A General History Of the Pirates

None of these bold adventurers were ever so much talked of, for a while, as Avery; he made as great a noise in the world as Meriveis does now, and was looked upon to be a person of as great consequence; he was represented in Europe, as one that had raised himself to the dignity of a king, and was likely to be the founder of a new monarchy; having, as it was said, taken immense riches, and married the great mogul’s daughter, who was taken in an Indian ship, which fell into his hands; and that he had by her many children, living in great royalty and state; that he had built forts, erected magazines, and was master of a stout squadron of ships, mann’d with able and desperate fellows of all nations; that he gave commissions out in his own name to the captains of his ships, and to the commanders of his forts, and was acknowledged by them as their prince. a play was writ upon him, called, The Successful Pirate; and, these accounts obtained such belief, that several schemes were offered to the council for fitting out a squadron to take him; while others were for offering him and his companions an act of grace, and inviting them to England, with all their treasure, lest his growing greatness might hinder the trade of Europe to the East Indies.

Yet all these were no more than false rumours, improved by the credulity of some, and the humour of others who love to tell strange things; for, while it was said, he was aspiring at a crown, he wanted a shilling; and at the same time it was given out he was in possession of such prodigious wealth in Madagascar, he was starving in England.

No doubt, but the reader will have a curiosity of knowing what became of this man, and what were the true grounds of so many false reports concerning him; therefore, I shall, in as brief a manner as I can, give his history.

He was born in the West of England near Plymouth in Devonshire, being bred to the sea, he served as a mate of a merchantman, in several trading voyages: it happened before the Peace of Ryswick, when there was an alliance betwixt Spain, England, Holland, etc. against France, that the French in Martinique, carried on a smuggling trade with the Spaniards on the continent of Peru, which by the laws of Spain, is not allowed to friends in time of peace, for none but native Spaniards are permitted to traffic in those parts, or set their feet onshore, unless at any time they are brought as prisoners; wherefore they constantly keep certain ships cruising along the coast, whom they call guardacosta, who have the orders to make prizes of all ships they can light of within five leagues of land. Now the French growing very bold in trade, and the Spaniards being poorly provided with ships, and those they had being of no force, it often fell out, that when they light of the French smugglers, they were not strong enough to attack them, therefore it was resolv’d in Spain, to hire two or three stout foreign ships for their service, which being known at Bristol, some merchants of that city, fitted out two ships of thirty odd guns, and 120 hands each, well furnished with provision and ammunition, and all other stores; and the hire being agreed for, by some agents for Spain, they were commanded to sail for A Coruña or the Groyne, there to receive their orders, and to take on board some Spanish gentlemen, who were to go passengers to New Spain.

Of one of these ships, which I take to be call’d the Duke, Capt. Gibson Commander, Avery was first mate, and being a fellow of more cunning than courage, he insinuated himself into the goodwill of several of the boldest fellows on board the other ship, as well as that which he was on board of; having sounded their inclinations before he opened himself, and finding them ripe for his design, he, at length, proposed to them, to run away with the ship, telling them what great wealth was to be had upon the coasts of India. It was no sooner said than agreed to, and they resolved to execute their plot at ten a clock the night following.

It must be observ’d, the Captain was one of those who are mightily addicted to punch, so that he passed most of his time onshore, in some little drinking ordinary; but this day he did not go onshore as usual; however, this did not spoil the design, for he took his usual dose on board, and so got to bed before the hour appointed for the business: the men also who were not privy to the design, turn’d into their hammocks, leaving none upon deck but the conspirators, who, indeed, were the greatest part of the ship’s crew. At the time agreed on, the Dutchess’ longboat appear’d, which Avery hailing in the usual manner, was answered by the men in her, Is your drunken boatswain on board? Which was the watchword agreed between them, and Avery replying in the affirmative, the boat came aboard with sixteen stout fellows, and joined the company.

When our gentry saw that all was clear, they secured the hatches, so went to work; they did not slip the anchor, but weigh’d it leisurely, and so put to sea without any disorder or confusion, though there were several ships then lying in the bay, and among them a Dutch frigate of forty guns, the captain of which was offered a great reward to go out after her; but Mynheer, who perhaps would not have been willing to have been served so himself could not be prevail’d upon to give such usage to another, and so let Mr. Avery pursue his voyage, whither he had a mind to.

The captain, who by this time, was awaked, either by the motion of the ship, or the noise of working the tackles, rung the bell; Avery and two others went into the cabin; the captain, half asleep, and in a kind of fright, ask’d, what was the matter? Avery answered cooly, nothing; the captain replied, something’s the matter with the ship, does she drive? What weather is it? Thinking nothing less then that it had been a storm, and that the ship was driven from her anchors: no, no, answered Avery, we’re at sea, with a fair wind and good weather. At sea! says the captain, How can that be? Come, says Avery, don’t be in a fright, but put on your clothes, and I’ll let you into a secret:⁠—You must know, that I am captain of this ship now, and this is my cabin, therefore you must walk out; I am bound to Madagascar, with a design of making my own fortune, and that of all the brave fellows joined with me.

The captain having a little recovered his senses, began to apprehend the meaning; however, his fright was as great as before, which Avery perceiving, bade him fear nothing, for, says he, if you have a mind to make one of us, we will receive you, and if you’ll turn sober, and mind your business, perhaps in time I may make you one of my lieutenants, if not, here’s a boat alongside, and you shall be set ashore.

The captain was glad to hear this, and therefore accepted of his offer, and the whole crew being called up, to know who was willing to go onshore with the captain, and who to seek their fortunes with the rest; there were not above five or six who were willing to quit this enterprise; wherefore they were put into the boat with the captain that minute, and made their way to the shore as well as they could.

They proceeded on their voyage to Madagascar, but I do not find they took any ships in their way; when they arrived at the N. E. part of that island, they found two sloops at anchor, who, upon seeing them, slip’d their cables and run themselves ashore, the men all landing, and running into the woods; these were two sloops which the men had run away with from the West Indies, and seeing Avery, they supposed him to be some frigate sent to take them, and therefore not being of force to engage him, they did what they could to save themselves.

He guessed where they were, and sent some of his men onshore to let them know they were friends, and to offer they might join together for their common safety; the sloops’ men were well arm’d, and had posted themselves in a wood, with sentinels just on the outside, to observe whether the ship landed her men to pursue them, and they observing only two or three men to come towards them without arms, did not oppose them, but having challenged them, and they answering they were friends, they lead them to their body, where they delivered their message; at first, they apprehended it was a stratagem to decoy them on board, but when the ambassadors offered that the captain himself, and as many of the crew as they should name, would meet them onshore without arms, they believed them to be in earnest, and they soon entered into a confidence with one another; those on board going onshore, and some of those onshore going on board.

The sloops’ men were rejoiced at the new ally, for their vessels were so small, that they could not attack a ship of any force, so that hitherto they had not taken any considerable prize, but now they hop’d to fly at high game; and Avery was as well pleased at this reinforcement, to strengthen them, for any brave enterprise, and though the booty must be lessened to each, by being divided into so many shares, yet he found out an expedient not to suffer by it himself as shall be shown in its place.

Having consulted what was to be done, they resolved to sail out together upon a cruise, the galley and two sloops; they therefore fell to work to get the sloops off, which they soon effected, and steered towards the Arabian coast; near the River Indus, the man at the masthead spied a sail, upon which they gave chase, and as they came nearer to her, they perceived her to be a tall ship, and fancied she might be a Dutch East India man homeward bound; but she proved a better prize; when they fired at her to bring too, she hoisted mogul’s colours, and seemed to stand upon her defence; Avery only cannonaded at a distance, and some of his men began to suspect that he was not the hero they took him for: however, the sloops made use of their time, and coming one on the bow, and the other on the quarter, of the ship, clapt her on board, and enter’d her, upon which she immediately struck her colours and yielded; she was one of the great mogul’s own ships, and there were in her several of the greatest persons of his court, among whom it was said was one of his daughters, who were going on a pilgrimage to Mecca, the Muhammadans thinking themselves obliged once in their lives to visit that place, and they were carrying with them rich offerings to present at the shrine of Muhammad. It is known that the Eastern people travel with the utmost magnificence, so that they had with them all their slaves and attendants, their rich habits and jewels, with vessels of gold and silver, and great sums of money to defray the charges of their journey by land; wherefore the plunder got by this prize, is not easily computed.

Having taken all the treasure on board their own ships, and plundered their prize of everything else they either wanted or liked, they let her go; she not being able to continue her voyage, returned back: as soon as the news came to the mogul, and he knew that they were English who had robbed them, he threatened loud, and talked of sending a mighty army with fire and sword, to extirpate the English from all their settlements on the Indian coast. The East India Company in England, were very much alarmed at it; however, by degrees, they found means to pacify him, by promising to do their endeavours to take the robbers, and deliver them into his hands; however, the great noise this thing made in Europe, as well as India, was the occasion of all these romantic stories which were formed of Avery’s greatness.

In the meantime our successful plunderers agreed to make the best of their way back to Madagascar, intending to make that place their magazine or repository for all their treasure, and to build a small fortification there, and leave a few hands always ashore to look after it, and defend it from any attempts of the natives; but Avery put an end to this project, and made it altogether unnecessary.

As they were steering their course, as has been said, he sends a boat on board of each of the sloops, desiring the chief of them to come on board of him, in order to hold a council; they did so, and he told them he had something to propose to them for the common good, which was to provide against accidents; he bade them consider the treasure they were possess’d of, would be sufficient for them all if they could secure it in some place onshore; therefore all they had to fear, was some misfortune in the voyage; he bade them consider the consequences of being separated by bad weather, in which case, the sloops, if either of them should fall in with any ships of force, must be either taken or sunk, and the treasure on board her lost to the rest, besides the common accidents of the sea; as for his part he was so strong, he was able to make his party good with any ship they were like to meet in those seas; that if he met with any ship of such strength, that he could not take her, he was safe from being taken, being so well mann’d; besides his ship was a quick sailor, and could carry sail, when the sloops could not, wherefore, he proposed to them, to put the treasure on board his ship, to seal up each chest with 3 seals, whereof each was to keep one, and to appoint a rendezvous, in case of separation.

Upon considering this proposal, it appeared so reasonable to them, that they readily came into it, for they argued to themselves, that an accident might happen to one of the sloops and the other escape, wherefore it was for the common good. The thing was done as agreed to, the treasure put on board of Avery, and the chests seal’d; they kept company that day and the next, the weather being fair, in which time Avery tampered with his men, telling them they now had sufficient, to make them all easy, and what should hinder them from going to some country, where they were not known, and living onshore all the rest of their days in plenty; they understood what he meant: and in short, they all agreed to bilk their new allies, the sloops’ men, nor do I find that any of them felt any qualms of honour rising in his stomach, to hinder them from consenting to this piece of treachery. In fine, they took advantage of the darkness that night, steer’d another course, and, by morning, lost sight of them.

I leave the reader to judge, what swearing and confusion there was among the sloops’ men, in the morning, when they saw that Avery had given them the slip; for they knew by the fairness of the weather, and the course they had agreed to steer, that it must have been done on purpose: but we leave them at present to follow Mr. Avery.

Avery, and his men, having consulted what to do with themselves, came to a resolution, to make the best of their way towards America; and none of them being known in those parts, they intended to divide the treasure, to change their names, to go ashore, some in one place, some in other, to purchase some settlements, and live at ease. The first land they made, was the island of Providence, then newly settled; here they stayed some time, and having considered that when they should go to New England, the greatness of their ship, would cause much enquiry about them; and possibly some people from England, who had heard the story of a ship’s being run away with from the Groyne, might suspect them to be the people; they therefore took a resolution of disposing of their ship at Providence: upon which, Avery pretending that the ship being fitted out upon the privateering account, and having had no success, he had received orders from the owners, to dispose of her to the best advantage, he soon met with a purchaser, and immediately bought a sloop.

In this sloop, he and his companions embarq’d, they touch’d at several parts of America, where no person suspected them; and some of them went onshore, and dispersed themselves about the country, having received such dividends as Avery would give them; for he concealed the greatest part of the diamonds from them, which in the first hurry of plundering the ship, they did not much regard, as not knowing their value.

At length he came to Boston, in New England, and seem’d to have a desire of settling in those parts, and some of his companions went onshore there also, but he changed his resolution, and proposed to the few of his companions who were left, to sail for Ireland, which they consented to: he found out that New England was not a proper place for him, because a great deal of his wealth lay in diamonds; and should he have produced them there, he would have certainly been seiz’d on suspicion of piracy.

In their voyage to Ireland, they avoided St. George’s Channel, and sailing north about, they put into one of the northern ports of that kingdom; there they disposed of their sloop, and coming onshore they separated themselves, some going to Cork, and some to Dublin, 18 of whom obtain’d their pardons afterwards of K. William. When Avery had remain’d some time in this kingdom, he was afraid to offer his diamonds to sale, lest an enquiry into his manner of coming by them should occasion a discovery; therefore considering with himself what was best to be done, he fancied there were some persons at Bristol, whom he might venture to trust; upon which, he resolved to pass over into England; he did so, and going into Devonshire, he sent to one of these friends to meet him at a town called Biddiford; when he had communicated himself to his friends, and consulted with him about the means of his effects, they agreed, that the safest method would be, to put them in the hands of some merchants, who being men of wealth and credit in the world, no enquiry would be made how they came by them; this friend telling him he was very intimate with some who were very fit for the purpose, and if he would but allow them a good commission would do the business very faithfully. Avery liked the proposal, for he found no other way of managing his affairs, since he could not appear in them himself; therefore his friend going back to Bristol, and opening the matter to the merchants, they made Avery a visit at Biddiford, where, after some protestations of honour and integrity, he delivered them his effects, consisting of diamonds and some vessels of gold; they gave him a little money for his present subsistence, and so they parted.

He changed his name and lived at Biddiford, without making any figure, and therefore there was no great notice taken of him; yet let one or two of his relations know where he was, who came to see him. In some time his little money was spent, yet he heard nothing from his merchants; he writ to them often, and after much importunity they sent him a small supply, but scarce sufficient to pay his debts: in fine, the supplies they sent him from time to time, were so small, that they were not sufficient to give him bread, nor could he get that little, without a great deal of trouble and importunity, wherefore being weary of his life, he went privately to Bristol, to speak to the merchants himself, where instead of money he met a most shocking repulse, for when he desired them to come to an account with him, they silenced him by threatening to discover him, so that our merchants were as good pirates at land as he was at sea.

Whether he was frightened by these menaces, or had seen somebody else he thought knew him, is not known; but he went immediately over to Ireland, and from thence solicited his merchants very hard for a supply, but to no purpose, for he was even reduced to beggary: in this extremity he was resolved to return and cast himself upon them, let the consequence be what it would. He put himself on board a trading vessel, and work’d his passage over to Plymouth, from whence he traveled on foot to Biddiford, where he had been but a few days before he fell sick and died; not being worth as much as would buy him a coffin.

Thus have I given all that could be collected of any certainty concerning this man; rejecting the idle stories which were made of his fantastic greatness, by which it appears, that his actions were more inconsiderable than those of other pirates, since him, though he made more noise in the world.

Now we shall turn back and give our readers some account of what became of the two sloops.

We took notice of the rage and confusion, which must have seized them, upon their missing of Avery; however, they continued their course, some of them still flattering themselves that he had only outsailed them in the night, and that they should find him at the place of rendezvous: but when they came there, and could hear no tidings of him, there was an end of hope. It was time to consider what they should do with themselves, their stock of sea provision was almost spent, and though there was rice and fish, and fowl to be had ashore, yet these would not keep for sea, without being properly cured with salt, which they had no conveniency of doing; therefore, since they could not go a-cruising anymore, it was time to think of establishing themselves at land; to which purpose they took all things out of the sloops, made tents of the sails, and encamped themselves, having a large quantity of ammunition, and abundance of small arms.

Here they met with several of their countrymen, the crew of a privateer sloop which was commanded by Captain Thomas Tew; and since it will be but a short digression, we will give an account how they came here.

Captain George Dew and Captain Thomas Tew, having received commissions from the then governor of Bermuda, to sail directly for the River Gambia in Africa; there, with the advice and assistance of the agents of the Royal African Company, to attempt the taking the French factory at Gorée, lying upon that coast. In a few days after they sailed out, Dew in a violent storm, not only sprung his mast, but lost sight of his consort; Dew therefore returned back to refit, and Tew instead of proceeding on his voyage, made for the Cape of Good Hope, and doubling the said cape, shaped his course for the Straits of Babel Mandel, being the entrance into the Red Sea. Here he came up with a large ship, richly laden, bound from the Indies to Arabia, with three hundred soldiers on board, besides seamen; yet Tew had the hardiness to board her, and soon carried her; and, ’tis said, by this prize, his men shared near three thousand pounds a piece: they had intelligence from the prisoners, of five other rich ships to pass that way, which Tew would have attacked, though they were very strong, if he had not been overruled by the Quartermaster and others.⁠—this differing in opinion created some ill blood amongst them, so that they resolved to break up pirating, and no place was so fit to receive them as Madagascar; hither they steered, resolving to live onshore and enjoy what they got.

As for Tew himself, he with a few others in a short time went off to Rhode Island, from whence he made his peace.

Thus have we accounted for the company our pirates met with here.

It must be observed that the natives of Madagascar are a kind of Negroes, they differ from those of Guinea in their hair, which is long, and their complexion is not so good a jet; they have innumerable little princes among them, who are continually making war upon one another; their prisoners are their slaves, and they either sell them, or put them to death, as they please: when our pirates first settled amongst them, their alliance was much courted by these princes, so they sometimes joined one, sometimes another, but wheresoever they sided, they were sure to be victorious; for the Negroes here had no firearms, nor did they understand their use; so that at length these pirates became so terrible to the Negroes, that if two or three of them were only seen on one side, when they were going to engage, the opposite side would fly without striking a blow.

By these means they not only became feared, but powerful; all the prisoners of war, they took to be their slaves; they married the most beautiful of the Negro women; not one or two, but as many as they liked; so that every one of them had as great a seraglio as the Grand Seignior at Constantinople: their slaves they employed in planting rice, in fishing, hunting, etc. besides which, they had abundance of others, who lived, as it were, under their protection, and to be secure from the disturbances or attacks of their powerful neighbours; these seemed to pay them a willing homage. Now they began to divide from one another, each living with his own wives, slaves and dependents, like a separate prince; and as power and plenty naturally beget contention, they sometimes quarrelled with one another, and attacked each other at the head of their several armies; and in these civil wars, many of them were killed; but an accident happened, which obliged them to unite again for their common safety.

It must be observed that these sudden great men, had used their power like tyrants, for they grew wanton in cruelty, and nothing was more common, than upon the slightest displeasure, to cause one of their dependents to be tied to a tree and shot thro’ the heart, let the crime be what it would, whether little or great, this was always the punishment; wherefore the Negroes conspired together, to rid themselves of these destroyers, all in one night; and as they now lived separate, the thing might easily have been done, had not a woman, who had been wife or concubine to one of them, run near twenty miles in three hours, to discover the matter to them: immediately upon the alarm they ran together as fast as they could, so that when the Negroes approached them, they found them all up in arms; wherefore they retired without making any attempt.

This escape made them very cautious from that time, and it will be worth while to describe the policy of these brutish fellows, and to show what measures they took to secure themselves.

They found that the fear of their power could not secure them against a surprise, and the bravest man may be kill’d when he is asleep, by one much his inferior in courage and strength, therefore, as their first security, they did all they could to foment war betwixt the neighbouring Negroes, remaining neuter themselves, by which means, those who were overcome constantly fled to them for protection, otherwise they must be either killed or made slaves. They strengthened their party, and tied some to them by interest; when there was no war, they contrived to spirit up private quarrels among them, and upon every little dispute or misunderstanding, push on one side or other to revenge; instruct them how to attack or surprise their adversaries, and lend them loaded pistols or firelocks to dispatch them with; the consequence of which was, that the murderer was forced to fly to them for the safety of his life, with his wives, children and kindred.

Such as these were fast friends, as their lives depended upon the safety of his protectors; for as we observed before, our pirates were grown so terrible, that none of their neighbours had resolution enough to attack them in an open war.

By such arts as these, in the space of a few years, their body was greatly increased, they then began to separate themselves, and remove at a greater distance from one another, for the convenience of more ground, and were divided like Jews, into tribes, each carrying with him his wives and children, (of which, by this time they had a large family,) as also their quota of dependents and followers; and if power and command be the thing which distinguish a prince, these ruffians had all the marks of royalty about them, nay more, they had the very fears which commonly disturb tyrants, as may be seen by the extreme caution they took in fortifying the places where they dwelt.

In this plan of fortification they imitated one another, their dwellings were rather citadels than houses; they made choice of a place overgrown with wood, and scituate near a water; they raised a rampart or high ditch round it, so straight and high, that it was impossible to climb it, and especially by those who had not the use of scaling ladders: over this ditch there was one passage into the wood; the dwelling, which was a hut, was built in that part of the wood which the prince, who inhabited it, thought fit, but so covered that it could not be seen till you came at it; but the greatest cunning lay in the passage which lead to the hut, which was so narrow, that no more than one person could go abreast, and contrived in so intricate a manner, that it was a perfect maze or labyrinth, it being round and round, with several little crossways, so that a person that was not well acquainted with the way, might walk several hours round and cross these ways without being able to find the hut; moreover all along the sides of these narrow paths, certain large thorns which grew upon a tree in that country, were struck into the ground with their points uppermost, and the path itself being made crooked and serpentine, if a man should attempt to come near the hut at night, he would certainly have struck upon these thorns, though he had been provided with that clue which Ariadne gave to Theseus when he entered the cave of the Minotaur.

Thus tyrant like they lived, fearing and feared by all; and in this situation they were found by Captain Woodes Rogers, when he went to Madagascar, in the Delicia, a ship of forty guns, with a design of buying slaves in order to sell to the Dutch at Batavia or New Holland: he happened to touch upon a part of the island, where no ship had been seen for seven or eight years before, where he met with some of the pirates, at which time, they had been upon the island above 25 years, having a large motley generation of children and grandchildren descended from them, there being about that time, eleven of them remaining alive.

Upon their first seeing a ship of this force and burden, they supposed it to be a man-of-war sent to take them; they therefore lurked within their fastnesses, but when some from the ship came onshore, without any show of hostility, and offering to trade with the Negroes, they ventured to come out of their holes, attended like princes; and since they actually are kings de facto, which is a kind of a right, we ought to speak of them as such.

Having been so many years upon this island, it may be imagined, their clothes had long been worn out, so that their Majesties were extremely out at the elbows; I cannot say they were ragged, since they had no clothes, they had nothing to cover them but the skins of beasts without any tanning, but with all the hair on, nor a shoe nor stocking, so they looked like the pictures of Hercules in the lion’s skin; and being overgrown with beard, and hair upon their bodies, they appeared the most savage figures that a man’s imagination can frame.

However, they soon got rigg’d, for they sold great numbers of those poor people under them, for clothes, knives, saws, powder and ball, and many other things, and became so familiar that they went aboard the Delicia, and were observed to be very curious, examining the inside of the ship, and very familiar with the men, inviting them ashore. Their design in doing this, as they afterwards confessed, was to try if it was not practicable to surprise the ship in the night, which they judged very easy, in case there was but a slender watch kept on board, they having boats and men enough at command, but it seems the captain was aware of them, and kept so strong a watch upon deck, that they found it was in vain to make any attempt; wherefore, when some of the men went ashore, they were for inveigling them, and drawing them into a plot, for seizing the captain and securing the rest of the men under hatches, when they should have the night-watch, promising a signal to come on board to join them; proposing, if they succeeded, to go a-pirating together, not doubting but with that ship they should be able to take anything they met on the sea: but the captain observing an intimacy growing betwixt them and some of his men, thought it could be for no good, he therefore broke it off in time, not suffering them so much as to talk together; and when he sent a boat onshore with an officer to treat with them about the sale of slaves, the crew remained on board the boat, and no man was suffered to talk with them, but the person deputed by him for that purpose.

Before he sailed away, and they found that nothing was to be done, they confessed all the designs they had formed against him. Thus he left them as he found them, in a great deal of dirty state and royalty, but with fewer subjects than they had, having, as we observed, sold many of them; and if ambition be the darling passion of men, no doubt they were happy. One of these great princes had formerly been a waterman upon the Thames, where having committed a murder, he fled to the West Indies, and was of the number of those who run away with the sloops; the rest had been all foremast men, nor was there a man amongst them, who could either read or write, and yet their secretaries of state had no more learning than themselves. This is all the account we can give of these kings of Madagascar, some of whom it is probable are reigning to this day.