, if any man owes another above twenty-five
shillings English, if he cannot pay it, he is liable to be sold for six
or eight months. Not to trouble the reader any longer with relations of
this kind, I shall now describe the famous actions and exploits of the
greatest pirates of my time, during my residence in those parts: these I
shall relate without the least passion or partiality, and assure my
reader that I shall give him no stories upon trust, or hearsay, but only
those enterprises to which I was myself an eye-witness.

CHAPTER IV

_Original of the most famous pirates of the coasts of America--Famous
exploit of Pierre le Grand._

I HAVE told you in the preceding chapters how I was compelled to
adventure my life among the pirates of America; which sort of men I name
so, because they are not authorized by any sovereign prince: for the
kings of Spain having on several occasions sent their ambassadors to the
kings of England and France, to complain of the molestations and
troubles those pirates often caused on the coasts of America, even in
the calm of peace; it hath always been answered, "that such men did not
commit those acts of hostility and piracy as subjects to their
majesties; and therefore his Catholic Majesty might proceed against them
as he should think fit." The king of France added, "that he had no
fortress nor castle upon Hispaniola, neither did he receive a farthing
of tribute from thence." And the king of England adjoined, "that he had
never given any commissions to those of Jamaica, to commit hostilities
against the subjects of his Catholic Majesty." Nor did he only give this
bare answer, but out of his royal desire to pleasure the court of Spain,
recalled the governor of Jamaica, placing another in his room; all
which could not prevent these pirates from acting as heretofore. But
before I relate their bold actions, I shall say something of their rise
and exercises; as also of the chiefest of them, and their manner of
arming themselves before they put to sea.

The first pirate that was known upon Tortuga was Pierre le Grand, or
Peter the Great. He was born at Dieppe in Normandy. That action which
rendered him famous was his taking the vice-admiral of the Spanish
flota, near the Cape of Tiburon, on the west side of Hispaniola; this he
performed with only one boat, and twenty-eight men. Now till that time
the Spaniards had passed and repassed with all security, through the
channel of Bahama; so