FOOTNOTES
[167] Johnson, History of the Pirates, London, 1726.
[168] Rev. Cotton Mather, Vial poured upon the Sea, Boston, 1726.
CHAPTER XIX
Pirate Haunts and Cruising Grounds
The pirates who frequented the New England coast during the first century after the settlement usually remained in the warm waters of the West Indies during the winter months. With the coming of spring they cruised northward along the coast capturing small vessels in the hope of obtaining provisions and looting larger craft bound to and from England or the Leeward Islands. During the seventeenth century there was considerable piratical barter with the settlements along the Carolina coast and when New England was reached, on the northerly voyage, the eastern end of Long Island and the islands off the mouth of Buzzard’s Bay were much frequented for fresh water and trade. The Sound off Martha’s Vineyard was used by coasting vessels bound for New York or Virginia and here the pirates could lie in wait with the certainty of making some capture. But not for long as ill news traveled swiftly even in those days and armed vessels from Boston were usually sent out in pursuit, though seldom making a capture, for the pirate captain skilled in his trade was constantly on the move and thereby eluded successful attack by a stronger force.
The inefficiency of the men-of-war on the various stations in the early days is commented upon by contemporary writers. Because of the difficulty of reckoning longitude it was customary at that time for vessels sailing from Europe bound for the West Indies or the American coast, to steer into the latitude of the port for which they were bound and then sail westward without altering their course. An early example of this practice is the course of Winthrop’s fleet when sailing westward to found the settlement in Massachusetts Bay. After leaving the Scilly Isles they came down to the latitude of Agamenticus, on the Maine coast, and then sailed westward until they reached the Gulf Stream. It was this “west-way” that the pirates frequented and a merchant ship eluding one might be taken by another. This custom was well-known and if the stolid men-of-war captains had taken the same track followed by the pirates, captures must have followed. Of a certainty the pirates would have been driven to other less-frequented hunting grounds or forced to take refuge in some of their lurking holes among the many uninhabited islands in the West Indies, there to be systematically hunted down and destroyed. It seems strange that a few pirates could range the seas for years and be engaged but rarely by men-of-war. Captain Lowther made thirty-three captures in seventeen months; Captain Low took one hundred and forty vessels in twenty months; Francis Farrington Spriggs took forty in twelve months; John Phillips, thirty-four in eight months; and greatest of all, Captain Bartholomew Roberts took four hundred vessels in three years.
To return to the islands off Buzzard’s Bay. From there the pirates either steered southerly or sailed directly for Cape Sable then much frequented by fishing vessels which often were sufferers at the hands of Low, Lowther, Phillips, and others. From there a course was usually made for Newfoundland which had long been good plundering ground. It also was a good place at which to obtain recruits for pirate crews, for the West Country fishing vessels each year brought over a considerable number of poor fellows engaged at low wages, who, by their contracts, must pay for the return passage. Fishing, splitting and drying fish was hard labor and as the nights were chill, “black strap” was in great demand. This was a villainous combination of rum, molasses and chowder beer and before the season was over it usually caused many to “outrun the Constable” and compelled them to agree to articles of servitude that kept them on the Island during the winter. After the fishing vessels returned home the masters in charge of the stations saw to it that food and clothing supplied to the needy men were charged at high prices so that the men would soon find themselves bound for the next season’s labor and so the merry round continued. This made men willing converts to the Articles signed on board pirate vessels or caused them to run away with shallops and boats and begin piratical exploits on their own account.
From Newfoundland, the pirate captains usually took advantage of the westerly winds and made the long voyage to the Azores, which was good plundering ground. Sometimes they sailed south to the Cape Verde islands and then to Sierre Leone and the Guinea coast. The Sierre Leone river has a large mouth with small bays on one side very convenient for cleaning and watering vessels and for some years it was a favorite resort for pirates especially as the English traders located there were friendly to them. About 1720, when this coast was most frequented by pirates, there were about thirty of these traders nearly all of whom had at some time in their lives engaged in privateering, buccaneering, or piracy. The river also was resorted to by Bristol ships trading for slaves and elephants’ ivory, and the ships of the Royal African Company sailed past here regularly, richly laden with merchandize, ivory and gold dust.
There was a great clean-up of pirates on this coast in 1722 when Bartholomew Roberts’ ships were taken by the “Swallow,” man-of-war, and fifty-five pirates were hanged and twenty condemned for seven years to work in chains in the gold mines. Some died in “the Hole,” at Cape Coast and many more were sent to London for trial and exhibition on gibbets at Cuckold’s Point, on the Thames. It was a fatal blow to piracy on the Guinea Coast.
From the Cape Verde islands the pirate captains would sail westerly, taking advantage of the trade winds, and after making the coast of Brazil and taking toll of Portuguese shipping, would cruise northerly until the West Indies were reached and here the winter months would be spent.
CAPTAIN BARTHOLOMEW ROBERTS
From an engraving in Johnson’s “General History of the Pirates,” London, 1725
The West Indies possessed many advantages as a pirate stronghold and were resorted to by freebooters of many nations. The small, uninhabited islands and keys supplied harbors convenient for careening vessels and many of them abounded with fish and game. Sea turtles in great numbers furnished meat, and edible fruits of many kinds grew everywhere. The turtles frequented the small, sandy keys and their eggs were a common food not only among the pirates but on the larger inhabited islands where turtling was a recognized industry. Moreover, it was comparatively easy to escape from pursuit among the numerous small inlets, lagoons and harbors.
Because of the growth of the sugar-cane plantations a considerable commerce had developed and in the vicinity of the Trading islands the pirates were certain to find vessels laden with provisions, clothing, naval stores and money, large sums of which were sent home to Europe, the returns of the Assiento and private slave trade. The rich mines on the mainland also paid tribute.
Piracy frequently began in the West Indies when desperate men got to the end of their rope in making an honest living. Then they would set out in the long boat of a ship or even in a large sailing canoe and exchange successive prizes, if successful, until after a time they would be in possession of a large ship, often a former man-of-war, and ready for foreign expeditions. The logwood cutters in the Bay of Honduras and the vessels that went there to load with the dyewood, supplied good material for piratical ventures. The cutters were generally a rough, drunken crew, some of them having been pirates at different times and most of them sailors. It was here that Capt. Ned Low of Boston, began his career as a pirate.
“In the dry time of the year the Logwood Cutters search for a good Number of Logwood Trees: and then build a Hut near them where they live during the Time they are cutting. When they have cut down the Tree, they Log it, and Chip it, which is cutting off the Bark and Sap, and then lay it in Heaps, cutting away the Under-wood, and making Paths to each Heap, so that when the Rains come on, which overflows the Ground, it serves as so many Creeks or Channels, where they go with small Canows or Dories and load ’em, which they bring to a Creek-side and there lade their Canows, and carry it to the Barcadares, which they sometime fetch Thirty Miles, from whence the People who buy it fetch it.”[169]
Capt. Nathaniel Uring writes that he went into the Bay of Campeachy in an English ship in July, 1712, to load logwood. When he arrived he anchored off shore and “fired several Guns, to give Notice to the Logwood Cutters (who were up in the Lagunes) of our arrival: and in a Day or Two, several White Men came on board to us.... I sold Provisions and Liquor to several of the Bay Men for Wood, which cost us about Forty Shillings per Ton, prime cost, at Jamaica.... I remained here more than a month before any Vessels arrived; during which Time my People were fetching down the Logwood out of the Lagunes in Canows, and went more than Thirty Miles for some of it.”
The rise or rather increase of piracy in the West Indies after the Peace of Utrecht, can be laid at the door of the Spanish settlements, the governors of which having gone there to make a fortune generally countenanced any proceeding that brought in profit. It is fair to say, however, that the Spanish governors were not the only ones accused of such practices. They granted commissions to great numbers of guarda costas, under pretence of preventing an interloping trade, with orders to seize all vessels within five leagues of their coasts. English ships could not well avoid coming within this limit when on their way to Jamaica. If the captains of Spanish guarda costas exceeded their authority, the sufferers were allowed legal redress, but usually found after long litigation that their vessels and cargoes had been condemned among the crew, and the captain, the only one responsible, had nothing on which to levy.
The frequent losses of the English merchants by these Spanish guarda costas was provocation enough to call forth reprisals and the opportunity offering in 1716, the West India traders at once made use of it. In 1714, several of the Spanish galleons of “the plate fleet,” were cast away in the Gulf of Florida; and in 1716 several vessels from Havana were at work with diving engines fishing up the silver. They had recovered several millions of “pieces of eight” and carried them to Havana and had taken up 350,000 pieces more, which were placed in a storehouse on shore under guard of sixty soldiers, when an English fleet from Jamaica and Barbadoes, consisting of two ships and three sloops under Capt. Henry Jennings, came upon them. Jennings landed three hundred men, drove away the guard and carried off the treasure to Jamaica. On the way he met a Spanish ship laden with cochineal, indigo and 60,000 “pieces of eight,” and his hand being in, she was plundered, after which he sailed boldly back to Jamaica with the Spaniard following him. The Governor at Havana soon sent a vessel to Jamaica to demand restitution and punishment for Jennings. As it was in a time of peace, Jennings and his men soon realized that they would not be left unpunished let alone protected. Having disposed of their cargo to good advantage and furnished themselves with ammunition, provisions, &c., they again put to sea, but this time as full-fledged pirates, robbing not only Spaniards but Englishmen and any one else they could lay their hands on.
About the same time three or four small “Spanish men of war” fell upon the logwood cutters in the bays of Campeachy and Honduras, and also took twenty-two vessels, about half of the number hailing from New England, and most of the crews of these vessels, made desperate by their misfortunes, took on with the pirates under Captain Jennings, whom they met soon after. Captain Jennings and his consorts, augmented by “the Bay men,” consulted together about some retreat where they might store their wealth, clean and repair their ships and make themselves a snug abode and fixed upon New Providence the largest of the Bahama islands. The Bahamas for some years had been under English control with a nominal governor, but were much resorted to by pirates who were hand and glove with the principal traders. When Captain Jennings arrived with his fleet it became a veritable pirate stronghold and a breeding place for most of the pirate leaders who ranged the seas during the next five or six years.
Complaints soon reached London and in such number that on Sept. 15, 1716, Capt. Woods Rogers was placed in command of a fleet of sixteen men-of-war and tenders and ordered to proceed to New Providence and receive the submission of the pirates or suppress them by force. Captain Rogers not long before had made a voyage around the world in the course of which he had taken a Spanish ship bound for Acapulco laden with the wealth of the Philippines. Before he sailed for New Providence, the King’s Proclamation for suppressing pirates, or “Act of Grace,” as it was usually called, was sent ahead so that ample opportunity might be had for consideration and submission. On its arrival at the Island a general council of the pirate commonwealth was called. What took place is described in Johnson’s “History of the Pirates,” in the following language, viz:—
“There was so much Noise and Clamour, 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 Punctillios, 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 Commadore, and who always bore a great Sway among them, being a Man of good Understanding, and a good Estate, before this Whim took him of going a Pyrating, 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 any Thing; and presently Jennings, and by his Example, about 150 more, came in to the Governor of Bermudas, and had their Certificates, tho’ the greatest Part of them returned again, like the Dog to the Vomit. The Commanders who were then in the Island, besides Captain Jennings above mentioned, I think were these, Benjamin Hornigold, Edward Teach, John Martel, James Fife, Christopher Winter, Nicholas Brown, Paul Williams, [consort to] Charles Bellamy [lost on the back of Cape Cod, with 142 of his crew and prisoners, Apr. 26, 1717], Oliver la Bouche, Major Penner, Edward England, T. Burgess, Thomas Cocklyn, R. Sample, Charles Vane, and two or three others; Hornygold, William Burgess and LaBouche were afterwards cast away; Teach and Penner killed, and their Crews taken; James Fife killed by his own Men; Martel’s Crew destroyed and forced on an unhabited Island; Cocklyn, Sample and Vane hanged; Winter and Brown surrendered to the Spaniards at Cuba, and England lives now [1724] at Madagascar.”
Captain Rogers arrived at New Providence in June, 1717, with two men-of-war and found that all the pirates had surrendered to the pardon, except Charles Vane and his crew, who slipped their cable, set fire to a large prize and sailed out of the harbor firing at the men-of-war as they went off.
In the latter part of the seventeenth century some of the richest commerce in the world was on the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea. The Orientals owned much shipping and the overland trade with Europe was increasing rapidly. The English East India Company had established a number of important factories or trading stations and Portuguese merchants had been established for some time at Goa, on the Malabar coast. Finding that the game in the West Indies promised smaller returns than the commerce of the East, many of the pirate fraternity established themselves for a time on the island of Perim at the entrance to the Strait of Babelmandeb. Here there was an excellent harbor and the advantageous location permitted the levying of toll on all vessels passing in and out of the Red Sea. The great disadvantage was a lack of fresh water. Slaves were employed to excavate the rocky formation to a great depth, but without success, and at last the nest was abandoned and the pirate settlement removed to Madagascar. This is said to have taken place not long after Captain Avery captured a daughter of the Great Mogul of India, in a richly laden ship.
Capt. John Avery, one of the greatest of the Madagascar pirates, was the son of a tavern keeper of Plymouth, England, and was variously known as Avery, Every and Bridgman, while his intimates spoke of him as “Long Ben.” He was looting shipping on the Atlantic as early as 1693, when he took two heavily armed Danish vessels at Princess Island, on the West Coast of Africa, and he is said to have been in the West Indies before that time. During the winter of 1693-4, while in command of the “Fanny,” of forty-six guns and one hundred and thirty men, he made his most famous capture, a ship carrying a daughter of the Great Mogul on a pilgrimage to Mecca. Other vessels in his pirate fleet were the “Dolphin,” Captain Want, of Philadelphia; the “Portsmouth Adventure,” Captain Faro, and the “Pearl,” Capt. William Mues, both hailing from Newport, R. I.; and the ship “Amity,” of New York, commanded by the notorious Capt. Thomas Tew,[170] who eventually lost his life by a cannon ball while cruising in the Red Sea.
CAPTAIN JOHN AVERY TAKING THE GREAT MOGUL’S SHIP
From a rare engraving in the Harry Elkins Widener Collection, Harvard College Library
The booty on the Mogul’s ship was immense and consisted of diamonds, pearls and valuable jewels and also great sums of money intended to meet the cost of the pilgrimage, an amount said to have been over £325,000. Not content with this, Avery ravished the young princess and eventually took her in his ship to Madagascar where he had a child by her. When the Great Mogul learned what had happened, it aroused a fanatical resentment against the English factories that was only appeased by the promise of the governor to send out two ships of the East India Company to convey the pilgrims to Jedda.
Meanwhile, large rewards for his capture were offered by the British Government and Avery abandoned the Perim rendezvous and effected a settlement on Madagascar where he built a strong fortification and organized a rude form of government that exacted a tenth of the value of all captures and required tribute from the native princes on the island. This tribute commonly took the form of their daughters and other young girls who were added to the harems of the pirates. Many slaves were employed in cultivating rice, fishing and hunting and for a time a powerful settlement existed that was resorted to by pirates from all parts of the world. When Capt. Woods Rogers went to Madagascar in the “Delicia,” in 1722, to buy slaves to sell to the Dutch at Batavia, he touched at a part of the island where he met some of the pirates who had been living there for more than twenty-five years and were surrounded by a motley collection of children and grandchildren.
Avery ruled his little kingdom for a time but at last wearying of it, planned with some chosen spirits to make his way to America. While cruising with other vessels, one night his ship steered another course and in the morning the others were no longer in sight. The first land they made was the island of Providence, one of the Bahamas, where the ship was sold[171] and in a sloop they touched at several American ports at each of which some of the company disappeared. Avery intended to settle in Boston but finding that Puritan town no safe market for the display or sale of his store of diamonds, he sailed for Ireland and eventually reached Bideford in Devonshire, where he changed his name and lived quietly.[172] Through a friend he delivered his ill-gotten fortune to Bristol merchants to be converted into money. Needing funds he applied for an accounting and was shocked to discover that there were as good pirates on land as he had been at sea. He died June 10, 1714 not leaving money enough to buy a coffin.
While the founding of a pirate colony on the island of Madagascar is generally credited to Avery and other pirate captains of his time it is likely that at some earlier date a base had been established there by buccaneers from the west coast of South America who, after looting the wealth of Peru and Mexico, came in search of a hiding place at which to enjoy their gains. The first rendezvous of the pirates was in Masseledge Bay on the northwest coast of Madagascar, but later an important settlement grew up on the island of St. Mary, or Nosy Boraha, on the east coast, about three leagues from the mainland, which for some time was the resort of Avery and Plantain, the celebrated Jamaica pirate. Here came Burgess, Clayton, Taylor, Congdon, England and other successful leaders. The island stronghold was established, it is said, by Mission and Carracioli, who named it Libertatia. It was fortified and from here marauding expeditions were fitted out on a large scale. Pirates gorged with plunder settled on plantations where they surrounded themselves with native “wives” and slaves. The native tribes brought down their cattle from the interior and exchanged them for European trinkets provided by the pirates, who also incited the numerous chiefs to war with their neighbors and then bought their prisoners of war to be sold to slavers and taken to the plantations in the West Indies and America.
The pirate settlements on the Madagascar coast increased in population and required various goods and supplies necessary not only for human comfort but also to continue the trade of plundering,—powder and shot and the like. This demand was supplied by vessels sailing at somewhat regular intervals from New York, Newport and Philadelphia and furnished with passes from Governor Fletcher of New York or some other person in authority. It was said in London that in Philadelphia they “not onlie wink att but Imbrace pirats, Shipps and men.”[173] In 1697 many returned pirates were living in Philadelphia and Governor Basse of New Jersey reported that colony to be a favorite resort for such gentry. The daughter of William Penn’s agent in Pennsylvania is said to have married one of these retired freebooters.[174] In 1699, Bellomont, the new governor of New York, reported that over forty of these returned pirates were in custody in New York, Pennsylvania and Connecticut.
But the ships continued to clear from the port of New York bound for Madagascar. In the year 1699, four vessels were cleared at one time. The merchandise brought back so glutted the markets that some kinds of European and Oriental goods could be bought in the Colonies cheaper than in London; and this was at a time when all European goods, by law, must be imported through London. One of Captain Avery’s men testified in Admiralty Court that “Captain Gough, who keeps a mercer’s shop at Boston, made a good estate” dealing in piratical plunder.
Rev. John Higginson, the minister at Salem, Massachusetts, had a son Thomas, who sailed for Arabia in a privateer before 1696 and nothing was heard from him afterward. Another son was in command at Fort George, in Madras, and in 1699 he wrote that Thomas’ “unhappy miscarriage” had troubled him much. Although he had met several who had been taken by pirates and afterwards escaped he could learn nothing of the erring Thomas. Four men-of-war had recently arrived in India having touched at Madagascar on the way out, but met no pirate vessels. The Salem minister replied in October, 1699:—
“I am sorry to hear there is such a crew of pirates in your parts; and do doubt not that what you intimate of New York, Providence, and the West Indies is too true. Frederick Phillips of New York, it is reported, has had a pirate trade to Madagascar for near twenty years, and it is said has attained an estate of 100,000 pounds. But I assure you the government of this place has always been severe with all such; and, at this time, there are many now in our gaol for piracy; namely, Captain Kidd, who went from England with a ship and commission to take pirates, but turned pirate himself, and robbed many ships in the East Indies, and thence came into the West Indies, and there disposed of much of his wealth; and at last came into these parts with some of his stolen goods; who was here seized, and some of his men, and goods, who are in irons, and wait for a trial. And there was one Bradish, a Cambridge man, who sailed in an interloper bound for India, who, in some part of the East Indies, took an opportunity, when the Captain and some of the officers were on shore, to run away with the ship, and came upon our coast, and sunk their ship at Block Island, and brought much wealth ashore with them; but Bradish, and many of his company, and what of his wealth could be found, were seized and secured. But Bradish, and one of his men, broke prison and run away amongst the Indians; but it is supposed that he will be taken again.”[175]
CAPTAIN EDWARD TEACH, COMMONLY CALLED “BLACK BEARD”
From a rare engraving in the Harry Elkins Widener Collection, Harvard College Library
After a time the pirate colonies at Madagascar diminished in importance and most of the men abandoned the sea and lived at ease on their plantations. In 1716, one of the pirate settlements was visited by an Englishman, Robert Drury,[176] who wrote as follows:—
“One of these men was a Dutchman, named John Pro, who spoke good English. He was dressed in a short coat with broad, plate buttons, and other things agreeable, but without shoes or stockings. In his sash stuck a brace of pistols, and he had one in his right hand. The other man was dressed in an English manner, with two pistols in his sash and one in his hand, like his companion.... John Pro lived in a very handsome manner. His house was furnished with pewter dishes, &c., a standing bed with curtains, and other things of that nature except chairs, but a chest or two served for that purpose well enough. He had one house on purpose for his cook-room and cook-slave’s lodging, storehouse and summer-house; all these were enclosed in a palisade, as the great men’s houses are in this country, for he was rich, and had many castles and slaves. His wealth had come principally while cruizing among the Moors, from whom his ship had several times taken great riches, and used to carry it to St. Mary’s. But their ship growing old and crazy, they being also vastly rich, they removed to Madagascar, made one Thomas Collins, a carpenter, their Governor, and built a small fort, defending it with their ship’s guns. They had now lived without pirating for nine years.”
In the summer of 1719 there were about twenty white pirates living permanently on the island of St. Mary’s. Others continued to sail out from the harbor but the vigilance of the English Admiralty and the strength and watchfulness of the ships of the East India Company served to discourage freebooting in those parts and in 1721 when France granted an amnesty a number of them surrendered and became colonists on the island of Bourbon. The last of the pirates on St. Mary’s were routed out by men-of-war during the winter of 1722-23. Others lived and died on the mainland of Madagascar and left behind them numerous descendants, for in 1768 the Abbe Rochon visited that part of the island north of St. Mary’s and observed many whites and half-breeds living about the Bay of Antongil who claimed descent from the pirates formerly settled there.