Part 1 (2/2)

The Vessel carry'd sixteen Guns, but was fitted to carry twenty two, and there was on Board one hundred and sixty stout Fellows, as bold and as case-harden'd for the Work as ever I met with upon any Occasion whatever: We victual'd in this Place for eight Months, by our Calculation; but our Cook, who had the Management of the Salting and Pickling the Beef, order'd his Matters so, that had he been let alone he would have starv'd us all, and poison'd us too; for as we are oblig'd to hunt the black Cattle in the Island sometimes a great while before we can shoot them, it should be observ'd, that the Flesh of those that are heated before they are kill'd, is not fit to be pickled or salted up for Keeping.

But this Man happening to pickle up the Beef, without Regard to this particular Distinction, most of the Beef, so pickled, stunk before we left the Place, so that we were oblig'd to throw it all away: The Men then said it was impossible to salt any Beef in those hot Countries, so as to preserve it, and would have had us given it over, and ha' gone to the Coast of _New England_, or _New York_, for Provisions; but I soon convinc'd them of the Mistake, and by only using the Caution, _viz._ not to salt up any Beef of those Cattle that had been hunted, we cur'd one hundred and forty Barrels of very good Beef, and such as lasted us a very great while.

I began to be of some Repute among them upon this Occasion, and _Redhand_ took me into the Cabin with him to consult upon all Emergencies, and gave me the Name of Captain, though I had then no Command: By this Means I gave him an Account of all my Adventures in the South Seas, and what a prodigious Booty we got there with Captain _Goignet_, the _Frenchman_, and with Captain _Sharp_, and others; encouraging him to make an Attempt that Way, and proposing to him to go away to the _Brasils_, and so round by the Straits of _Magellan_, or _Cape Horn_.

However, in this he was more prudent than I, and told me, that not only the Strength but the Force of his s.h.i.+p was too small, not but that he had Men enough, as he said very well, but he wanted more Guns, and a better s.h.i.+p; for indeed the s.h.i.+p we were in was but a weak crazy Boat for so long a Voyage: So he said he approv'd my Project very well, but that he thought we should try to take some more substantial Vessel for the Business: And says he, if we could but take a good stout s.h.i.+p, fit to carry thirty Guns, and a Sloop, or Brigantine, he would go with all his Heart.

This I could not but approve of; so we form'd the Scheme of the Design, and he call'd all his Men together, and propos'd it to them, and they all approv'd it with a general Consent; and I had the Honour of being the Contriver of the Voyage. From this Time we resolv'd, some how or other, to get a better s.h.i.+p under us, and it was not long before an Opportunity presented to our Mind.

Being now upon the Coast of the Island of _Cuba_, we stood away West, coasting the Island, and so went away for _Florida_, where we cruis'd among the Islands, and in the Wake of the Gulph; but nothing presented a great while; at length we spy'd a Sail, which prov'd an _English_ homeward bound s.h.i.+p from _Jamaica_: We immediately chac'd her, and came up with her; she was a stout s.h.i.+p, and the Captain defended her very well; and had she not been a comber'd deep s.h.i.+p, being full loaded, so that they could scarce come at their Guns, we should have had our Hands full of her. But when they found what we were, and that, being full of Men, we were resolv'd to be on Board them, and that we had hoisted the black Flag, a Signal that we would give them no Quarter, they began to sink in their Spirits, and soon after cry'd Quarter, offering to yield: _Redhand_ would have given them no Quarter, but, according to his usual Practice, would have thrown the Men all into the Sea; but I prevail'd with him to give them Quarter, and good Usage too; and so they yielded; and a very rich Prize it was, only that we knew not what to do with the Cargo.

When we came to consider more seriously the Circ.u.mstances we were in by taking this s.h.i.+p, and what we should do with her, we found, that she was not only deep loaden, but was a very heavy Sailer, and that, in short, she was not such a s.h.i.+p as we wanted; so, upon long Debate, we resolv'd to take out of her all the Rum, the Indigo, and the Money we could come at, with about twenty Casks of Sugar, and twelve of her Guns, with all the Ammunition, small Arms, Bullets, _&c._ and let her go; which was accordingly done, to the great Joy of the Captain that commanded her: However, we took in her about six thousand Pounds Sterling in Pieces of Eight.

But the next Prize we met, suited us better on all Accounts, being a s.h.i.+p from _Kingsale_ in _Ireland_, loaden with Beef, and b.u.t.ter, and Beer, for _Barbadoes_; never was s.h.i.+p more welcome to Men in our Circ.u.mstances; this was the very Thing we wanted: We saw the s.h.i.+p early in the Morning, at about five Leagues Distance, and we was three Days in Chace of her; she stood from us, as if she would have run away for the _Cape de Verd_ Islands, and two or three Times we thought she sail'd so well she would have got away from us, but we had always the good Luck to get Sight of her in the Morning: She was about 260 Tun, an _English_ Frigat-built s.h.i.+p, and had 12 Guns on Board, but could carry 20. The Commander was a Quaker, but yet had he been equal to us in Force, it appear'd by his Countenance he would not have been afraid of his Flesh, or have baulk'd using the Carnal Weapon of Offence, _viz._ the Cannon Ball.

We soon made ourselves Master of this s.h.i.+p when once we came up with him, and he was every Thing that we wanted; so we began to s.h.i.+ft our Guns into her, and s.h.i.+fted about 60 Tun of her b.u.t.ter and Beef into our own Frigate; this made the _Irish_ Vessel be a clear s.h.i.+p, lighter in the Water, and have more Room on Board for Fight, if Occasion offer'd.

When we had the old Quaking Skipper on Board, we ask'd him whether he would go along with us; he gave us no Answer at first; but when we ask'd him again, he return'd, that he did not know whether it might be safe for him to answer the Question: We told him, he should either go or stay, as he pleas'd; Why then, says he, I had rather ye will give me Leave to decline it.

We gave him Leave, and accordingly set him on Sh.o.r.e afterwards at _Nevis_, with ten of his Men; the rest went along with us as Volunteers, except the Carpenter and his Mate, and the Surgeon, those we took by Force: We were now supply'd as well as Heart could wish, had a large s.h.i.+p in our Possession, with Provisions enough for a little Fleet rather than for a single s.h.i.+p. So with this Purchase we went away for the _Leeward Islands_, and fain we would have met with some of the _New York_ or _New England_ s.h.i.+ps, which generally come loaden with Peas, Flower, Pork, _&c._ But it was a long while before any Thing of that Kind presented. We had promis'd the _Irish_ Captain to set him on Sh.o.r.e, with his Company, at _Nevis_, but we were not willing till we had done our Business in those Seas, because of giving the Alarm among the Islands; so we went away for St. _Domingo_, and making that Island our Rendezvous, we cruis'd to the Eastward, in Hopes of some Purchase; it was not long before we spy'd a Sail, which prov'd to be a _Burmoodas_ Sloop, but bound from _Virginia_ or _Maryland_, with Flower, Tobacco, and some Malt; the last a Thing which in particular we knew not what to do with: However, the Flower and Tobacco was very welcome, and the Sloop no less welcome than the rest; for she was a very large Vessel, and carry'd near 60 Tun, and when not so deep loaden, prov'd an excellent Sailer. Soon after this we met with another Sloop, but she was bound from _Barbadoes_ to _New England_, with Rum, Sugar, and Molosses: Nothing disturb'd us in taking this Vessel, but that being willing enough to let her go; (for as to the Sugar and Molosses, we had neither Use for them, or Room for them) but to have let her go, had been to give the Alarm to all the Coast of _North America_, and then what we wanted would never come in our Way. Our Captain, justly call'd _Redhand_, or _b.l.o.o.d.yhand_, was presently for dispatching them, that they might tell no Tales; and, indeed, the Necessity of the Method had very near prevail'd; nor did I much interpose here, I know not why, but some of the other Men put him in as good a Way; and that was, to bring the Sloop to an Anchor under the Lee of St. _Domingo_, and take away all her Sails, that she should not stir till we gave her Leave.

We met with no less than five Prizes more here in about 20 Days Cruise, but none of them for our Turn; one of them, indeed, was a Vessel bound to St.

_Christopher_'s with _Madera_ Wine: We borrow'd about 20 Pipes of the Wine, and let her go. Another was a _New England_ built s.h.i.+p, of about 150 Tun, bound also Home with Sugar and Molosses, which was good for nothing to us; however, we gat near 1000 _l._ on Board her in Pieces of Eight, and taking away her Sails, as before, brought her to an Anchor under the Lee of the Sloop: At last we met with what we wanted, and this was another s.h.i.+p of about 100 Tun, from _New England_, bound to _Barbadoes_; she had on Board 150 Barrels of Flower, about 350 Barrels of Pease, and 10 Tun of Pork barrell'd up and pickel'd, besides some live Hogs, and some Horses, and six Tun of Beer.

We were now sufficiently provided for; in all those Prizes we got also about 56 Men, who, by Choice and Volunteer, agree'd to go along with us, including the Carpenters and Surgeons, who we oblig'd always to go; so that we were now above 200 Men, two s.h.i.+ps, and the _Burmoodas_ Sloop; and giving the other Sloop, and the _New England_ homeward bound s.h.i.+p their Sails again, we let them go; and as to the Malt which we took in the _Burmoodas_ Sloop, we gave it the last _New England_ Master, who was going to _Barbadoes_.

We gat in all those s.h.i.+ps, besides the Provisions above-mention'd, about 200 Musquets and Pistols, good Store of Cutla.s.ses, about 20 Tun of Iron Shot and Musquet Ball, and 33 Barrels of good Powder, which was all very suitable Things to our Occasions.

We were fully satisfy'd, as we said to one another, now, and concluded that we would stand away to the Windward, as well as we could, towards the Coast of _Africa_, that we might come in the Wind's Way for the Coast of _Brasil_; but our Frigat (I mean that we were first s.h.i.+pp'd in) was yet out upon the Cruise, and not come in; so we came to an Anchor to wait for her, when, behold, the next Morning she came in with full Sail, and a Prize in Tow: She had, it seems, been farther West than her Orders, but had met with a _Spanish_ Prize, whither bound, or from whence, I remember we did not enquire, but we found in her, besides Merchandize, which we had no Occasion for, 65000 Pieces of Eight in Silver, some Gold, and two Boxes of Pearl of a good Value; five _Dutch_, or rather _Flemish_, Seamen that were on Board her, were willing to go with us; and as to the rest of the Cargo, we let her go, only finding four of her Guns were Bra.s.s, we took them into our s.h.i.+p, with seven great Jars of Powder, and some Cannon-Shot, and let her go, using the _Spaniards_ very civilly.

This was a Piece of meer good Fortune to us, and was so encouraging as nothing could be more, for it set us up, as we may say; for now we thought we could never fail of good Fortune, and we resolv'd, one and all, directly to the South Seas.

It was about the Middle of _August_ 1690 that we set forward, and steering E. by S. and E. S. E. for about fifteen Days, with the Winds at N. N. W.

variable, we came quickly into the Trade Winds, with a good Offing, to go clear of all the Islands; and so we steer'd directly for _Cape St.

Augustin_ in the _Brasils_, which we made the 22nd of _September_.

We cruis'd some Time upon the Coast, about the Bay of _All Saints_, and put in once or twice for fresh Water, especially at the Island of St. _John_'s, where we got good Store of Fish, and some Hogs, which, for fresh Provisions, was a great Relief to us: But we gat no Purchase here; for whether it was that their _European_ s.h.i.+ps were just come in, or just gone out, we know not, or whether they suspected what we were, and so kept close within their Ports, but in thirteen Days that we ply'd off and on about _Fernambuque_, and about fourteen Days more that we spent in coasting along the _Brasil_ Sh.o.r.e to the South, we met not one s.h.i.+p, neither saw a Sail, except of their Fis.h.i.+ng-Boats or small Coasters, who kept close under Sh.o.r.e.

We cross'd the Line here about the latter End of _September_, and found the Air exceeding hot and unwholsome, the Sun being in the _Zenith_, and the Weather very wet and rainy; so we resolv'd to stand away South, without looking for any more Purchase on that Side.

Accordingly we kept on to the South, having tolerable good Weather, and keeping the Sh.o.r.e all the Way in View till we came the Length of St.

_Julien_, in the Lat.i.tude of 48 Degrees, 22 Minutes South; here we put in again, being the Beginning of _November_, and took in fresh Water, and spent about ten Days, refres.h.i.+ng ourselves, and fitting our Tackle; all which Time we liv'd upon Penguins and Seals, of which we kill'd an innumerable Number; and when we prepar'd to go, we salted up as many Penguins as we found would serve our whole Crew, to eat them twice a Week as long as they would keep.

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