y left the harbor. On one occasion, the American ship
Caroline, was captured by two of their piratical vessels off Cape
Antonio. They were busily engaged in landing the cargo, when the British
sloop-of-war, Jearus, hove in sight and sent her barges to attack them.
The pirates defended themselves for some time behind a small four gun
battery which they had erected, but in the end were forced to abandon
their own vessel and the prize and fly to the mountains for safety. The
Jearus found here twelve vessels burnt to the water's edge, and it was
satisfactorily ascertained that their crews, amounting to _one hundred
and fifty persons had been murdered_. The crews, if it was thought not
necessary otherways to dispose of them were sent adrift in their boats,
and frequently without any thing on which they could subsist a single
day; nor were all so fortunate thus to escape. "Dead men can tell no
tales," was a common saying among them; and as soon as a ship's crew
were taken, a short consultation was held; and if it was the opinion of
a majority that it would be better to take life than to spare it, a
single nod or wink from the captain was sufficient; regardless of age or
sex, all entreaties for mercy were then made in vain; they possessed not
the tender feelings, to be operated upon by the shrieks and expiring
groans of the devoted victims! there was a strife among them, who with
his own hands could despatch the greatest number, and in the shortest
period of time.

Without any other motives than to gratify their hellish propensities (in
their intoxicated moments), blood was not unfrequently and unnecessarily
shed, and many widows and orphans probably made, when the lives of the
unfortunate victims might have been spared, and without the most distant
prospect of any evil consequences (as regarded themselves), resulting
therefrom.

Gibbs states that sometime in the course of the year 1819, he left
Havana and came to the United States, bringing with him about $30,000.
He passed several weeks in the city of New York, and then went to
Boston, whence he took passage for Liverpool in the ship Emerald. Before
he sailed, however, he has squandered a large part of his money by
dissipation and gambling. He remained in Liverpool a few months, and
then returned to Boston. His residence in Liverpool at that time is
satisfactorily ascertained from another source besides his own
confession. A female now in New York was well acquainted with h