, some reason
for Anne's denunciation of the cowardice of Captain Rackham. As has been
said, the two women were good friends and great fighters, and when they
found the vessel engaged in a fight with a man-of-war, they stood
together upon the deck and boldly fought, although the rest of the crew,
and even the captain himself, were so discouraged by the heavy fire
which was brought to bear on them, that they had retreated to the hold.

Mary and Anne were so disgusted at this exhibition of cowardice, that
they rushed to the hatchways and shouted to their dastardly companions
to come up and help defend the ship, and when their entreaties were
disregarded they were so enraged that they fired down into the hold,
killing one of the frightened pirates and wounding several others. But
their ship was taken, and Mary and Anne, in company with all the pirates
who had been left alive, were put in irons and carried to England.

When she was in prison, Mary declared that she and her husband had
firmly intended to give up piracy and become private citizens. But when
she was put on trial, the accounts of her deeds had a great deal more
effect than her words upon her judges, and she was condemned to be
executed. She was saved, however, from this fate by a fever of which she
died soon after her conviction.

The impetuous Anne was also condemned, but the course of justice is
often very curious and difficult to understand, and this hard-hearted
and sanguinary woman was reprieved and finally pardoned. Whether or not
she continued to disport herself as a man we do not know, but it is
certain that she was the last of the female pirates.

There are a great many things which women can do as well as men, and
there are many professions and lines of work from which they have been
long debarred, and for which they are most admirably adapted, but it
seems to me that piracy is not one of them. It is said that a woman's
nature is apt to carry her too far, and I have never heard of any man
pirate who would allow himself to become so enraged against the
cowardice of his companions that he would deliberately fire down into
the hold of a vessel containing his wife and a crowd of his former
associates.

Chapter XXIX

A Pirate from Boyhood

About the beginning of the eighteenth century there lived in
Westminster, England, a boy who very early in life made a choice of a
future career. Nearly all boys have ideas upon this subject, and while
s