to them for protection, and increased their strength. When there
was no war, they fomented private discords, and encouraged them to wreak
their vengeance against each other; nay, even taught them how to
surprise their opponents, and furnished them with fire-arms, with which
to dispatch them more effectually and expeditiously. The consequences
were, that the murderer was constrained to fly to them for protection,
with his wives, children, and kindred. These, from interest, became true
friends, as their own safety depended upon the lives of their
protectors. By this time the pirates were so formidable, that none of
the negro princes durst attack them in open war.

[Illustration: _Captain Tew attacks the ship from India._]

Pursuing this system of policy, in a short time each chief had his party
greatly increased, and they divided like so many tribes, in order to
find ground to cultivate, and to choose proper places to build places of
residence and erect garrisons of defence. The fears that agitated them
were always obvious in their general policy, for they vied with each
other in constructing places of safety, and using every precaution to
prevent the possibility of sudden danger, either from the negroes or
from one another.

A description of one of these dwellings will both show the fears that
agitated these tyrants, and prove entertaining to the reader. They
selected a spot overgrown with wood, near a river, and raised a rampart
or ditch round it, so straight and steep that it was impossible to climb
it, more particularly by those who had no scaling ladders. Over that
ditch there was one passage into the wood; the dwelling, which was a
hut, was built in that part of the wood which the prince thought most
secure, but so covered that it could not be discovered until you came
near it. But the greatest ingenuity was displayed in the construction of
the passage that led to the hut, which was so narrow, that no more than
one person could go abreast, and it was contrived in so intricate a
manner, that it was a perfect labyrinth; the way going round and round
with several small crossways, so that a person unacquainted with it,
might walk several hours without finding the hut. Along the sides of
these paths, certain large thorns, which grew on a tree in that country,
were stuck into the ground with their points outwards; and the path
itself being serpentine, as before mentioned, if a man should attempt to
approach the hut at