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Though so valiant under other circumstances, they durst not contend with these ferocious free-booters; they abandoned not only the city of Maracäibo, but also the fort of La Barra, and betook themselves to flight. The pirates found only a few aged slaves who could not walk, and some invalids in the hospital, a very small quantity of provisions, and the houses stripped and deserted. The Spaniards had had time to secure their merchandise and moveables; they had even sent their small craft out of the port, and had conducted themselves further into the interior of the lake.
    Morgan ordered the woods to be searched: in a short time there were brought in fifty mules richly laden, and thirty fugitives, men, women, and children. Conformably to the horrible custom of these robbers, they put the hapless captives to the torture, in order to extort their confessions. Their limbs were fastened to ropes, which were violently drawn in contrary directions; to their fingers were applied pieces of burning wood; their heads were tightly bound with cords, till the eyes were ready to start from their sockets. Some slaves who would not betray the place of their masters’ retreat, were cut to pieces while alive. Every day were detachments sent into the woods to hunt the fugitives; and the hunters never returned without bringing in some human prey.

    Juvenile Criminal
    ‘Among the children,’ says that active philanthropist, the Hon. Grey Bennet, in his evidence before the Police Committee, ‘whom I have seen in prison, a boy of the name of Leary was the most remarkable; he was about thirteen years of age, good-looking, sharp, and intelligent, and possessing a manner which seemed to indicate a character very different from what he really possessed. When I saw him, he was under sentence of death for stealing a watch, chain, and seals, from Mr Princep’s chambers in the Temple; he had been five years in the practice of delinquency, progressing from stealing an apple off a stall, to housebreaking and highway robbery.
    He belonged to the Moorfields’ Catholic Chapel, and there became acquainted with one Ryan in that school, by whom he was instructed in the various arts and practices of delinquency; his first attempts were at tarts, apples, &c; next at the loaves in bakers’ baskets; then at parcels of halfpence on shop counters and money-tills in shops; then to breaking shop windows, and drawing out valuable articles through the aperture, picking pockets, house-breaking, &c. Leary has often gone to school the next day with several pounds in his pockets, as his share of the produce of the previous day’s robberies; he soon became captain of a gang, generally since known as Leary’s gang, with five boys, and sometimes more, furnished with pistols, taking a horse and cart with them; and, if they had an opportunity in their road, they cut off the trunks of gentleman’s carriages, when, after opening them, and according to their contents, so they would be governed in prosecuting their further objects in that quarter; they would divide into parties of two, sometimes one, and leaving one with the horse and cart, go to the farm and other houses, stating their being on their way to see their families, and begging for some bread and water; by such tales, united with their youth, they obtained relief, and generally ended by robbing the houses and premises.
    In one instance Leary was detected and taken, and committed to Maidstone gaol; but the prosecutor not appearing against him, he was discharged. In these excursions he has stayed out a week and upwards, when his share has produced him from £50 to £100. He has been concerned in various robberies in London and the vicinity, and has had property at one time amounting to £350; but when he had money, he either got robbed of it by elder thieves, who knew he had much money about him, or he lost it by gambling at flash houses, or spent it among loose characters of both sexes.
    After committing innumerable