“It was lucky he did so, for the ship, thoroughly unseaworthy, barely succeeded in reaching Madagascar before she foundered. Here some of the men settled down and took service with the native chiefs while others, in time, reached home.
“In the meantime, Townley had also left Swan and had set out to rejoin his erstwhile French allies, with whom he took vast treasure at Quibo, Grenada and Lavelia, although Townley lost his life at the last place.
“The Bachelors’ Delight continued to cruise up and down the coast of Peru for the next two years, sacking many towns, seizing innumerable ships and accumulating vast plunder, which Davis is reputed to have hidden on the Galápagos Islands.
“But the Dons were becoming heartily sick of the nuisance of the English pirates, and early in 1687, sent a powerful fleet to destroy them. A terrific battle resulted, a running fight being kept up for seven days, and, though many of the pirates were killed, the ship managed to escape. The buccaneers, however, had had a wholesome lesson, and when, a few days later, they again [[181]]met Townley’s men they decided to revenge themselves for their loss by one last raid. This fell on Guayaquil, which was taken and sacked, and then, realizing even the South Sea was becoming too hot for them, the pirates refitted at the Galápagos and sailed around Cape Horn to the Virgin Islands, where they arrived in 1688, after five years of pirating in the Pacific.”
“Gosh, I never knew before that there were buccaneers in the Philippines and Madagascar and all those places,” said Jack. “Say, they went all over the world, didn’t they?”
“You forget,” his father reminded him, “that they were no longer buccaneers in the true sense of the word. They had degenerated to common pirates and attacked any ship they met, except British, and they were not by any means overpunctilious in that respect. Early in the eighteenth century,—soon after the Cygnet’s wreck, in fact?—Madagascar became a favorite pirates’ lair and they even set up an independent kingdom, or rather republic, there. Had they possessed a leader such as Morgan, Mansvelt or Sharp, no doubt they would have maintained a colony which might have established British dominion over a vast area, but they were always quarreling among [[182]]themselves and never succeeded in anything for long.”
“But what became of them all?” asked Fred. “They never seemed to get killed off or hung.”
“Some settled down in the West Indies, others in England or Europe and others in the American colonies, and led respectable lives under fictitious names among people who never suspected who they were. At times, though, they were recognized, brought to trial or hung or managed to slip away and find new homes. Many a well-to-do planter in the West Indies; many a wealthy merchant and shipowner in the New England colonies, made the beginnings of his fortune by pirating. And many of them, of whom the world never hears, led most romantic and adventurous lives. For example, there was Red Legs. He was a most picturesque character—not a pirate by choice, but by force of circumstances, and I’m happy to say that he eventually became a highly respected and charitable man. Indeed, I have actually stopped in the house he built and occupied after he gave up piracy.”
“Oh, do tell about him!” cried Jack. “Gee—that’s a great name—Red Legs! I’ll bet he was a peach of a pirate.” [[183]]
“He was,” asserted Mr. Bickford, with a smile. “But I must pass over his career very briefly, for there were many other interesting buccaneers and pirates I have not mentioned as yet.