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MAY, 1926 )
NOTES ON PIRACY IN EASTERN WATERS
97
further reference to Johnstone but see para. 441 below), who were settled in the island and " were factors for one Frederick Phillips, who under pretence of trading to Madagascar for negro slaves supplies these rogues with all sorts of stores."
397. On the 19th October 1693 there arrived at St. Mary's the Amity of Bermuda (Captain Thomas Tew, of 70 tons, 8 guns and 60 men) which had taken a rich Moor ship in the Red Sea, the men sharing £1,200 each. According to Johnson (LI, 85) Governor Richier of the Bermudas gave commissions to Captains George Dew and Thomas Tew to assist the Royal African Company to capture the French Factory at Goree on the west coast of Africa, Having separated from his consort in a storm, Téw determined to turn pirate, offering his crew the chance of "a gold chain or a wooden leg” which they eagerly accepted. Johnson says (II, 84) that Tew flew the Black Flag. If so, he was the first pirate mentioned as doing this in the East; but Johnson is not, I think, trustworthy on this point. The rich Moor ship above mentioned was probably another of Abdul Ghafar's fleet, for in July or August 1693 one of these was attacked between Jeddah and Surat by a pirate, which after some resistance, boarded her, "after which they [i.e., the crew) were used with all manner of cruelty to make them confess what money was in the ship. Eight more died under the torments used upon them, and after six or seven days of this kind of usage the pirates, having got what they could extort from them (which they say was about two lakhs of rupees), they took out sixteen men and let the rest with the ship go, leaving it so bare that they could hardly subsist till they came to Versava [? Vesava, a little north of Bombay) in such miserable condition that there is not any of them but can show such marks of cruelty exercised upon them, but still (though) they say all the money is gone, there is some on board still, but what quantity (they) do not tell. The ship that took them is large, about 60 guns and 250 men, all Danee, for the lascars said [that] they have sailed with English, French and Dutch, but see not one of the three nations on board, or heard & word of either language spoke. There is a Moorman on board taken amongst them, whom they have learnt their Lingo, and he is their interpreter to all they take. They further say the Captain of the Dane ship has his wife with him, who did them some good offices, otherwise they believe they should have been worse used (George Weldon to Council, Surat, Bombay, 25th August 1693. Surat Factory Records, 110). The objection to this plausible story is that only one very rich "Moor" ship was taken at this date and it is certain that Tew took one. The size and strength of his ship would naturally be exaggerated by his victim. Tew left Madagascar for America at the end of December 1693 (Baldridge's Deposition) and arrived at Rhode Island in 1694. On the 17th August 1696 Governor Fletcher wrote :-"Rhode Island. ....... is now a free port for pirates. Thomas Tew, & pirate, brought there £100,000 from the Red Sea in 1694 " (Board of Trade Plantations General, 4, No. 6). Johnson (1, 57; II, 87) says Tew's men had £3,000 apiece.
398. It generally happened that when a pirate crew determined on returning home, some of the number decided to stay on for another cruise either because they were afraid of the law for offences committed in their own country, or because their share of the booty had not satisfied them, or because they had dissipated it in gambling. On the 26th August 1698 one Samuel Perkins deposed "This Informant further saith that he had heard upon Mallagascar that a little before his arrival there (1694 or 1695) that fourteen of the pirates (belonging to Captain Tew, Captain Maeon [? Misson) and Captain Coats or some of them) had by consent divided themselves into sevens to fight for what they had (thinking they had not made a voyage sufficient for so many), one of the said gevens being all killed and five of the other, so that the two which survived enjoyed the whole booty" (Home Misc., XXXVI, 348).
899. In 1694 Hamilton met at Malaoca & retired pirate named Kennedy, who had married 'a native lady of great repute for her skilfal use of love philtres and poisons (New Account, II, 68).
