Including the Biography of the Author
The following account being chiefly confined to the conduct of this outrageous pirate, Captain Gow, after his having actually turned pirate, in this particular ship, the George galley, we must content ourselves with beginning where he began—that is to say, when they seized the captain, murdered him and his men, and ran away with the ship on the coast of Barbary, in the Mediterranean Sea.
It was the 3rd of November, anno 1724, when, as has been observed, the ship having lain two months in the road at Santa Cruz, taking in her lading, the captain made preparations to put to sea; and the usual signals for sailing having been given, some of the merchants from on shore, who had been concerned in furnishing the cargo, came on board in the forenoon to take their leave of the captain, and wish him a good voyage, as is usual on such occasions.
Whether it was concerted by the whole gang beforehand, we know not; but while the captain was treating and entertaining the merchants under the awning upon the quarter-deck, as is the custom in those hot countries, three of the seamen, viz., Winter and Petersen, two Swedes, and Macaulay, a Scotchman, came rudely upon the quarter-deck, and as if they took that opportunity because the merchants were present, believing the captain would not use any violence with them in the presence of the merchants, they made a long complaint of their ill usage, and particularly of their provisions and allowance, as they said, being not sufficient, nor such as was ordinarily made in other merchant-ships; seeming to load the captain, Monsieur Ferneau, with being the occasion of it, and that he did it for his private gain; which, however, had not been true if the fact had been true, the overplus of provisions, if the stores had been more than sufficient, belonging to the owners, not to the captain, at the end of the voyage; there being also a steward on board to take the account.
In their making this complaint they seemed to direct their speech to the merchants, as well as to the captain, as if they had been concerned in the ship, which they were not; or as if desiring them to intercede for them with the captain, that they might have redress, and might have a better allowance.
The captain was highly provoked at this rudeness, as, indeed, he had reason, it being a double affront to him, as it was done in the view of the merchants who were come on board to him and to do him an honour at parting. However, he restrained his passion, and gave them not the least angry word, only that if they were aggrieved, they had no more to do but to have let him know it; that if they were ill-used, it was not by his order; that he would inquire into it, and that if anything was amiss, it should be rectified; with which the seamen withdrew, seeming well satisfied with his answer.
About five the same evening they unmoored the ship, and hove short upon their best bower anchor, expecting the land breeze, as is usual on that coast, to carry them out to sea; but, instead of that, it fell stark calm, and the captain fearing the ship should fall foul of her own anchor, ordered the mizzen- topsail to be furled.
Petersen, one of the malcontent seamen, being the nearest man at hand, seemed to go about it, but moved so carelessly and heavily that it appeared plainly he did not care whether it was done or no, and particularly as if he had a mind the captain should see it and take notice of it; and the captain did so, for perceiving how awkwardly he went about it, he spoke a little tartly to him, and asked him what was the reason he did not stir a little and furl the sail.
Petersen, as if he waited for the question, answered in a surly tone, and with a kind of disdain, “So as we eat so shall we work.” This he spoke aloud, so as that he might be sure the captain should hear him, and the rest of the men also; and ‘t was evident that as he spoke in the plural number we, so he spoke their minds as well as his own, and words which they had all agreed to before.
The captain, however, though he heard plain enough what he said, took not the least notice of it, or gave him the least room to believe he had heard him, being not willing to begin a quarrel with the men, and knowing that if he took any notice at all of it he must resent it, and punish it too.
Soon after this the calm went off, and the land breeze sprung up, as is usual on that coast, and they immediately weighed and stood off to sea; but the captain having had those two wrestles with his men, just at their putting to sea, was very uneasy in his mind, as, indeed, he had reason to be; and the same evening, soon after they were under sail, the mate being walking on the quarter-deck, he went, and taking two or three turns with him, told him how he had been used by the men, particularly how they affronted him before the merchants, and what an answer Petersen had given him on the quarter-deck when he ordered him to furl the mizzen-topsail.
The mate was surprised at the thing as well as the captain, and after some other discourse about it, in which ‘t was their unhappiness not to be so private as they ought to have been in a case of such importance, the captain told him he thought it was absolutely necessary to have a quantity of small arms brought immediately into the great cabin, not only to defend themselves if there should be occasion, but also that he might be in a posture to correct those fellows for their insolence, especially if he should meet with any more of it. The mate agreed that it was necessary to be done, and had they said no more, and said this more privately, all had been well, and the wicked design had been much more difficult, if not the execution of it effectually prevented.
But two mistakes in this part was the ruin of them all: (1) that the captain spoke it without due caution, so that Winter and Petersen, the two principal malcontents, and who were expressly mentioned by the captain to be corrected, overheard it, and knew by that means what they had to expect if they did not immediately bestir themselves to prevent it. (2) The other mistake was that when the captain and mate agreed that it was necessary to have the arms got ready and brought into the great cabin, the captain unhappily bade him go immediately to Gow, the second mate and gunner, and give him orders to get the arms cleared and loaded for him, and so to bring them up to the great cabin, which was, in short, to tell the conspirators that the captain was preparing to be too strong for them if they did not fall to work with him immediately.
Winter and Petersen went immediately forward, where they knew the rest of the mutineers were, and to whom they communicated what they had heard; telling them that it was time to provide for their own safety, for otherwise their destruction was resolved on, and the captain would soon be in such a posture that there would be no meddling with him.
While they were thus consulting at first, as they said, only for their own safety, Gow and Williams came in to them, with some others, to the number of eight; and no sooner were they joined by these two, but they fell downright to the point which Gow had so long formed in his mind, viz., to seize upon the captain and mate, and all those that they could not bring to join with them—in short, to throw them into the sea, and to go upon the account.
All those who are acquainted with the sea language know the meaning of that expression, and that it is, in few words, to run away with the ship and turn pirates.
Villainous designs are soonest concluded. As they had but little time to consult upon what measures they should take, so a very little consultation served for what was before them, and they came to this short but hellish resolution, viz., that they would immediately, that very night, murder the captain, and such others as they named, and afterwards proceed with the ship as they should see cause. And here it is to be observed that though Winter and Petersen were in the first proposal, namely, to prevent their being brought to correction by the captain, yet Gow and Williams were the principal advisers in the bloody part, which, however, the rest soon came into; for, as I said before, as they had but little time to resolve it, so they had but very little debate about it; but what was first proposed was forthwith engaged in and consented to.
Besides, it must not be omitted that, as I have said, upon good grounds, that Gow had always had the wicked game of pirating in his head, and that he had attempted it, or rather tried to attempt it, before, but was not able to bring it to pass, so he had, and Williams also had several times, even in this very voyage, dropped some hints of this vile design, as they thought there was room for it; and touched two or three times at what a noble opportunity they had of enriching themselves, and making their fortunes, as they wickedly called it. This was when they had the four chests of money on board; and Williams made it a kind of a jest in his discourse how easily they might carry it off, ship and all. But as they did not find themselves seconded, or that any of the men showed themselves in favour of such a thing, but rather spoke of it with abhorrence, they passed it over as a kind of discourse that had nothing at all in it, except that one of the men, viz., the surgeon, took them up, in short, once for so much as mentioning such a thing, told them the thought was criminal, and it ought not to be spoken of among them; which reproof, ‘t was supposed, cost him his life afterwards.
As Gow and his comrade had thus started the thing at a distance before, though it was then without success, yet they had the less to do now, when other discontents had raised a secret fire in the breasts of the men; for now being, as it were, mad and desperate with apprehensions of their being to be severely punished by the captain, they wanted no persuasions to come into the most wicked undertaking that the devil or any of his agents could propose to them. Nor do we find that upon any of their examinations they pretended to have made any scruples of, or objections against, the cruelty of the bloody attempt that was to be made, but came into it at once, and resolved to put it in execution immediately, that is to say, the very same evening.
It was the captain’s constant custom to call all the ship’s company every night at eight o’clock, into the great cabin to prayers; and then the watch being set, one watch went upon deck, and the other turned in (as the seamen call it), that is, went to their hammocks to sleep; and here they concerted their devilish plot. It was the turn of five of the conspirators to go to sleep, and of these Gow and Williams were two; the three who were to be upon the deck were Winter, Rowlinson, and Melvin, a Scotchman.
The persons they had immediately designed for destruction were four, viz., the captain, the mate, the supercargo, and the surgeon, whereof all but the captain were gone to sleep, the captain himself being upon the quarter-deck.
Between nine and ten at night, all being quiet and secure, and the poor gentlemen that were to be murdered fast asleep, the villains that were below gave the watchword, which was, “Who fires next?” at which they all got out of their hammocks with as little noise as they could, and going in the dark to the hammocks of the chief mate, supercargo, and surgeon, they cut all their throats. The surgeon’s throat was cut so effectually that he could struggle very little with them, but leaping out of his hammock, ran up to get upon the deck, holding his hand upon his throat, but stumbled at the tiller, and falling down, had no breath, and consequently no strength to raise himself, but died where he lay.
The mate, whose throat was cut, but not his wind pipe, had struggled so vigorously with the villain that attempted him that he got from him and got into the hold; and the supercargo, in the same condition, got forward between decks under some deals, and both of them begged with the most moving cries and entreaties for their lives; and when nothing could prevail, they begged with the same earnestness but for a few moments to pray to God and recommend their souls to His mercy; but alike in vain, for the wretched murderers, heated with blood, were past all pity; and not being able to come at them with their knives, with which they had begun the execution, they shot them with their pistols, firing several times upon each of them till they found they were quite dead.
As all this, before the firings, could not be done without some noise, the captain, who was walking alone upon the quarter-deck, called out and asked what was the matter. The boatswain, who sat on the after-bits, and was not of the party, answered he could not tell, but was afraid there was somebody overboard; upon which the captain stepped towards the ship’s side to look over, when Winter, Rowlinson, and Melvin, coming that moment behind him, at tempted to throw him overboard into the sea; but he being a nimble, strong man, got hold of the shrouds, and struggled so hard with them that they could not break his hold; but turning his head to look behind him to see who he had to deal with, one of them cut his throat with a broad Dutch knife, but neither was that wound mortal. And the captain still struggled with them, though seeing he should undoubtedly be murdered, he constantly cried out to God for mercy, for he found there was no mercy to be expected from them. During this struggle another of the murderers stabbed him with a knife in the back, and that with such force that the villain could not draw the knife out again to repeat his blow, which he would otherwise have done.
At this moment Gow came up from the butchery he had been at between decks, and seeing the captain still alive, he went close up to him and shot him, as he confessed, with a brace of bullets.
What part he shot him into could not be known, though they said he shot him into the head. However, he had yet life enough, though they threw him overboard, to take hold of a rope, and would still have saved himself, but they cut that rope, and he fell into the sea, and was seen no more. Thus they finished the tragedy, having murdered four of the principal men of command in the ship, so that there was now nobody to oppose them; for Gow being second mate and gunner, the command fell to him, of course, and the rest of the men having no arms ready, nor knowing how to get at any, were in the utmost consternation, expecting they would go on with the work and cut all their throats.
In this fright every one shifted for himself. As for those who were upon deck, some got into the ship’s head, resolving to throw themselves into the sea rather than to be mangled with knives and murdered in cold blood, as the captain and mate, &c., had been. Those who were below, not knowing what to do, or whose turn it should be next, lay still in their hammocks, expecting death every moment, and not daring to stir, lest the villains should think they did it in order to make resistance, which, however, they were no way capable of doing, having no concert one with another, nor knowing anything in particular of one another, as who was alive or who was dead; whereas had the captain, who was himself a bold and stout man, been in his great cabin with three or four men with him, and his firearms, as he intended to have had, those eight fellows had never been able to have done their work; but every man was taken unprovided, and in the utmost surprise, so that the murderers met with no resistance. And as for those that were left, they were less able to make resistance than the other; so that, as I have said, they were in the utmost terror and amazement, expecting every minute to be murdered as the rest had been.
But the villains had done. The persons who had any command were despatched, so they cooled a little as to blood. The first thing they did afterward was to call up all the eight upon the quarter deck, where they congratulated one another, and shook hands together, engaging to proceed, by unanimous consent, in their resolved design, that is to say, of turning pirates, in order to which they, with a nem. con., chose Gow to command the ship, promising all subjection and obedience to his orders (so that now we must call him Captain Gow), and he, by the same consent of the rest, named Williams to be his lieutenant. Other officers they appointed afterwards.
The first order they issued was to let all the rest of the men know that if they continued quiet, and offered not to meddle with any of their affairs, they should receive no hurt; but strictly forbid any man among them to set a foot abaft the mainmast, except they were called to the helm, upon pain of being immediately cut in pieces, keeping, for that purpose, one man at the steerage-door, and one upon the quarter-deck, with drawn cutlasses in their hands; but there was no need for it, for the men were so terrified with the bloody doings they had seen that they never offered to come in sight till they were called.
Their next work was to throw the three dead bodies of the mate, the surgeon, and the supercargo overboard, which, they said, lay in their way, and that was soon done, their pockets first searched and rifled. From thence they went to work with the great cabin and with all the lockers, chests, boxes, and trunks. These they broke open and rifled, that is, such of them as belonged to the murdered persons; and whatever they found there they shared among themselves. When they had done this they called for liquor, and sat down to drinking till morning, leaving the men, as above, to keep guard, and particularly to guard the arms, but relieved them from time to time as they saw occasion. By this time they had drawn in four more of the men to approve of what they had done, and promise to join with them, so that now they were twelve in number, and being but twenty-four at first, whereof four were murdered, they had but eight men to be apprehensive of, and those they could easily look after; so for the next day they sent for them all to appear before their new captain, where they were told by Gow what his resolution was, viz., to go a-cruising, or to go upon the account, as above; that if they were willing to join with them, and go into their measures, they should be well used, and there should be no distinction among them, but they should all fare alike; that they had been forced by the barbarous usage of Ferneau to do what they had done, but that now there was no looking back, and therefore, as they had not been concerned in what was past, they had nothing to do but to act in concert, do their duty as sailors, and obey orders for the good of the ship, and no harm should he do to any of them. As they all looked like condemned prisoners brought up to the bar to receive sentence of death, so they all answered by a profound silence; not one word being said by any of them, which Gow took as they meant it, viz., for a consent, because they durst not refuse; so they were then permitted to go up and down every where as they used to do. Though such of them as sometimes afterwards showed any reluctance to act as principals were never trusted, always suspected, and often severely beaten, and some of them were many ways inhumanly treated, and that particularly by Williams, the lieutenant, who was in his nature a merciless, cruel, and inexorable wretch, as we shall have occasion to take notice of again in its place.
They were now in a new circumstance of life, and acting upon a different stage of business, though upon the same stage as to the element, the water; before they were a merchant-ship, loaden upon a good account with merchant goods from the coast of Barbary, and bound to the coast of Italy; but they were now a crew of pirates, or, as they call them in the Levant, corsairs, bound nowhere, but to look out for purchase and spoil wherever they could find it.
In pursuit of this wicked trade they first changed the name of the ship, which was before called the George galley, and which they call now the Revenge, a name indeed suitable to the bloody steps they had taken. In the next place, they made the best of the ship’s forces. The ship had but twelve guns mounted when they came out of Holland; but as they had six more good guns in the hold, with carriages and everything proper for service (which they had in store, because being freighted for the Dutch merchants, and the Algerines being at war with the Dutch, they supposed they might want them for defence), now they took care to mount them for a much worse design; so that now they had eighteen guns, though too many for the number of hands they had on board.
In the third place, instead of pursuing their voyage to Genoa with the ship’s cargo, they took a clear contrary course, and resolved to station themselves upon the coasts of Spain and Portugal, and to cruise upon all nations; but what they chiefly aimed at was a ship with wine, if possible, for that they wanted extremely.
The first prize they took was an English sloop belonging to Poole, Thomas Wise, commander, bound from Newfoundland with fish for Cadiz. This was a prize of no value to them, for they knew not what to do with the fish; so they took out the master, Mr. Wise, and his men, who were but five in number, with their anchors, and cables, and sails, and what else they found worth taking out, and sunk the vessel.
N.B.—Here, it is to be observed, they found a man very fit for their turn, one James Belvin. He was boatswain of the sloop, a stout, brisk fellow, and a very good sailor, but otherways wicked enough to suit with their occasion, and as soon as he came among them he discovered it; for though he was not in the first bloody contrivance, nor in the terrible execution of which I have given a relation, that is to say, he was not guilty of running away with the ship George galley, nor of murdering the four innocent men, which we have given an account of above, yet ‘t is evident he joined heartily in all the villainies which followed. And, indeed, this man’s fate is a just and needful caution to all those sailors who, being taken in other ships by the pirates, think that is a sufficient plea for them to act as real pirates afterwards; and that the plea or pretence of being forced, will be a sufficient protection to them, however guilty they may have been afterward, and however volunteer they may have acted when they came among the pirates.
Doubtless ‘t is possible for a man to prove a hearty rogue after he is forced into the service of the pirates, however honest he was before, and however undesignedly or against his consent he at first came among them. Therefore those who expect to be acquitted in a court of justice afterward on pretence of their being at first forced into the company of rogues, must take care not to act anything in concert with them while they are embarked together, but what they really cannot avoid, and are apparently under a constraint in the doing.
But this man, ‘t was plain, acted a quite different part; for after he took on with them, he took all occasions to engage their confidence, and to convince them that he was hearty in his joining them. In a word, he was the most active and vigorous fellow of any that were, as it may be said, forced into their service; for many of the others, though they acted with them, and were apparently assisting, yet there was always a kind of backwardness and disgust at the villainy, for which they were often maltreated, and always suspected by their masters.
The next prize they took was a Scotch vessel, bound from Glasgow, with herrings and salmon, from thence to Genoa, and commanded by one Mr. John Somerville, of Port Patrick. This vessel was likewise of very little value to them, except that they took out, as they had done from the other, their arms, ammunition, clothes, provisions, sails, anchors, cables, &c., and everything of value, and therefore they sunk her too, as they had done the sloop. The reason they gave for sinking these two vessels was to prevent their being discovered; for as they were now cruising on the coast of Portugal, had they let the ships have gone with several of their men on board, they would presently have stood in for the shore, and have given the alarm, and the men-of-war, of which there were several, as well Dutch as English, in the river of Lisbon, would presently have put out to sea in quest of them; and they were very unwilling to leave the coast of Portugal till they had got a ship with wine, which they very much wanted.
They cruised eight or ten days after this without seeing so much as one vessel upon the seas, and were just resolving to stand more to the northward, to the coast of Galicia, when they descried a sail to the southward, being a ship about as big as their own, though they could not perceive what force she had. However, they gave chase, and the vessel perceiving it, crowded from them with all the sail they could make, hoisting up French colours, and standing away to the southward.
They continued the chase three days and three nights, and though they did not gain much upon her, the Frenchman sailing very well, yet they kept her in sight all the while, and for the most part within gun shot. But the third night, the weather proving a little hazy, the Frenchman changed his course in the night, and so got clear of them, and good reason they had to bless themselves in the escape they had made, if they had but known what a dreadful crew of rogues they had fallen among if they had been taken.
They were now gotten a long way to the southward, and being greatly disappointed, and in want of water as well as wine, they resolved to stand away for the Madeiras, which they knew was not far off, so they accordingly made the island in two days more, and keeping a large offing, they cruised for three or four days more, expecting to meet with some Portuguese vessel going in or coming out; but ‘t was in vain, for nothing stirred. So, tired with expecting, they stood in for the road, and came to an anchor, though at a great distance; then they sent their boat towards the shore with seven men, all well armed, to see whether it might not be practicable to board one of the ships in the road, and cutting her away from her anchors, bring her off; or if they found that could not be done, then their orders were to intercept some of the boats belonging to the place which carry wines off on board the ships in the road, or from one place to another on the coast; but they came back again disappointed in both, every bodybeing alarmed and aware of them, knowing by their posture what they were.
Having thus spent several days to no purpose, and finding themselves discovered (at length being apparently under a necessity to make an attempt some where), they stood away for Porto Santa, about ten leagues to the windward of Madeiras, and belonging also to the Portuguese. Here putting up British colours, they sent their boat ashore with Captain Somerville’s bill of health, and a present to the governor of three barrels of salmon and six barrels of herrings, and a very civil message, desiring leave to water, and to buy some refreshments, pretending to be bound to ——.
The governor very courteously granted their desire, but with more courtesy than discretion went off himself, with about nine or ten of his principal people, to pay the English captain a visit, little thinking what a kind of a captain it was they were going to compliment, and what price it might have cost them.
However, Gow, handsomely dressed, received them with some ceremony, and entertained them tolerably well for a while; but the governor having been kept by civility as long as they could, and the refreshments from the shore not appearing, he was forced to unmask; and when the governor and his company rose up to take their leave, they were, to their great surprise, suddenly surrounded with a gang of fellows with muskets and an officer at the head of them, who told them, in so many words, they were the captain’s prisoners, and must not think of going on shore any more till the water and provisions which were promised should come on board.
It is impossible to conceive the consternation and surprise the Portuguese gentry were in, nor is it very decently to be expressed; the poor governor was so much more than half dead with the fright that he really befouled himself in a piteous manner, and the rest were in no much better condition. They trembled, cried, begged, crossed themselves, and said their prayers as men going to execution; but ‘t was all one. They were told flatly the captain was not to be trifled with, that the ship was in want of provisions, and they would have them, or they would carry them all away. They were, however, well enough treated, except the restraint of their persons, and were often asked to refresh themselves, but they would neither eat or drink any more all the while they stayed on board, which was till the next day in the evening, when to their great satisfaction they saw a great boat come off from the fort, and which came directly on board with seven butts of water, and a cow and a calf, and a good number of fowls.
When the boat came on board, and had delivered the stores, Captain Gow complimented the governor and his gentlemen, and discharged them to their great joy; and besides discharging them, he gave them, in return for the provisions they brought, two ceroons of beeswax, and fired them three guns at their going away. I suppose, however, they will have a care how they go on board of any ship again in compliment to their captain, unless they are very sure who they are.
Having had no better success in this out-of-the-way run to the Madeiras, they resolved to make the best of their way back again to the coast of Spain or Portugal. They accordingly left Porto Santa the next morning, with a fair wind, standing directly for Cape St. Vincent or the Southward Cape.
They had not been upon the coast of Spain above two or three days before they met with a New England ship, —— Cross, commander, laden with staves, and bound for Lisbon, and being to load there with wine for London. This was a prize also of no value to them, and they began to be very much dis couraged with their bad fortune. However, they took out Captain Cross and his men, which were seven or eight in number, with most of the provisions and some of the sails, and gave the ship to Captain Wise, the poor man who they took at first in a sloop from Newfoundland; and in order to pay Wise and his men for what he took from them, and make them satisfaction, as he called it, he gave to Captain Wise and his mate twenty-four ceroons of beeswax, and to each of his men, who were four in number, two ceroons of wax each. Thus he pretended honestly, and to make reparation of damages by giving them the goods which he had robbed the Dutch merchants of, whose supercargo he had murdered.
After this, cruising some days off the bay, they met with a French ship from Cadiz, laden with wine, oil, and fruit. This was in some respect the very thing they wanted; so they manned her with their own men and stood off to sea, that they might divide the spoil of her with more safety, for they were too near the land.
And first they took out the French master and all his men, which were twelve in number; then they shifted great part of the cargo, especially of the wine, with some oil and a large quantity of almonds, out of the French ship into their own; with five of his best guns and their carriages, all their ammunition and small arms, and all the best of their sails, and then he gave that ship to Captain Somerville, the Glasgow captain, whose ship they had sunk, and to Captain Cross, the New England captain, who they had taken but just before; and to do justice, as they called it, here also, they gave half the ship and cargo to Somerville, one quarter to his mate, and the other quarter to Captain Cross, and sixteen ceroons of wax to the men to be shared among them.
It is to be observed here that Captain Somerville carried all his men along with him, except one who chose to enter among the pirates, so that he could never pretend he was forced into their service; but Cross’s men were all detained, whether by force or by their own consent does not appear at present.
The day before this division of the spoil they saw a large ship to windward, which at first put them into some surprise, for she came bearing down directly upon them, and they thought she had been a Portuguese man-of-war; but they found soon after that it was a merchant-ship, had French colours, and bound home, as they supposed, from the West Indies; and it was so, for, as we afterwards learned, she was loaded at Martinico, and bound for Rochelle.
The Frenchman, not fearing them, came on large to the wind, being a ship of much greater force than Gow’s ship, and carrying thirty-two guns and eighty men, besides a great many passengers. However, Gow at first made as if he would lie by for them; but seeing plainly what a ship it was, and that they should have their hands full of her, he began to consider, and calling his men all together upon the deck, told them his mind—viz., that the Frenchman was apparently superior in force every way, that they were but ill manned, and had a great many prisoners on board, and that some of their own people were not very well to be trusted; that six of their best hands were on board the prize, and that all they had left were not sufficient to ply their guns and stand by the sails; and that therefore, as they were under no necessity to engage, so he thought it would be next to madness to think of it, the French ship being so very much superior to them in force.
The generality of the men were of Gow’s mind, and agreed to decline the fight; but Williams, his lieutenant, strenuously opposed it, and being not to be appeased by all that Gow could say to him, or any one else, flew out in a rage at Gow, upbraiding him with being a coward, and not fit to command a ship of force.
The truth is, Gow’s reasoning was good, and the thing was just, considering their own condition. But Williams was a fellow uncapable of any solid thinking, had a kind of a savage, brutal courage, but nothing of true bravery in him; and this made him the most desperate and outrageous villain in the world, and the most cruel and inhuman to those whose disaster it was to fall into his hands, as had frequently appeared in his usage of the prisoners under his power in this very voyage.
Gow was a man of temper, and notwithstanding all ill language Williams gave him, said little or nothing, but by way of argument against attacking the French ship, which would certainly have been too strong for them. But this provoked Williams the more, and he grew to such an extravagant height, that he demanded boldly of Gow to give his orders for fighting, which Gow declined still. Williams presented his pistol at him, and snapped it, but it did not go off, which enraged him the more.
Winter and Petersen, standing nearest to Williams, and seeing him so furious, flew at him im mediately, and each of them fired a pistol at him; one shot him through the arm, and the other into his belly, at which he fell, and the men about him laid hold of him to throw him overboard, believing he was dead; but as they lifted him up he started violently out of their hands, and leaped directly into the hold, and from thence ran desperately into the powder-room, with his pistol cocked in his hand, swearing he would blow them all up; and had certainly done it if they had not seized him just as he had gotten the scuttle open, and was that moment going in to put his hellish resolution in practice.
Having thus secured the demented, raving creature, they carried him forward to the place which they had made on purpose, between decks, to secure their prisoners, and put him in amongst them, having first loaded him with irons, and particularly handcuffed him with his hands behind him, to the great satisfaction of the other prisoners, who, knowing what a butcherly, furious fellow he was, were terrified to the last degree to see him come in among them, till they saw the condition he came in. He was, indeed, the terror of all the prisoners, for he usually treated them in a barbarous manner, without the least provocation, and merely for his humour, presenting pistols to their breasts, swearing he would shoot them that moment, and then would beat them unmercifully, and all for his diversion, as he called it.
Having thus laid him fast, they presently resolved to stand away to the westward, by which they quitted the Martinico ship, who by that time was come nearer to them, and farther convinced them they were in no condition to have engaged her, for she was a stout ship, and full of men.
All this happened just the day before they shared their last prize among the prisoners (as I have said), in which they put on such a mock face of doing justice to the several captains and mates and other men, their prisoners, whose ships they had taken away, and who now they made a reparation to by giving them what they had taken violently from another, that it was a strange medley of mock justice made up of rapine and generosity blended together.
Two days after this they took a Bristol ship, bound from Newfoundland to Oporto with fish. They let her cargo alone, for they had no occasion for fish, but they took out also almost all their provisions, all the ammunition, arms, &c., all her good sails, also her best cables, and forced two of her men to go away with them, and then put ten of the Frenchmen on board her, and let her go.
But just as they were parting with her they consulted together what to do with Williams, their lieutenant, who was then among their prisoners and in irons; and after a short debate they resolved to put him on board the Bristol man and send him away too, which accordingly was done, with directions to the master to deliver him on board the first English man-of-war they should meet with, in order to his being hanged for a pirate (so they jeeringly called him) as soon as he came to England, giving them also an account of some of his villainies.
The truth is, this Williams was a monster, rather than a man; he was the most inhuman, bloody, and desperate creature that the world could produce; he was even too wicked for Gow and all his crew, though they were pirates and murderers, as has been said. His temper was so savage, so villainous, so merciless, that even the pirates themselves told him it was time he was hanged out of the way.
One instance of this barbarity in Williams cannot be omitted, and will be sufficient to justify all that can be said of him—namely, that when Gow gave it as a reason against engaging with the Martinico ship, that he had a great many prisoners on board, as above, and some of their own men they could not depend upon, Williams proposed to have them all called up, one by one, and to cut their throats and throw them overboard—a proposal so horrid that the worst of the crew shook their heads at it; yet Gow answered him very handsomely, that there had been too much blood spilt already. Yet the refusing this heightened the quarrel, and was the chief occasion of his offering to pistol Gow himself, as has been said at large. After which his behaviour was such as made all the ship’s crew resolved to be rid of him; and ‘t was thought, if they had not had an opportunity to send him away, as they did by the Bristol ship, they would have been obliged to have hanged him themselves.
This cruel and butcherly temper of Williams being carried to such a height, so near to the ruin of them all, shocked some of them, and, as they acknowledged, gave them some check in the heat of their wicked progress; and had they had a fair opportunity to have gone on shore at the time, without falling into the hands of justice, ‘t is believed the greatest part of them would have abandoned the ship, and perhaps the very trade of a pirate too. But they had dipped their hands in blood, and Heaven had no doubt determined to bring them—that is to say, the chief of them—to the gallows for it, as indeed they all deserved; so they went on.
When they put Williams on board the Bristol man, and he was told what directions they gave with him, he began to resent, and made all the intercession he could to Captain Gow for pardon, or at least not to be put on board the ship, knowing if he was carried to Lisbon, he should meet with his due from the Portuguese, if not from the English; for it seems he had been concerned in some villainies among the Portuguese before he came on board the George galley. What they were he did not confess, nor indeed did his own ship’s crew trouble themselves to examine him about it. He had been wicked enough among them, and it was sufficient to make them use him as they did; it was more to be wondered, indeed, they did not cut him in pieces upon the spot, and throw him into the sea, half on one side of the ship, and half on the other; for there was scarce a man in the ship but on one occasion or other had some apprehensions of him, and might be said to go in danger of his life from him.
But they chose to shift their hands of him this bloodless way; so they double-fettered him and brought him up. When they brought him out among the men, he begged they would throw him into the sea and drown him; then entreated for his life with a meanness which made them despise him, and with tears, so that one time they began to relent; but then the devilish temper of the fellow overruled it again; so at last they resolved to let him go, and did accordingly put him on board, and gave him a hearty curse at parting, wishing him a good voyage to the gallows, as was made good afterwards, though in such company as they little thought of at that time.
The Bristol captain was very just to them, for, according to their orders, as soon as they came to Lisbon, they put him on board the Argyle, one of his Majesty’s ships, Captain Bowler, commander, then lying in the Tagus, and bound home for England, who accordingly brought him home; though, as it happened, Heaven brought the captain and the rest of the crew so quickly to the end of their villainies, that they all came home time enough to be hanged with their lieutenant. But I return to Gow and his crew. Having thus dismissed the Bristol man, and cleared his hands of most of his prisoners, he, with the same wicked generosity, gave the Bristol captain thirteen ceroons of beeswax, as a gratuity for his trouble and charge with the prisoners, and in recompense, as he called it, for the goods he had taken from him, and so they parted.
What these several captains did, to whom they thus divided the spoil of poor Ferneau’s cargo, or, as I ought rather to call it, of the merchants’ cargo which was loaded in Africa,—I say, what was done with the beeswax and other things which they distributed to the captains and their crews, who they thus transposed from ship to ship, that we cannot tell, nor indeed could these people either well know how to keep it or how to part with it.
It was certainly a gift they had no power to give, nor had the other any right to it by their donation; but as the owners were unknown, and the several persons possessing it are not easily known, I do not see which way the poor Dutchmen can come at their goods again.
It is true indeed, the ships which they exchanged may and ought to be restored, and the honest owners put in possession of them again, and I suppose will be so in a legal manner; but the goods were so dispersed that it was impossible.
This was the last prize they took, not only on the coast of Portugal, but anywhere else; for Gow, who, to give him his due, was a fellow of counsel, and had a great presence of mind in cases of exigence, considered that as soon as the Bristol ship came into the river of Lisbon, they would certainly give an account of them, as well of their strength, as of their station in which they cruised; and that consequently the English men-of-war, of which there are generally some in that river, would immediately come abroad to look for them. So he began to reason with his officers, that now the coast of Portugal would be no proper place at all for them, unless they resolved to fall into the hand of the said men-of-war, and that they ought to consider immediately what to do.
In these debates some advised one thing, some another, as is usual in like cases: some were for going on to the coast of Guinea, where, as they said, was purchase enough, and very rich ships to be taken; others were for going to the West Indies, and to cruise among the islands, and take up their station at Tobago; others, and that not those of the most ignorant, proposed the standing in to the Bay of Mexico, and to join in with some of a new sort of pirates at St. Jago de la Cuba, who are all Spaniards, and call themselves garda del coasta, that is, guard-ships for the coast, but under that pretence make prize of ships of all nations, and sometimes even of their own countrymen too, but especially of the English; but when this was proposed, it was an swered they durst not trust the Spaniards.
Another sort was for going to the north of America, and after having taken a sloop or two on the coast of New England or New York, laden with provisions for the West Indies, which would not nave been very hard to do, such being often passing and repassing there, and by which they might have been sufficiently stored with provision, then to have gone away to the South Seas. But Gow objected, that they were not manned sufficiently for such an undertaking; and likewise, that they had not sufficient stores of ammunition, especially of powder, and of small arms, for any considerable action with the Spaniards.