Indies, chiefly upon
the Spaniards--not that we made any difficulty of taking English ships,
or Dutch, or French, if they came in our way. But the reason why we
meddled as little with English vessels as we could was, first, because
if they were ships of any force, we were sure of more resistance from
them; and, secondly, because we found the English ships had less booty
when taken; for the Spaniards generally had money on board, and that was
what we best knew what to do with.

We increased our stock considerably in these two years, having taken
60,000 pieces of gold in one vessel, and 100,000 in another; and being
thus first grown rich, we resolved to be strong, too, for we had taken a
brigantine, an excellent sea-boat, able to carry twelve guns, and a
large Spanish frigate-built ship, which afterwards, by the help of good
carpenters, we fitted up to carry twenty-eight guns.

We had also taken two or three sloops from New England and New York,
laden with flour, peas, and barrelled beef and pork, going for Jamaica
and Barbados, and for more beef we went on shore on the island of Cuba,
where we killed as many black cattle as we pleased, though we had very
little salt to cure them.

Out of all the prizes we took here we took their powder and bullets,
their small-arms and cutlasses; and as for their men, we always took the
surgeon and the carpenter, as persons who were of particular use to us
upon many occasions; nor were they always unwilling to go with us.

We had one very merry fellow here, a Quaker, whose name was William
Walters, whom we took out of a sloop bound from Pennsylvania to
Barbados. He was a surgeon and they called him doctor, and we made him
go with us, and take all his implements with him. He was a comic fellow
indeed, a man of very good solid sense, and an excellent surgeon; but,
what was worth all, very good-humoured and pleasant in his conversation,
and a bold, stout, brave fellow too, as any we had among us.

I found William not very averse to go along with us, and yet resolved to
do it so that it might be apparent he was taken away by force. "Friend,"
he says, "thou sayest I must go with thee, and it is not in my power to
resist thee if I would; but I desire thou wilt oblige the master of the
sloop to certify under his hand that I was taken away by force, and
against my will." So I drew up a certificate myself, wherein I wrote
that he was taken away by main force, as a prisoner, by a pirate ship;