THE LIVERPOOL BUCCANEERS. 263 



they were suddenly hailed from a vessel, and which they doubted 

 not was that of their ruthless foes; but, as death seemed certain 

 where they were, after a short consultation they answered the appeal ; 

 and, on reaching her found her to be a Greek brig which had left 

 Alicant that day ; the master of which, no sooner heard their tale, 

 than, with a degree of humanity, rarely ascribed to his nation, he 

 changed his course, and enabled those he had protected to reach that 

 port on the succeeding day. There Captain Cornish and his crew 

 separated ; Heath and Humphries engaging themselves on board the 

 Spey, and proceeding to Malta. 



Their report was deemed so extraordinary, as at first to be scarcely 

 credited ; and, we believe the last person upon whom suspicion 

 could attach, would have been Delano, had not the imprudent pur- 

 chases of gold chains and other jewellery of value by the mate 

 Thompson, and some of the crew, and other acts of extravagance 

 been now brought forward to their prejudice. Further inquiry 

 elucidated the facts of the sale of suspicious merchandize ; and an 

 officer of the royal navy, with part of the officers and men of the 

 Spey, were put on board a hired brig and dispatched for Smyrna ; 

 where the William being instantly recognised by Heath, they lost not 

 a moment in adopting the necessary measures for the capture of the 

 pirates, and they were brought in their proper vessel, guarded and 

 chained, to Malta to undergo their trial. 



As Delano had been the instigator of the piracy, so in the partition 

 of the spoil he sought to cheat his crew of their moderate share of 

 the plunder by a pretended order on the Bank of England, which 

 they rejected j and he now characteristically became the voluntary 

 accuser of those he had seduced, in aggravating by invention their 

 already sufficient guiltiness ; and asserting his having been forced 

 by threat and violence alone to participate in their crime. Treachery 

 and falsehood, added to cowardice and villainy, failed of effect. He 

 and his unhappy crew, with the exception of two necessarily ad- 

 mitted as evidence for the crown, were, after a lengthened, solemn, 

 and impartial trial, before the governor of Malta CONDEMNED TO 

 EXPIATE THEIR OFFENCE by a public and ignominious death. 



Between two and three on the morning of the fourth of February, 

 1820, unable to sleep, I had seated myself in the elevated and open 

 balcony of the house I resided in at Malta, enjoying the freshness of 

 the morning air. The magnificent city of Valetta was silent, as if 

 no living being rested within its walls ; when, a low and strange 

 sound arose from the distance, which gradually but slowly increased. 

 It was wholly unlike all that I had ever heard before. The light of 

 torches, yet far away ; the sound as of iron striking on the lava 

 pavement of the streets, and now and then clash of arms, yet further 

 attracted my attention ; but it was long before I could form a 

 judgment as to the nature of what I observed, for the movement of 

 the procession (for at length such it seemed) was slow and solemn, 

 and it was close to me ere I could well distinguish of whom or what 

 it was composed, for not a word was spoken in that melancholy 

 march. By the red and flashing glare of the torches, I discerned a 

 lengthened troop of armed soldiers closely lining each side of the 



