2
ELLOW-MEMBERS OF
THE FOUNTAIN CLUB
WITH THE EARNEST HOPE THAT NOTHING IT CONTAINS MAY INCITE THEM TO EMULATE ITS HEROES
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
TO FACE PAGE
A PAGE FROM THE LOG-BOOK OF CAPTAIN DAMPIER 98
PRESSING A PIRATE TO PLEAD 140
A PIRATE BEING HANGED AT EXECUTION DOCK, WAPPING 182
ANNE BONNY AND MARY READ, CONVICTED OF PIRACY NOVEMBER 28TH, 1720, IN JAMAICA 256
CAPTAIN BARTHOLOMEW ROBERTS 262
PREFACE
Let it be made clear at the very outset of this Preface that the pages which follow do not pretend to be a history of piracy, but are simply an attempt to gather together, from various sources, particulars of those redoubtable pirates and buccaneers whose names have been handed down to us in a desultory way.
I do not deal here with the children of fancy; I believe that every man, or woman too--since certain of the gentler sex cut no small figure at the game--mentioned in this volume actually existed.
A time has come when every form of learning, however preposterous it may seem, is made as unlaborious as possible for the would-be student. Knowledge, which is after all but a string of facts, is being arranged, sorted, distilled, and set down in compact form, ready for rapid assimilation. There is little fear that the student who may wish in the future to become master of any subject will have to delve into the original sources in his search after facts and dates.
Surely pirates, taking them in their broadest sense, are as much entitled to a biographical dictionary of their own as are clergymen, race-horses, or artists in ferro-concrete, who all, I am assured, have their own "Who's Who"? Have not the medical men their Directory, the lawyers their List, the peers their Peerage? There are books which record the names and the particulars of musicians, schoolmasters, stockbrokers, saints and bookmakers, and I dare say there is an average adjuster's almanac. A peer, a horse, dog, cat, and even a white mouse, if of