The King of Pirates

by Daniel Defoe

  THE King of PIRATES.

  YOU may be sure I receiv'd with Resentment enough the Account,that a most ridiculous Book, entitled, _My Life and Adventures_, had beenpublish'd in _England_, being fully assur'd nothing of Truth could becontain'd in such a Work; and tho' it may be true, that my extravagantStory may be the proper Foundation of a Romance, yet as no Man has a Titleto publish it better than I have to expose and contradict it, I send youthis by one of my particular Friends, who having an Opportunity ofreturning into _England_, has promis'd to convey it faithfully to you; bywhich, at least, two Things shall be made good to the World; first, thatthey shall be satisfy'd in the scandalous and unjust Manner in which othershave already treated me, and it shall give, in the mean Time, a largerAccount of what may at present be fit to be made publick, of my unhappytho' successful Adventures.

  I shall not trouble my Friends with any Thing of my Original and firstIntroduction into the World, I leave it to you to add from yourself whatyou think proper to be known on that Subject; only this I enjoin you totake Notice of, that the Account printed of me, with all the Particulars ofmy Marriage, my being defrauded, and leaving my Family and native Countryon that Account, is a meer Fable and a made Story, to embellish, as theWriter of it perhaps suppos'd, the rest of his Story, or perhaps to fill upthe Book, that it might swell to a Magnitude which his barren Inventioncould not supply.

  In the present Account, I have taken no Notice of my Birth, Infancy, Youth,or any of that Part; which, as it was the most useless Part of my Years tomyself so 'tis the most useless to any one that shall read this Work toknow, being altogether barren of any Thing remarkable in it self, orinstructing to others: It is sufficient to me to let the World know, asabove, that the former Accounts, made publick, are utterly false, and tobegin my Account of myself at a Period which may be more useful andentertaining.

  It may be true, that I may represent some Particulars of my Life, in thisTract, with Reserve, or Enlargement, such as may be sufficient to concealany Thing in my present Circumstance that ought to be conceal'd andreserv'd, with Respect to my own Safety; and therefore, if on Pretence ofJustice the busy World should look for me in one Part of the World when Iam in another, search for my new Kingdom in _Madagascar_, and should notfind it, or search for my Settlement on one Side of the Island, when itlies on another, they must not take this ill; for Self-preservation beingthe supreme Law of Nature, all Things of this Kind must submit to that.

  In Order then to come immediately to my Story, I shall, without anyCircumlocutions, give you Leave to tell the World, that being bred to theSea from a Youth, none of those romantick Introductions publish'd had anyShare in my Adventures, or were any way the Cause of my taking the CoursesI have since been embark'd in: But as in several Parts of my wandring LifeI had seen something of the immense Wealth, which the Buccaneers, and otherAdventurers, met with in their scouring about the World for Purchase, Ihad, for a long Time, meditated in my Thoughts to get possess'd of a goodShip for that Purpose, if I could, and to try my Fortune. I had been someYears in the Bay of _Campeachy_, and tho' with Patience I endur'd theFatigue of that laborious Life, yet it was as visible to others as tomyself, that I was not form'd by Nature for a Logwood-Cutter, any more thanI was for a Foremast-man; and therefore Night and Day I apply'd myself tostudy how I should dismiss myself from that Drudgery, and get to be, firstor last, Master of a good Ship, which was the utmost of my Ambition at thatTime; resolving, in the mean Time, that when ever any such Thing shouldhappen, I would try my Fortune in the Cruising Trade, but would be sure notto prey upon my own Countrymen.

  It was many Years after this before I could bring my Purposes to pass; andI serv'd, first, in some of the Adventures of Captain _Sharp_, Captain_Sawkins_, and others, in their bold Adventures in the South Seas, where Igot a very good Booty; was at the taking of _Puna_, where we were oblig'dto leave infinite Wealth behind us, for want of being able to bring itaway; and after several Adventures in those Seas, was among that Party whofought their Way Sword in Hand thro' all the Detachments of the_Spaniards_, in the Journey over Land, cross the Isthmus of _Darien_, tothe North Seas; and when other of our Men gat away, some one Way, someanother, I, with twelve more of our Men, by Help of a _Periagua_, gat intothe Bay of _Campeachy_, where we fell very honestly to cutting of Logwood,not for Want, but to employ ourselves till we could make off.

  Here three of our Men dy'd, and we that were left, shar'd their Money amongus; and having stay'd here two Years, without seeing any Way of Escape thatI dar'd to trust to, I at last, with two of our Men, who spoke _Spanish_perfectly well, made a desperate Attempt to travel over Land to L-- havingbury'd all our Money, (which was worth eight thousand Pieces of Eight aMan, tho' most of it in Gold) in a Pit in the Earth which we dug twelveFoot deep, and where it would have lyen still, for no Man knew where tolook for it; but we had an Opportunity to come at it again some Yearsafter.

  We travell'd along the Sea-shore five Days together, the Weather exceedinghot, and did not doubt but we should so disguise ourselves as to be takenfor _Spaniards_; but our better Fortune provided otherwise for us, for thesixth Day of our March we found a Canoe lying on the Shore with no one inher: We found, however, several Things in her, which told us plainly thatshe belong'd to some _Englishmen_ who were on Shore; so we resolv'd to sitdown by her and wait: By and by we heard the _Englishmen_, who were sevenin Number, and were coming back to their Boat, having been up the Countryto an _Ingenio_, where they had gotten great Quantities of Provision, andwere bringing it down to their Boat which they had left on the Shore, (withthe Help of five _Indians_, of whom they had bought it) not thinking therewas any People thereabouts: When they saw us, not knowing who we were, theywere just going to fire at us; when I, perceiving it, held up a white Flagas high as I could reach it, which was, in short, only a Piece of an oldLinnen Wastcoat which I had on, and pull'd it off for the Occasion; uponthis, however, they forbore firing at us, and when they came nearer to us,they could easily see that we were their own Countrymen: They enquir'd ofus what we came there for; we told them, we had travell'd from _Campeachy_,where being tir'd with the Hardships of our Fortune, and not getting anyVessel to carry us where we durst go, we were even desperate, and cared notwhat became of us; so that had not they came to us thus happily, we shouldhave put our selves into the Hands of the _Spaniards_ rather than haveperish'd where we were.

  They took us into their Boat, and afterwards carry'd us on Board theirShip; when we came there, we found they were a worse Sort of Wanderers thanourselves, for tho' we had been a Kind of Pyrates, known and declar'dEnemies to the _Spaniards_, yet it was to them only, and to no other; forwe never offer'd to rob any of our other _European_ Nations, either _Dutch_or _French_, much less _English_; but now we were listed in the Service ofthe Devil indeed, and, like him, were at War with all Mankind.

  However, we not only were oblig'd to sort with them, while with them, butin a little Time the Novelty of the Crime wore off, and we grew harden'd toit, like the rest: And in this Service I spent four Years more of my Time.

  Our Captain in this Pirate Ship was nam'd _Nichols_, but we call'd himCaptain _Redhand_; it seems it was a _Scots_ Sailor gave him that Name,when he was not the Head of the Crew, because he was so bloody a Wretch,that he scarce ever was at the taking any Prize, but he had a Hand in someButchery or other.

  They were hard put to it for fresh Provisions, or they would not have sentthus up into the Country a single Canoe; and when I came on Board they wereso straiten'd, that, by my Advice, they resolv'd to go to the Isle of_Cuba_ to kill wild Beef, of which the South Side of the Island is so full:Accordingly we sail'd thither directly.

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

  But this Man happening to pickle up the Beef, without Regard to thisparticular Distinction, most of the Beef, so pickled, stunk before we leftthe Place, so that we were oblig'd to throw it all away: The Men then saidit was impossible to salt any Beef in those hot Countries, so as topreserve it, and would have had us given it over, and ha' gone to the Coastof _New England_, or _New York_, for Provisions; but I soon convinc'd themof the Mistake, and by only using the