The prisoner appeared undaunted, and rather solicitous, about resting his stump, than giving any answer to the Court, or making any defence for himself, till called upon; then he related in a careless, or rather hopeless manner, the circumstances of his first entrance, being forced, he said, out of the blessing of Lemmington, at Newfoundland, about 12 months past; this, he is sure, most of the old pirates knew, and that he was for some time as sick of the change as any man; but custom and ill company had altered him, owning very frankly, that he was at the attack, and taking of the King Solomon, that he did cut her cable, and that none were forced on those occasions.
As to the last expedition in the Ranger, he confesses he went on board of her, but that it was by Robert’s order; and in the chase loaded one gun, to bring her to, but when he saw it was a bite, he declared to his comrades, that it was not worth while to resist, forbore firing, and assisted to reeve the braces, in order, if they could, to get away, in which sort of service he was busied, when a shot from the man-of-war took off his leg: and being asked, that supposing the chase had proved a Portuguese? Why then, says he, I dont know what I might have done, intimating withal, that everybody then would have been ready enough at plundering. Guilty.
Peter Scudamore
Harry Glasby, Jo. Wingfield, and Nicholas Brattle, depose thus much, as to his being a volunteer with the pirates, from Capt. Rolls, at Calabar. First, that he quarrelled with Moody, (one of the heads of the gang) and fought with him, because he opposed his going, asking Rolls, in a leering manner, whether he would not be so kind, as to put him into the gazette, when he came home. And, at another time, when he was going from the pirate ship, in his boat, a tornado arose, I wish, says he, the rascal may be drowned, for he is a great rogue, and has endeavoured to do me all the ill offices he could among these gentlemen, (i.e. pirates.)
And secondly, that he had signed the pirate’s articles with a great deal of alacrity, and gloried in having been the first surgeon that had done so, (for before this, it was their custom to change their surgeons, when they desired it, after having served a time, and never obliged them to sign, but he was resolved to break thro’ this, for the good of those who were to follow,) swearing immediately upon it, he was now, he hoped, as great a rogue as any of them.
Captain Jo. Trahern, and George Fenn, his mate, deposed, the prisoner to have taken out of the King Solomon, their surgeon’s capital instruments, some medicines, and a backgammon table; which latter became the means of a quarrel between one Wincon, and he, whose property they should be, and were yielded to the prisoner.
Jo. Sharp, master of the Elizabeth, heard the prisoner ask Roberts leave to force Comry, his surgeon, from him, which was accordingly done, and with him, carried also some of the ship’s medicines: but what gave a fuller proof of the dishonesty of his principles, was, the treacherous design he had formed of running away with the prize, in her passage to Cape Corso, though he had been treated with all humanity, and very unlike a prisoner, on account of his employ and better education, which had rendred him less to be suspected.
Child, (acquitted) depos’d, that in their passage from the island of St. Thomas, in the Fortune prize, this prisoner was several times tempting him, into measures of rising with the Negroes, and killing the Swallow’s people, showing him, how easily the white men might be demolished, and a new company raised at Angola, and that part of the coast, for, says he, I understand how to navigate a ship, and can soon teach you to steer; and is it not better to do this, than to go back to Cape Corso, and be hanged and sun-dryed? To which the deponent replying, he was not afraid of being hanged, Scudamore bid him be still, and no harm should come to him; but before the next day-evening, which was the designed time of executing this project, the deponent discovered it to the officer, and assured him, Scudamore had been talking all the preceding night to the Negroes, in Angolan language.
Isaac Burnet heard the prisoner ask James Harris, a pirate, (left with the wounded in the prize,) whether he was willing to come into the project of running away with the ship, and endeavour the raising of a new company, but turned the discourse to horse-racing, as the deponent crept nigher; he acquainted the officer with what he had heard, who kept the people under arms all night, their apprehensions of the Negroes not being groundless; for many of them having lived a long time in this piratical way,
