The Pirates Own Book eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 477 pages of information about The Pirates Own Book.

The Pirates Own Book eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 477 pages of information about The Pirates Own Book.
and his followers had by far the largest part of what was taken.  A Mandoor, or head of one of the campongs, showed me some women’s stockings, several of which were marked with the letters S.W.; also two chemises, one with the letters S.W.; two flannel petticoats, a miniature portrait frame (the picture was in the rajah’s house,) with many articles of dress of both sexes.  In consequence of the strict orders given on the subject I could see no more; indeed there were both difficulty and danger attending these inquiries.  I particularly wanted to obtain the miniature picture, and offered the Mandoor fifty rupees if he could procure it; he laughed at me, and pointing significantly to his kris, drew one hand across my throat, and then across his own, giving me to understand such would be the result to us both on such an application to the rajah.  It is the universal custom of the pirates, on this coast, to sell the people for slaves immediately on their arrival, the rajah taking for himself a few of the most useful, and receiving a percentage upon the purchase money of the remainder, with a moiety of the vessel and every article on board.  European vessels are taken up the river, where they are immediately broken up.  The situation of European prisoners is indeed dreadful in a climate like this, where even the labor of natives is intolerable; they are compelled to bear all the drudgery, and allowed a bare sufficiency of rice and salt to eat.”

It is utterly impossible for Europeans who have seen these pirates at such places as Singapore and Batavia, to form any conception of their true character.  There they are under immediate control, and every part of their behaviour is a tissue of falsehood and deception.  They constantly carry about with them a smooth tongue, cringing demeanor, a complying disposition, which always asserts, and never contradicts; a countenance which appears to anticipate the very wish of the Europeans, and which so generally imposes upon his understanding, that he at once concludes them to be the best and gentlest of human beings; but let the European meet them in any of their own campongs, and a very different character they will appear.  The character and treacherous proceeding narrated above, and the manner of cutting off vessels and butchering their crews, apply equally to all the pirates of the East India Islands, by which many hundred European and American vessels have been surprised and their crews butchered.

On the 7th of February, 1831, the ship Friendship, Capt.  Endicott, of Salem (Mass.,) was captured by the Malays while lying at Quallah Battoo, on the coast of Sumatra.  In the forenoon of the fatal day, Capt.  Endicott, Mr. Barry, second mate, and four of the crew, it seems went on shore as usual, for the purpose of weighing pepper, expecting to obtain that day two boat loads, which had been promised them by the Malays.  After the first boat was loaded, they observed that she delayed some time in passing

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The Pirates Own Book from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.