would apply himself to his father's employment, which was that of a
plasterer. But as working was required, he soon grew out of humour with
it, and addicted himself wholly to strolling about the streets with such
wicked lads as himself, and so was easily drawn in to think of supplying
himself with money by the plunder of honest people, in order to carry on
those debaucheries in which, though a lad, he was already deeply
immersed.

Women, forsooth, drew this spark away from the paths of virtue and
goodness at about sixteen years old, after which time he lost all sense
of duty to his parents, respect of laws divine or human, and even care
of himself. It seems he found certain houses in Chick Lane, where they
met abundance of loose young men and women, accustomed themselves to
every kind of debauchery which it was possible for wicked people to
commit or the most fruitful genius to invent. Here he fell into the
company of his two companions, Morris and Johnson.

The first of these was the son of an unfortunate tradesman who had once
kept a great shop, and lived in good reputation in the Strand, but
through the common calamities of life, he was so unfortunate as to
break, and laying it too much to heart, died soon after it, happy,
however, in one thing, that he did not live to see the deplorable end of
his son by the hand of justice.

Robert Johnson was the son of honest parents, and had a very good
education, but put it to a very ill use; for having all his life time
been addicted to pilfering and thieving, at last he fell into the
company of these unfortunate young men who led him a directer way to the
gallows than perhaps he might have found himself. One of his chief
inducements to forfeit reputation and hazard life by engaging in street
robberies, was his commencing an amour with his father's servant-maid,
and not long after falling into a multitude of such like adventures, the
ready road to inevitable ruin.

These three sparks, together with Bernard Fink, and another person who
turned evidence against them, came all at the same time to a resolution
of attacking people in the streets; and having provided themselves with
pistols and whatever else they thought necessary for putting their
design in execution, they immediately set about it, and though but boys,
committed bolder and more numerous robberies than had ever hitherto been
heard of. It may, indeed, seem surprising that lads of their age should
be able to intimidate passengers, but when it is considered that having
less precaution than older rogues, they were more ready at firing
pistols or otherwise injuring those whom they attacked, than any set of
fellows who had hitherto disturbed the crown, this wonder will wear off.

It was not above two months that they continued their depredations, but
in that time they had been exceedingly busy, and had committed a
multitude of facts. One gentleman whom they attacked in Lincoln's Inn
Fields, refused to surrender, and drew his sword upon Morris. That young
robber immediately fired his pistol, and the rest coming to his
assistance, the gentleman thought it but prudent to retire, the noise
they made having alarmed the watch and so prevented his losing anything.

After this it became a very common practice with them, as soon as they
stopped anybody, to clap a pistol under their nose, and bid them smell
at it, while one of their companions, with a thousand execrations,
threatened to blow their brains out if they made the least resistance.
As soon as the business of the night was over, they immediately
adjourned to their places of rendezvous at Chick Lane, or to other
houses of the same stamp elsewhere, and without the least consideration
of the hazards they had run, squandered the wages of their villainies
upon such impudent strumpets as for the lucre of a few shillings
prostituted themselves to them in these debaucheries.

Mr. O'Bryan was the hero of this troop of infant robbers; he valued
himself much on never meddling with small matters or committing any
meaner crime than that of the highway. It happened he had a mistress
coming out of the country and he would needs have his companions take
each of them a doxy and go with him as far as Windsor to receive her.
They readily complied, and at Windsor they were all seized and from
thence brought to town, two of their own gang turning evidence, so that
on the clearest proof, they were all three convicted.

Under sentence of death they behaved with great audacity, seemed to
value themselves on the crimes they had committed, caused several
disturbances at chapel and discovered little or no sense of that
miserable condition in which they were. O'Bryan died a Papist, and in
the cart read with great earnestness a book of devotions in that way. He
wrote a letter to his father the day before he died, and also something
which he called verses to his sister, both of which I have subjoined
_verbatim_ that my readers may have the better idea of the capacity of
those poor creatures.

To Mr. Terrance O'Bryan, living in Burleigh Street in the Strand.
Honoured Father and Mother,

The uneasiness I give you is more terror to me than the thoughts of
death, but pray make yourselves as easy as you can, for I hope I am
going to a better place; for God is my refuge and my strength, and
my helper in time of tribulation, and pray take care of my brother
now whilst he is young, and make him serve God, and keep him out of
bad company. If I had served God as I ought to have done, and kept
out of bad company, I had not come to this unhappy misfortune, but I
hope it is for the good of my soul, it is good I hope what God has
at present ordained for me, for there is mercy in the foresight of
death, and in the time God has given me to prepare for it. A natural
death might have had less terror, for in that I might have wanted
many advantages which are now granted me. My trust is in God, and I
hope he won't reward me according to my deserts. All that I can
suffer here must have an end, for this life is short, so are all the
sufferings of it, but the next life is Eternal. Pray give my love to
my sister, and desire her not to neglect her duty to God. I hope
you are all well, as I am at present, I thank God. So no more at
present.

From your unhappy and undutiful son,
James O'Bryan.

The verses sent by James O'Bryan to his sister two days before his
execution:

My loving tender sister dear,
From you I soon must part I fear.
Think not on my wretched state,
Nor grieve for my unhappy fate,
But serve the Lord with all your heart,
And from you He'll never part.
When I am dead and in my tomb,
For my poor soul I hope there's room,
In Heaven with God above on high,
I hope to live eternally.

At the time of their execution James O'Bryan was about twenty, Hugh
Morris seventeen, and Robert Johnson not full twenty years of age, which
was on the 16th of November, 1730.




The History of the Life and surprising adventures of JOHN GOW, _alias_
SMITH, a most notorious Pirate and Murderer


The principal use to which a work of this nature can be applied is to
engage persons to refuse the first stirrings of their passions, and the
slighted emotions of vice in their breasts, since they see before their
eyes so many sad examples of the fatal consequences which follow upon
rash and wicked enterprises, of which the following history exhibits as
extraordinary an instance as perhaps is anythere to be found.

In giving an account of this malefactor, we are obliged to begin with
his embarking on board the vessel which he afterwards seized and went
a-pirating in. It was called the _George_ galley, and was of about two
hundred tons burden, commanded by Oliver Ferneau, a Frenchman, but a
subject of the Crown of England, who entertained this Gow as a private
seaman only, but afterwards, to his great misfortune, preferred him to
be the second mate in the voyage of which we are next to speak.

Captain Ferneau being a man of reputation among the merchants of
Amsterdam, got a voyage for his ship from thence to Santa Cruz on the
coast of Barbary, to load beeswax, and to carry it to Genoa, which was
his delivering port; and as the Dutch, having war with the Turks of
Algiers, were willing to employ him as an English ship, so he was as
willing to be manned with English seamen, and accordingly among the
rest, he unhappily took on board this Gow with his wretched gang, such
as MacCauly, Melvin, Williams and others. But not being able to man
themselves wholly with English or Scots, he was obliged to take some
Swedes, and other seamen to make his complement, which was twenty-three
in all. Among the latter sort, one was named Winter, and another
Peterson, both of them Swedes by nation, but wicked as Gow and his other
fellows were. They sailed from the Texel in the month of August, 1724,
and arrived at Santa Cruz on the second of September following, where
having a super-cargo on board, who took charge of the loading, and four
chests of money to purchase it, they soon got the beeswax, on board, and
on the third of November they appointed to set sail to pursue the
voyage.

That day 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 Peterson, two Swedes, and MacCauly a Scotchman,
came rudely upon the quarter deck as if they took the 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 all 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) belonged 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 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, or as if desiring them to intercede for them with the
captain, that they might have redress and 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, 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 let him have know of it; that if they were ill-used it was not by his
order that he would enquire into it and if anything was amiss it should
be rectified, with which the seamen withdrew, seemingly well satisfied
with his answer.

About five the same evening they unmoored the ship and hove short upon
their best bower anchor, awaiting 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 would fall foul of her own
anchor, ordered the mizen top-sail to be furled. Peterson, 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. Which the captain did, 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. Peterson, as if he had 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 that he might be sure the captain heard
him and the rest of the men also, and it was evident that as he spoke in
plural numbers, _We_, so he spoke their minds as well as his own, and
words which they 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 reason 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 sprang up, and
they immediately weighed and stood out to sea; but the captain having
had these two bustles 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 Peterson had given him on the
quarter deck, when he ordered him to furl the mizen top sail. The mate
was as surprised at these things as the captain, and after some other
discourse about it, in which it 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 should he meet with any more of it. The mate agreed that it
was necessary to be done, and had they said no more, or 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. First, that the
captain spoke it without due caution, so that Winter and Peterson, the
two principal malcontents, 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. The
other mistake was that when the captain and mate agreed that it was
necessary to have arms got ready, and brought into the great cabin, the
captain unhappily bid him go immediately to Gow, the second mate and
gunner, and give him orders to get the arms cleared and loaded for him,
and 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 Peterson 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 muddling with him.
While they were thus consulting, as they said, only for their own
safety, Gow and Williams came into 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 own 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 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 Peterson 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 came into soon; for, as I said before, as
they had but little time to resolve in, so they had but very little
debate about it but what was first proposed was forthwith engaged in and
consented to.

It must not be omitted 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 and
Williams had also 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 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, once took them up short 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 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 severely punished by the captain, they wanted no persuasions
to come into the most wicked undertaking that the devil or any of his
angels could propose to them. Nor do we find that upon any of their
examinations they pretended to have made any scruples or objections to
the cruelty of the bloody attempt that was to be made, but came to 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 into
the great cabin every night at eight o'clock to prayers, and then the
watch being set, one went upon deck, and the other turned in, or, as
the seamen phrase it, 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 immediately designed for destruction were
four, viz., the captain, the mate, the super-cargo, 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 watch-word, 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, super-cargo 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 be 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 windpipe, struggled so
vigorously with the villain who attacked him that he got away from him
and into the hold; and the super-cargo, in the same condition, got
forwards 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 for but a few moments to
pray to God, and recommend their souls to mercy. But alike in vain, for
the wretched murderers, heated with blood, were past 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 until they found they were quite dead.

As all this, even before the firing, 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 he was
afraid there was somebody overboard; upon which the captain stepped
towards the ship's side to look over. Then Winter, Rowlinson and Melvin,
coming that moment behind him, laid hands on him, and lifting him up,
attempted 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. 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, for the captain still
struggled with them, and seeing he should undoubtedly be murdered, he
constantly cried up to God for mercy, for he found there was none to be
expected from them. During this struggle, another of the murderers
stabbed him with a knife in the back, and that with such a 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 in could not be known, though they said he had shot him in 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 then he fell into the sea, and was seen no more.

Thus they finished the tragedy, having murdered four of the principal
men in command in the ship, so that there was nobody now 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, not knowing how to
get at any, were in utmost consternation, expecting they would go on
with the work and cut their throats. In this fright everyone shifted for
himself. As for those who were upon deck, some got up in the round tops,
others got into the ship's head, resolving to throw themselves into the
sea rather than be mangled with knives and murdered as the captain and
mate, etc., 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
in no way capable of doing, having no concert one with another, not
knowing anything in particular of one another, as who was alive or who
was dead. 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 fire-arms, 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
what were left, they were less able to make resistance than the other,
so that, as has been 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
dispatched, so they cooled a little as to blood. The first thing they
did afterwards, was to call up all the eight upon the quarter deck,
where they congratulated one another, and shook hands together, engaging
to proceed by joint consent in their resolved design, that is, of
turning pirates. In older to which, they unanimously chose Gow to
command the ship, promising all subjection and obedience to his orders,
so that we must now call him Captain Gow, and he, by the same consent of
the rest, named Williams his lieutenant. Other officers they appointed
afterwards.

The first orders 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 chiefly forbade any man to set
a foot abaft the main mast, except they were called to the helm, upon
pain of being immediately cut to 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 until they were called.

Their next work was to throw overboard the three dead bodies of the
mate, the surgeon, and the super-cargo, which they said lay in their
way; that was soon done, their pockets being 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 until 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 promised to join with them, so that now there 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 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. 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; he said that they had been forced to do what
they had done by the barbarous usage of Ferneau, but that there was now
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
come 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,
which Gow took as they meant it, viz, as a consent because they durst
not refuse. So they were then permitted to go up and down everywhere 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 very often severely beaten. Some of them were in 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, laden upon a good account, with
merchants' 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 called 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 cartridges and everything proper for service (which they had in
store through being freighted for the Dutch merchants, and the Algerians
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 Pool,
Thomas Wise commander, bound from Newfoundland with fish for Cadiz. This
was a prize of no value to them, so they took out the master, Mr. Wise
and his men, who were but five in number, with their anchors, cables and
sails, and what else they found worth taking, and sunk the vessel. 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 little value to
them, except that they took as they had done from the other, their arms,
ammunition, clothes, provisions, sails, anchors, cables, etc., and
everything of value, and 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 their ships have gone with several of their men
on board, they would presently have stood in for 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 immediately have put out
to sea in quest of them, and they were very unwilling to leave the coast
of Portugal until they had got a ship with wine, which they very much
wanted.

After this they cruised eight or ten days without seeing so much as one
vessel upon the seas, and were just resolving to stand more to the 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 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 gunshot. But the third night, the weather
proving a little hazy, the Frenchman changed her 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 were 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 it was in vain, for
nothing stirred. So, tired with waiting, they stood in for the road, and
came to 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 on board the ships in
the road, or from one place to another on the coast. But they came back
again disappointed in both, everybody being 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 last (being apparently under a necessity to make an
attempt somewhere) they stood away for Porto Santo,[102] 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 kind of a captain it was they were going to compliment, and what
price it might have cost them. However, Gow, handsomely dressed,
received then with some ceremony, and entertained them tolerably well
for a while. But the Governor having been kept as long by civility 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, to their great surprise they were suddenly surrounded with
a gang of fellows with muskets, and an officer at the head of them.
These told them, in so many words, they were the captain's prisoners,
and must not think of going on shore any more until 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 fright that he really
befouled himself in a piteous manner, and the rest were in not much
better condition. They trembled, cried, begged, crossed themselves, and
said their prayers as men going to execution, but it was all one, they
were told flatly that the captain was not to be trifled with, that the
ship was in want of provisions, and they would have them, or they should
carry them all away. They were, however, well enough treated, except for
the restraint of their persons, and were often asked to refresh
themselves; but they would neither eat not drink any more all the while
they stayed on board, which was until 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, a cow
and a calf, and a good number of fowls.

When the boat came alongside and delivered the stores, Captain Gow
complimented the Governor and his gentlemen, and discharged them to
their great joy, and besides that gave them in return for their
provisions two cerons of beeswax, and fired them three guns at their
going away. It is to be supposed they would have a care how they went on
board any ship again, in compliment to their captain, unless they were
very sure who they were. 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 and Portugal. They accordingly left
Porto Santo die 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, one Cross commander, laden with
slaves, and bound for Lisbon, being to load there with wine for London.
This was also a prize of no value to them, and they began to be very
much discouraged 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 whom they took at first in a sloop from Newfoundland; and in
order to pay Wise and his men for what they took from them, and make
them satisfaction, as they called it, they gave to Captain Wise and his
mate twenty-four cerons of wax, and to his men who were four in number,
two cerons of wax each. Thus they pretended honesty, and to make
reparation of damages by giving them the goods which they had robbed the
Dutch merchants of, whose super-cargo they had murdered.

The day before the 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 so it was, for they afterwards learned that she was laden at
Martinico and bound for Rochelle.

The Frenchmen not fearing them came on large to the wind, being a ship
of much greater force than Gow's ship, 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 together upon the deck, told them what was in his
mind, viz., that the Frenchman was apparently superior in force in 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 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 into 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 incapable of any solid thinking, had a kind of 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
the 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 so extraordinary an height, that he demanded boldly of Gow to give
his orders for fighting, which Gow declining still Williams presented
his pistol at him, and snapped it, but it did not go off, which enraged
him the more.

Winter and Peterson standing nearest to Williams, and seeing him so
furious, flew at him immediately, 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. He had certainly done
it, if they had not seized him just as he had gotten the scuttle open,
and was that moment going to put his hellish resolution into practice.

Having thus secured the distracted, raving creature, they carried him
forward to the place which they had made on purpose between decks to
secure their prisoners, and put him 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, until they beheld 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, 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 to whom now they made reparation, by
giving them what they had taken violently from another, so 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 almost all their provisions, all the ammunition,
arms, etc., and her good sails, also her best cables, and forced two of
her men to go away with them, and then got ten of the Frenchman on board
and let her go. But just as they were parting with her, they consulted
together what to do with Williams the lieutenant, who was then among the
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 get his
being hanged for a pirate, as they jeeringly called him, as soon as he
came to England, giving the master 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, and was even too wicked for Gow and all his crew, though they
pirates and murderers, as has been shown. 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 the barbarity of Williams cannot be omitted, and will be
sufficient to justify all that can be said of him. When Gow gave it as a
reason against engaging with the Martinico ship, that he had a great
many prisoners on board, and some of their own men that they could not
depend on, 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. Gow answered him very
handsomely, that there had been too much blood spilled already; yet the
refusing this, heightened the quarrel, and was the chief occasion of his
offering to pistol Gow himself. After which his behaviour was such as
made all the ship's crew resolved to be rid of him, and it 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 butchery temper of Williams being carried to
such a height, and so near to the ruin of them all, shocked some of
them, and as they acknowledged gave some check in the heat of their
wicked progress, and had they had an opportunity to have gone on shore
at that time, without falling into the hands of Justice, it 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, 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 relent, and made all the