Bannister was more than a great pirate—to Mattera, he was a man enthralled by democracy. No other motive so elegantly explained why a gentleman captain, likely in his thirties or forties and with a future secured, would risk everything to go plunder on the high seas. Maybe he loved money. Maybe he loved adventure. But he must have known one thing for sure: Men came alive when they were made equal. A hundred of them together could take on the world.
