frequently brandished his pistols on deck, besides which, as set
down by one of his prisoners, "he had a young child in Boston for
whom he entertained such tenderness that on every lucid interval
from drinking and revelling, I have seen him sit down and weep
plentifully."

A more satisfying figure was Thomas Pounds, who was taken by the
sloop Mary, sent after him from Boston in 1689. He was discovered
in Vineyard Sound, and the two vessels fought a gallant action,
the pirate flying a red flag and refusing to strike. Captain
Samuel Pease of the Mary was mortally wounded, while Pounds, this
proper pirate, strode his quarter-deck and waved his naked sword,
crying, "Come on board, ye dogs, and I will strike YOU
presently." This invitation was promptly accepted by the stout
seamen from Boston, who thereupon swarmed over the bulwark and
drove all hands below, preserving Thomas Pounds to be hanged in
public.

In 1703 John Quelch, a man of resource, hoisted what he called
"Old Roger" over the Charles--a brigantine which had been
equipped as a privateer to cruise against the French of Acadia.
This curious flag of his was described as displaying a skeleton
with an hour-glass in one hand and "a dart in the heart with
three drops of blood proceeding from it in the other." Quelch led
a mutiny, tossed the skipper overboard, and sailed for Brazil,
capturing several merchantmen on the way and looting them of rum,
silks, sugar, gold dust, and munitions. Rashly he came sailing
back to Marblehead, primed with a plausible yarn, but his men
talked too much when drunk and all hands were jailed. Upon the
gallows Quelch behaved exceedingly well, "pulling off his hat and