laſt Hour was ſpent in lamenting and bewailing his Sins in general, exhorting the Spectators to an honeſt and good Life, in which alone they could find Satiſfaction. In the End, he deſir’d they would join with him in ſinging two or three latter Verſes of the 140th Pſalm; and that being concluded, he was, at the firing of a Gun, tric’d up at the Fore-Yard-Arm.
Bunce was a young Man, not above 26 Years old, but made the moſt pathetical Speech of any at the Gallows. He firſt declaim’d againſt the guilded Bates of Power, Liberty, and Wealth, that had enſnar’d him among the Pyrates, his unexperienc’d Years not being able to withſtand the Temptation; but that the Briskneſs he had ſhewn, which ſo fatally had procured him Favour amongſt them, was not ſo much a Fault in Principle, as the Livelineſs and Vivacity of his Nature. He was now extreamly afflicted for the Injuries he had done to all Men, and begg’d their’s and God’s Forgiveneſs, very earneſtly exhorting the Spectators to remember their Creator in their Youth, and guard betimes, that their Minds took not a wrong Byaſs, concluding with this apt Similitude, That he ſtood there as a Beacon upon a Rock,
(the Gallows ſtanding on one) to warn erring Marriners of Danger.
CHAP.
