All the prisoners pleaded for arrest of judgment very movingly, but the court had such an abhorrence of their crime that they could not be prevailed upon to show mercy, till one of the judges, whose name was Valentine Ashplant, stood up, and taking his pipe out of his mouth, said he had something to offer to the court in behalf of one of the prisoners, and spoke to this effect: “By G——, Glasby shall not die, d——n me if he shall.” After this learned speech he sat down in his place and resumed his pipe. This motion was loudly opposed by all the rest of the judges in equivalent terms, but Ashplant, who was resolute in his opinion, made another pathetical speech in the following manner: “G—— d——n ye gentlemen, I am as good a man as the best of you; d——n my s——l if ever I turned my back to any man in my life, or ever will, by G——. Glasby is an honest fellow, notwithstanding this misfortune, and I love him, d——l d——n me if I don’t. I hope he’ll live and repent of what he has done, but d——n me if he must die, I will die along with him.” And thereupon he pulled out a pair of pistols and presented them to some of the learned judges upon the bench, who, perceiving his argument so well supported, thought it reasonable that Glasby should be acquitted; and so they all came over to his opinion, and allowed it to be law.
But all the mitigation that could be obtained for the other prisoners was that they should have the liberty of choosing any four of the whole company to be their executioners. The poor wretches were tied immediately to the mast, and there shot dead, pursuant to their villainous sentence.
When they put to sea again, the prizes which had been detained only for fear of spreading any rumour concerning them, which had like to have been so fatal at Corvocoo, were thus disposed of: they burnt their own sloop and manned Norton’s brigantine, sending the master away in the Dutch interloper, not dissatisfied.
With the Royal Fortune and the brigantine, which they christened the Good Fortune, they pushed towards the latitude of Deseada, to look out for provisions, being very short again, and, just to their wish, Captain Hingstone’s ill fortune brought him in their way, richly laden for Jamaica; him they carried to Bermudas and plundered, and stretching back again to the West Indies, they continually met with some consignment or other (chiefly French) which stored them with plenty of provisions and recruited their starving condition, so that, stocked with this sort of ammunition, they began to think of something worthier their aim, for these robberies that only supplied what was in constant expenditure by no means answered their intentions, and accordingly they proceeded again for the coast of Guinea, where they thought to buy gold dust very cheap. In their passage thither they took numbers of ships of all nations, some of which they burnt or sunk, as the carriage or characters of the masters displeased them.
Notwithstanding the successful adventures of this crew, yet it was with great difficulty they could be kept together under any kind of regulation, for, being almost always mad or drunk, their behaviour produced infinite disorders, every man being in his own imagination a captain, a prince, or a king. When Roberts saw there was no managing of such a company of wild, ungovernable brutes by gentle means, nor to keep them from drinking to excess, the cause of all their disturbances, he put on a rougher deportment and a more magisterial carriage towards them, correcting whom he thought fit, and if any seemed to resent his usage he told them “they might go ashore and take satisfaction of him, it they thought fit, at sword and pistol, for he neither valued or feared any of them.”
About four hundred leagues from the coast of Africa, the brigantine, who had hitherto lived with them in all amicable correspondence, thought fit to take the opportunity of a dark night and leave the commodore, which leads me back to the relation of an accident that happened at one of the islands of the West Indies, where they watered before they undertook this voyage, which had like to have thrown their government (such as it was) off the hinges, and was partly the occasion of the separation. The story is as follows:—
Captain Roberts having been insulted by one of the drunken crew (whose name I have forgot), he, in the heat of his passion, killed the fellow on the spot, which was resented by a great many others, but particularly one Jones, a brisk, active young man, who died lately in the Marshalsea, and was his messmate. This Jones was at that time ashore a-watering the ship, but as soon as he came on board was told that Captain Roberts had killed his comrade, upon which he cursed Roberts, and said he ought to be served so himself. Roberts hearing Jones’s invective, ran to him with a sword, and ran him into the body, who, notwithstanding his wound, seized the captain, threw him over a gun, and beat him handsomely. This adventure put the whole company in an uproar, and some taking part with the captain and others against him, there had like to have ensued a general battle with one another, like my Lord Thomont’s cocks. However, the tumult was at length appeased by the mediation of the quartermaster, and as the majority of the company were of opinion that the dignity of the captain ought to be supported on board, that it was a post of honour, and therefore the person whom they thought fit to confer it on, should not be violated by any single member; wherefore they sentenced Jones to undergo two lashes from every one of the company for his misdemeanour, which was executed upon him as soon as he was well of his wound.
This severe punishment did not at all convince Jones that he was in the wrong, but rather animated him to some sort of a revenge, but not being able to do it upon Roberts’s person on board the ship, he and several of his comrades correspond with Anstis, captain of the brigantine, and conspire with him and some of the principal pirates on board that vessel to go off from the company. What made Anstis a malecontent was the inferiority he stood in with respect to Roberts, who carried himself with a haughty and magisterial air to him and his crew, he regarding the brigantine only as a tender, and, as such, left them no more than the refuse of their plunder. In short, Jones and his consort go on board of Captain Anstis on pretence of a visit, and there, consulting with their brethren, they find a majority for leaving of Roberts, and so came to a resolution to bid a soft farewell, as they call it, that night, and to throw overboard whosoever should stick out; but they proved to be unanimous, and effected their design as above mentioned.
I shall have no more to say of Captain Anstis till the story of Roberts is concluded, therefore I return to him in the pursuit of his voyage to Guinea. The loss of the brigantine was a sensible shock to the crew, she being an excellent sailor and had seventy hands aboard; however, Roberts, who was the occasion of it, put on a face of unconcern at this his ill conduct and mismanagement, and resolved not to alter his purposes upon that account.
Roberts fell in to windward nigh the Senegal, a river of great trade for gum on this part of the coast, monopolized by the French, who constantly keep cruisers to hinder the interloping trade. At this time they had two small ships on that service, one of 10 guns and 65 men, and the other of 16 guns and 75 men, who having got a sight of Mr. Roberts, and supposing him to be one of these prohibited traders, chased with all the sail they could make to come up with him; but their hopes which had brought them very nigh, too late deceived them, for on the hoisting of Jolly Roger (the name they give their black flag) their French hearts failed, and they both surrendered without any, or at least very little, resistance. With these prizes they went into Sierra Leone, and made one of them their consort by the name of the Ranger, and the other a storeship, to clean by.