e fell in with a wrecked vessel which had lost
all its masts in a great storm, and was totally disabled, floating about
wherever the winds chose to blow it. The poor fellows on board greatly
needed succor, and there is no doubt that when they saw the approach of
sails their hopes rose high, and even if they had known what sort of
ships they were which were making their way toward them, they would
scarcely have suspected that the commander of these goodly vessels was
such an utterly despicable scoundrel as he proved to be.

Instead of giving any sort of aid to the poor shipwrecked crew, Low and
his men set to work to plunder their vessel, and they took from it a
thousand pounds in money, and everything of value which they could find
on board. Having thus stripped the unfortunate wreck, they departed,
leaving the captain and crew of the disabled vessel to perish by storm
or starvation, unless some other vessel, manned by human beings and not
pitiless beasts, should pass their way and save them.

Low now commenced a long series of piratical depredations. He captured
many merchantmen, he committed the vilest cruelties upon his victims,
and in every way proved himself to be one of the meanest and most
black-hearted pirates of whom we have any account. It is not necessary
to relate his various dastardly performances. They were all very much of
the same order, and none of them possessed any peculiar interest; his
existence is referred to in these pages because he was one of the most
noted and successful pirates of his time, and also because his career
indicated how entirely different was the character of the buccaneers of
previous days from that of the pirates who in the eighteenth century
infested our coast. The first might have been compared to bold and
dashing highwaymen, who at least showed courage and daring; but the
others resembled sneak thieves, always seeking to commit a crime if they
could do it in safety, but never willing to risk their cowardly necks in
any danger.

The buccaneers of the olden days were certainly men of the greatest
bravery. They did not hesitate to attack well-armed vessels manned by
crews much larger than their own, and in later periods they faced cannon
and conquered cities. Their crimes were many and vile; but when they
committed cruelties they did so in order to compel their prisoners to
disclose their hidden treasures, and when they attacked a Spanish
vessel, and murdered all on board, they