Knight, sacking several
towns.

Deciding to return to the West Indies with their plunder, several of the
crew, who had lost all their share by gambling, were left, at their own
request, on the Island of Juan Fernandez. Davis then sailed round the
Horn, arriving safely at Jamaica with a booty of more than 50,000 pieces
of eight, besides quantities of plate and jewels.

At Port Royal, after he had accepted the offer of pardon of King James
II., Davis sailed to Virginia and settled down at Point Comfort. We hear
no more of him for the next fourteen years, until July 24th, 1702, when he
sailed from Jamaica in the _Blessing_ (Captain Brown; twenty guns,
seventy-nine men), to attack the town of Tolu on the Spanish Main, which
was plundered and burnt. Davis next sailed to the Samballoes, and, guided
by the Indians, who were friendly to the buccaneers, but hated the
Spaniards, they attacked the gold-mines, where, in spite of most cruel
tortures, they got but little gold. The crew next attacked Porto Bello,
but found little worth stealing in that much harassed town.

Davis is chiefly remarkable for having commanded his gang of ruffians in
the Pacific for nearly four years. To do this he must have been a man of
extraordinary personality and bravery, for no other buccaneer or pirate
captain ever remained in uninterrupted power for so long a while, with the
exception of Captain Bartholomew Roberts.

DAVIS, CAPTAIN HOWEL.

This Welsh pirate was born at Milford in Monmouthshire. He went to sea as
a boy, and eventually sailed as chief mate in the _Cadogan_ snow, of
Bristol, to the Guinea Coast. His ship was taken off Sierra Leone by the
pirate England, and the captain murdered. Davis turned pirate, and was
given command of this old vessel, the _Cadogan_, in which to go "on the
account." But the crew refused to turn pirate, and sailed the ship to
Barbadoes, and there handed Davis over to the Governor, who imprisoned him
for three months and then liberated him. As no one on the island would
offer him employment, Davis went to New Providence Island, the stronghold
of the West India pirates.

Arrived there, he found that Captain Woodes Rogers had only lately come
from England with an offer of a royal pardon, which most of the pirates
had availed themselves of. Davis got employment under the Governor, on
board the sloop, the _Buck_, to trade goods with the French and Spanish
settlements. The crew was composed of the very recently r