att S.E. and b.S. and S.S.E. and S.E. wee stood of to sea, steming S.W. and b.W. and S.W., commonly makeing a West 35 deg. southerly way, sayling after the rate of 5 or 6 leagues a watch. fine moderate windes and fair weather. we found a currant sett here to the S.W. quarter. we stands up to Payta, which is about 13 leagues to the Southwards of cape Blanco, and in so. lattd. 5 deg.. wee wear minded to take itt, butt the fryar and fower Negro's, which made their Escape out of the little Barque we tooke under the Shore, had gott before us, and sent to every sea porte towne to give them notice that we wear a comeing to windward as fast as we could, so on a Sunday Morning our capt. Sharpe, with about 36 hands, went to land att Payta, butt found itt so well lyned with men that thay durst not adventure On itt, but come back againe, resolveing to live on bread and water till such time as could be better supplied, concludeing that our wine and brandy would keepe us alive. wee now makes no more tacks alonge shore, but stands close hal'd on a boleing to sea,[82] about 670 leagues due West from Payta, till we come up to 33 So. lattd. ther we had variable winds. wee hal's in for the shore, getting our Larbord tacks on borde, the wind comeing out at N.W. in that quarter that wee could not fetch the Keys of Juan Fernandus, wheir wee Expected to Recruit with fresh goates and water, and to have faught[83] off our Musketa-Indian we left their the time before, but we getting to the Southwards of these keys, and the winds comeing out for Northerly, was forced to ply to the Southward, and then wee had Some raines, which from 7 deg. So. lattd. till you come to 28 deg. So. lattd., is never no raine by the Spaniards report nor since thay have inhabited the cuntry, which hath been about 180 years; yett very good Corne growes, and all sorts of Herbs and graine, but thay [have] Extreeme dues. wee stands still to the Southward, and haveing now great variation, 13 or 14 degrees, we wear very Exact in takeing Amplitudes,[84] to be the more Sattisfied in thick weather of our true course made. wee stood to the S.E. and S.E. and B.S. 700 leagues, and about 3 aclock in the Morning the watch saw breakers very near us under our Lea. it blew hard, that 2 nights before we had handed[85] our topp sailes, and went under a pair of Coarses and our mizon. wee wear gott now up to 50 deg. 8' So. lattd. itt being a little light, before day wee saw the land plaine. wee heaved out our topp sailes reeved and made shift to weather all the breakers, and when twas day we discried a place between 2 keys which we concludes to beare up to see if wee could finde any good Anchoring and saife rideing till twas a little later in the year. twas very colde heare, much raine, The Hills coverd with Snow. wee went in along the key side about 4 leagues and saw a very convenient cove. wee came to an Anchor the 3d of November, thinking to stay hear till the weather was a little warmer. the first night we lost one Anchor, the Cable being Very bad. we warped and towed into another Cove, lieing a little more to the Southwards, the wind blowing N.N.W. wee gott the ends of all our cable and Hassers and made fast ashore to the trees; yett all would Hardly doe, for when it blew hard, our cable would give way and our shipp in dainger of driveing ashore, which if had we should lived like Heathens amounge the Savage Indians, and never have come to rights, but we spliced and Strengthend our cables what we could and with much difficulty made them hold out. the 21 day of november 81 wee putt out of thiss place to sea. wee lay here about 22 dayes, feadeing most on lempotts[86] and Mussles, which wee gatherd of the rocks and makes very good foode. our wine and brandie was a greate Help to us thiss cold weather. clothing wee had good Store. some times we gott a Penguine, which are plenty in these streights, which are as greate as a goose, but cant fly, haveing on their winges onely stubbs of feathers. hear we saw a fier and made to itt, wheir we saw an Antient Indian, and a younge fellow and a woman Indian, which had about their bodies a Seale Skinn to keepe them warme. thay saw us and rann away, but we over tooke the younge fellow, which tooke to throwing of Stones. the olde man tooke the water and was so cunning in diveing that our Peopple could not gett him, so they shott him in the water. the woman gott away from us the next day. one of our cannoes went downe to this place againe, and carried the Indian that was taken alonge with him, which Indian carried our peopple to thre or 4 wigwams, wheir was fier, but could see no peopple. the fellow cald in their Speech but none appeard, he makeings signes that thay weare greate tall men with longe beards.[87] when our peopple saw none came, thay returned to the cannoe, carying this Indian fellow which was very unwilling to goe but Strugled to gett away, twas as much as 3 or 4 of our men could do to binde him, and force him downe to the cannoe, His strength was so greate. wee doe Imagin that here may be some Spaniards which formerly have been cast away; for to the Southwards about 4 legs when wee came out with our Shipp we saw to very greate fiers but wear la'ft [sic] to see what thay weir, but went to sea, stearing away S.W. and B.S. and S.W. the winds weir very hard att N.W. we went under a pair of courses, haveing no observation in 3 days after wee came out of these Lempot keys, wee stearing as far to the westwards for fear of the Island called the 12 Appostle and 4 Evangelist[88] takeing of us upp, which lieth att the entring of the Streight mouth. the currant setting to the westward out of the Streights, satt us by Judgement 25 leagues off shore and when we observed we weir in the lattd. of 55 deg. 30', the wind being no[r]therly, and wee so to the Southwards of the Streights could not gett to the Northwards againe, but the capt. and Master, with advice of some others, concluded to goe about terra fuega,[89] and so to goe through the New Streights, the Streights of Maria, which wee had a Journall of 2 Brothers called by name Noddles, which was about 65 years agon sent out to discover these parts of the world,[90] which thay gave description that thay went about terra Fogoe through thiss Streight of Maria and weatherd Terra Fogoe, and went downe the west side, and ran downe to the Northwards, and entred the Streight of Magelena, and came thro' into the North Sea, wheir he speakes of aboundance of those birds called Penguins, whear thay laded, bold with them.[91] wee had very colde weather and about the 3 of december wee passed a cape, called cape Frea, lieing to the South of Terra Fogoe, in the lattd. 59 deg. 30' South.[92] wee finde here about 4 degrees variation, but downe in 35 and 40 wee had 11 and 12 and 13 degrees variation. wee weir something fearfull of Halling to close into shore, being not acquainted did not know what danger might be, yett would very willingly have save [seen?] the Land, that wee might have beene the better satisfied where we weir. twas very thick weather, that wee could seldom take an observation. we Indeavord to make the Cape Horne but we weir gott so far to the Southwards.[93] Yett we beleive we weir not very farr off shore, for we had thousands of birds about us. the 9 day of December we had a good observation and found our selves to be in South lattd. 58 deg. 5'. we had the winds att N.E. and N.E. and b.N., fine handsome topp saile gailes, sometimes a shower of Snow and Sleete, but miserable colde. now our wines and brandy stand us in greate Steade and is the thing under god that keepes us alive. we stands to the Southward, haling S.E. and S.E. and B.E. After wee had our last observation, which was 58 deg. 5', when we thought by our Dead reconning that we weir in the lattd. of 60 or better, wee Steerd away due East.[94] we had but little Night, the Daylight was hardly shett in att all. we standing to the Eastwards saw 3 or 4 greate Islands of Ice and Snow, as we thought, of a good high and very colde about them. from this Cape their are lying 3 or 4 Islands called the Berlingos, which I am to think are those wee tooke to be the Islands of Ice, for thay are all kiver'd with Snow, and the Burlingos lyeth by the globe in the lattd. of 59 deg. 00'.[95] One Night as wee weare getting about the land, some men gott merry, Especially the capt. and his Mess, which caused some words to arise between the capt. and Some of the company, in so much that thay fell to blowes, but the capt. runns into his cabbon and fetches out a Pistoll laden, and comeing to one of Our Peopple, by name Richard Hendricks, fier'd itt off as he thought att his Head, but itt pleased god itt mist his head and grased on his neck. the next morning wee found the shott placed in one of the Dead Eyes of the maine shroudes, which was but Jus[t] behinde him. the capt. thought he had kil'd the man, cryed out, "Armes, their was one dead," and he would have kill more, which cabbon mess ran and fetched their Armes forthwith, and those that weir awake, was fetching theirs likewise, which had not been soberer then others and more discretion in them Sharpe had certainly been kill'd. it had likt to have been a bad buisness, but when the[se] things came to an understandings All was husht upp, Especially findeing the man was not so much hurt as wee did suppos and was cured in a weeks time. Well, we stears away East, till we thought we Had Easting enough to enter the Streights of Maria. Now we begins to Hall to the Norwards E.N.E., and by observation taken we found our selves to be gott to the norwards into 57 deg. 8'. then we halls away N.E. and about 4 days after had another very good observation. then we found our Selves to be in 50 deg. So. lattd. Shott to the Norwards of these new Streights, doubled about all the Lands; aboundance of birds attends us Still. Wee are now gotten to the Streights Mouth of Magelen, the North side. wee had good Fresh gales att N.W. and S.W., the winds very variable. we runing into hot weather to the Norwards and halling about Terra Fogoe to the Eastward wee found a greate Currant to the E.N.E. wee weare farther off Shore then wee Expected, yett wee hal'd away N.E., hopeing that off of Brazill we should meete with English, Dutch or Portugeez, to hear how our buisness was discourst of att home and to buy a little Provision of them. we hal'd away N.E. till we came downe into 14 deg. No. lattd,[96] that we would be sure to carry itt about a shoale which lieth a little to the Norwards of Cape Toms,[97] lying in South lattd. 22 deg. 50'. we wear more to the eastward then we Expected. by our Runn afterward we found wee weir 170 leagues to the eastward then we Judged our selves to be. in this lattd. we had very Easy topp saile gailes of wind, and mostly att E. and E.N.E. and sometimes att E.S.E., but very seldom comes to the southward of the S.E. att this time of year, Except itt be in a Turnado. we carried what saile we could, being willing to be on land. after we gott into 13 deg. So. lattd, we steard more westerly, N. and N. and b.W., till we comes into the lattd. of 8 deg. 20', the length of cape Augusteene,[98] then hald away N.N.W. and N.W.b.N. till we come into the lattd. of Barbados, and run down into 13 deg. and 5',[99] keepeing a good lattd. for to see the barbados. wee ran about 12 or 13 days in the latt. our Reconing was out 5 or 6 dayes before we made the Land,[100] and about 3 a clock in the morning about the 12 of feb.[101] the Master cal'd out Land. wee saw twas Barbados, and which was comfortable to us all to have so good a land fall. we went downe the N.E. side, luffing upp for spikes rode,[102] wheir we saw shipping ride. The Richmans Pinnas [omission] and haled us. we lay by and disputed with them, desiering them to come on borde, but thay would not. thay askt us if we would not goe into an Anchor. we told them as farr as wee knew wee would, but thay being soe cautious how thay came on borde Putt us into many thoughts what to doe. wee consciderd, that here was one of his Majts. Shipps, and wee could not hear how itt was with other Nations, wheather itt was Warrs or Peace, so that we threw the Helme a weather, throwing out topp gallant Sailes, studing sayles and all the sayles we could make, and Steard for the Disiada[103] which we made plaine and so went downe to Antigua. their wee saw a fly bote att Anchor, wheir we sent our man of warr Cannoe ashore to buy some provissionns. when thay came in thay found itt called Falmouth.[104] wee Supplied our selves hear with one or two dayes provission. one capt. Burroughs, understanding we wear in want, came on borde of us and after went away with one Cook, our Master, to the governor of Antigua[105] for liberty to come in. we next morning had the mate of a Shipp which lay att the olde rode to carry us as close in as he could for which he was very well sattisfied. wee could not have any permission to come in, neither any deniall, but after some commanders of March't-men came on borde and desierd our Capt. to goe for England, he was easy perswaided, thay telling him twould be the makeing of him; so he came on the deck and bid Every man shift for himself, for he would goe for England himself; upon which every man packt upp whatt he had, some for olde England, some for Jamaica, other for New Engl. everyone tooke his way, onely 7 men abord that had lost their Voyage,[106] so the capt. and Company thoug[ht] good to give them the shipp and what was in her. thay thought good to goe downe to their commission Port, Petit guavos,[107] but the Shipp was so crewell leakey, that thay hardly have the Patience to keepe her above water to St. Thomases,[108] haveing but 7 hands on borde, and a shipp giveing chace to them so that thay loosed all their saile, and was much putt to itt for the hands, but comein a brest of St. Thomases saw the Harbor very Plaine, and to be sure we went into a small Harbor a mile to leeward of the Fort. we wear tolde att Antegua that thiss was a free Port for Eight years, which we found to be so.[109] the governor gave us Liberty to come in, and the next day sent out hands to bring us in to the right harbor, under Commd. of the forte. the next day our cable brake and she drave ashore; but not being willing to loose her, gott her off with one Anchor and cable off, and one end of a cable ashore, and so gott her into the Soft woose,[110] because wee would not be att the charge of Negro's and to pumpe her. thus the good shipp Trinity, which was Built in the South Seas, ended her Voyage, and through the Blessing of god brought us amounge our Cuntry men againe, and thiss being what I can think on att present, being the true actions of our Voyage as near as I can Remember, my Jornall being detained att St. Thomases and lost.[111] The Lord be praised for all his mercyes to us. Finis.

[Footnote 7: Cassava.]

[Footnote 8: Wafer, pp. 153-154, who lived four months among these Indians, describes their method of making "corn drink." "It tastes like sour small Beer, yet 'tis very intoxicating."]

[Footnote 9: The river was that which is now called Chucunaque.]

[Footnote 10: Some affluent of the Chucanaque.]

[Footnote 11: Cartridge.]

[Footnote 12: Still so called. It lies some 15 or 20 miles north of the gold mines of Cana ("the richest Gold-Mines ever yet found in America", says Dampier) and from the Cerro Pirre, whence Balboa first looked at the Pacific, "Silent upon a peak in Darien."]

[Footnote 13: The Tuira, into which the Chucunaque flows at this point.]

[Footnote 14: Calabash, gourd.]

[Footnote 15: Isla Iguana?]

[Footnote 16: Isla Maje?]

[Footnote 17: Now the Pearl Islands, in the gulf of Panama, southeast of the city.]

[Footnote 18: Perico, Naos, and Flamenco, three little islands lying in front of Panama.]

[Footnote 19: Sp. for soldiers.]

[Footnote 20: Don Jacinto de Barahona, high admiral of the South Sea.]

[Footnote 21: Don Francisco de Peralta. The escape of his vessel from Morgan's men in 1671, bearing the chief treasures, is recounted in Exquemelin, pt. III., ch. VI. He was put ashore, later, at Coquimbo.]

[Footnote 22: I.e., flag-ship. It was probably the same ship, La Santissima Trinidad, of 400 tons, in which Peralta had made his escape nine years before.]

[Footnote 23: Capt. John Coxon.]

[Footnote 24: Error for April 26, 1688.]

[Footnote 25: Lima. The 50,000 pieces of eight (dollars, pieces of eight reals) mentioned below were a consignment for expenses, sent to the governor of Panama by the viceroy of Peru, Archbishop Don Melchor de Linan. So we learn from an account of this whole raid along the South American coast, given by him in an official report, printed in Memorial de los Vireyes del Peru (Lima, 1859), I. 328-335.]

[Footnote 26: Guayaquil, in an attempt at phonetic spelling.]

[Footnote 27: In modern phrase, southwest by west.]

[Footnote 28: Coiba or Quibo is a large island off the south coast of the isthmus, about 150 miles west of Panama.]

[Footnote 29: Rio Santa Lucia. The town is the present Remedios.]

[Footnote 30: Mestizo, halfbreed, Spanish and Indian.]

[Footnote 31: According to Ringrose, the ring came from the bishop, the challenge from the governor.]

[Footnote 32: The Isla de Plata (Island of Silver) lies a few miles off the coast of Ecuador, in 1 deg. 10' S. lat. The Galapagos lie not 100 but more than 200 leagues off the coast.]

[Footnote 33: Gorgona, off the Colombian coast.]

[Footnote 34: I.e., when the ship had been careened she remained so fixed in that position that the men could not, by the breadth of one of her planks, get her keel where they could work on it.]

[Footnote 35: In other words, there was a tide of twelve feet.]

[Footnote 36: End.]

[Footnote 37: Isla del Gallo, in Tumaco bay.]

[Footnote 38: Cape San Francisco (about 50' N. lat.) not an island; but Ringrose, p. 58, says, "At first this Cape appeared like unto two several Islands".]

[Footnote 39: This is no doubt legendary. Isla de la Plata means Isle of Silver.]

[Footnote 40: Nearer 1 deg. 12' S.]

[Footnote 41: Arica, a Peruvian town now occupied by Chile.]

[Footnote 42: Guayaquil, in Ecuador.]

[Footnote 43: Punta Santa Elena, 2 deg. 10' S.]

[Footnote 44: Leagues.]

[Footnote 45: Armadilla, a small armed vessel.]

[Footnote 46: At Quito, probably. The viceroy-archbishop, op. cit., p. 332, calls the man Carlos Alem (Charles Allen, Charles Hall?). Besides the viceroy's circumstantial account of this fight at the Barbacoas, there is one in Dionisio de Alcedo's Aviso Historico [Piraterias y Agresiones de los Ingleses] (Madrid, 1883), p. 158.]

[Footnote 47: Payta, Peru, in 5 deg. S. lat.]

[Footnote 48: Punta Aguja, 5 deg. 57' S. lat.]

[Footnote 49: Nearer 18 deg. 30'.]

[Footnote 50: Ilo. It was late in October, not early.]

[Footnote 51: Mora de Sama.]

[Footnote 52: Pedereros, small cannon.]

[Footnote 53: Magellan. The temporary capture of Ilo is omitted.]

[Footnote 54: Coquimbo, Chile, in 30 deg. S. lat. Ringrose, pp. 107, 111, gives plans of the town and the harbor.]

[Footnote 55: Excepting.]

[Footnote 56: Juan Fernandez. A Spanish pilot of that name discovered the islands in 1563. Our buccaneers sighted them on Christmas eve, 1680.]

[Footnote 57: The eastern is called Mas-a-tierra ("nearer the land"), the western Mas-a-fuera ("farther out"). The distance between is about 100 miles.]

[Footnote 58: John Watkins. The new pirate chief had severe principles as to the Sabbath. "Sunday January the ninth [1681, three days after his election], this day was the first Sunday that ever we kept by command and common consent since the loss and death of our valiant Commander Captain Sawkins. This generous spirited man [Sawkins] threw the dice over board, finding them in use on the said day." Ringrose, p. 121. The Spanish accounts call the new captain Juan Guarlen.]

[Footnote 59: This was a Mosquito Indian named William. A precursor of Alexander Selkirk, he lived alone upon the island for more than three years, till in March, 1684, when Capt. Edward Davis, in the Batchellor's Delight, in his voyage from the Chesapeake, touched at the island. William Dampier and several others of Captain Sharp's crew were now with Davis. They bethought them of William, and found and rescued him. Dampier, New Voyage, I. 84-87, describes the Crusoe-like expedients by which the ingenious William maintained himself. He was not the first precursor of Selkirk on the island, for Ringrose, p. 119, says that the pilot of their ship told this present crew of buccaneers "that many years ago a certain ship was cast away upon this Island, and onely one man saved, who lived alone upon the Island five years before any ship came this way to carry him off." Several of Davis's men lived there three years, 1687-1690. Selkirk's stay was in 1704-1709.]

[Footnote 60: Iquique.]

[Footnote 61: Barros Arana, Historia Jeneral de Chile, V. 204-205, points out the impossibility of such numbers.]

[Footnote 62: Sp. lingua, language.]

[Footnote 63: In better Spanish, "Valientes soldados, buen valientes soldados", i.e. "Valiant soldiers, very valiant soldiers".]

[Footnote 64: Ilo, between Islay and Arica.]

[Footnote 65: Choros bay must be meant. The present Obispo lies too far north, and was not named till 1709.]

[Footnote 66: Ringrose identifies this bay and river with the bay and river of Loa, on the Chilean coast, the bay in 21 deg. 28' S. lat. That Drake landed there, in his voyage around the world, in January, 1579, we know from the narrative of Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa (Mrs. Nuttall's New Light on Drake, p. 80), but the story of the chapel is of course legendary.]

[Footnote 67: Water-barrels, Middle Dutch bommekijn, a little barrel.]

[Footnote 68: Truxillo, in Peru. The islands may have been the Lobos.]

[Footnote 69: Monte Christi, in Ecuador. The secession occurred on April 17, 1681. Dampier and Wafer were in the seceding party, which made its way to the isthmus of Darien and so across to the Caribbean and home, or to Virginia.]

[Footnote 70: Isla de Canos, in Coronada Bay, off the coast of Costa Rica, and some 300 miles west of Panama.]

[Footnote 71: Golfo Dulce, where the coast of Costa Rica begins.]

[Footnote 72: The gulf of Nicoy lies near the western end of the Costa Rican coast. The island was Chira.]

[Footnote 73: It does not appear that there was in Costa Rica at that time any town of such name or size.]

[Footnote 74: Under this strange name is disguised Jacobus Marques, a Dutchman skilled in many languages. The Voyages and Adventures of Capt. Barth. Sharp, p. 80, says that he "left behind him 2200 ps. 8/8 [pieces of eight, dollars] besides Jewels and Goods". "Copas" is for Jacobus.]

[Footnote 75: Barcalongas. See document 44, note 25.]

[Footnote 76: Colors, flags.]

[Footnote 77: Prizes or booty.]

[Footnote 78: Cabo Pasado would seem to be indicated, but that is in 20' S.]

[Footnote 79: Don Melchor de Navarra y Rocaful, duke of La Palata, prince of Massa, viceroy of Peru from 1681 to 1689. He did not arrive in Lima till November. His predecessor the archbishop took great precautions for his protection against these pirates. Memorias de los Vireyes, I. 336-337.]

[Footnote 80: The ship was the Rosario, the last considerable prize taken by these buccaneers. See document 46. The story of the 700 pigs of pewter is told in a much more romantic form by Ringrose, p. 80, and by the author of The Voyages and Adventures of Capt. Barth. Sharp, p. 80. According to them, the pigs were thought to be of tin, and only one of them was saved, the rest being left in the prize when she was turned adrift. Later, when Sharp's men reached the West Indies, a shrewd trader there, perceiving this remaining pig to be silver, took it off their hands, and then sold it for a round sum; whereupon deep chagrin fell upon the pirates, who had duped themselves by abandoning a rich cargo of silver. It will however be observed in document 46 that Simon Calderon, mariner, of the Rosario, speaks of the pigs as pigs of tin. A mass of sea-charts taken from the Rosario is now—either the originals or copies by Hacke—in the British Museum, Sloane MSS., 45.]

[Footnote 81: About 4 deg. 18' S. lat., at the beginning of the Peruvian coast.]

[Footnote 82: I.e., they sailed up into the wind. So strong a wind blows up the coast, that the best way to sail from Peru to southern Chile is first to sail westward far out into the Pacific. It was Juan Fernandez who discovered this course.]

[Footnote 83: Fetched.]

[Footnote 84: Distances, in degrees on the horizon, between east or west and the rising point of a star. By amplitudes, east and west could be fixed when the variation of the compass from true north and south was doubtful.]

[Footnote 85: Furled. Courses are the lower sails. 50 deg. S. lat. is the latitude of the gulf of Trinidad. To the island by which they anchored a little farther south, as described below, they gave the name of Duke of York Island, after their king's brother James; this name it still bears.]

[Footnote 86: Limpets.]

[Footnote 87: But all observers of the Patagonian Indians, from Pigafetta, Magellan's companion, to recent times, describe them as having little hair on the face, and accustomed to remove that little. Ringrose, p. 183, gives the same report as our writer.]

[Footnote 88: These rocky inlets lie between 52 deg. and 53 deg. S. lat., the four Evangelistas just to the north of the western entrance into the Strait of Magellan, the twelve Apostolos just to the south of it.]

[Footnote 89: Tierra del Fuego. By "Streights of Maria" the writer means the Strait of Le Maire, outside Tierra del Fuego, and between it and Staten Island—a strait discovered by Schouten and Le Maire in 1616, when they also discovered and named Cape Hoorn (Horn).]

[Footnote 90: He means Bartolome and Gonzalo Nodal, who, under orders from the king of Spain to follow up the discoveries of Schouten and Le Maire, made in 1619 the first circumnavigation of Tierra del Fuego, sailing southward, westward past Cape Horn, northward, then eastward through the Strait of Magellan. The book referred to as possessed by the buccaneers is the Relacion del Viaje que ... hizieron los Capitanes Bartolome Garcia de Nodal y Goncalo de Nodal hermanos (Madrid, 1621), of which a translation was printed by the Hakluyt Society in 1911, in Sir Clements Markham's Early Spanish Voyages to the Strait of Magellan.]

[Footnote 91: Relacion del Viaje, p. 48; Markham, p. 256.]

[Footnote 92: The date is wrong, and there is no such cape.]

[Footnote 93: Cape Horn is in 55 deg. 59' S. lat.]

[Footnote 94: Under date of November 17, 1681, the Voyages and Adventures of Capt. Barth. Sharp says, p. 103, "We find by this observation, and our last 24 hours run, that we have been further Southerly by almost two Degrees, than our computation by dead reckoning makes out, and by many Degrees, than ever any others have sailed in that Sea, that have yet been heard of: for we were at about 60 Degrees South Latitude".]

[Footnote 95: Probably it was icebergs they saw. The Nodal brothers' Relacion, which they seem to have been following, mentions, p. 37 vo. (p. 245 of Markham), northeast of Cape Horn, "three islands which are very like the Berlings"; but these are the Barnevelt Islands, in about 55 deg. 20' S. lat. The original Berlengas are a group of rocky islands, well known to navigators, off the coast of Portugal.]

[Footnote 96: Error for 24 deg. S., apparently.]

[Footnote 97: Cape Sao Thome, one of the southeast capes of Brazil.]

[Footnote 98: An east cape of Brazil, Cape Sao Augustinho.]

[Footnote 99: 13 deg. 5' north latitude.]

[Footnote 100: Navigators of that time could determine latitudes almost as accurately as it is now done, but they had very imperfect means of determining longitudes. These pirates, of course, had no chronometer. The best they could do was to keep account each day of the courses and estimated distances that they sailed, to reduce this to numbers of miles eastward and westward in different latitudes (their "eastings" and "westings"), measured from their last known position, Duke of York Island, and from these computations to deduce their probable longitude. It appears from Ringrose's fuller statements that they were several hundred miles out of their reckoning when they sighted Barbados.]

[Footnote 101: January 28, 1682, according to the other accounts.]

[Footnote 102: Speight's Bay, on the northwest coast of the island. Bridgetown, where the chief harbor or roadstead lies, is at the southwest, and H.M.S. Richmond, which the pirates rightly viewed with apprehension, lay there; she had gone out to Barbados in 1680.]

[Footnote 103: Deseada, or Desirade.]

[Footnote 104: Falmouth is on the south side of the island of Antigua.]

[Footnote 105: Lt.-Col. Sir William Stapleton, governor-in-chief of the Leeward Islands 1672-1686. The pirates sent a valuable jewel to his wife, but he caused her to return it. As to those who sailed for England, as related below, (Sharp himself included), "W.D." reports, pp. 83-84, "Here several of us were put into Prison and Tryed for our Lives, at the Suit of Don Pedro de Ronquillo, the Spanish Embassador, for committing Piracy and Robberies in the South Sea; but we were acquitted by a Jury after a fair Tryal, they wanting Witnesses to prove what they intended.... One chief Article against us, was the taking of the Rosario, and killing the Captain thereof, and another man: But it was proved the Spaniards fired at us first".]

[Footnote 106: I.e., they had gambled away all their share of the plunder.]

[Footnote 107: Petit Goave in Haiti.]

[Footnote 108: The Danish island lately acquired by the United States. The harbor and fort referred to are those of Charlotte Amalia, the latter completed in 1680. The small harbor a mile to westward was Gregerie Bay.]

[Footnote 109: The allusion is apparently to the mandate of the Danish West India Company, February 22, 1675, described in Westergaard, The Danish West Indies under Company Rule, pp. 43-44. The governor, next mentioned, was Nicholas Esmit [Schmidt?], a Holsteiner. On St. Thomas as a refuge of buccaneers, neutral to Spanish-English-French warfare and jurisdiction, see ibid., pp. 47-58. Professor Westergaard, p. 48, quotes from a letter of Governor Esmit, May 17, 1682, in the Danish archives at Copenhagen, regarding our seven remaining pirates: "There arrived here February 8 a ship of unknown origin, some two hundred tons in size, without guns, passport, or letters, and with seven men, French, English, and German. On being questioned they replied that they had gone out of Espaniola from the harbor of Petit Guava with two hundred men and a French commission to cruise on the Spaniards.... [Summary of adventures on the Isthmus and in the South Sea.] I bought what little cacao they had; the rest of their plunder they brought ashore and divided among our people. The ship was no longer usable. I have decided not to confiscate it, in order to avoid any unfriendliness with sea-robbers. The inhabitants of St. Thomas have decided that the said seven men shall remain among them". Later, Captain Sharp himself came and spent his last years at St. Thomas.]

[Footnote 110: Ooze.]

[Footnote 111: This sentence sounds as if our narrator, himself one of the seven, had finally reached England or Jamaica. If so, he was more fortunate than some of the others; see the next document.]

46. Sir Henry Morgan to Sir Leoline Jenkins. March 8, 1682.[1]

[Footnote 1: Public Record Office, C.O. 1:48, no. 37. The writer, lieutenant-governor of Jamaica from 1674 to 1688, and at the time of writing acting governor, was the same Henry Morgan who in earlier years had been the most famous of buccaneers, capturing Portobello in 1668, Maracaibo in 1669, Panama itself in 1671—wonderful exploits, carried out with great bravery and cruelty. Now he is governor, holds piracy in abhorrence, and is determined to suppress it! It must be remembered, however, that his own exploits were carried out under commissions from proper authority, and legally were not piracy. His correspondent, Sir Leoline Jenkins, for twenty years judge of the High Court of Admiralty, and at this time also secretary of state, was one of the most learned admiralty lawyers England ever produced. Morgan's view of his own competence as admiralty judge in his colony is given with engaging frankness in a contemporary letter: "The office of Judge Admiral was not given me for my understanding of the business better than others, nor for the profitableness thereof, for I left the schools too young to be a great proficient either in that or other laws, and have been much more used to the pike than to the book; and as for the profit, there is no porter in this town but can get more money in the time than I made by this trial. But I was truly put in to maintain the honour of the Court for His Majesty's service." Cal. St. Pap., Col., 1677-1680, p. li.]

May it Please your Honour

Since I in obedience to his Majesties commands caused the Three Pyrates to be executed, The whole party which these two last yeares have molested the Spaniards in the South Seas are by the help of a Spanish Pilote come about to the windward Islands; Sixteen whereof are gone for England with Bartholemew Sharpe their Leader, the rest are at Antegoe and the Neighboring Islands, excepting four that are come hither, one whereof surrenderd himself to me, the other three I with much difficulty found out and apprehended my self, they have since been found guilty and condemned. he that surrendred himself is like as informer to obtain the favour of the Court. one of the condemned is proved a bloody and Notorious villain and fitt to make an exemple of, the other two as being represented to me fitt objects of mercy by the Judges, I will not proceed against till his Majesties further commands; and am heartely glad the Opinion of the Court is soe favorable, I much abhorring bloodshed and being greatly dissatisfyed that in my Short Government soe many necessities have layn upon me of punishing Criminels with death. The passage of these people is extraordinarily remarkable, for in litle more then four monthes they came from Coquimbo in Peru five degrees South Latitude, to Barbados in thirteen North.

Our Logwoodmen have lately had eight of their Vessels taken from them and their people carried away prisoners, their usage appears by the inclosed Petition. I am informed that in the Havana, Merida and Mexico many of his Majesties Subjects are prisoners and the Spanish Pylott that brought the People about (who is here) tells me That Sir John Narborow's Lieutenant and nine or ten others are at Lima in Perua.[2] they are all great objects of mercy and Compassion, therefore I hope your Honour will not bee unmindful of them....[3]

HEN. MORGAN.

ST. JAGO DE LA VEGA this 8th of March 1681-2.

[Footnote 2: Sir John Narbrough (1640-1688), afterward a celebrated admiral, had in 1669-1671 voyaged to the South Sea, as a young lieutenant, in command of the Sweepstakes; in Valdivia bay the Spaniards had seized two of his officers, and, it seems, still detained them.]

[Footnote 3: The rest of the letter relates to quite other matters.]

47. Deposition of Simon Calderon. 1682.[1]

[Footnote 1: Public Record Office, C.O. 1:50, no. 139.]

Relation of the South Sea men.

Simon Calderon, Natural de Santiago de Chile, Marinero de profession, yendo del callado a Panama en el Navio llamado el Rosario, cargado de Vinos, aguardientes, estano en Barras, y cantidad de Patacas, con beynte y quatro Hombres pasageros y todo, encontraron en la punta de Cabo passado como a la mitad del Camino, al navio de la Trinidad y le estimaron como de Espagnoles, pero luego que reconocieron ser de Piratas, procuraron ganarle el Barlavento, lo qual ganaron los Piratas, y luego empezaron a tirar mosquetarias, y de las primeras tres cargas mataron al Capitan del Rosario, que se llamaba Juan Lopez, y hizieron otras y apresaron el navio y sacaron con las favas todo lo que les parecio necessario del Vino y aguardientes y toda la plata y demas que havia de valor, y dieron tormento a dos Espagnoles para que descubriessen si havia mas plata y curtaron velas y Jarzias, menos la mayor, y alargaron el Navio con la gente menos cinco o seys, que trageron consigo y entre ellos el declarante.

De alli hecharon a la Isla de la Plata, donde estubieron tres dias y medio refrescando; y sospechando que los prisioneros se querian alzar con el navio mataron a uno y castigaron a otro; y de alli a Payta en donde hecharon dos canoas a tierra con treynte y dos hombres armados con animo de ganar a Payta, y hallando resistencia se bolvieron al navio; de alli Tiraron al estrecho de Magallanes; pero no passaron por el, sino al redidor de la ysla del fuego que estava como seys a ocho dias apartada del estrecho de Magallanes, este estrecho del fuego tardaron en pasarle hasta entrar en el mar del Norte cosa de nuebe Dias. Llegaron a Barbadas donde por haver encontrado un navio del Rey de Inglatierra no se atrevieron a entrar.

En el camino dividieron la presa y toco a quatrocientos pesos a cada uno de sesenta y quatro personas.

De Barbadas fueron a Antica donde fueron recividos sin hacerles molestia, antes buen acostimiento y de alli se dividieron unas a Niebes en una balandra, otras como diez y ocho de ellos a londres en el navio cuyo Capitan se llamaba Portin, otros ocho que erran los principales se uieron en el Navio llamado la Comadressa Blanca o cui Wihte, su Capitan Charles Howard, dos de ellos que eran los principales cabos se llaman el Capitan Sharp, y el otro Gilbert Dike, y a este declarante le dexaron en Plymuth.

Los demas testigos dicen tambien haver oydo que estos Piratas andan comprando aora un Nabio para bolver a hacer el mismo viage o continuar esta pirateria.

Translation.

Relation of the South Sea Men

Simon Calderon, native of Santiago de Chile, mariner, going from Callao to Panama in the ship called the Rosario laden with wine, brandy, pigs of tin,[2] and artichokes, with 24 passengers and all, they met off Cabo Pasado, about halfway in their voyage, a ship, the Trinidad, and supposed it to be Spanish, but when they perceived that it was a ship of pirates, they tried to obtain the weather-gauge, but the pirates obtained it, and then they began to fire musket-shots, and with the first three shots they killed the captain of the Rosario, who was called Juan Lopez, and fired other shots, and captured the ship, and took out with the hooks [?] all that they deemed necessary of the wine and brandy, and all the silver and other things that had value, and tortured two Spaniards in order to learn whether there was more silver, and cut down the sails and rigging, except the mainsail, and turned the ship adrift with the men, excepting five or six whom they took with them, and among others the deponent.

[Footnote 2: See document 45, above, note 80.]

Thence they went to the Isla de la Plata, where they remained three days and a half refreshing themselves, and suspecting that the prisoners were planning to rise and take the ship they killed one and flogged another; and thence they went to Payta, where they sent two canoes ashore with 32 armed men, with design to capture Payta, but meeting with resistance they returned to the ship. Thence they sailed away to the Strait of Magellan, but did not go through it, but around the Isla del Fuego, which was some six or eight days' distance from the Strait of Magellan. In making this passage of Fuego, to enter into the North Sea, they were delayed some nine days. They came to Barbados, where, because of finding there a ship of the King of England, they did not venture to enter.

On the voyage they divided the booty and obtained 400 dollars apiece, for each one of 74 persons.

From Barbados they went to Antigua, where they were received without injury, but rather with good treatment, and from there they divided, some going to Nevis in a bilander,[3] others, some 18 of them, to London in the ship whose captain was called Portin,[4] and eight others that were the principal ones fled in the ship called the Comadressa Blanca (White Gossip),[5] Captain Charles Howard. Two of them, that were the principal chiefs, were called, [the one] Captain Sharp, and the other Gilbert Dike; and this deponent was left at Plymouth.

[Footnote 3: A bilander was a small two-master, with the mainsail of lateen form.]

[Footnote 4: The Lisbon Merchant, Captain Porteen. Ringrose, p. 212.]

[Footnote 5: Or perhaps Ermine.]

Other witnesses say, however, that they have heard that these pirates are now proceeding to buy a ship to return and make the same voyage or continue this piracy.



THE SALAMANDER.

48. Petition of Paul Sharrett and Claes Pietersen. August 2, 1681.[1]

[Footnote 1: Suffolk Court Files, no. 2031, paper 1. The story of the Salamander is curiously interwoven with the early history of the Prussian navy, on which something has been said in note 1 to document 43. The facts may be made out by a comparison of documents 48 and 49 with data found in R. Schueck, Brandenburg-Preussens Kolonial-Politik (Leipzig, 1889), I. 113-118, and in a monograph on "Brandenburg-Preussen auf der Westkueste von Afrika, 1681 bis 1721", in Heft 6 of the Kriegsgeschichtliche Einzelschriften of the German General Staff (Berlin, 1885), pp. 102-105. In the First Brandenburg-Prussian fleet that ever sailed out of the Baltic (August, 1680), one of the six frigates was the Churprintz (Kurprinz, Electoral Prince), 32 guns, Capt. Cornelius Reers, and there was a fire-ship, the Salamander, 2 guns, Capt. Marsilius (or Marcellus) Cock; the captains were probably all Dutch. The chief exploit of the squadron was to capture, in time of peace, a ship of the Spanish royal navy, which thus became the first of the elector's ships actually owned by him. Then Reers and a squadron of four frigates and the Salamander sailed to the West Indies, and spent the winter of 1680-1681 in cruising against Spanish shipping, though with little success. If Samuel Button's story is true (document 48), it would seem that the original Salamander must have been lost, and the William and Anne substituted in its place and renamed. The squadron got back to Prussia in May, 1681.]

To the Honnorable Simon Bradstreet Esq. Governor, Thomas Danforth Esqr Dept. Governor, and the Rest of the Honnorable Assistants to sitt in Boston on the 4th of this Instant August 1681 as A Court of Admiraltie or Assistants

The humble petition Libell and Complaint of Paul Sherrot Lift.[2] and Cloyse petterson, Mate or Pilot of the Ship or prize called the Salamander, now belonging to the great prince the Duke of Brandenburge, Burden one hundred Tonns or thereaboute, Loaden with Brandy and wynes—

[Footnote 2: Lieutenant.]

Humbly Sheweth

That your Petitioner entering into the Duke of Brandenburgs service and pay this 14 of April 1680 or thereaboute, on A ship of warr called Coure Prince belonging to the Said Duke, Cornelyus Reise Capt. and Comander,[3] and sayling then from Quinborough[4] to the West Indies and at St. Martins in the West Indies tooke the above mentioned ship Salamander, Loaden as above, And put in Marcellus Cock Comander of said Ship Salamander, and Paul Sherrot Leift. and Cloys Peterson Mate or Pylot of said ship, to Carry the Said Ship home to Quinborough to the said Duke, But the said Marcellus Cock, under pretence of want of Proviscions and Leakenes of said Ship, brought her into Piscatuqua and there stayed about 3 months whiling away the time, and Repayring the ship, And while there so cruelly beate twelve of the ships Company, at the Capston and otherwise, As made them weary of their Lives, that they could not stay but gott on shoar And left him, Loosing all their wages, except one, that the Capt. turned a shoare, as he said for a Rogue, But the Governor of Piscataqua made the master pay him his wages, And now after 16 monethes and a halfe soar service, ventering and hazarding their lives, After the Authoritie at Piscatuqua tooke notice of the said Capt. Cocks Long Stay, and Conceiveing he Intended to sell the said Ship and deceive the Duke, ordering him to pay the said Sherret and Peterson our wages,[5] fell to threatening us first by turning the Pilot out of the Cabbin from his mess; and then swearing he would Pistoll the Leiften't and him if they came on board.

[Footnote 3: Cornelius Reers, vice-commander of the squadron mentioned in note 1, appears later as governor of Arguin on the west coast of Africa, 1685-1690. Schueck, I. 347, 350.]

[Footnote 4: So the English then called Koenigsberg, capital of the duchy of Prussia.]

[Footnote 5: The petitioners are following closely the language of the vote of the council of New Hampshire, by which it was ordered that the ship should be taken to Boston for trial, and the mariners paid. N.H. State Papers, XIX. 677; July 11, 1681. "Governor of Piscataqua", i.e., of New Hampshire, there was none at this time; they probably mean Maj. Richard Waldron, president of the council.]

The premises Considered wee humbly Intreat your honours to make such due order And provision that the Duke be not Deceived of his the sayd prize and that wee may have our full wages so dearly yearned and be freed as wee are and have been, from his the said Cocks Tiranicall service; And yo'r Petition'rs shall forever pray etc.

PAUL SHARRETT. CLAES PIETERSEN.

This libell I Rec'd this 2d of August, 1681.

EDW'D RAWSON, Secret.

49. Deposition of Samuel Button. August 11, 1681.[1]

[Footnote 1: Suffolk Court Files, no. 2031, paper 8.]

Samuel Button of Boston declareth concerning the Ship now called the Salamander in this harbour, Marcellus Cock commander. That in April last was twelve-months' hee was Shipped Carpenter of sd Ship at London then called the Wm. and Anne, Anthony Thorne of London Commander, mr. George Trumbal of London being their Owner of sd. Ship. wee Sailed with sd Ship from London to Bilboa where wee cleered our foremast men and Ship't Biscayers in their steed and from thence Sailed to the Canary's, where wee loaded brandy and wines, and our sd master there left the Ship and our Mate mr. Christopher Johnson was put in master, all the English men being cleered from her but myselfe, wee being bound for Carthagene,[2] from thence back to Canary's, so to Carthagene again and from thence to Canary's and from Canary's to London and proceeding on our voyage wee put in to Sta. Marke in the west Indies[3] to water; where the Governour forced our Stay to convoy a Galliote bound to Carthagene, and after wee had been two or three dayes in the Road, wee espied five Ships lying off and on by the space of two or three dayes. at length they sent in their pinace with Dutch colours to the Gov'r to get liberty to wood and water, pretending to be Dutchmen come to cleer the coast of privateers; upon which the Gov'r granted them liberty to come in and the same day they came and anchored by us; they goeing ashore to the Gov'r acquainted him they were of Middleborough,[4] Flushing, and Amsterdam (as I was informed) and rode with dutch colours abroad; after they had been there four or five dayes wee coming to saile in the night, all being buisy, they laid us on board. wee demanding what they were they answered they were Frenchmen; wee bad them keepe off, but they entring the Ship, the Ltt. asked me if I was the Carpenter. I answered "yes," hee said "that's good, you bee an Englishman. that doth no harme," comanding me to keepe upon deck, declaring himselfe Capt. of the Ship, and when they tooke us they shewed no Colours but told me the next day they would shew me such Colours as I never saw, and then spread their Brandenburgh Colours, putting our Supra Cargo and all the prisoners ashore at St. Marke, onely Christopher Johnson a Dutchman our then Ma[ste]r and myselfe, whom they carried with them to Jamaica. not being Suffered to Land any of their goods there, Sailed thence with this Ship in Comp'y of our English Fleete, pretending they were bound with her to the East Country,[5] putting our Master and myselfe on shore at Jamaica.

[Footnote 2: Cartagena on the Spanish Main is meant; see below.]

[Footnote 3: St. Marc on the west coast of Haiti, then French.]

[Footnote 4: Middelburg in Zeeland.]

[Footnote 5: Baltic lands.]

Samuel Button deposed in Court that what is above written is the truth and whole truth to his best knowledge. 11th of August 1681.

EDW RAWSON, Secret.



THE CAMELION.

50. Agreement to Commit Piracy. June 30, 1683.[1]

[Footnote 1: This very curious document (for one does not expect to find pirates agreeing in writing to pursue a course of piracy) is found embedded in one of the indictments in the case of the Camelion, in vol. I. of the wills in the office of the surrogate, New York City, pp. 312-313 of the modern copy. Its presence among wills requires a word of explanation. The governor of a royal colony was usually chancellor, ordinary, and vice-admiral, and as such might preside in the courts of chancery, probate, and admiralty—courts whose common bond was that their jurisprudence was derived from the civil (or Roman) law, and not from the common law. Most of his judicial action was in testamentary cases. It was therefore not unnatural that the few admiralty cases and cases of piracy tried in these early days should be recorded in the same volume as the wills, though distinguished by the simple process of turning the book end for end and recording them at the back. In this case the record begins with our document 51; but the present document, copied into one of the indictments, is earlier in date. The substance of another pirates' agreement (Roberts's company, 1720, see doc. no. 117) is given in Charles Johnson, General History of the Pyrates, second ed., pp. 230-232; another (Phillips's company, 1727, see doc. no. 120 and note 10), ibid., verbatim, pp. 397-398.]

June the 30th day, 1683. Articles of Agreement between us abord of the Camillion,[2] Nich. Clough Comander, that wee are to dispose of all the goods thatt are abord amongst us, every man are to have his full due and right share only the Commander is to have two shares and a half a share for the Ship and home[3] the Captain please to take for the Master under him is to have a share and a half. Now Gentlemen these are to satisfy you, as for the Doctor a Share and half, and these are our Articles that wee do all stand to as well as on[4] and all.

[Footnote 2: The Camelion had in 1682 sailed for the Royal African Company to the slave-mart of Old Calabar on the west coast of Africa, thence with a cargo of negroes to Barbados, thence to Montserrat and Nevis, thence in June, 1683, to London with a cargo. Off Nevis, June 29, the crew took possession of the ship, then made this agreement on the 30th, sold part of the cargo at the Dutch island of Curacao, and brought the vessel to Sandy Hook. For their trial, see the next document.]

[Footnote 3: Whom.]

[Footnote 4: One. The larger shares for captain, master, and doctor were in accordance with custom. Clough, the master, was forced to join the mutineers.]

These are to satisfy you thatt our intent is to trade with the Spaniards, medling nor make no resistances with no nation that wee do fall with all upon the Sea. Now Gentlemen these are to give you notice that if any one do make any Resistances against us one any factery[5] hereafter shall bee severely punish according to the fact that hee hath comitted and as you are all here at present you have taken your corporall oath upon the holy Evangelists to stand one by the other as long as life shall last.

[Footnote 5: Sic. They probably mean, on any pretext, or, on any occasion.]

JOHN HALLAMORE. HENERY MICHELSON. the mark [Yt] of THOMAS ALBERT LASEN. DICKSON. the mark [SW.] of SYMON ROBERT COCKRAM. WEBSON. the marke of [X] JO. DARVELL. WILLIAM STROTHER. the marke of [X] ARTHUR DAVIS. EDWA. DOVE. the marke of [X] JNO. MORRINE. JOHN WATKINS. JOHN RENALS EDWARD STARKEY. the mark of [R] ROBERT DOUSIN. the mark of V GEORGE PADDISSON. JOHN COPPING.[6] NICHO. CLOUGH. the mark of [HL] HENRY SAMLL. HAYNSWORTH. LEWIN. DANIELL KELLY. WILLIAM HEATH. JOHN GRIFFIN.

[Footnote 6: Copping, it was testified, was the writer of this remarkable agreement.]

51. Court for the Trial of Piracy: Commission. September 15, 20, 1683.[1]

[Footnote 1: Vol. I. of wills in surrogate's office, New York City, pp. 306-307.]

Memorandum. That Thursday the twenty day of September, in the five and thirtieth yeare of the Reigne of our Soveraigne Lord Charles the second, by the grace of God of England, Scottland, France, and Ireland King, Defender of the Faith, etc., at the Citty Hall of New Yorke in America, A speciall Court of Oyer and Terminer was holden by Vertue of this following Commission, Viz.

Thomas Dongan Lieutt. and Governour, and Vice Admirall under his Royall Highnesse of New Yorke and Dependences in America.

Whereas his Royall Highnesse James Duke of Yorke and Albany, Earle of Ulster, etc., Lord high Admirall of Scottland and Ireland, and the Dominions and Islands thereof, As also Lord high Admirall of the Dominions of New England and Virginia, Barbados, St. Christophers, Antego, New Yorke in America, etc., hath by his Commission dated at St. James the third day of October in the yeare of our Lord 1682 and in the 34th yeare of his Ma'ties Reigne constituted and made mee his Vice Admirall of New Yorke, and the Maritime ports and Islands belonging to the same, and hath authorized and impowered mee to appoint a Judge, Register, and Marshall of a Court of Admiralty there;[2] I do therefore hereby make and appoint You Lucas Santen Esq., Judge of the said Court, and William Beekman, Deputy Mayor, John Lawrence and James Graham, Aldermen of the Citty of New Yorke, Mr. Cornelis Stenwyck, Mr. Nicholas Bayard, Mr. William Pinhorne, and Mr. Jacob Leysler, and you or any six of you, to hear and determine of any or all Treasons, Felonys, Robberys, Piracys, Murders, Manslaughters, Confederacys, breaches of trust, Imbezleing goods, or other Transgressions, contempts, Misprissions and Spoyles whatsoever, done or committed within the Maritime Jurisdiction aforesaid, on board the Ship Camelion of London, Nicholas Clough commander, and I do also appoint Will. Nicolls to bee Register, and John Collier to bee Marshall of the said Court, and this Commission to bee of Force during the time of this Tryall only. Given under my hand and seale this 15th day of September, 1683, and in the thirty fifth yeare of the Reigne of our Soveraigne Lord Charles the second, by the Grace of God, of England, Scottland, etc. King, Defender of the Faith, etc.

THO. DONGAN.

[Footnote 2: Governor Dongan's commission of vice-admiralty "in the usual forme", October 3, 1682, is recorded in the Public Record Office, London, C.O. 5:1182, p. 40. James, duke of York, was Lord High Admiral from 1660 to 1673; he was proprietor of the province of New York from 1664 till he became king in 1685. As Lord High Admiral, he issued commissions to the colonial governors appointing them as his vice-admirals. That which he issued, January 26, 1667, to Lord Willoughby, governor of Barbados, is printed in the Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, II. 187-198. That to Dongan, issued by James in 1682, when, though excluded from office in England, he was still Lord High Admiral of the crown's dominions, was no doubt similar. At this early period the governor himself sometimes acted as judge; see document 46, note 1. Strictly speaking, what was here appointed was not a court of admiralty but a commission for the trial of piracy and other felonies. By the statute 28 Henry VIII. c. 15 (1536), it was provided that cases of piracy should be tried within the realm, not by the High Court of Admiralty, but before commissions specially appointed for the purpose, and with the aid of a jury. But this statute did not extend to the plantations, and until the passage of the act of 11 and 12 William III. c. 7 (1700), commissioners for the trial of piracy in the colonies were usually appointed by governors in their capacity as vice-admirals, and proceeded under the civil (Roman) law, not the statute. Another commission, for the trial of piracy (to Governor Bellomont and others, Nov. 23, 1701) is printed in E.C. Benedict, The American Admiralty, third ed., pp. 73-79, fourth ed., pp. 70-76; another (1716) is doc. no. 106, below; another (to Governor Woodes Rogers, Bahamas, Dec. 5, 1718), is in Johnson's History of the Pyrates, II. (1726) 337-340; a fourth (1728) is in N.J. Archives, first series, V. 196. See also doc. no. 201, note 1, and Chalmers, Opinions (ed. 1858), pp. 511-515.]

To

Lucas Santen Esqr.,[3] Cornelius Stenwyck, William Beakman,[4] Nicholas Bayard, Jno. Lawrence, Willm. Pinhorne, James Graham, Jacob Leisler.

[Footnote 3: Collector of the port.]

[Footnote 4: Acting mayor. Lawrence, Graham, Steenwyk, and Bayard were aldermen, Pinhorne became an alderman two months later. Leisler was the celebrated revolutionary. The accused men were found guilty. Eight of them were sentenced to receive twenty lashes and to be imprisoned for a year and a day. Clough was sent to London to give an account of his stewardship to the Royal African Company. Calendar of Council Minutes, N.Y., p. 34.]



CASE OF WILLIAM COWARD.

52. William Coward's Plea. 1690.[1]

[Footnote 1: Suffolk Court Files, no. 2540, paper 6. The case is reported in Records of the Court of Assistants of Massachusetts Bay, I. 319-322. Coward (a sailor of H.M.S. Rose) and others were indicted for a piratical attack on the ketch Elinor in Nantasket Roads, November 21, 1689. They were tried in January, 1690, and condemned, but reprieved. See Andros Tracts, II. 54. The trial occurred in the interregnum between the deposition of Governor Andros in 1689, and the arrival of Governor Phips and inauguration of the new charter in 1692. Therefore Coward pleads to the jurisdiction, Andros's commission as vice-admiral being void.]

And the said Wm. Coward for plea saith that he ought not nor by Law is obliged to make any further or other answar or plea to the Indictments now preferred against him in this Court: for that he saith that the Crimes for which he stands Indicted be:—The same is for Pyracy, felony and [so forth] by him supposed to be done And Committed upon the high seas without this Jurisdictions and not within the body of any County within the same from Whence any Jury Cann be Lawfully brought to have tryall thereof, That before the Statute of the 28th of King Henry the 8th, Chapt. the 15th, all Pyraceys Felonys, etc., Committed upon the high seas was noe Felony whereof the Common Law tooke any knowledg, for that it could not be tryed, being out of all towns and Countes, but was only Punishable by the Civill Law before the Admira[l], etc., but by the said Statute the offence is not altered and made felony, but Left as it was before the said Statute, vizt. felony only by the Civill Law, but giveth a mean of tryal by the Common Law in this maner, Viz: All Treasons, felonys, Robberys, murders and Confederacies Committed in or upon the sea or in any other haven, rivar, creek, or place where the Admirall hath or pretends to have power, Authority, or Jurisdiction shall be Enquired, tryed, heard, determined, and Judged in such shires and places in the Relm as shall be Limitted by the kings Commistion under the great Seale, in Like forme and Condition as If any such offenses had been Committed upon the land, to be directed to the Lord Admirall or to his Leiut., Deputy, or Deputys, and to three or foure such other substantiall persons as shall be named by the Lord Chancellor of England for the time being, etc., as [by] the said statute appeareth—

That the Crimes and offences afforesaid must ether be Considered in the Condition they were in before or since the making of the said statute. If as before then they are only to be Judged and Detarmined before the Admirall, etc., after the Course of the Civill Laws, which this Court hath not Jurysdiction off—

That the Crimes and offences in the said Indictments supposed to be done [and] commited by the said Wm Coward, If any such there were, [were] done and Committed in or upon the sea or in some haven, river, Creek, or place where the Admiralty hath or pretends to have power, Authority, or Jurisdiction, etc. not within the Jurisdiction of this Court—

That the Admiralty of those seas, havens, etc., where the Crimes and offences afforesaid are supposed to have been done and Committed, In Case the Commistion Lately geven to Sir Edmd. Andros, knt., to be vice Admirall there of be voyd, it is now remaining in his Maj. and cannot be Executed or exercised by any person or persons without being Lawfully Commistionated by his Maj. for the same.

That in Case the Crimes, etc., offences aforesaid shall be considered According to the said statute of the 28th of Henry the 8th, Chapt. the 15th, Then the said Wm. Coward saith that this Court hath noe power or Jurisdiction there of, nor can the same be Enquired, tryed, heard, Determined, and Judged by them, but Can only be Enquired, tryed, and Determined by the Spetiall Commistion from his Majesty in such manner as by the said statute is Derected.

All which the said Wm. Coward is ready to Answar, etc.



CASE OF BENJAMIN BLACKLEDGE.

53. Declaration of Jeremiah Tay and Others. March, 1691 (?).[1]

[Footnote 1: Suffolk Court Files, no. 3033, paper 4.]

An acc'tt of the Surprizeall and takeing of the Ship Good hope of Bost[on] in New England, Burthen about three hundred Tonns with twenty two Gun[s], Jeremiah Tay Comander, which was acted and done in a most Treacherous and Pyratticall manner by certain Rovers or pirates (moste of them theire Majest[ies] Subjects) in the Road of the Isle of May of the Cape de verd Islands upon the Fourth day of February Anno Dmi 1690/1, The said Shipp with what goods were on board her properly belonging unto Coll. Sam'll Shrimpton[2] Merchant att Boston in New England aforesaid, vizt.

[Footnote 2: Member of Andros's council, 1688-1689.]

Upon the twentyeighth day of January 1690/1 wee arrived from the Island of Madara att said Island of May aforesd and came to Anchor in the Road there. The next day our men went ashore and applyed themselves to rake togeather of salt in the Salt Pounds in order to the loading our Said Shipp and Soe continued workeing severall days. And upon the first day of February following there came into the aforesaid Road a Sloope weareing theire Majesties Collours and anchored not farr [fro]m our Said Shipp who tould us they came from South Carolina, theire Captn. one James Allison formerly of New Yorke, and that they had a Com'n from the Governor of Carolina aforesaid to take and Indamage the French, for which end they were here arrived expecting they might in a Short time meete Some of them.[3] The said Captn. Allison and moste parte of his Company were wellknowne unto us, they haveing beene Loggwood Cutters in the Bay of Campeach[4] where wee were with the said Shipp about twelve mounthes Since, Loadeing Loggwood, parte whereof wee bought of them and fully Sattisfied them for, and during our stay there kept amicable correspondance with us, Eateing, Drinking and Lodging frequently on board our said Shipp, which wee gladly consented unto in regard they might have beene a defence and help to us if any Enimey had assaulted us, by reason of which former friendshipp and good Correspondance as alsoe theire Specious pretence of a Commission against our Enimies (which wee woere in Some feares of) wee willingly continued the former kindnesse and amity betweene us, hopeing if wee were assaulted by the French wee might by theire assistance (they being thirty five able men and our Shipp being of pretty good force) have beene capable to make a good resistance, They often protesting and promiseing to Stand by and help us to the uttmost if there Should be occasion. wee therefore not doubting theire honesty and Sincerity permitted them frequently to come on board our Said Shipp, and Sometimes Some of us went on board theire Sloope, and Believeing ourselves secure and willing to make a quick dispatch as possible in Loading our Shipp, wee sent all [hands] to worke in the Pounds (as wee [had done (?)] he[retof]ore) Except our [Carpenter]s, which were [then (?)] att worke on our Decke building [a] Boate for the more Convenient carriage of salt. Thus wee continued workeing, and upon the Fourth day of February instant Capt. Allison and Sundry of his men Dined with us on board said Shipp in a friendly manner, as they were wont to doe, and Some time after Dinner desired the said Commander Tay, with Mr. Edward Tyng the Sup[er]cargoe and James Meeres a passenger, to goe on boarde theire Sloope to Drinke a glasse of Punch with them, which he did, and when we were come on board the said Sloope they pretended theire Doctor (whom wee Left on board the Shipp talkeing with our men) had the keys where theire Sugar was, Soe they could not make the Punch, and forthwith severall of them Stept into the Boate and Rowdd on board our Shipp to fetch the keys. as Soone as they entred our Shipp one of them Ran to the Steereage Doore and another to the Round house and Secured all our Arms, the rest Imediatly Seizeing the Carpenters who were att work on the Boate. They then fired a gunn as a Signall to theire Sloope, who Imediatly Seized us who were on board her (wee being unarmed) and forthwith way'd anchor and Laid our Shipp aboard, att the same time takeing everything out of the Sloope, excepting a Little Stincking Brackish water, some Flower, a Little Stincking beefe, and three or foure baggs of wheate, and then Comanded us presently to putt of from the Shipp about Musquett Shott and then to come to anchor, which we were forced to Comply with; After which they went on Shore and fetched our men out of the Pounds by force and Armes, Seaventeene of whom they tooke with them, Some whereof by force and threattnings and others of them went volluntarily, which wee have good reason to beleive were privy to the Plott and Surpriseall of the Shipp, a List of whose names is hereto Subjoyned. afterward they gave us our Chests and some of our Cloaths and the next day Comanded us to Saile away with the said Sloope (which they gave us), and upon the Sixth day of February Instant wee sailed with said Sloope for the Island of Barbados where wee arrived the twenty first day of the same.

JEREMIAH TAY, M'r. EDWARD TYNG THOMAS WHARFE, Mate JAMES MEERES, JUNIOR.

[Footnote 3: England and France were at war, 1689-1697.]

[Footnote 4: Bay of Campeche, west of Yucatan. At the beginning of this Campeche voyage of the Good Hope ("formerly the Fortune of Courland"), in October, 1689, she had been detained by the royal officers in Boston, for evasion of the customs laws, but made her escape. Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., XII. 116.]

54. Deposition of Epaphras Shrimpton. July, 1694 (?).[1]

[Footnote 1: Suffolk Court Files, no. 3033, paper 7. Epaphras Shrimpton was a cousin of Colonel Shrimpton.]

Epaphras Shrimpton, of full Age, Testifieth that Benja. Blacklidge did acknowledge that himselfe and some others which he named took from on borde the Ship Good hope at Madagasker about halfe her Cargoe which she brought from Holland particulerly Hollands, duck, Riging, Ketles, Powder, etc., belonging to Col. Sam. Shrimpton, and said that with part of the Ketles they Sheath'd the bow of the Ship which he came from Madagasker in, and offer'd if Colo. Shrimpton would be kinde to him he would discover the Persons that were to bring home the remainder of the Ship Good hopes Cargoe. the said Blacklidge said that himselfe and other of his Confederates took the above mention'd goods out of the Shipp Good hope at Madagasker just before he came from thence to New England. this he acknoledg'd to Colo. Shrimpton in the Prison house in Boston in New England in the year 1693.

EPAPH. SHRIMPTON.

55. Deposition of Jeremiah Tay. July 6, 1694.[1]

[Footnote 1: Suffolk Court Files, no. 3033, paper 6.]

Jer. Tay, aged thurty five yeres, Testifieth that hee being att the Ile of May, Master of the Shipe goodhope belonging to Coll. Samuell Shrimpton, In february one thousand six hundred and ninety, That then And thare was surprised and tacken by A pyrate, one James alloson, Comander, That after thay had posseshon of the Above said Shipe The next day sent for My Men from the Pond to come on bord of said Shipe, Telling them that thoose as would goe willingly should have as good A shaar in shipe and goods as Anny of themselves, whare upon one bengeman blackledg of boston, with sundry more, tuck up armes with the pyrats, hee macking choyce of one of my one[2] small armes for him selfe. This was dun by said blackledg without anny force or Compulshon, as the pyrats themselves did declare That thay did not nor would not force him nor sundry more which did intend To goo with them. I doue furder Ad that sence I came from London, being to the Westward, was tolde by sum of those men that came home in Massons shipe A Longe with said blackledge Last yere, to the est end of Long island, whare Thare was A bundance of the goods which Came out of My Shipe the goodhope, As Canvos and Riging of sundry sorts, whare itt was Im baseled,[3] and given all most to anny that would ask for itt. Also that thay did heere some of my one Men tell blackledge that hee was A great Rooge, in that hee had gott his Cloose out of the shipe goodhope in to The shipe beefore the Shipe was Tacken, that so hee mought goe with the Shipe wheather the Shipe was tacken or not. I doue also ad that in the day of it, when the shipe was in thare posseshon, the pyrats did then and thare say to mee, had it not beene by purswashon of sum of my one men telling of Them thare was A bundance of Monnys A bourd of said Shipe be sids goods, thay had not tacken hur, which A parrantly proved to bee true, for thare was sundrey of them ware for punishing of Mee to Mack mee Confes whar itt was, but thay so difered in thare Judgments that that was not dun by them.

JER. TAY.

July 6, 1694. Sign'd and Sworn by Capt. Jeremia Tay.

Coram nobis SAM'L SEWALL } Justices JER. DUMER } of the } Peace.

[Footnote 2: Own.]

[Footnote 3: Embezzled.]

56. Indictment of Benjamin Blackledge. October 30, 1694.[1]

[Footnote 1: Suffolk Court Files, no. 3033, paper 2.]

Province of the Massachusetts Bay in New England, Suffolk, SS:

At a Court of Assize and Generall Goale delivery held in Boston for the County of Suffolk aforesaid the Last Tuseday in October 1694, Annoq[ue] R[egi]s et Reginae Gulielmi et Mariae, Angliae, etc., Sexto.

The Jurors for our Sov'r Lord and Lady the King and Queen aforesaid Present, That Benjamin Blackleich of Boston aforesaid, mariner, on the fourth day of February in the year of our Lord 1690/1, at the Isle of May otherwise called Santo-May, one of the Islands of Cape de verd, being then and there a Seaman or Marriner, on bord the Ship called the Good Hope, Jeremiah Tay Comander, did Wickedly, Felloniously and Piratically Rise up in Rebellion against the sd Master Jeremiah Tay, and with one James Allison A Pirate or Sea Rover, Master of a Sloop, and his Company, did Conspire, Abett and Joyne, and with the sd James Allison and his Company did Seize, Surprize, and Piratically take from the sd Jeremiah Tay The sd Ship Good Hope, of Burthen about Three hundred Tonns, and her Loading, being to the Value of Two Thousand Pounds, of the Goods and Chattels of Collonol Samuel Shrimpton of Boston aforesaid, and of the said Ship and Loading the said Master and Owner did Dispoyle, Disposess and Exclude, against the Peace of Our Sov'r Lord and Lady the King and Queen, their Crown and Dignity, and the Laws in Such Case made and Provided.

Egnoramos.[2]

RICH'D CRISP, foreman, with the Rest.

[Footnote 2: For "Ignoramus" (we ignore), the word by which a grand jury indicated its refusal to prosecute an indictment. We here find the Superior Court, the highest common-law court of Massachusetts under the second charter, taking cognizance of a case of piracy. Governor Phips had a commission as vice-admiral (text in Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, II. 206-215, 372-380), but no judge of admiralty had yet been appointed, nor any special commission to try pirates.]

* * * * *

57. Deposition of Thomas Larimore. October 28, 1695.[1]

[Footnote 1: Among the manuscripts of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Captain Larimore in 1704 played an equivocal part in the case of Quelch and his pirate crew (see no. 104, post), assisting their attempts to escape, but his testimony as to prize-money is to be valued, as that of an experienced shipmaster and privateer. In 1677 he had assisted the authorities of Virginia against the rebel Bacon by conveying troops in his ship. Journals of the House of Burgesses, II. 70, 79, 86. In 1702 he was sent by Governor Dudley to Jamaica with a company of volunteers, the first Massachusetts force to serve overseas. Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, XVIII. 84-93.]

The Deposition of Thomas Larimore, aged Thirty two Yeares or thereabouts. This Deponent testifyeth and saith that whenever any person is fitted out to go in a Private man of Warr there is not wont to be any Writing drawne betwixt the person fitting and the person fitted out, and Yet the person fitted out always allows to the person fitting him out One full Quarter part of a whole share of whatsoever is gained on the Voyage.

Boston Octobr THOMAS LARIMORE. 28th, 1695. Sworne in Court 30th Octobr. 1695 Attest JONA. ELATSON Cler. A true Copy of that on file Examd. AD'TON DAVENPORT, Cler.[2]

[Footnote 2: Addington Davenport, clerk of the Superior Court from 1695 to 1698, and one of its judges from 1715 to 1736.]



CASE OF HENRY EVERY.

58. Petition of the East India Company. July, 1696.[1]

[Footnote 1: London, Privy Council, Unbound Papers, 1:46. This petition is addressed, not to the king in Council, but to the lords justices who were exercising his functions during the absence of William III. in Holland, whither he had gone on account of his war with Louis XIV. The paper is endorsed as read July 16, 1696. A proclamation was immediately issued, July 18, declaring Henry Every and his crew pirates, ordering colonial governors to seize them, and offering a reward of L500, which the East India Company agreed to pay, for their apprehension; Acts of the Privy Council, Colonial, II. 299-302. Several of the crew were apprehended, tried, and hanged in November; their trial is reported in Hargrave's State Trials, V. 1-18. Others found a refuge in the colonies, despite the proclamation, Governor Markham of Pennsylvania in particular being loudly accused of connivance; Calendar of State Papers, Colonial, 1696-1697, pp. 613-615. Every (or Avery) was one of the most famous of the pirates. His history is told in Captain Charles Johnson's General History of the Pyrates (second ed., London, 1724), pp. 45-63. Two popular ballads respecting him are in Professor Firth's Naval Songs and Ballads, pp. 131-134. We print first the documents which first brought knowledge of his misdeeds, but the whole story in a consecutive order is better found in the examination of John Dann, document no. 63, post. The case is only partly American, but ramifies, as will be seen, over much of the globe.]

To their Excellencyes The Lords Justices of England in Council,

The humble Petition of the Governour and Company of Merchants of London trading into the East Indies

Most humbly sheweth

That the said Governour and Company have lately received certain Intelligence That Henry Every, Commander of a Ship called the Fancy, of 46 Guns, is turned Pirate and now in the Seas of India or Persia, who with divers other Englishmen and Forreigners to the number of about 130 (the names of some of which are hereunto annexed) run away with the sa[id Ship], then called the Charles, from the Port of Corona[2] in Spain and that the said Pirate ha[vin]g ... at the Island of Johanna[3] had left there the following Declaration: vizt.:

[Footnote 2: Coruna.]

[Footnote 3: The chief of the Comoro Islands, in the Mozambique Channel, northwest of Madagascar. The document which follows is also printed, from a manuscript in the India Office, in the Hakluyt Society's Diary of William Hedges, II. cxxxviii-cxxxix, where are other extracts concerning Every.]

To all English Commanders, let this satisfie, That I was riding here at this instant in the Ship Fancy Man of War, formerly the Charles of the Spanish Expedition,[4] who departed from Croniae the 7th of May 1694 Being (and am now) in a Ship of 46 Guns, 150 Men, and bound to Seek our Fortunes. I have never as yet wronged any English or Dutch, nor ever intend whilst I am Commander. Wherefore as I commonly speak with all Ships, I desire whoever comes to the perusall of this to take this Signall, That if you, or any whom you may inform, are desirous to know what wee are at a distance, Then make your Ancient[5] up in a Ball or Bundle and hoist him at the Mizenpeek, the Mizen being furled. I shall answer with the same and never molest you, for my Men are hungry, Stout, and resolute, and should they exceed my Desire I cannot help myself. As yet an Englishmans Friend

At Johanna February 28th, 1694. HENRY EVERY.

[Footnote 4: The expedition which sailed for Spain in the spring of 1694, to deter the French from attacking Barcelona.]

[Footnote 5: Ensign.]

The Copy of which said Declaration was brought by Some of the said Company's Ships to Bombay and from thence transmitted to England with the annexed Clause of a Letter relating thereunto.[6]

[Footnote 6: Document no. 59, post.]

And the said Governour and Company having likewise understood by some fresh Advices from Persia hereunto annexed That the said Pirate had in pursuance of his said Declaration pillaged severall Ships belonging to the Subjects of the Mogull[7] in their passage from the Red Sea to Surrat,[8] upon notice whereof the Factoryes of the said Company at Surrat had guards set upon their Houses by the Governour of the place till such time The Mogulls pleasure was known, Whereby the said Governour and Company have reason to fear many great inconveniences may attend them not only from the Reprizalls which may be made upon them at Surrat or other their Factories But also from the Interruption which may be thereby given to their Trade from Port to Port in India, as well as to their Trade to and from thence to England.

[Footnote 7: Aurangzeb, the Mogul emperor of Hindustan.]

[Footnote 8: Surat, 150 miles north of Bombay, and the seat of an important trading factory of the East India Company.]

Wherefore your Peticioners do most humbly beseech your Excellencies to use such effectuall means for the preventing the great Loss and damage which threatens them hereby, as to your Excellencies great wisdom shall be thought fit.

And your Peticioners shall ever pray etca.

Signed by order of the Governour and Company

RO. BLACKBORNE, Secretarie.

59. Extract, E.I. Co. Letter from Bombay. May 28, 1695.[1]

[Footnote 1: London, Privy Council, Unbound Papers, 1:46, accompanying our no. 58. Bombay was the main post of the East India Company; a council there supervised all its trade along the west coast of Hindustan.]

Extract of a Clause in the Generall Letter from Bombay dated the 28th May, 1695.

By our shipping now arrived who touched at Johanna Wee have News That Strongs ship which was one of them that w[ent] for the Spanish Expedition is runn away with from the Groyn[2] and come into these seas carrying 46 Guns and 130 men, as your Honours will perceive by Copy of the Captains Letter left at Johanna that accompanyes this. Your Honours Ships going into that Island gave him chase, but hee was too nimble for them by much, having taken down a great deal of his upper work and made her exceeding snugg, which advantage being added to her well sailing before, causes her to sail so hard now that shee fears not who follows her. This Ship will undoubtedly into the Red Seas and Wee fear disappoint us of Our above expected Goods, And it is probable will after shee had ransacked that Gulph proceed to Persia and doe what mischief possible there, which will procure infinite clamours at Suratt and the Government will be for embargoing all that ever Wee have there.

[Footnote 2: Coruna, which the English then frequently called "The Groyne."]

60. Abstract, E.I. Co. Letters from Bombay. October 12, 1695.[1]

[Footnote 1: London, Privy Council, Unbound Papers, 1:46, accompanying our no. 58.]

By Letters received the 4th of this Inst. from the Generall[2] and Councill for the English Affairs residing att Bombay dated 12th October 1695 the Company are advised as followeth, vizt.

[Footnote 2: Sir John Gayer, governor of Bombay, which at this time was the chief seat of the company's operations in India.]

That on the 29th August the Generall and Councill dispatched the Company's ship the Benjamin, Burthen 468 Tunns, Captain Brown Commander, in Company of two Dutch ships that wintered here, for Surrat, with almost all the Cargoes of the three ships, except the Lead that the Mocha carryed in her for Persia (which wee had nott time to take out, she arriving so late). On the 7th of September she arrived Surrat Rivers mouth, where the President, according to Orders, fell to unlading her, but by that time they had gott the Guns, 4 or 500 Bales, and some other Goods on shoar, on the 11th Ditto, One of Abdull Gofores[3] Ships arriving, their people sent the Governour word, that they were plundered by an English Vessell, severall of their Men killed in fight, and others barbarously used; Upon which there was a great noise in Towne, and the Rabble very much incensed against the English, which caused the Governour to send a Guard to Our Factory to prevent their doing any violence to Our People. the 13th in the Morning, the Gunsway, one of the Kings Ships, arrived from Judda and Mocho,[4] the Nocqueda[5] and Merchants, with one voice, proclaiming that they were robbed by four English Ships near Bombay of a very great Sume, and that the Robbers had carryed their plundered Treasure on Shoar there, on which there was farr greater noise than before. upon this the Governour[6] sent a very strong Guard to the Factory and clapt all our People in Irons, shut them up in a room, planked up all their windows, kept strict Watches about them, that no one should have pen, ink, or paper to write, stopped all the passages, that no Letters might pass to Us. att this time Captain Brown being att Surat, with some of his Officers and Boats Crew, faired in Common with the rest, and so did some others, that were on shoar, to look after their sick att Swally;[7] and their Long boat and Pinnace going on Shoar there, for Water and Provisions, They sent one Man to the Choultrey,[8] to inquire what News, (having heard somewhat of the Rumour). this person they seized on, by severall Peons, which caused them immediately to putt their boats off, which they had no sooner done, but sundry small Armes were discharged at them. This Caused the Boats to repair to their Ship, att the Rivers mouth, where the Dutch told them, they durst not supply them with any thing while there. But one of them, being ready to sail for Batavia, said, if they would sail in Company with them, they would supply them with what they wanted, as soon as they were out of sight of the Rivers Mouth, which was done according to promise, and so the Benjamin, by the Generall Consent of their Officers, came hither, having left her Captain and thirty nine more of her Company behind. as soon as we had a full relation of these things, we immediately wrote to Court, to one Issa Cooley, an Armenian, whom wee intend to make our Vakeel[9] to represent Our Cause to the King, and to Excuse Our Selves from being concerned in those barbarous Actions. Wee Also wrote to the Governour of Surrat and all the Great Umbraws[10] round Us to the same effect, hearing by all that come from Surrat, that that Citty is in an uproar about Us, and being informed also, that Severall Letters are gone to the Siddy[11] (who is very near Us with an Army) from Court and Surat, wee are making what preparation Wee can for our Own defence, nott knowing what this Extream ferment may produce.

[Footnote 3: Abd-ul-Ghaffar was the richest merchant in Surat. "Abdul Gafour, a Mahometan that I was acquainted with, drove a Trade equal to the English East-india Company, for I have known him to fit out in a Year above twenty Sail of Ships, between 300 and 800 Tuns." Capt. Alexander Hamilton, A New Account of the East Indies, I. 147. The Indian historian Khafi Khan, who was at Surat at the time, gives an account of the transactions which follow, translated in Elliot and Dowson, History of India as told by its own Historians, VII. 350-351.]