[ 4(50 J [APRIL, 



GIBBS, THE PIRATE. 



IT is amongst the remaining blots, upon the literature of the present 

 age, that our most distinguished writers of fiction should continue to 

 select their heroes from the most sanguinary and monstrous characters 

 that appear upon the theatre of the world. If wisdom, disguised in the 

 mantle of pleasure, be the object searched after by the novelist, it is not 

 to be attained by the exhibition of remorseless murderers and pirates, 

 arranged in a false grandeur, and surrounded by all high qualities of 

 heroism, magnanimity, and gloomy glory. Byron, Cooper, and Bulwer 

 have all descended for their skeletons into the caverns of murder ; and 

 even he who has arrayed in colours of gold the native truth, affection 

 and homely virtues of a Jeanie Deans, has yet bestowed upon the pirate 

 Cleveland, the accomplishments of generosity, sentiment, and the 

 charms of an exalted name. It were well that the pirate should no 

 longer be depicted as a hero, roving over sunny seas, and amongst green 

 islands and romantic rocks, but as a remorseless outcast, revelling in 

 scenes of drunkenness, blasphemy, and murder indifferent to the shrieks 

 of his defenceless victims slaughtered on the solitary sea. 



These remarks have been suggested to the writer, by the various 

 horrid narratives of piracy that of late years have occurred in the seas 

 of the West Indies, and amongst the Capes and lonely harbours of the 

 Island of Cuba. Amongst these desperadoes was William Gibbs, who 

 recently, in the flower of his youth, ended his days upon Long Island, 

 in the United States, by the hands of the executioner, after a course 

 of murderous achievements, unexampled in the annals of crime. He 

 was a native of Rhode Island, of religious and wealthy parents ; and 

 after having received a liberal education, this daring spirit was appren- 

 ticed to the sea. Through various adventures he is first recognized as 

 commencing a career of piracy in a privateer, cruizing out of Buenos 

 Ayres one of those numberless marauders which, since the recognition 

 of the independence of the South American States, have roamed over 

 the Gulph of Mexico for the purpose of indiscriminate robbery and 

 murder. In this privateer he first distinguished himself by heading a 

 mutiny against the officers of the vessel, which proving successful, the 

 officers were landed upon the coast of Florida, and Gibbs, assuming the 

 command, stood out to sea to commence his terrific career. After pro- 

 ceeding for some time in merely detaining vessels for the purpose of 

 robbing them of their valuables, his crew grew weary of these incom- 

 plete operations, and consisting for the most part of Spaniards, it was 

 agreed upon that as dead men can carry no tales, thenceforth no quarter 

 should be shewn, and the vessel now hoisted the black flag of the pirate. 

 In the course of four years, during which this vessel infested the waters 

 of the Gulph of Mexico, thirteen merchant vessels were boarded, cap- 

 tured, and all on board indiscriminately slaughtered Gilpbs himself 

 having been present at the murder of four hundred human beings. The 

 vessels and cargoes were regularly carried to Cape Antonio a piratical 

 station upon the north-western extremity of the Island of Cuba the 

 merchandize being thence transmitted by coasting vessels to the harbour 

 of Havannah, to agents in correspondence with the pirates, from whom 

 were received in return ammunition, provisions, and other supplies. At 



