CHAPTER XVI
A "GENTLEMAN" OF FORTUNE
"In an honest service there are commonly low wages and
hard labour: in piracy, satiety, pleasure and ease,
liberty and power; and who would not balance
creditor on this side, when all the hazard that is
run for it at worst is only a sour look or two at
choking? No, a merry life and a short one shall be my
motto."
Such was the remark which a certain Captain Bartholomew Roberts, a notorious seventeenth-century pirate, was said to have made, and no doubt there was a certain amount of truth in this statement. The low wages and hard labour in other spheres of life contrasted unfavourably with the possibilities of ease, plenty, liberty and power. This fellow, like the notorious Henry Morgan, was a Welshman and born in Pembrokeshire. He grew up to be a tall, dark, ingenious and daring seaman. For a time he led the hard but honest life of a sailor trading to the Guinea coast, but in the year 1719 he had the bad luck to be captured by Davis, another pirate captain. The latter constrained Roberts to lead this lawless form of life, and it is only fair to state that Roberts at first was distinctly averse from piracy and would certainly have deserted if an opportunity had been forthcoming. How-
