at that time. Several of his crew
also straggled home and were captured; but before he left the Indian
coast, twenty-five Frenchmen, fourteen Danes, and some English were put
ashore, fearing to show themselves in Europe or America. This fact would
seem to throw some doubt on the account of his having left his consorts
by stealth.

On the 19th October, 1696, six of his crew were tried and sentenced at
the Old Bailey, and a true bill was found and an indictment framed
against Every himself, though he had not been apprehended. According to
Johnson,[9] Every changed his name and lived unostentatiously, while
trying to sell the jewels he had amassed. The merchant in whose hands he
had placed them, suspecting how they had been come by, threatened him.
Every fled to Ireland, leaving his jewels in the merchant's hands, and
finally died in Devonshire in extreme poverty. But the authority for this,
as for most of the popular accounts of Every, is extremely doubtful. That
he was cheated out of some of his ill-gotten gains is probable enough,
but it is in the highest degree improbable that he was known to be living
in poverty, and yet that the large reward offered for his apprehension
was not earned. What is alone certain is that he was never apprehended,
and that in a few months he carried off an amount of plunder such as
never before was taken out of the Indian seas by a single rover. For long
he was the hero of every seaport town in England and North America;
innumerable legends gathered round his name, and an immense impulse was
given to piracy.

A few months after his departure, there were five pirate ships in the Red
Sea, under English colours; two more, each mounting fourteen guns, were
in the Persian Gulf, and another was cruising off Tellicherry. At
Madagascar others were coming in fast. The news of Every's great booty
had spread from port to port, and every restless spirit was intent on
seeking his fortune in this new Eldorado, as men nowadays flock to a new
goldfield. The Company's sailors were not proof against the temptation.
While on the way from Bombay to China the crew of the _Mocha_ frigate
mutinied, off the coast of Acheen, killed their captain, Edgecombe, and
set afloat in the pinnace twenty-seven officers and men who refused to
join them. The _Mocha_ was then renamed the _Defence_, and for the next
three years did an infinity of damage in the Indian Ocean. At the same
time, the crew of the _Josiah_ ketch from