These prisoners were to
be transported at once to His Majesty's southern plantations, and
to be kept there for the space of ten years before being restored
to liberty, the parties to whom they were assigned entering into
security to see that transportation was immediately effected.
We know from Lord Jeffreys's secretary how the Chief Justice
inveighed that night in drunken frenzy against this misplaced
clemency to which His Majesty had been persuaded. We know how he
attempted by letter to induce the King to reconsider his decision.
But James adhered to it. It was - apart from the indirect profit
he derived from it - a clemency full worthy of him. He knew that
to spare lives in this fashion was to convert them into living
deaths. Many must succumb in torment to the horrors of West
Indian slavery, and so be the envy of their surviving companions.
Thus it happened that Peter Blood, and with him Jeremy Pitt and
Andrew Baynes, instead of being hanged, drawn, and quartered as
their sentences directed, were conveyed to Bristol and there shipped
with some fifty others aboard the Jamaica Merchant.
Pages:
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81