by Frank Sherry
But not all white men who lived in Madagascar during these years were either powerful or at peace. A few apparently lived in misery. One of these unfortunates was an Englishman named Robert Drury who was wrecked off the southern coast of Madagascar in April 1703, when he was only fourteen, and spent the next thirteen years as a slave to native princes. According to a journal that he published after he finally returned to England in 1717, Drury was sold from one black ruler to another, and he learned to speak the language of the Madagascar natives. He recounts how he was made to go on war parties and cattle raids with his native owners, and forced to follow such Madagascar slave practices as licking the soles of his masters’ feet. Drury also paints a vivid picture of the lives of European pirates who had settled on Madagascar. One of them, a Dutchman, John Pro, he says lived in “a very handsome manner…and owned many cattle and slaves.” Drury was finally rescued when—according to his story—his father in London learned from a slaver who had just returned from Madagascar that his son was still alive on the island. The father then sent the captain of a slaving ship, the Drake, to rescue young Drury. Before returning home, Drury helped his benefactor—the captain of the Drake—to obtain slaves from the local chieftain.
Drury did not tarry long in England. He was soon back in Madagascar, this time as a respected slave trader. Although he claims he became wealthy in the slave trade, he ended up a poor man, cadging drinks in taverns in exchange for stories of his life and adventures as a captive in Madagascar.
But Drury’s experience on Madagascar—if his story is true—was exceptional. Most white men flourished on the island.
Seventeen: Where White Men Die
1.The reports, of course, proved to be true. In fact, so pure and so distinctive was the gold obtained along the Guinea Coast that when the English made a coin from it, the coin was called a “guinea.”
Eighteen: The Black Captain
1.There is some indication that the idea of referring to themselves as the House of Lords actually began when the crew was still under the command of Howell Davis. If so, however, it was then only a desultory practice. Under Roberts the practice of referring to the crew as the House of Lords and of each crew member prefacing his name with the title Lord—as in Lord Sympson and Lord Ashplant, to name just two—became a regular practice, an integral part of the ship’s life. Later, as Roberts’s crew grew more numerous, the original members of the House of Lords seem to have jealously limited membership in their club.
2.Roberts designed his own personal black flag apparently to express his special hatred for the people of Barbados and Martinique. It showed a figure, seemingly intended to represent Roberts himself, carrying a cutlass in his right hand and standing with each foot on a skull. Beneath one skull were the initials “A B H,” meaning “A Barbadian’s Head.” Under the other skull were the initials “A M H,” standing for “A Martinican’s Head.” It may be that Roberts’s flag was not meant to express hatred of the people of those islands so much as contempt for the efforts of their governors to catch him. It is true, however, that Roberts was often more cruel to prisoners from Martinique than any others. The governor of Bermuda wrote home that Martinican prisoners taken by Roberts were “barbarously abused, some were almost whipped to death, others had their ears cut off.” It is entirely possible, too, that Roberts was by now half mad with self-hatred.
Twenty: Saga’s End
1.As governor of a peaceful Bahamas colony, Rogers never did succeed in turning his island into the self-sufficient concern he had always envisioned. Although he worked hard to found a “plantation colony” that would produce cotton and sugar for export, the poor soil never yielded crops sufficient to create such an economy. Rogers died in 1732. He was fifty-four years old.
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Grey, Charles. Pirates of the Eastern Seas. London: Kennikat Press, 1933.
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Searchable Terms
Note: Entries in this index, carried over verbatim from the print edition of this title, are unlikely to correspond to the pagination of any given e-book reader. However, entries in this index, and other terms, may be easily located by using the search feature of your e-book reader.
Adair, James, 291, 295
Admiralty laws, 111, 139, 182, 198–199, 293, 363, 366
courts for administration of. 116, 186, 191, 341, 347–349
Adventure, 240–241, 243, 244, 245, 247, 250, 251–252
Adventure Galley, 163–179, 183, 191, 195
alcoholism, 132–134
Alexander the Great, 55
American colonies:
black markets in, 92–93, 117–119, 153
corrupt governors of, 117–119, 147–148, 196–197, 216
piracy as beneficial to, 24–25, 44, 49, 60–61, 92–93, 117–119, 153, 359–360
Amity, 22–34, 65–66, 70, 75, 84, 107–108
“Arab gold,” 93
Arch-Pirate, see Every, Henry
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br /> Ashplant, Valentine, 126
Atkins, John, 342, 349–350
Augur, John, 258
Aurangzeb, sixth Great Mogul, 27, 103–109
Bahama Islands:
colonization of, 224–225, 229, 233, 357–358
as pirate nation, 203–217, 225–234, 253, 275, 283, 363
Rogers as governor of, 217, 224–234, 240, 253–262, 274–275, 283, 284, 312, 333, 357–358
Spanish invasion of, 255, 262, 263–264, 265–266, 274–275, 278
Baker, Midshipman, 247–249, 252
Baldridge, Adam, as Madagascar trader, 91–92, 93–94, 116–117, 197, 198, 200, 296
“Ballad of William Kidd, The,” 193
Barlo, Edward, 170–171
Barnet, Captain, 275–276
Barrow, Thomas, 206
Bart, Jean, 120–121
Bartholomew the Portuguese, 60
Beachy Head, Battle of, 119, 120
Beeston, William, 81
Bellamy, Charles, 130, 136
Bellomont, Richard Coote, Earl of:
as governor of New York, 147–148, 196–197, 198
Kidd arrested by, 182–185, 189
“pirate killer” scheme of, 150–161, 162, 165, 179, 180
Bendall, George, 258
Bernhardi, Philip, 88
Blackbeard (Edward Teach):
Bonnet’s relationship with, 215, 238–239, 242–243
death of, 250–251, 253–254, 260, 312
journal written by, 243–244
pirate career of, 234, 235–252, 265, 283
reputation of, 95, 97, 131, 132, 134, 135, 144, 146, 212–213, 236–237
black markets, 24–25, 92–93, 116–119, 198
Blathwayt, William, 156
“bloodless revolution” (1688), 41, 153
Board of Trade, 224, 225, 278–279
Boat People, 362
boatswains, 129
Bonnet, Stede:
Blackbeard’s relationship with, 215, 238–239, 242–243
pirate career of, 214–215, 232, 238–240, 254
Bonny, Anne, 214, 266–277
Bonny, James, 266, 267
Boston News Letter, 330–331
Bowie, James, 361
Boyne, Battle of the, 119
Bradley, George, 140
Brandinham, Robert, 189, 190
Brasiliano, Roche, 60
Brennan, Peg, 266
Bridgemen, Benjamin, see Every, Henry
Brotherhood of the Coast, 59–60
Brown, James, 118
buccaneers, 59–60, 62, 66, 80, 96, 309–310
Burgen, Hans, 291, 292, 295
Burgess, Thomas, 232, 234, 256, 264, 275
Burnet, Gilbert, 188
Caesar (slave), 131, 251–252
Caesar, Julius, 56
Campbell, Duncan, 182
candles, wax, 37
Cape Coast Castle, 347–350, 362–363
Cape Lopez, 339–345
capital punishment, 364
captains, ship:
as elected by pirates, 123, 128–129, 141, 146
qualifications for, 53, 323–324
Caraccioli, Father, 99
carpenters, 129, 130, 135
Carr, Caleb, 118
Cassandra (Macrae’s ship), 144–145, 286–290, 295
Charles I, king of England, 40, 89
Charles II, king of England, 41
Charles II, king of Spain, 201
Charles II, 67–72, 83
Child, John, 105
Chivers, Dirk, 115
cholera, 47
Churcher, John, 116
Churchill, John, 203
Cicero, Marcus Tullius, 56
Cinque Ports, 57
clergy, captured, mistreatment of, 137–138
coffee houses, 43
Columbus, Christopher, 204
Condent, Christopher, 98, 145, 213, 280–283, 296
convoy strategy, 109–110, 216–217
Cormac, William, 266
Cornwallis, Lord Charles, 360
corsairs, 55, 57
Council for Trade and Plantations, 118
Courant, Peter, 256
Courtney, Stephen, 220
courts martial, 127
“Crackers,” 309–310
Cromwell, Oliver, 40–41, 103
Culliford, Robert, pirate career of, 95, 157, 158, 163, 177–179, 189, 190, 191, 195
Cunningham, Will, 258
cutlasses, 145
Dampier, William, 221
Dann, John, 82
Davis, Howell:
death of, 318–319, 326–327
pirate career of, 310–319, 325, 344
Deane, Tom, 273
decks, “flush,” 73
Declaration of Paris (1856), 360
Defoe, Daniel, pirate accounts by, 68, 71–72, 80, 84, 94, 98, 100, 123, 124, 128, 130, 136–140, 205, 208–215, 221, 235, 237, 244, 248, 260, 283–284, 309–312, 326, 332, 352
Delicia, 226, 228, 232, 234, 256, 266
dengue fever, 299
desertion, 63, 126, 127, 142, 143
Dew, George, 26
Diabolito, 361
Dias, Diogo, 87
Divine Right of Kings, 40
Dowling, William, 258
Drake, Francis, 58, 102
drug smugglers, 362
Dryden, John, 43–44
Dry Harbor Bay, 275
Duchess, 220–224
duels, 124, 125–126, 273
Duke, 220–224
dysentery, 143
East India Company:
formation of, 101–113
Indian trading posts of, 103–110
money coined by, 105
pirate attacks on, 108–113, 147–148, 149, 153, 198–199, 200, 286, 289
private navy of, 109–110
as state-within-state, 105–106
trade monopoly of, 17, 64, 65, 79, 87, 88, 100, 117, 282, 283, 304
East Indiamen, 103, 113, 167–168
Eden, Charles, 240, 243
Elizabeth I, queen of England, 44, 57, 101
Emmott, James, 182
England:
economic and military growth of, 40–45
power of Parliament in, 41–42, 102, 107, 180
privateers financed by, 23–24, 25, 57–64, 157–158, 160, 162, 165, 168, 171, 174–175, 176, 202–203, 210, 213, 220–224, 237
sea trade by, 41, 44–45
social conditions in, 43–51
England, Edward, pirate career of, 132, 144–145, 146, 213, 283–290, 295–296, 310
English East India Company, 106, 107
Eustace the Monk, 56
Every, Henry, 66, 67–84, 95, 96
character of, 69–70
Charles II taken by, 67–72, 83
disappearance of, 82–84
personal flag of, 72
pirate career of, 72–84, 108, 109, 115, 117–118, 128, 132, 134, 142, 144, 145, 146, 198, 291, 362
Execution Dock, 191–193
executions, public, 48
Fancy (England’s ship), 284, 285–288, 310
Fancy (Every’s ship), 72–81, 83, 84
Fancy (Low’s ship), 352, 354
Fitch, Ralph, 102
flags, pirate, 21, 72, 77, 96–98, 115, 136, 160, 170, 209, 332, 341
Fletcher, Benjamin, as governor of New York, 30–32, 33, 93, 117, 147, 151, 158, 165, 197, 296–297
flutes, broad-beamed, 111–112
fo’c’sle, 143
France:
as monarchy, 25, 37–39, 41–42, 45, 201–202
privateers financed by, 62, 120–121, 157–158, 360–361
French East India Company, 87, 174, 176
“from the sea,” 96
Gambia, 313, 314–319
gambling, 132, 144
Gang-I-Sawai, 76–80, 81, 96, 108, 115, 128, 134, 144
Gibbs, Charles, 361–362
Gibson, Captain, 68, 71–72
Gin Lane, 49
Glasby, Henry, 126, 330
Goa, India, 15–16
“Gold Bug, The” (Poe), 146
Graham, James, 156
Great Mogul, 26–27, 65, 79, 93, 103–105, 107, 282
Great Ranger, 340–342, 348, 355
Greenwich, 286–288
Guinea Coast:
pirate attacks on, 308–320, 331, 333–345
slave trade on, 291, 297, 298–320, 324, 327, 354, 356, 359, 361
gunners, 129, 130
Hands, Israel, 241
hand-to-hand combat, 145
Hardy, Lord, 349
Harley, Robert, 188
Harris, Charles, 355
Harrison, Edmund, 153
Harrison, Major-General, 48
Henszlein, Klein, 56
Herdman, Mungo, 348
Hewson, Thomas, 157
Hispaniola, 59, 255
Holford, Captain, 261
Holland, 39–40, 41, 59
Holy Eleanora, 292–293, 294, 356
homosexuality, 135
Hornigold, Ben, 213, 214
as ex-pirate, 231, 232–233, 234, 237–238, 255–256, 264, 275
“House of Lords” (Roberts’s crew), 138, 328, 329, 330, 331, 332, 333–334
trial and execution of, 337, 341–342, 344–345, 347–350, 362–363
Huguenots, 41, 59
“humors,” 143
Ibrahim Khan, 77
impressment, 47, 63, 142, 164–165, 202
insurance, maritime, 43
interlopers, 106–107
Jackson, Andrew, 361
Jamaica, 60, 211, 215–216, 256
James II, king of England, 41, 119, 153
Jennings, Henry, 204–205
Johanna Island, 73, 88, 167–168, 286, 287, 357
Jolly Roger flag, 21, 96–97, 98, 136, 332, 341