to consort with the most famous pirates of the age.

I, that was an original thief, and a pirate even by inclination before,
was now in my element, and never undertook anything in my life with more
particular satisfaction.

Captain Wilmot--for so we now called him--at once stood out for sea,
steering for the Canaries, and thence onward to the West Indies. Our
ship had twenty-two guns, and we obtained plenty of ammunition from the
Spaniards in exchange for bales of English cloth.

We cruised near two years in those seas of the West Indies, chiefly upon
the Spaniards--not that we made any difficulty of taking English ships,
or Dutch, or French, if they came in our way. But the reason why we
meddled as little with English vessels as we could was, first, because
if they were ships of any force, we were sure of more resistance from
them; and, secondly, because we found the English ships had less booty
when taken; for the Spaniards generally had money on board, and that was
what we best knew what to do with.

We increased our stock considerably in these two years, having taken
60,000 pieces of gold in one vessel, and 100,000 in another; and being
thus first grown rich, we resolved to be strong, too, for we had taken a
brigantine, an excellent sea-boat, able to carry twelve guns, and a
large Spanish frigate-built ship, which afterwards, by the help of good
carpenters, we fitted up to carry twenty-eight guns.

We had also taken two or three sloops from New England and New York,
laden with flour, peas, and barrelled beef and pork, going for Jamaica
and Barbados, and for more beef we went on shore on the island of Cuba,