Before Governor Rogers went over, the proclamation was sent to them, which they took as Teague took the covenant, that is, they made prize of the ship and proclamation too; however, they sent for those who were out a-cruising, and called a general council, but there was so much noise and glamour, that nothing could be agreed on; some were for fortifying the island, to stand upon their own terms, and treating with the government upon the foot of a commonwealth; others were also for strengthening the island for their own security, but were not strenuous for these punctilios, so that they might have a general pardon, without being obliged to make any restitution, and to retire, with all their effects, to the neighbouring British plantations.
But Captain Jennings, who was their commodore, and who always bore a great sway among them, being a man of good understanding, and good estate, before this whim took him of going a-pirating, resolved upon surrendering, without more ado, to the terms of the proclamation, which so disconcerted all their measures, that the congress broke up very abruptly without doing anything; and presently Jennings, and by his example, about 150 more, came in to the Governor of Bermuda, and had their certificates, though the greatest part of them returned again, like the dog to the vomit. The commanders who were then in the island, besides Captain Jennings abovementioned, I think were these, Benjamin Hornigold, Edward Teach, John Martel, James Fife, Christopher Winter, Nicholas Brown, Paul Williams, Charles Bellamy, Oliver la Bouche, Major Penner, Ed. England, T. Burgess, Tho. Cocklyn, R. Sample, Charles Vane, and two or three others: Hornigold, Williams, Burgess and la Bouche were afterwards cast away; Teach and Penner killed, and their crews taken; James Fife killed by his own men; Martel’s crew destroyed, and he forced on an uninhabited island; Cocklyn, Sample and Vane hanged; Winter and Brown surrendered to the Spaniards at Cuba, and England lives now at Madagascar.
In the month of or , Captain Rogers arrived at his government, with two of His Majesty’s ships, and found several of the abovesaid pirates there, who upon the coming of the men-of-war, all surrendered to the pardon, except Charles Vane and his crew, which happened after this manner.
I have before described the harbour to have two inlets, by means of a small island lying at the mouth of it; at one of which, both the men-of-war entered, and left the other open, so that Vane slip’d his cable, set fire to a large prize they had there, and resolutely put out, firing at the man-of-war as he went off.
As soon as Captain Rogers had settled himself in his government, he built a fort for his defence, and garrisoned it with the people he found upon the island; the quondam pirates, to the number of 400, he formed into companies, appointed officers of those whom he most confided in, and then set about to settle a trade with the Spaniards, in the Gulf of Mexico; in one of which voyages, Captain Burgess abovementioned, died, and Captain Hornigold, another of the famous pirates, was cast away upon rocks, a great way from land, and perished, but five of his men got into a canoe and were saved.
Captain Rogers sent out a sloop to get provisions, and gave the command to one John Augur, one of the pirates, who had accepted of the act of grace; in their voyage they met with two sloops, and John and his comrades not yet forgetting their former business, made use of their old freedom, and took out of them in money and goods, to the value of about 500 £ after this they steered away for Hispaniola, not being satisfy’d whether the Governor would admit them to carry on two trades at once, and so thought to have bidden farewell to the Bahama Islands; but as ill luck would have it, they met with a violent tornado, wherein they lost their mast, and were drove back to one of the uninhabited Bahamas, and lost their sloop; the men got all ashore, and lived up and down in the wood, for a little time, till Governor Rogers happening to hear of their expedition, and where they had got to, sent out an armed sloop to the aforesaid island; the master of which, with good words and fair promises, got them on board, and brought them all to Providence, being eleven persons, ten of which were try’d at a court of admiralty, convicted, and hanged by the other’s evidence, in the sight of all their former companions and fellow thieves. The criminals would fain have spirited up the pardoned pirates, to rescue them out of the hands of the officers of justice, telling them from the gallows, that, they never thought to have seen the time, when ten such men as they should be ty’d up and hanged like dogs, and four hundred of their sworn friends and
