Conſervation of their Society, and doing Juſtice to one another; excluding all Iriſh Men from the Benefit of it, to whom they had an implacable Averſion upon the Account of Kennedy. How indeed Roberts could think that an Oath would be obligatory, where Defiance had been given to the Laws of God and Man, I can’t tell, but he thought their greateſt Security lay in this, That it was every one’s Intereſt to obſerve them if they were minded to keep up ſo abominable a Combination.
The following, is the Subſtance of the Articles, as taken from the Pyrates own Informations.
I.
Every Man has a Vote in Affairs of Moment; has equal Title to the freſh Proviſions, or ſtrong Liquors, at any Time ſeized, and uſe them at pleaſure, unleſs a Scarcity
(no uncommon Thing among them) make it neceſſary, for the good of all, to vote a Retrenchment.
II.
Every Man to be called fairly in turn, by Liſt, on Board of Prizes, becauſe, (over and above their proper Share,) they were on theſe Occaſions allowed a Shift of Cloaths: But if they defrauded the Company to the Value of a Dollar, in Plate, Jewels, or Money, Marooning was their Puniſhment.
This was a Barbarous Cuſtom of putting the Offender on Shore, on ſome deſolate or uninhabited Cape or Iſland, with a Gun, a few Shot, a Bottle of Water, and a Bottle of Powder, to ſubſiſt with, or ſtarve. If the Robbery was only between one another, they contented themſelves with ſlitting the Ears and Noſe of him that was Guilty, and ſet him on Shore, not in an uninhabited Place, but ſomewhere, where he was ſure to encounter Hardſhips.
