Review of Baylus C. Brooks' Sailing East

Sailing East: West-Indian Pirates in Madagascar by Baylus C Brooks

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


One of the most quoted resources on pirate history is a book published in 1724, written by an unknown author who called himself Captain Charles Johnson. The problem with A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates is that it is actually a blend of fact and fiction. Brooks makes it a point “to forget this flagrantly fickle source and focus entirely on only primary documents.” (Acknowledgements) This time around, he turns his attention to Western pirates who ventured into the Indian Ocean to plunder the riches of Mughal India and become a thorn in the English East India Company’s side.

When Henry Every captures the Gang-i-Sawai in 1695, he demonstrates to his fellow pirates just how rich the takings are in Eastern waters. Economically, India is the most important country in the world. And the Mughal emperor uses his clout to demand recompense for Every’s attack. Since Every has returned to the Caribbean, that’s where he is sought and, slowly, England and her colonies attempt to make the West Indies an undesirable hunting ground for pirates, especially after Woodes Rogers arrives in the Bahamas to bring an end to the pirate republic at New Providence.

So the pirates turn their attention to the East. This is where Brooks begins “the tale of the last West Indian pirates who, cornered by social progress, drawn by legend, and such gilded fantasies of the last generation of buccaneers, sailed east for Madagascar.” (23) This examination of these pirates begins and ends with Olivier LeVasseur, better known as la Buse or the Buzzard. The intervening chapters discuss the capture of the British East India Company’s Cassandra, captained by James Macrae; plundering the Indian ports of Bombay, Goa, and Cochin; Edward Congdon; the capture of the Nossa Senhora do Cabo and her passenger, the Viceroy of Goa; an anti-piracy squadron; and Richard Taylor, a pirate who eventually seeks a pardon and employment from the Spanish.

The hallmark of Brooks’ investigations is that he relies only on primary documents to tell the pirates’ stories, and he vets these sources to determine their reliability, a process he shares as the tales unfold. Readers meet many pirates – including Thomas Cocklyn, Howell Davis, Jasper Seager, and Edward England – but this is far more than just a pirate history. Interwoven throughout the narrative are discussions on connected topics, such as captives Captain William Snelgrave and Richard Lasinby, Jacobitism and Stuart Anti-government Conservatism, Johnson’s Edward England versus the real Edward England, and Edward Congdon versus Christopher Condent. Interspersed throughout the book are maps, illustrations from documents, and pictures. Footnotes are included instead of endnotes, as are a spreadsheet showing the ships seized by LeVasseur, Cocklyn, and Davis while Snelgrave was a prisoner, and See references identifying where topics are covered in greater detail. Aside from a twenty-two-page index, there are also seven appendices. These are: A list of ships allegedly taken by pirates on the African Coast in spring-summer 1719; The London Journal, 17 February 1722; Snelgrave Letter – 30 April 1719; Snelgrave Letter – 1 August 1719; Snelgrave Deposition – 20 January 1721; Three Lasinby Narratives – March 1722; and Detail of HMS Phoenix Log Entries 22 February – 24 April 1718.

Sailing East is an invaluable and illuminating tool for people seeking primary documentation on pirate history. Its focus on western pirates in the waters around Africa and the Indian Ocean is a refreshing departure from the normal fare of Caribbean piracy.




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