We will give one of them as a sample,
and from this a number of very good pirate stories could be manufactured
by ingenious persons.
It was a fine summer night late in the seventeenth century. A young man
named Abner Stout, in company with his wife Mary, went out for a walk
upon the beach. They lived in a little village near the coast of New
Jersey. Abner was a good carpenter, but a poor man; but he and his wife
were very happy with each other, and as they walked toward the sea in
the light of the full moon, no young lovers could have been more gay.
When they reached a little bluff covered with low shrubbery, which was
the first spot from which they could have a full view of the ocean,
Abner suddenly stopped, and pointed out to Mary an unusual sight. There,
as plainly in view as if it had been broad daylight, was a vessel lying
at the entrance of the little bay. The sails were furled, and it was
apparently anchored.
For a minute Abner gazed in utter amazement at the sight of this vessel,
for no ships, large or small, came to this little lonely bay. There was
a harbor two or three miles farther up the coast to which all trading
craft repaired. What could the strange ship want here?
This unusual visitor to the little bay was a very low and very long,
black schooner, with tall masts which raked forward, and with something
which looked very much like a black flag fluttering in its rigging.
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