low-water
mark.

ENGLAND, CAPTAIN.

Sailing in 1718 as mate in a sloop from Jamaica, he was taken prisoner by
the pirate Captain Winter. England joined the pirates, and was given the
command of a vessel. In this ship he sailed to the coast of West Africa,
and the first prize he took was the _Cadogan_ snow (Captain Skinner), at
Sierra Leone. Some of England's crew knew Skinner, having served in his
ship, and, owing to some quarrel, had been handed over to a man-of-war,
and deprived of the wages due to them. These men afterwards deserted the
man-of-war and joined the pirates. On Captain Skinner coming aboard
England's ship, these men took him and bound him to the windlass, and then
pelted him with glass bottles, after which they whipped him up and down
the deck, eventually one of them shooting him through the head. This
brutal treatment was none of England's doing, who was generally kind to
his prisoners.

England's next prize was the _Pearl_, which he exchanged for his own
sloop; fitted her up for the "pyratical Account," and christened her the
_Royal James_. Captain England was most successful, taking a number of
prizes, which he plundered. One ship he captured so took the eye of
England that he fitted her up and changed into her, naming her the
_Victory_. This he did in the harbour at Whydah, where he met with another
pirate, called la Bouche. The two pirates and their crews spent a holiday
at this place where, according to the well-informed Captain Johnson, "they
liv'd very wantonly for several Weeks, making free with the Negroe Women
and committing such outrageous Acts, that they came to an open Rupture
with the Natives, several of whom they kill'd and one of their Towns they
set on Fire." Leaving here, no doubt to the great relief of the negroes,
it was put to the vote of the crew to decide where they should go, and the
majority were for visiting the East Indies. Rounding the Cape of Good
Hope, they arrived at Madagascar early in 1720, where they only stopped
for water and provisions, and then sailed to the coast of Malabar in
India. Here they took several country ships, and one Dutch one, but soon
returned to Madagascar, where they went on shore, living in tents, and
hunting hogs and deer. While on this island they looked for Captain
Avery's crew, but failed to discover them. While the pirates were here
they managed to take a ship commanded by a Captain Mackra, but not without
a desperate fight. The pirates we