now 19 years of age and a handsome fellow standing over six
feet in height, fell in love with a certain Mrs. Snyde.

Getting command of a small ship that traded between Schiedam, in Holland,
and Lisbon, Breakes for some time sailed between these ports. Returning to
Amsterdam, he and Mrs. Snyde murdered that lady's husband, but at the
trial managed to get acquitted.

Breakes's next exploit was to steal his employer's ship and cargo and go
out as a pirate, naming his vessel the _Adventure_. His first exploit was
a daring one. Sailing into Vigo Harbour in full view of the forts, he
seized a vessel, the _Acapulco_, lately come from Valparaiso, and took her
off. On plundering her they found 200,000 small bars of gold, each about
the size of a man's finger. The captain and crew of this Chilian vessel
were all murdered. Breakes preferred the _Acapulco_ to his own ship, so he
fitted her up and sailed in her to the Mediterranean.

Breakes was one of the religious variety of pirate, for after six days of
robbing and throat-slitting he would order his crew to clean themselves on
the Sabbath and gather on the quarter-deck, where he would read prayers to
them and would often preach a sermon "after the Lutheran style," thus
fortifying the brave fellows for another week of toil and bloodshed.

Gifted with unlimited boldness, Breakes called in at Gibraltar and
requested the Governor to grant him a British privateer's commission,
which the Governor did "for a consideration." Sailing in the neighbourhood
of the Balearic Islands, he took a few ships, when one day, spying a
nunnery by the sea-shore in Minorca, he proposed to his crew that they
should fit themselves out with a wife apiece.

This generous offer was eagerly accepted, and the crew, headed by Captain
Breakes, marched up to the nunnery unopposed, and were welcomed at the
door by the lady abbess. Having entered the peaceful cloister, each pirate
chose a nun and marched back to the ship with their spoils. Soon after
this Breakes decided to retire from piracy, and returned to Amsterdam to
claim Mrs. Snyde. But he found that she had but lately been hanged for
poisoning her little son, of which the pirate was father. This tragedy so
preyed upon the mind of Captain Breakes that he turned "melancholy mad"
and drowned himself in one of the many dykes with which that city abounds.

BRECK, JOHN.

One of the crew of the brigantine _Charles_ (Captain John Quelch). Tried
for piracy a