The Pirates Own Book (28 page)

This ferocious villain was born in Westminster, and received an
education similar to that of the common people in England. He was by
nature a pirate; for even when very young he raised contributions among
the boys of Westminster, and if they declined compliance, a battle was
the result. When he advanced a step farther in life, he began to exert
his ingenuity at low games, and cheating all in his power; and those who
pretended to maintain their own right, he was ready to call to the field
of combat.

He went to sea in company with his brother, and continued with him for
three or four years. Going over to America, he wrought in a
rigging-house at Boston for some time. He then came home to see his
mother in England, returned to Boston, and continued for some years
longer at the same business. But being of a quarrelsome temper, he
differed with his master, and went on board a sloop bound for the Bay of
Honduras.

While there, he had the command of a boat employed in bringing logwood
to the ship. In that boat there were twelve men well armed, to be
prepared for the Spaniards, from whom the wood was taken by force. It
happened one day that the boat came to the ship just a little before
dinner was ready, and Low desired that they might dine before they
returned. The captain, however, ordered them a bottle of rum, and
requested them to take another trip, as no time was to be lost. The crew
were enraged, particularly Low, who took up a loaded musket and fired at
the captain, but missing him, another man was shot, and they ran off
with the boat. The next day they took a small vessel, went on board her,
hoisted a black flag, and declared war with the whole world.

In their rovings, Low met with Lowther, who proposed that he should join
him, and thus promote their mutual advantage. Having captured a
brigantine, Low, with forty more, went on board her; and leaving
Lowther, they went to seek their own fortune.

Their first adventure was the capture of a vessel belonging to Amboy,
out of which they took the provisions, and allowed her to proceed. On
the same day they took a sloop, plundered her, and permitted her to
depart. The sloop went into Black Island, and sent intelligence to the
governor that Low was on the coast. Two small vessels were immediately
fitted out, but, before their arrival, Low was beyond their reach. After
this narrow escape, Low went into port to procure water and fresh
provisions; and then renewed his search of plunder. He next sailed into
the harbor of Port Rosemary, where were thirteen ships, but none of them
of any great strength. Low hoisted the black flag, assuring them that if
they made any resistance they should have no quarter; and manning their
boat, the pirates took possession of every one of them, which they
plundered and converted to their own use. They then put on board a
schooner ten guns and fifty men, named her the Fancy, and Low himself
went on board of her, while Charles Harris was constituted captain of
the brigantine. They also constrained a few of the men to join them, and
sign their articles.

After an unsuccessful pursuit of two sloops from Boston, they steered
for the Leeward Islands, but in their way were overtaken by a terrible
hurricane. The search for plunder gave place to the most vigorous
exertion to save themselves. On board the brigantine, all hands were at
work both day and night; they were under the necessity of throwing
overboard six of her guns, and all the weighty provisions. In the storm,
the two vessels were separated, and it was some time before they again
saw each other.

After the storm, Low went into a small island west of the Carribbees,
refitted his vessels, and got provision for them in exchange of goods.
As soon as the brigantine was ready for sea, they went on a cruise until
the Fancy should be prepared, and during that cruise, met with a vessel
which had lost all her masts in the storm, which they plundered of goods
to the value of 1000
l
. and returned to the island. When the Fancy was
ready to sail, a council was held what course they should next steer.
They followed the advice of the captain, who thought it not safe to
cruise any longer to the leeward, lest they should fall in with any of
the men-of-war that cruised upon that coast, so they sailed for the
Azores.

The good fortune of Low was now singular; in his way thither he captured
a French ship of 34 guns, and carried her along with him. Then entering
St. Michael's roads, he captured seven sail, threatening with instant
death all who dared to oppose him. Thus, by inspiring terror, without
firing a single gun, he became master of all that property. Being in
want of water and fresh provisions, Low sent to the governor demanding a
supply, upon condition of releasing the ships he had taken, otherwise he
would commit them to the flames. The request was instantly complied
with, and six of the vessels were restored. But a French vessel being
among them, they emptied her of guns and all her men except the cook,
who, they said, being a greasy fellow, would fry well; they accordingly
bound the unfortunate man to the mast, and set the ship on fire.

The next who fell in their way was Captain Carter, in the Wright galley;
who, because he showed some inclination to defend himself, was cut and
mangled in a barbarous manner. There were also two Portuguese friars,
whom they tied to the foremast, and several times let them down before
they were dead, merely to gratify their own ferocious dispositions.
Meanwhile, another Portuguese, beholding this cruel scene, expressed
some sorrow in his countenance, upon which one of the wretches said he
did not like his looks, and so giving him a stroke across the body with
his cutlass, he fell upon the spot. Another of the miscreants, aiming a
blow at a prisoner, missed his aim, and struck Low upon the under jaw.
The surgeon was called, and stitched up the wound; but Low finding fault
with the operation, the surgeon gave him a blow which broke all the
stiches, and left him to sew them himself. After he had plundered this
vessel, some of them were for burning her, as they had done the
Frenchman; but instead of that, they cut her cables, rigging, and sails
to pieces, and sent her adrift to the mercy of the waves.

They next sailed for the island of Madeira, and took up a fishing boat
with two old men and a boy. They detained one of them, and sent the
other on shore with a flag of truce, requesting the governor to send
them a boat of water, else they would hang the other man at the yard
arm. The water was sent, and the man dismissed.

They next sailed for the Canary Islands, and there took several vessels;
and being informed that two small galleys were daily expected, the sloop
was manned and sent in quest of them. They, however, missing their prey,
and being in great want of provision, went into St. Michael's in the
character of traders, and being discovered, were apprehended, and the
whole crew conducted to the castle, and treated according to their
merits.

Meanwhile, Low's ship was overset upon the careen and lost, so that,
having only the Fancy schooner remaining, they all, to the number of a
hundred, went on board her, and set sail in search of new spoils. They
soon met a rich Portuguese vessel, and after some resistance captured
her. Low tortured the men to constrain them to inform him where they had
hid their treasures. He accordingly discovered that, during the chase,
the captain had hung a bag with eleven thousand moidores out of the
cabin window, and that, when they were taken, he had cut the rope, and
allowed it to fall into the sea. Upon this intelligence, Low raved and
stormed like a fury, ordered the captain's lips to be cut off and
broiled before his eyes, then murdered him and all his crew.

After this bloody action, the miscreants steered northward, and in their
course seized several vessels, one of which they burned, and plundering
the rest, allowed them to proceed. Having cleaned in one of the islands,
they then sailed for the bay of Honduras. They met a Spaniard coming out
of the bay, which had captured five Englishmen and a pink, plundered
them, and brought away the masters prisoners. Low hoisted Spanish
colors, but, when he came near, hung out the black flag, and the
Spaniard was seized without resistance. Upon finding the masters of the
English vessels in the hold, and seeing English goods on board, a
consultation was held, when it was determined to put all the Spaniards
to the sword. This was scarcely resolved upon, when they commenced with
every species of weapons to massacre every man, and some flying from
their merciless hands into the waves, a canoe was sent in pursuit of
those who endeavored to swim on shore. They next plundered the Spanish
vessel, restored the English masters to their respective vessels, and
set the Spaniard on fire.

Low's next cruise was between the Leeward Islands and the main land,
where, in a continued course of prosperity, he successively captured no
less than nineteen ships of different sizes, and in general treated
their crews with a barbarity unequalled even among pirates. But it
happened that the Greyhound, of twenty guns and one hundred and twenty
men, was cruising upon that coast. Informed of the mischief these
miscreants had done, the Greyhound went in search of them. Supposing
they had discovered a prize, Low and his crew pursued them, and the
Greyhound, allowing them to run after her until all things were ready
to engage, turned upon the two sloops.

One of these sloops was called the Fancy, and commanded by Low himself,
and the other the Ranger, commanded by Harris; both hoisted their
piratical colors, and fired each a gun. When the Greyhound came within
musket shot, she hauled up her mainsail, and clapped close upon a wind,
to keep the pirates from running to leeward, and then engaged. But when
the rogues found whom they had to deal with, they edged away under the
man-of-war's stern, and the Greyhound standing after them, they made a
running fight for about two hours; but little wind happening, the sloops
gained from her, by the help of their oars; upon which the Greyhound
left off firing, turned all hands to her own oars, and at three in the
afternoon came up with them. The pirates hauled upon a wind to receive
the man-of-war, and the fight was immediately renewed, with a brisk fire
on both sides, till the Ranger's mainyard was shot down. Under these
circumstances, Low abandoned her to the enemy, and fled.

The conduct of Low was surprising in this adventure, because his reputed
courage and boldness had hitherto so possessed the minds of all people,
that he became a terror even to his own men; but his behaviour
throughout this whole action showed him to be a base cowardly villain;
for had Low's sloop fought half so briskly as Harris' had done (as they
were under a solemn oath to do,) the man-of-war, in the opinion of some
present, could never have hurt them.

Nothing, however, could lessen the fury, or reform the manners, of that
obdurate crew. Their narrow escape had no good effect upon them, and
with redoubled violence they renewed their depredations and cruelties.
The next vessel they captured, was eighty miles from land. They used the
master with the most wanton cruelty, then shot him dead, and forced the
crew into the boat with a compass, a little water, and a few biscuits,
and left them to the mercy of the waves; they, however, beyond all
expectation, got safe to shore.

Low proceeded in his villainous career with too fatal success.
Unsatisfied with satiating their avarice and walking the common path of
wickedness, those inhuman wretches, like to Satan himself, made mischief
their sport, cruelty their delight, and the ruin and murder of their
fellow men their constant employment. Of all the piratical crews
belonging to the English nation, none ever equalled Low in barbarity.
Their mirth and their anger had the same effect. They murdered a man
from good humor, as well as from anger and passion. Their ferocious
disposition seemed only to delight in cries, groans, and lamentations.
One day Low having captured Captain Graves, a Virginia man, took a bowl
of punch in his hand, and said, "Captain, here's half this to you." The
poor gentleman was too much touched with his misfortunes to be in a
humor for drinking, he therefore modestly excused himself. Upon this Low
cocked and presented a pistol in the one hand, and his bowl in the
other, saying, "Either take the one or the other."

Low next captured a vessel called the Christmas, mounted her with
thirty-four guns, went on board her himself, assumed the title of
admiral, and hoisted the black flag. His next prize was a brigantine
half manned with Portuguese, and half with English. The former he
hanged, and the latter he thrust into their boat and dismissed, while he
set fire to the vessel. The success of Low was unequalled, as well as
his cruelty; and during a long period he continued to pursue his wicked
course with impunity.

All wickedness comes to an end and Low's crew at last rose against him
and he was thrown into a boat without provisions and abandoned to his
fate. This was because Low murdered the quarter-master while he lay
asleep. Not long after he was cast adrift a French vessel happened along
and took him into Martinico, and after a quick trial by the authorities
he received short shift on a gallows erected for his benefit.

This adventurer was mate of a sloop that sailed from Jamaica, and was
taken by Captain Winter, a pirate, just before the settlement of the
pirates at Providence island. After the pirates had surrendered to his
Majesty's pardon, and Providence island was peopled by the English
government, Captain England sailed to Africa. There he took several
vessels, particularly the Cadogan, from Bristol, commanded by one
Skinner. When the latter struck to the pirate, he was ordered to come on
board in his boat. The person upon whom he first cast his eye, proved to
be his old boatswain, who stared him in the face, and accosted him in
the following manner: "Ah, Captain Skinner, is it you? the only person I
wished to see: I am much in your debt, and I shall pay you all in your
own coin." The poor man trembled in every joint, and dreaded the event,
as he well might. It happened that Skinner and his old boatswain, with
some of his men, had quarrelled, so that he thought fit to remove them
on board a man-of-war, while he refused to pay them their wages. Not
long after, they found means to leave the man-of-war, and went on board
a small ship in the West Indies. They were taken by a pirate, and
brought to Providence, and from thence sailed as pirates with Captain
England. Thus accidentally meeting their old captain, they severely
revenged the treatment they had received.