A General History of the Pirates

sling, flung over his shoulders (according to the fashion of the pirates;) and is said to have given his orders with boldness, and spirit; coming, according to what he had purposed, close to the man-of-war, received her fire, and then hoisted his black flag, and returned it, shooting away from her, with all the sail he could pack; and had he took Armstrong’s advice, to have gone before the wind, he had probably escaped; but keeping his tacks down, either by the winds shifting, or ill steerage, or both, he was taken aback with his sails, and the Swallow came a second time very nigh to him: he had now perhaps finished the fight very desperately, if death, who took a swift passage in a grapeshot, had not interposed, and struck him directly on the throat. He settled himself on the tackles of a gun, which one Stephenson, from the helm, observing, ran to his assistance, and not perceiving him wounded, swore at him, and bid him stand up, and fight like a man; but when he found his mistake, and that his captain was certainly dead, he gushed into tears, and wished the next shot might be his lot. They presently threw him overboard, with his arms and ornaments on, according to the repeated request he made in his lifetime.

Roberts was a tall black man, near forty years of age, born at Newey-bagh, nigh Haverfordwest, in Pembrokeshire, of good natural parts, and personal bravery, though he applied them to such wicked purposes, as made them of no commendation, frequently drinking d⁠⸺⁠n to him who ever lived to wear a halter. He was forc’d himself at first among this company out of the Prince, Captain Plumb at Anomabu, about three years before, where he served as second mate, and shed, as he us’d to tell the fresh men, as many crocodile tears then as they did now, but time and good company had wore it off. He could not plead want of employment, nor incapacity of getting his bread in an honest way, to favour so vile a change, nor was he so much a coward as to pretend it; but frankly own’d, it was to get rid of the disagreeable superiority of some masters he was acquainted with, and the love of novelty and change, maritime peregrinations had accustom’d him to. In an honest service, says he, there is thin commons, low wages, and hard labour; in this, plenty and satiety, pleasure and ease, liberty and power; and who would not balance creditor on this side, when all the hazard that is run for it, at worst, is only a sour look or two at choking. No, a merry life and a short one, shall be my motto. Thus he preach’d himself into an approbation of what he at first abhorr’d; and being daily regal’d with music, drinking, and the gaiety and diversions of his companions, these deprav’d propensities were quickly edg’d and strengthen’d, to the extinguishing of fear and conscience. Yet among all the vile and ignominious acts he had perpetrated, he is said to have had an aversion towards forcing men into that service, and had procured some their discharge, notwithstanding so many made it their plea.

When Roberts was gone, as though he had been the life and soul of the gang, their spirits sunk; many deserted their quarters, and all stupidly neglected any means for defence, or escape; and their mainmast soon after being shot by the board, they had no way left, but to surrender and call for quarters. The Swallow kept aloof, while her boat passed, and repassed for the prisoners; because they understood they were under an oath to blow up; and some of the desperadoes showed a willingness that way, matches being lighted, and scuffles happening between those who would, and those who opposed it: but I cannot easily account for this humour, which can be term’d no more than a false courage, since any of them had power to destroy his own life, either by pistol, or drowning, without involving others in the same fate, who are in no temper of mind for it: and at best, it had been only dying, for fear of death.

She had 40 guns, and 157 men, 45 whereof were Negroes; three only were killed in the action, without any loss to the Swallow. There was found upwards of 2,000 £ in gold dust in her. The flag could not be got easily from under the fallen mast, and was therefore recover’d by the Swallow; it had the figure of a skeleton in it, and a man portray’d with a flaming sword in his hand, intimating a defiance of death itself.

The Swallow returned back into Cape Lopez Bay, and found the Little Ranger, whom the pirates had deserted in haste, for the better defence of the ship: she had been plunder’d, according to what I could learn, of 2,000 £ in gold dust, (the shares of those pirates who belonged to her;) and Captain Hill, in the Neptune, not unjustly suspected, for he would not wait the man-of-war’s returning into the bay again, but sail’d away immediately, making no scruple afterwards to own the seizure of other goods out of her, and surrender’d, as a confirmation of all, 50 ounces at Barbados, for which, see the article at the end of this book.

All persons who after the 29th of Septem. 1690, etc.

To sum up the whole, if it be considered, first, that the sickly state of the men-of-war, when they sail’d from Prince’s, was the misfortune that hindered their being as far as Sierra Leone, and consequently out of the track the pirates then took. That those pirates, directly contrary to their design, in the second expedition, should get above Cape Corso, and that nigh Axim, a chase should offer, that inevitably must discover them, and be soon communicated to the men-of-war. That the satiating their evil