Page:Daring deeds of famous pirates; true stories of the stirring adventures, bravery and resource of pirates, filibusters & buccaneers (1917).djvu/192

 sailing in company with a brigantine loaded with provisions. The news gladdened the corsairs, and Roberts, believing the matter to be so important that he ought to attend to it himself, went in command of the sloop, taking forty men and leaving the pirate ship behind. He was sure the latter would be all safe, and he would not be away long. The brigantine would soon be espied and then he would return with the latter's welcome cargo.

But on this occasion Roberts was unlucky. He did not sight the brigantine, although he sailed for miles and miles during eight days, so at last he came to anchor off the coast somewhere, and sent a boat ashore to inform their shipmates left behind in the Surinam River. The boat was also to bring back provisions to the sloop: but when she returned, after an almost unbearable delay, she brought no provisions and the unwelcome knowledge that the lieutenant of the pirate ship had run off with her. Roberts had certainly been a fool not to have foreseen this probability, and in order to prevent such mutiny recurring he proceeded to draw up regulations for preserving order in his present craft. After that, he had to act. Provisions and water they must have at all costs, and so they must make for the West Indies.

They had not gone far, however, before they fell in with a couple of sloops, which they captured. These afforded them the necessary supplies. A few days later they also captured a brigantine and then proceeded to Barbadoes. Off Barbadoes they met a 10-gun ship heavily laden with cargo from Bristol. Her they plundered, but after three days allowed her to proceed. But as soon as the latter touched land and informed the governor of her misfortune, there was dispatched a 20-gun ship with eighty men, under the command of Captain Rogers, to seek out the pirates.