who may ſerve as ſad Examples of the little Effect Mercy has upon Men once abandoned to an evil Courſe of Life.
Leaſt I be thought ſevere in my Animadverſions upon the Spaniſh Proceedings in the Weſt-Indies, in reſpect to their Dealings with us; I ſhall mention an Inſtance or two, wherein I’ll be as conciſe as poſſible, and then tranſcribe ſome original Letters from the Governor of Jamaica, and an Officer of a Man of War, to the Alcaldees of Trinidado, on the Iſland of Cuba, with their Anſwers, tranſlated into Engliſh, and then proceed to the particular Hiſtories of the Pyrates and their Crews, that have made moſt Noiſe in the World in our own Times.
About March 1722, one of our Men of War trading upon the Coaſt, viz. the Greyhound Galley, Captain Walron, the ſaid Captain invited ſome of the Merchants to Dinner, who with their Attendants and Friends came on Board to the Number of 16 or 18 in all; and having concerted Meaſures, about ſix or eight dined in the Cabin, and the reſt were waiting on the Deck. While the Captain and his Gueſts were at Dinner, the Boatſwain Pipes for the Ship’s Company to dine; accordingly the Men take their Platters, receive their Proviſions, and down they go between Decks, leaving only 4 or 5 Hands beſides the Spaniards, above, who were immediately diſpatched by them, and the Hatches laid on the reſt; thoſe in the Cabin were as ready as their Companions, for they pulled out their Piſtols and ſhot the Captain, Surgeon and another dead, and grievouſly wounded the Lieutenant; but he getting out of the Window upon a Side-Ladder, thereby ſaved his Life, and ſo they made themſelves Maſters of the Ship in an Inſtant: But by accidental good Fortune, ſhe was recovered before ſhe was carry’d off; for Captain Walron having mann’d a Sloop with 30 Hands out of his Ship’s Company, had ſent
