But I shall not pretend to give you any particular directions as to the nature of repentance: I consider that I speak to a person, whose offences have proceeded not so much from his not knowing, as his slighting and neglecting his duty: neither is it proper for me to give advice out of the way of my own profession.
You may have that better delivered to you by those who have made divinity their particular study; and who, by their knowledge, as well as their office, as being the ambassadors of Christ, (2 Cor. 5:20) are best qualified to give you instructions therein.
I only heartily wish, that what, in compassion to your soul, I have now said to you upon this sad and solemn occasion, by exhorting you in general to faith and repentance, may have that due effect upon you, that thereby you may become a true penitent.
And therefore having now discharged my duty to you as a Christian, by giving you the best counsel I can, with respect to the salvation of your soul, I must now do my office as a judge.
The sentence that the law hath appointed to pass upon you for your offences, and which this court doth therefore award, is,
That you, the said Stede Bonnet, shall go from hence to the place from whence you came, and from thence to the place of execution, where you shall be hanged by the neck till you are dead.
And the God of infinite mercy be merciful to your soul.
V
Of Capt. Edward England, and His Crew
Edward England went mate of a sloop that sail’d out of Jamaica, and was taken by Captain Winter, a pirate, just before their settlement at Providence; from whence England had the command of a sloop in the same laudable employment: it is surprising that men of good understanding should engage in a course of life, that so much debases humane nature, and sets them upon a level with the wild beasts of the forest, who live and prey upon their weaker fellow creatures: a crime so enormous! that it includes almost all others, as murder, rapine, theft, ingratitude, etc. and though they make these vices familiar to them by their daily practice, yet these men are so inconsistent with themselves, that a reflection made upon their honour, their justice, or their courage, is look’d upon as an offence that ought to be punished with the life of him that commits it: England was one of these men, who seem’d to have such a share of reason, as should have taught him better things. He had a great deal of good nature, and did not want for courage; he was not avaricious, and always averse to the ill usage prisoners received: he would have been contented with moderate plunder, and less mischievous pranks, could his companions have been brought to the same temper, but he was generally over-rul’d, and as he was engaged in that abominable society, he was obliged to be a partner in all their vile actions.
Captain England sail’d to the coast of Africa, after the island of Providence was settled by the English government, and the pirates surrendered to His Majesty’s proclamation; and took several ships and vessels, particularly the Cadogan snow belonging to Bristol, at Sierra Leone, one Skinner Master, who was inhumanly murdered by some of the crew, that had lately been his own men, and served in the said vessel. It seems some quarrel had happened between them, so that Skinner thought fit to remove these fellows on board of a man-of-war, and at the same time refused them their wages; not long after they found means to desert that service, and shipping themselves aboard a sloop in the West Indies, was taken by a pirate, and brought to Providence, and sailed upon the same account along with Captain England.
As soon as Skinner had struck to the pirate, he was ordered to come on board in his boat, which he did, and the person that he first cast his eye upon, proved to be his old boatswain, who star’d him in the face like his evil genius, and accosted him in this manner.—Ah, Captain Skinner! Is it you? The only man I wished to see; I am much in your debt, and now I shall pay you all in your own coin.
The poor man trembled every joint, when he found into what company he had fallen, and dreaded the event, as he had reason enough so to do; for the boatswain immediately called to his consorts, laid hold of the captain, and made him fast to the windlass, and there pelted him with glass bottles, which cut him in a sad manner; after which they whipp’d him about the deck, till they were weary, being deaf to all his prayers and entreaties, and at last, because he had been a good master to his men, they said, he should have an easy death, and so shot him thro’ the head. They took some few things out of the snow, but gave the vessel and all her cargo to Howel Davis the mate; and the rest of the crew, as will be hereafter mentioned in the chapter of Captain Davis.
Captain England took a ship called the Pearl, Captain Tyzard Commander, for which he exchanged his own sloop, fitted her up for the piratical account, and new christen’d her, the Royal James, with which he took several ships and vessels of different nations at the Azores and Cape de Verde Islands.
In the spring, , the rovers returned to Africa, and beginning at the River Gambia, sailed all down the coast; and between that and Cape Corso, took the following
