HANSEL, Captain.
He behaved himself so courageously at the taking of Porto Bello in 1669, that a party of some 400 men, in four ships, chose Hansel to be their admiral in an attempt on the town of Comana, near Caracas. This attack was a most complete failure, the pirates being driven off "with great loss and in great confusion." When Hansel's party arrived back at Jamaica, they found the rest of Morgan's men had returned before them, who "ceased not to mock and jeer at them for their ill success at Comana, after telling them, 'Let us see what money you brought from Comana, and if it be as good silver as that which we bring from Maracaibo.'"
HARDING, Captain Thomas.
In 1653 he captured a rich prize, a Barbadoes vessel. For this he was tried for piracy at Boston.
HARDY, Richard.
One of Captain Bartholomew Roberts's crew. Hanged at Cape Coast Castle, West Coast of Africa, on April 6th, 1722, at the age of 25 years.
It is recorded that, owing to the lack of expert knowledge in the niceties of carrying out executions, Hardy was led to the scaffold with his hands tied behind him. This annoyed Hardy very much, and it is mentioned in the official account of his execution that the prisoner indignantly declared "that he had seen many a Man hang'd, but this Way of the Hands being ty'd behind them, he was a Stranger to, and never saw before in his Life."
HARPER, Abraham.
Born at Bristol.
He was cooper on board Captain Roberts's Royal Fortune. When the pirates took a prize, it was Harper's duty to see that all the casks and coopers' tools were removed from the prize to the pirate craft.