as good an account of the Dutch war, and of the fights at sea, the battles in Flanders, the taking of Maestricht, and the like, as any of those that had been there; and this made those old soldiers and tars love to talk with me too, and to tell me all the stories they could think of, and that not only of the wars then going on, but also of the wars in Oliver's time, the death of king Charles I. and the like.
By this means, as young as I was, I was a kind of an historian; and though I had read no books, and never had any books to read, yet I could give a tolerable account of what had been done, and of what was then a doing in the world, especially in those things that our own people were concerned in. I knew the names of every ship in the navy, and who commanded them too, and all this before I was 14 years old, or but very soon after.
Captain Jack in this time fell into bad company, and went away from us, and it was a good while before we ever heard tale or tidings of him, till about half a year I think, or thereabouts, I understood he was got among a gang of kidnappers, as they were then called, being a sort of wicked fellows that used to spirit people's children away; that is, snatch them up in the dark, and, stopping their mouths, carry them to houses where they had rogues ready to receive them, and so carry them on board of ships bound to Virginia, and sell them.
