ith him the captains of the two other pirate ships, and Captain Davis
generously said he was ashamed to hear how I had been used, for their
reasons for going a-pirating were to revenge themselves on base
merchants and cruel commanders, but none of my people gave me the least
ill character; and, indeed, it was plain that they loved me.

This was by no means relished by Cochlyn; however, he put a good face on
it.

That night the boatswain came down into the steerage, where he had seen
me sitting with the ship's carpenter, but since we happened to have
changed places, and it had grown so dark he could not distinguish our
faces, he, thinking I sat where he had seen me before, presented a
pistol and drew the trigger, swearing he would blow my brains out. By
good fortune the pistol did not go off, but only flashed in the pan; by
the light of which the carpenter, observing that he should have been
shot instead of me, it so provoked him that he ran in the dark to the
boatswain, and having wrenched the pistol out of his hand, he beat him
to such a degree that he almost killed him. The noise of the fray being
heard on board the pirate ship that lay close to us, a boat was sent
from her, and they being told the truth of the matter, the officer in
her carried away this wicked villain, who had three times tried to
murder me.

I had one bundle of my own things left to me, in which was a black suit
of clothes. But a pirate, who was tolerably sober, came in and said he
would see what was in it. He then took out my black suit, a good hat and
wig, and some other things. Whereon I told him I hoped he would not
deprive me of them, for they would be of no service to him in so hot a
country, but would be of great use to me, as I hoped soon to return to
England.

I had hardly done speaking, when he lifted up his broadsword and gave me
a blow on the shoulder with the flat side of it, whispering in my ear at
the same time:

'I give you this caution, never to dispute the will of a pirate; for,
supposing I had cleft your skull asunder for your impudence, what would
you have got by it but destruction?'

I gave him thanks for his warning, and soon after he put on the clothes,
which in less than half an hour after I saw him take off and throw
overboard, for some of the pirates, seeing him dressed in that manner,
had thrown several buckets of claret upon him. This person's true name
was Francis Kennedy.

The next day, understanding that the