Lieutenant-Governor Molesworth to William Blathwayt

February 9, 1687 [19 février 1687].

On the 28th January [7 février], Captain Spragge returned to Port Royal, having succeeded in the task that I assigned to him, with Captain Banister and three of his consorts hanging at his yard-arm, a spectacle of great satisfaction to all good people and of terror to the favourers of pirates, the manner of his punishment being that which will most discourage others, which was the reason why I empowered Captain Spragge to inflict it. Banister seemed to have no small confidence in his friends. I find from letters that he wrote to some of them that he intended to plead that he had been forced into all that he had done by the French. How far this would have prevailed with a Port Royal jury I know not, but I am glad that the case did not come before one. There are a dozen or so more of this gang under one Kelly, who are gone up the river Nicaragua, and are expected back at the Mosquitos. They will probably be seized by Indians and send here in one of our turtling sloops. The Indians owe a great reverence for the King of England, and would not help Captain Spragge until he had shewn his orders and given them written directions how they were to act. Captain Spragge brought other prisoners with him, who have not yet been tried. One of Banister's men was shot dead for refusing to surrender, and two boys who were with him, under compulsion it seems, I have pardoned.