The King of Pirates

by Daniel Defoe

willing to be good-humour'd tothe Persons; so I went out of the Cabin, and caus'd the Women to be leftalone, causing the Guard to be kept still, that they might receive no moreInjury than I would do them myself.

  After I had been out of the Cabin some Time, a Slave of the Womens came tome, and made Sign to me that the Queen would speak with me again. I madeSigns back, that I would come and dine with her Majesty: And accordingly Iorder'd that her Servants should prepare her Dinner, and carry it in, andthen call me. They provided her Repast after the usual Manner, and when shesaw it brought in, she appear'd pleas'd, and more, when she saw me come inafter it; for she was exceedingly pleas'd that I had caus'd a Guard to keepthe rest of my Men from her; and she had, it seems, been told how rude theyhad been to some of the Women that belong'd to her.

  When I came in, she rose up, and paid me such Respect as I did not wellknow how to receive, and not in the least how to return. If she hadunderstood _English_, I could have said plainly, and in good rough Words,Madam, be easy, we are rude rough-hewn Fellows, but none of our Men shouldhurt you, or touch you; I will be your Guard and Protection; we are forMoney, indeed and we shall take what you have, but we will do you no otherHarm. But as I could not talk thus to her, I scarce knew what to say; but Isate down, and made Signs to have her sit down and eat, which she did, butwith so much Ceremony, that I did not know well what to do with it.

  After we had eaten, she rose up again, and drinking some Water out of a_China_ Cup, sate her down on the Side of the Couch, as before: When shesaw I had done eating, she went then to another Cabinet, and pulling out aDrawer, she brought it to me; it was full of small Pieces of Gold Coin of_Pegu_, about as big as an _English_ Half Guinea, and I think there werethree thousand of them. She open'd several other Drawers, and shew'd me theWealth that was in them and then gave me the Key of the Whole.

  We had revell'd thus all Day, and Part of the next Day, in a bottomless Seaof Riches, when my Lieutenant began to tell me, we must consider what to dowith our Prisoners, and the Ships, for that there was no subsisting in thatManner; besides, he hinted privately, that the Men would be ruin'd, bylying with the Women in the other Ship, where all Sorts of Liberty was bothgiven and taken: Upon this we call'd a short Council, and concluded tocarry the great Ship away with us, but to put all the Prisoners, Queen,Ladies, and all the rest, into the lesser Vessels, and let them go: And sofar was I from ravishing this Lady, as I hear is reported of me, that tho'I might rifle her of every Thing else, yet I assure you I let her gountouch'd for me, or, as I am satisfy'd, for any one, of my Men; nay, whenwe dismiss'd them, we gave her Leave to take a great many Things of Valuewith her, which she would have been plunder'd of, if I had not been socareful of her.

  We had now Wealth enough, not only to make us rich, but almost to have madea Nation rich; and to tell you the Truth, considering the costly Things wetook here, which we did not know the Value of, and besides Gold, andSilver, and Jewels, I say, we never knew how rich we were; besides which,we had a great Quantity of Bales of Goods, as well Calicoes as wroughtSilks; which being for Sale, were, perhaps, as a Cargo of Goods to answerthe Bills which might be drawn upon them for the Account of the Bride'sPortion; all which fell into our Hands, with a great Sum in Silver Coin,too big to talk of among _Englishmen_, especially while I am living, forReasons which I may give you hereafter.

  I had nothing to do now but to think of coming back to _Madagascar_, so wemade the best of our Way; only that, to make us quite distracted withoutother Joy, we took in our Way a small Bark loaden with Arack and Rice,which was good Sawce to our other Purchace; for if the Women made our Mendrunk before, this _Arack_ made them quite mad; and they had so littleGovernment of themselves with it, that I think it might be said, the wholeShip's Crew was drunk for above a Fortnight together, till six or seven ofthem kill'd themselves; two fell overboard and were drown'd, and severalmore fell into raging Fevers, and it was a Wonder, in the whole, they werenot all kill'd with it.

  But, to make short of the Story as we did of the Voyage, we had a verypleasant Voyage, except those Disasters, and we came safe back to ourComrades at _Madagascar_, having been absent in all about seven Months.

  We found them in very good Health, and longing to hear from us; and wewere, you may be assur'd, welcome to them; for now we had amass'd such aTreasure as no Society of Men ever possess'd in this World before us,neither could we ever bring it to an Estimation, for we could not bringparticular Things to a just Valuation.

  We liv'd now and enjoy'd ourselves in full Security; for tho' some of the_European_ Nations, and perhaps all of them had heard of us; yet they heardsuch formidable Things of us, such terrible Stories of our great Strength,as well as of our great Wealth, that they had no Thought of undertaking anyThing against us; for, as I have understood, they were told at _London_,that we were no less than 5000 Men; that we had built a regular Fortressfor our Defence by Land, and that we had 20 Sail of Ships; and I have beentold that in _France_ they have heard the same Thing: But nothing of allthis was ever true, any more than it was true, that we offer'd ten Millionsto the Government of _England_ for our Pardon.

  It is true, that had the Queen sent any Intimation to us of a Pardon, andthat we should have been receiv'd to Grace at Home, we should all have verywillingly embrac'd it; for we had Money enough to have encourag'd us all tolive honest; and if we had been ask'd for a Million of Pieces of Eight, ora Million of Pounds Sterling, to have purchas'd our Pardon, we should havebeen very ready to have comply'd with it; for we really knew not what to dowith ourselves, or with our Wealth; and the only Thing we had now beforeus, was to consider what Method to take for getting Home, if possible, toour own Country with our Wealth, or at least with such Part of it as wouldsecure us easy and comfortable Lives; and, for my own Part, I resolv'd, ifI could, to make full Satisfaction to all the Persons who I had wrong'd in_England_, I mean by that, such People as I had injur'd by running awaywith the Ship; as well the Owners, and the Master or Captain, who I seta-shore in _Spain_, as the Merchant whose Goods I had taken with the Ship;and I was daily forming Schemes in my Thoughts how to bring this to pass:But we all concluded that it was impossible for us to accomplish ourDesires as to that Part, seeing the Fact of our Piracy was now so publickall over the World, that there was not any Nation in the World that wouldreceive us, or any of us; but would immediately seize on our Wealth, andexecute us for Pirates and Robbers of all Nations.

  This was confirm'd to us after some Time, with all the Particulars, as itis now understood in _Europe_; for as the Fame of our Wealth and Power wassuch, that it made all the World afraid of us, so it brought some of thelike Sort with our selves to join with us from all Parts of the World; andparticularly, we had a Bark, and 60 Men of all Nations, from _Martinico_,who had been cruising in the Gulph of _Florida_, came over to us, to try ifthey could mend their Fortunes; and these went afterwards to the Gulph of_Persia_, where they took some Prizes, and return'd to us again. We hadafter this three Pirate Ships came to us, most _English_, who had done someExploits on the Coast of _Guinea_, had made several good Prizes, and wereall tolerably rich.

  As these People came and shelter'd with us, so they came and went as theywould, and sometimes some of our Men went with them, sometimes theirs staidwith us: But by that Coming and Going our Men found Ways and Means toconvey themselves away, some one Way, some another. For I should have toldyou at first, that after we had such Intelligence from _England_, _viz._that they knew of all our successful Enterprizes, and that there was noHopes of our returning, especially of mine and some other Men who wereknown: I say, after this we call'd a general Council to consider what todo; and there, one and all, we concluded that we liv'd very happy where wewere; that if any of us had a Mind to venture to get away to any Part ofthe World, none should hinder them, but that else we would continue wherewe were; and that the first Opportunity we had we would cruise upon the_English_ _East India_ Ships, and do them what Spoil we could, fancyingthat some Time or other they would proclaim a Pardon to us, if we wouldcom
e in; and if they did, then we would accept of it.

  Under these Circumstances we remain'd here, off and on, first and last,above three Year more; during which Time our Number encreas'd so,especially at first, that we were once eight hundred Men, stout braveFellows, and as good Sailors as any in the World. Our Number decreas'dafterwards upon several Occasions; such as the going Abroad to Cruise,wandering to the South Part of the Island, (as above) getting on Board_European_ Ships, and the like.

  After I perceiv'd that a great many of our Men were gone off, and hadcarry'd their Wealth with them, I began to cast about in my own Thoughtshow I should make my Way Home also: Innumerable Difficulties presented tomy View; when at last, an Account of some of our Mens Escape into _Persia_encourag'd