Upon the king’s proclamation offering a pardon to all pirates, he surrendered, and went into the privateering business, as we have related before:  he, however, soon embraced an opportunity to return to his favorite employment.  In all his piratical exploits Anne accompanied him; and, as we have already recorded, displayed such courage and intrepidity, that she, along with Mary Read and a seaman, were the last three who remained on board when the vessel was taken.

Anne was known to many of the planters in Jamaica, who remembered to have seen her in her father’s house, and they were disposed to intercede in her behalf.  Her unprincipled conduct, in leaving her own husband and forming an illicit connexion with Rackam, tended, however, to render her friends less active.  By a special favor, Rackam was permitted to visit her the day before he was executed; but, instead of condoling with him on account of his sad fate, she only observed, that she was sorry to see him there, but if he had fought like a man he needed not have been hanged like a dog.  Being with child, she remained in prison until her recovery, was reprieved from time to time, and though we cannot communicate to our readers any particulars of her future life, or the manner of her death, yet it is certain that she was not executed.

THE ADVENTURES AND HEROISM OF MARY READ.

The attention of our readers is now to be directed to the history of two female pirates,—­a history which is chiefly remarkable from the extraordinary circumstance of the softer sex assuming a character peculiarly distinguished for every vice that can disgrace humanity, and at the same time for the exertion of the most daring, though brutal, courage.

Mary Read was a native of England, but at what place she was born is not recorded.  Her mother married a sailor when she was very young, who, soon after their marriage, went to sea, and never returned.  The fruit of that marriage was a sprightly boy.  The husband not returning, she again found herself with child, and to cover her shame, took leave of her husband’s relations, and went to live in the country, taking her boy along with her.  Her son in a short time died, and she was relieved from the burden of his maintenance and education.  The mother had not resided long in the country before Mary Read, the subject of the present narrative, was born.

After the birth of Mary, her mother resided in the country for three or four years, until her money was all spent, and her ingenuity was set at work to contrive how to obtain a supply.  She knew that her husband’s mother was in good circumstances, and could easily support her child, provided she could make her pass for a boy, and her son’s child.  But it seemed impossible to impose upon an old experienced mother.  She, however, presented Mary in the character of her grandson.  The old woman proposed to take the boy to live with her, but the mother would not on any account part with her boy; the grandmother, therefore, allowed a crown per week for his support.