They did not hesitate to attack well-armed vessels manned by
crews much larger than their own, and in later periods they faced cannon
and conquered cities. Their crimes were many and vile; but when they
committed cruelties they did so in order to compel their prisoners to
disclose their hidden treasures, and when they attacked a Spanish
vessel, and murdered all on board, they had in their hearts the
remembrance that the Spanish naval forces gave no quarter to buccaneers.
But pirates such as Edward Low showed not one palliating feature in
their infamous characters. To rob and desert a shipwrecked crew was only
one of Low's contemptible actions. It appears that he seldom attacked a
vessel from which there seemed to be any probability of resistance, and
we read of no notable combats or sea-fights in which he was engaged. He
preyed upon the weak and defenceless, and his inhuman cruelties were
practised, not for the sake of extorting gain from his victims, but
simply to gratify his spite and love of wickedness.
There were men among Low's followers who looked upon him as a bold and
brave leader, for he was always a blusterer and a braggart, and there
were honest seamen and merchants who were very much afraid of him, but
time proved that there was no reason for any one to suppose that Edward
Low had a spark of courage in his composition.
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