The Book of Pirates and Highwaymen

by Cate Ludlow

  But this conquest was not attended with any great utility to the free-booters. They were obliged to advance further, and they had many obstacles to surmount. The shallowness of the water compelled them to abandon their ships, and continue their navigation in canoes. But the terror with which the Spaniards were struck removed all difficulties. Their inconsiderable strength might have encouraged their enemies to make some resistance; this however was not the case. Though so valiant under other circumstances, they durst not contend with these ferocious free-booters; they abandoned not only the city of Maracäibo, but also the fort of La Barra, and betook themselves to flight. The pirates found only a few aged slaves who could not walk, and some invalids in the hospital, a very small quantity of provisions, and the houses stripped and deserted. The Spaniards had had time to secure their merchandise and moveables; they had even sent their small craft out of the port, and had conducted themselves further into the interior of the lake.

  Morgan ordered the woods to be searched: in a short time there were brought in fifty mules richly laden, and thirty fugitives, men, women, and children. Conformably to the horrible custom of these robbers, they put the hapless captives to the torture, in order to extort their confessions. Their limbs were fastened to ropes, which were violently drawn in contrary directions; to their fingers were applied pieces of burning wood; their heads were tightly bound with cords, till the eyes were ready to start from their sockets. Some slaves who would not betray the place of their masters’ retreat, were cut to pieces while alive. Every day were detachments sent into the woods to hunt the fugitives; and the hunters never returned without bringing in some human prey.

  Juvenile Criminal

  ‘Among the children,’ says that active philanthropist, the Hon. Grey Bennet, in his evidence before the Police Committee, ‘whom I have seen in prison, a boy of the name of Leary was the most remarkable; he was about thirteen years of age, good-looking, sharp, and intelligent, and possessing a manner which seemed to indicate a character very different from what he really possessed. When I saw him, he was under sentence of death for stealing a watch, chain, and seals, from Mr Princep’s chambers in the Temple; he had been five years in the practice of delinquency, progressing from stealing an apple off a stall, to housebreaking and highway robbery.

  He belonged to the Moorfields’ Catholic Chapel, and there became acquainted with one Ryan in that school, by whom he was instructed in the various arts and practices of delinquency; his first attempts were at tarts, apples, &c; next at the loaves in bakers’ baskets; then at parcels of halfpence on shop counters and money-tills in shops; then to breaking shop windows, and drawing out valuable articles through the aperture, picking pockets, house-breaking, &c. Leary has often gone to school the next day with several pounds in his pockets, as his share of the produce of the previous day’s robberies; he soon became captain of a gang, generally since known as Leary’s gang, with five boys, and sometimes more, furnished with pistols, taking a horse and cart with them; and, if they had an opportunity in their road, they cut off the trunks of gentleman’s carriages, when, after opening them, and according to their contents, so they would be governed in prosecuting their further objects in that quarter; they would divide into parties of two, sometimes one, and leaving one with the horse and cart, go to the farm and other houses, stating their being on their way to see their families, and begging for some bread and water; by such tales, united with their youth, they obtained relief, and generally ended by robbing the houses and premises.

  In one instance Leary was detected and taken, and committed to Maidstone gaol; but the prosecutor not appearing against him, he was discharged. In these excursions he has stayed out a week and upwards, when his share has produced him from £50 to £100. He has been concerned in various robberies in London and the vicinity, and has had property at one time amounting to £350; but when he had money, he either got robbed of it by elder thieves, who knew he had much money about him, or he lost it by gambling at flash houses, or spent it among loose characters of both sexes.

  After committing innumerable depredations, he was detected at Mr Derrimore’s, at Kentish Town, stealing some plate from that gentlemen’s dining room; when several other similar robberies coming against him in that neighbourhood, he was, in compassion of his youth, placed in the Philanthropic Asylum; but being now charged with Mr Princept’s robbery, he was taken, tried, convicted, and sentenced to death, but was afterwards respited, and returned to that Institution.

  He is little, and well-looking; and has robbed to the amount of £3,000 during his five years’ career. This surprising boy has since broke out and escaped the Philanthropic, went to his old practices, was again tried at the Old Bailey, and is transported for life.’

  Piracy, Murder, And Rape: Part One

  In the year 1735, Captain De Tracy, a Frenchman of a distinguished family, had acquired considerable wealth by his extensive plantations in the vicinity of Samana, in the island of St Domingo. He had constantly resided on one of his own estates, and had married a Creole lady of remarkable beauty and accomplishments, and was blessed by her with an early family of healthy and interesting children. De Tracy, of an open-hearted and generous disposition, uniformly conducted himself towards his slaves and dependants with kindness and affability. The family of De Tracy consisted at that time of one daughter, verging on fifteen, and a second one year older, a fine grown boy of thirteen, another of eight years old, and a smiling infant at the mother’s breast. The elder daughters possessed all the personal charms, with all the gentleness of their mother; of the boys it need only be said, that they bade fair to inherit the noble-mindedness of their parents.

  De Tracy, with his amiable and fair family, had resided since his marriage entirely on his principal estate in the island of St Domingo; but in the summer of the year 1735, he determined to visit the Bahama Islands, of which Madame De Tracy was a native, and where she had now become possessed of considerable property by the bequest of her father, recently deceased. A residence of some months in the Bahamas being advised to the re-establishment of Madam De Tracy’s health, it was arranged that the whole family should accompany them.

  In the month of January preceding, a brig, apparently designed for a vessel of war, with a mixed crew of twenty men, and commanded by a Frenchman, was driven, in a severe gale, on the coast, and, having received extensive damage, had been compelled to remain on the island for repair and refitted. Her captain described himself as a naval commander, educated in the French marine, but compelled to resort to the pursuits of commerce to repair the destruction of his early pursuits and fortune. The numbers and appearance of his crew seemed to be at variance with this account, and the vessel itself bore strong resemblance, in its sitting and general equipment, to one used for the purpose of privateering depredation, rather than the peaceful occupations of trade. The account which La Force, the commander, gave of himself, however, ran, that he was on an outward-bound voyage from Marseilles to the gulph of Florida, with a cargo of Dutch and English manufactured goods, to trade with the Spaniards; and that the unusual number of his crew arose from his having shipped, as passengers, several Spaniards, Portuguese, and Italians, who were proceeding to settle in the Spanish South-American dominions. The relation accounted tolerably well for the doubtful appearance of his men, and the presence of a number of bales and packages of every variety of sizes, marks, and denominations. The guns of his vessel, with the ammunition, and a quantity of small arms, had, in fact, been thrown overboard as a matter of necessity during the gale, as well to lighten and ease the ship, as to remove all violent cause of suspicion, from the shore on which they were inevitably driving. In few words, to relieve the suspense of the reader, the brig Julie, we are describing, was in reality a stout vessel of war, expressly fitted out by a band of adventurers who formed her desperate crew, for piracy and marauding, and previous to the storm which drove her into St Domingo, had been in a complete state of warlike readiness to grapple even with armed vessels of much
superior rate; and the merchandize and valuables saved from her when stranded, were the result of many rich captures. La Force, who with courteous and specious manners glossed over the blackest heart that perhaps ever animated the human frame, was a pirate of the most determined and fearless character, and of disposition more cruel and relentless than was usual, even amongst the desperadoes of his own class.

  De Tracy, in the sincerity and openness of his heart, suspected no guile in others, and in an evil hour determined to avail himself of the Julie being ready for sea, and take his projected passage to the Bahamas under the conduct of the pirate La Force and his band of miscreants. It should be told, that from the first landing of La Force from his wicked vessel, De Tracy, with his wonted kindness, had bade him a cheerful welcome to the comforts of his house and table, and the charming family. La Force, ever alert in desperate villany, was, like the adder of the old fable, scarcely warmed with the hospitality that sheltered and protected him, ere he sat down coolly to calculate the possibility of undermining and destroying for ever the peace and happiness of his benefactor: the ties of moral obligation would with La Force have weighed but little to prevent his insulting the virtue and modesty of De Tracy’s wife and daughters; but in spite of his infamous passions, this diabolical intention readily gave way to a plan of a still blacker hue, of a more sweeping and comprehensive mischief.

  The stay of De Tracy’s family in the Bahamas being determined to be of several months, it was judged necessary to their convenience, as well as a prudent measure of security, to take with them the greatest part of the family plate, jewels, &c. as well as a considerable sum in specie to answer the calls of purchases and current expenses. On the forcible seizure of this treasure, the murder of its owner, and the brutal gratification of his hellish designs on his wife and daughters, to obtain these ‘at one fell swoop,’ it was that the insatiate demon La Force had set his mind!

  The treasure was shipped under the gloating eye of La Force himself, and the unsuspecting victims being embarked, the Julie bore from these beloved scenes of his happiness, for ever, the ill-fated De Tracy. The vessel left the harbour amid the shouts of the assembled population of the estate, who shed tears of unaffected regret at their departure, and poured out prayers for their safety. A favourable light wind and smooth sea soon wafted the Julie from the multitude on the shore, and De Tracy, his wife, his children, his wealth, his all! were now in the hands and at the mercy of the ferocious La Force!

  The confinement and sameness of a sea voyage were rendered less annoying to the family of De Tracy than they usually are, by the attentions of La Force; he joined in all their recreations, and afforded every facility to the indulgence of them. Much of the time was spent in conversation, in music, dancing, and in walking on deck enjoying the cool evening breezes; and when the dews of evening obliged them to descend to the cabin, the captain would entertain them with a relation of the various dangers which himself and other persons had encountered at sea, or detail, with an amusing gravity, some of the prevailing superstitions of sailors.

  One delightfully clear morning, when they were in hourly expectation of making the land, La Force announced to De Tracy, that it was his intention to make that day a general festival, it being the anniversary of his birth. His orders were issued to the crew, and the ship’s steward received his instructions to make the suitable arrangements for a day of rejoicing. La Force was jovial and apparently merry beyond his usual manner, and swallowed one cup of wine after another to the health and happiness of Madame De Tracy, her children, and her husband. In this elevation of spirits, he suddenly placed his hand on the arm of De Tracy, and said to him in an undervoice, ‘My best friend, before we part, I have matters of the greatest importance to communicate to you; gratitude for the services you have rendered me, require that I should no longer conceal from you information which nearly concerns the welfare and happiness of your family. I have for some time possessed papers of the utmost value, connected with your wife’s property in this island; let me then, in some degree, discharge the debt of gratitude I owe, by explaining and placing them in your hands; let us retire for a few moments to my cabin, where, unobserved and undisturbed, we may examine them: follow me!’

  The curiosity of De Tracy was strongly excited by this singular address, and he suffered La Force to conduct him below: when they arrived at the cabin, La Force opened the iron door of a small secret closet, formed among the larger timbers of the vessel, and beckoned him with a mysterious air to enter it. De Tracy’s surprise was great; but expecting La Force to follow him, he did enter, and at the same instant felt the door shut upon him with a sudden violence, and heard La Force turning its massive lock on him on the outside. The astonished De Tracy heard the door of the outer cabin as quickly shut and locked, and the fiend, La Force, with loud laughter, bounding up the stairs upon deck; he remained a few moments, half-imagining the manoeuvre to be a jest; but he was now roused by the repeated shouts and peals of merriment among the crew, in which the voice of La Force could be distinguished. A feeling of dismay now began to force itself upon him, and a thousand little circumstances in the behaviour of La Force, unobserved before, flashed upon his mind at once.

  In the midst of this increasing alarm, the voice of De Tracy’s servant Dugald was now heard in loud tones of anger and reproach; the clashing of weapons succeeded, and the quick steps of the contending parties towards the cabin, and this was terminated by the sound of heavy blows and groans, as if of some one wounded in the conflict. The agitation and alarm of De Tracy rose to a dreadful pitch, when he was awakened to a full sense of his misery, by the sudden shriek after shriek of his beloved and lovely wife, and his daughters, uttered in all the piercing agony of anguish and despair! He was now totally undeceived; he entreated, he called, he prayed, he raved; in all the rage of infuriated madness, he used his utmost force; and though armed by anger and despair with almost supernatural might, the door, which opened inwards, withstood his utmost efforts. But why should we dwell minutely on a scene of such unutterable misery! What the unhappy man endured, and what were the sufferings of the woman he loved and adored, and the children he so dearly cherished, are fit only to be imagined, not surely to be spoken or written. But their wrongs were remembered, and their shrieks numbered by a POWER more potent and terrible than man, and a certain doom and deplorable death was pronounced against the guilty perpetrators of this horrid crime, at the moment when, in the height of their wickedness, they fancied their joy at the full.

  The cries of affliction died away; the evening passed, and morning came. The all-glorious sun rose upon the foul and hellish deeds of the night; and through a crevice, which admitted light, the unhappy De Tracy found that his prison was, in fact, the treasure-room of a pirate vessel, for such he was convinced were these fiends in human shape: at the same moment a hole opened above, and a small portion of bread, and an antique silver cup, filled with water, were lowered down. Amidst the acute misery of his situation, it was but a light addition that De Tracy recognised the silver vessel to be part of the treasure, his own property, which he had shipped, and which, with the other valuable articles of the same description, was securely packed in strong chests, and which it was now evident were rifled. He could now measure the extent of his calamity, and with as much fortitude as he could gather, prepared himself for a fate, which, amongst such miscreants, could not be deemed far distant.

  The Sanguinary Life And Cruel Death Of A Robber

  Thomas Dun was born in Bedfordshire, and even in childhood, was noted for his pilfering propensity, and the cruelty of his disposition. He lived in the time of Henry I, and so many were his atrocities, that we can only find limits for the recital of a few.

  His first exploit was on the highway to Bedford, where he met a wagon full of corn, going to market, drawn by a team of beautiful horses. He accosted the driver; and, in the middle of the conversation, stabbed him in the heart, with a dagger, which he always carried about his person. He buried the body, and mou
nting the wagon, proceeded to the town, where he sold all off, and decamped with the money. He continued to commit many petty thefts and assaults, but judging it safer to associate himself with others, he repaired to a gang of thieves, who infested the country leading from St Alban’s to Tocester, where they became such a terror, that the king had to build a town to check his power in the country, and which retains his name to this day, namely Dunstable.

  This precaution was however of little avail, for he pursued his courses to a great extent. Among the gang were many artists, who enabled him to pick locks, wrench bolts, and use deaf files with great effect. One day having heard that some lawyers were to dine at a certain inn in Bedford, about an hour before the appointed time, he came running to the inn, and desired the landlord to hurry the dinner, and to have enough ready for ten or twelve. The company soon arrived, and the lawyers thought Dun a servant of the house, while those of the house supposed him an attendant on the lawyers. He bustled about, and the bill being called for, he collected it; and having some change to return to the company, they waited till his return; but growing weary, they rang the bell, and enquired for their money, when they discovered him to be an impostor. With the assistance of his associates, he made clear off with a considerable booty of cloaks, hats, silver spoons, and every thing of value upon which he could lay his hands.