CONTENTS

[Preface]v
[Table of Contents]vii
[List of Illustrations]ix
[Introduction by Capt. Ernest H. Pentecost, R.N.R.]xvii
I[The beginnings of English piracy]1
II[Dixey Bull, the first pirate in New England waters and some others who followed him]20
III[John Rhodes, pilot of the Dutch pirates on the coast of Maine]44
IV[Thomas Pound, pilot of the King’s frigate, who became a pirate and died a gentleman]54
V[William Kidd, privateersman and reputed pirate]73
VI[Thomas Tew, who retired and lived at Newport]84
VII[John Quelch and his crew, who were hanged at Boston and their gold distributed]99
VIII[Samuel Bellamy, whose ship was wrecked at Wellfleet and 142 drowned]116
IX [George Lowther, who captured thirty-three vessels in seventeen months]132
X[Ned Low of Boston and how he became a pirate captain]141
XI[Captain Roberts’ curious account of what happened on Low’s ship]157
XII[The brutal career and miserable end of Ned Low]200
XIII[The strange adventures of Philip Ashton]218
XIV[Nicholas Merritt’s account of his escape from pirates]270
XV[Francis Farrington Spriggs, the companion of Ned Low]277
XVI[Charles Harris, who was hanged at Newport with twenty-five of his crew]288
XVII[John Phillips, whose head was cut off and pickled]310
XVIII[William Fly, who was hanged in chains on Nix’s Mate]328
XIX[Pirate haunts and cruising grounds]338
XX[Pirate life and death]353
[Appendix]
I [Captain Ploughman’s Commission]371
II [Captain Ploughman’s Instructions]373
III [Dying Speech of Captain Quelch]376
IV [John Fillmore’s Narrative]379
V [An “Act of Grace”]381
[Index]383

ILLUSTRATIONS

[ Boston harbor from the survey in the “English Pilot,” Part IV. London, 1707] Front end-paper

From an original in the Harvard College Library.

[View of the harbor and town of Boston in 1723] Frontispiece

From an engraving in the British Museum after a drawing by William Burgis.

[ Fac-simile of the title-page of Capt. Charles Johnson’s “History of the Pirates,” London, 1724] 1

From an original in the library of the Massachusetts Historical Society.

[ Map of the West Indies about 1720, showing “the tracts of the Spanish Gallions”] 10