What he had been
I never learned; but it is my deliberate opinion, that, with a clear
stage and opportunity, he would have forced himself out from the surface
of society for good or for evil. The unfortunates who survived him, but
to expiate their crimes on the gibbet at Port Royal, said he had joined
them from a New York privateer, but they knew nothing farther of him
beyond the fact, that by his skill and desperate courage, within a month
he had by common acclaim been elected captain of the whole band. There
was a story current on board the corvette, of a small trading craft,
with a person answering his description, having been captured in the
Chesapeake, by one of the squadron, and sent to Halifax for
adjudication, (the master, as in most cases of the kind, being left on
board,) which from that hour had never been heard of, neither vessel,
nor prize crew, nor captain, until two Americans were taken out of a
slaver, off the Cape de Verds by the Firebrand, about a year afterwards,
after a most brave and determined attempt to escape, both of whom were
however allowed to enter, but subsequently deserted off Sandy Hook by
swimming ashore, in consequence of a pressed hand hinting that one of
them, surmised to be Obed, had been the master of the vessel above
mentioned.
All resistance having ceased, the few of the pirates who escaped having
scampered into the woods, where it would have been vain to follow them,
we secured our prisoners, and at the close of a bloody day, for fatal
had it been to friend and foe, the prizes were got under weigh, and
before nightfall we were all at sea, sailing in a fleet, under convoy of
the corvette and Gleam.
Pages:
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319