The Viceroy of Goa, the Comte d'Ericeira, came (on April 8, 1721) to anchor on the road of St Denis, and was to dine with the Governor, M. Desforges Boucher. He had scarcely set his foot on shore before a pirate ship of fifty guns anchored alongside his vessel and took her.
The pirate captain landed forthwith, and demanded to dine at the Governor's. He seated himself at table between him and the Portuguese Viceroy, to whom he declared that he was his prisoner. Wine and good cheer having put the pirate in good humour, Mons. Desforges Boucher asked him at how much he rated the Viceroy's ransom.
“I must have a thousand dollars,” said the Pirate.
“That is far too little,” said the astute M. Boucher to the Pirate, Oliver Levasseur (surnamed la Buse, of Calais), “for a brave freebooter like your self to accept from a grand lord like the Viceroy. Ask something handsome, or ask nothing.”
“Well said,” cried the Corsair, “I shall ask nothing; the Viceroy is free to go.”
The Viceroy, says St. Pierre, re-embarked instantly, and set sail, happy at having escaped on such good terms.
Unfortunately the records spoil St. Pierre's good story; for it is related that the crew of the Portuguese ship were landed, as the ransom of two thousand dollars was not forthcoming, and that Capitaine Oliver Levasseur took off the ship, for which act of piracy he was hung subsequently on July 17, 1730, at Bourbon, having failed to get himself included in the amnesty.
Not long before St. Pierre visited the island the last of these pirates, named Adam, had there died, aged 104 years.
Drury, Robert, Madagascar, or Robert Drury's Journal, during Fifteen Years Captivity on that Island, Printed, and Sold by W. Meadows, at the Angel in Cornhall, F. Marshall, at the Bible in Newgate-streat; T. Worrall, at the Judge's Head in Fleet streat; and by the Author, at Old Tom's Coffee-House in Birchim Lane. MDCCXXIX.
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