The President called for Harry Glasby, and bid him relate a character of the prisoner, and what custom was among them in relation to these voluntary expeditions out of their proper ship, and this of going on board the Ranger in particular.
And he gave in for evidence that the prisoner was looked on as a brisk hand (i.e., as he farther explained it, a stanch pirate, a great rogue); that when the Swallow first appeared in sight every one was willing to believe her a Portuguese, because sugar was very much in demand, and had made some jarring and dissention between the two companies (the Fortune’s people drinking punch when the Ranger’s could not); that Roberts, on sight of the Swallow, hailed the new Ranger and bid him right-ship and get under sail. “There is,” says he, “sugar in the offing, bring it in that we may have no more mumbling;” ordering, at the same time, the word to be passed among the crew, Who would go to their assistance? and immediately the boat was full of men, to transport themselves.
President: Then every one that goes on board of any prize does it voluntarily? Or were there here any other reasons for it?
H. Glasby: Every man is commonly called by list, and insists on his turn to go on board of a prize, because they then are allowed a shift of clothes (the best they can find) over and above the dividend from the robbery; and this they are so far from being compelled to that it often becomes the occasion of contest and quarrel amongst them. But in the present or such like cases, where there appears a prospect of trouble, the lazy and the timorous are often willing to decline this turn and yield to their betters, who thereby establish a greater reputation. The prisoner, and those men who went from the Fortune on board the Ranger to assist in this expedition were volunteers, and the trustiest men among us.
President: Were there no jealousies of the Ranger’s leaving you in this chase, or at any other time, in order to surrender?
H. Glasby: Most of the Ranger’s crew were fresh men, men who had been entered only since their being on the coast of Guinea, and therefore had not so liberal a share in fresh provisions or wine as the Fortune’s people, who thought they had borne the burthen and heat of the day, which had given occasion indeed to some grumblings and whispers, as though they would take an opportunity to leave us, but we never supposed, if they did, it would be with any other design then setting up for themselves, they having, many of them, behaved with greater severity than the old standers.
The prisoner appeared undaunted, and rather solicitous about resting his stump than giving any answer to the court, or making any defence for himself till called upon; then he related in a careless, or rather hopeless, manner, the circumstances of his first entrance, being forced, he said, out of the Blessing, of Lemmington, at Newfoundland, about twelve months past; this, he is sure, most of the old pirates knew, and that he was for some time as sick of the change as any man, but custom and ill company had altered him, owning very frankly that he was at the attack and taking of the King Solomon, that he did cut her cable, and that none were forced on those occasions.
As to the last expedition in the Ranger, he confesses he went on board of her, but that it was by Roberts’s order, and in the chase loaded one gun to bring her to, but when he saw it was a bite he declared to his comrades that it was not worth while to resist, forebore firing, and assisted to reeve the braces in order, if they could, to get away, in which sort of service he was busied when a shot from the man-of-war took off his leg. And being asked that supposing the chase had proved a Portuguese? “Why then,” says he, “I don’t know what I might have done,” intimating withal that everybody then would have been ready enough at plundering. Guilty.
Peter Scudamore.
Harry Glasby, Jo. Wingfield, and Nicholas Brattle, depose thus much as to his being a volunteer with the pirates from Captain Rolls at Calabar. First, that he quarrelled with Moody (one of the heads of the gang), and fought with him because he opposed his going, asking Rolls in a leering manner whether he would not be so kind as to put him into the Gazette when he came home. And, at another time, when he was going from the pirate ship in his boat a tornado arose. “I wish,” says he, “the rascal may be drowned, for he is a great rogue, and has endeavoured to do me all the ill offices he could among these gentlemen” (i.e., pirates).