cruising voyage round the world Woodes Rogers did not touch at
Madagascar. On that occasion (1711) he met two ex-pirates at the Cape,
who had received pardons, and told him that the Madagascar
settlements had dwindled to sixty or seventy men, "most of them very
poor and despicable, even to the natives," and possessed of only one
ship and a sloop. But, he adds, "if care be not taken, after a peace,
to clear that island of them, and hinder others from joining them, it
may be a temptation for loose straggling fellows to resort thither,
and make it once more a troublesome nest of freebooters."

[6] Elliot's History of India as told by its own historians. Muntakhabu-l
Lubab of Khafi Khan.

[7] Equal to £534,000 at that day.

[8] According to the statement of a lascar, taken in the _Futteh Mahmood_
and carried to Madagascar, Every sailed for the Bahamas in the autumn
of 1695, so that his career in the Indian seas lasted only six months.
On reaching Providence, Every presented the Governor with forty
pieces of eight and four pieces of gold for allowing them to come and
go in safety.

[9] Johnson's "General History of the Pyrates," 1724.



CHAPTER II

_CAPTAIN KIDD_