e Island. When
he had taken everything out of this vessel which he wanted, Low cut away
the yards from the masts and stripped the vessel of all its sails and
rigging. As his object was to get away from these waters before his
presence was discovered by the people on shore, he not only made it
almost impossible to sail the vessel he had despoiled, but he wounded
the captain and others of the peaceful crew so that they should not be
able to give information to any passing craft. Then he sailed away as
rapidly as possible in the direction of the open sea. In spite, however,
of all the disadvantages under which they labored, the crew of the
merchant vessel managed to get into Block Island, and from there a small
boat was hurriedly rowed over to Rhode Island, carrying intelligence of
the bold piracy which had been committed so close to one of its ports.

When the Governor heard what had happened, he quickly sent out drummers
to sound the alarm in the seaport towns and to call upon volunteers to
go out and capture the pirates. So great was the resentment caused by
the audacious deed of Low that a large number of volunteers hastened to
offer their services to the Governor, and two vessels were fitted out
with such rapidity that, although their commanders had only heard of the
affair in the morning, they were ready to sail before sunset. They put
on all sail and made the best speed they could, and although they really
caught sight of Low's ship, the pirate vessel was a swifter craft than
those in pursuit of her, and the angry sailors of Rhode Island were at
last compelled to give up the chase.

The next of Low's transactions was on a wholesale scale. Rounding Cape
Cod and sailing up the coast, he at last reached the vicinity of
Marblehead, and there, in a harbor called in those days Port Rosemary,
he found at anchor a fleet of thirteen merchant vessels. This was a
grand sight, as welcome to the eye of a pirate as a great nugget of gold
would be to a miner who for weary days had been washing yellow grains
from the "pay dirt" which he had laboriously dug from the hard soil.

It would have been easy for Low to take his pick from these vessels
quietly resting in the little harbor, for he soon perceived that none of
them were armed nor were they able to protect themselves from assault,
but his audacity was of an expansive kind, and he determined to capture
them all. Sailing boldly into the harbor, he hoisted the dreadful black
fla