellowing voice in song. Ha! ha! he! ho! in a jiffy the tables had been +turned; John Bowen had had the shore and no ship and now Captain Robert +Drummond, of Edinburgh, out of Glasgow, had all the shore he cared to +use and no ship.</p> + +<p>No stenographer was present to record what Captain Drummond said +when he came out of the woods and found the black embers of the +<i>Content</i> knocking about the piling or bobbing far out on the bay, +and of his ship only the stupid, inarticulate remembrance of the gaping +Malagassy natives, but without doubt it was something pretty. Captain +Stewart was master of the <i>Content</i> and probably had been absent +with Drummond of the <i>Speedy Return</i>—although he might have been +on his own ship and been captured with the rest of the crew; nobody +has given us the precise information—but if he came out of the woods +at the same time that Drummond did, there is no doubt the inhabitants +beheld two of the angriest Scotchmen they had ever seen or ever were +likely to see. We don’t know what happened to Stewart, but a man who +spent fifteen years in captivity among the Madagascans came home with +the story that Drummond found his way to Tullea, on the southwest coast +of the island, where, in an altercation with a Jamaican negro, who was +of course one of those far-faring<span class="pagenum" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</span> West Indian pirates, he received a +wallop from the black rogue which deprived the Scotch African-Indian +trading company of a faithful servant and the rising British Merchant +Marine of a competent shipmaster.</p> + +<p>Now, Bowen, between the two appropriated vessels, very likely gathered +in some thirty men, all well-seasoned sailors. We know the names of +only two of these honest tars to whom this vivid change of circumstance +occurred; Israel Phippany and Peter Freeland. Some of these captives +accepted the fate of the sea and even counted themselves among the +pirates; others, naturally, found the situation not to their liking +and stood by for an opportunity to escape. It was all one to their +swaggering captors, whether a man liked it or not; a sailor he was and +sail that ship he should. None of that topmast business for the bold +pirate boys; in a jam they might lend a hand at working the vessel, +but ordinarily they insisted that fighting was their specialty and +avoided the rope and the tar bucket as quite beneath their dignity. But +they were fair in their way, for when it came to a fight they did not +call on the shellbacks for help; that too would have been essentially +undignified for a master pirate. This gang of Bowen stood in a rough +relation to the sailors aboard as the marines do to a war vessel. Many +ships, of course, were completely manned by confessed pirates, and +when that was so they had to do<span class="pagenum" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</span> sailor work, but whenever they could +they were great little chaps for pressing men aboard especially to do +the ship’s chores. So the <i>Speedy Return</i> being happily in their +possession, the pirates lay back under the awnings and drank copiously +of arrack, the universal intoxicant of the East Indies, the while their +bold chieftain drove his keel along for joyful fights and glorious +plunder.</p> + +<p>Swinging smartly around the northern nose of Madagascar, and shooting +westerly, Bowen set the course for the Comoro Islands, some three +hundred and fifty miles northwest of Madagascar and two hundred miles +east of the coast of Africa. Apparently John was going to lose no time +in his business, for the Comoros would be the nearest likely place +to pick up a prize; no waiting until he made the distant littoral of +India, you notice. His ultimate destination was Rajapore, way up in +what is now called the Bombay presidency, but he did not care to go as +the crow flies, but rather as the vulture does; pausing for anything +that might be carrion.</p> + +<p>The Comoros was a pretty good guess. At Mayotta, one of those islands, +they found a ship commanded by George Weoley, which was loading with +sugar, rum, cocoa oil and taking in fresh beef. The fact that Weoley’s +vessel was in harbor did not mean anything to John Bowen; if the island +itself had been navigable he would have put a crew on it and sailed +it away. The<span class="pagenum" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</span> <i>Speedy Return</i> shoved alongside their victim, and +casually, as men doing an easy job away below their real abilities, a +handful of fighters dropped to her decks. Nobody interfered with them +but the unimaginative first mate, and his protest was met with a crack +on the head which created an immediate promotion for the second mate. +A little more than a year after this misfortune Captain Weoley wrote +a plaintive letter to Mr. Pennyng, “Chief of the English East India +Company’s Factory at Calicut,” giving a full and detailed account of +the naughtiness of John Bowen, wherein he states that at Mayotta he +fell into Bowen’s hands and was “detained by him after they had slain +my chief mate and plundered what they pleased.”</p> + +<p>Poor Mr. Weoley and the rest of his people were taken into the +forecastle of the <i>Speedy Return</i> and thus recruited that ship’s +list of able seamen. Whether Bowen burnt, scuttled or simply abandoned +Weoley’s craft the good captain does not inform us, but we may be sure +that when he headed off for India, he left that unfortunate vessel no +better for his visit.</p> + +<p>During the long and uneventful voyage—uneventful, that is, so far +as the piracy game went—Captain Bowen, alas! did not observe those +little amenities between brother captains which so pleasantly mitigate +the sternness of the sea. Doubtless Mr. Weoley had to do many things +aboard which drove a bitter iron into his<span class="pagenum" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</span> soul. One day he might be +lending a hand with the art of navigation if the load of rum captured +at Mayotta should happen temporarily to incapacitate Captain Bowen; +next day he might pitiably have to fetch and carry water at the behest +of the sprawling villains, or again bend his elderly and stiffening +back at the eternal task of pumping, and pumping ship in the Indian +Ocean must have been—well, hot. He says himself that he received “many +hazards of life and abuses from those villains.” Not the least of his +grievances was that of listening through the long hours of a torrid +night to the liquored Bowen boasting of his wickedness. That remark of +Weoley’s places Bowen as the true, deliberate, almost romantic pirate +and approximates him to the traditional pirate of fiction.</p> + +<p>Off the coast of Malabar, Bowen nearly had to sober up, for he was +come to his proper fishing grounds. Up and down this roadstead passed +much of the commerce of the East Indies. Quite a medley it was, to be +sure. There were craft from the ten-ton sloop belonging to a petty +local merchant, up through increasing tonnage chartered by Moors, +Persians, Armenians, Hindoos, to the two-and three-decker so-called +East Indiaman, the ship of the august and imperial East India Company +itself. In disturbing this traffic captain William Kidd had found a +fortune in less than six months, and numerous pirates of many nations +had here easily enriched themselves.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</span></p> + +<p>Captain Bowen, who must have been something of a joker as were so many +of his outlaw colleagues, doubtless enjoyed immensely taking a ship +with the name of <i>Prosperous</i>, which he did shortly after his +entry into Indian waters proper. With a chuckle he realized that he had +made the owners of the <i>Content</i> discontented; he intended the +<i>Speedy Return</i> should go home neither slowly nor speedily, and it +is very likely that he put the charterers of the <i>Prosperous</i> into +bankruptcy. It might have been of a better omen in those days to name +your ship the very opposite to your hopes; say call the <i>Content</i> +the <i>Dissatisfied</i>; the <i>Speedy Return</i> the <i>Never Come +Back</i> and the <i>Prosperous</i>, <i>Hard Times</i>,—in which case a +marauding pirate would at least lose the dramatic pleasure of surprise.</p> + +<p>Having bagged the <i>Prosperous</i>, Bowen put a crew on board and +used her for an auxiliary, and with this augmented command in a few +months, according to Weoley, he took “six sail of ship” and “hundreds +ruined.” The last of these six ships was one from Surat, evidently of +considerable size, for Bowen transferred all hands to her and then, +being as drunk as a fool, entertained the amazed city of Rajapore with +a grand nautical bonfire made up both of the <i>Prosperous</i> and +the <i>Speedy Return</i>. How uneasily the stockholders of the Scotch +Indian-African trading company would have turned in their beds had<span class="pagenum" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</span> +that lurid light gleamed against their far-off window panes!</p> + +<p>This man Bowen was an incorrigible ship burner, which proves that he +had not the heart of a true sailorman or the first instincts of a real +conqueror of the sea.</p> + +<p>On this captured Surat ship, when Bowen got over his pyrotechnic spree, +he counted up his men and found, so Weoley records, “70 Lascars (native +of India) and 146 fighting men (the Lascars being used as sailors) of +which part are 43 English, the better part of the company French, the +rest Negroes (our Jamaica friends), Dutch and other nations that cries +‘yaw’.” Quaint foible! Amid all his sufferings poor Captain Weoley +could still find a feeling of irritation for men that “cries ‘yaw’” +instead of “yes.”</p> + +<p>Bowen steered from Rajapore down along the Malabar coast until he came +to Cochin, a Portuguese settlement and where a miscalled Portuguese +war fleet made its anchorage. Those old sieves were the local maritime +joke, and a brisk pirate would think little of using them for mooring +buoys. This aggregation had once gone out after the formidable Captain +Kidd and much to its surprise and pain had found him. It had never +been known to attempt anything notable since. Certainly, they did not +trouble John Bowen. As Bowen dawdled along in these parts, touching at +this and that small port for frolic or<span class="pagenum" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</span> land robbery or both, “about +three leagues to the northward of Cochin” Weoley states that “I got +clear of the pirates.” Thus ended the worst seven months in the life of +that worthy mariner.</p> + +<p>What became of Bowen after Weoley escaped from him we do not know, at +least so far as the authentic record we are consulting is concerned. +Probably he met the violent end of his ilk; one thing is sure, however; +he was never hanged for the piracy of the <i>Speedy Return</i>, +but—and this makes the dread, dark sequel of the crime—another man +who knew not Bowen, Robert Drummond or the ill-fated ship <i>Speedy +Return</i> suffered by one of the most notable miscarriages of justice +known to the law as the murderer of Captain Drummond and the pirate of +the <i>Speedy Return</i>.</p> + +</div> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</span></p> + + +<h3> +II</h3> + +<p>On March 8, 1702, a ship called the <i>Worcester</i> weighed anchor in +the Downs and so began the long voyage from England to India. Perhaps +on that very day, certainly within a very few days of that date, the +brigantine <i>Content</i> was burning to the edge of the waters of a +Madagascar bay, and her consort from Scotland, the <i>Speedy Return</i> +was romping toward the Comoro Islands beneath the stern and unlawful +drive of a sea brigand.</p> + +<p>The purpose of the <i>Worcester</i> in the East Indies was to trade, +though she did not belong to the East India Company but appears to +have been owned by a small group of investors, probably retired sea +captains for the most part. To get a swift idea of what was meant by +the East-India trade you have only to recall the Hudson’s Bay Company +in Canada, for the methods of both these great trading corporations +were practically the same. Just as the Canadian company stalked across +Canada from fort to fort, so the India company ringed the coast of +India with forts, which, like the Canadians, they called “factories” +and put in charge of an officer termed a factor. Both companies +held exclusive<span class="pagenum" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</span> monopolies in their respective regions by virtue of +government grants; both maintained fleets for the exportation of native +products and the importation of English wares and supplies. Each had +to meet a certain amount of competition in spite of its exclusive +privileges.</p> + +<p>The East India Company was far more seriously challenged by rivals +than was the Hudson’s Bay Company, even in the devastating days of the +latter’s struggle with the Northwestern Fur Company. Not only England +but Holland and numerous other commercial nations of the continent +hungered for the loot of India, and between the traders representing +all these conflicting greeds an almost continuous state of warfare +prevailed, which more than once drew in the governments themselves.</p> + +<p>Not only foreign competitors harassed the English East India Company, +for among its annoyances was what was called the “interloper,” the +English trader who poached in their preserves, in defiance of law, +to such an extent that not a few considerable fortunes were thus +established. But the company did not always pursue these trespassers +with the severity which they might lawfully have used; local conditions +on the coast made another English ship, even an interloper, not +unwelcome, and at such times these gentry were tolerated and even +welcomed with a surprising friendliness.</p> + +<p>In addition to the continentals and the interlopers,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</span> the Scotch +African-Indian company had, as we have seen, following the wreck of the +Darien colony, begun to send its ships out for a share of the Indian +spoils, two of which ships, through the unwitting kindness of Captain +John Bowen, had just been prevented rather forcibly from troubling the +sleep of the English company.</p> + +<p>The status of the <i>Worcester</i>, then, was that of an interloper, +but in one of the more genial humors of the monopolizing company, and +Captain Thomas Green, her commander, had reason to believe that it +would not seriously molest him as he sought to pick up a couple of +hundred tons of more or less profitable cargo.</p> + +<p>An old, slow, lead-sheathed craft was the <i>Worcester</i>, formerly +in the whaling business. She was about a hundred feet in length and +twenty-two or so feet in breadth, and carried a crew of thirty-five +men. Tom Green, her master, was an honest old sea dog, thoroughly +loyal to his owners and to his vessel; the admirable sort of man who +does Britannia’s drudgery at sea, happy if at last he can step off +his quarterdeck with all the limbs he had when he first went up the +gangway as a ’prentice, and content to sink into a permanent armchair +on the sunny side of a cottage close to tidewater and the lanes of +sea trafficking. And but for John Bowen, it is reasonable to suppose +that Tom Green would at length have achieved his modest, commendable +ambition.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</span></p> + +<p>Their objective was Malabar by way of Delagoa Bay. It took her five +months to get from the Downs to Delagoa. Here they stayed long enough +to build a sloop to be used in river work at Malabar, the materials +for which they had brought with them from home. On November 15, after +a voyage of a little more than eight months, she came to Anjango (now +Aniengo) at the tip of the Malabar coast, where Captain Green politely +put ashore to pay his respects to Mr. Brabourne, chief factor of the +English East India Company’s fort at that place, and incidentally to +make sure that the company was still in the generous notion of living +and letting live. One never knew when its policy might suddenly veer +like the weathercock on a church steeple.</p> + +<p>Happily, Mr. Brabourne and his gentlemen were as genial as a June day. +Madeira and compliments were enjoyed together and Green went back to +his ship, rejoicing in at least the tacit consent of Mr. Brabourne to +his trading operations. With that load off his mind, he sailed for the +Keilon River, a few leagues farther on, and there established contact +with Cogi Commodo.</p> + +<p>We have mentioned big rival corporations and interlopers, but the +coveted Indian trade produced another institution,—the petty +’longshore merchant, white or black, most generally a follower of the +Prophet from some of the far eastern Mahometan countries. After he had<span class="pagenum" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</span> +prospered above the peddling stage, this gentleman usually established +a little warehouse at the mouth of some one of the sluggish rivers +emptying into the Arabian Sea, and there conducted a business which +was for the most part illegal. Briefly, he was a purveyor of stolen +goods brought to him by the pirates which infested those regions; a +“fence” as it is called, and without whom piracy would have been almost +impossible, for if a pirate could not dispose of the cargoes he took +of perishable or ordinary mercantile stuff, his activity would have +been immeasurably curtailed. For instance, before he made his lucky +strike, Kidd took tons of butter, cargoes of coffee, opium enough to +give his men a thousand years of delightful dreams, far more than could +be used aboard his ship and which would have been useless without the +obliging fence. This very same Cogi Commodo boasted to the crew of +the <i>Worcester</i> that he was “merchant” for Kidd. The Cogi was +suspected not only of buying from the pirates but of informing them of +the movements of promising ships and even of assisting in their actual +assault and capture. Not that Green wanted any such service as this +from Commodo; he used him on the more legitimate side of trading, for +the Cogi, like the rest of his kind, continually gathered in native +products from under the noses of the English forts, for the prime +purpose of supplying interlopers. You can see the Cogi was quite an<span class="pagenum" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</span> +irregular sort of gentleman on whichever side you took him.</p> + +<p>The <i>Worcester</i> came to the Keilon River on November 21 by way of +Callequilon; December 22 she was back at Callequilon, then made a big +jump of a hundred or more miles up to Cochin, reaching there January +10, 1703, just about five years to a day after Kidd had made his big +capture of the <i>Quedagh Merchant</i> in those very waters; and but a +few months after the unfortunate Captain Weoley had made his escape at +that place from the wicked John Bowen. Green’s northward trading seems +to have been hurried, for two weeks later he was at Calicut, a month +after that back at Cochin, and by March 8 was again anchored in the +roadstead of Callequilon.</p> + +<p>Life on a trading ship on the coast of Malabar in the morning of the +eighteenth century was not easy. Sickness kept a large number of the +crew helpless at all times. Doctor May, the ship’s surgeon—a young +sawbones of twenty-six years—had so many patients that he had to put +up a crude hospital ashore at Callequilon, where the sick were taken +from the ship and left while the vessel worked up and down the coast.</p> + +<p>Most of the time it was just a job of hard work, either in sailing +or in stevedoring the piles of cargo which would be collected at +one place and another by various Cogis to await the coming of the +<i>Worcester</i>. The busiest man aboard was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</span> then the supercargo, on +whom fell the burden of handling the cargo, keeping the accounts and +looking after the financial interests of the owners. The work and worry +of it all gave the prevalent fever when it struck him added force, and +the supercargo slipped through an open port in a weighted canvas shroud +to join the half-dozen or so of his companions who had already preceded +him to the muddy hammocks that swing eternally in the tides of the sea.</p> + +<p>But there was a lighter side. Even in Keilon a sailor could spend his +wages, or gape about at the elephants, the palanquins, the ladies +with rings in their noses or stare uncomprehendingly at the fantastic +ornamentation of the ancient temple of Shiva. Captain Green himself +found time for the social turn, and so ingratiated himself with a lady +of the country that she gave him a well-trained young black slave, +Antonio Francesco, to be his personal servant. Green thought a great +deal of the lady’s kindness, for he took Antonio aboard and to make +sure he would not lose him, chained him to a spike in the forecastle +floor, in something of the fashion that seamen are wont to bring home a +pet monkey.</p> + +<p>All of this was very well to be sure, but April was to prove a month +of hard luck for the <i>Worcester</i>. On the tenth of that month the +sloop was driven ashore in a gale and destroyed. In the same storm +Green tried to make Keilon, but was forced to anchor between that +place and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</span> Anjango. Here his cable parted and serious leaks were +sprung in his hull. Amid all that, however, he was mannerly enough to +fire five rounds in salute to the <i>Aureng-Zeb</i>, another trader +which happened by and who, as politely, returned the compliment. Green +was so worried about the condition of his ship that when the weather +moderated he invited the master and mate of the <i>Aureng-Zeb</i> to +come aboard and survey his ship. Their unanimous judgment was that the +<i>Worcester</i> was then unseaworthy for navigating to England.</p> + +<p>That finished the trading cruise. Adverse circumstances had curtailed +the enterprise, yet Green had made, on the whole, a profitable stay in +Malabar. He had operated in a maximum distance of about one hundred and +fifty miles; that is, from Anjango to Calicut, though his dodging back +and forth had added much to his mileage. In ordinary event he would +have been nearly ready for home. His most serious reverse was in the +wreck of his sloop, which his owners had hoped he would be able to sell +and convert into goods when he should have finished with her services.</p> + +<p>Mr. Brabourne, of the fort, again most obliging, advised Green to go to +Bengal for repairs, and on the fifth of May, 1703, the <i>Worcester</i> +set forth to pump her way to the shipyards there.</p> + +<p>Captain Thomas Green might fairly claim a grudge against the elements. +They buffeted him<span class="pagenum" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</span> in Malabar to the loss of his sloop, the damage of +his ship, the lessening of his trading, laid his keel up for a long +time in careen at Bengal, and now on his way home to England, after one +would suppose the weather had done its very worst for that voyage, it +met him off the coast of Scotland and in a seething fury of wind and +wave hurled him into the Scottish port of Leith, where he was fain to +run for shelter. Alas! he had fled the fierce wrath of nature to the +yet more terrifying wrath of man.</p> + +<p>Scotland, in 1704, when the <i>Worcester</i> was thus blown into the +port of Leith, was again having her troubles, all of which were turning +around the hoodooed Scotch African-Indian company. That afflicted +corporation had already marked the <i>Content</i> and the <i>Speedy +Return</i> off the register as unaccountably missing, when behold a +sister ship of these two, the <i>Annandale</i>, imprudently venturing +into the Thames, was seized by the English East India Company in the +assertion of its exclusive rights in the Indies, one of the impudent +things which so endeared that company to the rest of the trading world. +Now add that grievance to the dreary Darien affair, already laid, as we +have seen, at the door of the English company, and you can understand +why “Annandale” became a slogan in Scotland and the focus of all its +hate. Public opinion whirled the Scottish authorities into action. +These petitioned the return of the <i>Annandale</i>,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</span> but in vain; +the tenacity of the East India Company, capable of holding a country +of hundreds of millions of people in its fist, regarded the Scotch +protest as lightly as some folks do their debts. To have and to hold +was its motto, though all the kilted Highlanders beyond the border +skirled in a fury of revenge. The Scot, however, is no baby; nay, he +has considerable iron in his own system, and a turn for definite action +himself. “Verra guid, mon,” said the north to the south, “verra guid; +ther’s an English ship cam’ into Leith; you keep the <i>Annandale</i>; +we tak’ your Englishman.”</p> + +<p>Which they promptly did—none other than the <i>Worcester</i>.</p> + +<p>Captain Green was certainly now in a pickle. The Scotch government +seized his ship and now he had to stand around with his hands in his +pockets and wait the problematic issue of all this international +bickering. And the thousand pounds’ worth of patiently collected cargo, +the fruit of the peculiar industry of many Cogis—that, too, was sealed +by the authorities so that a man dare not take as much as enough for +a cup of coffee from the hold. If he had been an East Indian Company +ship he might have seen a little sense to it all; but what cared he for +either the Scotch or the English companies? Very little, indeed, and +yet—well, it was beyond words, even purple maritime words. He plumped +down in his cabin to wait.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</span></p> + +<p>Now, hard by the docks in Leith there was a little parlor groggery +kept by a widow named Seaton, who with her nineteen-year-old daughter, +Anne, thus labored to make an honest livelihood. A widow, a lovely girl +and lots of good Scotch whiskey all under one roof,—why the situation +seemed just specially made for the advantage of George Haines, the +steward of the <i>Worcester</i>. What had looked at first like a long, +monotonous detention on a seized ship now suddenly brightened with the +most attractive promise. George accepted the opportunity so readily +that shortly he became almost a part of the Seaton home, and in an +admirably brief space of time nothing less than the accepted suitor of +the fair Anne herself. That meant, as any one could see with half an +eye, that eventually George Haines would be the proprietor of this neat +little business. No more stewing around the East Indies for him; that +was all in the past, or very soon would be. Well, truly, it is an ill +wind that blows nobody good.</p> + +<p>Of course, Mrs. Seaton had neighbors, and just as much of course she +talked to them about her business, her customers and her customers’ +business. One of these neighbors was a dear old lady by name Mrs. +Wilkie, also a widow. She was one of those sad folk who flit down to +the docks to see every ship come in and who speak to every sailor that +steps ashore, in the quest of loved ones long silent upon the far-off +seas. Every one knew Mrs. Wilkie’s story. She was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</span> the mother of a +bonnie lad by the name of Andrew, who some three years before this, +had gone as surgeon on the ship of Captain Drummond, the <i>Speedy +Return</i>, for a voyage to the Indies, and who, after one letter from +Madagascar by way of Mauritius, had not been heard from this long time; +neither he or his ship nor his captain. And now the old lady lived with +her other son, Jamie, a tailor, and whenever a ship came into port +from the East Indies, no matter what the hour of the day or night, the +sailors would see a little old gray lady waiting to ask them for news +of the <i>Speedy Return</i>. To Mrs. Wilkie, then, Mrs. Seaton made +mention of the <i>Worcester</i> and of George Haines, its steward.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Wilkie and Jamie hastened together to the widow Seaton’s to +interview George. They found him in the parlor, comforting himself with +a big tumbler of grog. Jamie bought a drink and talked easily of the +voyage and hoped that George and all the others had fared well. This +seizure business,—that was bad, of course; but it would all come out +all right. George felt it was coming out all right for him as it was. +Jamie coughed, shifted a bit in his chair and at length came out with +the vital question: “Would you be meeting a ship in your travels, the +<i>Speedy Return</i>, captain Rab Drummond, out o’ Glasgie?”</p> + +<p>Mrs. Wilkie’s heart waited. The clock ticked loudly. The widow Seaton +paused with her<span class="pagenum" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</span> potato-paring knife poised in midair. On the kitchen +threshold merry-faced Anne stopped and gazed as though she were +watching a stage play.</p> + +<p>“Sink me! What have I to do with Captain Drummond?”</p> + +<p>Bang came the tumbler on the table; the steward’s loose, foolish +jaw was shoved forward defiantly. Yet what was there about him? +Something—yes, the steward is in the grip of a great fear. Since +frequenting the widow’s shop, George had heard quite a lot about +this Captain Drummond, because the captain, young Andrew Wilkie, +and doubtless many others of his crew had belonged in this city of +Edinburgh, of which, as you know, Leith is the port and a suburb. Folk +were always asking him about this Drummond till he was fair sick of it. +He leaned over and stuck his fat lips against Jamie’s ear. “While we +was on the coast of Malabar,” he began with solemn, nautical preface, +“a Dutch ship told us that Captain Drummond, out o’ Scotland was +turned—a pirate!” He leaned back and gazed at Jamie’s astonished face. +Yes, he had achieved an effect; maybe he could get another. “Aye, sir, +so we manned our sloop, we did, putting guns and patereroes aboard, and +got ready to give the Scot a pound or two o’ lead.” Now the creeklet of +his imagination went dry. “He never came” he ended rather ineffectively.</p> + +<p>Jamie was beaten. He drew off his artillery and departed to allow a +light fire ship to come<span class="pagenum" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</span> alongside. But all Anne got for her wiles and +her work was, as she put it, “He found they had a design to pump him; +but they should not be the wiser of him, though what he had said he +had said.” He was no ship to be pumped, was George; but you see the +implication that there was water in the hold.</p> + +<p>Among the patrons of the house was a jolly old gunner, Will Wood, who +used to come down from the fort in all his splendid regimentals to +drink toddy and tickle the chin of the laughing Anne. He got interested +in the “pumping” of George Haines, steward of the seized ship which lay +outside at the dock, and resolved to try the bluff, hearty, man-to-man +approach. He loaded George up with whiskey until he “fell into a +melancholy fit,” from the burnt-sienna depths of which he emitted this +frightful croak: “It is a wonder that since we did not sink at sea, +that God did not make the ground open and swallow us up when we are +come ashore, for the wickedness that has been committed during this +last voyage on board that old bitch <i>Bess</i>.”</p> + +<p>By the “old bitch Bess” he meant the <i>Worcester</i>, whose spars +might be seen through the parlor window dripping in the mournful rain.</p> + +<p>Will Wood slapped the steward’s knee. “Come, my lad, take a turn on the +links; you’ll feel better; what’s a bit of wet?”</p> + +<p>Dolefully George tottered out of the hot parlor. Behind him the genial +artilleryman turned<span class="pagenum" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</span> and winked portently at the watching company. +“Now’s the time,” said the knowing wink; “we’ve almost got him.”</p> + +<p>The pair strolled out by the castle, they walked on the golf links; +they became intimate. Said jolly Will Wood at the right moment, “I +heard a friend of mine say that he knew a man who got it right from +a fellow that could swear to the truth of it, that the uncle of your +first-mate, Madder, was burned in oil for attempting to set fire to the +Dutch ships at Amsterdam.”</p> + +<p>George stopped in his walk. He raised a finger toward the sky—a +reeling, waving finger—in solemn affirmation. “If what Mr. Madder had +done during this last voyage,” he declared slowly, “were as well known, +he deserved as much as his uncle had met with.”</p> + +<p>Under all the circumstances, that remark could only mean one thing—the +<i>Worcester</i> had been concerned in the piracy of the <i>Speedy +Return</i> and the murder of her crew, who were then supposed to be all +dead. Incredible as it may seem, this drunken maundering of steward +Haines, coupled with the unintelligent suspicions of the Wilkies, the +Seatons and others, passed from the water front to the city until it +reached the officers of the law who—no more intelligent—made it the +basis for a charge of piracy and murder against Green and his crew, +upon which they were all arrested and marched off to the dark holes +of the old Tolbooth prison. The <i>Annandale</i><span class="pagenum" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</span> was forgotten; the +<i>Speedy Return</i> and Captain Drummond took its place, and all +Scotland roared with one voice for vengeance.</p> + +<p>Why did George Haines thus seek to link the <i>Worcester</i> with the +piracy of the <i>Speedy Return</i>? The conversations above reported +between the steward and the Wilkies, the Seatons and Wood are exactly +as given on the subsequent trial of Captain Green. At that trial the +lawyers for Green and the rest of the crew accused with him of the +piracy of the <i>Speedy Return</i> and the murder of Drummond, sought +to explain Haines’ motive by his love affair with Anne Seaton and his +desire to become proprietor of the little Seaton tavern. They also laid +much of his talk to the influence of liquor. There is something in both +of these arguments, but it is probable that a greater motive than these +two dominated him, and that was fear. With the state of the public mind +in Scotland in the condition it was about Darien, the <i>Annandale</i>, +the English and English East Indian traders, it is not unlikely that +a notion blew about the water front when the <i>Worcester</i> came +in to Leith and was seized that perhaps this was one of the hated +East India Company ships, from which it was just a short step to the +suspicion that, as such, or at any rate as an Englishman trading in +the East Indies, the <i>Worcester</i> <i>might</i> have had a hand in +the disappearance of the long overdue <i>Speedy Return</i>. Evidently, +reasoned the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</span> Scotchmen, the <i>Speedy Return</i> has come to harm; +nobody would harm a Scotch ship in the Far East but some Englishman; +here was an Englishman from the Indies; ergo, he probably had pirated +the Scotchman. This thought, more or less tangible, was all about the +<i>Worcester’s</i> men as they loafed on the water front. In those +times, such was the rigor of the criminal law and the uncertainty of +acquittal, innocent men would rush to turn state’s evidence and take +the lesser evil of imprisonment rather than execution. That this was +the condition of things would seem to be shown by the fact that Doctor +May, the <i>Worcester’s</i> surgeon, became state’s evidence, as did +the slave Francesco and another black who had been shipped at Malabar, +and as many others made confessions as could hope for leniency. This +fear, then, working on the steward’s liquor-muddled brain, together +with his desire to ingratiate himself with the Seatons, brought about +the last act of a play opened by John Bowen in the Bay of Antongil in +Madagascar.</p> + +<p>With all of Scotland from north to south and east to west crying for +vengeance, very little time was lost in bringing Captain Green and +all the rest of his men, excluding the doctor and the two blacks, and +including George Haines, who somehow missed the privilege of becoming +queen’s evidence, to their trial in the old court in Parliament Square +in Edinburgh.</p> + +<p>On March 5, 1705, the men of the <i>Worcester</i>,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</span> with the sturdy +and indignant Green at their head, were marched between the bare +bayonets of the City Guards from the Tolbooth to the old courthouse in +Parliament Square, there to stand their arraignment and trial. George +Haines’ liquorous eloquence is about to prove the efficient cause of +many and tragic results.</p> + +<p>A great crowd clogged the court benches and galleries, so much so that +one could not have swung a thought, much less a cat, about one. The +plain attitude of these blue-bonneted folk was that the accused and the +troubles of Scotland were identical. It is fatal to become a symbol.</p> + +<p>Beneath the bench was the lawyers’ table, where now court servants +were putting quills and papers and books. Already the prosecution +is gathering about their end of the table,—a long string of grave +lawyers, under the leadership of Procurator Fiscal, Alexander Higgins. +And who will stand up for the poor sailormen? An astounding array, a +most impressive alignment of legal ability will. Sir David Cunningham +heads the defense, but he will soon drop out and be succeeded by Sir +David Thoirs, with whom will be Sir Walter Pringle, Mr. David Forbes, +Mr. George Alexander, Mr. John Spotswood and Mr. John Elphinstone. Why, +these are names of as much professional weight as are those who will +oppose them on behalf of the Crown.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</span></p> + +<p>How inspiring to behold this important company of lawyers quick to the +defense of the forlorn strangers by the power of a pure love of justice +and a jealous wardenship of the bright honor of the Scottish Bar! For +how else could these sailors—worth not a penny between them, and with +their captain but little wealthier—call to their side these advocates +who had won even the dignities of knighthood in the contests of the +forum?</p> + +<p>For a distressingly cold matter of fact, however, there were several +other motives which conceivably prompted the efforts of the gentlemen +for the defense, and a way that you would never guess was the one +by which they entered the court as procurators (attorneys) for the +defense, and that was—but wait, let us not anticipate.</p> + +<p>Sir David Cunningham smiled at Sir David Thoirs and presented his +snuffbox; Sir David Cunningham bowed to the Procurator Fiscal and did +not offer snuff. Mr. Procurator Fiscal could afford to overlook a +little thing like that, for he felt this was to be his hour.</p> + +<p>Presently the macers came in and the people shuffled to their feet and +stood while the Judge of the High Court of Admiralty with his string +of “assessors,” or specially appointed assistant judges, all in their +scarlet-dappled gowns, solemnly embanked themselves on the seat of +authority.</p> + +<p>The judges sat; every one but the prisoners<span class="pagenum" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</span> sat, and then Mr. +Procurator Fiscal, née Higgins, arose, conscious of the spotlight, and +with orotund voice emptied himself of two tremendous indictments, alike +in word and effect; one directed at one group of defendants and the +other shafted at another group. Canny fellow, this fiscal; he split the +defendants so that, if by mischance one section were cleared, he might +have better luck with the other. Evidently he was an impartial and +fair-minded prosecutor.</p> + +<p>If it were not that many men and perhaps some women have been hanged on +them, those old indictments would be the law’s best joke. Here is what +might be called the Fiscal’s charge proper:</p> + +<p>“That upon one or other of the days of the months of February, March, +April or May, in the year 1703,” the <i>Worcester</i> “did encounter +or meet with another ship or vessel, sailed by its own men or crew, +upon the coast of Malabar, near Calicut, and the said vessel bearing a +red flag, and having English or Scots aboard, at least such as spoke +the English language”; which red-ensigned ship Captain Thomas Green +and his crew first attacked with their sloop, and afterwards with the +<i>Worcester</i>; that the defense was overcome, the defenders slain, +their bodies cast into the sea and their ship looted.</p> + +<p>Notice the fine explicitness of this indictment. On any one of the days +of four months, in a vaguely indicated region, the defendants<span class="pagenum" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</span> attacked +a ship carrying a red flag and manned by English-speaking sailors. +The implication was to be gathered that the ship was the <i>Speedy +Return</i>; but the prosecution could not quite go so far as to paint a +name on the bows of the red-flagged ship.</p> + +<p>The job of defending against this blanket charge probably looked too +great to Sir David Cunningham, for he drops out at this point and the +load falls back on Sir David Thoirs and his colleagues.</p> + +<p>In addition to the charge, the indictments set out, through several +pages of close print, the entire evidence which the Crown expected to +prove. A great rigamarole, this, containing a particular recitation +of everything that George Haines had said to the widow Seaton, her +daughter Anne, Will Wood of the artillery, and Jamie Wilkie, with which +we are already acquainted.</p> + +<p>Incorporated with all this, was a long-winded yarn by the ship’s +doctor, May, who had been granted the comfort of turning state’s +evidence, and from which it appeared that the doctor himself and some +others (among whom was the second mate, Reynolds, according to the oral +admission of the Fiscal) being ashore and hearing the firing of guns, +came to the water’s edge and saw a captive ship riding at the stern of +the <i>Worcester</i>. The cannonading had ceased by that time, so the +surgeon went aboard, where he found<span class="pagenum" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</span> the decks of the <i>Worcester</i> +littered with goods. He asked the reason of it all of one of the +crew, whereupon John Madder, first mate, overhearing him, turned +angrily to the doctor “in a tarpaulin temper” as the doctor says, and +exclaimed, “D—n you! What have you to do to inquire? Meddle with your +plaister-box!” The surgeon then went down to his “chest” and called for +the wounded to dress them; three of whom, “Antonio Ferdinando, and one +Duncan McKay, now dead, and another” came for treatment. These refused +to tell him how they came by their wounds “whereupon the chirurgeon +refused to dress them if they would not tell him how they got their +wounds, and the said John Madder came to the chirurgeon in a passion, +and asked what his business was to ask so many questions, when he did +see the wounds so plain before him, calling him a blockhead for not +dressing them,” and winding up by ordering the doctor ashore. There the +surgeon met the ship’s interpreter, hired locally for the sojourn, who +told him that some of the crew of the <i>Worcester</i> had brought the +captured ship into the Keilon River and sold it to Cogi Commodo.</p> + +<p>Such were the indictments, and they were so drawn because of the +peculiar nature of the jury’s verdict under the Scotch practice, which +did not find the fact of guilt “as charged,” but merely the truth of +each item of the evidence, leaving to the court to pronounce the legal +significance<span class="pagenum" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</span> of those findings. It’s a jumbled-up thing and would +take a treatise to explain. Some historians charge that this form of +verdict was the child of political skullduggery and framed first to +catch covenanters and other radicals for whom juries were showing too +much sympathy and were acquitting on the general verdict; the idea +being that a jury would have to find as a fact that Dougal was meeting +in a bog with his confreres, while the judge could remove from the jury +the temptation of turning in “Not guilty” by reserving to himself the +declaration of the legal import of the finding of fact as to Dougal’s +actions.</p> + +<p>Next, after arraignment the indictment (we refer to it in the singular +as both documents were of the same effect) must be approved by the +judges; that is, the court must declare that if the evidential facts +set out in the indictment are proved, such facts will make a proper +charge and, if found by the jury, will be sufficient to convict.</p> + +<p>Obviously, then, the big battle of this campaign must be fought across +the indictment. Alec the Fiscal, with his army, will struggle to get it +approved; Davy Thoirs and his gallant legion are ready to break their +hearts in an effort to get it condemned. The actual trial will not be +important, for if the indictment be held good, the Fiscal’s witnesses +will simply recite what is already written in that indictment, and all +the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</span> jury will be able to say will be that sometime in February, March, +April or May, 1703, the <i>Worcester</i> was off the coast of Malabar, +that the ship’s doctor heard but did not see firing, that he was told +the prize was sold to a Malabar merchant; that a drunken sot babbled +in a widow’s house, and the court will have already pledged itself to +declare those circumstances constitute piracy, robbery and murder.</p> + +<p>Three occasions, March 5, 7 and 13, mark the chronology of this high +forensic conflict. Its most lucent presentation requires that the time +element be disregarded here, and the arguments put together as a whole. +The debates were oral but we know what passed because, according to the +fashion of the time, what was said in court must afterwards be put in +writing by counsel and given to the clerk “to be entered upon the court +books.”</p> + +<p>Choosing our own time arrangement, then, first the defense attacked +the jurisdiction of the court to hear the case at all. It was argued +that the alleged crimes were committed on the coast of Malabar and by +Englishmen, therefore the accused should be sent to England for trial. +Alec the Fiscal countered that the crime charged being piracy, and +pirates subject to arrest anywhere, the place of arrest and not the +place of offense determined the court’s jurisdiction,—what you might +call the geographical boundaries of its power. What Alec the Fiscal is +thinking<span class="pagenum" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</span> of is the indisputable principle that pirates actually in the +act of crime may be taken anywhere. That is not the same—and he must +have known it—as a presumably innocent ship being informed against +on suspicion. English admiralty practice was somewhat of a bar to the +Fiscal’s theory, so he kicked the English admiralty courts out of the +window, saying, “as for what may be the custom in England, it doth not +concern, nor can be any rule for us.” Looking at it that way, of course +the judges had little trouble finding themselves competent to arbitrate +the fight. Roars of delight from the Darien stockholders.</p> + +<p>Second, the gentlemen of the defense now threw their weight against the +indictment itself. They urged that it was too informal, too general, +too indefinite; that it did not specify day or place, and only by +far-drawn implication charged that the vessel pirated was the <i>Speedy +Return</i>. Here’s the exact language of their protest:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>That the libel (indictment) was irrelevant, as being general and +indefinite, not condescending (stating) upon the name, designation, +or any other sign or evidence by which the ship alleged to be seized +might be particularly distinguished, nor yet the persons’ names +alleged to have been murdered, or to whom the ship and goods robbed +did belong; which seem to be absolutely necessary in all such criminal +indictments, not only as a requisite in form, but in equity and +reason; without<span class="pagenum" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</span> which, persons accused should be in great hazard +from general and indefinite libels, and precluded from their means of +defense, which otherways are obvious, when the accusation is certain, +special and pointed.</p> +</div> + +<p>Strong, sane, splendid words! Cutting through the fog of passion and +prejudice like a clear, pure beam of sun. Whatever may have brought +them into the case, Davy Thoirs and his men are here the mouthpieces of +the law in all its majestic wisdom.</p> + +<p>How did the Fiscal meet this smashing onslaught? He dodged. “He had +informed as definitely and closely as the thing would allow,” he +whined, “for what sense or reason is there, that the prosecutor should +be made to state positively on day and place, in crimes that are crimes +at all times and everywhere; unless it be for the very reason that +the defender, acknowledging the crime, offers to purge himself by the +exception of alibi?”</p> + +<p>Hardly credible, is it? A prosecutor should not specify the date and +place of a crime lest the defendant prove he was somewhere else at the +time. This is the atmosphere, surely, of Alice’s Wonderland. Why, a +defendant might actually have been somewhere else than at the place of +the crime, and what would a poor Fiscal do then? Sir Patrick Home at +the bar rolled a pathetic eye up at Sir John Home on the bench. What<span class="pagenum" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</span> +will happen in Scotland if people are going to insist on such absurd +propositions as that advanced by the defense? Well-a-day and two Alacks!</p> + +<p>The judges would consider the matter.</p> + +<p>It did not do to make any false moves before Davy Thoirs, and this is +just what the Fiscal did when he admitted that John Reynolds, one of +the defendants, was ashore at the time of the attack. Swift, hard, the +defense hit this point. Under that practice one defendant in a criminal +action could not be a witness for a co-defendant until “so purged from +being <i>socius criminis</i> (a fellow criminal)” as to be “put in +case to be a witness.” If Reynolds could be cleared of the crime he +could testify for his fellows. For a situation of that sort the law +provided that one defendant wishing to use another as his witness was +to “raise an exculpation” on behalf of that witness; that is, he would +offer to prove such and such facts concerning the desired witness, +upon which a trial was to be had, when, if the party were cleared or +“exculpated” he could then take the stand and return the compliment +to his erstwhile co-defendants. On behalf of the accused, the defense +now offered to exculpate and thus qualify John Reynolds, on the ground +that, as admitted by the Fiscal, he was on shore at the time of the +crime charged and therefore not <i>particeps criminis</i>.</p> + +<p>The Fiscal roared. “You can’t do this,” he<span class="pagenum" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</span> yelled, and the noisier +he grew the vaguer his argument became; you have to positively offer +to prove Reynolds was somewhere else on some exact day or not on his +ship for four months together. My indictment may be vague, was what he +meant, but your alibi must be as specific as a bookkeeper’s accounts. +Why, that was why he had drawn his indictment so loosely,—just to head +off alibis.</p> + +<p>The judges would consider the matter.</p> + +<p>Why continue? It was all on that stripe.</p> + +<p>On the morning of the thirteenth, the judges announced the conclusion +of their deliberations.</p> + +<p>“The judges and assessors,” came the stiletto tones from the seat of +Justice, “having advised both the indictments pursued by Mr. Alexander +Higgins, Procurator-Fiscal of the High Court of Admiralty, against +captain Thomas Green” and the others, find, that “Reynolds being +libelled against as <i>socius criminis</i>, a fellow criminal, and +there being no specialty or particular ground of exculpation proponed, +why he should be previously tried repel” the offer of the defense to +exculpate him and “repel the objection against the generality of the +indictments, in regard to the nature of the crimes and find the crimes +of piracy, or robbery or murder, as libelled, being proven by clear and +plain evidence, relevant to infer the pains of death ... and remit the +whole to the knowledge of the assize (jury).”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</span></p> + +<p>Captain Green’s snuffbox tinkled along the floor. Sir Patrick Home of +the prosecution glanced up gratefully at Sir John Home on the bench; +the audience breathed a collective Ah! The judges rose and passed out; +their gowns were more than dappled,—they now dripped with scarlet.</p> + +<p>March 14, and the thing could be quickly finished. The assize, or +jury, was impaneled, made up of fifteen members, whose verdict was +sufficient, if found by a plurality of votes.</p> + +<p>Mr. Fiscal first put on the stand Antonio Ferdinando, cook’s mate. He +testified through an interpreter, one captain Yeaman. After asserting +that he was twenty-four years of age, single, a Christian and the son +of Christian parents, he claimed that he saw the <i>Worcester</i> +attack the unnamed ship “upon the coast of Malabar”, practically as +set out in the indictment, and that in the engagement he was wounded, +in the arm, “which wound he now shows to the view of all.” Sensation +in the courtroom! He said it was a running fight and lasted for +three days, and occurred between Tellicherry and Calicut. During his +testifying it was apparent that he was extremely sick, and from time to +time he had to stop and stretch at length on counsel’s table until he +could recover his strength to proceed.</p> + +<p>Next up was Doctor May, who said he was twenty-six years old, and who, +being white,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</span> enjoyed the presumption of being a Christian. He repeated +the statements which he had given for the indictment. He said he heard +the firing while he was at Callequilon. If Ferdinando truthfully told +that the attack was at Calicut, the doctor must have had unusual powers +of hearing, for that place and Callequilon are more than one hundred +miles apart. This was a little too much for even this tragic farce, so +towards the end the doctor brazenly switched his testimony and said +that the firing happened while he was on the ship “going up the coast +of Malabar.”</p> + +<p>Antonio Francesco, the slave, was the third to come on. He had been +chained to the forecastle floor during the firing, but was told by +Ferdinando that the sloop was attacking a ship. He added the highly +significant information that Ferdinando was only employed forty-eight +hours before the <i>Worcester</i> left Anjango for Bengal and home! +If that were so, he was not on the ship at the time Doctor May was at +Callequilon, for that was long before the departure for Bengal.</p> + +<p>But then, one could amuse one’s self indefinitely picking out this kind +of discrepancy among the witnesses.</p> + +<p>James Wilkie, Will Wood and the whole Seaton circle, of course, washed +their faces and came trippingly to court to tell of the important +utterances of George Haines, and to impinge their<span class="pagenum" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</span> little personalities +a moment upon the national retina.</p> + +<p>Under the custom of that day counsel for the criminal defendant +could not give his client much help on the facts, but Thoirs went as +far as the law would allow him. He disputed the qualifications of +the Antonios, claiming that they did not own ten pounds apiece, and +therefore could not be heard to testify in a Scottish court. This was +easy for the Fiscal. “Oh,” said he, “we calculate that each has wages +coming to him from the cruise, which will total more than ten pounds.” +And the court declared the witnesses qualified! If Sir David Cunningham +knew of this ruling he must have been glad he quit.</p> + +<p>Evening came on, yet the court sat through. The macers lit the candles, +making little pools of yellow light in the mid-March murk of the old +courtroom.</p> + +<p>Green essayed a feeble cross-examination but could make little headway +with a weapon which requires the finest skill of the most practiced +hand, and which, clumsily used, will certainly cut the examiner’s own +fingers. As to any affirmative defense, nothing could be advanced under +an indictment of the kind laid against him, for what was there that +he could specifically approach and rebut; all he could say was no. +One thing he did advance and which carried no weight with the assize, +but which is meaningful enough for us, and that was that there was +indeed firing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</span> upon the coast of Malabar and by the <i>Worcester’s</i> +guns, but it was nothing more than the five salutes to the ship +<i>Aureng-zeb</i>.</p> + +<p>The “probation” or taking of testimony ended. Sir David Dalrymple, +her majesty’s solicitor, rose to “speech the assize” on behalf of the +prosecution. “Forgive me,” he blandly began, after complimenting them +as persons “so discerning and faithful”, “if, after a <i>sederunt</i> +(sitting) of twelve hours ... I detain you a little longer in +recapitulating what has passed, with some few observations, I hope not +improper, before ye enclose.” Those “few observations”, invariably the +preface of the complete bore! For two hours more this fellow rehashed +the evidence, in heads and subheads until a mathematician would have +endangered his reason keeping count thereof. What a point he made of +Captain Thomas Bowrey’s code, found on the seizing of the ship! A +regular devil’s document it was. As a matter of fact it was nothing +more than a meager little forerunner of the ordinary commercial code +of to-day. The whole matter, he asserted, was “as clear as sunshine.” +Rather as clear as mud.</p> + +<p>Midnight had chimed from the town clock when counsel for the defense +took the floor. The candles guttered in their sockets, making jumping +blotches of shadow upon the faces of the judges, heavily sunk in +their seats, fighting with sleep; in the blackness beneath the bench +the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</span> macer drooped forward in his chair; Dalrymple left the assize +in various postures of exhaustion, some with their heads thrown far +back, yawning at the ceiling, others dozing upon their knuckles +crooked perspiringly on walking sticks; the panels, or prisoners, +hung on doggedly to the bar rail, or squatted defiantly upon the +floor, their tropic-tanned faces seamed with the drear sojourn in the +Tolbooth,—snared sea birds cruelly caged. In the throng of spectators, +nature had triumphantly overcome the curiosity of many and had whisked +them away to the realms, somber or sparkling, of dreams; little +children lay prone on their mothers’ knees, their locks wet against +their fair foreheads, sweet and lovely flowers in this stagnant pool of +human passion.</p> + +<p>No record has been kept of the speech of the defense; we can easily +think, though, from the splendid fight they had maintained, that they +did not weaken in this last trench, this so hopeless and shattered +barricade.</p> + +<p>The trial ended.</p> + +<p>The assize was turned loose with orders to come back the next day but +one with their verdict, “under pain of three hundred marks.” After +wandering all over town for a couple of days, the fifteen good men and +true strolled back to court at the time appointed, and gave in the +following verdict: “They (the assize), by plurality of votes, find +that there is one clear witness as to the piracy, robbery and murder +libelled; and that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</span> there are accumulative and concurring presumptions +proven for the piracy and robbery so libelled; but find that John +Reynolds, second mate of the said ship, was ashore at the time +libelled.”</p> + +<p>So Reynolds would have been “exculpated” after all! What do their +honors think of that?</p> + +<p>Who could the “one clear witness” have been?</p> + +<p>And how shall we salute the anonymous minority who did not subscribe to +the verdict?</p> + +<p>The quietness which lasted while the verdict was formally sealed was +broken by the precise tones of David Forbes, one of the lawyers for the +defense. A last blow for his sailors? No. He is telling the court that +he is attorney for the Scotch African-Indian company and in their name +desires to enter protest against the setting over to the Crown of the +ship <i>Worcester</i> and her cargo. Thus one of the little kittens of +this narrative jumps from the bag where she has so carefully been kept.</p> + +<p>The lawyers for the defense wholly or in part—at any rate +considerably—came into the case in the pay of the Scotch +African-Indian company!</p> + +<p>Strange, is it not? Here’s all Scotland, raw with the sore of Darien, +shouting for the healing ointment of English blood, and here is the +company, heir of all the grievances and privileges of the Darien +disaster, spending money to keep that relief from the angry sufferer.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</span></p> + +<p>French folk say that in a mystery one must search for the woman. French +folk are too naïve. One should look for the dollar, beside which the +woman is but a key of putty with which to unlock the riddles of life.</p> + +<p>Here’s the thing: if the men of the <i>Worcester</i> were convicted +of piracy, that ship, under the law, would escheat to the Crown; +otherwise, the Scotch African-Indian company was entitled to +the possession of it as reprisal for the seizure of their ship +<i>Annandale</i>. Thus thousands of pounds’ worth of ship and cargo +would be lost to the company if Green were convicted and his ship set +over to the Crown.</p> + +<p>In this none too simple world of ours a good end is sometimes strangely +forwarded, not by those for whom it may be an advertised goal, but +by ones who, so far as they know or care, are serving the completely +selfish moment. This strife for the <i>Worcester</i> put the ablest men +of the Scotch bar at the service of Green and his crew, and gave his +cause, and incidently that of justice in the abstract, the utmost help +the times and practices permitted to the defense in a criminal action. +These keen, adroit company lawyers wrung every drop of advantage they +could, and on the law, as law, utterly routed the prosecution and +luminously exposed the prejudice of the court.</p> + +<p>On Wednesday, March 21, the <i>coup-de-grâce</i> was given. Captain +Green and all the rest,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</span> including George Haines—doubtless sober +now—received their sentences. It was decreed that one group of the +defendants should on Wednesday, April 4, another group on the Wednesday +following that, and the remainder on the third Wednesday, or April +18, “be taken to the sands of Leith, within the flood mark, betwixt +the hours of eleven o’clock in the forenoon and four o’clock in the +afternoon, and there be hanged upon a gibbet until they be dead.”</p> + +<p>And—that the ship <i>Worcester</i>, as the vessel of the pirates, +should be set over to her majesty the queen.</p> + +<p>Antonio Ferdinando, cook’s mate, lay fevered on his pallet in one of +the high attics of Edinburgh. There was a roaring in the street as of a +public celebration; the cries welled up from below, the people of the +house exulted on the stairs, and crowding into the sick room shouted, +“The pirates are to die.” Antonio shivered, moaned and expired.</p> + +</div> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</span></p> + + +<h3> +III</h3> + + +<p>Gusts of rain were splashed by the spring winds round and about the +hilly streets of Edinburgh; the defeated sun lay like a large pale +yellow blot against the moist clouds. Yet very early in that morning +of April 4 throngs of folk were crowding to the prison gates and +scattering about the sands of Leith. For to-day Darien was to be +avenged.</p> + +<p>In the chambers of the Scottish Estates, in Parliament Square, the +privy council assembled, attended by the city magistrates, for a tumult +was clearly prophesied.</p> + +<p>“The idea!” puffed my lord chancellor, getting into his gown. “Such a +clamor about the prison! Would they intimidate us with their uproar. +Mr. Magistrate, go sweep them through the gutters to their kennels!”</p> + +<p>“My lord, I hae no broom big enow.”</p> + +<p>The clerk presented a petition, signed by many of the better +consciences of the town, praying a reprieve for the condemned pirates. +The council turned the matter about with grave, genteel speech.</p> + +<p>“What a file of names! They seem to urge that Reynolds should have had +opportunity of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</span> exculpation. Well, we discharged Reynolds, did we not?”</p> + +<p>“In view of the verdict, my lords, I am inclined to think—well, that +he might have been exculpated.”</p> + +<p>“And I.”</p> + +<p>“And I.”</p> + +<p>“The indictment was good, my Lord Chancellor, of course—did we not so +hold. But the fact of death—ordinarily, of course, it should be shown. +Ordinarily, I say. The other rule is a little dangerous, is it not? The +<i>corpus delicti</i>—it is a sound doctrine—usually.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, ordinarily—certainly. Macer, close the window—the noise from the +prison yard is getting intolerable.”</p> + +<p>“My lords, my lords, they’re under our windows! Oh, my lords, such a +press, and ilk has a stick or a stane ’n’s fist.</p> + +<p>“Mr. Magistrate, you will see to the protection of her majesty’s +council.”</p> + +<p>“Aye, my Lord Chancellor—or die wi’ ye.”</p> + +<p>“Tush! tush! Such blathering! Die? Who said die?”</p> + +<p>“Heavens! Who’s thumping on that door?”</p> + +<p>“My lords, the people cry that you are reprieving the pirates!”</p> + +<p>“I pray that no torch be set to the town. Shall I step forth and +promise the people, on the honor of a magistrate, there shall be no +reprieve?”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</span></p> + +<p>“Reprieve, Mr. Magistrate! Who spoke of reprieve?”</p> + +<p>A gust of wind from the open door blew the petition fluttering to the +floor. None stooped to pick it up.</p> + +<p>The council adjourned. The chancellor got as far as the old Tron church +when some pudding-face in the crowd shouted the pirates were reprieved. +A wave of people beat against the chancellor’s coach, they smashed the +glass, crashed in the panels, and might have licked up the blood of +the worthy nobleman himself but for the onrushing bayonets of the city +guard, and, what was more effective,—a sudden, cyclonic roar from the +throng at the prison gate, announcing that Green, Madder and Simpson +were departing in the death wagon for the doomful sands of Leith.</p> + +<p>Dimmed, indeed, was the honor of Scottish lawyers when bench and bar +could thus go hand in hand to cast to the wild beast of public passion +the unprotected and the innocent. Even the defense—able, adroit, +complete—was not purely disinterested, yet amid all those mad scenes +one soul, at least, kept the noblest traditions of the law alive +within him and splendidly redeems his profession. For a young, obscure +lawyer sat attentively in court during the whole trial, and, on the +day of doom, clad himself in a suit of complete mourning and attended +at the sands of Leith, and, when Justice had completed<span class="pagenum" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</span> its terrific +miscarriage, he, at the risk of his life, saw to the decent interment +of the poor victims. That young man was to be the future illustrious +Duncan Forbes!</p> + +<p>None of the other <i>Worcester</i> men were executed. Between March +16 and April 3, Thomas Linsteed, John Bruckley and George Haines made +solemn confession of their fictitious crimes before James Graham, the +judge admiral. But these confessions are dismissed by a contemporary +writer as worthless and purely self-serving; they merely elaborated the +tale already told and were obviously made to repair the weakness of +the State’s case, and as the prosecution’s apology for an act already +beginning to disturb many consciences.</p> + +<p>The public blood thirst was slaked. One reprieve followed another, and +eventually the whole crew drifted out of prison, out of the country and +out of the view of history.</p> + +<p>And a few days before the execution of the three ill-fated men, our old +friends Israel Phippany and Peter Freeland landed in England, but too +late to prevent the tragedy of Leith sands, and revealed the true fate +of the good ships <i>Content</i> and <i>Speedy Return</i>!</p> + +<p>A moralist must find this tale provocative. Mark the factors of evil +in the case; the commercial greed which seized the <i>Annandale</i>, +the violent crime of Bowen in pirating the <i>Speedy Return</i>, the +blind national anger which perverted<span class="pagenum" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</span> public opinion, and which in its +turn warped a timid and compliant court and council to its will, the +individual habits of a ship’s steward, and the fear for their personal +safety which made perjurers of the State’s witnesses. One’s speculation +is challenged.</p> + +<p>These tragic deaths were not entirely fruitless. Although not the +foundation of the principle, nevertheless this celebrated cause went +far to rivet unshakably into the foundations of English jurisprudence +the vital doctrine of the <i>corpus delicti</i>,—proof of the actual +fact of death before a charge of homicide will lie.</p> + + + +</div> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</span></p> + +<h2> +<a id="CHAPTER_SIX"></a>CHAPTER SIX</h2> +<p class="center"> +“WHO FIRES FIRST?”</p> +<p class="center"> +John Gow</p> +<h3> +I</h3> + + +<p>“As we eat, so shall we work.”</p> + +<p>Almost immediately after leaving Amsterdam old Paterson had set up his +insistent croak; from his hammock under the poop when the roaring +officers called the shifting watches, on the sleety deck and aloft +in the wind-taut rigging, and the last thing at night in the great +cabin, even at the solemn moment of common prayer, when his captain +and master slowly read the form of evening supplication, this ancient +and discontented shellback continually muttered his plaint to wind and +waves and willing and unwilling ears, “As we work, so shall we eat.”</p> + +<p>If looks could kill, the poor cook of the <i>George</i> would long +since have perished amid his pots and pans, for it was when, at the +appointed times, or as the emergencies of the ship demanded, old +Paterson rolled with his pannikin and mess-kid to the galley that his +obsessing whine became a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</span> shriek and his filmy eye burned upon the +humble dispenser of the victuals with a consuming hate. Not that the +cook, in himself, offended old Paterson, but because he became a symbol +of oppressive shipmasters and exacting shipowners who sought to pare +another penny of profit from the stringy stomachs of their ’foremasting +slaves.</p> + +<p>Justice would indeed be blindfolded, nay, have no eyes at all, if she +could not see that old Paterson had some cause for complaint. Little +meat and less bread; rum thimbled out as reluctantly as a small boy +dividing his lollipops under compulsion; a menu, in fact, made up of +tepid water tinctured to the point of tantalizing with suggestions of +what might, under proper conditions, have been food, made meager fare +for men lashed into crying hunger by the snapping sea gales.</p> + +<p>And when still a long way from Santa Cruz, in the Azores, whither the +<i>George</i> was bound, the twenty-four men of the crew were put on +“short allowance”, old Paterson, with his croak, became a soloist now +supported by a chorus. “Short allowance”—certainly, an artful misuse +of the comparative degree—had always been short, and in truth could +only be called shortest.</p> + +<p>At Santa Cruz they sluggishly laded the ship with beeswax, and although +the chandlers pressed importunately about the skipper, he gave no +orders for any considerable increase in the provisions for the homeward +voyage. Were they to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</span> make the journey back on that misnamed “short +allowance?” It rather looked as though they would. Cargo was stuffed +into the hold in plenty, but no fresh sides of beef came to cheer +the toiling seamen; no flour, no bread, nothing but a few bottles of +wine which, however, went into the great cabin and the custody of the +thrifty key. Perhaps provisions would come aboard when the loading was +done; at least the younger and less sophisticated men hoped, but old +Paterson shook his earrings and clubbed pigtail. He had followed the +sea long enough to know the character of his ship.</p> + +<p>Among the officers of the ship, the men had but one whom they could +look upon as a friend,—John Gow, the second mate, a youngish man +from the Orkney Islands. A capable sailor was John Gow, yet never too +busy to sympathize a moment with the miseries of his men, nor too +much the officer to spend a kindly word on an outcast crew. But what +could a second mate do? Was he not simply a block for his superiors to +kick with the expectancy that he would pass the compliment on to his +subordinates? Exactly.</p> + +<p>“As we eat, so shall we work.” John Gow heard the slogan spreading like +a kind of vocal slow match to the powder magazine of disaster and only +smiled.</p> + +<p>When the beeswax and other cargo was in, the unmistakable notice of +departure appeared in the formal reception by the captain of his +charterers.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</span> The gentlemen came aboard in their best clothes and were +escorted to the quarter-deck, where an awning had been spread against +the sun, and a cluster of wine bottles glowed with their purple +prophecy of comfort. From the waist and forward, eyes of envy and +dislike turned furtively on the pleasant company aft, merry now in the +exchange of compliments.</p> + +<p>“We’re starting,” cried a youth, plaintively, “and there’s no victuals +aboard.”</p> + +<p>Old Paterson was not going home on an empty belly. If he knew anything +in this world, he knew that much. Around him clumped a group of seamen, +and somehow, probably with little premeditation, they suddenly started +aft and shocked their captain by intruding on the sanctity of the +quarter-deck. The merchants leaned back from their bottles and looked +as though they thought the end of the world had come. Simply unheard of!</p> + +<p>Old Paterson bowed and scraped politely. “Cap’n,” he began, with the +habitually humble voice before authority, “we’re on short allowance. We +hope your honor ain’t agoin’ home without proper victuals aboard.”</p> + +<p>His supporters growled their amen. The captain, hardly holding himself +in from hurling a chair, a bottle, a tackle block or anything handy at +the presumptuous faces before him, rose up and frigidly replied that +there was a steward aboard who had the care of the provisions and all<span class="pagenum" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</span> +complaints would be properly redressed. The tarry gang tumbled back to +their proper sphere, leaving the captain in a muddle of embarrassment +and suspicion,—embarrassment for his fractured dignity, suspicion +because the intrusion indicated a perhaps germinating rebellion.</p> + +<p>Old Paterson leered at his guard of honor. “As we eat, so shall we +work.”</p> + +<p>The merchants in polite course quitted the ship, and the captain, +without commenting on the incident of the afternoon, ordered the +anchor up and the sails shaken out. They were starting, and there +was not a square meal for one, let alone twenty-four men aboard. +Short—shorter—shortest allowance all the way home.</p> + +<p>The crew lagged at their work; particularly old Paterson, who crawled +into the shrouds so sluggardly that the captain marked him, and in +round sea terms demanded why he did not get to unfurling the sails more +seamanlike. Old Paterson turned like an aged rattlesnake.</p> + +<p>“As we eat, so shall we work.”</p> + +<p>The captain caught the mutter, and so did John Gow, the second mate. +The captain prudently did nothing about it; the second mate grinned and +gazed innocently out at the greenish sea.</p> + +</div> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</span></p> + + +<h3> +II</h3> + +<p>Apprehension—almost premonition—dropped heavily upon the skipper as +the day marched to a gray and windy evening. The complaining deputation +that had assaulted his quarter-deck in the early afternoon, the open +grumbling of old Paterson, and above all, no doubt, a something in the +demeanor of the men, which an experienced master might read like the +signs of the sky, foreboded the brewing of violence.</p> + +<p>He and his mate were standing on the quarter-deck, where, in the dusk, +two or three men passed and repassed them on the business of the ship. +The mate himself felt the coming of a worse storm than that of wind and +wave, and when the captain, bracing himself sufficiently to confess his +fears and suggest that small arms should be gathered and placed in his +cabin “in case anything should happen”, his chief officer, glad to air +his secret anxiety, at once set about the business.</p> + +<p>And the first thing he did was to call John Gow and order him to attend +to the cleaning of the ship’s muskets, pistols and cannon.</p> + +<p>“Aye, aye, sir,” responded Gow, and slipped briskly forward.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</span></p> + +<p>Almost at the same time two of the men who had been fumbling with the +ropes on the quarter-deck sank down the companion ladder and met the +second mate in the forward gloom. The three spoke together closely, +with much tossing of indicative thumbs over their shoulders.</p> + +<p>The arming of the captain’s cabin went but tardily; little delays such +as lost keys and so forth kept the thing at pause until eight o’clock, +the daily hour of divine worship, not to be foregone for anything +but an irresistible typhoon. In the “great cabin,” as it was called +to distinguish it from the lesser cabins of the mate, surgeon and +supercargo, one half of the crew met while the other half kept on deck +and worked the ship, thus taking turn and turn about at prayers. The +captain stood under the lantern which jerked and bobbed and anon struck +its metal guards sharply against the ceiling with the tumbling of the +ship; the pigtailed crowd knelt in a shadowy motley about him, the +jumping light threw the blackness off the polished oaken wainscoting, +or gleamed an instant on the captain’s graying beard, and again +suddenly and sharply picked out a hairy, tattooed arm bracing some +worshipper against his lurching chapel.</p> + +<p>Against the cabin windows the seas slapped smartly and with a kind of +repetition as the movement of the ship turned one side and another +into the depths, the cabin door banged explosively with a quick +capriciousness of the wind;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</span> overhead, faintly, the cries of the +navigators could be heard; with it all, the reader pursued doggedly +the liturgy of that most sublime achievement of the English religious +genius, the book of Common Prayer.</p> + +<p>Did he, as his square thumbs turned the pages, light for a moment with +chill dread upon the Burial Service?</p> + +<p>The arrangement of the watches provided that those who attended the +service of prayer should go from there to their hammocks and rest until +it was time to relieve the next watch.</p> + +<p>“Who fires first?”</p> + +<p>A man fully dressed, but without his boots, gently punched one of the +bulging hammocks and whispered this strange question to the occupant +whose head bobbed up. If the man addressed knew who was to fire first, +he did not say so, for his only answer to the query was to roll deftly +out of his hammock and drop, with a scarcely audible pad of bare feet, +to the deck, tightening his belt about his waist and twisting his dirk +scabbard conveniently in front of him.</p> + +<p>“Who fires first?”</p> + +<p>From one hammock, selected from the swaying lines, to another the queer +question proceeded, always receiving the same reply,—tight lips and +a quick flop of feet on the deck. Six men had been asked in the gusty +darkness who was to fire first and now, cautiously fingering their way +along the deck works, and in single file, they crept<span class="pagenum" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</span> toward the cabins +of the first mate, the doctor and the supercargo.</p> + +<p>The passageway connecting these small cabins was heavy with the smell +of old tobacco, drugs, wine and wet clothing and lighted by one small +lantern above the entrance. Softly, softly—a hand gently thrust +against a swinging door—a foot across the threshold—and death was +laid quickly at the throats of the sleepers.</p> + +<p>The mate, however, was a strong man. Clutching his gaping throat +convulsively with his two hands, he ran to the deck, only to meet a +conclusive volley of pistol balls.</p> + +<p>The captain, hearing the uproar, came up in his slippered feet, calling +out for the cause of it all, to which the boatswain answered that he +thought a couple of men had fallen overboard. The captain rushed to the +side and gazed into the black waters, and immediately was seized by +two men, who struggled to hoist him over the bulwark. Desperately, the +victim fought in their grasp, but scarcely had he twisted himself once +about, ere, in back and front, the dirk sank into his flesh.</p> + +<p>“As we eat, so shall we work,” grinned old Paterson, wiping his wet +blade on the poor remains.</p> + +</div> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</span></p> + + +<h3> +III</h3> + + +<p>Amid an infernal hilarity, the officers’ cabins were now looted. The +little chests of personal belongings were smashed in and the contents +tumbled out to be grabbed by whoever could get to them first. Watches, +cheap trinkets of jewelry, silk handkerchiefs and what little money +could be found were divided with shouts of dispute. But two or three +boxes containing considerable coins and the property of the shipowners +were withdrawn for more decorous and equitable division.</p> + +<p>Everything in the way of liquor was rushed to the quarter-deck and +a night-long orgy ensued. The ship somehow wallowed along while its +masters reveled. With a bottle of wine in one hand, the greedily gulped +liquid streaming down his bushy beard, and a cutlass in the other, one +Williams, a proper rascal, smote his weapon ringingly against a cannon +and cried, “Captain Gow, you are welcome—welcome to your command.”</p> + +<p>In this way, informally but effectively, second mate John Gow accepted +his promotion to the office of captain.</p> + +<p>Captain Gow politely returned the kindness by saying, “Mr. Williams, +you shall be our<span class="pagenum" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</span> lieutenant.” Thereupon the nominations were closed, +as parliamentarians say, and the elections unanimously carried. The +night went along in a roaring good humor till the placid eye of +morning, slowly opening in the watery east, was shocked to find the +decks red with an unholy stain.</p> + +<p>As a matter of fact, the whole affair had been carried by a group of +eight men, six of whom had been summoned from their hammocks by the +watchword “Who fires first?”, the remaining two being up on deck. From +the circumstance we have just seen, John Gow must have been a party to +the criminal enterprise, as he indeed was.</p> + +<p>Four men were over the side, eight were conspirators; thus there +remained twelve men of the crew more or less neutral. These men fled +for hiding to the shrouds, into the lazaret, or anywhere that might +shield them from the passionate tempest.</p> + +<p>A very similar circumstance has often engaged the interest of the +story-tellers. If this were a fictitious narration of the conventional +sort, this thrilling situation would be artfully resolved by the +wonderful recovery of the ship and the ultimate defeat of the mutineers +by the faithful and ingenious twelve. If it be permissible to point out +the deficiency of such enthralling yarns, as related to practical fact, +it would lie in the circumstance that by the time the ship had been<span class="pagenum" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</span> +recaptured there would not be enough men left alive to work it, and, at +least according to the canny calculations of Lloyd’s, it would thereby +become an impossible risk.</p> + +<p>John Gow had a ship to man, and as no ship probably in all history ever +started out with too many hands, generally too few, the <i>George</i> +must be supposed to have been no exception to the common rule; hence +while Gow might personally have liked to toss all opposition over the +bulwarks, he realized that to do so would have been tantamount to +wrecking his vessel, so another method of approach to the problem was +indicated.</p> + +<p>First, however, he had to get his lively eight in hand. As the morning +waves slapped foamingly across the slanting deck, the challenge to +orderly work was obvious. He therefore, in a regular quarter-deck talk +to the men, demanded their obedience and good conduct, concluding with +the announcement that alone ever assured harmony to a pirate ship,—an +equal division of the spoils to all, with a double share to the ship, +that is, the captain.</p> + +<p>Next he sent a deputation with drawn cutlasses to hunt out the +fugitives and bring them before him under the persuasion of peaceful +treatment. Out of their refuges came the frightened and tousled seamen, +doubtless full dubious of the efficacy of the promise of him whom they +now regarded as a monster. Lining them up, he thus addressed them:</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</span></p> + +<p>“Men, the inhumanity of the captain, of which you as well as we have +complained, produced the consequences of last night. We are now going +on a cruise. You may join with us, and if anything good comes to us you +shall have your equal share. All I require is obedience and good order. +You who have not been in this conspiracy have nothing to fear from us; +do your duty as seamen and you will be well paid.”</p> + +<p>Four of the twelve grinned and stepped over to the ranks of the +mutineers; eight stood dumb, answering never a word. It took a great +deal of moral courage to stand amid those eight, deprived of even their +dirks and utterly helpless in the hands of a crowd capable of the +horrors which the eight had witnessed.</p> + +<p>In the story of the sea, the bravery of naval battle, the courageous +deportment of men on sinking ships, the unselfish giving of one’s life +for another, all these have been properly remembered with all the +glowing artifice of rhetoric, and the heroes’ names treasured in the +marine annals of their country. Unhonored and unsung, for the most +part, are those obscure sailors who, without the incitement of martial +camaraderie, without the applause of onlookers, without expectation of +fame—in the most dejected and hopeless of situations—have manfully +stood by their notion of conscientious duty against their mutinous or +piratical fellows. Nevertheless,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</span> these unknown ones ascended the very +height of true heroism.</p> + +<p>Conduct of this kind brands as a lie the cynical saying that “every man +has his price”, for some men will not accept life itself in payment for +principle.</p> + +<p>Quelch, the Boston pirate, had his sturdy protestants; so too did Major +Bonnet, colleague of the infamous Blackbeard, and so did many other sea +rogues. In truth, almost every instance of the sort exhibits the moral +hardihood of an incorruptible minority.</p> + +<p>John Gow’s eight were delivered over to the rough abuse of Lieutenant +Williams, who flogged them at will, and set men to keep them at work +at the point of the cutlass. On them fell all the hard labor of the +ship and they became the drudges of whatever roistering rascal chose to +command them.</p> + +<p>At the same time, there is a final leniency about Gow’s treatment of +this minority which lifts him from the charge of entirely purposeless +ferocity. Purposeless ferocity is a tradition of piracy, but a curious +thing is that not one of the pirates, of the major type, whose crimes +were afterwards subjected to judicial examination, is particularly +marked with a simple lust of cruelty. Tales of brutality abound +concerning ruffians like Lafitte, England, Low, Lewis, Rackam and +the rest of the roguish gallery, which may or may not be true. The +same stories circulated about Kidd,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</span> Quelch, Avery and Gow, but when +compared with the judicial records, the source alone of this series of +pirate tales, of the activities of these last-named men, merely wanton +cruelty is notably missing. On the contrary, in not a few cases there +is a surprising magnanimity manifested by men of undoubtedly criminal +disposition.</p> + +<p>Lives were taken in the actual capture of ships, but when the pirates +gained possession there is no judicial record of plank-walking or other +inhuman treatment. More often than not, the pirate chief recruited new +hands from among the captives, though apparently without compulsion, +and those that refused to join the black flag were commonly allowed to +return to their ship and go their way. Plunder was the chief quest of +the pirates, and that obtained their interest in ships or men ceased. +If the pirate coveted the ship for his own use, he generally disposed +of its crew by signing on those who would and putting ashore those who +would not. Not that he was a tender chap—he could be very frightful +where he conceived his profit required violence—but merely sportive +torture was not a characteristic of those remembered in the only +authentic sources of the subject,—the printed trials of the pirates. +If this is true of those of whom we have definite information, it +follows that the sanguinary accounts of those who never came to trial +must be considerably thinned out by doubt.</p> + +<p>Gow in his method followed the invariable<span class="pagenum" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</span> practice of piracy: he stole +his ship. They all began that way. In all the judicial reports of +piracy we have examined only Major Stede Bonnet bought and outfitted +a vessel for what was then called “the grand account.” In two cases +that we know of, the disaffection of the crews made possible their +corruption; Henry Avery, mate of the <i>Charles the Second</i>, +capitalized the discontent of the men at not receiving their pay +from the Spanish Government, and as Gow, in his quarter-deck speech +declared, short rations and harsh treatment combined to drive the crew +of the <i>George</i> into mutiny. Probably the captains of neither +the <i>Charles the Second</i> nor the <i>George</i> were individually +responsible for the condition; they were themselves creatures of +circumstance, but as representatives of the owners or charterers they +became the tangible objects of undiscriminating violence.</p> + +<p>The men who managed mutinous plots such as these were much more shrewd +in their selection of conspirators than were the men who attempted +the great political plots of history, for the sea plotters seldom or +never had a betrayal. They never approached the entire crew, but picked +out a positive core, who would hold fast, seize ship and weapons and +dominate the situation. Perhaps this resolute conduct rose from the +personal sense of wrong under which the individual plotter suffered; +self-interest only could have produced so tight an adhesion to the +group. The first part<span class="pagenum" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</span> of the game called for few rather than many men, +and apparently Gow could have persuaded four more men to come in with +him than he actually did.</p> + +<p>Properly, the matter was a mutiny but its development into piracy was +inevitable, foreseen and provided for. In their position, they might as +well hang for a sheep as a lamb.</p> + +<p>Another typically piratical trick followed; they painted out +<i>George</i> and substituted for it the name <i>Revenge</i>, of all +ship’s names the best beloved of pirates.</p> + +<p>The sailmaker hemmed up a strip of black bunting and under the funereal +ensign they turned their prow to the affronted sea.</p> + +</div> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</span></p> + + +<h3> +IV</h3> + + +<p>Living at the unregulated rate they were, the meager provisioning of +the ship was soon used up, and so, in search of food and wine rather +than diamonds and gold, they set for the coasts of Spain and Portugal, +hoping to intercept a local trader freighted with the desired goods.</p> + +<p>A small English ship, the <i>Sarah Snow</i>, of Bristol, was the first +honest craft to vividly discover that a robber was loose on the high +seas. What with surprise and the display of a number of guns which +Gow had brought up from below and thrust impressively through his +ports, the <i>Sarah Snow</i> yielded without a fight, whereupon she +was systematically rifled from cargo to the crew’s few shillings, and, +leaving one volunteer to join the despoilers, she was permitted to +proceed on her voyage.</p> + +<p>The <i>Delight</i>, of Poole, next fell into their hands, in very +similar circumstances, was plundered and allowed to go.</p> + +<p>An Englishman, carrying fish from Newfoundland to Cadiz, was informally +and unexpectedly relieved of a large portion of his cargo without +dockage or stevedoring fees, but unfortunately without any receipt +being given him for<span class="pagenum" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</span> the information of his owners. Not only that, +but somebody thoughtfully decided the owners might at least have the +advantage of the insurance, so he kicked a hole in the bottom and +the fish boat took a nose dive into the far green deeps. The captain +and her crew of four men were brought aboard the <i>Revenge</i> as +“prisoners.” They were kept forward under guard, for what eventual +disposition nobody—least of all themselves—had the slightest notion. +Lieutenant Williams beguiled a boresome day by hanging them up by +the thumbs, or seeing which one could longest stand a rope’s end +on his bare back. Williams, doubtless, would have delighted in the +plank-walking trick, but public opinion was not entirely with him. In +fact, he began to sneer at Gow—behind his back—for a chicken-livered +pirate, and even secured a sort of following for his point of view. +One of the four captives, a man named Jack Belvin, avoided the Welsh +lieutenant’s flayings by signing on with the pirates; the others +heroically endured rather than become felons. Well, they must have been +pretty good men to begin with to take a boat requiring only a crew of +five all the way from Newfoundland to Cadiz.</p> + +<p>A Scotch ship, carrying pickled herrings to Italy, was the next in +line. The <i>Revenge</i> already had a surplus of fish, but, taking off +a considerable quantity of the cargo, Gow amused the men and practiced +the gunner by bombarding<span class="pagenum" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</span> her with his guns and thus amusingly sending +the pickled herring back to their original element. The Scotch crew +joined Williams’ victims forward.</p> + +<p>A pirate always overloaded on the products of the locality he haunted. +Kidd, off the Malabar coast procured butter enough to use as a +lubricant; Quelch, down Brazil way, acquired control of the coffee and +sugar trade; Blackbeard and Bonnet, off the Carolinas, specialized in +pineapples and Jamaica rum; Henry Avery, in the Gulf of Guinea, opened +his prize package and found it full of negro slaves, and now here is +John Gow seriously disturbing the market in salt and pickled fish. +Save for the exceptional chance, Kidd, Quelch and Avery would have +degenerated into petty peddlers of stolen groceries; their big hauls +just happened along.</p> + +<p>Everybody on board was now living on salmon, cod and pickled herrings, +with never a barrel of bread to go with the fish, and not a spoonful +of wine to wash the thirst-provoking diet down. They hesitated to +attack any new ships for fear another scaly cargo should mock them, +odoriferously from the hold; the thing got beyond a joke and the cook, +no doubt, kept his dirk handily under his apron as he passed out the +inevitable hunk of pickled horror.</p> + +<p>Gow had already seen vividly that the matter of something to eat +will upset a dynasty and junk a throne more quickly than any merely +political<span class="pagenum" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</span> irritation, so, for the appeasement of his subjects and the +preservation of his dignities—to say nothing of his life—he resolved +to risk no more disappointing ships but to strike for a port and the +run of land stores.</p> + +<p>The place chosen for their custom was the little Portuguese settlement +of Porta Santa, in the Madeiras. With something of the feeling that +honester men have on the homeward heave, all hands pulled together +heartily, nor allowed any wallowing merchantmen to divert them until +the white walls and red roofs of their desired haven rose comfortingly +out of the sea. The <i>Revenge</i> foamed smartly into the harbor and +rattled her anchor into the mud.</p> + +<p>A solemn council in the great cabin—now in all that queer +topsy-turveydom which betrays apparent but false authority, and where +there was no longer any cramping posture for evening prayers—decided +that here was a splendid opportunity to get rid of some of their fish. +Appropriately, they would bestow a quantity of it on the governor of +Porta Santa, as the embodiment of the State.</p> + +<p>Half a dozen ruffians washed their faces, clubbed their briny locks, +rubbed up their shoe buckles, pulled together, with long stitches, the +gaping holes in their stockings and set out in a boat jammed with dried +salmon and pickled herring.</p> + +<p>From his airy prison, the Scotch captain gazed<span class="pagenum" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</span> pensively upon them. +“Mon,” he groaned to a captive Dane, “I cuid bear to ken the rabbers +sell ma fush—but to gie it awa’; gie it awa’ to these jabberin’ +jumping-jacks for never a bawbee! Mon, mon, these mock sailors air on +the road to ruin. And Gow a Scottishman—” John Gow’s departure from +the normal was simply inexplicable.</p> + +<p>The burly Dane grunted “Yah”, practically the extent of his linguistic +resources in Danish or any other tongue. He never did know what all +these doings meant, anyway.</p> + +<p>His Excellency was deeply touched when the load of preserved marine +fauna was dumped on the gubernatorial verandah.</p> + +<p>“It’s not so much the gift,” he reflected, turning over a stark salmon +with the toe of his shoe, “as the spirit of the giver.”</p> + +<p>He looked approvingly on the six honest visages before him and marveled +at the depths of their unselfishness.</p> + +<p>“Where are you bound?” he asked, in Portuguese.</p> + +<p>“Tell him Bristol, Bill,” prompted one of the emissaries to the +slow-footed chum who could parley the lingo sufficiently to interpret +the question to his fellows. So Bristol it was.</p> + +<p>With racial courtesy, the governor proposed to return to the ship with +them, to formally thank their captain. A group of local dignitaries was +quickly collected and all went down to the wharf.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</span></p> + +<p>“The governor’s coming aboard,” shouted Gow, as the company appeared at +the water side. “Now, men, keep ’em on the quarter-deck and away from +the prisoners, and you yourselves try to look less like jailbirds and +more like sailormen!”</p> + +<p>The reception on the quarter-deck left nothing out; even the awning was +drawn across so that for a little while it seemed to some of the men +that the past few weeks were all a dream, good or bad as the individual +viewpoint dictated.</p> + +<p>The boat had had orders, after bringing out the governor’s party, to go +back to town and fetch provisions. Now, whether the idea was to pay for +the goods or to just take them with a thank-ye-marm is not a matter of +recorded history; historical it is, however, that the boat came back +empty, which Gow, out of the corner of his eye, noticed, and, excusing +his absence, stepped down the companion ladder in anxious questioning. +Somehow there was always drumming through his head old Paterson’s +ancient chant, “As we eat, so shall we work.”</p> + +<p>“They won’t give us the grub,” bellowed the boatswain, balancing +himself in the stern of the bobbing boat.</p> + +<p>Gow went back and lodged a courteous complaint with His Excellency. +Excellency called an attendant and battered him about the ears with +swift Portuguese. Attendant went back with the boat.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</span></p> + +<p>Back came the boat in a little while, with the boatswain holding +aloft a sadly small meal bag in signals that needed no aid from the +boatswain’s disgusted expression. More complaints to the governor—and +complaints rather acrid; more rapid fire at the attendant; another +departure for shore—the boat’s crew were beginning to grumble at +their oars—another return. Nothing at all with them, this time. The +boatswain wigwagged Gow to do something violent with the governor.</p> + +<p>Which Gow proceeded to do. He unbuttoned his coat and revealed himself +attired to play “Arsenal” in a charade, with a belt full of sudden +death in several varieties. As calmly as if he were taking out a +toothpick, he drew a long, convincing pistol and laid it cozily—nose +on—into the deepest crease of the governor’s brocaded waistcoat.</p> + +<p>In this manner the <i>Revenge</i> was amply provisioned at Porta Santa.</p> + +</div> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</span></p> + + +<h3> +V</h3> + + +<p>The larder stuffed, the next question before the House was whither now. +“Before the House” is a calculated phrase, for, by approved piratical +procedure, equal franchise prevailed on the <i>Revenge</i>; a majority +decided all general propositions; only in the particular ones of +fighting, chasing or being chased was the captain’s power absolute. +With their odd turn for the comic, the jolly sea robbers would often +describe their conferences as sessions of the “House of Lords” or the +“House of Commons”, just as they enjoyed, when carousing ashore, under +the mangrove trees of the West Indies, holding mock courts for the +mimic trial of one of the number for piracy, when the “Judge” would +throw a tarpaulin around his shoulders for the judicial robes, and +a turban on his head for the ponderous judicial wig, and the whole +affair would be carried off in a quite striking parody of that judicial +process which many of their fellows had already suffered under, and for +most of whom the actual fact was but a question of time. Such jollities +revealed an intimate knowledge of forms and manner and curiously +reflected the contemporaneous severity of prosecutors and judges.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</span></p> + +<p>The lawless business still had its laws; for instance, sea courtesy +between passing pirates required salutes with loaded guns, as against +the usual blanks, and in their burial rites the maritime rovers often +followed their own peculiar but very particular ritual.</p> + +<p>After the usual tumultuous debate, Cape St. Vincent, Spain, was the +place chosen for their happy efforts, there to intercept the lawful +merchants in those fairly crowded sea lanes. The selection looked +justified by an early capture. But, alas for the disappointments of +life, when the cargo was eagerly examined, it was found to be merely +a mass of negro slaves being rushed from the Gulf of Guinea to the +American plantations, by way of Lisbon, into which the slaver had had +to detour through the pressure of adverse circumstances. Little did +John Gow realize, as he looked down into that fetid hold, that he was +gazing upon one of the major elements of future history and the strife +of armed hosts. Probably would not have cared, at that.</p> + +<p>Slaves were less desirable even than salt fish; Gow wanted no more +mouths to feed. However, he could replenish his sail lockers from the +brig’s canvas, as well as obtain a bagful of watches, small coins and +personal knickknacks from the crew. Then, too, the gang decided that +here was a good chance to be rid of a number of their unprofitable +prisoners by a means not too violent. The disposition of prisoners of a +pirate was a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</span> constant problem throughout the history of the business, +because, contrary to the common idea, very few pirates could bring +themselves to an utter ferocity in the destruction of their victims +after the guns had ceased throbbing and the smoke had curled away from +the desecrated waters. The worst of them, Teach, England, Davis, Low, +Lewis, all had their hours of compunction, and marooning was not hit +upon as a method of wicked torture, but as a compromise to get men out +of the way whom they could not feed and who would not work with them, +yet without making the ship a shambles. This appears to be true, at +least, of English-speaking pirates; when you come to the swart Ladrone +villains, many of the Spanish, and the Chinese, there you will find the +uttermost of barbarity.</p> + +<p>So a group of the forlorn mariners was transferred from the +<i>Revenge</i> to the slaver—not at the slaver’s request—and that +vessel was then allowed to proceed on its humane occasions.</p> + +<p>Lieutenant Williams could not get the point of all this solicitude for +mere prisoners. He rather favored the Chinese way.</p> + +<p>A French ship next splashed around the Cape and into captivity. A +neat find, being freighted with goodly store of oil and wine, even to +the solid value of five hundred golden English pounds. Captured, too, +like the rest of them, without a blow. As a matter of fact, a fight +was exceptional rather than usual, not because<span class="pagenum" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</span> merchant masters were +cowardly, but because the pirate, often by a trick of false colors, +gained a confiding approach until within close range, when he would +suddenly bristle his line of muzzle-framing open ports with the +snarling demand of money or life. As the old West would have put it, +the pirate “got the drop” on his prey.</p> + +<p>The dour old Scotch captain, still lamenting the waste of his “fush”, +now met the wheel of fortune on one of its most whimsical turns. +The <i>Revenge</i> was a little bored with the Scotch friend, and a +quarter-deck parliament hit on the artful idea of simply making an +entire change of prisoners by bodily shifting the present ones over to +the Frenchman and bringing all the Frenchmen to the <i>Revenge</i>. +The pirates felt so relieved with the newness of it all that they even +gave the puzzled Scot additional sails and some small articles of ship +furniture,—only Mr. Williams reserved the right to kick his departing +victims down the gangway. A really nasty person, was Williams.</p> + +<p>It would be mightily entertaining, no doubt, to know what the feelings +of the Scotch skipper were as he found himself thus on another man’s +quarter-deck, in another man’s cabin, going through another man’s +shipping papers and deeply mystified as to how he was going to explain +the extraordinary situation to another man’s owners.</p> + +<p>We wonder, too, what the French owners said <span class="pagenum" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</span>when their +ship finally reported in the person of a master with an outlandish +tongue and a truly incredible yarn.</p> + +<p>The Scot bobbed away to the horizon, cogitating his own particular +problems, when another ship—but of the wrong sort—came smoothly down +upon the <i>Revenge</i>.</p> + +<p>A French warrior! Gow took her in with a long, slow glass.</p> + +<p>“Thirty-two guns,” he growled to his boatswain, “and by the looks of +her decks the whole French navy’s aboard!”</p> + +<p>Down fluttered the black flag; a young panic brewed in those honest +hearts, while in the prisoners’ quarters the Frenchmen could scarcely +breathe for hope and fear.</p> + +<p>Gow knocked his pipe pensively out on the capstan. His was the right +of decision to stay and fight or flee to fight another day. He ordered +flight.</p> + +<p>“You white-livered coward!” bellowed Williams, rather grogged up, “Run +away from a frog-eater!”</p> + +<a id="You_white-livered_coward_bellowed_Williams_Run_away_from_a_frog-eater"></a> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp50" id="i303" style="max-width: 140.375em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/i303.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption class="caption"><p>“You white-livered coward!” bellowed Williams, “Run away +from a frog-eater!”</p></figcaption> +</figure> + +<p>That meant only one thing—who would fire first? Out of his belt +Williams whipped his pistol and snapped it squarely at his captain. +The thing flared and fizzed and flashed feebly in the pan. Guns were +tragically unreliable in those days. Ere he could recover for another +shot, he went down with two balls piercing his body,—and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</span> one of them +was from the weapon of old Paterson.</p> + +<p>Gow simply commanded with a slight, contemptuous inclination of the +head; old Paterson and another grabbed the lieutenant for rough and +ready interment in the convenient deep, but when they had pantingly +hoisted the body to the height of the bulwark, it came back to vigorous +life, hit about with startling force and then bolted, pistol drawn and +still loaded, to the powder magazine, shouting that all hands should go +down—or rather up—together. Within but a second of the most dreadful +destruction, a couple of stalwarts fell heavily on the desperate +wretch and lugged him away to be chained in irons and cast among the +prisoners, there to be nursed, lovingly and tenderly, by those who, +like all previous captives, had endured his vile whims; nursed, that +is, by being used as a bench for tired Frenchmen to sit upon, and +as a football for those whose cramped limbs made wholesome exercise +imperative.</p> + +<p>Somehow the rogue lived,—lived until another ship was captured, or, +more probably, simply detained, for, after appropriating a few portable +valuables, Gow, with the consent of the crew of the <i>Revenge</i>, put +Lieutenant Williams aboard the stranger with sharp admonition to the +surprised skipper to keep him in close ward until the first English +man-of-war was met, to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</span> which he was to be delivered as a wicked pirate +for yard-arm bunting.</p> + +<p>Simply speechless with astonished rage, Mr. Williams was slung aboard.</p> + +<p>But he was only one of many who had to learn that, above all things, +pirates loved their little jokes, especially some delicate impertinence +like this to constituted authority.</p> + +</div> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</span></p> + + +<h3> +VI</h3> + + +<p>The ship seemed awfully quiet after the roaring Williams had gone. +Something was missing, but what it was they did not just know. +Unsuspectingly, the grim jest of sending Williams home to the +gallows had removed the heart of the piratical enterprise. If the +<i>Revenge</i> expected to keep on the grand account, fellows like +Williams, who could do the rough work, were essential, and without him +the great affair threatened to simmer back to the status of a mere +mutiny.</p> + +<p>Then, too, the presence of the warship, with its promise of hundreds +of pounds of hot lead and forest of cutlasses, awakened unhappy +perturbation, and stirred even sluggish imaginations with pictures of +uncomfortable events. The lads pensively stared at their finger nails +and realized only one insistent fact,—that they must depart the region +forthwith.</p> + +<p>Some kind of retreat began to be openly proposed, but just whither; +that was the vexing thing. At this point John Gow forfeits a place in +the first rank of pirates for he shows that he did not know the fine +points of the game. He is now not far from the place where Henry Avery, +some years before, had stolen the <i>Charles the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</span> Second</i>, a ship on +which he was mate, and, with his exploiting of a discontented crew, was +in circumstances very similar to those now surrounding Gow. Avery, it +may be remembered, came first of all to the Madeiras, but the point of +separation between him and Gow is that Avery knew that the local coast +was not the most advantageous place for piracy, knew that the jeweled +Indies was, and set his unswerving prow resolutely thither.</p> + +<p>A moment’s thought concerning the conditions of piracy suggests Gow’s +difficulty. A pirate’s main resource was in merchant cargoes; only luck +threw him the fabled treasure ships. For all he could tell about, a +pirate might have to plug along in a quiet way of trade, hoping for the +time when a <i>Quedagh Merchant</i> or a <i>Gunsway</i> would reward +his patient application. But the successful raiding of merchant ships +put the pirate in the same situation that the honest shore trader was +in,—to make any profit at all he had to keep his stock turned over. +Now, in the Indies, while a pirate was waiting his big haul, a system +of coast “fences”, or buyers of stolen freight, made possible his +continuance in business. Kidd and Avery and all the rest of them used +these folk for the disposal of their plunder, for, as we have seen, +one of these gentlemen, Cogi Commodo, boasted to the steward of poor +Captain Green’s ill-fortuned ship that he had been “merchant” on the +Malabar coast, to the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</span> eminent Kidd. These illicit traffickers supplied +the interlopers and other competitors of the British East India +Company, as well as catering to the native markets. The arrangement +suited everybody except John Company.</p> + +<p>But in European waters the only possible opening for a pirate’s +wares—that is of the usual merchant sort—was in methods akin to +smuggling. That, however, was already a complicated and preëmpted +business, and in taking any ship it would always be questionable +whether her freight were dutiable and therefore worth-while contraband. +Smuggling could never flourish so haphazardly.</p> + +<p>Last of all, but sufficiently troublesome, was the stricter policing of +the European coasts. Without these guardians, of course, the customs +would have entirely collapsed and piracy rather than smuggling would +have prospered by maintaining a sort of cheap local bazaar, such as +Blackbeard did in the Carolinas. The lack of effective policing made +possible the brisk trip of John Quelch, the Boston boy, down the Brazil +coast, for a cargo taken in one latitude was auctioned off in another +and no “fence” was needed to aid in dodging a vigilant authority.</p> + +<p>The <i>Revenge</i> thus was driven off the coasts of Spain and Portugal +by lack of a market and incidentally by the police patrol.</p> + +<p>Gow and his crew turned the matter over and over in a long debate, +which resulted in a determination<span class="pagenum" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</span> to sail away to Gow’s native Orkney +Islands, a decision which can only be laid to the peculiar fatality +which seems to work the self-destruction of wickedness. The meeting +must have discussed the possibilities of the East and West Indies, +Madagascar, Africa and the Red Sea, not to mention a flyer in slaving +on the Guinea Coast; in other words, all the available opportunities +for a rising young pirate, but why, against these, were chosen the +lean and foggy Orkneys, where even the poor copper penny was worked to +death, is a puzzler.</p> + +<p>Could it be that pirates sometimes grew homesick?</p> + +<p>They hauled down the black flag and shoved it in the locker, whence +it was never withdrawn to flap its sinister warning in the winds, and +proceeded to give their gang of perplexed French prisoners a trip to +Scotland. It would not be surprising if those victims of sportive +destiny were beginning to get all turned around, as the saying is.</p> + +<p>Without “being chased or giving chase” they reached the northern +islands, and Gow, perhaps with a constricted throat and a wet eye, +looked once again upon his native land. As they drew into the bay, +Gow called his flock together and instructed them to retail to any +curious inhabitant the plausible fiction that the <i>Revenge</i> was +bound from Cadiz to Stockholm, “but contrary winds driving them past +the Sound till it was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</span> filled with ice, they were under the necessity +of putting in to clean their ship, and that they would pay ready money +for such articles as they stood in need of.” Of course, they were to +leave undisturbed the assumption that they were the actual as well as +ostensible owners of the aforesaid “ready money.”</p> + +<p>One other craft was in the bay when the <i>Revenge</i> put in, but to +Gow’s relief she turned out to be only a French smuggler, or rather +a smuggler belonging to the Isle of Man, laden with wine and brandy +from France, and which had come north about to “steer clear of the +custom-house cutters.” According to the amenities of the sea, Gow +exchanged presents with the smuggler, as he did also with a Swedish +ship which came in a couple of days later. The Swede and the Manxman +marveled greatly at the generous gifts of dried salmon and pickled +herring which this hospitable <i>Revenge</i> almost thrust upon them.</p> + +</div> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</span></p> + + +<h3> +VII</h3> + + +<p>His name might as well be put as Jemmy, for Jemmy has an honest sound +and this Jemmy was an honest lad. What his parish parson actually did +christen him is irrecoverably lost in some ancient parish record, +but somehow it seems as if he should have been named Jemmy, and we +will take the liberty of assuming that for once fact and fiction are +coincident.</p> + +<p>Jemmy, presumably again, was one of the stubborn eight who had refused, +at the time of the mutiny, to be traitors to their sailor’s duty; +at any rate, he had no stomach for a pirate’s perils and pleasures. +Also, he was a clear-minded youth, old enough, however, to see that +his company had now brought him within hailing distance of the king’s +gallows. Jemmy had no appetite for the ceremonial that that instrument +adorned, and so, in the late spring night, when the moon was dark +and the moment persuasive, Jemmy slid whitely off the stern of the +<i>Revenge</i>, without stopping to procure his honorable discharge +as an able seaman, and with no more of a flop than a frog would make +turning off a log. With his clothes tightly tarpaulined about him, he +clove the circling tides smoothly to the beach. As he pulled on his +breeches and stockings, he<span class="pagenum" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</span> looked back, but all was quiet. One small +yellow light rose and fell out yonder in the watery blackness; to +Jemmy the eye of an evil beast of the sea from whose maw he panted in +a buoyant freedom. He listened; there was no chump of oars, no hoarse +calling afar off, only the wash of white waters among the pebbles at +his feet, and, behind him, voices of the shore,—the sweet, sane sounds +of a life which he had begun to think had never been.</p> + +<p>Dressed, he made for the village. In the middle of an unlighted +roadway, a strangely accented tongue told him there was no magistrate +there; to find His Honor one would have to push on to Kirkwall.</p> + +<p>And how far was Kirkwall?</p> + +<p>Kirkwall was a matter of four leagues.</p> + +<p>“I must get there to-night,” said Jemmy. “Which is the way?”</p> + +<p>“The nicht!” came back the buzzing bewilderment. “To the magistrate at +Kirkwa’ the nicht? Mon, what’s upon ye?”</p> + +<p>Jemmy wished the fellow would not talk so loud, though reason told him +lungs of brass would hardly reach the <i>Revenge</i>. Panic.</p> + +<p>“Do you know any one would show a man the way to Kirkwall for a bit of +money?” asked Jemmy, inspired.</p> + +<p>The void answered not. Then, ponderously, “It would take a muckle o’ +siller for a man wi’ bairns to go out the nicht.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</span></p> + +<p>“A half-guinea, supposin’.”</p> + +<p>Long pause.</p> + +<p>“Aye—supposin’ as ye say. Cam, lad.”</p> + +<p>Jemmy’s guide stopped a little while at a cottage to warn the guid +wife he would be out making an honest penny, and then they were off on +the shadowy leagues. Cicerone tried with rude probe to find out what +Jemmy’s business with the magistrate might be, a fact which, perhaps +as much as the coveted “siller”, had bought his services, but when +daylight and Kirkwall appeared together, he left his queer employer at +the house of the magistrate with all of his information unbroached.</p> + +<p>“This is a funny cock to be crowing in my parlor the morn,” thought the +magistrate as, with sleepy peevishness, he was compelled to journey to +Santa Cruz, to provision at Porta Santa, to double Cape St. Vincent and +what not by this boy with early manhood’s whiskers unshaven, drawn, +sallow face, uncurbed hair and clad in a striking symphony of old sea +clothes. “But sairtainly there has been an egg laid somewhere.”</p> + +<p>He sent for Mr. Honeyman, sheriff of the county, who dwelt between +Kirkwall and the sea. After due deliberation, consultation and +speculation, he issued his precepts to the constable and other peace +officers, to call together the people “to assist in bringing those +villains to justice.” Raised his posse, in plain Latin.</p> + +<p>While these matters transpired at Kirkwall,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</span> other things significant +for Gow were occurring on the <i>Revenge</i>, or, rather, off it, for +the defection of Jemmy was followed by a veritable landslide; ten men, +no less, seized the longboat and made off for the mainland, where they +coasted along till they came to Leith, the port of Edinburgh. Their +hard journey was rewarded by imprisonment in the Tolbooth at that place +as suspected pirates. A well-founded suspicion, if there ever was one.</p> + +<p>When John Gow took the next census of his crew only twenty-eight honest +fellows answered “here.” Although it was obviously time to move on to +uncropped pasturage, Gow first resolved to provision himself at the +expense of the home folks by the violent means of robbing the wealthier +residents alongshore. With that marked turn of his for a quaint joke, +the first place that he selected for despoiling was that of our Mr. +Honeyman, high sheriff.</p> + +<p>Ten men in charge of the bo’sun were detached for this job, and, +slinging upon their persons everything in the way of a weapon they +could struggle along with, they started off in the early evening.</p> + +<p>The high sheriff was flying about the country, compelling his posse, +and it was Mrs. Honeyman, candle in hand, who answered the gently +deceptive tapping on her front door. When she saw the bristling +aggregation on the front steps, she thought for an instant that it +was a party of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</span> neighbors stopping in on their way to a fancy-dress +ball to show her their diverting make-up. Or she may have mistaken +them for a part of her husband’s posse, and may have been about to +assure them laughingly that they had made the funniest mistake in the +world when one of the great beards cracked like a young earthquake +and a gale-conquering noise boomed through the ancestral halls of the +Honeymans.</p> + +<p>“Excuse us, marm, yer leddyship, but we’re the pirates and we’ve come +to rob the house. Gi’ us the stuff and there’ll be no trouble.”</p> + +<p>Nine walking arsenals clanked into the house, while one remained +on guard at the door. The good wife screamed and fled, but fled +methodically to the place where the family treasure was secreted, +and, throwing the money into an apron, she ran back and out past the +sentinel. He supposed she was merely running for her life, and he did +not blame her a bit, though that was as far as his interest went.</p> + +<p>But upstairs she left her greatest valuable,—a lovely daughter, just +blooming, as the romancers say, into beautiful womanhood. This young +person’s sleep was interrupted by an inexplicable clamor below. She +got out of bed, threw something about her and crept out on the stair +landing. Unfamiliar voices surged up, together with a cracking and +splintering that suggested an escaped menagerie. She inherited her +mother’s presence of mind. Dashing into father’s bedroom,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</span> she grabbed +the family papers, and with them in tight grasp, she leaped from her +bedroom window, to speed ghostily into the dark.</p> + +<p>The two female servants and Sandy, the groom, cowered in the kitchen. +The marauders found them there; politely they bowed to the ladies, but +demanded of Sandy whether he could play the bagpipes. Sandy admitted +his skill on that instrument of torture. So they lugged him out by the +ear and bade him pipe them down to their ship, while they followed +behind with all the Honeyman plate and linen bundled up in bed sheets +on their backs, and all the good Honeyman wine, accumulated through the +thrifty years, kicking a jig out of their ruffianly heels.</p> + +<p>Sandy’s wild night is doubtless still a story in Sandy’s generations.</p> + +<p>With the loot of the sheriff’s house on board, the <i>Revenge</i> +dropped down the coast a way for another job of “provisioning.” They +made a fruitless attempt there, and then drew over to an island known +as Calf Sound, where was the home of a Mr. Fea, an old schoolmate of +John Gow. The pirate felt he could not leave those parts without saying +how-do to one who in the past had shared with him the same dominie’s +birch. In getting to the island, however, Gow dropped his anchor too +close inshore, so that when it came time to shift he would not be able +to avail himself of the wind. Too much wine from the Honeyman cellars +probably.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</span></p> + +<p>So the pirate chief wrote a little friendly note to Mr. Fea, begging +the loan of a boat to assist in heaving off the ship by carrying out +an anchor, and promising solemnly that the favor would not be rewarded +with any violence to Mr. Fea’s boat or servants. This last clause +suggests that Gow knew the word of warning against him was spread +abroad over the land.</p> + +<p>The bewhiskered messenger who made the contact with Mr. Fea did +not notice Fea’s boat, which happened to have been drawn up on the +beach out of sight behind some rocks. Mr. Fea took advantage of the +messenger’s oversight and returned to his old chum Jack a very vague +answer, the purport of which was that Mr. Fea deplored his inability +to oblige. By that time evening was at hand, and Mr. Fea ordered his +servants to run the boat into the water, sink her in the shallows +whence she could be readily recovered and secrete her gear.</p> + +<p>Jock and Tam and Donald were hastily pulling out the mast and rolling +up the canvas and unshipping the rigging when they heard the grate of +a keel on the sharp pebbles, from which, by the passing of a scud of +thin cloud from before the moon, they saw five men slide quietly out, +not so quietly, however, that the variety of weapons on shoulders and +belts did not slightly jingle. The three servants peered breathlessly +over the rocks and marked the movements of the invaders as they set +off directly for Mr. Fea’s<span class="pagenum" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</span> house. Quickly they threw the boat’s +trappings beneath a bowlder, thrust the boat itself nose down into the +water, where she quickly filled and settled, then turned and ran for +the house, where they arrived shortly before the pirates, who were +approaching, stumbling and swearing, through the unfamiliar dark.</p> + +<p>Mr. Fea ordered all of his servants out of the house, but to remain in +the vicinity, and if he should come out, one or two of them were to +follow him at a discreet distance. Alone, he prepared to answer the +thundering banging upon his front door.</p> + +<p>Calmly, quite without panic, Mr. Fea invited the delegation into the +hall. They came and peered cautiously about. There was no sight or +sound of any one but the master of the house; only the candles burned +in their long silver sticks, and a fire against the raw spring night +smoked on the wide hearth.</p> + +<p>“There is no one here, my friends,” said Mr. Fea. “May I ask—”</p> + +<p>“You may,” growled the bo’sun, thumping his musket butt on the polished +floor. “We want your boat to pull us off—we’ve got out of the wind, +d’ye mind? Cap’n says give us the boat and we’ll leave yer joolry.”</p> + +<p>“Jack Gow could have anything he wanted from an old schoolmate,” smiled +Mr. Fea, like one who, in a pinch, would not object to being a pirate +himself, “but Jack is asking a little too<span class="pagenum" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</span> much, when you come to think +of it. Here is Jack—a good boy, too, even if he was a little rough at +school—come back to his old home only to be published a pirate; but, +says I when I heard this, ‘Little Johnny Gow a pirate?’ ‘Never in this +world,’ said I, and many on the Sound can bear me out on this. ‘But he +is,’ said they, and a bad, pillaging, plundering sea dog he is, to be +sure. ‘Well,’ said I, ‘you are welcome to the notion, but as for me, I +stand by little Johnny Gow.’ But, now, hark’ee, suppose I had a boat, +and suppose I said to Johnny Gow, ‘Here, heave off with this boat,’ +what d’ ye imagine would happen to me? Why, inside of no time at all, +I’d be fast in the Tolbooth at Edinburgh as an aider and abettor of +pirates. As men of the world, you know you can’t talk to some people +when a notion’s stuck in their heads, can ye now?”</p> + +<p>In this way Mr. Fea turned the edge of the tense minute. With one +pretext and another, he wooed the delegation down to the village +tavern, where he opened wide his purse and they opened still +more widely their mouths, into which that liquid flowed which is +authoritatively reputed to steal away the brains. The pirates mellowed, +got to slapping Mr. Fea jolting whacks on the shoulder and constantly +pledged him with their mugs. Opportunely, their host, so bland, so +hospitable and, although they did not realize it, so sober, excused +himself a second,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</span> and, stepping out, called Tam and Donald quickly +and bade them scamper to the beach and destroy the pirate’s boat. This +done, they were to come back to the tavern and send in some kind of +casual word which would give him excuse to leave his company a second +time.</p> + +<p>As Mr. Fea passed into the public room again, the keeper and his +wife met him with upraised hands and faces of silent consternation. +He smiled reassuringly, pushed open the door, upon which a roar of +strange sea songs came tumultuously from the inside accompanied with +the clanging of cutlasses marking time to the voices. Very coolly he +resumed his place at the presidency of the revels, where he directed +the increasing bubble of strong Scotch whiskey, varied with the husky +smuggled French brandy, until, to his obvious annoyance, he was again +interrupted by a call to the outside.</p> + +<p>Tam and Donald had done their task. Pulling them aside from the yellow +squares of light which shone from the boisterous inn, Mr. Fea now bade +them assemble six men, well armed, place them behind the hedges and +carefully remember to do one of two things: if Mr. Fea came from the +tavern accompanied only by the boatswain, the ambush was to seize the +boatswain; but if he came with the whole crew, he would walk a little +forward of the company, upon whom the watchers were then to open fire.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</span></p> + +<p>After a considerable wait, the tavern door opened and Mr. Fea stepped +forth,—and with him was only the boatswain. The boatswain wanted to +take his host’s arm in the most friendly manner, but Mr. Fea adroitly +disentangled himself; it was no part of his plan to be thus cuddled. +Having no use for his rejected arm, the boatswain decided to carry +a pistol in each hand, remarking that after all they were his best +friends. Mr. Fea thought he was very careless in the way he swung the +weapons around, in gestures and for the purpose of punctuating his +vigorous conversation.</p> + +<p>At a dark and hedge-lined part of the road, the boatswain was just +indicating, with a very free gesticulation, how to repulse an enemy at +one’s bulwarks, when something—probably a heavenly meteor—struck him +suddenly from behind, and down he went on the flat of his back, the +pistols clattered from his hands, and the meteor, or whatever it was, +was poking a handkerchief a lot farther down his throat than he thought +necessary for the purpose of preventing speech. Before the fog from his +brain could lift, he was bound, hand and foot, until he was as inert as +an Egyptian mummy.</p> + +<p>The attackers left one man to guard their first capture and stole back +to the tavern for the big job. There were two doors to the room where +Gow’s men were having their little party, at each of which Mr. Fea +placed a group of men, who,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</span> at a signal, broke in on both sides and +covered the pirates with their muskets before the besieged could pull a +dirk or raise a cutlass.</p> + +<p>Law and order now had five out of twenty-eight men, but rather +disappointingly for our interest, the record thus concludes:</p> + +<p>“At length, by an equal exertion of courage and artifice, Mr. Fea +captured these dangerous men, twenty-eight in number, without a single +man being killed or wounded; and only with the aid of a few countrymen.”</p> + +<p>And among the captives was old schoolmate John Gow.</p> + +<p>Happily, for every Gow there is a Fea.</p> + +<p>The <i>Revenge</i> was seized by the government, and the pirates +sent to Edinburgh under a military guard which came to Calf Sound +for that purpose. At Edinburgh they were ironed aboard the frigate, +<i>Greyhound</i>, which brought them down to London and the court of +admiralty which was waiting there to try them.</p> + +<p>Five of them were admitted king’s evidence, the rest were put to their +plea. Now, in the old law, the prisoner’s plea of guilty or not guilty +was necessary before the trial could proceed. Nowadays if the accused +refuses to make either plea, but stands mute, as the expression is, +the judge directs that a plea of not guilty be entered for him and the +proceedings go on. This simple means of meeting the difficulty did not +occur to our forefathers, so they decreed that if the prisoner<span class="pagenum" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</span> stood +mute he was to be put under the press until he either pled or died. +In the latter event, he was not considered to have been tried, and +not having been tried, any estate which he might leave could not be +forfeited. History records some cases where extraordinary persons have +endured this dreadful torment to the end, and so saved their property +to their heirs, who, one would suppose, could certainly never be +sufficiently grateful.</p> + +<p>John Gow now chose to take the ordeal rather than be convicted as a +felon, for he had relatives whom he wished to inherit his ill-earned +gains rather than King George. The preparations for his pressing +daunted him. The process was that the person sentenced to be pressed +was stretched, or spread-eagled, upon his back, and a succession of +weights was gradually lowered upon his chest until he either squeaked +his plea or perished. The Press Yard of old Newgate jail indicates the +place of such pressings.</p> + +<p>Gow’s nerve gave way and he begged to be allowed to plead, which was +clemently allowed him.</p> + +<p>He and six others—presumably including old Paterson—were convicted +and received sentence of death, but the rest, showing that their +actions had been under a sort of compulsion, were acquitted.</p> + +<p>“They suffered,” says the old historian, “at Execution-Dock, August 11, +1729. Gow’s<span class="pagenum" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</span> friends, anxious to put him out of pain, pulled his legs +so forcibly that the rope broke, and he fell, on which he was again +taken up to the gibbet, and when he was dead, was hung in chains on the +banks of the Thames.”</p> + +<p>As the ordinary, or prison chaplain, rode back to Newgate in the empty +cart from Execution Dock, a line from the ninety-second psalm persisted +in his mind. “All the workers of wickedness shall be destroyed.”</p> +</div> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="transnote"> +<p class="center"><b>Transcriber’s Notes</b></p> + +<p>Perceived typographical errors have been silently corrected.</p> + +<p>Colloquial spelling in dialog has been retained as in the original.</p> + +<p>Inconsistencies in hyphenation and compound words have been retained as +printed. +</p> + +</div> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75256 ***</div> +</body> +</html> + diff --git a/75256-h/images/cover.jpg b/75256-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3d22952 --- /dev/null +++ b/75256-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/75256-h/images/i000_frontis.jpg b/75256-h/images/i000_frontis.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9359ee5 --- /dev/null +++ b/75256-h/images/i000_frontis.jpg diff --git a/75256-h/images/i000_title.jpg b/75256-h/images/i000_title.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..447c7e1 --- /dev/null +++ b/75256-h/images/i000_title.jpg diff --git a/75256-h/images/i038.jpg b/75256-h/images/i038.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..41d721b --- /dev/null +++ b/75256-h/images/i038.jpg diff --git a/75256-h/images/i156.jpg b/75256-h/images/i156.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ad7d66e --- /dev/null +++ b/75256-h/images/i156.jpg diff --git a/75256-h/images/i303.jpg b/75256-h/images/i303.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0dd23a5 --- /dev/null +++ b/75256-h/images/i303.jpg diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. 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