pirate crew suddenly found themselves under the fire of a sixty-gun ship,
for which their own thirty-two guns were no match, and after a short
engagement the black flag was hauled down. On the 10th, Ogle stood in
again to engage the _Royal Fortune_, disposing his flags to make the
pirates believe his ship had been captured by the _Ranger_. Roberts fought
with desperation when he discovered the ruse. Dressed in rich crimson
damask, a scarlet feather in his hat, a gold chain with large diamond
cross round his neck, he made a resistance worthy of his reputation,
determined to blow up his ship rather than yield. At the main he hoisted a
black flag, on which were displayed a skeleton and a man with a flaming
sword; the jack was black, showing a man standing on two skulls, and St.
George's ensign was at the ensign staff. After a desperate encounter,
Roberts was slain by a grape-shot, and the _Royal Fortune_ carried by
boarding, the pirates resisting to the last. Out of two hundred and
seventy-six men captured in the two ships, fifty-two were executed, all of
them Englishmen. Ogle was knighted for his able and gallant conduct.

The re-establishment of authority at the Bahamas had led to an increase in
the numbers of the Madagascar pirates; so Commodore Thomas Matthews was
despatched to the East Indies with a strong squadron, consisting of the
_Lyon_, 50 guns; _Salisbury_, 40 guns; _Exeter_, 50 guns; and _Shoreham_,
20 guns. The Company's ship _Grantham_ was also placed under his orders,
to act as a store-ship. In Byng's successful action with the Spanish, off
Cape Passaro (August, 1718), Matthews had commanded the _Kent_ with credit;
but with the exception of courage, he apparently failed to possess a
single quality for independent command. Irascible, domineering to his
subordinates, and insolent to all others he was brought in contact with,
he was entirely devoid of judgment or discretion. Twenty years later, when
he became better known, Walpole wrote of his 'brutal manners,' and Horace
Mann nicknamed him 'Il Furibondo.' There could not have been a worse