108. Examination of John Brown. May 6, 1717.[1]
The Substance of the Examinations of John Brown, etc. Taken by order of His Excellency the Governour on Munday the 6th of May 1717.
John Brown being interrogated saith, that he was born in the Island of Jamaica, is 25 years old and unmarried. About a year agoe he belonged to a Ship commanded by Captain Kingston, which in her voyage with Logwood to Holland was taken to the Leeward of the Havana by two Piratical Sloops, one commanded by Hornygold[2] and the other by a Frenchman called Leboose,[3] each having 70 men on board. The pirats kept the Ship about 8 or 10 daies, and then having taken out off her what they thought proper delivered her back to some of the men, who belonged to her. Leboose kept the Examinate on board his Sloop about 4 months, the English Sloop under Hornigolds command keeping company with them all that time. Off Cape Corante[4] they took two Spanish Briganteens without any resistance, laden with cocoa from Ma[l]aca. The Spaniards, not coming up to the pirats demand about the ransom, were put ashoar and their Briganteens burn'd. They sailled next to the Isle of Pines, where meeting with three or four English Sloops empty, they made use of them in cleaning their own, and gave them back. From thence they sailled in the latter end of May to Hispaniola, where they tarried about 3 months. The Examinate then left Leboose and went on board the Sloop commanded formerly by Hornygold, but at that time by one Bellamy, who upon a difference arising amongst the English Pirats because Hornygold refused to take and plunder English Vessels, was chosen by a great majority their Captain, and Hornygold departed with 26 hands in a Prize Sloop, Bellamy having then on board about 90 men, most of them English. Bellamy and Leboose sailled to the Virgin Islands and took several small fishing boats, and off St. Croix a French Ship laden with flower and fish from Canada, and having taken out some of the flower gave back the Ship. Plying to the Windward the morning they made Saba[5] they spy'd two Ships, which they chased and came up with, the one was commanded by Captain Richards,[6] the other by Capt. Tosor, both bound to the bay. Having plunder'd the Ships and taken out some young men, they dismist the rest and Tosors Ship and made a man of War of Richards's, which they put under the command of Bellamy, and appointed Paull Williams Captain of the Sloop. Next day they took a Bristol Ship[7] commanded by James Williams from Ireland laden with provisions, and having taken out what provisions they wanted and two or three of the Crew let her goe. Then they parted with their French consort at the Island of Blanco[8] and stood away with their Ship and Sloop to the windward passage, where in the latter end of February last they met with Captain Laurence Prince in a ship of 300 Ton called the Whido, with 18 guns mounted, and fifty men, bound from Jamaica to London, laden with Sugar, Indico, Jesuits bark and some silver and gold, and having given chase thre daies took him without any other resistance than his firing two chase guns at the Sloop, and came to an anchor at Long Island.[9] Bellamy's crew and Williams's consisted then of 120 men. They gave the Ship taken from Captain Richards to Captain Prince, and loaded her with as much of the best and finest goods as she could carry, and gave Captain Prince above twenty pounds in Silver and gold to bear his charges. They took 8 or 10 men belonging to Captain Prince; the Boatswain and two more were forced, the rest being volunteers. off Petteguavis[10] they took an English Ship hired by the French, laden with Sugar and Indico, and having taken out what they had occasion for, and some of the men, dismist her. Then they stood away for the Capes of Virginia, being 130 men in Company, and having lost sight of the Sloop the day before they made the land, they cruised ten daies, according to agreement between Bellamy and Williams, in which time they seized three ships and one Snow, Two of them from Scotland, one from Bristol, and the fourth a Scotch Ship, last from Barbadoes, with a little Rum and Sugar on board, so leaky that the men refused to proceed further. The Pirats sunk her. Having lost the Sloop they kept the Snow, which was taken from one Montgomery, being about 100 Ton, and manned her with 18 hands, which with her own Crew made up the number of 28 men; the other two Ships were discharged being first plundered. They made[11]
[1] Suffolk Court Files, no. 11945, paper 5; a fragment.
[2] Benjamin Hornigold was a pirate captain of some fame; he soon after this surrendered to the governor of Bermuda, and "came in" under the king's proclamation of Sept. 5, 1717, which offered pardon to those pirates who should surrender within a given time. Charles Johnson, General History of the Pyrates (second ed., London, 1724), I. 35, 70, 71; II. 274-276.
[3] Id., I. 35, 184.
[4] Cape Corrientes, near the southwestern point of Cuba.
[5] A small Dutch island, east of St. Croix, and between St. Martin and St. Eustatius.
[6] The Sultana, James Richards. "The bay" means the Bay of Honduras.
[7] The St. Michael.