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Updated: June 11, 2025
What became of the rest of the Crew, I know not, but concluded they all perish'd, till some Years after, I met in England one of the Englishmen who would not take on with the Pyrates, and who told me, that, by a peculiar Providence, he and the other Seven, were, after four Days floating on broken Pieces of the Ship, taken up by some Indian Canoes; that they were two Years among the Indians, who treated them very humanly; and when they were one Day a-fishing with them about three Leagues from the Shore, they spied a Sail at a great Distance, and signifying their Desire to return to Europe, the Indians very courteously gave them a Canoe and Eight Paddles, with which they reach'd the Ship, it being becalm'd, and found her French.
The text of "Of Captain Misson and His Crew" has been reproduced from the Henry E. Huntington Library's first edition copy of the second volume of A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates which appeared under the title The History of the Pyrates. Omne tulit punctum, qui miscuit utile dulci. Hor.
I had not the least Compassion for any of the Pyrates, he alone excepted; for he was much more humane to us who would not take on with him, than could be expected from one of his Profession, which he told me, one Day, he had enter'd upon much against his Inclinations, and that he would gladly quit that detestable Life, were it possible for him: But as he had no Hopes of Pardon, having, on board a Man of War, killed a Boatswain, who abused him, he was obliged to continue his Villainies for his own Security.
"If New England be called a Receptacle of Dissenters, and an Amsterdam of Religion, Pennsylvania the Nursery of Quakers; Maryland the Retirement of Roman Catholicks, North Carolina the Refuge of Runaways and South Carolina the Delight of Buccaneers and Pyrates, Virginia may be justly esteemed the happy Retreat of true Britons and true Churchmen for the most Part."
The Boatswain then asked what Colours they should fight under, and advised Black as most terrifying; but Caraccioli objected, that they were no Pyrates, but Men who were resolved to assert that Liberty which God and Nature gave them, and own no Subjection to any, farther than was for the common Good of all: That indeed, Obedience to Governors was necessary, when they knew and acted up to the Duty of their Function; were vigilant Guardians of the Peoples Rights and Liberties; saw that Justice was equally distributed; were Barriers against the Rich and Powerful, when they attempted to oppress the Weaker; when they suffered none of the one Hand to grow immensely rich, either by his own or his Ancestors Encroachments; nor on the other, any to be wretchedly miserable, either by falling into the Hands of Villains, unmerciful Creditors, or other Misfortunes.
They had become, under Clovis, orthodox Christians: but their conversion, to judge from the notorious facts of history, worked little improvement on their morals. The pages of Gregory of Tours are comparable, for dreary monotony of horrors, only to those of Johnson's History of the Pyrates.
It appereth also, that the onely cause for his slowe dispatche was his fallings into the handes of pyrates, which spoiled him and his companie of all that they had; whereby he was inforced a longe tyme to worke in London in makinge instrumentes and seacardes to get somewhat aboute him, that he mighte come in some honest furniture to the Kinges presence.
In 1707 he urged the government to pardon the Madagascar pirates if they agreed to stop their crimes, pay a large sum of money and "become honest Freeholders, as others of our West-India Pyrates, Merchants I should have said, have done before them." And he noted that "it would make a sad Chasm on the Exchange of London, if all the Pyrates should be taken away from the Merchants there."
As we then do not proceed upon the same Ground with Pyrates, who are Men of dissolute Lives and no Principles, let us scorn to take their Colours: Ours is a brave, a just, an innocent, and a noble Cause; the Cause of Liberty.
A second influence on Captain Misson's ideology is Plutarch's description of the laws of Sparta and Rome. Even during the "Anti- Communist Period" which followed the Glorious Revolution, the well- regulated state of the Lacedemonians remained the norm for Utopias. The influence of Plutarch pervades the biographies in the General History of the Pyrates.
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