From Newfoundland, the pirate captains usually took advantage of the westerly winds and made the long voyage to the Azores, which was good plundering ground. Sometimes they sailed south to the Cape Verde islands and then to Sierre Leone and the Guinea coast. The Sierre Leone river has a large mouth with small bays on one side very convenient for cleaning and watering vessels and for some years it was a favorite resort for pirates especially as the English traders located there were friendly to them. About 1720, when this coast was most frequented by pirates, there were about thirty of these traders nearly all of whom had at some time in their lives engaged in privateering, buccaneering, or piracy. The river also was resorted to by Bristol ships trading for slaves and elephants’ ivory, and the ships of the Royal African Company sailed past here regularly, richly laden with merchandize, ivory and gold dust.
There was a great clean-up of pirates on this coast in 1722 when Bartholomew Roberts’ ships were taken by the “Swallow,” man-of-war, and fifty-five pirates were hanged and twenty condemned for seven years to work in chains in the gold mines. Some died in “the Hole,” at Cape Coast and many more were sent to London for trial and exhibition on gibbets at Cuckold’s Point, on the Thames. It was a fatal blow to piracy on the Guinea Coast.
From the Cape Verde islands the pirate captains would sail westerly, taking advantage of the trade winds, and after making the coast of Brazil and taking toll of Portuguese shipping, would cruise northerly until the West Indies were reached and here the winter months would be spent.
CAPTAIN BARTHOLOMEW ROBERTS
From an engraving in Johnson’s “General History of the Pirates,” London, 1725
The West Indies possessed many advantages as a pirate stronghold and were resorted to by freebooters of many nations. The small, uninhabited islands and keys supplied harbors convenient for careening vessels and many of them abounded with fish and game. Sea turtles in great numbers furnished meat, and edible fruits of many kinds grew everywhere. The turtles frequented the small, sandy keys and their eggs were a common food not only among the pirates but on the larger inhabited islands where turtling was a recognized industry. Moreover, it was comparatively easy to escape from pursuit among the numerous small inlets, lagoons and harbors.
Because of the growth of the sugar-cane plantations a considerable commerce had developed and in the vicinity of the Trading islands the pirates were certain to find vessels laden with provisions, clothing, naval stores and money, large sums of which were sent home to Europe, the returns of the Assiento and private slave trade. The rich mines on the mainland also paid tribute.
Piracy frequently began in the West Indies when desperate men got to the end of their rope in making an honest living. Then they would set out in the long boat of a ship or even in a large sailing canoe and exchange successive prizes, if successful, until after a time they would be in possession of a large ship, often a former man-of-war, and ready for foreign expeditions. The logwood cutters in the Bay of Honduras and the vessels that went there to load with the dyewood, supplied good material for piratical ventures. The cutters were generally a rough, drunken crew, some of them having been pirates at different times and most of them sailors. It was here that Capt. Ned Low of Boston, began his career as a pirate.
“In the dry time of the year the Logwood Cutters search for a good Number of Logwood Trees: and then build a Hut near them where they live during the Time they are cutting. When they have cut down the Tree, they Log it, and Chip it, which is cutting off the Bark and Sap, and then lay it in Heaps, cutting away the Under-wood, and making Paths to each Heap, so that when the Rains come on, which overflows the Ground, it serves as so many Creeks or Channels, where they go with small Canows or Dories and load ’em, which they bring to a Creek-side and there lade their Canows, and carry it to the Barcadares, which they sometime fetch Thirty Miles, from whence the People who buy it fetch it.”[169]
Capt. Nathaniel Uring writes that he went into the Bay of Campeachy in an English ship in July, 1712, to load logwood. When he arrived he anchored off shore and “fired several Guns, to give Notice to the Logwood Cutters (who were up in the Lagunes) of our arrival: and in a Day or Two, several White Men came on board to us.... I sold Provisions and Liquor to several of the Bay Men for Wood, which cost us about Forty Shillings per Ton, prime cost, at Jamaica.... I remained here more than a month before any Vessels arrived; during which Time my People were fetching down the Logwood out of the Lagunes in Canows, and went more than Thirty Miles for some of it.”