Plymouth in Devonshire.

Condent was quartermaster in a New York sloop, at the Island of New
Providence, when Governor Woodes Rogers arrived there in 1718. The captain
of the sloop seems to have thought best to leave rather than wait to
welcome the new Governor. When only a few days out, one of the crew, an
Indian, who had been cruelly treated, attempted, in revenge, to blow up
the ship. This was prevented by Condent, who with great courage leapt into
the hold and shot the Indian, but not before the latter had fired at him
and broken his arm. The crew, to show the relief they felt at being saved
from a sudden death, hacked to pieces the body of the Indian, while the
gunner, ripping open the dead man's belly, tore out his heart, which he
boiled and ate.

Turning their attention from cannibalism to piracy, the pirates took a
prize, the _Duke of York_, but disputes arising, the captain and part of
the crew sailed in the prize, while Condent was elected captain of the
sloop, and headed across the Atlantic for the Cape Verde Islands, where he
found the salt fleet, of twenty small vessels, lying at anchor off the
Island of Mayo, all of which he took. Sailing next to the Island of St.
Jago, he took a Dutch ship. This proving a better ship than the sloop,
Condent transferred himself and crew into her, and named her the _Flying
Dragon_, presenting the sloop to the mate of an English prize, who he had
forced to go with him. From thence Condent sailed away for the coast of
Brazil, taking several Portuguese ships which, after plundering, he let
go. After cleaning the _Flying Dragon_ on Ferdinando Island, the pirates
took several more prizes, and then one day met with a Portuguese
man-of-war of seventy guns. Coming up with her, the Portuguese hailed the
pirates, and they answered "from London bound for Buenos Ayres." The
man-of-war, to pay a compliment to the ship of her English ally, manned
the shrouds and cheered him, and while this amicable demonstration of
marine brotherly feeling was taking place, Captain Condent came up
alongside and suddenly fired a broadside and a volley of small arms into
the man-of-war, and a smart engagement followed, in which the pirates were
worsted, and were lucky to escape.

Sailing away round the Cape of Good Hope, Condent arrived at the pirate
stronghold at the Island of Johanna, where he took on board some of
Captain Halsey's crew, and, reinforced by these skilled masters in the
craft of piracy,