as boatswain, at Jamaica. " Fly, who had
insinuated himself with some of the men,
whom he found ripe for any villainy, resolved
to seize the vessel, murder the captain and
mate, and, taking the command on himself,
turn pirate." Accordingly, having matured
his plot, " and, tucking up his shirt above his
elbow, with a cutlass in his hand, he, with
Mitchel, went into the captain's cabin, and
told him he must turn out. The captain,
asking what was the matter, was answered,
by Mitchel, they had no time to answer
impertinent questions; that, if he would turn
out and go upon deck quietly, it would save
'em the trouble of scraping the cabin; if he
would not, a few buckets of water and a
scraper would take his blood out of the
decks." So he was forced up and thrown
overboard, together with the mate, and Fly
reigned in his stead, the captain of a pirate
vessel. Or sometimes, the men being ashore,
mastered a ship wherein to commence their
trade. So began Philip Roche, with the
massacre of Captain Partone and his crew;
when, in the words of Roche himself, he and
his fellows were "all over as wet with the
blood that had been spilt as if they had been
dipt in water, or stood in a shower of rain,
nor did they regard it any more." They sat
down in the cabin when their work was done,
"with some rum they found there, and were
never merrier in their lives." Or sometimes,
a captain, starting on an honest errand, stole
his vessel, turning pirate, and set ashore such
of his crew as objected to the change of
service.

Major Stede Bonnet was a gentleman who
took to piracy in desperation because his wife
made him uncomfortable. Captain Worley began
business by starting from New York, " in a small
open boat with eight others." They
took with them a few biscuits, and a dry'd
tongue or two, a little cag of water, half a
dozen old muskets, and ammunition accordingly."
The small boat presently would capture
something larger, the eight men would
be strengthened with recruits. When pirates
took a vessel more convenient than their own
by reason of its strength and swiftness, they
immediately shifted into it. Consorts joined
with them sometimes, and thus a bold man
from a small beginning robbed his way up in
the world of water. Captain Kid had been
commander of a Privateer during the war,
and being afterwards commissioned to run
down some pirates, could not find them;
mortified at his ill luck, and seeing merchant
ships in plenty, he thought piracy the better
trade, and so became, in pirate phrase, a
gentleman of fortune.

The allurements to Piracy were first a
thirst for what was miscalled liberty—for
license. The pirates cast off on the high seas
all restraint, except so much as was absolutely
necessary for their purpose. They would drink
without stint, they would have music on board,
and the fiddler must play to any one who asked
him for a tune, if he desired to keep a whole
fiddle and an unbroken head. The Captain
must submit to any insolence, and be guided
by the will of the crew; only in action or in
chasing and giving chase, he became absolute
dictator; then he might order what he pleased,
shoot whom he pleased, and answer for his
conduct afterwards. Exempt from human control,
they gloried in defying what they feared beyond
the present life. " Come," says one of them
(Captain Teach, or Blackbeard), " Come, let us
make a hell of our own, and try how long
we can bear it; " accordingly he, with two or
three others, went down into the hold, and
closing up all the hatches, filled several pots
full of brimstone, and other combustible matter,
and set it on fire, and so continued till they
were almost suffocated, when some of the men
cried out for air; at length he opened the
hatches, not a little pleased that he held out
the longest. Another of these miserable
"heroes," sailing at night through a storm,
"the heavens were covered with sheets of
lightning, which the sea by the agitation of
the saline particles, seemed to imitate; the
darkness of the night was such as might be
felt; the terrible, hollow roaring of the winds
could be only equalled by the repeated, I may
say, incessant claps of thunder. . . . They
endeavoured by their blasphemies, oaths and
horrid imprecations to drown the uproar of
jarring elements. Bellamy swore he was
sorry he could not run out his guns to return
the salute, meaning the thunder." This was
the pirate's liberty, begotten of how much
despair! Their superstition painted to them
horribly enough what they defied, in sober
moments of depression, or in the delirium of
drunkenness. Here is a scene. Captain
Lewis chasing a Carolina vessel lost his fore,
and main-top mast; " and he, Lewis, running
up the shrouds to the main-top, tore off a
handful of hair, and throwing it into the air,
used this expression, ' Good devil, take this
till I come; ' and it was observed, that he
came afterwards faster up with the chase,
than before the loss of his top-masts." The
same Lewis was killed in his cabin one night
by Frenchmen, of whose plot negroes had
warned him. To those who warned "he
answered, he could not withstand his destiny;
for the devil told him in the great cabin, he
should be murdered that night." Liberty,—
such as it was,—the luxury of exercising
power, of being feared,—these and the hope of
rapid wealth by plunder, were the enticements
to a life of piracy.

We now suppose a crew to have determined
upon piracy, and to have got possession of a
ship. The first work is to clear away any
cabin or other arrangement that may spoil
their deck, which must be swept into a clear
stage for fighting. The pirates then assemble
over a large bowl of punch, to make their
laws, while somebody extemporises a black
flag. Over the punch and pipes, deliberation