462 Gibbs the Pirate. [APRIL, 



retreat to the port being now cut off, the vessel was abandoned, and the 

 pirates escaping in boats to the shore, defended themselves for some 

 hours behind the four gun-battery ; but this being eventually carried, 

 the gang were thus dispersed into the woods, and to the various har- 

 bours of the island. Here Gibbs found himself in possession of the 

 sum of thirty thousand dollars, the proceeds of his accumulated share of 

 the booty of the various expeditions ; and with this sum he now em- 

 barked for England, from the harbour of Havannah, determined, in the 

 enjoyment of his ill-gotten wealth, to banish the remembrance of its 

 criminal acquisition. But this was in vain; conscience haunted him in 

 the midst of his career of sensuality, and sinking into habits of drun- 

 kenness and waste, he found himself at length in circumstances of po- 

 verty in the port of Liverpool. Compelled again to resume his profes- 

 sion of the sea, but determined to return to his lawless pursuits, Gibbs 

 appears to have sailed for Gibraltar, and thence to the city of Algiers, 

 with the intention of offering his services to the Dey, then engaged in 

 war against the French ; but finding the harbour so closely invested 

 by the fleets of France that no entrance could possibly be effected, he 

 was compelled to abandon the enterprize, and returning to Gibraltar, 

 sailed thence to the port of New Orleans, in the United States. Here 

 his poverty left him no alternative but to engage as a seaman in the 

 brig Vineyard, bound to Philadelphia ; and in this voyage were per- 

 petrated the murders which terminated his career of crime. 



When at sea, it became known to Gibbs and his fellow seamen, that 

 amongst the cargo of the brig, was the sum of fifty thousand dollars, in 

 boxes of specie, consigned to Mr. Stephen Gerard, the wealthy banker 

 of Philadelphia, whose recent decease, and magnificent donations to 

 the public institutions of Pennsylvania, are well known in this country. 

 To secure this treasure, with the vessel and cargo, by the murder of the 

 officers, was now determined upon; and the conspirators, of whom 

 Gibbs, with a youth, and the mulatto steward of the vessel, were the 

 principals, proceeded upon a certain night to the quarter-deck, where 

 stood the captain, who was brought down by the blow of a pump han- 

 dle, and immediately, whilst still alive, thrown into the sea. Descend- 

 ing to the cabin, the mate was there murdered in a similar manner, and 

 the mutineers were now in possession of the vessel. Gibbs assuming 

 the command, and steering to the north, from ignorance of the true 

 position of the vessel at that time, it appears that in the following night, 

 the brig went ashore upon Long Island, at a point distant about nine 

 miles from the city of New York. It now became necessary to abandon 

 the vessel ; and the fifty thousand dollars being secured, the party now 

 descended to the boats, and stood towards the shore ; a rough sea rising, 

 however, at the time, compelled them to throw overboard boxes con- 

 taining thirty-five thousand dollars, and a landing was with difficulty 

 effected with the remaining fifteen thousand. This amount the pirates 

 buried in the sand upon the beach, and proceeding to a neighbouring 

 tavern, were soon immersed in those scenes of debauchery, always at- 

 tendant upon a life of crime. Here, one of the party, whose participa- 

 tion in the mutiny and murder had been compulsory and unwilling, 

 revealed the particulars of the deed ; whereupon the whole party were 

 apprehended, conveyed to New York, and committed to prison. In the 

 month of June last, they were tried, when Gibbs, with the youth, and 



