Usually attributed to Daniel Defoe.
sig. A4: As to the Lives of our two female Pyrates, we must confess, they may appear a little extravagant, yet they are never the less true for seeming so, but as they were publickly try’d for their Pyracies, there are living Witnesses enough to justify what we have laid down concerning them; it is certain, we have produced some Particulars which were not so publickly known, the Reason is, we were more inquisitive into the Circumstances of their past Lives, than other People, who had no other Deign, than that of gratifying their own private Curiosity: If there are some incidents and Turns in their Stories, which may give them a little
the Air of a Novel, they are not invented or contrived: for that Purpose, it is a Kind of Reading this Author is but little acquainted with, but as he himself was exceedingly diverted with them, when they were related to
him, he thought they might have the same Effect upon the Reader.
p. 63, among slave traders in the West Indies: One of these great Princes had formerly been a Waterman upon the Thames, where having committed a Murder, he fled to the West-Indies, and was of the Number of those who run away with the Sloops; the rest had been all foremast men; nor was there a Man amongst them, who could either read or write, and yet their Secretaries of State had no more Learning than themselves. This is all the Account we can give of these Kingdoms of Madagascar, some of whom it is probable are reigning to this Day.
p. 275, among imprisoned pirates facing death: They would yet in these Circumstances be impudently merry, saying, when they viewed their
Nakedneſs, That they had not left them a Half-penny, to give oldCharon, to ferry them over Stix: And at their thin Commons, they would observe, that they fell away so fast, that they should not have Weight left to hang them, Suttonused to be very prophane; he happening to be in the same Irons with another Prisoner, who was more serious than ordinary, and read and pray’d often, as became his Condition; this Man, Sutton, used to swear at, and ask him, what he proposed by so much Noiſe and Devotion? Heaven, says the other, I hope. Heaven, you Fool, says Sutton, did you ever hear of any Pyrates going thither? Give me H—ll, it’s a merrier Place: I’ll give Roberts a Salute of 13 Guns at Entrance. And when he found such ludicrous Expressions had no Effect on him, he made a formal Complaint, and requested that the Officer would either remove this Man, or take his Prayer-Book away, as a common Disturber.
p. 328: Scudamore too lately discerned the Folly and Wickedness of the Enterprize, that had chiefly brought him under Sentence of Death, from which, seeing there was no Hopes of escaping, he petitioned for two or three Days Reprieve, which was granted; and for that Time apply’d himself incessantly to Prayer, and reading the Scriptures. He seemed to have a deep Sense of his Sins, of this in particular, and desired, at the Gallows, they would have Patience with him, to sing the first Part of the thirty first Psalm; which he did by himself throughout.