The King of Pirates

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Defoe Daniel. The King of Pirates

THE PREFACE

THE King of PIRATES

A Second LETTER

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YOU may be sure I receiv’d with Resentment enough the Account, that a most ridiculous Book, entitled, My Life and Adventures, had been publish’d in England, being fully assur’d nothing of Truth could be contain’d in such a Work; and tho’ it may be true, that my extravagant Story may be the proper Foundation of a Romance, yet as no Man has a Title to publish it better than I have to expose and contradict it, I send you this by one of my particular Friends, who having an Opportunity of returning into England, has promis’d to convey it faithfully to you; by which, at least, two Things shall be made good to the World; first, that they shall be satisfy’d in the scandalous and unjust Manner in which others have already treated me, and it shall give, in the mean Time, a larger Account of what may at present be fit to be made publick, of my unhappy tho’ successful Adventures.

I shall not trouble my Friends with any Thing of my Original and first Introduction into the World, I leave it to you to add from yourself what you think proper to be known on that Subject; only this I enjoin you to take Notice of, that the Account printed of me, with all the Particulars of my Marriage, my being defrauded, and leaving my Family and native Country on that Account, is a meer Fable and a made Story, to embellish, as the Writer of it perhaps suppos’d, the rest of his Story, or perhaps to fill up the Book, that it might swell to a Magnitude which his barren Invention could not supply.

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We were now sufficiently provided for; in all those Prizes we got also about 56 Men, who, by Choice and Volunteer, agree’d to go along with us, including the Carpenters and Surgeons, who we oblig’d always to go; so that we were now above 200 Men, two Ships, and the Burmoodas Sloop; and giving the other Sloop, and the New England homeward bound Ship their Sails again, we let them go; and as to the Malt which we took in the Burmoodas Sloop, we gave it the last New England Master, who was going to Barbadoes.

We gat in all those Ships, besides the Provisions above-mention’d, about 200 Musquets and Pistols, good Store of Cutlasses, about 20 Tun of Iron Shot and Musquet Ball, and 33 Barrels of good Powder, which was all very suitable Things to our Occasions.

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