nted, it was
found that they were of great value, and each man received a lordly
share.

When Captain Morgan was ready to set out on another expedition, he found
plenty of pirates ready to join him, and he commanded all the ships and
men whom he enlisted to rendezvous at a place called the Isle of Cows. A
fine, large, English ship had recently come to Jamaica from New England,
and this vessel also joined Morgan's forces on the island, where the
pirate leader took this ship as his own, being much the best and largest
vessel of the fleet.

Besides the ships belonging to Morgan, there was in the harbor where
they were now congregated, a fine vessel belonging to some French
buccaneers, and Morgan desired very much that this vessel should join
his fleet, but the French cherished hard feelings against the English,
and would not join them.

Although Morgan was a brave man, his meanness was quite equal to his
courage, and he determined to be revenged upon these Frenchmen who had
refused to give him their aid, and therefore played a malicious trick
upon them. Sometime before, this French vessel, being out of provisions
when upon the high seas, had met an English ship, and had taken from her
such supplies as it had needed. The captain did not pay for these, being
out of money as well as food, not an uncommon thing among buccaneers,
but they gave the English notes of exchange payable in Jamaica; but as
these notes were never honored, the people of the English ship had never
been paid for their provisions.

This affair properly arranged in Morgan's mind, he sent a very polite
note to the captain of the French ship and some of his officers,
inviting them to dine with him on his own vessel. The French accepted
the invitation, but when Morgan received them on board his ship he did
not conduct them down to dinner; instead of that, he began to upbraid
them for the manner in which they had treated an English crew, and then
he ordered them to be taken down below and imprisoned in the hold.
Having accomplished this, and feeling greatly elated by this piece of
sly vengeance, he went into his fine cabin, and he and his officers sat
down to the grand feast he had prepared.

There were fine times on board this great English ship; the pirates were
about to set forth on an important expedition, and they celebrated the
occasion by eating and drinking, firing guns, and all manner of riotous
hilarity. In the midst of the wild festivities--and