 Chapter 8, Part 2 of THE GENERAL HISTORY OF THE PIRATES, volume 1. A description of the islands of Synthome, Del Príncipe and Anabono. As the Portuguese were the great improvers of navigation, and the first Europeans who traded to, and settled on the coasts of Africa, even round to India, and made those discoveries which now turned so much to the advantage of other nations, it may not be a miss, previously to description of those islands, to hint on that wonderful property of the lodestone that a little before had been found out, and enabled them to pursue such new and daring navigations. The attractive power of the lodestone was universally known with the ancients, as may be believed by it being a native fossil of the Gritians, Magnes am Agnesia. But its directive, or polar virtue, has only been known to us within these 350 years, and set to be found out by John Goya of Malfi in the Kingdom of Naples, Prima de Nautis Usumachnitis Amalfi. Though others think, and as serious, it was transported by Polis Venedis from China to Italy, like the other famous arts of modern use with us, printing, and the use of guns. The other properties of improvements of the magnet, that is, variation, or its deflection from an exact north or south line, variation of that variation, and its inclination, were the inventions of Sebastian Cabot, Mr. Galliprant and Mr. Norman, the inclination of the needle, or that property whereby it keeps an elevation above the horizon in all places but under the equator, where it is parallel, is as surprising a phenomenon as any, and was the discovery of our countrymen, and could it be found regular, I imagine would very much help towards the discovery of longitude, at least would point out better methods than hit the two known when ships drew nigh land which would answer as useful a land. Before the verticity and use of the compass, the Portuguese navigations had extended no farther than Cape Nunn, it was their ne plus ultra, and therefore so cold. This dress of weather, indeed, had drove some coasts to Porto Santo and Madeira, before any certain method of steering was invented, but after the needle was seen thus inspired, then every year improved under the great encouragements of Henry, Alphonsus and John II, kings of Portugal, in part of the 14th and in the 15th century. King Alphonsus was not so much at leisure as a spread assessor to pursue these discoveries, but having seen the advantages, a cure to Portugal by them, and that the pope had confirmed the perpetual donation of all they should discover between Cape Baia d'Aura and India, inclusively, he resolved not to neglect the proper assistance and farm the profits that did or might ensue to one Bernard Gomez, a citizen of Lisbon, who was every voyage obliged to discover one hundred leagues still farther on, and about the year 1470 made these islands the only places of all the considerable and large colonies they had in Africa that do now remain to that crown. Saint Thumb is the principal of the three, whose governor is still captain general of the islands, and from whom the other at princes receives his commission, though nominated by the court of Portugal. It is a bishopric with a great many secular clergy who appear to have neither learning nor devotion as may be judged by several of them being negroes. One of the chief of them invited us to hear Mass as a diversion to pass time away, where he and his inferior brethren acted such affected gestures and strains of voice as showed to their dishonour. They had no other aim than pleasing us, and what I think was still worse, it was not without a view of interest, for as these clergy are their chief traders, they stoop to pitiful and scandalous methods for ingratiating themselves. They and the government on this trading account maintain as great harmony, being ever jealous of each other, and practicing little deceitful arts to monopolise what strangers have to offer for sale, whether toys or clothes, which of all sorts are ever commodious with the Portuguese in all parts of the world. An ordinary suit of black will sell for seven or eight pound, a turnstile wig of four shillings for a moida, a watch of forty shillings for six pound, etc. The town is of mean building, with large and populace, the residents of the greater part of the natives, who, through the whole island, are computed at ten thousand, the militia at three thousand, and are in general a rascally, thievish generation, as an old, grave friend of mine can witness. For he, having carried a bag of second hand clothes on shore, to truck for provisions, seated himself on the sand for that purpose, presently gathered a crowd round him to view them, one of which desired to know the price of a black suit, that unluckily lay uppermost and was the best of them, agreeing to the demand with little hesitation, provided it would but fit him. He put him on immediately, in as much hurry as possible, without any co-lissensia senior, and when my friend was about to command the goodness of the suit and exactness they set with, not dreaming of the impudence of running away from a crowd, the rascal took to his heels. My friend followed them bold very much, and though there was five hundred people about the place, it served to no other end but making him a clear stage that the best pair of heels might carry it. So he lost the suit of clothes, and before he could return to his bag, others of them had beat off his servant and shared the rest. Most of the ships from Giddy, of their own nation, and frequently those of ours, call at one or other of these islands to recruit with fresh provisions and take in water which on the coast are not so good nor so conveniently to come by. Their own ships likewise, when they touch here, are obliged to leave the king his custom for their slaves, which is always in gold, at so much ahead, without any deduction at Brazil for the mortality that may happen afterwards. This by being a constant bank, to pay off civil and military charge of the government, prevents the inconvenience of remittances, and keeps both it and Princess Isle rich enough to pay ready money for everything they want of Europeans. Their beefs are small and lean, two hundred weight or little more, but the goats, hogs and fowls very good. Their sugar coals and dirty, and rum very ordinary, as these refreshments lay most with people who are in want of other necessaries, they come to us in way of bartering, very cheap. A good hog for an old cutlash, a fat fowl for a span of Brazil tobacco, no other sort being valued, etc., but with money you give eight dollars per head for cattle, three dollars for a goat, six dollars for a grown hog, a test-tune and a half for a fowl, a dollar per gallon for rum, two dollars a roof for sugar, and half a dollar for a dozen of percots. Here is plenty likewise of corn and farine, of limes, citrons and yams. The island is reckoned nigh a square, each side eighteen weeks long, hilly, and lays under the equinoxial, a wooden bridge just without the town being set not to deviate the least part of a minute, either to the southward or northward, and notwithstanding this warm situation and continual vertical suns, the islanders are very healthy, imputed by those who are disposed to be merry, in a great measure to the want of even so much as one surgeon or physician amongst them. Il da principe, the next in magnitude, a pleasant and delightful spot to the grave and thoughtful disposition of the Portuguese, an improvement of country retirement, in that this may be a happy and uninterrupted retreat from the whole world. I shall divide what I say on this island into observations made on our approach to it, on the seas round it, the harbour, produce of the island, and seasons, way of living among the inhabitants, some custom of the negroes, with such proper deductions on each as may illustrate the description and inform the reader. We were bound hither from wider at a latter part of the month July, when the rains are over, and the winds hang altogether south-west, as they do before the rains south-east. Yet with this wind, when at sea, we found the ship gained unexpectedly so far to the southward, that is, windward, that we could with ease have weathered any of the islands, and this seems next impossible should be if the currents, which were strong to leeward, in the road of wider, had extended in like manner across the bite of Benin. Now it must not have been very difficult to have weathered even Cape Formosa. On this occasion I shall further expatiate upon the currents on the whole coast of Guinea. The southern coast of Africa runs in a line of latitude, then northern on an easter line, but both straight, with the fewest inlets, gulfs, or bays of either of the four continents. The only large and remarkable one is that of Benin and Calabar, to which the currents of each coast tend, and is strongest from the southward, because more open to a larger sea, whose rising it is, though little and indiscernible at any distance from the land, that gives rise to these currents close in shore, which are nothing but tides altered and disturbed by the make and shape of lands. For proof of this, I shall lay down the following observations as certain facts. That in the rivers of Gambia and Sierra Leone, in the straits and channels of Benin, and in general along the whole coast, the flowings are regular on the shores with this difference. That in the above mentioned rivers, and in the channels of Benin, where the shore contract the waters into a narrow compass, the tides are strong and high, as well as regular. But on the dead coast, where it makes an equal reverberation, slow and low, not to above two or three foot, increasing as you advance towards Benin, and this is further evident in that at Cape Corso, Secondo, and Comenda, and where the land rounds and gives any stop, the tides flow regularly to four foot and upwards, where none even a coast, though next adjoining, they shall not exceed two or three foot, and ten leagues out at sea, where no such interruption is, they become scarcely if at all perceptible. What I would deduce from this, besides the confirmation of that ingenious theory of the tides by Captain Halley, is first that the ships bound to Angola, Cabenda, and other places on the southern coast of Africa, should cross the equinoxial from Cape Palmas and run into a southern latitude without keeping too far to the westward, and the reason seems plain, for if you endeavoured to cross it about the islands, you meet calms, southerly winds, and opposite currents, and if too far to the westward, the trade winds are strong and unfavorable, for it obliges you to stand into twenty-eight or thirty degrees southern latitude till they are variable. Secondly, on the northern side of Guinea, if ships are bound from the gold coast of Sierra Leone, Gambia, or elsewhere to windward, considering the weakness of these currents and the favourableness of land breezes and southerly in the rains, tornadoes, and even of the trade wind, when a breast of Cape Palmas, it is more expeditious to pursue the passage this way than by a long perambulatory calls of four or five hundred leagues to the westward, and as many more to the northward, which must be before a wind can be obtained that could recover the coast. Lastly, it is in a great measure owning to this want of inlets, and the rivers being small and unnavigable, that the seas rebound with so dangerous a surf through the whole continent. Round the shores of this island, and at this season, July, August, and September, there is a great resort of whale-fish, tame, and spawning very nigh the ships as they sail in, always in pairs, the female much the smaller, and often seen to turn on their backs for dalliance, the prologue to engendering. It has an enemy, called the Thresher, a large fish, too, that has its haunts here at this season, and encounters the whale, raising himself out of the water a considerable height, and falling again with great weight and force. It is commonly said also that there is a sword-fish in these battles, who pricks the whale up to the surface again. But without this, I believe, he would suffocate when put to quick motions, unless frequently approaching the air, to ventilate and remove the impediments to a swift or circulation. Nor do I think he is battled for prey, but to remove him from what is perhaps the food of both. The number of whales here has put me sometimes on thinking an advantageous fishery might be made of it, but I presume they, no more than those of Brazil, are the sword which yield the profitable part, called whalebone, all therefore that the islanders do, is now and then to go out with two or three canoes and set on one for diversion. The rocks and outer lines of the island are the haunts of a variety of seabirds, especially boobies and knotties. The former are of the big of a gull and a dark collar, named so from their simplicity, because they often sit still and let the sailors take them up in their hands, but I fancy this succeeds more frequently from their rariness and the largeness of their wings, which, when they once have rested, cannot have the scope necessary to raise and float them on the air again. The knotties are smaller and flat-footed also. What I would remark more of them is the admirable instinct in these birds, for the proper seasons and the proper places for support. In the aforementioned months when the large fish were here, numerous flocks of fowl attend for the spawn and superfluity of their nourishment, and in January few of either, for the same reason there are scarce any sea fowl seen on the African coast, rocks and islands being generally their best security and subsistence. The harbor of Princes is at the east-southeast point of the island, the north side has gradual soundings, but here deep water having no ground at a mile-off with one hundred and forty fathom of line. The port, when in, is a smooth, narrow bay, safe from winds, unless a little swells went southerly, and drafted into other smaller and sandy ones, convenient for raising of tents, watering, and hauling the seam, the hull protected by a fort or other battery of a dozen guns on the larbored side. At the head of the bay stands a town about a mile from the anchoring place, and consists of two or three regular streets of wooden-built houses where the governor and chief man of the island reside. Here the water grows shallow for a considerable distance, and the natives at every ab, having before encompassed every convenient angle with a rise of stones, something like weirs in England, resort for catching of fish, which with them is a daily diversion, as well as a subsistence, five hundred attending with sticks and wicker baskets, and if they cannot dip them with one hand they knock them down with the other. The tides rise regularly six foot in the harbour, and yet not half that height without the capes that make the bay. Here are constantly two missionaries who are sent for six years to inculcate the Christian principles, and more especially attend the conversion of the Negroes. The present are Venetians, ingenious men who seem to despise the loose morals and behaviour of the seculares, and complain with them as of the slaves, Ut Kolormors Sundnigri. They have a neat conventional house and a garden appropriated, which by their own industry and labour not only thrives with the several natives of the soil, but many exotics and curiosities, a fruit in particular larger than a chestnut, yellow, containing two stones with a pulp or clammy substance about them, which, when sucked, exceeds in sweetness, sugar, or honey, and has this property beyond them of giving of sweet taste to every liquid you swallow for the whole evening after. The only plague infesting the garden is a vermin called land crabs, in vast numbers of a bright red colour, in other respects like the sea ones, which burrow in these sandy soils like rabbits and are as shy. The island is a pleasant intermixture of hill and valley, the hills spread with palms, coconuts, and cotton trees, with numbers of monkeys and parrots among them, the valleys with fruitful plantations of yams, koolaloo, papas, variety of salating, ananas, or pineapples, guavas, plantains, bananas, maniocos, and Indian corn, with fowls, guinea hens, muscabee ducks, goats, hogs, turkeys, and wild beefs, with each a little village of negroes who, under the direction of their several masters, managed the cultivation and exchange or sell them for money much after the same rates with the people of Synthome. End of Chapter 8, Part 2. Chapter 8, Part 3 of The General History of the Pirates, Volume 1. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org, recording by Anna Simon. The General History of the Pirates, Volume 1 by Charles Johnson. Chapter 8, Part 3. I shall run a description of the vegetables with their properties, not only because they are the produce of this island, but most of them, of Africa in general. The palm trees are numerous on the shores of Africa, and may be reckoned the first of their natural curiosities in that they afford them meat, drink, and clothing. They grow very straight to 40 and 50 foot high, and at the top only have three or four circles of branches that spread and make a capacious umbrella. The trunk is very rough with knobs, either excretionsies, or the healings of those branches that were lopped off to forward the growth of the tree, and make it answer better in its fruit. The branches are strongly tied together with a cortex, which may be unraveled to a considerable length and breadth. The inward lamella of this cortex, I know, are wove like a clothe at Benin, and afterwards died and worn. Under the branches, and close to the body of the tree, hang the nuts, thirty bunches perhaps on a tree, and each of thirty pound weight, with prickly films from between them, not unresembling hedgehogs. Of these nuts comes a liquid and pleasant, scented oil used as food and sauce all over the coast, but chiefly in the windward parts of Africa, where they stamp, boil, and skim it off in great quantities. Underneath, where the branches fasten, they tap for wine, called cocra, in this manner. The negroes, who are mostly limber, active fellows, encompass themselves in the trees with a hoop of strong width, and run up with a great deal of agility. At the bottom of a branch of nuts, he makes an excavation of an inch and a half over, and tying fast his cow-bash leaves it to distill, which it does to two or three quarts in a night's time. When done, he plugs it up, and chooses another. For, if suffered to run too much, or in the daytime, the sap is unwarily exhausted, and the trees spoiled. The liquor, thus drawn, is of a wage colour, intoxicating, and sours in twenty-four hours, but when new drawn is pleasantest to thirst and hunger both. It is from these wines they draw their arach in India. On the very top of the palm grows a cabbage, called so, I believe, from some resemblance its taft is thought to have with ours, and is used like it. The covering has a down that makes the best of tinder, and the weavings of other parts are drawn out into strong threats. Coconut trees are branched like, but not so tall as palm trees. The nut like them, growing under the branches, and close to the trunk, the milky liquor they contain, to half a pint or more, is often drank to quench thirst, but surfiting, and this may be observed in their way of nourishment, that when the quantity of milk is large, the shell and meat are very thin, and hardened and thicken in proportion as that loses. Cotton trees also are the growth of all parts of Africa, as well as the islands, of vast bigness. Yet not so incremental as the shrubs are bushes of five or six foot high. These bear a fruit, if it may be so called, about the bigness of pigeon's eggs, which, as the sun swells and ripens, bursts forth and discovers three cells loaded with cotton, and seeds in the middle of them. This, in most parts, the negroes know how to spin, and here at Nikongo, and the island Sinjago, how to weave into clots. Tams are a common root, sweeter but not unlike potatoes. Kualalu, a herb like spinach. Papa, a fruit less than the smallest pumpkins. They are all three for boiling, and to be eat with meat. The latter are improved by the English into a turnip, or an apple tart, with a due mixture of butter or limes. Guavas, a fruit as large as a pippin, with seeds and stones in it, of an uncouth, astringing taste, though never so much be said in commendation of it. At the West Indies, it is common for Crayolians, who has tasted both, to give it a preference to peach or nectarine. No amazing thing when men whose tastes are so degenerated as to prefer a toad in a shell, as Ward calls turtle, to venison, and negroes to fine English ladies. Plantains and bananas are fruit of oblong figure that I think differ only seconda minor at minus. If any, the latter are preferable, and by being less arducio. There are usually, when stripped of their coat, eat at meals instead of bread. The leaf of this plantain is an admirable detergent, and externally applied, I have seen cure the most obstinate scar music ulcers. Manioco, a root that shoots its branches about the height of a current bush. From this root the islanders make a farine or flower, which they fell at three riles a roof, and drive a considerable trade for it with the ships that cool in. The manner of making it is first to press the juice from it, which is poisonous, done here with engines, and then the negro women upon a rough stone rub it into a granulated flower, reserved in their houses either to boil as we do our wheat, and is a hardly food for the slaves, or make it into a bread, fine, white, and well-tasted for themselves. One thing worth taking notice about Manioco in this island is that the woods abound with a wild, poisonous, and more mortiferous salt, which sometimes men, unskilled in the preparation of it, feed on to their destruction. This, the missionaries eschew at me, they often experimented in their hogs, and believed we did in the mortality of our sailors. Indian corn is likewise as well as the Farin, the Manioco, and rice, the common victorialing of our slave ships, and is afforded here at one thousand heads for two dollars. This corn grows eight or nine foot high on a hard reed or stick, shooting forth at every six inches height some long leaves. It has always an ear, or rather head, at top of perhaps four hundred fold increase, and often two, three, or more midway. Here are some tamarind trees, another called cola, whose fruit, or nut, about twice the bickness of a chestnut, and bitter, is chewed by the Portuguese to give a sweet gust to their water, which they drink. But above all, I was shown the bark of one, whose name I do not know, gravely affirmed to have a peculiar property of enlarging the veral member. I am not fond of such conceits, nor believe it in the power of any vegetables, but must acknowledge I have seen sights of this kind among the negroes very extraordinary. Yet, that there may be no wishes amongst the ladies for the importation of this bark, I must acquaint them, that they are found to grow less merry as they increase in bulk. I'd like to have forgotten their cinnamon trees, there is only one walk of them, and is the entrance of the governor's villa. They thrive extremely well, and the bark not inferior to our cinnamon from India. Why they and other spice in a soil so proper receive no further cultivation is, probably, their suspicion that so rich a produce might make some potent neighbor take a fancy to the island. They have two winters, or rather springs, and two summers. Their winters, which are the rainy seasons, come in September and February or March, and hold two months, returning that fatness and generative power to the earth, as makes it yield a double crop every year, with little sweat or labor. Their first coming is with travados, that is, sudden and hard gusts of wind, with thunder, lightning and heavy showers, but short, and the next new or full moon at those times of the year infellibly introduces the rains, which once begun, full with little intermission, and are observed coldest in February. Similar to these are rainy seasons also over all the coast of Africa. If there may be allowed any general way of calculating their time, they happen from the course of the sun as it respects the equinoxial only. For if these equinoxes prove rainy seasons all over the world, as I am apt to think they are, whatever secret course operates with that station of the sun to produce them, will more effectively do it in those fissine latitudes, and therefore, as the sun advances, the rains are brought on the wider and gold coast by April, and on the windward most part of Guinea by May. The other seasons the suns returning to the southward, make them more uncertain and irregular in northern Africa, but then to the southward again. They proceed in like manner and are at Cape Lopez in October, at Angola in November, etc. The manner of living among the Portuguese here is, with the utmost frugality and temperance, even to penury and starving. A familiar instance of proof is, in the veracity of their dogs, who, finding such clean cupboards at home, are wild in a manner with hunger, and tear up the graves of the dead for food, as I have often seen. They themselves are lean with covetousness, and that Christian virtue, which is often the result of it, self-denial, and would train up their kettle in the same way, could they fetch as much money, or had not they their provision more immediately of providence. The best of them, accepting the Governor now and then, neither pay nor receive any visits of escapade or recreation. They meet and sit down at each other doors in the street every evening, and as few of them in so small an island can have their plantations at any great distance, than that they may see every day if they will. So the subject of our talk is mostly how affairs went there, with their negroes or their ground, and then part one another innocently, but empty. The negroes have yet no hard duty with them. They are rather happy in slavery, for as their food is chiefly vegetables, that could no way else be expended. There is no murmur spread on that account, and as their business is domestic, either in the services of the house, or in gardening, sowing, or planting, they have no more than what every man would prefer for health and pleasure. The hardest of their work is the carriage of their patrons, or their wives to and from the plantations. This they do in hammocks, called at Vida Serpentines, flung cross a pole, with a clothe over, to screen the person so carried from sun and weather. And the slaves are at each end, and yet even this, me thinks, is better than the specious liberty a man has for himself and his heirs to work in a coal mine. The negroes are, most of them, through the care of their patroons, Christians, at least nominal, but accepting to some few, they adhere still to many silly pagan customs in their mornings and rejoicings, and in some measure, powerful majority has introduced them with the vulgar of the mulatto and Portuguese race. If a person die in that colour, the relations and friends of him meet at the house, where their corpse is laid out decently on the ground, and covered, all except a face, with a sheet. They fit round it, crying and howling dreadfully, not unlike what our crunchy men are said to do in Ireland. This morning lasts for eight days and nights, but not equally intense, for as the friends who compose the chorus go out and in, are wary, and unequally affected, the tone lessens daily, and the intervals of grief are longer. In rejoicings and festivals they are equally ridiculous. They are commonly made on some friends' escape from shipwreck or other danger. They meet in a large room of the house, with a strum strum, to which one of the company, perhaps, sings woefully. The rest standing round the room close to the petitions, take it in their turns, one or two at a time, to step round, called dancing, the whole clapping their hands continually, and hooping out every minute a boule, which signified no more than, how do you? And this foolish mirth will continue three or four days together at a house, and perhaps twelve or sixteen hours at a time. The Portuguese, though eminently upstreamious and temperate in all other things, are unbounded in their lusts, and perhaps they substitute the former in room of a surgeon as a counterpoison to the mischiefs of a promiscuous celesty. They have most of them venereal tains, and with age become meager and hectic. I saw two instances here of venereal ulcers that had cancerated to the bowels, spectacles that would have effectively persuaded men, I think, how salutary the restriction of laws are. Anobono is a last and at least consequence of the three islands. There are plenty of fruits and provisions exchanged to ships for old clothes and trifles of any sort. They have a governor nominated from Synthome, and two or three priests, neither of which are minded, every one living at discretion, and filled with ignorance and lust. To return to Davis, the next day after he left Anamabo, early in the morning, the man at the mast had aspired a sail. It must be observed they keep a good lookout, for, according to their articles, he who first aspires a sail, if she proves a prize, is entitled to the best pair of pistols on board, over and above his dividend, in which they take a singular pride, and a pair of pistols has sometimes been sold for thirty pounds from one to another. Immediately they gave chase, and soon came up with her. The ship proved to be a hollander, and being betwixt Davis and the shore, she made all the sail she could, intending to run aground. Davis guessed her design, and putting out all his small sails, came up with her before she could effect it, and fired a broadside, upon which she immediately struck and called for quarter. It was granted, for according to Davis's articles, it was agreed that quarter should be given whenever it was called for, upon pain of death. This ship proved a very rich prize, having the governor of Akkham board, with all his effects going to Holland. There was a money to the value of fifteen thousand pounds sterling, beside other valuable merchandisers, all which they brought on board of themselves. Upon this new success, they restored Captain Hall and Captain Plumb, before mentioned, their ships again, but strengthened their company with thirty-five hands, all white man, taken out of these two in the Maurice sloop. They also restored the Dutch their ship, after having plundered her, as is mentioned. Before they got to the island of Princes, one of their ships, that is, that called the King James, sprung a leak. Davis ordered all hands out of her, on board his own ship, with everything else of use, and left her at an anchor at high Cameroon. As soon as he came inside of the island, he hoisted English colors. The Portuguese, observing a large ship sailing towards them, sent out a little sloop to examine what she might be. This sloop, hailing of Davis, he told them he was an English man of war, in quest of pirates, and that he had received intelligence that there were some upon that coast. Upon this, they received him as a welcome guest, and piloted him into the harbor. He saluted the fort, which they answered, and he came to an anchor just under their guns, and hoisted out the pinnace, man of war fashion, ordering nine hands and a coxswain in it, to row him ashore. The Portuguese, to do him the greater honour, sent down a file of musketeers to receive him, and conduct him to the governor. The governor, not in the least suspecting what he was, received him very civilly, promising to supply him with whatever the island afforded. Davis thanked him, selling him the King of England would pay for whatever he should take. So, after several civilities passed between him and the governor, he returned again on board. It happened a French ship came in there to supply itself with some necessaries, which Davis took into his head to plunder, but to give the thing a colour of right, he persuaded the Portuguese that she had been trading with the pirates, and that he found several pirate goods on board, which he seized for the King's use. This story passed so well upon the governor that he commanded Davis' diligence. A few days after, Davis, with about fourteen more, went privately ashore, and walked up the country towards a village, where the governor and the other chief men of the island kept their wives, intending, as we may suppose, to supply their husbands places with them. But, being discovered, the women fled to a neighbouring wood, and Davis and the rest retreated to their ship, without effecting their design. The thing made some noise, but as nobody knew them, it passed over. Having cleaned his ship and put all things in order, his thoughts now were turned upon the main business, that is, the plunder of the island, and not knowing where the treasure lay, a stratagem came into his head to get it, as he thought, with little trouble. He consilled his men upon it, and they liked the design. His scheme was to make a present to the governor of a dozen negroes by way of return for the civilities received from him, and afterwards to invite him with the chief men and some of the friars on board a ship to an entertainment. The minute they came on board, they were to be secured in irons, and there kept till they should pay a ransom of forty thousand pounds sterling. But this stratagem proved fatal to him, for a Portuguese negro swam ashore in the night, and discovered the whole plot to the governor, and also let him know that it was Davis who had made the attempt upon their wives. However, the governor dissembled, received the pirate's invitation civilly, and promised that he and the rest would go. The next day Davis went on shore himself, as if it were out of great respect to bring the governor on board. He was received the usual civility, and he and other principal pirates, who, by the way, had assumed the title of lords, and as such took upon them to advise or counsel their captain upon any important occasion, and likewise held certain privileges which the common pirates were debarred from as walking the quarter-deck, using the great cabin, going a short pleasure, and treating with foreign powers, that is, with the captains of ships they made prize of. I say Davis and some of the lords were desired to walk up to the governor's house to take some refreshment before they went on board. They accepted it without the least suspicion, but never returned again. For an ambush-cade was laid, a signal being given, a whole volley was fired upon them. They, every man, dropped, except one. This one fled back, and escaped into the boat, and got on board the ship. Davis was shot through the bowels, yet he rise again, and made a weak effort to get away. But his strength soon forsook him, and he dropped down dead. Just as he fell, he perceived he was followed, and drawing out his pistols, fired them at his pursuers. Thus, like a game-cock, giving a dying blow, that he might not fall unrevenged. The General History of the Pirates Volume 1 by Charles Johnson Chapter 9 Part 1 of Captain Bartholomew Roberts and his crew Bartholomew Roberts sailed in an honest employee from London aboard of the Princess, Captain Plum Commander, of which ship he was second mate. He left England November 1719, and arrived at Guinea about February following, and began at Annemarbeau, taking in slaves for the West Indies. Was taken in the said ship by Captain Howell Davis, as mentioned in the preceding chapter. In the beginning he was very adverse to this sort of life, and would certainly have escaped from them, had a fair opportunity presented itself. Yet afterwards he changed his principles, as many besides him have done upon another element, and perhaps for the same reason too, be his preferment. And what he did not like as a private man, he could reconcile to his conscience as a commander. Davis being cut off in the manner before mentioned, the company found themselves under a necessity of filling up his post, for which there appeared two or three candidates among the select part of them that were distinguished by the title of Lords, such were Simpson, Ashplant, Anstis, etc., and on canvassing this matter, how shattered and weaker condition their government must be without a head, since Davis had been removed in the manner before mentioned, My Lord Dennis proposed, it said, over a bowl to this purpose, that it was not of any great signification who was dignified with title, for really, and in truth, all good governments had, like theirs, the supreme power lodged with the community, who might doubtless dipute and revoke a suited interest or humour. We are the original of this claim, says he, and should a captain be so saucy as to exceed prescription at any time, why, down with him. It will be a caution after he is dead to his successors of what fatal consequence any sort of assuming may be. However it is my advice that, while we are sober, we pitch upon a man of courage and skilled in navigation, one who by his counsel and bravery seemed best able to defend this commonwealth and ward us from the dangers and tempests of an instable element and the fatal consequences of anarchy. And such a one I take Roberts to be, a fellow, I think in all respects, worthy your esteem and favour. This speech was loudly applauded by all but Lord Simpson, who had secret expectations himself, but on this disappointment grew sullen and left them swearing. He did not care who they chose captain, so it was not a papist, for against them he had conceived an irreconcilable hatred, for that his father had been a sufferer in momless rebellion. Roberts was accordingly elected, though he had not been above six weeks among them. The choice was confirmed both by the lords and commoners, and he accepted of the honour, saying, that since he had dipped his hands in muddy water and must be a pirate, it was better being a commander than a common man. As soon as the government was settled, by promotion, other officers in the room of those that were killed by the Portuguese, the company resolved to avenge Captain Davis's death, he being more than ordinarily respected by the crew for his affability and good nature, as well as his conduct and bravery upon all occasions. And, pursuant to this resolution, about thirty men were landed in order to make an attack upon the fort, which must be ascended by a steep hill against the mouth of the canon. These men were headed by one Kennedy, a bold, daring fellow, but very wicked and profligate. They marched directly up under the fire of their ship-guns, and as soon as they were discovered, the Portuguese quitted their post and fled to the town, and the pirates marched in without opposition, set fire to the fort, and threw all the guns off the hill into the sea, which after they had done, they retreated quietly to their ship. But this was not looked upon as a sufficient satisfaction for the injury they received. Therefore most of the company were for burning the town, which Roberts said he would yield to, if any means could be proposed of doing it without their own destruction. For the town had a secure situation than the fort, a thick wood coming almost close to it, affording cover to the defendants, who, under such an advantage, he told them, it was to be feared would fire and stand better to their arms, besides that bare houses would be but a slender reward for their trouble and loss. This prudent advice prevailed. However, they mounted the friendship they seized at this place, with twelve guns, enlightened her in order to come up to the town, the water being shoal, and battered down several houses, after which they all returned on board, gave back the friendship to those that had most right to her, and sailed out to the harbour by the light of two Portuguese ships, which they were pleased to set on fire there. Roberts stood away to the southwood, and met with a Dutch guinea man, which he made prize of, but after having plundered her, the skipper had his ship again. Two days after, he took an English ship, called the Experiment, Captain Cornet, at Cape Lopez. The men went all into the pirate service, and having no occasion for the ship, they burnt her, and then steered for St. Thomas. But, meeting with nothing in their way, they sailed for Annabona, and there watered, took in provisions, and put it to a vote of the company, whether their next voyage should be to the East Indies or to Brazil. The latter being resolved on, they sailed accordingly, and in twenty-eight days arrived at Ferdinando, an uninhabited island on that coast. Here they watered, boot-topped their ship, and made ready for the designed cruise. Now that we are upon this coast, I think it will be the proper place to present our readers with a description of this country, and some ingenious remarks of a friend, how beneficial a trade might be carried on here by our West Indian merchants at a little hazard. End of Chapter 9, Part 1, Recording by Kate McKenzie Chapter 9, Part 2, of the General History of the Pirates, Volume 1. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Kate McKenzie. The General History of the Pirates, Volume 1, by Charles Johnson. Chapter 9, Part 2, a description of Brazil, etc. Brazil, a name signifying the Holy Cross, was discovered for the king of Portugal by Alvarez Cabral, Ano Domini 1501, extending almost from the equinoctal to twenty-eight degrees south. The air is temperate and cool, in comparison of the West Indies, from stronger breezes and an opener country, which gives less interruption to the winds. The northernmost part of it, stretching about 180 leagues, a fine fertile country, was taken from the Portuguese by the Dutch West India Company, Ano 1637 or of their abouts, but the conquerors, as is natural where there is little or no religion subsisting, made such heavy exactions on the Portuguese and extended such cruelty to the natives that prepared them both easily to unite for a revolt, facilitated by the Dutch mismanagement, for the states being at this time very intent on their India settlements, not only recalled Count Maurice their governor, but neglected supplies to their garrisons. However, though the others were countenanced with a fleet from Portugal, and had the affection of the natives, yet they found means to withstand and struggle with this superior power, from 1643 to 1660, and then was wholly abandoned by them. On articles dishonourable to the Portuguese, viz, that the Dutch, on relinquishing, should keep all the places they had conquered in India from Portugal, that they should pay the states £800,000, and permit them still the liberty of trade to Africa and Brazil, on the same custom and duties with the King of Portugal's subjects, but since that time new stipulations and treaties have been made, wherein the Dutch, who have been totally excluded the Brazil trade, have, in lieu thereof, a composition of 10% for the liberty of trading to Africa, and this is always left by every Portuguese ship before she begins her slaving, with the Dutch general of the Gold Coast at Desmias. There are only three principal towns of trade on the Brazil coast, Saint Salvador, Saint Sebastian, Pernambuco. Saint Salvador in the Baye de los Dolos Santos is an archbishopric and seat of the viceroy, the chief port of trade for importation, where most of the gold from the mines is lodged, and whence the fleets for Europe generally depart. The seas about it abound with whalefish, which in the season they catch in great numbers. The flesh is salted up generally to be the victualling of their slave ships, and the train reserved for exportation, at 30 and 35mm a pipe. Rio de Janeiro, the town, Saint Sebastian, is the southern most of the Portuguese, the worst provided of necessaries, but commodious for a settlement, because neither mine, and convenient to supervise the slaves, who, as I have been told, do usually allow their master a dollar per diem, and have the over-plus of their work, if any, to themselves. The gold from hence is esteemed the best, for being of a copperish colour, and they have a mint to run it into coin, both here and at Baye, the mojos of either having the initial letters of each place upon them. Pernambuco, they'll mention last, is the second indignity, a large and populous town, and has its rise from the ruins of Olinda, or the Hampson, a city of a far pleasanter situation, six miles up the river, but not so commodious for traffic and commerce. Just above the town, the river divides itself into two branches, not running directly into the sea, but to the southward, and in the nook of the island made by that division stands the Governor's House, a square plain-building of Prince Maurice's, with two towers, on which are only this date inscribed, an O-1641. The avenues to it are every way pleasant, through vistas of tall coconut trees. Over each branch of the river is a bridge. That leading to the country is all of timber, but the other to the town, of twenty-six or twenty-eight arches, is half of stone, made by the Dutch, who in their time had little shops and gaming houses on each side for recreation. The pavements also of the town are in some places of broad tiles, the remaining fragments of their conquest. The town has the outer branch of the river behind it, and the harbour before it, jetting into which latter are close keys for the weighing and receiving of custom-age on merchandise, and for the meeting and conferring of merchants and traders. The houses are strong-built, but homely, lettuce like those of Lisbon, the admission of air, without closets and, what is worse, hearths. Which makes their cookery consist all in frying and stewing upon stoves, and that they do till the flesh become tender enough to shake it to pieces, and one knife is then thought sufficient to serve a table of half a score. The greatest inconvenience of Penambuca is that there is not one public house in it, so that strangers are obliged to hire any ordinary one they can get at a guinea month, and others who come to transact affairs of importance must come recommended, if it were only for the sake of privacy. The market is stocked well enough, beef being at five farthings per pound, a sheep or goat at nine shillings, a turkey, four shillings, and fouls two shillings the largest I ever saw, and may be procured much cheaper by hiring a man to fetch them out of the country. The dearest in its kind is water, which being setched in vessels from Olinda will not be put on board in the road under two crusados a pipe. The Portuguese here are darker than those of Europe, not only from a warmer climate, but there are many intermarriages with the negroes who are numerous there, and some of them have good credit in circumstances. The women, not unlike the mulatto generation everywhere else, are fond of strangers, not only the courtesans whose interests may be supposed to wind up their affections, but also the married women who think themselves obliged when you favour them with the secrecy of an appointment. But the unhappiness of pursuing amours is that the generality of both sexes are touched with veneral taints, without so much as one surgeon among them, or anybody skilled in physics, to cure or palliate the progressive mischief. The only person pretending that way is an Irish father, whose knowledge is all comprehended in the virtues of two or three symbols, and those, with the solubility of the air and temperance, is what they depend on for subduing the worst of malignity. And it may not be unworthy notice that though few are exempted from the misfortune of a running, eruptions, or the like, yet I could hear of none precipitated into those deplorable circumstances we see common in unskillful mercurial processes. There are three monasteries and about six churches, none of them rich or magnificent, unless one dedicated to Sant'Antonio, the patron of their kingdom, which shines all over with exquisite pieces of paint and gold. The export of Brazil, besides gold, is chiefly sugars and tobacco. The latter are sent off in rolls of a quintal weight, kept continually moistened with molasses, which, with the soil it springs from, imparts a strong and peculiar scent, more sensible than the snuff made from it, which though under prohibition of importing to Lisbon, sells here at two shillings per pound, as the tobacco does at about six mirais a roll. The finest of their sugar sells at eight shillings per rouve, and a small ill-tasted rum drawn from the dregs and molasses at two testunes a gallon. Besides these, they send off great quantities of Brazil wood and whale oil, some gums and parrots. The latter are different from the African in colour and bigness, for as they are blue and larger, these are green and smaller, and the females of them ever retain the wild note and cannot be brought to talk. In lieu of this produce, the Portuguese, once every year by their fleet from Lisbon, import all manner of European commodities, and, whoever is unable or negligent of supplying himself at that season, buys at a very advanced rate before the return of another. To transport passengers, slaves or merchandise from one settlement to another or in fishing, they make use of bark logs by the Brazilians called Fingadas. They are made of four pieces of timber, the two outermost longest, pinned and fastened together and sharpened at the ends, towards its extremity, as stool is fixed to sit on for paddling, or holding by, when the agitation is more than ordinary. With these odd sort of engines, continually washed over by the water, do these people, with a little triangular sail spreeted about the middle of it, venture out of sight of land, and along the coasts for many leagues in any sort of weather, and, if they overset with a squall, which is not uncommon, they swim and presently turn it upright again. The natives are of the darkest copper colour, with thin hair, of a square, strongmake and muscular, but not so well looking as the woolly generation. They acquiesce patiently to the Portuguese government, who use their much more humanly and Christian-like than the Dutch did, and by that means have extended quietness and peace, as well as their possessions three or four hundred miles into the country. A country abounding with fine pastures and numerous herds of cattle, and yields a vast increase from everything that is sown, hence they bring down to us parrots, small monkeys, armadillos and sanguins, and, I have been assured they have, far in land, a serpent of a vast magnitude, called Siboya, able, they say, to swallow a whole sheep. I have seen myself hear the skin of another species full six yards long, and therefore think the story not improbable. The harbour of Pernambuca is, perhaps, singular. It is made of a ledge of rocks, half a cable's length from the main, and but little above the surface of the water, running at that equal distance and height, several leagues, towards Cape Augustine, a harbour running between them capable of receiving ships of the greatest burden. The northernmost end of this wall of rock is higher than any part of the contiguous line, on which a little fort is built, commanding the passage either of boat or ship, as they come over the bar into the harbour. On the starboard side, that is the main, after you have entered a little way stands another fort, a pentagon, that would prove of small account I imagine against a few disciplined men, and yet, in these, consists all their strength and security, either for the harbour or town. They have begun indeed a wall, since their removal from Olinda, designed to surround the latter, but the slow progress they make in raising it leaves room to suspect, so it will be a long time in finishing. The road without is used by the Portuguese, when they are nice sailing for Europe and wait for the convoy, or a bound to Bayeira to them, and by strangers only when necessity compels. The best of it is in ten fathom water, near three miles west-north-west from the town. Nairin is foul, with the many anchors lost there by the Portuguese ships, and farther out, in fourteen fathom, corally and rocky. July is the worst and winter season of this coast, the trade winds being then very strong and dead, bringing in a prodigious and unsafe swell into the road, intermixed every day with squalls, rain, and a hazy horizon, but at other times serene skies and sunshine. In these southern latitudes is a constellation, which from some resemblance it bears to a Jerusalem cross, has the name of cruisers, the brightest of this hemisphere, and are observed by, as the north star is in northern latitudes. But what I mention this for is, to introduce the admirable phenomenon in these of the Magellanic Clouds, whose risings and sittings are so regular that I have been assured the same nocturnal observations are made by them as by the stars. They are two clouds, small and whitish, no larger in appearance than a man's hat, and are seen here in July in the latitude of eighty-eight degrees south, about four o'clock in the morning. If their appearance should be said to be the reflection of light from some celery bodies above them, yet the difficulty is not easily answered. How these, beyond others, become so durable and regular in their motions. From these casual observations on the country, the towns, coast, and seas of Brazil, it would be an omission to leave the subject without some essay on an interloping slave trade here, which none of our countrymen are adventurous enough to pursue, though it very probably, under a prudent manager, would be attended with safety and very great profit. And I admire them more it is not struck at, because ships from the southern coast of Africa don't lengthen the voyage to the West Indies a great deal by taking a part of Brazil in their way. The disadvantages the Portuguese are under for purchasing slaves are these, that they have very few proper commodities for Guinea, and the gold, which was their chiefest by an edict in July 1722, stands now prohibited from being carried further, so that the ships employed therein off few, and insufficient for the great mortality and call of their minds. Besides, should they venture at breaking so destructive a law, as they above mentioned, as no doubt they do, or they could make little or no purchase, yet gold does not raise its value like merchandise in travelling, especially to Africa, and when the composition with the Dutch is also paid, they may be said to buy their negroes at almost double the price the English, Dutch or French do, which necessarily raises their value extravagantly at Brazil, those who can purchase one buying a certain annuity than South Sea stock. Thus far of the call for slaves at Brazil. I shall now consider and obviate some difficulties objected against any foreigners, suppose English, into posing in such a trade, and they are some on theirs, and some on our side. On their side it is prohibited under pain of death, a law less effectual to the prevention of it than pecuniary munics would be, because a penalty so inadequate and disproportioned is only in terror and makes it merciful in the governor or his instruments to take a composition of eight or ten mojos, when any subject is catched, and is the common custom so to do as often as they are found out. On our side it is confiscation of what they can get, which considering they have no men of war to guard the coast, need be very little without super-neglect and carelessness. I am a man of war or privitiere, and being a want of provisions or in search of pirates, put in to Pernambuca for intelligence, to enable me for the pursuit. The dread of pirates keeps every one off, till you have first sent an officer, with the proper compliments to the governor, who immediately gives leave for your buying every necessary you are in want of, provided it be with money, and not an exchange of merchandise, which is against the laws of the country. On this first time of going on shore, depends the success of the whole affair, and requires a cautious and discreet management in the person entrusted. He will be immediately surrounded at landing with the great and the small rabble, to inquire who, and whence he comes, and whether bound, etc., and the men are taught to answer, from Guinea, denying anything of a slave on board, which are under hatches, and make no show nor need they, for those who have money to lay out will conclude on that themselves. By that time the compliment is paid to the governor, the news has spread all round the town, and some merchant addresses you as a stranger to the civility of his house, but privately desires to know what negroes he can have and what price. A governor may possibly use an instrument in sifting this, but the appearance of the gentleman, and the circumstance of being so soon engaged after leaving the other, will go a great way in forming a man's judgment, and leaves him no room for the suspicion of such a snare. However, to have a due guard, intimations will suffice and bring him, and friends enough to carry off the best part of a cargo in two nights time, from twenty to thirty moigos a boy, and from thirty to forty a manslave, the hazard is lesser to Rio de Janeiro. There has been another method attempted of settling a correspondence with some Portuguese merchant or two, who, as they may be certain within a fortnight of any vessels arriving on their coast with slaves, might settle signals for the debarking them at an unfrequented part of the coast, but whether any exceptions were made to the price, or that the Portuguese dread discovery and the severest prosecution on so notorious a breach of the law, I cannot tell, but it has hitherto proved abortive. However, stratagems laudable and attended with profit, at no other hazard, as I can perceive than loss of time, are worth attempting. It is what is every day practised with the Spaniards from Jamaica. Chapter 9 Part 3 Upon this coast our rovers cruised for about nine weeks, keeping generally out of sight of land, but without seeing a sail which discouraged them so that they determined to leave the station, and steer for the West Indies, and in order their two stood in to make the land for the taking of their departure, and thereby they fell in, unexpectedly, with a fleet of forty-two sail of Portuguese ships off the bay of Iostoros Santos, with all their lading in for Lisbon, several of them of good force, who lay too waiting for two men of war of seventy guns each, their convoy. However, Roberts thought it should go hard with him, but he would make up his market among them, and thereupon mixed with the fleet, and kept his men hid till proper resolutions could be formed. That done, they came close up to one of the deepest, and ordered her to send the master on board quietly, threatening to give them no quarters if any resistance or signal of distress was made. The Portuguese, being surprised at these threats, and the sudden flourish of cutlasses from the pirates, submitted without a word, and the captain came on board. Roberts saluted him after a friendly manner, telling him that they were gentlemen of fortune, but that their business with him was only to be informed which was the richest ship in that fleet, and, if he directed them right, he should be restored to his ship without molestation. Otherwise, he must expect immediate death. Whereupon this Portuguese master pointed to one of forty guns and a hundred and fifty men, a ship of greater force than the rover, but this no ways dismayed them. They mere Portuguese, they said, and so immediately steered away for him. When they came with inhale, the master whom they had prisoner was ordered to ask, how, Signor Capitaine did, and to invite him on board, for that he had a matter of consequence to impart to him, which, being done, he returned for answer, that he would wait upon him presently. But by the bottle that immediately followed, the pirates perceived they were discovered, and that this was only a deceitful answer to game time to put their ship in a posture of defence. So, without further delay, they poured in a broadside, boarded, and grappled her. The dispute was short and warm, wherein many of the Portuguese fell, and two only of the pirates. By this time the fleet was alarmed, signals of top-gallant sheets flying, and guns fired, to give notice to the men of war who rid still at Ananca, and made but scurvy haste out to their assistance. And if what the pirates themselves related be true, the commanders of those ships were blamable to the highest degree, and unworthy the title, or so much as the name of men. For, Roberts finding the prize to sail heavy, and yet resolving not to lose her, lay by for the head most of them, which much out sailed the other, and prepared for battle, which was ignominiously declined, though of such superior force, for not daring to venture on the pirate alone, he tarried so long for his consort as gave them both town leisurely to make off. They found this ship exceeding rich, being laden chiefly with sugar, skins, and tobacco, and in gold forty thousand moidos, beside chains and trinkets of considerable value, particularly a cross set with diamonds, designed for the king of Portugal, which they afterwards presented to the governor of Guyana, by whom they were obliged. Elated with this booty, they had nothing now to think of but some safe retreat, where they might give themselves up to all the pleasures that luxury and wantoness could bestow, and for the present pitched upon a place called the Devil's Islands in the river of Suriname, on the coast of Guyana, where they arrived, and found the civilest reception imaginable, not only from the governor and factory, but their wives, who exchanged wares and drove a considerable trade with them. They seized in this river a sloop, and by her gained intelligence, the Tobrigantine had also sailed in company with her, from Rhode Island, lading with provisions for the coast, a welcome cargo. They growing short in the sea-store, and, as Sancho says, no adventures to be made without belly timber. One evening as they were rummaging, their mine of treasure, the Portuguese prize, this expected vessel was described at Masthead, and Robert's, imagining nobody could do the business so well as himself, takes forty men in the sloop, and goes in pursuit of her. But a fatal accident followed this rash, though in considerable adventure. For Robert's, thinking of nothing less than bringing in the Brigantine that afternoon, never troubled his head about the sloop's provision, nor inquired what there was on board to subsist such a number of men. But out to sales after his expected prize, which he not only lost further sight of, but after eight days contending with contrary winds and currents, found themselves thirty leagues till leeward. The currents still opposing their endeavours, and perceiving no hopes of beating up to their ship, they came to an anchor, and inconsiderately sent away the boat to give the rest of the company notice of their condition, and to order the ship to them. But too soon, even the next day, their wants made them sensible of their infatuation, for their water was all expended, and they had taken no thought how they should be supplied till either the ship came or the boat returned, which was not likely to be under five or six days. Here, like tantalus, they almost famished in sight of the fresh streams and lakes. Being drove to such extremity at last, that they were forced to tear up the floor of the cabin, and patch up a sort of tub or tray with rope yarns, to paddle ashore, and fetch off immediate supplies of water to preserve life. After some days, the long wished-for boat came back, but with the most unwelcome news in the world, for Kennedy, who was left tenant and left in absence of Roberts to command the Privetier and Prize, was gone off with both. This was mortification with a vengeance, and you may imagine they did not depart without some hard speeches from those that were left, and had suffered by their treachery. And, that there need be no further mention of this Kennedy, I shall leave Captain Roberts for a page or two with the remains of his crew, to vent their wrath in a few oaths and execrations, and follow the other, whom we may reckon from that time as steering his course towards Execution Dock. Kennedy was now chosen captain of the revolted crew, but could not bring his company to any determined resolution. Some of them were for pursuing the old game, but the greater part of them seemed to have inclinations to turn from those evil courses and get home privately, for there was no act of pardon in force, therefore they agreed to break up, and every man to shift for himself, as he should see occasion. The first thing they did was to part with the great Portuguese Prize, and having the master of the sloop, whose name I think was Cain, aboard, who they said was a very honest fellow, for he had honoured them upon every occasion, told them of the brigantine that Roberts went after, and when the pirates first took him, he complimented them at an odd rate, telling them they were welcome to his sloop and cargo, and wished that the vessel had been larger, and the loading richer for their sakes. To this good-natured man they gave the Portuguese ship, which was then above half loaded, three or four negroes, and all his own men, who returned thanks to his kind benefactors, and departed. Captain Kennedy in the rover sailed to Barbados, near which island they took a very peaceable ship belonging to Virginia. The commander was a Quaker, whose name was Nott. He had neither pistol, sword, nor cutlass on board, and Mr. Nott, appearing so very passive to all they said to him, some of them thought this a good opportunity to go off, and accordingly eight of the pirates went aboard, and he carried them safe to Virginia. They made the Quaker a present of ten chests of sugar, ten rolls of Brazil tobacco, thirty mojitos, and some gold dust, in all to the value of about two hundred and fifty pounds. They also made presents to the sailors, some more, some less, and lived a jovial life all the while they were upon their voyage, Captain Nott giving them their way, nor indeed could he help himself, unless he had taken an opportunity to surprise them when they were either drunk or asleep. For awake they wore arms aboard the ship, and put him in a continual terror, it not being his principal or the sex to fight, unless with art and collusion. He managed these weapons well till he arrived at the capes, and afterwards four of the pirates went off in a boat, which they had taken with them for the more easily making their escapes, and made up the bay towards Maryland, but were forced back by a storm into an obscure place of the country, where, meeting with good entertainment among the planters, they continued several days without being discovered to be pirates. In the meantime Captain Nott, leaving for others on board his ship, who intended to go to North Carolina, made what hasty could to discover to Mr. Spotswood the Governor what sort of passengers he had been forced to bring with him, who by good fortune got them seized, and search being made after the others who were reveling about the country they were also taken, and all tried, convicted, and hanged, two Portuguese Jews who were taken on the coast of Brazil, and whom they bought with them to Virginia, being the principal evidences. The latter had found means to lodge part of their wealth with the planters, who never brought it to account. But Captain Nott surrendered up every thing that belonged to them, that were taken aboard, even what they presented to him, in lieu of such things as they had plundered him of in their passage, and obliged his men to do the like. Some days after the taking of the Virginia, man last mentioned, in cruising in the latitude of Jamaica, Kennedy took a sloop-bound thither from Boston, loaded with bread and flour. A board of this sloop went all the hands who were for breaking the gang, and left those behind that had a mind to pursue further adventures. Among the former were Kennedy, their captain, of whole honour they had such a despicable notion that they were about to throw him over board, when they found him in the sloop, as fearing he might betray them all at their return to England. He, having in his child, had been bred a pickpocket, and before he became a pirate, a house-breaker. Both professions that these gentlemen have a very mean opinion of. However, Captain Kennedy, by taking solemn oaths of fidelity to his companions, was suffered to proceed with them. In this company there was but one that pretended to any skill in navigation, for Kennedy could neither write nor read, he being preferred to the command merely for his courage, which indeed he had often signalised, particularly in taking the Portuguese ship. And he proved to be a pretender only, for shaping their course to Ireland, where they agreed to land, they ran away to the northwest coast of Scotland, and there were tossed about by hard storms of wind for several days, without knowing where they were, and in great danger of perishing. At length they pushed the vessel into a little creek, and went all ashore, leaving the sloop at an anchor for the next comers. The whole company refreshed themselves as little village, about five miles from the place where they left the sloop, and passed there for shipwrecked sailors, and no doubt might have travelled on without suspicion, but the mad and righteous manner of their living on the road occasioned their journey to be cut short, as we shall observe presently. Kennedy in another left them here, and travelling to one of the seaports, shipped themselves for Ireland, and arrived there in safety. Six or seven wisely withdrew from the rest, travelled at their leisure, and got to their much desired port of London without being disturbed or suspected. But the main gang alarmed the country wherever they came, drinking and roaring at such a rate that the people shut themselves up in their houses in some places, not daring to venture out among so many mad fellows. In other villages, they treated the whole town, squandering their money away, as if, like Eesop, they wanted to lighten their burdens. This expensive manner of living procured two of their drunken stragglers to be knocked on the head, they being found murdered in the road, and their money taken from them. All the rest, to the number of seventeen as they drew night at Edinburgh, were arrested and thrown into jail, upon suspicion if they knew not what. However, the magistrates were not longer to loss for proper accusations, for two of the gang offering themselves for evidences were accepted of, and the others were brought to a speedy trial, where of nine were convicted and executed. Kennedy, having spent all his money, came over from Ireland, and kept a common body-house on Dettford Road, and, now and then, was thought, made an excursion abroad in the way of his former profession, till one of his household wenches gave information against him for a robbery, for which he was committed to Bridewell. But because she would not do the business by halves, she found out her mate of a ship that Kennedy had committed piracy upon, as he foolishly confessed to her. This mate, whose name was Grant, paid Kennedy a visit in Bridewell, and, knowing him to be the man, procured a warrant, and had him committed to the Marshall C. Prison. The game that Kennedy had now to play was to turn evidence himself. Accordingly, he gave a list of eight or ten of his comrades, but, not being acquainted with the habitations, one only was taken, who, though condemned, appeared to be a man of a fair character, was forced into the service, and took the first opportunity to get from them, and ever received a pardon. But Walter Kennedy, being in a tourist offender, was executed the 19th of July, 1721, at Execution Dock. The rest of the pirates who were left in the ship were over, stayed not long behind, for they went to shore to one of the West India Islands. What became of them afterwards, I can't tell, but the ship was found at sea by a sloop belonging to St Christopher's, and carried into that island with only nine negroes aboard. Thus we see what a disastrous fate ever attends the wicked, and how rarely they escape the punishment due to their crimes, who, abandoned to such a profligate life rob, spoil, and pray upon mankind, contrary to the light and law of nature as well as the law of God. It might have been hoped that the examples of these deaths would have been as marks to the remainder of this gang, how to shun the rocks their companions had split on, that they would have surrendered to mercy, or divided themselves forever from such pursuits, as in the end they might be sure would subject them to the same law and punishment, which they must be conscious they now equally deserved, impending law, which never let them sleep well unless when drunk. But all the use that was made of it here was to commend the justice of the court that condemned Kennedy, for he was a sad dog, they said, and deserved the fate he met with. End of Chapter 9, Part 3, read by Kate McKenzie. Chapter 9, Part 4, of the General History of the Pirates, Volume 1. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Kate McKenzie. The General History of the Pirates, Volume 1, by Charles Johnson. Chapter 9, Part 4. But to go back to Roberts, whom we left on the coast of Guyana in a grievous passion at what Kennedy and the crew had done, and who was now projecting new adventures with his small company in the sloop, but finding hitherto they had been but as a rope of sand, they formed a set of articles, to be signed and sworn to for the better conservation of their society, and doing justice to one another, excluding all Irish men from the benefit of it, to whom they had an implacable aversion upon the account of Kennedy. How indeed Roberts could think that an oath would be obligatory, where defiance had been given to the laws of God and man, I can't tell, but he thought their greatest security lay in this, that it was everyone's interest to observe them if they were minded to keep up so abominable a combination. The following is the substance of the articles, as taken from the Pirate's own information. Number 1. Every man has a vote in affairs of moment, has equal title to the fresh provisions or strong liquors at any time seized, and use them at pleasure, unless a scarcity, no uncommon thing among them, make it necessary for the good of all to vote a retrenchment. Number 2. Every man to be called fairly in turn, by list, on board of prizes, because, over and above their proper share, they were on these occasions allowed a shift of clothes, but if they defrauded the company to the value of a dollar in plate jewels or money, marooning was their punishment. This was a barbarous custom of putting the offender on shore on some desolate or uninhabited Cape or Island, with a gun, a few shot, a bottle of water, and a bottle of powder, to subsist with or starve. If the robbery was only between one another, they contented themselves with slitting the ears and nose of him that was guilty, and set him on shore, not in an uninhabited place, but somewhere where he was sure to encounter hardships. Number 3. No person to game at cards or dice for money. Number 4. The lights and candles to be put out at eight o'clock at night. If any of the crew, after that hour, still remained inclined for drinking, they were to do it on the open deck, which Roberts believed would give a check to their debauches, for he was a sober man himself, but found at length that all his endeavours to put an end to this debauch proved ineffectual. Number 5. To keep their peace, pistols and cutlass clean, and fit for service. In this they were extravagantly nice, endeavouring to outdo one another, in the beauty and richness of their arms, giving sometimes at an auction, at the mast, thirty or forty pounds a pair for pistols. These were slung in time of service, with different coloured ribbons over their shoulders, in a way peculiar to these fellows, in which they took great delight. Number 6. No boy or woman to be allowed amongst them. If any man were found seducing any of the latter sex, and carried her to sea disguised, he was to suffer death. So that when any fell into their hands, as it chanced in the onslau, they put a sentinel immediately overhead to prevent ill consequences from so dangerous an instrument of division and quarrel. But then here lies the roguery. They contend who shall be sentinel, which happens generally to one of the greatest bullies, who, to secure the lady's virtue, will let none lie with her but himself. Number 7. To desert the ship or their quarters in battle, was punished with death or marooning. Number 8. No striking one another on board, but every man's quarrels to be ended on shore, at sword and pistol. Thus the quartermaster of the ship, when the parties will not come to any reconciliation, accompanies them on shore with what assistance he thinks proper, and turns the disputants back to back at so many paces' distance. At the word of command, they turn and fire immediately, or else the piece is knocked out of their hands. If both miss, they come to their cutlasses, and then he is declared victor, who draws the first blood. Number 9. No man to talk of breaking up their way of living till each had a share of a thousand pounds. If in order to this any man should lose a limb or become a cripple in their service, he was to have eight hundred dollars out of the public stock, and for lesser hurts proportionately. Number 10. The captain and quartermaster to receive two shares of a prize, the master, boatswain and gunner, one share and a half, and other officers, one and a quarter. Number 11. The musicians to have rest on the Sabbath day, but the other six days and nights, none without special favour. These, we are assured, were some of Roberts's articles, but as they had taken care to throw overboard the original they had signed and sworn to, there was a great deal of room to suspect. The remainder contained something too horrid to be disclosed to any, except such as were willing to be sharers in the iniquity of them. Let them be what they will. They were together the test of all newcomers, who were initiated by an oath taken on a Bible, reserved for that purpose only, and were subscribed to in presence of the worshipful Mr. Roberts. And in case any doubt should arise concerning the construction of these laws, and it should remain in dispute whether the party had infringed them or no, a jury is appointed to explain them, and bring in a verdict upon the case in doubt. Since we are now speaking of the laws of this company, I shall go on and, in as brief a manner as I can, relate the principal customs and government of this roguish commonwealth, which are pretty near the same with all pirates. For the punishment of small offences, which are not provided for by the articles, and which are not of consequence enough to be left to a jury, there is a principal officer among the pirates, called the quartermaster, the men's own choosing, who claims all authority this way, accepting in time of battle. If they disobey his command, a quarrelsome mutinous with one another, misuse prisoners plunder beyond his order, and in particular, if they be negligent of their arms, which he musters at discretion, he punishes at his own arbitrement, with drubbing or whipping, which no one else dare do, without incurring the lash from all the ship's company. In short, this officer is trustee for the whole, is the first on board any prize, separating for the company's use what he pleases, and returning what he thinks fit to the owner's, accepting gold and silver, which they have voted not returnable. After a description of the quartermaster and his duty, who acts as a sort of civil magistrate on board a pirate ship, I shall consider their military officer, the captain. What privileges he exerts in such anarchy and unruliness for the members, why truly very little, they only permit him to be a captain, on condition that they may be captain over him. They separate to his use the great cabin, and sometimes vote him small parcels of plate and china, for it may be noted that Robert's drank his tea constantly. But then every man, as the humour takes him, will use the plate and china, intrude into his apartment, swear at him, seize a part of his victuals and drink if they like it, without his offering to find fault or contest it. Yet Robert's, by a better management than usual, became the chief director in every thing of moment, and it happened thus. The rank of captain being obtained by the suffrage of the majority, it falls on one superior for knowledge and boldness, pistol-proof, as they call it, and can make those fear who do not love him. Robert's is said to have exceeded his fellows in these respects, and, when advanced, enlarged the respect that followed it, by making a sort of privy council of half a dozen of the greatest bullies, such as were his competitors, and had interest enough to make his government easy. Yet even those, in the latter part of his reign, he had run counter to in every project that opposed his own opinion, for which, and because he grew reserved, and would not drink and roar at their rate, a cabal was formed to take away his captainship, which defted more effectually. The captain's power is uncontrollable in chase or in battle, dropping, cutting or even shooting anyone who dares deny his command. The same privilege he takes over prisoners, who receive good or ill usage, mostly as he approves of their behaviour, for though the meanest would take upon them to misuse a master of a ship, yet he would control her in, when he see it, and merrily over a bottle, give his prisoners this double reason for it. First, that it preserved his precedence, and secondly, that it took the punishment out of the hands of a much more rash and mad set of fellows than himself. When he found that rigor was not expected from his people, for he often practised it to appease them, then he would give strangers to understand that it was pure inclination that induced him to a good treatment of them, and not any love or partiality to their persons, force as he, there is none of you but will hang me, I know, whenever you can clutch me within your power. And now, seeing the disadvantages they were under for pursuing the account, viz, a small vessel ill-reprepared, and without provisions or stores, they resolved one and all, with the little supplies they could get, to proceed for the West Indies, not doubting to find a remedy for all these evils, and to retrieve their loss. In the latitude of Desaida, one of the islands, they took two sloops, which supplied them with provisions and other necessaries, and a few days afterwards took a brigantine belonging to Rhode Island, and then proceeded to Barbados, off of which island they fell in with a Bristol ship of ten guns, in her voyage out, from whom they took abundance of clothes, some money, twenty-five bales of goods, five barrels of powder, a cable, pauser, ten casks of oatmeal, six casks of beef, and several other goods, besides five of their men. And after they had detained her three days, let her go, who, being bound for the above said island, she acquainted the governor with what had happened as soon as she arrived. Whereupon a Bristol galley that lay in the harbor was ordered to be fitted out with all imaginable expedition of twenty guns and eighty men, there being then no man of war upon that station, and also a sloop with ten guns and forty men. The galley was commanded by one Captain Rogers of Bristol, and the sloop by Captain Graves of that island, and Captain Rogers, by a commission from the governor, was appointed Commodore. The second day after Rogers sailed out of the harbor, he was discovered by Roberts, who, knowing nothing of their design, gave them chase. The Barbados ships kept an easy sail, till the pirates came up with them, and then Roberts gave them a gun, expecting they would have immediately struck to his peratical flag, but instead, thereof, he was forced to receive the fire of a broadside with three hussars at the same time, so that an engagement ensued, but Roberts being hardly put to it, was obliged to crowd all the sail the sloop would bear to get off. The galley sailing pretty well kept company for a long while, keeping a constant fire, which galed the pirate. However, they had length by throwing over their guns and other heavy goods, and thereby lightening the vessel, they with much ado got clear, but Roberts could never endure a Barbados man afterwards, and when any ships belonging to that island fell in his way, he was more particularly severe to them than others. Captain Roberts sailed in the sloop to the island of Dominica, where he watered and got provisions of the inhabitants to whom he gave goods in exchange. At this place he met with thirteen Englishmen, who had been set ashore by a French guard de la coste, belonging to Martinique, taken out of two New England ships that had been seized as prize by the said French sloop. The men willingly entered with the pirates, and it proved a seasonable recruit. They stayed not long here, though they had immediate occasion for cleaning their sloop, but did not think this a proper place, and her in they judged right, for the touching at this island had liked to have been their destruction, because they having resolved to go away to the Grenada Islands for the aforesaid purpose by some accident it came to be known to the French colony, who, sending word to the Governor of Martinique, he equipped a man two sloops to go in quest of them. The pirates sailed directly for the Grenadillos, and hauled into a lagoon, at Corvo-Coup, where they cleaned with unusual dispatch, staying but a little above a week, by which expedition they missed the Martinique sloops only a few hours, Roberts sailing overnight, that the French arrived the next morning. This was a fortunate escape, especially considering that it was not from any fears of their being discovered that they made so much haste from the island, but as they had the impudence themselves to own for the want of wine and women. Thus, narrowly escaped, they sailed for Newfoundland, and arrived upon the banks the latter end of June 1720. They entered the harbour of Tripassie, with their black colours flying, drums beating, and trumpets sounding. There were two and twenty vessels in the harbour, which the men all quitted upon the sight of the pirate, and fled ashore. It is impossible particularly to recount the destruction and havoc they made here, burning and sinking all the shipping, except a Bristol galley, and destroying the fisheries, and stages of the poor planters, without remorse or compunction. For nothing is so deplorable as power in mean and ignorant hands. It makes men wanton and giddy, unconcerned at the misfortunes they are imposing on their fellow creatures, and keeps them smiling at the mischiefs that bring themselves to no advantage. They are like madmen, that cast firebrands, arrows and death, and say, Are not we in sport? Roberts manned the Bristol galley he took in the harbour, and mounted sixteen guns on board her, and, cruising out upon the banks, he met with nine or ten sailor French ships, all which he destroyed, except one of 26 guns, which they seized, and carried off for their own use. This ship they christened the fortune, and leaving the Bristol galley to the Frenchman, they sailed away in company with the sloop on another cruise, and took several prizes, the Richard of Biddiford, Jonathan Whitfield Master, the willing mind of Poole, the expectation of Topsum, and the Samuel, Captain Kerry of London. Out of these ships they increased their company, by entering all the men they could well spare in their own service. The Samuel was a rich ship, and had several passengers on board, who were used very roughly, in order to make them discover their money, threatening them every moment with death, but they did not resign everything up to them. They tore up the hatches, and entered the hold like a parcel of furies, and with axes and cutlasses cut and broke open all the bales, cases and boxes they could lay their hands on, and, when any goods came upon deck, that they did not like to carry aboard, instead of tossing them into the hold again, threw them overboard into the sea. All this was done with incessant cursing and swearing, more like fiends than men. They carried with them sails, guns, powder, cordage, and eight or nine thousand pounds worth of the choicest goods, and told Captain Kerry that they should accept of no act of grace, that the K and P might be damned with their acts of God for them. Neither would they go to Hope Point to be hanged up a sun drying as kids and Braddish's company were, but if they should ever be overpowered, they would set fire to the powder with a pistol, and go all merrily to hell together. After they had brought all the booty aboard, a consultation was held whether they should sink or burn the ship, but whilst they were debating the matter, they spied a sail, and so left the Samuel to give a chase. At midnight they came up with the same, which proved to be a snow from Bristol, bound for Boston, Captain Boll's master. They used him barbarously, because of his country, Captain Rogers who attacked them off Barbados, being of the city of Bristol. July the 16th, which was two days afterwards, they took a Virginia man called the Little York James Phillips Master, and the love of Liverpool, which they plundered and let go. The next day a snow from Bristol called the Phoenix John Richards Master, met with the same fate from them, as also a brigantine, Captain Thomas, and a sloop called the Sabry. They took all the men out of the brigantine, and sunk the vessel. When they left the banks of Newfoundland, they sailed for the West Indies, and the provisions growing short, they went for the latitude of the island of Sader, to cruise, it being esteemed the likeliest place to meet with such ships as, they used in their mirth to say, were consigned to them with supplies. And it has been very much suspected that ships have loaded with provisions at the English colonies on pretense of trading on the coast of Africa, when they have in reality been consigned to them, and though a show of violence is offered to them when they meet, yet they are pretty sure of bringing their cargo to a good market. However, at this time they missed with their usual look, and provisions and necessaries becoming more scarce every day, they retired towards St Christopher's, where, being denied all succor or assistance from the government, they fired in revenge on the town, and burnt two ships in the road, one of them commanded by Captain Cox of Bristol, and then retreated farther to the island of St Bartholomew, where they met with much handsomer treatment, the governor, not only supplying them with refreshments, but he and the chiefs caressing them in the most friendly manner, and the women, from so good an example, endeavoured to out vie each other in dress and behaviour, to attract the good graces of such generous lovers that paid well for their favours. End of chapter 9 part 4