The King of Pirates

me. The Story was this: One of the small Barks we had taken,went to _Guzaratte_ to get Rice, and having secur'd a Cargo, but not loadedit, ten of our Men resolv'd to attempt their Escape; and accordingly theydrest themselves like Merchant-Strangers, and bought several Sorts of Goodsthere, such as an _Englishman_, who they found there, assisted them to buy;and with their Bales, (but in them pack'd up all the rest of their Money)they went up to _Bassora_ in the Gulph of _Persia_, and so travell'd asMerchants with the Caravan to _Aleppo_, and we never heard any more ofthem, but that they went clean off with all their Cargo.

  This fill'd my Head with Schemes for my own Deliverance; but however, itwas a Year more before I attempted any Thing, and not till I found thatmany of our Men shifted off, some and some, nor did any of them miscarry;some went one Way, some another; some lost their Money, and some sav'd it;nay, some carry'd it away with them, and some left it behind them: As forme, I discover'd my Intentions to no Body, but made them all believe Iwould stay here till some of them should come and fetch me off, andpretended to make every Man that went off promise to come for me, if itever was in his Power, and gave every one of them Signals to make for me,when they came back, upon which I would certainly come off to them. At thesame Time nothing was more certain, than that I intended from the Beginningto get away from the Island, as soon as I could any Way make my Way withSafety to any Part of the World.

  It was still above two Years after this that I remain'd in the Island; norcould I, in all that Time, find any probable Means for removing my selfwith Safety.

  One of the Ways I thought to have made my Escape was this: I went to Sea ina Long-boat a fishing, (as we often did) and having a Sail to the Boat, wewere out two or three Days together; at length it came into my Thoughtsthat we might Cruise about the Island in this Long-boat, a great Way, andperhaps some Adventure might happen to us which we might make something of;so I told them I had a Mind to make a Voyage with the Long-boat to see whatwould happen.

  To this Purpose we built upon her, made a State-Room in the Middle, andclapt four Patareroes upon her Gunnel, and away we went, being sixteenstout Fellows in the Boat, not reckoning my self: Thus we ran away, as itwere, from the rest of our Crew, tho' not a Man of us knew our own Minds asto whither we were going, or upon what Design. In this Frolick we ran Southquite away to the Bay of St. _Angustine_'s, in the Latitude of 24 Degrees,where the Ships from _Europe_ often put in for Water and Provisions.

  Here we put in, not knowing well what to do next; I thought myselfdisappointed very much that we saw no _European_ Ship here, tho' afterwardsI saw my Mistake, and found that it was better for us that we were in thatPort first: We went boldly on Shore; for as to the Natives, we understoodhow to manage them well enough, knew all their Customs, and the Manner oftheir treating with Strangers as to Peace or War; their Temper, and how tooblige them, or behave if they were disoblig'd; so we went, I say, boldlyon Shore, and there we began to chaffer with them for some Provisions, suchas we wanted.

  We had not been here above two or three Days, but that, early in theMorning, the Weather thick and haizy, we heard several Guns fire at Sea; wewere not at a Loss to know what they meant, and that it was certainly some_European_ Ships coming in, and who gave the Signal to one another thatthey had made the Land, which they could easily see from the Sea, tho' we,who were also within the Bay, could not see them from the Shore: However,in a few Hours, the Weather clearing up, wet saw plainly five large Ships,three with _English_ Colours, and two with _Dutch_, standing into the Bay,and in about four or five Hours more they came to an Anchor.

  A little while after they were come to an Anchor, their Boats began to comeon Shore to the usual Watering-place to fill their Casks; and while theywere doing that, the rest of the Men look'd about them a little, as usual,tho' at first they did not stir very far from their Boats.

  I had now a nice Game to play, as any Man in the World ever had: It wasabsolutely necessary for us to speak with these Men; and yet how to speakwith them, and not have them speak with us in a Manner that we should notlike, that was the main Point: It was with a great deal of Impatience thatwe lay still one whole Day, and saw their Boats come on Shore, and go onBoard again, and we were so irresolute all the while, that we knew not whatto do; at last I told my Men, it was absolutely necessary we should speakwith them, and seeing we could not agree upon the Method how to do itfriendly and fairly, I was resolv'd to do it by Force, and that if theywould take my Advice, we would place ourselves in Ambuscade upon the Landsomewhere, that we might see them when they were on Shore, and the firstMan that straggled from the rest we would clap in upon and seize him, andthree or four of them if we could. As for our Boat, we had secur'd it in aCreek three or four Miles up the Country, where it was secure enough out oftheir Reach or Knowledge.

  With this Resolution we plac'd ourselves in two Gangs; eleven of us in onePlace, and only three of us in another, and very close we lay: The Place wechose for our Ambuscade was on the Side of a rising Ground almost a Milefrom the Watering-place, but where we could see them all come towards theShore, and see them if they did but set their Foot on Shore.

  As we understood afterwards, they had the Knowledge of our being upon theIsland, but knew not in what Part of it, and were therefore very cautiousand wary how they went on Shore, and came all very well arm'd. This gave usa new Difficulty, for in the very first Excursion that any of them madefrom the Watering-place, there was not less than twenty of them, all wellarm'd, and they pass'd by in our Sight; but as we were out of their Sightwe were all very well pleas'd with seeing them go by, and being not oblig'dto meddle with them, or show our selves.

  But we had not long lain in this Circumstance, but, by what Occasion weknew not, five of the Gentlemen Tarrs were pleas'd to be willing to go nofarther with their Companions; and thinking all safe behind them, becausethey had found no Disturbance in their going out, came back the same Way,straggling without any Guard or Regard.

  I thought now was our Time to show our selves; so taking them as they cameby the Place where we lay in Ambuscade, we plac'd ourselves just in theirWay, and as they were entring a little Thicket of Trees, we appear'd; andcalling to them in _English_, told them they were our Prisoners; that ifthey yielded, we would use them very well, but if they offer'd to resist,they should have no Quarter: One of them looking behind, as if he wouldshow us a Pair of Heels, I call'd to him, and told him, if he attempted torun for it, he was a dead Man, unless he could out-run a Musquet-Bullet;and that we would soon let him see we had more Men in our Company; and sogiving the Signal appointed, our three Men, who lay at a Distance, shew'dthemselves in the Rear.

  When they saw this, one of them, who appear'd as their Leader, but was onlythe Purser's Clerk, ask'd, Who we were they must yield to? And if we wereChristians? I told them, jestingly, We were good honest Christian Pirates,and belong'd to Captain _Avery_, (not at all letting them know that I was_Avery_ himself) and if they yielded it was enough; that we assur'd themthey should have fair Quarter and good Usage upon our Honour; but that theymust resolve immediately, or else they would be surrounded with 500 Men,and we could not answer for what they might do to them.

  They yielded presently upon this News, and deliver'd their Arms; and wecarry'd them away to our Tent, which we had built near the Place where ourBoat lay. Here I enter'd into a particular serious Discourse with themabout Captain _Avery_, for 'twas this I wanted, upon several Accounts:First, I wanted to enquire what News they had had of us in _Europe_? andthen to give them Ideas of our Numbers and Power as romantick as I could.

  They told us, that they had heard of the great Booty Captain _Avery_ hadtaken in the Bay of _Bengale_; and among the rest, a bloody Story wasrelated of _Avery_ himself, _viz._ That he ravish'd the Great Mogul'sDaughter, who was going to be marry'd to the Prince of _Pegu_; that weravish'd and forc'd all the Ladies attending her Train, and then threw theminto the Sea, or cut their Throats; and that we had gotten a Booty of tenMillions in Gold and Silver, besides an inestimable Treasure of Jewels,Diamonds,
Pearls, _&c._ but that we had committed most inhuman Barbaritieson the innocent People that fell into our Hands. They then told us, but ina broken imperfect Account, how the Great Mogul had resented it; and thathe had raised a great Army against the _English_ Factories, resolving toroot them out of his Dominions; but that the Company had appeas'd him byPresents, and by assuring him that the Men who did it, were Rebels to the_English_ Government, and that the Queen of _England_ would hang them allwhen ever they could be taken. I smil'd at that, and told them, Captain_Avery_ would give them Leave to hang him, and all his Men, when they couldtake them; but that I could assure him they were too strong to be taken;that if the Government of _England_ went about to provoke them, Captain_Avery_ would soon make those Seas too hot for the _English_, and