as not, a noble, dignified, if gloomy gentleman, with a leaning
to Byronic soliloquy. Though stern in exterior, his heart could (and
would) melt at the distresses of the heroine. Elvira's eyes were
certain to awaken in his mind the recollection of "other eyes as
innocent as thine, child." In short, he was that most touching of all
beings, the Hero-cum-Villain. And it was with a sigh of relief that we
saw him at the eleventh hour, having successfully twitted the
"Government Men" and the Excise (should he have an additional penchant
for smuggling), safely restored to the arms of the long-suffering
possessor of the other eyes.

Alas! this little book mentions no Poll of Portsmouth, nor does it
favour us with a "Yeo, heave, oh!" nor is there so very much "cut and
thrust" about it. It was written in that uninspiring day when Pirates
were a very real nuisance to such law-abiding folk as you and I; but
it has the merit of being written, if not by a Pirate, at least by one
who came into actual contact with them. I am not at all sure that
"merit" is the right word to use in this instance, for to be a Pirate
does not necessarily ensure you making a good author. Indeed, it might
almost be considered as a ban to the fine literary technique of an
Addison or a Temple. It has, however, the virtue of being in close
touch with some of the happenings chronicled. Not that our author saw
above a tithe of what he records--had he done so he would have been
"set a-sun-drying" at Execution Dock long before he had had the
opportunity of putting pen to paper; but, as far as posterity was
concerned, he was lucky in his friend William Ingram--evidently a
fellow of good memory and a ready tongue--"who," as our author states
in his Preface, "was a Pirate under Anstis, Roberts, and many others,"
and who eventually was hanged in good piratical company on the 11th
of June, 1714.

The actual history of the little book, the major part of which is here
reprinted, is as follows:

Its full title is "The History and Lives of all the most Notorious
Pirates and their Crews," and the fifth edition, from which our text
is taken, was printed in 1735. A reproduction of the original
title-page is given overleaf.

As a matter of fact, the title is misleading. How could a book that
makes no mention of Morgan or Lollonois be a history of _all_ the most
notorious Pirates? It deals with the last few years of the seventeenth
century and the first quarter of the eig