others from America, all on the same enterprise.

Expecting the Mocha fleet to come along, they waited here, but the fleet
slipped past the pirates in the night. Avery was after them the next
morning, and catching them up, singled out the largest ship, fought her
for two hours, and took her. She proved to be the _Gunsway_, belonging to
the Great Mogul himself, and a very valuable prize, as out of her they
took 100,000 pieces of eight and a like number of chequins, as well as
several of the highest persons of the court who were passengers on a
pilgrimage to Mecca. It was rumoured that a daughter of the Great Mogul
was also on board. Accounts of this exploit eventually reached England,
and created great excitement, so that it soon became the talk of the town
that Captain Avery had taken the beautiful young princess to Madagascar,
where he had married her and was living in royal state, the proud father
of several small princes and princesses.

The Mogul was naturally infuriated at this outrage on his ship, and
threatened in retaliation to lay waste all the East India Company's
settlements.

Having got a vast booty, Avery and his friends sailed towards Madagascar,
and on the way there Avery, as admiral of the little fleet, signalled to
the captain of the other sloops to come aboard his vessel. When they
arrived Avery put before them the following ingenious scheme. He proposed
that the treasures in the two sloops should, for safety, be put into his
keeping till they all three arrived in Madagascar. This, being agreed to,
was done, but during the night, after Avery had explained matters to his
own men, he altered his course and left the sloops, and never saw them
again. He now sailed away with all the plunder to the West Indies,
arriving safely at New Providence Island in the Bahamas, where he offered
the Governor a bribe of twenty pieces of eight and two pieces of gold to
get him a pardon. Avery arrived in 1696 at Boston, where he appears to
have successfully bribed the Quaker Governor to let him and some of his
crew land with their spoils unmolested. But the pirate did not feel quite
safe, and also thought it would be wellnigh impossible to sell his
diamonds in the colony without being closely questioned as to how he came
by them. So, leaving America, he sailed to the North of Ireland, where he
sold the sloop. Here the crew finally dispersed, and Avery stopped some
time in Dublin, but was still unable to dispose of his st