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HOWARD THE BUCCANEER
A Captain of Many Ships
In the days when high-sterned galleons sailed the Spanish Main, keellessand lofty, and helpless in the wind's eye; when all the sailors woretheir tarry queues and ear-rings; when "Down along the coast of the highBarbaree" there was no law but that of the Moorish buccaneer, a youngman in the peaceful British hamlet of Barwich reached the age oftwenty-one.
Thomas Howard was a youth of promise and capacity. He was handsome,burly, popular, and generous, and always ready for any adventure. Hisfather, a gentleman of rank and estate, was dead, but his doting motherlavished upon him an affection as blind as it was deep, supplied himwith an excess of pocket-money, and left no wish of his ungratified. Theresult is readily imagined. His old amiability deserted him, and he sankinto a savage discontent that found expression in numerous acts ofroguery and violence.
As he grew worse and worse, an old friend of his father's persuaded himto seek employment upon the seas, and purchased him a berth asmidshipman on a trading-craft bound from Liverpool to the West Indies.
A few months of sea discipline shattered young Howard's patience, andupon his arrival at Jamaica he promptly deserted his ship.
He had still a few pounds left of his fortune, and with these hepurchased admittance to the society of a gang of ruffians who frequentedthe beaches. One night, with some of these, he stole a canoe and went tothe Grand Camanas to join a party of others of their ilk who lurkedthereabouts with the design of going "on the account."
They soon fell in with those whom they sought, and, as the party nownumbered twenty, they deemed themselves strong enough to set to theirwork, and accordingly began their preparations. At a council held thenight when this decision was reached, the question of the election ofofficers came up; the men seemed about evenly divided in their choice ofa captain between Howard and a tall islander named James. The latter wasfinally elected by a vote of ten to eight, while Howard was chosenquartermaster.
Their first need was a boat; in the offing at anchor lay a turtle-sloopwith two small swivels mounted fore and aft. She was the very craft fortheir purpose, but how were they to get her?
Close inshore on the other side of an estuary a mile wide Howardremembered seeing a large canoe moored in the light of a patrol'scamp-fire. He and two others swam over to her, cut her line with theirsheath-knives, and brought her away without discovery.
The robbers then boarded her, and, with two men forward and two afthandling the paddles, the rest concealed behind the high bulwarks,stole out silently towards the turtle-vessel. The nature of their craftwas not perceived until they were alongside their victim, when, with ayell, they burst from their concealment and made their capture withoutlosing a man. They then started out for booty, but for a long time theironly prizes were turtlers, which supplied them with men withoutincreasing their wealth. After about two weeks they met an Irishbrigantine with provisions and servants for the Governor of Jamaica.They laid her aboard, captured her without resistance, forced her men,and made off with her, leaving her master the old turtle-sloop and fivemen to bring him to port. Not long after this they surprised a sloop ofsix guns, and finding her larger, faster, and sounder than thebrigantine, they shifted to her with their belongings. This was thethird time within two months that they had changed their vessel, butstill the game of "Progressive Piracy" went on. Off the coast ofVirginia they fell in with a large New England brigantine laden withprovisions and bound for Barbadoes. They made a prize of her, andshifting their own guns aboard of her, found themselves in a fine vesselof ten guns well equipped for a long voyage.
While on the coast of Virginia in this ship they took several Englishvessels, from which they got men, arms, provisions, clothes, and othernecessaries. As most of these ships had on board felons for the Virginiacolonies, they took from them a number of volunteers besides theirforced men, and they soon acquired so large a complement that they hadno hesitation in ranging up to and boarding a Virginia galley ofsuperior size and twenty-four guns. They got a number of convictvolunteers from her, transferred their stores to her, and set out tosweep the seas in earnest. They steered for the Guinea coast, that Meccaof pirates, and made many captures, which not only enriched them butincreased their complement. After they had been for some months on thisground they spied a large Portuguese ship from Brazil, whose thirty-sixguns did not frighten them from the attack.
As they hoisted the black flag the Brazilian Captain became overpoweredwith fear, commanded the quartermaster to strike, and sought safety forhimself in the hold. His mate, however, a New-Englander, refused tosurrender, and kept off the pirates for the better part of theafternoon. His resistance was strong and well sustained, but thePortuguese finally fled from the deck, leaving him with only thirtymen--English, French, and Dutch--and he was obliged to ask for quarter.The pirates then went down the coast in their newly acquired ship andmade several prizes, some of which they burned and some of which theysank. As they now mustered nearly two hundred men, the only ones thatthey forced from captured crews were carpenters, calkers, and surgeons,whose services they needed greatly.
Off the Cape of Good Hope they took two Spanish brigantines, in whosecompany they proceeded, until they ran the _Alexander_ ashore on a smallisland north of Madagascar, where she stuck fast.
The Captain being sick in bed, the men went ashore on the island andcarried off provisions and water to lighten the ship, on board of whichnone but the Captain, the quartermaster (Howard), and all others wereleft.
This was too good a chance for the exercise of Howard's love oftreachery. He brought the faster of the two brigantines alongside,tumbled all the treasure into her, scuttled the other, and made off withtwenty men and two hundred thousand pounds, leaving the rest of hisshipmates to shake their impotent fists and roar maledictions after hisdiminishing sail.
After rounding the Cape, Howard and his fellows went into a fine harboron the east side of Madagascar hardly known to European vessels. Herethey buried most of the treasure, and for a short time enjoyed theluxury of shore life. Wood and water were abundant, game plentiful, andthe waters swarmed with edible fish.
It was pleasant to the pirate, after his long trick afloat, to lie onthe yellow sands under the shade of palm and mango and tamarind treesand see the slow surf breaking gently on the beach. In his nostrils wasthe odor of orange and spice; golden sunbirds and crimson cockatoosnested above him, gaudy butterflies floated about him, and in theshallow waters of the still lagoons were long-legged curlew, busykingfishers, and wild duck with tenderly shaded plumes. Behind him thetropical jungles blazed gloriously with trees of blooming scarlet andflaring yellow, about which twined gorgeous creepers of dark purple, andfrom whose leafy depths came the chattering of monkeys and thetwittering of innumerable birds. Far off he could hear the smotheredthunder of lofty falls, near at hand the plashing of rivulets, andseaward the deep voice of the Indian Ocean. The Malagasy women broughthim cooling fruits from the mountains, the hunters came back laden withthe flesh of wild cattle and pigs and great, feathery bunches ofwaterfowl, and the native king sent down to him rice and bananas, maizeand manioc, from the rich store of his harvest.
After but a month of this happy shore life they set sail, and runningdown the coast of Africa met the English ship _Prosperous_, which theycaptured by a night attack. The _Prosperous_ was a large, well-foundship of sixteen guns, and well suited to Howard's purpose, so hetransferred his crew and stores to her and sailed to Maritan. They foundthere a number of shipwrecked pirates, who, with some of the_Prosperous's_ crew, took on with them, and increased their complementto seventy men.
They next steered for St. Mary's, where they wooded, watered, andshipped more hands. Here they had an invitation from one Ort van Tyle, asturdy Dutch trader of social ambition, to attend the christening of twoof his children. He received them with hospitality and civility, butthey had no sooner entered his house than they began to plunder it, andVan Tyle protesting, they took him prisoner, a
nd designed to hang him,but one of the pirates aided him to escape and he took to the woods.Here he met some of his black; he armed them, and formed an ambush on ascrubby island where the river channel was narrow. The pirates camedown in their canoe and Howard's pinnace, laughing and shouting,bringing with them the booty of the looted house and some captives, whomthey set at the paddles. The canoe was overturned in the rapids just asthey came abreast of the ambush, and the captives swam ashore andescaped, while the pirates clung to the sides of Howard's boat. As theydrifted by, Van Tyle let drive at them, and in a shower of musket-balls,arrows, and assagais the helpless pirates were swept back to theirships, dismally howling with rage and mortification. In this affair twoof Howard's men were killed, while he was shot through the arm, and twoothers were seriously wounded.
THE HELPLESS PIRATES WERE SWEPT BACK]
He then sailed to Mathelage, where he designed to victual for aWest-Indian cruise, but he found there a large Dutch merchantman offorty guns, whose captain curtly told Howard to get out or he'd fallfoul of him. Howard's recent experience with Dutchmen had beenunpleasant, so, as his vessel was not strong enough to cope with theAmsterdamer, he made sail for Mayotta, and passed down the bay amid avolley of gibes, jeers, and ingenious Dutch profanity. On his way toMayotta he fell in with Captain Bowen, of the pirate ship _SpeedyReturn_, of thirty guns, and communicated to him the contumely to whicha "Gentleman of the Seas" had been subjected. Bowen promised to avengethe insult to their honorable craft, and accordingly anchored in thedusk of the next evening within hail of the irascible burgher. The_Speedy Return_ was a small ship for her armament and crew, and this,with her suspicious appearance, determined the Dutchman once more toexhibit the bold front that he could assume when there seemed to be nodanger in it. Accordingly he went to the rail and bawled over the quietwaters, "Vot sheep is dot, and vy for you don'd git oud to onced?"
"This is his Majesty's cruiser _Haystack_," came the unruffled response,in Bowen's clear voice. "She has three decks and no bottom, and sailsfour miles to leeward and one ahead. Want to race?"
"Vot sheep is dot, and none of your tomfoolishness?" roared the Teuton,purple with rage.
"This is the _Flying Dutchman_, Captain Vanderdecken, and the crew's allghosts," replied the pirate, in high glee. "Come aboard and cheer up ourspirits."
This was too much. The Dutchman mounted the rail and shrieked, hoarsely,"I now asks you der last time for, vot sheep you is, vere you vrom, andvot you to do goin' about to be?"
"This is the ship _Speedy Return_," sang out Bowen, "_from the seas_,and I'm goin' to fire a salute."
The pirate then gave the word, and his ship roared out a broadside thatshivered the Dutchman's rail, smashed his boats, and carried away hisspanker-boom. The merchantman waited no longer, but slipped his cableand made off to sea, leaving the greater part of his cargo ashore, whereit was promptly gathered in by the thrifty buccaneers.
Bowen now made sail for Mayotta, where he joined the _Prosperous_, andthe two ships sailed together for the East Indies. After some successesthere they returned by separate routes to Madagascar, for the purpose ofrevictualling and refitting, agreeing to meet again at St. John's andlie in wait for the Moorish fleet. They did this, and one of the Moorsfell a prize to Bowen, but Howard did not come up with them till theywere anchored at the bay of Surat, where they waited to lighten.
Howard came up among them slowly, under shortened sail, and as heconcealed his men and kept his ports closed, they took him for anEnglish East-Indiaman and suffered him to approach. Howard suddenlyattacked the largest vessel, and after a desperate fight, in which helost thirty men, carried her by boarding.
On this vessel was a nobleman belonging to the court of the Great Mogul.The prize itself was immensely valuable, and the nobleman's ransomamounted to twenty thousand pounds, so by this time Howard's fortune waswell assured. He then ran down to Malabar, where he met Bowen and hisprize, a fine, stout ship of sixty guns. The two captains with theirquartermasters held a consultation (on the night of their meeting) inthe cabin of the _Speedy Return_, and their future plans were decidedupon over a rich banquet provided from the stores of the prizes.
The _Prosperous_ they sank and the _Speedy Return_ they burned, and inBowen's prize they continued their depredations, the two crews beingjoined together. This made Howard's ninth change of vessels since he hadtaken to piracy.
As they cruised down the coast of Madagascar they came in sight ofHoward's old haven, where he had buried his treasure. He became seizedwith a desire for shore life, and with those of his men who had livedthere before with him, and with their share of the recent booty, he wentback to his old stamping-ground to settle down. He was received withopen arms by his old friends among the natives; he married a Malagasywoman, and for a long time lived quietly and peaceably, shooting,fishing, watching his herds, and cultivating his fields.
A missionary who was shipwrecked on the coast about a year afterHoward's return worked on the pirate's soft heart so successfully thatbefore being taken home on a trading-vessel that put in for water he hadbrought the gallant buccaneer into the close folds of the Roman CatholicChurch and to a full realization of his unusually sinful state. Afterthe missionary's departure Howard missed the theological discourse anddispute that had whiled away many a tropic twilight, and he knew notwhere to turn for an outlet of his intellectual activities. Finally thebright idea struck him that it would be both pleasing and beneficial toevangelize the natives. In a fit of religious enthusiasm he proceeded tothis work with his usual prodigal hand. Unfortunately for himself, heused a club in the process, and this, coupled with his brutal treatmentof his wife, made him unpopular among the Malagasy.
One night the docile aborigines fell upon him while he was asleep in hishammock, and left mementos of their presence in the shape ofthirty-seven assagais stuck decoratively in various parts of his body.When found he was very dead, and thus terminated the earthly career of atreacherous and unworthy ruffian, whose only claims to our considerationwere his good seamanship and Anglo-Saxon pluck.