With a Foreword and sundry Decorations by...

NEW YORK: ROBERT M. McBRIDE AND COMPANY 1922 First American Edition Printed in the United States of America Printed in Great Britain by Billing and Sons, Ltd., Guildford and Esher....

Time, though a good Collector, is not always a reliable Historian. That is to say, that although nothing of interest or importance is lost, yet an affair may be occasionally invested with a glamour that is not wholly its own. I venture to think that Piracy has fortuned in this particular. We are apt to base our ideas of Piracy on the somewhat vague ambitions of our childhood; and I suppose, were such a thing possible, the consensus of opinion in our nurseries as to a future profession in life wo

He was the son of John Avery , a victualler near Plymouth , in Devonshire , who in a few years was grown as opulent in his purse as in his body, by scoring two for one; and when he had so done, drinking the most of the liquor himself. By which means, and having a handsome wife, who knew her business as well as if she had been brought up to it from a child (which, indeed, she mostly was, her mother keeping the House before she married Mr. Avery ), they soon became very rich and very able to give

John Rackham was Quarter-Master to Vane’s Company, till Vane was turned out for not fighting the French Man-of-War, and Rackham put in Captain in his place, which happened about the 24th day of November , 1718. His first cruise was among the Caribbe Islands, where he took and plundered several vessels. Afterwards, to the windward of Jamaica , he fell in with a Madeira Man, which he detained till he had made his market out of her, and then restored her to her Master, suffering Hosea Tisdel , a ta

Spriggs sailed at first with Lowe , and came away with him from Lowther . Afterwards Lowe took a ship of twelve guns on the Coast of Guinea , called the Delight , which Spriggs went off on board with twenty men, and leaving Lowe in the night, came to the West Indies . In their passage they made a Black Ensign, which they called the Jolly Roger , with a skeleton in the middle holding a dart in one hand, striking a bleeding heart; and in the other an hour-glass; and being hoisted, they fired all t

Edward Lowe , born at Westminster , very early began the Trade of Plundering; for if any Child refused him what he had, he must fight him. When he grew bigger, he took to Gaming among Blackshoe Boys upon the Parade , with whom he used to play the Whole Game , as they call it; that is, cheat every Body, and if they refused, they had to fight him. Ned went to Sea with his eldest Brother, and leaving him in New-England , he worked in a Rigging House, at Boston, for some Time, when not liking that,

George Lowther went second Mate on board the Gambia Castle , belonging to the Royal African Company, on board which was Captain Massey , with soldiers that he was to command under Colonel Whitney , whom were landed on James Island; but the Fort and Garrison not agreeing the Company soon after lost a Galley worth 10000 l. by it. Massey finding he must be over-ruled by the merchants, soon began to complain of their ill-treatment of his men in their allowance, saying he did not come to be a Guinea

Thomas Anstis shipped himself at Providence , in the Year 1718, aboard the Buck Sloop, and was one of the six that conspired together to get off with the vessel, along with Howel Davis , Dennis Topping , and Walter Kennedy , etc. I shall only observe, that this combination was the beginning of Captain Roberts’s company, which afterwards proved so formidable, from whom Anstis separated the 18th of April , 1721, leaving his Commodore to pursue his adventures upon the Coasts of Guinea , whilst he r

John Phillips was bred a carpenter, but sailing in a West Country ship to Newfoundland , was taken by Anstis , who soon persuaded him to join with him, making him Carpenter of the Vessel, in which station he continued till they broke up at Tobago , when he came Home in a Sloop that was sunk in Bristol Channel. But he did not stay long in England ; for hearing of some of his companions being taken in Bristol Gaol, he moved off to Topsham , and there shipped himself with one Captain Wadham for New

Edward Teach was a Bristol Man, and had served many years in the late wars, in a Privateer fitted out from Jamaica , in which he had often distinguished himself for his boldness. He was never thought fit to be entrusted with any Command, till he went a-pirating in the Year 1716, when Captain Benjamin Hornigold put him into a Prize Sloop, with whom he kept company till Hornigold surrendered. In 1727, Teach and Hornigold sailed from Providence for America , where, in their way, they took a vessel

The Major was a Gentleman of Fortune and Distinction in the Island of Barbadoes , who before his Piracy bore the character of a worthy honest man , and no-body could ever account for this his undertaking, for he wanted neither learning nor understanding. He fitted out a Sloop with ten guns and sixty men, which he named the Revenge , at his own expence, and sailed from Barbadoes for the Cape of Virginia , where he took the Anne from Glasgow , the Turbet from Barbadoes , the Endeavour from Bristol

We are now going to give an account of one whose name is better known in England , than most of those whose histories we have already related; the person we mean is Captain Kid , whose public Trial and Execution here, rendered him the subject of all conversation. In the beginning of King William’s War, Captain Kid commanded a Privateer in the West-Indies , and by several adventurous actions acquired the reputation of a brave man, as well as an experienced seaman. About this time the Pirates were

John Gow , alias Smith , was born at a place called Caristoun , in the Orkney Islands, and was brought up a sailor from his youth, having served on board several Men-of-War, and last of all on board the Suffolk , along with T. Swan , who was engaged with him in the conspiracy to murder Captain Ferneau , and seize the ship and cargoe, as they went off the Texel , but they were prevented by James Belvin , who was led into the secret and discovered it. Captain Ferneau taking little notice of it, co