acquaintance of Richard Turnley, who privately
gave him a tinder-box, with materials
in it for striking fire, which in his circumstances
was a greater present than gold or
jewels." These marooned men we also quit,
being ourselves bound upon a cruise of
piracy.

In whose ship shall we sail? Not in Low's,
though his rascality and cruelty give him a
distinguished position in the brotherhood.
Edward Low had the advantage of being born
a thief; from a child he would " cheat all he
could, and those who pretended to dispute it
with him must fight him. The virtues of
some of his family were equal to his: one of
his brothers was a youth of genius; when he
was but seven years old, he used to be carried
in a basket upon a porter's back, into a crowd,
and snatch hats and wigs. According to the
exact chronology of Newgate, he was the first
who practised this ingenious trick." That
youth had the distinction of ending his days
at Tyburn, " in company with Stephen Bunce
and the celebrated Jack Hall, the chimney-
sweeper." One sample of Richard Low, as
pirate, will suffice for us:—He and his crew,
having taken a French ship, and condemned
it to the flames, " they took all the crew out
of her, but the cook, who, they said, being
a greasy fellow, would fry well in the fire; so
the poor man was bound to the mainmast, and
burnt in the ship, to the no small diversion of
Low and his myrmidons." So we will not
follow Low, but it may be not amiss to see a
little vengeance on him in an anecdote
admirably illustrative of the free way of these
gentlemen of fortune:—Low having taken a
vessel, a Portuguese passenger looked unhappy;
one of the crew said " he did not like his looks,
and thereupon gave him one blow across his
belly with his cutlass that cut out his bowels,
and he fell down dead without speaking a
word. At the same time another of these
rogues, cutting at a prisoner, missed his mark,
and Captain Low, standing in his way, very
opportunely received the stroke upon his under
jaw, which laid the teeth bare; upon this the
surgeon was called, who immediately stitched
up the wound—but Low finding fault with
the operation, the surgeon being tolerably
drunk, as it was customary for everybody to
be, struck Low such a blow with his fist that
broke out all the stitches, and then bid him
sew up his chops himself and be damned, so
that Low made a very pitiful figure for some
time after." To have had a surgeon on board at
all was something uncommon in Low's vessel.
The pirates generally were their own physicians,
and for surgeon sometimes, in case of
need, "the carpenter was appointed as the
most proper man; upon which he fetched up
the biggest saw, and taking the limb under
his arm, fell to work, and separated it from
the body of the patient in as little time as he
could have cut a deal board in two; after that
he heated his axe red-hot in the fire, and
cauterised the wound."

With whom shall we sail? Captain Bartholomew
Roberts was a man of note, who took,
in the course of his career, four hundred
sail. Not getting sufficient ransom, he set a
slave-ship on fire, at Wydah, " with eighty of
those poor wretches on board, chained two
and two together, under the miserable choice
of perishing by fire or water: those who
jumped overboard from the flames, were
seized by sharks, a voracious fish, in plenty in
this road, and, in their sight, tore limb from
limb, alive." Is there no gentlemanly sea-
robber with whom we may sail and see an
action? There are one or two not naturally
cruel, but even these are forced to commit
revolting outrages, in order to retain the
allegiance of their crews. We will not, therefore,
even in imagination, sail with any of
these rascals, but content ourselves with quiet
chat about them. Of the cruelty in which
power displays itself as exercised by such men
we have said enough to shock an ordinary
landsman, and we must endeavour to exhibit
it no more. Let it be understood that the
spite of lawless men upon the sea has rioted
in tortures and committed deeds worthy to
stand on the same shelf within our heads
whereon we thrust away the records of
religious bigotry. So let us bide them now, and
chatter on.

When pirates met they were cordial friends;
their manner of saluting each other was by
firing their guns, shotted, into the air. If
they formed any partnership, or sailed in
company, they rarely failed to quarrel.
Tenders and consorts were perpetually
slipping off, when they had wealth on board;
subordinates, left anywhere in charge of
treasure, commonly stole away therewith; the
Pirate's Calendar exemplifies but little
"honour among thieves! " That bullying
bluster about honour, which is a characteristic
of most blackguards, pirates shone in. Captain
Howel Davis ravaged a district and destroyed
a town, because the Governor insulted him by
hinting that he was a pirate. Wayward displays
of conscientiousness occurred too, now
and then; but, founded on no principle, were
often ludicrous. Captain Vane, shipwrecked
on a small island, was found by an old
buccaneer, Holford, an acquaintance: "He thought
this a good opportunity to get off, and accordingly
applied to his old friend; but he absolutely refused
him; saying to him, 'Charles, I shan't trust you
aboard my ship, unless I carry you a prisoner;
for I shall have you caballing
with my men, knock me on the head, and run
away with my ship a pyrating.' Vane made
all the protestations of honour in the world
to him; but it seems Captain Holford was too
intimately acquainted with him to repose any
confidence at all in his words or oaths. He
told him, he might easily find a way to get
off, if he had a mind to it. ' I am now going
down the bay,' says he, 'and shall return
hither in about a month; and if I find you
on the island when I come back, I'll carry