The Life, Adventures & Piracies of the Famous Captain Singleton

not?" "And how dost thouknow that?" says he, very gravely still. "Nay, that's true," says Iagain; "we cannot be sure." "Yes, friend," says he, "I think we may besure that we are running away from her, not chasing her. I am afraid,"adds he, "thou art turned Quaker, and hast resolved not to use the handof power, or art a coward, and art flying from thy enemy."

  "What do you mean?" says I (I think I swore at him). "What do you sneerat now? You have always one dry rub or another to give us."

  "Nay," says he, "it is plain enough the ship stood off to sea due east,on purpose to lose us, and thou mayest be sure her business does notlie that way; for what should she do at the coast of Africa in thislatitude, which should be as far south as Congo or Angola? But as soonas it is dark, that we would lose sight of her, she will tack and standaway west again for the Brazil coast and for the bay, where thou knowestshe was going before; and are we not, then, running away from her? Iam greatly in hopes, friend," says the dry, gibing creature, "thou wiltturn Quaker, for I see thou art not for fighting."

  "Very well, William," says I; "then I shall make an excellent pirate."However, William was in the right, and I apprehended what he meantimmediately; and Captain Wilmot, who lay very sick in his cabin,overhearing us, understood him as well as I, and called out to me thatWilliam was right, and it was our best way to change our course, andstand away for the bay, where it was ten to one but we should snap herin the morning.

  Accordingly we went about-ship, got our larboard tacks on board, set thetop-gallant sails, and crowded for the bay of All Saints, where we cameto an anchor early in the morning, just out of gunshot of the forts;we furled our sails with rope-yarns, that we might haul home the sheetswithout going up to loose them, and, lowering our main and fore-yards,looked just as if we had lain there a good while.

  In two hours afterwards we saw our game standing in for the bay with allthe sail she could make, and she came innocently into our very mouths,for we lay still till we saw her almost within gunshot, when, ourforemost gears being stretched fore and aft, we first ran up our yards,and then hauled home the topsail sheets, the rope-yarns that furled themgiving way of themselves; the sails were set in a few minutes; at thesame time slipping our cable, we came upon her before she could getunder way upon the other tack. They were so surprised that they madelittle or no resistance, but struck after the first broadside.

  We were considering what to do with her, when William came to me. "Harkthee, friend," says he, "thou hast made a fine piece of work of itnow, hast thou not, to borrow thy neighbour's ship here just at thyneighbour's door, and never ask him leave? Now, dost thou not thinkthere are some men-of-war in the port? Thou hast given them the alarmsufficiently; thou wilt have them upon thy back before night, dependupon it, to ask thee wherefore thou didst so."

  "Truly, William," said I, "for aught I know, that may be true; what,then, shall we do next?" Says he, "Thou hast but two things to do:either to go in and take all the rest, or else get thee gone before theycome out and take thee; for I see they are hoisting a topmast to yongreat ship, in order to put to sea immediately, and they won't be longbefore they come to talk with thee, and what wilt thou say to them whenthey ask thee why thou borrowedst their ship without leave?"

  As William said, so it was. We could see by our glasses they were allin a hurry, manning and fitting some sloops they had there, and a largeman-of-war, and it was plain they would soon be with us. But we werenot at a loss what to do; we found the ship we had taken was laden withnothing considerable for our purpose, except some cocoa, some sugar, andtwenty barrels of flour; the rest of her cargo was hides; so we tookout all we thought fit for our turn, and, among the rest, all herammunition, great shot, and small-arms, and turned her off. We also tooka cable and three anchors she had, which were for our purpose, and someof her sails. She had enough left just to carry her into port, and thatwas all.

  Having done this, we stood on upon the Brazil coast, southward, till wecame to the mouth of the river Janeiro. But as we had two days the windblowing hard at S.E. and S.S.E., we were obliged to come to an anchorunder a little island, and wait for a wind. In this time the Portuguesehad, it seems, given notice over land to the governor there, that apirate was upon the coast; so that, when we came in view of the port, wesaw two men-of-war riding just without the bar, whereof one, we found,was getting under sail with all possible speed, having slipped hercable on purpose to speak with us; the other was not so forward, but waspreparing to follow. In less than an hour they stood both fair after us,with all the sail they could make.

  Had not the night come on, William's words had been made good; theywould certainly have asked us the question what we did there, for wefound the foremost ship gained upon us, especially upon one tack, for weplied away from them to windward; but in the dark losing sight of them,we resolved to change our course and stand away directly for sea, notdoubting that we should lose them in the night.

  Whether the Portuguese commander guessed we would do so or no, I knownot; but in the morning, when the daylight appeared, instead of havinglost him, we found him in chase of us about a league astern; only, toour great good fortune, we could see but one of the two. However, thisone was a great ship, carried six-and-forty guns, and an admirablesailer, as appeared by her outsailing us; for our ship was an excellentsailer too, as I have said before.

  When I found this, I easily saw there was no remedy, but we must engage;and as we knew we could expect no quarter from those scoundrels thePortuguese, a nation I had an original aversion to, I let Captain Wilmotknow how it was. The captain, sick as he was, jumped up in the cabin,and would be led out upon the deck (for he was very weak) to see how itwas. "Well," says he, "we'll fight them!"

  Our men were all in good heart before, but to see the captain so brisk,who had lain ill of a calenture ten or eleven days, gave them doublecourage, and they went all hands to work to make a clear ship andbe ready. William, the Quaker, comes to me with a kind of a smile."Friend," says he, "what does yon ship follow us for?" "Why," says I,"to fight us, you may be sure." "Well," says he, "and will he come upwith us, dost thou think?" "Yes," said I, "you see she will." "Why,then, friend," says the dry wretch, "why dost thou run from her still,when thou seest she will overtake thee? Will it be better for us to beovertaken farther off than here?" "Much as one for that," says I; "why,what would you have us do?" "Do!" says he; "let us not give the poor manmore trouble than needs must; let us stay for him and hear what he hasto say to us." "He will talk to us in powder and ball," said I. "Verywell, then," says he, "if that be his country language, we must talk tohim in the same, must we not? or else how shall he understand us?" "Verywell, William," says I, "we understand you." And the captain, as ill ashe was, called to me, "William's right again," says he; "as good hereas a league farther." So he gives a word of command, "Haul up themain-sail; we'll shorten sail for him."

  Accordingly we shortened sail, and as we expected her upon our lee-side,we being then upon our starboard tack, brought eighteen of our guns tothe larboard side, resolving to give him a broadside that should warmhim. It was about half-an-hour before he came up with us, all whichtime we luffed up, that we might keep the wind of him, by which he wasobliged to run up under our lee, as we designed him; when we got himupon our quarter, we edged down, and received the fire of five or sixof his guns. By this time you may be sure all our hands were at theirquarters, so we clapped our helm hard a-weather, let go the lee-bracesof the maintop sail, and laid it a-back, and so our ship fell athwartthe Portuguese ship's hawse; then we immediately poured in ourbroadside, raking them fore and aft, and killed them a great many men.

  The Portuguese, we could see, were in the utmost confusion; and notbeing aware of our design, their ship having fresh way, ran theirbowsprit into the fore part of our main shrouds, as that they couldnot easily get clear of us, and so we lay locked after that manner. Theenemy could not bring above five or six guns, besides their small-arms,to bear upon us, while we played our whole broadside upon him.

  In the middle of the heat
of this fight, as I was very busy upon thequarter-deck, the captain calls to me, for he never stirred from us,"What the devil is friend William a-doing yonder?" says the captain;"has he any business upon, deck?" I stepped forward, and there wasfriend William, with two or three stout fellows, lashing the ship'sbowsprit fast to our mainmast, for fear they should get away from us;and every now and then he pulled a bottle out of his pocket, and gavethe men a dram to encourage them. The shot flew about his ears as thickas may be supposed in such an action, where the Portuguese, to give themtheir