ded by one Captain Cocklyn, so the three joined forces and
assaulted the fort, which, after a sharp bombardment, surrendered. Davis
was then elected commander of the pirate fleet, but one night, when
entertaining the other captains in his cabin, all having drunk freely of
punch, they started to quarrel, and blows were threatened, when Davis,
with true Celtic eloquence, hiccupped out the following speech:

"Hearke ye, you Cocklyn and La Bouse. I find by strengthening you I have
put a rod into your Hands to whip myself, but I'm still able to deal with
you both; but since we met in Love, let us part in Love, for I find that
three of a Trade can never agree." Alone once more, Davis had prodigious
success, taking prize after prize, amongst others the _Princess_, the
second mate in which was one Roberts, soon to become a most famous pirate.
Off Anamaboe he took a very rich prize, a Hollander ship, on board of
which was the Governor of Accra and his retinue, as well as L15,000
sterling and rich merchandise. Arriving next at the Portuguese Island of
Princes, Davis posed as an English man-of-war in search of pirates, and
was most warmly welcomed by the Governor, who received him in person with
a guard of honour and entertained him most hospitably. Davis heard that
the Governor and the chief persons of the island had sent their wives to a
village a few miles away, so the pirate and a few chosen spirits decided
to pay a surprise visit on these ladies. However, the ladies, on
perceiving their gallant callers, shrieked and ran into the woods and, in
fact, made such a hullabaloo that the English Don Juans were glad to slink
away, and "the Thing made some noise, but not being known was passed
over."

Davis, ever a cunning rogue, now formed a pretty scheme to take the
Governor and chief inhabitants prisoners and to hold them for a big
ransom. This plan was spoilt by a Portuguese slave swimming to shore and
telling the Governor all about it, and worse, telling him about the little
affair of Davis and his visit to the ladies in the wood. The Governor now
laid his plans, and with such success that Davis walked unsuspecting into
the trap, and was "shot in the bowels," but it is some consolation to know
that he "dyed like a game Cock," as he shot two of the Portuguese with his
pistols as he fell.

Thus died a man noted during his lifetime by his contemporaries for his
"affability and good nature," which only goes to show how one's point of