A General History of the Pirates

companions quietly standing by to behold the spectacle. One Hamphrey Morrice urged the matter further than the rest, taxing them with pusillanimity and cowardice, as if it were a breach of honour in them not to rise and save them from the ignominious death they were going to suffer. But ’twas all in vain, they were now told, it was their business to turn their minds to another world, and sincerely to repent of what wickedness they had done in this. Yes, answered one of them, I do heartily repent; I repent I had not done more mischief, and that we did not cut the throats of them that took us, and I am extremely sorry that you an’t all hang’d as well as we. So do I, says another: and I, says a third; and then they were all turned off, without making any other dying speeches, except one Dennis Macarty, who told the people, that some friends of his had often said he should die in his shoes, but that he would make them liars, and so kicked them off. And thus ended the lives, with their adventures, of those miserable wretches, who may serve as sad examples of the little effect mercy has upon men once abandoned to an evil course of life.

Lest I be thought severe in my animadversions upon the Spanish proceedings in the West Indies, in respect to their dealings with us; I shall mention an instance or two, wherein I’ll be as concise as possible, and then transcribe some original letters from the Governor of Jamaica, and an officer of a man-of-war, to the Alcaldes of Trinidad, on the island of Cuba, with their answers, translated into English, and then proceed to the particular histories of the pirates and their crews, that have made most noise in the world in our own times.

About March 1722, one of our men-of-war trading upon the coast, viz. the Greyhound galley, Captain Walron, the said captain invited some of the merchants to dinner, who with their attendants and friends came on board to the number of 16 or 18 in all; and having concerted measures, about six or eight dined in the cabin, and the rest were waiting on the deck. While the captain and his guests were at dinner, the boatswain pipes for the ship’s company to dine; accordingly the men take their platters, receive their provisions, and down they go between decks, leaving only 4 or 5 hands besides the Spaniards, above, who were immediately dispatched by them, and the hatches laid on the rest; those in the cabin were as ready as their companions, for they pulled out their pistols and shot the captain, surgeon and another dead, and grievously wounded the lieutenant; but he getting out of the window upon a side ladder, thereby saved his life, and so they made themselves masters of the ship in an instant: but by accidental good fortune, she was recovered before she was carry’d off; for Captain Walron having mann’d a sloop with 30 hands out of his ship’s company, had sent her to windward some days before, also for trade, which the Spaniards knew very well; and just as the action was over they saw this sloop coming down, before the wind, towards their ship; upon which the Spaniards took about 10,000 £ in specie, as I am informed, quitted the ship, and went off in their launch unmolested.

About the same time, a guardacosta, of Puerto Rico, commanded by one Matthew Luke, an Italian, took four English vessels, and murdered all the crews: he was taken by the Lanceston man-of-war, in May 1722, and brought to Jamaica, were they were all but seven deservedly hanged. It is likely the man-of-war might not have meddled with her, but that she blindly laid the Lanceston on board, thinking she had been a merchant ship, who thereupon catched a Tartar. Afterwards in rummaging there was found a cartridge of powder made up with a piece of an English journal, belonging, I believe, to the Crean snow; and upon examination, at last, it was discovered that they had taken this vessel and murdered the crew; and one of the Spaniards, when he came to die, confessed that he had killed twenty Englishmen with his own hands.

S. Jago de la Vega Febr. 20

A Letter from His Excellency Sir Nicholas Laws Our Governor, to the Alcaldes of Trinidad on Cuba, Dated the 26th of Jan. 1721⁠–⁠2

Gentlemen,

The frequent depredations, robberies, and other acts of hostility, which have been committed on the King my royal master’s subjects, by a parcel of banditti, who pretend to have commissions from you, and in reality are sheltered under your government, is the occasion of my sending the bearer Captain Chamberlain, Commander of His Majesty’s snow Happy, to demand satisfaction of you for so many notorious robberies which your people have lately committed on the King’s subjects of this island; particularly by those traitors, Nicholas Brown and Christopher Winter, to whom you have given protection. Such proceedings as these are not only a breach of the law of nations, but must appear to the world of a very extraordinary nature, when considered that the subjects of a prince in amity and friendship with another, should give countenance and encourage such vile practices. I confess I have had long patience, and declined using any violent measures to obtain satisfaction, hoping the cessation of arms, so happily concluded upon between our respective sovereigns, would have put an effectual stop to those disorders; but on the contrary, I now find the Port of Trinidad a receptacle to villains of all nations. I do therefore think fit to acquaint you, and assure you in the King my master’s name, that if I do meet with any of your rogues for the future upon the coast of this island, I will order them to be hanged