Not long after his return he went out with Captain Mission on a cruise to the Red Sea, each in command of a ship manned by about two hundred and fifty men including many negroes. Off the coast of Arabia Felix they came upon a large ship belonging to the Great Mogul with more than a thousand pilgrims on board bound for Mecca. The ship carried one hundred and ten guns but made a poor defence and was boarded and taken without the loss of a single man. After a consultation it was decided to put the prisoners ashore near Aden, but as they wanted women, over one hundred unmarried girls, from twelve to eighteen years old, were kept notwithstanding their tears and the lamentations of their parents. With the large ship in company they made their way back to Libertatia where they found in her hold a vast quantity of diamonds, besides rich silks, spices, rugs and wrought and bar gold.
The prize was a heavy sailer and of no use so she was taken to pieces and her guns mounted in two batteries near the mouth of the harbor. The settlement was now so strongly fortified that there was little danger of successful attack from shipping. By this time they had also cleared and cultivated a considerable area of land and had in pasturage over three hundred black cattle. The dock was finished and all were living comfortably and happily each supplied according to taste and nationality with several white, yellow or black wives.
One morning a sloop that had been sent out to exercise the negroes, came back chased by five tall ships which proved to be fifty-gun ships flying the Portuguese flag. The alarm was given and all the forts and batteries manned. Tew commanded the English and Mission commanded the French and the negroes. The two forts at the entrance to the harbor didn’t stop the ships, though one was brought on the careen, but once inside, the forts, batteries, sloops and ships gave them so warm a reception that two of them sank and many men were drowned. Having entered just before the turn of the tide, the other ships, with the help of the ebb tide, made haste to escape; but they were followed by the ships and sloops in the harbor and in the bay, after a running fight, one was taken that greatly increased the store of powder and shot in the magazine. The other two escaped but in crippled condition. This was the engagement with the pirates that made so much noise in Europe and America.
Captain Tew was now made admiral of their fleet and proposed building an arsenal, which was agreed upon. He also proposed going on a cruise, hoping to meet East India ships and bring in some volunteers, for he thought the colony at that time more in need of men than riches. The flagship “Victoire” was accordingly fitted out and manned with three hundred men and Tew put to sea intending to call first at the settlement made by his former quartermaster and men, where, coming to anchor, he went ashore. The governor, alias quartermaster, received him civilly but could not be persuaded to agree upon a change in his comfortable situation where his company enjoyed all the necessaries of life and were free and independent of all the world.
Late that afternoon, while they were drinking a bowl of punch, a violent storm came up suddenly with so high a sea that Captain Tew could not go out to his ship. The storm increased and in less than two hours the “Victoire” parted her cables and was driven ashore on a steep point where everyone on board was drowned in sight of Tew who could give no assistance. Not knowing which way to turn he remained with his former men hoping that Captain Mission in time might come in search of him, which happened a few weeks later.
One morning two sloops came to anchor off-shore and soon a canoe was hoisted out and brought Captain Mission ashore. He brought doleful news. At dead of night two great bodies of natives had come down on the pirate settlement and slaughtered men, women and children without mercy. The absence of the three hundred men on the “Victoire” and the sailing about the same time of another pirate ship, the “Bijoux,” had so weakened the settlement that the natives soon prevailed through sheer force of numbers and Captain Mission escaped with only forty-five men. He was able, however, to bring away with him a considerable weight of rough diamonds and bar gold.
The two captains condoled with each other over their misfortunes and Tew at last proposed that they abandon further roving and return to America where, with the riches that remained to them, they could live in comfort and safety for the rest of their lives. Mission was a Frenchman and could not think of retiring from active life until he had visited his family, but he gave up one of the sloops to Tew and divided with him the diamonds and gold that had been saved.
A week later the two captains sailed, Mission having fifteen Frenchmen and Portuguese in his sloop and Tew taking thirty-four English in the sloop commanded by him. They shaped a course for the Guinea Coast, but off Infantes, before reaching the Cape, they were overtaken by a storm in which the unhappy Mission’s sloop went down within a musket shot of Captain Tew who could give no assistance.
Captain Tew continued his course for America and reached Newport safely where his men took their share of diamonds and gold and quietly dispersed as they thought best while Tew settled down among his former acquaintances to spend a tranquil life. He lived unquestioned and with his easy fortune might in time have married the daughter of some neighbor and spent the remainder of his days as a retired privateersman. One of his company, Thomas Jones, who had formerly sailed with “Long Ben” Avery, married Penelope Goulden and also settled down and lived in Rhode Island, but others, who continued to live there or elsewhere in the province, soon squandered their shares and began soliciting him to make another voyage. For a time he refused until at last a considerable number of resolute lads came in a body and so earnestly begged him to head them for one more voyage that he finally agreed.
His frequent journeys to New York in connection with shipments to Madagascar and more recently for the purpose of disposing of some part of his store of diamonds, had given him an acquaintance with Governor Fletcher, so in October, 1694, he presented himself at the Governor’s mansion for the purpose of obtaining a privateering commission. Governor Fletcher, like some other colonial governors, was always ready to turn “an honest penny” and on Nov. 8, 1694, Tew was in possession of the desired commission it having cost him exactly £300.