Fly, when he found himself in irons, began to blaspheme, cursing all rovers who should ever give quarter to an Englishman. This was the brave-spirited fellow who would say when it had thundered, “They are playing bowls in the air”; and when it lightned, he would say, “Who fires now? Stand by,” etc. Four days later Captain Atkinson had brought the snow and the pirates to anchor in Boston harbor and on July 4, 1726 they came to a speedy trial before the Honorable William Dummer, Lieutenant-Governor, and the judges of the Admiralty Court, among whom was Samuel Sewall.

The court was held in the old Court House that formerly stood at the head of what is now State street. Captain Atkinson was tried first and soon cleared as were Joseph Marshall and William Ferguson, sailors on the schooner “James.” Then followed the trials of John Cole, John Browne, Robert Dauling, John Daw, James Blair and Edward Lawrence who had been forced from the “John and Betty,” Edward Apthorp, who belonged to the “John and Hannah,” James Benbrook, the spry young seaman forced from the “Rachel,” and Morice Cundon, the helmsman on the “Elizabeth” when Captain Green was thrown overboard. These all were acquitted.

The four pirates that had been taken were brought to trial last. Captain Fly, aged twenty-seven years, denied that he had aided in throwing overboard either Captain Green or Jenkins, the mate. “I can’t charge myself with Murder,” he said. “I did not strike or wound the Master or Mate. It was Mitchel did it.” Samuel Cole, aged thirty-seven years, owned to having a wife and seven children. He had served as quartermaster on the pirate snow and when Fly suspected him of mutiny he ordered a hundred lashes given him “whereof he continued sore to his Death.” Henry Greenville, about forty years of age, was a married man. George Condick, a young man of twenty years, had usually been the worse for drink and not able to bear arms when vessels had been taken. He had served as cook for the company. This may have saved his neck for he was fortunate enough to be recommended for a reprieve. The other three were sentenced to be hanged, Fly’s body afterwards to be hung in chains from a gibbet erected on Nix’s Mate, a small island in Boston harbor which now has been entirely washed away. A granite monument marks the site and also serves as a warning to navigators.

With the pirates sentenced to death and awaiting execution the ministers of the town began their ministrations and “great pains were taken to dispose them for a Return unto God”; so says the Rev. Cotton Mather who always occupied a prominent place in the public eye at such times. The account of his conference with the doomed pirates, held on July 6, written by him and printed soon after their execution, begins as follows:—

“Unhappy Men:—Yet not hopeless of Eternal Happiness:—A Marvellous Providence of GOD has put a Quickstop to a Swift Carriere you were taking in the paths of the Destroyer. But had you been at once cut off in your Wickedness, what had become of you? A merciful GOD has not only given you a space to Repent, but has ordered your being brought into a place where such means of Instruction will be Employ’d upon you, and such pains will be taken for the Salvation of your Souls, as are not commonly Elsewhere to be met withal, May this Goodness of GOD lead you to Repentance:—Among other and greater proofs of This, you will accept this Visit, which I now intend you.

“We thank you, Syr, replied the pirates.”

The eminent divine continues in the same strain through twenty-one printed pages. As he left the condemned prisoners he supplied them “with several Books of Piety,” very likely of his own voluminous writings.

After Fly was put in prison he ate very little. New England rum kept strength in his body. He absolutely refused to go to the North Meeting-house, the Sunday before he was executed, when the other prisoners were placed on exhibition and preached to by the Rev. Cotton Mather who chose for his text—“They Dy even without Wisdom.” Fly said “he would not have the Mob to gaze upon him.... He seemed all along ambitious to have it said, That he died a brave fellow! He pass’d along to the place of Execution, with a Nosegay in his hand, and making his Complements, where he thought he saw occasion. Arriving there, he nimbly mounted the stage, and would fain have put on a Smiling Aspect. He reproached the Hangman, for not understanding his Trade, and with his own Hands rectified matters, to render all things more Convenient and Effectual.”[168]

The Vial poured out upon the SEA.
A
Remarkable RELATION
Of certain
PIRATES
Brought unto a Tragical and Untimely
END.
Some CONFERENCES with them, after their Condemnation.
Their BEHAVIOUR at their Execution.
AND A
SERMON
Preached on that Occasion.
Job XX. 29.
This is the portion of a wicked Man from GOD, and the Heritage appointed unto him by GOD.
BOSTON: Printed by T. Fleet, for N. Belknap, and sold at his Shop near Scarlet’s Wharf. 1726.