ILLUSTRATIONS.

"Boat ahoy!" I cried out, and then levelled my pistol and fired[Frontispiece]
Mr. Longways looked up under his brown eyes at me with a very curious leerfaces[020]
"Captain Mackra," said he, coldly, "you were pleased to put upon me last night a gross and uncalled-for insult""[062]
So soon as they saw me they fell to screaming, and clung to one another"[100]
"I am Captain John Mackra" said I, and I sat down upon the gunwale of the boat"[132]
I rose slowly from my chair, and stood with my hand leaning upon the table"[172]
The three fellows were brought aft to the quarter-deck, where Captain Croker stood, just below the rail of the deck above"[186]
There, in the corner, I beheld the famous pirate, Captain Edward England"[212]

THE ROSE OF PARADISE.

I.

Although the account of the serious engagement betwixt the Cassandra and the two pirate vessels in the Mozambique Channel hath already been set to print, the publick have yet to know many lesser and more detailed circumstances concerning the matter;[A] and as the above-mentioned account hath caused much remark and comment, I shall take it upon me to give many incidents not yet known, seeking to render them neither in refined rhetorick nor with romantick circumstances such as are sometimes used by novel and story writers to catch the popular attention, but telling this history as directly, and with as little verbosity and circumlocution, as possible.

[A] A brief narration of the naval engagement between Captain Mackra and the two pirate vessels was given in the Captain's official report made at Bombay. It appears in the life of the pirate England in Johnson's book: "A Genuine Account of the Voyages and Plunders of the Most Notorious Pyrates, &c." London, 1742.

For the conveniency of the reader, I shall render this true and veracious account under sundry headings, marked I., II., III., &c., as seen above, which may assist him in separating the less from the more notable portions of the narrative.