were for fortifying the Iſland, to ſtand upon their own Terms, and Treating with the Government upon the Foot of a Commonwealth; others were alſo for ſtrengthening the Iſland for their own Security, but were not ſtrenuous for theſe Punctillios, ſo that they might have a general Pardon, without being obliged to make any Reſtitution, and to retire, with all their Effects, to the neighbouring Britiſh Plantations.
But Captain Jennings, who was their Commadore, and who always bore a great Sway among them, being a Man of good Underſtanding, and good Eſtate, before this Whim took him of going a Pyrating, reſolved upon ſurrendering, without more ado, to the Terms of the Proclamation, which ſo diſconcerted all their Meaſures, that the Congreſs broke up very abruptly without doing any Thing; and preſently Jennings, and by his Example, about 150 more, came in to the Governor of Bermudas, and had their Certificates, tho’ the greateſt Part of them returned again, like the Dog to the Vomit. The Commanders who were then in the Iſland, beſides Captain Jennings abovementioned, I think were theſe, Benjamin Hornigold, Edward Teach, John Martel, James Fife, Chriſtopher Winter, Nicholas Brown, Paul Williams, Charles Bellamy, Oliver la Bouche, Major Penner, Ed. England, T. Burgeſs, Tho. Cocklyn, R. Sample, Charles Vane, and two or three others: Hornigold, Williams, Burgeſs and la Bouche were afterwards caſt away; Teach and Penner killed, and their Crews taken; James Fife killed by his own Men; Martel’s Crew deſtroyed, and he forced on an uninhabited Iſland; Cocklyn, Sample and Vane hanged; Winter and Brown ſurrendered to the Spaniards at Cuba, and England lives now at Madagaſcar.
In the Month of May or June 1718, Captain Rogers arrived at his Government, with two of his Majeſty’s Ships, and found ſeveral of the aboveſaid
