THE
King of PIRATES:

BEING AN
ACCOUNT
OF THE
Famous Enterprises
OF
Captain AVERY,
The Mock King of Madagascar.

WITH

His Rambles and Piracies; wherein
all the Sham Accounts formerly
publish'd of him, are detected.

In Two LETTERS from himself;
one during his Stay at Madagascar, and
one since his Escape from thence.

LONDON,
Printed for A. Bettesworth in Pater-noster Row, C. King
in Westminster-Hall, J. Brotherton and W. Meadows in Cornhill,
W. Chetwood in Covent-Garden, and sold by W. Boreham in
Pater-noster Row, 1720.

(Price 1 s. 6 d.)

THE PREFACE

ONE of the particular Advantagesof the following Letters fromCaptain Avery, is, the Satisfactionthey will give the Readershow much they have been impos’d upon inthe former ridiculous and extravagantAccounts which have been put upon theWorld in what has been publish’d already.

It has been enough to the Writers ofthis Man’s Life, as they call it, that theycould put any Thing together, to make akind of monstrous unheard of Story, as romantickas the Reports that have beenspread about of him; and the more thoseStories appear’d monstrous and incredible,the more suitable they seem’d to be to whatthe World would have been made to expectof Captain Avery.

There is always a great Deference betweenwhat Men say of themselves, andwhat others say for them, when they cometo write Historically of the Transactionsof their Lives.

The Publisher of these Letters recommendsthis Performance to the Readers, tomake their Judgment of the Differencebetween them and the extravagant Storiesalready told, and which is most likely to begenuine; and, as they verily believe theseLetters to be the best and truest Accountof Captain Avery’s Piracies, that everhas or ever will come to the Knowledgeof the World, they recommend them assuch, and doubt not but they will answerfor themselves in the Reading.

The Account given of Captain Avery’staking the Great Mogul’s Daughter, ravishingand murdering her, and all theLadies of her Retinue, is so differentlyrelated here, and so extravagantly relatedbefore, that it cannot but be a Satisfactionto the m