THE KING of PIRATES Y OU may be sure I received with resentment enough the account that a most ridiculous book, entitled, "My Life and Adventures," had been published in England, being fully assured nothing of truth could be contained in such a work; and though 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 promised to convey it faithfully to you, by which at least two things shall be made good to the world: first, that they shall be satisfied in the scandalous and unjust manner in which others have already treated me, and it shall give, in the meantime, a larger account of what may at present be fit to be made public of my unhappy though successful adventures. I shall not trouble my friends with anything 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 mere fable and a made story, to embellish, as the writer of it perhaps supposed, 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. In the present account, I have taken no notice of my birth, infancy, youth, or any of that part; which, as it was the most useless part of my years to myself, so 't is the most useless to any one that shall read this work to know, being altogether barren of anything remarkable in itself or instructing to others. It is sufficient to me to let the world know, as above, that the former accounts made public are utterly false, and to begin my account of myself at a period which may be more useful and entertaining. It may be true that I may represent some particulars of my life in this tract with reserve or enlargement, such as may be sufficient to conceal anything in my present circumstance that ought to be concealed and reserved with respect to my own safety; and therefore, if on pretence of justice the busy world should look for me in one part of the world when I am in another, search for my new kingdom in Madagascar, and should not find it, or search for my settlement on one side of the island when it lies on another, they must not take this ill, for selfpreservation being the supreme law of nature, all things of this kind must submit to that. In order, then, to come immediately to my story, I shall, without any circumlocutions, give you leave to tell the world that, being bred to the sea from a youth, none of those romantic introductions published had any share in my adventures, or were any way the cause of my taking the courses I have since been embarked in; but as, in several parts of my wandering life, I had seen something of the inmense wealth which the buccaneers and other adventurers met with in their scouring about the world for purchase, I had for a long time meditated in my thoughts to get possessed of a good ship for that purpose if I could, and to try my fortune. I had been some years in the Bay of Campeachy, and |