mand, and held it baseness to live under checke." He "likt well," he says, "to see a captain give an order, and be obeyed on the instant." He also "likt well" to riot ashore, with good Plymouth ale, and other carnal matters, not obtainable by the foremast hand, when at sea.
As he saw no chance of rising to a command in the navy or in the merchant service, he resolved to command independently. In some seaport he gathered a "retchless crue" of rioters together; led them to the cutting out of a ship in the harbour, and ran away with her to sea. This was in the last years of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, at a time when the King of Spain was at war with Holland. Jennings' first move was to make for himself "a safe refuge and retirement" in Dunkirk; probably by a money payment to the governor; and then having obtained a base, where he could revictual and careen, he began to play the pirate and to scour the Channel. He did not attack the English; but like John Ward, his great contemporary, he found his account in
The jovial Dutchman
As he met on the main.
