Sam Bellamy to a captain his crew refused to let have his sloop back:
Sam Bellamy to a captain his crew refused to let have his sloop back:
Though you are a sneaking puppy, and so are all those who will submit to be governed by laws which rich men have made for their own security; for the cowardly whelps have not the courage otherwise to defend what they get by knavery; but damn ye altogether: damn them for a pack of crafty rascals, and you, who serve them, for a parcel of hen-hearted numbskulls. They vilify us, the scoundrels do, when there is only this difference, they rob the poor under the cover of law, forsooth, and we plunder the rich under the protection of our own courage. Had you not better make then one of us, than sneak after these villains for employment?"
[Beer replied that his conscience would not let him break the laws of God and man, and Bellamy continued]
"You are a devilish conscience rascal! I am a free prince, and I have as much authority to make war on the whole world as he who has a hundred sail of ships at sea and an army of 100,000 men in the field; and this my conscience tells me! But there is no arguing with such snivelling puppies, who allow superiors to kick them about deck at pleasure."
...he and his crew captured at least 53 ships under his command – making him the wealthiest pirate in recorded history[1] – before his death at age 28.
ReplyDeleteWell now I feel especially lazy.
Apparently wealthy enough to keep a transcriptionist at hand, too. ;)
ReplyDelete