by Daniel Defoe
Caution, _viz._ not to salt up anyBeef of those Cattle that had been hunted, we cur'd one hundred and fortyBarrels of very good Beef, and such as lasted us a very great while.
I began to be of some Repute among them upon this Occasion, and _Redhand_took me into the Cabin with him to consult upon all Emergencies, and gaveme the Name of Captain, though I had then no Command: By this Means I gavehim an Account of all my Adventures in the South Seas, and what aprodigious Booty we got there with Captain _Goignet_, the _Frenchman_, andwith Captain _Sharp_, and others; encouraging him to make an Attempt thatWay, and proposing to him to go away to the _Brasils_, and so round by theStraits of _Magellan_, or _Cape Horn_.
However, in this he was more prudent than I, and told me, that not only theStrength but the Force of his Ship was too small, not but that he had Menenough, as he said very well, but he wanted more Guns, and a better Ship;for indeed the Ship we were in was but a weak crazy Boat for so long aVoyage: So he said he approv'd my Project very well, but that he thought weshould try to take some more substantial Vessel for the Business: And sayshe, if we could but take a good stout Ship, fit to carry thirty Guns, and aSloop, or Brigantine, he would go with all his Heart.
This I could not but approve of; so we form'd the Scheme of the Design, andhe call'd all his Men together, and propos'd it to them, and they allapprov'd it with a general Consent; and I had the Honour of being theContriver of the Voyage. From this Time we resolv'd, some how or other, toget a better Ship under us, and it was not long before an Opportunitypresented to our Mind.
Being now upon the Coast of the Island of _Cuba_, we stood away West,coasting the Island, and so went away for _Florida_, where we cruis'd amongthe Islands, and in the Wake of the Gulph; but nothing presented a greatwhile; at length we spy'd a Sail, which prov'd an _English_ homeward boundShip from _Jamaica_: We immediately chac'd her, and came up with her; shewas a stout Ship, and the Captain defended her very well; and had she notbeen a comber'd deep Ship, being full loaded, so that they could scarcecome at their Guns, we should have had our Hands full of her. But when theyfound what we were, and that, being full of Men, we were resolv'd to be onBoard them, and that we had hoisted the black Flag, a Signal that we wouldgive them no Quarter, they began to sink in their Spirits, and soon aftercry'd Quarter, offering to yield: _Redhand_ would have given them noQuarter, but, according to his usual Practice, would have thrown the Menall into the Sea; but I prevail'd with him to give them Quarter, and goodUsage too; and so they yielded; and a very rich Prize it was, only that weknew not what to do with the Cargo.
When we came to consider more seriously the Circumstances we were in bytaking this Ship, and what we should do with her, we found, that she wasnot only deep loaden, but was a very heavy Sailer, and that, in short, shewas not such a Ship as we wanted; so, upon long Debate, we resolv'd to takeout of her all the Rum, the Indigo, and the Money we could come at, withabout twenty Casks of Sugar, and twelve of her Guns, with all theAmmunition, small Arms, Bullets, _&c._ and let her go; which wasaccordingly done, to the great Joy of the Captain that commanded her:However, we took in her about six thousand Pounds Sterling in Pieces ofEight.
But the next Prize we met, suited us better on all Accounts, being a Shipfrom _Kingsale_ in _Ireland_, loaden with Beef, and Butter, and Beer, for_Barbadoes_; never was Ship more welcome to Men in our Circumstances; thiswas the very Thing we wanted: We saw the Ship early in the Morning, atabout five Leagues Distance, and we was three Days in Chace of her; shestood from us, as if she would have run away for the _Cape de Verd_Islands, and two or three Times we thought she sail'd so well she wouldhave got away from us, but we had always the good Luck to get Sight of herin the Morning: She was about 260 Tun, an _English_ Frigat-built Ship, andhad 12 Guns on Board, but could carry 20. The Commander was a Quaker, butyet had he been equal to us in Force, it appear'd by his Countenance hewould not have been afraid of his Flesh, or have baulk'd using the CarnalWeapon of Offence, _viz._ the Cannon Ball.
We soon made ourselves Master of this Ship when once we came up with him,and he was every Thing that we wanted; so we began to shift our Guns intoher, and shifted about 60 Tun of her Butter and Beef into our own Frigate;this made the _Irish_ Vessel be a clear Ship, lighter in the Water, andhave more Room on Board for Fight, if Occasion offer'd.
When we had the old Quaking Skipper on Board, we ask'd him whether he wouldgo along with us; he gave us no Answer at first; but when we ask'd himagain, he return'd, that he did not know whether it might be safe for himto answer the Question: We told him, he should either go or stay, as hepleas'd; Why then, says he, I had rather ye will give me Leave to declineit.
We gave him Leave, and accordingly set him on Shore afterwards at _Nevis_,with ten of his Men; the rest went along with us as Volunteers, except theCarpenter and his Mate, and the Surgeon, those we took by Force: We werenow supply'd as well as Heart could wish, had a large Ship in ourPossession, with Provisions enough for a little Fleet rather than for asingle Ship. So with this Purchase we went away for the _Leeward Islands_,and fain we would have met with some of the _New York_ or _New England_Ships, which generally come loaden with Peas, Flower, Pork, _&c._ But itwas a long while before any Thing of that Kind presented. We had promis'dthe _Irish_ Captain to set him on Shore, with his Company, at _Nevis_, butwe were not willing till we had done our Business in those Seas, because ofgiving the Alarm among the Islands; so we went away for St. _Domingo_, andmaking that Island our Rendezvous, we cruis'd to the Eastward, in Hopes ofsome Purchase; it was not long before we spy'd a Sail, which prov'd to be a_Burmoodas_ Sloop, but bound from _Virginia_ or _Maryland_, with Flower,Tobacco, and some Malt; the last a Thing which in particular we knew notwhat to do with: However, the Flower and Tobacco was very welcome, and theSloop no less welcome than the rest; for she was a very large Vessel, andcarry'd near 60 Tun, and when not so deep loaden, prov'd an excellentSailer. Soon after this we met with another Sloop, but she was bound from_Barbadoes_ to _New England_, with Rum, Sugar, and Molosses: Nothingdisturb'd us in taking this Vessel, but that being willing enough to lether go; (for as to the Sugar and Molosses, we had neither Use for them, orRoom for them) but to have let her go, had been to give the Alarm to allthe Coast of _North America_, and then what we wanted would never come inour Way. Our Captain, justly call'd _Redhand_, or _Bloodyhand_, waspresently for dispatching them, that they might tell no Tales; and, indeed,the Necessity of the Method had very near prevail'd; nor did I muchinterpose here, I know not why, but some of the other Men put him in asgood a Way; and that was, to bring the Sloop to an Anchor under the Lee ofSt. _Domingo_, and take away all her Sails, that she should not stir tillwe gave her Leave.
We met with no less than five Prizes more here in about 20 Days Cruise, butnone of them for our Turn; one of them, indeed, was a Vessel bound to St._Christopher_'s with _Madera_ Wine: We borrow'd about 20 Pipes of the Wine,and let her go. Another was a _New England_ built Ship, of about 150 Tun,bound also Home with Sugar and Molosses, which was good for nothing to us;however, we gat near 1000 _l._ on Board her in Pieces of Eight, and takingaway her Sails, as before, brought her to an Anchor under the Lee of theSloop: At last we met with what we wanted, and this was another Ship ofabout 100 Tun, from _New England_, bound to _Barbadoes_; she had on Board150 Barrels of Flower, about 350 Barrels of Pease, and 10 Tun of Porkbarrell'd up and pickel'd, besides some live Hogs, and some Horses, and sixTun of Beer.
We were now sufficiently provided for; in all those Prizes we got alsoabout 56 Men, who, by Choice and Volunteer, agree'd to go along with us,including the Carpenters and Surgeons, who we oblig'd always to go; so thatwe were now above 200 Men, two Ships, and the _Burmoodas_ Sloop; and givingthe other Sloop, and the _New England_ homeward bound Ship their Sailsagain, we let them go; and as to the Malt which we took in the _Burmoodas_Sloop, we gave it the last _New England_ Master, who was going to_Barbadoes_.
We gat in all those Ships, besides the Provisions above-mention'd, about200 Musquets and Pistols, good Store of Cutlasses, about 2
0 Tun of IronShot and Musquet Ball, and 33 Barrels of good Powder, which was all verysuitable Things to our Occasions.
We were fully satisfy'd, as we said to one another, now, and concluded thatwe would stand away to the Windward, as well as we could, towards the Coastof _Africa_, that we might come in the Wind's Way for the Coast of_Brasil_; but our Frigat (I mean that we were first shipp'd in) was yet outupon the Cruise, and not come in; so we came to an Anchor to wait for her,when, behold, the next Morning she came in with full Sail, and a Prize inTow: She had, it seems, been farther West than her Orders, but had met witha _Spanish_ Prize, whither bound, or from whence, I remember we did notenquire, but we found in her, besides Merchandize, which we had no Occasionfor, 65000 Pieces of Eight in Silver, some Gold, and two
