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2:30

Welcome to the Pirate History Podcast.

2:33

My name is Matt. Thank you for listening. Today

2:37

we're going to tie together a lot

2:39

of the threads that we've introduced over

2:42

the past several weeks. Thomas

2:44

Howard, Thomas White, John

2:47

Bowen, David Williams, and even

2:49

Ert von Toel, they're

2:52

all going to play a role in

2:54

today's story, but first I'd

2:56

like to introduce yet another pirate

2:58

into the mix. His

3:01

name was John Pro.

3:04

John Pro has been around for

3:06

a while now, he just hasn't

3:08

done anything that required an introduction

3:10

until now. No one

3:12

seems to know anything about his early

3:14

life or even how he came to

3:16

the Indian Ocean. Aside from the claim

3:19

that he was Dutch, I've got nothing

3:21

on the guy. It's

3:23

possible that he arrived way back in

3:25

1696. When

3:28

Thomas II and Henry Every and

3:31

all those other ships headed for

3:33

Madagascar, a lot of pirates

3:35

came with them, and once

3:37

they were done, not everyone wanted to

3:40

go back home, but

3:42

it's just as possible that John

3:44

Pro showed up later on. His

3:47

first documented piratical voyage took

3:50

place aboard the Mocha Frigate

3:52

under Robert Culliford. I

3:55

like to imagine John Pro as one of

3:57

the pirates that was in that Indian prison.

4:00

with Robert Culliford and James

4:02

Kelly. Sailing with

4:04

Cutlass Culliford would have put

4:06

John Pro at St. Mary's

4:08

Island shortly after Adam Baldrige

4:11

abandoned his trading post. He

4:13

would have been there when Edward Welch took over

4:16

the operation, dealing mainly

4:18

not in human flesh but

4:20

in human flesh. I

4:23

did not like the way that sounded. Let's

4:26

try that again. He was not

4:28

dealing in enslaved people, but he was

4:30

running a brothel. And

4:32

I can't say how much personal

4:34

autonomy the women working there may

4:36

actually have had, but it

4:39

looks like it wasn't Edward Welch chaining

4:41

up enslaved women and forcing them to

4:43

work. He provided

4:45

the space, the amenities, food, drink,

4:47

and he also provided security. For

4:50

that service he took a cut from the

4:52

women that were working there, who apparently were

4:54

there mostly of their own volition. Now

4:57

Edward Welch took over the operation at St.

4:59

Mary's back in 1697, but

5:03

by the point in our story, late

5:05

1702, everything

5:07

had changed drastically.

5:12

This is episode 333, a most

5:15

ill-natured fellow. I

5:17

hope I've made it clear over the past few

5:19

weeks that Madagascar, at the

5:21

beginning of the 18th century, was in

5:24

a real state of uproar. There

5:26

was fighting going on almost

5:29

everywhere between all these different

5:31

Malagasy kingdoms. In

5:33

1699, Thomas

5:35

Collins returned to England with

5:38

his son, Ratsimi Hollow, who

5:40

was the heir to the

5:42

Betsimi Soraka Confederation. The

5:45

Betsimi Soraka was a powerful

5:47

kingdom that controlled almost the

5:49

whole northeast coast of Madagascar.

5:51

Now I can't say

5:53

for certain that this event, Ratsimi

5:56

Hollow Leaving Madagascar, I Can't

5:58

say that it exactly. The

6:00

said off this surge in warfare,

6:02

but it does seem like there

6:04

was a correlation here. Remember.

6:07

When Nathaniel North joined that war

6:09

between those two tribes, allied himself

6:11

with one of the warring factions.

6:14

Well, that war was fought against

6:16

a satellite of the but see

6:18

me so Roka kingdom. It

6:21

was one of the tertiary

6:23

members of their confederation. Well

6:26

and seventeen oh one. Thomas

6:28

Collins returned to Madagascar and

6:30

he immediately got involved in

6:32

the war. The

6:35

crux of the war seems to have

6:37

been an alliance of tribes under a

6:39

chief called Roman. Oh, know. He

6:42

was building another confederation of

6:44

small kingdoms that he called

6:46

thus Cola confederation. And.

6:48

I don't know that he was trying to

6:51

overthrow the queen of the bed see me

6:53

so rocker and top a rupture over Hina,

6:55

but it seems like he was trying to

6:57

peel away parts of their territory to add

6:59

to his own base of power. When

7:02

Thomas Collins returned to Madagascar,

7:04

he found the war going

7:07

poorly for Queen Rihanna, the

7:09

mother of his son. She.

7:12

Still held her home territory, but

7:14

the Confederation was beginning to fall

7:16

apart. Naturally, Tom Collins would

7:18

have joined up on the side of the

7:20

but see me so Rocca but there were

7:22

other problems for the pirates in the region.

7:25

This. See Cola Alliance Knew

7:27

that the Betsy me so rocker

7:30

had something of a an understanding

7:32

with all of these English pirates.

7:34

so they attacked St. Mary's Island.

7:38

In. The raid Edward Welsh

7:40

was injured. He was forced

7:42

to leave his trading post and returned

7:44

to America. Know. It

7:46

seems like one of the concerns

7:48

that these see Coa people had

7:51

with the But See Me Sir

7:53

Rocker and the English pirates was

7:55

that Edward Welsh was no longer

7:57

trading and slayings. Which. was

8:00

You know, a net good for humanity, but

8:02

to the Sychoa people, it seemed

8:04

like the Betsime Raka had built

8:06

an empire on raiding and slave-trading,

8:08

secured their base of power, and

8:11

then said, okay, we're done with

8:13

that now. They wanted

8:15

to get back to this highly

8:17

profitable business. The

8:19

next person to take up the trading

8:21

post at St. Mary's Island was none

8:23

other than John Pro. Seems

8:26

like he'd been living at St. Mary's for

8:28

a while, maybe even kind of shadowing Edward

8:30

Welch. And he thought

8:32

it prudent to get into the business

8:34

of trading enslaved people. Not

8:37

only was the money pretty good, it would

8:39

keep him from getting raided by the Sychoa

8:41

people. He might

8:43

have some trouble with the Betsime Raka,

8:45

or, you know, England, but

8:47

if he played his cards right, he might

8:50

just be able to walk that very thin

8:52

line that kept him in business and

8:54

alive. So we're going

8:57

to leave John Pro at St. Mary's

8:59

and Tom Collins with the Betsime Raka

9:01

in early to mid-1702. Right

9:05

now, let's shift our eyes back

9:08

to the speaker, back when it

9:10

was still seaworthy, anyway, back

9:12

when George Booth was still in command.

9:16

Shortly after they captured the speaker, Booth

9:18

needed more men to fill

9:21

up the ranks, so he sailed down to

9:23

St. Augustine Bay where he picked some up.

9:26

We talked about this back in Episode 329. Now

9:30

you may remember a crew under a

9:32

man named Evan Jones who captured the

9:35

Beckford galley, and then

9:37

when the pirates sailed to St.

9:39

Augustine Bay to Careen, the Beckford

9:41

galley, they broke her back.

9:44

They stranded themselves at St.

9:46

Augustine. Luckily, just

9:49

a few weeks later, George Booth

9:51

showed up in the speaker to

9:53

pick up Evan Jones and his

9:55

quartermaster named David Williams. Our

10:00

story, Evan Jones mostly disappears from

10:02

history, but David Williams is going

10:05

to stick around. He

10:07

was there when the speaker sailed for

10:09

Zanzibar, when the pirates were attacked, and

10:11

then when they sailed for the Malabar

10:13

coast over in India, and

10:16

then on their return journey when

10:18

the speaker wrecked at Mauritius. Evan

10:21

Jones and David Williams were among

10:23

the pirates who stayed with Captain

10:25

John Bowen he bought

10:28

that brigantine at Mauritius and

10:30

sailed back to Madagascar. They

10:33

were still with him about a

10:35

year later when Captain Bowen captured

10:37

the speedy return. So

10:40

are you following so far? We're getting everybody into

10:42

place. John Bowen and David

10:44

Williams are on the speedy return. Thomas

10:47

Howard was still at Mauritius.

10:49

He stayed behind when John

10:52

Bowen left, and then

10:54

we've got John Proe at St. Mary's

10:56

and Thomas Collins with the Batsimi Soraka.

11:00

And that's almost everybody, but there are two

11:02

pirates who we have yet to catch up

11:04

with today. Nathaniel North

11:07

and Thomas White. And

11:09

man, there really are a lot of Thomases in this

11:11

story, huh? We haven't even talked

11:13

about Thomas Green yet, but we're gonna. He's

11:15

important to this story. We'll

11:18

get to him though when Scotland really starts

11:20

to fall apart. As

11:22

for Nathaniel North, don't worry about

11:24

him. He doesn't play a role

11:26

in this story. He's still living

11:28

at his little pirate haven presiding

11:30

as, you know, Prince-President North over

11:32

his Utopia. Thomas

11:34

White though. His story

11:37

is interesting. At

11:39

this point, he was no longer with

11:41

John Bowen, and I can't exactly tell

11:43

you why or how that happened. Or

11:47

rather, I could give you two or

11:49

three variations of the story of Captain

11:51

Thomas White. However, they

11:53

all contradict each other, so here's what I'm gonna

11:55

do. First, I'm going

11:58

to tell you what the book says.

12:00

says happened to Captain White in

12:02

his own chapter, ignoring all the stuff

12:05

said about him in other chapters. Then

12:09

I'm going to give you my version

12:11

of the story. The

12:14

General History of the Pirates, Volume 2,

12:16

tells us that Thomas White was, quote,

12:19

"'all this while before the mast,

12:21

being a forced man from the

12:23

beginning,'" end quote. He's

12:26

saying that he was forced into piracy, which he kind

12:28

of was, but that at this

12:30

point he's still serving against his will, you

12:32

know, impressed into service. Now

12:35

I don't believe that at all, but that's what

12:37

the book says. Then

12:40

it tells us that Thomas White ran away,

12:43

that he and a few of his

12:45

comrades jumped ship. Eventually

12:47

they took shelter with a local king

12:49

who treated the Englishmen like kings themselves.

12:52

They had good food, beautiful

12:54

women, soft beds, strong drinks.

12:58

And then, according to the book, Thomas

13:00

White and his fellows got picked up

13:02

by another gang of pirates. It

13:06

was the frigate Prosperus commanded

13:09

by Captain Thomas Howard. In

13:22

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History of Egypt Podcast is written

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and produced by a trained Egyptologist.

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We go much deeper than your

13:56

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14:03

of a mighty kingdom. The

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All you need is a few minutes to

14:26

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14:30

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14:32

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14:34

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in History wherever you get your podcast. That's

14:48

This Day in History wherever you

14:50

get your podcasts. When

14:59

John Bowen left Mauritius and his

15:01

brigantine, Thomas Howard stayed behind simply

15:03

because there wasn't enough room on

15:06

the brigantine. Howard

15:09

and his men stayed for a few

15:11

months there at Mauritius and enjoyed the

15:13

hospitality of Governor Roloff Diodati. They

15:16

had no intention of settling down.

15:20

They were waiting for their chance,

15:22

and eventually that chance sailed right

15:24

into the harbor. Now

15:26

I don't know who this ship belonged

15:29

to, but we should

15:31

remember that the world was at war here

15:33

in 1702. For

15:36

a ship to sail boldly into a

15:38

port owned by the Dutch East India

15:40

Company, she would have to

15:42

be an Allied vessel. English,

15:44

Dutch, maybe Portuguese. With

15:47

that in mind, Governor Diodati would not

15:50

have looked kindly on a plan to

15:52

capture an Allied ship. This

15:55

ship, the Prosperus, turned out to be

15:57

a perfect pirate ship. She

16:01

had thirty-six guns. She was clean

16:03

and sleek in really amazing shape,

16:05

ready to sail exactly what Howard

16:07

and his men needed. So

16:10

maybe Governor Diodati didn't give his blessing

16:12

at all. Maybe

16:15

Thomas Howard just took

16:17

it. You know, it might

16:19

have been foolish to anger your host and

16:21

deny yourself a friendly port, but Howard was,

16:24

after all, a pirate, asking

16:26

permission wasn't exactly in his wheelhouse.

16:29

The only record I have of how he took

16:31

the prosperous tells us that Howard took her in

16:34

quote, almost the same manner

16:36

that Bowen and his gang seized

16:38

the speedy return. End

16:40

quote. If that's the

16:42

case, that means Howard and his men took

16:45

the ship quietly, without firing a

16:47

shot or striking a stroke. If

16:50

Thomas Howard and his pirates did

16:52

indeed take the prosperous without letting

16:55

Diodati know they probably had

16:58

to beat a hasty exit

17:00

from Mauritius. They

17:02

sailed west from Madagascar as fast as

17:04

the prosperous could sail, and

17:06

their first stop was Fort Dauphin. He

17:09

and his men met there with Abraham Samuel,

17:11

who had some interesting

17:14

news. Now

17:16

Abraham Samuel, man,

17:18

what I wouldn't give to have a

17:20

fly on the wall, writing down everything

17:22

that was happening inside the walls of

17:24

Fort Dauphin. He's up to something, but

17:26

I don't know what. I

17:29

have this suspicion he might be

17:31

behind this civil war that's broken

17:33

out on mainland Madagascar. We

17:36

know that he had a fairly

17:38

substantial interest in trading enslaved people,

17:40

and in about ten years time

17:43

he's going to be fighting with

17:45

the Betsimi Soraka people. But

17:47

at the same time he's trying to stay on

17:49

good terms with the English pirates from St. Mary's.

17:53

And later on he's going to try to ingratiate

17:55

himself with the French over at Reunion Island. He's

17:58

kind of playing in his two or three- three-sided

18:00

double agent game and I

18:03

can't say that he's behind everything that's

18:05

happening, but he's definitely pulling some of

18:07

the strings. When

18:10

Thomas Howard arrived there at Fort

18:12

Dauphin, he told them that there

18:14

had been some drama over at the plantation

18:16

owned by none other than Erte von Toel.

18:20

And you remember Erte von Toel,

18:22

right? He's that Dutch smuggler pirate

18:24

merchant type that sailed with John

18:26

Hoare back in the 1690s. Eventually,

18:30

though, he built a plantation on

18:32

Madagascar. He married a Malagasy woman

18:34

and had a mess of kids.

18:38

And he'd always been a reliable source

18:40

for fenced goods. You know, he

18:42

would buy almost anything that the

18:44

pirates had, anything that he could

18:46

resell anyway. But

18:49

he'd never exactly been friendly to the

18:51

pirates, which, you know, we're being honest

18:53

here. That was the smart move. You

18:56

know, dealing with pirates can certainly be

18:58

profitable, but you don't really

19:00

want them hanging around best

19:03

to keep them at arm's length. However,

19:07

here in the latter months of

19:09

1702 to 1703, something seems to have changed. And

19:15

remember that we're dealing with 300

19:17

year old rumors here that were

19:20

filtered through a mostly

19:22

fictitious account. So we

19:24

don't exactly know what happened. But some

19:28

pirate crew at some point

19:30

was attacked by Erte von Toel.

19:33

He had something of a private

19:35

militia at his compound. And

19:37

apparently, when a pirate

19:40

crew visited his plantation, Van

19:42

Toel killed a few of

19:44

them. Some of the

19:46

others he captured and others

19:48

managed to escape. Now,

19:50

I'm not sure this actually happened.

19:53

You know, Abraham Samuel

19:55

could have been just making this up to try

19:57

and rile the pirates up. toward

20:00

whatever end he wanted from them.

20:04

But whether it happened or not doesn't

20:06

really matter, because the pirates believed it

20:08

did. So we'll operate

20:10

off the assumption that there is some

20:12

basis in fact behind that. But

20:15

that leaves the question, who

20:17

was it that Vontul and

20:20

his men attacked near Christmas And

20:24

there are a few different possibilities. If

20:28

you were to go look it up

20:30

on Wikipedia, it would tell you that

20:33

Ert Vontul attacked Thomas Mostyn. Now

20:36

you'll remember Captain Thomas Mostyn as

20:38

that pirate merchant interloper

20:40

smuggler type who was involved

20:42

in the conspiracy with Adam

20:44

Baldrige and Benjamin Fletcher. He's

20:47

the one that brought Robert Allison

20:49

to St. Mary's to conduct some

20:51

business with Baldrige. And then, when

20:53

the uprising happened, he's the guy

20:55

that took Baldrige back to New

20:57

York. When

21:00

they arrived, Thomas Mostyn was

21:02

arrested. His ship was seized

21:04

by Governor Belmont, and that's the last we

21:06

saw of him here on the show. That

21:09

was 1698. Here

21:12

in 1703, as we said, Wikipedia has

21:14

him back at St. Mary's, but I'm

21:16

pretty sure that's not the case. As

21:19

far as I can tell, Thomas Mostyn was still

21:21

in New England, maybe still at

21:23

the Old Stone Jail, but probably

21:26

not. Aside

21:28

from a bit of one-of-the-mill

21:31

tax-dodging smuggling stuff, it seems

21:33

like Mostyn mostly went legit,

21:36

and mostly stayed in America.

21:39

Here's where the confusion comes in, I think.

21:42

You know, I've got like four different versions

21:44

of a general history of the pirates, Volume

21:48

I've got a scan of the second

21:50

edition, which is, I'm pretty sure,

21:52

the oldest surviving copy we have.

21:55

That one, though, is kinda tough to read. The

21:58

script is very old-fashioned, and it's faded

22:00

in a bunch of places. Then

22:03

I've got a copy of the restored text,

22:05

and mostly that's what I've been using for

22:07

the show. There's also

22:09

the Pirates' Own Book, and the

22:12

Pirates' Own Book is not a

22:14

direct reprint, but certain chapters, like

22:16

that of Thomas White, are pulled

22:19

directly from Volume 2 of a

22:21

general history. And

22:23

then I've got a copy from

22:26

Project Gutenberg. I don't

22:28

want to be clear here. I'm not

22:30

trying to throw shade at Wikipedia or

22:32

Project Gutenberg. These are amazing resources, the

22:34

wonders of the digital age. You should

22:37

support them in any way you can.

22:40

But in the Project

22:42

Gutenberg version, there are some

22:44

discrepancies with the other restored

22:46

text, namely in

22:48

a passage that that Wikipedia

22:50

article cites as its source.

22:54

The Project Gutenberg copy of a general

22:56

history, Volume 2, reads, quote, They

22:59

sailed to St. Mary's, where

23:01

Captain Mosin's ship lay at anchor

23:03

between the island and the main.

23:06

This gentleman and his whole ship's

23:08

company had been cut off at

23:10

the instigation of Orth Van Tyall,

23:12

a Dutchman of New York. End

23:15

quote. And it seems

23:18

that in this instance Mosin

23:20

was interpreted as Moston,

23:23

and that's fair enough,

23:25

I guess. And to be even

23:27

more fair in that original second

23:29

edition scan, that passage

23:31

is one of those that's pretty hard to

23:33

read. It's faded, and

23:36

it does look like it says

23:38

Moston. But in

23:40

the other restored version and the

23:43

pirate's own book, they

23:45

say that it was Captain Mison's

23:47

ship that lay at anchor, you

23:49

know, James Mison of Libertalia.

23:53

And I think that is what the text

23:55

is trying to relay to us. And

23:58

I'm fairly certain that Thomas Moston, Moston was

24:00

half a world away, which leaves

24:03

us with the question, well, then

24:05

whose ship was it? If

24:08

Moston wasn't there, and Mison wasn't

24:10

real, who was it? First

24:14

of all, I think we should acknowledge

24:16

that it might actually be someone named

24:18

Captain Moston. There

24:20

are quite a few just random pirate

24:22

ships hanging around the region here in

24:25

the early 1700s. None

24:28

of those are very large, usually just

24:30

a sloop with eight or maybe ten

24:32

guns, and none of

24:34

them would go on to do anything

24:36

of any real note or make much

24:38

impact on the record. And

24:41

that kind of thing was going on all the

24:43

time, everywhere, all throughout the age of

24:45

sail. We haven't had

24:47

much cause to talk about the West

24:49

Indies for quite a while now, but

24:52

there were still pirates doing pirate stuff

24:54

there, and when we do go back

24:56

to the West Indies and leave the

24:58

Red Sea behind, there are

25:00

still going to be pirates doing

25:02

pirate things at Madagascar. Right

25:05

now there are pirates active in Boston,

25:07

Newfoundland, Ireland, basically anywhere that has a

25:10

harbor. There's some pirates there. So

25:14

it could have just been some

25:16

random captain named Moston, or someone

25:18

else whose name we don't even

25:20

know. But then

25:22

there's another version. A

25:24

version that admittedly I kind of just made

25:26

up. But it

25:28

is my favorite version.

25:31

Imagine that. I'd like you

25:33

to picture this. At

25:35

some point while sailing with Captain

25:38

John Bowen, maybe while they

25:40

were back at the Malabar coast, Thomas

25:42

White came into possession

25:45

of a sloop. Thomas White

25:47

sailed in concert with John Bowen

25:50

and the speaker for a while,

25:52

but on their return journey, imagine

25:55

a storm that separated the

25:58

speaker and Captain White. That

26:01

storm would pretty clearly explain

26:03

why the speaker crashed

26:05

into the reef there at Mauritius.

26:08

It would also explain how

26:10

Thomas White became separated from

26:13

the speaker, and

26:15

it would also probably damage Captain

26:17

White's sloop. He would have

26:19

to take refuge at the nearest port, which

26:21

could very possibly have been the

26:24

harbor of Ert van Toel. And

26:28

instead of helping Captain White and

26:30

the other pirates, van

26:32

Toel attacked them. He takes their

26:34

money, he takes their cargo, he captures some

26:36

of the men, he kills others, and only

26:38

a few of them manage

26:40

to escape. And

26:42

when they do, they sail for

26:44

St. Mary's. Now

26:47

again, I don't have any evidence to support this.

26:51

No mention of anything like that happening in

26:53

the text, but Thomas White's

26:55

story is difficult. There's a bunch of

26:58

loose threads that don't seem to

27:00

connect, that don't interact with other

27:02

elements in its own story. And

27:05

this version, very simple little

27:07

story, helps me kind of square the

27:10

circle. It's probably

27:12

not what happened, but if

27:14

I don't come up with something like that, I

27:16

would just have to say, you know, somehow Palpatine

27:19

returned. Because

27:22

somehow, Thomas White and

27:24

his men make it to St.

27:26

Mary's. And when

27:28

Thomas Howard arrives, Thomas

27:30

White is there, as well as a

27:32

sloop that may or may not have

27:34

actually belonged to Thomas White. Maybe

27:37

it was James Masson's or Captain

27:39

Mohsen or Thomas Mohsen, whoever it

27:41

actually belonged to, Thomas

27:43

White took command of it. Which

27:47

means that here at the beginning

27:49

of 1703, we've got Thomas White

27:51

in a fairly well-armed sloop and

27:53

Thomas Howard in the prosperous at

27:56

St. Mary's. And

27:59

John Pro... had

28:01

a message there for the pirates.

28:04

He told them that they had all

28:06

been invited to the christening of Ert

28:09

von Toole's eldest boy. Apparently

28:12

von Toole intended to throw a

28:14

real party, and he wanted

28:16

all that were able to attend

28:19

to do so. But

28:22

of course the pirates knew that Ert

28:24

von Toole had attacked and killed somebody.

28:28

Maybe it was Thomas White, maybe it was somebody

28:30

else, maybe it didn't even really happen. But

28:33

that's what they knew to be the truth. So

28:37

this invitation sounded a

28:39

bit like bait.

28:42

They were being lured into a trap. Now

28:46

I gotta tell you what I wouldn't

28:48

give for an Alexandric Squimlin right

28:51

about now, or even a Basil

28:53

Ring Rose. You know, both those

28:55

guys really knew how to dramatize

28:57

an attack, especially on land. They

29:00

could really put you in the

29:02

pirate sandals. But

29:05

we're stuck with writers who are

29:07

happy to spend pages detailing the

29:09

judicial system of a pirate base,

29:11

or maybe discussing at

29:13

length the ethics of the state

29:16

holding power over an individual. But

29:18

if you want a good action scene, you really gotta dig.

29:22

And no matter how hard you dig here,

29:25

you're never gonna find gold. I'll

29:28

do with it what I can, though. The

29:31

two ships sailed south toward Ert

29:34

von Toole's plantation, but

29:36

when the prosperous veered toward the

29:38

plantation harbor, Captain White

29:40

continued on south. Only

29:44

the prosperous docked there at the harbor,

29:47

and when they arrived they were welcomed

29:49

by Ventool with open arms. As

29:52

the company were settling down to dinner, a watchword

29:55

was given. The pirates

29:58

all produced pistols that they had hid about

30:00

their person and fired on Van

30:02

Toole's guards. Ert van Toole

30:05

himself they took prisoner, and then they

30:07

began to plunder his home. Van

30:10

Toole had quite the collection of

30:12

riches stashed away. Rugs

30:14

from Persia, spices from

30:16

India, coffee from Moka, tea from

30:18

China, and of course silver

30:21

and gold. The

30:24

pirates took everything they could carry, everything

30:26

of worth anyway, and loaded it up

30:28

into a penis for transport to the

30:30

prosperous. They

30:32

also captured everyone. Van

30:35

Toole had a loyal group of men,

30:37

all of them Dutch, that formed the

30:40

kind of inner guard of that militia

30:42

we mentioned, and those men were all

30:44

chained up and imprisoned. The

30:47

pirates then set all of the enslaved

30:49

men, the laborers there at the plantation,

30:51

they set them free. The

30:54

enslaved women were also freed, but they

30:57

didn't leave quite yet. The

30:59

pirates hadn't seen women in quite some

31:01

time. We can

31:03

hope that those ladies were so grateful to

31:06

the pirates for setting them free that they

31:08

offered up their charms freely, but

31:10

it may have been less cordial than that. Van

31:14

Toole's wife, though, was unharmed. She

31:17

was captured, and then she

31:20

and her kids were rounded up and put

31:22

in a longboat with Van Toole himself. They

31:25

were rode out into the center of the

31:27

river where two men in the longboat stood

31:29

guard, and then

31:31

the pirates that were ransacking the

31:33

house began to bring all of

31:35

their worldly possessions, everything that the

31:37

pirates had not taken. They

31:40

hauled to the riverbank, and

31:43

the Van Toole family had to sit there

31:45

and watch how all of it was dumped

31:48

into the water. Clothes,

31:51

tools, toys, food, anything

31:53

that wasn't nailed down was

31:55

dumped. Now,

31:58

the pirates probably planned it. to

32:00

kill Vontoul, but I'm not sure

32:02

that was the case. Why

32:05

bother making him watch you do this if he's

32:07

not going to have to live with the consequences?

32:10

Regardless, though, Vontoul managed

32:12

to pull off an escape. Really

32:15

his wife did it. She

32:17

undid the binds around her

32:19

hands, and then clandestinely

32:21

untied the ropes tying her

32:23

maid's hands. And together

32:26

they pushed those two pirates that were

32:28

in the boat overboard. Then

32:31

they grabbed the oars and rode away. The

32:35

pirates prepared to go look for

32:37

him, but before they could really

32:39

get a search under way, Vontoul

32:41

returned. With about two

32:43

dozen men, most of them

32:46

Malagase and all of them armed,

32:49

they had muskets and pistols

32:51

and they knew how to use them. From

32:54

the other side of the river they

32:57

opened up fire on the pirates.

32:59

One bullet hit Captain Howard through the

33:01

arm. The pirates

33:03

at the riverbank scattered, and then

33:06

Eretvontoul set up something of a

33:08

rudout on the far bank, digging

33:10

in. It

33:12

was a long, tense night there

33:15

at the plantation, but as dawn

33:17

broke everybody knew that a fight

33:20

was coming. The pirates, despite their

33:22

poor showing earlier, had the numbers.

33:25

They were going to destroy Vontoul

33:27

and his little militia. But

33:31

then a horn sounded

33:34

from the forest, and a powerful

33:36

force of Malagase warriors armed with

33:38

bows and spears, not guns, but

33:41

traditional weaponry, emerged

33:44

from the tree line. This

33:47

was enough to worry the pirates, but that wasn't

33:49

all. The horn

33:51

had been a signal to advance

33:53

because, at the

33:55

mouth of the harbor, a Dutch

33:58

ship was rounding the bend. It

34:01

was a well-armed brigantine under full

34:03

sail that belonged to Erte von

34:05

Toul. The book

34:08

calls it the Dutchman. Now

34:10

the prosperous would have been able to put up a

34:13

good fight here, but all of her

34:15

men were currently ashore. It would

34:17

take some time to get them aboard, and

34:20

that time might spell their

34:22

doom. So

34:25

the pirates jumped in their boats and made for

34:27

the prosperous as fast as they were able. They

34:30

were rowing hard, struggling to make it to

34:32

their ship in time, but it

34:34

was clear that the Dutchman had the advantage. This

34:37

might just be it for the pirates, but

34:39

then, out of nowhere, a volley

34:42

of gunfire. You know, large

34:44

guns cannon-shocked from the mouth of the harbor.

34:47

The men looked up. Was it the Dutchman firing

34:49

at them? But no, it

34:52

was Captain Thomas White arriving

34:55

just in time and opening up his

34:57

guns on the Dutchman. And

35:00

that was what the men of prosperous

35:02

needed. The Dutchman's attention was

35:05

all focused on the sloop, so

35:07

the men of prosperous were able to get underway

35:09

and make for the exit. When

35:11

they neared the fight that was going on between

35:13

the Dutchman and the sloop, the

35:16

Dutchman had to take evasive maneuvers or else

35:18

he would be caught in a crossfire. This

35:22

gave Captain Howard the opening he needed.

35:25

Thomas Howard and Thomas White escaped,

35:28

mostly unscathed, aside from

35:30

a few wounds like

35:32

that Thomas Howard had, and

35:34

they had an amazing haul

35:36

of extremely valuable treasure. It

35:40

was a successful raid, but Ert

35:42

von Toole, a killer

35:45

of pirates, still lived.

35:49

And at this time, Thomas Howard, Thomas

35:52

White, and John Bowen

35:54

are going to join forces to

35:57

rectify that. I'd

36:01

like to thank everybody for listening. I'd

36:03

like to thank everybody who helps to support

36:06

the show, all of our patrons on Patreon,

36:08

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36:16

Pirate History Podcast is a member of

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36:21

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other fine shows like Grey History, you can

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do so at airwavemedia.com. Our

36:28

theme music was, as always, The Old

36:30

Captain by the Fantastic Band Brilliant. If

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is found. As

36:40

always, most importantly, thank you

36:42

for listening.