And at Midnight they came up with the same, which was a Snow from Bristol, Capt. Bowls Master, bound for Boston, of whom they made a Prize, and serv'd him as they did Capt. Carry, unloaded his Vessel and forced all his Men, designing to carry the Snow with them to make her a Hulk to carreen their Ship with.
The abovesaid Capt. Roberts in Novemb. 1718,[10] was third Mate of a Guinea Man out of London for Guinea, Capt. Plummer Commander, who was taken by a Pirate, and by that means Roberts himself became a Pirate, and being an active, brisk Man, they voted him their Captain, which he readily embraced.
The said Roberts in the abovesaid Sloop, Rhode Island built, with a Briganteen Consort Pirate, was some time in January last in the Latitude of Barbadoes, near the Island, where they took and endeavoured to take several Vessels; but the Governour,[11] hearing of it, fitted out one Capt. Rogers of Bristol, in a fine Gally, a Ship of about 20 Guns, and a Sloop, Capt. Graves Commander; Capt. Rogers killed and wounded several of Roberts's Men, and made a great hole in his Sloop, which his Carpenter with very great Difficulty (hundreds of Bullets flying round him) stopt, and finding Capt. Rogers too strong for him, tho' Graves did nothing, which if had, he must of necessity been taken, he therefore run for it, as also did his Consort Briganteen, which he never saw nor heard of since.
From Barbadoes Roberts went to an Island called Granada,[12] to the Leeward of Barbadoes, where he carreen'd his Sloop, and from thence this Spring with 45 Men he came to Newfoundland, into the Harbour of Trepassi,[13] towards the latter end of June last, with Drums beating, Trumpets sounding, and other Instruments of Musick, English Colours flying, their Pirate Flagg at the Topmast-Head, with Deaths Head and Cutlash, and there being 22 sail in that Harbour, upon the sight of the Pirate the Men all fled on Shore and left their Vessels, which they possess'd themselves off, burnt, sunk and destroyed all of them, excepting one Bristol Gally, which they designed to be their best Pirate Ship, if a better did not present. After they did all the mischief they could in that Harbour, they came on upon the Banks, where they met nine or ten sail of Frenchmen, one of whom is the Pirate Ship of 26 Guns abovesaid, taken from a French-man, unto whom Roberts the Pirate gave the Bristol Gally, but sunk and destroyed all the other French Vessels, taking first out what Guns were fit for his own Ship, and all other valuable Goods.
Roberts the Pirate designed from Newfoundland to range thro' the Western and Canary Islands, and so to the Southward, to the Island of New Providence,[14] possest by Negroe's, in South Latitude 17, which they say is the place of the Pirates General Rendezvous, where they have a Fortification and a great Magazine of Powder, etc. where they intend to spend their Money with the Portuguize Negro Women. Roberts the Pirate says, that there is a French Pirate on the North Coast of America, who gives no Quarter to any Nation, and if he met him, he would give him none. The Pirates seems much enraged at Bristol Men, for Capt. Rogers sake, whom they hate as they do the Spaniards.
[1] From the file possessed by the Massachusetts Historical Society.
[2] Sewall notes in his diary, under this same date of Aug. 15, "Cary arrives who had been pillaged by the Pirats." Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., XLVII. 259.
[3] For Thomas read Bartholomew. Bartholomew Roberts was one of the most famous pirates of his time, i.e., of the years 1718-1724, the heyday of piracy in the eighteenth century. Capt. Charles Johnson, in his account of that period, A General History of the Pyrates (London, 1724), devotes nearly a third of his book (pp. 161-260 of the first edition) to Roberts, as "having made more Noise in the World" than others, and declares (p. 3 of preface) that "Roberts and his Crew, alone, took 400 Sail, before he was destroy'd". Of his appearance we have this picture, from the same chronicler's account of his last fight: a tall dark Welshman of near forty, "Roberts himself made a gallant Figure, being dressed in a rich crimson Damask Wastcoat, and Breeches, a red Feather in his Hat, and a Gold Chain Ten Times round his Neck, a Sword in his Hand, and two pair of Pistols hanging at the End of a Silk Sling, which was flung over his Shoulders, according to the Fashion of the Pyrates" (p. 213). His meteoric career of piracy lasted but four years.
[4] Probably a derisive phrase of their own, for the ordinary place of execution near Wapping Old Stairs.
[5] Proclamations offering pardon to pirates who should surrender themselves within a given time. Two such proclamations of George I., Sept. 5, 1717, and Dec. 21, 1718, are printed in the American Antiquarian Society's volume of royal proclamations relating to America, Transactions, XII. 176-178.