The pirates, to the number of seven, who escaped, were seized by the inhabitants, and on the information of the master who escaped, and on their own confession were imprisoned, condemned, and executed. They were all foreigners, very ignorant and obstinate; but by the indefatigable pains of a pious and learned divine, who constantly attended them; they were at length, by the special grace of God, made sensible of, and truly penitent, for the enormous crimes they had been guilty of.
As to the birth of this pirate, we can discover nothing by the inquiries we have hitherto made; and indeed had we succeeded in our search, it would have been of no great consequence; for it is certain by the behaviour of the man, he must have have been of very obscure parents; and by his education, (as he was no artist) very unfit in all respects, except that of cruelty, for the villaneous business he was in. We have been informed, that he had been in a pirate in a private capacity, and having escaped justice, had an opportunity of repenting his former crimes, and as a foremast man, or petty officer, of getting his bread in a warrantable way. But no—ignorant as he was of letters, he was ambitious of power, and capable of the most barbarous actions to acquire it.
Capt. Green, of Bristol, in April, 1726, shipped this Fly as boatswain, at Jamaica, being bound, in the Elizabeth snow, of Bristol, for the coast of Guinea. Fly, who had insinuated himself with some of the men, whom he found ripe for any villany, resolved to seize the said snow, and murder the captain and mate, and taking the command on himself, turn pirate. He proposed this design to his brothers in iniquity, who approving it, he, having the watch at one o’clock in the morning, on the 27th day of May, went up to one Morrice Cundon, then at the helm, accompanied by Alexander Mitchel, Henry Hill, Samuel Cole, Thomas Winthrop, and other conspirators, and swore if he spoke one word, or stirred either hand or foot, he would blow his brains out; and tucking up his shirt above the elbows with a cutlass in his hand, he, with Mitchel, went into the captain’s cabin, and told him he must turn out. The captain, asking what was the matter, was answered by Mitchel, they had no time to answer impertinent questions; that if he would turn out and go upon deck quietly, it would save them the trouble of scraping the cabin; if he would not, a few buckets of water and a scraper would take his blood out of the deck: that they had chosen Capt. Fly for commander, and would allow of no other, and would not waste their provisions to feed useless men.