they learned that the Bombay squadron, with Macrae in command, was cruising in search of them.  They were roused to fury by this news of Macrae’s ‘ingratitude,’ and vied with each other in devising the tortures to which they would subject him if he fell into their hands again, while their anger was vented on England and all who had stood up for Macrae after the capture of the Cassandra.  Before long they were sighted by Brown, who bore down on them and signalled them to heave to.  This behaviour, so different from their previous experiences, was little to their liking.  They made sail for the southwards, and, for two days, were held in chase, till by superior sailing they lost their pursuers.

Such an extraordinary change in the behaviour of the Bombay squadron taught them that the Indian coast was no longer a safe place for honest rovers.  It was expedient to take themselves elsewhere:  so sail was made for Mauritius.  Against Macrae their curses were loud and deep.  A villain they had treated so well as to give him a ship and other presents, and now to be in arms against them!  No fate was bad enough for such a man.  They had been cruelly deceived.  To appease their wrath they turned upon England.  But for his foolish championship of Macrae, this would not have happened.  Taylor had been right all along.  They would only follow him in future.  In their rage they first talked of hanging England, till more moderate counsels prevailed, and it was decided to maroon him at Mauritius, which was done.  England and three others who had befriended Macrae were set on shore, among them, no doubt, the one-legged pirate, and in due course of time made their way over to St. Mary’s.[5]

At St. Mary’s the command of the Victory was made over to Oliver La Bouche, or La Buze, whose efforts at shipbuilding had apparently not met with success, and the two ships, in company, before long took what was probably the richest prize that ever fell into pirate hands.  The ex-Viceroy of Goa, the Conde de Ericeira, had sailed for Lisbon, in January, in the Nostra Senhora de Cabo, a seventy-gun ship, taking with him a rich consignment of jewels for the Portuguese Government, and the proceeds of his own private trading during the three years of his viceroyalty.  Off the Cape they encountered a heavy storm, which dismasted the ship, forced them to throw many of their guns overboard, and obliged them to put back to Bourbon to refit.  Taylor and La Buze, learning the helplessness of the Viceroy’s ship, sailed into the anchorage under English colours.  A salute from the Viceroy’s ship was answered with a shotted broadside, and, in the confusion that ensued, the Portuguese ship was boarded and carried almost without resistance.  Seldom or never had such a prize fallen into pirate hands so easily.  The booty in diamonds and money was in the shape most coveted by the rovers.  The jewels alone were estimated at over three million dollars.  The hard cash was said to be five hundred thousand crowns, and the Viceroy was forced to raise another two thousand crowns as a personal ransom, which would have been higher, had he not convinced them that part of the jewels and money on board was his own property.