Page:Life and unparalleled voyages and adventures of Ambrose Gwinnett (1).pdf/17

 about three miles from the town. About seven o'clock in the evening, being then sitting with Signor Gasper, my old friend and master, in the portico of his house, a lad came up, and said that a boat had been waiting half an hour for me at the port, and that my companion, Mr Collins, was already on board. I ran into the house for my small bundle, and only stayed to take leave of one or two of the family. I made what haste I could to the quay; but, when I arrived, I found the boat had put off, leaving word that I should overtake them at a little bay about a mile beyond the town. The dusk was coming on. I ran along the shore, and, as I imagined, soon had sight of the boat, to which I hallooed as loud as I was able; they answered, and immediately put about to take me in. But we had scarcely got fifty yards from land, when, on looking about for my friend, Mr Collins, I missed him; and then it was I found I had made a mistake, and, instead of getting on board my own boat, which was now a considerable way a-head, I got into a boat belonging to some of the pirates. I attempted to leap overboard, and could easily have swam ashore, but was prevented by one of the crew, who gave me a stroke on the head, which immediately laid me senseless; and I found afterwards that they mistook me for one of their own men, who had been purchasing goods in the town.

A more infernal crew than these pirates never breathed upon the face of the earth. Their whole lives was a scene of rapine and murder, which, if they had no opportunity of committing upon the wretches that fell into their clutches during their piratical pursuits, they committed on one another. During the time I remained with them, nearly four years, there were no less than eleven assassinations amongst themselves. There was an uninhabited island in the Gulf of Mexico which those villains called Swallow Island, from the great number of those birds which harbour upon it. Here they had a fortification; and the place