1832.] Gibbs the Pirate. 461 



Cape Antonio was a regular encampment and a battery mounting four 

 guns ; and during four years, owing to the supineness of the authorities 

 of Cuba, these desperadoes reigned without disturbance at that extremity 

 of the island. During this period their correspondence with the Ha- 

 vannah and other stations enabled the pirates to elude the cruizers of 

 England and America ; and Gibbs appears to have made frequent visits 

 to the Havannah, where his fine manners and dashing expenditure 

 brought him into the society of the officers of the vessels of war,, from 

 whom he frequently learnt the track of their ensuing voyages in search 

 of piratical vessels. It is also a circumstance to be regretted that regu- 

 lations should exist in our naval service, which, by conferring upon the 

 officers of our vessels the immense gains arising from the transportation 

 of specie, contributes to divert them from the active duties of watching 

 these piratical seas, so fatal to our commerce ; and at this period the 

 commanders of the vessels of war in the service of England arid America, 

 were busily engaged in carrying gold and silver across the Gulph of 

 Mexico, whilst the pirates of Cuba were ravaging the seas. 



Amongst the adventures of Gibbs and his associates at this period was 

 the following most melancholy and truly dramatic occurrence. A large 

 ship bound from Curacoa to Holland, was intercepted and captured in 

 the Gulph of Mexico, and the crew and a number of passengers, in all 

 twenty-eight persons, were murdered and thrown into the sea. Amongst 

 the passengers was the family of a Dutch gentleman returning to Hol- 

 land, consisting of himself, his wife, servants, and an only daughter a 

 young lady in the bloom of youth and beauty. After witnessing the 

 slaughter of her parents, the unfortunate girl fell upon her knees to the 

 captain of the pirates, and entreated him to save her from destruction in 

 a manner so moving, that at the hazard of endangering his own life 

 from the jealousy of his ruffian associates, Gibbs undertook to preserve 

 her, and she was carried off to the encampment at Cape Antonio. Here 

 this miserable female lived for six weeks amongst these ferocious 

 monsters in a course of life unutterable ; and to all the horrors of remem- 

 brance of her murdered parents, her own desolation and hopelessness 

 of ever regaining her home and country, was added the perpetual dread 

 of death from men whose policy it was to allow no human witness to 

 escape. Frequent dissensions respecting her arose amongst the pirates, 

 and upon one occasion her brains were about to be dashed out with the 

 handle of a pump by one of the most desperate of the gang, to prevent 

 which Gibbs was compelled to shoot the ruffian dead upon the spot. At 

 length so alarming were the consequences of preserving her, that a 

 council of war was held upon her fate, when Gibbs was compelled to 

 consent to her destruction ; whereupon this miserable lady was carried 

 off by poison a dreadful termination of an agonizing life. Her melan- 

 choly end was declared by Gibbs to have caused him more horror than 

 all the atrocities of his sanguinary life ; it is the one redeeming 

 circumstance in his history, that in the midst of his brutal associates all 

 natural affection was not banished from his breast ; and his persevering 

 efforts to preserve the life of this unfortunate female form the one bright 

 spot in his dark career. 



After various adventures, and many times being closely pursued by 

 vessels of war, the pirate was at length encountered by the United 

 States' brig, Enterprise, under the command of Lieut. Kearney ; and the 



