ENGLISH PRIVATEERS – PART 2: JOHN SMITH ON PIRATES

(This post is a continuation of English Privateers – Part 1. If you haven’t done so already, it’s best to read that post before continuing on here.)

John Smith is best known, of course, for his involvement with the Jamestown colony (and Pocahontas), but in his early life he adventured in Eastern Europe. On his way there, he was shipwrecked and ended up for a time as a crewmember aboard a French pirate ship in the Mediterranean. After that, while fighting against Ottoman Turkish forces in Hungary, he was captured, enslaved, and taken to Istanbul. He escaped by killing his owner and then traveled through Germany, France, Spain, and Morocco before eventually making his way back to England.

All of this means that he could speak with some authority regarding European pirates and their connections with Barbary corsairs.

The excerpt below, in which he explains why Englishmen, at least, became renegades and Barbary corsairs, is taken from Chapter XXVIII, “The bad Life, Qualities and Conditions of Pirates; and how they taught the Turks and Moors to become men of War,” of The True Travels, Adventures and Observations of Captaine John Smith in Europe, Asia, Africke, and America, first published in 1629. I have modernized the spelling and replaced some of the archaic phraseology to make the text more readily comprehensible.

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After the death of our most gracious Queen Elizabeth, of blessed memory, our royal King James, who from his Infancy had reigned in peace with all nations, had no employment for men of war, so that those that were rich rested with what they had; those that were poor, and had nothing but from hand to mouth, turned pirates: some because they felt slighted by those for whom they had got much wealth; some because they could not get their due; some that had lived bravely would not abase themselves to poverty; some vainly, only to get a name; others for revenge, covetousness, or as ill. And as they found themselves more and more oppressed, their passions increasing with discontent, this made them turn pirates.

Now because they grew hateful to all Christian princes, they retired to Barbary, where although there be not many good harbors but Tunis, Algiers, Salé, Marmora, and Tetouan, there are many convenient roads, or the open sea, which is their chief lordship. For the best harbors, Alcazarquivir, the towns of Oran, Melilla, Tangier, and Ceuta, within the Straits of Gibraltar are possessed by the Spaniards; beyond the Straits they have also Arzilla and Mazagan; Marmora they have likewise lately taken and fortified. Captain Ward, an Englishman, and Captain Dansker, a Dutchman, first made their markets in North Africa to sell booty when the Moors knew scarce how to sail a ship. Captain Bishop was ancient and did little hurt, but Captain Easton got so much he made himself a Marquis in Savoy, and Ward lived like a Pasha in Barbary. Those were the first that taught the Moors to be men of war….

Many times the European pirates had very good ships, and well manned, but they were commonly so fractious amongst themselves, and so riotous, quarrelsome, treacherous, blasphemous and villainous, it is more than a wonder that they could so long continue to do so much mischief. And all they got, they basely consumed amongst Jews, Turks, Moors, and whores.

They would seldom go to Sea, so long as they could possibly live on shore. Being compiled of English, French, Dutch and Moors (but very few Spaniards or Italians), commonly running one from another, they became so disjointed, disordered, debauched, and miserable that the Turks and Moors began to command them as slaves and force them to instruct them in their best skill, which many an accursed renegado, or Christian turned Turk, did, till they made those Sallymen [the corsairs of Salé] or Moors of Barbary as powerful as they be, to the terror of all the Straits. Many times they take purchase in the Atlantic and, yes, sometimes even in the English Channel. They are the most cruel villains in Turkey or Barbary.

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So there you have it. According to John Smith, it was peace that drove the English pirates to North Africa and debauchery that allowed the North Africans to eventually get the upper hand.

For more on English pirates, and to read the advice of an ex-pirate on how to eliminate piracy, see the next post in this English Privateers series (English Privateers – Part 3: Captain Henry Mainwaring on Pirates).