After these, he fell in with the Wright galley, Capt. John Spelt, commander, hired by the South Sea company, to go to the coast of Angola for slaves, and thence to Buenos Ayres. This ship he detained a considerable time, and the captain being his townsman, treated him very civilly. A few days after he took Spelt, he made prize of a Portuguese, laden with bale goods and stores. He new rigged the Wright galley, and put on board of her some of the goods. Soon after he had discharged the Portuguese, he met with a Dutch Fast Indiaman of 28 guns, whose captain was killed the first broadside, and took her with little resistance, for he had hoisted the pirate’s colours on board Spelt’s ship.
He now, with three sail, steered for the island of Ferdinando, where he hove down and cleaned the Flying Dragon. Having careened, he put 11 Dutchmen on board Capt. Spelt, to make amends for the hands he had forced from him, and sent him away, making him a present of the goods he took from the Portuguese ship. When he sailed himself, he ordered the Dutch to stay at Ferdinando 24 hours after his departure; threatening, if he did not comply, to sink his ship, if he fell a second time into his hands, and to put all the company to the sword. He then stood for the coast of Brazil, where he met a Portuguese man of war of 70 guns, which he came up with. The Portuguese hailed him, and he answered, from London, bound to Buenos Ayres. The Portuguese manned his shrouds and cheered him, when Condent fired a broadside and a volley of small arms, which began a smart engagement for the space of three glasses; but Condent finding himself over-matched, made the best of his way, and being the best sailer, got off.
A few days after, he took a vessel of the same nation, who gave an account, that he had killed above 40 men in the guarda del Costa, beside a number wounded. He kept along the coast to the southward, and took a French ship of 18 guns, laden with wine and brandy, bound for the South Sea, which he carried with him into the River of Plate. He sent some of his men ashore to kill some wild cattle, but they were taken by the crew of a Spanish man of war. On their examination before the captain, they said they were two Guinea ships, with slaves belonging to the South Sea company, and on this story were allowed to return to their boats. Here five of his forced men ran away, with his canoe; he plundered the French ship, cut her adrift, and she was stranded. He proceeded along the Brazil coast, and hearing a pirate ship was lost upon it, and the pirates imprisoned, he used all the Portuguese who fell into his hands, who were many, very barbarously, cutting off their ears and noses; and as his master was a papist, when they took a priest, they made him say mass at the mainmast, and would afterwards get on his back and ride him about the decks, or else load and drive him like a beast. He from this went to the Guinea coast, and took Capt. Hill, in the Indian Queen.
In Luengo Bay he saw two ships at anchor, one a Dutchman of 44 guns, the other an English ship, called the Fame, Capt. Bowen, commander. They both cut and ran ashore; the Fame was lost, but the Dutch ship the pirate got off and took with him. When he was at sea again, he discharged Captain Hill, and stood away for the East-Indies. Near the Cape he took an Ostend East-Indiaman, of which Mr. Nash a noted merchant in London, was supercargo. Soon after he took a Dutch East-Indiaman, discharged the Ostender, and made for Madagascar. At the Isle of St. Mary, he met with some of Capt. Halsey’s crew, whom he took on board with other stragglers, and shaped his course for the East-Indies, and in the way, at the island of Johanna, took, in company with two other pirates he met at St. Mary’s, the Cassandra East-Indiaman, commanded by Capt. James Macraigh. He continued his course for the East-Indies, where he made a very great booty; and returning, touched at the isle of Mascarenhas, where he met with a Portuguese ship of 70 guns, with the viceroy of Goa on board. This ship he made prize of, and hearing she had money on board, they would allow of no ransom, but carried her to the coast of Zanguebar, where was a Dutch fortification, which they took and plundered, razed the fort, and carried off several men voluntarily. From hence they stood for St. Mary’s, where they shared their booty, broke up their company, and settled among the natives. Here a snow came from Bristol, which they obliged to carry a petition to the governor of Mascarenhas for a pardon, though they paid the master very generously. The governor returned answer he would take them into protection if they would destroy their ships, which they agreed to, and accordingly sunk the Flying Dragon &c. Condent and some others went to Mascarenhas, where Condent married the governor’s sister-in-law, and remained some time; but, as I have been credibly informed, he is since come to France, settled at St. Maloes, and drives a considerable trade as a merchant.
CAPTAIN BELLAMY.
As we cannot, with any certainty, deduce this man from his origin, we shall begin where we find him first a declared enemy to mankind. Capt. Bellamy and Paul Williams, in two sloops, had been upon a Spanish wreck, and not finding their expectation answered, they resolved not to lose their labour, and agreed to go upon the account, a term among the pirates, which speaks their profession. The first who had the misfortune to fall in their way, was Capt. Prince, bound from Jamaica to London, in a galley built at that port, whose cargo consisted of elephant’s teeth, gold dust, and other rich merchandise. This prize not only enriched but strengthened them. They immediately mounted this galley with 28 guns, and put on board 150 hands, of different nations; Bellamy was declared captain, and the vessel had her old name continued, which was Whidaw. This happened about the latter end of February, 1717. They, now thus fitted for continuing their desperate resolution, shaped their course for Virginia, which coast they very much infested, taking several vessels. They were upon shifting this station, when they were very near, as the psalmist expresses it, going quick down into hell; for the heavens beginning to lower, prognosticated a storm. At the first appearance of the sky being likely to be overcast, Bellamy took in all his small sails, and Williams doubled-reefed his mainsail, which was hardly done when a thunder shower overtook them with such violence, that the Whidaw was very near oversetting. They immediately put before the wind, for they had no other way of working, having only the goose wings of the fore-sail to scud with. Happy for them the wind was at W. by N. for had it been easterly, they must have infallibly perished upon the coast. The storm increased towards night, and not only put them by all sail, but obliged the Whidaw to bring her yards aportland, and all they could do with tackles to the goose neck of the tiller, four men in the gun-room, and two at the wheel, was to keep her head to the sea, for had she once broached to, they must infallibly have foundered. The heavens, in the mean while, were covered with sheets of lightning, which the sea, by the agitation of the saline particles, seemed to imitate. The darkness of the night was such, as the scripture says, as might be felt; the terrible hollow roaring of the winds, could be only equalled by the repeated, I may say, incessant claps of thunder, sufficient to strike a dread of the Supreme Being, who commands the sea and the winds, one would imagine in every heart; but among these wretches, the effect was different, for they endeavoured by their blasphemies, oaths, and horrid imprecations, to drown the uproar of jarring elements. Bellamy swore he was sorry he could not run out his guns to return the salute, meaning the thunder, that he fancied the gods had got drunk over their tipple, and were gone together by the ears. They continued scudding all that night under their bare poles: the next morning the mainmast being sprung in the step, they were forced to cut it away, and at the same time, the mizen came by the board. These misfortunes made the ship ring with blasphemy, which was increased, when, by trying the pumps, they found the ship made a great deal of water; though by continually plying them, they kept it from gaining. The sloop, as well as the ship, was left to the mercy of the winds, though the former, not having a tant mast, did not lose it. The wind shifting round the compass, made so outrageous and short a sea, that they had little hopes of safety; it broke upon the poop, drove in the taffarel, and washed the two men away from the wheel, who were saved in the netting. The wind after four days and three nights, abated its fury, and fixed in the N. N. E. point, hourly decreasing, and the weather clearing up they spoke to the sloop, and resolved for the coast of Carolina. They continued this course but a day and a night, when the wind coming about to the southward, they changed their resolution to that of going to Rhode Island. All this while the Whidaw’s leak continued, and it was as much as the lee pump could do to keep the water from gaining, though it was kept continually going. Jury-masts were set up, and the carpenter finding the leak to be in the bows, occasioned by the oakum working out of a seam, the crew became very jovial again. The sloop received no other damage than the loss of the mainsail, which the first flurry tore away from the boom. In their cruise off Rhode-Island, the beginning of April, they took a sloop commanded by Capt. Beer, belonging to Boston, in the lat. of South-Carolina, 40 leagues from land. They put the said captain on board the Whidaw, while they rifled and plundered his vessel, which Williams and Bellamy proposed returning to him, but the crews being averse to it, they sunk her, and put the captain ashore upon Block Island.
I cannot pass by in silence, Capt. Bellamy’s speech to Capt. Beer. I am sorry they won’t let you have your sloop again, for I scorn to do any one a mischief when it is not for my advantage; —— the sloop, we must sink her, and she might be of use to you. Though you are a sneaking puppy, and so are all those who will submit to be governed by laws which rich men have made for their own security, for the cowardly whelps have not the courage otherwise to defend what they get by their knavery; but —— ye altogether: —— them for a pack of crafty rascals, and you, who serve them, for a parcel of hen-hearted numskulls. They vilify us, the scoundrels do, when there is only this difference, they rob the poor under the cover of law, forsooth, and we plunder the rich under the protection of our own courage. Had you not better make one of us, than sneak after these villains for employment? Captain Beer told him, that his conscience would not allow him to break through the laws of God and man. You are a devilish conscience rascal, replied Bellamy; I am a free prince, and I have as much authority to make war on the whole world, as he who has a hundred sail of ships at sea, and an army of 100,000 men in the field; and this my conscience tells me: but there is no arguing with such snivelling puppies, who allow superiors to kick them about deck at pleasure.
The pirates, wanting neither provisions nor water, and the Whidaw’s damage being repaired, passed the time very jovially.
A fortnight after setting Capt. Beer ashore, Williams boarded and took a vessel off Cape Cod, laden with wine; the crew of which increased the number of their prisoners. They put seven men on board the prize, with orders to keep company with the ship and sloop, and left on board her the master.
As they had been long off the careen, they stood away to the northward, and made the best of their way to Penobscot river. When they were at the mouth of it, it was thought more eligible to careen in the river Mechisses. They entered it as agreed and run up about two miles and a half, where they came to an anchor with their prizes. The next morning all the prisoners were set ashore with drivers, and orders to assist in building huts; the guns were also set ashore, and a breast work raised, with embrasures for the cannon on each side of the river. This took up four days. A magazine was dug deep in the earth, and a roof raised over it by the poor slaves, the prisoners, whom they treated after the same manner as the negroes are used by the West-India planters. The powder being secured, and every thing out, they hove down the sloop, cleaned her, and when she had all in again, they careened the Whidaw by the largest prize.